Let's face it, this is something we all need help with. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Do it. Yes, it really is that simple but we simply never get to the "do it" part. We get stuck in our heads, debate ourselves for a little bit and then realize we don't feel like doing anything that will get us towards whatever goals we may have, so we "hit snooze" on our progress. No matter what it is, everything from starting that business to getting to the gym more often or even just getting out of your dang bed in the morning without hitting snooze 10 times. Our problem is that we are not getting moving fast enough and as a result we end up getting trapped in our heads. We all know where that leads to... GETTING NOTHING DONE! We get trapped in our heads and there is like a 2% chance that we actually take action after that happens. We usually try to justify why we don't need to do whatever the task is that needs to get done and likely it is because we don't "feel like it." Well, NEWSFLASH.... we are NEVER going to feel like doing anything hard, not is just human nature. Instead, we have to learn to push through despite how we feel. The 5 Second Rule by Mel RobbinsIf you have been around MMNTM for a while now, you know that this all started from when I was trying to improve my mindset and sharing what has worked for me with you guys and this case scenario is no different. After listening to a podcast a while back and actually re-listening to it today, I decided I had to write this post because this simple "hack," if you want to call it that, is so dang effective. So simple, yet one of the things that has almost forced me to take the most action because let's face it we are all naturally lazy at some point in our lives. Time to get onto the next phase and force yourself to not be lazy because if we waited for ourselves to feel "motivated," we simply would never get anything done. Mel Robbins explains this techique that is almost so stupidly simple you would be hesitant to call it a technique. Whenever something that you know you should, or need to do, comes into your mind, count down from five and then do it. Don't count down from five and then think about it because then you get trapped in your head and it never gets done. Count down from five and before you even know the first step, start doing something. You don't need to have some crazy plan, you just need to start doing something after counting down from five because then you build the momentum to do more after that first action. It's pretty much fool proof and forces you to "do" without getting trapped in your head trying to figure out and debate if you feel like doing it or not. This technique takes zero consideration on how you feel and usually that is exactly what we need. The way we feel has been holding us back from far too many actions. Here is the link to the School of Greatness Podcast where Mel Robbins goes over this in more detail (click here) >>As per usual, another great day on the blog is in the books! Thanks for all the support and if you enjoyed this or learned anything I just ask one thing: bring a friend back tomorrow! Time to make personal development more "normal" because it is at the foundation of every area of our lives. Stop back with a friend tomorrow-- yourmmntm.com/blog -Taylor Don't Let the Learning Stop There, Here are More Great Pieces of Content:
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Yes, I just started this and it might be the best thing you will do this week. Image: CNN What do you think about when you hear the word "fasting?" Usually what pops into our mind is intermittent fasting, water fasting and just taking a break from food for an extended period of time. While the benefits of these types of fasts are wonderful for our mindset and overall health, there is one fast that might take the cake in terms of benefits to our mindset. If we extend the definition of "fasting," that we have set in place, to include anything and everything that we could abstain from for an extended period of time, we can include complaining as a type of fasting. And that is exactly what we are going to do. Time to learn why committing to a fast of this powerfully bad habit might be best thing you'll focus on this week. Why Do We Complain?It's just so easy. Don't lie, we all complain and for a lot of us it takes over our days, it impedes on the actions we take on a day to day basis and eventually it will hinder results in anything you are trying to accomplish. Complaining is essentially the path of least resistance in our lives because it helps us to avoid taking the actions that will help solve our problems. I never said the path of least resistance was in any way a good thing, it is just as it states, the path with the least amount of obstacles. Our brains naturally gravitate towards doing what is easy and what requires less work. We have to train them to do the "hard stuff," until we do that we are naturally going to be gravitating towards the easy things and getting nothing done. I am sure you already experience this, wanting to watch Netflix instead of studying and wanting to almost anything other than go to work today. Complaining helps us to avoid the action, and avoid the obstacles when in reality that is what we should be chasing if we want to start having a fulfilling life. Contrary to popular belief, it is not "motivation" that you need, instead try a little mental discipline to start getting more done. Complaining Is Wreaking Havoc On Our LivesIt's almost as bad as having a health problem and potentially worse. "How does it impede on our action and hinder results? We are just complaining..." True, but what we think and say have a direct correlation to our actions. If we are thinking negatively and complaining about the problem, there is no way that we are going to take action to solve that problem anytime in the near future. We are going to push it off until it either really needs to get done or you forget about it, I'm sure you can relate. This just pushes us further and further away from our goals as this lack of action starts to add up day after day. We are essentially complaining our way out of achieving our goals and until we get it under control we are not going to find the "success" we are