Thought Is Energy

Why every leader has to lead their own mind first

I'm studying the Master Key System again this year with my Master Mind Alliance. Year nine.

You'd think by now I'd have it down. I don't. Every pass unravels another piece of my old blueprint. Another false idea planted before I was old enough to question it. Handed down through generations. Accepted without a second look.

So let me say this up front. Thought is energy. Every leader needs to understand that. Not glibly. Not as a quote on a coffee mug. As a working law you live by.

Do your best, not "the best you can"

John Wooden is the best example of a leader I can think of. He never swore. He never threw a chair. He built a Pyramid of Success, and at its foundation he set two cornerstones: Industriousness and Enthusiasm.

Here's the distinction I took from him. "I did the best I can" is an excuse dressed up as effort. It's already looking for the exit. Doing your best is a decision. You show up. You give all of it.

Industriousness is simply doing the work. The simple work. So why are so many of us afraid of it, or too comfortable to bother? To get healthier. To build a better life, a better relationship, a better business.

It builds from the easy things first. Small habits build your world. Everything is connected.

You were meant to lead

Make no mistake. You were meant to lead. Your life. Your thoughts. Your emotions. Your actions.

So what would happen if you started showing up as your best? Not "well, it's the best I can." Your best. Be your best. Do your best. What would change in your life?

I've noticed how complacent we get. How easily we compromise, especially with our own health. And it stays that way until we make the mental and physical changes that activate and concentrate our power.

Mind is cause

This is where Haanel changed everything for me.

Your subconscious mind holds more power than you've been told. But it doesn't choose what gets in. Your conscious mind does. That's the job.

Observe your thoughts. Stand guard at the door. Lead what you allow into your most powerful asset. You stop following like a sheep the moment you start choosing.

You are not the effect of old thoughts. You can change them. You can choose how you want to feel about them. Mind is cause.

And the subconscious is responsive and creative. Give it a clear impression and it goes to work. That's why imagination is the path to enthusiasm, and it brings us right back to Wooden. Concentrate. Hold a mental picture of what you want to create. Then do the work.

Now look at what most of us feed it instead. Hours of scrolling. Doom on a loop. Images designed to sell fear and sell products. I call it Tell-Lie-Vision for a reason. If you aren't choosing what goes in, someone else is.

Fill your mind with what you want to see in your life.

First things first

Vince Lombardi kept his priorities in order: God, family, then football.

Here's mine. Take care of your relationship with your Maker and your energy. Then your family. Put those first. The rest is your work as a leader.

It's time to lead yourself and build the life you want.

The sentence that explains so much

"Our difficulties are largely due to confused ideas and ignorance of our true interests. The great task is to discover the laws of nature to which we are to adjust ourselves. Clear thinking and moral insight are, therefore, of incalculable value. All processes, even those of thought, rest on solid foundations." · Charles F. Haanel, The Master Key System, Part Two

That first line sums up why so many of us fail. Confused ideas. Ignorance of what actually serves us. We follow because following is what we were trained to do.

If I could only read five books in my life, this would be one. Scratch that. I wouldn't just read it. I'd study it, every year. Which is exactly what I do.

I study it through the Master Key Master Mind Alliance with Mark J and Davene. They brought this book into my life in a way that does more than inform. It gives you a method for upgrading your programming.

Nature is fair

We were programmed to resist good ideas and accept poor ones. Generation after generation. Now we watch our sons and daughters inherit the same false programs, from birth to death.

Look at the world that programming built. Food that isn't really food. A system that profits from keeping people sick. A constant stream of images telling us who to be and what to fear.

But more of us see it now. And nature is fair. Cause and effect is a law, not an opinion. What goes out comes back.

So the answer isn't outrage. It's leadership. Know the natural laws. Live by the truth. Start with you.

I'm in it with you

I'm not writing this from an ivory tower. I'm in it too. I say this humbly and with love.

We can't do it alone. So let's help each other. Let's be our best and mirror that to the world: to our youth, to our elders, to everyone watching how we live.

Only those willing to lead themselves first will make the difference we need.

If you know it's time, start here.

Comment below or message me and tell me where you're starting. I'll personally send you more on how I study the Master Key.

Stephana Oetinger