Determination is an important habit/trait as it can help you a lot in most spheres of life. On the contrary, lack of determination can cause problems in most spheres of your life.
Determination in this context means that once you’ve decided to do or not do something, you stick to your decision no matter what comes. For this reason, most of the successful people in various spheres have a lot of it. Without determination, it may simply not be possible to achieve big or very big goals. The essence of determination lies in the fact that once you’ve made a conscious decision, you don’t change it unless circumstances so demand.
Taking an example, suppose you have a project at work and you are supposed to complete it within 15 days. You’re determined to finish it within time and you do so. However if for some reason, the project is dropped or the timeline is extended, you may choose to drop it or finish it according to the new timeline. On the other hand, if you lack determination, you may not be able to complete it within 15 days, even when your office demands so.
Taking another example, suppose you’ve decided to go for walk, every day at 6 in the morning. Hence you get up early and follow this routine. In case you fall sick, you sleep very late due to some reason or you have some other task on a particular day at the same time, you choose not to go for walk. It means you’re determined and you change this decision only when the circumstances demand. On the other hand, if you get up and go for walk at times and you don’t do so at times, without any valid reasons and because of not feeling like going, you may lack determination.
Let’s look at the root cause of lack of determination. Conscious acts of not sticking to your objectives when you should, form a script of lack of determination on your subconscious mind. For example, you start reading a piece of writing which may take 20 minutes. After 5 or 10 minutes, you don’t feel like reading it and you leave the rest for later. Likewise, you decide to go for walk for 20 minutes but you don’t feel like doing so after 10 minutes and you quit. You decide to wash your car in the morning but when the moment comes, you don’t feel like doing so and you postpone this task. You’re supposed to buy groceries today but you postpone this task without valid reasons. Your car is due for service but you postpone this job as long as possible, without valid reasons.
Likewise, there are a number of other such day to day tasks which are not big or difficult to accomplish, but you still leave them without completion or you choose to postpone them. Through such conscious acts, you write a script on your subconscious that when you take a decision, you may not stick to it. Once the subconscious registers this script, it starts executing it. As a result, it may not encourage you to execute a decision or complete a task at hand. On the contrary, it may encourage you to quit or postpone. Hence you may end up quitting or postponing such task.
It may not matter much as long as it happens in small activities. Hence you may not bother much about it. Then there are some important tasks related to various spheres of life, which may appear from time to time. This is when you may try your best to complete them in proper and timely manner. However, you may fail to do so, as you may end up quitting or postponing them.
This is when you may get worried as to why you are not able to complete such tasks despite your best efforts. Your subconscious recognizes you as a person who doesn’t stick to most of his decisions and who doesn’t complete most tasks in proper/timely manner. Hence it discourages and distracts you on account of various reasons. When that happens, your mind gets divided. Your conscious wants to finish this task whereas your subconscious wants to quit/postpone it. Since the subconscious is much stronger than the conscious in most cases, you may end up quitting/postponing it.
Determination is a unique quality which defines the equation of dominance between your subconscious and conscious mind. More determined you are, better are the chances that you may be able to do whatever you consciously decide, despite resistance posed by your subconscious mind. For this reason, determined people may improve their negative habits much faster than people who are not determined. Taking an example, a non-determined person may need 6 months to quit smoking, doing so step by step. On the other hand, a determined person may do so in a matter of days.
Quitting here means doing so effectively. Hence quitting today and starting tomorrow doesn’t count for quitting. For this reason, a non-determined person may need to reduce the number of cigarettes he smokes per day, step by step after regular intervals. Let’s say such interval is 15 days. It means he’s able to reduce 2 cigarettes per day, after every 15 days. A determined person may reduce 5 cigarettes per day, at intervals of 7 days or less. A person with strong determination may decide one day that he won’t smoke at all from the moment in question and the chapter is closed.
The quality of determination decides how seriously your subconscious should take your conscious mind. If you have average amount of determination, you may need a number of conscious acts repeated over a period of time to change a script on your subconscious. Looking at the other extreme, you may simply send a message to your subconscious that you wish to change a habit and it’s done.
Such extreme levels of determination are found in people who’re spiritually very advanced. With practice, they’ve made their conscious minds so powerful that their subconscious minds don’t need repeated acts to listen to them. Their conscious wishes are so strong that they alone can change the scripts written on their subconscious minds. When conscious mind registers a command with the subconscious, it attaches priority to such command. The subconscious pays utmost attention to such priority.
Hence the commands which are low in priority need to be repeated again and again, over a period of time, in order for the subconscious to take them seriously. However, the commands which have been forward with tags of high priority are dealt with at the earliest. Have you wondered why a person who’s afraid of physical fights may be prepared to fight till death if his own life or that of a loved one is in danger?
This person is not brave in general. Hence if he wishes to develop bravery, he may need to send repeated messages through conscious acts of bravery. Such messages don’t carry much intensity and hence they need to be repeated. When this person faces a do or die situation, his conscious mind asks for bravery with such intensity that the subconscious may not need to be asked twice. This is why people may behave very differently from their standard behaviour patterns when they face extreme situations. Their conscious minds are so focused and determined during such times that whatever they convey to their subconscious minds, is dealt with on high priority.
