BUILD HABITS THAT WORK FOR YOU, NOT AGAINST YOU
Welcome to the 2nd part of the Roadmap to Success Series. Today, we will look into how we can build habits that will help to succeed in achieving your goals.
(If you've missed Phase 1 of this exercise, please make sure you go check it out here.)
Let's get clear and excited towards your goal every day
For Phase 1, I left you to make your conscious choice every day, fiercely and constantly protecting your goals. Now let’s talk about how.
If you're setting your visions and goal about the destination of your life journey, you need to be intentional on a daily basis to make sure you are moving towards those goals.
Achieving big goals is about moving forward step-by-step, stacking brick-by-brick, accumulating small achievements, on top of small achievements, on top of small achievements, that get you there one day after the next.
The essential of working to become more productive is really just about figuring out how to do the things that matter, with your strong desire and full focus, on a more consistent basis day by day.
To do this, we're going to plan our essential MORNING and EVENING routines and healthy habits:
DEVELOPING YOUR MORNING ROUTINE
There are 6 steps to planning your morning routine:
- Start With Your Health
- Get Clear On & Review Key Objectives
- Find Your Why
- Build Your Habits
- Create Rules (aka Time Blocking)
- Clear Your Mindset to full potential
1. Start with your health
What exercise or movement habits you can add to your morning routine?
What morning foods will keep your energy high throughout the day? What eating schedule keeps you in peak performance?
2. Get clear on your goals, weekly objectives, and daily must-have results
WEEKLY: Review your 3-month and long-term goals at least once per week. Write down what day/time you will review them below (eg: Sunday evening? Monday morning?): Then write 3 big goals for the WEEK that when accomplished, will move you toward your goals. Then, each morning, write your top 3 must-do items for the DAY that will move you toward your goals. Remember, just because we’ve set these must-have results doesn’t mean we’re always going to accomplish them. There are always up-and-downs, but we’re doing everything possible to stack the odds in our favour.
3. Find your "Why"
You need to find the meaning (purpose) for why you want to achieve these tasks and goals. In order to feel fulfilled, you need to think not only about how it can benefit your life but how it can create value for others.
What’s your why? Why do you do what you do? Who does your work benefit?
4. Plan for your new habits
Habits drive our actions and cause results in life. It takes time to develop a new habit. Therefore, daily tracking keeps reminding you of the things that matter and helps you stay in the direction toward your goals.
Habits include not just those around productivity and work, but all areas of your life. Pick at least 3 morning habits to incorporate into your day. These might include:
- Preparing your body & brain for being productive during the day. (e.g.: exercise, nourishing foods)
- Creating clarity & purpose for your day with mindfulness. (e.g.: meditation)
- Removing any mental blocks to be fully present with confidence for the day. (e.g.:journalling)
Write down your 3 new morning habits.
Next, Pick 1 "happiness habit" for related to the below areas of life. These are habits that make you feel happy, connected, and fulfilled.
- Exercise
- Food/Nutrition
- Relationships
- Personal learning
- Friendships
- Spirituality
Create a habit tracker spreadsheet or checklist so you can stay on track towards achieving your goals. Here's a sample with many variations that you can download.
5. Time blocking your habits
If you want to stay on track towards accomplishing your goals, you have to learn to be in charge of your own rules to build effective habits. Rules and disciplines do not take away your freedom, rather create freedom.
Whose rules are you playing by? Ask yourself right now if your rules create freedom, peace of mind, get you closer to achieving your dreams rather than keeping you stuck. Write your brief thoughts on your current “rules” below.
A lack of discipline and control over the rules of your life does NOT create more freedom, instead ineffectiveness even chaos.
If you follow and gain control of the rules of your life, you’ll set yourself free.
