Reprogramming The Mind For Success

One of my daughters has a turtle, and one day while watching her swim around the aquarium, I noticed her want to get out or to go beyond the glass walls. The back glass wall has a picture of green underwater plants, however the picture only takes up some of the wall, and as the turtle reached the edge of the picture, I could sense her desire to go around the edge and beyond, as if the edge of the picture was actually a corner.

It got me thinking about the other animals we have. One of my other daughters has a blue fish; we have a dog and also three chickens. All of these pets live within physical boundaries, from which they can’t really escape. The chickens have the ability to fly out if they really wanted to, and on two occasions one of them has, only to want to get back in to the pen knowing that this is where its food is. Our dog has also had many chances to run away (thanks to kids leaving gates open etc), and every time she has come back.

With all of our pets, it is our duty to keep their needs met, with food, water, a clean environment and tending loving care. I realized that when given the chance, although some of them could leave permanently, their ‘needs’ and the security of always having those needs met, was the main driver behind their actions.

But watching the turtle made me also realize, that we have effectively domesticated what are essentially wild creatures, and regardless of their need for security, there is still that part of them that craves just that little bit more freedom to explore. Wild creatures do not have physical boundaries, only mental ones. In the wild, and I mean complete wild where no human intervention exists, the boundaries of creatures are created by their own instincts, not those of some other force.

It pains me to say this, but we humans are trapped within a mental boundary that is not of an instinctual nature, but of a conditioned need for security. Just as we have conditioned our own pets to accept smaller boundaries in exchange for security, we as humans have accepted a life of mediocrity and monotony in exchange for security and having our needs met.

We do not bump our heads into a glass wall thinking that what we just saw was a corner we could go around; instead we live within a mental boundary that is our comfort zone, and any attempts to move out are met with anxiety, doubt and fear of the unknown, ridicule, and a fear that our security may not be there tomorrow if we venture too far out. There are people who are happy with this, there are those who are not happy but accept it, and there are those who do not accept it. The majority of people are those that are not happy with it, but accept it, not really knowing what it is or why it is this way.

Some people believe that there are people in higher positions of power who control the rest of the population, that they know how to create this mental boundary through education, TV, news, laws and politics. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant, for all you have to do is ask yourself this question. ‘Is my current life based on needs or wants?’ Do you need your job, your TV, the News at 6, the mortgage payment, the car payments, the gossip at work, the arguments, the drugs, the computer games, entertainment and so on? Are many of these needs things you do to escape life, not realizing that they are the reason you are trapped? Are many of these needs the reason why you can’t spare your self the time and motivation to do anything else with your life, to do what you really should be doing to get out of your comfort zone and really live life like the wild, curious, explorer you really are?

There are many reasons why most people will continue to live within this mental conditioned cage because they know no better, the answers to breaking free are not readily available, they fear the unknown, they fear ridicule, they fear losing their security, or they believe these needs are helping them escape reality. For many who may have even been presented with some of the answers, their needs have become all too powerful that they are too time strapped or mentally drained to do anything about it.

All it takes is a small amount of your time a day to explore your own inner and outer world, and as you start to do this you open the door to many things such as opportunity, awareness and knowledge, all of which go hand in hand with freedom, and you find your addictions to your needs and security lose their grip on you and you break free from the confines of the conditioned mental cage.

To your success

Dean

The complete step by step guide to Reprogramming your Mind for Success