#3. The Art of Goal Setting & Achieving Series_Mental Faculties_the Will

 

 

“I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of reasoning or rational thinking. New ideas come suddenly and in a rather intuitive way. But intuition is nothing but the outcome of earlier intellectual experience.” 

Albert Einstein.

 

Mental Systems or Faculties. 

What are they, where are they located and how can we use them to program ourselves for success.

 

Where are they?

Mental faculties reside in our conscious mind and they are responsible for the programming of the unconscious mind.

 

What are they?

They are divided into two; one set receives information from the outside world (five senses) while the second set deals from the inside out (intellectual factors).

Part 1: your five senses - sight, taste, touch, hearing, smell. This part of you is meant to relate to and gets information from the outside world or your external environment. The information is fed to your intellectual faculties for processing.

Take taste for example - while we can simply say that we know the use of this sense, why do we not eat healthy food? Why do we crave things like junk foods? The sense has been programmed to desire certain types of tastes… 

How about sight - why do you think children are able to play with each other without seeing colour only to grow up to become racists? 

 

Part 2: Unlike the 5 well known senses, the intellectual factors deal from the inside out…

• Will, Memory, Perception, Intuition, Imagination, Reason.

If you are anything like me, you probably believe that you have a bad memory or you may have heard people say I am have no imagination commonly referred as I am not creative..🧐

 

“You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.” 

James Allen

1. Will or Volition:

• • Def:  It is your conscious power of choice. It’s also referred to with words like accord, autonomy, choice, free will and self-determination.

It is the power behind the why… Willpower is the ability to resist short-term distractions and temptations in order to meet long-term goals. It is a mental muscle that can be improved and strengthened. 

Have you ever heard of the marshmallow test? Scholars tested children’s strength to resist instant against delayed gratification. The results indicated that these who have the capacity to resist instant gratification in preference of a better reward in the future ended up succeeding even in later life. The marshmallow test turned out to be one of the best tests of the will.

How would do you perform in the ‘instant gratification’ test? Are you the YOLO type of person or do you save for a better deal? 

Your success in any part of life depends on how well you’ve developed your willpower. However, the will can be exhausted… This is documented in a parable in Luke 18: 1- 8, where the Master Jesus taught about the importune widow who exhausted the patience of the ruthless judge. Studies suggest that willpower fails due to exposure to an emotionally charged stimulus that overrides one’s rational, cognitive system, leading to impulsive actions. You are more likely to fall into temptation when you are tired, hungry, fearful, worried anxious etc. 

Willpower experts have observed that repeatedly resisting temptation drains your ability to withstand future enticements. Could this be the reason why Satan came to test Jesus after fasting for 40 days and later in the garden of Gethsemane?

2. Reason.

             Def: to think or argue in a logical manner; to form conclusions, judgments, or inferences from                         facts or premises.

Reason is the centre of your thinking. It is here that  we evaluate facts, fiction and fantasies. Where fiction is turned into fact and fantasy into science and goals into results. One of my favourite teachers says ‘dream big dreams, build beautiful and magnificent castles in the air than get busy building foundations to support them’. I have followed his advise and I can tell you that this is good advise. Think about it, even ‘YHWH’ God the creator of the universe calls us to reason with him!!

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow…” Isiah 1:18

 

I remember in a class where the lecture was explaining critical reasoning and he said… the best way to explain it is by saying but after a fact has been stated. This is an indication of a thinking person. A simple example is all things fall down, fact. But some balloons float upwards, another fact. But those that float have different type of gas in them… etc.

Got did not create you to become a robot! You are not in a simulation type of reality where some ‘higher intelligence’ is playing chess with your life. In contrast, you are a co-creator of your reality. The better we learn the laws that govern your mind, the better we can apply the universal laws that God has put inlace for us to express the ‘God-like’ nature within us.

 

Some pillar of reasoning:

• All reasoning is an attempt to figure something out, to settle a question, to solve some problem - reach a goal.
• All reasoning leads somewhere, has implications and consequences.
• All reasoning is based on data, information, and evidence.

 

Prov 25:2 - it is to the glory of God to conceal a matter and honour of kings to search it out. 

 

God has hidden a desire in your heart to His glory and as you manifest the goal it is to your advantage. So let your light so shine that all men may glorify God. As you develop your reasoning faculty, you will accelerate towards your goals and dreams.