The Key of GOOD THINKING
Many years ago, I saw a Toyota advert on TV. In that advert, there was a slogan from 1953. It reads “Hǎo sīxiǎng, hǎo chǎnpǐn,” and it’s translated “Good Thinking, Good Product”. From that moment, I developed this mentality that “if anything good must come out of you, you must be given to good thinking.” Good thinking births good products.
In the world of manufacturing for example, there are different kinds of products. Some products are more outstanding than others. However, every outstanding product is a result of good thinking, -by the manufacturer(s).
Similarly, if you must become successful in whatever you do, you must be given to “good thinking”. The depth of your thoughts determines the height of your success. Show me a great thinker and I will show you a man bound to have an accomplished life.
Many people all over the world are frustrated with their lives but only few of them are actively involved in productive thinking. And even those that dare to engage in some form of thinking often think about negative things; -like how things will never work out or about the current situations and crisis they are faced with.
A great man once said that he has in his house a “thinking room”. In that room, he has “thinking papers” and a “thinking pen”. Whenever he goes there, he just meditates and notes down in his thoughts and ideas on paper. Those ideas soon turn out to become action plans that eventually create success stories.
SCRIPTURAL PERSPECTIVE
One of the most famous kings of all time was the king called David. One day, he examined the whole universe and had this to say about God.
“O Lord, how great are thy works and thy thoughts are VERY DEEP” 1
Here, David was in awe of God’s wonderful creation of the heavens and the earth and everything within it -including man. Then he concluded “...and thy thoughts are very deep.” Simply put; God was able to invent everything He did because He was given to deep thinking. Incredible, isn’t it?
David makes us to understand that everything we see in the universe; the sun, the stars, the planets, the moon, the earth… they are all wonderful. But more wonderful are the thoughts that caused all of them to be manufactured in the first place.
Many people will just not sit and think. So they run around in circles and get stuck in frustration. You need to control your mind and be focused on the things you want to achieve.
If you are not making progress in your life, then it’s time to sit down and analyze why. Strategize how to move from where you are to where you should be. The deeper you think the higher you go. The less you think, the less you grow. It’s a law.2
In the Scripture, the Almighty said; “come now and let us reason together”3 He’s calling on us His children to start engaging constantly in productive thinking. He calls it reasoning. Reasoning simply means thinking about something in a logical way in order to come up with a solution. God therefore, is asking us to start thinking logically and making analysis about our lives; the steps we have taken so far and the steps we must take to move toward our desired goals. He wants you to refine your approach in order to come up with more productive ways of succeeding.
THINKERS NEVER LACK IDEAS
A popular writer once titled his book “Ideas Rule the World”. I’ll add to that by saying it was a collection of ideas that created the world in the first place. It happened right in the beginning. God created the whole world out of nothing by speaking His thoughts into reality. So reading through the first pages of scriptures, you will come across these words; and God said, let there be light, and God did this and that… and so on.
Now after God created the World, there was a problem. There was still chaos and disorder on the earth. Then God (the Father) needed a manager to put things right. He called the other two in the God-head (the Son and the Holy Spirit) and he said “I have an idea…. Let us make man”4 What an idea that turned out to be. See what man has done on the earth since creation. Imagine a world with no roads, no cars, no planes, no streets, and no nothing. God needed man to do all that but it only took a great idea to even think of it.
You know what; mediocrity can be turned around into resounding success just by getting ideas and working with them. Recently, I have seen how ideas born in a garage have turned out into multi-million dollar ventures and companies. But only those given to good thinking can be inspired with reat ideas.
Many years ago, it was really difficult travelling around the world, especially over the seas. Those that eventually moved across continents spent so many days and even months on the oceans.
Then two brothers came up with an idea. They probably thought; if we can create a machine that could fly over the seas; people would cross continents in record time. They thought so deep and their productive thoughts gave birth to the airplane technology we all enjoy today.
When you are confronted with stagnation, sit down and think deeply. There were four lepers at the gate of Samaria. People were dying of hunger and more people were going to die. Then these four guys said among themselves; “we mustn’t sit here until we die.”5 An idea was born in the process and champions emerged out of them.
One day, a group of people brought a prostitute to Jesus (in order to test him). “What should we do to her?”6 They asked. Then Jesus stooped down to think deeply; to reason with God. When he got up, all of them ran away. The truth is; deep thinkers are always threats to challenges. When a deep thinker faces a challenge, he steps on it so easily.
There are so many graduates in Nigeria today who are struggling so badly. However, very few of them are given to deep thinking. When you keep waiting for a job you may never get one. All you need do is to sit down and think about what to do to create a financial future for yourself.
Opportunities are everywhere. You just need to recognize them and think deeply; -about what to do with them. Abraham Lincoln said “we can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” If you must change your level, you must see things differently.
A wise king called Solomon once said “as a he thinks in his heart, so is he.”7 You are a product of the type or nature of your thinking. Your ultimate destiny is shaped by the depth of your thoughts. Friend, it’s time to wake up. Stop running up and down. Settle down and draw the course of your future. It is good thinking that yields good products. Permit me to repeat that slogan from the Toyota advert - “Good Thinking, Good Product”.
SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES
1. Psalms 92:5
2. Romans 11:33
3. Isaiah 1:18
4. Genesis 1:26 5.
5. 2 Kings 7:3-13
6. John 8:5
7. Proverbs 23:7