How to become the master of your mind | Be the 1%
How to become the master of your mind?
My roommate is on a quest; as he said, I will not become the slave of my mind; rather, my mind will become the slave of mine.
I guess he was talking about his conscious and unconscious mind.
Of course, everyday we do things we don’t want to do, everyday we skip things that we should do, and most of all, there are some activities, despite bad consequences, we fail to stop doing it.
People call them bad habits or addiction, but if you are the master of your mind, no power in the world can make you do things that you do not wish to do.
This article will tell you how to become the master of your mind.
1. Living with virtue
There is no lucky or unlucky.
There is no ‘god doesn’t love me’ in this world.
There is only ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.
You are responsible for your life, and only you will be responsible for your wealth, success, misery, and failure.
It’s simple, you do the right thing everyday, and stop worrying about the outcome.
The only thing you need to do is live with your virtues.
But, it is not as simple as it sounds.
Living with your virtues reflects your true self.
Your true self always wants the good of you. Your true self wants to progress in life because that’s the basics of a human being.
To live a good life.
Your true self wants to file the tax on time; your true self wants to eat healthily, wants to have good relationships, success, and freedom.
But, we don’t reflect our true selves all the time.
We waste time doing unproductive things, eating junk food, gambling, watching pornography, and a lot of video games.
We know what right most of the time is, but we still don’t do it as if some unseen force stops us from doing it.
Doing the right, not only in good times but also in bad times, builds your character, which is what living with your virtues is.
It’s living with your true self from moment to moment in your life.
This will give you internal happiness that you cannot find in any kind of pleasure.
But, how to live with your virtues?
How can you do the right thing at the right moment?
How to become the master of your mind?
2. Security and Outcome
Since childhood, we have been taught to run after results and security in life.
From school to sports, we are forced to focus on our results and have a better life.
Whatever we did, we did it for a good life.
This mindset continued till now, and if we do anything, we do it to secure our future.
We got so involved in this result-oriented approach that we forgot to focus on the process.
Result and security in life are external events that are not in our control.
You may work hard for something and still fail to achieve it; again, you may not work hard, but still, you can have it.
It happens everyday in our society.
The result you are running after, like health, wealth, or the one you love, is not up to us.
This is something you cannot control.
Once you accept this, you are one step ahead to become the master of your mind.
The thing you can control is the process, which is right now in the present.
You can go for a run right now to have better health.
But, you are not running because you want that outcome; no, you cannot continue for long with that mindset.
You are running because it is the right thing to do.
You don’t care what the outcome will be; you don’t even know if you will live tomorrow; those things are beyond your control.
You only know that you can run now, which is in your control.
This concept is hard to understand until you stop caring for security in your life.
Who knows if your tomorrow will be better or worst.
Why don’t you leave it for tomorrow then?
The key to mastering your mind is focusing on the process.
It is always the process that makes the difference.
3. Judgment
Your judgment regarding external events can make or break your character.
Sometimes a minor setback can be detrimental for some, and sometimes a major setback can be a new challenge for others.
It is always the obstacle that strengthens our character.
It is always the obstacle that shows our way to a better life.
But, most of us become disheartened and curse God for being so unlucky.
Of course, there are severe setbacks like losing your loved ones or losing all your wealth, but that doesn’t stop the flow of the universe.
Your life will keep moving forward.
It is up to you to move forward after failing in your final examination or failing to get that promotion or job.
Perhaps, the thing that seemed bad for such a long time is good for you.
The problem is not the problem itself; it is our opinion regarding that problem is the problem.
If you want to grow your character rapidly, start welcoming obstacles in your life.
4. Awareness
There is an enjoyment in learning stuff.
It is always enjoyable when you focus on the process and not the outcome because when you focus on the process, you start to live in the present.
But, we often miss the present, thinking about the future or worrying about securing our future.
Our minds automatically crave our safety. It constantly searches for threats and opportunities for our survival.
This is the natural mindset of a human being.
Based on this mindset, all the commercials like mutual funds, secured jobs, life insurance, and other businesses have been established.
The problem occurs when we become too focused on securing our future that the present becomes unenjoyable.
You only do something because that will contribute somehow to secure your future.
This mindset will lead you nowhere and only create unhappiness and worry in your life.
To be truly happy and successful, you need to break free of this mindset so that the present becomes more important than the probable future.
When you start enjoying the process, you are already in the zone, and when you are in the zone, you keep working because you feel like working.
The constant progress will obviously lead to better results.
So, the first step to break free of this mindset is awareness.
Becoming aware of your emotions, thoughts and actions can help you make the right decisions most of the time.
If you become aware of your anger, there is a possibility that you don’t have to be angry because that will do no good.
If you become aware of your negative emotions or thinking, you can understand that this is just an emotion that will not decide your outcome.
Awareness cannot be defined in words; it can only be experienced.
In simple words, awareness means staying in the present moment.
5. Self-Respect
A person having self-respect for himself is already a master of his mind.
It is this respect for himself that his subconscious brain always wants to protect.
Because of this self-respect, he becomes self-discipline in life.
You don’t need to tell a self-respected person to do what is right; he will do it himself.
