Cury - Think and Make It Happen

2008 by Augusto Cury

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations used in this book are from:
HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. 1973, 1978, 1984, by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version.

To protect the identities of the people whose stories are told in this book, some names have been changed and some circumstances altered. However, all of the contextual elements and results are absolutely true.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cury, Augusto.
Think and make it happen / Augusto Cury.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-7852-2781-6 (hardcover)
1. Thought and thinking. 2. Thought and thinkingReligious aspectsChristianity.
3. SuccessPsychological aspects. 4. SuccessReligious aspectsChristianity. 5. Intention.
6. Quality of life. I. Title.
BF441.C87 2008
158.1dc22

2008039609

Printed in the United States of America

08 09 10 11 12 QW 6 5 4 3 2 1

I, __________________________________________, dedicate this book to _____________________________.

Navigate the waters of your inner self with emotion.

Turn the simple things into a spectacle for the eyes.

Never give up on life or on those you love.

Never grow old in the territory of emotion!

Disappointment, frustration, and loss will always occur,

But work through each pain as an opportunity to grow.

Find an oasis in each of your deserts!

Contemplate beauty. Unleash creativity.

Manage your thoughts. Protect your emotions.

Live an enterprising lifestyle.

Train your amazing mind to be brilliant. You deserve it!

Date _______________________

Contents

One of the great ironies of being human is that we pay the most attention to the things that, in the long run, matter leastand vice versa. We expend great energy taking care of our homes, cars, clothes, property, and money, and far less energy taking care of our most precious possession: our lives, and especially our mental health! Yet without an excellent quality of life, all the rest is meaningless.

My research and observations of people over two decades and in many settings have led me to a sad conclusion: we humans are collectively becoming more mentally and emotionally ill. By ill, I dont mean physically sick or mentally insane, but living far beneath our great potential to attain real quality of life. That quality of life can be achieved by using the tools that we already have within us, and especially by learning to think correctly, which will be the focus of this entire book.

Why do I use the term think correctly? What do I mean by titling this book Think and Make It Happen? Our mind controls all. It is who we are, the height of all our being. It has enormous potential and powerfar beyond what we imagine or typically access in our day-to-day lives. And it has the ability to radically influence all that we say, do, think, and feel. So when I was looking for words that describe all we can be, that would properly capture the idea of reaching our full height mentally and emotionally and socially, the words that kept surfacing were: think correctly. And though I call it think correctly, my term entails our emotions and personalities as well, not just our thoughts, for as youll see in the chapters ahead, the mind is really our control towerthe source of every word we speak, every action we take, every emotion we feel, and every thought we have. By abiding by the twelve principles I explore within this book, youll be training yourself to think in a way you never thought possible, and thereby achieve the extraordinary quality of life you desire and deserve. By harnessing the power of your mind, you can do, have, achieve, and create anything you want for your life. You can truly makeit happen.

Let me give you an example by offering a contrast. An ordinary thinkermy term for someone who simply lives day to day but does not seek to make the most of himselfdrives his car and takes care of his bank account, but a person who thinks correctly goes beyond that, not only taking care of the physical and material necessities but also managing his thoughts, leaving the audience and becoming the director of his life script, and authoring his own story, which Ill explain within this book. An ordinary thinker reacts before considering the possibilities, but someone who thinks correctly engages her mind first and then responds rather than reacting. She empathically puts herself in the place of others and exercises emotional intelligence, almost seeing feelings even when they are not obvious. An ordinary thinker protects his house by buying insurance and installing a security system, but a person who thinks correctly protects his emotions as well, and he also exercises his creativity and makes a habit of contemplating beauty. These and many more ideals are qualities of a mind that thinks correctly.

Dont let the terminology throw you, however. Though we might believe that thinking correctly is exclusive to a few gifted individualsattainable only by the elitethat is simply not true. Every person can learn to think in this way. And we need to, because thinking this way is our greatest tool in the fight for our psychological well-being and happiness.

A mind that thinks correctly follows clear goals and exercises self-control without being controlled by the environment, circumstances, or inner conflicts. A correctly thinking mind uses its worst days as a story line, if you will, to write the most important chapters of its life project. Thats what happened to me. In the midst of a depression in my early years of medical school, I realized one of the keys to developing a creative, secure, and stable mind and healthy, peaceful emotionsall of which lead to the quality of life that we long for. That key involved understanding that when the world abandons us, the loneliness can be overcome,but when we abandon ourselves, the loneliness is almost unbearable. Said another way, when we consciously give up on ourselves, or simply remain passive and never invest in developing our potential in the first place, our mental health and happiness will be destroyed in a hurry. At that time of great psychic struggle, I recognized I had a choice, and I chose the path that has made all the differencethe path to real quality of life.

Likewise, for those of you who long for something far better than what youre experiencing now, this book contains a strategy that will not only encourage you on your journey but equip you with the principles youll need to manage your life, thoughts, and emotions at a high level. And my story, as well as those of numerous people Ive worked with, will reinforce those ideas.

The psychic earthquake I went through in medical school encouraged me to get to know the fantastic world of the human mindthat complex universe inside each of usbeginning with my own. I began to think differently, reflect, analyze, and inquire. I literally asked thousands of questions regarding how the mind works. Some of them Ive been unable to answer even after decades of investigation and research. But I believe that Ive found a few important answers. From them Ive extracted the fundamental Think Correctly principles that are the subject of this book. And they address our greatest societal and personal ills.