A highly determined person enjoys this state all the time. With practice, he’s made his conscious mind so strong that each and every command forwarded by it to the subconscious is dealt with on high priority. This is why you may see that it is easy for some people to develop any habit or quit any habit whereas an average person may need a lot of time to do so. The former has high levels of determination whereas the latter may not have that much determination.
An interesting fact is that though determination seems to be ruled by the conscious mind, the subconscious has an important role to play. At times, there may be a clash between two or more scripts written on the subconscious. When that happens, the stronger one is given priority. Taking an example, suppose you have two scripts on your subconscious mind. The first one says you’re afraid of fighting whereas the second one says you’re willing to go to any limits when your life or that of a loved one is in danger.
The subconscious executes both these scripts. In general, it may discourage you when it comes to be brave. However, when you face an extreme situation, the second script may override the first script and you may show bravery for some time. Since the second script is related to survival, it may be much stronger than the first script. Hence as long as there is no clash between these scripts, which means you don’t face extreme situations; the subconscious may execute the first script. The moment you face an extreme situation, it may activate the second script and it may ignore the first one.
The same may happen in case of determination, though a lot more often. When you write a script of being highly determined on your subconscious, this script may override many other scripts written on your subconscious. Since your determination levels are high, it means this script is very strong. Hence the subconscious may give it priority over most other scripts, whenever there’s a clash.
Taking an example, suppose you try smoking and over a period of time, you develop a habit of smoking. You’re fine with it and you don’t give it a second thought. Suppose you’re highly determined. It means both these scripts are running without any clash till this point. This is because you’re fine with smoking and you don’t wish to change this habit. Then a moment comes when you decide to quit smoking for some reason. When that happens; there’s a clash between these two scripts. The script of smoking says don’t quit whereas the script of determination says ‘If I say quit, it means quit’.
In such situation, the subconscious will give priority to the script which is stronger. It means higher is your level of determination, stronger is its script and higher are the chances that you may be able to quit without much effort. When this script is very strong which means your level of determination is very high; you simply need to forward a command to the subconscious and it is done. Though the script of smoking may tend to pose resistance but there is no match between the strength of these two scripts.
It means as your determination levels increase, your ability to make any changes to your personality without much difficulty also increases. This is why determination is an important trait to have as it may bless you with wonderful results in the domain of materialism and at the same time, it may bless you with amazing results in the spiritual domain.
Lord Buddha is the future king, he has a beautiful and loving wife; and he has a son he loves. Then one day, he decides to leave everything in search of spiritual enlightenment and he does so effortlessly. Imagine how hard it may be to leave a kingdom as well as a loving family and lead the life of a wanderer who doesn’t know whether he’ll get something to eat or not. The fact that Lord Buddha executed this decision effortlessly shows how strong his determination was.
A number of scripts were clashing with each other at that moment. The love for wife, love and duty for son, responsibilities as the future king, support for the father and many other such scripts were clashing with only one script; determination. Since his determination overrode all other scripts; it must have been very strong.
Hence determination is one quality which can change the entire course of your life and to be precise; that of the journey of your soul. You can do whatever you want, you can develop any habit without much difficulty and you can quit or modify any script on your subconscious, without much effort. Stronger is your level of determination, higher are the chances that you can make any changes to your personality without much difficulty.
Let’s see how determination may be developed with efforts. Begin with the basics and select a number of small day to day tasks. Then commit to yourself that you’ll complete them in the manner you chose, no matter what may come. Select the easiest tasks at this level as you may not want to face strong resistance from your subconscious. For example, you may choose to read for 15 minutes every day at a specific time, wake up at a fixed time every day, walk for 15 minutes every day at a fixed time; and a number of other such activities. Choose easy activities and ensure strict compliance.
For example, if you choose to walk for 15 minutes every day and you do so effectively, your level of determination may increase. However, if you choose to walk for 30 minutes and you end up walking for 20 or 25 minutes, you may end up being less determined. Though you’ve walked more in the second case, you’ve not done what you promised to yourself. Hence when it comes to build determination, the quantity or the quantum of a task is secondary. Whether or not you’re able to accomplish a task in the manner you decided, is of supreme importance.
Hence the most important factor is to select only such tasks which you can complete exactly as you decide. No matter how small they may be, they’ll help. Once you’re comfortable with this level, you may realize that you don’t have to bother about such tasks at all and they are being done without much thought or trouble. It means you’re ready for the next level.
Introduce tasks which are more but not a lot more difficult. For example, you may choose to walk for 20 minutes or read for 20 minutes instead of 15 minutes. Remember, speed is your enemy on this journey whereas patience and perseverance are your best friends. Hence don’t jump levels and introduce resistance gradually. Don’t jump from 15 to 30 minutes since you may not be able to do so. Hence build up slowly so that you may not face problems. Completing your tasks exactly how you decide is of primary importance and the quantum of such tasks is secondary.
As you feel comfortable with this level also, introduce new tasks which are more difficult. This way, you may introduce more difficult tasks after regular intervals. As you complete all of them in proper manner, your level of determination may increase.
At this level, you can attempt bigger tasks and the ones that matter, like those related to profession and other spheres. However, don’t attempt very big tasks here as it may be early for them. Start with somewhat bigger tasks which you think you can complete with some difficulty. You can build up from here and grow more with time and efforts.
Himanshu Shangari