Personal Development: Energy and Success

The ground-breaking science of quantum physics explains to us that you and I – indeed, everything in our world and in our universe – are energy. Nothing more, nothing less. And the manner in which we manage our energy has a direct moment-to-moment impact on our lives. Every action that you take, every word that you say and, most importantly, every thought that you have is an explicit use of your energy. I’ve placed heavy emphasis on thought, placed it higher in the order of things than either actions or words. The reason is simple. Psychology tells us that most of our actions are undertaken in a completely inattentive, almost mindless, fashion. By way of simple example, many people go through the motions of their daily work hamstrung by the destructive thought that they hate their job. In other words, the thought colours, taints or, depending on its ferocity, over-rides the action. The action is, at the very best, half-hearted. In fact, psychology tells us that most of our actions only manage to attract about 1% of our attention – most of our mental energy being uselessly embroiled in useless thought or, even worse, subconscious self-destructive perceptions of self-inadequacy or even self-loathing. Similarly, we can utter words that have no meaning behind them. Many people will tell you do have a nice day, whilst not giving a damn whether you do or don’t. People will tell you that you look well, whilst lying through their teeth. People will wish you well in business with the utter and sincere hope that you fall flat on your face.

It’s the thought that counts. And that’s where we all fall down. The average adult has about 50,000 random thoughts whizzing through their head every single waking day. Many of those thoughts are of no use to us whatsoever. “Did I unplug the curling tongs before I left the house this morning?” “I wish that I was on the golf course instead of in this boring meeting!” More decisively in ruling our lives, however, some of those thoughts are positively self-destructive. “I feel inadequate.” “I’m stupid.” “I’m no good at this stuff” – whatever “this stuff” might be. These thoughts bubble up from our subconscious mind – the all-powerful part of our mind that dictates our behaviour. These thoughts became embedded there during our formative years and, today, in the here and now, they are tying us in knots.

That means that, above all else, our thoughts, whether we are aware of them or not, are disrupting our flow of energy. Worse than that, they are actually blocking our energy and rendering our communication with the wider world meaningless. The wider world includes those with whom we find ourselves at this moment in time, our nearest and dearest, our clients, our friends, those on whom we are trying to make a good impression and, of course, the energetic universe which, quantum physics states, is responsive to our input of energy. I’ve already said that psychology tells us that, in the reality of our daily lives, we only invest 1% of our energy into the reality of the here and now. With such a tiny investment of energy, we are likely to get precious little in return. This is the nub of the problem for those of us who want more out of life. We, ourselves, are messing up our own lives by not being attentive to our state of mind.

In other words, if you’re not getting what you want out of life, if there is some aspect of your life with which you are unhappy, if you are suffering from stress or even depression , it’s your own fault – it’s a direct consequence of the way in which you don’t just waste your energy but actively, albeit subconsciously, use your own energy against yourself.

The only way that your life will change for the better is if you take conscious, direct and positive action to rein in your wayward mind and point as much of your energy as possible in the right direction. What is the right direction? Well, the right direction is unique for each individual inasmuch as each of us has, or should have, our own goals, hopes and dreams . Therein lies a further problem because most of us have not given any active consideration to what we truly want out of life and, even if we have, our desires tend to be a constantly moving target – we keep changing our minds. So, the first thing that we have to do in life is decide what it is that we truly want. We have to know what that would look like, feel like, sound like, smell like and taste like. Ideally, we have to “know” this in a manner in which we enable ourselves believe in it. This is done very easily by writing down what you want – using each of those five senses – as if you already have it.

But that is only the beginning because, if you don’t manage the fragmented way in which your mind abuses you, you will continue to trip yourself up – you’ll be trying to reach the winning post with your running shoes’ laces tied together. Therefore, you have to take daily action to keep your mind on a straight and narrow path of focus on whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing at this moment in time. You have to develop your innate ability to engross yourself in whatever you’re doing – regardless of whether you think you like what you’re doing – or not. Focus and attentiveness are at the heart of achievement and success. And your own success and happiness , in whatever way you define it, is entirely in your own hands.