Could you operate your computer, if it didn't have an operating system such as the Disc Operating System (DOS) or Windows? For most people, the answer is probably "No".
The North Star Mental Fitness Program presents the human version of DOS. We call it the Mental Operating System (MOS).
MOS provides an organizational and operational system for our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, relationships and activities.
Once you have mastered MOS, you will have the options to empower, lasting success in your life.
With MOS you will be able to defrag your mind and make decisions with less energy. Clutter, indecision, and negative thinking will be dumped into the trash bin and replaced with an organized, focused operating system.
MOS consists of 15 strategies. Each strategy has a name to make it easier to use. These strategies provide an operational system for your mind.
MOS provides "mind friendly" success tools for:
With our mental fitness program, you learn how to apply each strategy in your life. Mental fitness is like physical fitness. Both provide exercises to develop fitness. With our mental fitness program, you will have exercises to strengthen your mind.
As in a physical fitness program, you will work hard and sweat as you condition your mind to make the strategies function successfully and automatically. With repetitive exercising, these strategies will become part of you.
You will be able to identify and use these strategies as easily as you can use your eyes, ears or any part of your body. The strategies of MOS will become as familiar and natural as the physical parts of your body. The strategies in MOS will be a part of you, just like your physical senses and body parts.
After MOS is working and and training has been done, you will operate efficiently in designing your life. If you believe DOS or a system like Windows are necessary for computer efficiency, isn't it time to install MOS to improve your mental efficiency?
For more information on the 15 strategies in MOS visit my website. North Star Institute.
There are two e-books about the mental fitness program. I Live Within the Environment Created by My Choices is the expanded version of the mental fitness program and shows the numerous interactions amongst the strategies. The North Star Mental Fitness Program contains a brief description of the choice, questions to answer, exercises to perform and logs for recording data for each choice.
If you want help in integrating the mental fitness program and MOS into your life, I recommend mental coaching. Life and Mental Fitness Coaching is for people who want to be coached in applying the mental fitness programs in their lives. For more information on Life and Mental Coaching, please Contact Me at drhalss@ichangedmymind.today.
I hope that your will have the courage to make a commitment to successfully add MOS and the 15 strategies to your life.
Remember, You Live in the Environment Created by Your Choices!
Dr. Hal
Life and Mental Fitness Coach
The oldest tool is probably a hammer, according to Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.The picture of a hammer from Wikipedia is called a claw hammer.
The hammer also is described as the basic tool for many professions. The hammer has been been used symbolically.
Lee Hayes and Pete Seeger wrote the word and lyrics to their famous song, "If I Had a Hammer". This song has been recorded by dozens of famous artists including Arlo Guthrie. This song has become famous in the Civil Rights movement.
The words and format of this song show the importance of having The Mental Hammer in your toolbox.
From the perspective of repairing or creating your life, the hammer is a basic tool for finding success in whatever you do.
I have changed some of the words from the song, "If I Had a Hammer," to illustrate the importance of having The Mental Hammer in your toolbox.
When I focus on taking care of me
I'd hammer it in the morning
I'd hammer it in the evening
All over this land
I'd hammer out danger, doubt, anxiety, depression and self-defeating behavior
I'd hammer in happiness, freedom and peace of mind
I'd hammer for a satisfying and empathetic relationships with my brothers and my sisters
All over this Land
When I act to take care of me
I'd act to take care of me it in the morning
I'd act to take care of me in the evening
All over this land
I'd act to reduce danger, doubt, anxiety, depression and self-defeating behavior
I'd act to have happiness, freedom and peace of mind
I'd act for satisfying and empathetic relationships with my brothers and my sisters
All over this Land
When I celebrate my successes in taking care of me
I'd sing it in the morning
I'd sing it in the evening
All over this land
I'd sing out danger, doubt, anxiety, depression and self-defeating behavior
I'd sing in happiness, freedom and peace of mind
I'd sing for satisfying and empathetic relationships with my brothers and my sisters
All over this land
Well I've got a focus
And I've got action
And I've got a song to sing
All over this land
I'm hammering my focus
I"m hammering my actions
I"m hammering my successful experiences, songs and relationships between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land
Is it time to nail down your focus, act to reach your goals and then claim your successes? Nail down the motive, I want to take care of me, and experience victory over addictions, psychological symptoms, midlife crisis, dieting, health issues and aging adjustments.
Remember, You Live within the Environment Created by Your Choices!
Dr. Hal
Life and Mental Fitness Coach
..
As I approach 50 years of practice as a clinical psychologist, the power, parameters and magic of choices continues to intrigue and entice me. I've heard people say I'm getting old. I smile to myself as I think of the limitations in their thinking. Little do they know.
