Do you long to make progress in some area of your life? To grow on the job, outgrow a bad habit, or heal a long-standing physical problem? Whatever the goal, the place to start is always the same—in thought. Christian Science teaches that when improvement is needed, we must first transform thought.
In the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy explains: “We are all sculptors, working at various forms, moulding and chiseling thought. What is the model before mortal mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering? Have you accepted the mortal model? Are you reproducing it? Then you are haunted in your work by vicious sculptors and hideous forms.” Instead, she says, “We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives” (p. 248).
I learned the importance of choosing the right thought-models early in my career. On my first job after college, my supervisor commented that I possessed good skills and capabilities, but it appeared I was carrying around extra baggage that was weighing me down. After that, I began to notice that I had a negative mental picture of myself as someone with a lot of shortcomings, the main one being an inability to manage time. This was the baggage I carried around with me.
