It is all up to you.
I know that many of us often feel as though our lives are being buffeted by forces far beyond our control. But this mentality is fatalism that lets you off of the hook far too easily when you hit obstacles. The truth is that it is up to you to forge your own path.
You are where you are and who you are based on all of the past decisions you have made. You don’t just wake up one day wealthy – or poor. You don’t roll out of bed fit – or miserably out of shape. Your present reality is driven by a thousand actions, both tiny and large, that you carry out each and everyday, often without even thinking about it.
The good news is that the decisions you make today, both now and moving forward into the future, will allow you to become what and who you want to be - and create what you want to create.
There are plenty of ways to make choosing the right decisions easier by automating and streamlining your choices. The concept is to give yourself small nudges that incentivize or compel you to make choices that are better for you each day. It is pretty easy to be overwhelmed by the number of decisions and amount of stimuli you encounter on any given day, which is why it’s wise to place yourself in a situation where you are more likely to succeed.
For example, a common problem involves finding the time and the inclination to exercise. With nobody breathing down your neck to go to the gym, it can be often the first item to fall off of your daily to-do list – even if it is actually one of the most important things you should be doing each day to ensure your long-term fitness and productivity. A step you can take to “nudge” yourself toward making it into your fitness routine is to sleep with your gym clothes on or laid out nearby – that way when you wake up, you will automatically have a visual cue telling you that it’s time to go work out, first thing in the morning when you are far less likely to be distracted by all of the other demands on your time.
Another example of nudge yourself toward healthy decisions is to keep to a strategy in grocery stores by shopping around the periphery of the store and avoiding going down aisles. The healthiest and most nutritious foods tend to be kept on the outside, which are the fuel that will give you the energy you need to perform at peak level. Inside the aisles, on the other hand, is where most of the processed and unhealthy food is kept – the types that come in boxes. By just avoiding going down these sections of the store, you have not only reduced the amount of time you spend shopping, but you have made an easy transition toward making the right culinary decisions. The same also applies for how you keep your groceries in the home – you may want to keep alcohol in a slightly harder to reach location to minimize the likelihood that you are tempted to overindulge.
The essential mindset shift is to create an environment that is purposely designed by you with your needs and goals in mind rather than letting your day be dictated by the whims of the people and environment around you. Keeping a bottle of water handy at your desk to alleviate thirst so you don’t buy soda and keeping your floss out on your sink to remind yourself of the importance of flossing are just two ideas for how you can purposely create an environment that is the most conducive to the goals you have laid out for yourself.
Another example would be to maintain the sanctity of your bedroom as a place that is safe and free of distraction and noise. Depending on whether or not you are living in a small apartment space or other such environment, you may want to consider making this room off limits to any kind of electronics – television, tablet device or laptop. It has been demonstrated in studies that using electronics and being exposed to screens immediately before bedtime can make it far more difficult to fall asleep and result in less restful sleep. By keeping a book on your bedside table instead, you will increase the time you spend cultivating your personal learning interests, get better sleep and cut back on late-night web browsing that may be indicative of poor time management habits.
lt is also wise to integrate some visual cues to help you better visualize what it is that your goals are leading you toward. For example, many exercise fanatics keep photographs and images of people with the physique they desire up in the areas where they are exercising. This allows them to stay focused on a long-term goal that can very often be hard to keep in mind as you are continually making incremental small gains. By firmly planting a visual cue in your mind of where you are headed, you will be better able to imagine the end success you are striving toward.
Simplicity as a general practice can help keep you from making poor decisions and preserving you mental capacity for more creative and higher-level thought. Some busy executives tend to wear the same color and types of clothes over and over again to ensure that they minimize the amount of time they have to spend on making decisions about what to wear each day. They simplify and optimize what they are going to wear and stick with a set protocol. The same could apply to what you eat for breakfast or other aspects of your daily routine. Try to put the basics on auto-pilot so you don’t need to worry about them and can maintain your energy to deal with more critical issues.
Along with exercise and health, you need to make sure that you are giving yourself the mental space and time that you need to make decisions without rushing into impulsive or poor choices. Take a ruthless look at how you are spending your time and what you are committing yourself to. Do you find your calendar being crammed full of activities and initiatives that you really don’t have the time to be committing yourself to? Be aware that not deciding what your priority focus is represents a decision in itself – a decision to allow your day and agenda to be dictated by what others want you to focus on. Have the bravery to say no and keep your schedule relentlessly focused on a few key themes and priority areas that really matter to you.
What can you be doing to streamline and simplify your decision making process? What lessons can you draw from these examples to help you to make sure that you are taking the steps you need to each day in order to reach the final you have laid out for your professional career and financial picture?
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