Social Entrepreneur Site

Mental barriers, what are they?

These are the road blocks in our mind that act as a handy cap to us as we go through life preventing us from realizing our full potential. They are debilitating because they prevent us from using our mind as effectively as possible. They are the negative thoughts brought about by fear, uncertainty, hesitation, weakness, ignorance and lots of other factors which can act as a glass prison for our mind. Although we can feel our true potential within us, its these glass walls that prevent us from realizing our potential right on the other side. To break these walls and free ourselves of mental barriers is to understand most of us have them in one form or another.

To overcome these barriers is fairly easy and starts with simply being able to identify and acknowledge them. Some are fairly straight forward and easy to identify, such as a fear of heights or fear of the dark. Others are much more hidden and complex, such as not knowing when you make a decision because you truly believe in the decision or because you were influenced to make it because it is what is socially acceptable or expected from you.

To some extent it can be said all our decisions are based on what we see and experience in society being that is where a lot of what we believe is acceptable comes from, we learn from our environment. For example, if everyone was shown on TV wearing a paper clip on their collar to hold pens and you also saw a large majority of people in public doing the same, although it may not be very efficient you would most likely end up doing the same as opposed to sliding it in your shirt pocket. However where exactly does that line of influence end? Where do influences from your external environment meet your internal thought process, and which one dominates what you end up thinking? When you begin thinking about how you think, and what things influence your thoughts you begin to discover just where that line is drawn, and you can choose to take more control over what and how you think, and that is empowering! However you must also have the fortitude and courage to think on your own terms and take action on those thoughts, even when it may go against what is acceptable to society. This is what singles out the great thinkers of our time from the mediocre minds.

Most barriers are created by our emotions, others may be created by simply being un-aware of something. It is easy to fix the problems when the barriers are caused by an emotion because the emotion is the symptom, however when a mental barrier is caused by something you are not aware of, it is much more problematic. These types of barriers are like invisible walls that may cause you to think in an artificial vacuum which may hinder you from thinking outside the box or with clarity and at our utmost potential. This is why it is important to be observant of what how and why you think the way you do, as well as learning to manage the influences that affect our thought process, only then can you begin improving how you think.

By breaking down these barriers and thinking about how we think allows us to free our mind and remove the bias and limitations societies, groups or individuals may impose on us. These are the most important barriers we must first break down to gain full control of our mind and take full responsibility for how we think and the actions that come about from those thoughts. From this point we can begin building the foundation that allows us to identify, rationalize, dissect and break down any other mental barriers. 

Being aware of what your doing

Similar to mental barriers are habits. A habit is typically a pattern that develops which you only become aware of after experiencing the consequences of those habits. It could be argued habits are a negative force, however whether good or bad the negative aspect is that you do not have control over them. They are things you do repeatedly and sometimes unknowingly that are a sign you do not have full control over our mind and our actions. Let’s not confuse habits with things you simply want to do over and over again, for example watch the game on Monday nights, or go shopping on the weekends this would be more of a routine than a habit. Habits have much more in common with addictions, such as smoking. Things you do because you do not have the ability to prevent yourself from doing them or are not even aware you are doing them, as opposed to routines which you make a known decision to do them. Everyone has a habit or two, most may not even be considered very bad habits, what is bad is when you do not have control over which habits arise. It is one thing to develop a good habit such as say speed reading, it would help you become more productive with minimal downsides, except you may miss details occasionally buy hurrying through a piece of literature. However what if this habit was not such a good habit, causing you to miss details which may not be acceptable in your line of work.  Then there’s a problem.

Correcting Bad Habits

To begin correcting bad habits we need to begin paying attention to just what it is we do. Take one day or one week and simply be observant of the things you are doing. You will then begin to notice things you are repeatedly doing things that don’t exactly accomplish whatever it may be you are trying to accomplish in the best possible way. Examples may be performing tasks:

You will notice most successful people tend to have very good habits and are typically very keen as to what they are doing or not doing. In other words they make it a habit to lookout for bad habits, which is a good habit J. If we ourselves have habits such as the ones described above we will carry those over into our social life, work environment or business, for those of us hoping to one day start a business.  It is important not necessarily to stop habits entirely, good habits are a good thing, however we should focus on noticing when we begin developing habits and know how to correct them if you find they are bad habits. To begin fixing the problem we must begin paying close attention to what it is we are doing. This does not mean being overly critical of yourself, simply being observant and rational about what you do, sometimes the inefficient things we DO come about by inefficiency in how we THINK.