Blocks to Mental Clarity

This time of year it is more apparent than ever that people fail to reach their goals from lack of consistency. This lack of consistency is usually due to disrupted or inconsistent thought patterns. This can happen for several reasons but is usually from an undisciplined mind set. Being disciplined in behaviour is one thing and if it is based on will power or motivation, then it is a transitory thing at best and therein lays the problem.

Many write me who have actually achieved good progress or even goal attainment only to watch it all slip away like they somehow had no control over it. After reaching their diet and physique goals, many end up going right back to where they started, and experience incredible emotional frustration from doing so. Why does this happen? For many it is a lack of mental discipline that leads to the consequential behaviour that puts them right back to the starting line. Many of you can relate to this; regaining lost fat weight, inconsistency with training, and all or nothing mind sets that lead more often than not to set backs rather than fulfilment and achievement. This is what I wish to address here.

Mental Clarity

Clarity, mental or otherwise is just as the word suggests. It is clear and lacks debris or obstacles or cloud. It is a transparency if you will, a transparency that allows for sight, insight, vision. Mental clarity is the key element to keeping results, staying in-spired, and going beyond motivation and will power to truly have and keep that which you seek, or have even attained albeit fleetingly. Motivation and will power are situational, they are transitory. They do not lead to the fulfilment or the having of a thing so much as the achievement of a thing. In my mind it is a huge waste of energy to achieve a goal, hold it for a moment and then watch it disappear. Motivation and will power can only lead you to the point of “having” that which you seek, but not “being” it.

Mental clarity is the path of thought and vision that turns motivation in to inspiration and “being that person”, rather than “achieving that thing” How many Figure athletes or those interested in body transformation, maintain the look long term. Yet this is really the goal when all is said and done. I want to address the main causes of blocks to mental clarity in this article.

Did you know we have some 100,000 thoughts per day? The mind can be shown to actually be a separate area of awareness beyond the brain and beyond your personal consciousness awareness. This is a difficult thing to fathom. But with that many thoughts coming through our heads in a day, if you don’t pay attention to what you are thinking, and why, then you will forever be “reactive in thought” rather than self-directed in thought, action, achievement, attainment, and becoming that which you achieve. The problem with the way most people think that creates mental debris is that they think with their emotions rather than using their emotions to think. More often than not this can lead to what I call reality illiteracy. High emotions and passions can create perceptual bias allowing people to fall for any gimmick that promises them the results they seek. Infomercials count on this kind of reactive passionate thinking to sell you almost anything. But with mental clarity the obviousness of this tactic can be seen for what it is.

Mental clarity then, is about removing thought debris, and mental debris to have a more clear vision and resolution toward attaining and being, rather than merely achieving a goal for a moment in time. Think about it. How far can you see ahead in the clouds or the fog? The mind works the same way.

Do you ever notice how many people seem to talk in question marks? They make statements but at the end of each they intonate it as a question. This represents a lack of thought awareness and a major insecurity of belief in one’s own thought process. It is like presenting each statement as something to be validated by the listener. This creates a lot of mental thought debris.

Start to understand that your thoughts make you feel a certain way, not the other way around. Your circumstances never have you down, it’s your thoughts about your circumstances that either do that, or lift you out of that. Mental clarity means acknowledging that our thoughts effect our emotions. We feel exactly the way we think. If you have problems stop mentating on the problem, and start contemplating about the solution. Stop thinking in ways that describe your predicament and instead start thinking in ways that “change” your predicament.

If you understand as I have said often, that happiness is a decision you make, not an emotion you feel then you will be in good stead to being self directed.

Competency means not bouncing back and forth from reactive thinking to proactive thinking. You do not need to be a slave to your thoughts. But this is why so many people end up going back and forth from fat to fit, lazy to active, happy to sad etc. As far as pro-active thinking goes, remember this analogy: The time to get a vaccination is not the day after you contract the disease! Yet that is how most people process thought.

Let’s examine now the main blocks to mental clarity. Pointing them out is often enough to empower people to change them. Often making people aware of where, when and how they create mental debris in their heads is good enough to promote changing the situation for the better.
These are not the only blocks to mental clarity but they are surely the most common. I will address each one individually, but not in great detail. Most of these could be a topic all of their own and I have written on some previously. But if you recognize yourself in any of these the job then is to explore it further in your own mental imagery and awareness.

