Setting Daily Responsibilities Sucks! (Initially)
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Over the past 3 months I’ve build up a list of activities that I want to do every day.
I build the list from a number of sources of inspiration. (Books, Friend’s Advice, Videos)
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The List
1. Work Out (Every Other Day)
2. Meditate (10 Minutes)
3. Brainstorm 20 Answers To An Important Question (Business OR Life Related)
4. Read Vocabulary Words (English, Spanish and German)
5. Spend 30 Minutes Visualizing Who I Want To Become
6. Spend 10 Minutes Demanding Self Confidence
7. Rewrite My Business Goal Of Earning $4,000 Per Week.
8. Pick One New Skill To Apply Today
9. Read A Book (Or Listen To An Audiobook) For 30 Minutes
10. Check My Calendar For The Next Day And Plan Activities For That Day
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All of these activities are valuable. They each help me grow and improve myself.
They do, however, take up a good portion of my day!
Earlier this week as I was moving into my apartment in Hanoi, they really stressed me out!
They felt like a big burden, and I knew I would always need to do it again tomorrow. I would never ‘end’ the tasks.
Just two nights ago my desire to avoid my tasks reached a climax. It was 2:00AM, I was feeling a little sick, and I still needed to do my workout for the day. I hadn’t missed this responsibility for months and I wasn’t going to stop now, but BOY did I not want to do it.
Looking at the floor with resentment, I fell face first into my push ups and did my workout.
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In the context of my daily routine, the past two weeks have shown me a real growing edge I need to work on.
Up until this point, I have been very good at working hard (busting a**!) over short periods of time.
Before I came to Asia, I thought in terms of days, weeks, and months.
- I wrote a 30 page book in 1 night.
- I went into freelance writing and earned $600 my first week.
- I took my first sales job and closed $20,000 in my first 2 months.
It took willpower to get to that point, but I now get the sinking feeling that all of this was just child’s play!
I am now starting a business, and this involves a time scale I have never wrestled with.
Years
More importantly, if I am to be successful these years must be filled with the dedicated application of daily tasks.
I’ve used this list of activities for the past few months, and there have been multiple times where it has been hard to follow through.
More importantly, the thought of doing it ‘forever’ puts up a negative emotional barrier in my mind that says “Oh no, SCREW that!”
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This is my growing edge.
It’s pretty easy to ‘get present’ and push through the pain of doing a plank (A workout plank) because I know that I’ll be done in 30 seconds.
My emotions don’t like it when I think about how in order to keep growing I need to exercise forever and continually increase the level of intensity.
When this thought passes through my brain, the initial reaction is one of fear.
My ‘time perspective’ isn’t long enough to comprehend the responsibility, and the task just feels overwhelming.
I’ve grown a lot over the past year, but this week I came to realize just how much further I need to go.
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When I just started applying these daily tasks it was hard to implement them and sometimes I just forgot. Even now they’re often not what I want to do in the moment.
What I’m realizing, however, is that there is a great deal of value provided by following through with daily goals, value that goes beyond the obvious physical, mental, and financial benefits they should provide. (The initial reasons I set them.)
1. Persistence – Setting daily activities and sticking with them over a long period of time is the only way I know to gain persistence. Working out exceptionally hard for one day or dieting strictly for 2 weeks and then quitting will not breed persistence.
2. Crushing The Fear Of Pain – When you know a responsibility is approaching it can feel painful. We all know, however, that when we complete the task we always feel great. Still, we don’t want to do it again next time.
Doing something every day crushes this emotional circle. The repetitive good feeling of successfully achieving a goal teaches you that going through a little pain is OK!
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We all have a growing edge when it comes to persistence. Setting daily activities that you can stick with and hold yourself accountable to is one way to gain this mental strength.
We all know the benefits persistence entails, so why don’t you add one or two daily activities to your own daily routine?
ACTION STEP: Think about some activities you could implement in your own life. If any make sense, add them to your schedule and stick to them!
Do you have any ideas for worthwhile activities?
Are there any routines you partake in now that you feel are especially beneficial?
Please tell us about them in the comments section below!
Well said buddy. Thanks for this.
This is so timely for me. I soend every sunday planning out my week, and structure things down to the minute for my day. A sort of skeleton structure, on which i can add tasks as i see fit, and were planned that sunday in advance.
The concept of habit formation is really on my mind lately. Over the years i have developed habits that i completely take for granted now, because they are automatic. Like eating well, avoiding sugar etc. Its no even a struggle for me. But i still dont like how lazy i can get, and how much i browse the web (even if i am doing informative, learning type things, alot of time its just idle stuff not helping me move forward).
So ive been very interested in doing daily habitual things, and adding to my routine, some new things to become automatic.
You wrote this awhile back, but i felt compelled to comment, as i sit here tonight thinking about the future, reading your blog!