Who Is Doing Your Thinking for You?

At 15 years old, I was sitting in a jail cell, waiting for a trial date on charges of burglary and armed robbery.  The depressing cell had a strong metal door containing a small window near the top with safety glass and wires.  Through that window I would sit on my cot, watching the tick, tick, tick, of the second hand, as it circled around a clock in the hallway outside.

As you might imagine, this situation created ideal timing, at a very young age, to rethink the trajectory of my life...

By that time, I was already a copious user of drugs and alcohol, who had made some ill-fated choices up to that point.  But more germane to this discussion, I was an angry adolescent, furious at a society that didn’t offer equality for all. (Meaning me.)

I went to school with kids whose parents bought them go-carts and motorcycles, they had their own bedrooms, and went on vacations to cool places.  My mom, raising three kids by herself could never offer a lifestyle like that.

No one even knew what autism was back then, but I was on the spectrum, blessed with both a genius IQ, and a complete inability to understand, interact, and relate to the species known as human. Even at an early age, it was obvious that I was smarter than my teachers and counselors, so I discounted their attempts to help me, choosing instead to look for short cuts, ways to jump the line, and somehow catch up to those who had a higher standard of living.

Pulling a weapon on a cashier and walking out with $800 in 60 seconds seemed like a much more effective way to equalize the economic opportunity than those hard, boring, slow ways everyone else was doing it.  And it worked great. Until it didn’t.

That experience blessed me in countless ways, but perhaps the most important was the life philosophy that came out of it.  Understanding that while there is tremendous inequality in this world, you don’t have to be powerless to it.  There are actions you can take to level the playing field. There is a value for value exchange aspect to the Universe, and once you understand that, you can achieve all the manifestations of true prosperity.

Which is my hope for you when you read this post…

Maybe you’re arriving at this moment angry and disillusioned, maybe you don’t think life is fair, maybe you’re wondering what the hell you must do, to catch a break.  That’s okay.  But understand this…

There are no government programs, medical procedures, or post graduate courses to treat you for prosperity – you must be open to receiving it. 

In this blog and my books, I share everything I know to help you make that mental transformation.  Fair warning…

You should know that this process will eventually lead you to a fork in the road offering two choices: victimhood or victory.

Victimhood offers many benefits. More people will relate to you, you’ll get to commiserate in victim marathons with others, and friends on social media will adore you.  Becoming a professional victim can give you a sense of identity, even provide you with a perverse sense of virtue, because you’re always the lone hero, fighting the forces of evil.

As tantalizing as these benefits might appear through your currently distorted thinking, you must reject them entirely to become a victor.

The benefits of being a victor are simple yet quite profound: you will live a healthy, happy, prosperous life.

What I’m about to tell you may seem, counterintuitive, shocking, or unbelievable to you, but I promise you with every fiber of my being it is true:

The single most important variable for living a prosperous life is not where you were born, the wealth of your family, your connections, or your education level.  It is your mindset.

By this, I mean your ability to learn how to think. For your entire life, governments, the education system, banking system, media ecosystem, even the people who care about you have been trying to teach you what to think, not how to think.  You cannot allow yourself to be provoked or directed by the random thoughts that are bombarding you daily.  You must become mindful enough to think about what you think about.

Ultimately, you must become “the thinker of the thought.” 

You are now using your mind instead of being used by your mind.  Because you’re able to pause, rise above your thoughts, and be conscious of them.

Healthy people think differently than sick people.

Happy people think differently than depressed people.

Wealthy people think differently than broke people.

You might think your body and circumstances control your thoughts, but it’s the opposite. 

Enlightened, prosperous, self-actualized people create their lives by the power of thought.  For most of us, by the time we have reached our teenage years, we’ve become conditioned into being victims of circumstance.

When you become the thinker of the thought you become the architect of your life.  You stop believing in fate, luck, and happenstance and start realizing that you’re a co-creator of your life.  And that’s where the transformation happens!

Peace,

- RG

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