The main blocks to clarity are Fear, Cynicism, Laziness, Bad Habits, and Arrogance. Most of these alone can create mental interruptions to clear thought, but combined can elucidate why so many people fail to maintain that which they have strived so hard to achieve.

Fear

Fear exists in many forms of thought. There is fear of failure, fear of success, fear of judgement, fear of loss, fear of change and many other forms. People do not realize just how powerful fear is as an emotional trampoline to thought or to imprisoning thought. But once again, thinking with emotions rather than using emotions to think leads to dire consequences when fear is the pervading factor of thought process. The fact is winners and losers (again, for lack of better words) just harness fear in different ways, and this is done in the mind set. You either both control and use fear, or it controls and uses you.

I’ve never met an icon yet, and I’ve met dozens, who didn’t make serious mistakes, including myself. Yet I have met thousands of mediocrity players who have never made serious mistakes. But the difference is mediocrity players always stay in mediocrity. This is the old adage, nothing ventured, and nothing gained. Many people are just handcuffed by a fear of mistakes or losing or judgement so they never really get out of the gate so to speak.

Failure is a huge part of success. Winners get that. Failure inspires winners but defeats losers. And of course I am talking about mental clarity right now. The fact is most people play life to not lose, rather than daring to win. This is a huge difference in mind set and awareness. The difference is based on whether fear is the initiating factor, or clarity is the initiating factor. There is a huge difference between hating losing, and being afraid to lose.

Fear based thought creates self doubt and self doubt creates reactive thinking and more mental debris. And self doubt is not a position based on intelligence. Many very smart and intelligent people still proceed in action based on thought process created out of fear, and therefore self doubt. This is often reinforced even in society and in education. It is common in higher learning environment to be encouraged to “follow the professor’s beliefs” Society instils this follow the leader mentality in us which leads to vogue science, and many impersonators to real expertise and coaching. The reality is, that educated or not, if you only follow the herd, you spend a lot of time scraping your shoes!

You must learn to be your own leader especially in thought process and empowerment. Remember, in terms of adapted behaviour “if you aren’t the lead dog, the view never changes!” Fear based thought, which has multiple components is crippling to self empowerment and to “being” rather than to “achieving”

Cynicism

Cynicism is based not only on thought process but an attitude in general. I won’t spend a great deal of time on it because frankly it is that negative in power, or disempowering. Cynics tend to see everything with doubt and suspicion. Now when balanced with rational thought this can be a good thing. But when cynical attitude promotes thought this is blatant ignorance and falls in upon itself. There is a huge difference between critical thought and a cynical attitude toward things. Thinkers analyze, cynics criticise. This kind of thinking yields to major thought debris as well on many levels.

Cynicism and ignorance are intimately connected. Cynicism is a form of chosen ignorance but as an attitude it also effects and clouds mental clarity. Cynics will often think to themselves, “I can’t do that” or “why should I bother” etc. Instead the mentation of non cynics would be rephrased toward clarity. For instance, instead of a thought of “I could never afford that,” clarity of thought could yield, “wow, I like that; I need to find a way to afford it!” Cynicism is an attitude of self protection, but steeped in choosing ignorance even in one’s own thoughts.

Cynics often are always ‘judging” without knowledge instead of assessing based on rationality. The attitude tends to first assume a threat to self image or pride or ego, and then the response is one of emotional protection, even inside of one’s head. Remember don’t think with your emotions, but use your emotions to think. Cynics tend to want to use lack of perfection in anything as vindication for that attitude. What this does is shorten insight and vision to possibilities, real or empowering. It’s like waiting for all the lights to be green for the next five miles, before proceeding through the first one. As Buddha said, “the greatest of all journeys begins with a single step.”

