Part 2 - A Productive Mind Isn't a Gift

This is the concluding part of the series. Click here if you did not read the first part. Productive thinking isn't the same as worrying. You are worrying when you are anxious and focusing on your problems while productive thinking is engaging your mind to generate ideas on the solutions.

The truth remains that success will be wishful thinking if you don't  apply yourself to work and become productive in your thinking. Nobody achieves a thing by doing nothing but you can become nothing by doing just anything.

E.W Kenyon challenges us to use our mind this way ‘make your brain work, it will sweat but it will improve, it will develop until you become the envy of those around you. The great men that we adore are those who have put time into hard-work and improving on who they are, getting prepared for life until their opportunity came. Continue...

Benjamin Franklin had only two years of formal education and was an apprentice in a printing shop, it was here that he developed a reading habit and grew to become one of America’s foremost philosophers.

The importance of a productive mind can not be over-emphasised.

Aids to productive thinking:

1. Watch the people you associate with.

2. Invest in books that can build you up positively. Most successful people have a story and sometimes it is documented in a book.

3. Be sincere to yourself, understand where you are and be passionate to move to the next level.

4. Observation.

5. Meditation.

6. Concentration. Be focused and committed to your assignment. 1 Tim. 4:16. Peter had a vision and yet thought about it. (Acts 10:19).

7. Don't believe in Luck, but make choices to attain excellence in life.

8. Believe in yourself. Believe that you can do it.

9. Make great use of the night seasons. Utilise the night seasons. Don't use all the night for sleep. Psalm 16:7. Great men don't sleep all the night. Ps.19:2. Take advantage of this season to add value to your life.

Obstacles to productive thinking

1. Sin: Sin corrupts mentality. Every man of integrity naturally enjoys mental exploits. Stop thinking about women, food etc. 24/7 this lands you in lustful thoughts when you have your business to focus on. Be wise. Prov. 4:23.

2. Accepting the status quo. Prov. 4:18 Think more on how to go forward. Do not believe that there is no room at the top or that you are disadvantaged based on your background, colour, gender, and accent. There are more chances of you becoming what you believe.

3. The trap of past failures. Don't allow past experiences and misfortunes limit you from going for your goals. Isa. 43:18-19. Phil 3:19. If you keep looking backward you can't move forward.

4. Pride of past achievements. There is nothing wrong is talking about past achievements, but when you sit there, it has a way of paralysing your future achievements. Micah 2:10.

5. Comparison. 2 Cor. 10:12. Mind your own business. 1 Thess. 4:11. If you enter another man's track in a race, you will be disqualified. Some are not married now because they want a bogus wedding like sister A's. If you have to hire a wedding gown to do yours; what are you waiting for? Just focus on how the 2 of you will live together and make sure you have a stable source of income.

6. Lack of discipline.

7. Laziness. Thinking is work.

8. A life devoid of order and organisation.

Benefits of productive thinking:

1. You generate ideas. You become pregnant with good thoughts. It takes thinking deep to get ideas.

2. You will enjoy promotion. Your pay will go up.

3. Your words will be seasoned. Matt 12:34-35. Sound reasoning influences your language. The value of your words is a function of your depth of thoughts.

4. You operate on God's frequency. It is an exercise that put you on heaven's frequency.

5. You connect with miracles. Thinking provokes the miraculous. Matt 9:21. Every rich man thinks. Poor people sleep too much.

Nobody can make you if you are not willing to make yourself. Living without impact is living without a meaning.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined by becoming more productive in your mind. No matter how you feel today, get up, dress up, show up and never give up. Your present actions are the reasons for your present situations. If you refuse to change you will never take charge.