Cleaning out the Storage

I was trying to hold off on buying a new laptop, but its available storage capacity was seemingly decreasing by the minute. I deleted every piece of software that was in the “fun but not necessary category.” (Looking at you, Garage Band.) I deleted old files and duplicate pictures.

Perhaps not coincidentally, my laptop’s storage starved sluggishness coincided with a project I was working on that meant creating storage hungry videos.

So, every few days it was the same routine…

What can I delete? What can I move to google Drive?

Finally I had enough with this dysfunctional routine required to keep my laptop functional, and bought a new one.

It made me think, however, about what we keep in our own mental storage that gets in the way, that keep us from operating at peak efficiency.

For example, we often keep old beliefs about ourselves. Maybe they were true once. Maybe they were never true. The point is, do we really want to keep them?

I used to believe that I wasn’t funny. That belief was formed in a single moment in roughly 1974 in the Jr High gym girls locker room when I said something that I thought was kind of funny, and an 8th grade girl gave me a withering “You are too dumb to live” stink-eye.

I was in 7th grade, and the 8th grade girls were like gods to us. They were cool, not awkward. This particular girl set the standard for coolness. I’m talking bell bottom jeans and platform shoes. Huge hoop earrings. Long straight hair or magnificent afros.  They were cool.

To be so dismissed by one of them was crushing.

That belief burrowed deep in my psyche and stayed there for a long time. I’d think of remarks that might be funny but held my tongue lest I be humiliated again. I don’t know how my funny self started venturing out from this self imposed exile, but slowly I started saying the words out loud.

People laughed.

Not in the, I’m so embarrassed for you but I love you so I’m going to act like that was funny kind of way. No, they genuinely laughed. When a long-time friend introduced me at an event as someone who was funny, I considered the exile fully ended.

Have you taken stock of the beliefs that you have in storage? Some of them may be very helpful to you. For example, my father had a belief that he could learn to do just about anything (in mostly pre-YouTube days.) As a result, he did lots of different things, from racing a sports car to building a barn to writing newspaper column and so much more.

His was a belief that enabled him to thrive.

What about you? Do your beliefs that you hold help you grow and thrive or hold you back? Like some of the files in my old laptop, were they files that once were helpful and important but just muddy the system now?

Here are some questions that can be helpful.

• How did I learn this was true? Who told me this?

• What impact has this had on my life and work?

• How might I think differently about this?

• How might I change this belief?

There are some things that are hardwired into us, but not as many as you’d think.

Maybe it’s time for some spring cleaning.

Coaching can help you sort through those old files and perhaps create some new and more productive ones. If you’re ready for some spring cleaning, let’s talk.