Fire up your mind to believe that you can achieve and that mentality will drive you to a successful life. Back it up with a strong and clear vision and you are on your way to big things
It’s the in-trend mental approach that is promoted and repeated everywhere especially social media.
It sounds so straightforward and has hooked millions into buying into the concept.
But that’s the problem right there. The modern fallacy that the fabulous flows from a mega mind base and is guaranteed to work wonders. This has been driven by the young cyber generation and their overnight belief that everything comes quick (like their Amazon order or Just Eat delivery).
I call this Internet Attitude.
See it, want it, order it, and it will appear like magic in a blink of any eye.
True success though isn’t born from purely scaling up your mind view and seeing lovely pictures in there. So people who buy into this fad are more likely to be ruining any chance of an elevated future by employing it.
And in the following five reasons I’ll reveal why.
1. You are following the crowd.
It seems crazy to say it but you don’t want success.
Well, you kind of do. Sure you want to experience a more expansive life BUT not some mega success version sold to you by others.
It’s a mass mentality term that attracts, well, masses of people. Just like the Law of Attraction did before that for those with extra spiritual beliefs. And very few of those ever attracted anything at all.
Don’t get caught up in hype.
An individual mindset remains independent from larger influence. It doesn’t just accept the broad message and promotion that too many people do. It operates singularly and so can’t be drawn into any mental scheme, marketing ploy, or even social media fakery.
Be true to your own mind, it knows what’s best for you and not any artificial success created mental manual.
Follow that if that’s your hearts desire and some form of success is going to show up in your life.
Cut out the crowd view, follow your own mental independence.
2. You lose yourself.
How can developing a Success Mindset ever be a bad thing?
Surely it can only improve the circumstances in your life? And give you a more robust mind in getting there?
You are not wrong there. I agree with you.
But, what comes with one thing brings another. Give up drinking for your health and lose a huge chunk of your social life and friends. Start going to the gym before work means being in bed much earlier to get enough sleep.
Like night follows day, nothing awesome comes without pitfalls.
The ones here are losing yourself to the headline goal of being a success. Your whole mental focus becomes this super end result point and life around you begins to blur.
Soon, and you never can put your finger on when, you lose yourself to this big escapade. It takes over and dwarfs anything else in your life relationships, relaxed down time, and simple pleasures.
Many a dream is won but the person you used to be has gone and soon it all can feel very hollow.
The Success Mindset has won and you have lost…..you.
3. You miss the real signs.
So, you’ve got this brand new mega mindset.
You are empowering yourself every day with upbeat thoughts and beliefs. A big vision for your future is right in there in the middle of it.
You can almost see it and touch it and each day you feel you are a step closer to that day when it all comes real. You have begun the journey to success.
And now the blinkers are on and all you can see is the shiny end life.
But that life may not be right for you.
You may have another greater destiny in you to fulfill that will truly make your life.
One that gives you everything inside and out. The clues to that are always there. They are often signposted in some way that those who take their time day by day spot and follow.
Not so the success sprinter looking fast forwards to the finish line and speeding past the true roads to self contentment.
A Success Mindset starts you on a journey. Remain open minded and ask yourself as you step on that road if there is another way to go somewhere special. Those answers, the situations that turn up, and the sense inside that tells you where your real direction lies if you don’t just aim and shoot for the moon are the signs you would be wise to read. They will take you where you need to go.
Have a mindset that looks for signs rather than success.
4. Simple is often where to find success.
As soon as you talk Success Mindset you think big things.
Success that isn’t a personal achievement but one that is lucrative, fame creating, and with a global reach. Or similar.
It has to be notable. It has to be formative. And your name has to be all over it.
It’s a top down dream. World level, first class is the starting point. But why?
Why can’t something simple be a big success too that doesn’t demand a mega mindset?
Simple will never, ever go out of fashion. To this day, even in these super cyber futuristic times, we still love and seek out simple things that make our lives better, freer, time saving, relaxed etc.
