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Productivity
Keep Your Productivity On Track Through Any Obstacles
Building a business can be an exciting time in your life. It can also be one of the most stressful and frustrating times for you. Any time that you start to do something – to move forward – things will crop up that stand in your way, threatening your success.
These conflicts can arise in many different areas – and they can affect the level of productivity that you have. Learn to recognize these obstacles and how you can successfully keep on track when they do appear.
The problems overlap between your personal and professional lives. For example, problems at work can cause hostility at home, and vice versa. You need to become a master at handling obstacles with ease.
Being Overwhelmed Can Impact Productivity
There are what seem to be a million tasks to get done every day in a business. You have to keep up with the day-to-day tasks while trying to juggle the new things that pop up.
Trying to grow your business while maintaining what you already have can quickly become overwhelming. This is why you need to have a schedule for when tasks need to be completed.
You can’t control when the unexpected happens, but by sticking to a schedule, you have a better chance at getting things done. If an obstacle arises that tanks a days’ worth of productivity, you need to map out a plan to double up on other days until you’re back on schedule.
You need a task list. Every single thing that you have to accomplish each day for your business should be on this list. Whatever impacts your business the most should be at the top of this list.
By doing this, you can prioritize the tasks in order of importance. The first few tasks on your list should be whatever it is that you have to get done in order to keep the business functioning.
You have to keep the doors open or the site operational, keep the sales coming in and the payroll going, and keep the customers happy for positive word of mouth and steady growth.
Figure out what tasks you have to do that will profit or benefit your company today. If the task is something that will provide you with a profit in the same week, make that task a priority.
However, if it’s something that won’t make a difference immediately, you can put that off until a later date and time. Some business owners find it helpful to use one of the “year at a glance” calendars to keep track of the tasks that have to be done in the future for their business.
If you’re dealing with feeling overwhelmed, then it’s highly possible that you’ve taken on too much responsibility. In order to stay on track with productivity, you’ll need to find a way to delegate or outsource what can be passed on for someone else to do.
It can be easy in any business to take on too much. The shiny new object syndrome can make you feel a need to try something different in the hopes of improving your business.
Then before you know it, you have twenty different things going on that, instead of helping your business, is slowly grinding it to a halt. If any task manager or any organizational tool takes you longer to actually use it than the benefit it offers, get rid of it.
This could be contributing to the obstacle of being overwhelmed. Simplify anything you can to keep productivity moving along when you’re struggling. That means if you spent money on a software tool that is too confusing to use and has a steep learning, stop using it.
Chalk it up to a lesson learned. If you have to simplify things by turning to a spiral notebook and a pen or pencil, then do that – if you find that you make more progress that way.
Some business owners find it helpful to seek a mentor when they’re feeling overwhelmed, while others turn the services of a coach to help them clearly see their goals and how things are fitting into their lives.
One of the biggest issues in a business that can trigger being overwhelmed to the point that it slows productivity is clutter. If you have a cluttered office or a cluttered system online, it can make it difficult for you to find what you need when you need it.
Keep everything organized as you go along to prevent this from being an obstacle. Sometimes that means letting go of projects you once thought were viable, but never have time for.
The Obstacle Of Time Management
Taking on too much at once can lead to a time crunch. So can procrastination. The problem in a lot of businesses is a lack of planning for every step of a project – especially if the project isn’t due right away.
It can be too easy to think that you have plenty of time, so you do other projects first (or, if we’re honest, waste time on social networking site). Then before you know it, you’re suddenly faced with this deadline or launch date – and you’re not sure that you’ll have enough time to get it done.
Everything that you need to take care of in your business should have an action plan. You should know every area of your business that has a completion date. One of the easiest ways to blow your reputation is by being the person who can’t get jobs completed when you say they’ll get done.
A simple way around the obstacle of time management issues that slow your productivity is to make sure that each project you have going on has a detailed list of action steps.
You don’t want to tackle a big project all at once. It can lead to you feeling overwhelmed. The best way to handle this is to break down the project into mini tasks.
