When positivity empowers your actions
It is all about building the right focus
After my recent exam, I felt really happy for 3 reasons:
- It was the subject I dreaded and now it is history.
- I started from the more weighted questions and it provided me good momentum. The exam went well!
- I can’t believe 1 and 2 happened!!
So I returned home and something surprising happened — I was not feeling distracted.
What do I mean? Usually I get this extreme tendency to open my phone and check my news feed to see new claps on Medium or likes on Twitter but today I was in the mood of diving deep in to the next subject. In fact, I had a strong urge to put away all screens to spend time with books.
Usually times like this my mind starts to pull out strings of reminders — a 100 reasons why I need to go online right now (and immediately returns back down to 0 when I unlock the screen) but this time, I was in control.
And it felt powerful. For the first time (in a very long time), I had the sense of being in the present — my mind was waiting for my orders. Time was not flying by and I could get to the work immediately.
I wonder, how many of us dream to get in this free flow state of mind, where your actions are the result of the positivity within? Understanding the dynamism can be quite challenging, so here I make an attempt to help you visualize the feeling.
What is this magical power I seem to have gained? Let me put it in perspective.
As you can see, the curve of priority is highly unstable — like how our mood swings as those around you positively or negatively influence you. The unfocused mind is the state where you become lazy, stop fighting for a victory and resort to smaller reasons of temporary happiness (like the notification icon).
How streamlined your thoughts are depends greatly on how well you set your goals. After the exam, I got a huge sense of accomplishment that it compensated for the minor happiness I derive from the news feeds.
Instead of wasting time in artificial happiness, I started realizing the power in waiting patiently for more fulfilling rewards. A sense of accomplishment happens when you work towards it meaningfully, by dedicating your time, effort and thought space.
When your mind is focused, you see only the one goal in your mind, and you work towards it with full concentration.
In my case, the joy of succeeding in my exam gave me the positive boost to dive in to the next task and it helped me better refine, and in fact, think about this phenomenon visually.
So how to control your curve of priority?
It is not a straight-forward answer unfortunately. I seeped in to this mode today and it probably will take quite some time until it happens again due to positive random occurrences.
But if you do not want to leave it to probability to decide your mood swing, there are ways to fix it:
When you are hyper-distracted, admit it. Acknowledging the trouble is the first step to solving it. When you find yourself juggling several tasks simultaneously without giving your full attention to none, take a moment to pause and think about it.
When you need help, ask for it. This is another problem people face. If I ask for help, would that not make me look weak? Maybe, but looking weak for a moment is better than losing control over your time in the long run. Everyone has a weak spot so instead of running away from it, try to find someone to whom you can talk to about it. If this is difficult, close your eyes and think about what the root problem might be. The better you know yourself, the easier it becomes approaching the problem.
When someone is succeeding, cheer along. This does not easily for many but when you celebrate someone else’s victory it slowly begins to shape your thought process and eventually you might get in the right mood to follow the track. A far fetched theory but worth an attempt.
When you have a positive vibe, jot it down. It will later help you relive the experience and maybe help you influence the curve of priority in your favor. For me, it was writing this article to read later, but for you it could be a small note in your wallet to read when you walk down a lonely road later.
Challenge yourself to do a task consistently. Make it a point to stick to a routine. Your mind will try to fight the change but give it some time and the system will get accustomed to it.
It all boils down to finding the threads in the mind that prevent you from controlling this curve that can radically improve your livelihood.
