The Hay House World Summit kicked off earlier this month and as usual I’ve found various thought leaders that have inspired me toward transformation. One of them was Brendon Burchard’s lesson on the Secrets to Motivation and Achievement. That is where he spent a few minutes sharing his simple way to reclaim your day.
The key is to not check your email within the first 60 minutes of your day. Sounds simple enough right? But according to Burchard 86% of people roll over and check their phone as soon as they wake up. I know I’ve been guilty of that. Burchard says that when we do that we’re conditioning ourselves and those that we have relationships with (whether personal or professional) that their agenda is more important than our own. YES, that their needs are more important than our own. I think that is so spot on and something that’s pervasive in our culture. We’re bombarded daily with so many things trying to steal our focus, whether it’s texts or emails with false emergencies, the TV, social media notifications, pop up ads, viral videos, etc. Burchard says allowing all this noise into our lives steals our sense of life and vibrancy and makes us addicted to the experience of distraction, causing everyone in its path to stop living in the moment. This type of focus causes us to start our day based on reaction vs. vision and strategy, which ultimately lowers our productivity.
To back up this claim, Burchard conducted a study with 1100 high performing people – entrepreneurs and employees alike – and banned them from checking their email within the first 60 minutes of their day and instead asked them to use that time to get their mind ready for the day with positive thinking, meditation, stretching, and being present for everyone else in their home (helping get their kids ready, feeding their animals, etc.). Then once they were ready to begin work, he asked them to first list what they wanted out of the day so that they entered the day strategically and thoughtfully vs. being led solely by someone else’s agenda. What resulted was that they became 30% more productive.
I can totally see why. I’ve even experienced the difference myself. If you follow along you know that I start and end my day listing all the things I am grateful for, from the simple to the big. I also try to visualize how I want my day to go. Lately though, I’ve definitely been slacking on this one and it shows. I used to spend at least 10 minutes, before getting out of bed, going through the things I’m grateful for and moving on to my visualization of the day. That has drastically gone down to a minute or less because I’ve let so many other things distract me. That’s brought procrastination back, which leaves me feeling rushed, trying to get what I want done. It’s a vicious cycle, and after months of doing this, I’ve definitely fallen behind. No more.
Step one of change is awareness and I am now going to try to re-prioritize myself again and return to my visualizations and to do lists. I don’t know about you, but the shower is where I tend to prioritize what I need to accomplish daily to get me toward the goals listed on my vision board. You can choose whatever works best for you. The goal is to stop allowing our day, and ultimately our life to happen to us, but to make it happen for us! That’s where the magic happens.
Cheers to reclaiming our day!
What steps will you be taking to reclaim your day?
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I need to reclaim my days!!! I am So going to try this!! This sounds like an amazing summit and like it was an great session! Thanks for sharing!!
Awesome Connie, it makes all the difference, hope it works for you! And the Summit happens every year and it’s free, so much great information.