Use a calendar or other means to divide the project up into chunks. If you have a project that you know is going to take three months to complete, then do a little bit of work on it each week.
This way, when the due date arrives, you can be finished up with plenty of time to have done the job thoroughly and professionally. Rushed jobs can often affect the quality of the finished product and you don’t want to present work that’s less than your best effort.
To help with time management obstacles, you can outsource some of the work. Take the work that someone else can do that’s usually a big time drain and pass it off.
You can still get the work done, but free yourself up to do other tasks. If you’re in the business of supplying information products and you handle everything from the writing to the graphics to the formatting, you can easily hire someone else to run this area of your business.
If you put out a lot of information products, it might be worth your money to hire someone who keeps up with making sure the product is completed the way that it should be.
This way, you remove several tasks from your own to-do list. That would include sourcing freelance ghostwriters and graphics providers, evaluating deliverables, and getting the end product launched with JV and affiliate partners.
Many businesses have entire areas that they outsource to someone else. For example, many ad agencies take in too many client projects. So they turn around and hire freelance copywriters to write the ads.
This saves them time and money and allows them to be more productive. Focus on the skills you excel at and enjoy most – and find others to take over the tasks you least enjoy.
Other businesses allow an outside phone service to take care of their incoming calls. This way, they can focus on running the business and still have good customer service.
You might hire a virtual assistant to handle your customer service issues online. It’s all about freeing you up for the most important money-making and personally gratifying tasks.
Cash Flow Problems
This obstacle is one that hits a lot of business at some point during their operation. Having financial struggles can be detrimental to the business itself and it can affect morale negatively, too.
Cash flow problems can be caused by the current economy, poor money management, not enough marketing, too much overhead and a lack of customer response for the product that you’re offering.
It can be difficult to want to keep on going when you’re facing cash flow obstacles. But what you have to do at this point is to remember what your dream was in the beginning.
Don’t lose focus during the hard times. So often, a business will go through a rough patch financially – only to turn around in the blink of an eye. Yet too many business owners get so discouraged when the cash isn’t flowing, that they slow productivity.
This slowed productivity then affects the overall business, which contributes to the cash flow problem. There are short-term and then there are long-term cash flow problems.
Short-term cash flow problems can creep up on you suddenly – and sometimes without warning. For example, you could have a big customer account that brings in thousands of dollars a month and suddenly, the customer notifies you that he won’t be needing the services your company offers anymore.
So just like that, your profit is slashed. If the obstacle is a short-term cash flow, you can turn this around in a short amount of time by picking up some easy jobs that your company can do to bring in money.
The faster you can bring in the money, the quicker you’ll solve your cash flow problems. If you’re used to making $300 an hour consulting for businesses, cut your price by a percentage.
You could bring in several smaller companies or individuals who couldn’t afford your services at the higher rate. Running a special to give our business an injection of cash helps you survive during the next planning phase.
Long-term cash flow problems are a bigger obstacle to keep your productivity on track with. When you have this kind of financial issue, it can lead to a lack of supplies, not having enough to pay yourself or your employees and struggles to pay your typical overhead expenses.
Usually, long-term cash flow obstacles do indicate that your business is headed that way before they become an issue. You might notice that invoices aren’t being paid on time.
If you allow other companies or individuals to pay you in arrears, several slow payers could hurt your business. If this is the case, then you would need to cut off the company having access to your services until the debt was settled.
Never risk your business’s viability over someone else’s lack of responsibility. Take care of the matter and if necessary, replace a slow or non-paying client with someone who is reliable.
Every business will always have an area where there’s a money drain. Go over every section carefully to see where you can cut costs. If necessary, have a mentor look over your day-to-day business operations and make suggestions.
If you’re a start up business and cash flow is an obstacle because you don’t have any at all, then barter what services you do have to get what you need. It’s also a good idea to consider working on other cash-generating ideas like freelancing or an offline job if you need money to pursue your dreams.
