Without a doubt, the greatest asset we have is our Brain, which, in turn, hosts our MIND.

A great Universal Truth is that:

“Whatever the mInd of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve“

W. Clement Stone

A review of the great advances in the history of mankind confirms this truth. Many of mankind’s greatest achievements have been based on great conceptions (plans, goals) acted upon with believe in their eventual achievement. A great example, although seemingly trivial, was the invention of the incandescent light bulb. It is almost a cliche how Thomas Edison undertook approximately 2,000 experiments in which a light bulb based on a tungsten filament would not work, yet persisted (with believe), resulting in the incandescent light bulb.

CONCEPTION, acted upon with strong BELIEF, resulting in successful ACHIEVEMENT.

“YOUR GREATEST ASSET … LIES BETWEEN YOUR EARS”

- Earl Nightingale

Our Brain

A Fascinating Organ
Our brains are simply another organ hosted within our bodies. Yet the complexity of thought (abstract, rational, etc) and the potential capacity offered by our brains is immense.

Our brains host the Autonomic Nervous System, which manages and operates the basic functions and requirements of the body (heart rate, respiration, digestion, etc.). Our conscious thoughts and actions, our conscious state, is exceedingly difficult to rigorously define and yet is so commonplace to our daily lives we barely give it thought until it is damaged or ceases to function properly. Finally, our sub-conscious mind operates continuously, collecting and compiling the information comprising our belief system, our character traits and our personalities, yet very few people give any thought to their sub-conscious mind. The three aspects of an individuals mind are all hosted by, and located within, our brains.

Our Mind

Intangible, yet Critical
“Intangible, yet Critical” is such a basic statement and yet captures so much!

The Mind is, indeed, intangible. It is hosted, without doubt, within the Mind and can be documented based upon electrical impulses, with specific aspects of the Mind (and even personality, moods, etc0 distinguishable using advanced instrumentation such as MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). However, no one has yet held a MIND in their hand.

The Mind is so obviously Critical as a human being with a brain, but no mind (i.e. no brain activity) is in a “Vegetative” or “Minimally Conscious” state (see these The New Scientist articles [1], [2], [3], [4],[5]). According to our current understanding, no interaction is possible between the person in a vegetative state and one in a conscious state. In fact, given our current level of understanding, a significant question exists as to whether a person in a vegetative state has a mind, or simply has a minimally functioning brain.

Our Greatest Asset

A Brief Historical Perspective
Everyone owns a Mind, free and clear, unencumbered by debt or liability. What to do with it?

Many squander it, choosing to fore go an education (either through the public, private or home school route) and utilize electronic (i.e. TV, mp3 players, etc) and/or chemical means to escape, even temporarily, daily life. Many, due to life circumstance, are unable to take fullest advantage of the potential of their minds.

Some, however, choose to pursue a life-long program of educating their mind. The more information one has stored, or access to, the more potential for unconventional lines of thought leading to opportunities for discovery, invention and /or self-improvement. The advantage of an education, whether formalized through schooling or informal through life experience and self-directed study, is to expose oneself to the thoughts of others, the products of the workings of others minds and the results associated with those thoughts.

Everything to which we are exposed in our society, our culture and our lifestyle is the result of the workings of someone else’s mind. Fashion, buildings, art, literature, lifestyles, entertainment and so many other aspects of our lives have evolved as mankind, specifically society, has developed and matured over time. As mankind develops and matures, the products of our thinking have been, to a great degree, been preserved in the artifacts of our culture and society.

The sum total of mankind’s development, to date, is available to anyone with access to our art, literature, mathematical and scientific records, each of which documents the products of people minds through time. In the current age of electronic exchange of information, we have access to huge volumes of information, or variable quality and reliability, representing the complete spectrum of human thoughts and opinions.

Our Greatest Asset

What to do with it?
We each have a mind and are fully equipped to utilize it. The manner and degree to which we utilize out minds is entirely up to us.

It is my firm belief that one’s education never ends. Once we have finished our institutionalized education (whether public, private or home school), we should embark on our informal education. An institutional education serves to give us an, essentially, uniform level of education with our peers in society. It gives us a basic grounding, in varying degrees) in mathematics, science, social science, art and literature. From this basic level of education, we should, ideally, have identified more specific areas of interest which we should pursue independently, using the resources available to us.

It is my strong opinion that one of these areas should be Personal Development. As a Christian, one of the themes that strikes me from the Bible is that there is considerable room for improvement in our lifestyles and Spirituality. It is difficult enough to live up to the standards of Paul, let alone Jesus.

Personal Development

A Personal Program
There are so many resources available for Personal Development from which to develop a personalized program for oneself. I have compiled a partial list of some of the resources I have utilized in my personal program on the Integrated Success Program blog-site. There are considerably more available beyond those I compiled.

Personally, I believe one of the areas in which the greatest advances can be made in Personal Development is in the sub-conscious mind utilizing mental programming. While I, personally, use and recommend “The Silva Method“, others methods may work equally well or better for others and should be explored to identify the method(s) best suited to an individual’s own program of Personal Development.

Your Greatest Asset

Continued and On-going Development
The human mind is a wonderful thing, and terrible when wasted. The mind offers virtually unlimited potential to most people, if only they would utilize it. Untold hours are squandered in a virtual trance in front of the TV in today’s society. Individually, we may never contribute to society in the same manner as Shakespeare, Einstein, Ghandi, Descartes, Socrates or so many other wonderful examples of notable and worthy individuals. However, one never knows the extent to which we might be taken as a role model for the next major contributor to society. Perhaps our son or daughter, niece or nephew, neighbour, student, peer, associate and so on.

Perhaps it is simply exemplifying the change we wish to see in the world.

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