Update of My Daily Method

Be. To take and Maintain Control of your life take responsibility and be grateful for all the things in it. As This is an empowering and positive mindset. 

2. Long-term Direction:  Everyone needs a reason for being , a life's misssion  mine is to: make money and do good.

3. Short-term direction:  Everyone needs a routine to fill their days. Mine is to. Get up and do the things that you love (Trade,MMA,PPT) and that improve your life (learning, doing tasks). 

4. Problems: To overcome any issue.  Stop,  Get the facts, create a simple solution,  Action it,  Have realistic expectations.

5. Psychology, to maintain a positive mindset:  Be Mindful of How you Feel, Acknowledge achievements,  affs , grats, faith, communicate, be positive, persist.

6. Physiology:  to maintain a health body.  Am exercise,  vigorous exercise,  healthy diet. 




A. When in a low funk set yourself these super easy tasks to achieve.
Get up, Put on some up beat music, Shave,Shower,Clean Clothes,Breakfast,Laugh (watch something funny and make an active effort to laugh),Walk Outside, Acknowledge your achievements,.
Work the Following.

B. Trouble sleeping
Cut out alcohol (it raises body temperature so makes restless and uncomfortable)
Wash face and feet before bed , it's calming
Turn off all screens
Read a non exciting book (foreign policy etc) doesn't have to be long, just move your head on from your daily thoughts.
If there is anything bothering write it down so it's out of your head and you can get on with it first thing tomorrow.
Say.  "there is nothing I can do now that I can't do better with a good nights sleep".
turn light off,  close eyes
Breath down to belly through nose,  hold and reathout through mouth making a sigh (it's very relaxing)
Let your thoughts go wherever they want. Hear the sounds and see the visions that it creates.



Do a Little Exercise, 

10. Summary

1. Control = Take Responsibility. You can't control the world, but you can control how you react to it. The only thing you have complete control over is you. When you take responsibility, you take control.

2. Direction & Drive = Identify your Goal (direction) & Explain why you want it (drive).  Everyone needs purpose.

3. Guide  = Create a Plan of Action. The goal can be infinitely complex,  but the steps you create to achieve it should be easy to understand and achieve.

4. Action & Fear = Action your plan, even failure is progress. If you don’t move you can’t progress, it doesn't matter if movement results in failure because you are practising, learning and creating good habits.

5. Progress = Achievements and Problems.  Personal Failure only occurs when you fail to execute your plan. External failure = is not your fault. The fix for both is 1. Take Responsibility.

6. Psychology = maintain a healthy mind. Be positive = Affirmations = be grateful = Gratitude , have focus = 9 steps

7. Physiology = Maintain a healthy body. Your physiology can affect your psychology. Get enough sleep, eat well, hydrate, walk am&pm, do vigorous exercise.

8.  Communicate = Commitment, Help and Inspiration.  Inform the world of the new you.

9. Success = Persistence with the 8 prior steps. There is no such thing as a free lunch. If you do not persist, success will resist.

9. Success = persistence with the 8 steps.

Persistence is probably the most undervalued and misunderstood virtue in modern life. A hundred years ago people understood that there was no such thing as a free lunch. However in the last fifty years the self help market has focused almost entirely on affirmations and feelings. One can can understand why, who want's to work for something if you can just wish for it instead?

The problem is, it's just not true. Now don't get me wrong. It is wonderful to know exactly what you want, in fact it is one of the first steps of success. However if you don't do anything to realize your goal how can you expect it to be? We hear the phrases "leave it to God" or "let your higher power show you the path". But God and your higher power have given you eyes, ears and a brain and they have filed that brain with knowledge, common sense, reason and logic. They are already helping. How can they help you further if you won't help yourself? Wishing for success does not bring success, because it is reactionary. Wishing, wanting even praying for something to change, is simply you reacting emotionally to things that you don't like in your life. 

When thinking of success It is important to keep in mind that it comes in stages, however even with this understanding most will still find the desire to wish for it too difficult to suppress. It is therefore important to understand what success is.

Almost everyone thinks of success as completion of a goal, but this is just not the case. Success is not static, so one must stop thinking of it in that way. We describe people as either successful or unsuccessful, but both these words imply a constant, not a goal. To be successful is in it's very essence, continuous, never ceasing. So one could say that success is not a destination but a journey. What's more important, succeeding once or being continuously successful? You see the goals that we obsess about are just a tiny part of our journey, there will be many more goals in the years to come. You don't want to obsess about a goal, you want to obsess about the method of achieving goals and this is what this blog has been teaching.

These 9 steps define the method of success. So if you are faithfully following these steps, even if you have not completed your goal, you are successful. You can't change your genetics to make the things you struggle with easier, all you can do is "continuously commit to the method". Don't obsess about the completion of your goal, it is counter productive. There is no end to success, so there can be no completion. One's obsession should be "continuous commitment to the 9 steps". 

