Control the 2 Extreme Mind States Towards Success

André Marques
5 min readJan 10, 2019

If one dominates these two extreme states of mind, he will succeed in whatever he wants.

The 2 states are extremes of all the states of mind. They are called Empty State and Full State.

How do these 2 mind states influence our lives? How powerful each one is? And what is the reason behind them?

Empty State

I am an entrepreneur and recently failed miserably in one of my projects. I realize that i am in a different mind state than before. Let’s call it empty state.

Empty state is a weird state to be. I feel confused and i ask myself what am i supposed to do next? What am i willing to believe and put energy on?

There are endless possible ways of projects i can work and topics i can study. Also, right now, i have also plenty startup information in my head. So i feel lost, like i am in the middle of the sea looking for all the directions, and trying to choose one to go, but none of them convinces me.

In the good side, the empty state allowed me to look at the whole picture of my life and identify mistakes, deeper purposes and opportunities. That’s because our minds are cleaner and able to focus and reflect about wider and different aspects of our lives.

In my case, i was focusing too much on engineering a product. I just realized nobody cares and nobody would support it. If it was not the empty state, i would never know this, and i would build the product endlessly.

Power of Creativeness

Einstein, newton and many entrepreneurs rejected school and society rules. This characteristic allowed them to have a fresher and cleaner state, which made them able to trigger easily the empty state. As a result they had tremendous creativeness.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world” Albert Einstein

States of mind which are very close from the empty state are attitudes such as being open minded, and actions such as imagining.

Training

  • Relaxing in the bath
  • Hiking or Running (other exercises)
  • Meditation (clean thoughts and feelings)
  • Explore new things
  • Meet people of different cultures and interests

Full State

The only way to accomplish concrete goals is by filling our mind with the commands, and drive the car until the destination.

All the theories, ideas and emotions may be originated from the empty state. But they are not visible to human eyes yet. Only after they are translated into words, movements, etc. This is accomplished by the Full State.

In Full state we are highly focused in one goal. It has tremendous power, because in this state, nothing can distract us and mislead us in the “wrong” direction. We are so deep into the experience that we neglect others, until this one is finished.

When i was building my project, every single feature and bug was the only important thing to accomplish in the day. If i didn’t do any progress, i would feel low energy.

In the Full State we focus on the coding, paintings and music (any observable thing). We then create more coding, draw or play music until our whole project / goal is done.

Power of Efficiency

Any professional must have high concentration in what they are dealing with. This is the only way they can have efficiency. By training and using the same skill, they are able to recall it with less effort next time. But they still have to regularly focus and put energy on it, or they lose the skill over time.

“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” Bruce Lee

Full State is also related to certain beliefs and habits. We strengthen them over time by thinking about them.

A disciplined person used the full state to train himself certain habits. Physicists used the full state to investigate the atoms laws which leaded them to believe neutrinos are the smallest particles.

Training

  • Write a book
  • Programming
  • A math problem
  • Compare Benefits vs Cons
  • Debate about an issue

The bridge in between

To be successful, one must use both states. What is the reason? Let’s see these ridiculous examples:

  • An isulated person meditating in the mountain (only empty state).
  • Counting every stone i see in the park during my entire life (only full state).

How could we achieve a goal just by imagining? or why would we focus on any random goal?

There are ways to detect when we need to switch from one to another. But many people have hard times identifying and understanding them. Feelings are some good indicators.

Confused, lost, depressed, stuck or limited? Maybe it’s time to step back and use empty state.

Or Attracted, energetic, happy, and feeling needed towards something or someone? Let’s put the energy and work on it by using the full state.

Today, be aware of these 2 states and try switching between them. If you are not able to, don’t worry, use some of the training methods gradually.

If you enjoyed this concept, share it with a friend!

What kind of content would you like me to write about? And what are you struggling with right now? Thanks :)

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