By Stephanie J. Marshall, Toronto-based Master Alignment Coach

The Cluttered Mind

A cluttered mind is like a cluttered home, except it’s filled with too many disorganized thoughts instead of stuff. Like in a cluttered home, in a cluttered mind, it’s harder to find things, you can’t see what’s there and there’s no room for anything new. Also, you can’t just walk away from it or hire someone to organize it for you.

The Impact of Mental Clutter

This mental clutter isn’t just inconvenient, it can have a huge impact on your day-to-day life. A cluttered mind can reveal itself and keep you stuck with indecision, self-doubt, fear, confusion, or overwhelm, and it can often lead to excessive procrastination or avoidance.

It’s as if there’s a constant mental noise that makes it hard to focus and drains your energy. This clutter can also hinder your creativity, productivity and decision-making abilities.

Consider this, when you declutter your mind you make room to see what’s there and there is space for new things.

The Well-Managed Mind

At Kickstartology Coaching one of the things we focus on using the Alignment Framework as a simple tool is creating and maintaining a well-managed mind. A well-managed mind is a decluttered mind. The great thing about the Alignment Framework is that it can be applied to the big picture, or you can get right into the weeds.

The first step is to identify what you know about the outcomes you want to create and from there, we practice habits that help to declutter your mind.

Thought Habits for a Well-Managed Mind

The thing about thought work is that you might get it intellectually and know what you “should” do, but it’s only through repeated practice that you’re going to get it at the gut level and start using it reflexively,

1. Thought Awareness:

The first step in decluttering your mind is to become aware of the thought clutter. Sounds so obvious but most people don’t pay attention to their thoughts. Take a moment to sit quietly and observe your thoughts without judgment. Recognize any recurring patterns of negative thinking, worries, confusion, or distractions.

2. Thought Amplification:

Within the framework, we guide you towards amplifying the thoughts that are working for you and align with you want to be and how you want to live, often characterized by curiosity and decidedness.

3. Thought Release and Transformation:

Our coaching shows you how to release or transform the thoughts that have been keeping you stuck. For example, thoughts centered on blame, self-righteousness, grudges, unwarranted assumptions, or worrying about what other people think are almost always working against you.

4. Decision Mastery:

You cannot control everything and you will never have all of the information, but you can make a decision with the information at hand and then move on. Decide ahead of time wherever you can to avoid confusion or indecision in the moment.

5. Mindful Mental Consumption:

Curate your mental diet by being intentional with the information and content you consume, as well as the conversations you engage in. Beware of information overload and prioritize your thinking and taking action.

So What? The Benefits

Decluttering your mind is an ongoing process. It requires dedication and practice, but it gets easier over time and the rewards are worth it.

You can expect increased clarity, enhanced decision-making abilities, and more peace, ease, and creativity.

The Thought Clutter Problem

Certain thoughts may seem inconspicuous but can be dangerous because they often lead to negative or heavy feelings.

Although negative feelings aren’t inherently bad, the most destructive thoughts often bring them on unnecessarily. And then these negative or heavy feelings cause you to get in your own way with procrastination, avoidance, or just plain bad decisions.

Furthermore, these thoughts can become habitual.

The solution is to redirect your autopilot thoughts to new ones that serve you.

Remember, with mindset work it’s not important if the thought is objectively true or not, you want to explore what results the thought is creating and decide if it is working for you.

Conversely, lying to yourself or denial doesn’t work either. A great question to always ask yourself is “What else is true to me?”

The Top Five Destructive Thoughts to Declutter:

1. It’s going to be hard.

Redirect ideas: “It might be easier than I think.” or “I’ve done harder things.”

2. I don’t have time.

Redirect ideas: “I have the time I need” or “I’m choosing to allocate my time to___”

3. I’m so tired.

Redirect ideas: “I’m good to go for___” or “I’ve got what I need to keep going”

4. I don’t know (how).

Redirect ideas: “But if I did it might be ___” or “And what I could do to figure it out is___”

5. I’ll do it later.

Redirect ideas: “I’m choosing to do this [be specific] because [be specific].

Your thoughts create your life. Think carefully.

If you want to get the benefits of a well-managed mind I can help.
Book a call and we will have a conversation about how coaching could impact your life specifically.

A decluttered mind feels as good as a decluttered home.

-Stephanie

P.S. Free workshop alert: Living Unapologetically Beyond 40 - The Mindset Reset for Living Boldly! Details and Registration

P.P.S. If you're tired of trying to change your patterns and get the results you want on your own and you're curious about the benefits of coaching book a coaching exploration call  to find out more about Alignment Coaching and whether it's the right fit for you right now.