TL; DR Perspective is everything. Curiosity is key.
“My destination is no longer a place, rather a new way of seeing.” — Marcel Proust
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” — Anaïs Nin
“We see what we believe rather than what we see.” — Alan Watts
“It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.” — Dale Carnegie
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking out new landscapes but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ― Viktor E. Frankl
“Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.” — Khalil Gibran
“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.” — Carl Jung
“Our thinking can create liberation or it can create imprisonment. It depends on how we use our mind.” — Tenzin Palmo
“The things I carry are my thoughts. That’s it. They are the only weight. My thoughts determine whether I am free and light or burdened.” — Kamal Ravikant
“The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.” — Marcus Aurelius
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” — Marcus Aurelius
“A man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.” — Andrew Carnegie
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“It won’t always go your way, so you can’t get trapped in this idea that just because you’ve imagined a possibility for yourself that you somehow deserve it. Your entitled mind is dead weight. Cut it loose. Don’t focus on what you think you deserve. Take aim on what you are willing to earn!”
“Children are wonderfully confident in their own imaginations. Most of us lose this confidence as we grow up.” — Sir Ken Robinson
Rewire your brain
= Reframe your thinking
= Reprogram your mindset
= Reshape your perspective
The ability to choose one thought over another is superpower—one shift in our thoughts can completely change how we feel.
The Law of Attraction (吸引力法則)
- You become what you constantly think about.
- Easy to spot a yellow car when you are always thinking of a yellow car.
- Easy to spot opportunity when you are always thinking of opportunity.
- Easy to spot reasons to be mad when you are always thinking of being mad.
- Your dominant thoughts shape your perception of the world. By intentionally focusing on positive, constructive thoughts, you can train your mind to seek out opportunities, solutions, and happiness instead of obstacles and negativity.
- Think Yourself Thin — Believing effort leads to improvement, which increases motivation and drives more effort.
- Selective Attention
- Reticular Activating System (RAS) 1
You can’t change your past, but you can reframe it. Find the lesson in it. Find the opportunity in it. You can’t choose your history, but you can always choose the story you tell about it. Rewrite the story you tell yourself.
It’s not what you look at that matters. It’s what you see that matters.
Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.
Go laugh in the places you have cried—change the narrative.
- “I am really anxious.” → “I am experiencing anxiety.”
- You are not your feelings. Just because you’re experiencing anxious feelings doesn’t mean it’s an inherent part of who you are.
- “How hard it is? (這有多難?)” → “How hard can it be? (這能有多難?)”
- “以後不知道該怎麼辦…” → 不知道以後會怎樣耶!
- “I am afraid to fail.” → “I am excited to try.”
The “Be-Do-Have” Model
The traditional line of thinking is Have, Do, Be:
- I need to have X.
- Then I can do Y.
- Then I will be Z.
A classic example: I need to have more money and fancy things, then I can do the things I want, then I’ll be fulfilled.
The reality: The conditional approach—if I have X, then I’ll be Y—never works.
Be, Do, Have flips this traditional thinking on its head:
- I will be Z.
- Then I can do Y.
- Then I will have X.
In the context of our example: I will embody the state of being of a fulfilled person, then I can do the actions of a fulfilled person, then I will have the things I desire.
See also:
Footnotes
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The RAS is a network of neurons in the brainstem that acts as a filter for information. It prioritizes what’s important based on what you frequently think about. ↩