In the game of success there are only two players: creators and custodians. Creators plan their success in the AM and reap the rewards in the PM. Custodians maintain the day rather than seeking to influence the outcome. People owe their success—of lack of it—to the type of player they become.
You must begin to think of yourself as the “creator” of your day. Humans—among all living things— alone, have the ability to create. Because we have this creative ability, we have an obligation to deliver favorable outcomes.
The best time to plan your day is upon rising early in the morning while your mind is fresh and unencumbered and open to creative thought. I call this time, “Reflective Time”—a time to make apparent how you choose your day to end and what actions you will take to ensure success. AM Reflective time is about turning the things you need to do today into the PM things you’ve done.
Reflective Time is an invitation for you to achieve your goals, reduce your stress, and live a happier life. This highly focused, contemplative 15 minute morning session with yourself is not to supply you with something you’re missing. Instead it’s designed to unleash what already exist in you and to unlock the potential you already have.
During Reflective Time your goal is to look at the day ahead and make sure you will be doing the things you need to do to get done what you must. During this time don’t watch TV or to listen to the radio or check your emails. Block out all the noise clamoring of your attention.
We read and hear a lot about goals and planning, including setting personal goals and personal planning. For the most part these goals are long-term goals. So, the “down-the-road” plans we develop have a lot of uncertainty which creates a lack of urgency.
I find there is nothing like a pending deadline to sharpen a person’s focus. A news reporter has to get his story written by the deadline if he hopes to see his article in the paper or on the newscast. An important report due COB today means that between now and close of business you must be doing only things that have to do with completing the report.
Knowing how you want the day to end, guides you to do those things that help you achieve that end and not do things that have no bearing on goal achievement. If you are going to end the day as you designed it, if you are going to achieve what you predetermine you would achieve, you need to make every action you take bring you closer to your goal. The day is too short and too valuable to waste time doing things that don’t lead to goal achievement.
Nine benefits you can expect by predetermining your day
1. Seeing the end of the day in the start of the day enables you to develop a plan for getting things done.
2. In determining daily goals you discover ways to achieve them.
3. Helps avoid the “activity trap” and encourages you to work today only on those activities that connect you to your goals.
4. Encourages discipline.
5. You can stay in a high state of motivation for only a short time.
6. Setting daily goals develops a sense of urgency and commitment.
7. Achieving today’s goals provides motivation for tomorrows tasks.
8. What you did not do today gets put on the next day’s priority list.
9. Life is more exciting and rewarding when you live today as you planned it instead of waiting to be surprised at the end of the day.
Setting daily goals requires asking and answering two simple questions: “How, at the end of the day, do you define victory?” And, “What are the activities you must do to claim victory?”
At the end of the day, successful people are looking for the satisfaction that comes from being able to look back to the morning and say, “I saw the end in the start of the day.”
HOG THOUGHT: To ensure your daily preordained success you must believe you can reach your goal, have the confidence in your ability to achieve it develop a plan to achieve it, and execute. In the end, it is always belief, planning, and execution that determine success. Believe you can do it, plan to do it, and do it!
HOG QUOTE: “Determine that the thing shall be done and then we shall find the way.”
— Abraham Lincoln
HOG ACTION: Start today with a vision of how you want your day to end; list the things you must do to achieve that ending; do what you must do so the day ends like you designed it.
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