Or help create something different or to stand out like colourful doggy glasses!
Simple is the powerful solution because it usually comes with heaps of customers and remains in use for some time.
Simple lasts and is the real success.
5. It’s a Self Mindset that you need.
It’s true that to elevate your life requires a mindset change.
A thought process that fuels stronger beliefs and actions that lead to improved life change.
The current trend on reading the last sentence is to state…that’s a Success Mindset!! An automatic link between the two has been formed in many minds on this.
To me, that’s not accurate. Or even wise.
A Success Mindset may not suit you. It may not even be you. You might not be empowered through that. So, what would get you self improving across the board?
Follow the Self Mindset.
This a mindset that revolves around knowing and celebrating who you are. It takes the necessary time to find out about yourself and honour all they want to experience, follow, and feel free being part of.
As that person explodes in you success is a natural step away. It will simply come out of you as another form of you and represent who you are in some or many ways in what you create, share, offer, or become.
Choose you, think what you means and live in that skin and keep that mindset every day.
Accept yourself and live yourself and the Self Mindset will draw a success into your orbit that perfectly matches that one off soul.
Success is being yourself and letting your mind love it.
The Famous Five.
There you go. Forget being famous.
Follow these famous five instead. Your best reasons not to embed a Success Mindset that isn’t your get quick happy life mental program.
Success isn’t for everyone especially in the mind. It’s not a perfect use of our heads even if it sounds sexy and superb.
There are better places to go mentally that are far more useful for you anyway.
Because success mindsets may often mean no success at all.
Wherever we turn, wherever we look, there is some element of living pressing down right in front of our face and our mind. It’s like we can’t get away from everything piling up on us. We become heavy headed and overloaded.
This is the modern experience of the average person. Life has become highly stressful, costly, draining, hyper fast, and increasingly out of control.
What used to be called not seeing the wood for the trees. We can’t see the obvious because all the small details are demanding our attention.
What we really need is perspective.
Step back, head away.
Perspective is something few ever practice, or even know how to do.
But it’s a powerful tool that when you get the hang of it turns into a mental art that creates a balanced life.
How often, when you are separated from a difficult situation for a short while, do you see it differently? Take a Christmas break. It reminds you of what counts and then suddenly all the hassles you think mean everything, count as nothing. You change how you view what’s going on as if the clouds have cleared from your mind.
But, you can’t wait for Christmas or a two week holiday in the sun to gain a true picture of your current life.
Waiting for one or two chances per year to escape what swamps you, won’t unswamp you for too long. You will soon be in the very same environment not long after and it will all start again.
You need to build in regular perspective into your schedule.
If you can commit to watching Netflix or hours on end on social media, you can’t argue that you haven’t got the time. If you truly want to get a grip on having a stronger mental state, you have to make room in your weekly timetable.
Here’s how to add it to your life.
Perspective in action.
Perspective WILL change your outlook on life.
But only if you commit to it. It’s like eating healthy for a month then giving up and wondering why you have put on so much weight and feel sluggish. Doing some or many of the following will keep perspective alive in your mind. And that will help you avoid being mentally anxious and in a fog all the time.
Some perspective gaining options –
Do more hours of nothing – just soak in the bath, a long walk 2 or 3 times a week, have lie downs and just reflect. No devices or anything to focus on.
Arrange short breaks – not to cities or fun places but to somewhere quiet where you can switch off and just take in the scene. Places to get away from it all even for a few days.
Have removal weekends – once a month remove one regular activity or chore from your to-do list. Block off pure chill time for mellow music or for chats with family and friends.
Stop hurting your mind – cut out watching news and gossip and social media with their negative horror stories of the world. And check out your TV viewing preferences for how often you watch dark thrillers, murder mysteries, and tense psychological dramas.
Get offline – put your phone down!! It’s got you addicted wasting your time and feeding it with drivel and nothing that adds to your life. You won’t die or miss anything if you hide it for a few hours per night.
