Watch it – Your thoughts I mean

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
— Unknown

I am not sure when I first chanced upon this quote. Probably in middle school. It lay there at the back of my mind for the longest time. It was one of those things that I would have usually brushed aside as a play of words rather than actually attributing any meaning to what it says. I had this in a red colored poster in my first apartment. It stayed through my various moves and I eventually lost it moving to my now home.

Why am I ruminating on this today? Well! the past Friday saw me unusually grumpy. I was irritable, frustrated and generally the grumpiness spilled over from my professional side to the personal side. As I waited for sleep to descend on me that night, I thought about why I was feeling unhappy. I revisited the past few months in my mind and before I knew it I could see the fog lifting. I was a better person the next day. Starry talks about the attitude of gratitude in one of her recent posts and I have seen it work for me.

Over the weekend and this week, I realized something new. Blogging which I always thought of as a hobby, something that I do because I love to see my thoughts as words actually is changing my personality. Often when I click the ‘Get Random Post’ link on the side of this blog, I cringe at the number of feel good sappy posts I have written. One of the reasons I wanted to stop writing is because I felt I had reached a saturation point. I had nothing new to say. (That’s assuming of course someone is out there waiting for me to say something! :P)

Somewhere over the past 4-5 years, all those posts where I talked about being grateful for what I have, being happy with the cards I’ve been dealt actually became part of my psyche. The repeated emphasis on doing something about things that bother me instead of whining about it actually changed me for the better. It is amazing to look back on my personal journey. From someone who loved a good whine fest to someone who can put it behind her in a matter of hours.

So, it is true, our thoughts do define us. At least eventually!

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