Master your days with this mindset

If you're someone who struggles with procrastination, if you struggle with acting busy and not actually being productive, I want to show you how you can conquer that mindset.

It's all to do with a mentality shift mixed with a bit of planning. 

If you can have this idea running as a program in the back of your mind every day, I promise you that you will hit your goals sooner. 

Most of us wake up in a reactive mode and stay in this mode throughout our entire day. We’re in reactive mode because we haven’t taken the time to plan out our day and do everything with intention. Instead, we grab our phones as soon as we wake up, start scrolling the news feeds, get up and rush to drop the kids at school, try to make it on time to work, and end up overwhelmed with how much there is to be done. And then of course the universe likes to play a few games and throws in a car breaking down, your kid getting suspended, all those fantastic obstacles. 

No wonder you’re tired each day. No wonder you need a vacation, but you know what? That vacation will do you no good, no matter how long it is if you don’t master your mindset and start living intentionally and proactively. 

Living on your front foot 

It's a concept that I call living on your front foot or living by leaning forward.

Let's say that you and I are about to have a foot race against one another. We're lining up and the gun's about to go off. If you want to try and beat me, are you going to be leaning on your back foot or are you going to be leaning on your front foot? 

Your front foot right? Have you ever seen someone win when they’re leaning on their back foot?  

If you can take this concept of being on your front foot and leaning forward throughout your day in every action that you take, in everything that you think about, then you're going to get more stuff done and in turn, you're going to be in a completely different place two years from now because of how much more productive, (not busy), you are throughout the day. 

Leaning backward is like coming from a place of fear. When you come from a place of power and leaning forward with everything that you do it makes it much easier to execute.

Plan your days

I’m not a big planner. If there’s one thing I know I’ve mastered, it’s talking myself out of things which is exactly why I need to plan. 

If you wake up with a plan already set in motion, then all you have to do is to execute it. When you’ve planned ahead, you’ve already got momentum on your side and you’re kicking your day off by leaning forward. That’s already a win before you even wake up, and if you remain intentional with everything that you do throughout your day, it’s going to be a damn good one.  

Setting your intentions

When I speak about being intentional with everything that you do, I mean doing things that are going to get you closer to your goal instead of further. These can be broken up into various parts of your life. 

I’m going to leave it up to you to write down your intentions and create a plan, but here are a few prompts: 

?Career 

What actionable steps do you need to take daily to grow your business, get that promotion, (whatever that goal is for you)?

What activity is taking up valuable time that you could instead spend working towards your career goals?

How can you set up a priority system to ensure the most important things get done first?

Family

What does your family need from you? 

How can you be more intentional with the time you spend with your family? Game nights, no phone policy, date nights with your spouse, helping the kids with homework. 

Morning and night routine

What are you doing to get good quality sleep? Are you off your phone an hour or two before you go to bed? Have you planned for the next day? 

How much time do you give yourself in the morning? Are you journaling? Are you enjoying a quiet moment with yourself and visualizing the way you want your day to go? 

Health 

Are you packing out your gym clothes the night before so all you have to do is put them on and go? Are you saving yourself time by meal prepping? 

These are of course going to be tailored to each individual, but these are the types of questions I want you to be asking yourself and then create a plan! If you’re going through life on your back foot, you’re not going to win. You’ve got to lean into it and become intentional with your day. 

So the question to ask yourself is, “How can I start the day and continue the day, leaning forward to make sure that I execute on the plans that I have.”

Check out new episodes of the Mindset Mentor Podcast every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 

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