Other Influences Can Be Productivity Obstacles
Your friends and family can be your biggest supporters when you own a business. But they can also be obstacles. People who care about you can fail to understand and not respect your work schedule.
They can drop by to hang out at the office when you know you should be working. Or if your office is at home, they can interrupt you several times during the day.
When you have a business, setting boundaries to keep productivity flowing can be an issue. This is why you must set and keep clear-cut boundaries. You have to speak up whenever lines are crossed.
You must treat your business like a business and respect it – or others won’t either. Sometimes people who work in a similar field will show up unexpectedly to talk, and this can temporarily slow you down.
Other times, they come by so often that it becomes an issue. If this is a problem, you’ll have to take control – and it can be as simple as saying, “I’d love to chat, but I have a deadline, so I have to get back to work.”
Employees can create productivity problems when they don’t do their job. When one person fails to do what he’s supposed to do, it can have a trickle down effect. The project could slow down until someone goes back to complete the original task.
Things get missed during a workday or a workweek. Mistakes are inevitable. Repeat mistakes and repeated issues of not completing assignments on time affect your business negatively, slow productivity and cost you in long-term profit.
If you have employees or an outsourced team that slows down your business, they either need retraining or to be replaced with ones willing to do their jobs correctly and on time.
Sometimes, it’s vendors that can slow your productivity. They don’t deliver a product when they’re supposed to, so that can slow down the time a shipment needs to go out or a launch needs to take place.
You can work through this by finding a replacement vendor. If someone makes a commitment to you to have something to you on a certain day by a certain time, that commitment should be kept – otherwise, your business is the one most affected.
Sometimes, in an effort to save money and offer goodwill, business owners hire family members or friends. Working with people that mean a lot to you can be a great opportunity.
Loved ones and friends working toward a common goal can often increase productivity. But if you have a family member or a friend who doesn’t do what they’re supposed to, that can be a problem.
In order to protect the family or friendship, you might not want to give that person a boot from the business. If that’s the case, move that person to an area where what they’re doing won’t impact the productivity.
Let them answer phones or handle email or do other tasks that help. But don’t be afraid to put your foot down if there’s nowhere else to put them. You’re in charge of turning your business into a success, and you need to adhere to your own responsibilities.
Overcoming A Mindset That Affects Your Business Productivity
How you feel impacts how your business runs. If you’re experiencing something in your personal life, it can slow productivity. For example, if you’re dealing with a family situation that causes you to lose sleep at night, it can be hard to keep your mind on the tasks at hand the next day at work.
If you have to deal with something out of the office that impacts your productivity, you need to take a step back and let someone else handle what you normally take care of in the business.
It can be a problem if you don’t have a second in command who can run things for you. If that’s the case, then you have to find a way to clear your head and push through.
One of the ways that you can do this is by assigning a specific time to think about and work on problems that occur outside of the office. You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of business.
Having the mindset that you’ve learned all there is to know can be a productivity obstacle. In this case, people will continue to do what they’ve always done – even if there’s a faster and less expensive way.
Not being teachable can easily cost you in terms of less productivity. Companies who produce tangible items or even strategies for you to learn from are counting on your ability to be open to growth through learning.
You’ll be doing yourself a disservice if you turn a blind eye to opportunities that can help you be more productive just because you’re comfortable with the status quo.
Obstacles are a given in life. You have to strengthen your ability to handle them without panic. Once you learn the right way to navigate toward your goal, you’ll find that the once intimidating obstacles put in your path look less frightening over time.
Want to learn more about productivity? Then, download the featured free report below, read it and take action 🙂
3 Powerful And Surprising Goal Setting Tips You Missed
I once heard a famous motivational and sales speaker tell the story of someone who set some goals.
It seems he wrote down all of his great big goals like getting a super high paying job, traveling the world, starting a non-profit foundation and so forth, folded up the paper and put it in a drawer.
Then he forgot all about those goals and went about his life.
