Simply reading the word “snob” probably ignited a string of thoughts. Am I right? I bet the thoughts you had were not pleasant ones because snobs are not usually liked. Snobs tend to think they’re better than other people based on the amount of material assets a person has. That’s not my type of snob, but I absolutely adore a Thought Snob. Thought Snobs don’t consider themselves better than others, but they do consider themselves better than situations that disempower them and tear them down. 

I am the first spiritual leader to introduce this new way of thinking, the snobby way of thinking. SNOB stands for See New Objective Beliefs. My Thought Snob concept spawned from a statement that was made to me repeatedly when I was a kid and on into my early thirties. Whenever I mentioned doing something outside of the box that my upbringing sequestered me in, my dad would say, “Girl, ye getting above ye raisin.” Anything I mentioned about wanting or being better, that was his standard reply, so after hearing that a hundred times, I believed it, and that belief hindered my growth and caused me to get tangled up with some evil people. 

I am not a person who can be fenced in, and that’s why I say my upbringing hindered my growth. I felt like I had to conform, and I did, even though my intuition was screaming at me not to. I remember vividly my mother begging me to apply for a job at the factory she worked at, and she made it sound so safe and secure. So, against my will, I applied for the job and spent eight hours sitting in a chair in a freezing room with bad lighting, putting teeny tiny parts into this wooden, switchboard-looking thing. This was the company’s process to gauge a person’s quickness with critical thinking, decision-making, and reflexes. I said, “This doesn’t require anyone to think or make decisions. You put the square peg in the square hole.” Their testing reminded me of kindergarten. 

When I arrived at the testing facility that morning at the literal crack of damn dawn, I was ushered in with fifty other people, and once we were seated, we were given a set of strict rules. The lady who laid down the law looked like she hadn’t slept since the company’s inception 5,712 years ago. “No bathroom breaks until lunch. You will have 30 minutes to eat and use the restroom. If you take longer than that, you won’t be allowed access to this classroom. Once the doors are locked, they will be locked until we finish testing, which will be around 4:00,” she explained. Everything in me wanted to get up and leave that room, but suddenly, I heard a loud sound. The prison guard had locked the door. 

I was 18 years old and still recall leaving the testing facility. I was so tired and brain-dead from the monotony of that day that I couldn’t figure out how to start my car. I was holding the keys and couldn’t remember what to do with them. My sharp mind had been dulled. I can’t imagine what I would be like right now had I taken that job and followed in my mother’s footsteps. When I got home that day, I told Mother I wouldn’t take that job. “Oh my God, Paula. You would’ve had it made,” she said as she threw her dishtowel on the kitchen counter. As I stood before her, I thought, “But I’m better than that,” and guilt overwhelmed me for thinking that about myself. 

Although I didn’t take the factory job, I took many other mediocre jobs, settled for abusive relationships, and dumbed myself down to fit in. During that time, I wasn’t just unhappy. I was outright miserable. But, one day, I flipped the script. I was probably thirty years old, and I was talking to my dad about my dream of becoming an author. He sarcastically laughed and said, “Girl, ye getting above ye raisin.” And without giving it a second thought, I blurted out, “God, I hope so.” 

Right then and there, the Thought Snob was born. Just by making that one statement, I broke the cycle of conforming. After that, I started thinking and saying, “I am better than that.” I would say that anytime I encountered something that resembled scarcity, conforming, sadness, or any other negative person, place, or thing that I wasn’t an energetic match for. 

So, here’s where I came up with the term Thought Snob. We have our food snobs, bourbon snobs, clothing snobs, and then we have those snobs that people don’t typically like because they think they are superior to people who have fewer material assets than they do. There are all types of snobs, and the word snob has historically had a negative connotation, but in our case, being a snob is a wise thing. 

Let’s use our clothes snobs as an example. A clothes snob will settle for nothing less than a designer label; therefore, you will never see these folks shopping for clothes at Wal-Mart. That would be a waste of time and energy because they know Wal-Mart doesn’t carry what they’re looking for, so they turn their nose up at cheap clothes and move on to where they fit in. They feel like they are better than cheap clothes, so they position themselves in stores that sell the clothes they love. This is how I want you to behave when you encounter abuse, neglect, humiliation, scarcity, fear, jealousy, worry, and any other negative person, place, or thing that doesn’t reflect who you want to be. 

