Monday Motivating Mindset
THE SECRET
Monday Motivating Mindset
THE HYPE
This weeks Motivating Mindset will help you navigate towards a more fulfilling life.
THE CHALLENGE
Your Mindset challenge this week is getting in the habit of asking yourself:
"How did I get to where I am at right now?"
THE PROMISE
Ask yourself this question as soon as possible and you will become more appreciative of your life's experiences.
THE TIPS
No matter who you are on this planet the quality of your life experience will depend on three things.
1. An ability to ask yourself questions. Quality questions about you, the environment you operate in and the world you live in.
2. An ability to answer your own questions honestly, without judgment or attachment. Let the information speak for itself and lead you to the truth.
3. An ability to recall and apply the answers you discover at the appropriate time.
If you are missing any one or more of these things at any given time then your chances of success are slim to none.
The better the questions the better one's life potentially. A great question to ask yourself to gain more perspective on your life is:
"How did I get to where I am at right now?"
Where are you on the road of your life. If it was represented by an oval race track, how far along the race are you already?
Are you winning? Are you even aware that you are hurling through space of time in the race of your life against time?
The car company Volkswagen were wise beyond their time when they stated in their commercials that "On the road of life there are passengers and there are drivers."
When it comes to feeling alive and in control of life are you a passenger or a driver?
Passengers like to watch other people while wishing they could be, do, or have more and are often jealous or envious of others.
Drivers on the other hand prefer to grab the bull by the horns, take control and steer their own destiny.
So why do people avoid popping the hood from time-to-time and taking a look at our engines?
For some passengers it's because they don't know how.
Yet when you think about it... No one is more qualified to figure out how to drive the custom make and model called 'you'.
Other passengers are reluctant to stop for for directions because they feel they can't afford to waste the time.
However, the logic in that statement is like saying you are too busy to stop for gas, because you are too busy driving.
Sooner or later this delusional thinking is going to catch up to you.
When is the last time you took a look to see where your life was heading?
Drivers ask them self the question "How did I get to where I am at right now?" because it can lead to increased self-awareness.
The better you know the vehicle you are driving the better you can tweak it to perform right?
Therefore the mark of a good driver is their ability to investigate the merits of the beaten path and the road less traveled.
Aristotle said that "the mark of an educated or mature mind is its ability to entertain a thought without accepting it".
Become an observer of your self and begin to write down the skills, habits and attitudes that have brought you to this point in your life.
Good, 'bad', or indifferent the more information you uncover the more you will empower yourself.
The more empowered you become the more you will be able to renovate skills and replace unwanted habits.
If you are already successful or have a list of talents, skills and abilities then perhaps it is time to share them?
Is it possible to find a mastermind group to share your wisdom with, or become a mentor to lend your experiences to somebody who needs you?
If you don't have a big list of assets, or even if you felt you didn't have any at all, isn't it possible to grow some?
The best part about life is that no matter how long you have been on cruise control you can always start driving immediately.
THE SECRET
The true measure of a person's life, regardless of race or religion, is whether they lived in alignment with their purpose.
Did they do the work they were designed to do on this Earth? How well did they faithfully express their energy, passion, love?
There are three ways to measure a person's alignment with their purpose, acceptance, allowance and appreciation.
Acceptance can be regarded as the ability to look into your past and accept the things you cannot change.
A person must get comfortable with past failures and release their regrets before they can really grow.
Allowance is the ability to look into your future and be fully in the moment without resistance.
One of the most crucial ways to let go of resistance is to find a way to forgive. Forgive yourself, whoever, or whatever hurt you at all costs.
Appreciation is the ability to be alive and feel at peace in any moment.
Feel gratitude for all of your experiences and place your intention on perceiving your past in a powerful way.
It is not looking into your past that is important part but the ability to be able to do so freely without identifying with it.
Can you experience your past in a detached manner, away from the feelings or at least associating yourself with them.
Successful people are not afraid to take stock of their inventory of habits, skills and experiences.
They reduce or eliminate judgement regarding their past and put a hold on all assumptions about the future.
You will learn to become grateful about life's ups and downs after realizing that both the 'good' and the 'bad' are needed.
If there was no 'tall' there would be no measure for 'small'. If there was no 'black' there would be no reference for 'white'.
If there was no 'up' the direction 'down' would lose its current spatial significance.
The true nature of reality is that we require all opposites and polarities to balance this universe. It takes all sorts.
