You Are What You Think

by Lester Rennard

Are you aware that regardless of what others think about you, it does not really matter, because, at the end of the day, you are what you think? The person you truly believe you are, you are. You are best acquainted with the person you are and therefore are better able, under normal circumstances, to substantiate your own identity.

Before you dismiss this as another case of psychological mumbo jumbo, I would like to suggest that you look beyond the statement and consider the deep implication of its message. The truth is, as individuals, we are limited by the limitations, real or imagined, that we place on ourselves. If one believes that he or she will amount to nothing in life, that individual will have no desire to better their conditions or improve on their skills and thus fail to accomplish anything meaningful.

There is a popular saying that tells us that our attitude determines our altitude. We are motivated by the content of our subconscious thoughts and conditioning. Whatever is deeply embedded in our subconscious mind that we believe forms the basis of our internal influence and ultimately what we believe about ourselves. That which we believe then influences our action and determines our destiny. It was the wise King Solomon who reminded us that as one thinks in his heart, so is he.

Our output is the sum total of our input. In computer language - garbage in, garbage out. Whatever we focus on, we become like. By beholding, we become changed into the likeness of that which we are beholding. We can never rise higher than the bar we set above our heads. We are ultimately handicapped by the limitations we place on ourselves and the worst handicaps are not physical but those psychological handicaps formed by our beliefs.

There are many people who suffer devastating physical handicaps but yet are not truly handicapped. Some of the world's most influential and greatest composers, artists, speakers and creative giants whose works and positive contributions to their times have immortalized them, have been or are people with physical handicaps. They have learned the secret that their physical conditions do not have the power to ultimately determine how far they may travel or how high they might rise.

They have truly grasped the knowledge that what determines who they are and who they can become is the content of what they believe and not the limitations of their physical handicaps. They refuse to let their dreams and visions of who they are and what they can become be handicapped by their physical limitations. They dream their dreams, set their goals, develop their tactical strategies, set wings to their visions, engage their faith, spread their wings, set their flaps and at the moment of receiving clearance to take-off, they move with speed and precision down the runway, take off with grace and soar higher than an eagle.

There are others who have all their physical components all intact and yet are completely paralyzed by the sickened contents of their own belief systems. They are rendered helpless because they are held hostage and are being enslaved by their own self-imposed limitations. They are ignorant of the fact that God in His wisdom did not create and program us to have our destinies determined by our physical conditions and limitations.

They fail to understand that since we are made in the image of our Creator, we were made to be creators ourselves; creators of our dreams and destinies as we choose to behold Him and to reflect His image within the mirrors of our souls. Every dream or vision begins in the inner recesses of the mind and everything that is or can ever be created must first take shape and form within the mind that is not limited by the state of the body, before it can be transformed into its physical equivalence.

Wherever we are in our lives, whatever we become, whatever limitations we face, despite our physical conditions and limitations, as long as we are in healthy control of our mental faculties, we determine our outcome and destinies by what we believe and the limitations those beliefs impose on us. As true as the knowledge that the sun will rise tomorrow, you are what you think.

Copyright (c) 2006 by Lester Rennard