Fast forward three years, and he’s moving into his new house. Packing up that drawer, he finds the goal list he wrote out, and realizes he has accomplished every single goal on that list, including buying a mansion.
Yeah. Right.
And then a leprechaun jumped out of the drawer and handed him a magic genie lamp, and he made three wishes and married the fairy princess.
As you might have guessed, I’m not buying that story. Are you?
You can’t simply write down your goals, forget about them and then have them magically happen. If only you could.
But there are things you can do to help you achieve your goals and New Year’s resolutions – things I’ll bet NO ONE has told you about.
Things that can give you the life you want, if you embrace them.
Things that… well… might just set your goal getting abilities on fire.
Let’s get started:
Goal Setting Tip 1: What Kind Of PAIN Do You Want To Have?
Focusing on what you want usually isn’t going to work unless you also consider what kind of pain you want to have.
Everyone wants a rock hard body and a few million dollars in the bank. But are you willing to go through the pain it costs to get those things?
THAT is the question.
An art fan tells a great artist that she should would do ANYTHING to paint like he does.
To which the artist replies, “If that were so, then you would already be painting like me. I’ve painted every single day since I was seven years old. I painted when my friends were outside playing. In high school I painted when my friends were going to dances and playing sports. In college I painted instead of dating. I’ve taken art courses and studied art until I know more than most of my professors. I’ve traveled the world to sit at the feet of great painters and observe their process. I’ve given everything I have to be a great painter. And if you really wanted to be like me, you would have done the same.”
Ouch.
That artist paid a very big price for achieving his goal.
Goal setting and goal getting isn’t just about choosing the rewards you want like you’re a kid in the candy shop with mom’s credit card. It’s also about deciding on what cost you are willing to pay to achieve those rewards.
What pain are you willing to go through to achieve your goals?
What you willing to do?
What will you sacrifice?
What regiment, training, practice schedule and so forth will you commit to doing every day until you succeed?
When you decide this in advance, you multiply the odds of achieving your goal by ten-fold.
Goal Getting Tip 2: The Secret Ingredient
“I want to be a medical doctor.”
Okay, that’s your goal. But what do you do to achieve that goal? Writing it down and stuffing it into a drawer won’t make it happen.
You need systems in place to get you from where you are to where you want to be.
For the would-be doctor, she needs systems to apply to and get accepted at medical schools. She needs a system in place to pay for the school. She needs another system to make sure she studies, and so forth.
For a pianist, his goal is to give concerts to millions of people. But his system is to practice each day of his life.
For a coach, her goal is to win the championship. But the system is the practices she puts her players through each day.
For an entrepreneur, the goal is to build a profitable business and sell it. But the system is the sales and marketing process that brings in the customers, as well as the system for delivering the products or services.
Without systems in place to reach your goals, you won’t get there.
That’s because it’s the system and not the goal itself that achieves the results you want.
First, you choose your goal based on both what you want and what pain you are willing to endure to get that goal.
Then you choose the system you’re going to use to achieve that goal.
Goal Getting Tip 3: Goal Assassination
You’ve made your goals and now you’ve got a list – the kind of list a kid might send to Santa Clause – so what’s the delay? Why aren’t you achieving your goals?
Maybe you’re got too many of them. The more goals you have, the less likely it is that you will achieve any one of them. That’s because they’re all competing for your time and attention, and you simply don’t have enough of either one to simultaneously achieve every goal on your list.
Imagine you’re growing roses. On one rose bush, there are a hundred rosebuds. But on the other rose bush, you snip off every single bud except for one.
Which rose flower will be the biggest? The one by itself, of course. And that’s because it gets all of the energy and food the plant can provide, instead of having to share it with a hundred other flowers.
Your goals are all competing for your time and energy.
That’s why you’ve got to ruthlessly eliminate your lesser goals, at least until you achieve your biggest goal.
The more time and energy you can put into your #1 goal, the faster you can achieve it. And once you do, then you can focus on the next goal, and then the next, and so forth.