looking for. The Complaining FastLet's get you started... Start with a day, then carry the momentum to the handful of days after that. Pick a period of time to start, that you know you can push through the temptations to complain so that you can start to see the results of eliminating this from your life. Try a three day complaining fast to start, the first day is going to be easy because it is at the top of your mind and it is something new and challenging. It is those next couple of days that are going to be challenging. You are going to be so tempted to complain that you might just fall for the temptation. Don't worry if you "break the fast," just start over then and there, at day one. Three days is long enough to challenge yourself but not too long that you are not going to take action. You have to find the balance that is long enough to challenge yourself but not too long to scare you away right away, even though eventually your goal will likely be to totally eliminate complaining after you see how it impacts your life. And how your life will change when you stop complaining...This is something that you are not just going to be able to feel, but other people are going to notice as well. Do you know what that means? It means that people are going to be more attracted to you and more inclined to be around you if you are more positive and complaining less. Why? For the simple fact that you are not going to be bringing down the energy anymore from complaining and you are going to be more enjoyable to be around, leading to all sorts of opportunities in personal and professional relationships. That's not the only thing though, when you stop your complaining, you force yourself to look at and actually take action on the things you have been pushing off or just any problems that are in your life. Maybe you just had a lot to get done in order to get your finances in line, now you can do that. Or maybe you have been pushing off doing any "meaningful work" in your life because you have just complained about picking up extra work, now you can start that. We all have those things that we keep pushing of until "later" and eventually "later" turns into never getting done. Time to change that equation and start to gain real momentum in your life by taking off this negative lens that a lot of us are seeing the world through. It all starts with reducing our complaining. What do you say, time for a fast? As per usual, another day on the blog is in the books! Thanks for all the support and if you enjoyed this or learned anything I just ask one thing: bring a friend back tomorrow! Time to make personal development more "normal" because it is at the foundation of every area of our lives. Stop back with a friend tomorrow-- yourmmntm.com/blog -Taylor Complaining Isn't The Only Area of Your Mindset You Can Improve, Here is More Content to Help You Learn:How to Build Stronger Relationships and Why Some People are More "Likable" >>
Master Your Sleep, You Aren't Part of the Few Percent that Can Sleep Less Than 7 Hours a Night >> The Best Skills to Learn in Today's "Tech Era" >> Today's "Mind Hack" to Improve BOTH the Quality and the Quantity of Your Work >> Essential to developing personal and professional relationships. Image: LadBible The High School ExampleA look at why some people were actually so popular in high school. Before you skip this section, no it is not what you think the answer is... It is not because they were in sports, are more attractive or are more confident than others. Crazy, right? That's exactly why I thought the most popular kids were the way they were, until I started to dive a little deeper. Now that what you thought was for sure the answer is off of the table, what could it possibly be? This might surprise you, depending on the experience that you had in high school, but they were simply just more interested in other people than others were. They were interested in what was going on in others' lives and kept up to date and supported whatever they were doing. Unlike a lot of the people who claimed they were "no popular" and proceeded to go throughout their day not talking to anyone because they either didn't think they fit in or they didn't have the confidence to talk to anyone. And what does not talking to people lead to? A lack of interest in their lives. So, sorry to break the stereotype in high school or even college, but if you want to be more likable, you have to start taking a genuine interest in other people's lives. Be interested to be interesting...What Being Interested in Others MeansThis has to be genuine, plain and simple. What exactly does being interested in others mean? Well, pretty much exactly what you can assume it means. It means keeping up with what is going on in their life, what they are working on, what their point of view on topics is and supporting whatever they choose to take on. This is absolutely essential to form relationships and if you are struggling to form any meaningful relationships, I would venture to guess that this is part of the problem. Just take the example of sales people trying to keep an existing client, they have to keep constantly calling the same clients and checking in on their personal lives, wishing them a happy holidays and seeing how their kids are doing. This builds trust for the continued relationship in the business, making sure the client wants to keep doing business with them, and it is a dang effective strategy. Or even take a simpler example of going on a date, you can't just show up to a date and talk about yourself, you have to ask them questions and take an interest in what they are doing. A date is not a time to "flex" what you are doing or have done in your life, it is a time to build a genuine connection and you do so through asking questions and being interested in them. If that is new advice to you, that might be the problem in your dating life. And how exactly does this get people to like you more?Who doesn't like talking about themselves? Nobody, it is the topic that we all could go on and on about. From where we are from, to what we are working on and what our goals are, it is at the top of the list of our favorite topic to talk about. When you keep asking them questions about themselves, and then following up with