The Minds of "Great Men"

Some personalities, such as politicians, statesmen, certain intellectuals, bureaucrats, diplomats and perhaps businessmen must possess the following mental abilities to function well.

They should have two distinct modes: on and off. When they are on, their mind is working superbly, taking in a lot of data, making sense of it consciously and sub-consciously and generating good output according to the requirements of the situation. In some cases, this means that they are making good split second decisions, whereas in some cases (such as intellectuals) it means that they are just processing a lot of data really fast, making sense of it and re-presenting it or synthesising it. This basically means that their mind works, to use an analogy i would not prefer but would give a good idea of what i mean, like a brilliant supercomputer.

Obviously, experience helps this computer. With time, several ideas and concepts will have firmly settled in their mind so that they can be taken as given without having to delve deeply into them. This further speedens up the process. It must be noted, however, that even these ideas must be re-evaluated from time to time, a topic which we will not deal with now.

The off mode is a mode in which they totally detach themselves from their job at hand and allow their mind to totally relax. This mode is as important as the on mode, as this is literally the only time when the mind gets to relax. This mode includes periods of sleep and other times of relaxation such as some time taken for a jog, etc.

This mode is very important! It is very often at this time, when the mind is not actively working on an issue, that all that info is sent for detailed archiving and reprocessing to the subconscious sectors of the mind. This process, by making the data and ideas more consistent, increases the clarity, clears the proverbial fog and thus facilitates better, clearer and original thinking based on the material already evaluated. Further, doing other activities stimulates different areas of the nervous system, which can influence the original ideas by rubbing off a different angle onto them. This means that it increases creativity. It is no wonder that, true or untrue, Aristotle got a great idea while having a bath while Newton got some idea while sulking near an apple tree. Similarly, another great scientist got some amazing ideas on chemical bonds while dreaming of snakes..

In the off mode, one must totally dedicate one's attention to staying off and doing whatever else one is doing... it must be strictly off!

Why I highlighted certain personalities at the start is that I think that these people spend extraordinarily large amounts of time in the "on" mode. This is a testament to their energy, stamina and mental fitness. One has to admit that our politicians, however crooked, are extremely fit mentally and very hard working. Some of them, especially people such as the PM, the President, etc, are "always on".

Believe me, you won't get anywhere without this!