The Programming of Your Mind

Ray A. Seilhamer
Bishop, 1993-2001

September 1996

Some things in life are beyond our control. All we can do is accept, adapt, and cope. Things like physical handicaps. A troubled family background. Learning disabilities. Bad eyesight. A propensity to gain weight easily.

But many other things in life can be changed, controlled, and overcome. One of them is your attitude.

An attitude is an outlook on life or a particular situation, a way of thinking and reacting. And attitudes express themselves in behavior.
Your mental attitude can cause you to persist when the odds are against you…or to give up.

• It can make you tense…or put you at ease.
• It can draw people to you…or drive them away.
• It can make you a success…or a failure.
• It can heal you…or hurt you.
• It can help you see the best in people…or only the negative.
• It can make you a cheerful giver…or a scrooge.

It can make you a complainer…or help you see the bright side of every situation.
You can choose how you think. And that’s crucial, because to a large extent, you are what you think. You act from the hidden seeds of thoughts; your actions are just the blossoms of those seeds. As the saying goes, "Sow a thought and reap a character." Therefore, you must carefully guard your thought life.

Can you imagine what took place among coaches and athletes at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta? Coaches were instilling into the minds of their athletes that if they performed to their potential, they could win. It didn’t matter that an opponent was a world record holder or came from a country with greater training resources. They still psyched themselves up, convincing themselves, "I can do it. I can win." And we saw upsets. Even the Dream Team got a scare or two from teams from small countries which refused to be intimidated. Attitude makes the difference.

Your mind is like a computer. And you are the programmer. You determine what it can and can’t do. Garbage in, garbage out. But if you program your mind with positive, healthy thoughts, your behavior will reflect that programming.
I’d like to suggest a few "programs" to load into your mind, programs that will make a difference in your life.

1. Program your mind to accept what you can’t change.

Don’t run from things you can’t change or deny that those limitations exist. Stand up and face them. Acceptance means you stop fighting the inevitable. Don’t worry about things outside your power to change. When you accept what you can’t change, you can stop a lot of hurt.

2. Program your mind to practice the principle of replacement.

Organ transplants have become common medical procedures. When a person’s heart, kidney, or liver goes bad, they don’t simply remove the bad organ. Rather, they replace it with a good, functioning organ.

You not only need to get rid of harmful thoughts and attitudes. You also need to replace them with healthy thoughts and attitudes. Replace anger with love. Fear with faith. Despair with hope. Greed with generosity. Sorrow with joy. Complaining with gratitude. Worry with trust.

3. Program your mind to see the positive in others.

Some people take an aura of negativism wherever they go. They infect the atmosphere like a farmer emptying his manure pit on a windy day. Nobody likes being around them. Every time you talk negatively about another person, you pollute the air with your critical spirit.
A positive attitude will win you friends and influence people. When you change your attitude toward other people, other people will change their attitude toward you. Getting people to like you is merely the other side of liking them.

4. Program your mind to express appreciation and affirmation to others.

Look for creative ways to express appreciation and affirmation. Try to catch someone doing something right, and mention it to them. People will love you for it. Don’t you like being with people who freely dish out compliments to you?

In short, program your mind with what is positive. I don’t like being around negative people, and I hope you don’t either. Negative attitudes squelch enthusiasm, damage relationships, and can kill forward momentum in a church. It’s so much more fun to be around positive, enthusiastic people.

It really is possible to put the best construction on anything that happens to you. Do that, and see what a difference it makes in how you view life, and on how other people view and treat you.