questions to their responses, you start to dive really deep into the thoughts and beliefs of someone and there is no better way to connect with them. You get out of the "surface level" conversations faster and into the more meaningful conversations that you both will remember. Even if you don't say much about yourself during the time with them, they will feel as if you have created a meaningful relationship because of the conversation you were able to have. What Being Interested is Going to Add to Your LifeSo much more than you think. With the importance of relationships being so prevalent in our lives, it is no surprise that this will impact many areas of your life. Relationships help to motivate us, bring us happiness and fulfillment and help us reach those goals better than we would have been able to otherwise, and the main benefit of being interested in others is the stronger relationships you are going to be able to form. From work relationships to romantic relationships, you are going to build more trust in these people and have them enjoy the time they spend around you more, helping your personal and professional lives. This is also going to attract many more people into your life, some that you might "mesh well with." You really never know when you are going to meet that person that has a dramatic impact on your life, and connecting with more people, on more than just the surface level, is exactly how to find those people. It isn't just about stronger relationships though, when you take up an interest in other people's lives, you start to gain a wider knowledge base in return. I mean, how can you not? Diving deep into topics that people care about, you are going to know and understand so much more than you did before and this can start to open up new opportunities as well. Realize that everyone has something to teach you no matter who they are or what their background may be. Finally, you can start to understand people better, understand how they think and act and why they are thinking the way that they are. You can start to notice patterns in thinking of similar types of people and even just understand the person you are attracted to better in order to figure out how to improve the relationship. This one simple mindset "hack" can help you in so many more ways than you think, I would highly suggest picking it up if you haven't been convinced already. Training Yourself to Be More Interested by: MMNTM, the Gym for Your MindAs always, a little workout to end the blog. I don't like to leave you hanging without some ways to actually become more interested in life, so you can actually start seeing the benefits instead of just reading about them. So, here are some quick exercises to help you get more interested and start being more interested in other people... First, simply start off with being more interested in your own life. Figure out a handful of topics that you are interested in and start to pick up some books, listen to some podcasts and just start learning more about these topics. When you start to learn more about what you care about, you are going to start breaking down the topic more and realize what you need to learn about. Before you do so it's simple to say "oh I need to learn about marketing," until you actually jump in and realize there are a million subsets to learn about as well. This naturally makes you more interested and this can carry over to becoming interested in other people because you realize that everyone has something to teach you (even if it just is what not to do). Finally, when you are talking to people, just start asking more questions and talking less. This will seem weird at first but you will see how you can dive into deeper conversations by doing so, just don't keep asking basic questions like "where are you from." I'm not saying to never talk about yourself or bring up your opinion, just ask more questions than you do talk about yourself. This is going to lead to a great conversation, I can almost guarantee that. Just like that another day on the blog is in the books! Thanks for all the support and if you enjoyed this or learned anything I just ask one thing: bring a friend back tomorrow! Time to make personal development more "normal" because it is at the foundation of every area of our lives. Stop back with a friend tomorrow-- yourmmntm.com/blog -Taylor The Training Shouldn't Stop There, Here Are More Solid Resources:It might be the exact same reason you aren't keeping habits as well... Image: TED Talks Here's the Backstory...Sure, just like many of you I was reading countless personal development books and reading a million articles on changing my day to day habits because I wasn't where I wanted to be in life. I knew I needed to course correct, yet every time I would read these books or articles, nothing would really change. I thought that this was just not the right book, so I would move onto the next one, and the next one, and the next one. Even when I actually started to implement these habits into my life, they would work well for a week and then I would slowly fall back into my old ways. And that was if I actually implemented them in my life, a lot of the time I just read about them to make myself feel good. Why This Turned Into A Major ProblemThis turned in to a problem when I was reading and learning a lot so I felt good, but I was really not changing any area of my life. My work was still the same and not accelerated in any way, shape or form. My fitness was about the same and I couldn't really see any major changes there and my happiness was at the same level as well. Despite having the resources available, I was not able to effectively add habits into or keep them in my life. I was going through the motions for months on end for honestly no reason at all other than I was convincing myself that the barrier to entry was so high, or I kept pushing off starting the habit until "tomorrow" and saying this everyday turned into never starting. It was single handedly slowing down the results I was getting in all areas of my life.Where We Go Wrong Trying to Form HabitsFor me, I assumed that when I wanted to form a new habit, I had to carve out a chunk of my day to focus on this habit. I though that it was going to take hours out of my day and that I just