Weekly Time Blocking
Block your days as either People Days or Focus Days and outline the rules for each day. (e.g.: you may decide to decline meeting requests on Fridays, make Tuesday a networking day, or Wednesday a personal day)
Write your plan down for everyday:
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
Daily Time Blocking
Set aside certain hours of the day for certain tasks. These could include email time, personal development, lunch, workout/exercise, your morning routine. Block out as much or as little of your day as you need (Don't forget it can change day to day if needed).
6. Eliminate doubts and fears to unlock your full potential
This is really critical because most people don't understand how much stress, anxiety, frustration, anger, fear or other negative emotions actually limits our brain and body. (and thus, our potential!)
Clearing the mindset will ensure that you don't get stuck in fear or comparison/competition, or anything else that can stop you in your tracks.
Not doing this part is where most people fail to achieve their goals/success. Because they only work on the to-do list and ignore/unconscious about the stuff going on that is really running the show for all of us.
There are several effective ways to clear your negative thoughts and feelings, such as meditation, yoga, and tapping. I personally like to start my day with meditation.
Here's a great process to clear your mind:
- Start by connecting to what you're currently feeling or a challenge you’re facing.
- Pause, take a deep breath, feel into your body, and ask yourself, “What is causing my stress right now. What am I most stressed, or worried, or anxious about?”
- Create the positive emotions you want to feel. Address your negative emotions
There are two primary reasons that hold people back from taking actions on those tasks that actually move us towards achieving our big goals:
A) What We Think and Believe About Ourselves
The things that we think and believe about ourselves that limit us and hold us back are our self-doubts, such as I’m:
- not good enough.
- not smart enough.
- not working hard enough.
- not loveable or likeable.
- not capable in some way.
Most people don't realize they have to first clear their negative internal voices, beliefs, and emotions and set their mindset to the achiever direction before they can achieve success.
B) What We Think Others Think About Us
These fears can be either real or perceived. The truth is most of the time it’s perceived!
Let’s Explore: Who do you compare yourself with? Whose opinions do you worry about? If you were to suddenly become much more productive, confident, and successful, what do you think other people would say? Who do you think might judge you for even trying to do more with your life?
Check in daily with yourself, and be aware (as often as possible): Is there anything causing me to doubt myself, my ability, or my goals today? How do I feel about it in my body? Do I have any fears of sharing my ideas, speaking up, or being my full self to day because of what others will think or say? How do I feel in my body?
Write your first daily check-in.
Build your Confidence
Now it's time to create the mindset that paves the way to your dreams/success. Ask yourself: How do I want to feel when I achieve my goals/dreams? What do I choose to believe about myself today that will empower me to be at my best to achieve these goals?
DEVELOPING YOUR EVENING ROUTINE
Your evening routine can be a great opportunity for reflection so you can end your day and go to sleep feeling happier, more fulfilled, and relaxed.
Your routine starts with the 5 R habits:
1: Reflect
Journal about your day. What went well, what did you feel, what do you want to remember about this day? Write about this day with no filter:
2: Review
Review how you felt the day went based on some of the intentions you set at the beginning of the day.
Try rating yourself for the following questions on a scale of 0-10:
- How happy am I with my results today?
- How well did I manage my emotional state today?
- How strong were my focus and energy today?
- How connected did I stay to my Why today?
- How confident and courageous was I today?
- How well did I follow my own voice and ignore the judgments of others today?
3: Release
Release and let go, and get some good quality sleep. What do you need to release and forgive yourself from today?
4: Recalibrate
Ask yourself, “What do I choose to believe about myself, and this day that will allow me to relax and sleep?”
What’s the one thing I did really well today?
5: Reconnect
Reconnect to gratitude and the things that really matter most in your life. Write down 3 things you are grateful for from this day. And tune in to the gratitude that makes you feel good. (I would end my day with a sleep meditation to tune in to that gratitude) I am grateful for...
So that's the end of part 2. What did you think about it? Did you write down and go through every step? How do you after you sorted through this practice?
Once you're ready after reflecting on your habits and what you need to do, let's move on to Phase 3: Your bi-weekly review to stay on track