(ThyBlackMan.com) If it is true that we become what we think about, as Earl Nightingale suggests, the question is what are you thinking about? On average, between 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts flood our brains each day and, according to your mind-set, the majority of those thoughts are either positive or negative. Either way, you become what you think about. A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it, wrote the great Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius.
The first step is to becoming what you think about is to begin to think about what it is you want to become. What area of your life do you wish to change? Health? Wealth? Love? Change begins with your thoughts. We literally control our lives by controlling our thoughts. Follow this simple four-step mental blueprint for becoming what you think about.
Mind-Set#One
Set a Goal
It all begins with a goal. Set a goal and be determined to accomplish it no matter what. Select an area of your life in which you desire change. Set a goal and believe in it. 
Become a human being with a settled purpose. Make the achievement of that goal – improving your finances, launching a business, earning a degree – the center of your thinking. A man is what he thinks about all day long, writes Ralph Waldo Emerson. Visualize its attainment. You will be amazed at how it moves toward you.
Mind-Set#Two
Anticipate Success
Many dreams die because people spend more time thinking about obstacles rather than the success which lies beyond the obstacles. Think success. Consider the possible roadblocks, but don’t give your emotional energy to it. Norman Vincent Peale writes, If you think in negative terms you will see negative results, if you think in positive terms you will achieve positive results. It’s simple: you cannot live a positive life while thinking negative. Learn to kick the ‘but’ out of your life; don’t be the person who says “I want to launch my own business but…” Your dreams are doomed the minute you take that position.
Mind-Set#Three
Develop a Positive Habit
Habits are the machinery of success. Bad habits equal unproductive results. Good, strong habits usher in success. Someone has well-said that a habit is behaving intelligently when you don’t know the answer. It’s a time-proven, go-to approach that ends up in producing the conditions you desire. Successful people aren’t born that way, writes William Makepeace Thackeray, they become successful by establishing the habit of doing things unsuccessful people don’t like doing. What’s the one habit that will catapult you from where you are to where you wish to be? Find that habit and repeat it over and over.
Mind-Set#Four
See the End
William James, the father of modern psychology, writes, We must only act as if the thing in question is real. This success mind-set is difficult, if only because most people are riddled with doubts and paralyzed by fear. Why? Because when we launch a great endeavor, the temptation is to become locked into what we see. We see bills, we see low funds, we see debt and all of that clouds us to seeing what’s most important – our dreams realized! Don’t trust your doubts. What you think about now will mould your future. Shakespeare writes, Our doubts are traitors which make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt. Push through your doubts and see the end. In fact, begin with the end in mind!
We become what we think about all day long.
Staff Writer; W. Eric Croomes
This talented brother is a holistic lifestyle exercise expert and founder and executive coach of Infinite Strategies LLC, a multi-level coaching firm that develops and executes strategies for fitness training, youth achievement and lifestyle management. Eric is an author, fitness professional, holistic life coach and motivational speaker.
In October 2015, Eric released Life’s A Gym: Seven Fitness Principles to Get the Best of Both, which shows readers how to use exercise to attract a feeling of wellness, success and freedom (Infinite Strategies Coaching LLC, 2015) – http://www.infinitefitnesscoaching.com.