It’s been a busy time and I’m privileged to be working alongside some incredibly driven clients in Senior Leadership roles. Over the last few weeks, one particular theme keeps cropping up during their coaching. It doesn’t matter the industry, the background, the job or the specific goals, it’s a pattern which almost everyone encounters.
The good news? It can be dealt with easily.
I want to share a direct, and impactful way to handle it right now which happens to all of us from time to time.
It sneaks up on you when you’re not looking.
It gets in the way of thinking clearly.
It blocks you from making decisions.
It holds your productivity back.
A block of sorts.
It’s Mental Garbage!
Mental ‘garbage’ is a great way of describing all the unwanted, unresolved, and untimely clutter that takes up space in your mind. Just imagine for a moment.
All those open tabs you’ve left running in the background.
All the doubts you’ve been nursing.
The decisions avoided or deliberately put onto the back burner because they felt too difficult.
The lingering regrets hanging about.
The endless, exhausting cycle of the if’s and should’s, could’s and maybe’s.
Opportunities gone by that you’re still kicking yourself for.
A landscape littered with limiting beliefs.
Left unaddressed, it doesn’t just sit there. It grows. It expands.
Without taking conscious action, because let’s face it, there is no regular waste bin collection for the mind, this ‘pile’ can grow and grow into something much, much bigger.
Slowly taking up valuable head space. Eating away at your personal power. Which inevitably leads to total overwhelm.
Now, you know what I mean about the pile of garbage, don’t you?
You know it’s there. You can feel it’s weight. Maybe you have just stopped seeing it, or hearing it, or experiencing it. You’ve adapted. You ignore it, walking around the pile just to get through the day.
Ignoring it doesn’t mean it isn’t having an effect. You know what happens when your mobile phone or your laptop fills up with too much data and bloatware? The hard drive gets maxed out. Everything takes longer to load. More effort is required by the processor just to complete a simple task, even just starting up. The system heats up, struggling to to do the standard daily tasks which used to be done rapidly and easily. It ends up ‘huffing and puffing’ along the way, the ‘cogs’ spinning frantically going nowhere.
Your mind works the exact same way. Too many open tabs taking up all that valuable space.
Here is the good news. It doesn’t have to be like this. We can make a difference and start to remove the ‘garbage’ to free up that vital (head) space. Resulting in everything working better, faster, and more efficiently, feeling lighter.
We can use that newly reclaimed space for much more valuable things.
Like absolute clarity of thought.
Comfortable decision making.
Ensuring focus in the right direction closely followed by energy. Because as the saying goes: Where your focus goes, energy flows.
Close The Tabs
So, what can we do right now to free up some space and clear the pile once and for all? It starts with using visualisation. A bit of practical mental rewiring.
Here you go.
Close your eyes. Take a deep breath.
Visualise your pile of mental garbage. See it as an actual, physical pile of rubbish right in front of you. Make it as big as you like. Let it be massive.
Notice the layers upon layers of mental debris.
Now, see yourself climbing a solid set of stairs right by the side of it.
Start walking up. Going higher and higher.
Step by step.
Until you reach the very top of the pile.
Don’t stop there. Continue climbing the stairs. Higher and higher. Rising way above it.
Keep going until you can look down and see that entire pile below you as a tiny, insignificant dot.
From this lofty, detached perspective, ask yourself one question:
“What is the MOST important thing in that pile of garbage that I need to focus on right now?”
Listen inside for the answer. Let it pop up in your head.
Whatever that one thing is;
If it is unresolved, resolve it.
If it is unaddressed, address it.
Whatever that single item is.
Sort. It. Out.
It will be worth it.
It is the absolute key to your pile. Think of it like a game of ‘Jenga’. Once you find and remove that one crucial, loose piece, the integrity of the messy structure collapses. As it does, watch your pile dissolve into dust, blowing in the wind into nothingness.
When you come back down to ‘earth’, check out your new surroundings. Take a moment to enjoy your new, wide-open space. Feel the lightness in your head. Now you know what to do, what next?
As we say when learning NLP:
Original thinking: Welcome
Imagination: Mandatory
Ready to join your dots?
If this resonates with you, to find out more about thinking differently to get solid results, book a call or check out our latest offers.
