I have been doing a lot of thinking these days. Yes, I’ve been thinking about thinking.
One of my sons and I were in the car recently and I noticed he had that faraway look on his face. I asked him what he was thinking about and his answer didn’t surprise me. “Nothing,” he said in the typical way kids (or spouses) answer when they don’t want you to know what they’re thinking.
“No, really,” I pressed. “What are you thinking about, honey?”
“Nothing.”
“Come on. You’ve got to be thinking about something.”
“Well, now I am, Mom, but I wasn’t when you asked me. My mind was like a blank canvas.”
“You mean like an Etch-a-Sketch, you can just erase all thoughts from your mind?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied. “But first you have to think about it.”
I still don’t know if that’s possible, at least for me, but it did get me to focus on my thinking. And to pull from my bookshelf a book I bought last winter.
The 4:8 Principle by Tommy Newberry had been recommended by a pastor who knows all that glitters isn’t gold and most of the time, the biggest battles we face are on the inside.
Inside the dust cover, it reads: “Research indicates that the average person thinks approximately 50,000 thoughts per day. Each thought moves us either toward our God-given potential or away from it.
“Unfortunately, we live in a society bent on nursing old wounds and highlighting what is wrong with just about everything.
“In Philippians 4:8, the apostle Paul challenges us to seek out and dwell on the positives in our lives. When used as a filter, this verse is the true secret to vibrant health, satisfying relationships and lasting fulfillment.”
On Page 11, Newberry writes, “The secret conversations you hold in the privacy of your own mind are shaping your destiny, little by little.”
A nonbiblical comparable would be The Secret, the bestseller by Rhonda Byrne. It focuses on the law of attraction, in which you attract that which you think about, good or bad.
Much like the former, this book argues that thinking positively can create life-changing results with its focus on increased wealth, health and happiness.
Whether we recognize it or not, it’s true.
As I look back over my life, I realize that my thinking has had a profound impact on my life and that I’ve gotten most of the things I’ve thought about, both good and bad.
For instance, when I was working my way up in the television business, I would play the soundtrack to the movie Staying Alive. It was a not-very-successful sequel to the movie Saturday Night Fever but it spoke to me.
Every morning at 4:30 a.m., as I crossed the Mississippi River into Moline, Ill., to write and anchor the morning cut-ins on WQAD-TV, Frank Stallone and I would belt out the song Far From Over.
“Give me somethin’. I need it all ’cause I’m runnin’ over. Back in the race, I’m movin’ in ’cause I am getting closer. I’m diggin’ in, I want it more than anything I’ve ever wanted. Save me, darlin’, I am down but I am far from over.”
To further feed my dream of being a successful anchorwoman, I would fast-forward the cassette tape and sing Breakout with the Bee Gees. “It don’t matter who you are, anyone can be a star. Brighter than the lightning, you go as far as you can go. You got to be what you know.”
Every Monday through Friday for two years, I envisioned myself as a happy and successful news anchor in a major market. Those positive thoughts became reality when I moved on to Miami and then to Cleveland.
On the flip side, as the anchor for WJW, then a CBS affiliate, I was sent to a CBS Weekend With the Stars event, in which I was privileged to interview some of the network’s biggest and most beautiful stars.
I never forgot that one of them, up close and personal, had a face covered with light blonde hair.
“She has her very own soft-focus filter,” I thought.
Another one was even taller and more beautiful and widely known for her trips to the plastic surgeon, yet she had a fair amount of nasal hair playing peek-a-boo from her right nostril.
I am embarrassed to tell you how many times I thought about these two women over the years, thinking, “I sure hope I don’t get hair where it’s not supposed to grow.”
Well, don’t you know that when my boys were teenagers and asked me why they weren’t able to grow facial hair, I told them to go ask their father. “As you can see, boys, I have a full set of mutton chops and a handlebar mustache.”
Nose hair? I looked in one of those magnifying mirrors at Bed, Bath and Beyond one day and saw what looked like a whisk broom coming out of my nose. I screamed so loudly I’m surprised they didn’t call security.
I could go on and on with examples, but I think you know what I mean.
Newberry writes, “Focusing on positive things causes you to search for more that’s positive. As a result, you perceive and appreciate more good, which sets the stage for even more positive circumstances.”
Like a good sale on mustache wax.
Contact Robin Swoboda at Robinswoboda@outlook.com.