Chapter 12.
Preach the
Role of Thought

Great men are they who see that thought is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Business and life coach JacQuaeline told us this story last week about a mechanic in a school district complaining of punching a time clock and doing the same thing on his job over and over for the last 20 years.

“I’m burned out and need a change!” the mechanic declared.

“Possibly,” JacQuaeline replied. “But you might want to try learning to love what you are resisting, because if you don’t, you will likely run into it in your next job too, in another guise.”

The mechanic responded, “I can love what I’m resisting? I’m not sure that I believe that’s possible, but even if I did, how is it done?”

“Well,” his coach said, “what is a higher purpose to your job than just turning nuts and bolts every day?”

“That’s easy,” replied the mechanic. “The higher purpose of my job is saving children’s lives every day.”

“Yes, that’s great!” whispered the coach. “Now, every morning when you get into your higher purpose, saving children’s lives every day, you will be clear that your job and responsibility is so important that the time clock almost won’t matter anymore.”

She had given him a new way to think. She had put him in touch with the power of higher thought to transform experience.

Make certain all the people you want to motivate understand the role of thought in life. There is nothing more important.

A: I’m depressed.

B: You just think you’re depressed.

A: Same thing...it feels like the same thing.

B: It feels like the same thing, because it is the same thing.

A: What if I thought I was really happy?

B: I think that would make you feel really happy.

A: I know it would.

Why is it that the rain depresses one person and makes another person happy?

If things “make you” feel something, why does this thing called rain make one person feel one thing and the other person feel the other thing? Why, if things make you feel something, doesn’t the rain make both people feel the same thing?

One person you lead might say, “Oh no, bad weather, how depressing.” Another person might say, “Oh boy, we have some wonderful, refreshing rain!”

Because the rain doesn’t actually make you feel anything. (No person, place, or thing can make you feel anything.)

It is the thought about the rain that causes your feeling. And throughout all your leadership adventures, you can teach your people this most important concept: the causal power of thought.

One person thinks (just thinks!) the new pay plan is great. The other person thinks (but just thinks) the plan is depressing. Nothing in the world has any meaning until they give it meaning. Nothing in the workplace does either. Your people often look to you for meaning. What does this new directive really mean?

Do you sense the opportunity you have?

We can make things mean anything we want them to, within reason. Why not use that power?

People don’t make your employees angry; their own thoughts make them angry. They can’t be angry unless they think the thoughts that make them angry.

If your nastiest employee wins the lottery in the morning, who’s going to make her angry that day? No one. No matter what anyone says to her, she isn’t going to care. She’s not going to give it another thought. Your employees can only get angry with someone if they think about that person as a threat to their happiness. If they don’t think about that, how can they be angry?

Your people are free to think about anything they want. They have absolute freedom of thought.

The highest IQ ever measured in any human being was achieved by Marilyn vos Savant, many years in a row. Someone once asked Marilyn what the relationship was between feeling and thinking. She said, “Feeling is what you get for thinking the way you do.”

People feel motivated only when they think motivated thoughts. Thought rules. Circumstance does not rule. The closer your relationship to that truth, the better the leader you are.