Action Archives - Page 110 of 121

Turn Up The Heat!

Posted on September 4, 2020

Ok, it’s been an unusual start to the year so far. Things may have been out of kilter or offline. However, now it is time to turn up the heat!

I mentioned the other day how it is time to accelerate to the finish. We don’t have a lot of time left to get the things done we want completed this year. So you need to start taking massive action. Lean into these final few months and make the most of them.

Turn up the heat! Get things moving today. Work an hour longer today. Wake up 30 minutes earlier tomorrow and go for that walk or jog you’ve been thinking about. I know you may be reading this on a Saturday morning. That does not mean chill out. That does not mean have a lie in. Double down on those weekend days.

Start a new habit now. Or as soon as you finish reading this. You will create a new bit of dynamism in your life. That will help you shift in other areas too. Work on your Art of Now! Do it, delegate it or dump it. The important piece though is to get moving now.

Act now! Turn up the heat!

Action Time

Plan Your Day Out

Posted on September 2, 2020

Distractions are your challenge. They may be from friends, work colleagues, children, illness, phone calls, post etc. Plan your day out. Allow some contingency time for distractions. Though it is best to limit your distractions to as few as possible. None is even better.

Take a piece of paper and write out your day. From the minute you intend to wake up until the minute you intend to go to sleep. Write it out in 15 minute intervals. Unless one activity is going to take up a longer period of time. Then write that amount of time. For example:

06:00 – 06:15 Wake up. 6 Minute miracle morning. Change for run.

06:15 – 06:30 Stretch. Loo break. Put on trainers, headphones and prepare apps.

06:30 – 07:00 Run. Listen to X podcast/audiobook/YouTube channel

Allow for ten minute breaks. Sometimes these will be used to relax. Other times they will act as catch up zones. These help get you back on track when a distraction has put you behind by five or 10 minutes.

Allow for one full hour in your day for unforeseen events. These could be phone calls you have to take from a child, parent, boss, tax inspector or a person dropping by your desk or home.

Plan your day out before you go to bed. Track how close your plan is to reality. It’s fascinating.

Action Time

Accelerate To The Finish

Posted on September 1, 2020

There are four months remaining until New Year’s Eve and we ring in 2021. That really means we have 3 months to accelerate to the finish. For a lot of people, December is filled with shopping, parties, family, preparations, holidays, school events, Christmas and New Year’s itself.

Given all of those events in December, very little else gets done. So if you are trying to make things happen with a business, strengthen a new habit or finish a project, aim to finish by 30 November.

That gives you 13 weeks to get it all sorted before December descends on us. That is plenty of time to do many things. That is roughly 65 weekdays and 26 weekend days. 91 days altogether. The other 245 days are gone.

However, you need to be focused now. Every minute needs to count. There is no longer any time to assume you can get started later or do it later. You may even have to sacrifice a little! You may need to give up on some of the scrolling, watching and time with friends.

This is your last chance to win back 2020. Make it a great year, despite the unforeseen challenges that Covid brought to everyone. You can accelerate to the finish over the next 91 days and make this year a resounding success.

Plan the details, focus on the outcome and take disciplined action. Go!

Action Reframe your thoughts

Personal Accountability Is Critical

Posted on August 31, 2020

You can have reasons or results. You can be someone who produces or gives excuses. Everyone can deliver or wither. Personal accountability is critical.

It may be a good idea to decide which way you want to live your life. And you may also want to consider how you are perceived. Do you want to point to any possible hurdle in life and blame it for your lack of success? Another way is to reach down, overcome the obstacle and succeed despite it.

Perhaps a child is not getting decent grades at school. Should we blame the teacher, the school, the system or the leaders of the country? Starting with the child might be a better option. Is the child capable of better grades? Are they putting in the time and focused effort that that child needs to in order to achieve the higher grades expected?

There is a generally accepted ‘better way’ to do almost anything these days. You can find these online easily. Not only is there one ‘better way’, frequently you will be able to find many very good options to choose from. To get from London to Paris you could drive, fly or take the train. There are also pros and cons for each.

Personal accountability is critical. Get the results despite the hurdles.

Action Progress Reframe your thoughts

Build Your Endurance

Posted on August 30, 2020

Life is a series of sprints wrapped inside a marathon. There are ups and downs, victories and challenges. If you build your endurance, you will survive and probably thrive as you move from one sprint to another.

Most people seem to notice the challenges ahead more than they celebrate the victories that loom in the past. Whatever you focus on will be your reality. So choose what you focus on carefully. You will have enough of your own challenges in life without adding anyone else’s to your list.

As you build your resilience and your endurance, you will gain additional confidence and personal power. With these attributes you will improve your rate of success. This will build your mental strength so that you can call on that when you need to endure difficult times.

Remember to get the flywheel of success working with you. It is much better than having the flywheel of doom working against you. Amazingly, you get to choose which one you have at your side, based on your focus and attitude. Bizarrely, too many people choose the later rather than the former.

I’ve never understood why someone would want to make a life full of challenges even more challenging.

Stay focused and build your endurance.

