WEEK 93: MAKE ROOM

Let difficulty transform you. And it will! In my experience, we just need help in learning how not to run away.   

Pema Chodron

REFLECTIONS (learnings and actions): This week I wanted to write to you about an idea that has been a central focus in the past 8-10 weeks. What is it?

It is the path to achieving your dreams. 

I have mentioned before that the path to achieving your dreams will be hazy and unclear. This lack of clarity will cause you to feel uncomfortable feelings, such as anxiety, doubt, and fear. 

Why? Well, we try to avoid failing at all costs as we do not want to look wrong, different, or stupid in front of others. 

Ironic things is these are the same feelings we must endure in order to reach levels of success never thought possible. 

I love the quite above as, it encapsulates what the LYP provides on the path to achieving your dreams. 

It provides the lessons and strategies to help you not "RUN AWAY."

I am now in W93 of my LYP and know this process will always be a part of my life to close the gap between where I am and where I choose to be!

Now, are there hard weeks? Are there times when I have doubts? Are there times when I try to avoid failure? 

YES...YES...YES

YET...the LYP has give me the structure to embrace the uncomfortable feelings on the path to achieving my dreams!

To summarize here is a  process to help you cope with the uncomfortable feelings you will encounter the DIPs on the path

1. Make room. 

Usually you start feeling these uncomfortable feelings when you start comparing your results, or lack there of, with others. This in turn will take you down a downward spiral of negative thoughts of "why things will not work" or "why you can not do it."

Thus, first thing is to stop comparing and make room for you step 2.

2. List our your principles

You are the sum of the daily decisions and actions you take. These are called your principles. So, after you make room and release your judgement and comparison with others, sit down and actually identify the decisions and actions you are taking. 

3. Use Pareto principle

The Pareto principle states that 80% of your results are produced from 20% of your actions. Thus, you want to go through your list of principles and identify which actions are helping you make the biggest leaps forward. 

Although all of items on your list might help you move forward, doing them all at the same time will produce incremental growth at best. 

Be vigilant and take things off that do not help you accelerate towards your ultimate outcome.

4. Measure and report

When performance is measured it improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of learning accelerates. 

If you want to reach high levels of anything you have to first identify where you are. Then you have to track and report on your progress so you can make the modifications to move you forward.

It like how an airplane constantly autocorrects its flight path so you get to your destination. Imagine what would happen if it never did this. Would you ever get to your destination? Would you possibly run straight into a mountain?

Yet, most of never do this in our lives. We choose our destination, but never track or make adjustments along the way and then ask ourselves "why have we not gotten there?"

I highly recommend the STREAKS app to help you measure and report your progress, as it provides stats that show you how you are actually doing. 

Thus, want to achieve amazing things in your life? Then know you will encounter DIPs and the uncomfortable feelings they produce and use the 4 steps process to use them to your advantage and accelerate towards achieving your dreams. 

What Went Well?

Moving between countries, schedules off, various changes....but weekly task completed!

What is something we can improve? What actions can we take next week?

Spending more time with loved ones. One great thing about the LYP is that it has given me a laser like focus on achieving my dreams, but there are times when it consumes all my thoughts and time. 

Family and friends are an important part of our lives and want to make more time for them.I want to carve out more quality family/friend time everyday. 

What is something to avoid next week?

Not drinking enough water. All this change has taken me away from dirking enough throughout the day. 

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PLANNING (Implementation Intention):  You will follow through 2X to 3X more likely to complete your weekly task than you normally would just by filling in the following statement.

I plan to complete the weekly task [day] at [time] in [location]. 

A reminder you might have to use multiple Implementation Intentions in order to follow through.

EXECUTION (strategies used):  From week to week, I use a combination of many strategies. There are always some which are used more than others depending on what comes up, but I wanted to offer a link to all them at once. 

My advice is to identify the I CAN'T statement you tell yourself during the most. Then find a strategy below the statement which resonates with you, and then start using it. 

Enjoy!