ELIMINATE RUMINATING THOUGHTS WITH THIS SIMPLE STRATEGY

Last spring, before my grandma passed away, we were trying to help her make a decision towards which senior living home she was going to move into.

At this point, she had visited five different facilities and was overwhelmed by all the considerations of different options. As a result, she was becoming paralyzed in her thoughts.

She would say it felt like she was going over the same thoughts 100x/day and that, "I just don't know, Kevin... It's all so overwhelming!"

At which point I said, "Ok. Let's write things down."

The Power of Writing Things Down

Studies have shown that when you write thoughts down you can help reduce anxiety, regulate emotions, encourage awareness, improve your perception of events, as well as break away from non-stop thinking.

The problem that my grandma and so many people who get stuck in their mindset face is they never decide to Step Off The Hamster Wheel.

Consider the model below.

When we are stuck in our own mind, we go down a path of thinking of all the things that we have to do, that feel of concern, that we forgot about, that tell us why we aren't capable of doing something, and much more...

When we allow these thoughts to ruminate and take charge in our mind, we often end up going over the same 5 to 10 thoughts repeatedly thinking that we actually have 50 to 100 thoughts happening in our minds!

As a result, she couldn't make a decision.

Controlling Your Ruminating Thoughts

In order to help you step off the hamster wheel and make a logical and objective decision towards the challenge you are facing, you want to begin by writing your thoughts down and then organizing them.

There are many ways you can organize your thoughts, but something I would like to share with you here is the framework I helped my grandma create.

This is helpful for prioritizing decisions you need to make, but the same theory of the importance of writing things down applies to all aspects of your life and business.

We began by writing down the five facilities that she was considering living in, then we wrote down all of the key factors which mattered to her in making her decision where to live.

After we had the categories outlined, we then - one by one - went through and added small notes about each consideration and gave it a value of Red/Amber/Green.

Then we looked at the entire spreadsheet and organized it by which facility "had the most green" in it, and all of a sudden...VOILA! Grandma had solved her problem!

The overwhelm, stress and anxiety of deciding where to move was gone!

Putting This Into Practice

Now you might be thinking to yourself "Ok, cool... but I'm not moving into a retirement home (hopefully!) anytime soon."

I challenge you to consider:

• What about the volume of work that you currently feel overwhelmed by? Could you reduce stress and anxiety by writing things down?
• What about managing the project your boss has tasked you with that is outside of your scope of work or expertise that you must follow through on? Could you help reduce the pressure you're putting on yourself with clear steps and an action plan?
• What about making buying decisions between which vendors you should work with while planning your next upcoming event or meeting? Can you prioritize them in terms of value, convenience, access, communication, and budget?
• What about taking a look at your finances and segmenting your needs vs. wants? By identifying where you spend your money, can you let go of buying something to reduce stress?
• What about "New opportunities" that are coming your way? When doing well, you may receive multiple new opportunities. Could this be a way to help evaluate which ones to pursue?

When I help coach athletes and entrepreneurs, it is simple strategies like this which help us focus on small things that make a big difference.

Just like my grandma, when you step off the hamster wheel you are accepting personal responsibility for your thoughts, decisions, and actions and that is what The Hero Mindset is all about.

Every day we constantly need to shift our mindset towards what is most important for our personal and business success.

Today I challenge you to consider how can you become a hero in your own story by writing things down.

Step off the hamster wheel.

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My passion is helping people shift their mindset through my keynotes, workshops, and coaching to drive results and embrace change.

If you are looking for a speaker to help your team and employees shift their mindset towards the change they are experiencing or need some help personally, please visit?https://kevinrempel.com ?or send me a direct message to learn more.