WisdomLeads #5 : As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

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Let me begin today by asking you certain questions.

What does achievement mean to you? What are all the things that you want to achieve in your life? Why do you want to achieve all these things? Will these achievements bring changes in your life? And how will you feel after achieving all these things?

Can you answer all these questions? Can you describe each one of them ? Can you write in great detail about them.

If yes, then great and congrats! And if no, then think and work on them.

Because unless we know what exactly we want, we can’t get it and once when we know what exactly we want, we can truly achieve it and feel great about it, be it a small step or a mega achievement. But we can only achieve the things that we want once we combine our desired thoughts with right actions and lead them into proper direction. And this is what Allen explains in Chapter no. 5 of “As a Man Thinketh.”

The Thought-Factor in Achievement

Achievement says Allen are the direct result of a man’s thoughts and, “In a justly universe, where loss of equipoise would mean total destruction, individual responsibility must be absolute,” explains he. So in simple terms he advices us to master our minds and be the controller of our thoughts.

Once we monitor out thoughts, take actions in the right direction, we can achieve whatever we want. Because we are responsible for achievements in our lives and no one else is responsible for that, neither our parents, spouse, friends, colleagues can stop us from achiving our dreams nor can our children, environment or situations hinder our achievement process. It is true that they all have an impact on us and our thinking process at one point of time but definitely at any given point of time we always have the choice of being our supreme master.

Explaining further Allen says that , “A man’s weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are his own, and not another’s man’s; they are brought about by himself, and not by another; and they can only be altered by himself, never by another man’s. His suffering and his happiness are evolved from within. As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.”

So, if we think that our friends are happier than us or our colleagues are earning better than us then we shouldn’t blame them for our sadness or our non achievement. They are taking actions for their dreams and we are simply lost in our own wandering thoughts. It is time for us to check our thoughts and our action process. And if required, should immediately change them to take charge.

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Not only this, if we think defeated and oppressed by others then this is what Allen has to say, “He who has conquered weakness, and has put away all selfish thoughts, belongs neither to oppressor nor oppressed. He is free. A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting his thoughts. He can only remain weak, and abject and miserable by refusing to lift up his thoughts.” It means that we can come out of our own miseries just by uplifting our thoughts and can feel that magic of freedom and happiness latent within.

And if not then according to Allen we are not competent enough to handle the responsibilities because, “Not having commenced to manfully control his thoughts, he is not in a position to control affairs and to adopt serious responsibilities. He is not fit to act independently and stand alone. But he is only limited by thought that he chooses.” So, here is the choice of thoughts that he offers: choice of uplifting thoughts or to be lost in the mire of negative thoughts.

According to Allen any achievements: intellectual which “are the result of thoughts consecrated in the search for knowledge, or for the beautiful and true in life and nature” or spiritual which are, “the consummation of holy aspirations,” are the results of “conception of noble and lofty thoughts”, by a man, “who dwells upon all that is pure and unselfish,” and gains his achievement, “as surely as the sun reaches its zenith and the moon its full” and in the process he will “become wise and noble in character, and rise into a position of influence and blessedness.”

So here do I need to tell you what the people of influence and blessedness do have in common? They all have the power of their uplifted thoughts, heavily backed up by their powerful actions.

But here Allen gives us a word of caution, “Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.” Therefore, it is highly important that at every point of time we are watchful and careful; about our thoughts otherwise we may fall back into failure and in the abysmal of dark thoughts.

“All achievements,” says Allen, “whether in the business, intellectual, or spiritual world, are the result of definitely directed thought, are governed by the same law and are of the same method; the only difference lies in the object of attainment.”

And thus concluding the chapter says Allen that if we want to achieve greater, we must be ready to sacrifice greater because according to him, “He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly greatly.”

So in order to achieve greater, we must be ready to sacrifice negative thoughts, negative emotions, distractions and fears of failures because it is their failure which will allow us to embrace our dreams, our positive thoughts and our positive actions leading us towards our mega achievements!