PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Reconsider Your Motives Before Following Every Glittery, Sparkly Squirrel That Catches Your Eye

How to break the habit of overloading your mental cart

How much junk do you have piling up in your mental cart?

If you’re like me, you may be in the habit of collecting things in your brain — letting ideas and thoughts gather and congeal into an unrecognizable mass before exerting the effort to determine what’s worth keeping and what needs to be pitched out the door.

What about all the good stuff buried in the heap?

Unfortunately, the vetting process can be cumbersome and frustrating. And attempting to objectively sort through the stash without hurting your own feelings makes it hard to tell the difference between a jewel and a turd.

Personally, from past experience I’ve learned if I wait too long before revisiting my cart, well, a lot of things can happen — including a build-up of stress and anxiety.

My head is spinning just thinking about it

I finally decided to come face-to-face with my real issue: While I may not be a hoarder of “stuff,” I was definitely guilty of not being able to let go of my thoughts, wishes, and desires without a fight.

Here’s how I think this particular scenario plays out in real life — or at least in mine

We see or read something interesting, but we tell ourselves we don’t have time to fully engage in the piece or finish what we started. So we scan a page or two, consider the possibilities, and hastily file it away in our mental storage locker for later review — an unknown pause in our life when we can dedicate our focus on figuring out what was so stimulating to capture our attention in the first place.

And that’s when the stack begins to grow and mutate into a looming mind-monster

Usually, rather than approaching the beast head-on, we attempt to convince ourselves we’ll have plenty of opportunity at some future point to pick through the potential booty. And this faulty delay tactic results in all those questionable items remaining in stasis — lingering in limbo and testing the boundaries of our mental holding tank until we can plan a return visit.

Except that doesn’t always happen in a timely manner, because our brains are constantly being distracted in a dozen different directions. And keeping up with all the input — real or imagined — takes us off track yet again.

If we’re lucky, on occasion one of those irrelevant thought-projects will quietly drop out voluntarily due to diminished interest or exposure to opposing information. And this is a good thing, because the price of exchanging valuable conscious energy for worthless treasures can clog the system, leaving us exhausted and overwhelmed.

The real insight comes when you finally start sorting through the rubble

Here’s my strategy for clearing the cart. With computer screen at the ready, I start the process of unloading all the wondrously important nuggets from my mind. What I usually discover is many of those ideas, thoughts, and concepts tucked away in the folds of grey matter have lost their original purpose and intent.

And as the unnecessary fodder is released, a new sense of clarity and priority begins to set in — a reminder to become more diligent when considering what deserves my future attention, and what should be left by the wayside.

Does that mean you should avoid mentally collecting data?

Or worse, immediately engage in impulse behavior, setting everything else aside to focus on transitory minutiae?

Not exactly. Because we need a reliable method of unearthing — and holding onto — the kind of information that has the potential to expand our knowledge base and encourage personal growth.

Fair warning: Keep in mind there’s usually a price to pay when we allow our concentration to be diverted toward anything that scurries in front of us without first stepping back to evaluate its future purpose. Because we’ve all learned — at some point in our lives — there can be unpleasant consequences when making quick decisions in the heat of the moment.

Maybe we should reconsider our motives before following every glittery, sparkly squirrel that catches our eye.

Instead of hoarding each and every little scrap of information fighting for our attention for fear something useful could slip away, maybe we should simply let the squirrels pass by on their way to some unknown destination.

© 2021 Jill Reid. All Rights Reserved.

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Jill Reid is the founder of Pathway to Personal Growth and author of Real Life and Discover Your Personal Truth. Her books and articles explore life, happiness, relationships, health, and personal success strategies.