1 | Start with the end in mind
Set yourself goals, they could be great big scary goals or smaller,easier to imagine yourself achieving them goals but if you don’t set goals then you are going to drift from one thing to the next. Setting goals doesn’t mean you can’t change your mind but it does mean you are going in the direction you choose and it lets you look back and see how far you’ve come.
If you’ve never set goals before do it NOW! I’m writing this in January which is as a perfect time for goal setting but if you’re reading this at another time of year and you’ve never made goals start now don’t wait for next January.
My favourite expert on setting goals is Brian Tracy so if you want to set goals for yourself but don’t know where to start take a look at one of his books
2 | Stay healthy from the inside out
When I was stressed out, anxious and eventually depressed while working in a job that I loved but which was ultimately toxic for me I knew I should exercise more. I knew exercise was good for depression yet at the end of a long and challenging day I had no energy to even think about exercising. I had constant headaches, backache, colds etc. The only exercise I got was opening a bottle of wine. I burnt out because I let things get really bad and learned the hard way that I had to take better care of myself. Now I put myself and my health first. I can’t fulfil my many obligations to family and clients if I’m not mentally and physically well.
Now I make sure I look after my mind by meditating, EFT or some other form of personal development work and I look after my body and my energy levels by putting good stuff into it.
3 | Get up earlier
I don’t like getting up early but I do like that quiet time and how much I get done before everyone else gets up. I used to find it really hard to get up early when I didn’t have a “proper job”. The snooze button was just too tempting or even if I didn’t go back to sleep I would lie awake and waste time on my mobile looking at Facebook or Twitter instead of getting up and doing something productive. Now I plug my mobile in on the other side of the bedroom. I set the alarm on it for 5 minutes after my bedside alarm. That means that when the alarm goes off I can silence it before it wakes anyone else but I know I have to get out of bed to switch the second alarm off before the rest of the house is woken.
4 | Balance learning with doing
I have always loved reading and learning new things but when I started my business I got stuck in learning mode. It was also one of the reasons I used for not exercising, I had too much to learn, I told myself I would exercise once my business was successful. I knew that constantly learning was one of the keys to success but I had so much information in my head that I ended up with “analysis paralysis” I knew I had to get tough with myself so now I limit my learning time to no more than an hour a day and when I learn something new I implement it before I move onto the next book or programme.
Then I discovered Audible.com and now I combine my hours learning with an hours exercise each day. It’s simply audiobooks that are bought from an app on your phone. They have all of the best personal development books available and the best part is that you can change the speed. I often find that people in videos and MP3’s talk too slowly for me and I get bored but the app has the option to speed up the recording and it doesn’t sound all weird either.
The first book I downloaded and listened to was Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who’s money mindset needs some work. You can get a free audiobook at the moment too just for trying it out, just click the image below.
5 | Reset your brain
Being “on” all of the time is not healthy but it’s becoming more and more difficult in this 24/7 world to have time and space to “reset”. Your brain is just like a computer, sometimes it gets overheated or “stuck” and needs to be switched off and on again. The easiest way I have found to do that is with regular meditation or a walk along the beach. If you have got into the habit of being too busy to stop then I guarantee you aren’t at your most productive when you are like that. Take time out before your body makes you and you will be much more productive afterwards.
