Mind over matter

We are surrounded by naysayers and disbelievers.

People who will enlist a truckload of reasons why you will fail on a chosen path before they can point out one reason why you should go for it. It becomes increasingly difficult to ignore those voices when they come from your close ones. Friends and family especially. But that’s when you reach for and hold on tightly to one inalienable truth. What you can and cannot do depends majorly on what you think you are capable of. The most powerful, versatile and equally volatile weapon at your behest is your mind and how you control what goes on within it. Let me stop before I get too preachy and ask you to retrospect. When was the last time you were up against a formidable task. An opponent on the field, a mountain to climb, a deadline too close, a challenge deemed grueling and too difficult but you decided to take it on nevertheless and prevailed. Try and think about your state of mind then and I’m sure one of the main reasons you overcame was merely because you believed you could. Strongly and firmly. And no matter what happened around you or what people said, you knew deep down you could and everything else followed suit when the moment came.

I stumbled on this story recently of how until April 1955 everyone in the world believed that it was impossible for mankind to break the 4 minute barrier. They believed it was impossible for anyone to run a mile under 4 minutes. And then along came a certain Roger Bannister who proved them wrong. The significance of this story is what happened after that. Since that day till today, over twenty five thousand people have broken that barrier and many of them include high school kids. Twenty five thousand! Do you know what changed?

When the people after bannister stepped on the track, they knew that someone else had done it before them. They knew it was not impossible. They believed that if he could they could too. The key word here is they believed.

This true story exemplifies the power of your own mind. Of belief. When training at the highest level most of the trainers put their teams and athletes through session of what is commonly called visualization. The sportsmen are asked to isolate and focus on what they need to do. Visualize themselves run, or hit a ball, or jump a hurdle. Picture them performing that act and here’s the wonder, when they train after, the body performs better. Its almost like your body has been given a step by step handbook of what it is to do and how and it follows it to the ‘T’.

The point I'm trying to make here, is that we all have a want list of thing we would like own, places we would like to be, how we would like to look and feel, podiums we want to stand on and feel what it tastes like to be the best. Things we want to work out for ourselves personally. Professionally. Materialistically. Emotionally.

What if you were told that everything you wanted was possible, all you had to do was believe in yourself with enough conviction to drown out the doubts of others and more importantly yourself. And when you get there and look back what you've just achieved, you will realize you've just broken a mental barrier and now everything else you deem possible is within reach.

As simple as it sounds, it’s not an easy task to do. But once done, nothing is impenetrable.