In order to truly understand this bold statement, it helps to be aware of one of life’s most interesting processes:  Action follows Thought.  Anything that you or I do in the world is preceded by a thought.  The room you’re currently sitting in was a thought in an architect’s mind before it became manifested into this world.  The shirt or blouse you’re wearing was a vision or a thought in a designer’s mind before the manufacture produced the clothes.  The food you ate today was planted by someone, nurtured by someone and harvested by someone, and all of these people thought about doing those actions before they did it.

You say, “Yeah, I got all of that, but, you’re trying to tell me my state of being or how I feel about myself, comes from the way I think about myself!”

Yes!  That is exactly what I am saying.  How we “feel” about ourselves is in direct relationship to how we “think” about ourselves.  There is a clear “cause and effect” paradigm going on here.

“But,” you say, “I don’t have a college degree.  I don’t own that house on the beach.   I don’t drive a fancy car.  I don’t have a great body, and I don’t know how to make money in the stock market.  I’m not good enough for him/her!  I come from the other side of the tracks.  These are all facts.  They’re not thoughts.  And, because of these facts, I feel less than.  I feel like I don’t belong.  I feel like a failure.  You’re trying to tell me that if I think I am a good enough, then I’ll be good enough.  I don’t believe you.  Prove it to me!”
Okay.  I accept your challenge.  Notice how you’re feeling right now.  Are you feeling positive and uplifted or are you feeling a little down?  What you’re feeling right now is a direct result of what you have been thinking.  You have been thinking that you’re not good enough because you don’t have what I would call “symbols of success.”  Because you haven’t gathered certain things or a certain amount of money, or a certain type of person, then you believe that you are a failure.  You are attempting to motivate yourself with pain, so you will do something different in your life.  The painful motivational tool you are using is a thought!  You believe that if you hold this thought long enough you will make yourself do something different.  This process of using a painful, negative thought to motivate yourself has diminishing returns.  What I mean by this is that it creates a person who never feels good enough, and there are never enough things out there in the world that can change that.  What makes us feel good enough is our thinking positive things about who we are.  When we think good thoughts about our self, then we feel good about our self.  When we feel good about our self, then we do good things for ourselves and others.  When we do good things for ourselves and others, then we feel good about our self, and etcetera.  What a wonderful and wondrous upward spiral.  My challenge to you is to think good thoughts about yourself, and observe what changes in your life.  Here are a few thoughts to prime the pump:  I am brilliant.  I am wonderful.  I am thoughtful.  I am creative.  I am gifted.