Thank you for reading this Operation Melt blog update.
Operation Melt provides engaging, practical content and hands-on coaching to inspire, motivate and equip you to achieve your big goals.
Will you join me in building a world where goals never die of loneliness?
Amuse Bouche
My amuse bouche for you today is a light “dad joke” to entertain your mind before we get down to business. Like any other amuse bouche, you may hate it, but it is worth every penny that you paid for it, right?
When I’m reading, I hate the silence, but music with words is too distracting. So I always play music without words. It’s instrumental to my comprehension.
Goal Success by Choice
Do you have dreams that you are trying to make come true? Do you have a goal that you are trying to crush? Success doesn’t happen by chance. You don’t have to get lucky or win the lottery to live the life of your dreams.
You just have to choose to be successful. If you make the right daily choices, adopt good habits and behaviors, and approach life with the right mindset, you can make your dreams come true.
Goal Success by Choice helps you make the choices that will move you closer to your goals and keep you from holding yourself back.
I hope this post helps you get a little closer to crushing your goals.
Choices for a Successful New Year
There are just three weeks left this year; 2022 is coming up fast!
With the rapidly approaching new year, you are probably starting to think about your goals for next year. Note that I said goals and not “New Years Resolutions.” As you probably know, and as I talked about in Happy New Year!?, I think the traditional New Years Resolutions don’t work. It is unlikely that January first will result in a new year and new you unless you set goals instead of resolutions.
While setting goals is a great start, that alone will not yield success. Succeeding with your goals in the new year requires choosing to be successful. Choosing effective habits is an excellent first step.
I am wrapping up 2021 by sharing five simple choices you can make that will help you succeed with your goals in 2022.
By setting goals and making good choices, you can join my fight against goals dying of loneliness.
Declutter Your Mind
Messes create distraction. And distraction reduces your power to achieve every goal you set.
Robin Sharma
Have you ever had a day when you were booked in back-to-back meetings?
This would happen nearly every day in my previous life of climbing the corporate ladder. I would have my first meeting around eight in the morning, and then I would have back-to-back meetings until after five, sometimes two or more in the same block of time. I was always late to arrive, barely had time to go to the bathroom and ate my lunch in the meetings. The rest of my work would have to happen before eight or after six.
I learned about myself during this time that I couldn’t focus on anything, even the meeting I was in, as I was getting emails and texts about other topics. This constant barrage of distractions, lack of focus, absence of think time and task switching impacted the quality of my work. In fact, I did pretty shitty work when I could only focus for minutes at a time.
Producing quality work that we are proud of requires us to eliminate distractions and focus on what is important to us.
These over-committed, distraction-filled days are the perfect metaphor for what is happening in most of our brains today. We are living in an age of brain clutter and constant distractions.
As I wrote about in Distractions, I recently reached a point where I paused to observe my thoughts, and they were all over the place. I couldn’t focus on any one thing without something else popping into my head. Plus, a constant stream of stimulus through notifications, television, music and social media didn’t help. My brain was virtually useless to me at that moment!
How can you possibly achieve big goals when you can’t focus on them?
My third recommendation for a choice you can make for a better 2022 is to clear your mind. It is time to declutter that magnificent brain of yours and focus on your priorities, so you can harness its power.
There are many ways to clear your mind, but I recommend a two-step process of journaling and meditation.
Step 1: Write it Down
Journaling is a superb way of getting the thoughts out of your head and onto paper. It helps ensure that you don’t lose any of the multitudes of things you are keeping in your brain, but it also means that you don’t have to continue storing them there. Simultaneously, a journaling practice gives you a tool and opportunity to process some of the incomplete thoughts in your head while putting them into words.
Starting a journaling practice is easy; you just need a block of time that you commit to your practice and a pen and paper.
When your committed time arrives, open up your journal, take a deep breath and just write whatever thoughts are in your head. Starting by recapping the previous day and writing out your plan for the current day provides a structure to get your brain started. But don’t confine yourself to just a recap of facts; let your brain wander and write it down.
In my first post about choices for a successful 2022, I talked about knowing your numbers. Your journal is a great place to capture these numbers and other reflections on your progress and setbacks with your goals.
By getting your thoughts on paper, your brain realizes that it doesn’t always need to keep them top of mind, and you create capacity for other things.
Step 2: Refocus your Brain
Once your thoughts are on paper, you can drain them from your brain. This means you have to refocus your brain on something else to help quiet it down. This is the goal of meditation.
The word “meditation” may conjure images of monks sitting atop a mountain in deep focus for hours on end. You may consider it a bit too fluffy and woo woo to be something you are willing to consider. But, I assure you, this isn’t the form of meditation practice that I am talking about adding to your life.
The type of meditation I am talking about takes just ten minutes and helps you quiet the voices in your head and be more present in the moment.
To get started with meditation, you will need to find a quiet place in your house or somewhere in nature. Sit down in a comfortable position that you can stay in for some time; remember that any discomfort will attract your brain’s attention and will be a distraction. Even your favorite recliner in a quiet room with your feet up will work.
Once you are comfortable and calm, set a timer for ten minutes, so you don’t need to watch the clock. Close your eyes and focus all of your attention on your breath. Note as the air flows into and out of your body.
Be fully present in the current moment. Concentrate on your breathing and not self-talk, things around the room or other thoughts. When a thought pops into your head, and they will, simply note it and return your focus to your breath. If you hear a sound, and you will start hearing them loud and clear as you become more present, again, note it and return your focus to your breath.
Repeat this process for at least ten minutes at least once per day. You will probably not notice an immediate, drastic change in your life. But, but learning to refocus your brain, you will slowly become more proficient and silencing your distractions and being present in the moment. Meditation will also likely help you become more aware of your thoughts throughout the day. This allows you to proactively catch and redirect the unhelpful thoughts I discussed last week.
So What?
With just 3 weeks until the new year, it is time to focus on how you will make 2022 a year where your goals will flourish. I am sharing the third choice you can make to ensure success in 2022. This week’s choice focuses on how you can declutter your brain to help it help you succeed.
Do you need a partner to help clear and focus your brain? I am here to help.
Click Here to learn more about my Operation Melt coaching services.
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