Taking Out the Trash

Taking Out the Trash - by Jae M. Rang ~ / ~

What would you do if I showed up at your door, walked straight into your living room, and dumped a big bag of garbage on your floor?

Would you gasp at the atrocity?

Would you order me to clean it up?

What if I did the same thing every day following? Given that we are friends, and you trust me, would you simply learn to live with it?

Sounds like an absurd thing to entertain but I listened to an earlier message from Zig Ziglar who asked this exact question. (As a side note, it is true what they say that we think in pictures so did you get a really clear visual of me walking into your home and dumping garbage on your floor? Believe me, I got a really clear visual of your reaction!)

Ziglar’s point was that we recognize household garbage and know that it has no place on our living room floor. It is trash that we took to the curb once and for good reason. We do not want it back!

But do we recognize the garbage that cleverly finds a way into our bodies and our minds through preserved foods, rotten ideas embedded in our entertainment, stinky attitudes in our media, or toxic behaviors in our community, and simply accept? Okay maybe that sounds a bit extreme, but you know what we say about computers, “Garbage in, garbage out.” The question is, are we as quick to gasp at garbage imprinting, nutrition, environment and situations and be as mindful to keep them out?

Aha! ~ “The person who dumps garbage into your mind will do you considerably more harm than the person who dumps garbage on your floor, because each load of mind garbage negatively impacts your possibilities and lowers your expectations.” ~ Zig Ziglar

It is normal that we absorb bits of garbage – mentally, physically, emotionally, environmentally – on a regular basis without being mindful gatekeepers. If we were transparent we could immediately see the direct impact of everything we subject ourselves to. But as James Allen wrote, “…environment is but [your] looking glass” We needn’t go far. (I’ll let you look up the rest of Allen’s brilliant quote.)

Notice how many people you know that are reflecting, re-evaluating, and revising – my new 3R’s – and changing course by making more self-honoring choices? Tragedy has a way of shocking us into doing things differently. When we are shocked, we go inward. What an empowering place to start.

High five to infinite possibilities!

Jae M. Rang

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