“Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.” Vince Lombardi was on to something when he said this. Lombardi took over as head coach of the Green Bay Packers after a 1-10 season. In and incredible turn around, Lombardi took the Packers to 7-5 in his first year as head coach. The rest is history as he led the Green Bay Packers to the first two Super Bowl victories in NFL history, etching his name is forever on the Super Bowl trophy.
There is a direct correlation between our thoughts and outcomes in life. In the 1903 classic As A Man Thinketh, author James Allen illustrates the power of ones thoughts. “A man cannot directly chose his circumstances, but he can chose his thoughts, so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.”
In my two-year journey to Ghana, Africa I came across many who didn’t have the resources, education, and tangible goods many Americans take for granted. However, they are far more happy and content. Why? Happiness is a choice. “Blessedness, not material possessions, is the measure of right thought; wretchedness, not lack of material possessions, is the measure of wrong thought. A man may be cursed and rich; he may be blessed and poor.”
Very simply, we can’t choose our circumstances but we can choose how we view them, which indirectly shape our circumstances.
In Viktor Frankl’s best selling book, Man’s Search for Meaning, he details his experience in Nazi death camps and shares that in the darkest moments of life we still choose our state of thought.
“The experiences of camp life show that man does have a choice of action. There was enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress.
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms-to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstance, to choose one’s own way.
“Even though conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the results of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone. Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him-mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp.”
David O. McKay said, “next to the bestowal of life itself, the right to direct that life is God’s greatest gift to man” Within the confines of whatever circumstances we find ourselves, we will always have the right to choose. The circumstances we find ourselves in don’t make us who we are, it’s how we respond and act to situations the build our character.
My Rating – 5/5
Should you read – Absolutely. It’s a quick read, easy to finish in one sitting. You could pull out a lot of quotes. Though it was written over 100 years it still has a direct application to today.