By Editorial Staff
Our thoughts wield incredible power—they shape our emotions, influence our actions, and ultimately define the trajectory of our lives. This reality is echoed in the words of Steven Bartlett, a self-made entrepreneur and one of Europe’s most influential figures, who declared, “Don’t feed your problems with thoughts, starve them with action.” Bartlett’s wisdom, drawn from a life of challenges and triumphs, reminds us that the greatest battles we face often take place within the mind.
But this doesn’t just constitute a motivational mantra; it’s a principle deeply rooted in neuroscience and psychology. The thoughts we nurture can rewire our brains, either propelling us toward greatness or anchoring us in despair. Experts, authors, and thinkers from around the world agree: mastering our mindset does not form just a key to overcoming adversity—it’s a gateway to unlocking our full potential.
This article delves into the profound impact of our thoughts on our lives, exploring lessons from Bartlett, ancient philosophy, modern science, and global thought leaders. It’s a call to action to take control of our mental narratives, rewrite limiting beliefs, and build a life shaped by courage, positivity, and resilience. Let’s embark on a journey to understand the power of thought and how it can transform challenges into stepping stones for success. This article is composed of these sections:
- A bit more on Steven Bartlett
- Other sources on fueling your problems with thoughts
- Unlocking the transformative power of your thoughts— essential lessons for personal growth and resilience
- Call to Action
A bit more on Steven Bartlett
“The lesson will repeat itself until you learn it,” remarked Steven Bartlett, a businessman, while celebrating his 30th birthday in 2022. Steven Cliff Bartlett, as he is fully named, shared this insight with his more than two million Instagram followers as part of what he called “30 fundamental lessons I’ve learned in the last 30 years.” His Instagram community has continued to grow steadily, reaching 3.6 million followers by June 2024.
The statement “Don’t feed your problems with thoughts, starve them with action” figures among those lessons. Bartlett stands as a one of Europe’s most influential entrepreneurs, despite experiencing very bitter life. His current status and the life he has gone through before achieving the status actually enable him to qualify as a person in the right position to express this statement.
In its 6 Jan 2022 article “How Steven Bartlett went from dropout to youngest ever Dragons’ Den investor”, The Guardian reports “It’s been 10 years since Steven Bartlett unsuccessfully applied to be a contestant on Dragons’ Den. Since then a lot has changed. The school dropout, who once stole food from corner shops and foraged for loose change to keep his hunger at bay, went on to start his own company from his bedroom and was a millionaire by age 23.”
The Sun published an article headlined “ZERO TO HERO I shoplifted pizzas and pretended to live elsewhere – now I’m worth over £71m, says Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett” on 2 March 2024. One of our upcoming articles will delve deeper into this remarkable entrepreneur, answering questions about his journey and his intriguing entry into the Dragons’ Den show.
Other sources on fueling your problems with thoughts
Deepstash is a personal development platform that offers bite-sized insights from various sources, aiming to facilitate quick learning and self-improvement. It exactly repeats the same statement, but attempting to enrich it with these few details. It says “If you want to feed a problem, keep thinking about it. If you want to starve a problem, take action.
Most of the harm starts in your mind, with you and your thoughts.
Most of the solutions start with a decision, courage, and action. Feed your mind, what you feed your mind is what you become. So give your mind the most nutritious content possible. Read biographies of great people who have achieved amazing things and endured massive challenges. This will help you put your own life into perspective and gain insight.”
“Thought for Today” is a very small book originally published in the Barbados Advocate being described as one of the most dominant daily newspapers in the country of Barbados. It reads “Thoughts are the food of the mind. A new thought every day will not only be fresh food but will provide the necessary nutrition and stimulant needed to keep the mind healthy and enthusiastic about life.
In this day of disruption and chaos, this is important. When there is faith and victory in the mind, success can be gained. If the thoughts are weak, there is defeat. Nothing is just coincidence, every tree in life’s garden bears significance. Do not allow anything to be an obstacle. See everything as a stepping stone to victory. Now is the time to act and solve all problems and not succumb to lame excuses. We all must face problems, but it is how you face them that counts. It is the hour of trial that makes men great, not the hour of triumph. The best way to behave when a crisis strikes is to be brave.”
Imagine time as a precious river, flowing endlessly and irretrievably, with each drop representing a moment of your life. Every hour you spend on worthwhile actions is like a droplet nourishing the earth, leading to a lush garden of opportunities, growth, and fulfillment. But if you let that same hour slip away in frivolous distractions, it evaporates into nothing, leaving behind only a barren desert of regret.
