It’s an incredible process.

It affects my own friends and family in some fantastic and horrifying ways. Family members believing fallacies about who they are and how the world works, taking them down dark paths. Friends changing their views and ultimately, their actions about how relationships and people should be treated. What is crazy to me is that most people don’t think twice about this process. In fact, I don’t think most people think too much about how they think or why they think the way they do at all.

Lets explore a question for a moment.

What makes you, you?

It’s a tough question to ask. Let me clarify what I mean when I say this. What makes up the components of what people see about you and what you know about yourself. The way you treat people, the way you treat yourself, the choices you make, your overall disposition on life, your stress level, what you care about, how tolerant you are of others, and any other thing that you relate to yourself, big or small, that makes you, uniquely you.

Where did these things come from? Why do you act the way you do? Why do you think the way you do? It all stems from the ideas we’ve decided to let into our lives. Let’s go through one small example to see what I’m talking about:

The Idea:

“I will always have debt.”

If someone takes this idea, believes it to be true, lets it shape their view on things, allows it to affect their actions, then eventually their whole life will be changed by this single statement.

I can see someone who has added this idea to themselves think things like:

I will always be in debt so why save anything anyways? I should just enjoy life and what I have because it would be stupid to try to save. What would be the point? That new TV I always wanted? Let’s get it! Take out a loan to get that new sweet car? Heck yeah!

And as they make choices, both big and small, they start to play out this idea and solidify it’s grip on their lives. Add more debt, not pay off their current debt; choice by choice, they are letting an idea dictate their own personal reality. Lets replace this idea with something different and see what happens:

The Idea:

“I can be debt free.”

I can see someone who adds this idea to themselves say something a bit different, like:

I know I can get debt free, how the heck do people do it? I’ll go ask people in my life who seem to know, or maybe I’ll find some great books on getting out of debt, maybe I’ll just watch some video or take a class on it. Heck, I’ll just start by Googling it and go from there! I do not need things that are expensive right now, it will pay off later when I’m debt free. I can find plenty of fun things to do that don’t cost money.

Just as before the idea leads to a different thought about life, the individual, and ultimately a different path through our actions. The ideas that we have about ourselves and the world around us are the powerful building blocks that begin to shape us into who we are, and who we will become.