The Choice Is Yours

We should never underestimate the power of the mind. Even though the mind has just the three basic functions, being that of wanting, feeling, and thinking, the impact it has on our life is incomprehensible. Everything from perception, to memory, to attention, to learning, to reasoning, to decision making, to problem solving, to emotion, to understanding, you name it, the mind is extraordinary with what it can do. Like with any part of our body, the mind requires conditioning and training. Unlike the muscles that form in our arms, legs, torso, etc. from regular training and strengthening exercises at the gym, we can't exactly shove a set of weights inside our head and have our mind do some bench presses. Strengthening and training of the mind revolves around control, awareness, and focus. The difference though with strengthening of the mind, in comparison to the strengthening of other areas of our body, is that we cannot visually see our mind grow from the training and conditioning it receives. A typical common human flaw is that when we don't visually see something, we don't often value it, care for it, or believe in it. It's just like the journey towards success, that if we don't see positive results being manifested, then we start believing that the success won't eventuate, hence why so many of us give up. We want to see some sort of visual results, just so we can feel comforted that we are making progress. The reality is, if we are progressing towards success, no matter how slow it may be, and no matter how many failures, setbacks, rejections, and challenges we encounter, we are still moving forward towards success. Often, results don't visually appear as we hope or anticipate, but it doesn't mean we are not progressing. Because we don't see the mind, like we do the muscles in our body, most of us completely undervalue the importance of mindset training, and instead focus completely on physical training instead, as we can visually see those muscles begin to build and develop. Whilst there is absolutely nothing wrong with physical training, and we should all be doing more of it, we should also be doing way more mindset training, because a weak mind only leads to a weak future.

So, just exactly how strong is our mind, personally? A good way to measure the strength of your mindset is to assess yourself on emotional control. Are you someone who reacts with anger, spite, and frustration to circumstances that go against you, or when someone antagonizes you? Are you someone who is poor with decision making, often finding yourself procrastinating, or lacking in boldness? Are you someone who is courageous and fearless, always seeking opportunities to take risks, if it carries the potential to achieve success and your goals? Are you someone who embraces failure, and views it as an opportunity to learn, grow, and adapt, rather than someone who views it as finality, and a legitimate reason to give up? When it comes to mindset, there is one key word and attribute that we must possess in order to generate positive results, success, and happiness in life, and that is "control". If we don't have any control over our mind, then we also don't have any control over the direction our life is progressing towards. Reacting with anger, spite, and frustration to someone, or something, reveals that we lack control over our mind, and we lack that emotional control. We lack that mental strength to remain calm and composed. When we procrastinate over decisions, or we lack the ability to make firm decisions, we reveal that we lack courage and determination to take risks, and journey towards our goals and desires in life. When we drop our heads and succumb to failure, it shows again that we lack the mental strength that comes with resilience and perseverance. Mindset training helps us to maintain a positive mindset, helps us to remain focused on our goals, helps us to remain calm and composed, helps us to think logical, helps us to better tackle life's challenges, and helps us manage our beliefs better in order to improve our behavior. Above all, it helps us control our mindset.

One of the biggest examples of a lack of control over our mindset, is negativity. When we allow ourselves to be drawn in by the likes of anger, frustration, bitterness, pessimism, fear, doubt, and resentment, we immediately surrender our happiness. Let's be fair here, life does throw a lot of a crap at us. It seems like we are constantly dealing with some form of adversity and challenge, but the problem is, we direct our entire attention and focus on it. We allow the issues of our circumstances to consume us. We are too busy concentrating on everything that is going wrong in our life, that we completely forget to look at the bigger picture, and realize that there is an incredible amount of positivity in our life. We are too busy playing the victim of our circumstance, that we completely forget to be grateful. There will always be adversity and challenge in our life, many of which will test our character like never before, but there are always blessings in our life also, we just choose not to focus on them, because we are too busy feeling sorry for ourselves. It's like how so many of us choose to focus on all what we don't have, such as a nicer house, a nicer car, nicer furniture, and more money, that we fail to appreciate all that we actually already have. Most of what we have, so many other people worldwide would die to have such blessings, but for too many of us, we never see it that way. Mindset is actually a choice. If we are feeling angry and frustrated, it's only because we make the choice to feel that way. We can choose to be happy, but that all depends on what we allow our mind to focus on, and that's where it comes back to control. If we are allowing ourselves to be angry, negative, disappointed, frustrated, bitter, resentful, and so on, then it highlights the lack of control we have over our mindset.

A couple of years ago, when my mother passed away, I really surprised myself. It was the moment I began to see the impact of what mindset training and personal development really does, and how it had strengthened me over the couple of years I had been doing it for, to that stage. Mum and I were really close, and it's fair to say I was your typical "mummy's boy" during my childhood. Naturally, when someone so close to us, someone so dear to our heart, someone we have known all our life, and someone whom we loved so much, passes away, we cannot avoid the emotions of sorrow and loss. It's only human to respond with tears, sadness, and heartache. I did cry at Mum's funeral, and on a couple of other occasions also, but overall, it was my mental strength that really got me through what was a very difficult and emotional time. I knew that Mum's passing was out of my control, I couldn't change what happened, therefore I directed my focus onto what I could control, which was to continue the pursuit of my goals. I couldn't simply allow myself to wallow in misery, drown myself in tears, and curse about life can be so cruel. I took control over my mindset and instructed it to continue remaining focused on achieving my goals, because life for me was to still go on, after all. It was a stark contrast to when my Dad passed away, 12 years prior. This was at a time where I had just relocated here to Tasmania, I had started a new and exciting life for myself, and all was going well, yet because I hadn't done any mindset training at that point in my life, I crumbled big time. Despite all the happiness in my life, I constantly cried time and time again for the next few months, following Dad's passing. I had no control over my emotions or mindset, which then left me in that state of loss and sorrow. It's no surprise that after that point, my life really went downhill, over the following few years.

The message today is that we are the ones that have control over our own mindset, but it comes back to if we choose to control it or not. Do we allow our circumstances and other people the right to negatively influence the way we feel, what we believe, what we desire, and what we think of, or do we take control of our mindset and refuse anyone or anything the space to negate our happiness, and our desire to achieve our goals? The choice is yours! You can choose to be happy, or you can choose to be angry, bitter, frustrated, and the like. The fact is, happiness is a positive emotion and will naturally generate positive results, whereby anger, frustration, bitterness, fear, doubt, pessimism, and so forth, are all negative emotions, which will naturally generate negative results. It's a pretty clear choice as to which option will create a better future for yourself. I couldn't think of a reason why we wouldn't want to be happy in life! If you find you cannot control your emotions, and you are easily influenced by other people and your circumstances, then invest some time daily into mindset training. There are plenty of course online that you can look into, but dedicate the time into strengthening your mind, because it is one of the most important assets you possess in life. Focus on your goals, be grateful for what you have, and help others in life. Three easy ways to add happiness and satisfaction to your life. Take control of your mind, and make the best choice, by choosing happiness in your life.

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