#20 - Achieving Mental Clarity

Leadership can become overwhelming when your mind is constantly racing.

In this episode, I share practical strategies to reduce mental clutter, improve focus, and make better decisions so you can lead with confidence instead of reacting under pressure.

Transcript

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Okay, mental clarity. Mental clarity is such an important aspect to your leadership role and how you operate, even in day-to-day life. It doesn't have to be just leadership, just your your mental health overall. What I found with mental clarity is if I didn't have that and I didn't have it for a long time, uh, everything would compound in the wrong direction. So a lot of negativity in my mind, you know, lack of discipline, um, I wouldn't want to do anything. I was looking for motivation, whereas motivation's gonna come and go. Um and I would blame it on that. I'll blame things for not being able to be who I truly can be. And lack of mental clarity will resonate with your team in the wrong way as well. So if you link it back to leadership, if you're coming to work every day, not consistent, you're you know, different moods, stressed, um, whatever the case is, you haven't got any mental clarity or structure in your life, but people are gonna notice that and it's gonna it's gonna amplify problems in your workplace. And the team will look at you and think, Well, look at this person, they've got no idea what they're doing, they can't make a decision. When in reality you're fighting a battle that no one else understands. So, um, well, that's how I felt anyway. So when I first took over this job um as core superintendent, uh, every day was like so noisy in my head, you know. I just I couldn't think properly. I was thinking about 15 different things. I was, you know, making 10 decisions a day, but they were all ineffective, they were bad decisions, I was reactionary to everything. Um, you know, I wasn't really available to the team. I was out there doing the work that I shouldn't be doing, a whole range of stuff comes into it, and it snowballs. And ultimately, yeah, people will notice it, but they don't care. You're only being detrimental to yourself if you're not looking after yourself. You have to make sure that you've got clarity for your own well-being. And it's important to understand what lack of clarity actually looks like. So if you don't have mental clarity or a suitable amount in your life, you will be continuously running feedback loops in your brain, completely overloaded, your nervous systems are going to be completely shot, um, you know, your your head noise is gonna be so loud, you're gonna look broken, you're gonna feel broken. And all it is is just you're lacking structure and you're lacking effort in the fact that you're not putting any effort into yourself. And a lot of the time, the lack of clarity generally indicates just unfinished decisions, thoughts, responsibilities. So, how I think of it in my mind is these things, these three things are running a race every day, and you're the master that controls that race. So, what you don't want to happen is you don't want your thoughts being 200 metres ahead and the responsibilities 200 metres back. Because what what what what good is that difference? There's too big of a gap there. You need to bridge the gap, and that's where your attitude and your approach to your work will bridge that gap. Your mindset will bridge the gap, and your mindset will actually put your effort in the right direction in the right areas to get the best out of your work and to get the best out of who you are. So this doesn't happen overnight, and we all know that because going the other way, completely um in the negative spiral, as as bad as it sounds, and it's just reality. Sometimes it takes the same amount of time to get back to what you truly truly can be. So, but it's important to practice it, you have to practice it. So it's about catching the feedback loop, catching those moments where you're feeling overloaded, you're feeling the responsibilities are starting to become it too much. And what happens is you you fall into victim mode. So you're working these huge hours, and then you might get someone ask you a question that might trigger you. This is from personal experience as well. I've done this many times, and it's a lack of professionalism because of the way you react. So you react in a way of, oh, do you know how long I've been here for? You know, you have no idea what uh what hours I've done and all that kind of stuff, and no one cares about that because ultimately when you're in those high positions, you're the your result-driven position, so outcomes matter. People don't care about you know how much sleep you've got and all that kind of stuff. No one cares. What they care about is are you running your team properly? Are you handling your responsibilities? Are you handling the workload? Are you getting the results at the end of the day? If you don't get the results or do your job properly, how you should be doing it, and you lose the job and you tell people about it and you say, Oh, but I was tired, that's not going to stack up. No one cares. And that's the harsh reality. No one cares, they don't care about that at the end of the day. They care about, okay, what result can I get, especially on from a board perspective towards you. And your job is to make sure how do I get that outcome and look after myself at the same time. The only way to get that outcome is by looking after yourself. So you have to figure out for you, because everybody's different. So I won't get on here and say and do these do these ten things and and you'll be uh completely fixed overnight because it's not true, but it takes practice. So start off with okay, write down three things that you actually like. What are the things? For me, it's exercise. For me, it's having space to think and space to chill out and relax. That's what I like to do, right? I like to go and have a coffee, I like to, you know, just um you know, play golf, whatever the case is, go to the driving range, we'll play golf. Three things that that quieten down my mind, and that's what you have to work out what what works for you. So once you do that, you then you have to commit to doing it. So it's all good and well to write this stuff down, but you've got to commit and action it. Action it speaks actioning it, actioning it speaks louder than writing it down. But showing up is just the same as showing up. So acknowledging the fact that you you don't have any mental clarity, you've got you've got no idea how to actually calm your mind down and and regulate your nervous system. Your nervous system is firing all day. So to do that, you need to find a release for yourself. And to find the release, you have to write down what works for you, and then do it. You've got to do it. And I would suggest don't put too much pressure on it from the start because if it's something that you haven't really done for a while or practiced for a long time, just start off by saying one or two days a week, I'm gonna go for a run or the gym or whatever the case is, whether you're reading a book, swim, whatever it is. Everybody has their own things, and as you progress down, you'll get you'll knock over those three sessions in a week, and you'll feel really good about yourself, and you'll notice that the confidence in your decision making is starting to compound. And because of that, repetition will then kick in, and then you won't want to go back into that the old habits. You want to you'll be on a roll, momentum, momentum starts. Momentum isn't an accidental thing, it's formed from consistency and repetition, and to maintain that is critical for your well-being overall and as a leader. So when you attribute those aspects to your personal life, you can do the same thing in leadership. So at the start of the week, okay, what are the three things that I want to achieve today or in the next two days? Don't look at it from Monday to Friday, so to speak, because obviously you'll have certain events on. If you've got a meeting on a Friday, a board meeting or whatever the case is, you want to plan for it, yes. But what is it in the next one to two days that I want to achieve and how do I want to go about it? Setting one, okay, I want to be assertive and supportive manager, I want to be present. Number two, I want to make sure I'm making assertive and constructive decisions and effective decisions. Three, make less decisions but better quality decisions. You don't want to go on the path of making 15 decisions a day and showboating it, but you're stressed out of your mind and you've got your hair falling out. So, um, and catch yourself in the moment. So if you have a stressful day and you're like, oh I'm gonna go in the pub and have 20 beers, catch yourself and go, hang on, is that really gonna help me? You're gonna wake up hung over the next day, you're not gonna feel great, and you're gonna probably feel worse about yourself back in the habit. So it's about forming new habits in the right direction. So achieving clarity is such a critical part of you becoming the leader that you can be and the person you can be. And you want to minimize the amount of loops that are running in your mind each day. And the only way to do that is by catching them early. So when you feel, oh, here we go, I'm starting to feel overloaded here. Take a breather and walk back, write some stuff down, write down, okay, what have I, what am I overdoing today? How am I feeling? What is it that I can improve on tomorrow? That's all it is. It's black and white in that sense. There's no you don't need to overcomplicate it. Achieving clarity is black and white. You just have to practice it and be disciplined with it. In the next part, we'll talk about how to actually do that.