What’s Your Mission Statement?

I am my own final authority. All my choices and actions are based on my own logic, instinct, and feelings.

I will continually challenge myself and expand my abilities to meet my challenges.

I will follow my dreams, I will take action on them, and I will do what it takes to see them through.

I will admire both excellence and courage, in myself and others.

I will strive to never lose my childlike wonder.

I will accept responsibility for myself and my actions. I will step up to meet challenges and do what is required.

I will take time to Enjoy life, appreciate the little things, and relax.

I will accept the present moment, when action is required, I will not question myself.

I will strive to be extraordinary, I will not settle for ordinary.

I will cultivate Joy, and spread it wherever I go.

I will look at myself as a role model, and accept that every action I take will have an impact on every person I meet.

I will accept others for who they are, I will recognize their core.

I will treat every action as an expression of my inner core.

When facing temptation, I will look to my values.

Why Create a Mission Statement?

It seems silly to verbalize your core into a written statement… after all, you can express your core better than any words can.  However, there are several benefits that come just from creating and writing a mission statement, and several more benefits that come from having a mission statement.

Benefits of Writing a Mission Statement

The great thing about writing a mission statement is that it provides you an opportunity to critically examine your innermost beliefs.  Are your emotions, thoughts, and conscience in sync?  Do you have any learned beliefs that are at odds with your deeper values and feelings?  Do you even know what your beliefs are?

The writing of the mission statement gives you a chance to examine all these questions,  and more.  It gives clarity to your direction and purpose in life, and congruency to your actions.

Benefits of Having a Mission Statement

The mission statement is an expression of your innermost values and desires.  When you’re at your highest state, you really don’t have to think about these values, they’re apparent in everything you do, they’re your default response.  However, the problem I have, and I think most people have, is that we’re not ALWAYS in our highest state.  We have bad days, we get inside our head, we act out inneffective scripts learned in our childhood, which aren’t congruent with our deepest values.

And often, because we’re coming from a lower place in ourselves,  we don’t even REALIZE that we’re doing anything wrong. We feel justified in yelling at loved ones, because at that moment we feel they deserve it.  We think it’s ok to procrastinate, because we worked really hard yesterday.  We think it’s ok to lie for our own gain, because in that moment it seems there’s no other option.  We rationalize, justify, and deceive ourselves into believing our own bullshit… we simply don’t have that higher frame of reference to see the truth.

But what if we had a stand-in for that higher frame of reference.  What if we had a set of rules that allowed us to ACT from that higher frame of reference, even if we weren’t currently seeing things from that perspective?  That’s what the mission statement does.  It’s a set of rule or guidelines for our actions, that allow us to approximate our actions and decisions when in that higher state. Furthermore, you’ll find that simply by acting in accordance with your highest values, even if initially in a lower state, you’ll be moved into that higher state.

How do I Write a Mission Statement?

Creating an initial rough draft of a mission statement can be completed in a matter of minutes, or may take several weeks to get to a satisfactory point… it all depends on how self aware you are.  The process of writing a mission statement is a process of self discovery, of expanding self awareness.  The first resource I’d recommend to aid you in this process is the free Covey Mission Statement Builder, it includes a number of questions and scenarios to creatively “jog your conscience”, getting to your deepest values by asking questions which force you to consider them.  It’s a great tool to come up with a very rough idea of where you’re headed with your mission statement.

Next, I’d recommend  take some aptitude and personality tests, to get a better idea of your natural strengths and weaknesses.  These include tests such as the Myer-Briggs Personality Test, the Strengthsfinder 2.0 Test, or the FIRO B Relational Assesment (free online test code available in This Book).  It can also be helpful to talk to friends and family about their assessment of your strengths and weaknesses… but don’t ask if you can’t take honest answers.

It may also be helpful to look at books centered around career placement or finding your purpose… I haven’t gotten a chance to look at any of these so I can’t make any recommendations (but let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions!).It can also help to take a look at your own choices and decisions, and ask yourself WHY you made these decisions.  Often deeper values can be at play.  Look especially at those decisions you made when you’re in that “highest state” mentioned earlier.

