Where are your habits placing you? As the blacktop road in the Arizona desert gave way to a short concrete road that led to the prison there were many thoughts going through my mind. I was about to visit the son of a friend of mine who was serving time for a traffic offense that resulted in the death of the other driver.
Keys To Success: Good Habits vs. Bad Habits
I have known this young man for most of his life. John is a good person. You hear this all the time but it is true. He had mostly good habits and a bad habit. His bad habit was drinking and driving. He made a terrible mistake in judgment. As I entered the prison and went through security, my thoughts were jumbled.
What would I say to him? How would I react? What would we talk about?
As I entered the room where we would meet, the guards stood ever present and ever ready in case something should happen.
Then John walked out. John's stay in prison had changed him and was continuing to change him for the better. John's thinking had changed a great deal. In particular, his habit of how he thought about himself had changed.
John was finding good in himself. He was thinking well of himself and his future even as he was living in the worst circumstances of his young life. He understood that his life was a choice. He had made some good choices while in prison. He was doing some teaching and was involved in music.
As we talked he was excited about life and his plans for his future. He learned that every day counts. And the way to make it count the most is to have good habits. Good habits especially in how we think about ourselves and our circumstances.
Keys To Success: Change Your Thinking Habits
When we change our thinking we can change our habits. How we think about things very often is habitual. And when we change our thinking habits we change our habitual actions, changing our results. John is on a great track and we continue to correspond to this day. He will be out in a year.
After I left I got to thinking about our visit. I think I got just as much out of it, if not more, than he did. And, I got to thinking about habits. Our habit of how we think about ourselves and our environment can put us in jail or we can think we are in a great place.
How often do we meet people who seem to have everything but who think otherwise and drag themselves down. These people have developed poor habits about how they think about themselves and their circumstances. They are in the habit of finding the negative.
Then there are the people who don't have as much, yet they are in the habit of finding good about themselves and what they have. These people are in the habit of being good finders.
Keys To Success: Good Habits Inspire Us
There are those that are inspired by their vision of future. There are others who take a sword of doubt to their dreams. Some strive to climb the mountain. Others are happy to remain in the valley. Some seek opportunity. Others wait for it to show up and knock on their door.
As I left the prison and got back on the blacktop road I was inspired by my visit with John. He was finding the good. He was expanding his thinking, his good habits and his world.
Yet, negative thinking can put us in a prison of our own making with no apparent way out. But, there is a way out. You can renew your life by renewing your mind. You renew your mind when you change your habits of how you think about yourself and your circumstances.
Whether you are seeking individual, business or small business success change is a choice. To have personal or small business growth you must embrace change.
Change is a choice to grow. It is a choice to become more and attract more. Change is up to you. Change your habit of thinking. You will change your habits of action. And when you change your habits it will change your activity which will change your results and change your life.