True power doesn’t lie in controlling others or bending the world to your will. It resides in mastering the one person who will accompany you through life’s entire journey — yourself. The key to that mastery involves facing every challenge with unshakable resolve, as though life itself is an exam, testing your strength, wisdom, and resilience.
Worrying over problems, twisting your mind in endless circles, only leads to confusion, for the anxious mind is like a storm that clouds your vision. Every minute lost is a piece of life you can never reclaim. And the more you cling to the past, the harder it becomes to see clearly in the present, and the future. The seeds you plant today are the actions you take tomorrow. Thoughts are the seeds of all actions, and if you plant good, pure seeds, they will bloom into vibrant success.
Thought for Today therefore advises you to choose your thoughts wisely, for they shape the world that you will eventually harvest. It underscores that even the smallest of tasks will feel like mountains for the lazy, but that for the driven, each step, no matter how small, constitutes a victory in itself. “If you spend an hour in worthwhile actions there is 1 000-fold gain. If you waste an hour in useless actions, there is 1 000-fold loss. Real power and authority is not power and authority over others, but over the self. Don’t be puzzled by problems, whatever they may be.
Always face them as if they are examinations you have to pass. No matter how hard I worry about a problem, will my worried mind reach a solution? Time is life. Wasting time is wasting one’s life. If I cling to the past, the present becomes difficult and the future seems impossible. At present how can you see the future if you live in the past? As thoughts are the seeds of all actions, let me plant only good, pure seeds so that the fruit will be the best. Even the most simple task is difficult for the lazy man.”
“What doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger” is Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous quote. According to Stoic Quotes— a platform offering a comprehensive collection of Stoic philosophy insights, it is Nietzsche who first wrote the statement in his “Maxims and Arrows” section of Twilight of the Idols more than a century ago. “Often used as an affirmation of resilience, the idea is that we have the opportunity to learn and grow from even the worst of experiences,” explains the platform.
Stoic philosophy is an ancient Greek school of thought founded by Zeno of Citium around 300 BCE. It emphasizes living in accordance with nature, reason, and virtue. Stoicism teaches that by cultivating wisdom and self-control, individuals can attain tranquility and resilience, regardless of external circumstances.
Unlocking the transformative power of your thoughts— essential lessons for personal growth and resilience
Lesson 1: our thoughts can be far more powerful, shaping our lives profoundly
That our thoughts are the most powerful than our emotions and feelings, so that they influence our lives to an extreme degree is suggested by various sources.
Adapt for Life is a mental health and wellbeing program in the US helping young people to become mentally fit by learning how to better manage everyday stress in times of crisis. This program also educates the youth on mental illness, such as depression and suicidal behavior, to help those who may be struggling with mental health.
It states “The way we think about something affects the way we feel about it. Our thoughts and feelings influence our behaviors, choices, and ultimately, outcomes. Also connected to our thoughts and feelings are behaviors. Behaviors are our actions or the ways in which we present ourselves to others. Our behaviors outwardly reflect how we are feeling on the inside.”
Annual Reviews is an independent, non-profit academic publishing company based in San Mateo, California. It performs an Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior— an annual peer-reviewed academic journal published by Annual Reviews. In its annual review of psychology publication of January 2019 first published as a Review in Advance on August 15th 2018, it says “Emotions are not random events—they occur when something happens to us.
In the elicitation stage, triggers of emotions can be objects (visual, verbal, olfactory [connected with smell), acts of nature, the behavior of others, and our own actions. Possible elicitors can also be internal processes, such as imagination or memories of events, hormonal changes or drug effects, and voluntary decisions to experience certain emotions.”
When an event like the pain of a chronic headache occurs to you, you will absolutely form a certain thought. You will likely develop a certain emotion and its ensuing feeling(s) in response to this thought you have developed in reaction to the event.
Sue France is an international motivational trainer, and author of “The Definitive Personal Assistant & Secretarial Handbook and The Definitive Executive Assistant & Managerial Handbook”. “Neuroscience is my passion and I am constantly learning and understanding how best to use our brains to achieve goals and be the best we can be,” France says before pointing out that that complaining constantly or nourishing negative thoughts will literally change your brain.
“When you have a thought, a neuron in your brain releases neurotransmitters and hormones to connect to another neuron via a synapse which connects to another neuron via a synapse and so on creating a neural pathway. When you repeatedly have the same thought, the same neurotransmitters will fire through the same neural pathway and eventually the brain will rewire itself so that certain thoughts get triggered more easily (it becomes a habit). You soon find yourself believing those thoughts are reality instead of perception.”
