A mind is a terrible thing to flush down the toilet.
But isn’t that what people are doing everyday?
Opting to stay in their comfortable bubble instead of dealing with the necessary hardship that accompanies growth?
In this letter you’ll learn:
-The reason why the world is distracted
-What prolonged distraction does to the mind
-Actionable strategies to attain high level focus
-Clear steps to mitigate indecision and attain a higher accuracy of better decision making.
It’s no wonder why our world seems so mentally constipated. The amount of mental junk food being taken in by most people now a days is truly remarkable.
The average person is consuming between:
- 4-5hrs of social media.
- 3-4hrs. of TV and
- 1.5-3hrs of video games on average a day.
Anything our minds engage with on a consistent basis can become a downloadable program creating habits, behaviors and unwanted addictions.
The conscious left brain won’t sense the programs being downloaded, let alone running because we’ve already authorized it by the right brain unknowingly.
Is there still a reason to assume why there’s so many Indians and not enough chiefs in our society? I personally don’t think so, there’s just not enough free flowing purpose driven thinkers.
And for the ones that are trying to make a change and create lasting impact, they seem to be “backed up” mentally. The dopamine well to creativity is clogged and the mental pipes for curiosity has a leak.
I would have to insert one major assumption as to why this silent epidemic is taking place and it would be attributed to no other reason than cognitive overload.
This is a state in which an individual’s cognitive resources are critically overwhelmed by the amount of information given about idea’s, tasks or processes.
(mental constipation).
I get it though.
There’s only but so much focus you can give to a single task at any given time. But trying to cram your brain with more information then necessary is only doing more harm than good.
Where most people are going wrong is that they’re allowing they’re minds to run a muck rather than put it on a leash and feed it only what’s necessary to achieve there 1 specific goal.
Pop quiz.
Question 1. “Can a car travel in three different directions at the same time?
If you answered no you’d be right, than why are you trying this same impossibility with your brain by tasking it with multiple responsibilities like:
-Finishing a book before the end of the week.
-Purchasing another course you know your not going to finish.
-Taking on yet another client for your business when your clearly swamped.
All may be priorities for different reasons but all are not equally beneficial to your current set of goals.
Indecision is a true plague to the human mind and unfortunately that’s what were up against with 5-10 million ads being thrown at us a day. It’s difficult to focus on anything long enough to get anything done because knowing exactly what we want is jaded by thousands of distractions every minute.
This overtime has rather unfortunate and severe consequences to your mind if left unchecked such as:
- Difficulty concentrating.
- Increased errors or mistakes.
- Feelings of frustration or anxiety.
- Inability to make decisions.
- Mental fatigue.
- Lack Of Creativity.
There’s only one way to lessen the load on your mind and really start to get shit done.
Narrow your scope.
Focus on 1 thing at a time.
Stop giving AF (Learn to say NO).
That was the straight to the point answer. The other more mapped out productive approach to mitigate a mind on roids plagued by indecision could be to:
- Chunk Information: Break down only the information needed into smaller, manageable units.
- Prioritized Tasks: Focus on one task at a time rather than multitasking. (narrow your scope)
- Minimize Distractions: Create a conducive environment for focus. (Lose your phone, lock yourself into a room)
- Use Visual Aids: Employing diagrams, charts, or other visual tools to simplify complex information.
These are just a few ways, the goal is for you to explore your own mind and test different methods to see what works for you. No framework is set in stone there all interchangeable & rearrangeable so experiment a bit.
Don’t be another drone who relies heavily on ChatGPT to think for you.
A.I is only a tool but it can’t think for you. The speed at which you can understand a concept and execute on it comes solely down to learning how you learn, which is a skill within itself.
(Perhaps I’ll make a letter out that too in the coming weeks, idk we’ll see)
But having a keen sense of self-awareness is really all it takes to plunge the mental pipes a bit.
Figuring out HOW to think in today’s society has become a true super power, so you best get learning how to tap into your own creative genius.
What’s becoming a more powerful prominent tool is a concept called First Principle Thinking.
The process typically involves the following:
1. Identify the Problem: Clearly define the problem you are trying to solve.
2. Break it Down: Deconstruct the problem into its most basic elements. Ask yourself what you know to be absolutely true about the situation, topic, idea or goal.
3. Rebuild from the Ground Up: Once you have the fundamental components, you can start to reconstruct your understanding or solution, using those basics as building blocks.
For example.
We all know what an apple tree is. We can identify it by it’s fruit.
But’s that’s only service level knowledge. That’s something a toddler who’s looking from a distance could guess on his own with one eye closed.
First principle thinking goes deeeeeper. much deeper. It’s the study of the seed and soil, understanding how the trunk of the tree grows along with it’s branches.
Basically.
Once you can understand the fundamentals of how something works you can fast track your path to achieving or obtaining what you want.
Now the goal is to think quicker. So for a new entrepreneur, how would one go about creating a successful business. For the sake of time I’m going to spare you.
But here’s a diagram below that may serve as a guide.
This is a rough scope, (very rough scope) of how first principle thinking is to be applied to the business world through the lens of a high performing entrepreneur.
(Think bare elements)
What has to be true about what I want to know, pursue, have, do or become?
P.S for all of my brand owners or soon to be you’d benefit greatly from listening to “You Are The Brand” Youtube Video this goes over what I’m talking about in more detail (if your an entrepreneur or soon to be).
At the end of the day though, unless you deploy some type of method or mental model to structure your thinking in a way that helps you sift through the inevitable noise that comes with everyday life.
Your going to keep finding yourself running on the hamster wheel of the same chapter of life, reliving the same day, dreading the same week, never moving past the same month while repeating the same year.
That shit is a complete nightmare not gonna lie.
I lived it myself personally so I have a bit of experience to speak on the topic.
We’ll save that story for another letter though.
Point is you have to start thinking fast but deciding what you want out of life faster. A good start is simply structuring your day’s and weeks in proportion to what will have direct impact NOW.
Otherwise you can expect nothing out of the not so distant future that is to come. Do the work today that you don’t feel like doing so that you can reap the benefits of a structured, purpose driven dominant life that you’re in control of tomorrow.
I’m getting back into writing letters. I think I kinda like it here. 🙂
That’s all I got for now family. In the meantime, stay curious, stay purposeful and keep creating your own reality.
peace and love.
-Cass