Note that your mission statement does not have to be constructed like mine is.  It can be a paragraph like this mission statement, a list of foundational values like Ben Franklin’s mission statement, a song or poem, or anything else.

The mission statement is not something that you ever finish writing.  It’s a constant process of finding better ways to express your values, as well as updating as you get more life experience and your values change.  It’s a living document that changes as you do.

What Now?

Creating a mission statement is one of the biggest things you can do to enhance your personal effectiveness on a macro level.  If you don’t have one, creating one should be among your top priorities.  I’ve given you the tools and know how to write one of your own, so go do it! Then, set a Daily Renewal Habit to read over it every morning

Once you’ve written it, go ahead and post it in the comments, I’ll be really interested to see what you guys (and gals) come up with.

Cheers,

Matt

Why “Nightly Letting Go”

I’m still looking for a better and more grammatically correct name for it, but it gets the idea across well enough.  Sometimes at night I’m tired, I honestly don’t want to spend the time going through a “nightly routine” or even worry about “getting ready for bed”.  However, letting go, that’s something I’m really interested in every night.  By labeling these habits for what they are, I create a sense of purpose and relief when enacting the habits, instead of a sense of monotony, annoyance, or dread.

What Are Your Nightly Letting Go Habits?

My Nightly Letting Go habits (and subsequent tuit rewards) are as follows:

• Brush Teeth (2 Tuits)
• Apply Acne Med (2 Tuits)
• Take Sleeping Meds (2 Tuits)
• Tidy Room (3 Tuits)
• Nightly Review and Planning (4 Tuits)
• Set Alarm Clocks (4 Tuits)
• Read Good Book (4 Tuits)

Why These Habits?

These habits are all habits which allow me to be rid, mentally, physically, and emotionally, all the baggage of the day, and prepare for what’s to come tomorrow.  I make sure that all the habits are relaxing and nothing wakes me up or causes me to be more alert.

Why Write Them Down?

Just as with Daily Renewal habits, it seems silly to record and reward myself for habits which I’m going to be performingg anyway.  However, while many people may not have trouble keeping a nightly routine, I do.  I find it incredibly hard to stick to a set routine before I go to bed, and instead feel like changing it based on how my day went, how tired I am, what I remember to do, and other factors.  While this is to some extent a good thing, I also think it is vital to have a core routine of habits I perform EVERY night, to keep a sense of consistency and stay healthy and on track.  Only once I have that core group that I always perform can I start to custom tailor my routine based on my day.

In addition, by codifying the habits that allow me to let go of my stress, and focus on what’s to come,  I can use them at other times than just at night.  I have found reading a good book and review/planning to be especially helpful in this regard.

What Now?

Have I convinced you that adding your nightly letting go habits to your todo-list is a worthwhile thing to do?  If so, then don’t leave this blog without doing something about it!  Think about the actions you take every night to help yourself let go , and write them out on a nightly letting go checklist.

Have your own nightly letting go habits? Let me know in the comments.

]]> http://lifeofmatt.net/blog/2009/09/your-nightly-letting-go/feed/ 21 http://lifeofmatt.net/blog/2009/09/your-daily-renewal/ http://lifeofmatt.net/blog/2009/09/your-daily-renewal/#comments Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:58:03 +0000 Matt http://lifeofmatt.net/blog/?p=654 Every morning I enact a set of habits I like to call “Daily Renewal”.  They’re a set of habits which get me refreshed, motivated, and ready to face my day.

Why “Daily Renewal”?

I don’t call it my “morning routine” or “daily habits” because frankly I don’t get inspired by either of these things. Labels fundamentally change the way we think about and interact with the things we label; having morning habits I label as “daily renewal” makes me excited every morning to enact them.  They’re all habits which in different ways allow me to feel as if I’m starting anew, leaving the past behind me

What Are Your Daily Renewal Habits?

