What Is The Mind?

When you try to define the mind, what do you say about it? If you’re like most people, you don’t have a clear definition of the mind. You might believe that it’s just the invisible aspect of life, the ability to think, feel, and sense, synonymous to the soul, consciousness, and awareness. But that doesn’t give us much leverage for working with it.

To harness the power of the mind, we need a definition that allows us to engage with it directly. That’s why we define the mind as a process of interconnected functions.

You don’t have a mind like you have a phone or a car. Instead, you are always ‘minding.’ When you’re minding, with a functional definition, you can catch yourself when you’re off track and guide yourself back onto what’s worth focusing on.

Try this on for size. Consider the mind as a combination of:

Awareness: this includes all of the signals that you can tune into, inside and out. What’s happening right now?

Attention: focusing in on just a part of that vast signal landscape. What are you attending to more closely, imagined or real?

Perception: making sense of what you've noticed. What does it mean to you?

Appraisal: evaluating how important or urgent something is. How much does this matter right now?

Decision: choosing a direction aligned with your goals, role, or values. What are you about to do, or not do?

Action: carrying out what you’ve decided on, through your words, movements, or even by not responding or acting. What are you doing?

Feedback: registering the result of your action, intended and unintended. What changed because of what you did?

These interconnected functions form the dynamic process of our minds. We place more or less import on the different functions at different times. Mastering the mind, in a sense, means mastering each of these functions.

The mental side of performance is always there. You can’t escape it, and there’s no need to. It’s about how we relate to our own selves, where we place attention, how we prioritize what matters, and how we show up. When we master the parts, we improve our ability to perform moment to moment.

Want to improve your ability to perform moment to moment? Email us to take the first step in creating your custom path to mental performance mastery.