Running Productive Days

Have you ever had a day where you felt really good about what you produced in 24 hours???This performance may have been due to great sleep we had the night before. Maybe it was a solid plan that set us up for success. Or maybe we were still riding the high from some recent good news received and carried the momentum forward. Whatever the reason was, it feels good when we’re running productive days! So how can we ensure we have more days like this? The short and sweet of it is we have?to work harder. “Work harder??” You might ask. “I just want a simple life hack to more productive days.” If what we’re looking for is an easier path forward then this isn’t the article or newsletter for that.?

?PUTTING IN MORE EFFORT?

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The truth is if we want to achieve more out of each day then we need to be putting in more effort. Now it’s not just about putting in more effort, but also just as important to focus WHERE we’re putting our effort. For example, we can put in a ton of effort at work making for a productive day (workwise) but then completely neglect our family at home unintentionally. Resulting in unfavorable consequences to deal with. Maybe it’s a tumultuous end to the day, putting strain on our relationships with loved ones. Ultimately leaving us feeling down, empty, and alone. Or maybe we put a ton of effort into someone that’s not reciprocating any good vibes or positive energy back to us. Nothing worse than someone constantly taking from us, but never stopping to fill our own cups up. It’s critical to be aware of how we’re showing up each day, who for, and how everything and/or everyone around us is making us feel.

Paying attention to how we feel seems like a simple ask but it’s far from it. There’s a reason why the animated character Maui from the Disney favorite Moana has a line in the hit song?You’re Welcome, “You don’t even know how you feel. It’s adorable. It’s nice to see that humans never change.” It’s because most humans struggle with exactly that. Knowing how we feel and adjusting accordingly to create a better overall life experience for ourselves and for all around us. Being in tune with our emotions brings more positivity to our lives, helps us get more out of each day, and allows us to be the best version of ourselves. Well, I’m here to tell you that yes, it’s difficult, but by no means is it impossible. It requires discipline. A lot of it.?

BEING MORE DISCIPLINED??

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I read a book early last year that changed my life. It was a major catalyst in my journey to becoming the best version of myself. Providing me with tools to be much more disciplined. The book was “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins. The stuff this man went through and rose up from is remarkable. Those of you that were around me during this period know how much this book impacted me to my core. Significantly improving my daily habits with more structure and nonnegotiable discipline. It took me from not being able to run one mile to waking up at 2am to run 21 miles before my hour-long commute... in less than 8 months! Doing it just to prove to myself that I could. I also used this particular 4-hour morning run to create a speech that I’d later deliver at our Q4 kickoff meeting for the entire California region. With no rehearsal... A heartfelt moment that I will never forget.?This book made me comfortable with being uncomfortable. It showed me how to approach each day with a WHAT IF mentality.??What is a WHAT IF mentality?

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Here’s an example of channeling a WHAT IF mentality for the day:?

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WHAT IF I can get my long run in? WHAT IF I can surprise my wife with getting something done around the house (dishes, laundry, living room or playroom reset, etc.) before she wakes up? WHAT IF I can organize and host a regional Q4 Kickoff for our IT Sales team, run a half dozen meetings with colleagues and strategic business executives, deliver a heartfelt speech to the entire California region for motivation, be home in time for dinner, have energy to play with my kids, take ownership and purpose in their bedtime routine, enjoy quality time with my wife after the kids go to sleep, and go to bed exhausted knowing I gave it my all that day. WHAT IF I could pull it all off? WHAT IF I could show up in each of those moments exactly how I envisioned? WHAT IF I stopped making excuses? WHAT IF!??

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That’s the mindset I started to adopt. I didn’t always want to wake up early to run. I certainly didn’t want to do the dishes. I wasn’t always looking forward to a day packed with calendar invites. I’d be lying if I said I always had energy to play with my kids after a long full day. Again, that’s the truth! We don’t always want to do “the thing.” But I can promise you that when we do “the thing” we always feel better. No matter how tired we are, we never regret going on the run. We don’t wish we could go back and choose to not play with our kids. We never come out of those moments or days of giving it our all and wish we would’ve given less. It’s quite the opposite. When we don’t do “the things” we know we need to be doing we look back and can’t help but regret how we showed up for ourselves and for those around us. Knowing we had more in the tank to give and that we left opportunities for growth on the table?is a much harder pill to swallow!

