The answer is that everything you see was once nothing but a thought.

This sentence, what you’re wearing, even you (!)

Everything begins in the mind. The mental creates the physical. The invisible creates the visible.

Reality gets created in this order:

THOUGHT → EMOTION → ACTION → EFFECT

To break things down and get practical, you’re going to need the expanded version I’ve developed, so here you go:

We’ll take it one by one so you know exactly what’s going on in your mind and can fine tune things to forge your path to greatness.

STEP I: INPUT

To kick off the thought sequence, you need input.

This input can either be internal or external to you:

Internal Input

Internal input can either be a thought you have, self-talk, a memory, a physical feeling, or a desire.

You have thousands of thoughts per day, and most of them are the same as yesterday.

If we took the time to list them all out and plot them on a graph, what would we find? Good things or bad things? Would you be proud of what you see? Proud or not, that’s going to be the basis of your reality.

External Input

External input is just like the name implies and is made up of input you gain from your environment. This includes:

Media, an event, or something someone does or says.

You may think you have no control over this, but think again. You can choose what you expose yourself to in order to drive desired results.

See my post over Mental Input Material (MIM).

STEP 2: PERCEPTION

turn your life into gold

In order for that input to make its way to the land of emotion, it’s go to pass through the sea of perception.

Nothing inherently has any value until you accept that power.

Nothing truly even ‘exists’ to you unless you are there to experience it. Life exists because YOU exist (!)

See here: Your Attention Creates Life.

The way you see the world is more important than the world itself, so in a way, the world is nothing more than a mirror showing you who you are based on your values, beliefs, and experiences.

Automatic

Most of your perceptions are going to be automatic.

This comes from a variety of areas, including basic biological responses and conditioned, habitual responses.

A biological response would be feeling fear upon seeing a dangerous creature about to attack.

A conditioned response would be things such as prejudice towards a particular group, jumping to conclusions about a situation without knowing the facts, and the divide between pessimism and optimism. This can come from your upbringing and idea of reality based on your current environment (see MIM again).

The good news is that you can bend and mold your responses to what you encounter, especially those formed by your surroundings.

Perception Fixes

Remember that you are limited by your singular position in understanding what happens all around you.

You only have a sliver of the truth, so always remain open and humble.

Therefore, for every source of input you encounter, use your rational mind to see it from every angle and regardless of what it is, make the choice to use it for your benefit.

I’ve termed this the Midas Mindset.

Just like King Midas, turn everything that touches your life into gold.

STEP 3: EMOTION

Based on how you perceive your input, you’re going to generate an emotional response.

Emotions are the physical response to the input based on your personal perception of it.

• Feelings of euphoria.
• Feelings of fright.
• Feelings of sadness.
• Anger.
• Excitement.
• Worry.

You know the names in the game.

Life would be bland and mundane if there weren’t emotions.

It’s not a matter of getting rid of them, but rather understanding them and managing them appropriately.

Emotions are powerful and multiply the same thoughts that created them, leading to a cycle that then forms habits. Use them wisely.

STEP 4: PERCEPTION

So you’re sitting there behind the wheel and come across an emotion.

You feel it, and depending on the emotion, it can be quite intense.

This will influence you to take action, so you must be aware of what you’re feeling and why before progressing into the next step, action. How you view that emotion is critical.

STEP 5: ACTION AND EFFECT

wherever you are in life is a function of the previous steps of the thought sequence

An emotion will lead to an action and its inevitable effect.

This can either be a subconscious action or an deliberate action that takes place in the external world.

A subconscious action could be that emotion causing your heartbeat to increase creating a stressed state (regardless of whether you “act” on it or not) or triggering more thoughts like that one that whisped you away to imagined scenarios or increase that mood you’re feeling, making you more likely to take a deliberate action:

STEP 6: PERCEPTION AND FEEDBACK

Based on the result your actions generate, you’ve got to perceive them again and add value to the outcome.

This will create a feedback loop and influence either a reinforcement of behavior or a change in behavior.

Here again, you must be aware of the consequences of your actions, understand why things have occurred the way they have, and always seek to use the outcome to your advantage by seeking a higher perspective.

This is key.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE THOUGHT SEQUENCE

Your mind is your fortress. You can renovate and build it from the ground up – if you know the way.

The thought sequence is a powerful weapon in your arsenal.

The thought sequence serves as a mental map that you can use to track down your mental activity and fine tune your results.

• When you are thinking certain thoughts, ask why.
• When you feel a certain way or are stuck in a certain mood, look for the cause it’s coming from. What thought created it? What perception did you have of that thought?
• When you find yourself stuck in habits, look at which thoughts and emotions caused that action to take place that later got reinforced to cement itself as a habit.
• When you find yourself unhappy with your results in life, look back at what led to them. Dig deep, and you’ll find your answers.

With this simple tool, you have the power to redesign your mind and consequently, your entire life.

• Can you change your input/environment? Yeah.
• Can you change your perception of things? Yep.
• Can you change your course of action in response to this all? Of course you can.

So therefore, you can control your reality to get the effects you want out of it.

And only you.

The mind is like a factory. Put good in, have a good team, and you’ll get a solid ROI.

I first introduced the thought sequence in my book, Architect of Aesthetics.