“Many People Would Rather DIE than Think; In Fact, Most Do…”

Originally shared in A Daily Dose Of Leadership on June 17, 2020.

British polymath, Bertrand Russell once said that “many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do.”

And this is the second piece of A Cycle for Success in Any Endeavor that we started looking at in the last blog; our THOUGHTS!

There’s clearly some level of importance in this since it’s specifically referenced in two of the most influential personal development books written in the last hundred years; Think & Grow Rick and The Magic of Thinking Big. We could go back even farther with James Allen’s As a Man Thinketh… And more recently, John Maxwell has written two books dedicated to it; Thinking for a Change and How Successful People Think.

Okay, Okay… Maybe it is kind of important. But Russell’s statement seems a bit far-fetched… Possibly, but even Thomas Edison is quoted as saying “5% of people think, 10% of people think they think, and the other 85% would rather die than think.”

So where does that leave us in that Cycle for Success, and what can we do about it once we develop an understanding of just how much our beliefs impact our thoughts?

As we’ve studied, and I really mean studied, several of those books I just referenced, it’s been amazing to realize how many of our thoughts happen on autopilot. We do so many things on a day to day basis, simply going through the motions without really thinking into what we’re doing or how we can improve ourselves and the overall process we’re engaged in. And if you had access to these messages for more than a few weeks, you may remember some references I made to what/who takes over our thoughts when we’re not being intentional about it on our own!

I believe you get the point so I won’t attempt to summarize each of those books in this one message. But I will challenge you to start paying extremely close attention to what you’re thinking as you go through your day. And that can be stinking tough!!! How many times have you been driving down the road, hear a song or see a sign, and drift off to something completely unrelated to your current purpose in life? It happens to all of us… The difference really comes in how quickly we regain control of our thoughts and get back on track with where we’re heading!

And that’s what will begin to impact what we’ll dig into in the next blog!