DEVELOPING A HEALTHY MIND

By Chimene Chinah
EIC of The Capitalist Magazine

The importance of a healthy mind cannot be overemphasized, you become what you think.
The mind is a very powerful tool which controls our feelings, emotions, thinking, perception, leading to our actions and decisions.
Henry Ford said "thinking is the hardest job there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it". Everyone wants to be successful but most fail to think, instead they let their desire for success consume them. There is a price for everything, for success, it is your ability to think big and work smart. People who work hard put in much effort to achieve set goals. Smart people think first before working, they apply less effort to achieve goals under a short period of time compared to hard workers. To think outside the box, you must leave your comfort zone and start doing those things you are not used to.
This sharpens the mind, giving you different angles to a particular idea.
People fail not because they make mistakes, they fail because they don’t correct them.
“Being broke is a temporary state, being poor has to do with the mind”. Failure is not a result of multiple mistakes, it is due to an unhealthy (shallow, scared) mindset. Thomas Edison made over 1000 attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, "How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?" Edison replied, "I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps."
Every system has an energy source which fuels it, for the mind, it is knowledge. This is the fuel that keeps the mind running effectively, the mind starts dying gradually when you stop learning new things.
Shallow thinking leads to self-limitation, loss of confidence and self-belief. Great innovators are big thinkers because they see possibilities and solutions when others see problems and a dead end.
The mind is an important gift given to us by God. Listed below are ways to develop a healthy mind

SELF BELIEF

Most people have a pre-programmed mindset that nothing good can come out from them, hereby failing even before starting a project. Believing in yourself builds your confidence, increases your reasoning ability and enables you see possibilities where others see impossibilities. Impossible is nothing only if you believe in yourself.

BE OPTIMISTIC

Being hopeful about the future goes a long way in mind-development. You see a positive result even when passing through a challenge, giving you the courage to continue.
Always think about your good points, it builds your self-image and confidence. If you are good in business, tell yourself that all the time. People around you should not make you feel inferior or useless. The first antibiotics Penicillin was discovered from a mold which cannot be compared to you.

AVOID BAD COMPANY

The close friends you keep play a role in your development as a person. Most friends always see the bad in every idea you share which in turn leads to demoralization.
Staying around shallow minded people destroys your ability to think big, learn new things and on a long run, shatters self-confidence.

SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Teaching is the best form of learning. You understand better when you share your knowledge with people around. If you are a programmer, teach someone programming, good in mathematics? teach it to your friends. This way, you see that area from different angles, learn new things hereby deepening your understanding on that particular area.

READ ABOUT SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE

There are two ways to learn: learning from others (mentors) and learning from past experiences (mistakes). Most people feel experience is the best teacher. No, you could also learn from other people without actually passing through the pains of learning from experience. Mike Murdock bought a book for $84, a young man said “I cannot believe you bought a book for $84”, his reply was impressive “Son, I did not. I bought a man’s life. What took him 70 years to learn, I will know in two hours.” Learning about their principles, mistakes, angle of reasoning provide you with a guide tool towards achieving your dreams.

STUDY

"You cannot give what you do not have", always exercise your mind by studying new things. Try to engage yourself in games (scrabble, chess, puzzle and other mind developing games), math’s solving and so on. Content filtering is an important learning tool because what you take in guarantees what you give out. Always sieve out anything that will affect you negatively and take in those that will add to you positively. The wisest mind has something yet to learn.