Mental Exercises That Can Help You Achieve Anything

The definition of success varies wildly depending on who you
ask. My definition and yours might be completely different,
or they may differ because we are simply working on
different things in our lives. You may be working on
quitting smoking, someone else may be trying to lose weight,
I may be preparing for an upcoming speech I'll have to give.

One thing is for sure though, if you want to be 'successful'
you need to get in the right mind-set.

So how do you get yourself mentally prepared to take on a
new challenge?

No matter what you're trying to accomplish, there are 4 easy
exercises that anyone can do to get themselves mentally
prepared for success.

Meditation

Meditation is the practice in which you train your mind to
induce a mode of higher consciousness. In order to do this,
find a quiet place to either sit or lay down, and simply
close your eyes and begin taking deep breaths in and out.
Doing this can help you reduce stress, become aware of
yourself and your environment, help you to ignore
distractions, improve your focus, and even help your
physical well-being.

Re framing

Re framing consists of changing the way we see things and
trying to find alternative ways of viewing ideas, events,
and situations. Re framing is a way of taking negative
thoughts or emotions, and spinning them in a positive way.
Instead of worrying over a past failure, use it as an
opportunity to see where you can improve and grow. Practice
seeing opportunity in failure or shortcomings, and pretty
soon you'll be more optimistic all around.

"If life gives you lemons, make lemonade!"

Visualization

Visualization is a very popular one amongst athletes,
business people, and entertainers. When you have an event
coming up (Public speaking engagement, job interview,
basketball game) visualize yourself in the process of that
event. Don't focus on the outcome or how you think it will
end up, but simply the process of what you'll be doing and
the different scenarios that could pop up during. If you do
this for everything, you'll feel more prepared to handle
situations when they arise.

Self-Talk

Self talk is the process of repeating positive affirmations
and thoughts to yourself. Things that will help you to
complete your task at hand. There are a couple different
types of self talk that you can use to help yourself achieve
any goal - motivational and instructional.

Motivational self talk could be anything from, "you got
this", "you are good enough", and "you WILL achieve your
goal".

Instructional on the other hand isn't just to pump you up
and make you feel capable and confident. An example of
instructional self talk would be a golfer trying to work on
his swing repeating to himself "bend your knees and keep
your eye on the ball".

If you practice these 4 mental exercises for a while, they
will eventually become second nature. If you can get your
mind set right, you will feel more confident and capable and
will be able to achieve anything you set out to do.

I hope you found this article useful. Share with me how useful
these 4 exercises have been for you. 

Have a great day ahead! =)