Has there ever been a time in your life when you lived somewhere and let the trash accumulate? I’m not just talking about garbage, but also clutter – old newspapers, broken devices, expired coupons, stuff, junk, and debris. And did you finally clean it all out, and create some clean new space? How did that make you feel? Probably energized and ready to work.
In organizational today, if you want to be your best, you need to learn to regularly remove the trash not only from your workplace, but from your head! Your mind is like a garden. You plant seeds, cultivate those seeds as they grow and eventually reap a harvest. Your mind is a field ready to produce a harvest. Your creative ideas are the seeds that are sown that can produce a crop. And then come the weeds – the head trash – the worries, and fears, and doubts, and overwhelm, and frustration, and discouragements. What must you do with this garden clutter if you want to reap a healthy crop? You must relentlessly pull it up and throw it out!
Understand that depression, tiredness, and lack of motivation are the result of head trash. Un-removed trash and garbage starts to mold and rot. You must refuse to meditate on fearful, worrisome, anxious, negative, overwhelming thoughts about you, your business, and your situation. But that voice in your head protests “That’s not realistic!” and “You’re going into denial!”. You need to fight back; “I will face the FACTS of my situation head on, for to ignore the facts would be denial, but I REFUSE to face the facts with thoughts of failure, worry, doubt, cynicism and fear. Instead, I will fully face my circumstances with thoughts of optimism, possibility, opportunity, solutions, confidence, hope, and joy!
Think about it. Negative, doubtful, discouraging, hopeless, critical thoughts do not help you improve your situation. They are destructive reactions to circumstances. Replace these negative reactions with creative, solution oriented, hopeful, encouraging, action-based thoughts. Here are some good questions to help you deal with the trash. Is what I am thinking absolutely true? What CAN I DO in this situation? What are my resources? What is the worst thing that could happen, and how could I handle that? What action can I choose to do today to address my situation? What are the possibilities? What are all my options? Who else can help me? What is a better approach? What else do I need to know? What haven’t I considered? What can I learn from this? How can I make this work? What can I create? What do I have to be thankful for?
Use good questions like good tools to weed the garden. Discipline your mind to be brutally honest and intentionally optimistic. The hard work of taking out the trash will be worth it. You will have a clear, positive mind full of creative productive thoughts. This is one of the fundamental disciplines of success.