I Had to Slay a Monster this Weekend

Remember when you were a kid and you were convinced there was a monster under your bed? You did that full Olympic long-jump from the doorway into your bed because absolutely NOT.

Well... I’m 50. And it turns out… the monster is still real. It just doesn’t live under my bed anymore. It lives in my head.

Meet: The Mind Clutter Monster.

And whew... I had to deal with him this past Sunday. Here’s what happened.

I was about to kick off 28 Days of Reinvention.

Now... 28 Days is my baby. I love it. And the women in this cohort are exceptional!

And yet… I felt off. Heavy and blah.

So naturally, my brain did what all our brains do.

Is it the weather?
Is it because the sun hasn’t been out?
Is it because I hadn’t moved all day?
Is it perimenopause?

I was spinning trying to figure out what on earth was the cause of my meh-ness. 

So... I went for a walk. That helped a little.

And the kickoff call with the cohort lit me up.  Of COURSE. It always does.

Afterwards, I went downstairs, sat on Dasan’s lap and just… talked.

And somewhere in that conversation, he said, “You’ve created a monster.”

I realized he was right. The monster was:

• All the ideas.
• All the what-ifs.
• All the details.
• All the pressure.

All living in my head at once.

• No clarity.
• No container.
• No plan.

Just… noise.

That, my friend, is the Mind Clutter Monster.

And let me tell you, that monster loves to do two things.

1. He loves to catastrophize with you.

He loves to say:

• “What if this doesn’t work?”
• “What if you fail?”

2. He wants you to sit with him.

He wants you to re-run the same scary movie in your head over and over.

What he doesn’t want you to do?

ANYTHING.

Because the moment you move… he loses power.

So what did I do?

Honestly? Nothing sexy.

• I TALKED to someone about it.
• Then I rearranged a few things in my guest bedroom to make space.
• I pulled out my markers and my paper and wrote a to-do list.

Then I went to bed.

That was it. I simply signaled to my brain:

“There is room now.

Something new is happening here.”

The next morning, I made coffee, opened the windows and got started on my list.

And you know what? The pressure valve released, and the monster disappeared.

Not because I did everything...

But because I did SOMEthing.

This is the trap I see over and over: It’s not that we need better systems. Or cuter planners. Or punch cards. (Although these are super fun and I might make some.)

It’s that we let the monster convince us to do nothing, and nothing is exactly where overwhelm grows.

So... if 2026 didn't start with the enthusiasm you hoped for, it's possible you just need to slay the Mind Clutter Monster in your head. 

Tell someone about him. Then slay him with action. Because the monster hates those two things.

And you, my friend, were built for forward motion.