subject: Did You Eat A Bowl Of Stupid For Breakfast? [print this page] I was having a particularly crappy dayI was having a particularly crappy day. I had run late for work, I found out that my Portable hard drive (that had 2 years of work on it) had died, I found out I had lost some deals at work, I had to go shopping after work, and left my wallet at home, I had to turn around and go get it, I had complied my October results, and it wasnt where I wanted into be, I got to the shopping centre walked inside, then remembered that I left my wallet in the car. I got accosted by those sales people that shove pamphlets into your hand as you walk by, I got a trolley with a wobbly wheel. I was steamed.
Then, I got the wake up call I needed. The first thing I saw when I walked into the supermarket, was someone wearing a T-shirt with the following on the front Did you eat a bowl of stupid for breakfast. After I stopped laughing, I started thinking The problem most people face when they get out of bed, is they do exactly the same thing they did the day before, and they get the exact same result. And believe it, that was exactly what I had been doing and the results I was getting was pretty much the same.
To be successful in anything you need to grab it by the balls and shake the shit out of it. The reality is, most people, and myself included, tend to hit and miss with the action they take every day. When you really think about it we all have the same 24 hours in the day, but yet some people seem to reach the pinnacle of success and others dont achieve squat. Its what we do with the hours in the day that makes the difference.
They way I look at it, is there are 3 parts to any any success you have in your life.
Part 1
Goals
Yep you gotta have them
It doesnt matter what you do, you need to start with a goal. Think about it
> If youre in Grade 1 at school, you goal is to make it to grade 12 and graduate.
> If you are getting in your car, your goal is to drive to a destination, you dont just in your car and drive around, until you find somewhere to go
There is a ton of stuff written about goals and how to set goals. Now I dont give a care where you write your goals down, but just write them down. Spend time thinking about what it is that you want to really want to achieve, by spending time thinking about what you want, it will help you drastically in part 2 the planning stage.
I made the decision to make my goals public read about them here. Before that I just used a spreadsheet, where I could have them shown, with a time line on when I wanted to complete them. I used to review this file regularly and make changes as I went.
Part 2
Planning
These days everyone is busy. We all have to split our time between work, family, friends, and any other commitments we might have. One of my teachers at school use to tell me, follow the 7 ps, Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. PLANNNG is paramount.
You can do it online, use outlook, go old school and try a diary, BUT plan your days. Spend a little time at the end of your day, and write down what you need to achieve the following day. Carry over anything you didnt get finished the day before and write them on the next day off to dos.
Part 3
Action
Now heres the hard part. Take your goals and break them down into actionable steps.
Example
If you want to run a 42 Klms marathon you not going to roll out of bed and run it tomorrow are you. No you will break it down into easier manageable steps., starting off on smaller distances and build up to the 42 Klms, it might take you 6 months to build up to 42 Klms but once you are there, you have achieve your goals.
Now going back to what I wrote at the start of this post, Did you eat a Bowl of Stupid for Breakfast. For me, I realised, I had let my goals and planning slip badly. But my action was OK I was doing plenty in my day.. Guess what it didnt matter shit, because I wasnt actually doing anything actionable that would help me achieve my goals. I had no goals or planning, so I just busied myself doing things that didnt really matter, and I got the result I always got, compare it to a ship in the ocean, just going around in circles. Hmmm I think I see my pattern here
So Now I understand that what am I going to do about it?
1.Improve my Data Backup situation I went to the shops and bought a $95 hard drive so I can start to back up my data every week. I no longer have to live in fear about my hard drive crashing and loosing data
2.I cleaned my house and car, and organised things so I know I can find them with the least amount of time spent looking in places.
3.I went to office works and bought a whiteboard for my home office so I can start to brainstorm, and write my ideas and actionable steps up somewhere I can see them regularly.
4.I refocused on my diet and exercise Health body Healthy Mind. Feeling better about yourself helps you to fit more in your day.
5.Revisit my goals again, and make sure they are still aligned with where I am right now. Maybe even make some new ones.
