Think About It!
When you wake up every morning, you decide what your day is going to be like. The Bible says, “As man thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7) Your thinking determines your actions. So, your first thoughts are extremely important.
While speaking in Arkansas, I met an outstanding man who has been one of the leading salespersons in the State of Arkansas. He has received daily the things I write and shared some of them with his two performance coaches, Tom Bartow and Dr. Jason Selk.
These two performance coaches are extremely successful in coaching Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 company executives, Olympic and college athletes, and professional athletic teams. You can Google both of them and read about their impressive list of clients and accomplishments.
I met a financial advisor in Alabama recently who is a client of these performance coaches and asked him to evaluate their work. He said, “I have been a client of theirs for two years and in that time, my sales have increased 43%.” They focus on continual improvement.
I’ve had several phone conversations with them about how they could add a ministry arm to their work to give back to churches to help them become more effective. They want to share their success.
They write and teach a very interesting concept of how our thinking not only determines what we do but is highly influenced physiologically. Here is a very brief summary.
They teach that if you focus on problems, your brain releases into your blood stream the neurotransmitter known as Cortisol. This can be really bad because Cortisol is the root of negative emotions. They say that humans do not have the ability to experience negative emotions such as fear, anger, and stress without the release of Cortisol into the blood stream.
Cortisol decreases cognitive functioning. People who start the day with negative thoughts of what can’t be done release elevated levels of Cortisol causing them to be stressed out, unaware of how to correct the issues. Some of the extreme results are road rage, anger, shootings, and suicide.
But there is good news. When people focus on positive solutions, the brain stops releasing Cortisol and begins releasing a new set of neurotransmitters–dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. These neurotransmitters biologically cause a person to feel happy and motivated and the person will have measurable increases in intelligence, creativity, energy, and positive results.
Dr. Selk treats this concept extensively in his book, Relentless Solution Focus. The subtitle is “how to train your mind to conquer stress, pressure, and underperformance.”
So, you see you choose your thoughts, and they release into your blood stream either bad or good neurotransmitters which will determine your actions, which will determine your day. What kind of day you have is not based on circumstances or other people. It is based on your thinking and your actions.
Begin each day with Psalm 118:24. “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Then during the day, follow Paul’s advice to “guard your heart and your mind and focus on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good report. Let your mind dwell on these things.” (Philippians 4:7,8)
What kind of day are you having?
