What You Think Isn't What's True.

What we think and what is true very often don’t align.

We see things through our own pair of worldview stained glasses, not as things actually are. I see a child calling her parents ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am’ and I see a disrespectful child, where many others would see a respectful one.

What I would have seen as the truth is very often not the actual truth.

I sit down at a restaurant and I’m greeted by someone who is obviously not in a good mood. I automatically classify them as a grumpy person, that is what I think is true. But is it actually? I don’t know the circumstances of their life. They have just broken up with their significant other or found out one of their best friends is terminally ill, or their car may have been stolen.

Learning to see your thoughts bit as fact, but as opinion or ignorance is a skill, and as with all skills you can get better at it.

This is especially true of how we think about ourselves. Stop telling yourself that you can’t do it and start telling yourself that you can, because words are powerful. Two of my favorite comedians, Lano and Woodley, once said that ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will only cause permanent psychological damage.’ It’s funny and yet soberingly true at the same time.

It starts by thinking about what you think about.

Do you think you can’t start your own business? Or run a marathon? Or climb Everest? Or grow in whichever virtue you find yourself lacking?

Start thinking about what you’re thinking about, ask yourself why you’re thinking those things, and then change the way you think about yourself.

What we think and what is true almost never align.