Frank Outlaw

d. 1977 · American grocer, president of the Bi-Lo supermarket chain

Frank Outlaw was an American supermarket executive who led the Bi-Lo Stores chain. He is named as the source of this “watch your thoughts” saying in a May 1977 San Antonio Light newspaper feature published around the time of his death — the earliest known appearance of the modern wording. Whether Outlaw actually coined it or simply repeated an already-circulating maxim is unknown; the underlying thought-to-destiny chain predates him by more than a century.

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“Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny”

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