Bigass post – Meaty Ideas – Simple to Implement.
1. Give yourself a break from the all-or-nothing approach.
Instead (much more fun) – build some sexy-looking success chains.
Each time you have a day of productivity, perfect sleep, plenty of water, great eating, enough exercise, speaking up for yourself,
or whichever good choices you want to make
…think of that day as a link in a chain.
Each day is a clean slate.
If you have a setback or wobble, start a new chain.
How long can you build your next chain?
Last time was 3 (great, bank that win)
Can you get to 5? 7?
Keep looking forward, except to admire ALL your chains (however long they were).
They all count.
2. Spend time with people with a Success attitude.
Even your loveliest friend or family member may unwittingly be thwarting your efforts for success.
‘One won’t hurt’, ‘don’t work TOO hard/don’t be a party pooper/lightweight/get too muscly/thin/big/small’, ‘a little of what you fancy does you good’/just be sociable…
People with a similar ‘success-focused’ outlook – they’ll GET you.
They’ll understand where you are heading and you will all help each other along the way.
You might have to have a think about that.
Might not be the obvious ones (in the same line of work, say.)
But when you scan your life for people who always, sunny, rooting for you, helpful, are patient, fun, respectful, encouraging –
those people are GOLD DUST.
Those are your perfect sounding boards, tag team, cheerleaders – and you can do the same for them.
And without getting into it – there are some people that are the very opposite.
That bit’s worth thinking about.
That’s not to say cut anyone dramatically out of your life – but notice how each person makes you feel and tweak your time, and attention accordingly.
3. You might not like this one.
Sorry.
Give it time.
Quite a lot of time.
Anything worth doing takes time.
A bit of grunt work.
Planning.
Persistence.
We are conditioned by the media to believe that with the latest quick fix, secret blueprint, magical foolproof system – you can achieve anything.
I mean you can cheat a lot of things short term, but they are practically always storing up more problems for future you.
To do anything worthwhile with strong future-proofed foundations healthily, happily and ethically requires an investment of your time.
This is your life now and I know it can be frustrating when you want to be in your ideal situation – like NOW.
But.
Trust me.
Smaller, planned, consistent changes mean you can enjoy the journey, love your life and in the process and achieve meaningful, lasting success.
4. Your brain HATES suddenly losing stuff
… thatit used to get pleasure from.
This is why diving into diets, suddenly joining the 4am club, and beasting yourself in hectic training plans from a standing start feel so awful.
Your brain goes
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU PSYCOPATH?
STOP STOP STOP.
And it will keep shouting that until you do.
That’s why we can keep crazy new regimes up for a while
and then run out of steam and default to what our brain knows makes our pleasure centres light up.
It does that because that’s what it’s designed to do.
Keep you safe from feeling hungry and tired.
It’s iterally your amygdala’s job.
Steady changes, better choices, and ramping up is always the way –
giving your brain a chance to gently adjust to new ways of feeling great and new things it looks forward to.
No struggle, no massive effort – just consistent progress.
5. Spread your focus.
Think about new simple pleasures to add to your life (or rekindle old ones).
If you are on a mission to succeed… (great) but tune out the rest of the world – eventually you will feel overwhelmed.
Scheduling in walks, music, films, art galleries, friends, nature, comedy, exploring –
even the tiniest daily blasts of something fun or new will mean you stay the course, don’t burn out and actually enjoy the process.
We are SUPPOSED to be happy.
Every day.
6. Give yourself a break about the way you look.
No matter how hard I try I will never have long legs.
That’s just how it is. I’m OK with that.
We are in a world awash with women from teens upwards,
using makeup to change the apparent contours of their face – to look unrecognisable.
We have social media full of people’s real appearances masked and changed by filters.
Bodies shot at a certain angle with certain lighting – so they appear more this or less that.
Can you imagine what today’s you would have said to teenage you, if they were concerned by their appearance?
Or ’80-year-old you’, about the way you look today?
What if – you just gave yourself a break?
To let go of the negative self-talk isn’t the same as not having long-term healthier/shape/size goals.
You can actually celebrate all the good stuff NOW without abandoning your plans for the future.
7. Willpower doesn’t exist.
People with seemingly lots of willpower and determination know this secret.
Waiting for when you feel like it… means you might be waiting forever.
Willpower comes when you take action.
^^^
Do the thing – get willpower.
Wait for willpower – not going to happen.
It’s that way round.
By literally doing the thing you know you need to do – you get a good feeling – it gives you a little blast of willpower in the bank for next time.
Gradually, like that, you build up your reserves so willpower isn’t necessary – it’s just how you do things now.
Like pulling a truck – the hardest part is getting it started, and then the momentum builds on its own.
8. Exercise is the best anti-depressant
…anti-anxiety medicine, stress buster, sleep enhancer and mood lifter.
Even if you have a particular training plan – regular activity trumps the lot. It doesn’t need to be fancy.
A stroll on the beach, dancing in the kitchen, sun salutations in the bedroom, a dip in the pool with the kids, a stomp in the woods, frisbee in the garden, all do the trick beautifully – even for a few minutes to begin with
If you can fit some activity into each day (best of all outside) everything else you try becomes so much easier.
9. Patience.
Understand you can absolutely get where you want to be; career, study, fitness – any goals really.
There is unlikely to be a special rule that applies to you which means that ‘you’ve tried everything and it hasn’t worked’.
Consistency is usually the only difference between those that achieve their goals and those that don’t.
The problem isn’t often the plan, the programme, the scheme, or the blueprint – but the consistency in sticking to it.
Working out what’s got in your way in the past is a much better use of your time than buying another app or course, obsessing over your macros or monitoring your fitbit.
Anything labelled ‘quick’ or ‘fast’ should often have ‘temporary’ or ‘soul-destroying’ added to the label too.
If you’d started a year ago with any of it – and got to where you want to be today –
would it really have seemed that long?
This is your life – you deserve to enjoy all of it.
10. Perspective.
In the scheme of things – how much will all of this matter?
What will you remember?
That you missed the Summer, stuck in your office?
That you felt envious of other people’s lovely days at the beach on social media.
That you wore the jeans with the size you wanted, that you looked ‘insta-ready’ in the photo…
or the memories you shared with friends laughing, chatting and having good times.
This crazy 18 months world has made it easy to lose perspective and place unrealistic expectations on ourselves.
We survived.
The house didn’t catch fire.
Authorities weren’t called.
We all basically smashed it.
Now the sun’s out,
we can take a deep breath,
put our best foot forward… and succeed at whatever we want next.
I am happy to wrestle anyone who doesn’t agree with that.
Human Upgrade is Open if you want the rest of 2021 to be your most kickass year ever.
Details HERE
Leave a Comment