A Self-fulfilling Prophecy
“Man becomes what he thinks about all day long.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Today, I wish to share with you a gentle reminder of caution: be careful of your thoughts. The mind of man is one of the greatest mechanisms ever created. It is a tool that is sharpened with every generation. Each of us has taken up the mantle of our forefathers’s knowledge and expanded upon it. As time has passed, the mind has become more focused and more powerful. As I have heard it said before, “a mind is a terrible thing to waste”.
CAUTION: THINKING AHEAD!
We must be careful with our thoughts because our thoughts are powerful. We listen to everything that we tell ourselves and believe everything we say. What we believe is the foundation of our perception.
I grew up with various negative beliefs about myself. I wasn’t good enough, I wasn’t smart enough and gosh darn it, nobody liked me. I felt defective from day one. I was different and different at that time was bad. What I didn’t realize at the time, however, was my thoughts were becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more I thought I was a piece of crap, the bigger piece of crap I became. I was a piece of crap not because I was a piece of crap; I was a piece of crap because that’s what I told myself I was. It was a less than stellar childhood and I had no one to blame for it but me. Through the process of recovery, I have learned that I can choose my own thoughts. I don’t just have to think whatever wanders in and out of my mind. I am entitled to see myself as I really am and as I want to be.
When I was in grad school, one of the numerous tools that I learned to deal with such problems is the concept of “act as if.” The premise is quite simple. We envision what we want to happen, then start acting as if it was true already. Let me share my experience with this concept.
My whole life, I wanted to have a relationship with God. The problem was that I wasn’t worthy of such a relationship. That was what I was telling myself and as that was what I believed, it didn’t happen. Then I started to act as if…
I started to write a letter of gratitude to God every day. I acted as if God loved me and protected me. I acted as if everything He promised to do would happen. I acted as if I had nothing to worry about because I cast my cares upon God who took them; lock, stock and barrel. I acted as if I was a kind person and started helping everybody I could with no expectation of reward. I acted as if I didn’t need to come first every single time. I acted as if my life was predicated on love.
Guess what? This idea of a self-fulfilling prophecy works both ways!
Years later, I still act this way but it is no longer an act. After years of receiving, experiencing and writing powerful messages of God‘s Power in our world, I have come to believe it. I am now what I used to pretend to be. The things that I tell myself today are good and encouraging. It is why I have been empowered to share with you things that are good and encouraging. I avoid garbage and the trash-men that carry it. I’m no longer think or say disparaging, negative things and spend little time with those that do. Today, I am no longer meant to do that. What a much better prophecy to be fulfilled.
This stuff works if we actually live it. Act as if this message has helped you..
Thank you
Jim
James A. Francetich is a freelance writer and author. The opinions expressed are solely of the author and do not represent any community based recovery programs, private or public entities or any governmental agencies.