The exception: If a secondary goal directly supports your primary goal, then it can be best to pursue both at once.
For example, you want to build a business. It’s going to be a lot easier to make good decisions and work hard if you get enough exercise and eat right.
Exercise and proper eating support your goal of building a business, so don’t wait until the business is built to get in shape. Start exercising and eating healthy right away, so you have what it takes to build that business and live the good life.
I know the motivational gurus want you to think getting your goals is easy, but usually it’s not. It takes work. Sacrifice. Pain. Focus. Perseverance. And tenacity. But knowing this from the start means you’re forewarned and forearmed to get the job done.
And once you achieve your first big goal, you just might find you’re addicted to the process.
Guaranteed, the second goal will be easier than the first, because now you’ll know what it takes.
The New Year is upon us. 12 months from now, you can either look back and wish you had achieved that big goal, or look back and be thrilled that you did.
The choice is yours.
Time Management: 3 Steps To Multiply Time And Profits
When you hear the word entrepreneur, your first thought might be Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Daymond John or Susie Ma. These are high level entrepreneurs that saw opportunities to solve problems and make a lot of money. They built capital, created products and services, that are unique and became very wealthy.
The ideas in this article are some of the ways high level entrepreneurs succeed. Have no doubts that if you are a new entrepreneur or even a solo business owner-putting these seven time management ideas to work…will advance your business to new levels.
Some of the ideas can be incorporated immediately, while the others, such as the ones with software or apps…will require a bit of research and decision making.
Set Your Business Goals
Are you 100% clear on what your business goals are? You need to get your new business off to a flying start. Or if you have been in business for awhile and there have been issues, it may be due to not seeing things, crystal clear.
Consider having a self-improvement goal as part of your business goals. Self-improvement will strengthen the other areas of your goal setting. Get a mentor or a coach who has the experience in the areas of self-confidence, self-esteem or creating a new mindset around achieving success in business.
You need to set income goals and keep track of everything. The most basic thing is having monthly, quarterly and annual income goals. If you want to be a high functioning, successful entrepreneur, think about tracking everything daily in a special spreadsheet. You could have a daily income goal and keep track of every dollar that comes in and what you spend on your business daily.
Stop your internal negative dialogue. When you have lofty business goals, sometimes you end up talking yourself out of something that if you stuck to it…would be ultimately successful.
Hannibal saw the mountains and basically said, “we will either find a way or make one. Leading thousands of soldiers and elephants over a mountain range, Hannibal had an extremely positive mental image of himself.
Have a great idea for something that will make you $10K a month? If you start to balk, just take the first few actions and as you see success, put your foot on the accelerator and get up to speed.
Internal negative dialogue or “stinky thinking” as it is also called, destroys dreams and ambition. You can overcome that and build an awesome business.
Define The Tasks That Will Help You Achieve Those Goals
When you have a business idea and want to either start it or add it to your existing business…you need to define your tasks. This is where you put on your strategic thinking hat and write out the who, what, where of what the tasks are. Questions to ask are things like:
- Who will help you? Do you have a team already that has the skills to get the new business up and running, then turn it into profit?
- What exactly is the business? Make a business plan. Add mind maps.
- Where will you conduct this business. Decide if you have enough space. Do you need to upgrade?
- How long will it take to get this business off the ground?
When you are a solo venture, the tasks will be slightly different. Let’s look at the example of someone who runs a social media business for a medium size start-up.
Some of the tasks for this person to reach their goals might be:
- Getting traffic to their website, to gain new clients.
- Getting new testimonials constantly to show they are on top of their game.
- Studying and trying new methods to gain followers for their customers.
- Learning the best of copywriting to create awesome Twitter/Tumbler/Facebook posts for their customers.
- Creating lists for different tasks and tracking everything from sales, expenses, cold calls for new business and new supplies for the home office.
Writing out the tasks and adding time to complete dates will help save time and achieve your goals.
