Kay:
Hey there, Questers, and welcome! It is Monday, August 3rd, and we’ve got Episode 151 for you today. And, actually, a former prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli, has this quote for you! He says, “Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.”
Shi:
Now, you may have never heard of Disraeli, but he lived from 1804 to 1881. He was a British politician, a statesman and a novelist. As you heard Kay say, he served as prime minister of the UK twice. So, he was certainly an accomplished fellow! And, thinking about that mid 1800’s when he was living, and realizing where the U.S. was during that time – forming our own country and our own government – it’s interesting to see the way things were getting transformed across the pond. And, things were happening on both sides that were advancing the civilizations along. But, you don’t advance a civilization along without thoughts like this, and knowing that it takes nurturing your mind with great thoughts in order to go higher than you think you can!
Kay:
Well, that nurture piece is SO important! I know, Shi – that was a big focus of study for you within your master’s in Sociology. And, this whole idea of nurture versus nature, and how that impacts somebody societally, is all your realm. Basically, I think your thoughts in regards to nurture versus nature for this quote are too good for me to take over here….So I’m hoping you’ll share!
Shi:
*(Laughter)* Well, if you think about what the natural state of the mind is – the natural state for it is to seek out what is wrong so that it can protect you. It is a servo mechanism – doo doo doo doo doo doo doo – always scanning your environment, looking for what’s wrong. And, if you let the mind do what it’s going to do, that’s what it’s going to do. So, “nurture” is a very intentional word here. And, we can remember that nurture means: care for and encourage the growth or development of. So, “care for and develop the growth” of your mind with great thoughts means that, if you don’t actively seek out and intentionally look for thoughts and things to think of that will make you better than that natural state, you will just be left looking for what’s wrong!
Kay:
Now, a good example of nurturing your thoughts in action is – if you’re the kind of person who opens your phone up first thing in the morning and starts reading news – and you are also a person who finds yourself in a bit of a funk first thing in the day – you’re probably not intentionally caring for your mind with great thoughts. You’re just feeding it whatever is coming up first on your phone. So, just something to keep in mind, because it’s something that we have to be active in. And, the second piece of this quote says, “for you will never go any higher than you think.” And, many times, we have to quote “see what’s possible” before we can actually get there and obtain it. And, I think that this is very well illustrated in the story of Roger Bannister, with the four minute mile…
Shi:
Back in 1954, no human had ever run a sub-four-minute mile (that means a mile in less than four minutes)! And, Roger Bannister decided he was going to try and break this in the Olympics, and did manage to, in three minutes and like 59 seconds, or something like that! But, what’s so impressive about this is that for all of recorded human history, NO human had officially run a four minute mile or less. But then, Roger Bannister did it! And, only 46 days later, someone broke his record…So, once it was proven that it could be done, it was easy to break the record. Now, at this point here in 2020, it’s an insane number (like some 85,000 plus) of people who have run a sub-four-minute mile. In fact, I like to follow a runner, Eliud Kipchoge from Africa who recently ran a marathon in less than two hours. So you’re talking sub-four-minute miles for 26 miles straight!
Kay:
What’s so crazy about this is that I can’t even imagine all of the things that have yet to be done, and that we just aren’t doing because we don’t know that they’re possible! Now, the person who broke Roger Bannister’s record 46 days later, who knows!…They’d probably been training on their miles, and they’d probably been working at it for a long time, but it was that knowing that it’s possible that really made all the difference. It’s like, you know, the first time somebody became a millionaire, a bunch of millionaires were created after that. And, the first time somebody hit the big B, now, I think, there’s like 20 of them in the world! But, that really only started existing in the last decade, where we started to not just see the mega millionaires, but started to see the billionaires as well. And, I’m sure we’re going to even start seeing trillionaires here in the next few decades! So, whatever it is, you will never go higher than you think. So, if you think, “I can’t”, if you think, “I’m not worth it”, or whatever it is that you think…you will only run that mile in the amount of time that YOU think is possible!
Shi:
All right, that brings us to our quest! And, it is, of course, a nurture quest! So, today, your quest is to: Nurture your mind with great thoughts by going old school in the style of our quote giver and finding an actual book! Come on, we know you have one somewhere in your living space. This could be a book that you know is good for you, or maybe it’s one that you haven’t started reading yet, or maybe it’s one that you love and you have a highlighted section that you can go back and review! But, whatever book you choose, spend five minutes with a book today, nurturing your mind. Are you ready?
Kay & Shi:
Let’s quest!