In the 1980s my wife and I named our outpatient, substance abuse facility, Choices Unlimited. I love that name, because truly people's choices are unlimited.
Although my body showed signs of aging, I am not in the declining years of my life and practice. Instead, I choose to see myself entering life's empowering and enlightening years. In spite of what I see in the mirror in the morning, I am energized with the rejuvenating thought: My Choices Are Unlimited!
Also I have learned to view my clients as choice makers with unlimited choices. Choice makers are like artists. Choice makers began their creations with raw materials created by their genes and past living experiences. As I looked over my client's shoulders, I saw and heard their choices of mediums, perspectives, colors and shading transform their genetic predispositions and past life experiences into majestic works of art.
Now, I'd like to tell you about 25 things I have learned about choices.
Remember, You Live within the Body, Relationships, Finances and Circumstances Created by Your Choices!
Dr. Hal
Life and Mental Fitness Coach
this post is in response to Phll Gerbyshak's call for posts regarding the theme of Choices at 100Bloggers.
As a clinical psychologist, I am frequently asked to evaluate people for memory loss and other areas of cognitive decline. After evaluating people, some are prescribed medications by their physicians.
Frequently, I encourage people to use brain fitness programs. There are brain fitness programs to improve memory, eye-hand coordination, visual-spatial problem-solving, attention and focus, and processing numbers. I discovered a very practical website, Brain HQ. I highly encourage you to visit this website and utilize their programs.
Unfortunately, many people with memory losses and declining ability to function, are unaware of resources for improving their functioning for delaying the process of cognitive decline.
I really want you to keep this post for a resource. This will be a wonderful resource for you.
Brain fitness programs are relatively new, but extremely important for people who want to be fully functioning for as long as possible. These programs will stimulate and challenge our senses and cognitive abilities.
These programs are different than the North Star Mental Fitness Program, which provides exercises to improve decision-making, taking care of oneself and making one stronger than one's problems.
The North Star Mental Fitness Program is a practical program for making life's decisions, while most brain fitness programs are developed to improve various sensory and cognitive functions. Both mental fitness and brain fitness programs are important and necessary, although different in their objectives.
You can use the North Star Mental Fitness Program's strategies for improving your life focus and for making life decisions easier and more satisfying. You can use the brain fitness programs for sharpening your senses and thinking abilities. We need both.
Remember, We Live within the Minds and Environment Created by Our Choices!
Dr. Hal
Life and Mental Fitness Coach
It is surprising how many people are trying to meet the expectations of others. Somewhere we discovered the mistaken idea that if we meet the expectations of others, they will be happy and we will be happy.
There will be brief periods of happiness and satisfaction, when we try to meet the expectations of others. The brief periods of happiness and satisfaction feel good, but are eventually swallowed up by the futility of our efforts. We are on a twisting painful, path of impending horor, despair, anxiety, anger and depression.
We lose ourselves and destroy our relationships in the process of trying to please others. We stop being ourselves and stop relating to other people as they really are.Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt therapy gave us the map for sorting out expectations for ourselves and others. The following quotation is called the Gestalt Prayer.
'I do my thing and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, And you are not in this world to live up to mne. You are you, and I am I. If by chance we find each other, it's beautiful If not, it can't be helped."
Is it time for you to do your think and live up to your expectations for yourself?
Remember, We Live in the Self and Relationships Created by Our Choices!
Dr. Hal
Life and Mental Fitness Coach
In professional sports, there is tremendous pressure to achieve. Athletes want to be "Mr. Clutch"! Athletes went to lead their team to victory. Athletes want to continually elevate their performances to higher levels. Athletes want to win, when victory or defeat is determined by what they do!
What is choking? Choking is the failure to cope successfully with the pressures associated with professional sports, because of anxiety and panic. Failure to "always" cope effectively with pressure in sports should be expected. All professional athletes sometimes in their career will fail to achieve at the critical moment. The critical moment is when what they do will determine the joy of victory or the agony of defeat. Failure to successfully achieve is not choking.
Professional athletes need to set realistic expectations for themselves. If a person wants to be a professional athlete, then they need to expect and accept that they sometimes will fail. After all isn't winning and losing the nature of the game. Isn't playing well and playing poorly to be expected?
Choking is when professional performance deteriorates, because of anxiety, fear and panic. Choking is associated with prolonged failure to achieve at a level commensurate with one's ability, because of anxiety, fear and panic. When focused attempts to achieve result in continuing poor performance or deteriorating performance, choking is present. Anxiety, fear and panic can completely destroy confidence and prevent successful achievement. When this occurs, professional athletes are in a state of choking.
