Untitled

I have spent hours and hours talking to prisoners about controlling their thinking. I have also spent countless hours trying to teach people about the stock market and the importance of doing everything you can in here so when you leave you will be ready to start a new life. I have also stressed how important it is to be careful what you read, what you listen to and the conversations you have with other people. While many people really never think about this in here, I can honestly tell you these three things will make or break you.

People in here should look at themselves as a newborn baby and realize what you put in your mind will have a huge impact on how this baby turns out. If a child is constantly told all their lives that they’ll never amount to anything or that they are stupid, there is a great chance that they will grow up believing that. While on the other hand, if a child is always being told how smart they are, that they will are going to grow up and do great things, there is a great chance of that happening. Whatever you put in your brain there is a good chance that’s what is going to come out. This isn’t just my outlook, this is a proven fact, it’s something I’ve done with my own children and I am here to tell everyone it works. It’s as easy as being able to see the difference between someone who works out all the time and someone who doesn’t. This is why it’s the utmost of importance to be careful what you are allowing inside your mind.

Are the conversations you have helping you to become a better person? Are the books you’re reading inspiring you to do good or bad? Are they helping you along this path of life? Are you maturing and becoming a better man or woman? Is what you’re reading just entertaining you? When I have talked to people in here about this, some of them do understand, I’ve really had some good conversations with some fellow prisoners on this subject, but even the ones that get it, who realize that what I’m saying is true, won’t stop reading books that have no real meaning to life or I’ll see them hanging out with idiots in here talking about stuff that have no benefit to them.

While I see nothing wrong with reading a book for entertainment or watching something on TV, all I am trying to say is this is a very important time of our lives we have in here. We have the opportunity to grow mentally, physically and spiritually way beyond what we could ever even imagine. Prisoners have a very unique opportunity to work on themselves all day, every day for years. If everyone were to take advantage of these years, can you imagine what you could accomplish? Most of us know what we should and need to do, but that knowledge gets buried beneath the messages of the world and the opinions of others around us. Especially in prison because a lot of people in here view life very differently than most do on the street. Plus, a lot of people in here want to be and feel accepted by others around them. If the people in here were to look at this time as the beginning of the end, the end being the life we used to live, the new beginning is the life where anything is possible, we must begin the dream of this new life now. Again, we have to use this opportunity to our advantage, if we don’t start now the chances of us making it once we leave is highly unlikely. No matter how good a person’s intentions may be, change is something that takes time. Great achievement is possible for everyone in prison who is willing to put the work in. Like anything in life, what you put in is what you can expect to get out. Look at all of the people from the past who have achieved great things, like Thomas Edison, it took him years before he created the lightbulb. I believe it took him over ten thousand times before he succeeded. Can anyone reading this imagine failing at something thousands of times, and still having the determination to keep working toward your goal? Hell, most people would give up on something after a few times of not getting it right. Everything is a choice; this is life’s greatest and its hardest lesson. It is life’s great truth because it reminds us of our power, not power over others, but the often untapped power to be ourselves and to live a life we have imagined. It is a hard lesson, because it causes us to realize that we have chosen, the life we are living right now. It is perhaps also frustrating for us to think that we have chosen to live our life exactly as it is today, but it is also liberating, because we can now begin to choose what we will find when we look at our life in the tomorrows that lie unlived before us.

What will you see when you look at your life ten years from now? The real question is what will you choose? The absolute truth is, if you are sitting around in here doing nothing positive with your time, you have already made your choice. Remember you have a choice no matter what life throws at you, the power from this day forward, to do what is right or wrong is a choice only you can make. Life is a choice, you have chosen everything that led you here, you have chosen to believe certain ideas, you have chosen the people you call friends, you have chosen the thoughts you think, you have chosen to feel appreciative or ungrateful. Love is a choice, anger is a choice, fear is a choice, courage is a choice. Sometimes we choose a second-rate version of ourselves, everything is a choice that echo throughout our lives.

Most people never fully understand or accept this truth, they spend their lives arguing for their weaknesses, complaining about their place in life, blaming others for their weaknesses and where they are in life. We choose and in doing so, we design our lives. Yes, we design the lives we’ve lived and we will design the lives we continue to live. No matter what happens, we will choose which direction our lives go. No one can choose for you, only you can make that decision. The day we accept that we have chosen to choose our choices, is the day we can cast off the shackles of victimhood and are set free to pursue the lives we were born to live. We must learn to take control of our thoughts, by learning to control our thinking, we can now start to control the choices we are making. Most people make 75% to 90% of their choices on their emotions. Really think about that for a moment, how many times have you said something or done something because you were mad? Now look back at how many times you regretted it. I am sure everyone has experienced this at one point in their lives.

To gain control of your emotions one first must gain control of your thoughts, to do that it takes some effort on each person, that is why I said it’s important to be careful what you read, listen to and the conversations we have. Everything that influences our thinking we must be careful with. Remember what you put in is what you get out. If you are sitting around reading hood books, always talking about selling dope, you are making a choice to come back, but if you are reading books on how to improve your life, if you are having conversations with people that are helping you grow and mature, now your mind will become stronger and you will start gaining control of your thinking. Like I said, it all comes down to choices. We get to make the choice of how our lives turn out, no one gets to choose our lives, each of us have to make that decision. If you chose to sit in here and waste these years, what do you expect to happen in your life? Life is about choices, the choices you make now will have a huge impact on what happens to you when you leave. As I have said before, if you change your thinking, you will change your life.