On daily rituals
What you repeatedly do on daily basis will gradually accumulate momentum that can empower you to complete the biggest projects and accomplish such goals that are usually perceived impossible. Daily rituals appear to be too simple to pay attention to but have such an immense power that can uplift the most gigantic obstacles. “A solid routine fosters a well-worn groove for one’s mental energies and helps stave off the tyranny of moods.” Mason Currey “A day is too short and nothing much can be done and it’s ok to lose a day or two”. So we often think. We continue to lose many of such days in unplanned activities and half-done and half-hearted projects. “One day I will start all over and will work hard on my big project”, so we dream. Building a house starts with one brick at a time. If we don’t care about one brick, we don’t care about the whole house. In order to build your life, one should focus on building his or her day first. If you build one day, there is a chance that you continue such a day and build your entire life. We all love the freedom of doing whatever we like in a day, but submitting to such a craving would cost us our own success in life. Alternatively, we should submit to a list of things that we commit to doing on daily basis, and stay patient until we see the fruit of our consistency. Keeping a list of daily rituals is a common habit of successful people. Whether you like to be a successful entrepreneur, a CEO of a public company, a director of a multinational non-for-profit organization, a writer, or a reward-winning movie producer, you need to know what the most important thing is for you to do to get there and then decide to work on it every day. A writer might commit to a daily few hours of writing, a politician might commit to reading while a businessman might commit to meeting with his key staff every morning. You may have one or multiple daily rituals, but you need to have daily rituals in order to bring success into your life. Daily rituals are not just for big goals but for keeping us healthy and prepared. There are few daily rituals that we all can share, regardless of what our professions are. Here is the list of some of the most common daily rituals practiced by highly effective people around the world. You may already have one or more of them. Meditation Most people prefer to do meditation in the early morning when it’s calm and peaceful, the air is fresh and they can prepare themselves for a good day. But you can do it at any time that works best for you and your schedule. Visualization This is an amazing technique to see the future you are going toward and prepare yourself mentally and emotionally for any challenge that might come that day for the sake of the future you envision in the morning. Planning and reviewing It’s obvious that a day that starts with a good plan works much better for you and a review at the end of the day will tell you what you can learn for the next day to improve. Reading You can read every day or every other day but as long as you keep a habit of reading regularly, you are feeding your mind proactively in order to improve your thoughts and therefore to improve your life. Exercise You can exercise as little as twenty minutes or as long as two hours depending on what is your goal for the exercise but not having the habit of exercising at least three times per week is not an option. Journaling Journaling is not for children only who would write about their days. Many great adult leaders in the past and present have had the habit of journaling. Write about your day, write about what’s in your mind and keep them for yourself, it frees your mind, clears your thoughts, and gives you a better perspective about your life. Do you have any daily ritual(s)? If yes, tell us about them and tell us what has been their impact on your life. If the answer is no, think about it and see what keeps you from not building some.
What does it mean when you don’t show up?
Getting upset over something is not something we can completely remove from our lives. But what we can do is to improve our response. Our mood can change easily by the small or bigger events during the day or night. Although we don’t have any control over the external events and other people’s behavior and although those events or people might ruin our moments and change our moods, since we are human, we always have the choice whether to keep that bad mood and listen to it or get over with it and move on. Showing up for what matters such as going to work with a smile, attending that important meeting with full heart, celebrating your child’s birthday, etc. is a habit. Not showing up is also a matter of habit. If you get into the habit of listening to your bad mood and start not showing up in these more or less important matters of your life, in the long run, you will realize that they have transformed your life significantly.
The power of our thoughts
“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”― Stephen Covey, What you think, defines how you live. So if you want to change your life, start with changing your thoughts.
3 steps to achieve success and fulfillment in life
First: Define your future This step involves three key components: Create a clear vision. See the future you wish you to arrive as clearly as possible. Once you know it and once you see it, don’t ever change it but see it every day. Define your goals. Breakdown your vision into tangible and measurable goals. Design a roadmap: Build a strategy to get there. (change it along the way as you get more experienced) Second: Transform who you are You won’t get to a new external reality in your life unless you change internally first. So the first step toward a new future is to have a new you. You need to work on the following based on your vision, goals, and strategic plan: Your belief system and your core values Your habits and rituals The people around you Third: Execute your plan and achieve your goals This is both the hard part and the fun part. Usually, the people who are good at step one, are not so good at this step. So even if you are not good, you need to change this in step two and become great at execution otherwise you will be stuck at steps one and two forever. If you complete steps one and two successfully, this step becomes easier and more fun.
Being the captain of your life
As a captain of your life, the most important thing that you need to learn is to make sure your thoughts are not going in in the wrong direction. The wrong direction is any direction other than the direction of your goals and values. You need to constantly be aware of the stream of your thoughts and actively direct them toward your goals. You need to be prepared that at any moment your thoughts might be swayed away by your emotions, needs, the bad experience of the past, etc. and might redirect you from where you are heading. At first, this might seem to be an impossible habit to build. But eventually, you will build the skill to master the stream of your thoughts at every moment and therefore you gradually master your actions and behaviors.