If you focus on you and make your life the best it can possibly be (health, fitness, wealth, relationships and spiritual elements), you will be independent and happy. No one will need to come and save you.
But if you focus on others, and let your elements drift and become burdensome, then you’re going to need help from others. You don’t need to do that.
So focus on making your life better every day.
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.
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.
If you want to succeed or excel, pay someone to keep you accountable.
This is the magic of Weight Watchers, a job with a boss, a coach or even a parent (Though the pay is negligible).
Get someone who will actually push you and ignore your excuses and all attempts to stay stuck where you are.
You can try to do it on your own, but very few have that level of discipline.
Splurge. Set a budget for someone 5 minutes a day to get on your case. They can track your progress too. They can also help you see your own excuses for why you are not being disciplined. (Hint: you don’t want it bad enough to put the effort required in)
Do you want success or just someone to listen to why you can’t be bothered to fight hard for your own goals?
Every day in January, spend 1 hour clearing out a drawer, the left side of a cupboard or a shelf.
Donate, toss or use it. Clear out your life. Why do you have all this stuff? If it doesn’t bring you tremendous joy, make room for something that does – and that could just be uncluttered space.
If 1 hour every day doesn’t work for you, try to do it all across two separate, 8 hour days. Or, two hours, every other day. Make a firm and specific plan that works for you and then stick to it.
The decluttered space will be a joy to be in every day for the 11 remaining months of the year.
Start your grand improvements today. Do not say you’ll start tomorrow, Saturday or Monday. If you seriously want to make a change in a habit or behaviour, why would you put it off for a day or three?
Seriously, you either start right now or you’re not really that serious in the goal or its success.
It’s so easy to put things off. That just tells everyone you’re more talk than action. Instead, be an action and results type person. Start that today.
When you’re all ready and you’ve done your prep, just relax and enjoy the show.
Will you feel exactly the same in 12 months? Or will you have actually done those things you wanted to do?
It’s all down to whether you really want them bad enough and you’re willing to do the work. And you are willing to sacrifice and let go of the current you to become the you you say you want to be.
Over to you!
