I had a Captain Kirk moment on my hike this week:

“Must. Keep. Going.”

This uttered as sweat poured from every place it possibly could. Ahh, Baltimore in August.

I had to choose my thoughts carefully to make myself not take the shortcut half-way through my usual route. And let me tell you, I had plenty to choose from:

“This sucks. Living up to my 52-week hiking challenge isn’t worth this.”

“No one would blame me for cutting this hike in half in this heat.”

“How bad would it be to hike naked?”

“Why did God have to create gnats?”

But at the end of the day, because this was my 4^th-to-last hike, and I didn’t want to have to squeeze in another makeup hike before the deadline, and I consider taking the short-cut cheating, I really wanted to complete the whole loop on this try. Which none of the thoughts I listed were really helping me do.

Time to come up with another thought.

For those of you playing along, you may remember that I introduced the concept of the chain reaction that is:

Your THOUGHTS lead to your FEELINGS lead to your ACTIONS lead to your OUTCOME…and this applies to every situation you come up against. Last week I talked about how a certain situation or circumstance doesn’t make you feel a certain way…your thought about that situation or circumstance does. There is always a thought that triggers the feeling.

Why did I give you homework last week to pay attention to your thoughts and start noticing them? Why do I keep harping on this whole “thought” thing?

Because in your thoughts is the power to change your life to be anything you want it to be.

Boom. (Yeah. I typed that.)

I’m gonna use my weight again as an example (it just comes in so handy for illustration purposes!):

I weigh more than I’d like to. There are certain cute outfits from White House Black Market that I would like to fit back into. Oh, and also, I’d like to be healthy.

So there it is. The number on the scale that greets me every morning.

TRUTH: My thought about that number ultimately drives that number.

Let’s say that this morning, the number on the scale was higher than I was expecting it to be given my level of exercise and my eating habits over the weekend.

Some habitual thought reactions of mine include: “Why even try if nothing I do works?“ Or “I’m a loser with no self-control.” Or my personal favorite: “I’m too old now…I’ll never be able to lose weight.”

Remember our chain reaction? Let’s see how it plays out when I think any of the above thoughts:

• I FEEL crappy. Depressed. Discouraged. Sad.
• I ACT in a way to alleviate those feelings…which in my playbook means indulging in a pound or two of Grandma Utz’s Handcooked Potato Chips.
• Hmmm…can you guess what the OUTCOME is when I do that? Bueller? Bueller?

The number will most likely go up on the scale again tomorrow, launching the opportunity for a whole new batch of negative thoughts that will send me scurrying to ShopRite for more of those darn chips.

But what if I choose something different to think about that number…even if it goes up? Like: “I am willing to give it more time and continue making healthy choices.” Or “It’s so great to NOT feel guilty about what I ate this weekend, no matter what the scale says.” Or best of all, “Time to get a new scale!”

Okay, I’m kidding about that last one, but here’s the new chain reaction:

• I FEEL encouraged, proud, motivated and determined.
• I ACT in a way to perpetuate those feelings…I stick with it: good food choices and exercise for my body
• The OUTCOME? I can tell you from experience, eventually the number on the scale begins to creep in the direction I want it to go. Which leads me right back to some positive, good-feeling thoughts.

Our negative thoughts end up perpetuating themselves. Our positive thoughts end up perpetuating themselves.

Wouldn’t you rather be caught in a positive cycle?

This works with anything you are struggling with in life…you can either stay where you are (which is fine if it’s a good place, but hey, if things suck, wouldn’t it be nice to feel better?) or you can take a look at your thoughts and how you might change them to start the cycle going in a better direction.

That’s where the work is. With ANY problem. The challenge is turning that gigantic cruise ship of a brain you have in even a slightly different direction. Hell, a couple of degrees different in the Titanic’s course and…well, you know.

I’m leaving you there for now. This week, I want you to try to think of a time in your life where your attitude made all the difference in how a tough situation ended up. How did the chain reaction play out for you in that instance?

Share your chain reaction in the Comments section below!

Oh, and by the way…I did come up with a better thought on my hike: “I know I can push through because I’ve done hard things before…and I know I’ll feel AWESOME when I finish!”

Which I did. 😉