If you think you are financially unstable…, if you think you don’t have your own house…, if you think you are stuck in a bottomless pit of problems…, if you think you are not happy with what life has offered so far…, well, think again, you are just one thought away from creating the shift you want.

There was a man who worked as a project manager in a multinational company. After being raked over the coals in the office, he would take home a bag full of cribs, work pressure, and discontentment. To him, life was like a box of ceaseless troubles. On one such evening, as he came home, he threw himself on the couch with a bunch of wrathful thoughts snaking in his mind. As he sat on the couch like a log of wood, his son came to him and asked, “Dad, could you help me in writing on a topic that our teacher has given for homework?”

This man, who was already filled with distress to the brim, yelled at his son, “Am I here to spoon-feed you, can’t you complete your homework by yourself?”

After sometime when his anger subsided, he felt mortified. So, he marched to his son’s room to ask for forgiveness.

However, as he entered the room, he noticed his son had already slept with his head resting on the study table. The man carefully slid out the notebook that cushioned his son’s head. Out of curiosity, the man peeped at the notebook to know about the essay topic. The title his son had written on the top of the page was ‘Things you hated earlier but now you are thankful for.’

The man sat himself to read what his son had written –

“I am thankful for the final exams which I hated earlier but then I realized these exams are the opportunity to get promoted to the next class and learn even more new things.
I am thankful for the bitter medicines that I had to swallow when I fell ill last month but it is those medicines that helped me recover and do all the things I missed.
I am thankful for the alarm clock that I earlier found annoying. But it is the same alarm clock which makes us realize that we are alive to live a productive day.
I am thankful to God for blessing me with such wonderful parents.
Though I feel bad when my father sometimes scolds me. But after a couple of minutes, he apologizes to me, takes me out, and buys my favorite foods.
My best friend does not have a father and I know how much he misses his father.”

The lines that the man just read shook him from head to toe. This was rather a wake-up call for him. He realized that there are problems in his son’s life too, however, his son had a completely different way of handling those. But unlike his son, he was unconsciously going with the wind every single day. He never took a pause to survey his thoughts and also the damaging effects.

Now, as this man was awakened to a sudden drift in his thoughts, he uttered to himself,

“Thank you so much Almighty for everything I have today.
I have a house to shelter my family; there are numerous people who survive on roadsides.
I have a family to share my happy and sad moments; there are many people who do not have this privilege. Today, I have a job to feed my family; there are several people who are not able to even able to afford the basic necessities for their family because they do not have a job.
So what if I have to go through some work pressure, at least I have a job.
Thank you God that I am still alive; there are many people who did not wake up this morning.”

These words marked the beginning of a new life for this man. He had now realized that he was just one thought away from living a miserable life to living a blissful life.

After being rejected for 300+ times, one day, Walt Disney was slurping the cup of tea in the basement of his house. Now, anyone, after 300 rejections, would feel broke, so did Walt Disney. He would take the sip, place the cup on the table, and would recline back on his chair while being immersed in thoughts. Suddenly, something caught his attention; he noticed a mouse hiking through the leg of the table. The mouse crept to the top of the table, wriggled to the edge of the cup, guzzled the tea, and descended to its hideout.

This piqued the curiosity of Walt, who motionlessly waited for the mouse to return. After a couple of seconds, he again noticed the mouse making an appearance, taking a sip, and sprint back. This continued to happen for a couple of more times as Walt Disney curiously kept looking on as the scene unfolded in front of his eyes. He thought that if a little mouse had engrossed and entertained him for the last 15 minutes, it can captivate the world as well. And that was the genesis of Mickey Mouse that we watched our entire childhood and now our kids do too! So, unless you do not change your thought, you cannot change your world and it takes just one thought as it did for Walt Disney.

Instead of crying over the spilled milk of failures in life, shift your thought towards what you want, towards what you want to be. It is estimated that our mind is a helipad to more than 60,000 thoughts a day. All we need to do is become conscious of our thought patterns and add just one more thought to this battalion of thoughts – “Why am I always living joyfully and abundantly?” This one interrogative thought will reprogram the RAM of your mind to help you find the answers to experience life fully. You will not find yourself strung to your past failures, rejections, or mistakes. This will empower you to forgive whom you cannot forget and accept whom you cannot forgive.

In fact, our mind is like a superhighway that can accelerate us towards our dream life. Most people, fearing the jam, prefer taking the pedestrian route, hence their goal in life remains out of sight. And therefore, this is the route that is frequented by the masses as it reads, ‘Herd mentality route.’ Whereas, there are some who rather prefer taking the road where they learn the traffic patterns through the eyes of an observer. Not only this, but they also keep upgrading their vehicle and switch to the fast lane that leads them to their goal. This is the route that reads, ‘Accomplishers this way please.’

So, what is the route that you are on? What’s the next thought that you are going to hatch in your mind? You are just one thought away!