We all are familiar with state of mind but what is it really? I’ve found it to be one of the most powerful things in our lives. I believe most people utilize the concept through an emotional mood perspective. They will say things like she is in a positive or negative state of mind today. I’ve come to see state of mind as much more than a person’s emotions and also realized that it is behind almost everything we do.

So what is it? State of mind is a catchall snapshot of a person’s total psychology. This is made up from the values of many different closely related things that can influence it such as thoughts, emotions, brain chemicals, beliefs, memories, conscious & sub-conscious, brain architecture, etc. Many things can influence it at any given time.

What can it do? Everything! No, not really, but just about. Think about it for a second. If you didn’t have a mind then what would happen? You would just be a lifeless body that could literally do nothing on its own. It is our mind that allows us to think and do stuff on our own. It is our mind which governs what we do in our external environments including things like moving our bodies, speaking words, skipping college, dancing with another person, doing a large buyout deal, etc. Now we all have minds but are they all the same? No way. Not even close. All of the components can vary between people in countless ways. Here is another distinction though… Your own state of mind can vary throughout time to very large degrees. What does this mean? A lot.

Because your state of mind can consistently vary it means that what you do in your external environment can vary from time to time even in extremely similar situations. For example, why does a pro basketball player make 30 free throw shots in a row, miss 1, and then make another 30 in a row? He stood in the same spot, used the same ball, shot on the same basket, no external distractions were present, and he toke the same physical approach to just about the best of his ability as he attempted each shot. Why did he miss that one in the middle and make all of the rest before and after it? Was it really that .0001% increase in room temperate, the fact that .01% more body weight was on his right foot that time, or the 1% increase in brightness in the lights? I don’t think so. So if nothing in the external environment can be directly blamed for the missed shot then what is it? The reason was his state of mind. His internal environment shifted in the right way that caused a miss that time. Three seconds before he attempted that shot he a thought about his foreclosed mansion that Watkins Property Group picked up at a huge discount. The state of mind produced by that painful thought caused a quarter centimeter turn in his hand when releasing the ball and he threw up an ugly brick. Of course then he got mad at himself and focused his state of mind back into an effective one because practicing hard meant scoring more points, which meant making more money, which meant he could buy his mansion back from me, at a premium of course.

I want to emphasize again that your mind is a vital component of your body that allows you to do almost anything independently and variances in your state of mind cause you to take action differently, even in similar situations. Throw in the consistently changing external environments in your life and your state of mind can vary much more. Your state of mind can vary to a large degree across the spectrum of effectiveness for producing a result. Whether you are having an off day for performance, a normal day, or are on fire, it is probably largely due to your state of mind.

Our state of mind is an extremely profound part of what makes up our reality.