Your courage is required to look in the past and clear any unprocessed emotion that is blocking your success.
Your commitment to clarity will help clear confusion and create a path to take you to the next level.
A great question that encourages self-discovery is to ask yourself:
"How did I get to where I am at right now?"
Monday Motivating Mindset
THE HYPE
This weeks Motivating Mindset will help you live a full and rewarding life.
THE CHALLENGE
Your Mindset challenge this week is getting in the habit of asking yourself:
"How am I spending the prime-time of my life?"
THE PROMISE
Ask yourself this question every day this week and you will become more aware of where your time is spent and how to manage it more effectively.
THE TIPS
No matter who you are or where you are, no matter what you do or how you do it, no matter your background or your beliefs we all share one common unit of measurement... Time.
Time is the single most precious resource on the planet. You can drill for more oil, you can pan for more gold and mine for more diamonds, but you can never do anything to get more time.
Everything you do in life requires time to do it yet time can never be replaced or replenished.
Time happens to every one at a rate of one second per second regardless of how you choose to spend it.
It is a fact that you will always find, make and spend time on the activities that you place the highest value on.
However, because humans are usually conscious only about 10% of the time, we often subconsciously spend our time in lower-payoff activities.
Ask yourself "How am I spending the prime-time of my life?" to get a better picture of how you are painting the masterpiece known as your life.
As you ask and answer the question more often you will become more conscious and aware how you are spending your precious time.
Make sure that you are organizing and allocating an appropriate amount of time on your highest value activities.
High value activities are those areas in your life that provide a return on investment for your time and energy.
Such areas offering a return on energy could be a rewarding career, a fulfilling friendship or a rewarding relationship.
Another high payoff activity would be following your dreams, chasing your goosebumps and pursuing your passion.
Time is the only unit of currency that you can use to pay for your high-value activities. No other substitute will work.
Time can only be redistributed from the manner and means in which you are currently using it.
Just like you only have two hands to carry things, and when both hands are full in order to pick something else up, you have to first put something down.
In order for you to open the next door when opportunity knocks you must first close the current door.
Before you can do anything new or get into something, you will have to get out of something else and stop doing the old thing.
Accordingly, you must learn to be productive and proactive about the manner that you allocate your time.
If you fail to plan effectively your matters of time, it is only a matter of time before you are effectively planning to fail.
The goal of time mastery is to continually tweak your lifestyle so that you cut out the areas that no longer support your joy and re-organize your time so it is spent achieving peace, harmony and balance.
Every new moment that unfolds brings with it the gift of choice to move closer towards or further away from this goal.
Ensure that you are only taking on the opportunities move you further towards immediate joy and further away from future regret.
On a regular basis your job is to stand back and take inventory of how you are spending your time.
Sometimes you will have to take a pause for the cause, stop the clock and do some serious soul searching about where you are going.
Life will only start to make sense and feel good when you begin to organize it around the specific goals, dreams and aspirations that you desire.
Evaluating your activities in the light of what is really important to you, is the essence of time-management and the basis of life-management.
Asking yourself "How am I spending the prime-time of my life?" will help you allocate the right attitude towards your highest value actions and activities.
THE SECRET
The very act of taking a moment to think about your time before you spend it will begin to immediately improve your time management.
Asking yourself "How am I spending the prime-time of my life?" during three specific times of the day will make your daily motions even more masterful.
The first time of day to ask yourself the question is during the first hour that you are awake.
Some experts refer to the first hour that you wake up to as the "Golden Hour" because it has such a profound impact on the rest of your day.
Wake up and within the first hour ask yourself "How am I spending the prime-time of my life?" to find ways you can become more grateful.
If you have heard of the Law of Attraction you know that like-energy attract the same.
Therefore your efforts of gratitude during the golden hour will set the tone of energy that will return to you throughout the rest of the day.
The next time of day to ask yourself "How am I spending the prime-time of my life?" is during your most productive time of the day.
The most productive time of the day differs from person to person and sometime varies throughout their lifetime.
However, most people know there most productive time of the day because of the way that they tend to feel in this state.
During your most productive time of the day you will be mentally alert, physically poised, energetic, enthusiastic, and ready to tackle anything that comes your way.
For some people this is first thing in the morning, coinciding with their golden hour, for others it will be later in the day after coffee, for others still maybe early evening.
Take notice at what times of the day you seem to be most on your game and mark it down throughout this week.
Once you have a weeks worth of history take a look to see if you can spot the time of day that you naturally reach this state of mind.
