Your Mental Bandwidth
It’s limited.
We act as if our mental space is a huge multi-lane highway that lets an unlimited amount of traffic through every minute.
But our conscious brains are more like a one-lane road in the European countryside. We can only handle so much information. We have a limited capacity for input.
The odd thing being we don’t act like it.
Modern Western culture tells us to cram everything possible through that single lane. If not, we may miss out.
We might be unproductive.
Or lazy.
Or irrelevant.
We are asking the impossible of ourselves. It’s no wonder anxiety and mental health issues are spiking. We can’t take it all in. It's impossible.
And here’s a radical thought: Maybe we should stop trying.
Maybe we should recognize our limitations and use the one-lane road that is our conscious brains for what it was intended.
Use a pen and paper to make a list of the 10 things taking up most of your mental bandwidth right now.
Move through them one at a time with these four questions.
- Do I care deeply about this?
- Is this helping me to personally grow?
- Does this make the world around me a better place?
- Do I have a deep and genuine sense that this is what I should be doing?