New Year

16 September was the start of my personal new year. A chance to reflect on the one that had just finished, and of course a chance to decide just what I want my next 12 months to look like.

I don't use January 1st to set my personal new year's revolutions, but the day of my birth - it makes it far more personal that way. It is of course also VERY close to the last 100 days of the calendar year so I can combine the 2 successfully and really step up my game. As you know I am constantly looking for ways I can do just that, and now my health is back on track after a recent bout of flu, my training regime is about to become insane.

But - the first things I decided to put into place was how I was going to spend the first 2 hours of each working day. I am definitely a morning person and get more done if I have 1 other simple thing in place and I've worked out the WHAT I need to focus on when I get to my desk - the night before.

Sounds simple doesn't it. But not when you work with a gaggle of other people all vying for each other's attention. So what to do?

Simple, I am not going to open the Internet, social media aggregators or Internet e-mail until such time as I have dealt with at least the first 3 things off my must do lists.

So far, so fantastic it makes me wonder why I didn't put that one into place ages ago.

Try it, it might work well for you.

1) Write your must do tomorrow list (I tend to use e-mail and send myself a message) as I am finishing my work day, so I can switch off from my working day and focus on others things such as personal training, spending time talking to the kids, dinners and of course speaking to you, before I start getting ready for tomorrow. Then:

2) When you get to work, open up your list and begin. It's amazing just what you can achieve when everyone else is faffing around talking about nothing in particular while checking the daily deals websites and social media sites.

Let me know your thoughts...

How can I be better than I was yesterday

If you made a 1% improvement across your life today and for the next 93 days, by the end of the year you will be 94% better off than you were today. Or if you apply that same principle to an entire year, you will be 365% better by the end of a year.

While long term goals are important to have, NOW is all the time we have. Now, this minute - that's it.

The question is, what are you doing with your NOW?

Few of us can honestly say we give anywhere near 100% all of the time. In fact it is probably impossible to give 100% to everything all of the time. That being said, few of us work anywhere near our own personal capacity. Fewer still are willing to push the boundaries so far they can't remember what their comfort zone actually feels like.

All I ask, is that you do better today than you did yesterday,
Eat one more healthier meal than unhealthy,
Swap the fries for salad,
Take out 1 teaspoon of sugar or remove 1 sweetener from your daily intake,
Do an extra rep on your exercises at the gym,
Put an extra weight on the plate,
Run for a minute longer,
smoke 1 less cigarette,
eat 1 more piece of fruit,
Write for an extra 5 minutes per day,
Study for an extra 5 minutes before you take break,
Make one more phone call,
Write one more letter,
Watch 1 less TV show each week.

Day after day, you make a conscious decision to improve each area of your life, and slowly, as if brick by brick you replace the old you and way of living and doing things, with the person you were destined to become.