This is another book I read because it had such a huge impact on John Maxwell’s life. It was only a few bucks on Amazon and the insights I got it were incredible. The entire book is about the power of your thought life, how your thoughts form who you are and who you’ll become. I really enjoyed this book and I know I’ll be coming back to it often. I read it in one sitting so it’s a pretty easy read as well. I’d definitely recommend it.

Final Grade: 9.5/10 Buy it hereHere are some key takeaways:

• A man is literally -what he thinks, -his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.

• every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought

• Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err

• His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and actions.

• Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.

• It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that one suffers because of one’s virtue; but not until a man has extirpated every sickly, bitter, and impure thought from his mind, and washed every sinful stain from his soul, can he be in a position to know and declare that his sufferings are the result of his good, and not of his bad qualities;

• Suffering is -always- the effect of wrong thought in some direction.

• Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance.

• A man cannot -directly- choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.

• The people who live in fear of disease are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole body, and lays it open to the, entrance of disease; while impure thoughts, even if not physically indulged, will soon shatter the nervous system.

• Change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts. When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure food.

• UNTIL thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment.

• He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure.

• ALL that a THE dreamers are the saviors of the world.

• Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts; you will receive that which you earn; no more, no less.

Over the holiday break I read this book by Donald Miller. Then I read his new year post and was inspired. Donald talks about the stories we write with our lives. He said this in his book:

“The ambitions we have will become the stories we live. If you want to know what a person’s story is about, just ask them what they want. If we don’t want anything, we are living boring stories.” -Don Miller

I’ve come to recognize that most people who are doing things with their lives that others envy, do them on purpose. They write their own stories. They set a goal, go after it, and have a story to tell after they accomplish it.

My question to you is, what stories do you want to tell at the end of 2010?

Maybe you want to:

• Run a marathon
• Travel somewhere that you’ve never been
• Take up biking
• Read 25 books
• Serve people less fortunate than you on a consistent basis
• Mentor people younger than you
• Get mentored by a great leader
• Go to the Superbowl

I don’t know what your desires and ambitions are. What I do know is that the only way you’ll write a stories worth talking about, is by writing them on purpose.

Take a day with your calendar and a journal and write out what you’d love to do this year (even if it seems outrageous) and make a plan to do it. Be specific – set a date, and go after it.

What stories do you want to write?