Mindset: Aware enough to see something unfolding, wise enough to recognize its meaning, bold enough to take action, and determined enough to keep pushing through to its logical conclusion despite fear & pain.
-Tony Torre
In the quote above you’ll note that just after awareness will is most important. Boldness and determination are both products of will. Strength of will and endurance of will respectively. Through it you will overcome fear and even pain. Will is something that applies to every facet of life yet often gets lost in vague explanations or arcane language. A description I often use for myself is action through attentional focus. It may not work for everyone but realize its goal oriented. Nietzche once said something to the effect of “if you have a why you can survive any how” and this is very true. Focus becomes one of the more powerful factors of will.
My first insight into this realm came through the world of martial arts when I finally realized fighting is an act of will. The often used maxim about getting up being more important than falling down is very true. It is sheer mental momentum that gets you to where you need to be. Most people that get defeated simply give up (or run out of that mental juice that would otherwise keep them going). Since that discovery I’ve used that skill to do a great many things my former self would have otherwise passed up on. For example diving of off a high precipice into Venetian pool in Coral Gables, Florida, zip lining and rappelling off of a very tall cliff in the Mexican jungle, and even meeting my then future wife. I pushed through a great many personal struggles using this skill. I even quit smoking after having been a smoker for well over a decade.
The key to this is, that will like most other attributes can be trained. Repetition builds habit thus by applying your will, you strengthen it. Operant conditioning is one of the psychological principles at work here. Think of Pavlov’s dog (or just google it). It is that simple, though not necessarily easy. Like push ups build upper body strength, using your will to tackle issues that challenge it will only strengthen it. One of the most accessible methods is physical exercise. A disciplined approach to physical fitness will strengthen and reinforce your will by exposing you to pain and effort. Those days you just don’t want to do it, yet push through anyway will raise the bar ever further. A simple piece of advice I received from actor and movie director Clint Eastwood has served me very well in this regard. It is so simple yet so profound “strive to do some form of exercise every day even if its just a few push-ups.” In that spirit even on a day I feel completely spent and unmotivated I drop and knock out a AMRAP (as many reps as possible) set of push ups a call it a day.
Another simple strategy you can apply is to do those things that are necessary, but you just don’t like to do. For example making the bed every morning and making sure no dishes remain in the sink every evening. Can you survive without doing that? Yes, but these are two easy victories that add to your discipline and increase your will. Another great example that comes from my martial arts practice is grappling. I’m a through and through dyed in the wool striker by preference. Yet despite my preference in the late 90’s I took up training in grappling. Back then a glaring weakness in my skill sets. My then primary training partner and Arnis student Ozzy commented to me “man, you must really love grappling”. Imagine his shock when I told him I actually hated it. As a follow-up to that I clarified that I most likely hated it because I was terrible at it, and that dislike, was probably the best indicator that I should get better at it. In doing so I became a better and more well-rounded martial artist. More importantly than that I strengthened my will, and became a better man for it.
So next time you feel lazy, unmotivated, or scared ask yourself will you be better for doing it anyway? I guarantee you if that becomes your habit you’ll find more opportunities and more successes. Life will start to change for the better. Fear becomes something else, and things that might have previously been labeled problems will be seen as mere challenges. Life as a whole will become more rewarding. I’ve said before survival is the art of gaining more time. If that is true, then developing your will is a reinforcing part of your mindset the most important tool you’ll have for gaining that precious time.
*The opening quote is what I came up with when challenged to come up with a clear and unambiguous definition for the term mindset. With this definition there can be no doubt as to what is meant when we use the term “mindset”.
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