There is a lot that can be done to control and manage choking. Some athletes seek psychiatric treatment and counseling for their anxiety. I recommend mental fitness training for successfully coping with choking. Mental fitness training is just as important as physical training for successful performance and managing of the pressures associated with professional sports.
Often times, professional athletes are given wonderful advice such as in Patrick Cohn's article,How to Avoid Choking in Baseball. Although professional advice may be correct and valid, it is only effective when an athlete's default mindset for coping with choking is changed. The mind's default position for coping with choking can only be changed through hard work or mental fitness or mental toughness training.
Athletes need to know:
If you or someone you know is struggling with anxiety associated with their performance, suggest to them that they get mental fitness training or contact me for further information.
Remember, We Live with the Performances Created by Our Choices!
Dr. Hal
Life and Mental Fitness Coach
It is not a matter of being a Democrat or Republican!
It is only a matter of being an American and creating our destiny!
Remember, We Live within the Government and Country Created by Our Choices!
From
Dr. Hal and the North Star Mental Fitness Program
July 4th. A day to remember our known and unknown heroes. A day of reverence and gratitude for those who sacrificed for our independence and to those who gave up their lives so we can live in freedom. As I reflected on our national heroes, I admired their mental fitness to stay the course and win our independence. Here are some quotations that remember our national heroes and can also strengthen our resolve to be strong and heroic. It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived. General George S. Patton “It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.” Major General Norman Schwartzkopf "That's what it takes to be a hero, a little gem of innocence inside you that makes you want to believe that there still exists a right and wrong, that decency will somehow triumph in the end.” Lise Hand "Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened." Reverend Billy Graham "The hero is the man dedicated to the creation and/or defense of reality-conforming, life-promoting values." Andrew Berbstein ”A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself." Joseph Campbell "The bravest are those who surely have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it." Thucydides
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Failures, setbacks, obstacles and disappointments are inevitable. Everyone messes up and fails. From a mental fitness perspective, success is the result of welcoming failure and turning failure into success.
Failure is often the result of our mindsets. We dread failure as failure is perceived to be a disaster to be avoided at all costs and destructive to our confidence and well-being. We must change our mindsets about failure.
To help you change your mindset I have provided the following quotations about failure:
I hope that these quotations will help change your mindset or solidify your mindset regarding failures as part of life and stepping stones for living a successful and happy life.
Remember, We Live within the Environment Created by Our Choices!
Dr. Hal
Life and Mental Fitness Coach
THE TIME AS COME! THE TIME IS NOW! NOW IS THE TIME TO CHANGE HOW YOU THINK SO YOU CAN ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS!
Solve your problem by repeating affirmations rather than just trying to solve your problems.
The obese person resolves to lose weight. A smoker resolves to stop smoking. A violent person resolves to stop being violent. The number of specific problems and resolutions are innumerable. Today, I'm going to provide a list of afirmations for making people stronger in all aspects of their lives so they can ahieve their goals.. The purpose of the mental fitness affirmations is not to solve specific problems, although this list could be used for that purpose. The purpose of the mental fitness affirmations is to improve the quality of our lives on a daily basis. The purpose is to become more mentally fit to cope with problems, to iimprove relationships or to achieve goals. Another purpose is to learn to take care of ourselves on a daily basis by making the best decisions so we will feel happiness, peace of mind, freedom and control over our lives.
THE 15 MENTAL FITNESS AFFIRMATIONS ARE:
1. When I went freedom from the way things are in my life, I will do things differently.
2. When I want to have a centered life, I will ask myself what is the best way to take care of me now.
3. I will maintain focused on taking care of myself in difficult situations.
4. I will act to take care of myself in order to reach my goals.
5. I will focus in on my successes in life and feel good about my successes even when life is not going well.
6. I will accept the frustrations necessary to take care of me.
7. I will live in the present and one day at a time.
8. I will accept my self-defeating behaviors and freely choose to no longer engage in self-defeating behavior.
9. I will check my lifestyle to ensure that I am on target for reaching my immediate and long-range goals.
10. I will make changes in my life by changing my thinking about my problems.
11. I will interpret my problems in my life as signals for me to make changes in my thinking and behavior.
12. When I have conflicts in relationships, I will express my values in my relationships rather than painful emotions.
13. I will make sure that I have a balance between work and play in my life.
14. I will accept my weaknesses, shortcomings and problems as part of me, without feeling I have a poor self-concept.
15. I will never doubt the powerfulness of my choice making in changing my feelings, thoughts, behavior, relationships, activities, health, and external circumstances.
I hope that some of these affirmatons will resonate with you and you can reach your goals.