didn't have that kind of time to dedicate in my already busy college days. There simply isn't enough time in the day.We only have a certain amount of time in each day, in reality building habits doesn't require you to take hours upon hours out of your day, like many people may believe. Instead, there is a way to add them to your day without spending too much extra time doing so. Of course, this is all situational, for example, if you want to add the habit of going to the gym every day or going on a walk in the morning, obviously you are going to have to carve out some time in the day for that. Time to Fix This IssueFor every other "small" habit we want to add though, there definitely is a way to start adding these habits to our lives without carving out a ton of time from our day. It can't get much better than this because obviously the habits we have are not ideal if we aren't heading in the direction of our goals, so we NEED to change them., Yes, for a lot of us this is a "need to" and not a "want to" because otherwise we are never going to fulfill those goals that we have laid out for ourselves. "How exactly can I get started now?" By attaching these new habits to things you are already doing on a day to day basis. That way we are not taking a ton of extra time during our days to add habits and that we can just change how we are doing things compared to totally changing what we are doing on a daily basis. Small changes are the best place to start, if we try to jump right into totally flipping our lives inside out, we are likely going to get burnt out. I want to give you the best chances to keep these habits for the long run so you can actually see them start to transform your life and this is how I believe the best way to do so is. Why This Can Work For You When You Have Been Struggling to Build HabitsJust think about it... You want to add ten new things in to your life so you start to do so, on top of the other things that you likely have to be doing on a daily basis, such as going to work and doing some errands, and you quickly run out of hours in the day. Instead, you can start to change up how you are doing things on a daily basis and then carve out just a little time to focus on your habits throughout the day. That way you aren't spending all off your time focused on your habits because that kind of ruins the point of adding new habits. We want to add new habits so that we get closer to our goals and if we spend all of our time on building those new habits, we are never going to have time to actually work towards your goals. This was another problem for me early on, I was so focused on developing my mindset so I could have more confidence to build new relationships, try new things and have a better mindset to attack my goals, that my whole day was structured around devleoping a new mindset and I really had no time to work towards any goals. Always be self aware while changing any aspect of your life so that you don't get in this trap of feeling good about changing a smaller aspect and never leaving time to change what you actually set out to change. Put This Into Action In Your Own LifeYou might be sitting there pondering about how to add this into your own life. Ponder no more because I will give you some great examples that will help everyone add some new habits. Ultimately though, we all have different habits we want to add and do different things on a daily basis, so use these as examples and then figure out how to add your habits to what you are already doing each day. Maybe you want to be more mindful or present in your life. Instead of taking the time to go on a walk without your phone for 45 minutes and meditate for another 20-30 minutes, try taking your commute to school or work without music or technology, live in the present. Maybe you want to add more physical exercise to your day. Try going to the gym during your lunch break at work or even before you leave school. Don't wait until later, after you get home and wind down for the day, to decide to go to the gym. Maybe you want to eat healthier, instead of buying junk at the grocery store, just buy what you know you will eat for meals during the week and eliminate snacks all together. Or pack your meals for work or school so that you aren't tempted to stop on the way home because you are so hungry, you will have a meal right with you. Or maybe you are trying to get more work or homework done during the day. Instead of having your phone near you, turn it off and put it in a different room (or even lock it in your car). I will almost bet that you will get the same amount of work done in that time without your phone than you would have gotten done with your phone if you would have added another few hours to your work day. Just like that another day on the blog is in the books! Thanks for all the support and if you enjoyed this or learned anything I just ask one thing: bring a friend back tomorrow! Time to make personal development more "normal" because it is at the foundation of every area of our lives. Stop back with a friend tomorrow-- yourmmntm.com/blog -Taylor This Isn't The Only Way To Improve Your Mind, This Is Just The Beginning For You.Start With Some of This Great Content:We all have those good days that somehow turn bad. Here is where I have found the turning point is so we can avoid it... Image: Millennial Empire Builders I know we all have these days, many of us have them often and I know for a fact that I get super discouraged when my day doesn't pan out as I pictured it in my mind. What days am I talking about? I'm talking about when you wake upon feeling energized, ready to go and start to get a lot of things done and then all of the sudden I catch myself later in the day having gotten nothing productive done, or nothing done to get me closer to my goals. What happened? Well, let me paint you a picture real quick here... Here's How The Days Start(insert annoying alarm clock sound) It's early in the morning and my alarm goes off, but for once I actually am looking forward to getting up as I am well rested and have big goals for what to get done and learn today. So, I get started. I take a nice walk after getting out of bed and kill my morning workout. I eat a very healthy breakfast, usually some eggs and broccoli