Introduction:First of all, me addressing this message to all of you guys struggling with discipline while trying to do life's hard tasks does not mean that I am the most disciplined person in the world. It doesn't even mean that I am the guy who's got his shit together ( language! I know..). In fact, I may be the THE king of procrastination. I am the guy who works hard for long periods of time just by sitting there and thinking: "Oh no I am supposed to go do that now dammit". Then I'll wait, and wait, and wait till it's 2 AM and I have to go to sleep, leaving 3 to 4 major daily tasks undone. The very feeling of going to bed with those huge 3 to 4 blocs of burdening rocks, I believe, are harder to endure than doing the work itself. You know exactly what I am talking about, worst "everyday" feeling in the world..
Thus, I am here not only to help you, but to remind myself of what I learned over the years about productivity hacks and hustle tricks from books, podcasts and digital products of top achievers. In order to win in life you must have a plan of execution and a strategy, relying solely on "forcing yourself to work" as a technique to get to work is close-minded, unnecessary and rash... especially when you have so many other tools up your sleeve. Let me equip you with these simple but incredible tools in order for you to set yourself up to "Got my shit together" seal of approval. Okay this time I swear I will try to make the following as appropriately censored as possible haha...
First things first, ambiance. Get yourself comfortable. Try to forget all the things you need to do right now, all the problems and stresses. Relax, chill, take notes if you need to. I like to use this example; Imagine yourself hitting the "Free Parking" square in Monopoly, how would you feel? "Chill and retaliate." Speaking of Chill, I hate to read articles without some suiting-soothing background music (no no no this is no affiliate link or sleazy salesy rick trick). Here is a piece of my playlist:
. Put it on loop, toss it, do whatever you want. I just need my readers to feel amazing when learning or simply inquiring information. ( Oh by the way, I wrote most of this article while listening to it).
Chapter 1: Dream-catching:It is impossible to achieve anything without having the objective, the end goal, the paradise, the dream, the prize, the reward... call it what you want. It doesn't matter if it is esoteric or not, realistic or not realistic. It just has to be close to your heart, what you actually want out of life. It has to be real so you can feel it's power over you It has to be worthy enough for you to say " Goddamn I made it". You may object and say to me:" Who are you to give me such advice about my end-goal? What do you know of it?". Fair enough. You don't have to use this mindset throughout your life but you can certainly benefit from it and experience it throughout an important project you want to finish, a product you want to produce, a fitness goal you want to realize, or simply exams you want to score perfectly. This works on literally anything worthy of your attention in life. Here is a special technique you can use today to make any goal attainable, understandable, an practical: Start by...
1. The Big Picture:
Imagine what you truly want out of life (or this project), live it, feel it,then come back to reality and write it down. Try to make it as calculable as possible. And it is preferred to write down goals that are controllable. For example: saying that I want my book to be published in the New York Times best selling list is uncontrollable. However, saying that my book will contain 200000 words of quality writing and editing is a controllable goal, meaning that I have 100% equity in the project. Leave no space for excuses.
Next, set a tangible deadline to your overall goal. What I mean by "tangible" is that it has to be real and it has to stimulate you with scarcity and a feeling of lack-o'-time-to-slack-on-it. Many of us set deadlines that are just random and don't ring us a bell. But if you actively work on making it real and frightening it becomes a fuel to work more and produce more in order to hit the target before the deadline and even exceed your target sometimes. For example: If you just pick a random deadline and write it in your notepad, I bet you you will forget it. But if you give your friend 5000 dollars and bet him to only give them back when you hit your goal on a specific date, now it becomes real. This goes out to all the freelancers and the "solopreneurs" that can just drift in time. Second, you need to...
2. Go Backwards and chunk it up:
After setting up the End Goal, go backwards in time and see what you need to accomplish first in order to hit the big target. If your goal is 20 years from now, define how much you need to accomplish 10 years from now in order to certainly succeed at the 20 year mission. If it's one decade from now, how would you be doing 5 years from now. And then go down to 2 years, then 1 year, then 6 months, and finally the 90-day mark. And trust me, after chunking down the Big Bad Wolf into small, manageable goals that are a few days from the present, he doesn't seem that frightening anymore. Once you know, KNOW, what your 90-day end goal is, you will make it even more tangible by splitting it into...
3. Daily tasks:
Finally, you know what you must do in 3 months with clear and simple numbers. The only simple thing left to do is to bring out the calculator and divide that number by 90. BOOM! You get exactly what you must do today and everyday until you accomplish your 90-day goal, then your 6 month goal.. all the way to your 20 or 30 year dream. Cool right. It's also a painful for your procrastination because it literally cleanses you of all excuses of not knowing what to do or how to do it. You are finally SURE that you will meet your needs and wants if you just do what is necessary TODAY and RIGHT NOW. You also know that missing a single day will result in the whole plan chain to crumble and fall. So, once you do this step, better get to dream-catching on the spot...
To Be Continued...P.S: I drew the first picture in a rush. I downloaded the second picture from Google. I took my time drawing the last one, inky little beauties I know.
P.P.S: Hit me up in the comment section for a fast second part release. Enjoy steemin', and most importantly, enjoy setting up big goals in life.