I learned something today. Okay, well maybe I knew it before- but I heard it loud and clear today! You know how that goes right? When the student is ready the teacher appears. Talk til’ you’re blue in the face; nobody will hear it until they are ready to listen. Well today I was ready to listen. It was like I finally saw the hidden image in the bigger piece of art. Remember the black and white (negative/positive space) profile picture of an old woman, but then when you looked at it another way it suddenly was a profile of a young beautiful woman? That’s what this statement did to me. Let me just call it an “ah-ha” moment. Drum roll…. Please.
“You become what you think about all day long.”
HELLO! Did.You.Hear.That? Read it again… WAIT, don’t skip back up to the sentence above—let me just repeat myself.
“YOU BECOME WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT ALL DAY LONG.”
What a statement. I wish I was wise enough to come up with something that powerful and brilliant. But I didn’t. It was a statement by the ever enlightened, Ralph Waldo Emerson, an author, poet, and philosopher (among many things).
I would write it a third time so you wouldn’t have to look up or lose your place but the blog must move on.
Do I take the statement literally? No, I do not.
But it is funny how my inner kid becomes the ever enduring smart-ass I never allowed to see the light of day.
So here is my inner dialogue about what Emerson said…
Philosophical Me: Wow what a powerful statement.
Smart-Ass in Me: Huh?
Philosophical Me: I really need to start looking at what I want to become.
Smart-Ass in Me: Wait a minute, so what he’s saying is… what I think about ALL day long, is what I will become, right?
Philosophical Me: Yep, I manifest exactly what I’m thinking.
Smart-Ass in Me: I will become exactly that thing.
Philosophical Me: That is what Emerson was saying. Yes.
Smart-Ass in Me: So if I thought about Ho-Hos and Ding-Dongs all day long…
Philosophical Me: What a smart-ass…
I guess if I thought about goodies all day long it might manifest into a job working for a snack food company or maybe a baker or a pastry chef. But to be honest, I interpret it as a much deeper statement than the literal justification of my inner smart-ass. The statement makes me look at every aspect of my life. Do I consciously think about being a good mother/daughter/sister, a wonderful wife, a successful published author, a trustful friend— all the time? What am I becoming?
The statement galvanizes the need to make sure what I focus on is what I truly want in my life. It’s a pretty big responsibility. Suddenly Emerson’s statement reigns with a much heavier meaning. Now what I say, think, and dream is pinched and examined under the microscope of my beliefs. I can’t claim ignorance anymore. I can’t blame anyone else for what I have become in my life. I am the constant thinker that brings the results in my life. It is my eye that peers through the lens to discover who and what I want to be. Now if I could just keep my glasses from fogging up.
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