The Thing Inside Your Head

That's your startup capital to life.

The most important asset you will ever have in your life is the thing inside your head.

— Abiola Okun

I have just been reminded, again, about the power that lies inside us, as humans. Too bad, many of us forget. Heck, even I forget sometimes, but thanks to the one constant thing in my life that happens to bring the fact about this power to my remembrance very often; the books that I read.

In the past week, I have questioned why we forget what should be the most important thing of all. This is the one factor that is constantly working, nonstop, whether acknowledged or not, whether consciously put to use or not, to shape the course of our lives. And I think I found the reason why.

This newsletter will be in three parts; I will reintroduce you to the thing inside your head that has the power to transform your life — no, that works every minute of every second to transform (or deform) your life, with or without your permission. Then I will explain why we constantly forget the power that it holds, and finally, what we must, henceforth, do about it.

The Thing Inside Your Head.

Have you heard the bleakly popular saying that everything that exists today exists twice, and you are seeing the second existence of that thing? No matter what it is, just pause and reflect on it; the phone in your hand, the laptop on your desk, the chair you're sitting on, the table right in front of you, the books in your bookshelf, the building you're in, the clothes you are putting on, the car you drove to work this morning, the bridge you drove through, the plane that flew over your car as you drove through that bridge, even you, yes, you who is the independent entity of choice. You were made twice.

Everything is made twice. First as a thought, then as a physical equivalent. There is nothing in the physical world today that didn't first exist as a thought. That's the thing inside your head. It has different names: idea, concept, notion, nudge, impression, sense, etc., and when it gets intense enough, it becomes meditation, mutter, ponder, obsession, fixation, rumination, etc., and that's why I have decided to simply stick with 'The Thing Inside Your Head.'

You see, there's the question of whether it is your reality that shapes the thing inside your head, or it is the thing inside your head that shapes your thoughts. I had the conversation a few days ago with a colleague, and she argued that it's a case of 'the chicken and the egg, which came first,' but I disagree. It is not a "Chicken and Egg" scenario. You don't think what you become. You become what you think. The birthplace of everything is The Thing Inside Your Head.

Thoughts create everything, and reading through Think and Grow Rich again, it became even more pronounced how human beings all around us have turned ordinary thoughts into billions and billions of dollars. Just a random thought that must have been dismissed by hundreds of people would go on to make another person into a stupendously rich individual.

The only reason why animals aren't wealthy is because they do not have the same thing in their head has we have as humans, but unfortunately, we misuse, disregard, and move through life hardly ever recognizing that our startup capital to a wealthy life is not our second kidney like we always joke around, but it is the thing inside our head.

There's a saying made popular by the book, The Alchemist, that 'What you think about, what you want with all your heart, the universe conspires to get it for you.' I know you don't believe in the universe. Perhaps you believe in God, well, I have something similar from the Holy Book (across multiple holy books, in varying forms), 'As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.' And maybe you don't believe in God either, and you're a logical human who only believes in your actions, cause and effect, etc., well, get this, what you think about, continuously, is what you do something about. Your muscles, veins, and body all react to the things you become conscious of and obsessed with.

You know the not-so-surprising thing, though? None of the things you've read so far is new to you, right? But somehow, you haven't really leveraged this start-up capital like you know you should have. You haven't brought as many thoughts as you know you should have to life. You always think about a lot of different things, but you haven't applied the kind of laser focus, deliberate effort needed to turn thoughts into their physical equivalent. Why?

The Misconception of The Thing Inside Your Head

I will tell you why. It's because you have been taught, albeit unconsciously, to disregard the thing inside your head. You have been labelled an overthinker or a worrier, and that has somehow made you devalue your thoughts, not taking them seriously enough to even care enough to intentionally direct them.

Allow me to change your mind by saying this once: the most important asset you will ever have in your life is the thing inside your head. That's why I always emphasise learning, reading, and travelling, because that's how you can intentionally feed your greatest asset with quality.

It's not a bad thing to use your most valuable asset to think through things, to ponder, to meditate. What makes it terrible is when it is misdirected. We have the ability to pick one thought and think on it so much that all the muscles in our body function in line with it, and then situations begin to fall in line, your legs begin to lead you in the direction of that thought. This happens! Now you must use it diligently.

What To Do With the Thing Inside Your Head

Lead it. Direct it. Control it. Deliberately start thinking about the things you want to see, and what you want your life to become, and you will naturally gravitate towards that thing.

This is the very essence of what Murphy's Law is about: what you fear the most eventually happens. It is not the fear that makes it happen; it is the meditation on it, the fixation of your mind on it, that gravitates you in that direction. So, the same is true for what you love and desire the most. It will eventually happen.

Listen, it's not the thoughts that magically transform into physical mutations, no. What happens is that, the thing inside your head jerks you up and aligns every other function of your body towards that goal you have held inside of it, and then you begin to talk like it, take actions that drive you closer to it, pull people that will believe in you to perform it, attract investments that will help you build it, consciously and unconsciously, and before long, it becomes a reality.

This is the power that the thing inside your head wields. It is now up to you to lead it, direct it, manipulate it, and control it into your desired destination.

If you don't take anything else from this newsletter, take this: pay attention to your thoughts. Direct it to think about what you want from your life, constantly. Visualize and create pictures in your heart. Then meditate on it, constantly. Your life goes in the direction of the things you meditate on, think about, and continuously ponder. If you constantly think about messy things, your life will gravitate into messiness. If you constantly think about success, the same will happen.

Enough said; Control the thing in your head, and lead it in the direction you want to go. The future belongs to those who saw it before it arrived.

Control the thing inside your head

To Your Growth,

Your Coach,

Abiola Okunsanya,

Handzinspired. ✨