and then hit some meditation for ten minutes before jumping into the blog and other work to be done for the day. The day seems to be going flawlessly for the first few hours and I am grinding out a ton of work as my brain is clear after a nice meditation, walk and a good nights sleep. I even crank out a little more homework that I had from last night that I needed to get done before heading to class. The mental discipline is through the roof in the morning, sticking exactly to my plan and not deviating from what I know is the "right decision." Not eating those cookies right away in the morning and causing brain fog or sleeping too long and causing unneeded stress in my life. Then One of the Following HappensThen what happens? I fall off course just a little. I eat those cookies, instead of sticking to the meal plan during the day. Or, I push off working on my goals in place for watching Netflix or YouTube videos. Or I don't do my homework that night and push it off until the next morning because I just don't feel like doing it. Or I sit on social media for far too long instead of reading or learning something that day. Anddddd The Rest of The Day Starts to Look Like ThisI start to have the mindset that "oh I already fell off track once, one more time won't hurt," thinking I will still be able to get everything done. I eat more junk and cause myself to experience brain fog and just get lazy the rest of the day, not getting anything done. I miss the gym thinking that I will have more time to do things and then next thing I know, I am two hours deep on a Netflix movie instead. I keep pushing off homework because I will have time tomorrow, then do nothing productive and cause myself for sure stress for the morning. I chose YouTube over working or learning about what I am passionate about and next thing you know I am pushing off everything until "tomorrow when I have more time." But guess what, this same thing happens tomorrow and next thing you know "tomorrow" turns into two weeks later you are finally getting to work on what you want (for a few days at least) and you feel very behind. Once you have that one action, or a combination of actions, that switch the momentum for our days, it gets choppy from there. So, stay in control of the day and win the mind game! Repeat this for years and this is how many people live...What Kind of Results This Leads To In LifeCountless days/ weeks/ months/ years of inaction. "Tomorrow" becomes the most common phrase of the week when you are constantly thinking you are somehow going to have more time tomorrow. Or thinking that you will just get started "tomorrow" because getting started today wasn't going to plan. The problem is, a lot of us say this every day and then "tomorrow" turns into days, weeks, months or sometimes even years of in-action. Meaning you aren't getting closer to your goals, you aren't working on what you are passionate about and you aren't excelling in life. At this point we are just going through the motions and then so many people wonder why other people are so much more "successful" than they are, I wonder why... Just remember, we are what we do, not just what we think about. Sure, thinking about your goals and planning them out in your mind will make you feel good, but they won't impact your life until you actually start doing them, not just pushing them off every day. How to Course Correct This HabitThis is almost definitely a factor in why you are struggling in one area or another. This is going to be one of the easier solutions to hear but open of the harder ones to actually implement as it will take a large amount of mental discipline, I know you guys are up for it though. Usually around late morning, or maybe lunch time, through the early afternoon and evening are the times when you are going to start to be tested by your mind to start to do something that will switch the momentum for the day. Maybe those Oreos are calling your name, maybe you haven't been on social media all day and you are itching to see what people are doing, maybe you have been dying to see that next episode on Netflix. Whatever it may be that is tempting you to head off course of your goals that day, recognize it and force yourself to not get tempted. I never said it was going to be easy because sometimes all you want to do is eat that cookie or watch Netflix. Right when we do that is when we start to lose the momentum we have created so far during the day and that is when the day starts to go downhill. Once you make that one deviation, it is easier and easier to make more throughout the day until you realize that you really haven't gotten anything productive done for the day. And with so many people having this happen right away in the morning when they lose the battle with their mind to get out of bed, no wonder so many people feel like they can't gain any traction. Recognize when you are starting to get tempted and then force yourself not to, or at least push your deviation off as late into the day as possible. Pushing that deviation late into the day will be a good starting point if you feel like you just can't go all day without craving that "sweet tooth" or watching Netflix. Wow, just like that another day on the blog is in the books! Thanks for all the support and if you enjoyed this or learned anything I just ask one thing: bring a friend back tomorrow! Time to make personal development more "normal" because it is at the foundation of every area of our lives. Stop back with a friend tomorrow-- yourmmntm.com/blog -Taylor Here's Some More Content To Learn From...The Ten Second Rule You Can Use to Get Those Ideas Done That You Have Been Pushing Off Forever10/21/2019 We all have those creative, business, fitness and other ideas that would help improve our lives. Yet they never seem to get started, here's how to change that. Image: HERC The amount of ideas that come into our minds on a day to day basis is astonishing. Good ideas, bad ideas, ideas that we never knew we were capable of having and all of those in between. Whether it is related to a business you want to start, a body you are trying to shape in the gym, a new diet you want to try or even just a new skill you want to learn. We all have them and do you know what else a lot of us have in common? We