“Had I not created my whole world, I would certainly have died in other people’s.” Anais Nin
The critical message that this is our life and ours alone is one that many people never get on a visceral level.
We know that life is ours to live, but we don’t always know that our life is ours to create!
We spend years living according to others’ plans for us, reacting to their opinions of us, staying within their limitations of us. Then one day, if we’re lucky, it finally strikes home… we are in charge! What we think of, we create in our future. What we spend our time on, multiplies. What we dismiss, disappears from our future possibilities.
What we believe, manifests!
OTHER PEOPLE’S IMAGE OF US
We grow up adhering to other people’s image of us. We are a good kid, a troublemaker, a great student or the spitting image of our father. We choose careers not that we are drawn to, but that our test scores and our parents lead us toward.
You are too sensitive to be a psychologist, you’re not a good enough actress to make it out there, you can’t do math so you’d better pick something like a social science to study.
The truth is… we can do anything our minds set out to do if we give it the right amount of time, attention, concentration and importance level.
Do I mean this literally? Yes, and no. Someone who has been told they’ll never walk again may choose to disbelieve that prediction and retrain their brain and muscles to walk. Someone else’s injuries may render them incapable of that result, but they can achieve things that walking people might never accomplish. They can live a good, contributing, fulfilling life despite not being able to walk.
What we tell ourselves and what we tell others matters, because all of us tend to believe it.
Had Thomas Edison’s mother read him aloud that terrible note on that day, we would not have the ingenius inventions he created for us. He would have believed he was “damaged goods”, incapable of higher thought, imagination, logic and invention.
He would have suffered from the negative expectations of the Pygmalion Effect.
We are no different than Edison. Capable of successes far beyond most people’s expectations of us. Far beyond our own, even.
“Never say anything about yourself that you do not want to come true.” Brian Tracy
“You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.” James Allen
“Be mindful of your self-talk. It’s a conversation with the universe.” David James
Knowing that you create the life you lead can be scary. But it can also be freeing.
Go ahead — Create something magnificent!
Melanie A. Yost, Ed.M, is a former teacher, Educational Media Specialist, and Curriculum Supervisor. She is currently a Top Writer in Psychology on Medium, contributor to five online magazines, and an aspiring children’s book author. Member of SCBWI, Picture Book Summit and a number of online learning communities, she is a lifelong learner. Storytelling, photography, acting, singing, and writing are all ways she expresses her art. She once won a Jr. Miss contest that she never joined. (Go figure!)
