How to Fly without Wings in 5 Steps

One-Take the time to Expand your Mind

When was the last time you read a book, or a quality magazine article? Do your daily reading habits center around tweets, Facebook updates, or Instagram captions. If this is you, put your phone down for a minute and pick up a book to expand your mind. Reading improves general knowledge, and more importantly are able to spot patterns quicker. If you can spot patterns quicker, your analytical skills receive a boost. Just like any other muscle in the body, the brain requires exercise to keep it strong and healthy. So picking up a book is like taking your brain on a jog.

Step Two-Sit Down and Think for a Minute

How is that even possible when you’re a very busy person? What am I even thinking about? I’m going to give you a couple of reasons why hopefully you will take the time and make the effort to find 5 minutes a day to chill, alone, and totally unplug from the world. One benefit of taking the time to sit down and think is to just unload your brain. There is such a thing as information overload and if you never take the time to unload, your brain may not be performing at its maximum capacity. You should also sit and think to yourself, sometimes sitting in silence with your thoughts makes you re-evaluate them. You won’t have all the distractions of noise and other people. Just you and your thoughts. You can thoroughly check them and see if they require deeper thought or if they should just slip from your mind. Mindfulness is the practice of becoming more in tune with your surroundings. It involves engaging every sense, feeling, and sensation around you. Mindfulness can improve your memory and strengthen your brain power. Another reason to sit and think is that you can really find out who you are. If you ever wanted to figure out your life purpose, sit in silence and see what answers come to mind. This is the best way to figure out who you are and what on earth you are here for. Many of us still don’t know. We’re too busy to find out. So many lives wasted doing things we don’t want to for people we don’t even like. Find your purpose. Sit and think for a minute.

Step Three-Do everything with Passion

If you are doing something regardless of what it is you should be passionate about it. If you’re are not passionate about it you shouldn't be doing it. Your passion should wake you up in the morning with a burning desire. Passion gives you a reason to keep learning and to work toward mastery. It also gives you something with other people and it facilitates social bonds with people just like you. It gives you purpose and also gives you satisfaction. For the Wright brothers, I think what made them so great was their passion for knowledge, and their determination to get things done. Your passion can spark new ideas and strategies towards your goal.

Step Four- Be Positive

If you are struggling to move your mind into a more positive perspective, try moving your body there first. Try standing up straight, shoulders back, chin held high, stretching your arms out as wide as they can go. Feel powerful. Feel positive. Carrying yourself with “positive posture” will encourage your mind to feel more positive as well. Another way for your body to “trick” your mind into being more positive is through smiling. The simple act of smiling, even if you don’t necessarily have anything to smile about, can instantly change the way you feel internally. It might be hard to stop the negative flow of thoughts. This shift takes time. Be patient with yourself, and first just try to observe your thought patterns. See if you can catch yourself judging others, focusing on failures, complaining about work, or criticizing yourself or your body. When you observe these thoughts, take a moment to counter each negative thought with two positive observations. Think of it as taking two steps forward after your one step back.

Step Five- Be Open-Minded

When you open your mind, you free yourself from having to be in complete control of your thoughts. You allow yourself to experience new ideas and thoughts and you challenge the beliefs you currently have. Opening up your mind to new ideas allows you to the opportunity to change what you think and how you view the world. Just take a moment to yourself to find the wisdom to understand that everyone will not hold the same opinions as you. Try to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and see things their way. Make the effort to journey out of your comfort zone often. If you have certain anxieties about new situations, you should still take this step, but make these changes slowly. Go to new places and try new things. Your friends might be trying new things that they can introduce you to as well. Also, when you make a new friend, they’ll likely have a unique set of interests for you to learn about to broaden your horizons.

Call to Action

At any point in your life, every day you have the opportunity to be a better person than who you were yesterday. When you pay attention to those opportunities and make the most of them, your reward will be a life of amazing growth and accomplishment.