Your mind was created for creativity. There are ideas, possibilities, concepts and brilliant connections just waiting to be unleashed. The problem is, you don't feel in control of your circumstances. Now, before I go any further, let me clarify what I mean by control.

For the purpose of this post, I'm not referring to direct control you have, say, over your response to certain things that happen to you. It's true, you cannot always control circumstances, but you can control your response to them. However, the purpose of this post has more to do with the sense of control. It's more the emotion or feeling you have.

The Locus Of Control

Locus, or location, of control can either be outside of you or inside of you. When it is outside of you, your creativity is consumed by the fear that something is going to surprise you and negatively impact your life. Because this fear is a real emotion, it takes up residence in your brain - the part that signals your fight or flight tendency. As long as the locus of control is outside of you, there is little time for creative reflection.

When the locus of control resides inside of you, that's a different story altogether. It's a wonderful thing to sense that no matter what happens, you know who you are and Whose you are. You are confident in your own skin, you know your design, and you know there is hope.

But how do you get the locus of control inside you when it's currently outside?

I propose a 3-step process that helps you grab ahold of the thoughts and ideas swirling around in your head, keeping the locus of control outside of you and reign them in so you can take control.

The 3D Process

• DOWNLOAD. The first thing you need to do is identify the scope of what's in your mind. Sit down with a piece of paper or outlining program on your computer. Start writing down everything that's flying around in your mind. Don't worry about grammar, spelling or repeating thoughts. Get it all down and out of your mind. This will give you an immediate sense of control because you are now looking down on everything, rather than trying to herd cats.

• DIVIDE. Downloading is just the beginning. What you've done so far is moving a random mess of thoughts from your head to paper (or screen). Now it's time to put them into a framework which will set up the 3rd step - Disseminate. Put each thought into one of six buckets:

• SPIRITUAL
• RELATIONAL
• FINANCIAL
• EMOTIONAL
• PHYSICAL
• VOCATIONAL

• DISSEMINATE. Each thought is now ready to be evaluated with regard to execution. The thoughts will fall into one of the following stages:

• TRASH - These are thoughts that have no future in your life. They were just passing ideas that have no bearing on where you are headed.
• PARK - These are thoughts that have merit but it's not yet time to act on them. These are also thoughts that need to marinate a while before you decide whether they are trash or act worthy.
• ACT - These are thoughts that, if acted on right now, would make an enormous impact on the progress you need to make.

I've written more on the 3D Process HERE

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