On the other hand, a person who despises himself, curses himself for the little mistake he does in life, often leads an unhappy and undisciplined life.
So, how can we improve our self-respect?
To bring your true self from moment to moment in your life.
To bring your true self needs a huge amount of energy because the process of change demands energy.
Again, the question arises, how can a person bring the true self from moment to moment of his life.
A person can bring his true self from moment to moment of his life by shifting his personal character.
Of course, the next question is how to shift our character.
This is what we are going to focus on to become the master of our minds.
Personal Character Development
A person’s character defines his success and failure, his happiness and misery.
Therefore, to become the master of your mind, you have to shift your character.
The more you focus on your character, the easier your life will become.
There are three ways to develop your personal character:
Basic and Priority
So, my friend asked what my passion was.
I told about my writing stories and crafting fiction.
I also told him that I hadn’t written anything for a long time.
The problem was I didn’t believe that I could write anything, and I always got distracted by something everyday.
My friend went to the kitchen, where the unwashed dishes were piled up in the basin.
He then looked into my bedroom, where my bed was a mess because I was too lazy to make it in the morning.
He also checked the washing machine where all the unwashed clothes were dumped in it.
Before he could say anything, I tried to justify myself.
I told him, “I know what you are thinking, but I don’t have time for these. If I keep washing the dishes everyday, I can’t do anything else.”
I knew there was no argument because I was not doing anything else.
“You don’t get it, do you?” he replied.
“What?”
This is your character.
You reflect your character with your actions.
If you don’t do the basics of your life, how can you expect to do the priority everyday? It’s like having two characters at the same time.
He was correct.
We only do what our character is.
If you don’t make the bed in the morning, don’t expect to finish your project on time.
If you don’t clean your unwashed dishes on time, don’t expect to finish that novel you plan to write.
Once you start meeting your basics, you will start meeting your priorities.
Stress, Worry, and Fear.
You can never be the master of your mind until you know that it is meaningless to worry about the future.
It is this fear that stops us from reaching our potential.
It is this stress that makes us do things that we regret later.
These negative emotions come from our mindset.
As discussed earlier, a person who always wants to secure his future can find himself stressed and worried most of the time.
He is only happy and focused when his future seems stable.
He can focus on what he does; he can do things and be happy in the present only when his future is safe.
Once his future seems unstable, he loses his focus on the present; the fear cripples him from moving an inch in the present.
The truth is you never know about the future.
You are not even sure what is going to happen tomorrow or this evening.
You can plan for it but get worried that if you couldn’t execute your plan, what would happen to you.
This mindset already reveals that you are not in the present; you are already living in the future, where your plan didn’t get executed.
So, you try to execute your plan as quickly as possible to save yourself from future disasters.
You are only executing your plan because you want to secure that future, not because you like it.
This mindset often leads to disaster.
Once a slight setback can cause more worry and stress, and you fall behind your plans.
Once you are worried and stressed, you stop enjoying the plan while you are executing.
The voluntary execution of your plans becomes a job, and you do it just for the sake of stress, worry, or fear and not because of joy.
But, when you realize that you cannot control the future and it is meaningless, you come back to the present.
Reality is unfolding every moment, and there is nothing that you cannot accept.
Acceptance is the way to free yourself from these negative emotions.
Once you are ready to accept anything that reality unfolds, you start enjoying the present and become the master of your mind.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is becoming aware of your actions, thoughts, and emotions.
You know with your conscious mind that you are thinking something, doing something, and you are aware of it.
You don’t do it to strengthen your willpower or do the right thing at the right moment; you only do it to increase your awareness.
While washing your dishes, have you ever noticed that you are washing your dishes and not walking in the street of times square.
When we drive our cars, our mind wanders, and we seldom forget that we are driving the car.
Mindfulness is realizing that we are here, not in the future or past.
You are here, reading this article, and this is the ultimate truth.
If you are enjoying it, good, continue and spread the word.
If you don’t, you can quit and move on.
But, when we are not mindful, we often make decisions that are not our own.
We play video games instead of doing our work, we watch pornography and sabotage our progress in nofap, get angry and tell things to people that we don’t want to tell, etc.
Mindfulness is needed to calm the chaos in our heads so that we exactly know that we are here, living our lives at this very minute.
This helps us in making the right decision at the right moment.
But, negative emotions or high urges can create cloudiness in our minds.
These emotions can automatically cover the mindful eye and do things that our instinct tells us to do.
This is how we are trained to do since childhood.
This is why mindfulness practice is essential to deal with these difficult situations.
Mindfulness mediation is a great way of increasing your awareness, and this will certainly help you become aware of difficult situations.
I will not explain what mindfulness mediation is because that cannot be covered in a single article.
There are sources all over the internet regarding mindfulness meditation. If you are interested, you will find it on your own.
Conclusion
You are not the slave of your mind.
The difference between humans and animals is that humans can control their impulses; if not, what are we.
You have the power to direct your own life in your way because nobody is coming to make your life better.
You are responsible for your life, and only you can make your life great.
Open to learning new things, keep moving forward despite the setbacks and if you want to become the master of your mind, start from today, start now.
Best
Ahbab