If you still want to think of success as a destination, that's fine. But the destination you are striving for is the place where you "continuously commit to the 9 steps". This is the only thing that will enable you to break through to the next level. Sometimes you will be breaking bad habits. Sometimes you will be doing that which you have limited experience in. However it is only this continuous, forced and sometimes painful repetition that will allow you to progress. Once the repetitions have been built up, the action will stop being awkward because it'll be habit. You will then habitually do the correct thing. Think of a toddler learning to walk or a child riding a bike, they try continuously.

If you do not persist, success will resist.

8. Commitment, Help and Inspiration = Communicate

So often when we have a new goal or idea we internalize it. We keep it secret from the world, either out of fear of being ridiculed or fear of someone stealing it. The very problem with this, is that it is a fearful action and whenever we indulge our fears we stunt our progress. To be honest if you are fearful that your friends will ridicule you or steal your idea, are they really your friends at all?

Communication is so important because it the first step to becoming, you are informing the world of the new you. There are 3 main benefits of communicating your goal with others, they are.
1. Commitment. By communicating with others your true intent, you truly commit to it. This is in some ways because you don’t want appear a failure, essentially a negative emotion, but in this scenario it is used as a positive driving force. 
2. Enabling help. How can others help you if they don’t know your plan? By telling people what you are doing you enable them to aid you on your journey.
3. Inspiring new thoughts. The more you speak and think about your plan the more ideas you will develop. This is not magic, it’s a simple fact that up to now you have thought of your goal in the singular. Now that you need to explain it to others you will of course develop new thoughts and ideas as you are now thinking of it multi dimensionally / in the perception of others.

Communication is a wonderful tool that is so often undervalued  or even mistrusted. This is because of one emotion, fear. When it occurs, one must doubt the fear that has held then back and trust the plan that is moving them forward. Start communicating your goals and desires and you will find in abundance the commitment, help and inspired thought you need to succeed.

7. Physiology = Maintain a healthy body

I must admit I am no expert in nutrition or exercise. However what I really want to cover and make sure you understand, is how your physiology can effect your psychology.

I understand that the initial statement may not make a lot of sense, so let me begin with a few examples.

1.  Physiology effecting your psychology in a positive way: You get up and go for a brisk walk. When you return home you feel awake and motivated.
2. Physiology effecting Psychology in a negative way: You have a big meal at lunch, when you get back to work you feel tired and lethargic.
I am sure you can think of many other examples, now that I’ve tuned you in to what I’m trying to explain. But it is also important to realise that it can also work in reverse. Here’s an example.
3. Psychology effecting your physiology in a negative way. You make a mistake and start feeling fearful. Consequently your body feels tense for the rest of the day.

As you can see, both ones physiology and psychology effect each other in positive and negative ways. The key thing is to try not to micro manage your life and stress about what might be effecting you. Just be sensible and let common sense prevail. We’ve already covered how to keep ones psychology happy. So now we just need a few guide lines for managing your physiology.

1. Try to get 8 hours sleep a night so you wake up fresh.
2. Make sure your breakfast and lunch are nutritious not heavy, to avoid feeling sleepy.
3. Have a glass of water with each meal, to ensure you’re hydrated and to aid digestion.
4. A short walk at breakfast and lunch will get fresh blood and oxygen into the organs, revitalizing them. These are also great times to de-stress and refocus.
5. Moderate the bad things in your life, chocolate, alcohol, crisps, ice cream etc
6.  Try and get some vigorous exercise at least 3 times a week, to release some endorphins.
7.  If you struggle with sleep, try going for a short slow walk just before bed, using the time to wrap the day up mentally.
8. Generally whenever you suffer a psychological upset (mistake/failure) make a note of it then take a break from what your doing for 5 minutes. A little distance puts things in perspective and clarifies the mind.

As you can see maintaining a healthy body is not particularly difficult, so long as you rely on your common sense and are honest with yourself.

6. Psychology = Maintain a health mind

The whole premise of Positive Productive Thinking is to maintain a healthy psychology. This is because the better one feels, the more easily they are able to accomplish things. So it stands to reason that if one is able to manage / control how they feel, they will be able to maintain a healthy psychology and achieve more. 

IMO maintaining a healthy mindset requires 4 areas.

1. Have a Purpose: Everyone needs a purpose, to feel that their life has meaning, a reason to live. Do this by reminding yourself of your direction, drive, long-term objectives and plan of action for the day. NB It's important to move onto the next objective as soon as you've achieved the last or you will find you stagnate.

2. Acknowledge your achievements (update 090913): to update your perception of reality and remind yourself of things to be positive and grateful about.

