Here are a few suggestions to debug your mind of those little bugs that make your life less than perfect.

9 Ways to debug your mind

1. Know your own mind – Know your operating system

Not knowing your own mind is like not knowing what operating system your computer uses. Unless you know the operating system you can’t buy software for your computer and if you do chances are it will malfunction or not work at all. Knowing your mind is knowing what values and principles you live by. You might now know all your values and principles but you certainly know some of them. For example would you ever steal from someone, more than likely you wouldn’t, so that is one of the values you live by – I shall not steal from someone else. What about honesty? what about being authentic? What about having compassion for others? What about working hard? These are all values and principles you live your life by. By looking at and developing each value and principle you can start to strengthen each one.

2. Work on your beliefs – Learn the software

Are some of your beliefs outdated? Your beliefs about yourself and the world around you are constantly being updated but you can speed the process up and enjoy a fuller, richer life by knowing what your beliefs are and strengthening them to move you forward. Your beliefs are like the software you have on your computer, you know they are there but you might have not made the best use of them. For example I have photoshop on my computer but I really only use it for cropping, and touching up photos, when there is so much more I could do with photoshop if I only took the time to learn more about it. So it is with beliefs – I believe I am a decent writer but I have never pushed myself to put my writing out there and work on it more and begin to polish it and find my own voice. There are also some beliefs that no longer serve me well so I should drop them. For example I am now quite a confident person but beliefs from my past try and muscle their way in to my current belief, it’s now time to let go of the old belief and live the new belief.

3. Dropping past memories – Deleting old files

Memories you have which can be harmful to your well being are best dropped altogether. Easy to say, harder to do. Some people spend a lifetime in therapy trying to understand why something happened from their childhood, why? Acknowledge that something bad has happened to you and whilst you might never be able to delete the memory you can choose when to access the memory. It’s like having old files on your computer, that will never do you or the computer any good but you choose to go into the folder and open the files up every day. It’s time for the delete button. If the memories are still raw, then that is a different story but if the memories are years old then it’s time to hit DELETE.

4. Take time for yourself – Shutdown your emails, skype, and chat software

Our lives have become so busy with 1001 things to do for our kids, our families, our partners, our work, and friends. Sometimes you just have to shut the world out for a bit and take time for yourself and do something you enjoy. It’s like every time you go on the computer and there are people sending you emails, sending you tweets, wanting to googletalk or talk to you on skype. Shut everything down and take time for yourself. Take a day off work, don’t tell anybody, send the kids to school and spend the day reading, browsing shops, walking, in an art gallery, anything just to be yourself. The time we spend alone is time recharging our batteries.

5. Learn new habits – Upgrade your software

Our habits can also become outdated and if we do the same as we have always done we will always get the same results. Just like your computer if you use the same software without upgrading it you will be missing out on the true potential of the software. Your habits need to be constantly upgraded and new ones introduced over time. If your habit is to exercise only after you have noticed you are piling on the pounds and then stop exercising, then it’s time to look at this habit and rework it so it suits you better and saves you the anguish and pain of piling on the pounds.

6. Keep your mind active – Learn new software

Our minds can become dull with the drudgery of life and going over the same things day in day out. We become bored and settle for a less than perfect life. If we constantly learn new things about our world and the people in it the world and life will not seem dull. Imagine if you were to keep using the WordPress software which came out all those years ago, your blogs or websites wouldn’t be all that exciting, now there is so much more WordPress can do and the current version on 2.8.4 is so much more powerful. Our minds need to keep active and constantly learning new information in order to keep on working in later life.

7. Dropping the deadwood – Delete user permissions

As hard as it sounds there are some people in our lives who do not belong in our lives anymore, you’ve moved on perhaps they have to, but you still keep in touch for some reason, it could be pity, it could be guilt or misplaced loyalty. Whatever it is, if there are people in your life who drag you down, are negative, are not as committed as you, it’s time to say goodbye to them. Change the user permissions on the computer and lock them out. They will move on and you will move on, it’s called life and you will both feel better for it.

8. Recharge your mind – Putting your computer on sleep mode

We are living in an age of information overload and as we learn to adapt and evolve to this we have to find a way to recharge our minds. One of the best ways of doings this, I find, is some form of meditation. 20 – 40 minutes per day will do wonders for your energy, productivity and creativity. When I have mentioned this in the past some people object stating that they cannot get 40 minutes to spend on meditating. The 40 minutes spent on meditating will free up at least 1 hour of your time during the day by recharging your mind and being able to think more clearer, more more productive and have more energy. So if you look at it from the point of view that you are saving at least 20 minutes per day instead of losing 40 minutes per day this might change your mind about meditation.

9. Developing thinking skills – What language is your computer using?

Your computer software is only as good as the language it is written in. Imagine if all software was still written in an old computer language how far would computing have evolved – not very far at all. As computer languages have evolved programmers have written software with the ability to predict what may happen and ‘if’ something happens what to do about it. Our thinking skills are vital to be able to communicate with each other to get our thoughts across to someone else. whilst we were not taught thinking skills formally, we have developed thinking strategies over the course of our lives. It’s important to look at thinking as a skill in order to develop it. Using cognitive brain enhancing programs are one way to develop thinking skills as is reading more on the topic, which is way to big to go into in a post this size. Another thing I would recommend is reading about philosophical issues, I think this is a great exercise to develop thinking skills and can lead you to places in your mind you didn’t know existed.

In broken English with the help of a translator, Yamazaki is about to reveal the ultimate secret of mastery. This secret, he tells us, applies to the sword and to life.

“Three rules…

“First rule: Basic practice.”

OK, that makes sense.