all likely never start many of the ideas that we want to. If you are like me, we have had so many great ideas that just seem to fade away after we keep pushing them off. They never get done and we just keep going through the motions of life. Imagine if you could actually start getting these ideas acted on though? A simple rule that will help swing momentum in your direction, based around ideas you actually care about, can help you with that. That's what the "ten second rule" is. I almost forgot! If you are new to the blog, thanks for stopping by! With MMNTM (mo-men-tum) my goal is to help you level up your mind and mindset with effective "workouts." Much like you would train your body, this is the gym for your mindset, everything from your happiness and mental clarity to mental discipline and productivity. These are the things that have helped me the most and I love sharing them with you daily on yourmmntm.com/blog so be sure to stop out daily! Now let's get back to what you started reading for. Here's What You Are About to Learn
Why You Might Not Be Getting Everything You Want to Done Each DayYou just push it off until later, and later turns into tomorrow. And then you start to tell yourself this every. single. day. and before you know it, you have been saying "tomorrow it will get done" for a year and you still haven't started (or barely started). This is exactly why so many people never get that business started, or take action on any of the creative ideas they have. Even when we are talking about the gym and getting. in shape, it just constantly gets pushed off when we tell ourselves that we are too busy. I think I told myself this countless times when I was trying to start a blog because of the simple fact that I enjoyed the idea mored than actually doing the work. When we are pushing ideas off like this, ask yourself why. Do you not want to do the work or do you actually have no time. I would put money on the answer you just gave yourself, you don't want to do the work and that is why you are avoiding it. That first step is always the hardest, but once you get the momentum in your direction, it is much easier to take action. Once you write that first sentence, once you show up at the gym, once you start with a page of studying, once you eat one healthy meal, the next step is much easier than the first. How You Are Subconsciously Sabotaging Your ResultsYou might be doing the easy tasks first and staying busy so you don't have to get to the "hard things." Yes, even if that is not what you want, you might be doing this subconsciously just because it is easier for your brain to stay busy and trick itself that you are being productive. That's kinda messed up isn't it? Yes, but it doesn't have to stay like that. Whenever an idea comes to your mind, it is likely going to be hard to get started for the simple fact that it is new and you don't know what you are doing right away. So, what does our brain do? It keeps that idea in the back of our minds and keeps us thinking that we "will get to it later" as we work away on pointless tasks that really aren't getting us closer to our real goals. Tasks like checking our email constantly or cleaning the house before you take action for the day. Even reading can be a distraction and considered "easy" because you don't have to try too hard mentally to read, definitely not as hard as you would if you were trying to do something new for the first time. Why Pushing Off Tasks Until Later Is Not The MoveThis is mainly focused on important tasks in your day to day. I want to preface this by saying that this is talking about pushing off ideas based around something you value and want to get better at in life, not any and all ideas that come to your mind. If you started to act on every single idea that came to your mind, you would be doing nothing productive during the day, just a bunch of random tasks. You would be getting a lot done but it would cause you to go nowhere fast, as you would be getting a lot of random goals done that are not at all aligned with something you really care about. When you start to push things off until "tomorrow" or even just "later" you are showing yourself that it lacks importance in your life, even though that might not be true. And when something isn't important in your life, you aren't going to spend time taking action on it even if you are thinking about it. Just think about this in terms of relationships, when you place high value and importance on a significant other, that is all you think about and act on during the day. That can be the same with your fitness and work as well, you just have to stop pushing the work off so that you aren't subconsciously telling your brain that whatever it is, is not important because you keep pushing it off. The Ten Second Rule For Your BrainThis might be exactly what you need to try all week. Boom, a thought pops into your head. What do most of us do? Push off acting on it until later. Where does this lead us? To not taking action on it forever it feels like. What if that changed though? What if you acted on the ideas that are relevant to your goals within the first ten seconds of thinking them? Acting on them before they have the chance to leave your mind or they have the chance to decrease significance in your brain if you push them off until later. Imagine all the things you could get done if you acted now instead of later? Im sure you would be 10x further along towards your goals. It's a simple strategy that many are going to brush off because they are looking for the secret. This is the secret, the work is the secret to your goals and this is how you lower the barrier of entry for working on those big ideas. Right when you have that idea, think about what the first thing you need to get done for it to play out is and start working on that "first thing." Why This WorksIt works for two reasons. First, it tells your mind that this is important and this topic is one that you should be focused on. When you are watching Netflix all day, you are doing the same thing and that's why you keep watching Netflix, or keep eating junk food, because you are acting on those things and telling your mind that those are valuable in your life and they should be focused on. But you can do the same thing