A Simple Exercise That Tells You All You Need to Know
This is a guest post.
It’s hard to come across a blog about personal development or self improvement these days that doesn’t mention goals and how to go about turning them into a reality. After-all, whether they are big or small, we all have them. Common goals include the desire to get out of debt, finding a partner, increasing productivity or even something more challenging like escaping the rat race.
The typical goal achievement cycle you usually read about tends to go something like this: focus on what you want, map out a plan to get it, and stay consistent until you succeed.
If we break things down to their core level, that three step plan is actually enough. That advice really is all we need. If things are that simple though, why do so many people fail to achieve their goals? Is it because they are lazy? Is it because they are complacent? Is it because they don’t want things badly enough?
Maybe. More likely, it’s often a combination of these things. Instead of trying to pick apart all the possible reasons why people might stumble on their path to achievement, I want to share a simple exercise that will give you your own answers. This is a very simple idea, it will take 24 hours, and the results will dramatically improve your chances of goal achievement.
The Exercise
Before I tell you what you need to do, I want to lay down a basic foundation. Something fairly obvious, but often forgotten, is that your current life situation is nothing more than the result of your actions. Your health, your finances, your happiness and everything else. Their current progress is based on your current output. For example, if you ate sensibly and did 50 sit-ups every day, your beer belly would flatten and your stomach muscles would start to tone.
Similarly, if you went jogging every day, your level of fitness and your stamina would improve. If you save a percentage of your income each month, you are going to have a tidy sum in savings at the end of the year. If you perform the actions, life has no choice but to reward you with the results. In essence, all you need to remember is that your current situation is completely based on your current actions.
Therefore, to change that situation, you need to change your actions. Yet, we can’t know where we are going wrong until we identify what those actions are. Remember I said that this exercise was going to be simple? Well, that’s because it is. What I recommend you do, on a typical day in your life, is record every single action you take. That’s it, really!
Of course, you don’t have to write down visits to the bathroom, but things like the time you woke up, what you did for lunch (and for how long), what work you actually completed in the day, how much time you spent checking emails and that kind of thing. This isn’t exciting (it isn’t supposed to be) but it only takes one day, and you’ll be left with clear results of where your time is being spent.
The results of this exercise will mean different things to different people. If you’re trying to grow a business and it’s not going anywhere, you’ll probably realise that you’re spending too much time on ineffective activities. Similarly, if you want to lose weight but don’t exercise and instead you binge eat, it will be clear why your progress is slow or even non existent.
The reason this exercise works so well is because:
- You get to see a clear, concise output of how your day looks
- You can’t fool yourself about being busy or being effective, it’s all written down
- It will make it easy to identify time wasters in your life
A lot of people will read this idea, and, even if they like it, will simply dismiss it. I know because I used to be that type of person myself. Instead, why not give it a shot? This is an exercise for one day of your life that will give you a clear view of where your time is going and perhaps more critically, where your time is not.
Don’t forget: life is just outputting whatever you put in. If you daily log doesn’t show a list of actions you’re happy with, at least you can now change that. I performed this same exercise around 2 months ago and I’m now much healthier, far more productive, and I make a lot more money.
What do you have to lose?
Written by Glen Allsopp
Glen is a blogger who writes on the subject of Personal Development. He also tackles topics such as Personality Development in order to help people realise they can be who they want to be.
Photo by LucasTheExperience
8 Responses to “A Simple Exercise That Tells You All You Need to Know”
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Hey Glen,
Thanks so much for this great post! It amazes me that such as simple thing as writing down what you do can be so effective for achieving goals. It’s all about putting things into perspective and looking at yourself in more detail.
-Andrew
Hey Andrew,
Thanks for the opportunity! I really meant what I said at the end of the article, I did this a few months ago and managed to dramatically change my life for the better after doing so.
Stumbled & Mixxed!
Cheers,
Glen
No problem at all! I’m always happy to give new voices a spot on Lyved.
It’s pretty amazing that you’ve been able to become healthier, more productive and a little more wealthier. I definitely think it’s worth giving this exercise I shot.
Thanks for stumbling and mixxing it!
-Andrew
I love this idea… I have tried journals and the sort over and over with no success. I like this because it fits with the way my brain think… bullet points. My mind doesn’t work in full sentences but I would love to record my life some way. My question is this… Glen, Have you come up with a starter list of items to record each day?
[...] it was something most of us could take advantage of and learn from. Let me know what you think: http://www.lyved.com/success/a-simple-exercise-that-tells-you-all-you-need-to-know/ It is a good challenge. Anyone willing to go for [...]
Hi Ford, this idea is based for one day only, so just write whatever feels natural to write if somebody asked you to record your entire day
Wow, thank you very much. It is such a wonderful yet simple idea. Thank you.
Glad you liked it Dana.
-Andrew