You’re Blocked!

Smartphones make it easy to block someone. Blocked contacts are no longer able to call you or send you messages. It’s liberating, helps you turn the page, and move forward in your life.

Wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to also block certain people and situations mentally? To not give them an inch of space or iota of our energy and thoughts? Thoughts about the pandemic, failure, or anything that you don’t want all deserve to be blocked.

It’s not an unrealistic superpower. Mentally tough people practice this. They realize they have the ability to not allow their mind to go down roads where you they want it to go. They realize that unlike the smartphone, it’s not an all or nothing and instantaneous switch. It necessitates frequent reminders and getting off the roads you don’t want to be on.

A train is good analogy. Imagine how difficult it is to stop a train after it has momentum. The goal is to notice quickly when you are on the wrong train, get off at the next stop, and return back to the station. Don’t argue with the train of thought or get pulled further down that track since it becomes more difficult to end that inner conversation. “Cognitive entanglement” is the technical term of what we’re looking to avoid.  

I recently watched the Michael Jordan documentary, The Last Dance. It mentioned how the downfall of a lot of professional athletes is thinking about failure. Projecting the past into the future. It was a good reminder to ask myself, “how frequently am I thinking about failure versus success?”

Too many of us keep running a negative script about ourselves in our heads. We must fight against this. Ask yourself, “how would I like things to go or be?” Energy follows your thoughts. Just do not feed or give any energy to the ones you don’t want. Just entertain good thoughts. You deserve it and life is too short not to.

© 2020 by Kevin Stacey.Excerpted from the book: MindRight Navigate the Noise. Click here for more info and to order book.