It's all in the mind

Reading Paris Vendetta was no walk in the park. I think it took me around a month to finish the whole novel. Squeezing in some chapters between hectic August and September proved to be more difficult than I expected it to be. Matter of fact, I couldn’t progress past chapter thirty-six two weeks ago since I didn’t have the time and mindset to finish the novel. Thankfully, despite reading intermittently, as you may have read in a previous entry, dear reader, I’ve already finished the novel! Snaps for me! And I’m actually most proud of the fact that I finished 200+ chapters in 2 hours. It might sound rather childish but I’m just really enthralled that I could finish a novel in a time span definitely shorter than I expected. Of course, distractions and my tendency to doze off aside.

Thinking about probable reasons why I wasn’t able to finish the novel at a quicker pace, I came up with two – my environment and myself. Given the moment I bought the novel was sandwiched between two huge work events which required lots of preparation, I was surely bound to finish it some other time and at a slower pace. So quite forgivable given that perspective.

However, thinking about myself, I can’t say that I was always busy with work because a few days into this weeklong vacation of mine, I already wasn’t doing anything urgent and/or important that could hinder me from reading the novel. During my weeklong vacation, finishing the novel became more of a test of will rather than a balancing act. And I was delighted that I did finish the novel the moment I told myself that I shall finish it by hook or by crook.

Such thought reveals the power of the mind and motivation. As you can see, I’ve put off reading that novel for quite some time since I really didn’t want to finish it before. However, when I told myself to go for it, I did and even surprised myself with how fast I breezed through the novel. (Don’t get me wrong, I still savored what the novel had to offer)

Tasks seem not like tasks if you think they aren’t and if you set a realistic goal to achieve. Thinking that you can and will achieve something is the first step in doing so. Thinking otherwise then leads to nothing for how can you achieve something if you don’t even think you can in the first place. It’s all in the mind as they say.

Certainly, you’ll encounter distractions and temptations along the way but you have to keep your focus and eye on the prize. Chant deep inside you the desired goal and never let your mind wander into thinking that the goal is too lofty to reach or that what you’ve done is already enough. Unless you can say you’ve achieved your goal and you’re happy, you should never even think about ending your run to the top.

And when you do reach your goal, always remember how it all began and how that first step of thinking that you can and will achieve that goal set your journey in the right motion.

Positive thinking leads to positive results. Thus, always think you can and you will because nothing is impossible if you will it passionately and act on it fervently.