When I first started writing for a popular website, one of the sites regular contributors said to me, as did many others, “you are really going to get skewered on there for your ideas” I responded no I am not. My colleague wanted an explanation. I informed him; in order for me to be “skewered” I would have to subject myself to that kind of feedback. I do not. Cynics criticize for the sake of criticism. Why would I subject myself to that? All that does is give the person the attention they so desire. My response has always been, “here is my resume, where is yours”

I share critique with colleagues all the time. It is a healthy part of learning. But that is entirely different than subjecting oneself to negative energy. You see what I know that these people do not, is MY OWN EMPOWERING THOUGHT PROCESS. You see I am no longer in the “proving business” Now in to my third decade of success I see no need to prove myself. I am instead in the “helping and service” business; therefore I present my stuff not to the cynics, but to those who wish to learn from my ideas. The result is an Inbox full of willing aspirants. Therefore why would I cater to the attitude of the cynic? It would be disempowering to both of us. I suggest you do the same.

Losing one’s cynicism involves starting to see with not just your eyes. Losing the attitude of negative judgement allows one to see many opportunities that the cynical minded is blinded to. Remember cynicism is not just an attitude toward others but is also a debilitating way of thinking. Great vision is seen not always with your eyes, but with your mind and just as often with your heart. If you just scoffed at that comment, consider yourself a cynical thinker.

Laziness

You can probably see now, that many of these blocks to clarity can lead to strengthening each other, which exacerbates the issue of a cloudy mind to empowering thought. Fear based inspiration can lead to cynical thinking and ignorance etc. And ignorance can lead to chosen laziness. Now I am not talking about laziness in the physical sense although that is often a big part of it. No I am talking about lazy in terms of being self directed in thought and action, and thereby controlling thought toward empowerment, beyond thinking to achieve, and in to “becoming” that which is achieved.

People need to start addressing reason and purpose behind activity or pursuit. These are thought processes that “create and empower” Short of that is just thinking for no reason, reactive thinking if you will. Most people choose “stimulation over contemplation” This is laziness and creates mental debris and “noise” in your head.

We need to start to understand that “busy” does not mean “productive” I know lots of busy people that still have two hours or more each day for TV, You Tube, Facebook, and other unproductive thought distractions. This only creates an illusion in the mind of “stuff” to think about, but nothing to ponder or contemplate. If you find yourself spending more time thinking about what other people are doing, or saying, or how they are living, you are experiencing a lazy mind set. These mental distractions also create mental distortion, and a lot of “noise” in your head which serves no purpose and detracts from mental clarity in so many obvious ways. This constant seeking of “stimulation’ leads one away from education and experience.

Everyone can benefit from stimulation, even recreational stimulation. However the key is what you do with it. If you mindlessly shut of the mind and “want” to just stimulate the senses, then again, all you create is mental debris and cloudiness of mind with a lot of noise in your head that serves no purpose. This kind of mental laziness leads to reactive thought and reactive thought like I said is disempowering to say the least.

Suffice it to say that what I know for sure is that without a strong reason or purpose, the experience of anything in life will be hard. And that holds true for relationships, diet, physique transformation, work, almost everything. Stop lazy thinking and define your purpose and reason to any pursuit you undertake. This goes far beyond I want to diet to look and feel better. No that is limited thinking.

Purpose and reason extend far beyond the scope of that rationalization. Rationalizations such as that are signs of lazy thinking.

Bad Habits

All of the above propensities toward blocking mental clarity are often just bad habits. Laziness is a habit. Motivation to achieve and then let go is a habit. Mentally seeking achievement over ‘being” is a thinking habit. These are mental choices. And as I have said in many articles, “If you always do what you have always done, then you will always get what you have always got”

If you think my point so far is about “positive thinking” then you are totally missing my point. We need to graduate to empowered thinking. Often people come to my office and when discussing their situation they will ask me out right, “Scott do you think I can do “X or Y?” My response is always the same. It doesn’t matter what I think. It matters what YOU think! The question itself shows a person who is willing to empower anyone else over their own thought process. This is a terrible mental habit of thinking that many posses. They seek validation in order to have motivation. This is very situationally based and therefore disempowering. It is a dangerous road to be on mentally.

Seeking expertise like mine should not mean seeking “dependency” Many coaches out there foster and encourage that attitude of social habit. True coaches seek to guide in a way that empowers the person toward self direction, and toward “becoming” that which they are trying to achieve. Because of mental habits that obscure clarity, most “seekers” are taught to “achieve” the goal as an end in itself. And the end result is that there is no self direction or empowerment gained even once the goal is accomplished. Again, the role of coach should progress over time from guiding light to more of a mirror. But the coaching goal should always be toward self-direction, and not dependency. Habitual thinking tends to take people away from moments of mental clarity.