My daily renewal habits (and subsequent tuit rewards) are as follows:

• Shower (2 Tuits)
• Brush Teeth (2 Tuits)
• Floss (2 Tuits)
• Deodorant (2 Tuits)
• Shave (3 Tuits)
• Apply Acne Medicine (2 Tuits)
• Read Over Goals and Envision Success (4 Tuits)

Why These Habits?

All of these habits in some way renew my body and spirit.  Showering and shaving I’ve found to be particularly important to feel renewed in the morning, literally and figuratively washing and cutting away the remnants of yesterday.  After getting rid of yesterday, I then look over my goals and begin to look forward, to today.  Some daily renewal habits I would like to add would be eating breakfast, stretching, biking, and listening to some sort of upbeat music.

Why Codify Them? Why Write Them Down?

It seems almost superfluous to write down that I should brush my teeth every morning, isn’t it something I already do anyway?  There are four reasons that I codify my daily renewal habits, and reward myself for them (through the use of tuits).  The first reason is to give myself credit where credit is do.  Oftentimes, I can get down on myself for not completing a task or not working as hard as I could.  However, the truth is, as long as I’m still here, still acting, I have something to be proud of.  By checking off these items from my todo-list, and giving myself tuits for their completion, I’m acknowledging that fact.

The second reason I keep track of these habits is to use them as an early warning system.  Oftentimes, when starting to get off track, these simple little daily renewal habits are the first to go.  If not keeping track and checking them off every single day, it’s easy to stop flossing or looking at my goals every day and not even realize it.  By keeping track, it’s easy to see when I’m slipping, and take the appropriate steps to get back on track.

The third reason I keep track of and codify these habits is for the purposes of momentum.  When starting my day, I’ve often found myself in the past getting all ready for the day then looking ahead and having it be daunting to see all the big tasks ahead I have to do.  By acknowledging all the smaller actions I take as a crucial part of my day, as my “daily renewal”, I no longer have to think of “starting the day”, only of maintaining momentum.

The fourth reason I codify these habits is that they can be useful other times that I feel I need a renewal.  For instance I often feel that I need a renewal before performing a magic show, in order to go on radiant and give the customer an excellent performance.  If I’m feeling less than peak condition, I know that all I have to do is perform a few of the actions on the list and I’ll be renewed.

So What Now?

Have I convinced you that adding your daily renewal habits to your todo-list is a worthwhile thing to do?  If so, then don’t leave this blog without doing something about it!  Think about the actions you take every morning to help renew yourself, and write them out on a daily renewal checklist.  Start giving yourself credit for all that you do in the morning, and check them off every morning as you do them.

Have your own daily renewal habits? Let me know in the comments.

So how does this relate to accomplishing my goals?

Here’s an interesting thing you’ll notice if you take a look at your long term goals… they all exist to help you achieve some sort of need from Maslow’s Hierarchy.  Here’s another interesting thing you’ll notice about your longterm goals… none of them exist exclusively to fulfill the bottom level of Maslow’s Hierarchy (unless you’re in a life and death situation for some reason), and in fact, you probably have a few goals which exist solely to fulfill the top two or three need groups.

So here’s the brilliant and counter-intuitive insight that Maslow’s Hierarchy gives us.  If we’re having trouble being motivated to accomplish a specific goal, the solution is NOT to direct more focus to that goal; the solution is to direct our focus to a need that is unfulfilled lower on the pyramid.

Okay, but how do I use it?

The first thing you have to do is determine what the lower need is that isn’t being fulfilled.  If it’s something pervasive like being unemployed (Safety) or sick (Physiological), you’ll probably already know about it and be dealing with it.  What may not be so obvious is some of the smaller day to day things that fulfill your needs.  Have you done some form of physical activity today, or been completely sedentary (Physiological)?  Have you spent quality time today with someone you love and trust, or merely exchanged pleasantries (Love/Belonging)? Is your environment well lit with plenty of space, or is it dark and enclosed (Safety)?  These are the types of day to day needs you want to be looking out for, and the longer you go without addressing them, the harder it’s going to be to focus in your goals.

