Quit Taking and Start Thinking - Part 2

One of the biggest obstacles to getting clear in your thinking is to make sure you keep the garbage out. Ultimately garbage in is usually garbage out when it comes to cultivating and shaping your thinking and I didn't truly appreciate that until a few years ago.

When I first started trying to spend time concentrating on the act of thinking I had to evaluate where I put my mental energy. What was I surrounding myself with in terms of television shows, reading materials and where was I surfing during those countless hours spent out on the web? Bottom line, garbage was exactly what I was surrounding myself. By allowing myself to be sucked into mindless television shows, ridiculous time sinks on the web and by reading less than challenging books, I was allowing my brain to do exactly what it prefered to do - not work very hard or work at all!

We all have the same amount of time in each day. So I started asking myself why some people seemed to get far more done in the day than I did. I started asking people questions and really looking for clues as to what they might be doing differently. Simply put, they weren't wasting their hours on garbage activities. In fact many of the super successful people I spoke to made sure that much of their free time was spent focusing on learning something new, enhancing a particular skill, or concentrating on strategy and next steps for their business, career or achievement of some personal objective.

So I started turning off the television. I stopped wasting (as much) time on on the Internet. I started researching books that would challenge me to engage the brain and really think about what was being taught. I started dedicating a little portion of my evenings to sitting out on my front porch or in my favorite chair and just letting my mind wander where it needed to wander. And I pulled out my old trusty journal and just started writing.

My focus got sharper. Ideas started to form. My creativity, which had always been there but was somehow suppressed, was now suddenly blossoming like a beautiful flower opening on a spring morning. Things began to get clearer for me in so many ways and you know what? It was amazing!

So are you suffering from the garbage in garbage out problem like I was? Well perhaps in the coming days I can give you some insight as to ways I focus my attention and who knows, maybe what has worked for me will work for you.

Ripple On!!!