Tag Archives: thoughts

Far Too Easy Doesn’t Get You Far Enough

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It is far too easy to get caught in a tunnel and keep pushing on according to the latest thing we read on best practices: 10 tips of how to get people to (insert marketing goal here).

Far too easy.

It’s far more smarter – and a little bit harder – to develop a strategy that makes sense to you, and your goals.

It’s time to project our thoughts to the long term.

Case Study Time

So we make this newsletter and send it out quarterly, and in 4 years, after we’ve sent out 16 of them, what will that look like and how do we define success? If we assume that each newsletter is carefully crafted for 3 days (24hrs) by our well paid interns at $20/hr, are we finding a return on investment for one newsletter at $480? After 4 years $7680? After the newsletter has been crafted so meticulously and sent out, where does it retire to?

It’s your answer, not mine.

It’s foolish to think that just one is all that’s necessary: just one newsletter will capture their hearts and they’ll be fans forever; if I make just one widget that sells millions, I’ll be set for life!; I’m going to buy just this one last laptop and make sure it’s the best I possibly can buy and it’ll last me a lifetime.

Sure, just 1 may be all that’s necessary about 1% of the time, but in investments, we want to do everything we can to increase that percentage.

Yes, your time is an investment, and so is the time of every person whose employ you are responsible for.

I’ve talked about this before in a personal mission statement. We define what we want life to look like in 10 years, then we define missions to live by for the next 5 years that will drive us in that direction. Then we break down each one of those missions into critical tasks to focus on day in and day out that when adhered to will find us rolling down in the direction we have planned for all along.

This is not the easy way. This is not reading an article on a cool website with Chinese symbols and following a top 10 things to do to make life count list.

This is pounding the pavement, doing the due diligence. This is planning for success.

This is being aware of the habits you’re getting into and asking yourself why?

  • Why am I doing this?
  • Why has this been integrated into my life?
  • Why do I think this is a smart investment?
  • If I do a case study from my own life, does history prove this logic correct?
  • Does this align with my goals?

The more you ask yourself this question, the quicker  you’ll get at identifying whether it does align or not. Further, it helps to remind us to consciously think about our direction in life, and encourages us to go forth with fury because we are certain it is our quest. With this confidence, it is impossible to hold back.

Perhaps you have a strategy you use to identify the why that works great for you? I’d love to hear in the comments below.

Thought Process

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You are here to feed your body and mind with good information. You are an active learner, and you are trying to achieve all that you can achieve while you are here in this world.

The trick is to make yourself absolutely believe in this, without a shadow of a doubt.

It may seem a little excessive, but it’s not. You are going to be a better person for trying and succeeding with your goals. We may not all have the same goals in mind when we start off on this path to wellness, but there are certain things that we can all do the same that are simply beneficial to every and anyone who tries them.

Make Yourself Goals I like to use a whiteboard to write down my short and long term goals, but a piece of paper will work too. I usually compile this into a personal mission statement.

Start off very broad, with key elements you would like to focus on like health, eating, exercise, and mind. Then from these pick a few things that you feel you can do to achieve them.

thinking_cap

For example, for exercise I would write down go hiking one day a week, get at least 3 days of working out a week.

For eating I would write, make 2 new recipes from my new cook book, don’t eat one fast food product, and have a blend every morning.

Having these easy tasks laid out will make it a lot easier to achieve and stay focused on your path.

Constantly re-evaluate what you wrote down. It really feels good to cross off things that you’ve done on the list, or increase health activities to greater number.

For example after getting on track with my exercise routine, I may change my goals to: lift weights for 45 minutes 3 times a week, do one hike a week that lasts over an hour, go for a 30 minute walk 2 times a week.

You will also notice that you will drop certain activities out of your list when you have changed your ideas of what works and what doesn’t work for you. Keep in mind that you always want to challenge yourself. When you reach your goals, you know that you have progressed.

Never be satisfied with the level your at though, continually be looking for newer and better ways to live a healthy life.

Thought process requires planning, attitude, and personal commitment to the goals. Like any skill, proper thought process requires learning, and effort for a extended period of time to stay focused on the decision, and goals, but in the end, rewards anybody who takes action in their own thoughts.