There are practical ways to keep this year from being like the last one. I don’t know how your year went in 2019, but I know that it definitely could have been better. Today I will share the top things I recommend to anyone wanting to squeeze a little more out of their days, weeks and months this year. Behavior changes and actions that bolstered my health, happiness, and love in 2019. I plan on setting myself up for more personal records this year, but let me reflect.
Practice Fasting.
Fasting has picked up a lot of weird publicity in the 21st century and most of it is misguided. Fasting is not a fad, it is a strategy that has been implemented in the greatest minds, cultures, and spiritual practices this earth has ever seen. Fasting has been proven in some of our most prestigious universities, scientific industries, and special forces training in the US. From John Hopkins to the SEALs and all the way to Tibet, this stuff works.
I personally used IF (intermittent fasting) for roughly 4 months this year. I found it freeing and I achieved remarkable dietary discipline and an overall physical/ mental/ spiritual consistency. I looked better, thought better, and enjoyed a liberation from stress, anxiety or depressive mood swings (things had once been status quo for my average day). From July through October, I had a standard deviation of 1.2 lbs in body weight from my daily weight journal I kept. To simplify, my weight didn’t change or fluctuate more than a singular pound for 4 months. I gained strength and endurance in my daily workouts, I experienced limited distraction in my classes, and flow states became my, well, just my state.
Find a fast that works for you. I did the half day essentially because it seemed easier to manage eating an actual meal just one hour out of the day. The discrepancy that I included was starting my day around 8 AM with one cold honeycrisp apple before I began my fast. Additionally, I would carry a large water bottle and I would put some mileage on her throughout a day, averaging at least a gallon before the afternoon hit. To maintain flexibility and a social life without impeding my rhythm on this, I would make sure to workout between 2-5PM and follow with a meal somewhere between 5-9PM. A heavy importance was placed around routine. Apple, work/ school, gym, meal, hang out/ homework, then sleep and repeat.
To finish, I would like to commend my effort in 2019 of fasting not only food, but social media and other media forms as well. Our mind works better when we give it what it wants– silence. Check out this blog for more “https://www.kykeoncoaching.com/sweet-sweet-solitude/“
Silence breeds solidarity and we NEED that. Certainty and clarity in our thoughts is vital to our success and this calmness and consistency in the mind carries into our physical health and soundness of our spirit. We are what we eat as much as we are how we eat. Same goes for your cognition, what your mind consumes matters too.
If you want a foot in the door to things like discipline, patience, and solitude. Fasting may be the thing.
Practice Mentorship
This is really a top priority for anyone. Have a mentor. Your competition does, I can assure you that. And if they don’t? Get a step up now, that is no excuse for you to be lazy and mediocre too. Mentorship is key to your development and the realization and actualizing your full potential. As much as we would like to dream up a scenario in which we can simply rise from our own ashes like the mythical phoenix, everyone’s success that we see around us begins and ends with a trusted mentor/ coach/ trainer/ boss. There is really no such thing as a self made man when you get right down to it.
Mentorship brought me a change of mindset, more money, more opportunity and I would venture to say that I have learned more in 2019 than the bulk of the preceding 20 years. I am more open minded, experienced, hardened, loving, generous, and well read than I have ever been in my life. And it feels like a drop in the bucket towards where I am headed. None of it would have ever seemed possible without my friend, brother, and boss, Greg Pestinger.
Now, maybe none of what I just said seems actionable. You might work from home, you might think you are “too busy” (which means get a mentor ASAP), or you might be the only person in your whole town. Whatever the excuse is, I can assure you that you aren’t perfect. Take a look in the mirror, take a look at your bank account, take a look inside… there’s work to be done there. Gaps in our knowledge, lapses in our judgement, overdraft charges and debts, unfinished to-do lists, and depression or anxiety that might creep in. (A book can even be your mentor.)
Figure out where you’re falling short and find someone that is better than you to bring it up.
Also, once you gain the proper footing in your life, it is time to give it all away and begin your career as a teacher. Okay, maybe not, but there is no greater joy than guiding someone through their life skillfully and bringing joy to others. An opportunity I had this year in many different ways. Now not everyone can skillfully mentor, and if you aren’t going to take the time to teach and give back and it’s not really in your tool set, I want to take this opportunity to reassure you that you can still be a living inspiration. Think, what do people think when they hear of me, work with me, see me out, read about me, watch me speak? We all have the opportunity to learn and teach and you should dedicate 2020 to this divine accountability that changes so many lives for the better.
Practice Discomfort.
Anytime you find yourself in cruise control, things feel just right, everything is good and life feels like a warm breeze… wake up Goldilocks, you’re failing. This comfort is deceiving you. The moment we start to accept living comfortably as an ultimate goal is the moment we begin our descent.
People that are comfortable and unwilling to challenge themselves say dumb shit like “I don’t need to know any more”, “I think I am okay where I’m at”, or the classic “I’m fine”. Comfort helps you pass a class with a C or D, it gets you kind of in shape, kind of fit, kind of happy, into an okay relationship, surrounded by okay people, maybe even an okay job with okay work. Comfort gets you by, but it doesn’t get you what you really want. You know what you really want, you’ve wanted it your whole life I bet. We were told we could be whatever we wanted, live anywhere, do anything.
And I am not here to say that is a myth or that there aren’t real obstacles to that, the question I am asking you is this: Is it impossible or have you quit? You know the answer phrased many other ways too: Is it your genetics or have you not cooked a good meal in three years? Are you not a “morning person” or are you always hungover and watching netflix till 3AM? Is everyone else wrong except you or are you the issue? Are you “big-boned” or unwilling to put in another set of reps? Are women mean and men are trash or do you have some undealt-with grief or insecurity that you’re projecting from the past?
We get comfortable in our ways, no matter how mediocre they prove to be for us and our goals. Make 2020 a year where you break the insane cycle.
Fasting, mentorship, and being uncomfortable. Try it out, incorporate it into your current strategy, set more goals… you don’t have to wait until next year to do it.
To finish, I want to provide a FocalPoint tool from Brian Tracy himself. The Grand SLAM formula. Simplify, Leverage, Accelerate, and Maximize. Simplify, figure out where you need to focus your energy and productivity. Leverage others to help you get there and use their mistakes and their success to learn. Accelerate the strategies that are working. And then Maximize this success and continue to gain momentum everywhere in your life.
These are just things that worked for me and I carry an inevitable bias towards their practice as a result of my personal success. Find your formula that works for you.
We can help. Check out our landing page for our upcoming event: https://www.kykeoncoaching.com/product/personal-success-achieve-your-dreams/