1. Get up, get up early, get dressed, go. Don’t waste time deciding, snoozing, hesitating.
2. Stick to your action plan. You know, the one you sat and thought about. Don’t toss it because you’re overwhelmed. Start at the top and work your way through it, one by one.
3. Do the next thing.
4. Focus on production; what will really make a difference in the day? What will you produce with your next action? (A happy child, a calm Mom, a new product, a moment of silence, a clean house?) If you can’t figure out what you’re producing, then what are you really doing?
5. Prep ahead for the day’s work and for errand-running. Get your stuff together and by the door or in the car or on the desk.
6. Take daily time to percolate.
7. Be the best version of yourself.
9. Insist on first-time obedience from your children. Don’t worry about fixing some random behavior, just focus on
10. Don’t deliberate; just do it.
The emotions (like fear) are not immediately subject to reason, but they are subject to action. When thoughts do not neutralize an undesirable emotion – action will. -William Clement Stone
11. Skip the details.
12. Shorten transitions. Go straight to the next thing. Keep your momentum.
13. Declutter your life. Drop a commitment. Drop an obligation. Drop something from your schedule. Skip an errand and see who dies. (Nobody will.)
14. Minimize, eliminate, or outsource the weak areas. Put the majority of your time and energy into what you’re best at and what you enjoy doing.
There is too much pressure of duty and fear on you already, on everybody – too many ‘musts’ for the talent in you to begin to shine in a free and jolly way. I don’t warn you against action. I just want to cheer you up by saying that nervous, empty, continually willing action is sterile and the faster you run and accomplish a lot of useless things, the more you are dead. -Brenda Ueland
15. If you did something, write it down on your list and scratch it out. You accomplish more than you think you do. Track it.
16. Live your ideal day today.
17. Don’t worry about money, ever. Just don’t. It doesn’t help.
18. Don’t worry about how much sleep you’re getting, or not getting. Live, instead. Your body is pretty resilient. Take a nap, go to bed earlier, sleep a little later, but don’t spend time worrying about it.
19. Don’t settle for good enough.
Good is the eternal enemy of the best. God always wants our best. We don’t achieve best by settling for the status quo or by staying stuck where we are. -Dr. David Bailey
20. Compare to your ideal, your vision, not to the people or the culture surrounding you. Be your own standard.
21. Read a book every week.But don’t waste time on a book you hate. There are plenty of great books out there. Find one you love, one that is interesting, one that makes you think, one that helps you grow, one that takes you away. Read and skip tv for a night or two.
22. Never, never, never, never, never, never listen to guilt. Guilt doesn’t know what it’s talking about.
23. Read aloud to your kids every day. If you don’t have kids, read aloud to your dog, or your spouse, or just yourself. Read something good. Words are powerful. Words refresh you and motivate and inspire and make you laugh, but sometimes you need to hear them aloud to get those benefits.
24. Memorize a poem or a quote that inspires you to be the person you want to be, to live the life you want, to look at the world in a new way. Here’s
one of my favorites (which I randomly quote to my kids) and
here’s another, which was (and is) so comforting after my Mom’s death.
25. Turn off Facebook. Seriously. For like, 10 minutes. It will still be there when you come back.
26. Quit listening to negative people. They don’t know what they’re talking about.
27. Go for it with crazy unstoppable passion.
Image:
colorful shoes and cloth by
Minimalist Photography
