Single Minded
22nd August, 2016
“Single Minded” or “single minded”?
There is a difference!
You may well have heard the phrase – “They are so single minded”… perhaps it has been directed towards you personally from time to time…. Yet what does this mean?
Depending upon the tone it can be a good thing – for example…
A) Somebody having drive, passion and enthusiasm to reach a personal or shared aim, the flexibility of thought to find a way of moving forwards and the bravery and determination to take the steps necessary to achieve it.
Alternatively the phrase can relate to…
B) Somebody blindly and inflexibly sticking resolutely to a decision without listening to potential new insights, charging forwards in a blinkered way, disconnected, fixed in thought and self-centered.
In mBraining scenario B might be described as misalignment.
When working with mBIT the roles of the Heart, Head and Gut are explored, to identify whether we are using our full intelligence or perhaps favouring a way of thinking that is “less than wise”. Wisdom requires engagement of all three intelligence centres. The examples I have given above each give clues to how, when and whether or not: Heart, Head and Gut are being brought into the decision making and action taking. Our ability to think and act wisely relies on a number of factors including yet not limited to: our physiology and the precise way we use our neurology.
A brief introduction to Heart, Head and Gut…
In mBIT: Your Heart has the ability to be open and passionate, it is the place of enthusiasm where your values reside. Your Heart is the driver of the relationships you build, the empathy you feel and compassion you show.
Our Hearts shape the “why” of our day-to-day existence. We readily put energy into following our Heart’s desire, but if our Hearts truly aren’t in it, motivation wanes quickly. Without aligned Heart wisdom, we can become closed off, disconnected and numb.
The Heart’s involvement in shaping our lives is one of social and environmental connectivity.
In mBIT: Your Head has the capacity to generate ideas, working on options, conjuring the “what if” and the “how to”, it weaves the stories of your life. Our Heads are richly supplied with processing capacity and can manage extreme complexity. The Head can problem solve and solution find, using both real logic and pure creativity to explore all the ways your life can be fulfilled and of wider service.
When stressed our Heads can rely upon conditioned and fixed patterns of thought and take sole responsibility for our cognition, when perhaps inviting Gut and Heart insight might help. The Head’s ability with imagination and storytelling can however create unhelpful beliefs about mythical limitations, confusing ideas with personal truths.
The Head’s role is to reinforce how resourceful we are through authoring a life of possibilities.
In mBIT: Your Gut holds your most primal sense of self, the instinctive knowings you experience from time to time. It is the location of “that’s me or that’s not me”, shaping your sense of identity. Your Gut has the potential to deeply sense whether an experience is one of safety or risk; it is the part of us that promotes courageous action taking.
Our Gut is like a bridge and it moves desire, intention, thought, attention and feeling into action! If the Gut is not convinced nothing will happen, no matter how much idealism and excitement exists. To ignore Gut instinct creates unease and a life that my feel inauthentic.
The Gut’s role is to enable deeply embodied action, stemming from a sense of coherence of self within place.
So it seems that: “single mindedness” can be where we use one intelligence centre to the exclusion of or detriment to others: In mBraining this is an imbalance in our neural integration… and happily one of the areas mBIT coaching works with addressing.
Alternatively: “Single Mindedness” could be described as full alignment, expressing our highest wisdom and living from a place of coherent: Compassion, Creativity and Courage moment to moment…
THIS alignment is the domain of mBIT.
Find Out More…
