Most of us are familiar with Stephen Covey’s “Begin with the End in Mind” principle.  Our mind affects how we feel, and it in turn affects how we act.  When we guard our thinking, we will have more success in what we do.  However, it is not always as simple as what we want because our natural habit to think is usually based on our past experiences and observations.  If we focus on the negative, we will end up thinking negatively.  Conversely, if we think right, we will do right.  In order that we think right, we need to build ourselves with things that are right.

So what are the right things that we can get ourselves busy with?  For a start, we need to be right with ourselves.  If we do not have the confidence in ourselves, then we will limit what we can do and give up when something unpleasant comes our way.  We are humans and do have our weaknesses, but we also have our strengths too.  When we acknowledge that we are not perfect, that is already a good start.  We just need to work on strengthening from where are and keep working on building that to a level where we add value to others.  As we control our minds to think positively about ourselves, we start to feel good about ourselves and it will drive us to act positively.  Our surroundings may be filled with a lot of negative energy, but our minds can transform them into opportunities for us to make them better.  For instance, if the process in the workplace is not well planned, then take this as an opportunity to improve the process.  Take it upon yourself to make it well planned so that others can benefit as a result of your action.  Say to yourself that no one deserves to go through such an unplanned process and I want to be the first to resolve it.  If I cannot do this alone, then I find others to collaborate with and solve it for the good of everyone.

We can also develop ourselves continually and prepare ourselves for the unexpected event to come.  Spending time to learn and develop ways to overcome potential issues enable us to focus on getting things right.  We tend to go into a quick fix when we should spend time studying the issue, and then work out the solution based on our analysis.  Address the root cause and not just be satisfied with doing something, but doing the right thing.  Our mind must settle for both short and long term.  It needs to think about sustainability and not just at kick-off.

Another thing that sets us to right thinking is to know that whatever thoughts we have do not hurt us.  We tend to get very affected when others make a remark on us that is negative.  For instance, “you are slow!”; “you seem to be very forgetful!”. We can control our thoughts by adding positive responses on the statement ourselves.  “Yes, I realized that I am slow and I know where the issue lies and will work towards getting the thing done in less than two days by a change of process”.  “Yes, I was forgetful and likely due to not taking notes and will highlight the key actions and put a follow up timeline to it”.  So instead of getting frustrated with those remarks, see it as an opportunity to make things right and you will find that your response to the person will also be positive.

So the objective of what you do should be to do right and by controlling your thoughts to think right, you will end up doing the right thing.