This month’s theme is mind, and I’d like to start with the reasons why mind development is important. By understanding the reasons, we will be better motivated to learn and develop our mind. If we just learn what and how without learning why, I’m afraid we won’t be motivated enough.

Without further ado, here are 8 reasons why mind development is important:

1. Your mind determines what you do

Whatever you do comes from your mind. You think about something before you do it. Even things you do not consciously do come from your subconscious mind. By understanding and developing your mind, you will be able to direct your behavior the way you want it.

2. Your mind determines how far you can go

Your mind – or, to be exact, your beliefs – set the limit of how far you can go in life. Often people create self-imposed limitations through their thoughts. Their minds continuously give them reasons about why things can’t be done and why they won’t go anywhere. People who do not learn to recognize and control their beliefs will be the victims of their own minds. They won’t be able to achieve their fullest potential.

3. Your mind determines where you go

Your mind can analyze information and recognize trends. Based on them, it can show you the right direction to go to. It helps you make the right decisions.

4. Your mind opens new possibilities

Your mind has imagination which is the door to new and exciting worlds. By developing your imagination you will be able to see and tap into new opportunities overlooked by other people.

5. Your mind gives you unique value

Your mind can give you unique value that differentiates you from everyone else. It gives you creative ideas that set you ahead of the pack and make you thrive in this competitive world. Otherwise, your skills and knowledge may soon be commoditized.

6. Your mind helps you solve problems

Whatever you do, there are always problems you need to solve. The quality of your mind determines how fast and good you can solve those problems. The better-trained your mind, the faster you can solve them and the better the solutions will be.

7. Your mind determines what you know

Your knowledge resides in your mind. The better-trained your mind, the better and more integrated your knowledge will be. Not only do you know much, you can also associate one part of your knowledge to the others. Those who have information have advantage over those who don’t, but those who have knowledge have even more advantage.

8. Your mind determines how good you perform

The quality of your performance depends on the quality of your skill. In turn, the quality of your skill depends on the quality of your mind.

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As you can see, mind development is essential. Your mind either makes or breaks your life. From the points above, there are several areas of mind development we should pay attention to:

1. Beliefs
   You should identify wrong beliefs and replace them with the right ones. It’s fundamental because it determines the size of your “life box” which limits how far you can go in life. The right beliefs allow you to grow to your full potential.
2. Negative thoughts
   While beliefs determine how big your life box is, your thoughts are the content of the box. It’s useless to have a big box if the content is negative or of low quality. That’s why it’s important to overcome negative thoughts. Negative thoughts here could be anger, hate, etc.
3. Pattern recognition
   You should be able to process the information that comes to your mind and see what patterns emerge. Seeing the patterns helps you make good decisions.
4. Creativity
   Your creativity opens new possibilities so it’s essential to develop it. Developing your imagination and ability to synthesize are keys.
5. Problem solving
   The more you exercise your problem solving skill, the better you will overcome the challenges in your work and life.
6. Knowledge
   Your knowledge gives you the ability to make informed decisions. Developing your knowledge is a way to make better-quality decisions.
7. Skill
   You must develop your skill if you want to be an expert performer in certain area.

As you can see, mind is such a broad topic and there is no way we can cover it all in only one month. We might only be able to scratch the surface but that will still be useful.

Do I miss something? Feel free to let me know.

This article is part of May 2008 theme: Mind.