As published on Bella Naija, 16.12.2016
Mental organisation is a smooth running of the mind with a significant less occurrence of confusion and chaos.
Ever feel so caught up with trying to catch up with your life’s progress? Yes! I mean life’s progress! How many of us even acknowledge the never-to-be-underestimated fact that we all need a regular progress report of our lives? A detailed outline of our affairs that will keep us self-motivated towards accomplishing all that we have been created to accomplish? A life progress report is highly essential but you need to recognise what your life goals are before you can appreciate the essence of a life progress report. We often take for granted the importance of working on the mind space, not realizing that in the mind, is where life happens first. On the journey of mental organisation, the definition of life goals is paramount, so in case you have not set your life goals yet, I refer you to my LIFE-goals guide article on the GO BLOG https://www.jessylscharm.com//?p=672
Lately, I desperately needed to hear a message like this, so I had to preach this gospel to my dear self before I decided that someone else might just as well make some good sense out of it. The past couple of months of my life have been loaded with life altering adjustments. From having a baby to nursing the baby, and then, relocating with my family to a distant country. Now, that latter part put a great deal of pressure on me because I had to deal with embracing a new culture and system of living, a fresh living arrangement and an entirely new learning process. As my kind of Organising/Productivity expert who is extremely mindful of her space, coupled with being a mother of two, having unpacked boxes of personal effects for months in addition to unloaded plans for the new phase was somewhat destabilizing, but thank goodness, I pulled through. Please, don’t assume for a moment that I was able to pull through easily because I am some super human. There were some days I felt like I was about to lose control of my mind: Those days when the confusion was so obvious, that my 5 year old son would notice and ask “Mummy, you kind of look tired. Are you searching for something in the boxes?” It felt indeed overwhelming, so I had to get my mind game on and the following principles came into play.
A. ADJUST YOUR THINKING.
Reality is, we’ll never have sufficient time to accomplish all the things we desire, so don’t go beating yourself up over every single unaccomplished tasks; rather have a (daily, monthly, yearly or etc.) list of priorities and follow the list through in a steady and controlled manner. On my priority list, my family comes before work so I would easily give up making more money over attending to the health and psychological needs of my husband and kids. I spoke with a friend sometime who felt she was wasting away being a stay-at-home mom. She was beating herself up so badly about her inability to get back to work, of course, for the sake of making some extra bucks while providing external care for her kids. She needed to hear these few words “You are going to have all your life to make more money but you are not going to have your kids all your life to care for”. Those words sunk in so deep that I was glad I ministered to a friend. So please! Suck it up, stop being miserable and focus on the bigger picture,
To maintain a steady flow of the mind, you can sample my MIND-REGULATION concept. This concept consists of four techniques I regularly use, that are listed below.
1. Prayer. I never underestimate the power of taking my feelings to God. The knowledge of a greater power that controls the universe is one great discovery and the freedom to connect with that power is truly a gift.
2. Focus. Where’s your aim at? How are you going to shoot for the stars if you keep pointing your weapon towards the ground? Keep your head up and keep shooting up even when there is the wind and storm.
3. Affirmation. After the decision to be an entrepreneur, things were initially rough for my business and I. I used to tell myself and anyone else that cared to listen “I’m not good at marketing. Some people are just natural sales persons and I’m not one of those”. I couldn’t affirm my dreams of growing my business with that kind of confession.
4. Distraction. Anyone can find this technique useful, for the reason that, not all of us can easily evade those moments when our mind is spiraling and confusion is building up. Take a mind break and use some good distraction. I pick up my phone and start playing a game of scrabble, which by the way, is my favourite word game. I could also grab an interesting story book or tune into my favourite TV series (political and legal dramas top the list for me), just to momentarily wean my mind off the mental disruption. When the mind finds a reasonable degree of calmness, you can get back to focusing on what really matters on your priority list.
B. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
You need self discovery in order to have self belief. Regular self awareness plus intensified self appreciation equals increased self esteem. Self awareness should be a recurrent exercise because, trust me; we evolve as we grow older and as we journey through life. Our potentials have great depths and our experiences grow in leaps and bounds, so scratching the surface of ourselves will mean mediocrity. There’s some digging to be done and the more you dig into your purpose, the more self discovery you will experience and the stronger your belief in yourself.
C. CONTROL YOUR EXCESSES
Ever heard of the term “cognitive load”? It is the total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory. Well, if there’s a total amount of mental effort which is supposedly limited, you do not want to go overboard and end up getting a cognitive overload which can have serious negative effects on your ability to complete tasks. So, you mustn’t refresh your social media pages daily, you don’t have to read every book you encounter, and really, you don’t have to go chatting with every friend every other day. Secure your centre of balance by setting boundaries and controlling excesses.
D. DEVELOP POSITIVITY
Are you a cup-half-full or cup-half-empty person? What’s your view on life? Is it lopsided or balanced? Nothing and no one in the world can help the man who always sees the downside of every situation. He is his own stumbling block. You have to wake up to smell the coffee, because there is no ability to perceive in slumber. A negativity filled person cannot effectively control his/her mind and steer it in the direction of productivity as a result of confusion and indecision.
E. EMBRACE SIMPLICITY
Simplicity equals clarity and simplicity of goals will lead to simplicity of existence. Remember to embrace simplicity when organising your LIFE-goals. Find the simplest ways to accomplish tasks. The first simplest step is to write down your goals/plans and keep them where you can see them. For example, if your influence goal for the month is to spend 40 hours enlightening people in your community or interest group about something you are passionate about, please write it down, find specific ways of achieving that goal (plans) and write it down as well. When planning, make a list of your speaking engagement locations, break the 40 hours down into workable daily hours, set your time and affix your location and there, you have your tasks ready to be accomplished.
F. FIND TRUE HAPPINESS
Emotional well being is directly proportional to mental organisation. When one is suffering from the implications of decreased emotional well being such as stress, depression and anxiety, their mental and physical health start to decline. For an effective thought process under pressure, it is imperative therefore to understand how to improve emotional wellbeing and that is by discerning what true happiness is about. For me, true happiness is simply an inner feeling of peace and a deeper sense of gratitude. An inner feeling of peace can be derived from; (a). The forgiveness from God. (b). The forgiveness of oneself. (c). The forgiveness of others. A deeper sense of gratitude can be obtained from the realization of the fact that all you are and have is a gift and a privilege. Wherever you are, and whatever your accomplishments are or are not, don’t forget that you need to keep unraveling the gift of life in your hands till the day you reach your rest.
Your life is a ride, now get in, grab the wheel and be in better control by getting your mind game on today, then sit back and appreciate the power of an organised mind.
Your Organising/Productivity Expert
Jesmine.
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