In the coming weeks, we will discuss some of John Templeton’s twenty-one steps detailed in The Templeton Plan and pair it with financial news. We will begin our series by discussing Step 14: Controlling Your Thoughts for Effective Action.
Here’s an introduction to Templeton’s concept. Other contributors will provide insight on this step in future posts.
The words thought control may well have an ominous ring to them, because we tend to associate thought control with controls imposed from the outside—for example, by repressive governments and certain religious cults. But John Templeton’s approach is the exact opposite of these; it’s inspirational. He practices and preaches imposing, from within, a discipline on one’s thoughts and emotions. His theory of positive thought control is actually a deep form of self-control.
He says, “We’re not products of circumstances or accident; we’re products of what we think. Our thoughts influence our words, our deeds, what other people think of us, and whether or not they want to do business with us. If you hope to be productive and lead a happy life, you have to control your thoughts. The majority of people let their thoughts drift without making any attempt to control them. Thought control is hard work, but in the long run, with practice, it becomes easier and easier, like learning to play the piano. And when you’ve mastered the art of controlling your thoughts, you can make your mind a garden of indescribably beautiful flowers instead of a weed patch.”
. . . In contrast, the thought-control technique he advocates is what he calls the “crowding-out” method. He explains his approach this way: “If you fill your mind to capacity with thoughts that you think are good and productive, you won’t have room for the bad ones. The ones you crowd out are feelings of envy, hatred, covetousness, self-centeredness, damaging criticism, revenge, and any time-wasting thoughts that are unproductive for your ultimate goals in life. Another method for crowding out negative thoughts is to quietly release them. You can even say to your thoughts: ‘I lovingly release you to the vast nothingness from whence you came.”
As active and hardworking as Templeton is, he still makes times to practice the crowding out of extraneous matter. “It’s directed thinking,” he explains. “It shouldn’t be thinking that is uncontrolled; the purpose is to clear and cleanse the mind.”
Having learned to discipline his thinking, Templeton is able to focus a maximum amount of his energies on those matters he feels are of supreme importance: his investments and the learning and teaching of spiritual growth. Correct thought control has caused the direction of his entire life to become increasingly effective.
“Look at the result of controlled thinking in business,” he says. “It’s very difficult to build a corporation if you’re incapable of directing your thoughts toward specific goals. You have to have an ordered mind to build any substantial organization, whether it’s a business or a church or a charity.”