with work, it is just going to take some time to start rewiring your brain to show it what you actually want to be valuing in your life through your actions. You can't value something if you aren't acting on it. That leads to the second reason why this works towards helping you get reach your goals. It gets you taking more action on whatever the thing you want to start or work on is and more action leads to more progress. Just thinking about starting something doesn't lead to progress, acting on it leads to progress. This is a habit to make yourself act on whatever "it" may be. What to Avoid When You Start Putting the Ten Second Rule Into PracticeDon't just use this to get "busy tasks" done, use it for the important things on your to-do list. Start that work on your business you have wanted to start. Start blogging, vlogging or just posting on social media about something you are passionate about. Hit the gym and research everything you can on routines and diets that can change your life. Take those next steps towards doing something valuable in your life, no matter what that might be. Don't just use this as a "cop out" to keep yourself busy doing the random day to day tasks like cleaning every square inch of your house, just because you "thought about it." We have to use this strictly for thoughts that help us move the ball forward in whatever area of our life that we are striving to get results in, but haven't been seeing any results yet. Wow, just like that another day on the blog is in the books! Thanks for all the support and if you enjoyed this or learned anything I just ask one thing: bring a friend back tomorrow! Time to make personal development more "normal" because it is at the foundation of every area of our lives. Stop back with a friend tomorrow-- yourmmntm.com/blog Now be sure to actually put what you learned to use, don't just read about it and make yourself feel like you are taking action, actually take action! -Taylor Other Content You Can Learn FromSometimes it's not what you add to your life that makes the biggest impact, sometimes it's what you get rid of. Crazy how everytime you dread a situation and think something is going to go wrong, it actually goes wrong. Whether you have a feeling the upcoming test is going to go poorly and that is all you think about or that you are never going to start that business because success is for "other people," so you never end up starting. It will be no surprise then when I tell you that the negative energy and views we consume, have a much larger impact on our mindset than the positive ones that we consume. Or when I tell you that our brains naturally gravitate towards the negative sides of life because first off, that is what a lot of us are surrounded by and second, it is just easier to think negatively and play the victim role. A lot of this stems from our ancestors and how they were focused on avoiding threats in order to stay alive on a day to day basis. I could rant here on how to start just thinking more positively in order to try and counteract this negative thinking but that simply won't work. Why? Because we aren't even sure that positive thinking works, only if it is followed by actions do we really start to see the results. And I know first hand that even if you start positive affirmations it won't help if your negative mindset is strong enough. We have to tackle eliminating the negative first. If we simply try to eliminate the negative thoughts from our life, by acknowledging them when they arise and changing them, we can have a much bigger impact on our lives than unsuccessfully trying to add positive thinking. Picture This...Every day you wake up and go through the same motions, go to the same job, eat at the same restaurant and see the same people. You go on vacation once per year and count down the days until this trip every year. You constantly complain about your situation, how others are just given so much more than you, how others are going more places than you and how others seem to have a "better" life than you. You see everything from a negative light and never seem to see any results in the work you are doing or even at the gym and you start blaming everything, or everyone, but yourself. The thought of your mindset affecting where you are in life, never really crosses your mind until it's the last thing you look at as nothing else seems to be working. And recently nothing else has seemed to change any aspect of your life. You have been stuck in the same routine, getting the same results and seeing the world from the same negative lens. And that is why you are reading this article... Welcome to your solution. "We aren't sure if positive thinking works for sure, but we do know for a fact that negative thinking works" -Trevor MoawadNegative Thinking and Your GoalsIt doesn't help your goals in the slightest. Wanna know what negative thinking does to your goals? I'm sure you have experienced it many times when you were trying to reach a goal and how did that work out for you? Likely not good, the negative thinking won out over action. This is where negative thinking disables us, it gets us believing what we are thinking is true, rather than just seeing the thought as an objective thing that just came across our mind. When we start believing these thoughts, we stop taking action because "what is the point of "wasting time" if I never will reach the goal?" Without action, we have no progress towards anything in life and that is what negative thinking takes away from you. And you know what? That work, progress and the process is everything when it comes to goals because there really is no end game. When you get close or reach your first goal, you make a new one, so you are never really satisfied. This is why so man y people who seek happiness from end results find out that it is an empty pursuit. Don't let negative thinking take the process away from you, time to take back one of the biggest aspects of your life. It's Not Always What You Add to Your LifeSometimes it is what you subtract from your life, not just what you add or change. It is kind of wild actually, all we see online, and I am guilty of this as well, are articles telling us what we should add to our lives. From little hacks to boost your confidence to daily