You read 175 newspapers each day!

As I read Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin, I realize that we are dealing with a whole new level of stuff as well as bits and bytes coming at us. Each of us processes the equivalent of 175 newspapers each day in information!! Holy jumpins Batman!! Every status update, tweet, text message or e-mail, etc. competes for resources in your brain just like all of my stuff competes for space in my home office!!

One person at a time, please!

What is the cost of having to process and filter all of this information?? We have trouble separating the crap from the things that matter and all that information processing makes us exhausted!! We can ONLY pay attention to about 120 bits of information per second no matter how sexy those bits are! This means we can barely understand two people talking to us at the same time.

Multi-tasking is a diabolical illusion!

Our poor brains evolved to deal with life in the hunter-gatherer era of our history and so can only focus on one thing at a time!! I know you believe you can multi task especially if you are a woman. That's because you have been doing it all your life; breastfeeding while mowing the lawn, applying a full face of makeup while driving gear shift and yelling at the kids in the back seat. :-) Truth be known, our attention is a limited capacity resource no matter who you are! Sorry my Amazon warrior sisters, multi- tasking is a diabolical illusion and drops your I.Q. significantly!

Attentional Switching

We do not multi-task! We attentional switch - quickly moving back and forth between objects. If you are paying attention to one thing, it means you CANNOT pay attention to something else. But the reason we love the idea of getting lots done is that multi-tasking not only produces stress hormones and scrambled thinking, it also creates a dopamine addiction feedback loop that rewards your brain for going after any new shiny object, email, tweet, status update, etc.

 If you are still convinced of your special multi-tasking powers, YouTube the famous experiment called basketball demo. Here's the link! It makes a great party trick as well!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo

Successful people focus on their passions!!

So what does all of this have to do with success and fulfilling your potential, which is what I am all about?  Successful people are expert at categorizing the useful versus the distracting empty calories, quick fix tripe. Successful people focus on their Business and Core Passions; the things that matter most. They filter out anything that will distract them from their top 5 Passions. This kind of focus strengthens your brain (and your abs! just kidding) and gives you clarity and energy galore! Imagine where you would be if you had that kind of single-minded focus!

Attend my 'Business Bliss Breakthrough Program' or work with me one on one to discover your top five business passions as well as your top five core passions. Learning what your passions are will provide you with relief, which will turn into success because you now have a clear focus!   

Leave a comment below or send me an email if you have any questions, I am here to help.

Someone once described me as a woman who lives “close to the surface,” which she pointed out was a double-edged sword.” Indeed!

Growing up in Trinidad where teasing is a national pass time, and everything is fair game, I had to develop tough skin, or become “buff proof.”

My neighbour was nicknamed “Bat” because of his big ears. If you were "ugly" people would call you a “boo boo.” Come to think of it there is even a famous Calypso dedicated to someone’s aesthetically challenged father. It’s called Mamma Look a Boo Boo Dey by calypsonian Lord Melody.

This song demonstrates our training as Trinidadians, to separate ourselves from the easy targets among us. I was affectionally called “tickness" which when translated is “thickness” and describes the way my body looked because I did not fit into the bikini beach culture in the post-Twiggy era.

No one and nothing was sacred.

JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF SKIN

How did I grow some extra skin so that I could leave my home with some measure of confidence? How did I make sure not to grow too much skin?

Remember, I still wanted access to my emotions so that I could feel empathy, joy, and happiness! After all, I was on a career path to become a psychotherapist.

ACCEPT REALITY

It took some time, but I remembered exactly where I was when I learned this life-saving way of looking at myself. I call this everyday technique ‘Saving Your Skin.’  If you are a sensitive person like me, accept reality. Being a sensitive person in this world is like having allergy to dust and living in a dust bowl. You have to take special care and acknowledge that this allergy is a gift that makes you a powerful healer, and empathetic to others and creative.

STEPS TO SAVING YOUR SKIN

Here are the steps to “Saving Your Skin.”

1. When you feel pain/negative emotions, about either yourself or someone else, picture holes in your body where the pain comes in.

2. Check the pain for messages that pertain to you and your life.

3. Let the pain flow through you by way of those holes.  If you are focusing on that pain (like probing sore gums with your tongue), or if something really gets to you, you may find yourself re-playing the “story” over and over in your head. This will cause you to puff yourself up on self-righteousness and the need for fairness. The best advice I can give you is that this behavior is toxic, and can also stop you from moving forward. Life is not ‘fair” in the way we think about it.  

SWITCHING

Eventually, when you make a decision to feel better (even though the pain and injustice have not gone away) try using a technique I call “Switching or Changing” my “somebody done somebody wrong song/story in my head.”

You catch yourself going over the story and then call “SWITCH” in your head. Do it firmly and several times as you will be breaking yourself out of a self-imposed trance.

I have my workshop attendees practice “switching” with a well-oiled story like Little Red Riding Hood or Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Thank you, Mr. Swainey for this idea!! They find a partner and begin telling the story. Your partner yells out “switch” at many points along the way. The story changes…leading, ladies and gentlemen to a different outcome. Bingo!!

Try it. It is hysterical! The last time I did it, my Goldilocks turned into a dread-lock wearing, hip-hop singing, girl with fewer entitlement issues than our original Goldi who as you may recall, ate all of the porridge that was someone’s else’s, unapologetically.  

I would love to hear how your “SWITCHING” is going for you. Kindly comment below.

PS: “Switching” is NOT to be used to get out of a healthy conscience or your truth telling.

PSS: Contact me if you are interested in more of this kind of Master Your Mind for Success work. I offer a weekend workshop that delves into the subject in depth!

Until next time; be passionate!