Willie Horton's Personal and Leadership Development Ezine

Issue No: 422 - November 25, 2014

IF YOU ARE NOT MINDFUL YOU'RE AS GOOD AS DEAD

VOICES IN YOUR HEAD

What is going on in your head right now? Take a few moments to consider this question. Do you notice, perhaps, that there is a kind of monologue or dialogue going on? You may notice that you're questioning yourself or egging yourself on. You might be psyhcing yourself up or critically analysing how you're doing. The question is - who is doing the talking, who is doing the evaluating, who is second-guessing, who is trying to build you up or break you down? How many of there are you? And what's it like to be mad?!!

	FLYING AROUND IN CIRCLES

Take a quick look at today's Quick Tip (top right) - and, hopefully, you the four minutes and seven seconds to watch today's video. Both the tip and the video refer to the same thing... the stored knowledge that you're carrying around inside your head. The voices that evaluate, criticise, egg you on; the choices that you make, the actions that you (apparently) take, the things you say and do... everything emanates from that stored knowledge - stuff you learned about yourself and your world during your formative years.

You cannot survive without your stored knowledge - it plays a central role in every moment of your day. It is the program that directs the autopilot that flies your life from waking to sleeping. Like all autopilots, the one in your head needs a program that it runs and which enables you get from A to B - which enables you make it through the day (your key evolutionary goal). If making it through the day isn't good enough for you - say you've got some pretty exciting goals you'd like to achieve - if, for example, you'd like to go from A to C (we're not being very adventurous really!) then your autopilot will not get you there... it doesn't have those coordinates.

You could, of course, attempt to give your autopilot new coordinates - that's what writing down your goals is all about or what ordinary people attempt to do when they look in the mirror in the morning and try to convince themselves that they are wonderful when their autopilot knows otherwise! OR... and this is the big OR... you could take the flight controls yourself. That is what mindfulness enables you do. And, if you have the joystick firmly in your hands, you can fly wherever feels best, based on the opportunities that arise in the moment. How exciting would that be?

The point that I'm attempting to make in today's video is that, if you don't take the controls, you'll never fly anywhere except to Destination B. OK, you may not crash and burn, but you'll spend your life flying through lots of turbulance and plenty of fog... in fact, you'll end up flying around in circles.