habits/ routines or even study habits. What these articles fail to take into consideration though is that some people can't effectively add habits or things to their life without taking a look at, and getting rid of, some negative things in their lives already, such as a mindset. That is likely why you keep struggling to build habits, and keep reading more habit building articles hoping that you will find "the right one." Your mind is the foundation of everything in your life, you need a strong base to build off of if you want to build effectively. Getting Rid of Negative Thinking and Your MindsetYou can't build a strong mindset on a weak foundation. So, how does getting rid of a negative mindset help you strengthen that foundation so that you can effectively build up other areas of your life? Well, if you haven't gotten the memo yet, negative thinking plays probably the largest role in the amount of action you are taking towards your goals. If you start to eliminate that you can start to notice more willingness to take action without you mind constantly trying to avoid it. Oh and weird, when you start taking more action you are naturally going to get closer to your goals, who would have thought?! What else can eliminating this negative mindset do for us? Well, for me at least it has been extremely helpful in increasing my confidence level. It is not like I really set out to have this happen, it was just a nice bi-product of working on getting rid of negativity. This increased confidence has broughten me into many new situations that I would have avoided at all costs before. These situations have allowed me to meet so many new people and bring new opportunities into my life. You never known when you are going to meet someone that can have a large impact in your life, and if you are avoiding new situations, I would highly recommend you work on this... starting with removing negativity! Then maybe trying this out next >> Your "Mental Workout" For TodayHow about some actionable tips on actually getting started removing negativity? Enough talk and time for some work. Since the gym has played a large aspect in my life, even after sports ended in high school for me, I like to give these actionable advice in terms of "workouts" because your brain is a muscle too, you need to get "shredded" up top. Exercise #1: Stay Off of Your Phone the First and Last Hour of the Day Reps: 2x per day Duration: 1 hour when you wake up, 1 hour when you are getting ready to sleep. Notes: Start and end the day in control, not reacting to anything or consuming negative information right away. Exercise #2: Stay off of Social Media for A Day Duration: All day Notes: If you can do this, see how much it can do for your mindset Exercise #3: No News This Week Duration: All Week Notes: News his one of the most negative sources that you get consumed by everyday, eliminate it temporarily at least. I'm sure nothing that important is going to happen that day. Exercise #4: Stop Complaining Duration: Try all week Notes: This is much harder than it sounds, but that means it will also have a larger impact on that voice inside of your head. Exercise #5: Catch Yourself When You Say Something Negative or Are About To Say Something Negative Duration: All Week Notes: Much like complaining, this will have a much bigger impact than you realize. What you speak into existence helps shape how others see you as well as how you see yourself, control what you are saying more and put some thought into your words. Yeah, don't let yourself have read this far and not take advantage of this great free resource from the top mental conditioning coach in professional sports, Trevor Moawad. I almost forgot! If you are new to the blog, thanks for stopping by! With MMNTM (mo-men-tum) my goal is to help you level up your mind and mindset with effective "workouts." Much like you would train your body, this is the gym for your mindset, everything from your happiness and mental clarity to mental discipline and productivity. These are the things that have helped me the most and I love sharing them with you daily on yourmmntm.com/blog so be sure to stop out daily! Now be sure to actually put what you learned to use, don't just read about it and make yourself feel like you are taking action, actually take action! -Taylor Other Content That You'll Learn FromNo big science terms, or crazy diets or strategies to get your brain working better. Just simple things that we all can do for free everyday and that really work... Image: Inc.com If you are like me, you stumbled upon a few articles at whatever point in time, discussing optimizing your brain and how doing so was going to improve so many areas of your life. How your relationships would improve, how you would find more happiness, how you would have more confidence, how you would remember more, and how you would be able to problem solve better. While all these things are true, and much more, the articles were just kind of bland and boring because they were filled with a ton of science. Sure, science is good to understand why something works but it gets to a point where there are just too many terms I don't know, and have to look up, that it feels like I'm doing a research paper, not actually learning what I want to learn. I just wanted to know what worked so that I could try it out for myself, and I wanted a solid place to start that didn't involve going to buy 100 different vitamins or some fancy equipment. This is going to be where you can start, no crazy science terms, no crazy strategies, just simple and effective ways to start changing the way you think. I almost forgot! If you are new to the blog, thanks for stopping by! With MMNTM (mo-men-tum) my goal is to help you level up your mind and mindset with effective "workouts." Much like you would train your body, this is the gym for your mindset, everything from your happiness and mental clarity to mental discipline and productivity. These are the things that have helped me the most and I love sharing them with you daily on yourmmntm.com/blog so be sure to stop out daily! Now let's get back to what you started reading for. Here Is What You Are About to Learn
Why Many People Get "Scared Away" From Optimizing |
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