‘Productivity’ seems to be some of a buzzword these days, you hear it everywhere – increasing productivity in the workplace to increase profits. But what about being productive in your personal life too and not only in a working context?
To me, productivity also relates to the way you live your life, how you think, how you act and how you grow as a person. Productivity to me means doing what you want to in life and not just talking about it. How productive are you in creating what you really want in this world?
Productivity is not only about taking massive action or working more efficiently, but also about having a healthy lifestyle so you feel physically great all the time. You cannot be productive if your physical energy is bringing you down.
Lastly, it is about training your mind and brain to think more productively, setting goals and changing habits in order to reach them. It is all about producing more of what you want.
If you want to be more productive in your life and achieve more in the next months than you would have over the next years, follow these easy steps to boost your overall productivity for success.
The easier part
1. What do you REALLY want?
You always need to be moving toward a vision – what is the vision that you want to move toward? New experiences, travelling to new countries, more time with the ones you love? Whatever it is – you must be moving toward something and that something – has to be really enticing for you.
You need to feel a strong pull towards this vision. If you cannot go one day without thinking about achieving this – then you know you have got it. Your vision doesn’t only need to be inspiring and motivating, but so desirable that you are willing to do things you don’t want to in order to realize it.
Don’t skim over this exercise, it can be one of the most powerful ones you do.
What do you want to create in your life to have lasting fulfillment and what do you truly desire to experience in your life on this earth?
2. What’s the roadmap?
Where are you now, where do you want to be and how can you connect the two? What is the best way to create what you want? There could be a few ways you could start, brainstorm as many ways as possible, then you can choose the best strategy to get there.
Put milestones that you can work towards along the way. This makes it easier to stay on track and it is really motivating to achieve the smaller goals along the way, you can be sure each time that at the end – your final goal will come to fruition.
Get clear on where you are going and what the best road to take is.
The harder part
If creating what you desired was so easy, you would all be living your dreams. As you can see in the world, there are too many people who desire a life different to what they actually have right now. It is only those who put in consistent different actions that start to see their reality change before their eyes.
Different action requires two things:
3. Changing habits and doing things differently
Like Einstein said – you can’t expect to do the same things and get a different result. The extent of your success depends on how many bad habits you have compared to good ones. What might you need to give up or change to achieve this goal?
Habits include everything from the routine you have in your life, the way you think, the way you habitually behavior and those actions that you automatically take without deciding to. Changing habits is the hardest because it takes on average 21-28 days of making a daily effort before it becomes easier.
Your body also has a strong pull towards homeostasis and change threatens this, you will feel a natural resistance to doing things differently for a while. If most habits are on automatic, can you imagine how much effort you need to continuously put in to create a new ‘automatic’ habit?
Having false expectations is usually want throws people off. It is not easy, at all, but worth it by far – are you willing to put in what it takes? Be honest with yourself.
4. Challenging yourself when you don’t want to do what you need to
This one relates to the above – challenging yourself, something we don’t really do. If you ask somebody why they couldn’t do what they really wanted to, they will come up with a reason. If you ask them, and in that moment, before you gave up, how much did you challenge yourself? Or could you have challenged yourself more? 90% of the time, the answer is ‘yes, I could have challenged myself more’.
Challenging yourself is also a choice you make and something you need to do continuously until you reach your goal. Start to challenge yourself more in small areas to build this success habit. If you are on the running machine, do an extra five minutes for example.
There are so many ways you can do a little more of the same thing if you challenged yourself and overtime, your life will undoubtedly improve because of it and finally, it becomes easier to challenge yourself when you want to in the future too.
5. Training your brain for success
Lastly, your brain is like a muscle, the more you exercise it, the better it works. Do you want to feel more focused when working? Do you want to have more clarity and free-flowing ideas? Think faster and problem solve easier? Then train your brain for success!
Your vision, your action and your mindset all need to be aligned to achieve your goals. If they are not, you are going to find it hard to take action.
If you are clear on where you are going, you have your roadmap, you know what to change and you challenge yourself to do it – you will start to see how the world around you changes and becomes the reality you dreamed of right before your very eyes.
Nothing needs to hold you back from having the life you want to – be more productive in creating what you truly desire – you are in the driver’s seat of your life, so where do you want to go?
To Your Success!
You make several good points. I think the first step you mention is critical for success. Ask yourself what you really want and then figure out how you’re going to get it. Unfortunately, the second step of making a roadmap is often not done.
Living your life without a plan is like watching television with someone else holding the remote control.
People often manage their time without setting priorities. It’s like shooting randomly and calling whatever they hit the target.
As part of the building a road map process, it can be useful to Make sure you set SMART goals. They should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Timed.
Thanks Peter – great advice and perspective, i love your analogies – thanks for sharing!