No one will argue the fact that having full mental faculties is one hallmark of a successful person. Working on heightening and improving mental faculties greatly improves the chances of success in life, career, or any other endeavor one may pursue. When working on improving the mental faculties, the first obstacle is in defining what, exactly, these mental faculties are and how they work.

As with any complex structure (the mind being about as complex as it gets), it is best tackled by breaking it down into smaller components. Human mental faculty can be categorized into six major components: imagination, intuition, perception, memory, will, and reason. Defining and exploring these six components will lead to understanding how they improve our chances of achieving success.

Usually the first thing everyone talks about when the New Year rolls around is their New Year’s resolutions. What didn’t happen during the previous year and resolving to make it happen during the coming year; promising to become happier, healthier, wealthier, or more productive; promising to take more time for your family or yourself — all noble resolutions to be sure, but somewhat less than certain that they will ever come to pass.

Often thought of as part of our journey from the imperfect now where we are today to the perfect future where we want to be, New Year’s resolutions serve as guideposts to dreams. We do not often allow ourselves to dream about our future, but we have given ourselves permission to place particular importance upon the ones we value the most when the calendar year draws to a close and the promise of fresh new beginnings is raising optimistic glints in everyones’ eyes.

The sudden transformation of Byron Katie serves as a remarkable testimony to the powers of spiritual resurrection that live in each of us.

Born Byron Kathleen Reid in Breckenridge, Texas, in 1942, she was raised in the small desert town of Needles, California, in the years following World War II. Her mother said that she was named Byron for money, after a wealthy relative offered financial support if the child was given his name, and Kathleen for love. Growing up, everyone called her Katie.

Her homemaker mother and her father, a railroad worker, saw Katie grow from a quiet, thoughtful little girl into an aggressive, competitive teenager who sought to be the best in everything she did. A top student, she played piano and sang in a regional choir. Beautiful, energetic, and fun, Katie was voted first runner-up for queen of her high school prom.

We all have unlimited potential. We keep most of it locked away in a vast, mysterious area of the psyche called the “Shadow.” The Shadow is the birthplace of brilliance, the crucible of creativity.

Paradoxically, it is also the domain of our most destructive impulses.

Fictional characters like serial killer Hannibal Lecter become popular icons because at some level we recognize them as manifestations of dark desires we keep locked away in the dungeon of our Shadow. But Mozart, Shakespeare and Mother Theresa are imprisoned in this very same dungeon.

Dualism does not exist in the Shadow realm. There is no distinction between potential for “good” and potential for “evil” – it’s all the same. That’s what makes the Shadow such a frightening and dangerous place.