Action Gratitude

Loving The Great Outdoors

Posted on August 28, 2020

It’s great to get back outside and enjoying the spaces, sounds, smells and sights our world has to offer. Loving the great outdoors can be a very easy thing to do. Though sometimes the conditions have to be right.

Despite having done some exciting outdoorsy things, I tend to be a fair weather outdoorsman. I can handle some pretty big extremes. However, I do enjoy my creature comforts.

I’ve endured skiing in -40 Celsius conditions in Eastern Canada. I’ve also picked grapes in 40+ Celsius weather in the outback of Australia. Night diving on The Great Barrier Reef was exciting. As was hiking to the top of Africa by reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

I’m generally a fair weather camper. Though listening to tonight’s rainstorm from inside our tent was fascinating and a real delight.

Hearing the wind howl and rain lash down and sweep across the tent was quite something. It’s not often enough that we stop and just admire the natural world.

Although nature can be tough, cruel and destructive with its hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires and hailstorms. There is such awe in those things and beauty in its kinder, gentler aspects.

The wind and rainstorms are more exciting when you’re not stuck out in them. So from inside my tent, I’m loving the great outdoors.

Action Reframe your thoughts

Hoping But Not Happening

Posted on August 25, 2020

Hope is a very powerful and optimistic state of mind. However, despite its power it is not action or results. Hoping but not happening is an all too common situation for many, many people.

Sometimes people will use the word when they know they will not be making it happen. It’s as if their response has a silent ‘but’ underlying it. For example, if I ask one of my children if they can tidy their room before going to school, I may get the following reply. “I hope so”.

It’s a great reply. It’s optimistic and fills me with hope that it could happen. So the word is a feel-good filler. However, the child may have no intention of doing anything to tidy their room. This happens in a work setting too.

Hoping someone calls, is ok, or gets the job are all better than worrying about the opposite outcome. So in that sense, hope is a fantastic and positive word.

Hoping gets your mind thinking about the positive outcomes you would like to have in your life. The next step is to get curious and ask yourself what actions you could take to move those hopes and dreams into your reality.

When you take action, hoping but not happening will no longer be a part of your life.

Action Time

Spending Time Wisely

Posted on August 23, 2020

It’s fascinating to watch ourselves try to save money but spend precious moments doing it. Spending time wisely is almost an art form and partly a science. Using our time on positive and useful things is much more beneficial to us than squandering it.

It is an interesting balance with time. As we do not know how much of it we will have, we want to make good and efficient use of it. In addition, we do not know how well we will be physically and/or mentally through our lifetime, even if it is a long one.

So there are trade offs. You have choices and decisions to make. And these choices are frequently adjusting to new realities. Therefore your decisions may change.

When you are young, or much older, most people have more time than money. Therefore they will wait in a 10 minute queue or walk 20 minutes to save a pound or two. As a person acquires more money they are more likely to spend it to save time, rather than spend time to save money.

You can earn more money in life but there is little you can do to extend your natural time on earth.

In addition, feed your mind with positive, hopeful, helpful and wonderful things. Spending time wisely also means making little room for complaint, anger, negative and frustrating information or entertainment. The cost is too high.

Action Health & Fitness Think About It Weight

Become A Magnet

Posted on August 21, 2020

Make yourself so attractive that your life’s desires move toward you. Become a magnet for your desires. Whether you would like health, happiness, money, a particular relationship or job, make sure your relative attractiveness is high.

To become a health magnet, make yourself attractive to health. Eat appropriate amounts of high nutrient foods. Exercise and move more. Maybe even surround yourself with a few more people that seem to have attracted health into their lives. Certainly one should develop a healthy mindset.

Becoming a relationship magnet follows a similar path. If the object of your desire prefers happy people, practice being happier. If they seem to have a proclivity for fit people, develop a love of fitness.

Money is a challenge for a lot of people. Many do not say very nice things about money itself. And some people have been known to cast aspersions on people who have accumulated some level of money or wealth. If you were frequently suspicious of a friend or spoke poorly of them, they would not stay with you for long. Same thing for money.

If you think bad thoughts and say bad things about health, relationships, money or other things, you’re less likely to get the best from them. The saying that ‘misery loves company’ rings true for people who are a misery magnet.

Become a magnet of desirability instead.

Action Observe Think About It

Some Will And Some Won’t

Posted on August 20, 2020

People can be divided up into these two categories. Regardless of the situation or context, some will and some won’t. Get familiar with which people will end up in which group.

Perhaps you’ve invited people to a meeting. A group of the invitees will come to the meeting. Several people will not. Maybe you’ve transacted business with some people. Some will pay you and a few will not.

Having an opportunity fall into your lap is wonderful. There are those that will act on it straight away and use that opportunity to grow and succeed. Though there are always some people that will hide, shirk or otherwise ‘miss’ the opportunity.

The trick is to not get discouraged. Simply remember that some will and some won’t. Then focus on those that do. Help them. Work with those people. Forget about the people that won’t do their own push ups. Unable is one thing. However, choosing not to make the effort that will benefit them, that is another story.

I’m willing to help people that are willing to help themselves. Even better if they can take a little direction. Being able to see the reality they are in and confront the brutal facts of that reality is also beneficial.

So, in general, are you one that will or won’t?