Filtering the valuable from the noise, a valuable leadership skill.

Most of us recognise how crucial our digestive system is for maintaining good health.  You just need to do a quick search on ‘gut health’ to see how important it is to overall health.   But have you ever considered the need for a similar system for the mind?

Let me explain…

The human body is truly incredible! I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had to consciously tell mine what to do—it just seems to function on its own. My heart beats, my cuts heal, and I breathe effortlessly, all without giving it a second thought. It’s pretty amazing when you think about it.

For this discussion, let’s focus on one of the body’s most impressive systems: digestion. When we eat or drink, our body instinctively processes everything, distinguishing between what’s beneficial and what’s not. It sends nutrients where they’re needed and gets rid of the waste—all without any effort on our part. For busy people, this is an incredibly convenient feature!

According to Ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of medicine (which literally means “the science of life”), poor digestion is considered a root cause of many health issues. If you support the digestive process, you’re likely to experience better overall health.  For the mind, the equivalent of food is information.  Just like physical food, if thoughts and information aren’t properly processed—sorting the useful from the unnecessary and eliminating what isn’t needed – it can bounce around and cause all sorts of problems.

The challenge? Unlike our digestive system, the mind doesn’t come with an automatic filtration process. Instead, we have to consciously develop one. Without it, unhelpful thoughts and information can keep looping in our minds—leading to stress, anxiety, guilt, and other mental burdens.  The impact of ‘undigested information’ in our mind is akin to undigested food in our stomach.  Extremely problematic.

You likely already have a plan for your physical health through diet and exercise, but it’s just as important to create a strategy for processing information effectively. Learning to clear out mental “waste” can significantly improve your well-being, both at work and in daily life.

For business leaders, in a world where we have an overload of information, those who can develop an effective ‘filtration system’, filtering out the beneficial from the waste, you are much more likely to make better decisions and respond to evolving circumstances in a constructive way.

It’s just one of the topics covered in our Leadership Development programs.