How to make your life work for you, moment by moment
"Every moment of our lives counts, deeply. It's in unexpected moments that big things happen. Babies are born. Ideas flash to mind. You miss a plane that gets hijacked. A careless comment changes everything. The moment is where it all happens."
These are the words I wrote last week, and it is to these words that I again turn my attention, since if we are to live the highest possibility for our lives, it is essential that we enable ourselves to respond optimally to the moment. Here are two more great ways to do so:
No energy: Grotty energy levels will produce grotty results. Fact. It's hard to produce magnificent work when you feel half dead. Success is ushered in on the wings of enthusiasm and personal power. So when you're feeling as perky as a wilting flower, this is what you do:
Put on your favourite piece of music, crank up the volume and dance around vigorously. Having your partner, domestic assistant, the kids, or the dogs and cats join in, makes the exercise even better. Alone or with company however, music has the mystical ability to infuse and enhance our states. If your energies drop through the floor during the day, fix them by taking for a brisk walk, repeating these words over and over to yourself "I am energised and vibrant".
Whatever the circumstances, don't allow low energies to bring you down. It's better to arrive 5 minutes late for work in an energised state, than be there 5 minutes early feeling like the walking dead. Do what needs to be done to get the best life ride. Activate all your energies simply by being physically active.
Procrastination: This is the knack of knowing what you should be doing, but always finding a very good reason for not doing it. Procrastination is death to success. It cannot be tolerated.
The fix I have found for procrastination is to focus on, and tackle, only the entry point of the task. In the early nineties one of my hobbies was long distance running. Some days I really didn't feel like pounding the streets for an hour after a hard day's work, but I learnt that to run my allotted daily distance all I had to force myself to do, was to put on my running gear.
Magically, once decked out in my takkies and shorts, getting on the road was automatic and easy. And this dynamic applies to all those tasks that we put off and delay. The formula is to reduce the thought of the total task to only the entry point, like putting on your running gear. Be smart and change the definition of the task on your to do list as well. Then doing your tax return is merely gathering together all the pieces of paper you need for the job. The rest will follow. Getting your filing done is as simple as clearing your desk and setting up the sorter. Leaving that abusive relationship is as easy as picking up your bag and walking to the door.
We all have a kingdom to rule. That kingdom is our mind. We alone can rule it. Use the four techniques I have shared and you will be on your way to becoming a master of your own kingdom, driver of your own destiny.
First Published in the Argus Newspaper, JobShop supplement on 20th Nov 2002
© Catherine M Glennie
