It’s really strange to think that we all live by the same ticking of the clock. All around the world people are using the same number of seconds as you and me and manage to make more or less of them than us. However, the only difference between you and the 7 billion people around you is that we all have different mindsets and we use time differently. These five pieces of practical advice will shift your paradigm on using your time more purposefully and will make you think more clearly about the things that happen every day.
1. Start early
If you analyze successful people, almost all of them start their day early — with the rising sun or, as they say, “with the peacocks.” I’ve read a few interviews in which successful people have said that they only sleep four to six hours a day. While that’s not really healthy long term, it’s also a technique for doing more in a day. If we want to use our seconds better than the rest, we shouldn’t sleep more than eight hours. I myself do with six hours sleep a night because that’s the best timeframe that fits my needs and body. But, as a rule, you should get no less than six and no more than eight hours of sleep a day. Grasp this habit and you are on the first step to becoming a success.
2. Organization
While getting up early cannot guarantee your success, your to-do list can do the rest. By getting up early and having a precise, achievable list of things we should do, we organize how we should spend our day. The more you can do in one day, the better, and getting up early helps that. Make a plan in the morning. Take a pen and a paper and write down your plans when you finish your morning routines. Never leave something until tomorrow if it’s already on your to-do list. This will also teach us that sometimes we need to give ourselves a little boost, even though we think we can’t seem to manage.
3. Focus
Waking up early and fresh immediately gives you sharper focus on the things that await your actions. Organization is the second step to narrow your focus, but it doesn’t guarantee that you will have your focus set at the highest level possible. To narrow our focus we have to visualize and keep our minds on one task at a time. For example, if your focus is on a project for which you have to write a business plan, you will have to fill your mind with all the parts in the project — the regulations, products, fees, etc. Narrow your vision down to your tasks and finish them with the power of your mind.
4. Persistence
“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” – Bill Bradley Have you ever considered that if you hit the wall next to you with a hammer, even if it takes a thousand hits, it will eventually fall down? I really think that sometimes achieving success can be compared to the stupidest of examples like this one, even though it looks a lot more complicated from the outside. Persisting even when our emotions or fears block our way will guarantee our success sooner or later. There isn’t a successful person on this Earth who didn’t persist, even to the point of stubbornness. Edison famously claims it took him 10,000 attempts to invent the light bulb. I mean, can you even count to 10,000? Sometimes that’s what it takes to be a genius. It’s always impossible without persistence.
5. The key to infinite persistence
My personal key to persistence is my mantra I tell myself every morning and every night. It has nothing to do with religion, but with my personal attainments that I want to see in the future. If we keep telling our mind something positive every morning and every night, it will become an obsession. But sometimes our thoughts can be toxic for us and we poison our minds with them. Keep your mind filled with the positive things you want to attain in the future and you will be astonished how they become like a prayer you repeat every morning. Take a pen and a paper and write down the things you want to achieve and what you want to become in six months to a year’s time. However, also write down the steps and efforts you are going to take to attain those goals. Don’t set an impossible goal, but write something attainable. “I want to become a billionaire by March 2015,” is not realistic in the timeframe. But be aware that it’s not impossible eventually, because everything you can imagine is possible. Instill these five key pieces of practical advice into your day-to-day routine and you will ease your way to a better life. Featured photo credit: Career Advice No. 3: Psychoanalyst/@fgr62 via flickr.com
