"I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece" ( Tony Robbins)
I am a firm believer that the Mind influences the Body, and vice-versa. And that's actually been my philosophy for the past 10 years.
I always prepare my body while conditioning my psychology at the same time. For example, if you watch sports fights, you often see athletes talking about their psychological preparation aside their physical training. Only those with perfect preparation on both normally win. The goal here is not really to become a fighter, a bodybuilder, or a Buddhist monk. The whole purpose here is to apply some of those elements so that you can be prepared for whatever challenges, big or small, come into your life. The brain works as a muscle, even though the training required is slightly different from the rest of the body.
Top CEOs and Entrepreneurs all have their own rituals that they constantly apply throughout their day in order to keep their mind and body in shape. To reach the top, or to simply have a "better life", you need to become a "better person" first. That's what training is about: 80% of results in life requires strong psychology training.
I had the luck to spend time with a lot of "successful" people. People with different backgrounds, who however had things in common. So I started to "study" their behaviour and tried to learn from them.
It doesn't matter what industry you are in, nor your seniority within the company you work for. There will always be a certain level of stress, and responsibilities will continue to increase as you accept new challenges. Changing job, for example, will put you in an uncomfortable position, and the amount of time you'll require to move "from Uncomfortable to Comfortable" will depend on your psychological preparation and conditioning.
So what is this "mental fitness" preparation I am talking about?
I compiled a daily to-do list that you can use to face today's world's craziness. It is a simple step by step guide that I've been applying for the past 10 years, and I can guarantee you it works every time.
I have been working across Italy, UK and UAE. Just this year, I have been travelling for 6 months around Asia and Australia, and you can trust me when I say I got used to the uncertainties of life! I am a certified NLP coach and I have been obsessing my entire life to understand how ordinary people achieve extraordinary results. I focus on simplifying things as much as I can, so that's why I'm giving you only 3 steps to improve your life. Not ten. Not five. Three.
I will take you step by step through what you should do every day in order to condition yourself, face your new challenges, and become a better version of yourself. Let me introduce you to my 3 simple steps to make your life easier:
STEP 1: Excercise daily
"Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live" (Jim Rohn)
Exercising is a must - ask your doctor if you don't believe me.
As said earlier, your body can, and will, influence your mind. A healthy body will keep your mind sharper, and it will produce more energy. Energy which is needed when, for example, you have to work long hours, or simply you're going through a stressful time (who isn't nowadays?!).
You will generally feel better and more active, and this will give you extra hours in a day, which will automatically make you more productive. I don't want to bore you with the exact biological reasons, but just think about why, in UAE, His Highness the Crown Prince has recently announced the Dubai Fitness Challenge.
If you don't start from your body, your mind will never follow.
STEP 2: Meditate daily
"A mantra is a word or sound repeated to aid concentration during meditation."
I have always been fascinated by Buddhist philosophy, and I have been practising meditation for many years now. I had the luck to learn even more about it while travelling through Nepal, Thailand and Bali.
Without going into too many philosophical details, I can tell you that Mantras can have a great power on you if you use them wisely. Often we are influenced by thoughts that are coming from our beliefs, or that are externally produced by advertising or social media. I guess all of us have faced a situation at some point in our life where we have repeated in our minds something along the lines of: "I can't do this" or "I will never be able to do this". That repetition is actually a Mantra by itself and, unfortunately, it's not very empowering...
Therefore, the first thing we need to do is to interrupt such negative thoughts, actually not letting any thoughts get to you. It is all about training your mind at being in the present moment. I usually suggest to find a good place and time, ideally before going to work, sit somewhere comfortable, and meditate for 5-10 minutes.
You can read a lot about meditation on the internet, but bear in mind your main purpose here is to "not think" at all, or simply to avoid any thoughts, and realizing what's happening right here, right now. Using a mantra at the beginning will help, as it will overload your brain with information, until this gets almost "disconnected" from all the other thoughts that are naturally coming to you.
Once you have learnt to reset your mind daily, then you are ready for step 3.
STEP 3: Incantations
"If I can’t, then I must. If I must, then I will"
You are now exercising 20-30 minutes a day, and you are meditating 10 minutes every day. Very well! But how long can the positive feelings last?
Well, unfortunately, not for long, unless you constantly reinforce them with what I learnt to call "Incantations".
Incantations made people like Tony Robbins famous, but you can find them with a lot of other successful athletes and business people. Meditation will help you to "clear" your mind, but you need a resourceful and empowering emotion to replace your negative thoughts.
For example, I use a specific sentence that I repeat to myself every day, and you can create your own too. If you google "incantation" you will find a lot of different examples which can help you improve your beliefs about yourself. You can actually train your mind on what to believe, so instead of following negative or disempowering thoughts, you create more positive and empowering ones. Those are different from affirmations, because you have to use your whole body and mind when you repeat to yourself these positive "mantras". While in this case, it will be your mind influencing your body. To help you understand this concept, Google can be your friend, but I strongly suggest you find a good coach in your area as it will give you faster and better results. A coach will work on your mind in just the same way as a personal trainer will work with your body.
And now... I challenge you to make your next 30 days a masterpiece!
Follow my 3 simple steps, do your research and act accordingly. Do your own incantation before your next meeting, job interview or tough discussion with your boss.
Improving your body and your mind daily will ultimately improve your life as well. You'll see that your first challenge will be to find the time, because "we never have enough time" for anything. So my usual answer to this is: "if you don't have 30 minutes for yourself in a day, you don't have a life".
Feel free to send me a private message if you need any help with this, or if you're curious to know more. Or simply leave a comment to let me know if this helped you at all...