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In the book, “Can’t Hurt Me” Goggins talks about doing something every day that sucks. Training your mind to continuously expand. When you keep doing something that sucks over and over again, eventually your mind realizes you’re not going anywhere and only has one possibility, EXPAND. He even goes as far to say that when people start to call us “crazy” that usually means we are on another level and in a flow state they do not understand. He encourages us to keep going, and to “Stay Hard!”??

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I could go on for hours about just Goggin’s story but that’s for another time. This is just a glimpse of what is inside his extraordinary mind and what we’re all capable of when we really set our mind to something. Because when we truly set our minds to something, we can accomplish anything we imagine.??

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“What's the world's greatest lie?... It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate.” – Paulo Coelho

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RUNNING PRODUCTIVELY??

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I used to start my runs with music to motivate me. But overtime I found that starting runs off with just our thoughts is much more powerful. Instead of suppressing whatever comes to mind with loud music, I found that listening to my thoughts really helps us be proactive with managing all the stressors in life. This movement allows things to be brought to the surface for us and gives us a chance to acknowledge them, feel them, and move on from them.??This is known as Dynamic Running Therapy. William Pullen is the founder of this thesis and a great follow if we are looking for more best practices and frameworks on this.

Now that we have allowed our thoughts to come and go and have our blood flowing it is a great time to educate ourselves. This is where a go-to podcast, book, or even webinar comes in handy. When we are moving our brain works differently. It enables us to think more abstractly, soak in more information, process and synthesize concepts with more fluidity. It’s best done using The Pomodoro Technique. This means 25-minute intervals at a time with short 5-10min breaks between each Pomodoro block. Stopping the book, podcast or webinar at 25-minute intervals allows us to reflect on what we just learned and think about ways we can apply these concepts to our everyday life. It’s one thing to learn something, it’s another to intentionally put it into practice.

Running productively has also been helpful in listening to pre-recorded team meetings or training we may have missed. This allows us to get caught up on a task that we may have fallen behind on. I’ve even had team members of mine record audio snippets of their take on a client matter, allowing me to be briefed on the account and helping me be more efficient with my time while out on the move. Especially while my blood is flowing, and my brain is thinking clearly. Much needed considering we’re usually digesting a complex problem that involves a discussion on business-critical technology, cybersecurity, and automation. These matters often have many variables and require a lot of time and brain power to develop proper resolutions and strategy. Doing this has made a huge difference in how we show up as a team together to ensure that not only are we on the same page internally, but that we are also aligned with our client on both short- and long-term business strategies.

Overall, running helps make us much more productive each day. It teaches us more about ourselves and the world around us. Running helps put everything into perspective. It takes whatever problems we have going into the run and makes them seem much smaller after the run is complete. As long as we go into the run with clear intentions, we can usually come out of it with less worries, a stronger purpose, increased confidence, and more hope.

THANK YOU

If you read this far then I am super appreciative. So thank you for that!! I've been thinking about writing for a long time and wondering what I would write about. I overthought it for a while but came back to writing about things I experience in everyday life. I have a personal mission to help inspire others to passionately pursue their purpose and potential. I figure the only way to do that is to put myself out there more. Moving forward I will write about anything from running, leadership, stressful IT situations I see at work, sales, mindset, and family. My hope is to help others find their way in their own journey. I'll do my best to connect the dots between topics in the articles I publish.

Bottomline, if you made it this far odds are you enjoyed this snapshot into my life and found something valuable to take with you. If that's the case then please subscribe to my newsletter for future editions! I promise to not overwhelm you with content but rather plan to write every other week on the topics I mentioned above.

Thanks again for tuning in and have a great rest of the week!

Cheers,

Ozzy Nu?ez

#runcloudIT #Running #Sales #Leadership #Mindset