GO Month: Mental Clutter - A

Let's celebrate Get Organized (GO) Month by ridding ourselves of mental clutter from A to Z!

To celebrate Get Organized (GO) Month I'm doing a series of posts on the mental clutter that can be just as pervasive as physical clutter. For each letter, I'll talk about a mental stumbling block that often impacts our well-being.

Let's kick things off with A ... All-or-Nothing Thinking

All-or-nothing thinking is a form of faulty thinking in which one sees things in extremes. Another term is black or white thinking or polarized thinking. People who think like this often use terms like 'always' or 'never' and evaluate their situations as either being perfect or a disaster. This type of mindset can be very limiting as it doesn't take into account areas of gray.

This thinking can easily set one up for failure and can be quite destructive as you're ignoring life's nuances. All-or-nothing thoughts don't allow room for errors and don't take into account any progress or growth.

Ways to combat this thinking include:

• separate your worth from your performance

• pay extra attention to your positive qualities

• consider the middle ground of options in situations

• embrace your mistakes

"Don't use all-or-nothing thinking. Take each day as its own day, and don't worry about it if you mess up one day.

The most important thing you can do is just get back up on the horse."

Henry Cloud

Here's to freeing ourselves from the mental clutter of all-or-nothing thinking!

Please share with someone who needs a clearer mindset.

featured image by Free-Photos from Pixabay