There is a phrase that says, ‘the choice is yours’. And despite what people may say and think, most of our life is our choice. We choose to NOT do plenty of those listed above and complain how damaging life is today.
But if we chose instead to bring perspective back, we’d have a better relationship with that same life. And our future. Plus give us back the mental power we have given away.
Perspective shows you the life you are living, not the one you think you are.
Perspective is power. It’s art itself. It’s mental mastery.
Estimates say the average person has at least 6,000 per day. This equates to 6 per minute during our waking hours.
That’s a whole bunch of thoughts going round our mind.
But not just our mind as those same thoughts also affect our body.
If you feel nervous you can experience a bad stomach. If you are really stressed, headaches are common. Or if you are mentally tense your muscles and back can tighten right up.
Our mind is the key to what we think and therefore what our body also receives.
Thinking can damage our bodies but also damage our beliefs about ourselves. Double damage. They are that powerful. Powerful enough to be killing our potential and worse still…
Our thoughts could be killing us.
Crazy thoughts making us crazy too.
Having big dreams often makes others think we are crazy.
You say you want to claim Everest or be a pro tennis player and they will laugh at you. They seem a long shot but are totally plausible if phenomenally difficult to pull off. After all, others has shown it can be achieved so why can’t you achieve it?
But the true realms of the crazy are when our thoughts don’t warn us strange things are, if not dangerous, downright insane.
One famous person in history suffered from this warped mindset. And he was crazy because it was even in his name.
In 1850’s America the white settlers had begun spreading across the country looking for gold and resources as well as individuals wanting land for their own homestead. This brought them into contact and conflict with the indigenous native Americans. One tribe who we are greatly impacted were the Lakota and one young brave member who saw the white man’s brutality first hand.
When he witnessed the murder of chief Conquering Bear by troops from Fort Laramie at the age of 14, he had visions in his sleep that he was meant to lead and protect his people. He also believed that he could not be killed in battle if he didn’t wear the full tribal regalia or take any war trophies. This instilled in him a mindset of invincibility that death would not claim him until he was an aged elder.
His name was Crazy Horse.
He aligned with other tribal leaders and spearheaded many raids on settlers and soldiers for twenty years. It looked like his belief was proving to be true. Until it wasn’t. One day in 1877 after an arrest a fight ensued and Crazy Horse died from bayonet wounds to his kidneys.
Perhaps one of the most famous deaths from a wrong belief.
Historically wrong.
Humanity has a habit of bad beliefs.
There are a number of other stories of well known figures who experienced an untimely end due to their own thinking.
The 16th Century scientist and statesman Sir Francis Bacon was convinced snow could preserve meat. On one snowy day travelling through Highgate he stopped to buy a hen from a local trader which he stuffed with snow believing the cold within the snow would keep the meat fresh. He often spent time out in the snow to study the subject. But he spent so much time outside it lead to pneumonia and his death.
The great American dancer Isadora Duncan had a certain belief that ended in her unusual passing. She was a proponent of free movement and expression and believed that her fashion sense should reflect that. She took to wearing very long scarfs as her ‘look’. One day while riding in a car he scarf caught in the rear wheels pulling her from the vehicle and breaking her neck.
And of course you have read the ancient stories about Icarus and King Canute whose beliefs were as crazy as they come.
It still goes on today from hobbies to lifestyle choices to wanting to be famous on social media.
But there is one way our minds can kill us that anyone and everyone can suffer from!
Mind related malaise.
Life today is as pressured as ever.
From the frenetic pace of things to demanding schedules. From busy workloads with lack of time to the never ending expense of bills, we are peppered with much to fret over. If it’s not the daily toil it’s the worry of everything falling apart that hangs heavy on our minds.
And that creates one big end result – Stress (which I have written about before in SuperMind Saturday).
Stress is when mental pressure gets filtered into the body. And so our ability to handle stress is also our ability to keep ourselves healthy. If we believe we can’t handle what we are about to do or have to face, stress results and the body suffers.
