“Be sure that what you allow to engage your attention is of value.”

Each day, you’re bombarded with hundreds of messages: BUY IT! READ IT! DO IT! SEE IT! TRY IT! EAT IT! NEW! HURRY! SALE! HERE! NOW!

They reach you via radio, computer, television, newspapers, books, magazines, billboards, conversation. They clamor for your attention, your allegiance, your agreement, your money, and always your time.

But if you want to improve the quality of your thoughts, and hence the quality of your life, you must turn off many of these messages— perhaps more than you do already. You must censor that which you allow to engage your attention, and be sure what does get through to you is of value.

Consider your car radio. Turning it on is like playing Russian roulette. Will the song you hear be a pleasant, uplifting one? You’re at the disc jockey’s mercy. Even if you don’t listen consciously to the lyrics of songs, they still sink into your subconscious mind.

And what about your daily newspaper? It takes a fair chunk of your time to read, yet few of the events described affect you directly and most of them are negative. The result is that your forget the details while continuing to feel discouraged, fearful and suspicious — emotions that fetter your thinking the rest of the day.

Then there are the advertisements that scream at your from inside your television; the absurd topics covered in magazines, from the new, doughnut diet to the newest revelation about a movie star.

If you want to learn, if you want to think clearly, if you want to grow in stature as a person and achieve your goals, you must turn all this off.

Understand that your mind is a fertile garden. Care for it, cultivate it, and it will return in abundance whatever you plant. Neglect it: allow it to become a rubbish heap for every disc jockey, newspaper, magazine, or advertiser that comes along and it will soon be choked with weeds and covered with debris.

Begin now. If necessary, uproot the weeds that your previously ignored. Straighten the rows. Plant new seeds: fresh ideas, broader visions, deeper convictions. Fertilize your garden with hope. Water it with faith. And let it bask in the sunshine of peace and solitude.

Then, while you remain patiently vigilant, anticipating an abundant harvest, recall the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said, “A man is what he thinks about all day long…” or Marcus Aurelius, who said, “A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.” Wise people throughoutt history have said: “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”