You have to get your Mind Right

If you want to win in life you have to get your mind right. When I make this statement I think about the movie entitled “Cool Hand Luke.” For those of you who don’t know, this movie was about a prisoner who was on a southern chain gang. Luke was the one convict who refused to conform to the established system. The warden had to tell Luke to get his mind right because he wouldn’t go along with the program.

Personally I believe that Luke had his mind right. He was his own man but the warden wanted him to be a different man. Luke had the support and admiration of the rest of the convicts but unfortunately they were not the ones who had the power. Luke turned out to be a marked man and the guards did all that they could to break him. He dug ditches and then filled them in. He was constantly harassed and harangued at every turn. The warden and the guards knew that he was the true leader of the group and they knew that he wasn’t going to go in the direction that they wanted him to go. They had to break him in front of the other prisoners so that they would all know who was boss.

Luke did well for a while but there was only so much that he could do. He took an enormous amount of punishment before he finally gave in. The guards made him their errand boy and ran him to death in front of all of the other prisoners. Eventually the true Luke came to the front and old habits resurfaced. He went right back to his old ways which really made the warden and the guards look bad. Luke made a decision which he knew would cost him his life but he stuck to it. It did eventually cost him his life but the point is that he stuck to his guns. He did not allow the situation to change his mind.

One of the other prisoners once told Luke that he thought it was brilliant that he had allowed the guards to think that they had broken him. Luke’s reply was interesting enough. He told the prisoner that they did in fact break him for a while. The point about me saying all that I just said is this; sometimes life will knock you on your rear end. We are only human so yes we can be broken. A broken man can recover. When you have been brought to the point of death and escaped it can only make you stronger. The thing that doesn’t kill you will strengthen you so that you can face greater future trouble.

Don’t lose your will to fight and succeed no matter what life manages to throw at you. Yes you will be hurt but don’t lose your focus.

Think success at all times. Read good material and think successful thoughts. Hang out around people who will reinforce positive beliefs. Drill success into your mind. The things of your subconscious will follow you and carry you in the time of adversity.

A martial artist practices his moves over and over. They become so much a part of his subconscious that when he is in the heat of battle he doesn’t have to think about how he is going to make the next move or all of the small nuances involved in each movement. They come naturally. The instilled habit takes over in time of distress. The person will automatically do what is right because the right thing has been there all along. Troops who go into battle will do what they have trained to do because they don’t know anything else. They will fall back on the things that they know. You need to program yourself in order to deal with life. Good things in mean good things out. Garbage in equals garbage out. The Good Life