Hello everyone, welcome to Your SuperPowered Mind. I’m your host, Kristin Maxwell. And in our show, we explore the process of transformation and give you tools and strategies you can use to transform your own life.
Today we’re going to be talking to Gail Kreitzer about quieting the mind, a key aspect of any personal growth plan. And Gail is the founder of Little Big Things and the creator of Dashboarding. Using the Dashboarding organizational process, Gail works with schools, businesses, and individuals to declutter their minds, so they can stay focused on what is most important to them. Gail, welcome to Your SuperPowered Mind.
Thank you so much. I’m excited to be here.
My first question is always, what super power did you uncover as a result of mastering your mind?
Without a doubt, the super power that I have honed is really helping people reconnect with themselves again.
Without a doubt, the super power that I have honed is really helping people reconnect with themselves again. Because we all live in such a fast-paced world, we have so much going on, and we are in many cases just buried underneath a lot of clutter. Emotional, physical, mental clutter, that we miss that very important connection with ourselves. So I think that’s really my superpowers. I help people reconnect with themselves and I really I’m passionate about helping people live in the present.
That is a beautiful goal.
And so how do you do that? How would you help people so that they’re not buried under all of that clutter?
Okay, so I will share my true story.
I’m a former HR professional and several years ago when my teenage daughters were little, I was doing it all. Working really hard firing on all cylinders and I was just out of my mind busy. I was highly reactive. I was yelling, I was always you know, I was getting everything done, but I was just super, super stressed. And one day, I was outside screaming at my kids to get in the car. And as I was screaming at them, the UPS man rounded the corner to drop off a package in the driveway. And I’ll never forget, he overheard everything that I was saying to my kids, and I was mortified. I was so embarrassed. He didn’t even flinch because I’m sure he’s seen it all. So he was just like, “Have a great day Gail.” Dropped the package and left. And it was really the first time, Kristin, that I heard myself. And I’ll never forget, I was like, “Wow, when did I become this person?”
And that’s what sparked my journey into trying to figure out how to feel less overwhelmed. And what I ended up doing is I looked around me and I was like, everybody’s overwhelmed. It’s not just me, it’s men, it’s children, it’s working, non-working, it doesn’t matter. We live in a fast-paced world that’s speeding up and there are just tons of things coming at us. So I did all sorts of typical things to try to be less overwhelmed. I focused on time management, I focused on cleaning my house and getting organized at my desk, and none of that really helped a lot of these tools that we had been using. So in an effort to really figure it out myself, I started thinking, I’m like, “Where does the overwhelm begin?” It really begins in the mind. And I thought about it. I’m like, “I have so many thoughts, short-term tasks, long-term tasks, thoughts, ideas and worries that I’m holding on to in my brain because I don’t know where else to put it.” Right?
Yes.
I mean, I think everyone can relate to that. You might have certain organizational apps or notebooks or calendars, but invariably, you’re left with some things that you just don’t know where to put them. That’s what sparked my interest in like I said, figuring it out and I grabbed some simple home office supplies. And quite unexpectedly, a whole new approach to mental organization began to unfold. I began to feel so much better, so fast, that honestly, I knew I had to share my secret with others, and I knew I had found my purpose. And today it’s called Dashboarding. And that is, it’s really a collection of habits that help people to declutter their minds and live in the present.
Wow, that’s an incredible story. I love how you were looking at the idea of where overwhelm begins and recognizing that you had become someone that you didn’t want to be. So it’s funny. You’re saying that there are habits, so you’re helping people to develop new habits.
Everybody knows that when you are, when you’ve had enough with a messy closet, there pretty much are some universal steps we take to deal with it.
Right. And I have to also just make a quick footnote here. The interesting thing about it too is that I was already organized. It wasn’t like I was not organized. I was very organized with calendars and planners and notebooks. But there was something missing. And that’s what I started to focus on. What was missing? And what was missing was really a process that would enable me to distill all the stuff in my brain. You know, you think about a closet, right? A cluttered closet. Everybody can relate to that. Everybody knows that when you are, when you’ve had enough with a messy closet, there pretty much are some universal steps we take to deal with it. And we usually pull everything out all at once, for really good reasons, that so we can compare and contrast, and we can start making decisions and choices that lead us to a much more organized functional space. Right?
Right.
So, Dashboarding is really the same concept but it’s all about creating space in your mind, not for your clothes, but really, so your best and most important thoughts have room to unfold and stretch. And really, a very overarching, very top line, is the collection of habits that make up Dashboarding are focused on really three different phases.
The first phase is all about creating space in your mind. That’s like declutter in your mind. The second phase is all about cultivating self-awareness. And that’s really, really critical because self-awareness helps us make better decisions and choices.
Yes.
And problem solved. And then the last phase of Dashboarding is really taking mindful action, and taking really the distilled contents of our brain, of our mind, and taking action. So we really stay connected to our priorities. So Dashboarding is very visual. It’s very list oriented. And I can certainly go into more detail, but ultimately, a lot of the habits people are very familiar with, and in many ways, they’re like, “Oh, I do that.” Or “I partially do that.” But Dashboarding erases all of those habits and puts it in a very pragmatic framework that helps you on a day-to-day basis, maintain your focus on a plan for the day that really connects you to your priorities and goals that are informed by the mental dashboards that you create during the process.
Wow, yes. I’m very curious to learn a little bit more about what you’re meaning about each of those steps. What’s involved with them.
We do need to go to a quick break. So could you tell people a little bit more about where they can learn more about Dashboarding and be able to find you?
Sure. They can visit my website, which is called dashboardingminds.com. And that has information on Dashboarding. I also have invented some products to help people implement Dashboarding which I’d love to tell you about after the break because I really think it’ll help explain what Dashboarding is all about.
Well, perfect, great.
So, everyone, we have been talking to Gail Kreitzer. When we come back we are going to go a bit deeper into how you can quiet your own mind as part of your personal growth plan. So, hang on.
To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.
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