We live in an era of rapid multi-tasking and potential sensory overload. Increasingly, we feed our SM obsession with bite-sized, often random pieces of information which can end up leaving us somewhat confused and occasionally overwhelmed.
We cram in as much data as possible in our over-long working days, not wishing to miss any vital Tweet or get behind in our status updates. Perhaps you divide your personal attention between your friends and loved ones and your addiction to your Smart Phone, with its seductive alerts prompting an immediate and almost irresistible urge to check your messages.
But do we practice enough mental hygiene or are we constantly overloaded with so many bits of data that our processing speed decreases and we begin to feel fragmented or at worst dysfunctional?
Unlike our bodies, which know when we have consumed too much or which recognise that certain food combinations may simply make us sick, our brain sometimes doesn’t know when it has had enough! The brain stores memories rather like a computer and, if it is overloaded, its operating system becomes sluggish and inefficient. It may sometimes feel like you have so many ‘Windows’ open in your brain that it just ‘hangs’ like a computer and you are forced to manually shut some down and reboot it.
When you ‘defrag’ your computer’s hard drive you sort, archive and rearrange the data. Your brain needs to do this in the same way with the storage of its memories. Dream or REM sleep is the brain’s natural way of cleaning up its operating system, or clearing the cache, to make room for more memories. But like a computer, if this is not done regularly (for example during a time of high stress) or you are surviving on what is sometimes called ‘junk sleep’, your whole mental filing system may need a good sort out!
So here is where A COACH can really help you... Firstly, at a basic level, you may simply not be looking after yourself properly. Are you making yourself a high enough priority in your business-driven life? What about good sleep patterns and nutrition, or taking enough time out for meditation, quality relationships, exercise or other forms of relaxation? ‘Not working hard enough’ does not appear in the list of top ten deathbed regrets! You probably feel that you don’t need a coach for that and you’re probably right – so just do it!
More importantly perhaps you might need a coach to help you to DEFRAG YOUR MIND and here are some suggested steps:
Firstly you need to know who you really are, what you stand for and what you really want in life – from this we can create a long term vision and some short term goals and objectives. For the period of your coaching, this becomes your ‘Dominant Setup’ in computer speak and will provide the focus for your mind in our journey. Your ‘operating system’ I would define as your character and one might argue that your brain comes with that already installed - your coach should be skilled in recognising how to work with it. He/she would not presume to get you to change from Windows to Apple or even from Vista or XP to Windows 7 – unless that is what YOU perceive you need in order to become more effective!
Secondly we need to identify what information and resources you need. What attitudes and habits you will need to be developing - remembering that it takes repetition and discipline before your brain will allow a new habit to become second nature. This is somewhat akin to making sure you have the right programmes and routines running on your brain-computer and making sure redundant ones are uninstalled.
Thirdly, we need to establish what your priorities are because this will help to order and access the information your brain-computer will require over the coaching period. It will also enable you to give all the right attention to your desired goals and to FOCUS. This doesn’t mean you stop multi-tasking as life is not linear and we do have to embrace social networking if we’re in business, but it does mean that you learn to (a) practice the powerful art of INTENTION by visualising your success and attracting it into the here and now, and (b) be truly PRESENT in each of your chosen tasks, especially those involving people. And everything you do needs to be run though the filter of essential or non-essential.
Not quite finally, we need to DECLUTTER YOUR LIFE. Let’s look at all those things which are using up disk space unnecessarily, all those nagging little issues which drain your energy, and sort them out effortlessly while your main programmes are running ... Let your coach help give you the resolve you need to simply reorganise your mental folders and mark some useless files for DELETE!
And finally, your coach will help you visualise how you will feel when your life is aligned with your true purpose and you have achieved your goals. Remember, the more you focus on and visualise your success and happiness, the more likely you will be to actualise it!
