I am a learner. A constant learner. I read like 3 books at a time. Most of them I never finish, but I gather enough to enrich my mind. I am also someone who grapples with day to day activities. I have about 3 active projects going on and 5 in the ideas form. I have a task list which never ends. I am mostly thankful for having so much stuff. But being a sensitive person I am, I also tend to fall into guilt trap when I don’t live up to my expectations. I have a lot of stuff to do and my mind cannot relax – constantly reminding me how much I should be doing.
Recently while I was reading a book called “Reawakening the Spirit at Work” by Jack Hawley – I came across something very powerful. He says, if we strip off our tools, techniques etc and go ahead with the task at hand. The very primary and first tool/talent/thing we need is “State of Mind”. In other words – Our state of mind is our first tool at anytime. This is such a powerful thing. I also happen to learn from Wayne Dyer’s books that – “Change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”. Combined these 2 – I can say, we have the capacity to change the state of mind. And this has very positive effect on how I deal with things.
All I need to do is to be conscious of it. I need to be aware that my state of mind is my ultimate tool and before I use any other tool out there – I should change the state of my mind to something higher than the task at hand. This gives me a total new power and a new way to look at tasks at hand. This is also similar to what Steven Covey says about “Beginning with the end in mind”[sic]. When I think of bringing my state of mind to higher levels all I think is that I am constantly feeling how I would feel if I finish that task. This is such an empowering feeling that it changes the way I handle things or tasks.
So remember next time you have unlimited things on your list. It’s not just GTD you need – but you need a positive change in state of mind.
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