Our mindset plays a crucial role in shaping how we perceive and respond to the world around us. As France suggests, we possess the power to transform our experiences by consciously shifting negative thoughts into positive ones, ultimately influencing both our mental and physical well-being.
“The good news is that the same concept applies when you tell yourself positive things. So the next time you have a negative thought, turn it into a positive thought – look for what is good about the situation; what is valuable; what went well; how can it be useful; what can you learn from it? Use positive words instead of negative words whether you are talking to someone or even when talking to yourself! Practice thinking positively so that positive neurotransmitters fire easily and automatically and become a habit instead of the negative thoughts.
Remember this is not an easy task and that our brains our [are] naturally negative and we create 5 times as many negative thoughts than positive ones because our brains are looking for threat in order to keep us safe and help us to survive. Therefore, you need tenacity and determination. The Mind and body affect each other. Your mind and body interact and mutually influence each other. It is not possible to make a change in one without the other being affected. When we think differently, our bodies change. When we act differently we change our thoughts and feelings.”
Lesson 2: Mastering our thoughts is key to taming the mind and optimizing our performance
The mind is composed of thoughts, emotions, and feelings, all of which work together to shape our actions and outcomes. While we’ve emphasized that thoughts are the most powerful than emotions and feelings, it’s important to recognize that all three elements influence one another. When aligned positively, they empower us to achieve great things. However, when dominated by negativity, they can lead to disastrous outcomes, turning potential success into a path of failure.
Meanwhile, the incredible power of our thoughts is justifiable. My Grief Assist is Australia’s Online Grief Resources and a community service initiative provided by InvoCare. The latter one is an international company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange that operates funeral homes, cemeteries and crematoria around Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. It states “We have between 5,000 and 60,000 thoughts every day. Left unguarded, thoughts can create a myriad of mental, emotional and physical conditions. Left unguarded, our thoughts can make it very difficult to move forward in life, especially after experiencing a significant loss. It is therefore beneficial to understand how thoughts work, how thoughts impact on our health and wellbeing on a daily basis.
Thoughts drive your emotions, ‘what you think you become’ – Guatama Buddha. When your thoughts appear to be the product of your overwhelming sadness and grief, know that it is your thoughts that are feeding the sadness rather than the other way around. Your thoughts generate a feeling which you then act upon. This action then gives you an end result. Change your thoughts and your feelings change. Your action then changes and your results will be different.”
The Association of MBAs is a global organization, founded in 1967 and headquartered in London, which focuses primarily on international business school accreditation and membership. On its website, Tara Best— Founder and Director of Tara Punter PR covering mindset and marketing tips for entrepreneurs, has written an article entitled “Your mindset is the single biggest weapon you have – use it wisely.”
Best says “Let’s say you wake up feeling tired and unmotivated, and do nothing to challenge that belief. That will set the tone for the rest of your day, affecting your mood, productivity and output. However, if you get out of bed and consciously decide that you’re going to get yourself feeling pumped for the day then that’s how you’ll feel. Your thoughts are more powerful than you ever realise. Remember, your mindset is the single biggest weapon you have – use it wisely. Your mindset is a collection of thoughts and beliefs that shape your ‘thought habits’. In turn, your thought habits affect how you think, what you feel and do.
Your mindset impacts how you make sense of the world and yourself. Choosing to approach each day with a positive mind and mentality will help you to navigate any challenges you will come across and find the opportunities, not focus on the negatives. You have the power to choose what kind of day you are going to have – so choose wisely. Mindset really is everything. It’s the biggest, most powerful asset you can have and by far the best thing you can invest in, for individuals and for teams.”
Call to Action
The power of our thoughts is undeniably transformative. Each day, we are presented with a choice: to feed our problems with negativity or to starve them with action. Embrace the idea that your mind represents a powerful tool in shaping your reality. By mastering your thoughts, emotions, and actions, you can convert hardships into opportunities for growth and success. Now is the time to harness the strength within you—shift your mindset, take decisive action, and create the future you desire. Don’t let challenges define you—let them refine you. The path to triumph begins with the thoughts you choose to nourish today.
Direct your thoughts, emotions, and feelings in a way that enables you to (1) focus on finding solutions and actions to solve your problems rather than dwelling on the problems themselves, (2) stay calm and positive while facing challenges, and (3) leverage your past experiences to strengthen your faith, confidence, and courage—critical elements that empower you to successfully confront the obstacles in your path.