It is still January, so we are still sticking with the goal theme. We want you to succeed and not fall off the wagon this year so let’s talk about how we can ALL set ourselves up for more success. Whether you have health related goals or business-related goals or relationship related goals everyone should be able to come away with a bit of useful advice after reading this article.
As humans, we are slaves to our environments. We will continue to do what our environment sets us up to do. If you are trying to cut alcohol out of your life this year it is going to be almost impossible to do if you continue to hang around people that abuse alcohol. If you want to start exercising more consistently it’s going to be hard to do if you most of your friends and family don’t value exercise.
You don’t always have to completely cut people out of your live to create an environment that sets you up for success. Sometimes it might just take an honest conversation about what you want in your life so they can expect limited time from you in the future. However, this isn’t an article about relationships. If our environment isn’t setting us up for success it isn’t only the people that are around that’s to blame.
Below are three tips of advice that we can use to start creating an environment that sets us up for success.
Make Your Bad Habits Hard
Try to identify your main struggles that are holding you back from your goals. Once you identify these behaviors try to make them very hard to continue to do. If you really struggle eating out because you are working all the time, leave your credit/debit card at home. If you tend to binge watch T.V. and that’s why you don’t have time to exercise, then move your T.V. to a different room or move the furniture around so as it isn’t as comfortable to lay down and binge. Or, make someone cancel your Netflix subscription. We can all do something that is going to make our bad habits harder to accomplish. It is best if we do this when we have motivation, so we are more inclined to do it.
Start Your Day with a Bang
For me, if I journal first thing in the morning my day is likely to be much greater. Journaling is the lead domino for my day, which makes other productive things easier. If I journal first thing, that leads me to read and write, and then meditate. Suddenly the first two hours of my day have been super productive, and I feel good about myself. If your day will get off to a great start by simply waking up to your first alarm, make that easier. Put your phone in another room so you have to get out of bed to turn the alarm off. If you want to exercise first thing in the morning lay out your gym clothes the night before. If you struggle to eat a healthy breakfast first thing in the morning lay out all the food and kitchen equipment to be ready to go first thing in the morning. If you can get your day started on the right track you are more likely to continuously be productive throughout the rest of the day, and if you’re not, well at least you can take credit for a great start.
Find a coach/mentor
This one probably supersedes all other advice. Reach out to one person, whether that is a coach, mentor or simply somebody that embodies the qualities you wish to have in your life. You don’t have to hang out with them every day but having someone in your circle who is doing better than you in a specific area is going to dramatically improve your results in that area. Most people running successful businesses are hanging out with people that own more successful businesses. The top athletes in the world are training around other top athletes. Parents are always worried about their kids hanging around the wrong kids because they don’t want them to become those kids. The reverse is true. If we want to become better, we need to hang around people that are achieving more than we are.
The lack of our success isn’t our own fault. We are operating within the confines of our environment. The first step is simply to become aware. Aware of what our environment is making it easy for us to do. Once we can identify what is holding us back, we can begin to take steps to make a change in that area. If we currently operate in an environment that makes it hard to succeed just imagine what we can be capable of once we reverse this.