It's not always easy to change patterns of doing things. However neuroscience shows that our brains are more capable of rewiring than we had previously thought.
Last Saturday a friend and I went to see Sir Ranulph Fiennes giving a talk about his life. The blurb on the ticket site suggested that audience members would find useful information to take into their own life.
When asked which is more important, physical strength or mental strength, without hesitation Sir Ranulph said mental strength. He spoke about learning to overcome the little voices telling you to give up, or you're not qualified, or it's impossible. He told us about the times when these voices nearly stopped him achieving some of the things he has achieved in his life. I expect it's highly likely that at least some of the audience was surprised to hear that someone who has achieved so much, overcome so much and accumulated so many records for journeying across the unexplored areas of our planet, ever has to grapple with those voices that say "not good enough"!
The talk was fascinating, inspiring and I highly recommend it.
It reminded me of two other times when I was totally awstruck by the power of mental strength. The first was a garden make-over programme. Alan Titchmarsh was creating a garden for a lovely gentleman. In the interview piece it became apparent that this gentleman had been a prisoner of war and had worked on the Burma railway. So many POW's lost their lives building the railway. Alan asked him how he had survived. The gentleman said that he had looked out of the hut each night and instead of mud, hardship and cruelty, he chose to see the stars. That was what got him through each day.
The second was a book by Dr Edith Eger which described her life as a Jew in WW2 Germany. She survived the camps and the death march. Her mantra through all this was "if I survive today, tomorrow I'll be free". After being rescued by the Americans when the war ended, she made her way to USA, eventually becoming a psychiatrist. Her message to the world is that we all have a choice over what we think, believe and do. Another lesson in challenging the negative voices by developing the muscle of mental strength.
It's not always easy to change patterns of doing things. However neuroscience shows that our brains are more capable of rewiring than we had previously thought. it used to be "fact" that as we became older, our brains became fixed in structure and function. Modern imaging techniques and advances in understanding show this is not the case. It takes a while to stop using an old behaviour pattern that is familiar, and develop a new skill, but it is completely possible.