Transform your Thinking

If we are ever to enjoy life, now is the time - not tomorrow,
Nor next year, nor in some future life after we have died.
The best preparation for a better life next year is a full, complete,
harmonious, joyous life this year.
Our beliefs in a rich future life are of little importance unless we
coin them into a rich present life.
Today should always be our most wonderful day!


(Thomas Dreier)

Many of us can look back over the years and identify a time and place at which our lives changed significantly. There are moments when our lives are transformed, because we realise that we are the ones in control of our destiny and that the only thing stopping us from achieving what it is that we wish to achieve, is our own thinking.

I recently read John Hunt’s, “The Art of the Idea (and how it can change your life)” and it made me stop and think about how easy it is to fall into habits that are, to put it bluntly, a little lazy. No I don’t think I am a lazy person, but Hunt’s book made me realise that ‘a new idea’ can quickly get swept under the carpet because it either goes against the grain, or is too far-fetched, or is too controversial or just plain implausible.

Hunt had some sage and quirky suggestions to change your way of thinking and how to embrace a new idea without being threatened or challenged by the concept. With such gems as: “lemmings have plans too”, “expediency is not an idea”, “we don’t know what we don’t know until we do what we don’t usually do” and my favourite: “no one orders a bouquet of beige flowers”.

Yes all very interesting, but what is the real application to our thinking? Hunt argues that it’s very difficult to get a fresh idea if we are addicted to routine. Some, dare I say, many people prefer ‘consistency and continuity’. Let’s face it, there’s a certain amount of comfort in this routine. We can wear habit a little like a badge of honour. The problem is that the acceptance of a new idea withers on the vine because of our inability to let go of the old.

Hunt’s point is that it’s far too easy to say, “If it’s still working, why change it?” It’s as if the speed of momentum all around them, he says, is happily offset by their total lack of movement. People don’t realise that changing only when you have to usually means that it’s too late already and that if you don’t anticipate the future, you will be run over by it. So like lemmings scurrying to the cliff’s edge, they follow one another, falling into the sea, mindlessly chanting, “Why fix it, if it ain’t broke?”

Expediency is another trap of thinking. Hunt claims that expediency is extremely corrosive to ideas and that it simply allows one ‘to marinate in the mediocre’. He rightly points out that if you’re in the middle of the road, you will eventually be run over both ways. Not a pleasant thought. New ideas need sustenance and need to take on a life of their own and yes, sometimes this involves taking some risks.

If you’re serious about creating new ideas and following them through, then sometimes you need to change the way you think and where you think. Change the physical space you’re in and your brain follows suit. As Hunt points out, if you give people a distant horizon, their ideas are less short term. And if you’re physically on top of the world, it’s more difficult to think small, mean thoughts. Sometimes the transformation of thinking and perspective results from seeing a different horizon, or being in a different environment.

The antidote is simple and no you don’t have to trek the Himalayas to achieve a new way of thinking, it could be as easy as going for a walk in the rain or the sunshine, along the beach or through a park. Focus on specifics as you walk – your shadow, or the movement of sand grains, or the leaves or the waves depending on where you walk. You may return to the same space after your walk, but you will be different and yes, you will think differently too. Transformation of our own thinking might be easier than we think. Sometimes it is the mere recognition that we need to think differently, that is the catalyst for our own personal transformation.

Life is not something to be endured, but something to be embraced every single day. Life is a gift which should be cherished. Take nothing in life for granted and believe that anything is possible. B.J. Morbitzer, poet extraordinaire, captures these sentiments beautifully in “A Time to Believe”.

A Time to Believe


To believe is to know that
Every day is a new beginning.
Is to trust that miracles happen,
And dreams really do come true.


To believe is to see angels
Dancing among the clouds,
To know the wonder of a stardust sky
And the wisdom of the man in the moon.


To believe is to know the value of a nurturing heart,
The innocence of a child's eyes
And beauty of an aging hand,
For it is through their teachings we learn to love.


To believe is to find the strength
And courage that lies within us
When it’s time to pick up
The pieces and begin again.


To believe is to know
We are not alone,
That life is a gift
And this is our time to cherish it.


To believe is to know
That wonderful surprises are just
Waiting to happen,
And all our hopes and dreams are within reach.


If we only believe.

(B.J. Morbitzer)

Karon Graham