Written by: Dr. Mykim Tran, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Self-mastery is controlling what you can control, which is yourself. Your life is a reflection of how you think, what you do, and who you become. It does not matter what happens from the inside or outside, you can overcome and achieve anything when you control yourself.
It is a lot easier to control yourself than trying to control the outside. You can always learn and change yourself, but there is no guarantee to change what is happening from the outside. Therefore, guarantee your life success by mastering yourself.
1: Master your mindset
Mastering your mindset is the cornerstone of success because everything starts with your mindset. Your mindset develops your thoughts, leading to your behaviors manifesting your results. Many things, such as your family, peers, society, culture, community, etc., can influence your mindset. The people and things that you interact with the most will have the most influence on your mindset. Therefore, you want to be around positive things and people as much as possible to develop a positive mindset to become successful.
Click here to learn the different mindsets you should develop to promote self-mastery.
2: Master your emotions
You must learn to master your emotions and not let them control you. You are unlikely to make great decisions when your emotions take the best of you. Your emotions could be considered fog, making it difficult to see things clearly to make successful decisions.
For example, you can make a poor decision when your anger takes over. You will behave in negative ways that you might regret later. Or when you allow your fear to influence you not to take action to achieve your goals and dreams. You have to understand that your emotions do not determine your outcomes. Even though you might experience fear and doubt about your goals and dreams, it does not mean you cannot become successful. Those negative emotions manifest automatically when you try to achieve something new, but it does not have to be your outcomes when you learn to control them.
Even positive emotions can influence you to make irrational decisions. For example, when you are happy or love someone deeply, you can do things you might disagree with to impress the other person. As a result, your decision can end up in a negative outcome.
Click here to learn how to manage your emotions successfully.
3: Master your strengths and talents
Mastering your strengths and talents will help you thrive and flourish in life. You must discover and utilize your strengths and talents to help yourself, others, and the world. It is important to understand that there is no end to growing and using your strengths and talents. You will never truly know the 100% capacity of your strengths and talents. If you are at 100% capacity, you are a perfect person, but in this case, you are not. There will always be something that you can learn to grow your strengths and talents and make a greater impact.
However, you do not need to be at the 100% capacity of your strengths and talents to develop self-mastery. Self-mastery is more about applying your strengths and talents to the fullest in the present moment. You can continue applying your strengths and talents when you discover new ways to use them. The more you learn, apply, and grow your strengths and talents, the more you master them.
Click here to learn how to discover and grow your strengths and talents.
4: Master your goals
Your goals must be unique to you. You want to achieve your goals not because of external expectations or influences. You must believe in your heart that your goals will help you thrive. This also means finding the right path to achieving your goals rather than copying others. There are countless ways to achieve your goals, so you want to find the right path. Setting and achieving your own goals also increases self-understanding. You will understand more of your strengths and weaknesses to help you make better decisions moving forward.
Click here to learn how to set and achieve goals.
5: Master your lifestyle
You must decide how to design your lifestyle and not copy others. Self-mastery is about you, so you want to create a life that you are happy with. You must be strong and design your own life, no matter how different and challenging it might be. You tend to use your strengths and talents more successfully when you live your own life than someone else’s.
You want to be your life's CEO, like a company's CEO. The CEO of the company decides what and when to do things. Who to hire and fire. The CEO makes the decisions on how to move forward. Even though the CEO might get advice and suggestions from their team members, he must make the ultimate decision by the end of the day. It is the same with your life. You can get advice from others, but your life success depends solely on your decisions.
Click here to learn tips and tools to design your lifestyle.
6: Master your self-trust
You must learn to trust yourself to make your own decisions. No one will understand you like you. For others to truly understand you, they must know everything about you. However, you are unlikely to tell everything about yourself to others, no matter how much time you spend with another person. There will always be something that you are holding back in telling others. When you trust your gut feeling, it will likely be the right decision. Sometimes, you might not see the result instantly, but it will manifest in the future.
Click here to learn different ways to believe in yourself.
7: Master your self-awareness
You must learn how to spot your strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you succeed, you must become aware of your strengths and find ways to strengthen them. If you make a mistake, you must become aware of your weaknesses, see where you need to learn and improve, and not wait for others to tell you to improve. Also, feedback from others will only sometimes be adequate to help you see where you need to learn and grow. The more you know your strengths and weaknesses, the more motivation you will have to learn and grow to succeed.
You must also be mindful of your strengths and weaknesses so they will not affect others negatively. As human beings, we are social creatures; this means building a connection with others is vital. You do not want your strengths and weaknesses to decline the opportunity to build successful relationships.
Click here to learn ways to increase your self-awareness.
8: Master your self-discipline and self-motivation
You must develop the inner motivation to take action in what you believe is good for you, even if it might be challenging or not enjoyable. There will be things that you must do that are not enjoyable to become successful, so you must have the self-discipline and self-motivation to complete those tasks. Otherwise, you are unlikely to become successful in mastering yourself and life. Life success is about 80% of inner and 20% of external motivation. Your life is your responsibility because no one and nothing will come to your rescue to make your life possible except for you. If you rely on others, most likely, you will wait forever. Put your life in good hands, your own.
Click here to learn the different types of inner motivation.
9: Master your personal development
You must continuously learn and grow to become a better and stronger person daily. The more you understand yourself, the better decisions you will make to become successful. You do not want to say to yourself that you cannot overcome a challenge or achieve your goals because you are not smart or strong enough. Self-mastery is always believing that you can overcome and achieve anything.
Also, as a human being, you are a living thing; you either grow or die and do not stay the same. Therefore, personal development helps you grow daily.
Click here to learn everything about personal development.
Dr. Mykim Tran, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Dr. Mykim Tran is an expert in humanistic psychology. She is a keynote speaker, educator, life coach, author, and scientist. She is on a mission to help individuals create a powerful legacy that will carry on for eternity. In the process, individuals will transform into the best version of themselves and reach their full potential. Dr. Tran is the founder and CEO of Wake-Up Foundation, a non-profit agency, transforming individuals into social change agents to promote stronger communities. She received her bachelor's degree in Media Communications from the California State University of Sacramento, her master's degree in Psychology at Walden University, and her PhD in Humanistic Psychology at Saybrook University
