The power our minds have over our physical and emotional wellbeing is both well documented and often overlooked. The World Health Organization released an estimate that lost productivity related to poor mental states cost the world one trillion U.S. dollars annually. On the surface, this sounds like a bad thing (and certainly it isn’t exactly a good one), but it also gives credit to the incredible power of the human mind.
While it probably won’t make you a trillion dollars, mastering the art of mind over matter can have huge benefits on your career.
So, how do you maintain positivity and utilize the power of the mind over the matters at hand? Let’s talk more about this.
Mindset
The most important part of all this is the practitioner’s mindset. It isn’t called mind over matter for nothing!
The key components of a powerful mindset are positivity, toughness, and your belief system.
Positivity is straightforward. Putting on a smile, looking for things to be grateful for and practicing positive thinking can be great strides towards maintaining an overall positive mindset. Additionally, staying focused on what matters, interrupting negative though flows, and choosing where to spend your energy can help avoid burnout and exhaustion that could make maintaining this mindset more difficult.
Resilience
Of course, maintaining that positive mindset isn’t always easy.
In fact, sometimes it seems like the whole universe is conspiring to make it as difficult as possible. An article on themedium.com uses ultramarathon runners as an example of resilience. According to this article, marathon runners are great examples of people who have developed mental toughness as a means to push past their limits and perform great physical and mental feats of endurance. Even if you’re not planning on climbing Mount Everest or running an ultramarathon, we can learn a lot from their daily practices and overall philosophy.
Belief
According to another source, the keys to overcoming obstacles and the ability to move forward include among other things; the confidence to believe you can do it, the ability to keep from feeling overwhelmed, a comfortability with being uncomfortable, the capacity to reframe your perception of the issues, and focusing on finding and implementing solutions.
With time and consistency, these tools will become second nature and you will more easily push past the limitations we create for ourselves.
Mastering the art of mind over matter is a powerful tool to help inspire, accomplish, and exceed goals while setting direction for future successes.
With the power of a positive mindset, mental resilience, and confidence in your abilities, you can overcome challenges and achieve your dreams.
As said by ultramarathon runner Marshall Ulrich, "I always say the only limitations are in your mind, and if you don’t buy into those limits, you can do a helluva lot more than you imagine.”