New Hustle

Inspiring, more impressive how motivational one minute can be.  The message is plain and simple -- everybody get’s knocked down, what determines where we go when the unfortunate situations occur determine the character and fortitude of our selves.

In a race to the finish, often times it’s not the one with the most talent, but the one with the most heart that gets the gold.  Just watched The Matrix trilogy on TV, probably my 85th time.  It’s the ability of the heart to force the mind to direct the body to perform amazing feats and accomplish anything -- if it’s wanted, or for better words of the heart -- loved badly enough.

To stay at the top of our game, we can expect to be knocked down -- it’s the only way we can dig in and find that renewed determination to succeed.  No matter how far we’ve fallen, or what we should have done -- all that matters is the present and what we do from here on out.

Taken straight from the Nike YouTube site:

From Lance Armstrong on his bike, to a six-year-old in China learning martial arts, movement is the universal language that connects us all. It’s a language of beauty, drama, tragedy and triumph. And the road to athletic greatness is not marked by perfection, but the ability to constantly overcome adversity and failure.

“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. It’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at. Everybody gets knocked down, how quick are you going to get up?”

Nuff said, awesome commercial.  Enjoy, share, show some love.

My mornings usually go something like this (mentally): ‘Alarm? Need more sleep … oh yeah, it’s Monday … work … bills … so much to do today …. work … bills … [insert errands here] … coffee please?’

Most of us then proceed to go through our routine until we’re somewhat coherent enough to feel the weight of reality set in on our shoulders after our peaceful slumber.

From this point on, we’re either dreading the day before us or anticipating the day ahead … it’s all about perspective. Our minds are conditioned to view each day as a potential disaster, or a masterpiece to be created – it all depends on how well we’ve reigned in our ability to control our thoughts. To dominate our mornings, we have to be in control – or the day will dominate us.

What the experts say

But after a while I couldn’t ignore the high correlation between success and rising early, even in my own life. On those rare occasions where I did get up early, I noticed that my productivity was almost always higher, not just in the morning but all throughout the day. ~Steve Pavlina

Not everyone is an early riser, and in my attempts to do so I’ve been met with sub-par success so far – but I’m still trying. Nonetheless, I always try to make sure I get in a good workout before my workday – and if I don’t I still feel the drag of sleep long in to the morning.

Robin Sharma promotes the idea of giving ourselves a ‘holy-hour’ in the morning. Waking up an hour earlier than we’re accustomed to to devote time to the self – this makes sense, it’s just hard to get our bodies (and minds) accustomed to doing.

During my Holy Hour, I journal, I read inspirational books, I review my goals and plans and I simply make the time to think. Because clarity precedes mastery and the more clear you can get on what you want to create in life, the more focused you will be in your daily behaviors. Every day can be a platform to get you closer to your mountaintop. And yet, too many people live life by accident. ~Robin Sharma

I can attest to this, when I’m successful at doing so. The hard part is convincing myself while I lay in my comfortable bed that I would benefit from waking up at 5:00am. I used to get discouraged when I didn’t – but that just sets ourselves up for a discouraging day, which brings me to my next point.

What matters most
Whether a morning person or not, the most important thing to do when we first wake up is to start thinking positively. Difficult as it may be, it is possible. It’s all about our attitude towards the day ahead.

Simply put – would you rather own your day, or let your day own you? Would you rather let life have it’s way, or create the life you want to live?  Or as Robin Sharma puts it – don’t live your life by accident.

At this realization things became more clear to me – if I want to get where I want to go I need to ensure that the start of my day is nothing more than extraordinary – even if I feel like I’m lying to myself to get to there.

My perfect morning (Monday through Friday)
Ideally, in the present, this is how my perfect morning would go:
5:00am: Up at the first alarm, eat something (snoozing is evil, what good is 5 extra minutes really?)
5:00-5:30: Cardio workout (the best way to awaken my senses is to work them)
5:30-6:30: ‘Holy-hour’ – day planning, reading, reflecting, etc.
6:30-7:00: Personal Training w/clients
7:00-7:30: Weight training for myself
8:00: Enter my 8-5 grind with the satisfaction of morning domination.

Of course it doesn’t go like this every day, but I’ll keep trying until it does. As stated previously, if you beat yourself up for not waking up or doing the things you wanted to do, you’re setting the tone for the rest of your day. As hard as you can, think positively – envision the great day ahead and be grateful that you’re still breathing – that you can still experience life to the fullest.

I’m a work in progress, we all are. Slowly but surely I’ll dominate each and every morning – setting myself up for content, productive and fulfilling days – and as each day goes on like this I’m one day closer to my ideal life:

Big idea: Your days are your life in miniature. As you live your days, so you craft your life. What you do today is actually creating your future. The words you speak, the thoughts you think, the food you eat and the actions you take are defining your destiny – shaping who you are becoming and what your life will stand for. There’s no such thing as an unimportant day. ~Robin Sharma

“If you are not practicing, somewhere – there is someone out there who is. And when you meet up, who do you think is going to win?” ~via text message from Felix

Received a very inspirational text message from a good friend of mine this morning that reminded me of a significant portion of my younger years.