“Second rule: Basic practice.”

Third rule?

“MORE BASIC PRACTICE!

“Like Nike…JUST DO IT!”

Power for success in personal and professional life is generated through motivation and discipline over time. These are the 3 components of what I call the “Kung Fu Triangle.” For today’s purposes, Kung Fu means mastery. To achieve mastery in any occupation, you must find or develop motivation to set your heart and mind to action. You must develop discipline: the habit of doing the work necessary to achieve your goals and…

…you’ve got to take your time! Basic skill can be developed in a short time. Mastery takes as long as it takes.

If you press me for THE most essential component in the development of power, I’m going to say “discipline.” Motivation is usually very strong at the beginning of any endeavor. Time is simply a matter of perseverance. The component that takes over when motivation occasionally wanes and sees us through long periods of perseverance is “discipline.”

How to develop disipline

So how do you develop discipline? Yamazaki gives us the answer: PRACTICE! Simple, not always easy.

Discipline can literally be practiced with every waking moment of every day. Simply get up and get about your business. Specific goals can help you stay focused and on task; that helps develop discipline. However, discipline is the development of mindfully staying on task that transcends the obvious and sometimes robotic checking off the task list.

Practice discipline by mindfully assessing what needs to be done before you set yourself to action. Appreciate the work in front of you for the part it will play in your plans for success. Enjoy the task at hand for what it is: a chance to express yourself fully and in the moment. Enjoying the moment makes a menial task meaningful and a difficult task bearable.

The art of the Japanese sword, like all martial arts, is deceptively simple. If you take it down to its essential elements, the art of the sword is the technique of developing and expressing power in the moment of a single cut. Any battle is series of single cuts. Mastery of the art is available only to those who are willing to dedicate themselves fully to the practice of the simple elements that generate this power. You can learn the basic mechanics of a cut in just a few moments. It takes a lifetime of practice to bridge the span between that knowledge and the true skill of master.

Applying to your business and personal life

Can you apply this philosophy in business and personal life as well?

Nearly everything you do provides an opportunity to develop and practice the habit of discipline. Practice discipline in work and at play. Participate in activities that challenge you to apply discipline. I’m a little biased, but martial arts provide a perfect opportunity to practice discipline at any age! If that’s not your bag, take a class, find a hobby, develop your job skills, develop your relationships at home and in your community, volunteer, do anything that will challenge your mind, body and spirit and provide the opportunity for you to practice. That’s how you develop the habit of discipline. Find something that needs doing and just do it!

Discipline is the key to personal freedom, and freedom is the ultimate expression of personal power.

For a complete course in the art of discipline, read Jim’s book Dynamic Components of Personal Power. Click here for more information and to book Jim for your next event!

Watch for Jim’s coming book: The Dying Art of Discipline, available now as a seminar.

About the author

Jim is now a regular at ‘Change Your Thoughts’, if you haven’t already visited his site I would urge you to have a look. Jim is an author, businessman, personal development trainer, black belt Karate instructor, football coach….the list goes on. He is the creator of the Dynamic Components of Personal Power program. Visit Jim’s site at www.jimbouchard.org for more information on his self development program.

For the last week or so I have been scouring the internet for free personal development videos, one of them I showed you yesterday; Steve Jobs. Well I have finally managed to get 22 great videos from some great personal development speakers and inspirational figures. I could have spent weeks doing this as I watched videos until my eyes were square.

you will probably notice there is a lack of female speakers in this. This was not deliberate there were not a lot of female speakers out there, the ratio was about 20:1, that’s 20 men to every 1 woman. Not a good statistic.

Anyway I have spent all day putting this together and I am proud to present 22 of the best personal development and inspirational figures of today.

Bob Proctor – The Science of getting rich: 1 Hr 47 Mins

Deepak Chopra – The way of the Warrior: 1 Hr 8 mins

Jim Rohn – Your best year ever: 10 mins

Tony Robbins – Interview with Charlie Rose: 55 Mins

Oprah Winfrey – Interview with David Letterman, Part 1: 10 Mins

The Secret – The movie (with subtitles). 1 Hr 29 Mins

Nick Vujicic – Speech Preview: 24 mins

Malcolm Gladwell – Authors at TED Talks: 18 mins

Joe Vitale – Portable empire: 9 mins

James Arthur Ray – Live Presentations – 28 mins

Steve Jobs – Commencement Speech at Stanford: 14 mins

Mary Foley – AOL retiree at aged 33, turned Author and speaker: 6 Mins

Paul McKenna – Accelerated learning: 50 Mins

Ross Jeffries – Speed Seduction 1: 1hr 54 Mins

Brian Tracy – Sales mastery (part 1): 17 Mins

Les Brown – On Mastery TV: 44 Mins

Tim Ferriss – Authors at Google with Marci Alboher: 56 Mins

Michael Beckwith – Bridging heaven and earth show: 58 Mins

J K Rowling – Autobiography Part 1 of 5: 10 Mins

Jack Canfield – The success principles: 5 mins

Wayne Dyer – The power of Intentions: 2 Hrs 15 mins

Tony Buzan – Mind Mapping: 6 mins

If you have any videos you would like to share then leave a comment with the link and in a few months time I can hopefully make a top 50 list.

Steve Jobs is an inspirational person to me and is one of those people you never tire rooting for. I find all successful people fascinating and believe there is a lot that can be learned form them. People like Steve offer an alternative view of life and lets me ask questions of my life, of life itself. In an indirect way it changes my life as the questions i ask are invariably better questions, which receive quality answers.

I will post videos in the future, don’t worry I won’t inundate you with them just inspirational ones like this.

Enjoy the video