Parts of the Human Spirit

The parts of the human spirit we discuss here at Growth Mindset Training Academy begins with the components that go into building the spirit of a champion arch. Those parts of the human spirit are a foundation of love, piers of faith and faithfulness, voussoirs of family and friends as well as the mind and body and finally is the keystone the spirit of a champion. The fact that we have the spirit as the keystone shows its different levels, contextual definitions, and connectedness to all the other parts of the human spirit or the mindset of a champion.

We need to begin by defining some terms. Spirit and soul are often used interchangeably so sometimes people will substitute soul for spirit. Your worldview will also play a role in how you define the terms as does your native language. Words have multiple meanings, so we want to be clear on which meaning we are referring to when we talk about the parts of the human spirit.

From the viewpoint of the Christian religion, some argue that the soul is the realm of our emotions and what makes us human while spirit is that entity (part of the trinity) that dwells within us when a believer accepts Christ as their savior and allows for a closer and more meaningful relationship with God. As we go forward with this discussion, we will use spirit to refer to both the emotional realm (soul) and that something special that connects us to our god. We are primarily concerned with the deeply held beliefs and values of a person that are essential to whom they think they are and drive their behavior.

The other aspect of that spirituality is this idea of an entity or power that is superior to our human power. Depending on your worldview some may refer to it as mind, as a god, as God, or maybe even as the Force. Not all people will agree with what it is exactly or how you define it, but many recognize that when you access it through prayer, meditation, or mindfulness practices, we do good things to our health and well-being. Christians, Jews and I believe Muslims as well, believe in miracles, which by definition are the result of some supernatural or in our terms spiritual intervention in the material realm. Those three monotheistic world views refer to that spiritual force that intervenes in man’s affairs as God, Jehovah, Yahweh, or Allah.

In our trainings, we are concerned primarily with the beliefs and values and developing spiritual practices. We leave the figuring out exactly what you believe regarding that religious aspect of spirituality to you. Our company does believe that it is very important to really test your worldview to see if you really believe that what you believe is really real.

You see, what you think you believe or what you say you believe may not be in line with the culture you live in and that culture could possibly cause you to distrust your worldview. You become incongruent. You don’t always act in accordance with what you say you believe. That incongruence creates lots of problems from potentially being viewed as a hypocrite to potential health issues as your body and mind fight against each other.

The final idea of spirit in some cultures is connected to the idea of your animal spirit. It can include phrases such as the fighting spirt, resilient spirit, or willful spirit. In terms of animal spirits, you would have specific personality characteristics associated with your animal spirit. For example, a badger is symbolic of having tenacity, cleverness, security, friendship, and gratitude. These personality characteristics are deeply embedded in you and are believed to be part of your spirit. Let’s look at how this all these parts of the human spirit come together to create the mindset of a champion.

Napoleon Hill, the author of the classic self-help book Think and Grow Rich, includes a chapter in that book on the power of faith. Faith unquestionably has a religious and spiritual connotation to it. It is immaterial, but it has power to manifest itself materially, which is what Hill discusses in his book. Because of that, faith is one fo the powerful parts of the human spirit.

The faith you have in your abilities, in someone else, in an idea, or in god will manifest itself in the actions you take. Because the power of faith can literally heal a person from a terminal disease or create a miracle, it would be wise to try to understand it and build our own faith. Jesus said if you had the faith of a mustard seed you would be able to cause a mountain to move – create a miracle. A book entitled, Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, is a scholarly look at the miracles reported in the New Testament as well as modern times. The conclusion is miracles happen. Faith is typically behind these miracles. 

On a practical, daily existence level, faith is vital for our relationships and our ability to navigate through life. We need to have faith in people, systems, institutions, and even ideas such as hope. Imagine what an organization of any kind would be like if people didn’t have faith in the leadership, the mission, or the systems put in place. If you analyze highly successful organizations of any kind there is a level of faith people have in those three areas that allow for that success. What will happen to a country if the people lose faith in its primary institutions and the people within them? Faith is necessary. Faith is one of the essential parts of the human spirit.

At its core faith is about your beliefs, values, and ability to trust. Trust and faith are inseparable. They are two sides of the same coin. If you do not really believe what you say you believe, if you don’t trust your own faith or beliefs, you will be incongruent in your actions.

You may be surprised how many people struggle with internal conflicts about what they think they believe or want to believe and what their actions say they believe. The apostle Paul discusses this when he writes in Romans, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Theologically, he is arguing that our human nature is predisposed to disobey God’s law. Practically, he is saying the beliefs and values he wants to have are confronted or challenged by the beliefs and values of the culture he is living in and those cultural values often win out. 

Even if you aren’t a Christian living in a pagan culture, your values and beliefs may come into conflict with the culture and or with reality. The longer you spend in a culture that is different than the one you were raised in, the more opportunity the cultural norms have to create internal conflicts within you. Generally speaking, conflict is not good.