Once you’ve identified the lower need that hasn’t been fulfilled, you have two options:

Option 1: Fulfill the Need

The first option is relatively simple and straightforward… fulfill the need.  Go have a quick workout so your body can release pent up energy, spend some time with your significant other or best friend, rearrange your space so it feels safer.  If you find that you consistently forget to do a specific thing such as being social or being active, you may want to schedule it into your day or week.  However you decide to do it, with the need fulfilled, you’re free to move up the pyramid and focus on your goal.

Option 2: Link the Needs Together

Sometimes however, immediate fulfillment of the need just isn’t possible.  Maybe you really need to get this project done in the next hour but you haven’t had a conversation all day. Or you’re stuck in your cubicle for the next three hours but you really need a breath of fresh air.  To solve these sorts of issues, you’re going to use the same sorts of technique I imagine marathon runners use to put their esteem needs before their physiological needs when they’ve run 20 miles and they hit “the wall”, or hunger strikers use when they put their self-actualization needs before their physiological needs.

The trick here is to link the higher need to the lower need by treating the lower need as a reward.  The really neat psychological phenomenon that happens here is that by linking the higher need to the lower need in this way, all your drive to fulfill the lower need gets transferred to the higher need.

For instance, the thought process of the hunger striker might look something like this:

When I get freedom, Then I’ll let myself eat.

Therefore, More hunger = More resolve for freedom.

To bring it a little closer to home, let’s go back to the office worker example:

If I finish these 4 reports in the next three hours, Then I’ll treat myself to a nice long walk afterwards.

Therefore, More claustrophobia = More focused work.

Keep in mind that this technique won’t work forever… eventually you won’t be able to focus on much at all if a basic need goes unfulfilled for long periods of time.

What now?

Been having trouble staying motivated towards your goals?  Take a look at the pyramid above and see if maybe you’ve been missing a day to day need.  Then, schedule it into your day tomorrow.

If you don’t currently have any motivation problems, I want you to remember this article the next time you’re having a bit of trouble.  Instead of listening to a motivational tape, or envisioning success, or doing anything that causes you to focus MORE on the goal, take a minute and ask yourself: “Do I need to NOT focus on the goal for a bit? Is there a lower need I need to focus on that isn’t being fulfilled?”.  That one simple change will work wonders for your happiness, wellbeing, and motivation.

Until next time,

Matt

I’m not going to claim to be an expert on the psychology of it, but it’s something which I have a particular fascination with, have had to deal with many times in my own life,  and have done a fair bit of research on.  It’s often the root cause of many secondary effects such as procrastination, disorganization, and low expectations. In this article  I hope to lay out some of the basic principles about what’s happening when you’re scared to succeed. This will lay the groundwork for future articles, when I talk about what to do about it.

What Makes People Scared to Succeed?

There are several different causes for fear of success, ranging from logical to psychological to illogical.  Here I’ll cover the most common causes.

Delayed Fear of Failure

This is an interesting one.  When someone has a delayed fear of failure, what they’re really scared of is not the problem of being able to succeed… they’re pretty sure they can succeed.  What they’re scared about is being able to maintain their success as ever increasing demands are put on them.   A person  who has delayed fear of failure is actually scared of reaching their limits, so they sabotage themselves from ever getting close.

Teacher’s Pet Syndrome

When this is the root cause, people consciously or unconsciously link success with negative social consequences.  Because of past experiences, they’ve learned that doing well can cause them to be singled out from their peers.  This causes them to hold back from giving it their all, fearful of what may happen if they surpass others.

But That’s Not Me!

The cause of this fear is an incongruence between what someone thinks they’re capable of and what they’re actually capable of.  A person’s conception of themselves is fundamental to how they understand and make sense of the world.  They’ll often do anything to protect this image, even if it means holding themselves back from reaching their full potential.

