Optimizing your Mind

Do you want to make your mind a well-oiled machine?  Do you want to reach inner peace?  I can help you do both at the same time.  Having achieved inner peace a few years ago, I can tell you that it is wonderful.  What is inner peace?  What I experience is a sensation of present.  What this means is that you stop worrying about the future and the past and experience life as it comes, filing everything where it needs to go on the fly.  This freedom allows you to experience emotions (like happiness, pain, stress, love, etc.) without the emotions defining you at that moment. When we are distanced from inner peace, we are defined by our emotions, but when we stay at inner peace, we allow the emotions to wash over us as they are part of everyday life, for better or for worse. The following tips will allow you to optimize your mind, allow you to reach inner peace very fast, and allow you to reach your full mental potential.

Reject everything

This one is odd.  You need to temporarily reject all of the beliefs you hold dear.  Once you do this, you can rebuild everything and optimize it (like you optimized your computer).

Identify your Values

If someone came up to you and asked what do you believe, what would you say?  Oddly enough, most people would either be unable to answer this question or make a witty quip.  If you want to answer this question, you need to sit down and go on a journey of self exploration.  What do you believe and why do you believe it?  We must know who we are (and not have just a vague definition of who we are) to be able to improve ourselves and optimize our minds.  Who are you?

Question Everything

The way my mind works is like this: I hear a new fact and I look it up.  If it contradicts itself, I ignore it and move on.  If it is valid, I keep it.  The same thing works for opinions and/or philosophies.  If I hear a new philosophy, I debate with the person who presented the philosophy to try and find wholes in the argument.  If the philosophy turns out to be better than my own, I accept it as my new philosophy.  If it doesn’t mesh well with me, I reject it and move on.  I am not attached to these philosophies because they are not part of my core values and I only hold these values because they are the most accurate representations of my belief…so far.  This mindset prevents me from getting angry at people over stupid things, but allows me to engage in intelligent debate and prove that I don’t just mindlessly accept certain philosophies, but accepted them after hours of thought and research (which most likely differs from most people who accept their philosophies after having it ingrained in their minds or for some superficial reason).  If you can slowly train your mind to function like this, you will find yourself generally more content and better understanding of your own accepted philosophies.

Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance

Now that your mind is a well oiled machine that process information faster and better, you need to know how to use it practically.  Let’s say that you have to write an article of how your mind works.  The first thing you would do is identify what core elements must be part of the article, in this case: reset, recreate, re-establish, and the 5 ‘P’s.  Next you would determine what the flow of the article would be, in this case it was me using statements to convince you to listen, asking questions to have you answer, telling you my personal experience so you can take what you want from it, and giving you the details of the genesis of this article.  From the flow, you execute.  This is always the hardest step.  To execute, you have to do.  To execute well, you have to plan and do according to that plan while making adjustments if necessary.  The trick for this whole process is to try to go according to plan, but adjusting if necessary and not getting to attached to the plan…remember, it’s just a means to an end.

How do you execute well?  Well, you’ll have to the next article, Optimizing your Work.

• Introduction – Optimizing your Workflow
• Part 1 – Optimizing your Workspace
• Part 2 – Optimizing your Computer
• Part 3 – Optimizing your Mind
• Part 4 – Optimizing your Work
• Part 5 – Optimizing your Results
• Part 6 – Optimizing your Future

Featured Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yimhafiz/4674535654/