The economy of thoughts

Too many people are concerned about Economy these days, but what about the economy of thoughts?

Thoughts are responsible for success and failure, for love and hate, for good and bad experiences. They are also responsible for emotions and feelings, for overcoming barriers or for avoiding them.

They are the essence of our lives and here are 3 questions that will help you to understand and extract more benefit from the power of your thoughts.

 

How much are you saving and how much are you wasting?

Saving thoughts means to think what is needed at the appropriate time. Thoughts are a powerful tool to overcome situations or to make decisions, among other things, but if you don’t think what is necessary or at the right time, they won’t contribute to your success.

For instance, if you have a problem, do you keep on thinking of the problem again and again, or do you make time and reflect on your own power, increasing your self-respect? In the first case, you are just wasting thoughts, but in the second you are giving yourself a chance, that is, you are saving them.

 

What is the quality of your thoughts and how it creates an impact in your life?

According to the quality of your thoughts, so it will be the quality of your words and actions, or at least it will be a fundamental factor.

Let’s say you have to prepare a presentation to a client, but your thoughts are not there… they may be at your home as your child is sick or even in the next football match.

Of course, that won’t interfere with the presentation, particularly the data or the rehearsed pitch, but it will influence the way you present it. If your competition is fully focused and offer the same data (and price), their focus will be more than a reason for the client to prefer them instead of you.

 

Your trade of thoughts, how is it going?

When you think of others and they think of you, there is… an exchange of energy and vibrations. That is like a subtle and invisible trade we all do.

Imagine a scene in which you are trying to sell something to a person and a colleague is just sitting by your side, watching… then, you feel a vibration, something in that person that says it won’t work. Automatically, your self-esteem goes to the bottom, you may stutter a bit and at last, you leave without a deal.

OK, it sounds a bit dramatic, but I am sure everyone went through a similar situation in which the trade of thoughts between another person and you was toxic and it affects your performance.

On the bright side, the same thing happens when your colleague smiles encouragingly at you and you are able to get a deal!

You may not see thoughts, but their reflection – a smile, the eyes, the hands – are very clear and they show how the trading going is.

 

By working on the Economy of thoughts, you will be able to see a difference in your life.

Goals in life, are that important?

What is your goal in life? Goals?

Ok, let’s rethink that question: what can you do with your life, so that you become happy, peaceful, full of love and in harmony with others?

Tough question? Not so much… even though we often don’t ask us that question out loud, most of the time we would ask that question in a subtle way, particularly when we have a big decision to make.

In fact, goals are not as important in life as it is to have a memorable life, a life that at the end of the journey you will feel was so worthy to have lived it.

Now, don’t misunderstand me: to have goals, aims or objectives are EXTREMELY important. The problem is that to fulfilling a goal, sometimes you lose your happiness and peace, you miss whatever makes you feel loved and you fight other people.

So, are you going for a big goal in life? DO IT! Conquer your fears and overcome your obstacles, but don’t lose focus of what is important in life.

Improving your own quality

It is part of History now, at least Management History, when Total Quality Management was the big trend in business. Everybody wanted to manage their 5S’s…

It was not a bad idea and it worked very well in many places, but it is difficult to resist to times of change, when storms of situations come and you can’t even remember the first S.

In reality, it is not difficult to understand that quality cannot start from outside and this is why it takes so much effort. In fact the place where Total Quality became part of their natural lives was Japan, where honor and a very simple lifestyle contribute for its success; their quality started from inside their minds and culture.

Any fashion or trend in any area of life can only resist time when it becomes part of people’s nature. It is only when it is part of the self, thinking process and is present in emotions and feelings that you can say it was really successful.

But we can learn from History, of course, and it is interesting to revisit the concept of quality this time focused on the self:

• The quality of the process will reflect upon the quality of the outcome. If you want anything in your life to improve its quality – your relationships, career, writing and even a smile – go and look for the process behind it, working on its quality.
• You are responsible for your own quality. Right, situations influence and people too, but it is you who is your own leader. It is important to make time for reflection and meditation as these two processes can help you to increase your own quality from within.
• Systematically. You won’t change overnight and things won’t improve overnight either. It takes time and methodology, and you need patience and perseverance if you want a life of quality.
• Your quality will help others’ quality. Maybe it will take time, but as you improve your own quality, other people will experience that too by following your example or getting help from you.

What happened to living in a city?

By listening to Downtown from the voice of Petula Clark, you just wondered what kind of downtown she is referring… Maybe that clarify the point, when years later, when a TV series was about to end, a group of friends summarize that by commenting on the desire of one of them, to live in a place where “kids could ride their bikes in the street”: So you want to buy a house in the 50's?

The truth is that cities are less and less livable. Or you could say they are OK to live, but the quality of your life won’t be that great. You probably have to commute much more and stay less and less in your own place.

But one day they were a symbol of status and good life, and a high quality of life. Safety, prosperity and welfare were a synonym of living in a city; the bigger, the better.

What happened?

First, there are the visible facts of cars and more cars, of pollution in many places, the increasing population taking people to feel more insecure. After all, paradoxically the normal consequence of granting good quality to others is that gradually the numbers increase and quality decreases.

But there is something more: the disconnection of people with earth and the natural vocation of human beings as rural people. It happened slowly along the centuries, starting from our fascination for the cities – which were, in the beginning, rural outposts for selling and exchanging – attracting us to live there and to adapt our lives and customs to that. And losing some of it…

Probably if you live in a city you will think it is impossible to come back to those old values and way of life when you trusted completely in your neighbor and simplicity was a rule. Probably it is very difficult to go back there and if for some reason you are able to rebuild your city, probably it will attract so many people those values will get lost eventually again.

There is however something you can do, and it is related to your own values. Maybe you can’t avoid one-hour traffic but you can have a smile in your face and do something useful for yourself during that time. Perhaps you cannot prevent the noise and pollution, but you can make your mind silent and clean.

I tell you, it works. You start to love your time in the city, or wherever you are living. You start to love who you are, no matter your situation. You can see the quality of your life increases too. Externally, we can do little, but internally, we can do it all.