The human mind is a powerful thing. With that said, it is also easily disposed to negativity. I always have to struggle with negative thoughts impelled by fear and insecurity before embarking on anything new and I’ve found that aside from being hugely frustrating, it is also a waste of time. Streamline your journey in life with worthy goals and pursue them with the utmost hope and optimism. Ask yourself, what do you want most in life?

Time is too short for you to sit back, you have to decide your role in life and find out how you can best serve yourself as well as others. Use your thoughts and beliefs to shape your reality. Know that everything is interconnected and so fulfilling some minor goals will give you the courage and confidence to do greater things. Build yourself up day by day, take up new challenges, learn from failures, keep a schedule and take it step-by-step until you get to where you want to be. I have heard it said that whatever you desire, you can achieve using a conscious mind and I really believe this.  

Our minds function by visualising information while also selectively retaining or repressing them as memories. Even though our thoughts have a powerful influence on our lives, most of us go through life taking little notice of our thought processes probably because thoughts and memories can be both conscious and unconscious. Generally we are not sensitive to the interior workings of our minds and tend to live life in an unreflective and habituated way.

In order to make changes in our life, we must first change the way we think. We must learn to think cautiously but also optimistically. As we are social animals, our minds are attuned to sense the negative stuff as well as the positive ones. With that said, negative thoughts are not always wrong; after all it would be stupid to be blindly optimistic about everything. Read and analyse your situation carefully before you chart your path. Try to be dispassionate and intelligent in your assessments but optimistic and brave in your actions.  

Make a habit of overcoming fear and worries through diligent work and courage. Keep your conscious mind busy with productive schemes and ideas, and make sure that the thoughts we habitually think are based upon what we want in life. Lastly, to quote the Buddha, “do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”

Wagle is a student at Charotar University of Science and Technology, India