Clear Your Mind - It's The Key To Being Happy And Successful

Copyright (c) 2011 Willie Horton

Every Monday and Wednesday I send out my free Personal Development Ezine to thousands of people all over the world. They get a five minute video on a Monday, an article on a Wednesday and lots of tips and ideas - practical things that they can start doing straight away. Last Monday I included a five minute guided meditation with the Ezine and the response was incredible. One reader told me that she knew how she was going to start every day from here on - because she had experienced the difference between her normal noisy mind and a completely clear mind and it had transformed her day.

There's any number of things that can mess up our day - like arriving at work and finding that we've to do something that we hadn't planned on doing, like people interrupting us so that they can lay their problems on us, like an argument over something stupid as you were rushing out to work, or even something as stupid as someone getting under your skin as you left your children off to school or got to the gym. In the course of a normal day, these things are there to test us - and, as normal people, we are found wanting. We allow our attention to be pulled in any old direction - any direction execpt the right direction. As a result we rarely do the best we could during the course of the day.

Of course, all of those annoyances come from having to deal with the rough and tumble of everyday life - the little things that come and go. But we're our own worst enemy too - how often are you distracted by your own random thoughts? The most ridiculous thoughts hit us at the most ridiculous times. Did you realize that thinking that you'd like to be at the beach instead of stuck in this boring meeting will not teleport you to the beach?! In fact, that kind of thought will just make the meeting more boring! Maybe you don't realize that wishing it was Saturday morning when you're supposed to be working makes what you're doing more difficult and more annoying so that, in the end, you prove that you were right to not like your job! This is a vicious circle - your own thoughts will ensure that you wake up feeling miserable five days a week! How's that for living?

You've got to realize that life's difficult enough without us making it even more difficult. Psychological research estimates that, during the course of an average day, we have about fifty thousand random thoughts - and very few of these are of any relevance to what we're supposed to be doing or where we are! So you've external noise and internal noise - with all that noise it is very difficult to focus. If you don't bother to get yourself mentally prepared for the day ahead, there's no way that you're going to suddenly become focused half way through. Would you even think about leaving the home nude? (If you would, what we're talking about in this article is the least of your worries!) So I just don't understand why anyone would even think about leaving home mentally "undressed" for what the day has in store? Maybe it's never occurred to you that you can be in charge of your own head.

Well, you can and, until you do, nothing in your life will change. It starts with doing what's needed to clear your mind - turning off the noise in your head. If you don't do this first thing in the morning, you've simply given up on the day ahead before it's got going. However, if you do, your day starts off with you being fully focused. A clear mind is a focused mind. Focus simply means that you're paying attention to what is happening. Focus means you're better equipped to deal with the nonsense that you'll get from other people as the day progresses. When you're focused you will automatically be more productive, more effective - you'll be far more productive and that will make you feel better about life in general and yourself in particular. And most important of all, when your focused you will be fully alert to the opportunities of life that are all around you - you never noticed because you were listening to all the noise.

Focus is your key to effortless happiness and success - and happiness. Neuro-psychology proves that a focused mind is in a completely different zone to the normal mind - the peak performance zone. A focused person's brain is, quite literally, all fired up in ways that we normally never are. The fact is that your ability to successful and even to be happy is directly linked with your ability to focus your mind. In other words, if you don't know how to focus, you'll never achieve happiness and success. But, if you do know how you focus, the world is your oyster.

Focus starts with clarity. Paying attention to and fully experiencing what is actually happening in the here and now automatically clears your mind. And that's how meditation did it for my 'eziner' - meditation is training for the mind - it enables you develop your skill at focusing your attention of everything that your senses are telling you - not what all the noise in your head is trying to push on you. If you start your day by paying attention to the reality of the moment, you will be equipped, as the day progresses, to spot the difference between reality and the unreal world that our internal noise and other people's dramas create. As a result, you'll be able to maintain your focus.

So, what are you going to do tomorrow morning?


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Willie Horton enables his clients change their lives - since he launched his Personal Development Seminars in 1996. His clients include Pfizer, Deloitte, Nestle, KPMG, G4S & Allergan. An Irishman, he lives in the French Alps and travels the world as a much sought after speaker and mentor. Why not sign up for his Free Personal Development Ezine.