Find a Way or Find an Excuse: Passion Project Day 1

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OK, I know that many people know that I’m a writer.

(For those that had no clue, hi, it’s nice to meet you.)

Some know me well enough to know that I love to start new projects; and those that know me really well know that for how fast I churn out rough drafts, that correlates to how long my editing and revision stages are.

(It takes me For. Ever. to revise and edit a draft, if that was in anyway unclear.)

Well, just FYI, I’m basically finished with a rough draft of a writing project.

And I’ve been ignoring edits. A lot of very reasonable and logical excuses have come up—stuff like “Oh I’m tired! Oh I need to sleep!”—but in the end, I live by basic philosophies.

One is: If it’s important enough you’ll find a way. If not you’ll find an excuse.  

I am not an excuse maker. I hate excuses, it makes me feel icky and powerless. I set up my life to minimize excuses and instead come up with solutions.

The one thing I know that works really well for me is public accountability. So, I’m going to put out there that I will show up every day to do these edits and share one thing from my edits that day, whether it’s a passage of what I’d written or a key takeaway from the process of showing up.

(I’m also drafting a non-fiction book, the working title of which is called Choose Your Own Adventure…it’ll be a learn out loud kind of book about creating your best day, every day, and creating a life your love. As if I needed more things to add to my day, ha!)

I’d even noodled around going live on Facebook, but then it would just be my head talking at you, and that’s not really all that exciting. Anyways, I’m kind of an early bird, so I don’t expect anyone to see them live, but heck, why not.

I’ll commit to be live every day to show some accountability to what I’ve been doing so far, and what that may look like. If you want to follow along, I’ll be posting in this group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/yourbestdayeveryday/

It’s a closed group, but hit me up and I’ll approve you!

Thanks for letting me be a part of your day!

xoxo

Liza

The Secret to getting anything you want in three easy steps.

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I hate long build ups after a click-bait headline, so I’ll just lay it out for you. The secret to getting anything you want in life is:

  1. Choose a goal.
  2. Focus all your effort to achieving goal.
  3. Goal acquired.

It’s that simple, and that hard.

You can make it less hard by…

  • Choosing goals aligned to your Why.
  • Finding accountability partners, support groups, and mentors to guide you.
  • Hiring a coach to fill your gaps, and teach you best practices.
  • Empowering yourself with knowledge.
  • Talking (and complaining) less and doing more.

You can do this,

xoxo

Liza

PS

I will be moving to a self-hosted site soon (CHECK IT OUT HERE), and I don’t know if I will be able to move my blog subscribers with me. So, I’m collecting email addresses just in case. I’d love it if you would enter in your name and email address just to let me know that you’d like to move over with me. If not, that’s cool! 🙂

Thank you to the readers who have already responded–I appreciate you! ::hugs::

 

 

 

 

Thoughts On Monster-Hunting, or The Downside of an Overactive Imagination.

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One of my favorite things to say is: Action eliminates anxiety. The more I stay in action, the more I keep my Why in front of me, the more I keep my stage fright at bay and make my closet monsters* disappear.

:::

(*Closet monsters, definition: Those imagined monsters that you realize don’t really exist, or things that are blown out of proportion, or problems that stop being problems when you actually take the time to look at them.)

:::

Open that closet, and realize that you have more power than those monsters.

:::

Unless you’re in a horror movie and you hear rattling from inside a normally silent closet or room. Then you keep that ish closed, and slowly back away toward the closest flamethrower.

 

:::

 

xoxo

Liza

PS,

Check out what I’ve been working on: the new home for my blog ^_^

Mind Games

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“Your past does not equal your future.”

Tony Robbins

:::

I thought I was a pro at letting go. Moved around a lot, different schools, different states, different work teams. It made it easy to have casual and convenient friendships that lasted for a season…
:::

I have this crazy remember-y brain that likes to bubble up spectacularly embarrassing memories right when I’m about to do something big or make a change in my life. I think of all the people who knew me back in the day or ex-coworkers or random past clients, and I think to myself: “see this is proof that I don’t belong in this space…this is proof that I’ll mess up and clients will be mad at me…this is proof…”

And I listen, and allow the fear to sound like wisdom and crawl back into my shell where it’s safe. Where I’m small.
:::

 

Thankfully, there are other, deeper, better examples of people who have supported me and do support me, who encourage me and whose example reminds me that EVERYONE has these kinds of embarrassing or emotionally stressful memories. It’s part of working for and serving people.

:::

I don’t have a delete button installed in my brain yet, but I have been able to look at my memories, feel the embarrassment/anger/fear, and realize how different I am from the person before. And I don’t have to be the person who lived those memories.

:::

I would like to create a new story for myself. One where I can dump the hard shell that no longer fits and feel more like me again–silly, laughing, ridiculous me. I want to let go of the other labels I clung to that no longer serve me, and in fact hold me back. I want to be known for more than being analytical or managerial or robotic. I can be those things. But they’re not me. They’re the personas I step into to become successful in my day job; the game face I put on that helps me power through when I just want to quit.

:::

I’m on the cusp of doing it again: stepping out of my comfort zone and going after something big. This time I’m determined to push forward.

This time, I won’t relive the past. This time, I’ll create the future I want to see happen.

:::

Thanks for walking with me.

xoxo

Liza

💜🐘

 

PS

I realize that I didn’t post my last two days for my #Transformin2017. I have no reason other than stage fright. They’ll be out soon, with a fitness day and a “putting it all together.” I’ll also post about what I’ve been up to!

