Are you racing through life with a restless and easily distracted “monkey mind” that jumps from one thought to another? Do your thoughts swing wildly in different directions?
If so, you’re not alone. But here’s the issue: mental chaos often leads to disruption in your life and work. It can make you anxious—and make it harder to accomplish your goals.
17 Signs Your Monkey Mind Is Running Wild
How to know if you struggle with this? When you’re in monkey mind, you tend to:
- have scattered or frequently wandering thoughts
- be easily distracted
- have a hard time focusing on one task
- feel restless, anxious, or unsettled
- find your mind wandering after just a short while of doing something
- struggle to prioritize effectively
- feel impatient often
- have a near-constant need for activity or stimulation
- experience mental fatigue
- make hasty decisions or take actions without thorough consideration
- have difficulty listening and struggle to fully engage in conversations because you’re preoccupied
- frequently forget details, appointments, or tasks
- have trouble making decisions because you’re caught between conflicting thoughts
- spend a lot of time thinking about the past or the future, making it hard to enjoy the present moment
- dwell on worries that are hard to control
- revisit the same thought loops over and over again (rumination)
- have trouble falling or staying asleep due to an overactive mind
Take the Traps Test
We all fall into traps in life. Sometimes we’re not even aware of it, and we can’t get out of traps we don’t know we’re in. Evaluate yourself with our Traps Test.
Monkey mind, while common, isn’t harmless. It comes with a host of problems. For one, it can elevate your stress levels and make it hard to concentrate. The constant mental chatter can inhibit your mental clarity and prevent you from being fully present with others or concentrating on the task before you. In short, it can downgrade many things in your life and work.
“What your future holds for you depends on your state of consciousness now.”
-Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
Conclusion
Monkey mind can be a big disruptor. It can diminish your happiness, sap your potential, and degrade your leadership.
Thankfully, there’s hope. Your brain has a remarkable ability to rewire itself. By engaging in regular practices that enhance your focus and attention, you can start taming your monkey mind.
Here’s to directing your attention towards what truly matters and in the process experiencing greater clarity and fulfillment.
Quality of Life Assessment
Evaluate your quality of life in ten key areas by taking our assessment. Discover your strongest areas, and the areas that need work, then act accordingly.
Reflection Questions
- Are you finding it hard to handle the chaos caused by your monkey mind?
- In what ways is it impacting the quality of your life and work, as well as your productivity and performance?
- What will you do about it, starting today?
Tools for You
- Traps Test (Common Traps of Living) to help you identify what’s getting in the way of your happiness and quality of life
- Quality of Life Assessment to help you discover your strongest areas and the areas that need work and then act accordingly
- Strengths Search to help you identify your core strengths and determine how to use them more in your life and work
Related Articles
- “Why Monkey Mind Is Worse than You Think—And What to Do About It”
- “Why We Need Meditation and Mindfulness Now More than Ever”
- “How to Stop Overthinking”
- “The Problem with Lack of Focus–And How to Fix It”
- “Designing Your Work for Flow”
- “The Mental Prisons We Build for Ourselves”
- “How to Stop Catastrophizing—Managing Our Minds”
Personal Values Exercise
Complete this exercise to identify your personal values. It will help you develop self-awareness, including clarity about what’s most important to you in life and work, and serve as a safe harbor for you to return to when things are tough.
Postscript: Quotations on Monkey Mind
- “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” -John Milton, Paradise Lost
- “I am burdened with what the Buddhists call the monkey mind. The thoughts that swing from limb to limb, stopping only to scratch themselves, spit, and howl. My mind swings wildly through time, touching on dozens of ideas a minute, unharnessed and undisciplined.” -Elizabeth Gilbert, writer
- “As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life.” -Jack Kornfield, American Buddhist monk, teacher, and writer
- “Learn to watch your drama unfold while at the same time knowing you are more than your drama.” -Ram Dass, psychologist, spiritual teacher, and writer
- “The greater part of most people’s thinking is involuntary automatic, and repetitive. It is no more than a kind of mental static and fulfills no real purpose. Strictly speaking, you don’t think: Thinking happens to you.” -Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
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Gregg Vanourek is a writer, teacher, and TEDx speaker on personal development and leadership. He is co-author of three books, including LIFE Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives (a manifesto for living with purpose and passion) and Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations (a winner of the International Book Awards). Check out his Best Articles or get his monthly newsletter. If you found value in this article, please forward it to a friend. Every little bit helps!