The power of the human mind can move mountains

Our mind is like a cage; it's not always easy to break free, but it's not impossible.

I've always been on of those individuals who's been shy most of their life. Always waiting last in line, never fronting my opinion and never putting anything on the line. Worst of all, my ego was too inflated to change it, even though I knew deep down it was wrong. It was wrong to cheat myself out of a better life; one that I wanted to live for me, not others.

I have realized very recently that in order to make any substantial and long lasting change in our lives, it must come from a desire within. The desire to change for other people may work for a while, but most people forget about their goals and ambitions in a very short time.

Let's take smoking for example. I can give you numerous examples of people who's been smoking for ages. Holding onto to the habit is of higher priority than quitting. Everybody has their reasons. Maybe they feel they'll fit in, or feel cool. Whatever the reason is, it's greater than the consequences of possibly dyeing. Think about that. Increasing your chances of harmful and possibly fatal diseases is more important than simply quitting, or never having to start smoking in the first place. This is because somewhere inside them they're linked smoking to cool and NOT smoking to un-cool. The ego does not want to let it go. But deep down inside, this indivual knows that quitting would be more beneficial in the long run. It's not hurting them now, right?

Speed up 5-10 years. Let's say this individual has just been told they're been diagnosed with lung cancer. Now what was never urgent before has become substantially clear; they need to quit now. For some people it's too late. And for some people, even this isn't enough proof for them to stop their habits.

So what am I trying to say? I'm sure you've figured out this isn't just about smoking. I'm picking that example because it's extreme and I think it does a great job at painting a very clear picture of just how irrational some of our justifications can be! This could be any habit.

Decisions should never be based around what others think.

There are exclusions to this! Obviously it's better to listen to a boss or a co-worker who's giving you advice on standard operating procedures.

But these are decisions that directly affect your life. The moment we are allowing or willing to sacrifice our health and well-being because we believe it will make someone else happy; it's time to question your belief. Again, in order to make any substantial change in our lives, it's important that change comes from within. People are willing to cheat themselves out of a better life because of their beliefs.

As with the example above, was there ever undeniable fact that they were more cool because they smoked? In most cases some people will say yes. But in all reality, nobody can really know what anyone else is thinking. And if someone elses opinion means more to you than your own life, you had better take a good look at your belief system.

I woke up christmas day of 2008 and it suddenly hit me. "Life is taking charge of my life, instead of me taking charge of my own life." I was watching opportunities and events fly by in my life that always seemed just out of reach. From that morning, every step I have taken forward has been to bring myself closer to by dreams and shape my life into what I want.

The power of the human mind can move mountains.

Shifting states

When we are in our weakest moments, remember we're not alone.

Emotions are temporary; life is a rolling hill. 

Imagine a time when you've sprained your ankle, hit your elbow, scraped your skin. Your body reacted in pain, and for the first couple of moments, it really hurt! During any sort of bodily harm, most of us go into initial panic, then realize it's ok and calm down. We direct our focus on something else. 

Thus is the key to mastering our mind. When we have what we call a moment of weakness, or feel angered, sad, etc. Realize this is temporary, accept and let it go. Shift your energy from one place to another. Again, just like a wound, it hurts the most at first. As soon as we direct our attention to something else, the pain doesn't seem as bad. 

There's a great quote I would like to share with you.

If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

Practice shifting into the state you desire. 

"Make it harder to be down: make it easier to be up."

We are defined by the choices we make.

All actions are a result of choice, and who we are and how we're perceived by others is a direct result of our choices. Whether to laugh or yell, run or stay, remain faithful or cheat.

It's a common phrase we often find ourselves using "It's too hard" or "I can't handle it." That's because we've made it too easy for ourselves to give up. Imagine if we rated our choices on a scale of 1 through 10, 1 being easy and 10 being very difficult. Most people get to around a 2-3. If the task becomes too difficult, that's the point in which they give up and say "I tried, but I gave up." We have defined how we think about failure, and we have therefor defined how we think about success. Most people have a success scale of of 1 - 100,000. People constantly reach for happiness, but seldom do we allow ourselves to enjoy it because of our belief systems. What I'm trying to say here, is we make it too easy to fail, and harder to succeed. This should be the polar opposite. What if we reversed these scales? What if you could reach happiness in 10 steps? And you could only reach absolute failure after 10,000? It would be pretty difficult to feel bad when you know you're succeeding most of the time! Here's the real kicker though - most of the time we are. But we just need to realize it. Every success should be weighed, but so often to allow our misfortunes to have greater hold!

So, why do we punish ourselves so? Why can't we allow ourselves to accept success and shift our energies into a more positive mesh? Because somewhere along the way you've formed that belief. You've formed the thought that "I can be happy when ______" (You fill in the blanks). Believe me, most people have a long list!! "If only I could have this and this and this, THEN I would be happy!" Again, look at the scale method. If 1 equals sadness, and 10 equals pure and unstoppable happiness, then you need to reduce the amount of steps it takes to reach that feeling. Did you know it only takes 1 thought to change how we feel? Both emotionally and physically? We've just taught ourselves the only way to be happy is to overcome multiple obstacles first.

Everyone is going to have different beliefs and thoughts. Remember, the scale method is really just a metaphor for you to use in conjunction with your beliefs and thoughts.

Make it harder to be down.
Make it easier to be up.

-Jacob

"Most people fail because they major in minor things."

This is one of my favorite quotes. It speaks true for me in many ways.
Perhaps I'm just too much of a workaholic, but I have learned in the past 2 years that the path to success is always more work. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, though! I have been doing what I love since I graduated high school, it's never seemed like work to me. It's always seemed like I get payed for what I love to do.

It pains me to see and hear people explain in a pained "I hate my job" or "My career sucks." I have advice for you. DO what you love. When we follow our hearts, that is our true path. Every one of us has something we are good at, something we excel at. Some are great at sports, some are great at being public speakers, others are amazing at science/math. A lot of people will look at others and say "I'll never be that smart." Measuring yourself against someone else's passion is unfair to you. Unless of course you share that same passion! (In which case you should be learning from them!) Measure success by how you feel.

I feel the ultimate reward for reaching a goal (or creating new ones) is how I feel.

Always reach high. We cannot fail when we try our best.

We always have ourselves

No matter what happens in life, we still have ourselves.
As long as we have ourselves, we can find:

peace
love
silence
beauty

These are never lost, we just forget to open our eyes.

Master your mind: master your life.

I can't express to you time and time again how many times this happens. I'll be talking with someone and they'll be telling me about something (anything, really) about a negative event in their life, how it always happens to them, and how life picks on them.

My response is usually this. "Master your mind, master your life." Nobody seems to value or understand the genius simplicity of that statement. But the fellow who came up with the quote certainly had the right idea!

So here I am, explaining it to you now. It's simpler than people seem to think. (The problem, often, is that we over-think!) Life is neutral, and with our thoughts, we make it either a negative or a positive (depending on many factors). How we decide upon and act upon the events in our lives shape how we feel. To put this into a nutshell; when we let our thoughts run rampant, our lives run rampant. I often ask people now "Is that what you believe?"

I believe in challenging thoughts, questioning our own belief systems. How many people do you know who have thoughts which are damaging? How many of us tell ourselves "I can't do something." ?

Master your mind; and you will master your life.