I'd like to start this week's article with a powerful quote from James Allen's book As a Man Thinketh

"A man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected it must and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind."

This is a powerful analogy that mirrors what the Bible teaches - The lesson of sowing and reaping. But you need to realize that you not only reap the consequences of your actions but of your thoughts as well.

Wherever you are in life, whether you are enjoying the sweet taste of success or the bitterness of defeat, your thoughts have brought you there. This might sound like philosophical mumbo-jumbo, but reality is that the thoughts you have will determine your destiny. YOU ARE THE PRODUCT OF BOTH YOUR THOUGHTS AND YOUR ACTIONS.

But this is actually good news, because you can change it. In order to have a better life, you need to have better, more constructive thoughts and then make decisions and take actions based on those new, empowering thoughts.

You can never be wealthy and live an abundant life if your thoughts are filled with lack and limitation. You can never be prosperous if you have the mindset of lack and limitation, anymore than a farmer can expect wheat to grow of he plants barley seeds.

People blame circumstances for failure and financial hardship but they don't realize that as James Allen so eloquently put it "Circumstances grow out of thought."

The first step toward changing outward circumstances, toward having a more prosperous, abundant life is to have more prosperous and abundant thoughts - thoughts that focus on abundance, rather than lack and limitation.

Wealth and abundance comes to the one who takes full responsibility for his life and who stops blaming others for his failures and shortcomings. Blame renders you powerless to change anything. Take responsibility for where your life is at present (even if you don't like it) and reclaim your power to transform your life into the one you've always wanted.