KATHMANDU: We have seen and heard of amazing performers and geniuses like Albert Einstein, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs who

excelled in their life and contributed significantly to humanity. On the other hand, there are uncountable people whose life was full of deprivation, poverty and depression. And at the root of all this is the mind — the cause of everything, good or bad. It is the most trusted servant to a few people, and to many others the worst master that keeps troubling day and night by dictating its own terms. Gautam Buddha said, “We are what we think. With our thoughts, we make our world.”

Since the mind is always with us — from the moment we are born till we die — we have no choice but to learn to live with it and use it

to realise our ultimate potential.

The great Scientist and Educator George Washington Carver puts it beautifully: “Most people search high and wide for the keys to success. If they only knew, the key to their dreams lies within.” Yes, successful people use the potential of their mind to the fullest. A sophisticated gadget can be useful only when we know its mechanism and how to use it properly.

Follow the seven simple steps below to make your mind create wonders for you:

1. Move: We set our mind in motion only when we identify our purposes, goals, targets and objectives clearly and communicate it

to our subconscious and team.

The mind falls into a vicious trap of worry, anxiety and depression if no goal is assigned to it.

2. Self-motivate: Real motivation is the result of knowing one’s purpose in life and working towards it. Steve Jobs said, “If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pulled. The vision pulls you.”

3. Charge: Once it is set in motion by goal setting, we must continuously charge our mind by positive and good thoughts. Reading relevant literature and the company of people with similar vibrations creates the right charge for the mind.

4. Challenge: The mind works hard without falling into lethargy if it is shown both the big picture and the small details of what we want to do. The large picture challenges the status quo, brings us out of the comfort zone and prevents us from stopping before we reach our final target.

5. Focus: We can maintain focus in life by showing genuine commitment to our life purpose and goals. There is an old African saying: ‘A well-aimed spear is worth three.’

6. Support: Our mind is a multi-storey building and meditation is its foundation and support. The mind loses its connection with the self if you do not meditate.

7. Dilute: Selfless service to humanity and unrelenting devotion to God keeps our mind flexible and open and dilutes the ego. Ego is the source of all psychological pollution and miseries in life.

(The author is the president of Jeevan Vigyan Kendra, a modern spiritual organisation, and principal of Apex College. He can be contacted through bhanu@jeevanvigyan.com)