Seven Ways to Control Your Mental Life

Does all the daily noise get you off track?

Is Social Media distracting you or are you using it for attaining your goals and dreams?

Psychology often discusses mental health — but what’s not often discussed is a clear definition of mental strength and focus. Mental strength and focus means that you regulate;

Your emotions
Manage your thoughts
Behave in a positive manner
Despite your circumstances

Developing mental focus is about finding the courage to live according to your values and being bold enough to create your own definition of success.

Mental focus involves more than just willpower; it requires hard work and commitment. It’s about establishing healthy habits and choosing to devote your time and energy to self-improvement.

Think about yourself, in a casual and relaxed way, as the person, career and business that you would like to be, with all the qualities you would like to have.

Begin imagining what life would be like, what your home would be like, what your work would be like, what your health would be like, and the standard of living that you would most enjoy.

Allow yourself to fantasize and luxuriate in the daydream and in the feeling of achieving your goals. This activity is the first signal that a new direction is being programmed into your thoughts.

1. VISUALIZATION

Perhaps the most important way to control your mental life.

You ability to visualize images will become your new reality. They intensify your desires and deepen your beliefs. The challenge today is to slow down and set aside time. We are constantly engaged with our phones, social media, family, work and activities that most of us fall exhausted into bed at the end of the day. Only to start the cycle all over again the next day.

There are four elements of visualization.

Frequency

How often you visualize a particular future event, goal or behavior has a powerful impact on your thinking, feeling and acting. People who accomplish amazing things visualize their desired results continually.

Vividness

This refers to how clearly you see something in your imagination. Unfortunately for most of us, we’ve stopped dreaming when we got older. It’s time to challenge those habits and beliefs.

There is a direct relationship between how vividly you can see a desired goal or result and how rapidly it appears for you. Social Media is a clear reminder how visual images play a part in our thoughts and engagement.

Finally, when you can close your eyes and see it in complete detail, it materialized in your world. This is the way you achieve most goals.

As most of you know, I love sports. When I was in high school, all I could think about, and visualize was winning championships. We were fortunate to win State in Football and Basketball. However, I still wanted something more…something that I could say I did on my own.

That’s where Track and Field entered into my life. I was a natural jumper so I gravitated to high jump, long jump and triple jump. However, it seemed easier for me to visual high jump. I was fortunate to win the AAU championships and set a state record. I would lay in my bed at night with my headphones on with music playing and do that for long periods of time. Little did I know at the time how much visualization played a role in my success.

Intensity

This refers to the amount of emotion that you combine with your mental pictures.

When you intensely desire something, when you are excited and enthusiastic about your goals, or when you have deep faith that you will realize a goals that you are working towards, it occurs much faster.

You must determine what you want! Most people have challenges deciding on what they want. Then most of us don’t believe we can attain it or don’t desire it.

Increasing the amount of emotion, accompanied by visualization is like stepping on the accelerator of your potential. This is perhaps why Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

Duration

This refers to the length of time you can hold the image of something you want in your mind. WOW…in today’s nano second attention span this is hard. Yes! However, like anything over time if practiced consistently, your attention span will improve.

When you combine the elements of frequency, vividness, intensity and duration with your visualizations of anything you want to behave or do in the future, you actually supercharge yourself and accelerate your reality.

2. AFFIRMATION

Affirmations are based upon the three “P’s”.

Positive
Present Tense
and Personal

One of the most powerful and effective influences on your mind is what you say to yourself and believe. You know…that small inner voice you hear saying you can do this…or is it saying you can’t do this. No one in your family ever accomplished anything.

So start by saying affirmations to yourself;

I can do it!
I earn $XXX per year
I weigh XXX pounds

ALL CHANGE IS FROM THE INNER TO THE OUTER.

3. VERBALIZATION

You must verbalize. Do this out loud, with family, friends, or alone. Do it in front of a mirror.

One of the most powerful ways to build your self confidence is to say “I can do it, I can do it, I can do it!”

Sports teams use this method of verbalization with others to get them mentally prepared before a game. You’ve heard the chants and cheers before they go out into competition.

4. ACTING THE PART

Walk the Talk

Act exactly as if you were already the person or business you desire to be. Behave as if you already achieved the goals you’ve set for yourself.

The power of this technique is explained in the Law of Reversibility.

It states, when you feel positive and optimistic, your feelings will generate actions and behaviors consistent with them.

Your feelings and behavior are reversible.

5. FEEDING YOUR MIND

What are you filling your mind with?

In today’s world of news, whether on TV or Social Media is it positive and uplifting? Or is it negative and dragging you down?

What you feed your mind will manifest itself in your daily life.

So choose wisely when reading Social Media or anything.

Always be learning. Become a student and learn something new.

6. ASSOCIATE WITH POSITIVE PEOPLE

Remember when you were a child, your parents telling you to hang around good people. Or to stay away from that kid, he’s going to grow up to always be in trouble.

It’s true, show me your friends, and I’ll show you where you will be in five years.

So get around the right people.

Associate with winners. Fly with the eagles rather than scratching with the turkeys.

Dr. David McClelland of Harvard found, after twenty-five years of research, that the choice of negative “reference group” was in itself enough to condemn a person to failure and underachievement in life. Your reference group ad the people you identify with, the ones your work with, and socialize with.

Like a chameleon, you unconsciously adopt the attitudes, behaviors and opinions of the people with whom you most closely associate.

Baron de Rothschild’s advice is to “make no useless acquaintances” To meet new, positive people, you usually have to stop associating with your old group. Especially, get away from negative people. They are the primary cause of most unhappiness in your life.

7. TEACHING OTHERS

You become what you teach. You teach what you are.

IN fact, you only really know something to the degree to which you can teach it to someone else and have them understand and apply it in their own lives.

Developing new, positive habits of thought and behavior is not easy. It requires eternal determination. You must forge ahead with your new habits in a strong manner. Exceptions will creep in, but never allow them to take root until the new habit is formed.

Your number one job is to keep your mind focused intently on the direction you are going, on your dominant goals, and on the new person you desire to be.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s a noisy world out there and only getting noisier. What you focus on you will attain.

Select one positive habit pattern or behavior that you would like to develop, and for the next twenty-one days, discipline yourself to be laser focused, think, visualize, verbalize, affirm and behave in a manner consistent with the new habit your want to develop.

Whatever your goals and ambitions, think and talk in terms of their accomplishment. Read, study, learn, visualize and affirm your goals. Think in terms of “HOW” you can achieve your goals. Act is if they are already a reality. At the very least, behave in every respect as if achieving your goal were inevitable.

About Blair

Blair Evan Ball is a Social Media Coach and founder of Prepare1, a company that works with businesses, individuals and non-profits. He is a former executive with a Fortune 50 company, and his national division did $1Billion+ in sales annually.

Blair has written three e-books: Facebook for Business Made Easy, Facebook Pages for Business Made Easy, and WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy.

Blair also educates, trains entrepreneurs and business professionals how to amplify their brand, increase revenues, and raise more funds.

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