Last month I talked about consciousness, or more precisely, the wider populaces’ lack of appreciation of it. This month my intention is to encourage you to proactively explore it.
The rationale behind my suggestion is based on my discovery that our state of mind governs our capacity, and thus the amount of our potential available to us. Therefore the key to your advancement is knowing how to improve your mind-set, or more importantly, how to create a highly appropriate mind-set in order to access your true potential.
Improving one’s state of mind requires far more than just trying to think positively as many imagine. To give you an example, why is it 90% of all elite athletes competing in the modern era fail to produce a personal best at a major competition even though the vast majority believe 95% of the equation is psychological? In other words, why do so many of our best athletes fail to excel even though they understand the importance of the mental game and spend a good portion of their time trying to improve it?
I believe the answer to the above is due to the fact most elite athletes are unaware mind-set ‘governs’ performance even though the majority believe mind-set ‘influences’ performance. However, if we are serious about succeeding, it is critical we identify the difference. Failing to do so will only prolong the agony for unbeknown to us our state will remain the perpetual inhibiting factor - even though we may indeed remain positive.
If you were to arrive at the conclusion, as I did many years ago, that the results you achieve are nothing more than a by-product of your thoughts (determined by your state of mind), you will be more inclined to take responsibility for creating an appropriate state in order to produce ‘appropriate’ thoughts. To achieve this however, you must become ‘aware’ of your own state of consciousness. Needless to say, to experience a fundamental change in awareness (consciousness) requires a dramatic shift in interest.
While it may sound derogatory, I have found the vast majority of the human population are virtually oblivious as to the quality of their psychological state – hence the reason the majority spend their lives ‘hoping’ for something better than what they’ve got. Having researched this subject in depth for as long as I have, I believe every one of us has the potential to create a profound improvement in our psychological state, and thus experience a profound improvement in our performance and overall results.
How can we improve our state?
The simple answer is to take the time to observe your thinking. In other words, to make a conscious decision to become interested in the quality of your thoughts in order to give yourself the opportunity to understand how they affect you, your performance and your impending results. This exercise is intended to firm up the obvious although rarely understood connection between your thoughts, feelings, actions and results. As you become mindful of the link, you will notice the results you experience (achieve) are consistent with the quality of your thoughts and overall state of mind.
Becoming aware of this phenomenon tends to be the necessary catalyst to cause people to become increasingly interested in the idea of creating appropriate thoughts. In other words, rather than just thinking ‘positively’ as many advocate, it is infinitely wiser to learn how to think ‘appropriately’ and thus deliberately and decisively.
What this means in practice is you, the master of your own destiny, need to create the capacity to think and entertain thoughts that will enable you to achieve your goals/objectives. For example, if a person wanted to become a world champion, they need to learn how to think like a world champion – not for the purpose of trying to cause others to believe they could be, but to ensure they act and behave in a way that ‘will’ enable them to do what is required to ‘become’ a world champion.
World swimming champs
Moss Burmester clocked a new New Zealand record of 1.54.15 at the world qualifying champs in Christchurch last month breaking his previous record and swimming the fastest 200m butterfly in the world this year. Moss also qualified in the 100m fly and 400m freestyle
Glenn Snyders, one of the country’s talented up-and-comers also impressed, swimming the 2nd fastest 100m breaststroke in the world this year as well as making the qualifying time in the 200m.
Corney Swanepoel who, like Glen Snyders, has recently joined our elite athlete development programme, swam superbly breaking the New Zealand record in the 100m butterfly meaning he too secured his place at the world championships in Rome in July.
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