Setting Your Mind for Success
Author: Jennie S. Bev

"No, I can't do that." Throughout your lifetime, how many times have you heard somebody said it to your face? Hundreds, thousands or millions of times, perhaps. Sometimes, we express such skepticism out loud too, particularly when we feel we do not have the skills or knowledge required to perform a particular task.

Naturally, most of the times we wouldn't care proceeding to perform and simply retrieved. (Note that by "a task," I am referring to a mental and physical activity that requires specific mental and/or physical know-how.)

In some occasions, we proceeded and performed that particular task only to feel disappointed when it turned out just the way we predicted: we couldn't do it well and there was no way that we could have done it otherwise. "Remember what I've told you? I said I couldn't do it. Now you see why I couldn't," we often confronted the person who insisted us to perform the task regardless of what we said earlier (about our incapability).

For many years, I thought I knew myself quite well when I said I could or couldn't do something (because oftentimes they turn out just the way I predicted). Yet this notion of "I understand myself quite well" completely diminished at the moment I realized the factual way of how things work.

When we perceive ourselves as being capable or incapable of performing, we have pre-determined an outcome. This is called "conditioning." At the subconscious level, we are pre-wiring our mind to our body and back to our mind to perform an activity up to the pre-determined level. Be it a good or a not-so-good one.

My observations led me to the conclusion that we are actually capable of being successful in whatever we've pre-set our mind to do because the physical state will follow the mental state.

How could it be?

Based on years of delving into observations of how "conditioning" affected my close friends, family members and myself, I found the following interesting discoveries.

First of all, human beings are symbolic creatures. We accept and acknowledge everything we receive through our perceptive senses as symbols and keep them in our mind for future use. These symbols are intertwined to create a larger mental presence. We give them meanings and values. Some are better than the others, some are worse. Some are more than the others, some are less. Some are good, some are bad. Some are valuable and some are of no value whatsoever.

Second, by accepting, acknowledging and recording a mental presence of those meaningful and valued symbols, we create a subconscious channel between the mind and the body. Therefore, when a particular task is required from us (regardless of the source of the need, which can be from an outer or an inner one), our mind called the attention of our body. A task that is pre-conceived as "positive," "easy," or "pleasant" usually bears a satisfying fruit. "Negative," "difficult," or "unpleasant" creates a negative impulse in the mind that subconsciously sets the physical performance to "adhere" to it. In short, the mental presence triggers the body to act "accordingly."

These discoveries have created a positive impact in striving for excellence. My formerly somewhat skeptical views of being successful have been replaced with a complete acknowledgement of being successful as "I see it."

Quoted from Vincent A. Roazzi in The Spirituality of Success, "Those who are successful see things differently than most people. They create their own reality. Successful people, most of the time, choose to see the positive."
Skeptical people are not without hope, however. They can eventually harvest positive outcome in life if they are willing to change.

They need to substitute negative mental presence with positivity. Instead of saying "I can't," it would be better to start saying, "I can."

The first step to this change is adopting the so-called "self-hypnotism." What they need to do is to say some positive affirmations daily.

Let the mind believe them to keep the mental state at peace. Choose the positive side of everything and don't let any fear sabotages you from achieving success.[]






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Jennie S. Bev is an author, success coach, cost reduction management consultant, industrial analyst, technical writer and instructional designer based in San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of Guide to Become a Management Consultant published by FabJob.com http://www.fabjob.com/managementconsultant.asp?affiliate=236 , which is named #1 to get published online by Writer's Digest (January 2002). She is also the Managing Editor of BookReviewClub.com.

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