Mind Life Area

Master your clarity, focus, and discernment.

OVERVIEW

The Mind Life Area sharpens your intellect, so your mindset, perceptions, and decisions help you achieve your goals.

Invest in the mind and develop your mental clarity. This creates the focus necessary to achieve your goals and discern what really matters.

When we ignore our mindset, our efforts in life become scattered. Our reality is then dyed in the color of negative thoughts.

ON THIS PAGE

What is the Mind Area?

The Mind Life Area is the domain that covers your thoughts, beliefs, and perceptions. Action stems from the way we perceive the world, and our beliefs influence every circumstance in life. To live with clarity means to act according to what you really want.

The mind is influenced by the information you consume, the ability to self-reflect, and how you discern what is important. Thoughts are seeds that sprout into action. Where your attention goes, energy flows; therefore, the mind determines your direction.

The more we develop the intellect, the clearer our direction becomes. Life is incredibly short, with infinite possibilities and usually a ton of clutter. The ability to discern what is true from what is false and make decisions that pay off in the long run helps us achieve our goals.

Why the mind is a servant, not a master →

Don't Neglect Thoughts

The mind is a double-edged sword: an incredible servant but a terrible master. The developmental task of this area is learning to use your mind rather than letting it abuse you. When steered well, you can achieve your desires, but if unchecked, your thinking can make your life a living hell.

The ego is made up of your thoughts, and your identity needs to be trained and sharpened. When perceptions drift from reality, they can become downright destructive through acts of war, betrayal, and deceit. Your thoughts are a sword, and without skill you’ll cut yourself.

The ability to speak and think is a magical power. Thoughts precede many physical manifestations. Thoughts shape identity, and identity drives your actions. In the end, what we sow we will eventually reap. So when the mind is untrained and on autopilot, it will lead you astray.

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How to gain clarity and discernment?

90-95 percent of our thoughts are the same each day, and the stories we tell ourselves determine our behavior. Your mind can be developed through neuroplasticity, which slowly allows you to change hardwired neural pathways. Perceptions transform when you change your thinking habits.

The first step is to become aware of your thinking. Detaching from your thoughts may be hard, but without it, you’ll never be able to change your mind. With awareness, we can rewire old pathways and, in turn, change behavior. These actions then reinforce the new neural pathways.

Thought must crystallize into action. Your mind is a garden, and the seeds we water will grow. Your perceptions and environment are inextricably linked. Change your thoughts, and your actions change as well, and vice versa. Clarity is directing your mind to produce better actions and results.

Five Pillars of mental clarity

Attention

The ability to direct focus, alternate between tasks, and intentionally scatter. Attention magnifies and directs energy. It is one of the most valuable things we possess, so don’t let technology hijack it. Training your attention is not only done through focusing on one task, but also by alternating between activities when necessary, and letting your mind wander at times to recharge.

Knowledge

Study and ability to learn. Learning what to study and how to most effectively acquire information is a skill in and of itself. The deeper our knowledge, the higher quality decisions we can make. Learning any craft requires intense study. But schooling should not be mistaken for education, as the ‘what’ and ‘how to’ learn is greatly controlled. There is only one form of education in the end, and that is self-education. This means becoming a lifelong student.

Translation

Speaking and writing. The more clearly thoughts can be translated into speech and other forms of communication, the greater our influence in the world. Translation is power, and the sharper the communication, the greater the effect. The ability to use words and communicate them is what allows billions of humans to work together. Cultivating higher quality speech and writing allows you to change the world. Empires, in the end, are ruled by words, not swords.

Structure

Creating good results requires planning, prioritizing, and system design. The better we build systems to support our long-term plans, the better our results. This demands discernment, because in a finite world, we must make hard choices to prioritize what truly matters. The more structured our efforts, the more consistent the outcomes. Ultimately, the ability to analyze and plan ensures our actions always move in a specific direction.

Discipline

Sustained effort over time, regardless of changes in the inner and outer environment. If you want to achieve anything in life you need grit, determination, and consistency. Action speaks louder than words. To move through self-doubt and weather internal and external storms takes strength. This is how skills are developed, empires are built, and success is created. To seek out discomfort willingly is fundamental to any form of achievement.