Plan
There should be an action plan with clear time frames, deadlines and who should complete those tasks. Use project management tools as Asana, Basecamp or Trello.
Everyone needs a plan. And the entrepreneur always creates the best plan, while putting together an amazing team. It is a case of knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the team members.
With that knowledge, you can decide the best person for a task, set the deadlines, the goals and of course the rewards. With technology today, project management tools help the entrepreneur keep everything on track. Let’s look at three outstanding tools now.
A) Asana allows you to assign projects and then see on the righthand side of the app, who has the project and what stage they are currently in, such as just started or completed. You can chart your course for smooth sailing through the entire project. In Asana, there is a feature called, “Timeline,” where you can see the flow of work and where it is being passed to the next team member for their actions. There are over 100 items you can integrate into Asana, such as emails and all pertinent files.
B) Basecamp works in the same way and has features to remind people when a task is overdue. One thing that bogs any business down, is endless meetings. With Basecamp, it eliminates the need for time wasting meetings as everyone on the team can log-in and see where the project is at.
Basecamp states that 59% of meetings have been cut out by its users. Basecamp is simple to use and there is no steep learning curve, so anyone can jump right in. Basecamp is great for multiple projects, since you can pull them up all onto one screen and see the status.
All conversations on inline and this elimates that annoying re: factor you get in traditional emails. Cut down on the number of apps you normally used in projects, because in Basecamp, all notifications are in one spot.
C) Trello works on a board system, where all aspects on your projects are listed on individual cards that you can glance at. You can view a card like, “research,” and jump in with a comment or attach a file that will assist in the research end of the project. If your team is already using apps, you can incorporate those right into the Trello card to maximize productivity.
Check out the apps that you feel will power your business by clicking the link below:
OK, there are 3 steps you can use to multiply time and profits. However, there are 4 more and if you want to get all 7 in a handy report, then click on the featured resource below to download a free report that you can read at your leisure 🙂
The Most Important Goal To Set To Achieve Success
If you want to be successful in life, whether that be in business, relationships or anything else, I’m sure that you know about the importance of setting goals to help you achieve the results you desire.
But can I ask you a question?
Do you know what the most important kind of goal is for your life?
We all have goals that we set and we know the importance of goal setting and it’s one of those topics that gets beaten to death and a lot of us don’t want to hear about goal setting anymore.
We’re sick and tired of goal setting. But we know they’re necessary as well, and that’s why we always come back to them.
You do, I do, we all do goal setting at one level or another. Maybe you just do it mentally and you think about them from time to time.
Other people like me, I’m very, very strict about my goals. I’m always writing them down and refining them.
But there are different kinds, and this is a very, very critical aspect.
There is a type of goal where you define what you want to do, there is a type of goal where you define what you want to have and there’s also a kind of goal where you define who you want to be.
The kind of person you want to be.
It’s the third one, the goals you set on the type of person you want to be, that are the most pivotal, most important and most influential in your life.
Your material wants or even bigger wants than that, the things you would like to acquire, the things you would like to eventually achieve in your life, some you’ll hit and some you’ll won’t.
Some will take longer than planned, some you’ll maybe get shorter than you planned. They’re going to be all over the map.
As an example, you may be at a certain financial position right now. Let’s say you’re earning $50,000 a year and you want to take that to $100,000.
There are a number of different ways you could do that. You could set a goal to do that within the next year, the next six months or the next three years and you go after it.
You may or may not hit the goal, and you may or may not try as hard as you can, although the whole point of goal setting is you do try and you go for it.
But this is a measurable, specific thing that you’re shooting for and you may or may not get there.
There’s all kinds of circumstances, things that could come up that could prevent it from happening.
But think about the type of goal where you decide who you want to be, and the exercise of writing down your goals on a daily basis and reviewing them.
Sure, you can have a plan that says I want to get from 50k to 100k and I’m going to do this, this, this and this over the next X amount of months or years and you do those things and that plan may or may not work.
But what if you started asking yourself or writing a goal down to say, here’s who I want to be.