Remember as English philosopher Bertrand Russell stated, “The chains of habit are too light to be felt, until they are too heavy to be broken” We know now in our society how incredibly difficult it is to break physiological habits, such as smoking, drinking and the like. Then imagine the mental debris of bad thinking habits and thought strategies such as the ones mentioned above. Because mental habits are so hard to break a vast majority of people look for easy roads to take to get to achievement. But remember achievement of something is not “being” that which you achieve. There is a huge difference.

And I have been around long enough to know emphatically that eventually the easy road becomes hard, and the hard road becomes easy. The point is while many jump on achievement band wagons and applaud whomever for whatever accomplishment, there is a bigger picture. One French philosopher stated that “the glory of great men should always be measured by the means by which they accomplished it” Again, thinkers analyze, cynics just criticize, and lazy thinkers glorify often that which is unworthy.

I know numerous bodybuilding and Figure athletes who used to be in all the magazines, and were famous. Their lives are now in shambles. It was easy to see even while they were riding the wave of glory that they took an easy road to do it, and that road would eventually become the hard road. I have been coaching long enough now to see that repeat itself many times over. Most unfortunate.

Arrogance

This is probably the most distasteful and obvious of the blocks to mental clarity. The problem with arrogance is that people stricken with it, don’t even see it because of their very own arrogance. Arrogance defined is ignorance plus ego. There is a feeling and thought pattern of “knowing” without ever having learned in a real sense. Arrogance is often attached to an attitude of cynicism as well. It is in our industry a “macho attitude” as well, that really attaches thought pattern with ego.

Arrogance is a thought pattern still based in fear. The difference is that with arrogance the attitude is that a good offense is that answer to insecurity in oneself and one’s thought patterns reflect it. Most people use arrogance as a subconscious defensive strategy to hide ignorance. It leads to learning and knowing facts more so than being that person that one presents.

Often our society rewards this. Look at shows like Jeopardy. These shows have us believing that a grasp of trivia is equal to knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge way beyond facts. You can learn facts all day long. All that does is make you know “about” something, but not truly know that which you know about. I see this kind of arrogance all the time in our industry. It is a way also to fake expertise. I used to say in my seminars all the time, that just because I fly in planes every week, that does not make me a pilot.

Knowing about facts as a way to protect ego from real learning creates mental debris by creating an illusion that one knows about something that he/she actually does not. You can’t learn to ride a bike or drive a car or run your computer by reading the manual.

Arrogance is reflective of low self esteem based in fear inspired thought, and usually from living in the past. We can only live forward folks. Arrogance as a mode of protective thought leads to the thinker to seek “validation” more so than becoming someone better through personal growth. This is what is so attractive to people to be members of subcultures as well.

But the truth is arrogance as a thinking strategy will always fall to strong thinkers who are self-directed in terms of disciplined thought and behaviour. Arrogance, doesn’t want to know more and arrogance is always afraid it will be found out. What a terrible way to live.

The strategies that arrogance will take to protect itself are energy consuming to be sure. It creates lots of mental debris and clouds real thought process toward change. Once again, knowing about something does not meaning “knowing it” You can know all about Japan, but that doesn’t make you Japanese. Arrogance is a mental process of suffering really. It suffers to know about, rather than to know and experience. Much is lost in that mentality, and the blocks to real clarity to self improvement are enormous.

Arrogance is a mental stance with cement shoes. It produces personal stagnation rather than personal growth and prosperity in thought and therefore in life.

You can see then how most of these blocks to mental clarity can influence and strengthen each other, much to the detriment of the person who is striving to be self-determined. Don’t just have what you want for a moment, hold it, and then see it vanish. Strive to become that which you achieve.

Don’t strive to win a trophy so you can have championship status.

Instead strive to be a champion. How many times and how many ways will I say it.

Holding yourself accountable, especially in your thoughts is the easiest way to live, once you conquer these blocks to clarity.

Listen folks, it’s time to start thinking about, what you are thinking about! Again, some of you will get it, many of you will not.

I welcome your comments in my Forums section