The split second that determines success

Have someone ever told you that action is determined by a split second thought? Just recently, I saw an interview on a successful person and he mentioned that he will try to exercise when he has the time but there will always be this split second thought that will persuade his mind to just relax and laze instead of going for the exercise.

This is actually just a small incident in his life that actually carries a lot of philosophy in my perspective. Most of the people in the world actually face the same kind of challenge day in and day out of their life. The difference between those who succeed and those who don’t just lies in these small little decisions that they take in their life. For those who usually choose the easy way out and decided just to laze away their time rather than choosing to do something that is positive and meaningful, these people will usually take a downward spiral into making more and more decisions that will not enhance their learning curve. For the successful, they will battle the lazy thought and decide to engage in the more enriching activities rather than lazing around and never improving themselves.

A simple decision on whether to jog when you are feeling a little tired is concluded within seconds. The split second thought that always sprung up in anyone’s mind which acts as the devil advocate to dissuade one from engaging in meaningful acts and slumber into unproductive activities. The successful will dismiss the thought with more positive reasons to jog and the unsuccessful will find more reasons not to jog. Frequent exercise like this actually condition the brain of an individual into a set of action that will segregate the successful from the unsuccessful. As you say more “Yes!” to positive activities, your mind start to be more trained and your determination to complete meaningful tasks is strengthen. You improve everyday as you enrich your life and with everyday, you are moving ahead of others further and further apart. Finally, you are away from the pack and will accomplish your success. For those who frequent “No…” they will be the same person everyday and will not improve much as time progresses.

Split second thought like these are actually challenges with the intention of phasing out the weak minded from the strong and great mind. Just like any test in life, success has its ways of filtering its candidate that deserves it and this is just one of the crucial minor tests that make the big difference. Most of the people seem to know it but fail to practice it. My usual practice is to engage in more positive thoughts that encourage my mind to accomplish something meaningful rather than laze around. As I say more “Yes” to positive acts, my conditioning will strengthen and a positive spiral will ensue that will exponentially increase my will to improve myself.

In addition, I have found the second way to overcome this split second negative thoughts. The second way is also the finishing touches that I was seeking for this blog topic. It is the journey to Changi prison that strengthens my philosophy to tackle the split second negativity that will lead to laziness. Today is no other days, it is another meaningful day that has improved my philosophy and shift my learning curve. To summarize the day, my business partners and I visited Changi prison today to look at the multimedia design that the prisoners there are capable of. The whole event is an eye opener as we see that prison life isn’t what we see in television. The prisoners who did the design have impressive design knowledge and work. They are well-articulated, cultured and I felt that I was talking to businessman instead of prisoners. A disclaimer though is that I am not saying that all of them are talented like the prisoners we have seen but these prisoners that I have seen actually bring out a important point- those who have done mistakes before can redeem themselves if they are willing to.

So what has this got to do with the topic nature? Allow me to elaborate further. As we go through the rooms seeing these prisoners work, we engage in conversation with them and found out that most of them has no prior knowledge on design. They have acquired all their knowledge through volunteers who taught them how to design and also through books that they have read in prison. Looking back at ourselves, are we wasting our time lazing around rather than doing something meaningful during our free time? Do we live in a more conducive environment than them to pursue knowledge? Psychologically speaking, are we under social scrutiny that stereotypes us as failures in life which demoralizes us from improving? If your answer is none or some of the above, your life is definitely better than these prisoners and if they are trying to accept their mistakes and stand up to make a difference in their life through self-improvement, what kind of excuses do we have to dissuade ourselves from improving?

If you are in your comfort zone and does not seek to improve, look at these people who wish for a chance for people to recognize their will to improve but was not given a chance. With our advantage in life, shouldn’t we be more motivated to improve rather than give in to laziness? Negative split second thought seems to pale under such compelling philosophy.

Well I shall leave the thoughts to you but I have found my answer today. Hope that you could find some answers to kill the split second thoughts that dissuade your personal improvement after reading my philosophy or maybe in due time to come.

“Success goes to those that seeks to make the difference everyday of their life”
James Tan