Dr. Albert Schweitzer was asked once: What was the problem with men today? After several moments in deep reflection, he responded that Men simply do not think.
What the good doctor was referring to was that human beings really do not invest any time in deeper thinking. They are too busy just running on automatic pilot through years of previous conditioning. Real thinking involves reflection, problem solving, decision making or challenging the status quo first with thought then with action.
Motivation is very much like real thinking. We need to consciously take time to reflect to direct our thoughts to specific actions instead of letting conditioning overtake our thought and then our actions. The outcomes from these directed thoughts motivate us to continue to grow forward. The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, saw this to be true when he said: Every human action, whether is has become positive or negative, must depend on motivation.
Earl Nightingale in his renowned speech entitled the Strangest Secret Every Told realized that our thoughts determine who we are. We become what we think and our success or lack thereof is because of those very thoughts.
Nightingale was only echoing the wise words of many who came before him. Success can be defined in many ways, but the word predetermined or a synonym for that word appears in most definitions. You must be conscious about your thoughts and have a predetermined goal or end in mind.
So if you are easily waylaid by your own thoughts and those thoughts within your foundational belief system, then you will probably never master success because you will lack motivation. However, if you are consistently thinking new thoughts, keeping your thoughts focused on turning your dreams into reality then you are continually motivating yourself.
When you accept that your thoughts are your motivation to get to where you need to go, you will be much further ahead of everyone else who is waiting for someone else to motivate them.
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