Dare to Live Without Limits: Tune Out the Garbage

Life is like being on the internet; there’s lots of good stuff but there is also a lot of garbage. There’s lots of places you can get information; various news sites, social media, opinions, blogs, and videos. Unfortunately, there is no one place you can look to for plain, direct, and objective information. Each source has its biases, slants, agendas, objective, and focus.
You are bombarded with information all day from numerous sources. You have to pick and choose what you pay attention to. Spending your time with garbage takes you on a path to nowhere. However, focusing on the good stuff can boost your attitude, provide lots of worthwhile information, and enhance your pursuits.
Have you ever been having a conversation where the other person is going on endlessly about some topic you have no interest in? What did you do? You tuned them out while your mind drifted to other thoughts. You can use this same strategy when dealing with the daily information onslaught.
Each day you subconsciously tune out whatever you are not interested in. You don’t have to pay attention to everything you see, hear, and read. You can just focus on whatever you want. It’s your decision as to what’s important.
Tune out the negative while tuning in the positive. Be selective in what you pay attention to. Although it’s easy to become fixated on all of the negative around you, it infects your attitude. Always look for the positive aspects of each day. One positive component displaces many negatives.
Selective perception keeps you focused on the positive. You learned the skill of selective perception as a child. When you were younger, you became an expert at utilizing selective perception when you only paid attention to those things which interested you. You regularly tuned out anything which you didn’t want to hear.
When deciding whether or not something is worth paying attention to, determine how the information will benefit you. If there’s no clear positive benefit, tune it out. Be very selective as to what you focus on.
Don’t absorb other people’s problems. You are not responsible for them. Each person makes their own decisions and must live with the results. If asked, you can offer suggestions or insights as to how they might best deal with a problem. Other than that, disconnect from the problems of others.
Limit the amount of time you spend around negative people. Negativity is highly contagious. Negative people get stuck on problems and have little interest in solutions. Constant complaining is a characteristic of negative people.
Don’t read, watch, or listen to anything upsetting. Turn off the news. Avoid social media gossip. Don’t visit web sites which are purveyors of doom and gloom. Don’t watch upsetting movies or shows.
Tuning out the garbage becomes easier when you limit the amount of garbage by unplugging. Turn off the T.V. Get off social media. Put down your cell phone. Take some time for yourself. When you remove yourself from the garbage, it becomes much easier to spot it.
You don’t need to feel guilty for tuning out the garbage. Time is precious so you don’t want to waste it. You have an obligation to yourself to filter out negative influences because they make everything seem worse.
Spending time with other positive people is a nice escape from the garbage. Positive people have a will do, can do attitude. They focus on solutions, not problems. Positive people are possibility thinkers who rarely complain.
Always tune out the garbage. If something doesn’t help you or make you feel better, you can probably do without it. The less garbage there is in your life, the happier you will be.