Ever thought about your worst or biggest enemy? When things don't turn up according to our expectations, we all feel frustrated and stressed. You may think your worst enemy attacks once in a while. However, your worst enemy is attacking you day in day out.

Who is your worst enemy?

Your mind is your worst enemy. We will understand in the following paragraphs.

"Our life is creation of our mind." - Buddha

Use your mind to become confident; do not let your brain use you.

Your brain may tell that you cannot do a particular thing and you start losing your confidence, it means you are blindly accepting your mind without experiencing the truth.

You needn't accept your mind like this, instead experiment things to know the reality.

Before I met my swimming coach I had a perception in mind if I entered the swimming pool, water would enter my ears and create trouble for me.

The first day, my coach told me to start swimming without bothering about your ears, and I did so, and nothing happened.

Once I encountered a swimming pool, I found my mind and my fear were wrong.

I learned that I could not trust my mind blindly unless I experience the reality.

Life is not limited to your mind or perception.

You may think that something will go right; it goes wrong and vice versa. Let us ponder on a few situations to understand this clearly:

I was scared of facing interviews in an MNC during the initial phase of my career; hence I never appeared for an interview with a multinational company.

The primary reason, I had a perception in mind that I am not smart enough to work in an MNC. I had been facing interviews in domestic companies for two years.

One fine day, I got a call from a consultant that my resume had got shortlisted by one MNC, and I had to appear for the interview.

To my surprise, I got selected during the first round of the interview only; I was surprised to know later that the company was among the top 10 Fortune 500 companies.

My mind was taking me in the contrary direction only. Had I not appeared for the interview, I would not have known the reality.

I never had the confidence to face a big gathering.

Once I got an opportunity to address sixty people, I was not confident to address that audience; I took that challenge despite my fear.

At the end of the seminar, to my amazement six of them came to me and appreciated my confidence level and just one person told me that you were not confident enough.

Apart from that, I became more confident through this experiment, and I successfully started addressing big gatherings after this incidence.

I was frightened to call unfamiliar people considering they might insult me or shout at me.

I took inspiration from my colleagues around me and started calling unknown people gradually.

Later on, I realized that nothing prevented me from speaking with unfamiliar people but my mind.

Had I understood this mind game before, I would have started interacting with them earlier.

I think it is evident that how the mind stops us from doing things or taking action. However, it is our discretion to listen to it or ignore it.

Just consider yourself in following situations and analyze your approach:

You are supposed to appear for an interview, and your mind tells you this company is too big and you will not get selected here.

What would be your approach; you will listen to your brain or disregard your mind and go for the interview?

If you want to know the reality, you have to appear for interview ignoring what your mind says.

You quarrel with one of your colleagues or friends, and you realize that you should apologize since there was a mistake on your part; your mind tells you he is arrogant and would never forgive you.

Would you listen to your mind in this situation or face reality?

If you want to patch up with your friend, you should not listen to your mind.

You see a footwear showroom from outside and feel like buying shoes there.

Your mind tells you that shoes over there are beyond your budget and reach, and you need not go there.

Would you listen to your mind without entering the showroom and checking price range?

If you listen to your mind here, you will never know whether a discount sale is going on in the showroom.

You are supposed to meet someone to get a piece of advice or any other purpose, and your mind tells you that this person will not give an appointment since the person is holding a high position while I am an ordinary person.

Would you listen to your mind without approaching him or you contact someone in his office to fix the appointment?

If you want to know the real situation, you should seek engagement and meet the person.

Suppose you lack in communication or any other skill.

Your mind tells that it is impossible for you to improve communication since you do not have a great educational background; people have excellent communication because of their sound education only.

Would you listen to your mind and never try, or you would go to the market, find someone who can help you to improve communication and experience the reality.

If you want to know your potential of learning communication or any other skill, you have to make sincere efforts in the right direction; keep in mind even your hard work does not sometimes benefit if the path is wrong.

In the above situation if you listen to your mind you are creating 100% "no" for you; if you disregard your mind, you can create a 100% chance of "yes" only.

Action steps:

• Use your mind and don't let your mind use you.
• Experience and experiment with things instead of listening to your mind blindly.
• Situations and people do not work according to your mind. Hence, don't make judgement based on your thought alone.

"If you correct your mind, the rest of the life will fall into place." - Lao Tzu

If analyze your mind carefully, you will be able to understand that your mind is your biggest enemy.

Once you know your worst enemy, you have the power to defeat it.