Bruce Kasanoff* says for your thoughts to change reality they must first be powerful enough to change you.
When the conversation shifts to the power of positive thinking, setting intentions, Think and Grow Rich, the Law of Attraction, fake it until you make it…
one crucial point often gets lost.
To change the world with your thoughts, you must think with coherent intention.
This means you must think the same thing every day; fully believe in your thoughts and match your actions to your thoughts.
Most importantly, conduct your life in a manner that is entirely congruent with your thoughts.
Let’s start with a simple, if somewhat dramatic, example.
If you thought that a 100-metre tidal wave was going to hit your city in the next hour, what would you do?
Would you listen to the news and hang around in your home or office? Hell, no!
You would gather your loved ones and race to higher ground, even if it meant driving the wrong way down the highway leaving behind everything you possessed.
Belief changes everything.
Now let’s shift to a more complicated example.
If you want to think your way to a more peaceful world, how would you begin?
You’d start, I would hope, by finding peace within yourself.
You would examine what shifts you towards anger, frustration, envy, or even self-criticism.
You would need to understand the answers.
How you can counterbalance those forces.
You’re not going to accomplish this by meditating once, or writing a few passages in your journal.
It will take a ton of consistent effort and focus.
You’d also shift your actions in the real world, perhaps by showing kindness to others whom you fear or dislike.
You might skip your luxury vacation and work instead with gang members through a community centre.
What? Does working with gang members sound like a crazy thing to do?
Perhaps you don’t believe your own thoughts.
Did you think it would be easy or trivial to make the world more peaceful?
Powerful thoughts change the world, once they reach a certain consistent intensity.
The true test is whether your thoughts are powerful enough to change your own actions.
Scott Harrison, a New York club promoter, became the founder of the non-profit organisation charity: water.
Harrison (pictured) had the thought to change the direction of his life, and started applying to work at major non-profits.
They all turned him down because of his partying background.
Did he abandon his thought? No, he doubled down on it, kept working until someone said yes, and then expanded his vision once he realised just how great the need was for clean water.
“I was running around telling everybody I wanted to see a world where everybody drank clean water regardless of where they are born,” he said.
He didn’t just allow his thought to reside in his head; he shared it with everyone who would listen, including some who weren’t inclined to listen.
This is how your thought changes the world: When it is powerful enough that it takes you to northern Uganda and also compels you to sleep on floors while you raise money to help people you don’t know.
Wishes that you make while waiting in line at Starbucks? They don’t change the world.
In most cases, you have forgotten them after a few days or a week.
To change the world, you need persistent and positive thoughts that are strong enough to change your own actions.
In other words, before your thoughts can change the world, they must change you.
*Bruce Kasanoff is the founder of The Journey, a newsletter for positive, uplifting and accomplished professionals. He can be contacted at kasanoff.com.
This article first appeared in Forbes Magazine.
