Are you focusing your time and attention to the right things? Are you placing importance on the right thoughts, feelings and behaviors?

Did you know that for most people, much of what they do in life was not consciously chosen by them? And many times we have done these things for so long they now do seem important to us, but deep down they really are not. At least not as important as what truly is deeply important. This is because doing so requires us to take command of our thinking and analyze the state of our life. But letting our minds just run things is easier, efficient and more comfortable.

Your life is going on and on and on. This is a good thing of course and your brain is designed to keep it this way. Part of your brains function is to simplify as much as possible and to help you feel good which it is very good at. Now you may think that you are always feeling as good as you want this is because your brain sees keeping things the same as more comforting than change. So even what may not be good for you is perpetuated. Your brain is very good at keeping everything the same, in fact it helps to enhance whatever has already been experienced. The way the brain sees this is, you must want it – you chose it, even if not consciously.

The easiest course for your life is for more of the same and that is likely what you have been experiencing. This of course may be all good if you are totally satisfied with everything. But if you want anything about your life to be different, that’s not what your brain is in charge of. When your day is completely full of what you already think, feel and do where does the new come in? When your unconscious and conscious though are consumed with what is now going on, which I assure you they are, all of your attention is there as well. Your day to day life is essentially a habit that continues to feed and support itself, keeping you locked in as it is.

What happens is that you can become blind to other things, that are different. How this affects your life is this – You can become so involved with your repeating thoughts which increase in importance by default that you are not even aware of what you are not doing, what you are missing, and what is deeply important to you. I ran across a video that illustrates this. Pay attention to the guy speaking and do what he instructs you to do. Perception

This attention blindness keeps us doing what we have done and away from what is different and unrelated. You’ve heard the saying, “you can’t see the forest through the trees.” You may not see things that are right in front of you because your attention is already taken up with something. When focusing on the trees that are right in front of you, you are not able to see the scope of the entire forest and it’s varied landscapes.

Many of the things that you have grown to think are important because of your continual involvement, may not be so important to you at a deeper level. As you focus your attention on something it’s importance increases just from the increased presence of the involved thoughts and actions. With this higher level of importance your brain gives it more attention too making it even more prominent in your conscious and unconscious thought, thus many other things are completely shut out of your awareness.

It is important to know that you can really only focus on one thing at a time. When you are ‘multi-tasking’ you are actually jumping quickly back and forth from one thing to another. There is only so much of this that your brain is capable of doing. Plus, there is the time utilized factor. There are 24 hours in a day and when you have allowed the repetitive thoughts to inhabit those hours you are awake, there is no more time for other, new thoughts. You can easily use up your day pretty much thinking about the same things as you did yesterday and the day before. So where does new thinking fit it?

Essentially your life is easily consumed with what you have already experienced, have thought about a lot and have established feelings for. This is almost too simple. Allowing your daily life to continue on in the same way, as your brain helps you do, you are actually preventing yourself from seeing and experiencing anything new and different.

You do however have the ability and the right to make changes in your life anytime you want, you must choose to first and then follow through with persistence and determination to override what is already established in your mind. Your real power as a human lies with your ultimate command of your thought. Just because your brain functions the way it does does not prevent you from aver changing any of it. Where the problem lies is that most of us have a pattern of allowing our minds to perpetuate the same thoughts and experiences over and over rather than making frequent changes. Making frequent changes and adjustments to your thinking can become part of your normal operating system once do do it for a while. Your brain will support this just as it has supported anything else you have focused on.

To change any of your repeating life experience you will need to assert your command of your thought and make choices about what you do and don’t want to be your life experience. Just be aware of how your brain works, it wants to keep you comfortable by keeping things as they are.

As you work on change you may experience some of the following:

• Un-supportive ‘Mind Chatter’,
• Negative thoughts,
• Doubt and worry,
• Challenging your ability and self-esteem,
• Brain fog, clouding your thought,
• Anxiety,
• Distraction,
• Short term gratification,
• and more.

Don’t let this stop you, you don’t need to remain blinded by your existing life experience. Realizing what may occur up front you will be less likely to be influenced by it. Determination, persistence and the belief that you are fully capable will help you learn to make the wanted adjustments to your thought and what you focus on. It’s your mind, use it to your benefit.

What keeps us from doing all that we want? Many say that personal growth and development and self awareness are our number one priorities in life, yet most spend very little time and attention towards this end. Some people do not realize how important it is to continually grow, in fact they may not even realize they can. Many people know that they can continue to grow, develop and become more self aware, but they don’t do much about it.

And then there are those few that seem to be able to actively keep moving forward on their life path. Why? They allow their thinking to focus on their enlightenment, on how they think and act on a regular basis, not just once in a while. They are able to let their mind calm down and get quiet, allowing the chatter to fade away. They are willing to allow their fears, doubts and worries to be present in their thought, knowing that these thoughts can’t actually harm them - knowing that avoidance just postpones not
eliminate.

There are different reasons why we all don’t actively participate in our own personal enlightenment, but one of the main reasons is due to distraction. The human mind can actually do only one thing at a time, those of you that think otherwise are just good at rapidly switching from one focus to another. So what we choose to think about determines much of our life experience. In relation to distraction, when we think about is something that helps us feel comfortable or think we should be doing because of our life responsibilities we are not focusing on growth and self realization.

Now I’m not here to tell you what is and is not important in your physical life, but I know that you need to apply some of your time and attention to your inner growth which includes how you think and act. So what keeps you from doing this you may not even be aware of. Since it is normal for humans to seek happiness, which we equate to comfort, we tend to avoid uncomfortable thinking and feelings. And we do this in many ways, some are our daily activities. We may not be aware of how our daily activities can be getting the way of our growth and self-realization

Things you may do to avoid discomfort:

Listening to music
Listening to talk radio
Watching TV
Playing video games
Reading
Games
Hobbies
Cleaning
Tinkering
Socializing
Hold on! You say, “these are normal things.”

Yes they are, but they can all be used as a distraction. And only you can know what role they play in your life. Like anything, moderation is usually the best.

There are two situations you may be avoiding.

1)If you tend to go to any activity when you feel uncomfortable, you are probably escaping. Sure you will feel better doing something you are familiar with, but this behavior can just postpone what you are avoiding or even make it worse. What I’m referring to here relates to more discomfort than simple relaxation and enjoyment.

2)One of the biggest things you may be doing without knowing it is avoiding real thinking. This is when you are uncomfortable with allowing your mind to run through the incessant mind chatter, which shakes your worries and doubts in your face, to the point where your mind is clear.

Life requires balance, and what I have found is that for most, any self-growth is pushed into a small corner receiving only spare time attention - sometimes. Are you running in circles doing the same things each day and not seeing any change? Are you frustrated with your life? There could be an initial feeling of discomfort when you choose to allow yourself to think freely and not choose a distraction, but this will pass. Using methods of relaxation and meditation will help.

If you want more for yourself take a look at what you do and why you do it. Take a look at what you do everyday towards your own personal growth and development, to what you are doing towards self-realization.  Only you can know if you are using activities to avoid something that is actually more important. Choose to set aside time to just relax and think - this is how you can get in touch with your inner self on a more regular basis.

The choice of how you spend your time is yours and the result is your life experience.

John Halderman,
Tips and tools for daily personal growth, increased happiness and
self-discovery. http://www.effectivepersonaldevelopmentblog.com