Are internal possessions cluttering your space for potential?mindful productivity

dont put a lid on your potential

When people think of clutter they usually think of an untidy attic, unwanted knick knacks or drawers overflowing. That type of clutter is the obvious type, it is our external clutter, but there is another sort – our internal clutter. Those beliefs and habits which are not supporting the way we would like to live our lives and are just there because we never got around to removing them or making new ones. We either inherited them many years ago as children or we were given them and just started to use them as they were there at the time. They are the habits and limiting beliefs that clutter up our potential in life and stop us from achieving all we can achieve. They get in the way of us being all we can be by clouding our aspirations and weighing us down with negative thoughts and self sabotaging patterns of behaviour. Just as we give our houses a spring clean and throw out things we no longer need so we should do the same with our internal ‘possessions’.

Identify one habit or belief that is no longer useful to you and get rid of it

Now, this is not as easy as external decluttering because we cannot just throw it out or give it away in one swoop. External decluttering is different as we do not ‘chuck out’ our old internal possessions but must swap them for another which is better suited to our needs. Habits/beliefs cannot be disposed of but they can be changed to one that is more suited to the way we now wish to live.

Decide what your new supporting habit/belief replacement will be

A lot of what we do on a daily basis is habit, so it is in our interests to have those habits which will support us the most in achieving what we want to achieve. Different things work for different people but I find that notes put up as reminders work for most people. Sometimes it is good to wear a piece of jewelry (say a ring) that is slightly cumbersome thus making you conscious of it several times a day. These have the effect of constantly reminding us of our new habit in the early stages when the old one is still dominant and the new one has not yet been embedded. A bit like learning to drive a car where we must be conscious of all we do in the early stages – remembering to push the clutch in to change the gears and to look over our shoulder when manoeuvring etc. It all seems very mechanical in the beginning and we think it will never be easy and flow but after a while it does and it all becomes automatic (as long as we press on and continue and not give up). So it is with changing a habit or belief. It may seem like a struggle in the beginning remembering to do it the new way because our system is set up so that we automatically do it the old way and it can be hard to change that after many years. The old track is well worn and it’s not easy hacking a new one through dense forest. It is worth it in the end and as a result your habits are more supportive of the life you wish to lead now instead of the life you led in the past.

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