Personal Development – Mission Very Possible!

Unfortunately, most people look at life through dark glasses and, consequently, everything looks gloomier than it should. This is normal because the normal mind is hard-wired to look at reality by filtering it through our conditioning and, in doing so, it is more likely than not that the mind will focus on negative rather than positive conditioning. This mental frailty is what is keeping your life on hold.

You have to change the way you look at the world and your place in it. However, I am not suggesting that you look at life through rose-tinted spectacles – this will prevent you from seeing possible pitfalls or warning signs. This attitude prevents people from knowing when to give up on something that is not working for them – whether it’s a toxic relationship, a floundering business or a particular career path. As such what is widely known as positive thinking or a positive mental attitude can be seriously dangerous and misleading, often leading to people fiddling while their very own personal Rome burns around them. Positive thinking often leads to the ultimate cop-out: “I’ll do nothing because I just know that things are going to get better!”

If you’re going to get your life moving in the right direction, something different, even innovative, is required. What I am suggesting is that you see life for what it is – the reality of the present moment. By focusing your mind on what is actually going on, instead of what you think is going on (having viewed things through those dark glasses of yours) you will be able to see the potential upside of an opportunity that you might altogether otherwise miss with your dark glasses on. Similarly, you’ll be alert to and aware of the potential downside of what you’re doing, intending to do or not going to do – something that you will not otherwise see if you’re looking through your rose-tinted glasses.

However, there is a problem. The reality and opportunity of the present moment can only be experienced, appreciated and capitalized upon if you by-pass your hard-wiring – something that doesn’t come naturally to the normal adult. But it came naturally to all of us as children when we experienced everything that was happening by using all of our five senses. Indeed it was that clear state of mind that enabled us to be conditioned in the first place. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to re-learn how to experience the here and now without putting your own personal spin or preconceived notions into the mix. You’ve got to take your conditioning out of the equation completely, take off your dark glasses and, as a result, you will stop making a nonsense of the present moment.

What does your mission involve? Well, you already have everything that you need for the adventure of a lifetime because all you have to do is come to your senses – and I mean that quite literally. You’ve got five of them – you need to start paying attention to what they are actually telling you. Seventy years of research in the field of psychology tell us that, as normal adults, we don’t pay a blind bit of attention to what our senses are actually telling us. Instead, our conditioning has lulled us into the false sense of security that we know best. We don’t – how could we, we’ve no perspective on the bigger picture of what life might actually have in store for us if we only took our blinkers off and opened our eyes.

Coming to your senses requires that you spend a little time every day, preferably first thing in the morning, training your mind to pay attention to what you actually see, feel, hear, smell and taste. Simply paying attention to the sensation means that you must simply notice and observe what’s going on without interpreting, without analysing and without jumping to your habitual conclusions. Although we could do this effortlessly as children, it doesn’t come easy to the normal adult. Your mind will wander, you’ll think useless thoughts like ‘this is useless!’ and you will get frustrated. As such, I would suggest that you start out by working on one sense at a time. For example, tomorrow morning, sit down somewhere where you won’t be disturbed for five or ten minutes, close your eyes and simply focus on what you hear – and take it from there.

What’s the point of such an apparently simple exercise? It trains your mind to experience, appreciate and understand what is actually going on, moment to moment, in your life by removing your preconceived notions that cloud your vision, lead to unhelpful reactive behaviour and result in you missing the opportunity of the moment. If you start each day with a little mental exercising, the whole of your day – and, ultimately, your life – will get going in the direction that you really, really want.