You can’t just give love once and expect it to last.
…Or twice, or three times, or ten.
Love needs to be regularly renewed.
…Twice, three times, ten times per day!
…Or week or whatever works for you and yours.
But it will only last so long as it is renewed.
As soon as you stop renewing your love, like Netflix, it’ll only be a matter of time before it expires.
From where do you allocate extra time when you get really busy?
From:
Or:
Here’s the thing: Certain priorities should never be touched.
If they are, you’re too busy.
Or, hate to break it to you, they aren’t (really) a priority.
Period.
Underrated productivity hack: move slower.
When you move slower your mental and physical state calms.
When you’re calm your mind thinks more clearly.
When you think more clearly you get more done.
Step 1) Stop agitating it. Every disturbance clouds the water and sends ripples of distress throughout. This causes the pond to become cloudy and mudded.
Step 2) Filter the water. When a pond is still, most of the wandering particles will settle and the water will clear. But, running the water through a filtration process will expedite and enhance the process of clearing the water. Filtering also removes particles from the pond altogether rather than simply allowing them to settle to the pond’s floor.
Why should you care?
Because a pond is often used as a metaphor for the mind.
And understanding what disrupts and clears a pond can help us understand what disrupts and clears our mind.
So, how can we follow this same two step process for our mind?
Step 1) Stop agitating it. Every disturbance that you allow in through your senses will cause your mind to cloud and become mudded. Every hateful, demeaning, negative, hurtful, upsetting, gossipy, self-limiting, comparison-oriented thought does this. Exposing yourself to more of the opposite helps; meditating helps; blocking sources that agitate you helps.
Step 2) Filter your thoughts. Writing is thought filtered. When you start writing regularly, you’ll think more clearly, act more deliberately, and understand your emotions more than ever before. You could do gratitude themed writing in the morning, reflective/day-planning/goal oriented writing in the evening, thought-releasing journaling during the day, or just write to a blog like I do about whatever is on your mind.
You’d be surprised at how effective this process is at clearing your mind.
And just think about how much easier it will be to see the content of your mind’s pond once it’s finally cleared…
I was recently interviewed on The Begin Within Podcast by Justin Furtado.
I had a great time and really enjoyed the space Justin created for our conversation. We talked about developing a writing habit, the keys to being a great leader, and tapping into self-improvement that caters to each individual. I hope you’ll check it out!
You can listen below, on most other podcasting platforms, or if you’d prefer to watch us chat with your eyeballs, you can watch on YouTube. The conversation is around 51 minutes long.
Thanks and enjoy! :)
Let me assure you that approximately none of us start “good” at anything.
Take meditating for example. Expecting to be “good” at meditating when you first start is like expecting to be “good” at Martial Arts when you come to your first class.
The point isn’t to arrive “good”—the point is to start where you are and improve.
Besides the rare few who are “born enlightened,” I’m of the opinion that all of us have busy, irrational, crazed monkey minds which make meditating exceptionally hard.
…Which is precisely why we should be spending time practicing it.
What we need to do isn’t *not* meditate because its hard. What we need to do is better manage our expectations.
Meditating isn’t about closing our eyes and being able to experience a magical ceasing of all incoming thoughts. Not a chance.
It’s about stopping the flow of incoming information and allowing what’s there to settle.
When I meditate, I spend probably less than a minute out of twenty actually free from thinking. This is an excellent day of meditation for me.
In fact, any day I practice meditating is an excellent day of meditating—because I practiced it.
Get it?
The practice is the reward. Just like in Martial Arts. What are belts but an external motivation tactic to encourage training?
The end goal (black belt) is simply a motivation tactic that’s designed to get you to practice.
So, if you want to become a “black belt” in meditation (or anything), humble yourself and start practicing like a white belt.
“Out of sight, out of mind” can be an excellent model for improving the overall quality of your life.
Put what you want IN your mind, IN sight.
Take what you DON’T want in your mind, OUT of sight.
As obvious as this might sound, I can’t tell you how many people keep what they don’t want in their mind in sight and keep what they do want in their mind out of sight.
Look closely at what you allow to stay in (and out of) sight for the entire duration of a typical day and adjust accordingly.
And not just physically—digitally, too.
Don’t underestimate this.