“It ain't what they call you, it’s what you answer to.” – W.C Fields

The National Science Foundation can be cited for publicizing the popular notion that humans generate about 70,000 thoughts per day. Researchers at Cornell University theorize that the average adult makes 35,000 conscious decisions per day. We think about the people and the things that we love, the things that we believe, the things that we have done, and the things that we will do. We decide what we will wear, what we will eat, what we will say, how we will say it, how to spend our time, and who we will spend it with. The sum of those 70,000 thoughts and 35,000 decisions amount to who you are— this is how you are creating yourself.

Picture this: you’re in traffic and you’re sort of paying attention — sort of trying to keep up with that 70,000-thought-per-day average. Partially due to your blind spot, and partially due to mentally preparing dinner for the next week, you switch lanes and cause a man to apply his brakes in a panic. This man becomes irate and he decides to convey that ire to you in no uncertain terms—but let’s excuse him and remember that he, too, has 105,000 things to think and decide today. Let’s remember that it is our 70,000 thoughts and 35,000 decisions that are continuously defining us and not his.

Karma would have it no other way than for a distracted driver to cut you off minutes later. You decide to rationalize that this incident was unintentional, and you continue driving without erupting and obnoxiously shouting every ill-mannered word that you know out of your window. This reaction is the only reflection of that which you are—because you are what you love and not what loves you.

With every thought and decision, you are creating who you are. You can choose to predominately think about and ultimately accept the person that you are viewed to be by others—but it would still be you who made that decision.

How many of your thoughts today will be consumed with fear of how people perceive you? How many of your thoughts today will be used to reflect upon yourself—to ensure that your 105,000 factors are making up who you want to be?