IJCH - Inside JaiChai's Head (meaning: My warped, personal opinions and musings)
From the Author:
Salutations.
I am JaiChai.
And if I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you before, I'm delighted to make your acquaintance now.
The Naive Apprentice
Apprentice: “I’ve been doing all the visualizations, affirmations, and negativity purging; but nothing is happening. I’m still broke!”
Mentor: “Does your thinking lead to any ACTION?”
Apprentice: “Well… not much, yet. But I spent so much time and energy on it. Why still no results?”
Mentor: “If your thinking doesn’t lead to action, how can you be prepared to jump on any opportunities that will lead you to your dream life?
What can you give now to the person capable of giving you what you desire? That person will expect something in return. And that something must be of equal or greater value to him.
Do you have it?”
Apprentice: “Hmm…?”
People like the Apprentice believe that thought is all that’s needed to manifest their desires.
But when they aren’t manifesting their desires, the big question is this:
Are they really thinking in the Most Effective Way? That is, are they thinking in a way that serves them best; a way that ensures prosperity, a way that is congruent with their whole being?
And most of all, does their thinking lead to ACTION?
If not, then life becomes a futile cycle of “one step forward, then two steps back” for them.
Fuel for the Magical Manifestation Machine
In the grand scheme of things, ALL thoughts, beliefs, and speech contribute to (and affect) the magical manifestation machine called the Universe.
Thought is the fuel that the machine needs to create individual realities.
Every positive AND negative thought is registered and acted upon.
The Universe doesn’t filter out so-called “good or bad” things. IT simply let’s you decide - this is called free-will.
It is a powerful gift, a gift that most people throw away by choosing to think with the herd by default - "the lemming mentality", instead of by their own design, also called conscious creation through controlled thought.
When negative thoughts are allowed to enter the mind through the front door, meaning: conscious, self-defeating self-talk, or through the back door (i.e., subconscious thought resulting from past negative training, conditioning, and experiences), even the best laid plans are doomed from the start.
Most of the time, positive and negative thoughts cancel each other out, leading to a “push-me, pull-you” situation resulting in no progress made at all.
Continuing to do this, expends tremendous amounts of precious time and life energy; only to end up where?
Back to or behind square one!
The Main Purpose of Your Thoughts
Your thoughts' main purpose should be to serve and protect.
And until you learn to dream more and worry less, it takes a constant “Security Thought Patrol,” stationed on the perimeter of the mind, to repel negative thoughts.
The Patrol's mission is to only allow positive thoughts to enter. And your Patrol should challenge all questionable immigrants into your mind with the proverbial “Halt! Who goes there?!”
Controlling your own thoughts is no small task.
In fact, many people will engage in just about anything to keep from having to think about their own thoughts!
Life becomes an endless parade of halfhearted attempts at success and multiple shallow relationships.
Looking outside themselves, they seek the next tension-relieving activity which temporarily keeps them from thinking about themselves.
Sadly, this kind of escapism prevents them from spending their time on activities that could bring them closer to achieving their ultimate life goals.
The Victim Mentality
Even in this modern age of self-discovery and self-improvement, the victim mentality is still alive and well. The fact is that playing the victim role is too tempting and too easy for most to resist.
In the victim mentality game, all participants are conveniently absolved from any real, personal responsibility. Victims will blame everything and everybody else for their own personal plights.
The years pass. And a string of awful jobs, business failures, and broken relationships only bolster their deep depression, anger, and hopelessness.
Unless these people take full responsibility for their own lives, they will continually spin their wheels, go nowhere, and struggle against all their imagined oppressors.
They don’t see that THEY ARE THE CAUSE.
They are attempting something impossible. They are trying to hide from themselves. Resembling ostriches, they figuratively stick their heads in the ground and semi-hope for the best.
They have mentally given up. Passion is non-existent and life is endured, not lived.
These people are truly insane; meaning: they believe things will change on their own accord WITHOUT changing their current ways of thinking and doing. Sadly, they will continue waiting for something that will never come.
It really can be different. It just takes proper planting and care. James Allen, in his classic book "As A Man Thinketh", tells us that the mind is like a garden.
Neglect allows weeds to grow.
Seeds for flowers must be planted and constant care is needed to produce a beautiful garden (and mind).
Negative thoughts, like weeds, easily spring up when nothing else is planted.
Don't Erase, Replace!
Individual conditioning (past and present) plants an overabundance of repeating, negative thought. This is why so many people seem to never move forward in life.
But it’s not possible to NOT think about something! This is how Dostoyevsky used to terrorize his brother by telling him NOT to think about a “big, ferocious, white Polar Bear with sharp teeth and killer claws.”
Suggesting NOT to think about something brings about its exact image! The best way to get rid of a repetitive, negative thought is to REPLACE IT.
When I was a young man in the military, I remember the first time I was ordered to perform my first free-fall parachute evolution (mission).
Even though my static line - an automatic parachute deployment using an “umbilical cord” attached to the airplane - jumps were somewhat easy and fun; the thought of free-falling from a much higher altitude AND having to judge when to pull my ripcord was, to say the least, unsettling.
