Some ten years ago I read a book “Using your brain for a change” by Richard Sandier. In the book there was a quote about how our brain works. I read it several times with my eyes open wide and thought: „Why did no one tell me that before?! The quote was: „Your brain is like a machine without an „off „switch. If you don’t give it something to do, it just runs on and on until it gets bored. If your brain is sitting around without anything to do, it’s going to start doing something, and it doesn’t seem to care what it is. You may care, but it doesn’t“.
Disappointment needs adequate planning
At the time I was disappointed with my own job, with my salary, with the injustice of this world and my brain was so well wired to help me stay in that state. One of the sentences I was constantly telling myself was: “I cannot stay focused and I lack discipline. It seems that there is nothing I can do about it”. How many of you have had a similar experience? On the other hand I mastered the discipline of disappointment to the highest level.
Really, if you think about it, disappointment requires adequate planning. In order to be disappointed, you have to know what you want and how things should work and you have to compare that picture to what happens in reality. Literally, each time you have to disappoint yourself. And disappointment is in most cases about ourselves. Even if we say we are disappointed in someone else, we are usually disappointed in our choices, our reactions and the results we got or didn’t get. Also, disappointment brings within a lack of faith. It is hard to be enthusiastic and disappointed at the same time. Try it and you’ll see how hard it gets!
We are all creatures of habits
On the other hand, we are all creatures of habits. Our habits can help us heal or help us kill ourselves. We all know how bad it is for our health to drink too much, eat too much or take drugs. Nevertheless, in this particular moment millions of people around the globe are doing exactly this. How does that happen? If you let your brain do what it learned to do, in order to help you save energy, it will follow an old well known path. You may care, but it doesn’t.
What most of us used to forget is that no matter how our brain works, it is still our brain and we can do a lot of things to help the brain find a direction. And your brain needs a direction.
If you are not present, it will take you to the lala land of infinite possibilities, that doesn’t have to be necessarily good for you. It will disappoint you easily. Each of us has at least one experienced that feeling of not knowing, “where did our day go”. Your brain went to autopilot and you just didn’t realize what happened. It is not a problem if we waste our day, but it becomes a problem if we waste our lives.
Each day we have a choice. Success needs adequate planning
Nevertheless, it is good to know that each day we have a choice. We can choose to be disappointed or we can choose to do something about it. We can choose to let other people and our brain direct our lives, or we can choose to be captain of our ship. Success, as well as disappointment needs focus and adequate planning. If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there and nobody can help you.
Successful and happy people don’t leave their life out of their hands. They have faith and are focused on the opportunities rather than on limitations. Also, they have a habit to think and live their success.
It is weird, but it seems like success is more habit than virtue. In the beginning it is like learning to drive a car. You have to drive carefully, look at the signs for a right direction and do all this little things to get from the point A to the point B. But, if you do it on a daily basis, it becomes a habit. That is why some people are successful in many areas and others just cannot do it.
Habits of highly successful people
Here are some habits of highly successful people:
- Believe in yourselves. You are always more then you think you are.
- Set goals, make plans and be de terminated to make them work.
- It matters how you start and finish your day. Introduce daily practices that will help you stay focused. You can meditate in the morning, visualise the day you want to have and focus on the things you want to do that day. Before going to sleep summarize your day, be grateful, learn from it and put all the unfinished business beside you, because you deserve rest and good sleep.
- If your plans don’t go in the right direction, stay open-minded. There’s always another way to do it — a way that may very well be better. Be flexible. If evolution has taught us anything, it’s this: those who adapt the fastest and most efficiently are those who survive.
- Surround yourselves with people that support you on your hero’s journey and will help you learn and grow. Never stop learning and growing.
- Say “no” when you have to without feeling guilty. You have to say no to things that are not good for you in order to be able to say yes to yourself and your life.
- Don’t complain. If the situation can’t be changed and you can’t avoid doing what you have to do, then there’s no reason to complain; it only weighs on your nerves.
- Take care of your body – exercise regularly and keep well-balanced diet. You are what you eat.
- Take care of your mind. Meditate and learn to control your breathing. Also, read regularly. It’s the quickest way to learn how the world works.
- Focus on the moment. You can live only in present moment. All others doesn’t count.
- Learn to make decisions, even if it means to take some risks. Don’t wait too long and don’t let your fear stop you.
- Accept constructive criticism, grow and learn from it.
- Accept that you will always have haters – learn to ignore them.
- Learn from your mistakes and see challenges as an opportunity for growing.
- Respect others and expect respect in return. We are all equal and should all be treated kindly and respectfully.
Start today. Take your life into your own hand. Plan your success. Let your brain be your ally. Don’t disappoint yourself!