Lead Your Thoughts Towards A Virtue
How do you carry yourself through each day?
You are not a stranger to yourself so don’t look at your life from afar. Look carefully at each of your moments. Consider how you felt in these moments, and the thoughts you used to convince yourself to make your decisions. Looking at this from where you are, do you see your thoughts leading you towards constructive outcomes?
If at times your answer is no, do you think you should consider better thoughts?
Thoughts are delicate and quite powerful. They can be changed in a moment, but they need to be led. They have amazing power over your life and the decisions you make, so it is you that must lead them for yourself. But where could you possibly lead your thoughts? Well, I can say, the most valuable path would be to lead them towards a virtue, like Courage, Integrity, or Honor.
Aligning your thoughts with something greater does lead them towards constructive outcomes
It is quite difficult to lie when you think of Integrity and it hurts to stay afraid when you think of Courage. When you hold these virtues in your moments, they become a guiding light giving you the strength to let go of destructive thoughts and tame the Chaos within. From here, you are much more capable of facing the Chaos outside.
Collect your virtues together and let them be your Philosophy
Let them be your way of life. They will help you protect yourself, they will guide you, and they will be your stronghold against all of life. As you face each moment, their roots deepen in you, leaving you stronger after. You need not win each moment you face, but as long as you can find the value necessary to leave you better after, you will be so.
Let me leave you with the words of Paulo Coelho:
“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
From this, I would like for you to keep these with you:
Align Your Thoughts With Virtues
I cannot guarantee where you may find virtues. You may read of them in books or see them upheld by random people around you, but they do live in your everyday life. You will know they are for you because they will speak to you and you will feel them deeply. Once you find them, accept them to be a part of your life.
Let them be your guide through the unknown
You cannot predict the moments you will face, but you can choose how you will experience them. You have the power to lead your thoughts down a different path, a better path. It definitely won’t feel easy and at times, you may doubt it, but you will know it to be the right path because you will find yourself developing a better perspective, which will lead you towards a constructive outcome.
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius
Look At Virtues In Terms Of Your Life
I would like to believe that each person is the same, but this cannot be so. You may have similarities with others, and this binds you with them. But you also have differences and this binds you with yourself. You are quite unique, experiencing your own life and finding your own way. Your experiences must be used to figure out what these virtues mean to you.
I mean, how can you expect to uphold what you partially understand?
Reading of them in books and seeing them in others gives you a solid theoretical understanding of these virtues. But you must complete your understanding by looking at them in terms of your life. Let your experiences grow and bring meaning to these virtues in your life. From here, wherever you go and whatever you experience, they will be there with you, waiting to guide you through.
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
This Brings Purpose To Each Moment
Life can get quite surprising. You may get so caught up in it that you forget you’re still apart of it. You may forget the fundamentals of life that are at times dissatisfying. The moments you face may not always go your way and you may consider dishonesty to save you from the truth, or avoidance to save you from your fears.
But who said that you should stop here?
These very moments that weigh down on you, that seem like obstacles, are the very moments that must be turned into opportunities. Do not surrender your thoughts to them, lead your thoughts rather towards a constructive perspective of them. Win the seemingly unwinnable battle using your stubborn Will to go on. In the end, when you consider the moment that passed, you will feel proud.
“You were designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness.” — Zig Ziglar
Living is challenging. The people you interact with and the situations you face are not always kind. Sometimes they both can be ruthless. They can leave an impression on you and often, they can be strong enough to break you from within. But if you align yourself with something greater, your thoughts accustom themselves to this and soon the way forward, whatever it is, becomes obvious.
Sure this is tough, but so are you
Choosing to be strong is no easy effort, but once you do, the weak thoughts fade away and you find more room to think better thoughts. Your perspective will soon change and each choice you make from this point on will hold greater value. This entire battle may occur in your head and no other may see it, but when it is over, this will be enough to feel the grips of your being within your grasp.
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Invest In Your Existence, Kind Reader.