2. Be Positive: Say some Affirmations, all this requires is for you to say something upbeat about yourself and whom you are becoming (like acknowledging your achievements)

3. Be Grateful: Say some Gratitudes = simply requires you to list all the things that you are grateful for.

Affirmations and Gratitudes
Don’t have long winded gratitudes and affirmations, they’ll become meaningless. Some days they’re going to rush out of you, some days they will be a slow trickle. This isn’t a problem, it’s about quality over quantity. Start with things that spring to mind and when these run dry, follow with a generic collection you know you want constantly ie: "happy, healthy, loved, positive, successful, guided/protected" . Don't think about your affirmations and gratitudes (you think all day long), The key is to FEEL them. The more you commit to the feelings you generate, the faster you will reap the rewards. (If stuck work from a 5 year perspective listing your major milestones up to present, the same is true for over coming negatives, ask "will this matter in 5 years?"). Spend about 5 seconds on each one, breathing in while you say them. This limits the your affirmations and gratitudes to about 30 seconds each. You want to do this first thing in the morning and last thing at night so you start and end your day right. Right being: In control with direction, drive, a plan of action, a plan for dealing with progress and with positive feelings about oneself.

You want this set of tools to be like a Swiss army knife, light and portable. Don’t make it an enormous tool box you have to lug around, because after a couple of days you’ll just leave it in the hall with the umbrella! If it takes longer than 5-10 minutes in the AM or PM, your plan is too complicated or your saying too many gratitudes and affirmations, you need to revisit them and simplify. If you want to do some particularly intense work on your affirmations and gratitude, do so when you have a large section of free time. Lunchtimes, after work or weekends are perfect. Mornings and bedtime are not!  

It is no mistake that the tools you need to maintain a healthy psychology are the same tools that are required to be successful. But you must remember that it is the implementation of them daily that keeps you on track. Whatever you are feeling, is a perfect reflection of your state of mind.

5. Progress = Achievements and Problems

Progress:  There are no limits to what you are able to achieve, but accept that humans are not robots and will make mistakes. Acknowledge your achievements at all times but especially in failure so you don't beat yourself up, it will never be completely negative. Acknowledge your strategy's achievements at all times but especially in success, so you don't get a big head. 

Achievements

Achievements are of course fairly easy to deal with, but the one thing you must do is acknowledge them. It is very easy when constantly focusing on the big picture to forget or ignore your smaller victories or judge them unfairly against your large goals that might take months/years to accomplish. This is a major mistake as it creates low self esteem as one soon feels that despite their best efforts  none are ever enough.

Maintaining high self esteem is very important for continued success. All of us at some point have experienced feeling good about ourselves and I'm sure most have acknowledged that when we feel this way, everything in life is easier.

The problem with this is not the way we feel, but how we think. We are basing our self esteem on our feelings, rather than our actions. What’s wrong with this? Well more often than not, our feelings are based in the past. A good example of this, is when you start your first job. Although we were young adults with ample social skills, most of us felt like embarrassed and nervous children. I’m sure most people can relate to this, or can think of a situation in which similar feelings have arisen.

The key thing to take away here is that, we judge ourselves on how we feel, but what we feel is often out-of-date. This is why it is imperative to acknowledge your daily achievements and feel the good feelings that this brings. As it updates your perception of reality and of yourself. This action ensures that you end each day happy and start each day in a healthy state of mind.

Having said this it is equally important to acknowledge the achievements of your plan so as not to get overconfident and take too greater risks.


Problems

Problems are not things to fear, they are things to embrace.
As soon as you acknowledge and accept them, they allow you to learn and thus make your plan stronger.

There are only 2 types of problems, they are...

1. Personal Problems: The only time you fail personally is when you don't commit to your goal. The failure of your plan is not personal failure because you did not create it, the plan did, therefore it is external. When you fail personally to commit to your plan there is a simple explanation and a simple fix.

Explanation: Provided it’s not fear... When you find that you are not committing to your goal It’s not lack of desire (that you don’t want to be successful) that halts you, it is lack of direction and drive (that you’ve got so caught up in the detail you’ve forgotten why you’re doing it).

Fix: Simply remind yourself of your Direction by stating your goal then remind and give yourself  Drive by explaining why you want it. you can do this as often as needed. This simple exercise realigns you and reminds you why you are doing all this work and why it deserves your faith. Let your emotions (self pity / self flagellation / self righteousness) go , they only keep you from doing what needs to done.

2. External Problems: Accept that external problems maybe your responsibility but they are not your fault. Whatever the problem, stop, get the facts, work only from the facts and acknowledge that you can only work as fast as the world will allow. Again let your emotions (self pity / self flagellation / self righteousness) go , they only keep you from doing what needs to done.

Remember that the very fact that you trying is progress and must be acknowledged.

Lastly let me say this (and this is learnt from years of experience). Indulging your emotions is time consuming and completely counter productive. The emotions you feel won’t change anything and will only make you react incorrectly for longer. Why? because it extends the period in which you are over emotional.  Let your emotions go (self pity / self flagellation / self righteousness), they only keep you from doing what needs to done. If you still can’t calm down let me ask you this, “will this even remotely matter in 5 years time”?