MIND CONTROL: IT’S ALL ABOUT DISCIPLINE
Did you sleep in for five more minutes and wake up an hour late, got stuck in a long queue at the check-out counter at the supermarket and reached late to your office? Instead of blaming the universe for your misfortunes, take responsibility for your actions, says Zoe McKey in her book Discipline Your Mind.
The author asks her readers to plan ahead, even for hypothetical situations, so that the mind does not stress out when stuff happens. She also has tips on how to not let your brain’s empty rationalisation (that there will be no queues at the supermarket) derail you.
Do you feel like you aren’t able to achieve all that you set out to despite your best intentions? Is your weak willpower coming in the way of the life you dream of?
McKey’s books aims to help you take control of your mind and train it to identify and handle challenges, lead a stress-free, balanced life and set your priorities and work accordingly to get productive results. Her mantra is a slightly rephrased version of Reinhold Niebuhr Serenity Prayer: “Grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot control, courage to change the things I can control and wisdom to know the difference”.
She explains how this works through her experience when she left her home in Romania to study in a boarding school in Hungary on a scholarship. The scholarship entailed free accommodation too, but not food. And, McKay’s family, not very well off, let the 14-year-old girl tackle the problem herself. For three days, McKay sat in the canteen, hoping to eat the leftovers from someone’s plate before the lunch lady cleared it.
That didn’t happen. But, she then saw the solution right in front of her. She started helping the lunch lady with the dishes in return for the leftovers from the kitchen.
“I thought about what I had in my own power to make the change myself. So many people get stuck in a position because they want a solution that is out of their control when every solution they can hope for lies within them,” the author says.
The choice is with you, she says. However, she warns whatever you choose will cost you. So, prioritise, choose, and take responsibility for your choice.