My sisters and I have continued our book on our journey to self-improvement.
Review:- Tell your mind exactly what you want it to do, complete with up-to-date and relevant language
- Take responsibility for the words and pictures and pictures in your head
- Make the familiar unfamiliar and vice versa.
- Take a specific action to take every day.
- If you repeat anything often enough, whether it's good or bad, you can instill it in your brain.
The brain doesn't care if what it is, just that you said it.
- Do one thing each day in the direction of your dreams
- Doing one small thing every day in service of your dream, even if it's just for a few minutes
This helps to keep you moving forward, even if it is baby steps. Right now, I am working on languages on Duolingo. Each day, I take 5 minutes and complete a lesson. When I'm waiting on the car to warm up, when I'm in the bathroom, when I'm waiting on my food at the drive thru, all of these are plenty of time to do a quick lesson. This helps me to keep moving towards my desire to learn a new language. A small step that I can complete each day and feel accomplished, even if nothing else in my day goes right.
- Starting the day by getting your least favorite task out of the way first
Note: this should be something that makes you feel accomplished when you complete it. If the task doesn't make you feel accomplished upon completion, maybe that task needs to be changed or removed in the best interest of your own mental health.
- Sticking to your goals: no single shortcut
Small baby steps forward. Slow and steady wins the race.
- Guarantee: If you show up to something, each and every day, you're guaranteed to get closer to it. If you don't, you won't.
- "Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement" - Matt Biondi (Olympic swimmer)
- Show up and you'll see results
- Be specific and relentlessly show up
Some days, it is all I can do just to show up. Some days, that's all you have to do - show up.
- Movement manifests motivation
- choosing to commit to something that is going to make you feel like winner and move you towards your goals
"If you believe that you can or believe that you can't, you're right"
- accountability mechanism
It is easier to keep on track, if you include accountability built in. Create your task around a built in incentive. Each day I do my language course, I add to my "hot streak". "You have built up an ____ day streak." After putting in all that work for the last ____ days, it seems stupid to have to start over. It would be better/easier to take the 5 minutes and do the lesson than it would to take the days to rebuild the hot streak.
