You wouldn’t eat it, would you?
It’s bad for you.
Unhealthy.
Unsatisfying.
Toxic.
So why do you keep feeding yourself garbage?
What Are You Feeding Yourself?
I’m not talking about those Twinkies, Ring-Dings, and HoHo’s you keep tucked away in the pantry for the kids’ school lunchboxes that somehow find their way into your mouth at 10 p.m. after a particularly stressful day.
I mean those thoughts you feed yourself. The ones with no nutritious value, that leave you feeling lousy inside.
We serve our minds a daily diet and digest it even when we know we deserve better.
I hear it from clients all the time:
“I’m too old to try something new.”
“This will never work.”
“I feel totally stuck.”
“I”m desperate to get a job.”
“Everyone hates me.”
Or, in the case of my friend “Jean”, “I’m not good enough, not smart enough, missed out on happiness and success that others have and it’s too late for me.”
Whoa.
And here’s the thing about Jean… She has an amazing job in education where she has impacted the lives of thousands of students, she has an active social life, a long marriage, and enjoys travel, theater, and martinis. Also, she’s an amazing friend to many and it pains me to think she’d ever think of herself this way.
So where does all that crap come from?
The recesses of our over-thinking, hyper-critical, insecure minds are like a landfill.
Full of… MIND GARBAGE.
Trash Those Trashy Thoughts Once And For All
What thoughts are you feeding yourself?
We each have an inner narrator who talks us through our day. If yours is a particularly unhelpful or overly critical one, it can Squash Your Confidence.
It’s time to question those thoughts and do a thorough fact-check.
Is any of that MIND GARBAGE actually true?
Where does that voice come from? Why do you seem to have an insatiable appetite for what it offers?
Chew on that for a bit.
How can you save room for the just desserts of life if your brain is constantly recycling old garbage?
Of all the characters in our story, our inner narrator is the most influential. If yours is unreliable or unhelpful or reeks like something rotten, re-cast that voice and audition a new one.
A bad narrator can cause us to rehash bad situations to the point of rumination. A bad narrator can cause us insomnia and anxiety.
A host of bad narrators create an inner story that impacts our external success and happiness. I wrote a whole book about it (and while doing so, had my own internal narrator, whom I’ve named “Squash” trying to tell me I’d never finish it).
If you consistently eat a diet of GARBAGE, you’ll get sick. Why then, would you feed your MIND such garbage?
Time to trash those stinky thoughts and fill up on healthier ones:
“I bring value wherever I go.”
“Change is difficult, but it’s possible.”
“I have choices in every situation.”
“The best is yet to come.”
“I have people who know, trust and support me.”
After all, you are what you eat.
Feed your thoughts appropriately.
Anything else belongs in the trash.
Valerie Gordon is an award-winning producer, lifelong storyteller, and the founder of career and communications strategy firm The Storytelling Strategist. Her first book, “Fire Your Narrator! A Storyteller’s Guide to Getting Out of Your Head and Into Your Life” is available on Amazon and BN.com.