Attention

Knowledge

Translation

Structure

Discipline

Five practices to develop focus and discernment

Do one thing at a time

He who is everywhere is nowhere at all. Simplifying and focusing on the present activity at hand is the best way to train your attention. This doesn’t mean being relentlessly single-minded, but it prevents drifting without intention.

It’s best to intensify and lengthen activities: Read books instead of using social media, do deep work instead of answering emails, turn your phone off during social gatherings, and exercise without music. The main practice, however, is to return your attention to whatever you’re doing the moment you catch yourself drifting.

Read books

Some people spend twenty years writing one book you can consume in ten hours. Reading is the most effective and cheapest way to truly educate yourself. The goal is not to read a certain number of books, but to become a reader.

Read 2 pages of a book every day. Put books on your nightstand, on the couch, or designate a reading space. Also, apply the traffic university rule: when in traffic, always consume (audio) books, podcasts, or courses.

Write

Journaling, preferably with pen and paper, is one of the most effective ways to clarify your thoughts and learn to self-reflect. Writing in general is a great practice to bring your thoughts into the world.

There are many ways to improve your writing. Start by writing two pages in a journal every morning. Next, commit to writing higher-quality emails, papers, and letters. Finally, make a habit of summarizing anything you learn in your own words.

Plan your week

Show me your calendar, and I’ll show you who you are. Time is our most precious asset. What we spend it on is what we value most. This doesn’t mean you should cram your life with activities; one should schedule rest as well.

At a certain time every week, sit down for one hour and do a weekly review. Go over everything from the past week. Then schedule your week ahead with sleep, self-care practices, work, relational activities, and time off.

Do one hard thing

Each day we wake with a limited amount of energy. The longer we postpone what is important, the more likely we’ll never do it. As a rule in any activity, do the hard thing first.

Learn to embrace discomfort. Be on your edge at least once a day. Push yourself further while working out, meditate a bit longer than is comfortable, take cold showers, apologize first, write when it’s difficult, or withhold from a craving when you feel the need to cave in.

Five practices to develop focus and discernment

Do one thing at a time

Read books

Write

Plan your week

Do one hard thing

Each day we wake with a limited amount of energy. The longer we postpone what is important, the more likely we’ll never do it. As a rule in any activity, do the hard thing first.

Essential books for clarity

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Sapiens

— Yuval Noah Harari ↗

The personal diary of a Roman Emperor on self-governance.

The Art of War

— Sun Tzu ↗

The essential book on strategy, planning, and victory.

The Black Swan

— Nassim Taleb ↗

Exposes the illusion of certainty and many cognitive fallacies.

Deep Work

— Cal Newport ↗

Teaches the value of single-minded focus and acquiring skills.

Atomic Habits

— James Clear ↗

A proven way to make good habits and break bad ones.

The Mind Area Articles

A dark crystal formation catching one bright edge of light.

The mind is a wonderful servant, but a bad master

Essential

Medium read

The mind is a wonderful servant, but a bad master

Essential

Medium read

Common Questions

The mind creates clarity, focus, and discernment. Thought is a double-edged sword that can make or break our goals.

The Mind Life Area covers how you direct your attention, acquire knowledge, translate your thinking, and organize your effort. It is your mindset that creates clarity, focus, and discernment to pursue your goals.

You must first learn how to disidentify from your thoughts before you try to change them. Only when you realize that you are not your thoughts can you change them. This is done by becoming aware of your thoughts and rewiring them through small actions.

You must care for your attention as a whole. Simplify your life to doing only one activity at a time. Slowly increase your ability to focus on a single task. But it is equally important to intentionally alternate between tasks and let your mind wander at times.

Environments of endless disruption, technology that hijacks your attention, and a lack of clear goals result in being scattered. To gain discernment, you must clarify what you truly want. When you set clear goals and activities, you’ll be able to discern what is essential in your life.

Focus must be cultivated first. Discipline applied to scattered attention results in working harder at the wrong things. When you’re everywhere, you’re nowhere. A focused mind requires far less discipline to achieve any goal.

Discipline is the backbone of any form of achievement. Discomfort is a part of life. Without the ability to persevere through internal and external storms, you will inevitably abandon your goals the moment friction appears.