Understanding How the Mind Works

We are all products of our environments. Don't take that the wrong way though. This isn't where I give you an opportunity to make an excuse or blame others for where you are in life. There are certain influences in life that we cannot control, which is basically everything preceding our 18th birthday. We cannot control who we are related too, we cannot control the religious beliefs that we were brought up on and we cannot control what school system we go through. However when you understand how your mind produces the thoughts that drive the actions to where you are at on your 18th birthday, you can determine the rest of your life and how long it takes to get there.

A friend of mine has always said that you are in life a combined total of the books you've read and the people you've associated with for the past five years. He has told me if you want to know where you'll be five years from now, just look at your bosses life and if you don't change anything that will be you. That was enough of a wake up call for me to realize that I needed to change some things in my early 20's.

Most people never take the time to understand how they got to where they are, mainly because they have not developed and defined a vision for where they want to go. Only when you have a clear defined goal of what you want, what you are willing to do to acquire it, and when you would like to acquire it by will you achieve that goal. The mind is capable of processing millions of thoughts a second. The key to moving on in life is putting as many thoughts about what you are trying to accomplish in your mind at one time.

5 basic steps to getting your mind right.

1) find someone who is where you want to be and is willing to help you get there. This may not be an easy task, but when you accomplish this you are already over halfway there. I'll take knowledge from understanding over knowledge from theory any day of the week.

2) Control your thoughts- take an inventory of what you take into your mind on a daily basis. What is positive and what is negative. Some negative could be the news, tv shows, bad movies, the newspaper, a miserable relative (sometime the people who hold us back the most are the very people that need us the most), the radio. Successful people don't watch TV unless the end result of what they watch gets them closer to success.

3) Manage what you put into your mind- Work with the person who you found in step 1 to develop a study habit. Find books and audio material that reinforce your goals. If you have just a 30 minute drive to work each way every day, based on a 2000 hour work year, that is the equivalent of 250 hours of either negative of positive input into your brain. Take the time you have to train yourself and study and you'll earn the equivalent of a masters degree in just five years of commuting to work. The difference is you can control the knowledge to assure that its applicable.

4) Manage your association- There are only two types of people that you should associate with on the road to success. People who believe you will succeed and support you and people who want to come with you. Everyone else will steal you're dream if you let them. Now I'm not saying to avoid family or relatives or old friends, but I am saying until you develop the strength so that you rub off on them and they don't rub off on you avoid negative association.

5) Develop positive self talk- Learn to build yourself up by repeating positive self talk. There are several great books on this subject, I recommend reading the chapter "autosuggestion" in Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

All three pillars must be strong for the structure of your life to maintain stability while growing. Apply what I have included in here and you are on your way to a sound mind.