by Mandy Green, Busy.Coach
I want to give you the next 2 steps of the Championship Morning Routine that I just talked about at the 2017 National Collegiate Recruiting Conference.
If you want to check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, click on the links.
Step 4 – Champions make progress and not to do lists.
When most of us wake up and start to think about the massive amount of things on our to-do list, it can be really overwhelming. What ends up happening is that you get stressed out, you feel unfocused, and you start to get confused by this huge list that’s completely unmanageable.
So what do we do first? Most people reach for the phone and will surf on social media. Once we eventually get off social media, then we start to go into robot reaction mode and start to react to all the stuff we feel obligated to do that we feel burdened by.
Champions, millionaires and geniuses aren’t getting worried about checking boxes and making to do lists in the morning. This group of elite performers spend the morning on growing, exploring, creating, and focusing on what really matters. In order to bring the genius up to the surface and out of you so you can thrive, you have to focus on making progress instead of to do lists.
Ask yourself this question every morning- What’s one thing I could do to make progress on my goals today? This question is going to give your inner champion a chance to wake up, it’s going to give it the space to wander, and then whatever it is that rises to the surface, I want you to honor it.
What is really awesome about this is that more often than not, you’re going to think of something really important that you should do that’s related to this goal that really matters to you. You might have an a-ha moment or even a really game-changing insight. Write it down. Ideally, this becomes your #1 priority for the day.
The next thing I want you to do is really important, I want you to write down why this matters.
Then, emotionally engage with your dreams, goals, and vision for what you want your life or program to be. One reason we end up doing busy work all day is that we lose touch with our dreams and vision – we stop thinking about what we want to achieve with real emotion and consistency.
Step 5 – Champions make progress, not excuses.
The #1 thing I’m telling coaches I coach is, “If you are constantly waking up in the morning and all you do is just reply to everybody and you’re replying to their texts, you’re replying to their needs, and you’re replying to their emails, the day will be ripped away from you and you will never accomplish your dreams.”
Instead of making excuses for why so many other things came up so you never can accomplish your goals, you should do your goals and dreams work before you respond to the world.
All you really need is 30 minutes or work time first thing in the morning to make serious progress on your goals and dreams. Science has shown that the best 2 hours for your brain are the first to do three hours of your day. This window of time in the morning is the time of peak productivity where you should be focusing on your big picture goals before your day gets hijacked.
I want you to work on that one priority that’s really important to you during this 30 minutes. You’re either going to finish this priority task in these 30 minutes or you’re going to get it further down the field and you’re going to make some significant progress. I use this simple strategy every single morning.
Do this before you ever check email or look at your phone. Fight for this time because your champion brain needs that. You’re worth 30 minutes. If you can’t find 30 minutes every single morning before you give your day to everybody else you’re never going to make your dreams come true.