Dale Carnegie’s Most Important Lesson: Improve Your Thoughts, Improve Your Life
Your Thoughts Determine Who You Are
A radio program once asked Dale Carnegie to describe the most important lesson he’s ever learned in three sentences. His response: “The biggest lesson I have ever learned is the stupendous importance of what we think. If I knew what you think, I would know what you are, for your thoughts make you what you are. By changing our thoughts, we can change our lives.”
Echoing Emerson’s advice that, “You become what you think about all day long,” Carnegie’s lesson is a reminder that our thoughts dictate our choices, our choices dictate our actions, and our actions determine who we are in the world. All of this starts with our thoughts. And every one of us has the power to decide what we think.
For a long time, I didn’t do this. Instead of controlling my thoughts, I let them control me. The result wasn’t ideal. I became angry too easily. I was distracted constantly. And eventually I realized that the biggest obstacles in my life were all of my own making.
I wish I could point to some epiphany where I realized the need to change. Yet life is rarely laid out like a movie. There’s rarely some big defining moment when the clouds part, we see the light, and make a miraculous turnaround. More often, it’s just a…
