Category: Reframe your thoughts

CategoriesActionProgressReframe your thoughtsTime

Take Action!

Posted on December 13, 2021

You can live in your head. But not for long. Physical requirements like food and water require some sort of action. Most other achievements need action as well. You can’t simply think, hope, wonder or wish yourself into a better life.

Having a positive mindset and doing visualisation both have their place in your success toolkit. However, taking positive action steps does become critical to achieve most outcomes.

Working from your written plan, you can create some actionable next steps to further move toward your goal. It may mean searching for something on the internet, making a phone call, meeting someone or sending an email. Whatever is the next step, get going. Your actions peak louder than words. And they are the backbone to your future lifestyle.

Act is step five in my forthcoming book – Achieve Anything – The 7 Simple Steps to Shift from Uncomfortable to Unstoppable. Taking action can be uncomfortable. Sometimes we are shy, concerned about rejection or just aren’t clear what we are supposed to do next. This is all natural. Rehearsing the step can help. Though sometimes it‘s better to dive in and see where things go. With a well thought out plan, acting on it is like pressing the accelerator. You’re going to Go, Go, Go, there’s no stopping you.

PS. On Monday, I had news from the publishing house that the paperback copies have been printed and are in ‘shipping’ status. Exciting!

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CategoriesActionProgressReframe your thoughts

Make A Plan

Posted on December 12, 2021

It can be a simple plan of a few lines or a more involved plan of 20 pages or more. It depends on what you are trying to achieve.

Regardless, take the notes you’ve written down and start to coordinate them into a plan. You will need a start and a finish date and time. Some first steps. A desired outcome. Milestones are also helpful. And a few moments to breathe, pause, reflect and celebrate.

Like going on a road trip or a vacation, it’s beneficial to have a plan. That does include a budget too! Now you don’t have to have a plan. But that may have led you to where you are today. And unless you are 100% pleased with all of your life’s details at this time, then take my advice on the plan.

Planning itself helps to bring clarity to your thoughts, vision, process and steps. You don’t have to get it right but the process will help you enlighten yourself. There is an element of thinking on paper. Yes, it can feel like work but it doesn’t have to. If it does, put your head down and push through. This essential step towards success should not be overlooked or avoided.

Plan is step four in my upcoming book – Achieve Anything – The 7 Simple Steps to Shift from Uncomfortable to Unstoppable. Making a plan can make people ill at ease or uncomfortable. It’s not just the effort of creating it but the concern or fear of not being able to achieve the desired outcome. Planning makes things real. And real life and effort has real consequences. But if you draft a plan and build on it weekly, you’ll be on your way to unstoppable.

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CategoriesActionObserveReframe your thoughts

Write Your Ideas Down

Posted on December 11, 2021

It’s one thing to think about things. It’s another level to be writing down your thoughts. It is too easy to forget key pieces of information by the next day or a week later.

Writing things down helps you to clarify our thoughts. It also reinforces your thoughts. And it gives you a record of your ideas to look back on.

Scribble down some notes, make some drawings or type things into Notes on your phone. Do whatever you need to do to capture the information you have thought about.

This is a great process to help move you from uncertainty, with ideas all floating in your head, towards developing a plan. Write your ideas down. You’ll be more contented and confident if you do. It’s one more step from Uncomfortable to Unstoppable.

For example, let’s say you want to rent out your house for two years so you can spend the next two years renting a beach side apartment in the Bahamas or Aruba. Write down the rental income, the costs of living in the Bahamas and all the other challenges you’ll need to overcome (parent care, kids, business, flights, food, guilt and time organising it). Get all your thoughts down in one spot to consider all the points. This will be great progress.

Write is step three in my upcoming book – Achieve Anything – The 7 Simple Steps to Shift from Uncomfortable to Unstoppable. A big part of shifting from where you are to where you want to be is turning your thoughts into tangible points.

You are either already uncomfortable with the way things are or it makes you uncomfortable thinking about writing everything down. You might feel exposed. You may realise the excuses you’ve been giving are flimsy and based primarily on fear or uncertainty. Write your ideas down. Get greater clarity. Organise your thoughts. Take action.

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CategoriesActionProgressReframe your thoughts

Overcome Your Obstacles

Posted on December 10, 2021

Everyone has obstacles to overcome. Some may seem harder for you then their’s seem for them. But how would we really know? Maybe you handle obstacles better than they do so yours seem easier or harder.

If you’ve done some thinking, you know there are obstacles in your way, before you even start. You need to honestly acknowledge those obstacles in your way, consider your options and make a plan to get beyond them.

Mostly, your obstacles will be thoughts in your head rather than physical obstacles. You might think that the issue is with some one or some thing, but it usually just needs a little more of your thinking (see yesterday’s blog).

At least write out your obstacles, even if you can’t fix them right away. If you know what they are, you can arrange things so they do not impede your progress much.