Fear of Diminishing Returns

This is caused when someone is “climbing the ladder” in a particular organization or group.  The individual begin to realize that the level of work and responsibility is increasing faster than their incentive to continue the work.

Fear of the Unknown

If you stay where you are, you may not reach your potential… but at least it’s familiar.  A person with this is afraid to leave their comfort zone, and the safety of comfort is more satisfying than the thrill of success.  To go from known situation to an unknown situation which could possibly be better, OR worse, is simply a terrifying prospect.

Now it doesn’t seem so mystifying, there’s logic to each piece of the fear. Nothing mystifying about it.  In future articles, I’ll begin to talk about the faulty assumptions inherent in each of these reasons (after all, most fear is just False Evidence Appearing Real), and how to break through to have the success you deserve.

Till next time,

Matt

This video is just some slight tweaks to and insights from the experiment… if you haven’t watched the original video, click the link above and watch that first.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Do I feel good about the consequences of what I’m doing?

Is there something else I could be doing that I’d feel better about?

I apologize for the inconvenience of having a video instead of a post, but I have some other things I’m working on right now that are taking up a lot of my time.  I promise that as soon as I have the time I’ll start writing again.  But don’t let that discourage you from the video… there’s some real killer content on here.

It’s the end of the workday.  You’ve been busy all day, your focus is gone, and you’re completely drained of energy.  You flop down on the couch and turn on the TV.  You’re completely useless, utterly drained from the days events.

Sound Familiar?  What if I told  you there was a way to avoid that?  What if there was a way to to stay energized throughout the day, come home, and still be able to work on your own projects? There is a way, and I call it the power of the recharge.

Most of us don’t give much thought to where our energy and attention comes from.  Like electricity, heat, and other invisible resources, we tend to take them for granted until suddenly we find ourselves without them.  As I’ve focused on my own productivity the past few months,  I’ve begun to realize what valuable resources they really are.  And not only are they valuable, they’re also renewable.

I began to realize that just like rechargable batteries, when I hooked my energy and attention into certain activities, it would recharge them, restoring them to near full capacity.  I’ve learned how to find recharge activities for myself, recognize them when I find the, and structure my day around them, making my energy and attention sustainable resources.

In this article, I hope to teach you how to do the same thing, and never become burnt out again.

But How Do I Recharge?

So hopefully I’ve convinced you that recharge periods are necessary if you’re truly serious about your time.  But that still leaves the question of how to actually recharge.  To truly embrace this concept, there’s two things you need to know.  Firstly, you need to know what your recharge activities are.  Secondly you need to know when to recharge.  I’ll start with finding your recharge activities.

Finding Your Recharge Activities

An interesting thing about recharging is that in order to recharge your energy and attention, you can’t just not use them… you have to use them, just in the right way.  Whe you’re burt out, you do activities such as TV watching, things that don’t require  either.  When you’re recharging, you’re doing things like exercising, meditating, or reading (my own examples). These are things that require energy and attention, but in such a way that they allow you to refocus and re-energize.

Truly knowing what your recharge activities are will take trial and error.  You’ll have to test different things out, and see if they reinvigorate you.  However, you can greatly reduce the amount of time spent looking for recharge activities by narrowing down the list to activities with certain traits.

Traits of a Recharge Activity

• It’s something you’re good at.
• It’s something you enjoy.
• It’s something which you can effortlessly focus on, without forcing yourself.
• It’s relaxing.
• It engages your mind (learning/thinking), body (exercise/stretching), heart (socializing/volunteering), or spirit (hiking/meditation).
• It requires very little initial start up time.

Obviously, recharge activities will vary depending on the person. What I can provide you with is a list of example recharge activites that me and my friends use, to get you started.

Examples of Recharge Activities

• Reading
• Conversation
• Meditation
• Structured Relaxation
• Walking
• Hiking
• Spending Time in Nature
• Writing
• Playing Hopscotch
• Drawing
• Painting
• Doing Nails/Hair
• Shooting Hoops
• Playing Catch
• Wrestling
• Dancing

Take five minutes, and using this list and the guidelines above, create your own list of 3-5 recharge activities.  Once you have some good activities, the next thing you need to know is when and how often to recharge.