Discovering what you really believe about four fundamental questions and comparing those to how the major worldviews answer those questions can be enlightening to say the least. It may cause you to reaffirm and strengthen your worldview. It may cause you to call into question your worldview. It should also help you understand other people’s worldview and thus their actions, which is invaluable in navigating in a world that is shrinking in many regards.

Understanding faith’s role as one of the parts of the human spirit is not only an academic exercise, it is a very practical exercise as well. Becoming more congruent in your beliefs because you know why you believe what you believe and you can give evidence for why you believe what you believe causes you to be much more congruent or to gain integrity – connectedness between your actions and your stated beliefs and values.

Families have an undeniably important role in the development of the human spirit. Sadly, there have been family situations that I have known first hand that have contributed mightily to breaking the spirit of a child. There should be no doubt that love plays a critical role in a healthy family and its potential as one of the most positive parts of the human spirit.

Families have been the primary structure for developing the important beliefs and values that are necessary to sustain a given society and its culture. If children do not adopt those beliefs and values of the family and presumably the culture they are part of, when they become adults, they will change that culture. The spirit of the nation, state, or people group will be different.

I am not making a value judgement on whether that is good or bad because it most definitely depends on the change that is taking place. There have been times through history where governments have stepped in to supplant the role of the family to either try to maintain their culture or to alter it, which reinforces the claim that families are probably the most powerful tool for shaping mindsets and influencing the human spirit. For that reason, families are what we consider one of the essential parts of the human spirit.

As one of the most influential parts of the human spirit, it would serve us well to look at how our family structure, beliefs, and values have shaped who we are. There are no perfect families. There are no perfect parents. As hard as parents might try to instill values and beliefs and thinking patterns and habits that we believe are important to our child’s well-being and future success, they are still their own person and influenced by the culture and peers. As much as we may love our spouse, there will be conflicts. We will not see eye to eye on every decision that needs to be made. How couples handle these conflicts and how they go about educating and training their children influence greatly how their children will handle life’s trials and tribulations. 

The more parents abdicate this responsibility to the culture, the more the culture will be the primary force that shapes the beliefs, values, and attitudes that will shape the child’s actions. Even when you are trying to communicate certain beliefs you feel are valuable, your communication could be interpreted the exact opposite. Let me provide an example from athletics.

 A well-meaning father from a small rural community kept telling his son from the youngest of age that he can’t let others from the bigger towns think they are better than he is. He can’t let them get in his head. The intent was to instill in his son the mindset that his son was just as good as the kids from larger towns who might have more opportunities. Unfortunately, the belief that got embedded was guys from away are better than he is and they can get in his head. That was an unconscious belief that manifested itself in poor performance late in games when he went to college and was more often competing with guys from “away” and from “the city”.

In an attempt to protect a child from getting emotionally hurt and dealing with rejection a parent didn’t allow their child to take certain risks when they were younger. As they got older, the young adult was struggling with dreams they wanted to pursue, but were being crippled with fear of failing and rejection. That fear was directly connected to the message the parent had unintentionally and unconsciously embedded at a very young age. Well-meaning parents do this unintentionally all the time. I am not even sure it is completely possible to ensure we don’t do that because there are so many variables that go into how a child will interpret communication, but there are definitely principles we can live by and understand that will minimize the risk.

For all of us, we can learn to become retrospective of our upbringing and learn to identify such beliefs that may be interfering with what we want to accomplish. Once we identify them we can go about letting go of them and moving forward. Often we don’t understand what is preventing us from moving toward what we think we want or what is interfering with our ability to attain whatever goal or ideal life we are seeking. In part, it may well be beliefs or emotions we have not dealt with from our childhood that are interfering.

Family values is a term we think of politically, but in reality those family values and beliefs are what make the family such a significant influence and one of the most important parts of the human spirit. Even if your family situation on the whole is a significant positive influencer, there still may be some unconscious beliefs that aren’t helping you achieve what you are intended to achieve. Even if your family situation has contributed to significant obstacles for your own spirit to fully bloom, you can remove those obstacles and blossom into the beautiful human spirit God intended.

People occasionally use the mind and the brain interchangeably, but they are two different concepts. The brain operates in the physical or material realm while the mind operates in the spiritual or immaterial realm. The brain is where all the chemical and electrical manifestations of thoughts and emotions are stored, managed, organized, and manifested into material biological components.

The actual thoughts and emotions are immaterial and spiritual in nature. Where thoughts and emotions actually come from is complex, not fully comprehended, and debated in philosophical, scientific, and theological circles. The realm of the mind is the next of the key parts of the human spirit.

For our purpose, we want you to know some theories, proven techniques, and even some techniques that may not be “proven” but have plenty of adherents based on both scientific and anecdotal evidence. Learning some of these facts, theories, and techniques can help you take control of the realm of the mind and thereby control of the brain and your body, which is also one of the parts of the human spirit.