We get so preoccupied with our own life and our own feelings that we forget that there are millions of other people out there with the same aspirations, same ambition and same desire to achieve extraordinary things.

I am convinced competition breeds success.  It is life’s natural way of fine tuning and fulfilling  the universal law that we can only expect to receive as much as we give.

This is applicable to our job, our relationships and our quality of life.

Make sure you are on the winning side

If we ask ourselves this question daily – and take in to account every detail of our life – can we confidently say we are giving our full effort to our work?  If not, we’re only shorting ourselves.

Somewhere out there, there is someone who is.

There is someone who is sacrificing now to make a better future later.  There is someone who is pushing themselves harder now because they know it is only strengthening their will power for future battles.  There is someone who refuses to quit because they know that somewhere out there someone else is working harder than they are – and they simply will not let that happen.

He finished the text message reminding me that ‘life does not play favorites’ – which really made me think long and hard about how we can sometimes feel as though certain people were simply born into success.

At times we can feel entitled to certain things because we were raised in a society that has plenty.

We need to realize we are not entitled to anything – that the hard work of our parents and grandparents are to show us the fruits of their labor.

Stay on the grind

It may seem repetitive.  It may be dull.  But stay on it – and give your best to it – daily, and sooner (rather than later) the realization of your efforts will come to light.

Through a promotion, a raise or maybe even another job opportunity.

Just refuse to settle for anything less than your best, and you’ll be sure to meet succeess at the end.

Life doesn’t play favorites, and will reward those with the best practices – make sure you’re on the winning side when it all goes down.

Procrastination. The necessary of evil of (almost) everything I have accomplished. Seems I can’t live with it – can’t live without it. You need only spend one semester in college during finals week to discover we’re not alone.

There is no miracle ‘cure’ for procrastination – like everything else, through dedication, effort and perseverance – it can be improved upon.

We either get things done or we don’t – and the consequences for our action (or inaction) follow suit. What we need to be doing is understanding why we’re procrastinating in the first place instead of thinking about how much we’ll get done, tomorrow.

Came across some interesting research regarding procrastinators. Psychology Today has categorized the underlying reasons as a combination of one or more of the following three personality types:

1. arousal types, or thrill-seekers, who wait to the last minute for the euphoric rush.

2. avoiders, who may be avoiding fear of failure or even fear of success, but in either case are very concerned with what others think of them; they would rather have others think they lack effort than ability.

3. decisional procrastinators, who cannot make a decision. Not making a decision absolves procrastinators of responsibility for the outcome of events.

I think I’m a combination of the first two.

But analyzing ourselves like this gets too complicated. While cognitive and behavioral psychotherapy has it’s place – I believe we do much better when we just simplify things.

I’ll state it again, we either get things done – or we don’t.  Your life and every thing you have (or don’t have) is a direct result of whether you choose to do it now – do it later – or never do it.  As simple as it gets: in order to maximize our hustle we need to get as much done as we can each and every day. It’s said that the most successful people in the world get more things done in a week than the average person gets done in a month – because they’ve taken the steps to get more productive, get more efficient and as a result are realizing their dreams.

Ask yourself two questions (ala Richard Hamming) – what is the most important thing I could be doing with my free time, right now? Then ask yourself another question – why am I not doing it?

If your answer is, it’s too big to tackle – I’ll do it tomorrow – it’s going to be a lot of hard work – I’m not in the mood – or, I need to be motivated, there should be a “procrastination alarm” that goes off in your head that this is something you need to be doing to make yourself a better tomorrow.

The longer we wait to do things, the worse it gets. There is no real excuse for inaction because in the end we’re only hurting ourselves. Stop the cycle – start improving.

You may not feel different, especially early on in trying to break the procrastination habit. Little by little though, you’ll feel less stress, feel more accomplished and be taking steps in the right direction to live the life of your dreams.

Leave you with another great Robin Sharma quote to encourage you to strengthen your mind:

“Weak minds lead to weak actions. A strong, disciplined mind, which anyone can cultivate though daily practice, can achieve miracles. If you want to live life to the fullest, care for your thoughts as you would your most prized possessions. Work hard to remove all inner turbulence. The rewards will be abundant.” ~Robin Sharma, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

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For the millennial generation, motivation is going to be the foundation of not only how much we accomplish in life – but how much we enjoy the process of achieving along the way.

You know the feeling – that burning in your stomach, when you know you’re not only going to do it, but you’re going to do it better than anyone else has ever done it.  It may be from a quote you just read, a movie you just watched or a song that you just heard.  Chemically, it’s literally an adrenaline rush – your mind becomes so excited about the potential of what this motivation is going to bring in to your life, that your body literally beats in anticipation and excitement (more on this connection in a later post).

The problem with motivation is that it is always short lived and never lasts, at least at it’s initial state.  This is life.  Figuring out how to use that initial motivation to maintain your best game is the key to developing the quality of life you want to live.

