Get good rest and get a jump on the day. If you wake early, just get up and get going.
Two things will happen. First you’ll get more jammed into one of your life days. Secondly, you will feel tired earlier in the evening which will help you sleep earlier so you can rise earlier.
That’s how you get a virtuous cycle.
Too often things get taken too far. You can see this in so many different circumstances.
Often it is far better to enjoy the win and be content, then to seek more than you had originally wanted.
Here are some examples:
Having a few more snacks or cakes than you should. Eventually you’ve put on 3 stone.
Having a few too many drinks and waking up half way through the next day with a cracking hangover.
Putting a few little things on a credit card knowing you can’t pay off the balance. Then a few more. Soon you’re paying £1,000s in interest, yet lost interest in whatever you’re paying for.
Getting a club together to defend yourselves, like NATO, can sound like a good idea. Then after feeling quite secure, you keep adding more and more members. You feel more secure and confident but others may become more concerned and defensive.
There are many, many other examples from women’s rights (is equal enough?), unions (group v individual) and tech (how far is too far, like kissing a robot?), to buying shoes (Ms Marcos), and political coverups (it always starts small and then like a black hole, begins to engulf everything).
The key is to moderate and balance while checking the details frequently so matters don’t get out of control.
Review frequently and track progress. Don’t push things too far or you can do some damage (Like running further than you should). There is always pain after things are pushed too far. Better to stop things a little earlier than build up to a devastating situation.
Prepare well in advance. Prepare with contingency plans. Allow 3 times more time than you think you’ll need.
A prepared general wins battles and wars. A prepared team wins championships. Be so prepared that by taking action on your plan it practically guarantees victory.
But not too much.
Only when you are actually hungry. Like when you feel it in your rumbly tummy.
Don’t Generalise. Get precise and expect others to do the same. Get specific on dates and times and lengths, processes and outcomes.
If you work with general, you’re likely to get average results at best. The more precision you have, the more success you will have too.
You want precision in warfare, surgery, finances and legal matters, to name just a few.
Would you accept a paycheck “sometime during the month for a few thousand”? Or would you want to know which specific date in the month that your agreed $4,897,89 was going to arrive in your account?
Seek out people that are going where you want to be. Learn from these people. Work with these people. Travel together.
If you were heading to the centre of London, getting in a car going there would be way better than getting in a car headed to Liverpool.
So whatever you are doing in life, get around as many people as you can that are going to the same destination in life.
Expect the unexpected I’ve been told. And it’s good advice. Anticipate a bumpy road. Hope for a straight path but be prepared mentally for things to shift off course. It requires thinking ahead and testing the limits of possibility.
Once you’re prepared for speed bumps, you can set your thoughts on clear skies and a flat road, and hopefully that’s what you’ll find.
Get up and get moving. Don’t think. Do.
Don’t gently roll around the house from room to room like you have eternity. Move with purpose. Get a task done quickly. Then do another. Get some momentum going. If you do three quick things, enjoy the feeling of achievement.
Then do something that takes a bit longer. Stay focused. Don’t get distracted. Finish the job. Celebrate ????.
Then go for another thing. Build your habit of seeking critical things to do and then do them.
Got to the gym today? Celebrate ????
Kept to your diet? Celebrate ????
Completed the third big step in your project? Celebrate ????
What does Celebrate mean though? Well it can mean many things. It could mean you get 20 minutes outside walking in the sun. You could meet a friend for a coffee for 30 minutes. You could buy yourself a ticket to the latest film you’ve been wanting to see. Another option would be to have a relaxing bath this evening before bed.
The celebration will be dependent on you and what you value. Try to keep most celebrations to a low or no cost budget. That way you can have far more win celebrations which will help drive your motivation and delivery of outcomes.
As you plan ever greater milestones and goals, you can up the stakes for the final celebrations. Do keep them within your budget though.
At least once each week, you need to review your progress. You need to understand if you are getting the results you were after and if you are putting in the effort you said you would, should or needed to.
This is your brutal facts of reality moment.
No excuses. No reasons. Black and white. Yes or no. If you were supposed to go to the gym 3x in the last 5 days, did you? Yes or no? If yes, well done! If no, what will you do differently this week (Monday am to Sunday pm)? Perhaps go to the gym even earlier so other things don’t get in the way.
If you were supposed to read 10 pages of a book every night in the last 5 days, did you? Yes or no? If yes, congratulations! If no, what do you need to do differently on each of the next 7 days to ensure it happens consistently? Read when you wake up? Go to bed 30 minutes earlier and read then?
Whatever your goals are, Review your progress every week, ideally on the same day at the same time. Sunday evening is a good time for this. Make it part of your seven day success cycle as outlined in my book.
