getting_your_thinking

   Welcome to the first lecture of Living
Deliberately. The purpose of this lecture is to teach you to recognize and develop the ability to handle certain factors that may be affecting the size of your income.
     I want to talk to you today about some- thing I think is fantastic. And if you don't believe it is fantastic, well all right, I'm willing to convince you. We're going to talk about deliberate thinking, about using the mind as a tool to create physical reality.    Notice, I didn't say per- ceive physical reality. I said create physical reality.
     In order to create something (other than a random effect) in the physical universe, you must first create an idea of the thing in your own mind. That is why the first step in achieving any kind of success is getting your thinking straight. I have to credit my grandfather for the lesson,
"First, let's get our thinking straight." That was his approach to a job. Exper- ience had taught him that you didn't pick up something heavy until you figured out where to put it down.
     That is a lesson that my brother and I would have done well to follow. Instead, we struggled to hold up a heavy couch while our mother changed her mind. "Let's try it over here. No. How about over here? No. How about under the window?" Likely as not, we'd end up putting the couch down in the same place we'd picked it up. Then he and I would collapse on the couch in ex- haustion.
      You know, there are an awful lot of people who are collapsed on that couch because they didn't get their thinking straight first. We're talking about making decisions, and everyone knows that's risky. Wrong decisions lead to failure. You don't have to make very many of them before you learn to shut up. Of course, if your thinking is straight to begin with, the chances of making a wrong decision are greatly reduced. Most wrong decisions aren't made; they're just sort of shuffled into and then discovered when it's too late to turn around.
     For a lot of people, thinking is just something that happens, some kind of spontaneous reaction to something. They are thinking, but there is no thinker. Huh? Well, you have to have a thinker before you can deliberately think something.

Otherwise, you're just spinning in winds of consciousness.
     This is kind of interesting. You give someone a command like, "Think." And what do they do? They wait for a thought to come along. They haven't quite come up to this idea of deliberately thinking something. If you ask them pointedly, "Who is source of your thoughts?" They'll tell you something like, "Well, I take a lot after my dad. My morn says I take after my dad." Now you find out that his dad has been dead for ten years.
     So you begin working with this guy and you say, "Let's see if you can create a thought. Create a thought about an elephant." And some mental image of an elephant pops up in his mind from God knows where-probably from a circus or a zoo he remembers. He didn't create a thought about an elephant, you see. He retrieved a thought about an elephant.
     Well, that's OK. Recall is better than just waiting around for an elephant to pass. being able to select specific memories means someone is home in his head. He's awake enough to sort his memories. so push him just a little harder.
     You remembered an elephant. That's good. You must have created that thought at one time.   Now, let's see if you can create something new about that elephant. Put the elephant in swimming trunks, sunglasses and a baseball cap."
     You'll instantly see him brighten up.
     Whaaat? He will be amazed that he can do it. You see, he has been in total agree- ment with the flow of the universe and his various perceptions and reactions, and you've just pulled him out of the soup and had him create a deliberate thought. Now, if the responsibility of the whole thing doesn't frighten him too badly, you've got him on the route to source.
     This is the concept of deliberate thinking. You don't have to be profound or original; you just have to make sure that it's you who is creating the thought. You don't think something "because; you just create a thought deliberately. This is a high creative ability.
     It's climbing out of the knock-you-about, cause-and-effect stream of life, and realizing that you are a source. You are the thinker.

You can originate a thought that is neither a response nor a reaction to anything that has happened or gone before. In that moment, you have become the supreme being of your universe. You are the boss.
     This is the level of being from which you can think deliberately. If you want to create the thought, "I'm OK," or "I'm happy," you can.
     There are certain mechanics to this. If the thought you create is in disagreement with the flow of thinking that preceded it, you're going to experience some back-lash.
     Think of it this way. You've placed a thought in the stream of consciousness, and the currents of the past are hitting it. As long as you didn't place the thought in the middle of the stream where the currents are irresistible, and by that I mean you didn't try to violate some universal law like gravity, the current can. be managed and your thought will become reality.
     Deliberate thinking, like any ability, im- proves with practice
     When I talk about deliberate thinking. I'm not addressing your brain, which is a great storage device but not much of a thinker. No, I don't want to talk to the answering machine or even a secretary; I want the boss. That's you. It's your mind; you own it. Maybe it's time you took control of it.
     Who is the supreme being of your universe? You are, of course, but the brain machinery has over-thrown you. You haven't separated the emotional energy from your thoughts. And now they hop around like a handful of Mexican jumping beans. Sit still for a minute and try not to think at all. Just decide to sit there for a minute and not think.
     Not so easy, hull? Would you buy a computer you could never turn off? If people drove cars like they run their minds, you might find a Chevy in your bedroom tonight.
     So your mind has gone a bit eccentric and doesn't behave like it ought to. It pretends to be you, to be critical of you, gets into worry loops, and entertains ideas, which if ever saw the light of day would get you locked up. I understand; I really understand. I can help you to get your thinking straight. For a few of you, this is just going to mean some minor reality tweak-ing. For others, this is the beginning of a major campaign.
Decide that you feel the best you've ever felt. Well?