The Power of a Clear Mind

Two of the most impactful things I've learned in the past year are 1. the importance of a clear mind and 2. how to get one. So I wanted to write about that.

This is going to be very closely related to "Outward and Forward". In that post I mention that any "backward" thoughts should be confronted. What I mean by that is that any thoughts that are impeding your ability to achieve your goals and serve the people around you in a productive way should be confronted.

So I'm hoping to share a little about how I confront those thoughts. Namely what I'm going to address is the broader concept of stress and anxiety.

Just like in "Outward and Forward", I will preface with the fact that I am by no means a psychology professional. But I've thought a lot about this, so let's see if the conclusions I've come to are relatable to you.

What is a "clear mind"?

Here's how I define a clear mind: one that can VERY effectively take in various forms of input, and produce various forms of output without anything getting in the way.

In other words, a clear mind is one that is ripe for learning and prime for motivated pursuit of definitive goals.

I've analyzed this in myself and others. When my head is clear; when I know what I need to do and why I need to do it, I'm much more curious. I ask a lot more questions. And when I get answers, I turn those answers into action. Because I know what I'm working towards, and thus I know how every bit of knowledge I gain gets me closer to that.

Then when it's time to get work done, I'm sharper and more effective. I don't spend time thinking about things that I don't need to. I can creatively engage in the task at hand. I can solve problems and make decisions at a much faster rate.

So you can imagine what it's like when my head isn't clear. Little to no curiosity, confusion about what to do next, too much time thinking in unproductive ways(which I'll define soon), etc. So let me tell you how I've trained myself to stay in the "clear mind" state as much as possible.

What can prevent a clear mind?

Before talking about how to keep your head clear, we should talk about why it might not be.

The answer to this is a multitude of things, but I'm going to boil it down to two relatively simple things: dwelling and worrying.

Dwelling is negatively reflecting on the past, and worrying is anticipating negative events in the future.

You might think boiling it down to just that is an oversimplification, but here's why I'm approaching it this way: If I've ever been anxious about trivial things, or found myself overthinking in general, it would turn out that that sort of irrational anxiety wasn't the cause of my problems, but actually a symptom of the real problem.

And the real problem was always one of those two things: dwelling or worrying.

That's not always easy to figure out–to find out what's really occupying your mind. But what can help is realizing that it's not whatever you think it is.

Here's what I mean by that: If you're spending all your time stressing about something stupid, or something that you know isn't worth stressing about, then I can tell you the real problem–the real thing you need to confront–is probably something else.

And it's probably something that can be confronted. So let's talk about what can lead to that, and what you can do when you realize you're a culprit of one of these things.

This is a remarkably deep topic, and if I could write everything that I want to write about this, this essay would be a novel. So if I miss anything in my effort to keep it short, please email me at nathan@catalystxl.co and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Dwelling

I think most people have a strong frame of understanding around this topic. We've all heard the one simple fact that sums this up: you can't change the past.

But what you can do is be honest with yourself about it. Whatever you might dwell on, be honest with yourself about what it is. And how it's not the same as the present. Reflect on that, learn from it, and do your best to take those learnings without any of the baggage.

This is such a strong cause of that irrational anxiety I mentioned before, and the sad part is that not enough people realize that.

I'll try to use an example to explain what I mean.

Say someone refuses to fly on airplanes. They have a horrible fear that if they put themselves in the seat of a plane, the odds that the plane will crash are high. They see planes as generally unreliable, and they see the act of getting on a plane as something that puts them in a vulnerable position.

Now let's say someone starts asking this person why they won't fly. And after a good few hours of digging, it turns out that when this person was young, they saw one or two news articles about crashed planes. It might not seem like a big deal, but it really stuck with them.

So now that this person knows the problem, they can try to make sense of it and move on. So they go online and find those articles. And they find that one plane was an unmanned test flight, and the other was on an airline that has since been shut down. And after that incident, new regulations were put in place to prevent any similar incidents.

And to top it off, it turns out zero planes on the airline this person would be flying on have crashed since years before the incident that they read about.

