Smart Quote of the Day February 10, 2025

You only have control over three things in your life — the thoughts you think, the images you visualize, and the actions you take. Jack Canfield

Jack Canfield is an American motivational speaker and author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books. I’m giving him this quote even though many others have claimed a version of it, including (allegedly) Buddha, and I couldn’t trace its original source.

I would add a fourth item to this list–the words we speak. We don’t have control over external forces or other people, we can only control what we think, how we see the world, what we say, and how we behave. This is a truth I tend to harp on.

We choose our thoughts, whether positive or negative. Caught in a negative funk? Find something that makes you feel good and every time you notice those negative thoughts trying to take over, focus on that good thing. It can be your much-loved pet, a sunny day, a rainy evening if that’s your jam, a person you love or one who did something nice for you, a favorite food or show, a good book–the list is endless. It might be a struggle at first, but eventually the positive will crowd out the negative.

We all visualize, whether we’re aware of it or not. Our minds are like movie screens that we project our thoughts and imaginations upon. Making those images positive harkens back to last week’s quote of the week about worry and anxiety. If you are imagining things that make you feel good, you will be a happy, positive person. And the more you are a happy, positive person, the more your life and others will reflect that around you.

How we speak to others, how we speak to ourselves, is directly related to our actions (behavior). Do the right thing. Most of us know when we do wrong, when we hurt another. In the long run, our actions either hurt us or build us into better people.

Life becomes so much simpler when we realize that the only thing we can control is our selves. If you don’t like where your life is, change what you think, how you look at things, and your behavior. Find something positive, no matter how small it is, and build on that. We only have this moment in time, make it the best you can.