You have more control over your life than you think. Do you have daily rituals and practices to keep you on track with your goals and tasks? Do you feel like you’ve lost control over your time?
I am going to reveal the habits that hold you back and teach you the habits that will cause you to feel stronger and have more control over your day so that you have more time to enjoy the things you love the most. When you have more time, you feel calmer, get more sleep and have more energy. It is all within your control.
Everyone has the same amount of time in a day, but the difference between the producers and the drifters is in how they use their time.
Every day you start off with the same potential for a successful, productive and profitable day as everyone else. However, throughout the day, you run into new circumstances and situations that cause you to get distracted and sidetracked from your dreams and goals. I call this productivity friction. Friction of any kind, whether it comes in the form of mentally fighting against or resisting something or someone, or old chronic ways of thinking, holds you at bay from moving towards your goals and interests.
Think about it for moment. The next time you see two dogs fighting in the park, notice how they create a great deal of friction not only for the dogs, but more for the owners trying to break up the fight. After the fight, the dogs and their owners leave the park a little bruised and battered, likely blaming each other for allowing such a thing to happen. So, they’re fighting for dominance, to be superior or right about something. No one wins in a fight, but there’s a lot of wasted energy and time from senseless friction.
What kinds of friction do we experience day-to-day in our business interactions? Some of the most common forms of friction are:
- Problems arising from unclear and incomplete communications
- Poor time management
- Tardiness issues
- Anxiety from trying to meet goals and deadlines
Each time one of the scenarios above causes a conflict, old habits for dealing with these types of situations takes over and the friction slows you down and holds you back from achieving your goals and being successful.
The best way to remove friction from your daily business is to identify the core causes for the problems that are arising and then establish practices and boundaries to cure this chronic fighting. The two critical factors necessary for this change are self-awareness and a strong willpower to overcome the natural tendency of letting old habits control you.
There’s a great perspective and practice that I follow that states, “Do first things first and second things never.” Every action has a motivation behind it and if it’s compelling enough, you will take action. If you find yourself doing unimportant tasks and avoiding important ones, it’s because you believe that it is either difficult or boring. If you have strong beliefs against doing certain aspects of your business, I strongly recommend finding a way to delegate it before it’s too late and you’ve created habits of doing things that bore or disempower you.
Consider for a moment if we had no borders or boundaries. For example, if Canada let everyone in who applied to immigrate, do you think that could cause a problem with overpopulation, disorder and unemployment? Yes, of course it would. So why do think most of us allow so much information and distraction into our lives and more importantly into our minds? Think of the countless ways that we let pointless and harmful information into our minds on daily basis. How often do we allow unhappy or moody people or useless news ruin our day?
There are two ways to avoid this problem. First, we must stand guard at the door of our mind and block any information that doesn’t contribute to the success of our business, such as the daily news. Second, we must feed our mind with the right information that will cause us to achieve our goals with the least amount of effort and with the greatest success. Consistency is the key to success, so start today by blocking at least one source of unproductive information and feed your mind for 30 minutes with a book, audiobook or article (like this one).
As an easy and quick way to put into practice the habits that I am suggesting, I wrote a succinct report for you where you can learn five more ways that cause you to lose control of your time and potential for success and the right ways you can create new habits and reclaim your valuable free time. Visit my website to learn more.
Dan LeFave is the “Prepare for Success” coach, No. 1 best-selling author, speaker, habit-changer and the creator of the online program Live Without Limitations – Five Easy Steps to Release Old Limitations and Balance Your Life. He has been profiled on radio shows, in magazines, articles and podcasts, from Manhattan to Vancouver. Dan’s motto is, “Thoughts become untangled as they pass through your lips and over fingertips.” Visit his website.
