Hi Friend!
Vanessa and I are still fine tuning our 2019 goals and scheduling them, so 'tis the season to reflect, dream, record, plan and take action.
Distractions And one of the best ways to keep your focus, is to do what New England Patriots, head coach, Bill Belichek always teaches his players and that's to avoid distractions.
If you know what's important to you AND what's not important to you.
If you have dreams you've turned into goals by recording them down.
If you've broken the goals down into steps and scheduled them,
then while you're taking action on those steps, you've gotta avoid the distractions, otherwise your focus will wain.
Crusty Bread If you've ever had a garden and/or a lawn, and you want your garden to produce beautiful flowers and/or produce and you want your lawn to be thick, green and lush, then the last thing you want is weeds.
To have fertile soil to grow beautiful things, you need good natural fertilizers.
To have a fertile mind, you also need good natural fertilizer.
The easiest thing to do, which is also easy not to do, is put good things into your mind vs. not good things. Here's what Jim Rohn said, in the Art of Exceptional Living (Abridged CD, Track 1k, 0:38).
“Now here’s a little personal advice, ... skip the trash. Somebody says well, sometimes you can find something valuable in a trashy novel. I wouldn’t go through it to find it. You can find a crust of bread in a garbage can, but I wouldn’t go through it. #1 you don’t need the reputation. So not enough time to read the brilliant stuff. The good stuff. Skip the trash really.”
Low Information Diet To piggy back on this and if you believe in lifestyle design, which means you design your life on purpose, you have to strengthen the gate keeper to what influences you. If you're serious about turning your dreams into reality, and making your goals happen, you have to choose what information you're going to consume and what you're not. MOST ESPECIALLY, when you're MOST INFLUENCEABLE (which is tired, stressed, the end of the day, beginning of the day, when you're waiting, down time, after bad news, after good news, when you're feeling low, when you're feeling high, etc ...).
The Benjamin Hardy article I shared with you the other day, is fascinating to me and very timely. And one of the quotes he shared, is a perfect compliment to avoiding distractions and avoiding low information. Jason Fried, Basecamp Founder said,
"I’m pretty oblivious to a lot of things intentionally. I don’t want to be influenced that much.”
Powerful.
Whatever distracts you from what's important to you. Whatever isn't fertilizer for your mind. Whatever puts weeds in your garden.
...gets put in whatever bucket you put all the other things you've decided in the past that you're not going to do, consume or participate in.
Conversely,
Using all those influenceable moments, when you're not your strongest and/or you're too high and you're most vulnerable, to look at your written goals on the paper you carry in your pocket, or your journal or your desktop or your wall, or your mirror, etc..., (mine are on a scribbled paper from Vivi), to reflect and imagine what it'll be like when you achieve those goals.
What it'll feel like with all your senses. What people will say. What you'll think and say about yourself. What life will be like. What you'll be able to do. What'll happen next because of this achievement.
Then visualize who you became to achieve those goals. What you chose and what you didn't choose. What you sacrificed. What you didn't sacrifice. Why it was worth it. How boundaries were good for you. How doing whatever it took within those boundaries made it all worthwhile because you didn't sacrifice what's most important, but you did sacrifice what's wasn't.
When you do all of that and you come back to the present, choose to take another small step towards your goals. Do an actual action step from your list or if that's not possible choose to fertilize your mind in a way that makes you better or contributes to your pursuit. Avoid the crusts of bread and go for the good stuff.
Changing Minds and Changing Bodies Right now, my clients, my family and I are starting fresh. We're back to basics to set our foundations for another great year and for the chance to become more than we were last year. We're focusing on moving well and getting our bodies strong and durable so we can keep showing up. We're starting slow, so later we can go fast. There's a saying in the strength & conditioning world, that you don't run to get in shape, you get in shape to run and that's what we're doing. We're getting in shape to run so we can run towards what's important.
We're also practicing Work + Rest = Success because we know that Work Hard, Play Hard is false bravado of youth (I know and you probably do to).
Work Hard + Play Hard = Crash & Burn.
So we rest to be our best and then come back stronger.
Take Action Think about your goals. Find a scrap of paper, not a smart phone. Write down your goal or if you have different goals, fold the paper up in a way to make enough squares for each of your goals. Read it. Put it in your pocket, bag or coat.
And re-read it during the super high times, the super low times and all the times you might have chosen the Crust of Bread. Imagine. Feel. Work backwards to now. Take Action.
Then repeat again and again for this goal and then the goal that comes after this one.
Working these steps with you,
Coach Mike
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