Knowing When to Recharge

Knowing when to recharge is important as knowing how.  If you recharge too often, you end up spending more time recharging than working, and your recharge activities lose their power to recharge.  If you recharge too infrequently, you end up burning out or not operating at full capacity.  For short term planning of recharge activities, self-awareness is key.  For longer term planning, you need to factor in attention span, circadian rythms, and health.

Self-Awareness

In the short term, you need to get into the habit of knowing your own energy levels and available attention.  For instance, right now I can feel myself needing to put in extra effort to focus on my writing.  I know that if I continue to work for too long, I’ll burn out, and my recharge won’t be as effective.  Instead of just continuing to force myself to write, I’m going to set a time limit of ten more minutes, because based on where my attention is, that’s how much I can focus without burning out.

Similarly, if you’re doing something which requires lots of energy, rather than attention, you need to monitor how tired/worn out you feel, and use this to gauge when you’ll need to recharge.

In the longer term, it’s actually possible to predict how long you’ll be able to work before needing a recharge, and schedule your recharges long in advance.

Attention Span

One of the most basic ways to predict how long you can work without burning out is simply to measure it.  Pay attention to yourself, and see if you can figure out the average amount of time that you can focus your attention and energy.  This will your baseline for how long to work before recharging. From there, you can use the following variables to either add or subtract time to this baseline.

Health

Health refers to how well your body is functioning.  If it’s functioning better, you’ll have more attention and energy, and if it’s worse, you’ll have less.  This includes factors such as sleep, diet, physical condition, and illness.  If you got 2 hours of sleep last night, have a cold, ate pizza for breakfast, and haven’t gotten out of bed all day, your attention span could be cut in half or worse.  Likewise, if you got adequate sleep, ate a healthy meal when you woke up, and went for a short run, your attention span will be greatly increased.  By factoring in your health as your planning your recharge times, you can better predict what your attention span will be.

Circadian Rythms

Your body is never really in a constant state.  Throughout the day it is changing temperature, regulating the levels of different chemicals, and rationing out energy.  These daily patterns are known as circadian rhythms, and knowing your own circadian rhythms and how you respond to them is vital.  For instance, I know I’m not a morning person.  When I first wake up, my attention span is next to nothing.  Only when it gets to be around 10 oclock does my attention span reach normal levels. It stays pretty constant, but around 5:00 it begins to pick up, and I can be superfocused for long periods of time.  At around 9:00, my attention span rapidly drops off again.  Using this information, I can plan more frequent recharge periods during the early morning and night, and less frequent recharge periods in the afternoon.  Pay attention to your own circadian rythms, and plan accordingly.

Planning Your Day with a Recharge Mindset

After you’ve accepted that you need to recharge, and figured out how and when to recharge, the next step is to plan your day around the concept of recharging.

Find a daily calendar which gives you the entire day hour by hour.  Then before you think about what you’re going to do for the day, schedule in your recharge times.  Regardless of what you’re doing, you’ll still need your recharge times, scheduling them first is just a way of making sure you don’t cheat.

Next, between your recharge times, schedule the things that you need to get done that day.  This is the reverse of how most days are planned.  Usually, recharge times aren’t planned at all.  Instead, it’s work work work, then burnout without planning too.  Now, your day is scheduled as work recharge, work recharge, work recharge.

With this type of schedule, you end the day feeling relaxed and alert.  Nothing ever gets to be a chore, and you never “burn out”.  Instead of wasting time on activities like TV, that time is spent towards activities which truly invigorate you.  You’ll never look back again, and you too, will know how to harness the power of the recharge!

See Also:

Energy Management by Scott H. Young

Procrasination Hack (10+2) * 5 by Merlin Mann 

How to Boost Your Energy by Jonathan Mead