Making A Mental Leap

We’ve heard so many times that “it’s all in the mind”, “what the mind can believe, will achieve” and “just dream, you’ll make it”. One thing in common with all these notions is referring to our brain or mental component in human being. Is it as simple as that? No, it isn’t. Nonetheless,  it is crucial especially if you want to lead an objective, visionary and happy life. Did you just “ka-ching” up there? Yes, many people live a life that’s laissez faire. Goalless, mentally trapped and unhappy. Agreed, life is tough, especially in times like now ( i dont think the bailed-bankers got the learning though after what they went through.) If you feel that you need a leap forward, I suggest you to start it mentally.

 

In his book and website, Brain Rules, Dr. John Medina shared that people who dream of doing an activity is likely to perform significantly better than people who don’t. Take for example if you dream of practicing a speech, you are likely to deliver it better when you wake up. In other words, our mind is so powerful of coordinating other body parts to achieve its desired objective and your goals. No wonder our brain sits atop! I don’t want to bore you down with scientific evidences, but another one that’s make me fell off my chair is that – our mind is also good at playing tricks! Haah! This one you got to be careful because it also causes self-doubt and hamper confidence when it plays your old failures and trials. Are you now at least convinced that we can make a mental leap? You should be asking- how to do it? I have 2 favourites – BHAG and picto-PEISM.

“Progress is impossible without change, those who cannot change their mind cannot change anything.”

 

It was initially termed by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their momentous book, “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Company”, published in 1994. BHAG means Big Hairy Audacious Goals. I agree with it’s ideals, sounds like this:

 

“An audacious 10-to-30-year goal to progress towards an envisioned future. A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit. It has a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal; people like to shoot for finish lines.” – Collins and Porras

 

You can read further about BHAG, just Google it. You can find out my BHAG here.

 

While BHAG is for long term, picto-PEISM is for short and medium term (1-3 years). PEISM stands for Physical, Emotional, Intellectual, Social and Material. You may variations of the same concept in every holistic education or performance-related materials. While most PEISM is in narrative format, I tweaked a bit to make it pictorial. Why pictorial? The study on brain also confirmed that our brains need repetition to remember and it also needs to be reminded to repeat. With pictorial, I found it easier to remember whenever I am reminded to repeat. A bit tongue twisting, but I know what I am talking about. 😉

 

For example, for Physical I will draw “minus 5 kg”, Intellectual “3 articles/month and 1 book/month”, Material “New Volks” and so on. It’s concise and easily remembered. You know another method that your mental love? Colour it. You can draw a colourful mind map and so on. But the trick (again) is not to overdo your colouring and mind map, because your mind will get exhausted and you lose the whole point of doing it at the first place. The main purpose is to jumpstart so you can make a mental leap and achieving your life goals so you will lead an objective, visionary and happy life. 🙂

 

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