Change Your Mind to Change Your Life

What is mental energy? Mental energy is the way that we use the power provided to us by the most powerful weapon in our possession. Harnessing the power of the mind is harnessing an unlimited life. That’s so funny for me to say, because I can understand where I was 5 months ago when I would have looked at that and gone “Haha, yeah fucking right.” Change your mind and you change your life. Those ignorant to the ability to change and control their own mind are destined for stagnation, for only those who evolve move forward.

“Why waste my mental energy focusing on what I can’t do, and start instead focusing on what I can do?”

How Are You Using Your Mental Energy?

When I was at the gym, I was telling myself how much weight to lift, and I saw my mental energy counting the amount of reps that I was doing. I was focusing really hard on the number. In my head I envisioned: “1. 2. 3. 4. 5.” As if each time I went over the number in my head, my mind actually focused on the number itself.

Than something happened. I looked at the weight that I was lifting at the time for upright rows, and instead of focusing on the number in my head, I focused on the motion of my body. I felt my arm lift the weight, and focused all of my mental energy on lifting the weight itself. I saw the weight as it came up to my shoulder, and back down to rest beside my hip. I looked over at my left arm and saw more of the same. I started to focus on my arm, now. Instead of looking at the number my mind was envisioning, I focused on the motion of my arm, and how it was being lifted.

What I started to notice is that the weight that I usually do for all of my sets, that my mind had pre – determined to be “heavy” was actually light. The weight that I was lifting was light. But how could this be? This is the weight that I use every single time that I’m at the gym. Hmmmm.

The next set that I did I went up a bit, from 35 to 40 pounds. I focused more on the actual motion of the workout itself, instead of using my mental energy to focus on the number inside of my head that my mind created. I noticed something else funny, even though I had gone up 5 pounds… it still felt light. The weight that I was lifting was light. I use this weight rarely though, and when I do I always have a tough time lifting it! This doesn’t make sense.

Okay. Let’s go a bit heavier and see what happens. The more I lifted, the more this theory began to develop inside of my mind. I’d go up 5 more pounds, and if I could lift this with the monumental ease I was increasing my other weight in my other workouts, I’m onto something!

This was the moment. I lifted the weights off the rack, and watched each individual rep as they raised to my shoulders and back down to rest at my hip with precise form. With each rep came immense focus, I was ensuring that I was getting each rep done and I was focusing on the motion of the weight going down and up to my shoulder.

I put down the weights after a set of 10 and felt terrific. I felt superhuman. I went to find Daniel right away and I told him about the theory that I was brewing up.

“Alright dog. The way I see it is that your mind is always working either way, telling you how much weight you can lift, how much weight you can’t lift, and your mind is setting these limitations. Your mind is using mental energy to set limitations on what you can’t do. What if you shifted the use of your mental energy, and instead of focusing on what you can’t do, focus on what you can do?”

This Is The Truth

Either way, your mind is at work. Your mind is always at work, using your mental energy. How are you choosing to use your mental energy, though? Are you using it to be productive, or are you using it to hold you back? “Ohh, I’m too tired to do this right now.” Mental energy, sucka. “That’s  impossible,”. Mental energy, sucka. “That’s a lot of work…” mental energy, SUCKA.

What if you could, instead of using your mental energy to hold you back (which we tend to do as a natural habit), use it to propel you forward? Take this into consideration. Whether or not you are aware of your mental energy being used, it is being used at every single second you choose to exist. Your mental energy is what tells you to hit your snooze button on your alarm, your mental energy is what tells you to go on Facebook for 20 minutes, which turns into 3 hours, which turns into anti – productivity. In order to make these decisions, you are using mental energy. This was a theory I developed in the gym, but it applies to all walks of life. You choose what you become. You choose whether or not you are lazy, by using mental energy to make a decision to be lazy. Make a decision to be productive.

“Why focus on what you can’t do, when you could shift your focus to what you can do?”

Keep this in mind. Anything is possible. You simply have to put your mind to anything. In closing, I’ll leave you with the words of Will Smith.

‘Cause Will Said So

“It’s unrealistic to bend a piece of metal, and fly it over a body of water to another country. That is unrealistic. Fortunately, the Wright brothers didn’t think so. It’s unrealistic, to walk into a room, flick a switch and have the entire room light up. Fortunately, Thomas Edison didn’t think so. Thinking realistically is the easiest road to mediocrity.”