The 3 Traits to Help You Crush Your Goals To get mentally tough, here are three things you must do every day.
By Ali Schiller
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
Achieving a big goal is a lot easier if you treat it like a marathon rather than a sprint. And as all marathon runners know if you are going to make it to the finish line you will have to train for it.
This week, as we dive further into the Fight stage of The Goal Standard Challenge, I want to talk to you about the three characteristics you can cultivate daily to help you not only stick to your goals but crush them.
1. Discipline
There is no better preparation for facing resistance than discipline. You are going to want to stop and do something easier, back down or fall off track. Your ability to put off instant gratification, shut off the voice in your head and do the thing anyway is going to require discipline.
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To cultivate discipline, I always suggest the same thing: get up early. I recommend getting up at 5am, five days a week. Every day that you get up at 5am you will be exercising the discipline muscle, and it will translate into every area of your life.
The first time I suggested this to my coaching clients I was sure they would think I was crazy (and maybe some of them did), but now almost everyone I work with is getting up between 5 and 6am and reporting back that not only do they love it and want to continue but that they have so much more time.
2. Focus
Now that you are up earlier you want to be intentional with your time and NOT dive right into work or hop online. Studies show that adults are connected to a digital device upwards of 12 hours per day. On top of that, when we are working we are interrupted on average every 11 minutes. The world is not geared to help us focus, instead we have to develop the ability to focus in ourselves. The simplest way to do this is to practice meditation or sitting in silence for a few minutes each morning. I recommend meditating for as little as 2 to 5 minutes every morning and building up from there.
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If the idea of meditating makes your skin crawl then you can read a book, write in a journal or take time to plan the day ahead. Any of these activities done first thing in the morning will help you develop your ability to focus your mind.
3. Energy
Achieving a goal requires you to go the distance in the face of adversity. If you make having abundant, high quality energy a priority in your life, you will see an immediate difference in your ability to stick to and achieve your goals. The simplest way to have more energy is to exercise. I suggest making exercise part of your daily morning routine. We can talk about diet, sleep, water intake and stress when it comes to energy, but I've seen the most immediate and significant change with exercise. So start there. You can take a brisk walk, find countless free exercise videos on YouTube or download the 7-minute workout app. There are no excuses for not exercising.
When you wake up early, have a purposeful morning routine and make time to exercise you can consider yourself officially in "mental toughness" training. You are preparing yourself to face the resistance that comes with having BIG goals AND nothing crushes resistance like being prepared for it.
Related: The Goal Standard Challenge: Strategies to Boost Inner Strength and Self-Discipline
Want more? Join me tomorrow February 15th at 1pm EST on Facebook Live where I'll be diving further into mental toughness, resistance and waking up your inner warrior. Be sure to download your Wake Up the Warrior worksheet.
