Why Your Mind Matters Most
Have you ever paused to consider what makes the greatest difference in how your life will play out?
Is it where you live? What job you have? Whether or not you have children? How much money you make? The people in your life?
When it comes to creating the most happiness, fulfillment, and purpose in our lives, what has the greatest impact?
Most people believe that it is the big things that most influence happiness over the course of our lives. The events. The decisions.
The partner or spouse we choose, the career we pursue, the social networks we belong to, the house we live in. As a society, we are preoccupied with the external – achievement and the obtaining of personal possessions, the pursuit of material wealth. We think that happiness comes from outside of us. We think if we just do this one thing, we will finally be happy.
I want to let you in on a little secret.
All of the things that happen to you, your life circumstances, everything you accomplish or acquire in this life doesn’t matter nearly as much as one thing.
Your Mind. Your mind matters the most.
The mind is the most powerful resource you have. It creates your entire life.
The brain has close to 60,000 uncensored thoughts per day and for most of us, is running on autopilot. We aren’t aware of our thoughts because we have never really learned to pay attention.
Most of us have not trained our brains how to think, so it is programmed inadvertently. It’s busy thinking based on old patterns, habits, and stories we have told ourselves for many years. It can be really chaotic inside our minds.
We think our thoughts just happen to us because they feel so automatic and effortless. But they are 100% optional and entirely in our control.
Despite the importance of this, we never really learn how to manage our minds. We don’t learn about the power of our thinking. We don’t get an emotional education. We certainly don’t take any courses in learning to feel, process, and generate feelings.
But I am here to here to let you in on one simple, life altering truth - Everything in your life depends on your mind. Here’s why:
Your Mind Creates Your Experience.
You are the author of your own life. What kind of story are you telling? We experience our lives through our thoughts and emotions. We are constantly creating meaning in the things that happen. Something happens outside of you and your brain attaches meaning to it in the form a thought. Every time you have a thought, you have a feeling – which can either feel great or terrible. We usually think our feelings come from the world out there, but our feelings come from our thoughts. This is good news because it means that we don’t have to change anything to feel better. The point of our human life is not to be happy all of the time. Experiencing pain is part of the deal and terrible things can and do happen. But it is your mind that will create your experience when you experience loss, sickness, adversity. But often, we don’t know how to feel and process our emotions. All of the good feelings we desire most - these are created in our mind too. We don’t find happiness, fulfillment, joy outside of us. We create these emotions with our thinking. We experience everything through our minds. Life is an inside job. You have the capacity to look at anything in your life any way that you want, and this is the most powerful ability that you have.
Your Mind Creates Your Results.
What really drives you to do the things you do? Answer: Your Feelings. Everything we do or don’t do is because of how we feel - Feelings are much like the fuel in our tanks. Your feelings lead to your actions which lead to your results. And your mind controls it all - who you surround yourself with, what job you take, the goals you set, the routines and habits you establish, your mood, and what you create in the world. Your mindset and emotional health influence your physical health, spiritual health, and all of your relationships. A challenge for many of us is that we live at the effect of our lives. We think life is happening to us, so we live reactively, in response to what happens out there. We often do not grasp that we have such a hand in creating our lives. But the truth is, the moment we think we don’t have any power is the moment that we give it up. You can create anything you want in your life.
A Well Managed Mind Makes You a Better You.
Some people think that focusing on their own personal growth makes them selfish. It can feel like you’re going against the grain when you decide to invest in your own emotional health. This makes a lot of sense when we are socialized to think we should be focusing on taking care of everyone else (even at our own expense) and that our value is in what we can do for others.
But consider this: when your mind is managed, when the mental baggage is sorted, you have a greater capacity to show up more fully for your life, to connect with loved ones, and to contribute at a higher level. If you are preoccupied in your mind with worry, frustration, and doubt, you are so much less present, and way more self centered. You have less mental space to connect, solve problems and care for others. I want to offer that investing in your own mind is the least selfish thing you can do for yourself, for your loved ones, and for the world at large.
Our Mind is the Only Thing We Have 100% Control Over Anyways.
It’s as simple as that. But understanding this is the golden ticket to a better life. Because the mind controls our entire life experience. The truth is that we don’t have total control over what happens to us. We don’t have control over our past. We definitely can’t control what other people say or do. But we do have control over what we make these things mean. When we really get this, we can stop trying to change people or control things outside ourselves. We know that it is futile to try to manage the world and all of it’s happenings. We stop arguing with reality. We can let go of the past and the stories about ourselves that keep us stuck. When we focus back on what we can control – which is our thoughts, feelings, and actions – we reclaim all of our power.
Learning to manage your mind and deciding how to think on purpose is the secret to a better life. We need to grow beyond our current level of thinking if we want to evolve to our highest potential.