Overcome is step two in my upcoming book – Achieve Anything – The 7 Simple Steps to Shift from Uncomfortable to Unstoppable. A big part of shifting from where you are to where you want to be is getting past being uncomfortable. You either are already uncomfortable with the way things are or it makes you uncomfortable trying to overcome your issues and move forward. It’s ok. Let’s take this step forward together.

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CategoriesActionObserveReframe your thoughtsThink About It

Try Thinking

Posted on December 9, 2021

Seriously. Actually thinking. Not remembering. Not reacting. Try thinking about your thoughts, beliefs and values. Think about your philosophical and political views. You should even think about your habits.

What habits do you have? Why do you have them? What did you have for breakfast this morning? Why?

When someone engages with you, really think about what they are saying and why they might be saying it. Become more curious. Get off auto-pilot. It’s harder than you think at first, if you’re really trying. But it does get easier. Try thinking.

Think is the first step of seven in my upcoming book, Achieve Anything. I’m happy to say the book was sent to the printers earlier this week and pre-ordering should be starting soon. Stay tuned!

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CategoriesActionReframe your thoughtsTime

Dream About Your Future

Posted on December 6, 2021

Create some exciting ideas about what you would enjoy in your future life. It could be ideas about next month or next year. You could consider it in terms of years, like 2023, 2032 or 2058. Figure out your age in those years and what you think you would like your life to look like then.

There is no need to spend any time worrying or being concerned about if you will get there or how you will do it. For the moment, just let your mind wander and enjoy the wonderful ideas of your future life. You might have a romantic relationship, spend six or 18 months travelling around the world, or perhaps you have a business that you will create that is doing very well.

Your life is a blank sheet of paper or a clear canvas. You get to decide what you would like to place on that sheet. LeavIng all of your past out of it is an option too. You can recreate yourself or decide that your future won’t simply be an extension of your past. Dream big! Make it exciting.

There are many famous or successful people who came from situations tougher than yours, easier than yours, or just like yours. You can find them and get confirmation that people like you can get to places like that.

If you can choose a great and exciting life, why would you choose anything else? It will not happen overnight but it will happen if you dream about your future, write it down, make a plan and work towards it for at least 5 minutes, every single day. In a few years, you’ll be nodding your head in agreement with me.

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CategoriesGratitudeObserveProgressReframe your thoughtsTime

Things Will Get Better Tomorrow

Posted on December 3, 2021

Sometimes our day doesn’t go how we want it to. It could be something we did or didn’t do. Or, it could be something that others have done or not done. It can even just be down to nature or circumstance. There are countless reasons why your day may not have gone as well as you would have liked.

Regardless of why it didn’t go well, things will get better tomorrow. The immediate impact can feel uncomfortable or even devastating. But hang in there. Time is an incredible thing that allows us to heal. Training the mind to have hope and look forward to brighter days is also very powerful.

Don’t dismay. You are stronger than you think you are. Recognise the hurt or the pain. But also know that pushing through will be the best thing you could ever do. You will be stronger and more experienced. You will rebuild and things will go amazingly well. Have faith. Have hope. Rest for a moment, or a day, and then get back on your path to a better life.

I’m cheering for you!

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CategoriesActionGratitudeHealth & FitnessProgressReframe your thoughts

If Life Is Too Easy

Posted on December 1, 2021

You’ll find a way to mess it up. You don’t have to mess it up, but that does seem to be what many people do.

With ease comes complacency. Then you can fall behind the pack. After that it seems easier to play it cool then to try hard to catch back up. Then the seeds of self-destruction are being sown. You shrug it off and say you don’t care, when inside it is eating at you every minute. Envy, jealousy and hate become commonplace in your mind.

To turn that around you need gratitude. Appreciate all the little and large things in your life. Write it out. Don’t just think about it. Write out, ‘I am grateful for….’ It could be ‘I am grateful for my health, heat in my home, food on my table and a comfortable place to sleep.’

If life is too easy, we don’t appreciate it. There was no struggle. We want to prove we had to struggle so we create some drama. There is no need to do that. There is enough you are already struggling with unless you have the body, finances, relationship, education and career you always wanted. If not, get committed and be disciplined every day until those things are 100% how you want them. Until then, be grateful for every moment of being alive and being able to work toward your dreams.

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CategoriesActionGratitudeReframe your thoughts

Play With What You Have

Posted on November 30, 2021

Sometimes we don’t have all the resources we would like or that others may have. For teams, sometimes a key player is injured or unavailable.

This hit home Monday when I spent the day watching my son Ryker playing with his school rugby team at a major festival. There was a comment made that they didn’t have all their players. The idea seemed to be that they may have done better with more players as there would be fewer tired players, injuries could be rested a bit more and some would have relished the higher level they played at.

I thought that could be true. Their chances of overall success may have been improved. But then I remembered another key player from another team who was still on the injured list since we played them a few weeks ago. What if all the other teams had all their players or more players or their better players?

Life can be quite random. Sometimes it works in your favour and other times it does not. So, play with what you have and do your absolute best with that.

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