If we’re going to be snobby about materialistic things, why aren’t we snobby with our thoughts? Materialistic things will never create our physical realities, but our thoughts will, and they do. Why in the world would we allow our minds to become landfills? Thoughts of scarcity, fear, worthlessness, jealousy, hatred, and revenge, all negative thoughts are the same as hazardous waste. They corrupt our world because they attract our greatest fears when felt for extended periods. 

We cannot allow old thoughts to seep into our subconscious minds and live there rent-free. We must be highly selective with our thoughts. We must be downright snobby with our thoughts, and when a thought tries to creep in that doesn’t reflect who we intend to be, we must turn our nose up at it and immediately think, “We’re better than that.” Repeating this will reprogram your subconscious mind to believe things that serve you well, and the result is the creation of a new physical reality that is joyful and worth living. 

Those who have known me for a long time wonder how I have accomplished what I have. They ask me, “Paula, how did you feel wealthy when you were broke?” These people watched me struggle financially for years and years. “How did you manifest perfect health when you had so many health issues?” My closest friends and family knew that I was sick often with debilitating head colds, bouts of pneumonia and the flu, high blood pressure, and I was always slow to heal. They always ask me these types of questions, and I struggled to find short answers to such profound questions. After much reflection, the answer hit me like a lightning bolt! My world became healthier and happier when I started viewing it objectively instead of subjectively. I started considering the hard facts versus the opinions of others. 

Here’s an example. I was raised to believe that women weren’t capable of supporting themselves financially because men were the ones who made the big bucks. Women couldn’t obtain wealth on their own, so they had to depend on men for their resources, which meant women were the weaker sex and should behave accordingly. There was a time when I believed that, but when I realized it was a subjective belief system, I started weighing the facts. The facts are that millions of women have obtained enormous amounts of wealth. Look at Dolly Parton. Look at Oprah Winfrey. Oh my God, Tina Turner, God rest her beautiful, courageous soul. I come from the same source as they do, and since God doesn’t bless one person more than another, I am just as capable of accomplishing what those great women have. And so are you. 

I’m really getting above my raising here. Thank God! Because if I hadn’t, I’d be punching a time clock today at a factory instead of living my life purpose. And it makes me sick to even think about it. So, again, thank God I got above my raising, and you can, too, if that’s what you want. My work is geared towards people stuck on autopilot because of the subconscious beliefs they adopted before their brains were fully developed. These people stay in fight or flight every day of their lives, but any cycle can be interrupted. SNOB was designed to do just that. 

If you reflect on your upbringing, you’ll find that most of what you were taught was rooted in subjective beliefs. And that’s an excellent way of saying that most of what you were taught to believe was a bunch of made-up bullshit. Let’s dig into that for a moment, shall we? 

Ask yourself these questions… 

How do I feel about my capabilities? 

What was I taught to believe about my capabilities? 

Was my upbringing disempowering or empowering? 

Am I conforming? 

Are my decisions based on what I want to do or what other people want me to do? 

At first, the answers may not be clear, but keep asking yourself these questions. Eventually, the intelligence will arise if you listen. Pay close attention to the information that surfaces so you can critically think about the fact and fiction pieces. Anything you identify as fiction, throw it out like the piece of trash that it is. Focus on the facts. 

Awareness is the foundation of change. That is what the SNOB method is based on. If you use it daily, you’ll become keenly aware of how many thoughts you have that are absolute lies. Now, no one can reverse disempowering subconscious beliefs overnight. After all, it took years to cultivate those. So, approach changing your mindset incrementally. Each time you have a thought that causes you any worry, pain, or suffering, stop what you’re doing and ask yourself, “Is this true?” Nine times out of ten, the answer will be a big fat NO. When you approach each moment of your day with this type of thinking, you choose to see new objective beliefs (SNOB). 

So, today, be a snob.