Thoughts of a Mad Man

Magic word of ... Discipline!

As a young fan of fantasy stories, ranging from the technologically-enhanced Star Wars and Krull all the way through Dark Crystal, I have been a lover of magic words. Of course, the reality of things usually is a little less glitzy than the stories, for good reason. But it's really almost as wondrous, if you think of it that way.





There is a single word, that in itself conveys a complete thought, even perhaps an array of thoughts, and has the potential for causing a great deal of magic - change, small but snowballing. However, it is not some exotic phrase in Sanskrit that I am speaking of. In fact, there are a few different ones, and this one might not even be the best one, but it is significant. In order to get its power into our lives, however, we need to single it out and treat it as if it is special, for then it will be.





The word, which if kept in mind long enough, will provide discipline and possibly even motivation, in what might be ever-increasing amounts, is this: (I'll wait while you finish rolling on the floor and laughing:





Better.





But think about it. It can be a suggestion, a question, or just an idea. But all work must be motivated by the core concept, and it really isn't work unless something is better. Similarly, success. Would we have a passion for something if we didn't think it made things better? I think you get the idea.





The thing is that if you repeat a word often enough, your mind begins to look for examples. For example, when you say the word red and look at a scene, all the red things will jump to mind, even if you really want the orange things. You might be saying, "A red one? I don't want a bloody red one, I need the other one, but all I find are red, maroon, crimson, cherry... grrr." Now had you said, "No, I want the orange, or maybe gold, or maybe yellow metallic," then your mind would have found those for you — assuming any existed! This is high science, a thing called the "reticular activation system, (RAS)" and is the basis for some people's cosmology. (Ever hear of "The Law of Attraction?" Much of this might be explained by our brain's happy little RAS!)





So how does this help us? Have you ever done something one way, and then realized it would have been so much better if you'd just thought a moment? Well, if you had the word "Better" echoing in your head, you might have done just that, and saved yourself a bit of effort, or at least gotten more in return!





But wait, there's more. What if there were a way to reward yourself every time you did something right, one of those routine things that always have to be done in the same way day after day, which are too small for you to 'celebrate' but are in themselves not really all that attractive? These things burn out our willpower the way we ordinarily do them, even though they really take no effort and almost no time. What can be done?





Well, in fact our little word, "better," can answer for that. You see, every time you do something worth doing, you do in fact make things better. If you noticed that, even for a microsecond, your mind would 'reward' itself with a tiny amount of endorphine, (or whatever hormone it uses to mark a success). This would result in the mind being more interested in doing this thing again the next time it came up, and using less willpower every time. In my own case I like to smile, just a twitch, to make sure that the mind does it's thing. This has made the difference for me (admittedly, I'm still a shambles, but I am the kind of shambles people put up with, and not the kind that they have forcibly removed. Yet!)





Ok, all right, I'll admit it. You probably won't feel anything consciously in the course of most of these situations, unless you take a class with Tony Robbins and learn to magnify the feelings. Now, you might as well do so - why shouldn't you feel silly-happy when you are doing menial tasks, if they need to be done? But that's only half the value. The real value is that you will find these things become habit, and you will do them as a matter of course, when otherwise you might have skipped them. The real value is that you will not have to do so by force of will - leaving that for confronting your ex-husband or your taxes, which you should really be getting around to doing something about. And further, not only will you have stronger reserves of will-power, because you won't be wasting them on trivia, but you will also feel the same reward on the harder things. In fact, when they come around, you might actually feel the "better" reward, because they actually make a difference. (They're harder, so they had better have a higher payoff - if not you should not do them!)





Now, for the technique. This is not a unique idea; it's been bandied about by such luminaries as "the American Monk" Bruce Goldman. Really it is much older, being nothing more than a mantra and extending back into the ages.





Just think the mantra, "Better," between once every ten seconds and once every half a minute. This is not a rarefied meditative technique; it should be done when- and where - ever you are. Continue this so long as you are not doing something terribly intricate, such as brain surgery. Allow your mind to present new ideas from this thought stream. Do this long enough and the mind will begin to search greedily for how things can be better, permanently increasing your ambition and self-discipline and improving your life in countless ways. Each day, the results will snowball, until you have done several orders of magnitude better than you would have done. Yes, it's a tiny change, almost unnoticeable, but it is a change of course - and it will have an ever increasing impact upon your location, if you will continue.


Afterword:


The actual results were not all good. It did achieve what I intended, but at cost. It ramped up my stress level. It brought out ideas of improvements that were out of reach or which I did not know how to respond to. I am sure that would have calmed down after a while, but I did not have the fortitude at the moment. I may try this specific mantra again.