Make Up Your Mind

 

Who said that first? When was that coined and does anyone really explore what this means?

It has no absolute origin in history, but the usage of similar terms can easily be traced back for several hundred years. However, it is very difficult to argue with the fact that we all have some control over what settles in our minds, becoming what we settle on as a belief or a goal.

We become what we think about and what we think about is a choice.

I remember when my first album was released in 2006. One song won an award on a very competitive website called Garage Band. I had gotten some really decent feedback as well. But I did get one terrible review. Out of all the great reviews and positive feedback, I dialed in on the one that disparaged my work terribly. The reviewer was from The UK and he had no filter. After reading that awful review, I allowed my CD to take on the level of success this one person would have predicted. For whatever reason, I made up my mind that my CD would not be successful. Now, nearly 20 years later, that very fact is settled history. Did my own mind destroy my chances?

It is not that easy to say. We could look back on my work and say, “It really was not great.” Or we could go easier on me and say, “It was fine, but it is very hard to sell independent music; and even harder to get any music into the mainstream.”

I think it would still be okay to say that either answer is not completely false. But I know that my determination to succeed did not rise to the level necessary to do so.

It really takes a lot of determination to succeed at anything.

We all know this, but what does this really mean?

Determination: The state of mental resolution with regard to a goal.

But if we break this down even further, there is a prize within the very word: determine.

For the last part of this word, it may help to think of the word “terminus”, which means: “The end or final point.”

If we have terminus as the last part of the new word, and we start the new word with “de”, we now have a word which literally means: To fix the end.

If you go one step beyond the word determine, by adding the suffix, “tion”, you have an action formed by the verb. So what is the action?

“There is no stopping the man who can think from the end.” ~ Neville

 

Putting this all together now, we can see why this is so important.

Determination is not just grit; it has nothing to do with fighting for what you desire. Determination is to set your thoughts on the end result; where the dream is fulfilled.

With any goal, the most important action to take is the mental action of settling on the end; which is the literal definition of determination.

“We become what we think about.” ~ Earl Nightingale

I am only repeating the same philosophy you will find throughout recorded history. Thinking on the lovely things will navigate you to the place where lovely things reside.

Wherever you end up, the thought will eventually occur to you: “I knew this would happen.”

I’ve heard this phrase on the platform of many of the terminals where others stepped off. Whether you say it out loud or not, it will also occur to you at the terminus of the goals you presently desire.

We are all en route and this means we are on the way.

I would never depart from my home, to embark on a long journey, unless the destination I had in mind was somehow lovely. Likewise, we’ve all embarked on our lifelong journeys. Consider the next stop before you decide to get off and explore. There will be stops which happen to be unpleasant, and we stop there because we do not have a choice. However, most of life’s stops are the results of what we’ve been thinking about. For those stops, be determined to experience joy.