#46 The Mind is a Fertile Garden

“The mind is a fertile garden – it will grow anything you wish to plant – beautiful flowers or weeds. And it is with successful, healthy thoughts or negative ones that will, like weeds, strangle and crowd the others. Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind, for they are the weeds that strangle confidence.” Bruce Lee had a really strong practice of planting seeds of beautiful flowers in the fertile mind. Often we have people come into the office to look through Bruce’s journals and they wonder where his writings on his doubts and struggles are, and Shannon tells them that these don’t exist. Bruce had a regimented practice of keeping his mind on the things that he wanted instead of the things he didn’t. Bruce would turn anything that did not feel like success into a learning moment, converting it into something that would lead towards success. He would keep focused on the things that he wanted saying: “You will never get anymore out of life that you expect.” Optimism takes effort, it is a practice, especially in the face of difficulties. “If you think a thing is impossible, you’ll make it impossible. Pessimism blunts the tools you need to succeed.” If you’re constantly worrying about all the possible bad scenarios, it takes you out of the moment. These “what if” scenarios might never happen, but they can distract and worry us. “Suffering is mostly self-manufactured.” “Suffering itself does less to afflict the senses than the anticipation of suffering.“ The mind is neutral but it will grow anything you plant, including negative or positive thoughts. “One who is possessed by worry not only lacks the poise to solve his own problems, but by his nervousness and irritability creates additional problems for himself and those around him.” Every time we retell our problem stories to others, we are putting that negativity on that person too. “Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.” “Every man is what he is because of the dominating thoughts which he permits to occupy his mind.” Take Action: Become aware of your negative thoughts. Know what they are, think about any place in your life where you are struggling. Take anything you are having negative thoughts about and make a list on a piece of paper. Then on the other side of the paper take the time to write the negative thoughts as positive ones. Example: Change “I don’t have enough money” to “I am in the process of finding a way to make more money.” You can return to this list to affirm what you want. #AAHA This week our #AAHA shout-out goes to Chinese American Steven Ho, martial artist, stunt coordinator, stuntman, director, writer, co-founder of interior design firm, and member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He has followed his passions with a positive attitude, and he came to prominence in martial arts as one of the first martial arts tricksters in open martial art competitions. He is well regarded for his stunt work as Donatello in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He and his wife founded Plush home, a successful interior and furniture design firm. Steven, we admire your positive, Bruce-like energy, and we want to say you’re awesome! #BruceLeeMoment This week we our moment is from listener Anthony S.: “I've recently graduated college at the untraditional age of 28 and sometimes it's difficult to stay motivated, often feeling like "my time is running out" I have many ambitions and I only seem to get to the "dream phase" of what my life could be. These messages you share give me hope in a way to say to myself "it's never too late," and I am grateful for that…I firmly believe if I engrain or instill your father's message over and over my subconscious will take over and I will follow my own path to happiness and peace of mind.” Share your #AAHAs, #BruceLeeMoments, and #TakeAction progress with us at hello@brucelee.com Find the full version of our show notes at BruceLee.com/podcast