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If the Man is Right, His World Will be Right

There is a wonderful little story about a minister who, one Saturday morning, was trying to prepare his sermon under difficult conditions. His wife was out shopping. It was a rainy day and his young son was restless and bored, with nothing to do. Finally, in desperation, the minister picked up an old magazine and thumbed through it until he came to a large, brightly coloured picture. It showed a map of the world. He tore the page from the magazine, ripped it into little bits and threw the scraps all over the living room floor with the words:

‘Johnny, if you can put this all together, I’ll give you a quarter’.

The preacher thought this would take Johnny most of the morning. But within ten minutes there was a knock on the study door. It was his son with the completed puzzle. The minister was amazed to see Johnny finished so soon, with the pieces of paper neatly arranged and the map of the world back in order.

“Son, how did you get that done so fast? the preacher asked. “Oh, said Johnny, it was easy. On the other side there was a picture of a man. I just put a piece of paper on the bottom, put the picture of the man together, put a piece of paper on top, and then turned it over. I figured that if I got the man right, the world would be right.” This gave the minister the subject of his next sermon.

The above story is taken from a great little book by Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone called ‘Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude‘. Are you waiting on conditions to change or a certain event to be happy? Does your world seem wrong sometimes? In order for the world to be right, the man must be right.

The Common Thread in all the Best Personal Development Books

What would you say is the common thread in all the best personal development literature you’ve read?

‘The Secret‘,

‘The 7 Day Mental Diet‘,

‘Think and Grow Rich!‘,

‘As a Man Thinketh‘

and many more

They all share one fundamental principle i.e. ‘As within, so without’. We could put this in many ways but I think one of the best and clearest ways might be,

“Your outer world will be a direct reflection of your inner world”.

You see, your world MUST respond to who you are. In turn, who you are, is basically the beliefs that you hold in your subconscious mind. The phrase, ‘As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he’ is clearly a reference to this fact. Friends, the heart of the mind is the subconscious.

We live in a universe governed by law, not chance. The powerful ‘Law of Attraction‘ ensures that circumstance and events mould themselves to the beliefs of your heart. If you want to change the world, change yourself. Mahatma Gandhi said,

“Be the change you want to see in the world”

The 7 Day Mental Diet has a great quote on this,

“This then is the real key to life: if you change your mind your conditions must change too. Your body must change, your daily work or other activities must change; your home must change; the color-tone of your whole life must change, for whether you be habitually happy and cheerful, or low-spirited and fearful, depends entirely on the quality of the mental food upon which you diet yourself.”

I also like the following quote by fellow blogger Steve Olsen at his blog. The article was ‘5 Empowering Beliefs‘, he said,

“If you aren’t getting the results you desire or expect, try on some new beliefs, look in the mirror, and see if you like what you see.”

Place Your Attention on Pleasant Things

In Philippians 4:8 Paul says this,

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things”

This is very important as what you think about most, you get more of. The law of attraction in the thought world means that you can only attract thoughts similar in content and emotional expression to the ones you are currently holding in mind. If what you are thinking right now is negative in any way, you will continue in this vain until you change direction through act of will. It should be of utmost importance to you, that you continually focus on positive things.

Cause and Effect - The Right Way Round

Do events happen which make you happy or sad or does the way you think shape the events of your life which you then perceive to be good or bad? I have no doubt that the latter is true. I see the content of your subconscious mind like a container. With your thoughts, you make this container into any shape you wish. Circumstance, like water, fills this container to match its exact shape. Truly, thought is the only causative force in the universe.

How to Start this Life-Changing Process

If you’re wondering how to begin the journey to permanent emotional well-being, allow me to give you a few suggestions. I think a great way to kick-start the process is with ‘The 7 Day Mental Diet.‘ It’s also a good idea to write some affirmations for the areas of your life that you wish to improve. Repeat these affirmations several times a day with conviction (Here is a great article on this concept by Brian Kim, very in-depth and informative). Thirdly, make a Vision Statement. You will have no idea just how powerful these mini-movies of your future life are, until you experience them for yourself. Do it, do it today.

Mark McManus

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