(ThyBlackMan.com) Right-thinking is a state of rational existence in which feels a degree of control and solemnity. The person who is engaged in right-thinking is the one who experiences a well-balanced and reasonable adjustment to otherwise discombobulating circumstances. When most freak out at the prospect of human adversity, the right-thinking person has discovered centeredness in the eye of the storm.
How do you get there? There are many attributes to gaining such a state; here are three we can adopt right now.
Attribute#One
Learn the Difference between Influence and Control
Think back to all of the experiences in which you attempted to control. Now recall the exasperation, frustration and mental unrest you went through. Was it a situation with a co-parent, co-worker or manager? What were you expectations versus the outcome? If you’re like most, it didn’t end nice. That’s primarily because it was an outcome you attempted to control but discovered you had no control at all. Now, imagine you’d been able to only influence the outcome in some practical way. How would things have been different?
The fact is we have very little control of things, people and events outside ourselves, but, in a lot of cases, we have a ton of influence. We just need to know and appreciate the difference. When we finally arrive at that station, we’ll appreciate what Brian Tracy says: When you control your attitude towards what happens to you, you will be mastering change rather than allowing change to master you.
Attribute#Two
Extract a Negative from a Positive
There’s a blessing in every lesson! That’s what one of the old sisters’s used to preach to us kids in my neighborhood while growing up in Phoenix, Arizona. Those words have stayed with me all of my life: look for a blessing in every lesson. In other words, develop a negative from a positive. In every situation in life, we can learn from it. Or, in the words of the venerable Napoleon Hill: Transmute all unpleasant circumstances into positive action.
Positive action is key; it beats negative inaction. Whether its finances, relationships, health or the job, we can take the bad and turn it into good. We can extract meaning from meaninglessness. We can reverse the direction of our lives at any point.
Attribute#Three
Cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude
Understanding the difference between what we may influence and what we may control and extracting a positive from a negative is nothing if we don’t master this last attribute: cultivate an attitude of gratitude. In fact, this attribute forms the bedrock of right-thinking. Someone once said ‘Thank you’ makes room for more.
Henry Ward Beecher pictured the thankful spirit like a tree when he wrote, Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.
Picture the person who’s reached total exasperation, who’s flummoxed from every direction, whose disposition is wearied and wounded and I will show you a person who lacks gratitude. The fact is the lack of gratitude shows in the strain on our faces and hearts. Lives are cut short; happiness is short-circuited when we live selfishly within the boundaries of consumption.
When you are grateful, though, every day is Thanksgiving, every breath is a blessing and the routine becomes alive with meaning.
At the prospect of human adversity, the right-thinking person has discovered centeredness.
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.infinitestrategiescoaching.com.