My warm greetings to all the readers out there. I would request everyone to go through this write up and analyze their behaviour honestly. I hope this article provides you with a different perspective to look at the things happening in your life.
Ask Yourself If you are actually Learning?
A general suggestion, which has been given for ages that if you want to grow, then start learning something every day. Certainly, we have heard it n no of times. Now, coming to the issues which might not have been given a deep thought yet. What are the resources that help us learn on daily basis? The resource, the medium of learning might vary from person to person. Some are of the belief that Reading is the best way to upgrade yourself and thus become an improved version of oneself.
I am not negating the impact of book reading or other methods of learning. Of course, there are far more powerful ways of learning than simply reading books. I shall suggest you never to adhere to just one way of learning. Remember if you get stuck with one method of learning, you will certainly stunt your growth.
If you are reading some stuff, then that Reading should stimulate new ways of thinking and ACTING in the world. If you're not acting differently, you're not actually learning, and thus not changing.
Your behavior is what shapes circumstance, confidence, personality, and relationships. You should read for instructions and inspiration. You should try to immediately apply what you have learnt and adjust accordingly.
If you're willing to fail fast, break things, and deal with problems, you can then learn what's immediately relevant at that time.
Also believe me that for most people, learning has become an escape from doing. They are egged on Filling their heads with useless information. You need to re-analyze this behaviour whether you are actually investing your time in the name of learning or just finding an escape from something productive.
Be super alert about your time
It is believed that most of the activities we do during the day are performed unconsciously. It happens because our mind grows used to the repetitive actions every day. But if you wish to stand out from others then you need to be conscious of most of the tasks, your environment, yourself and everything that’s going on inside and outside.
The only way to become conscious is to begin tracking your use of time.
For example, research has found that most people look at their smartphones around 100 times per day. Yet, most people BELIEVE they look at their phone only about 30-40. So, at least half of those times looking are mindless and unconscious. The difficulty with today's environment is that it's heavily trigger-laden.
We are so used to being on technology and being distracted that it's hard for us to imagine being fully AWAKE and present for long periods of time. That's got to change if you want to start achieving your 10-year plans in the next 6 months. The idea of achieving such big goals in such a short time might seem totally crazy and unrealistic to you. But it is possible, try to analyze how you are spending every hour of the day. It might appear a tough nut to crack but you need to give it a try in order to reach the most efficient version of yourself.
Once you begin to track hours, then slowly analyzing your 30 minutes, 15 minutes time. Soon you will evaluate how much of your time is allotted to productive tasks and how much to the unproductive tasks.
Also, in order to properly value your time, you need to check on to your priorities.
"If you have more than 3 priorities, you have none" -Tim Collins
You need to have minimum possible objectives and priorities so that your entire energy can be directed to those focal points only. In the scenarios where a person might think to have multitudes of priorities, then there are many chances that he would end up not focusing on even a single point. So dedicate yourself to limited objectives in order to bring the best out of you.
Are you a drug addict?
Don’t overthink. You may accept or not but Internet and Social Media is a new drug these days. You absolutely cannot achieve things 10X or 20X faster if you're distracted on social media even one hour per day. The internet is more distracting and harder to evade than any other thing existing in the world right now.
Maintain a routine
Suppose, you have no routine for any day. No specific routine for your diet, work, rest or anything. Every day you will end up making separate decisions for these activities, which will in turn consume a lot of time. Thus, you need to get into a routine as routine is something pre-planned. Thus, it will save your time, you will have to decide on fewer things comparatively.
Now ask yourself:
- How regularly do you sleep 8 hours per night?
- Do you go to bed and rise the same time each night?
- Do you unplug for technology and screen-time 60-90 minutes before bed?
- When are your most optimal hours for mental and creative work?
- Do you do your most important work during those optimal hours? (by the way, for most people, it's during the first 3 hours of their day, and just before bed).
Look there is no recipe for success, there may be people who might have irregular routine but still doing great in their life and earning in six digits monthly. What I suggest here is that routine is required only to make your lives better and organize your time effectively. Also, routine inculcates in us the discipline and also our body responds positively to a fixed routine. It yields best results when a larger picture is observed in a long run.
Live with a Death-Bed Mentality
- What if you only had 6 months left to live?
- Could you accomplish your 2021 goals during those 6 months? My guess is, that you probably could.
- Of course, if you only had 6 months left to live, you might re-assess those goals. You'd probably realize that many of those goals are brainwashed into you by cultural norms. .
- If you only had 6 months left to live, what would your goals be?
- Who would you reach out to?
- What EXPERIENCES would you seek to have?
- What "unfinished business" would you get done?
You begin to be a lot more honest with yourself and with others. Those things which were invisible to you now become very apparent. If you had 6 months to live, how much of that time would you spend on Facebook? If you had 6 months left to live, would it be difficult to wake up at 5AM? What's the difference?
"Nothing will fill your heart with a greater sense of regret than lying on your deathbed knowing that you did not live your life and do your dreams." - Robin Sharma
Is it possible to actually live with a "deathbed mentality?"
Of course it is.
But the stakes need to be high enough for you. You need to actually VALUE your time, and to appreciate the brevity of your time on this planet.
If you have a true goal, something that is extremely valuable to you, and that you believe to be very important, ONLY THEN can you begin to properly value and use your time.
If you don't have a guiding purpose, you'll be aimless with your time. As Ryan Holiday has said, "This is a fundamental irony of most people's lives. They don't quite know what they want to do with their lives. Yet they are very active."
Very few people can optimize their time because very few people are clear on:
What they believe and what they should do because of that belief
Most people are distracted while they are at work and distracted while they're home. Most people don't see a reason to eat healthy. Most people don't see a reason to evaluate the quality of everything they put in their mouth and in their heads. But when you know your time is limited, you begin to ask much harder questions. Remove everything from your life that hinders you from achieving your goals.
How do you achieve stuff 10X or 100X faster than "normal?"
- You must have something that drives you
- You must operate with a "deathbed mentality" and not undervalue your time.
- You must be willing to experiment and fail continually.
- You can't be a coward, which means you go against your intuition because you fear what others think
- You need to be an intense and wise learner, which means you get the best information from the best resources and apply immediately.
If you want more confidence, start striving toward the life you want. Even if you fail, you'll be proud of yourself. And if you're committed, you'll begin to succeed. You'll eventually get so much momentum that it becomes your new normal to operate at optimal levels.
Hope this piece of writing helped you in one or the other way.
The author is a practising Chartered accountant in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh and can also be reached at cagyatigupta@gmail.com.
CAclubindia