Motivation comes in waves – one of my favorite leader’s in the field, Robin Sharma, describes the roller-coaster ride best with the following quote:

“Winners have two types of courage – the courage to act and the courage to endure – and they never quit regardless of the circumstances. Understanding that they are bigger than their circumstances is what gives them the courage to succeed.”
-Robin Sharma

Motivation is essential to kick starting a new habit (or quitting and old one). But if you don’t have that courage to act DAILY upon your new-found motivation it becomes just another ‘phase’ in your life.

New Hustle Truth: The millennial generation is used to having what they want, when they want it.  Sustainable positive motivation towards an end result IS within reach – but it’s not easy to do.  It takes dedication to your purpose, and the mindset to achieve.  Here are my top 7 simple truth’s about motivation that I’ve come across in literature I have read.

1.  What’s Your Underlying Objective?
Yea, this seems pretty simple – because it is.  If you want to get motivated to make more money – figure out the reason why you want to make more money. If you’re motivated to get in better shape – ask yourself why do I want to get in better shape? By identifying you’re core reasons for wanting to maintain motivation you paint a clearer picture for your mind to get a hold of.  Once you have this picture – claim it.  Take a snap shot of yourself in the house of your dreams, in the perfect shape or as the successful individual you want to be. See it, breath it and be it – even if you know that you’re not even close to being there (see #3).

2.  Identify Short Term Goals
I’m notorious for riding the motivational roller-coaster, and one of the best solutions that helped me was to set small, simple, daily – weekly – or monthly goals that are achievable.  So instead of, “I’m gonna be a millionaire by 35″, its changed to – “I’m going to pay down $35 every two weeks to get rid of this outstanding debt”.  You won’t get anywhere reaching for the stars without building a ladder to get to them.  And write it down! On your computer or in a notebook, whatever works for you – just have it to look at and reflect upon regularly.

3.  Lock In On The Outcome
Feeling that adrenaline rush of motivation is exhilarating.  But what we’re missing is that it’s not the motivation that’s causing the effect – it’s the outcome of what that motivation will produce.  If you’re familiar with the law of attraction (this will be another post for another time), you understand that what you think about you bring about.  It’s not magic, it’s just how the we work.  If we’re thinking positive, happy thoughts – we feel positive and happy.  The New Hustle is locking in on your desired outcome – and letting nothing and no one get in your way of achieving this.  This really comes in handy on those down days when you just don’t feel like being motivated and want to sulk in your miserable self pity (I’ve been there).

4.  Absolutely, Positively, Let Go Of Your Past
No matter where you’ve been, what you’ve done or haven’t done and how many times you’ve tried – you must learn to let go of the past.  This was really hard for me, because how do you not think of all the times you’ve tried and failed?  Look at your failures as strengthening of your character.  Bob Proctor, an advocate of the law of attraction, states that there is a reason for every failure – and it must be learned – and until it is learned, we will not change.  So basically, you fail because you have to – and until you decide to right whatever wrong is causing you to keep failing, you won’t succeed.  Fail, learn and rise above the circumstance.  Lock in on your outcome, and never doubt yourself – this is essential to maintaining motivation.

5.  Think Only Positive Thoughts
Another huge struggle for me.  Controlling my thoughts felt like trying to control an unchained rabies infested 150lb pit-bull that was running at me. This is gradual, but it can be done. The New Hustle IS positivity.  Along with forgetting and letting go of the past (via learning from our mistakes), you must decide that you will only think positive thoughts – especially in the motivation arena.  If you even catch your self-talk (you know how you talk to yourself in your mind?) doubting, or fearing or worrying about what might happen if I do this or don’t do this – stop what you’re doing and get your swag back (see #6).

6.  Maintain Swagger
Ah swagger – gotta love the millennial generation.  Swagger, simply stated, is that persona we all have when we’re at our best game.  This is what you see when the next best hip hop artists is walking the red carpet – the athlete that refuses to loose – or the President who exudes power and confidence.  You’ve felt it, you’ve been there.  Wake up every morning and, as the song puts it, ‘Get your swag on’. Literally, whatever it takes – put it on.  Make it like you’re favorite shirt.  Maintain confidence in your purpose, dedication to your improvement and be that person everyone wants to emulate.  This is a vital piece of The New Hustle and is required for lasting improvement and overall life satisfaction.  Tony Robbin’s calls this ’state-management’.  Look in the mirror and sneer, pump your chest, whatever it takes to get you to that emotional state – no matter how stupid it may seem, it works.

7. Connect Yourself With Resources and Likeminded People
With the digital age upon us, there is no excuse for not researching excellent resources (see my soon to come post of free ebooks) and like-minded people who want to not only improve their own lives – but make a difference in the world.  Maintaining motivation is much easier when people around you are trying to do the same thing.  For some of you, this may not be possible.  I was there too – my environment was anything but proactive at one time – but I was able to come out of it and learn from it and have begun friendships with people who truly make a positive difference in my day – everyday.

Lastly, don’t wait until the ‘perfect time’ to maintain your motivation. When you are motivated to do something – no matter how big or small – if it’s for your ultimate benefit – like Nike says, just do it. Or, like Jack Canfield says, in a much lighter tone:

“Remember, there is no perfect time for anything. There is only now. We encourage you with all of our hearts to begin your journey to greater levels of fulfillment and productivity now.”
-Jack Canfield