THE QUESTION: HOW CAN I GET BETTER TODAY?
The answer: Get your MIND right.
DO NOT BE CONFORMED TO THE PATTERNS OF THIS WORLD, BUT BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND.
– Romans 12:2
The second step in the R Factor is to get your mind right (the first step was Pause). This is where the response begins internally before becoming external. Our internal mindset drives our external actions. Getting your mind right is how to unlock the mental portion that drives the behavioral portion. Elite performance is unlocked by elite mindsets. We need to bring discipline to the mindset so that we can bring discipline into action and behavior.
Stats to Think About:
- 47% of the time, your mind is not where your feet are.
- We have 60,000–70,000 thoughts a day.
- 74% of our thoughts are negative.
- On average, we hold a thought for 3 seconds.
- 706 hours – the average time spent on social media in a year (equivalent to 4.5 months of working hours, based on 8-hour days).
- On average, we watch 2,700 hours of TV a year.
- We touch our phones 2,617 times a day (the top 10% touch their phones 5,400 times daily).
- 47% of people struggle with anxiety, depression, etc., and the number is rising.
The Brain and the Mind:
Our brain is a 2/3 lb mass of matter. It controls memory, speech, movement of body parts, and the function of most organs within our body.
Our mind, however, is the spiritual or soulful side—where we contemplate, evaluate, think, process, and analyze.
The brain receives our thoughts, but the mind controls what we do with them:
- Keep them.
- Act on them.
- Catalog them.
- Release them.
Our minds have the capacity to decide what to do with our thoughts once we are aware of them.
Training Your Mind:
We didn’t learn to be great at anything by accident. The same applies to our mind—it needs practice to become elite. Here are a few simple practices to start now:
- Gratitude Journal
Write down 3–5 things you are grateful for each morning upon waking. - Daily Affirmations
Create 3–5 positive statements about yourself and repeat them multiple times each day. - Evening Journaling
Use the “Well, Better, How” method:- Write down 3 things that went well today.
- Note 2 things you need to improve on tomorrow.
- Identify 1 thing you learned about yourself and how you will use it.
Recommended Reading:
Winning the Mental Game by Brian Kight and Amber Selkings
John Perry