There’s no real agreed name for what this article is going to talk about so I just gave it one – Circular Mind Chatter (CMC). I can’t really define but I think you know what I’m talking about just from the name of it.
Here’s an example to pin it down.
A great business idea pops into your head.
Let the CMC begin.
“What a great business idea!”
“Don’t even think about doing it. You’re going to fail.”
“No I’m not.”
“Yes, you will. Where are you going to get the money? The time? Have you ever even started your own business before? And what if your business fails? You’ll be the laughingstock of those all around you.”
“Hmmmm. Maybe you’re right. But it’s such a good business idea. I should go for it before somebody else steals it.”
“What makes you think it’ll even work? Remember the last time you tried to do something like this? You started it but never finished. This time will be no different.”
“Yes it will!”
“No, it won’t. People don’t change. You don’t have what it takes. Why change things? Things are all right now. Don’t fix what’s not broken.”
“I don’t know. Maybe…but what about…”
And on and on and on and on and on it goes, to the point where it becomes a tie, a deadlock, and in this game, tie goes to the negative side.
Circular mind chatter is the type of talk that people have in their minds that basically starts going strong in one direction, but comes back into a loop where they never seem to get out of and the end result is NO ACTION takes place.
The train of thought starts off strong in one direction, but the mind pulls the reins back HARD, curving that line back up into the opposite direction, but you pull forward again and the mind pulls back and you get this circular train of thought where it becomes too exhausting to fight out of, so you end up with a tie, and in a tie, the mind wins.
It pulled back your train of thought.
Most people can relate to this and they will attribute it as their #1 problem for never getting things done, for never getting things off the ground.
So how do you deal with this?
The VERY first thing to do is UNDERSTAND WHY your mind does this in the first place.
Your mind is designed to help you AVOID PAIN.
If our minds were not designed that way, our species would not have survived very long.
So when we try something new, something that puts a kink into our relatively stable equilibrium, our mind throws up the red flag.
Our mind sees what CAN be in terms of how what we’re planning to do can cause us pain in the future.
Not only that, it blows it up in size.
This can be a really big stumbling block for those who have very vivid imaginations.
And worse yet for those who have the gift of extrapolating WAY into the future (you know who you are).
So it’s understandable why the mind pulls back the reins HARD.
That’s its job.
You are not weak or abnormal.
This happens to everybody.
It’s how people deal with it that separates the crowd.
The second thing to keep in mind is this.
A lot of the reasons that your mind comes up with that it uses to pull the reins of your train of thought back hard IS ROOTED IN THE FUTURE.
What if?
What if x,y,z happens?
Here’s the thing.
X, Y, Z DOES NOT EXIST.
X, Y, Z NEVER happened.
Except in your mind.
Realize this:
The future is up for grabs.
It’s a blank canvas.
It’s just that the natural survival instinct side of your mind got dibs on painting it first.
So how do you deal with all this Circular Mind Chatter?
Do you try to beat it?
Do you try to “outmuscle” it?
Sure, you can, but why bother wasting all that energy?
Simply put a stop to it so you DON’T have to fight it.
How?
Understand why your mind is doing what its doing and then THANK YOUR MIND for the input it’s giving you.
When you acknowledge what your mind is doing with regards to CMC, you stop the flow of it.
It’s the same thing we do to somebody who goes on and on and on in a meeting.
After they end a sentence of their rambling, you step in and thank them for their input and tell them you appreciate it.
It has a way of shutting up the person in a nice way and there’s nothing really more they can say.
Your mind will react the same way.
After you do that, breathe slowly and deeply to get back into the present.
Focus on your breathing in the present moment and realize that YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF IT.
You have CONTROL.
Bring your train of thought all the way to the present and tap back into that personal power of control by focusing on this statement:
Your future can be whatever you want it to be.
Your future can be whatever you want it to be.
Then, focus on what it is you want.
The end result of you WANT, not what you DON’T WANT.
Then go back and ask yourself:
What are three things you can do today that can help get you there?
And with that locus of control you have and your focus on the present, and with the energy you saved that you would’ve spent fighting the CMC, spend it on putting those three things into action to get that momentum ball rolling.
That’s how you deal with the CMC.
Don’t bother spending a ton of energy in fighting it and trying to beat it.
Thank your mind for its input so you put a stop to it so you don’t have to fight it.
Then put your energy into doing what you need to do in the present moment to create the future you want in the first place.