So now that the person has worked to understand the source of their worry, and did everything they can to understand it and learn from it, the odds that they'll fly are significantly higher. And after enough flights, any worry will be completely gone. Because they've reconstructed their perception of the entire concept by analyzing new patterns, but also by being bold enough to analyze those patterns in the first place.

So anyway, hopefully that explains what I'm trying to say. It's a pretty cushy example to explain many serious things like phobias, trust issues, dysmorphias, etc.

But the point is this: if you are irrationally anxious, find out if it's the result of this type of dwelling. And if it is, viciously try to understand the thing you're dwelling on, figure out how that thing is different from now, learn from it, and forget about it. Of course that's easier said than done, but knowing that's what needs to be done is a strong first step.

Worrying

So with both worrying and dwelling, I think it's important to state that both of these can be a symptom or a cause of anxiety/a mind that isn't clear. Meaning you might be irrationally worrying about something or dwelling on something as a symptom of the bigger thing you're worrying about or dwelling on.

So first I want to address worrying as a symptom, or irrational worrying. Because I've discovered one simple fact that can break this type of thinking as quickly as it starts. And it's this:

You can imagine anything.

So why use your brilliant complex mind to imagine bad things happening? You're much better off putting that creative capacity in you towards something productive and worthwhile.

Here's the thing about this, and maybe this applies to anxiety more broadly: when you imagine something bad, it's almost as bad as actually experiencing that thing.

So then your brain worries even more. And tries to attack that virus by just thinking about the thing more, even though there was nothing there to begin with. But our brains are powerful, and yours will convince you that there was.

So that's not good. But a useful way to try and prevent it is by remembering that one simple fact: you can imagine anything.

Okay, so that's everything I have to say about worrying as a symptom, what about as a cause?

I'll use an actual example from my life to explain this.

I once took an extreme leap of faith, and took a semester off of school to go work a job that I thought would bring me closer to my goals of turning Catalyst into a hugely impactful company.

I quickly saw that I might've been wrong in my reasons to take the role. I had overestimated the benefits, and underestimated the costs.

But I tried to stick it out, because it was only one semester, right?

Weeks went by, and suddenly I found myself unable to effectively work on anything. I couldn't think. I could hardy learn. And I came to realize that it was because this job made me feel that any work I did for Catalyst could not amount to anything. I could start any project I wanted to, but the fact of the matter was that the next day, I'd have to go back to work at the other company and forget about it for 8 hours. Which wouldn't be a problem if I was spending those 8 hours productively. But in terms of my goals, I wasn't.

But the root of the problem was bigger: I was worrying about not only the next day, but the next year, 5 years, 10 years, etc. Because I knew it was a crucial time to do what I needed to for my company, and unless I could execute on the things I needed to right then, I had no idea what the future would look like.

Essentially it was preventing me from tending to all of the things I care about, and giving nothing in return. Once I realized that, I made the call to leave that job, and I never looked back.

That's when my head became clear. I could work again. I could allow myself to have a vision for the future, and I had full freedom to take steps towards it.

But it had to start with being honest with myself about what the problem actually was, and how to confront it.

So the gist is this: if you have legitimate concerns about the future, be honest with yourself about what you need to do to change the future you're concerned about. If you're worried about negative possibilities, change the possibilities. Once you get good at that, you can look to the future with much more optimism, because you'll simply have more trust in yourself to make things work in your favor.

On the other hand, if you're battling worries that you know are irrational, that's when you can try to take a step back and ask what's really going on. In my experience, those types of worries are not the actual problem to solve, but rather a symptom of a larger problem.

So let's bring it all home.

A clear mind allows you to achieve your goals and become the person you want to be at an exponentially faster rate. Any anxiety preventing you from having a clear mind can likely be boiled down to dwelling or worrying. To stop dwelling, understand what it is you're dwelling on, figure out how it's different from now, learn from it, and forget about it. To stop worrying about negative possibilities, change the possibilities.

So there you have it: the words of a youngster who probably doesn't know anything, but is stupid enough to write his thoughts publicly. Remember you can always reach me at nathan@catalystxl.co to discuss anything I post here. I'd love to hear your perspective.