I have a 4 day course in England’s most haunted hotel, or so they say.
Been there before - I made the mistake of reading all about its various ghosts and presences just before trying to go to sleep one night.
I don’t think I had a haunted room - but an over excited imagination made up for it.
How are you doing today?
I’m good, I love trains, especially when they’re running on time.
As a form of travel they’re great in that they give me space to meditate, to write, to read. To just stare out the window and watch the country’s back yard flash by.
What am I musing upon?
Well - I love learning stuff, particularly physical skills.
I love the act of getting better, of improving, of the pursuit of mastery.
But - I realised a while back that the way I was approaching learning was flawed.
My focus was solely on wanting to get it right -
- which is a great focus, but especially in the beginning you’re going to get a lot of things wrong -
The problem for me is that I would get - and still do if I’m not mindful of it - frustrated when I got it wrong.
So frustrated that I started not wanting to try in case I "failed", again.
If I wasn’t quickly good at something, I would stop, close up shop.
And never improve.
Does that makes sense?
Wanting to be “good” and get it right meant that I was afraid of sucking at something.
Which meant I never practiced, I never worked my way through being a learner.
I never opened up to feedback in case people saw I was “useless”, I never asked questions, I never wanted to show that I didn’t know.
And so getting better was much slower than it could be.
Indeed, sometimes it never happened at all.
It’s the most humbling phase of learning: Fully knowing that you don’t know.
Before that piece of awareness you were ignorant of your ignorance.
And that was bliss.
But that is not a way forward.
The only way forward in anything is to embrace being a beginner, embrace the fact you will make mistakes.
Make it not about getting it right or wrong, make it about constant improvement.
Have an attitude of not wanting to be an expert.
If you can be the humble beginner many possibilities will open to you.
You will be learn in the most amazing ways, from people you never expected to.
It’s true for all aspects of life:
Whatever your goals are in terms of your mindset and attitude, in terms of your mental skills …
Maybe it’s to get more focussed, or lose anxiety, or get calm and clear, or be less serious and more content, to beat depression or blind anger …
Whatever it is you want to get better at, be prepared to make mistakes.
Embrace this fact, get help in learning from them, and keep going, keep practicing.
And then you have a chance to be awesome, and set yourself to be even more awesome as long as you keep practicing.
OK? You got this.
I have a seminar on sport performance and how your mind sabotages you, and what to do about it.
I’ll outlay what the problem is and give you some solutions you can take away.
You are you going to bring?
For more info, and to register, go here:
https://arjunaishaya.leadpages.co/mindmastery
Take care and have a great day now, Arjuna
PS. Not many people realise how simply you can get better at the mental game.
When you know the right things to do, and the right attitude to have, and the right way to think, it is indeed very straightforward.
Just a matter of practice.
Get a seat here for the right things:
https://arjunaishaya.leadpages.co/mindmastery
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