It's ok if you want to win, I like to win too

I don't recall at which moment this popped in my mind: 'knowledge resides in our brains'. Sadly, at that moment I didn't realize that knowledge was usable. I think that was like 2 years ago.

Quite a time happened before I started to translate the knowledge into actions (these days I like to do this more). The waiting time was very annoying because I knew I had to take actions but my mind impeded it.


'Experience is the best teacher', such a cliché I have heard so many times, but that kind of blocked us because we are only listening to it.

Hopefully, learning comes from reading too. Specially those things that you cannot experience these days, like info from big ancient wars.

There was a time that I read so much that I questioned myself if it was possible for me to retain all this information.

Little I knew that it is possible. What lucky are we human beings!

♦

One night on my way back to home my mind whispered to me: "all I want to do is win".

It is ok if you want to win. I like to win.

I think the wrong thing to do is try to win to other people, but it is great if we want to defeat our past selves (maybe myself from yesterday).

Each day a little better! what a great idea haha.

Napoleon Hill had many quotes, but from one of them I could substract the definiteness of purpose.

Your impact on 'winning' may be based on your definiteness of purpose.

So, the ingredients,

A spongy brain plus human programming. Mix very well and expect some definitiness of purpose, and then you will WIN!

I know it doesn't sound easy, and probably a little hard to implement.

Let's see.

'Definieness of purpose' = 'know what I want' + 'burning desire to achieve it'.

I can chew that!

Breakfast will be a good example.

'know what I want' : You love orange juice and you want to drink it each morning.

'burning desire to achieve it' : You will schedule time (e.g. arriving home early by canceling meetings) to buy some oranges and set up everything.

When you get to drink orange juice each morning the task is completed.

The same happens with academics task, sports task, etc.

Do not let life carry you, you are in control!

♦

Clarity. Think of it as the ability to look through.

If you don't know what you would like to have or to be, your mind is in a foggy state.

Here, clarity is the key. Be always crystal clear about what you want.

But, why?

Because when you know what you aim to, you do not deviate from it and accomplish things faster.

When you aim for your goal, you just look forward not to the sides (distractions).

With clarity you can drop vagueness, confusion, and fuzziness from your vocabulary.

With clarity you can remove procastination and lack of motivation from your daily life.

Certainly, it won't be easy but what is it?

When you get lost driving you can use your GPS.

But, the rout to our goals?

Until some super tech enterpreneur put some kind of 'electronic GPS for goals' on our brains worklists will do the job!

♦

We have acces to temporal and long-term memory.

Our temporal memory can grasp around 4 chunks of information at a time. Limited right?

So, transfer your ideas to a piece of paper.

Then the whole picture will be in front of you!

So, think on paper.

An unwritten goal is just a whisper in your head it may or it may not exists at all!

♦

Let's put clarity on action.

1st: Decide exactly what you want

Time is our more precious resource.

Time is limited and you can't buy more of it.

So, the very worst use of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all.

When I was a child mom send me to buy some stuff. I trusted my memory and I decided not to write down what she asked for. I walked happily my way back home whispering to myself "I'm helping mom la la". But, when I arrived she told me that I bought the wrong stuff. That day I lost two things! Money and time. The latter being a no renewable resource.

So, aim right at what you want and you will escalate towards your goals easily.

Determine what is expected of you and in what order of priority. Even if it is yourself the one expecting some stuff to be done.

2nd: Write it down

"A goal or objective that is not in writing is merely a wish or a fantasy".

You must not fear the written word.

The mind is fragile. If ideas come to your mind and are not immediately written they may get lost forever. It has happened to me so many times! and I do regret loosing them.

If what you want is written, to regain action all you need to do is to take a look what you wrote.

The written goal may not be the only possibility. You can start depositing your goals onto people as well. Or, even more, paint it on your wall!

3rd: Set a deadline on your goal

I find this one the most arduous one to accomplish. It make my legs tremble when I think about it.

Usually, the deadlines are already imposed.

Now I have to do it myself? Yes! it is imperative.

If you do not put a deadline (the end) it may not have a beginning.

"A goal or decision without a deadline has no urgency"

And remember that you should be always doing what is urgent and important, then the important, and the rest may be not at all.

4th: Make a list of everything that you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal.

My goal: increase reading speed.

What will I have to do?

'I can think of reading some blogs to get the general view.
Probably, I may go for some suggested books.
It is also important to know what time of the day I would like to work on this.                   It may all end with reading past books and testing myself with thought material.' 

Arrange  everything for your goal to become true.

But make a list!

If it is written you can go back to it to remember what else needs to be done to achieve your goal.

5th: Organize the list into a plan. Organize your list by priority and sequence.

"You will be amazed at how easier it is to achieve your goal when you break it down into individual tasks"

'I want to run a 42k marathon'. Damn! How I am going to achieve that?

Probably, I will have to excercise, eat well, have good rest, read some stuff about running, get special clothes, some gears, new running shoes? 

You got the list! now make it coherent. Make a plan of it, 

Monday: long run.
Wednesday: slow run.
Friday: Yasso 800 (fast run). 

I should rest in between. Oatmeal and eggs for breakfast. 10% increments each week on the distance and times.

Now, you got the plan. Make a plan!

6th: Take action on your plan inmediately.

"For you to achieve any kind of success, excecussion is everything"

As small as it may sound your first step could be schedule time to achieve your goal.

The first step will galvanize you. It will make it easy to take the next step.

There is always something to do to move yourself forward. Even if it is small.

7th: Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal.

"You must never miss a day"

There will be days when you won't feel like taking action. But, who hasn't felt like that?

Develop the habit of taking action. Make it an unconscious reflect.

Seeing actions converge into achievements will put you in the mood.

♦

Achieving your goal can be tedious and tiresome. But if it doesn't worth the effort it may not be worthy at all.

♦♦

This post originally appeared at: Grad life au Canada

In this post I put down some own comments about the first chapter of the book mentioned below.

Book: Eat that Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

Author: Brian Tracy

Type of book: Self development, time-management