How the Mind Works
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How does our mind work?

Here's four insights that can improve your life:

1. Information: Your mind consumes information from the environment and circumstance you are in... and it reacts to it. So what comes in matters. If you're around negative people, your mind wants to mirror that negativity. If you're around something inspiring, your mind mirrors that too. So be cautious about having negative information and people in your life because they shape how you think, feel, behave -- your overall psychology. And be diligent about consuming positive, intelligent, and instructive information so you strengthen a healthy, informed, positive mind.

2. Interpretation: Once your mind takes in information, it interprets it by asking, "Is this good or bad? Is this safe or dangerous? Should I approach or avoid? What does this mean to me personally?" Interpretation defines things for us and tells us how meaningful something is. And that interpretation is primarily driven by past experiences, what we call conditioning. People can interpret the same information differently because they take in different parts of the information or their mind is conditioned differently from their past. Self-mastery is really about learning to consciously interpret the information coming into our lives in an open and purposeful way. And part of mastering our relationships is learning how those we love interpret things.

3. Intention: Our intention of who to be can rewrite our history. It is our dominant intentions for who we want to be, how we want to interact with people, and what we want to create and contribute to the world that form the real power of our mind. Imagine a burning building on fire. Some people might interpret danger and run, while someone else might have the intention to be a servant and hero and their intention overrides their interpretation of danger... so they run into the building to save people. It was their intention that overrode their immediate impulses -- that's consciousness and that's heroism.

4. Initiative: Our mind is most shaped by our actions. When we act cowardly by running away, remain silent, or refuse to take actions toward dreams that are important to us, our mind interprets this and says, "I'm weak, incapable or unworthy." Yet, when we have initiative, our mind develops self-determination and self-regulation. Our actions of yesterday form the thrust of how we think today. The more positive actions we take the more positive our minds become.

Takeaway: Be around people and environments that inspire and activate the good parts of you, interpret things in positive ways, set powerful intentions, and take action so your mind feels stronger, more confident and capable. When you do all this, you start to experience what we call The Charged Life!

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About Brendon Burchard:

Brendon Burchard is one of the most followed personal development trainers of our time, and a Global Top 100 Most Followed Public Figure on Facebook. He is a #1 New York Times bestselling author whose books include The Motivation Manifesto, The Charge, The Millionaire Messenger, and Life's Golden Ticket. Brendon is also the star and executive producer of the #1 self-help show on both YouTube and iTunes, and his social media posts reach over 10,000,000 people per week worldwide. A popular seminar trainer and speaker, he was recently named by SUCCESS Magazine as one of the world's Top 25 Most Influential Leaders in Personal Growth and Achievement, along with Oprah, Deepak Chopra, Joel Osteen, Arianna Huffington, Dave Ramsey, Dr. Oz, and Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg. Entrepreneur Magazine rates his marketing seminar for thought leaders, called Experts Academy, as one of the Top 5 Must-Attend seminars for entrepreneurs. Larry King calls him "one of the top motivation and marketing trainers in the world." Recognized as a thought leader in human motivation and business marketing, Brendon is the recipient of the Maharishi Award and he sits on the Innovation Board at Xprize Foundation. Visit his website or blog for more information.

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