Once you have identified the time of day, try and organize your highest payoff activities and actions around this time to ensure that you are working on your best when you are at your best.
The last time of day to ask yourself the question of "How am I spending the prime-time of my life?" is around 7pm-9pm every day.
The time from 7:00pm to 9:00pm is also regarded as "prime-time" and this can be confirmed by your television guide.
The T.V. networks schedule their most popular shows for this time because that is when the majority of people watch television.
Although just because the majority of people do it, doesn't make it right, in fact, spending your prime-time watching T.V. is probably not the best thing to do.
The prime-time of your life between 7:00pm and 9:00pm can be spent a number of ways that yield a higher payoff.
For example, re-allocating watching the T.V. and putting it towards to your family, loved-ones or even yourself is time better spent in the long-term.
You could even use this prime-time of your life to learn a new skill, join a networking or hobby group, or just find some quiet time for yourself.
However in order to get your time management under control you must first decide very clearly upon your priorities.
You must decide on the most important things that you could possible be doing to give yourself the most amount of joy, happiness, and fulfillment in life.
Ask yourself "How am I spending the prime-time of my life?" as often as possible this week and you will be soon enjoying the time of your life.
Monday Motivating Mindset
THE HYPE
This weeks Motivating Mindset will put a new spin on the way you think long-term about your life.
THE CHALLENGE
Your Mindset challenge this week is getting in the habit of asking yourself:
"What am I giving up by seeing only the short term?"
THE PROMISE
Ask yourself this question during as many decisions as possible this week and you will begin to see life from more of a long-term perspective.
THE TIPS
A great question to ask the next time you are faced with a decision that you must weigh the consequences is "What am I giving up by seeing only the short term?"
The point of this question is to get you to consider both the short and long-term implications of your decision.
Many times we hastily make rash decisions without considering the effects until after it's too late, or sometimes not considering them at all.
For example, if you were offered a choice between having $1,000 cash in your pocket this very moment or waiting a full year and receiving $1,500, the majority of people would go with the quick money.
What would you choose?
90% of people would choose the smaller amount even though they would get 50% more if they waited and even when they had to do nothing in addition to claim the larger amount.
How does this play out when it comes to saving and investing your money?
The person who picks the $1,000 is more likely to have less savings and investments than the person who chooses to wait for the $1,500.
While there is nothing inherently wrong with choosing the smaller amount to enjoy sooner, the long-term implications of choosing this, means that over time you will find it more and more difficult to choose the larger amount later.
We are constantly building neural networks in the brain, hard-wiring the brain with choices and decisions into associations and identities.
An identity is simply a pattern of thought that you have bought over a period of time.
By continually focusing on a smaller result you may receive the reward sooner but in reality you are strengthening a long-term identity that will hold you hostage and keep you playing small.
This is because when left to it's own choice, the mind has the tendency to want to do the minimal to get by, to avoid rocking the boat and to stay in your comfort zone.
What this translates into is the automatic sacrifice of long-term rewards for a short-term gains.
An example that illustrates this is picturing a hockey game where one team is 100% motivated by defense and no one ever attempts to score on the other team.
While this strategy (if you want to call it one) would lead to short term results, i.e. feeling good that the other team would have a very tough time scoring, the long-term implications are that they would never win a game because they are ignoring the bigger picture and not doing what it takes to win.
How often are you faced with situations that play out like this hockey game?
How often do you continue to allow yourself to play defense only, to not take risks and try and score a goal?
For example, if you are currently single it may seem easier not to talk to that handsome man you run into at the supermarket every week.
It may seem easier not to expose yourself to the possibility of being rejected or having to participate in an awkward conversation.
However, ask yourself "What am I giving up by seeing only the short term?" to help you break-free of the tendency to remain in your comfort zone.
Perhaps answering the question in this example you might come up with answers such as: "I am giving up the chance to find a significant other" or "I am giving up the potential of meeting my future husband, the father of my kids, or passing by the companion I've been searching for all my life".
When you come up with answers adopted from a long-term perspective it helps reframe the current situation and make new decisions.
Taking time to consider new answers and information is important if you are looking to break-free from an old habit.
In life you have a choice, either attempt to acquire something smaller sooner or wait to develop something that is larger later.
Apply this weeks motivating mindset to areas such as relationships, finances and weight loss and you will be surprised at what type of long-term results you can achieve.
THE SECRET
If you aren't growing in an area of your life then by the contrary you must be dying.