Simply Google scholarly articles on the mind and body connection and you will find countless studies that attest to this connection. One such article is “The Mind Body Connection, Not Just a Theory Anymore.” Studies done on hypnosis and on the placebo effect clearly support this connection between the mind and its influence on the body. Besides the connection to and influence on the body and all that implies, the mind and brain is also deeply connected to knowledge, learning, and wisdom.

According to Napoleon Hill, acquiring specialized knowledge is one of the more important parts to growing rich. Undoubtedly, there is truth to that claim. Think of all the incredibly wealthy people in the world and I can’t think of a person whose wealth can’t be traced back to specialized knowledge.

I have had people make the claim that athletes and entertainers have become very wealthy without specialized knowledge. I will not dismiss their arguments because they are based on narrower definitions of knowledge. For example, there have been countless people gifted with beautiful musical talent who have never become wealthy and athletes when tremendous athletic skills who have never become wealthy. The difference often is in the knowledge of how to best apply or use the talents they have to achieve that wealth.

The point here is not about wealth at all. The point here is how understand basics about the mind and the brain so you can discover what you were meant to do and find fulfillment in doing that. Gaining knowledge, wisdom, and seeking truth are part of that process along with gaining better control over your thinking processes and emotions.

No one dreams about being poor but not everyone dreams about becoming rich. No one wants to struggle to feed, clothe, or shelter their family, but not everyone dreams of having a luxurious home, fine clothing, and an abundance of food. No one wants to be considered ignorant or stupid, but not everyone dreams of becoming an expert in a given field. Ideally, we would hope we can train people to acquire as much knowledge, skills, wisdom, and truth as possible for them to meet their purpose in life and find fulfillment in the process.

My wife always wanted to be a teacher and a mother. Of course, she didn’t want to have to struggle financially, but she didn’t have a goal to acquire a large luxurious home, fine clothes, or be able to travel extensively and eat regularly in fine restaurants. I on the other had have always desired a large luxurious home, fine clothes, to be able to travel extensively and eat regularly in fine restaurants.

We both though recognized our calling was to become respected teachers, coaches, and parents, which we have accomplished. While I know that is my calling, I am now pursuing the other part of my dreams by providing a training system that will help more people not limit themselves but find their purpose, acquire the mindset and character traits that will help them reach their purpose while finding fulfillment in living. There are far too many people who lead lives of quiet desperation and the mind plays a major role in that.

The mind is unquestionably one of the important parts of the human spirit. Take care of it and it will take care of you.

In this section, we are talking about the final of the parts of the human spirit, and this part is what I refer to as the spirit of a champion. It is what gives the human spirit its identity.

There are specific activities we can do that will help link all of the parts of the human spirit and that is what makes up this keystone of spirit. It is about the final, finishing process of habit, emotion, attitude training. It links everything together to make it stand strong and firm. It is about internalizing all of it into practices that continually reinforce, repair, or even reconstruct the mindset of a champion arch. 

At its core, the spirit we are talking about here are the ideas of resiliency, perseverance, and congruency. All of those are influenced by all the other components which are also influenced by this spirit. In essence, this spirit comes from finding your big why, identifying the ethos you will operate under, and putting into practice the systems that will allow you to meet life’s trials and tribulations head on and come out on top. 

During this stage of your training you would continue to build the morning and evening ritual. Within that habit and possibly in addition to those times exercise and nutritional practices would be built into your lifestyle habits. Breath work and emotional management and thinking practices become lifestyle habits. Beyond that discovering more about your purpose, beliefs, values, play a role.

All of those things will work on your why and your why needs to become powerful enough to drive resiliency and perseverance. Again, all the work done up to this point would be reinforced in this last part of the training and when completed ideally your lifestyle would have everything in place for you to not only survive but even possibly thrive in circumstances you can’t imagine and probably don’t want to.

The mindset of a champion unfortunately really gets tested amidst tragedy. No one wants that or  seeks that, but it does happen to some people. Those who come out the other side “better for it” epitomize that mindset of a champion and the spirit of a champion is the keystone that keeps all the parts of the human spirit in place to hold you up during those times.

While most of us will never experience some of the deep trying tragedies of some, we will have our own storms and floods that will test the structures of the arch bridges we have built. The four arches, personal, professional, civic, and spiritual will all come into play to keep the five bridges: physical, mental, emotional, intuitive, and Unitatis quattuor (unifying the four or four at once). The five bridges connect five islands – Survivor, Protector, Achiever, Equalizer, and Integrator. Some of you may recognize the five bridges as the five mountains and the five islands as the five personality types or the five plateaus that Commander Mark Divine discusses in his Unbeatable Mind trainings and podcasts. They really are the same, though we have slightly different approaches to how they interplay; the principles are clearly vital in training a mindset and in developing the spirit of a champion.