Change Your Life Through Your Thoughts

The quote "if you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change" by Dr. Wayne Dyer highlights the idea that our internal beliefs and thoughts shape the way we perceive the world around us. Our individual perspectives can color our experiences and interactions with the world, and this can be both beneficial and detrimental to our understanding of ourselves and others.

One way to understand this concept is to do a simple experiment. If someone asked you to close your eyes and think about the color red, you might think of stop signs, tomatoes, and blood. Pause for a minute to visualize red objects, then open them and look around the room.

Once you open your eyes, you will notice that all red objects in your surroundings stand out to you more. This experience illustrates how our beliefs and thoughts can influence what we see and pay attention to. It brings out an unconscious bias that confirms what we pay attention to.

These internal biases can hurt us if we are not aware of them. Many people never investigate their internal biases and instead confirm their beliefs by looking for more of the color red, becoming sensitive to certain types of information and oblivious to others.

To challenge our internal biases, we need to be willing to question our beliefs and perspectives. This can be difficult and even frightening, as it may lead to a loss of confidence. However, it is important to remember that understanding and challenging our internal biases can also lead to a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

One way to do this is to read books or explore new ideas with an open mind, instead of immediately judging them against our current beliefs. This approach allows us to consider new perspectives and understand other people's viewpoints.

Ultimately, becoming aware of our internal biases and learning to challenge them can help us improve our understanding of ourselves and others, and remove mental limitations that prevent us from exploring, learning, and growing.

We can unlock a brighter future. But this also creates some uncertainty. We begin to question our thoughts, actions, and motivations. We see when we misjudge a situation. We see how we are being pulled in a direction and not being 100% objective.

While scary, it also provides confidence. We gain confidence because we are willing to challenge our beliefs when new information contradicts what we assumed. We can flex and adjust and grow instead of solidifying our current position.

Yet most go through life solidifying not questioning. They don’t try to challenge their mental models and see the world through advanced lenses. Instead, they cling to the same frame of reference and refuse to alter it in any way.

This leads to stagnation. If we want something better in our life, we must break free from this limiting belief system and realize how much complexity there is in the world. Then we should challenge our own beliefs and constantly search for more, and often conflicting, information.