If you missed part one, you can read it here and part two here.
To review, there are three things to understand about the nature of our state of mind (SOM) that will have a positive impact on pretty much every productivity issue you may be facing:
1. In a low quality SOM, our effective IQ, EQ, and pretty much any other quotient you can imagine drops through the floor. Which means that if we push forward from this place (or while those around us are in low quality states of mind), mistakes pile up and relationships founder.
2. In a high quality SOM – a state of relative calm, clarity, and well-being – we are on our game and at our best. We naturally have access to a deeper creative intelligence that seems to come through us instead of from us in the form of insights, intuitions, inspirations, and common sense.
3. Our attempts to manage or control our state of mind are unnecessary at best and counter-productive at worst. Healthy psychological functioning is self-regulating. The moment we step outside the swirl of our current thinking, fresh new thought appears in the relative quiet and stillness, bringing with it an accompanying feeling of greater peace, ease, and well-being.
So how does this understanding impact the bottom line?
By positively impacting each of the other variables that impact the bottom line.
When we spend more time in high quality states of mind and do less damage in low quality states of mind:
- We worry less about how close to finishing we are and appreciate how far we’ve already come. (Starting place)
- We spend less time cleaning up our mess or thinking about everything that could go wrong or right and more time doing what needs to be done. This creates higher efficiencies and opens people up to even more creative inspiration as they experience having more than enough time to complete each successive project. (Investment of time and energy)
- Our common sense guides us to follow more effective strategies and to quickly abandon dead ends and wrong turns. This negates the “Who moved my cheese?” effect, where people continue down formerly rewarding pathways long after the reward is no longer available. (Strategy)
- We adapt more quickly to the realities of our situation, dropping both unrealistic expectations (“This is going to be a piece of cake – we’ll all be millionaires by the end of the week!”) and unrealistic limitations (“This is just too damn hard – I’m too old/young/smart/dumb/experienced/inexperienced to succeed!”)This enables us to accelerate the learning curve and master our relevant skill sets with a minimum amount of self-consciousness and self-interference. (Level of skill/Level of challenge)
- We recognize that other people live in fluctuating states of mind as well, and are subject to the same effects as we are. They too will be smarter, more creative, and exhibit more common sense when they are in a high quality SOM; like us they will be more close minded, less creative, and less willing to listen in lower quality SOM.So we’re free to adapt our communications accordingly, knowing not to try too hard “to talk sense to a barking dog” and intuitively sensing the optimal moments to have critical conversations. (Other people)
- We begin to see that living in the unknown is our natural state, and spend less time trying to control the random wheel of fortune and more time looking to take advantage of it when it spins our way. We recognize the wisdom in seeing, as Scottish Himalayan explorer W. H. Murray famously said:
| Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. |
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
Let me attempt to sum up all three parts of this tip in three simple insights:
1. There are multiple variables that determine the results we produce in our lives. Most of these variables are beyond our direct control.
2. The most highly leveraged variable is state of mind (SOM) – that is, our level of understanding of the workings and effects of healthy and unhealthy psychological functioning on all results-producing activities in which we engage will be the key to our success or failure in most endeavors.
3. When we understand this, we can place our attention on SOM and the task at hand and allow our innate wisdom – the incredible intelligence behind our personal thinking – to take care of the rest and guide us every step of the way.
I encourage your comments and thoughts on Facebook or Twitter and look forward to sharing more with you soon!
With all my love, |
