Practice Makes Perfect

There is something both empowering and unsettling about the idea that the future is created by thought – not metaphorically, but literally. If thoughts become things, then what I repeatedly think, not what I intend, is shaping what comes next.

I understand this conceptually. I’ve taught versions of it for years through the language of habits, mindset, and behavior change. We even see confirmation of it in modern science through the placebo effect, where belief alone produces measurable physical and chemical change.

The body responds to expectation, not evidence. Repeated assumption becomes chemistry. The nervous system doesn’t distinguish between “real” and “imagined” but responds to what is consistently impressed upon it.

And yet, knowing this doesn’t mean I live it cleanly. I can hold a clear vision for my life and still quietly contradict it buried at the subconscious level. I can feel inspired in one moment and immediately follow it with a rehearsed doubt: What if it doesn’t work? What if I miscalculate? What if I lose what I’ve worked so hard to build?

These thoughts don’t arrive loudly. They slip in as realism, as being “responsible.” But this repetition gives them weight. And weight gives them form…..

This is where the work becomes uncomfortable, as it reveals that my private thoughts matter far more than my public intentions. I’ve often said ‘do as I say and not as I do’ sometimes aloud, sometimes only in my head.

There are many thoughts I don’t even notice I repeat, particularly when it comes to the internal commentary that plays when decisions involve long-term commitment or money. That’s never safe, the future is risky, easier to stay focused on the short term.

Its in the subtle ways I brace instead of trust. These aren’t harmless mental habits but are instructions. What do I say to the gal in the glass?

What challenges me most is realizing how familiar these patterns feel. I’ve repeated them long enough that they feel like my personality rather than conditioning. Caution masquerades as wisdom!

Playing small feels like stability! Doubt pretends to be discernment… But if the subconscious accepts repetition as truth, then these patterns aren’t protecting me but are in fact preserving the past. So I relive it. Groundhog day.

There is hope here, real hope, not simply optimism. The same mechanism that built fear can build faith. Repetition works both ways. The placebo effect reminds us that belief doesn’t need proof to function, it needs consistency.

The body believes what it is told repeatedly. The Master Key is in the repetition. Repeated “childish” swipes will eventually bring the oak down.

Correct thinking, then, isn’t about perfection or positive thinking. It’s about persistence. I persist until I win. Returning again and again to thoughts that match the future I say I want, even when fear argues for restraint, which it seems to say less often.

It’s choosing alignment when nothing external has changed yet.

I’m learning that the future doesn’t respond to what I want.
It responds to what I practice believing. So practice I must!
And that makes this work less magical and far more honest.