Voice of the Spirit

My blog entry came from a profound quote by an unknown author that I used for the One Thought at a Time category.  I always try to demonstrate to all of my clients how all we do is interconnected, and all we think and do ties into a much bigger reality that we often experience as our destiny. Conclusions are built upon countless single, simple and often seemingly unimportant choices and occurrences.  I did my best to tie it all together to show the evolution and progression of our journey in a real, tangible way.

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
Author Unknown

I found this quote quite inspiring, perceptive, revealing and truthful.  Often, we don’t see or even begin to acknowledge the above-mentioned progression in our journey, beginning with our inner reality, thought, which ultimately leads to what we manifest and who we become in our character, our destiny.  What we experience as “destiny”: a promotion in our jobs, a new lover, illness, a beautiful new home, depression, accidents, becoming a multi millionaire and most importantly who we really are, originated within us in thought and is carried out step by step by us as highlighted in the quote above.

One of our biggest problems is when we isolate the issues at hand in our lives and look for a quick fix.  We may then refuse to look at what came before and how it impacted us, and not want to truly see how we can only progress beyond these issues by seeing the step-by-step connection and the bigger picture.  My goal then, is to expand upon and explain the tremendous depth of this brilliant quote, showing the progression of our experience and how “one thing truly and deeply leads to another.”

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Think of your thoughts as the blank canvas you start with when beginning a painting. 

Thought is energy, our energy, revealing to us who we are and where we’re at any given moment in our journey.  In short, thought shows us quite clearly our actual inner make up and what’s going on inside.  What we think says more about us than our names or date of birth, yet most people identify themselves more with their name and date of birth than with what they think.  There’s no way to fake it with thought.  What goes on in your head tells you more about you than you may have ever imagined.  When you think something, there is absolute energy behind that thought equal and proportionate to the energy of the thought - every single thought. That energy of thought creates motion, momentum vibration and churns inside, especially when the thought is repeated over and over. 

Ask yourself; do you like your thoughts?  Do you like what you’re thinking and how you’re thinking?  Are your thoughts helpful to you and others or hurtful in their intentions?  Do your thoughts represent negative feelings or positive attitudes about life and it’s experiences?  Are your thoughts pessimistic or optimistic about the way things are going for you?  Are you thinking that there is a point to this world; does it mean something profound, or is life just a series of random acts that have no intrinsic value on their own? 

Most of us don’t usually examine our thoughts, but being aware of and questioning our thoughts should be done every day.  By examining our thoughts, we help to resolve problems at their core, as thought is the origin of our manifested reality and destiny. When thought goes unchecked and is allowed to simply keep going, it builds, grows and becomes the next step - our words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.
Think of your words as the colors you’re applying to your canvas when painting.  

Words are declarations and proclamations of our thoughts, a bold pronouncement of our inner reality into the wide open spaces of the universe, leading to physical actions - those actions propelled through the power of the spoken word - whether uttered casually or shouted from the mountain top, the spoken word with all of its atomic energy behind it indeed becomes our actions.

Try to remember back to when you were in grammar school.  I’m sure you can recall instances where one kid would call another kid a mean spirited name.  Often, the kid being called the name would become angered, say something ugly back and both kids would start calling each other names.  Inevitably, one of the kids would respond with, “So what are you going to do about it?”  Here we have a classic example of how words become a call to actions.

Think of a field general rallying his troops to attack the enemy, motivating them with a vocal battle cry that triggers life or death action and conviction!  In this instance, words function as dynamite, and have an instantaneous result based on actual survival.

How about a minister inspiring his congregation to forgive others; speaking with passion and conviction, influencing those in attendance to make the gesture of forgiving their enemies and bury the hatchet?  The fervor of his words, the energy of that momentum will often motivate some of those in attendance to actually forgive.  These words become actions that can change peoples lives for the better.

Often we see someone in the workplace declaring hatred for another coworker, and act in ways to deliberately ruin their reputation at work.  The words become actions from an ugly, ego centered harmful point of view.