I want to be a positive and uplifting person. I want to be loving towards my family. Every time I see my family I want them to feel excited in my presence. I want them to feel uplifted.
I want them to feel inspired. When I meet new people I want them to feel like they just met somebody really interesting, and they want to get to know me at a deeper level.
I want to set a goal to be the kind of person that follows through on every commitment I make to myself.
I’m going to achieve XYZ by a certain date, such as I’m going to lose 20 pounds by March 30th is very results driven. It’s very achievement driven, and the timeline for that may change.
You don’t know how quickly you can lose that weight and you want to be able to do it in a healthy way, so you may have to adjust that plan.
But who do you have to be to reach that weight?
You have to be the kind of person who commits to their goals, who does whatever it takes, who when they say they’re going to do something they do it and follow through and hold themselves accountable.
So here’s my challenge to you, or even call it a suggestion or tip.
Begin journaling on a daily basis, writing down where you’re at but more importantly where you want to go, goals.
It’s very fun to set goals like the type of income you want to earn, the type of business you want to run, the trips you want to take, the material possessions you want to own. All those things are cool.
If you want to go to a conference next year to learn something new, write that down. That’s a great goal to have. You need to know how much money it’s going to take you to get there and all that.
But I also want you to start thinking about two or three or even four who do I want to be type of goals.
What I found is when I started doing this, I started writing things down like I want to be an inspiring person to be around for my family.
I want my family to feel loved and excited when I’m around. I want my family to run and give me a huge hug when I walk in the door after being gone for a long time. That’s the kind of person I want to be.
When I write that down and remind myself this is who I want to be, all those other goals I find come to me a little bit more naturally. They come to me easier.
It’s because I’m acting and behaving in a way that’s congruent with those goals.
If I say I want to be a committed, dedicated person who follows through on his commitments and then I set a really, really aggressive goal like doubling my income in what some may deem an unrealistic period of time, I’m way more likely to hit that goal if I’m the kind of person who sticks to his commitments and then goes above and beyond the call of duty and does whatever it takes in any situation to create whatever I envision.
So that’s the difference. That’s the key. You may not have done this before. I know it was a relatively new concept for me.
I was always writing down my materials wants. I was always writing down the achievement-based goals and not the who do I want to be kind of goals.
When I started doing that, it had such a deep impact on a daily basis.
It literally, in those moments of weakness where I wanted to break a commitment and go back into an old habit that would have prevented those cool goals from coming into my life, these being goals would remind me of the kind of person I need to be and I want to be and intend to do.
I want to live this way every single day, and so I write those goals down on a daily basis and it keeps me in check. It keeps me on track for where I want to go.
So do this. Have some fun with it. Think about the kind of person you want to be, write it down, explain it in as much detail and then do it daily and repeat it to yourself and start living this way.
All those material goals and wants are going to come to you.
7 Morning Routines For Peak Performance
If you are like the vast majority of people, I am sure that you will want to be more productive and be able to work at your peak more frequently and for longer.
Working at peak performance will allow you to get more done in a shorter time and you are much more likely to achieve your goals when working in a peak state.
This acts as a positive reinforcement loop and you will get even more done so it is a key skill to develop if you want to get the best out of life and be a success in whatever you set your mind on.
Peak performance and how to achieve it is not a secret. You just need to follow and model how the super peak performers, achieve the success that you also desire.
This means sacrifice and being more than willing to step up and do things you never thought possible.
When you mention “sacrifice” people shudder and puts many off before they even give it a real shot, but nothing worth achieving is going to be easy.
Peak performers have a certain mindset, and you will need to develop this if you want to work at your peak.
They will also have certain habits and daily routines that they will use to help to put them into a peak state first thing in the morning and to stay there throughout the day.
If peak performers are using habits to start their day in a peak state, don’t you think that it would be worth developing some habits and morning routines that will help you in this way? Of course, you do!