My Jump Master, a very salty Master Sergeant, successfully used the REPLACEMENT method to cure any reticence in his students about free-fall jumping.
He would shout, “Son, Fear and Desire can not live in the same mind! Repeat after me: I WANT OUT OF THIS AIRPLANE NOW! I NEED TO JUMP NOW! …I can’t hear you! Say it again: I WANT OUT OF THIS AIRPLANE NOW! I NEED TO JUMP NOW! Go! Go! Go!
Needless to say, it worked. I exited the aircraft and immediately began flying through the air like Superman. And as the delight of free-falling filled my whole body and soul, I screamed THANK-YOOOOOO to that Big Master Sergeant above!
Your Thoughts
Source (Base Source #1) (Base Source #2)
All Law of Attraction and Science of Getting Rich gurus agree on one thing: Your thoughts can definitely serve you or sabotage you.
Do your thoughts make you feel good? If they don’t, why continue to think them?
Do your thoughts overtly or covertly sabotage you?
Not sure?
Just look at the results of your present thinking and doing. If your present results are not what you desire, why keep their underlying causes (the thoughts that created them in the first place) alive?
Many people (myself included) believe that all suffering can be traced to an error in thought. This is simply because we - as powerfully thinking individuals - have the ability to assign our own connotations of “good or bad” to anything in life.
If any thought makes you feel bad or uncomfortable; either replace it, or find the seed of goodness in it.
I like to combine the slogans of Naploeon Hill (the author of the classic book “Think and Grow Rich”) and Russell Conwell (founder of Temple University and acclaimed “Acres of Diamonds” lecturer) into one phrase:
“In every seemingly bad situation or apparent failure is the seed for its solution. And it is this magic seed that will produce your own acres of diamonds.”
There is ALWAYS something good. You just have to find it.
Think.
Think hard!
After you realize that it's is true, it’s almost ridiculous to continue thinking thoughts that do not serve you. Only a masochist would purposely subject themselves to this kind of perpetual mental torture.
Why continue to think thoughts that make you feel bad?
Do your feel like they are the only things that make you unique? If so, you must realize that such a belief is a form of mental, emotional, and spiritual suicide.
It is pure and utter nonsense to believe that your uniqueness is solely because of your negative thoughts.
You Are Innately Special, Be Special!
You are special because you are special. ‘nuff said. No one else is now, or will ever be, you. Accept this powerful thought. No one - and I mean no one - has the same abilities and desires that you have.
Do you think your thoughts were meant to bring you unhappiness?
Do you think that some deviant, ironic, universal force planted them into your mind for the perverse pleasure of seeing your mental turmoil?
OF COURSE NOT!
Your thoughts, especially thoughts about what you desire in life, are the clues to your ultimate happiness.
They are the little hints that can produce life-changing results. They are whispers in the wind, co-created by you and the Universe.
I like to think of them (thoughts that serve us well) as the bread crumbs carefully placed in our life path, leading us to our own personal utopia.
Rest assured that if you weren’t capable of achieving your desires, you wouldn’t have the thoughts about them in the first place!
In other words, every thought of a desire is backed by the power and possibility of achieving it.
The Checklist
I’ve spent most of my life living by simple checklists. It’s not silly to use them. Airplane pilots, astronauts, and almost all successful people employ them.
In fact, during my military career, following those little checklists saved my life many times.
So, here’s a checklist for you – the “Service Thought vs. Sabotage Thought” – personal checklist.
It will help you decide whether a certain thought serves you or sabotages you.
By no means is this checklist “all inclusive.” Use it as the point of departure in making your own “Service Thought vs. Sabotage Thought” personal checklist.
In all instances, if the answer is “no,” replace it or refine it (find the good in it).
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Does the thought make me feel good?
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Does the thought inspire me?
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Does the thought energize me?
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Does the thought motivate me to ACT?
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Is the resultant ACTION an effective action (i.e., action that brings me closer to my life goals)?
Remember, thoughts that serve you are always positive.
They lead you to the good things in life.
They are exciting.
They are related to your individual desires and personal passions.
They point the way to creativity, not competition.
They sharpen you, instead of dull you.
In short, they heal, instead of hurt.
And last, but not least, THEY LEAD TO ACTION.
How do your thoughts serve you, my friend?
By JaiChai
Thanks for stopping by.
About the Author
Believing that school was too boring, he dropped out of High School early; only to earn an AA, BS and MBA in less than 4 years much later in life – while working full-time as a Navy/Marine Corps Medic.
In spite of a fear of heights and deep water, he performed high altitude, free-fall parachute jumps and hazardous diving ops in deep, open ocean water.
After 24 years of active duty, he retired in Asia.
Since then, he's been a full-time, single papa and actively pursuing his varied passions (Writing, Disruptive Technology, Computer Science and Cryptocurrency - plus more hobbies too boring or bizarre for most folk).
He lives on an island paradise with his teenage daughter, longtime girlfriend and three dogs.
