How does one grasp the notion that two people can be exposed to the same problem, one succeeds, the other fails. One laughs, another cries.
While advances in science and technology consistently try to take the guess work out of the human being, there is ultimately one thing that will remove us from being predictable machines: emotions.
We can track it. We know how to elicit it. We know where brain activity occurs when it happens. But that’s a passive observation lacking the bigger picture:
One’s attitude towards something so greatly affects his or her ability to achieve it, that many believe thinking is the key to success.
From Eckhart Tolle
to Zig Ziglar
If emotion stems from the attitude one takes in the present moment, how does one control the attitude?
The cortex controls the fight or flight response towards a stimulus, but how does one override this?
How does one not give up even when the brain is telling to?
What does it mean to be motivated?
Careers are blossomed from the desire of man to be motivated and successful.
But what is attitude?
How do you define its innateness?
I have always seen it defined in terms of its outcome, its exterior manifested by some emotion, action or trait that is either admirable or not.
Some, like Richard Dawkins, might say it is the predisposition towards a certain response given a certain stimulus that has been ingrained as a survival mechanism.
Some may give rules on how to be successful.
And others may give secrets to success once achieved.
But these are just lists that typically have worked for the advice giver. They answer the how, not the why.
Why do we have different attitudes towards things?
Some may even say that attitude allows us to make snap decisions by utilizing minimal brain cognition. Some suggest it is due to modeling the stimulus we receive in an orderly fashion. With different stimuli, we can affect how we think and use parts of the brain.
Yet from attitude comes emotion.
Control emotion, control your attitude.
But emotions can’t be controlled, only accepted for what they are. The more you try to control them, try to bottle them up, ignore them, the bigger and bigger they get until it manifests into this tangible energy in your mind that over powers your thoughts.
So “accept” your emotions for what they are. When they come up acknowledge them. Let your conscious mind passively observe how the emotion is felt by your body, and then let the emotion go.
Create a beautiful romance with your emotions.
The Untethered Soul, Thresholds of the Mind, and A New Earth all dive deep into this. One day soon, I hope to convey their message to you as well. But for now, if you want to know more, head there.