Words are like a fire that is lit under us, but sometimes that flame burns quite slowly and a little at a time.  I have seen men just throw it out ostensibly for the fun of it, “Hey it might be fun to have an affair behind my wife’s back.”  Through time, it’s repetitively voiced, whether at work with his buddies, or out with friends.  Then, those powerful words, ripe with desire, eventually lead to the affair.  When words have sexual desire integrated with them, the force is very powerful, and can lead to very definitive actions, both good and bad.

Perhaps the most powerful example of immediate life altering actions occurring through the spoken word is the example of someone yelling “FIRE” in a crowded public place.  That one simple word could cause a large crowd of people to stampede each other to death.

Few of us monitor and watch our words, but we need to be cognizant of every word we utter.  The old concept of “actions speak louder than words” could just as easily be rephrased to simply state “words are the voice of actions.”

Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Think of actions as the brush strokes you’re using when creating your painting.

Our actions, the way we act and carry things out - whether treating people kindly or viciously, walking down the street and being considerate of other people’s space or bumping into them - manipulating people or performing acts of generosity and kindness - being faithful to our partners or cheating on them…  it all leads to something more deeply entrenched in our psyches and our lives than merely the actions themselves - these actions, as in all actions can become habits. 

The determining factor as to how deeply our actions affect us is largely based on the repetition of those actions.  We become comfortable and familiar with our actions through repetition and that leads to the internal conditioning and grooming process that shapes us and molds us.  It’s like combing your hair in a certain way everyday to shape its look.  Eventually, your hair will lay the way you keep combing it.

The first time we lied to our parents when were kids, it may have seemed terrifying, like the sky was going to open up and God would strike us dead with lightning.  But after the first lie, it didn’t happened.  We were still alive!  So, let’s try a second lie.  It’s not as scary.  Maybe there’s still some residual fear of God and the lightning thing, but it didn’t happen the second time either. By the third, fourth and fifth lies, the fear of being stuck dead has vanished.  We’re getting away with it, and the action of lying becomes routine, free flowing, easy, and through repetition, utterly automatic. 

It is now a habit -and if we don’t let go of this habit it follows us into adulthood as in lying to our bosses, spouses, family and friends.  The act has been so etched into out psyche, it’s almost as if we have become the lies we tell!

Think of the opposite end of the spectrum and examine some positive actions which become habits. Many of us exercise, and do so regularly.  It can be like clockwork - going to the gym everyday, and barely missing a day.  It’s an easy action to take for granted like eating three times a day, a seemingly routine thing but in actuality it is life altering.  People’s lives and health are lengthened and / or dramatically improved due to exercise.  Here the exercise through it’s consistency becomes a habit, and once again, changes everything, as it shapes who we are through becoming a pattern.

Here is a pleasant and short example: Something as simple as a child who begins earning and saving a few dollars a week would ultimately create a nice nest egg by the time they’re a young adult! 

Internal actions, often out of view to those around us also sculpt who we are through time and repetition.  Think of how easy it is to get angry, frustrated and depressed going to a job everyday that you just dread.  That same old feeling of each day being a grind becomes a habit in terms of our inner process and equally as important as outer actions as in physical choices and occurrences. Through decades of this reinforcement that the job is a miserable grind, we become habitual in our miserable relationship to our career. 

So much of what we observe then, is just how profound actions can be, especially because they lead to something much deeper, the habits we demonstrate and live by automatically, day by day often without even being aware of this process. 

Watch your habits, for they become character.
Think of your habits as being the images you are creating in your painting.

It has been said that human beings are creatures of habit - as in having dinner at five o’clock every evening - going to church every Sunday, putting on the right shoe before the left shoe and getting up at roughly the same time in the morning.  But habits not only identify us, like “there’s the guy who talks loud and tells jokes” - it defines us in a much deeper way then most of us ever think.