These routines aren’t rocket science or weird; they are just simple things that can help you to start the day in a positive state and to help you make the most of the day ahead.
OK, here are 7 morning routines that you can use to develop peak performance from the minute you get up! Don’t be fooled by their simplicity, but give them a try and see what kind of difference they can make to your day and you performance and productivity.
Take A Cold Shower First Thing In The Morning
This will definitely shake the cobwebs out of your head. Besides the alertness factor, you will be boosting your metabolism.
If you lack energy, then having a cold shower first thing in the morning will fix that.
Start with luke warm water and gradually head to a full cold shower. You should build up this practice by slowly increasing the time under the cold spray.
Perhaps start at 2 minutes the first day and go to 3 minutes the second day. Work on your tolerance at your pace rather than someone else’s.
Note: If you have health issues such as high blood pressure, check with your GP first to make sure cold showers aren’t going to affect you adversely.
Get Some Exercise
Exercise right after your cold shower. If you are in the martial arts, chances are you already do the cold showers and know how it improves your performance. Pick an exercise that makes you sweat. You want to work on your heart rate, flexibility and strength.
This means having some equipment at home or doing bodyweight exercises.
You can also hit the gym if you don’t mind the fees and other issues.
Doing exercise before you start the workday, helps with your energy levels, avoiding procrastination on work and elevating your mood.
When you get your exercise done first thing in the morning, you get a “happy,” blast of feel good natural chemicals coursing through your veins. People who suffer from depression or low moods, can use exercise to change how they feel.
Getting a good dose of oxygen from vigorous exercise works marvels for your mental health and ability to perform at peak levels.
Write It Down
Write in your journal, while you relax for a bit after a workout.
Write down how you are feeling at the moment and what you may need to do in order to keep your brain activated for peak performance.
Journaling helps you to sort out your thoughts into a logical order instead of a jumble in your head and can give you clarity and focus which are critical for peak performance.
Practice Meditation
Once you have written in your journal, why not meditate about what you have written today for 5 to 10 minutes? Just be calm and let your mind flow. Inner calmness is what makes peak performers great.
As high performers get hit with adversity during the day, it flows off them and they do not allow it to affect how they feel or perform.
Meditation and mindfulness really do help you to cope with any unforeseen obstacles and can keep you focused on the task(s) at hand.
Practice Gratitude
State what you are grateful for today. You should be grateful every day you wake up and have a new chance to make it happen.
Start by being grateful for the breakfast you are about to eat for nourishment and work your way through everything else.
Be grateful for the people in your life and the ability to perform and contribute to others.
You can also ask yourself questions that can make you feel grateful and really lift your mood. Try questions like these:
“What am I really grateful for in my life right now?”
“What about that makes me feel grateful?”
“How does that make me feel?”
If you are a Christian or have a spiritual belief then you can do the same thing with prayer, giving thanks to God.
This is completely different from the questions most people ask themselves in the morning, such as “Why do I have to get up so early in the morning?”
Those types of questions make you feel lousy and will put you in a poor state for the whole day if you aren’t careful, so be very mindful of the questions you are asking yourself, especially those when you first wake up as they will impact the rest of your day!
Review Your Goals Daily
Those goals must be firmly implanted in your mind.
With the daily review, your subconscious mind will get involved and work to make things happen. Your subconscious mind will be driven to help you succeed and become a peak performer.
Remember the saying, “You are, what you think about all day long.”
And don’t forget to enjoy the journey as well as the destination (goal). If you want to learn how to focus on enjoying the journey too, take a look at this training called Enjoy The Journey.
Practice Visualization
Visualizing achieving those goals is another way of firmly implanting what you desire and then allowing the universe to completely understand how much you want to succeed.
When you have goals centered on peak performance, visualizing them helps to make them real.
This can take some practice, but visualization is a really powerful skill to develop so take some time to do so and you will reap the benefits.
OK, there are 7 morning routines that you can use to supercharge your day and to put you in a peak performance state so that you can be super productive and achieve anything.
