Is Your Brain Full of Crap or Full of Clean Water? – Get Busy Living

This is your brain fill with unlimited potential.

Today I want to talk about one important impact on your productivity and results that you likely don’t realize.

Just as an Olympic athlete needs the highest quality nutrients to perform at their peak level, we have to be sure we’re feeding our mind with the highest quality information we can get, if we want to operate at our highest level.

We can do that by feeding our brain.

Not in the sense of what we eat, but what we give attention to. Do you consciously think about the information you feed your mind?

Controlling our brain is tough because most of what we take in is unconscious. All day long we are bombarded with irrelevant, negative, and destructive info. It takes awareness to be selective about the information we processes.

Your brain is programmed for survival. It’s always seeking out warning signs to protect you. When you turn on the news and hear reports of a sinking economy, war, robberies, or murders, your brain will start to worry and think of ways to help your survive. Do that constantly and it will consume you.

We can’t change what evolution has done for our brains, but we can change what we deliberately feed our brains.

What will you fill in your cup?

You get in life what you create. Your thinking and inner voice is at the beginning of what you create in life.

So the question is, What are you thinking about? 

The answer is simple. You’re thinking about whatever you’re consistently allowing yourself to see and hear.

Think of your mind as an empty glass. You fill it with whatever you want. If you feed it with news all day, gossip magazines talking about the latest celebrity drug addiction or divorce, or a regular dose of evening television, you’re filling it with dirty and disgusting water.

Everything you create will be filtered through that dirty water because that’s what’s on your mind. Junk in and junk out.

How much do you really need to listen to bickering on talk shows, the fighting by reality stars, the state of the economy, or why the world ending in 2012?

If that’s what you feed your brain all day long, whatever you think about will be affected by the thoughts in your brain.

How can you be productive, motivated, and focused if you’re constantly focused on negative and mindless information?

Now imagine if you put that dirty cup under a faucet and flushed out all that nasty water and filled it with pure clean water.

Where does that clean water come from? Positive and inspirational info. Stories of people overcoming seemingly impossible odds to succeed. Lessons on success, better health, better relationships, and your finances.

Learning a new skill that will benefit you. Learning ideas to grow as a person or build your business. Stories of what’s good, positive, and right in this world.

That’s the clean water. That’s what you should be feeding your mind. That’s what will give you the edge over the person who all day long decides to fill their mind with dirty water.

I know you want to be extraordinary and not average.

A clear mind will lead to optimal results. A muddy mind will lead to self doubt, lack of motivation, and average to poor results.

Obviously you can’t completely eliminate all bad news unless you live in a cave. You will come across it on TV, the newsstand, or hearing it from a friend. But you can make sure you’re feeding your brain enough of that clean water to flush out the dirty water.

Make Your Car a Classroom

One change I made this year was instead of listening to sports talk radio or music in the car, I get great instructional or inspirational audio CD’s from the library to listen to. On a typical day I may spend an hour total driving in my car. In that time, I get one hour of content that will inspire or teach me something new.

You may spend more time than that in a car. Imagine if you’re stuck in traffic. It would be so much better if you were listening to something positive. You would be using that time more wisely.

Eliminate More Dirty Water

I also have cut way back on the amount of local news I consume. I still read the USA Today but it’s much less negative than the local news. The local metro section alone is filled with local crime, accidents, and the obituary! How is that going to help me to think clearly?

I’ve had to hide all posts on Facebook from a friend’s wife cause the majority of her status updates are about how horrible the government is. I know it’s not the best but how much attention do you have to give to it? Not for me. Do you have friends like that?

I’ve had to say goodbye to the television as my constant companion when I’m home. Most of the time it’s off when I really need to work. I will still watch some television but it doesn’t control my attention. I control it now.

The average American spends 4 hours watching television each day. That’s 28 hours a week. That’s two full months a year. In a 65 year life, that’s 9 years spent glued to the television!! No wonder why they wonder they’re not doing anything with their lives!! They do nothing and get nothing in return.

Think about how much television you’re watching per week. Sydney at Untemplater.com has taken action to overcome her television addiction. Good for her!

The media is smart. They’ve spent so much money to study the television habits of the average person. They understand the types of shows you want to watch. Why do you think there are more and more reality shows with so much drama in it? It’s what people love to watch.

Think about when you’re driving on the highway and you slow down cause of traffic. You see an accident up ahead. When you finally drive by, you see that the accident happened a long time ago but people just slowed down to see! You’re upset that people slowed down, but guess what? When you pass it, you’ll slow down also!

The media knows we response to the shocking and dramatic. It’s not only television but newspapers, magazines, and the web.

Positive stories happen every day, but that’s not what we are naturally drawn to. We have to take control if we want to feed our minds better.

If you’re driving on that same highway and see a beautiful sunset with the sun as big and orange as it can be, what do you do? You don’t slow down at all.

If you truly want to live an epic life, you have to be different from the average person. You have to do what the average person doesn’t want to do.

Turn off the flow of junk to your brain. You have to be more deliberate about what you feed your mind.

Instead, always be learning. Fill your mind with stories that inspire you. Talk to friends who support you and not look to bring you down. Read more. Turn off the television.

Garbage in. Garbage out.

Clean water in. Optimal results out.

It’s your choice.

What are you doing daily to make sure you’re filling your mind with clean water? 

What are some sources of dirty water do you know you need to eliminate?

Photo by gromgrull

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