This article is about finding time in your day to work on your mission and maintain the veil of productivity at work so you don’t have to worry about losing your primary income source.
What are the similarities between doing work that bores you and work that will free you? Resistance, your internal resistance to actually sit down and do the work.
When we’re doing work we’ve mastered and find it boring, it’s almost impossible to get moving on it. We find every reason not to do the work.
When we’re starting new more challenging work, we don’t feel confident enough yet, it takes practice to get good at something. But at first you’re just not sure you want to start a new challenging project at this point in your life.
Is The Weight Of Resistance Crushing You?
How to deal with your internal resistance to put your head down and do the work you’re required or need to do.
If it’s work that you have to do just to stay employed, do it first thing in your day. Go in, get it done and move on. Don’t open your email, don’t go get coffee, don’t talk to anyone get in and get it done.
I’ve found that about 80% of your work can be done in the first 2 hours, after that it’s all gravy. Employers know this, that’s why they over-hire. They figure by having a few extra people in place the work will get done. Look around, do all of your co-workers have enough work to keep them 100% busy focused all day long, every day of every week for the next year?
Probably not, it’s the traditional paradox of business, they want to improve and be efficient, but because they’re hiring people that haven’t drank the kool-aid they need to stack up more people.
So, to get rid of your internal resistance go straight to work, once it’s all done then you can wander off to dream your dreams or work on your work. If you’re doing more than what’s expected could you slip out a bit early, leave for a long lunch at a coffee shop where you can write that blog post you know you should have written for your site?
How can you leverage the first 2 hours of your day to free up the rest of your day?
Put Yourself First
Once you’ve mastered doing your work in short bursts first thing, a world of possibilities opens for you.
When we’re corporate employees we always put them first, our desire to start a business, a new career or design a different lifestyle always takes a backseat to the needs of our paycheck.
How many times have you put off waking up early to go to the gym because you have an early meeting, you were up late finishing up a project or some other silly reason? Your health should be your priority, it will be there long after you’ve left this job and moved on, so why are you giving yourself permission to put yourself last?
Now we look at the second key to finding and doing what matters most to you. Time, once you have enough free time you can explore what matters, instead of downing fast food for lunch, skipping the gym and gaining 20 pounds in a year there is a different reality.
Many of us aren’t paid hourly so stop acting like it. If you’re salary there are quite a few unwritten rules, the first one is that your schedule is fluid, you do have the time to work on what matters most in your life. For example starting a side business.
What happens if you show up at 830 instead of 8? At first a few strange looks, but after a week or so it becomes normal. Remember, you’re doing all your work in the first 2 hours anyway. The worst case scenario is you still have what you needed to do today done by noon anyway which still frees up your afternoon for other things.
What Fear Is Holding You Back?
This brings me to internal resistance, we’ve covered how to free up your time, put yourself first and still accomplish everything you wanted to today and every day.
Now, how do you overcome internal resistance to starting something new?
The main reasons we’re not starting a business, redefining our lives or making the significant changes we need to make to live the life of our dreams, one where we wake up on fire every day instead of being covered by a wet blanket are…
Fear of failure, face it most people that start a business flame out in 3 years or less, it’s a tough road and you’ll put everything you have into it. Without the proper systems and processes it’s almost insurmountable. With the right systems and processes in place it’s almost effortless.
Fear of humiliation, we all love to laugh, we just don’t like to be laughed at. As kids it was mildly uncomfortable but we bounced back pretty fast, as adults it’s almost like someone is pointing a flamethrower at us and burning us to the ground, even for the most simple mistakes / slip ups. Getting laughed at for a minute or two will sting, but are they laughing because they’re envious that you’re trying something or that you actually did something funny?
Fear of the unknown, having a stable career, even one that bores us and provides no challenge is known. Starting something new is the unknown and is scary as hell at times.
Now that we know the main reasons you’re not pushing yourself to get off the sidelines and start acting, it’s time to do a few actions:
Commit yourself to doing one thing, even small each and every day. We all feel that we have to go from zero to hero in no time flat. What if I told you that your journey is going to be long, bumpy and treacherous at times? But at the end of it you’ll be alive, powerful and purposeful, would you attempt it?
Take action every day, even when you’re not quite feeling it, just do it. If you’re committing to doing a video, writing a blog post or creating a course work on one piece each and every day. Sure some days you’ll fail, but get back on the horse the next day.
Time, you can try to schedule it during your day, but more than likely you’ll find a reason to not do it at a specific time, life will magically get in the way. That’s why my favorite tactic is to use a 3x5 notecard and write down (3) things I am 100% committed to doing before going to bed at night. I can’t go to bed before they’re done, it takes a bit to train yourself in this method, but stick to it every day and within a week you’ll become uncomfortable that you didn’t do even 1 thing on your list. Magically you’ll start driving yourself to taking the action you must take.
Start Transforming Your Midlife
Join The Community To Start Energizing Your Life Through Specific Measured Actions.
My vision is that you’ve gotten a few tips out of this article on how to better open up your day and commit yourself to taking action to achieving your dreams of escaping your dull boring life and start living a life that challenges and inspires you to action.
Step One: Do the work that pays the bills within the first two hours of arrival (somedays it may take longer.) Become laser focused on doing it fast and at a high quality.
Step Two: Put yourself first, even if you have to arrive later at work because you wanted to take care of one area of your life.
Step Three: Know you have fear of something, acknowledge it and then set it free to go bother someone else. Then get down to business by committing to at least one action a day that will impact your life and change your trajectory.
I appreciate you taking the time to read today’s blog and want you to join the community @ www.igniteyourawakening.com
Josh is a Performance Coach that specializes in helping men in their late 30’s achieve their dreams of creating freedom by starting their own business and lifestyle. For more information visit www.igniteyourawakening.com
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