Hey,
With America’s B-day and the holiday weekend coming up…
I thought it would be fitting to put together this little “Freedom Q&A”...
…Full of tips I’ve shared with clients that will help you gain more freedom in your personal and professional life.
Today we’ll focus on a few ideas that will help you break free from bad habits and self sabotage — so you can have more free time, be more productive, and create the type of lifestyle you really want to live.
Ok, let’s get to it!
Q: “Craig, I have workaholic tendencies and a hard time sticking to my cut-off of 5:30pm. What should I do?”
Answer:
You need accountability for sticking to your cutoff time and you need significant consequences for not sticking to it.
For example, you tell everyone you know, or you post in your coaching group, and then if anyone catches you working past X hour then you owe someone $500.
Not $5. Not $50. $500.
It has to be painful... because if the consequence doesn’t matter then you won’t mind not sticking to the plan.
Q: “Craig, I’m a little embarrassed, but I went out with the lads on the weekend and had too much to drink. Sunday morning was painful, and it was a wasted day. How can I make sure that never happens again?”
Answer:
Sounds like a good but painful reminder about the drink.
I've been working with a lot of clients on this problem and you have to change the “3P’s”:
1 – The Person => Change your identity... YOU are NOT the person who gets drunk
2 – The Prep => Improve your planning so you can deal with the pressure, excuse yourself from tempting environments, and have some tricks to harness a slower drinking pace
3 – The Punishment => Change the consequences... In addition to have a hangover (a negative consequence on its own), you need an additional punishment for screwing up
Q: “How can I do better with my bedtime/wake-up time so I dominate my days?”
Answer:
A while back, a young friend of mine (a German working in Myanmar) was struggling to go to bed on time (10pm) and get up at 5am.
Here's some feedback I gave him...
Andreas, I see you're struggling with the wake-up time. Here's what you need to do when you're not being consistent with a new habit:
1) Identify the trigger that is causing you to struggle. Is it a girl? Internet? Television? Alcohol? Poor planning? Caffeine?
2) Identify ways to overcome the trigger... talk to the girl about your goal... set an alarm for 60 minutes before bed as a reminder to stop alcohol, TV, internet, etc. ... and make sure to stop caffeine 10 hours before bed
3) Get accountability, and set serious consequences for failing.
***
At a glance, these tips can directly help you stop overworking, overdrinking, and oversleeping.
But do you see any common threads in this advice?
Reflection… Planning… and Accountability.
If there’s something you’re struggling with — simply reflecting on it, planning around it, and getting accountable for changing that behavior will make a HUGE difference.
Try it out starting today.
And let me know how it goes!
Success Loves Speed,
Craig
