The Expansive World Of Mind Muscle Development
The Expansive World Of Mind Muscle Development
I heard Peter speak again this weekend at my local church, and it’s twenty four years since I first came in contact with the author of that quote. For three days I shut myself away in a motel room with three books – one book written by Peter J. Daniels, the Gideon Bible, and a blank notebook.
During those three days I filled that notebook and mapped out my future, including the businesses that I believed I would develop in the years to come. At the time I was not yet a businessman, and I was unaware of any businessmen being in my recent known ancestry. So it was virgin ground that I was entering, and experience has been my greatest teacher. This was the beginning of my mind muscle development that has continued to this very day.
Even twenty four years later, even though I have achieved many great things, I feel that I am just getting started. For that reason I continue to exercise my mind so that it can grow stronger and more prepared to achieve more in the next twenty four years than I have to date since those three precious days that defined my future.
So how do you develop the muscle called the mind? Well here are just a few ways that have helped me.
- Read Mind Developing Material
I don’t read rubbish. And there are a lot of garbage books out there. So be discerning in your reading. I have also discovered that an author can write one good book, and yet the next will not rise to the same level of excellence. So never allow yourself to be lured into reading material that will not build your brain matter. I read a whole range of different subject material. But in all my reading I am seeking the lesson to be learnt – and no matter what I read – whether political, philosophical, social, economic, religious or otherwise – I will always bring it back to how can it help in relation to the further development of my human potential. I read for the purpose of mind muscle development.
- Keep The Company Of Smarter People
Everyone I come in contact with is smarter than myself in some area. So that is why I ask lots of questions. Whenever I’m in the presence of another human being I allow them to be the teacher, and position myself as the student through the art of questioning. Through this practice I never cease learning something new. My world and mind are constantly expanded as a direct result of that habit. But as part of that process I glean my thoughts – making certain that only those words that will build my life are added to my growing storehouse of knowledge and wisdom.
- Think Beyond BIG Thoughts
As soon as I think I have found the biggest thought I’m doomed. I must constantly develop the habit of thinking BIG. Through my reading and my association this is achieved. I choose to be challenged to grow and to expand into the BIG thinker that I was created to become. Practice the art of BIG thinking. Journal your ideas. BIG seeds will ultimately produce BIG results.
- Get Off Your ‘Blessed Assurance’
This is a term used by Peter J. Daniels. He simply means that until we get up off our backside and apply actions to our big ideas, our big thoughts, our big goals and our big dreams – nothing is ever going to happen. Through the years I have gradually attempted bigger and better things, but as I look back at where I started I am amazed how much of a small thinker I was – and I suppose in ten years I will look back at now and think the same thing. But that’s okay. We’re not competing against others. We’re running against the potential that God has placed in our lives – and it is for that reason, and that alone, that we are wholly responsible for.
So get moving – develop your mind muscle, and bring to the world stage the great advancements that only you can bring to make it a better place in which all of us can live.
Read: