People are either thermometers or thermostats. If you are a thermometer, you go through life feeling powerless to create internal or external change. But if you are a thermostat, you know you have the power to impact your life, the lives of those around you, and your environment.
A thermometer serves as a temperature gauge by reacting to its environment. It indicates hot or cold levels but cannot make a room hotter or colder. If you want information on the temperature inside or outside at any given time, a thermometer provides the tool you need.
Unlike a thermometer, a thermostat regulates temperature. Set it to a specific temperature and alter the environment to reach that set point. If a room is too hot or too cold, you can change that with a simple turn of a dial or push of a needle. The thermostat then tells the furnace or air conditioner to kick on and raise or lower the temperature in a specific space.
So, which one are you…thermometer or thermostat?
Are You a Thermometer?
You know you are a thermostat if you are adept at reading a situation or other people but feel unable to change the state of either. In fact, you are aware of what you dislike or find uncomfortable about your environment but feel powerless to alter anything.
As a result, you react to your external environment, which causes your emotional state to directly reflect whatever is happening outside you. If you don’t like a circumstance, person, or situation, your internal state changes in relationship to that experience. In other words, you feel angry, sad, frustrated, or some other negative emotion.
As a thermometer, you live at the mercy of all that goes on around and to you. You gauge your external environment and rise or fall to its level.
That’s why thermometers are “victims.” Victims believe they are powerless. In fact, a thermometer cannot initiate change; instead, it reacts when the climate in which it exists changes.
Would you describe yourself as a thermometer? How is that working for you?
Are You a Thermostat?
If you tend to read your circumstances and then intentionally adjust your mindset, emotional state, behavior, or energy in an attempt to change yourself, the situation, or impact those involved, you are a thermostat. You realize you possess the power to influence your environment.
A thermostat consciously sets the temperature for the day—to gratitude, joy, focus, or peace—no matter what goes on around them. You choose an internal and external state, such as to have a good day. Then, you decide to respond to the day with positivity and good energy. Because of this, you control how you respond to whatever happens during the day.
Additionally, your internal response emanates outward and impacts your environment. Your mindset, energy, and behavior change the temperature in the room, and everyone in the vicinity feels the effect. For this reason, to a great extent, you control how life treats you.
Some might call you a leader, an influencer, or a change-maker. You consciously alter—or try to alter—your internal climate and whatever external space you enter.
You realize you always have choice. No matter your circumstances, you can choose your experience, and that gives you power.
Would you describe yourself as a thermostat? Can you see how powerful you are?
Become a Thermostat
If you identify as a thermostat, you will never feel like a victim of anyone or anything. And you know that no matter what life sends your way, you have agency—the freedom to choose how to respond. As a result, you can change your life simply by selecting a new set point.
If you identify as a thermometer, know that you have agency and can create change internally and externally. After all, you are a human being who is behaving like a thermostat.
If you don’t like being a thermometer, choose to be a thermostat. Visualize yourself as one of those thermostats that also measures the temperature in the room. It functions as both a thermostat and a thermometer.
Choose to be someone who is a thermostat rather than a thermometer. Change your identity to feel powerful rather than a victim of your environment.
How to Change Your Identity
Changing your identity from thermometer to thermostat is easier than you might imagine. Here are a few simple steps to take:
1. Decide to be a thermostat. Your decisions determine your future. Decide this is your new identity…now.
2. Be a thermostat from the moment of decision forward. When your tendency to react to your environment rears its head, remind yourself you are no longer a thermometer. Instead, choose to stand in your power and respond to your internal and external circumstances. You are no longer a thermometer, so don’t allow yourself to act like one.
3. Develop the habits and mindsets of a thermostat. When you decide to be a thermostat, you can easily and quickly behave and think like one. You choose a new way of being whenever you remind yourself that this is who you are. Reread the description of a thermostat (above). Then, commit to developing that way of being.
4. Remain committed. If you were to quit smoking, you can’t allow yourself to slip and smoke a cigarette even once. The same applies to becoming a thermostat; you can’t be a thermometer even once. It will feel comfortable, and you’ll fall back into old habits and mindsets. But you’ll inevitably have moments when you want to be a thermometer…or behave like one…despite your best efforts. In those moments, forgive yourself; then, recommit to being a thermostat. Choose your identity, mindset, and habit again.
5. Practice impacting your environment positively. Instead of feeling powerless, practice being powerful. Consciously emanate whatever energy you know positively affects the people and circumstances around you. Change the temperature dial and feel the “room” get hotter or colder.
That’s it. Four simple steps to becoming a thermostat and impacting yourself and others.
You might believe these steps are difficult, time-consuming, or impossible to complete successfully. That’s the belief of a thermometer.
Choose a thermostat’s belief: I can change myself and my environment. That’s what I do. That’s who I am.
Who will you be this year—a thermometer or a thermostat? Tell me in a comment below. And please share this post with someone who might benefit from reading it.