Who would you like to grow yourself into? What areas of your life are important to you? Where are your values placed?
If you aren't sure who, what or where a good starting place is to examine your current history, results and actions.
How do you spend your time right now? Where have you been placing your energy, attention and focus?
Answer this question openly and honestly and you will shed some light on what is most important to you right now.
After you're aware of your life values your next goal is to ensure you devote the proper time and attention to supports these areas.
Developing patience with yourself and with the people that you care about is just as important as experiencing the actual growth itself.
Continually asking yourself the question "What am I giving up by seeing only the short term?" helps you realize the validity behind the saying "patience is a virtue"
Beware that time is an ongoing illusion that is capable of hiding the small steps we take and the incremental growth we make.
It is easy to make the mistake of believing that you haven't accomplished anything.
It is easy for the results of your efforts to be obscured by the present reality.
Understand that your present reality is merely a reflection of the choices you made previously in your past years, months and days.
In order for your new decisions to take affect and to see external results, you must patiently wait for days, months and even possibly years.
Keep in mind that just because you cannot see the change happening doesn't mean it isn't.
For instance, have you ever seen first-hand the drift between the continental plates?
What about ever witnessing your fingernails growing?
You probably didn't notice either because they both happen at an average growth rate of 0.1 mm each day (1 centimeter in 100 days).
Yet these forces continue to happen undetected as we speak and one day, sooner or later, you may be forced to respond to this growth.
You will probably choose to cut your fingernails when they get too long or there may be an earth quake or tsunami from the plate tectonics colliding.
Seen or unseen everyday life is unfolding before your very eyes.
The direction that your life unfolds takes place in the small and seemingly unimportant choices that you make every day.
Take a moment to write down the skills, talents and higher visions that are unfolding inside of you right now.
You may have heard the say that "Rome wasn't built in a day" well neither should the gifts that you offer the world.
Buying into rewards that are smaller sooner is only an illusion and is not a shortcut that leads to long-term success.
Ask yourself "What am I giving up by seeing only the short term?" to help you realize your long-term vision.
Inescapable Truths
"Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness." — Edward Stanley
Question
Whether you like it or not you will soon have to deal with one of two pains.
The pain of self-discipline.
Or the pain of regret.
Self-discipline you feel at first.
Regret you feel forever.
What are you doing today to move yourself forward?
Four Rules of Time - By Brian Tracy
There are four rules of time.
The first is that time is perishable.
This means that it cannot be saved. In fact, time can only be spent. Because time is perishable, the only thing you can do with it is to spend it differently, to reallocate your time away from activities of low value and toward activities of higher value. But once it is gone, it is gone forever.
Time is Indispensable
The second rule of time is that time is indispensable. All work requires time. No matter what it is you want to do in life, even looking out a window or sleeping in for a few extra minutes, it requires a certain amount of time. And according to the 10/90 Rule, the 10% of time that you take to plan your activities carefully in advance will save you 90% of the effort involved in achieving your goals later. The very act of thinking through and planning your work in advance will dramatically reduce the amount of time that it takes you to do the actual job.
The Currency of the Future
The third rule of time is that time is irreplaceable. Nothing else will do, especially in relationships. Time is the only currency that means anything in your relationships with the members of your family, your friends, colleagues, customers and coworkers. Truly effective people give a lot of thought to creating blocks of time that they can then spend, without interruption, with the important people in their lives.
Spell the Word Correctly
There is a question: "How do children spell the word 'Love?'" And the answer is "T-I-M-E." It is the same with your spouse, as well. The important people in your life equate the amount of time that you spend with them, face to face, head to head, knee to knee, with the amount that you actually love them. Grow Your RelationshipsThe more time that you spend with another person, especially a member of your family, the deeper grows your understanding and affection for that person. If you get too busy to spend time with your children, you eventually lose contact with them and they go off into their own personal world of school, peers and other activities.
The Key to Goal-Achievement
The fourth rule is that time is essential for accomplishment. Every goal you want to achieve, everything you want to accomplish, requires time. In fact, one of the smartest things you ever do, when you set a goal, is to sit down and allocate the exact amount of time that you are going to have to invest to achieve that goal. The failure to do this almost always leaves the goal unaccomplished.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action: First, decide today to redirect and reallocate your time away from low-value tasks and toward high-value activities.
Second, make a plan to spend more time face-to-face with the most important people in your life. The more you think about the use of your time, the better you will become.