Typical health effects of not managing it are – bad sleep, irritability, muscle tension, depression, skin complaints, raised blood pressure, heart palpitations and worse.
So, if our beliefs aren’t positive and resilient enough, the effects can acutely harm our health, and as witnessed by many hospitals, actual death from prolonged exposure can result.
This is called ‘stress related’ but I think a more accurate term would be Mind Related Malaise.
The mind has believed something the wrong way that the body has negatively taken the full force of.
Our mind has become a killer.
A balanced brain.
So, what should you conclude from this?
To never follow big dreams and let absolutely nothing that bothers you get to you?
That would be equally crazy. We need to have higher goals that push us to get the best out of who we are. And we can’t protect ourselves from the tests life throws us. To destroy both is to almost stop living and kill life itself.
One of the greatest abilities is what we should aim for. Getting a balance between the two.
To be able to push on for better while not letting our beliefs about what we encounter to adversely touch us.
The ultimate mindset, yes, but one to, well, keep in mind.
Because what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.
We just have to work on it not being our minds that do the killing.
Reference – Queens University Gazette – Discovery of ‘thought worms’.
History.co.uk – Who Was Crazy Horse?
allthatsinteresting.com – The Strange Deaths of Historic and Famous People.
Five thoughts, ideas, insights, or quotes to power up your mind to think differently and creatively about life and who we are. Put all previous thinking away and open up a brand new world of the Supermind. YOUR SuperMind.
This week – Reality.
What a complex world we have created. Life used to be one reality – the world as we saw and lived day to day. That’s no longer our experience. The cyber and technological age has spawned multi realities of every type. Added to this the online world shares every type of moving image and picture that makes reality hard to pin down. Reality has risen towards the top of issues that increasingly bother us. Which means SMS has to delve in and make some observations and ask some questions.
1. Where does reality begin?
You walk along the street. Perhaps visit some local shops. You then go out for a quiet meal and a nice drink with your partner. And then return home to your suburban house or apartment in your nearby neighbourhood. But then you switch on the TV news or watch some social media. This paints a very different picture of reality. Historically your experience was the general reality. Now in the global reality world maybe it’s outdated. Maybe what we watch on our TV’s and mobile phones is closer to the real thing. We have become clouded and confused.
Where is ‘actual’ reality these days? Where do we begin to find it?
2. Making reality about fame.
In the early 1970’s the BBC were the first to broadcast a reality show. It was called The Family. A fly-on-the-wall documentary series that followed the Wilkins family in their everyday lives. It was total reality; a real working class family in their real situations. Well, today it couldn’t be more different. Back then it was down to earth people in their basic normal experiences. Now it’s some celebrity (every viewer has never heard of some of them) doing stupid stunts or in some exotic place that is far from reality for 99.9% of the planet’s population.
Is reality being turned into only a famous way of living?
3. New reality isn’t real at all.
Reality used to be ON the planet. Living on the streets type style that many graft through rather than the Belle Air set and similar. Life as IT IS. But we are living in technological times that has spawning cyber influences. The under 30’s have, in effect, grown up with TWO worlds. The physical and the online. The mortal on Earth, and the eternal one in the cybersphere. More and more are viewing reality as simply the other worlds they want to play and explore on. Everyday reality is being rejected as harsh, boring, drab, and only 2D. They live in a multi dimensional one.
Have many people rejected reality as we always knew it?
4. Reality or fantasy?
Take a look at both examples above. One glamour and luxury. The other computer formed and cyber driven. Both are not reality in the sense of the true human world. The lines have become blurred between actual reality and elements of fantasy. Sure, it’s fun to be in a computer simulated game where you act as a billionaire and play to grow your riches. It’s also cool to see celebs dating on a sun kissed shore or making money doing a boot camp and thinking that could be you too. Yes, it’s not difficult to imagine that. But that’s not ever a likely reality.
Are too many caught up in fantasy that they believe can be a reality?
