Our mind is the puppet master of our lives. Every aspect of our lives, our thoughts, our actions, our decisions, our reactions(and the list goes on) are controlled by our minds. It is thus critical that we tune this engine(our mind) regularly to keep the automobile(our life) moving smoothly. By default our mind can do a bunch of things based on all that we have learned, our surroundings and the food we have fed it all through our lives. But for optimum performance, it is vital to empower and tune our minds. Empowering and tuning are not one-time activities that can be done and forgotten after. Our mind requires constant and continuous fodder to keep growing and shaping our lives. Follow these 5 tips to get your engine revving and racing ahead on a regular basis!
- Self-awareness: is the foundation of all empowerment activities. Knowing yourself – your likes, dislikes, your trigger points, your reactions, what gives you joy, what makes you unhappy, what cause fatigue, your physical capabilities, your mental limitations, being aware of that inner voice in your head and its general attitude to things, your risk taking abilities and so on. All these are channeled by our mind. Simon Sinek in his famous TED talk introduced the Golden Circle that enables us to act from the inside out, the way great leaders do. Watch Simon Sinek here. The concept is simple. Know Why you do/act something first before the How and the What. People connect to the Why of a person more than the What. And our brain is structured the same way. According to Simon, the outer layer of a cross section of our brain, is the neocortex that corresponds with the What and directly controls the rational and analytical aspects. The middle part is the limbic brain that takes care of trust and loyalty. This is the part of the brain that drives behavior and understanding the Why, helps us to connect with others and gut decisions stem from this part of the brain. Although Simon introduces this concept in the realm of sales and marketing, the concept very well applies to empowering ourselves. Knowing Why we want/do/act is a key part of our self-awareness. From this emanates the How and What of us.
- 5 am Club: Robin Sharma, a leadership expert and motivational speaker, urges people to be part of the 5 am club. He believes that waking up at 5 am every single day like clockwork, and spending an hour on ourselves, is a great technique to tune our minds. He recommends spending-the first 20 minutes on physical exercises,- next 20 minutes on activities like meditation, creative visualization, journaling, where you connect with your inner self and write down or meditate about your goals and visions,- and the last 20 minutes on reading empowering material like great books or articles or even listening to podcasts. For those who are not early risers and do not believe that the crack of dawn hours are their most productive, try to spend the first hour of your day(whatever time that may be) on these 3 20 minute blocks. Here are 5 tips from Robin that help you wake up early – http://www.robinsharma.com/blog/06/be-wise-early-rise/ Give it a try.
- Avoid mental fatigue: Our minds are constantly making decisions – from basic ones like cereal or waffle, should i jump the yellow light at the signal, dress or pants to high impact business decisions. The process of decision making does takes its toll on our mind. Fatigue does set in after a while and our efficiency at making decisions reduces. Great leaders are comfortable at making decisions and are able to stay sharp as they have mastered the process of tuning their mind.One of the vital lessons they follow is to reduce or eliminate basic decision making and the constantly exhausting ones. For example – if you have a chart indicating that on Mondays you eat cereal, that is a decision that you eliminate having to make on the Monday morning. Similarly, if you have laid out your work clothes the night before or set out work clothes for the entire week on Sunday night, that eliminates the need to make that basic decision on every work morning. If you have tuned your mind to believe that you never skip a yellow light, period, that is another decision eliminated for the million instance that you may be tempted to skip a yellow light.
- A common reason for mental fatigue is mulling over the pros and cons of a particular decision and the various permutations of that decision. What if i choose A, then X, Y, Z follow but if I choose B, then only L and M follow. But I want L and i want Z. and the loop continues. This analysis-paralysis state is extremely exhausting for your mind. Instead learn to get comfortable with whatever choice you make under the current circumstances with the information you have.
- Remind yourself that not everything is an A or B choice, it could be an A followed by a B later choice. Stand up and face the consequence of your decision.Sometimes the decisions we take may not produce the optimal outcome we seek, but the fact that we made the decision in itself is a huge leap. Do it first and then get it right is a motto that entrepreneurs follow. These very decisions that let us down may be the learning we need, and pave the way to outcomes better than anything we ever imagined.
- Economist Herbert Simon coined the phrase ‘satisficing’, where we settle for an adequate solution vs an optimal solution. This can tremendously help relieve the pressure of the analysis-paralysis syndrome. A similar concept that Malcolm Goldwell referred to in his book, Blink – of using “thin slicing” judgments and decisions based on minimal amounts of data and lifelong experience.
- Eliminating the need to constantly revisit decisions that are already made will also go a long way in reducing mental fatigue.
- Work: Surprisingly the work we do can also help in the tuning process. Spending about 30 minutes everyday on something that excites you, that you are passionate about and makes u feel alive, is beneficial. Even simple activities like reading, cooking, gardening, playing a musical instrument, indulging in whatever that you are passionate about, helps in changing gears. The physiological reaction in ur brain due to feeling alive functions as the daily tuning that we all need.
- Well-being: The benefits of exercising, a good sleep and nutritious diet and the impact it has on our brains has been written about immensely. In addition to physical well-being, lets not forget intentional mental well-being. Unlike the car engine, where the oil is changed once every months, we need to constantly ‘oil’ our minds with positive thoughts, mindfulness practices and love and gratitude. These 4 elements have caused miracles in people’s minds and thereby their lives when they truly immersed themselves in it.
There are plenty of reasons to avoid tuning and empowering our minds. But the benefits of empowering our minds outweighs these reasons hands down especially when we realize how much better our lives can be(in materialistic and non-materialistic aspects) due to a healthy and empowered mind. Let’s start empowering and tuning our minds today.
What practices have helped you in empowering and tuning your mind?
