For some reason, I just can’t stick to these goals. There are some common threads that keep appearing:
- My mind gets fatigued when I need to work long periods. But work is just a series of actions which I seem to frame as being difficult. In reality, it is the most meaningful thing I can be doing so I can set myself, and my family up, and change the direction of my life. All this requires is sitting at my desk for long periods of time, moving towards a goal. When I stop working, I’m just changing one action for another action but what I move to has less resistance attached to it. I just need to stop quitting or wanting to quit when I’m working. I must change this
- My desire to snack and eat food which isn’t moving me closer to my goals. I stop working to go get some food just to please my mind. I don’t need food, I usually just need to release some of the mental stress but there are ways I can do that without leaving my desk such as drawing, writing, learning etc
- I tell myself I’ll do certain actions, but then I don’t do them. I don’t put them in my calendar, and because they’re not a habit, I don’t go out of my way to do them. I don’t seem capable of hitting 8 hours but I know that once I make it a habit, I will be able to do it every day. It doesn’t need to be 8 hours of really high resistance work, just 8 hours of work. This could be writing, drawing diagrams, networking, reviewing processes etc. I just need to change who I am and how I operate.
Once again I’m in this situation where I say I’m committed to changing but in reality, how do we change our behaviours?
What I learnt from 75 hard is that there are three important keys:
- Say no to alternatives – Decide that this is what you’re going to do, and you won’t let any excuse get in the way. With 75 hard, this decision was that any social occasion was going to be sacrificed. With the 8 hours, maybe with my all or nothing personality, I just make a rule that I don’t leave my desk until I’ve done the 8 hours. That it’s just one giant stint, and then the rest of the day is free. Because my willpower with flexibility has never worked and I’ve never been someone who can do things in small doses. I might try this today – work until 3.15pm which will be my 8 hours (it’s currently 8am and I’ve already done a bit of work).
- Make a plan which will be executed – I start every day with no plan and therefore I log on and find it easier to drift in and out of the day. I need to have a plan in place which I’m executing
- Have options in place for when energy levels swing – in 75 hard, this was going for a walk which would use up 45 minutes, and also burn some calories. For work, this might be writing, checking in on work, working on processes, drawing processes, writing etc etc. As long as it’s not stopping and we just keep moving forward.
The problem is that motivation is always high in the morning, and then it dwindles throughout the day and then by nighttime I’ve just completely lost motivation for my goals. I could fix this by doing an end of work day reflection so I’ve just put 45 minutes in at 2.30pm.
The goal for the end of day reflection will be to follow a format which I will create to reflect on things such as did I move closer to goals? What worked well? What didn’t? What do I need to execute tomorrow? Etc etc
By becoming someone who can consistently do the work for long periods, I give myself a much higher chance of succeeding.
180 days from now is the 22nd of February. If I can execute on my habits for 180 days, my life will look enormously different. As a reminder, the habits for now are:
- 56 productive hours per week (8 per day)
- > 7,000 cal deficit per week
- 1 LinkedIn post per day
- Under 2 hours screentime
- Less than 5 emails in inbox at the end of each day
- Write 1x partner gratitude note per day
- 15 minutes on business finances
- 15 minutes on personal finances
- 4.5L of water
If I execute these for 6 months, my life will look so much different. I just need to plan effectively, bury distractions, and then have plans in place for when energy dips to make sure I keep moving forward
Here we go again – but for real this time