I planted some sunflowers for my parents a bit ago, and my mother recently sent me the pictures below. They’re just about to bloom! To think that so much intricate beauty can come from a tiny seed. We’re a lot like flowers.

We’ve all heard the saying about the seed that falls in good soil. Your surroundings will either support you or hurt you. And that is so powerful. But I think it goes further than that. Not only do we need to plant ourselves around good people.. those who inspire and push us to be better.. but we also need to nourish our minds. Our thoughts dictate everything we do. Often, we let our subconscious sabotage our goals by telling ourselves we aren’t strong enough, don’t have enough self control, or whatever other excuses have been beat into our brains by people and past experiences.

But if you want to change your life, you have to get ahold of your thoughts. Magic is believing in yourself. The moment you start believing in the things that people (and your subconscious mind) tell you aren’t possible, is the moment that your reality will shift. Our thoughts become our words, our words then become our beleifs. Our beliefs become our actions, our actions turn into habits, and our habits become our reality. If you can change your reality, you’ve changed the small bit of world around you. And even if just a bit, you’ve changed the world. Not only that, but your actions will have an impact on those around you. Little by little, it will spread.

Do you know how many times I’ve been told my dreams are too crazy? Or my thoughts irrational? In three of my medical school interviews, after telling my interviewer what I want to do with my career and how I want to influence medicine, I was given a soft smile and told, “Awe. That’s wonderful. But that passion will fade quickly.” In fact, people have been telling me my excitement will fade my whole life! Well, update: my passion still going strong. Sure, I guess all those people could still be right – I still have plenty more years ahead of me. But I know myself way better than they know me. I know that I control my thoughts, my actions, and my world. 

So far, none of those people have been right. But if I would have listened to them, they would have been.

Your reality is slowly created by the things you choose to focus on and how you choose to interpret them. You created the life you have – your world – and you can use that very same power inside of you to change it.

In an excuse-free world, our fantasies are our reality. So change your mind, change your actions, then change the world.

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
~ Anaïs Nin