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As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

James Allen’s literary essay, As a Man Thinketh, may be old, yes, but its lessons on the power of thought are as relevant today as they were in 1903. The book, simply written, has tons of practical tips and strategies you can apply to all of your life’s undertakings. Here are the book’s most actionable takeaways:

1: Mind your thoughts, they determine your results

Whether you want to lose weight, make more money, marry right, or achieve any of your chief aims, according to Allen, you first have to get your thoughts right. In the book, Allen notes that a man’s thoughts are unlike a garden. When the ideas that permeate your mental garden are healthy, your results shall be positive and vice versa.

Allen mentions how our thinking patterns determine our lives and the results we achieve by noting two things. The first is that:

“The outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state...Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.”

The second is:

“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.”

If you want to change any condition in your life, you must start the process by interrogating related thoughts because you attract what you think. Take, for instance, an instance where you desire to change your financial life and accumulate wealth.

You must start this process by determining the core thoughts you have about money and wealth. If these thoughts are negative, acknowledge that your financial state will change only when you change your thoughts. That is the essence of what Allen meant when he said:

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so shall he be… A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and circumstances. A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.”

2: Mind the effects of the principle of cause and effect on your life

According to Allen, you shape your world as much as shapes you; he calls this the law of cause and effect. Of it, he notes:

“Cause-and-effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things.”

The reality of life is that everything you think, say, or do influences your thinking patterns, feelings, and circumstances. Likewise, if left unguarded against, your living conditions can influence your mental state of being because as Allen notes:

“Thought and character are one. As character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state.”

3: Your thoughts determine your health

We can consider James Allen a pioneer because long before the thought-body connection became mainstream, he was talking about it. In the book, he mentions how, even though the health of the human body requires optimal nutrition, it is also a result of proper thinking. To this, he notes:

“The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the mind, whether deliberately chosen or automatically expressed. At the bidding of unlawful thoughts, the body sinks rapidly into disease and decay; at the command of glad and beautiful thoughts, it becomes clothed with youthfulness and beauty.”

It’s paramount, therefore, that you become aware of the thoughts you have towards your physical and mental health. Remember that when you have unhealthy thoughts, they can lead to a sickly body. Allen illustrates this by noting:

“Sickly thoughts will express themselves through a sickly body. Thoughts of fear have been known to kill a man as speedily as a bullet, and they are continually killing thousands of people just as surely though less rapidly…”

Always court strong, healthy, and happy thoughts because, as James Allen notes in As a Man Thinketh, such ideas lead to a body filled with grace and vigor. Allen beautifully illustrates the effect positive thoughts have on your health by stating:

“There is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills of the body; there is no comforter to compare with goodwill for dispersing the shadows of grief and sorrow.”

4: All intelligent accomplishments are a result of upright thinking

Allen dedicates a chapter to detailing the effect of thought on one’s purpose. On this importance, he mentions that all exceptional accomplishments are a result of connecting thoughts with purpose. He state:

“They who have no central purpose in their life fall easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pityings, all of which are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as deliberately planned sins (though by a different route), to failure, unhappiness, and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power evolving universe.”

It’s critical that you, as Allen advises, “conceive a legitimate purpose in your heart and train your thoughts towards the achievement of this purpose.”

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2k3U6VzPeg

I've made over 80 summaries of the best self improvement books, here’s a full playlist of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOImyOGN9UE&list=PLaNTB6oQAa0AYuul0tqUscg1ZLj_arZga

I release a new video every other day, if you’re interested in subscribing here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfbLDMh6uGOZePAfqqjVZ-g?sub_confirmation=1