Things happen. Our mind is capable of crafting the most complicated plan for our well being and success. This happens when we have communicated this intention to our Sub-Conscious mind. We are unable to communicate our dreams to our Sub-Conscious mind and that’s why we keep struggling to make headways.
You might have noticed that things change drastically within you when there is an occurrence of a big event in your life. For example, you have been trying to make time for your daily exercise and you were struggling with it for months. One day, you hear that one of your friends suffered an attack. That day, you have the alarm bells ringing and this ringing takes the message to the Sub-Conscious Mind.
But, my suggestion to you would be to make hay while the sun shines. Why wait for a tragedy to strike to you or your dear ones to teach you a lesson? For those happy souls who confess that they find it impossible to find time to exercise, I have a solution for you and it works wonders. CREATE A GOAL.
Your new year resolution falters because you do not have a system to support it. Creating a goal is a skill that you can learn very easily. And I am going to first share my experience with my commitment to run 1800 km and how it changed the total dynamics of my life.
When I announced to the world that I am running 1800 km, I fully embraced the idea. I was prepared to fail as well. I held myself fully responsible if I failed. I told myself that I am not going to complain and push it to..lack of time, lack of resources, lack of good running tracks, lack of company, etc. I told if I failed I own it. Once, this was clear, my mind became fully prepared to support me. When you take the full responsibility for a thing, you get your full support.
My Vision was to:
RUN EVERY YDAY, REDUCE MY WEIGHT and IMPROVE MY HEALTH.
MY Mission became:
Running 1800 km
This is how you set a goal. Find your big vision and then, find the technical know-how to back up that grand vision. To hit the jackpot 1800, I was required to make a plan and hit some numbers. I broke down my plan into many small plans. Bi-Annual Plan, Quarterly Plan, Monthly Plan, Weekly Plan, and Daily Plan. Once, I had that break down of my grand target, I knew how I could implement it. That’s why I also call it an implementation strategy. Your physical exercise requires elaborate planning.
My calculation told me if I ran 5 km per day, I can hit the big number one day. So, at a time, all that I was bothered was hit that small number of 5 km. Once that 5 km was done, I was happy and on top of the world. My focus now shifted from macro to micro-level. When you are able to see things at the micro-level and make amends in that for improvement, you start mastering the process. The process of creating SUCCESS.
And then, I realized that this process of running has to be repeated over and over again. This is where most of us will falter. We get bored of doing the same set of things. The reason is monotony. Our mind loves novelty. As long as you find that freshness in your idea, it will stick to you. Those who are passionate about a thing, it is because they have discovered the whole world in that passion and they know that it is a journey where they are witnessing new things every day. Monotony never sets in their lives.
Therefore, realizing this, I started to make my running a novel experience every day. I started to make notes and find insights. Now, this job of looking into my daily performance is done by my SmartWatch. I would watch motivational videos on youtube before going to bed to prepare myself for a morning assault. While running, I would listen to inspirational songs. These when echoed in my yers, took my mind to lofty ambitions. I would get hypnotized by listening to such songs and I would push myself hard to go that extra every day. Even today, I am learning and this blog is a platform to look backward and find my future-forward. This blog is another towards finding that novelty. You too can grow your idea into a big giant tree.
Your idea starts out as a seed, you need to make it sprout and come out of the soil. Then you need to keep guarding it every day as long as it is not grown up like a parent. Your implementation strategy does exactly that: Parenting. 1800 was a tree.
Forgetting you MACRO for the time being and foucussing on the MICRO is beautifully explained by an Indian EPIC, BHAGWADGEETA:
karmanye wadhikarastu, Ma Faleshu Kadachana
It means, forget about the fruits of your labor, focus on your work.
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