5. Reality too hard to deal with.
With all of the above growing it’s clear that escapism is what many are seeking. To exist in a different way in some cyber world or dream of the high life as a well known personality. Life has become stressful, uncertain, and worrying. Since the 21st Century began we have faced financial credit challenges, a world pandemic, and constant costs of living increases. Nothing good seems to surface. Given that, real daily life is far from inspiring. Any type of alternative appeals far more. We need to get away from the times we live in because….
Has our daily reality become too hard to deal with?
OK, that’s another SuperMind Saturday done. Thank you for being here for the SuperMind time. Keep thinking about these. We need more minds thinking about this issue and the others issue on SuperMind Saturdays. Why? Because it’s needed. Because the world requires new thoughts and ideas. Perhaps YOURS!!
See you next time for more super thinking.
Photo attributions – free to use under Pixabay Content License by BrianPenny and Riki32 and Yamu_Jay.
From the never ending price increases of everything to war and abuse everywhere, we feel unsafe, not secure, and under threat from every corner.
The place this hits home most of all is in our minds. Our mental centres have to process every element that we are seeing, hearing and experiencing and they are often crammed and overloaded.
In turn this makes our mental strength wane. We lose the ability to feel good about life and are weaker at dealing with events and circumstances. And that tends to register as a huge negative. The message to our minds is a clear warning that we are losing it. We are caught in a struggle and believe mentally that we won’t be able to cope.
Well, as someone who has been there over 25 years ago when mental health wasn’t as important as it is today, I can tell you that this is untrue.
In fact, it was the other way round. That’s because my mental frailties only existed because I wasn’t aware of the good news caught up in the seemingly failing mindset. As they say, if I knew then what I knew now I wouldn’t have been sacred, I would been very encouraged.
That’s what I’m going to do for you. If you’re feeling scared about your current mental tests, read on. I’m going to share the 5 MAJOR reasons why this could be the start of a great mindset for you.
So, here the fab five for your mind if it’s currently a bit out of shape!
1. There is nothing wrong with you.
When I experienced my own mental health struggle I had just been through an extreme time.
I was in my twenties and my father suddenly passed away. Soon after I lost my prized job in sport, money and income became hard, and my partner left me.
Now, that can tip many people over the edge.
With such a rollercoaster of emotions, especially painful ones, it’s natural to lose your way. But, this is totally natural. Feelings of hurt and happiness always partner us through life. Sometimes it’s sunshine, other times it’s rain. Sometimes feeling great, the next feeling pain.
I say this because I personalised my difficulties. Everything that happened to me was either my fault, or I contributed to it. In short, I felt that it was payback and there was something wrong with me. Or, more precisely, I was wrong in every way and I deserved it.
As the years passed I understood that this was BS. I just couldn’t accept things happen and they happen to good people as much as bad. It’s called life and life brings its ups and downs. So don’t get down on yourself. It’s nothing to do with you. You’re not going mental and you’re not mentally flawed (after all a hassled head may save your life).
There is NOTHING wrong with you as a person!
2. Life throws curve balls.
Remember when you were young and you thought life would be amazing?
Yeah, me too. Almost all of us did.
We really knew nothing of the world. Our parents had pretty much sheltered us from its harsh reality. And then we went out into that reality. We soon learnt that the dream was never how actual life was.
Sure, the first four or five years were exciting. Got a job, got some money in our pocket, got a few partners, and got some fun going on. Hey, this is only going to get better and better.
But soon schooldays got left behind and adult days took over. There was no protection anymore that our parents provided. We had to deal with the full face of swimming for survival ‘out there’. Job was no fun, underpaid and stressful. Break ups with partners were par for the course. The party atmosphere was over and true life started throwing even more for us to juggle with.
That’s what life is best at. Chucking stuff at us we just weren’t prepared for.
Stuff that throws us off.
Life is full of curve balls that play with our heads.
3. It shines a light where it needs to be shone.
We tend to live life on automatic.
