Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying, “A strong body makes a strong mind.”
But is it really so? We know how to exercise our physical muscles to keep them strong. But how do we exercise our mind to keep it strong? I am going to introduce you to your six intellectual faculties, which are your mental muscles. Successful people and those who live above the ordinary connect with them all the time. Why do you think 5% of the population owns 95% of the wealth? The more you exercise these six intellectual faculties, the more freedom and power you will have to achieve whatever goal you desire.
Most of us live through our five sensory faculties: seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. Why? Because we have been conditioned to do so. We have been programmed to allow outside influences to dictate how we think, behave, feel, and the results we experience in our lives.
Here’s an example: Marcie has a dream. You want to quit your job and start your own business. She has been thinking about this goal for a long time. Finally, share your goal with family and friends. What does she hear? Nothing but derogatory, discouraging, and disheartening comments surround her.
Here are some examples: “Are you serious? You have an amazing job with great benefits. Have you thought about what that would do to your family? Don’t you listen to the news and read the newspaper? The success and statistics for anyone starting a new business in this economy are pretty low, don’t you know? “
And so it goes on and on. Sounds familiar? If Marcie listens to those comments and allows outside influences to dictate whether or not she pursues her goal, it is quite possible that she will toss her dream along with the garbage. BUT if you tap into your six intellectual faculties, your mental muscles, no outside influences, obstacles, or objections can stand in your way.
The six intellectual faculties lie beyond the physical senses. They are in the conscious mind, which is the thinking mind. These mental muscles when exercising will help us achieve whatever goal we want. Let’s focus on them. They are imagination, will, reason, perception, memory and intuition.
Use your imagination. It is the creator of images. It is the beginning of all creation. It is the workshop of the mind. When was the last time you sat down, closed your eyes, and used your imagination to take him on a trip? Close your eyes right now and imagine that you have achieved your greatest goal. Imagine what it looks like. Feel in possession of it for a few moments …
Exercising our imagination allows us to see our goal on the screen of our mind clearly and in vivid detail. When we imagine our goal in our imagination, the following mental muscle helps to keep it there.
Use your will. Exercising the Will means having the power to eliminate all external distractions and influences. It gives you the ability to focus, focus, and hone in on a goal or objective. Exercising the will keeps your mental eye on the prize.
Use your reason. The exercise of reason allows us to take harmonious thoughts and weave them into wonderful ideas. Our reasoning is our thinking. We have the freedom to think what we want to think. No one can tell us what to think. Unfortunately, most people don’t think. They think they are thinking when the voice in their head speaks to them all day. That is mental talk and not thinking. Henry Ford said, “Thinking is hard work and probably the reason so few people do it.”
The exercise of reason will indicate the correct action steps to achieve our objective.
Use your perception. This is our point of view. Expanding our Perception allows us to look from the points of view of others and opens our visual prism to see with an open mind. Exercising our perception helps us access more knowledge and awareness to see opportunities to achieve a goal that we might otherwise miss.
Use your memory. We have a great memory. It’s just that we don’t exercise it much and it’s weak from lack of use. There is a great book written by Harry Laraine and Jerry Lucas called The memory book. There is a chapter on how to remember names. Completing the name recall exercises will blow you away how perfect your memory is. You may never forget another name again. Exercising memory means letting go of negative associations that memory reminds us of the past and helps us move towards our goal. As a result, we will create new and positive memories as we move towards our goal.
Use your intuition. Most people do not listen to their inner voice, that knowledge that comes from within. Exercising your intuition means tapping into and trusting your inner wisdom that tells you the right course of action. Be still and listen. They are hunches, flashes and inspiration that do not come from the senses. Learning to trust and exercising our intuition will help us make correct decisions with confidence to help us achieve our goal.
If we exercise our mental muscles, our six intellectual faculties, imagination, will, reason, perception, memory and intuition, we can achieve any goal we want. Successful people and people who live above the ordinary take advantage of these gifts every time they want to achieve a life-changing goal.
It is where our power and freedom live.