Habits can be looked at in the mundane categorical sense of the word - “So and so drinks two glasses of water with dinner, while someone is a vegetarian,” as if it means nothing more than a simple observation.  Yet habits reflect on something so much deeper than preferences - even quirks. They speak to our values, an outer display of what is really going on from our core, and these habits through time don’t just classify us, they define our core - our character.

Do we analyze our habits or just react?  It’s easier, obviously, to just react.  “I like to grab my food first,” a selfish person may say.  A deeper examination would lead to the question of, “Why not let others get their food first, at least some of the time?” People tend to like to do what feels good, but is that feel-good beneficial to anyone else?  This is where we must look, because if it isn’t truly kind or respectful to others, it may need to be reexamined and new habits formed that are positive.

One could ask the question as to why any of us would keep a negative or unhealthy habit going?  Some part of us is getting a pay off or a reward from such behavior.  Let’s say if the habit is drinking alcohol; it numbs the emotional pain, it becomes an escape, it facilitates self-pity - those are big pay offs, just not good ones.  So many of us have seen people go from drinking to being alcoholics; here is a clear example of habits becoming character.  Sometimes it’s hard for any of us to recognize how habits lead to character, as we tend to dismiss habits as “this is just the way I am.”

But we must observe our habits, recognize the patterns, change the habits that are not good for us, because like a piece of clay we’re sculpting, habits become our character

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
Think of your character as completing your painting.

Destiny is a peculiar word, as it means many things semantically to many different people.  Some think of destiny as God’s immutable will, while others think of destiny as the choices you make to create your reality, while others relate to it as fate, but here, we will speak of destiny as the end result of your  character, which defines your values and ultimately leads you to your ultimate
manifestations in this journey.

With character, our choices and actions are automatic.  By the time you’ve established your character, it is somewhat predictable as to how you would handle a particular situation.  If you’ve always lied to get around things, when you’re in a rough jam, you will probably lie your way out of it. If you’ve developed the backbone to tell the truth regardless of the consequences, it doesn’t matter what the threat is hanging over your head, you’re going to tell it like it is.

I’ve always liked the concept of “You really see what people are made of in tough times and in times of stress.”  Most of us don’t hurt people recreationally.  But would we hurt someone if getting a promotion is on the line?  Whether the answer is yes or no, it speaks to ones character.  Would we stand up for what we believe is right even if everyone around would condemn us for doing so?These examples go much deeper that “You’re a good person or a bad person.”

Character should not just only be thought of in big terms, as in the life altering decisions we all inevitably make in our journey. Character is also about small choices, the day-by-day choices that in and of themselves don’t seem like more than a minor blip on the radar screen.  For example:  It is not plausible to think of gaining 50 pounds overnight; it might be virtually impossible.  But overeating a little everyday: that extra piece of cake, that second helping of pasta, and some chocolate after a stressful day for weeks and months, even years can absolutely put on 50 pounds.  We should never underestimate or trivialize the importance of the little things we do, as those seemingly innocuous things display our real character.  In some ways, who we are is the sum total of every choice we have ever made.

They alter eternity.  In tough times, often, there are life altering and difficult choices which lead to overwhelming consequences that affect ours as well as others entire lifetimes. The choices that we make, reflective once again of our character, really become destiny, something that changes everything irrevocably and forever.

Most of tend to not examine as fully as we should our character, but all of us will make choices that really do change everything forever!  If you talk to anyone who is at least the age of a young adult, they’ll most likely tell you of those experiences that changed their life:  When their parents wouldn’t let them go the college they dreamed of therefore denying their dreams, when a
grandparent gave them encouragement to love themselves brining them self esteem, or when they were betrayed by a seemingly dear friend.

Never forget - what we do counts, so much that the world will be forever shaped by our presence in it.  Our interactions with others will change the life path of ourselves and the world around us, often irrevocably through our thoughts, words, actions, habits, and character.  We must never lose sight of how we all not only shape and affect, but who we truly are and how that becomes destiny.