Choose this one habit to increase your everyday productivity

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Hello and welcome back!

We’re on Day 5 of the 7-Day Transform Your Body, Transform Your Mind Challenge. I hope at this point you are getting a streamlined focus on what you want to accomplish. Here are the previous days that we went over:

Day 1: What’s my Outcome?

Day 2: Create a Massive Action Plan that leads to your Outcome

Day 3: Clarify your priorities.

Day 4: Choose one action to lead to your goal

Today, we’re going to build upon what we talked about yesterday (creating habits) and zero in on the one routine that will give you the most return on your productivity.

7-day-challenge-day-5

CREATE INTENTIONAL MORNING ROUTINES

All of the new actions that you’ve identified this week may seem overwhelming. Maybe you’ve identified that you want to be financially free, but you barely remember to check your bank balances let alone find time to budget.

Enter the morning routine.

You Have More WIllpower in the Morning.

The mornings are the perfect time to tackle all the things that are important to you. For example, many studies have shown that you’ll be committed to a morning workout versus an evening one.

In the morning, you are more likely to have more willpower and discipline. Your decision-making faculties haven’t been depleted from the other busy-ness that has been thrown at you during the day.

When you tackle your most important task in the morning, you bring to it fresh eyes and mental energy.

Found Time

Time is the biggest excuse that people have not to do anything. Creating an intentional morning routine, though, will give you found time.

In the morning, you can choose to wake up 15-30 minutes earlier than you normally would have in order to find the time. You can set up a reminder on your phone or watch, and you’ll find the time to create that household budget or work on your side-hustle.

Also, when you are clear and intentional about scheduling a task, you will increase the chance of getting it done.

Live Out Your Outcome + Why

This past week we may have identified a few gaps that we want to bridge. When you incorporate your personal improvement categories, you easily create an intentional morning routine that you will stick to.

You’ll be more excited about getting up 15 minutes earlier, and before you know it, your routine will morph into something even more sacred to you: it will become a ritual.

Rituals are those actions that look like routines, but what may start with an outward or external focus (lose weight), becomes an internal one (be my best self to create a better world). You are more deliberate in the act of doing this routine on purpose and feel a sense of purpose and enlightenment.

This is why it’s so important to focus on your Outcome and not your activities; this is also why you need to have a compelling and purposeful Why. Your Why is your fuel that will propel you toward your Outcome.

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF A MORNING ROUTINE:

6AM: Wake. Water and coffee.

6:30AM: Morning pages and protein drink

7AM: Workout + clean up for the day

8AM: Breakfast

8:30AM: Off to work.

Creating an intentional morning routine, even as simple as sitting with a hot beverage for 20 minutes, will do wonders for keeping you grounded throughout the day.

YOUR EVENING ROUTINE

Set yourself up for success in the morning by following these tips for the evening:

Brain dump all the activities of the day on to a piece of paper. I use a bullet journal to dump the crazy stuff of the day. That way I’m not bringing it to bed for my brain to analyze to death. (I will write a post about creating your perfect sleep environment in the future.)

Your brain dumps don’t even have to be complete sentences. Just some observations, key words, or random thoughts jotted down.

Review the next day. This literally takes a minute to glance at your schedule and see what’s up for tomorrow. Tweak and change it as needed from whatever you gleaned from your brain dump.

This is also a perfect time to unleash your subconscious mind. Focus on the current outcome you want, like being financially free, and visualizing all the things you will do to get there. Create a vision so compelling, you give yourself chills.

While you sleep, your brain will be at work creating new neural pathways for you, strengthening connections and weakening others. This learning process happens a lot quicker while we sleep, so why not give your brain a specific problem to muddle over?

Also, your subconscious is more receptive as you go to bed, and as you wake up. Focusing on your outcome during those times will strengthen your mental resolve to go for your dreams.

Plan and set your wake-up time. You’ll eventually get to the point where your body just naturally wakes up at the same time, but until then, set yourself up for success by setting your alarms.

If you have a hard time waking up, instead of relying on a snooze button, set multiple alarms at 15-30 minute increments a full hour or two before your intended wake up time.

Tomorrow we’ll be putting it all together, but for now, it’s your turn to unleash the power of these routines!

Before you go to bed tonight, brain dump all the things that happened today into your journal or notebook, review what’s on your docket for tomorrow, and plan when you need to get up to make room for your One Action. In the morning, go directly to your One Action and dedicate that first 15-30 minutes of your day to it.

Remember to celebrate showing up! Even if you just sit there and stare over your coffee, you showed up, and you should celebrate it!

Please share your insights in the comments below, or feel free to use the image to post on Instagram, Facebook, and/or Twitter with the hashtag #TransformIn2017.

Until tomorrow,

Xoxo

Liza

PS

I will be moving to a self-hosted site soon, and I don’t know if I will be able to move my blog subscribers with me. So, I’m collecting email addresses just in case. I’d love it if you would enter in your name and email address just to let me know that you’d like to move over with me. If not, that’s cool! 🙂

Thank you to the readers who have already responded–I appreciate you! ::hugs::

PPS

For those of you who wanted daily workout inspiration, here is the workout + smoothie for tomorrow’s 15-Minute Fix.

FRIDAY’S 15-MINUTE FIX

(Click HERE to get details and links to instructions/form tutorials!)

todays-workout-for-friday