Your Thoughts Create Your Reality: Here's the Proof

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "You Are a Badass at Making Money" by Jen Sincero. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.

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Do your thoughts create your reality? Does the universe send you good opportunities?

In You Are a Badass at Making Money, Jen Sincero argues that you create your reality with your thoughts, rather than the other way around. By thinking positive thoughts, a higher power will answer with good results.

Continue reading to learn more about how reality is affected by positive and negative thoughts.

How Your Thought Patterns Affect Your Reality

Your thoughts create your reality because they determine your behavior: Thoughts lead to emotions, and emotions drive your actions. Therefore, by changing your negative, limiting thought patterns to ones that are positive and ambitious, you can act in a way that serves your best interests and shapes your life into whatever you want.

(Shortform note: The idea that we create our reality with our thoughts has origins in psychology. The process goes like this: When you think the same thoughts repeatedly, they eventually become beliefs. Your beliefs are the filter through which you interpret the world—once a belief establishes itself, your brain selectively catalogs information that supports it and ignores information that contradicts it. Your brain’s collection of evidence that supports your beliefs then becomes your self-concept, which is made up of beliefs about who you are and what you’re capable of. You then act in a way that’s consistent with your self-concept, making it a reality.)

Additionally, you engage with the energy of the universe with your thoughts. Sincero argues that there’s a higher power—whether you believe it’s God, the universe, or something else—that affects your life. It’s a force beyond the perception of your five senses that creates an energetic order in the world around you. The universe receives the energy you put out with your thoughts and gives it back to you in the form of your experiences and opportunities.

For example, if you think that you’re not good enough to get a promotion at work, you may feel discouraged and unmotivated. This can lead to a lack of effort and poor performance, which in turn can make it less likely that you’ll get the promotion. On the other hand, if you think positively and believe that you’re capable of achieving your goals, you may feel more confident and motivated. This can lead to better performance and a greater likelihood that you’ll receive the promotion you desire. Further, this will lead to greater financial success, as a promotion likely comes with a higher salary and more perks.

The universe will respond to your confidence by sending you good opportunities. For instance, a new, better position within your company might pop up as soon as you start thinking positively about your job prospects. Or, your boss who never seemed to notice you before may ask you to work on an important project, giving you the chance to prove yourself. If you don’t trust that the universe will provide for you, opportunities may never appear.

(Shortform note: Sincero’s ideas about putting out positive energy to attract what you want from the universe are based on the Law of Attraction—the philosophy that the energy you put out comes back to you. In its modern form, this concept was first developed in the 1860s, but it has roots in transcendentalism, Christianity, Hinduism, and other religious and philosophical traditions. Well-known proponents of the Law of Attraction include Rhonda Byrne (The Secret, The Power) and Louise Hay (You Can Heal Your Life).)

Your Thoughts Create Your Reality: Here’s the Proof