How to Get Your Dreaded MindF**k Out of the Way, or Why Thinking is Overrated

overthinking

Do you have aspirations of 2020 being a better year, or the best yet? Do you want to get clear about next steps so you can have more meaning and impact? 

You’re wanting to make your greatest contribution now, when there’s never been a better time.


Yea, me too.


I keep hearing myself say “LET’S DO THIS!” as if I were my own grunting high school football coach with grime and sweat pouring off my nose, or a peppy cheerleading squad with loads of pom-poms.


These aspirations of trying something new, overcoming challenges, and taking your life someplace you haven’t been before feels really great when you’re inspired, motivated, enthusiastic and energized for the vision you see for yourself.

Until some challenge pops up and inertia kicks in. Cheerleading is not enough to overcome your overthinking mind that may be stuck in the limbic brain and its patterned neural responses.

 

Living into your purposeful vision requires overcoming your own set of limiting beliefs and inertia.

Overthinking about how to move something forward creates confusion, overwhelm and paralysis. 

Doesn’t matter if you’re an early entrepreneur, seasoned professional or veteran business owner. Doesn’t matter what field or talent. Doesn’t matter where you live, or how long you’ve been doing your thing. Whether you want to build that new product, scale a company, start a new business or find a more meaningful career.

 
It’s that dreaded Mindf**k that stops our vision every time.

Stops us in our tracks. 

And, rather than feel disillusioned or shamed, knowing it’s normal might help to recognize that most of us talk ourselves out of our best work, more meaningful lives, and our next career venture because of these best-known worst enemies. 

 

Which of these overthinking scenarios keep you stuck in your current role, work or business?

Do you…

  • Deny or trivialize any real challenges 
  • Don’t ask for help
  • Deny a failed attempt to avoid embarrassment 
  • Think I’m not __________ enough
  • Need to know exactly “how” before you try
  • Compare yourself to others, and feel inadequate
  • Try to do it “right” the first time
  • Get disillusioned when you don’t
  • Want to look good doing it
  • Aren’t willing to try, knowing you’ll fail
  • Don’t get the help you need, to learn how to do it better
  • Think I should be/ know ____________ already
  • Unwilling to be confused, or to not know

You know, and I know, that none of these excuses are really viable to keep you from succeeding in your dreams, the visions you have for your life.

But they’re normal and common.

I wouldn’t be able to make the list if I didn’t have them and every single client I’ve ever worked with had them. Bar none.

One of my mentors said we have to:

“We have to move faster than the speed of disbelief.”

If we want to live into our dreams or visions.

It’s why I wake up early every morning to give myself at least an hour (sometimes two, if my resistance is really high) and alter my own mental state. 

I don’t think I would’ve become adept at this stuff (that some people call “spiritual practices”) AT ALL if I hadn’t experienced so much failure early on in my life. If I’d “had it all together” and hadn’t needed support to get past my own failure orientation.

But now I know for sure that:

 

Thoughts become things. 

That’s why I proactively work on my state of mind. Daily. Moment by moment.

Living a good life with more meaning and purpose, AND executing on that vision in your business, is built on the foundation of creating a mindset, every day, all day, that causes things to flow in the right direction.

Not all of them. Not perfectly. Just enough that you’re moving overall in the right direction. 


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So I’ve spent years using and developing tools to give myself a Possibility Mindset™. This is just one way I keep moving in the right direction, and it seems more important than ever in the state of the world.


I will NOT kowtow to the undercurrent of fear, disillusionment and impossibility that seems to be goading us into doom and gloom.


What if we could make our dreams come true just by believing it’s really possible, and then taking small bold steps in that direction each and every day, knowing that it’s going to work out all right in the end?

What do you have to lose?


Here are three things I do everyday that seem to make a difference in my own state of mind, that are part of my Possibility Mindset™ training regimen.

Try out these three practices to begin to create a Possibility Mindset™:

 

Practice Gratitude

The mere act of “searching” for things to be grateful for creates biological shifts in your brain, and positive feedback loops in your relationships and life (because you become accustomed to searching and create a new perspective on everything in your life!).


First thing in the morning, and/or last thing at night, think of 10 NEW things to be grateful for. I’m amazed at how simple it has become to be grateful for every person I encounter after doing this for awhile.

 

Keep a Record of your Negative (Limiting) Thoughts.

As you go through your day, listen to the thoughts you tell yourself that play Mindf**k with the possibilities available to you. These could be spoken internally as self-talk, or thoughts you share with others. 

When I started doing this, I couldn’t believe how many areas of my life were limited by the beliefs I held about what wasn’t possible. Thoughts that I created!

There’s a couple more steps to this practice that requires some support, and this is a good place to start. Keep a running list, and watch how you catch yourself mid-thought or sentence. 

 

Create Space for Your Own Brain to Bend

Neuroplasticity is a real thing. You can overcome your Mindf**k, with time and practice. And you need to give yourself some space to do so.


If you don’t already have a Mindfulness or other meditation practice, start one. 15 or more minutes per day is needed to slow down your thoughts and change your neural grooves. There are thousands of meditation apps. Try a few, see what you like best. Take a course. Go on retreat. I have used hundreds of different types of meditation, and like to experiment with new things. No right or wrong way to do it. Just do it.


Brain entrainment practices are also useful. Choose a youtube video channel to get started, and there are many proprietary apps you can try, if you google Brain Entrainment.

Let’s do this!!