The Power of the Mind
A brief chat with one of my Career Management clients this morning reminded me how vitally important it is to think positively when we are proactively managing a job search campaign to advance our careers.
The power of the mind has been revered by all the great thinkers and philosophers since the dawn of time and yet it is so often either taken totally for granted or completely forgotten as we go about our daily routines and tasks. Let’s consider a few examples:
“We become what we think about” – Marcus Aurelius
“As a man thinketh, so is he” – The Bible
“With our thoughts we make our world” – The Buddha
These are all “ancient-speak” but the same concept sometimes filters across into the modern corporate world in more modern language, for example:
“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve” – Corporate Mission Statement – General Electric Corporation.
The implication of all these statements is that what we put into our minds is very important in determining the kind of life we have, the lifestyle we live and the results we obtain from our actions. In fact, as is often said, “What we become is determined by the books that we read and the people we associate with.” These influences gradually condition our minds to accept a certain type of behaviour as normal. What do we think our children will be doing in a month’s time if we allow them to associate with glue sniffers! Why do we think businesses spend fortunes on advertising?
We can think of all sorts of examples from everyday life, of how our minds, and the way we think, will determine our actions and thereby our results.
Let’s make the point by thinking about a very simple example. Think about parking your car in a multi-storey car park on a busy day. Do you think it might make a difference, when you enter the car park, whether you are thinking “I’m going to park, I always find a slot if I take my time” or “I can never find a space when I come here – it’s always full”?
If we think positively we take our time and look for tell-tale signs like people with full shopping bags – I wonder where they are going! Perhaps they’re going home – let’s see where they parked.
If we think negatively we are quite likely to just drive through the car park scanning for an already empty space and come out the other end grumbling to ourselves “There – I knew I wouldn’t be able to park!”
