I was talking to my bestest friend today and we both said the same thing at the same time: Kick Butt Every Day and give that day the best of who you are.
We were drinking our TGIF margaritas after I gave him a tango lesson as is our usual ritual at the end of the week, and we were talking about the methodology of respective career trajectories. We both have hard core work ethics, and for two former stage actors whose careers were dependent on the hustle of getting the next gig, we were pretty much on the same page of how we define showing up.
Show Up With Gratitude
Get up every day with gratitude and do the most important work. Show up to the office to make your ten calls or show up in front of your computer to write the blog or work on your speech and start the day with positive energy. Negatives have no place in your world.
In order to get to a higher level of productivity, you’ve got to create the habit of being organized with the things you can control and let go of the things you cannot control. The third part of this equation is to allow the good things come to you. It’s a matter of surrendering and letting go in life. It all comes to you in time. Patience, dude. Just like learning that headstand.
BE MINDFUL
Of course, managing yourself is the most essential personal and professional challenge. How you show up for life after you wake up determines the quality of that day along with its positive results. When you are unfocused, stressed and not present, you’ve got some immediate problems. Mental chaos and mind clutter (the evil twins) allow emotions take over. You become resistant and reactive and time gets wasted. When you live with greater focus, you act with deliberatelness and, more importantly, mindfulness.
Mindfulness is becoming a “catch all” word today because it’s ubiquitous in psychology, management and interpersonal relationships. But just because it’s everywhere in our culture today, it doesn’t mean that it’s any the less a powerful self-management tool.
Mindful awareness is not a complicated notion. Mindfulness means staying as present as we can in the moment. It’s paradoxical that our culture seems to value those who can multi-task their way through the day. But what are the results? Nothing completely gets accomplished and results are spotty.
You might have noticed that your personal and professional life isn’t working very well with that multi-tasking behavior. It’s a habit you should loose because it actually promotes chaos instead of awesome results. Besides, mindset experts tell us that multi-tasking is a misnomer. It’s just not humanly possible to do a bunch of things at the same time with any amount of expertise.
HAVE EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
When you want to get up and kick butt in the morning, managing your emotional reactions, that is, how you are feeling inside of you is a crucial skill set. Unfortunately, most of us never learn the skill of balancing our mind and body very well. Educators don’t teach it in school and businesses are not inclined to encourage the soft skills – your internal tools. What’s noticeable, however, is that more and more leaders are setting stock in the the ability to manage your inside life.
Although your nervous system is there to protect you – flight or fight – most of the time our emotions simply freeze us up when the going gets tough. You do a lot of damage to your physical and mental health when your life is unbalanced. Wouldn’t it be a huge plus to develop mindfulness when it comes to keeping our emotional responses in balance? It might save a lot of useless conflict.
Changing mindsets is not a complicated task but it does take practice. When it comes to changing how you manage yourself, it’s fairly straight-forward. Get rid of the mindless chatter that goes on incessantly in your head and the quality of your life, the ability to live well will improve in the areas of wellness, in relationships, and in your work life.
MEDITATE
A 10 minute meditation will be your best friend on this kick butt journey. You’ll be able to see what’s around you, feel the joys of engaging fully with people, place and things and reduce the negativity that becomes your go-to place. The end result is that you’ll live a happier and more passionate life as well as make positive and generous contributions to your world.
Human nature is inherently fearful. My fears come up at the most inopportune moments during the day. What makes these fears manageable is the practice of mindfulness. Staying present gives you the opportunity to acknowledge your fears as your most valuable possessions. It is then that you can deal with your resistance. Getting rid of resistance allows you to see that life is truly a creative journey with opportunities and possibilities for growth and transformation.
And then you can really kick butt.