Day 15

Clearing Away Mental Clutter

It’s not just clutter in your physical environment that is keeping you from attracting more money. It is clutter in the way you live your life and how you think. Today, we’re going to look at how to clear our mental clutter.

Let’s start by seeing where you can clear some space for more money in certain areas in your life that may have become cluttered and which may now be consuming too much of your energy. Take a look at the list and jot down any that apply to you.

• Time-consuming friendships that you no longer value
• Unnecessarily long telephone calls
• TV—you know which programs we’re talking about here!
• Everyday tasks that you take on when you could choose not to
• Never-ending “to do” lists
• Magazines and books that need to be read—or do they?
• Emails that need to be answered, or not, as the case may be
• Subscription email newsletters that you haven’t the time to read
• Social or work commitments that no longer lift your spirits
• Concerns about never being “good enough”
• Out-of-date grudges, guilt, blame, or any negative emotion
• Gossip
• Thinking about all the clutter that needs sorting!

Now, for each one that you have written down, write out underneath at least one alternative way of being. For example, if you feel guilty about something, decide to forgive yourself. If you are wasting energy blaming somebody, look instead for the positives in that person. If you don’t wish to spend your time cleaning, think of alternative ways that the cleaning can get done. Practice thinking outside the box to come up with ways to maximize the time you have available to be a Money Magnet.

If you ticked “TV”, make a note of how many hours you spend watching television, then select what you now choose to watch. Make it a conscious choice. Many programs today are littered with bad news, poverty, and violence. Are stories like this really going to help you to become a Money Magnet?

Unless you have already gained mastery over your thoughts in a way that can resist such messages, I suggest that you seriously limit your intake of television. Instead, choose to do something that lifts your spirits, whether that be reading a book or taking up dancing.

Focus Clears Mental Clutter

The easiest way to clear your mental clutter is to go back to the basics of “What do I really want?” and “What makes me feel happy?”

When you focus on what is important to you, you can clear the clutter that is getting in your way. If your “to do” list is full of items that bore you or that seem more like daily chores, then you will find yourself going round in circles, never making any progress toward your goals.

Your focus needs to link directly to your goals. For example, if your goal is to attract $150,000 into your bank account by the end of the year, your daily priorities will include at least one item that supports that goal, whether it be studying for a new qualification or telephoning a new prospect.

If you are not sure what you really want, don’t worry! We’ll be taking a closer look at that in the next chapter. In the meantime you may wish to look at your daily activities and make a list of what you don’t want to do any more. By writing it down, you will be one step closer to clearing this type of clutter from your life—and anything that doesn’t make you happy can be termed clutter.

Exercise: The Daily Time Audit

Note down in a diary for a week how you spend your time each day. At the end of the week, categorize the different activities under column headings such as: Fitness, Work, Household, Finance, Friends, Intimacy ... You can choose your own headings.

Are your activities evenly balanced across all columns? Is any activity consuming too much of your time? Would it be beneficial to reduce the time spent on this activity? Where would you reallocate the extra time you now have?

Resolve to make the necessary changes now.

Clear “To Do” Lists

Nearly everyone I know uses “to do” lists. Unfortunately, they often only succeed in making you feel exhausted. If you are going to bed with a picture in your mind of that never-ending list of things to do, you won’t have the energy to do what you really want to do.

Instead, write down all the things that need doing as they come into your head during the day. Let’s clear some space in your head for more important things, such as the inspiration that may lead you to attracting more money!

At the end of each day, find your list and decide on the top three things that need doing the next day. By choosing only three items, you will become better and better at prioritizing and you will start clearing the clutter that’s been holding you back. Remember, your daily priorities are those items that will move you forward or that will attract money, if that is one of your goals.

Keep Your Focus

When your focus is to attract more money, you have a yardstick by which to judge where you choose to place your effort. For example, given the choice between spending time writing this book and having a telephone chat with a friend, the book becomes my priority. I will schedule the chat with a friend as a reward once this chapter is completed. Similarly, if you earn more money per hour than you would pay a cleaner, you may choose to hire a cleaner.

In the next couple of days I will expand on this subject as I elaborate on why it is important to follow your passion, to prioritize what is important to you, and why taking action is the fastest way to cut through any clutter and become a Money Magnet!

The money is already there. The only thing preventing you from being rich is you.