Consider that a high-performance mind is a quiet mind — a mind that is calm, peaceful and ready to tackle the business challenges of the day. Of course, this is easier said than done.
In today’s culture of information overload, there is a hidden distraction lurking in the shadows of your mind, reducing your performance, stealing your precious attention and diminishing your ability to focus. Without even realizing it, this distraction is reducing productivity and robbing you of the mindshare your objectives deserve.
What is stealing your mental capital?
I’m not talking about the distraction of technology, notifications, messages, meeting requests, or people dropping by your office. After working with Wall Street professionals for the last 15 years, I can say with polarizing certainty that the biggest inhibitor to a high-performance mind is The Survival Mind. This is your unchecked mental chatter, unwanted worries, doubts, and concerns that pull your focus away from the task at hand. The true high-performance mind is a quiet mind, free from distraction, stress and concern.
This state of mind has been revered and celebrated by the greatest thinkers of our time: people whose intuitive leaps changed the course of history with their discoveries. But in a world of ever-increasing frenetic energy, information, stressors and urgency, how do you get your mind to quiet down so that you can tap into that creative potential?
The following are three simple tricks to quiet your thoughts and create the platform for your high-performance mind.
1. Acknowledge that The Survival Mind is not your friend.
The unwanted chatter in your head is judging, assessing, lamenting, forecasting and imagining without your permission. These uninvited self-criticisms are a survival trait leftover from your ancestors. They are not you talking to you. Just The Survival Mind.
You must dethrone The Survival Mind as your leader and advisor. Begin to notice that you rarely think thoughts on purpose. The Survival Mind thinks automatically. If you relate to the Survival Mind like it is a trusted advisor or a friend, it will get stronger, and it will become harder to focus and allow inspiration to come through.
2. Remove The Survival Mind's motivation to think in the first place.
A study done by Harvard psychologists Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert found that "a wandering mind is an unhappy mind." That’s because a wandering mind is following its biological directive. The Survival Mind defaults to the negative because it is thinking about how to survive longer.
With practice, you can remove the motivation to assess, problem-solve and lament without your permission. When you do, The Survival Mind will go completely quiet. This will result in a profound feeling of peace. If necessity is the mother of invention, then peace of mind is the father of inspiration.
3. Release mental attachments.
Mental attachments rob you of your precious mental capital. They use your mindshare for illogical purposes. Attachments take up space and processing power that could be used on the real game-changers in your life.
A mental attachment is an exaggerated fear of losing an imaginary benefit. Imagining negative futures and how to avoid them has been one of the keys to human survival. The Survival Mind is programmed to look down the road, imagine negative futures and strategize how to avoid them. Today, this natural process has become an impediment and leads to unnecessary stress, doubts and anxiety.
Mental attachments create unnecessary stress and anxiety as imaginary future scenarios are played in the theater of your mind. Attachments create unwanted mental loops. Rather than being in the moment and focusing on what you want, The Survival Mind grabs your attention and uses your mental processing power without your permission.
Mental capital is your most precious commodity. Logic, rational thinking and reason lead you to intuitive leaps that have positive effects on your life. Your ability to think clearly and logically can mean the difference between success and failure. Developing the skills to create a quiet mind is one of the most profitable pursuits in today's distracted world. And, of course, peace of mind is pretty awesome too.
