Mental Clutter
Growing up, my dad was a hoarder of National Geographic magazines and they accumulated for years at the base of the attic stairs. I never understood it, but as the years past, the day came when we moved and the magazines met their inevitable fate and ended up on the bed of the truck headed for the dump. To my dismay, I noticed this past fall that I too was keeping copies of Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and Golf Magazine. I had justified keeping these because in my mind “I may refer to an article,” but in reality, they were taking up space.
Some of us may keep things that we really don’t need, but we have yet to throw it away. What we choose to hold on to is what defines us. This statement also holds true in the type of mental clutter that we all have. This type of clutter is made up of poor decisions, bad experiences, excuses, poor results, feelings of hopelessness, etc., the list is endless. Mental clutter can be any negative experience in which we can not let go. To elaborate, it is easy for us to recall a time when we were placed in a situation and we didn’t perform the way we wanted. Yet, instead of learning from the situation in its proper perspective, we hold on to it, unable to let it go.
On the other hand, successful experiences and feelings of accomplishment are thrown away. We discard our good performances because simply our performance met our expectations and we tell ourselves “that’s what we were supposed to do.” Yet, when difficult times arise and we have feelings of doubt, our past successes are difficult to find within all the negative mental clutter.
Get to work and get rid of your mental clutter. It is a difficult process to do because it means reflecting on negative past experiences. Not an easy task! Reflecting on the past should always include answering the question of “what did I learn?” Holding on to past mistakes without learning from them makes it increasingly difficult to move on and progress. This cleaning process is a sort of catharsis, and it frees us to fully prepare from this day forward. “Today is the only day that matters” is the attitude that allows us to focus on the universal truth in sports, there is always a next shot.
Thus, while it is crucial that we learn from our mistakes, it is also paramount that we know our strengths and hold onto our successes as well. Another important aspect about ridding yourself of mental clutter is that it transcends sport, for what can be learned in sport can be applied in life and what can be learned in life can be applied to sport.
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