The modern human doesn’t have to worry about dinosaurs or marauding invaders from other tribes every day like our ancestors. Our concerns revolve around our traffic jammed commute, email inbox at the office, or paying the spiralling utility bills.
Today our mind focuses on these and not any other study of our lives. Our ancients had to check if their spears or axes were sharp enough. We just check if we have a good broadband speed.
Therefore we tend to live on repeat. A kind of mental Groundhog Day. And that’s when we drop the ball.
We give our attention to a narrow few elements in our life and ignore many others.
That’s where mental struggle comes in. It finds our blind spots and weak points and shines one big light on them to highlight where we’ve taken our eye off the ball. And this light blinds us in the mind with our personal headaches of issues that keep cropping up.
Issues that say ‘you are getting depressed about putting on weight’ or ‘you have no social life because your job you hate is consuming all your time’. Big clues aren’t always easy to spot. Mental struggles assist in this.
They switch on a lightbulb in us at what needs fixing.
4. It encourages you not to do life alone.
Most of us don’t like to trouble others with our problems.
We keep them to ourselves for feeling foolish or failing in the eyes of those around us in our lives. And so these problems fester and grow and begin becoming big trouble themselves. We even keep our mental difficulties from our partners and closest friends.
This is the perfect breeding ground for mental struggles to thrive. With no outlet or comfort we lose perspective and this magnifies our struggles even further.
As such our failing mental health is down to a failing to allow others to support us and care.
Us humans love sharing the good times but baulk at sharing the load when it’s heavy within us. If we could break that behaviour, we could all deal with our mental weights far better, not to mention quicker.
Truth is others would love to be there for us. They would readily be by our side to help us figure out what’s ailing us. Plus show their love and loyalty so we can overcome the sources of our mental pushes. Only our misplaced pride is getting in the way.
While some can go further into their shell at such periods of pressure, if we can recognise they can be a call to share what’s on our mind, we can build a stronger mindset that isn’t holed by life. Because, we are not meant to live life alone.
A good head often comes with letting a good friend help.
5. They give you boundaries.
When is enough, enough?
Often that’s a question we don’t ever ask ourselves so we never know a rational answer.
Instead we plough on with our lives doing this and that, pulled this way and pulled that, until we finally can’t take anymore. Traditionally it was called burnout but it’s been called many things from hyper exhaustion to a breakdown.
Whatever the definition or label attached, it still typifies that we push on regardless past sensible stop points. Signs that point to our schedule being too full, our energy levels too used up, our mental calm too destroyed, or our bank balance too low.
We didn’t heed the pointers that were clearly there.
But, constant mental struggles when seen from a bigger picture bring almighty feedback.
They show you the boundaries that you have crossed on the way to mindset mayhem. Trace back and you can identify certain moments when you should have stopped, said no, cut back spending etc etc.
If you can do this without self blame or guilt you will be on your way to a kind of lifestyle upgrade that ends up with a better mind as well. Boundaries are there for a reason. Being able to act with reason means you won’t cross them again. You will also have specific trigger points in your awareness that, if they ever pop up again, will warn you where you are.
Boundaries take us from one place to another.
And mental struggles provide us with alarms that we have reached those boundaries.
If ever there was a reason.
So, if ever there was reason to not be scared of mental struggles, here they are.
Not just one, but five that can give you back full mental control. And with that a real sense of the sun shining into your life again.
And do they work, really work?
Well, as I said at the start of this blog post that I went through deep mental trials of my own decades go. These 5 were what I created to get back my best mental state and to return to life to thrive.
Thrive so successfully that any mental intensity has hardly touched me or holed my life again.
And there’s the main reason why you shouldn’t be sacred of mental struggles either!
Please note – this post is for people who are beginning to experience mental tiredness and mild anxiety with everyday issues and challenges. If you have suffered from mental health issues for many weeks and months, please seek qualified medical health and support to help you aid recovery!!
