I was just in bed reading ‘The Tao of Leadership’ by John Heider.
It’s his interpretation of the ‘Tao Te Ching’ in the context of leadership.
Page 95, passage 48, it’s called ‘Unclutter Your Mind’:
“Beginners acquire new theories and techniques until their minds are cluttered are options.
Advanced students forget their many options. They allow the theories and techniques that they have learned to recede into the background.
Learn to unclutter your mind. Learn to simplify your work.
As you rely less and less on knowing just what to do, your work will become more direct and more powerful.
You will discover that the quality of your consciousness is more potent than any technique or theory of interpretation…”
I love this.
I am a huge learner… a life-long learner.
I have a lot of interests and I dig deep…
Books, audiobooks, videos. I even speed up videos and I speed up audio.
I definitely fill my vessel with a lot of information.
In the past I’ve been subscribed to tons and tons of newsletters…
Listening to thought leaders. Really just consuming a lot.
And it’s extremely valuable. I’ve learned so much.
More so than just learning, I’ve experience… I’ve had direct, contextual experience in my life from those external sources of information, motivation, inspiration, how-to advice, etc.
But now that I know what I’m doing work-wise, I really need to unsubscribe, I really need to turn it all off…
Funny about subscriptions and emails, I heard a great acronym called FOMO – fear of missing out.
I don’t know who thought of it, but that’s great!
I’ve helped a few people clear out their inbox, get into down to “inbox zero”/”zen inbox”…
A lot us have a hard time deleting emails or unsubscribing from lists because of FOMO – fear of missing out.
What I recommend is doing a massive detox and cleanse of the things you’re subscribed to.
The inbox is a major, major, major distraction for so many of us.
Take all those emails lists you love, copy and paste their name and website address inside of a text file/word document and just save it somewhere…
So you can always go back, you won’t “miss out”.
And then unsubscribe from it all.
Once you have direction, once you have momentum, once you’re moving forward, turn off the noise.
I’ve done this a few times… meaning a massive detox on the inbox, unsubscribing… not letting all these announcements, promotions, click-bait titles, or really helpful blog posts…
I just don’t care right now. I really need to clean that out… clear that out… simplify my mind… simplify my work… so my focus can be powerful and intentional.
And that alone, in the context of what I need to accomplish over the next 12-18 months, will be far more powerful.
Clear out that inbox.
Turn off the noise. Just turn it off.
Focus on what either what you already are doing (and you need to do more of), or focus on what you know you need to do, focus on what you need to execute.
What project are you working on?
What business are you working on?
What you are working on?
Get to that. Get focused on that.
Stop learning… you have enough information.
(if you don’t have enough information, just learn, learn, learn, as fast as you can… then turn it off, and just go!)
Unclutter your mind.
Get focused.
Get potent.
Get powerful.
Get intention with your energy.
Get it focused.
Move forward, keep progressing.
Move towards your goals, your ambitions, your dreams, your wishes, your desires, those things you’ve written down that you want to manifest…
Create it.
Go get it.
It’s your life.
