Scheduling Your Plan – Building a Powerful Mindset

For the last couple of weeks, I've been talking about the importance of a foundational step for creating a powerful mindset: building a personal life plan. After going through all the steps necessary to produce one, the next step is execution. For me, this step proved to be very challenging. Mostly because I initially created a plan that encompassed far too much. It was as if I was trying to achieve perfection in a dozen different areas of my life. What I learned from that, and I hope to pass it on to you, is that it's essential to keep it simple.

Over time I learned that by keeping my plan as simple as possible, I could achieve much more, which improved my self-confidence immensely. With my initial plan, I couldn't possibly complete everything that I had written into the plan, which only made me feel worse. That is the complete opposite of what having and executing a life plan should accomplish.

So, what does this look like? For me, health has always been one of my top focus areas, and I believe it should be a priority for everyone. Our health is truly our wealth because if we didn't have our health, we'd give up almost anything to get it back.

We all know the basics of taking care of our health: nutrition, exercise, water, and sleep. Regarding nutrition, we all know the difference between a bag of potato chips and an apple. So, in my plan, I have that I will eliminate or avoid sugar and eliminate or avoid unhealthy processed foods. That's all there is to nutrition, along with a reasonable effort at portion control. However, it is pretty tricky to overeat a fresh salad. As I said, we all know what to do regarding nutrition.

Regarding exercise, I plan to work out six days a week and rest on Sunday. When it comes to water, I want to drink 72 to 96 oz daily. I know that's a specific number, but it represents three or four 24-ounce bottles per day, which is how I keep track. Last is my sleep; I know I want to get at least seven hours of sleep per night.

For the exercise, water, and sleep part of my health plan, here is how I schedule it into my day. Before I go to bed at 9:00 PM, I fill up my water bottle and sit it next to that coffee machine for when I first wake up. I also lay out all the vitamins I'm going to take. Then, I set my alarm for 4:30 AM, and I'm always asleep by 9:15 or 9:30 PM.

When I wake up, I don't leave my bedroom without first putting all my workout clothes on because I am a morning workout person. I go to the kitchen to make my coffee and drink 8 to 12 ounces of water while taking my vitamins. I leave the house by 5:15 AM to get to the gym, 10 minutes away, where I'll drink another 24 ounces of water during my workout. I'm back home by 6:30 AM, fill up my water bottle, and then I'll do a 30-minute sauna where I'll drink the next 24 ounces of water. By the time I'm ready to shower and go to work, I've knocked off a significant portion of my health plan, and now all I need to do is stay focused on eating correctly for the rest of the day. It's easy for me to drink another 24 to 48 ounces of water throughout the rest of the day. In the evening, I begin the process all over again.

My daily activities have evolved over the last 20 years. This schedule is simple because I don't have any young children at home, and I have fewer distractions than I did when we were still raising our children. But that said, the only way I could achieve this plan was to write it down. I know what I will do from 4:30 to 8:00 AM every morning. So, you do have to write down the schedule to execute your plan.

How does that help my mindset? Because it gives me massive self-confidence to know that I have the discipline to work out every day, drink the water I want to drink every day, eat right, and get plenty of sleep. Feeling physically well dramatically improves anyone's mindset. And I get the added benefit of the confidence that goes along with following a plan.

The subject of planning these activities is much bigger than just one Friday Focus, so I'll continue this subject next week.

Quote of the week:

“It takes as much energy to wish, as it does to plan.”

Eleanor Roosevelt