How Good Can You Take It?

Unique Perspectives: How Good Can You Take It?

By Kim Stevens

How Good Can You Take It? And The Thermostat Effect.

Almost 30 years ago, I sat in a multi-day workshop with Lou Tice, and learned something that changed the way I saw success, struggle, and self-sabotage. It was fascinating—and it explained a lot.

The concept is simple but powerful: each of us has an internal comfort zone—a built-in thermostat that regulates our lives. This thermostat isn’t just financial; it operates in every area—mental, emotional, physical, spiritual.

Just like the thermostat in your home keeps the temperature steady, your subconscious works to keep you at the level you “know” to be normal.

When things get too good—when success, love, wealth, or happiness exceed what we’re used to—we unconsciously turn the temperature down to bring things back to familiar territory. We doubt it. We sabotage it. We “cool it off” because we haven’t adjusted our internal setting to allow for more.

And when things start going too wrong—when we dip below what we believe is acceptable—we hustle, fight, and claw our way back up. Because deep down, we won’t allow ourselves to stay in a reality that doesn’t match the level we’ve set.

We say we want things to be better. But do we really? Or are we trying to create a higher level of success while still running on an outdated setting? I really loved learning about this and could see it operating in my own life!

This is why external changes—new jobs, new relationships, sudden financial windfalls—don’t always “stick.” It’s why lottery winners blow through millions and end up broke. Their externalworld changed, but their internal thermostat never did. So, they unconsciously found a way to return to what was familiar. Crazy right?

So, what’s the solution? Here is what he said, “Stop focusing on changing circumstances and start focusing on raising your internal temperature”.

Here’s how:

• Visualization & Affirmations – See yourself living at a higher level before it happens. Your mind believes what you repeatedly tell it.

• Cognitive Restructuring – Challenge and replace the limiting beliefs that keep you stuck. Upgrade your mental programming.

• Goal Setting & Mental Rehearsal – Set ambitious goals and mentally practice achieving them until they feel like second nature.

• Positive Self-Talk – Your words shape your reality. Speak about your life as if you're already thriving.

For me I like to look at it energetically. My Energy IS My Thermostat. At the end of the day, this is what I have learned or experienced… that It’s always an inside job! It’s never the outside that changes the inside… it’s always the other way around.

This is why the teachings of Abraham Hicks resonate with me. They talk about vibration—our energy. If we’re stuck in resentment, fear, or self-doubt, no amount of external success will last. But when we raise our energy, when we’re grateful, appreciative and loving, we begin attracting and sustaining the higher level we say we want.

It’s a choice: Stay in the lower vibration too long, and that becomes your new lowertemperature. Stay in the higher vibration long enough, and THAT becomes your new normal.

I had a friend, Pete—may he rest in peace—who used to say to me:

“How good can you take it, Kim?”

Not how good can things get—but how much good can you allow yourself to receive before you start sabotaging it? Before you start unconsciously believing, this too good to be true. Because unless we reset our thermostat, we’ll always return to what we’ve known.

So the questions remains, just like Pete asked me… How good can YOU take it?