Mind Sweep Prompts — Administrative, Legal, Financial, Clothing, Grooming, Commitments, Promises, Responsibilities
Welcome back to this article series and the first of several where you’ll be able to access some written prompts to use. Here they are. The rest of the article will give you an overview of the way I have these prompts set up.
The prompts in this set range from administrative tasks, legal and financial concerns, anything related to your clothing and grooming, as well as various commitments, promises, and responsibilities you have. In future articles you will get prompts for other aspects of your life.
As you read through these prompts, your brain will likely start whirring! I know the feeling and I might even be able to hear your brain from here!
Take a look at pages 20, 21, & 22. For now, simply take a quick glance so you see how they are set up. You’ll notice extensive lists of words without any explanation really. The idea is that these prompt words or short phrases will stimulate your thinking. Some of them will and some of them won’t. Enough of them will that I know you’ll be spurred to sweep!
Now, go back to page 19 for a moment and let me talk (write) you through this a bit. I created a couple of images to show what someone *could* do if they were writing directly on these pages — or instead of writing on the pages, most people would write what had been prompted for them on their cards or other mind sweeping tool they’re using as the receptacle for this process (see the previous article about the tools you can use).
At the top of the page, you can see a list of about 20 prompts. Our imaginary person — who we’ll name Mary-Louella — looks at “Dentist” and nothing gets prompted for her. But when she looks at the word “Accountant,” she thinks, “Oh, yeah, I need to get my accountant the names of the people who will require 1099s this year.”
Then the next few prompts don’t cue anything but when she sees the word “Parents,” Mary-Louella thinks, ‘Oh, my. Given what I keep reading, what a couple of my friends have said about their parents’ situations, and a few of the behaviors I’ve witnessed lately, I think it’s time — maybe past time — to have “the talk” with my parents about their finances.’ Because this is a sweeping time, Mary-Louella makes note “Have the talk about finances.” She isn’t trying to figure out when or how or anything else right now. She is simply acknowledging that this is something that is going on somewhere in her mind and she needs to get it into an outside-the-head notation.
As she goes down the list of prompts, the word “Neighborhood” prompts her to think, ‘Argh, speeders! Ridiculous. I’m going to call the Sheriff’s office to see if they can come sit and write a few tickets and get people to slow down. It’s so dangerous!’
The phrase “Debts to pay,” stirs up Mary-Louella’s thoughts about how she wants to get out of debt and heard about a good way is to start paying off the lowest amount debt first and then proceed to the highest. To get started, she writes, “List all debts I owe from lowest amount to highest amount.” She isn’t stopping to do that now; she is simply sweeping it out of her head onto her list or notecards or wherever she is writing everything.
Got the idea?
The next screen image on that page is more of the same as far as examples. These aren’t from an imaginary person — these are from me! I use these lists, too, even though I do pretty consistent sweeping all the time. Massage therapist prompted me to write, “Call Chelsea for an appointment.” Computer repair — I have started a list for when my wonderful geek guy comes out next. I have a logo design I need and I’ll post it on Elance (which is now Upwork). Even though I don’t have graduate assistants at this point, when I saw this word, it reminded me about a couple of my coaching clients who DO have graduate assistants and how we’d talked about “new rules” so I wanted to get something out there for them. And then my reliable Erika who did all kinds of errands for me — took a regular job and so now I am looking for a new person.
Okey, dokey, artichokey! You are now ready to see what emerges when you go through pages 20, 21, and 22. You might get five things (although I would be shocked if that’s all that came up for you) or 55 or 105. I have no idea but you’ll get something.
Get to it! Set your timer and see what happens for you.
Stay tuned for more articles in the series (and more prompts).
Happy sweeping! And remember the rainbow, i.e., the symbol for the “arc” of how this process goes and how you’re feeling as you go through the process.
