How to Eliminate One Giant Brain Suck and Fight the Negative Mindset
If you do nothing else, here is one practice that will immediately:
- Help you focus
- Eliminate a major distraction
- Help you fight the negative mindset
Eliminate the news! At least all of the news that is not part of YOUR WORLD.
Here’s what I mean…
There are all kinds of news platforms: 24-hour general news channels, news programs on broadcast channels, sports news, entertainment news, financial news, and yes…Facebook and Twitter and the like, which are really just a form of news feeds. There is so much news today that we could literally be plugged into multiple sources 24-hours a day. Well, other than what is important to you in YOUR WORLD (i.e., what is immediately related to you business, or your family, or your special interest, etc), the rest is keeping your from being your best.
Why so harsh? Why do I recommend you simply eliminate the news? Here’s why…
You must first be aware, which I’m sure most of you are, of what is the PURPOSE of the news. Quite simply, the purpose of the news is no different than the purpose of any other type of programming, such as music, and sitcoms, and Facebook, and Twitter etc: It’s purpose is to attract more viewers, or listeners, or readers, or users because that leads to higher ad revenue. Now of course, generating revenue is not a problem at all, that’s just business. That’s what makes this great country go around and makes much of that content free to consume.
However, the 2 reasons that I recommend you eliminate the news that does not directly apply to YOUR WORLD are:
- The great majority of news is very negative. Businesses are good at generating revenue, and being good at generating revenue means they have become very good at providing content that people want. And for whatever reason, we seem to be wired to be attracted to the negative. Therefore, the news providers are simply providing what we want…the negative.
- It’s an easy distraction. In our constant and never-ceasing war with resistance (check out The War of Art) and the Instant Gratification Monkey, our human need for belonging stabs us with the spears of “it’s important that I know what’s going on in _________”. That’s just a tactic that resistance uses in its battle campaign, people! Recognize and acknowledge it, and deflect it with your shield of “elimination”.
How do you eliminate the news? Do the following things at least during your focus periods during your day. In reality, I think these are things your should do always, but at least start with during the focus periods.
- Never have the 24-hour news station on in the background (TV or radio)
- Cancel the newspaper, or don’t buy the newspaper
- Turn off all notifications from your “news” apps…yes, even Facebook and Twitter
- Recognize the Instant Gratification Monkey and fight him in his desire to steer your ship towards scrolling through the “feeds”.
- Don’t tune into the news programs or visit news web sites.
- On your commute, listen to a podcast or audio book instead of the news program.
You may be saying to yourself, “I can’t do that, there are certain things that I must know about”. OK, that may be true, certainly if some of this information applies to YOU WORLD. But, you MUST look in the mirror here and really separate YOUR WORLD from THE WORLD. Obviously, if your business is a financial advisor, it’s likely that you have stay plugged into financial news of the day.
And here’s a touchy one…”I MUST be looking at Facebook/Twitter/Whatever all day because I have children in school and I NEED to know if something happens at that school.” Well…here’s my opinion. If there is something that you NEED to know, you will be notified. You will find out if your son or daughter is sick, or if there is an emergency that affects your children.
Here’s how you check yourself: Don’t be the first to know!
If you get a phone call, or text message from a friend saying, “Did you hear _______?”, and that’s the first you knew about it…EXCELLENT JOB. You are doing it right. If the follow up is, “I can’t believe you didn’t hear about ________, it was all over Facebook/the news/the internet”, AWESOME! Give yourself a pat on the back.
Don’t be the first to know! It’s actually quite liberating. Do you really think there is Breaking News every 10 minutes that you need to know about?
Please comment on this post, or connect with me and send me your thoughts.
Have a great day!
