We can feel stuck or depleted when our personal or professional life seem stalled. Guilt-like feelings bear a resemblance to cement boots weighing down attitudes. When feelings of complacency set in and the impostor syndrome is sapping stored energy, it’s time to clean the slate.
Our thoughts and feelings are intertwined with our personal realities. The connections we make to our current challenges are the sum of our prior experiences. The way we think, act, feel and behave are a the results of what we believe. To change the connections to those feelings we must change how we think and react to challenges.
“To change, then, is to think and act greater than our present circumstances, greater than our environment.” Dr. Joe Dispenza
If your perception is hardwired to an emotion, then the connection you have during conflict is to “feel” a certain way. As of all the “knowns” in life cause your brain to think and feel in familiar ways. Creating an involuntarily reaction that is subjective to past results. The circuitry is building a callus rather than making new connections. Slowing progress and in the process, making the grind less malleable.
Our mental chalkboard is keeping a score using references that are outdated. Logging inconsequential results into a mental checklist of old patterns of thinking. Utilizing expired information as a benchmark, is not an effective tool for leveraging your current state of being.
Here are 5 core principles for managing the mental chalkboard
- Take time for yourself and recharge your spirit.
- Clear-off all the old chalkboard dust. Clean the slate from the past.
- Resolve the thoughts that are inherently holding you back and handle the things you’ve been putting off.
- Don’t waste time reading other people’s chalkboard thoughts. If they aren’t growing you then they are depleting you.
- Get clear on the things that move you forward and act with intention.
We are in theory, a collection of our past experiences – good or bad. Those collections are cataloged as reference points however, only to our prior way of thinking. In this moment, we have the capability to make a conscious choice to wipe the mental chalkboard clean. When a decision to move towards your ideal self begins then providence moves in unison. Begin by creating new connections to visual and virtual realities by changing the way you act, think, feel, and behave.
“We have the ability to manifest the emotions and feelings that benefit or, distract us. Either way, the conscious choice is yours to make. When you arrive at self-designated milestones, pause for a moment and reaffirm that you are indeed headed in the right direction!”
Joseph Clementi