“If you live in a cave and you see the sun for the first time, your eyes are going to hurt.”
This was how Andy Fell started his presentation on Tuesday morning; he used this analogy to describe the difficulties of changing a mindset. It’s not easy, it hurts, but it’s necessary to keep going on if we want to reach our goals.
Research says we need at least 66 consecutive days to create a new habit*.
It’s crazy… How can we consistently keep doing exactly the same thing for 66 days? Andy says that journaling will help you to stay motivated to maintain the new behaviour.
I had already heard a few times about the journaling technique, but it never got my attention. The way that Andy explained, it made me understand the power of writing a journal. A journal reminds us about where we want to go, even though sometimes we are not sure. if we keep recording our words, the energy of our thoughts will get us there.
Andy’s instructions are simple, and he shared multiple techniques to help us to stay on track. From the many notes I took, here are some of my favourites:
The formula for success:
- Have clear goals: write your top priorities for today and three things that made you proud from the day before – this will help you to start the day with a positive mindset. Ask yourself every day, “What are you doing today to make you closer to your life goals?
- Take care of your self-esteem: I never realised how fragile confidence can be until Andy said it. How easy it is to lose our confidence, depending on the environment we are in. We need to be careful about the way we treat others, especially if you are a leader. It reminds me of a quote from Simon Sinek: Be the leader that you wish you had).
- Give to Get: We need to force ourselves to think, “how can we give more?” How can I assist this client? People don’t buy people, People buy positive attitude. “I had no shoes, and I complained until I met a man who had no feet” – Gandhi.
- Never make a decision when you are tired: It’s funny to realise how much we push ourselves to work more, be better but in the wrong way. That critical email can always wait a few more hours, and once you read it in the morning, you’ll have a different eye for this situation.
- Plan > Do it > Review it: Michael Schumacher used to spend more time analysing his car when he wins than when he loses. He’d ask himself, “Why did you win this race? How can we win again?
The morning routine:
Andy is very strict with his routine; every morning; he practices the 4Ms:
- Movement
- Mind cleanse
- Meditation
- Mozart time: Take some time to do things that you like
Before he does any work, he also spends 5 minutes to set up and write a few notes:
- Primary goal
- A positive affirmation that is important for you
- Something that you are grateful for
Happy journaling.
References:
- Workshop what winners do! https://whatwinnersdogift631.com/
- On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact. https://jamesclear.com/new-habit
- Mozart time: https://resoundsound.com/6-lessons-from-mozart/