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Future Habits Future Mindset Future Performance

How A Minimalist Mindset For Goal-Achieving Helps Avoid Distraction

How A Minimalist Mindset For Goal-Achieving Helps Avoid Distraction

Have you ever created a to-do list for your day that’s so long you never do it or planned multiple goals that pull you in all different directions? If you responded yes. Then this is the article for you.

When it comes to goal-achieving understanding the human brain is important. When the mind is at its best is when it’s singularly focused on one task. So when you have to focus on multiple goals you can end up falling short. Plus when you understand simple maths that when you concentrate on multiple goals you can only give a percentage of energy and time to it.

I too was this person having all the ideas and plans but never amounted to anything significant. The reason why is because I was overcrowding my mind with too much energy. Whist watching minimalist expert Matt De’Avella. It came to me that if I can make my goals and everyday tasks I do each day more minimalist. I could give it my full energy. Like anything in life when you keep it to its simplest form it normally has far-reaching results.

By the end of this article, you should be able to get all of the goals and things you want to do written down and then create a minimalist mindset for goal setting.

Why Minimalism Is Important For The Mind

The minimalist movement first started in the 1950s within the art world. It then expanded to homes and lifestyles. Where now it has become very popular with many youtube channels discussing the benefits of habits and productivity.

Studies have shown that when a human mind is cluttered full of thoughts and emotions it’s not very effective. That’s why journaling, forgiveness and gratitude exercises can be so effective at decluttering the mind.

For me when I have an untidy home or workspace I feel less likely to be productive but when I tidy up my mind feels focused and clear.

That’s why utilising the minimalist strategy to goal setting can help you become more productive and start to achieve your goals.

The most famous investor in the world Warren Buffet understands this approach. He uses the 5/25 rule. Where he writes down 25 goals he wants to achieve but then picks only 5 to focus on. This shows the importance of minimising your goals so you have enough mental capacity to focus on achieving your goals.

How To Create A Minimalist Mindset For Goal Achieving

Write Down Everything. The first task to find what goals and tasks you need to focus on are to have them all written down in front of you. I would get a fresh writing book and write down all your goals.

  • Bucket list
  • Career goals
  • Self-care goals
  • Skills you want to learn
  • Health goals
  • Relationship goals
  • Travel goals
  • Business ideas
  • Wealth goals

This is a great process to understand what you truly want out of life.

Create Your Headings. Once I have all my goals on paper I create the headings from the list above. This helps me to understand the areas of my life I want to focus on.

Pick 1 Goal For Each Heading. Now you have to ask your two questions.

  • What goal do I truly want to achieve?
  • What’s the timeframe to achieve this goal?

Both are important because one finds what you want to do and the other gives you focus and discipline to actually achieve the goal.

Get To work In Your Mind. Studies have shown that performing an action in real-time vs performing in my mind offers up similar results. By entering a meditation state of visualisation you can start to imagine the goal you want to achieve as already being done. As long as you believe it and feel it to be true your goal will be achieved.

This has worked countless times and you can see it in sport all the time. Richard Williams instilled this into his daughter’s mindset from an early age. His daughters were Venus and Serena Williams.

Daily To-Do List. When you’re setting up the daily goals you want to achieve all you have to is pick 1 goal that will help you achieve the overall goal you want to achive. Again just one. One is manageable, one is doable, one is motivating.

Minimalism Creates Productivity & Focus

By following the plan above. Achieving your goals will become the norm. The days of procrastination over what goal to do or perfectionism of not starting at all over the fear of not achieving any goal will start to decline rapidly.

You will have your mind back clear and focussed and back in the driving seat of goal achieving.

Final Note – When you achieve your main goals from your headings. Go back to your notebook and write all the other goals that you can add to your list and start the whole process again.

Thanks for reading. You can get more actionable ideas in my Mindset Monday email newsletter. Each week, I share amazing content that will develop your mindset into the best version you can be. Let’s build an amazing community Enter your email now and join us.

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Future Habits Future Mindset Future Performance

How Planning Ahead Can Build Mental Strength

How Planning Ahead Can Build Mental Strength

Whenever I’m journaling I want to create the best possible daily outcomes with the ideas that flow through my writing. By planning ahead it allows my mind to prepare emotionally and physically for what’s needed.

I call it the pre-emptive strike effect.

I first learned the skill when I did face to face sales straight out of university. It has helped me to strengthen my mind for possibilities that could try to derail my day.

The mindset behind it is to attack the negative before it attacks you. I use it with my parenting before we head out the door with their behaviour and I use it while journalling each evening of all the pitfalls I can think of that will set me back.

I want to share this skill with you so you can become more prepared for your day. Life becomes much smoother because of it.

How To Use A Pre-Emptive Strike

To be able to pre-emptive strike effectively someone needs to have had a scenario that didn’t go as planned. Then by learning from the lesson you can avoid the same outcome next time.

So you either have to go through the experience yourself or you can utilise mentors and the wisdom of others to plan ahead.

The easy way is definitely listening to people who have already been through the struggle. The hard way of course is through trial and error. This is my 20s in a nutshell. I was once called a bull through a china shop for the will to learn it the hard way.

To anyone reading don’t try and re-invent the wheel. Learn from others mistakes so you don’t have to. That’s the smart way of moving forward in life.

Planning Ahead Is Never Perfect

No matter how great you are at planning for the future. It will never work out exactly how you imagined it. There are too many variables to consider plus you are not an all-knowing being.

Preparing my mind to know this is important. It has allowed my mind to understand that there will be curveballs in life.

I’m now more open to change and get excited when it comes my way. This is important because it creates an opportunity to learn something new and show how I can deal with the situation.

Too many people at the first sign of difficulty crumble. It’s not because they can’t preserver through adversity. It’s because they haven’t prepared their mind to deal with and overcome the obstacle in front of them.

That’s why preparing your mind in advance Is important.

The best people at dealing with unplanned events will have a system set up within the mind that allows them to do this naturally and seek adversity with a cool mind. For me, the best way to teach anyone is through journaling.

Below is how I effectively plan my days, weeks and months ahead.

Three Ways To Plan Effectivily

Write anything. First, you have to let the mind flow onto the paper with all your ideas and possibilities. Even write down all your fears as this is the great obstacle from executing a plan from its beginning. When your fears are on paper you are prepared for them and now you can plan how to deal with fear. Anything can be written down that helps you plan ahead for the next day, week or month. As well as a project you’re working on or planning how to expand your business. Whatever it is just write anything that comes to mind until the mind is clear.

Master Sculpture. Next, It is time to become a master sculpture and create a plan of execution. For example, if you’re planning for your week you can create a schedule, a checklist and whatever is needed. With all your knowledge at your disposal, you should be able to create an effective plan that can help you win. It doesn’t matter if the plan is not 100% effective but planning helps to create between 60% to 80% of what’s needed to execute your vision. Making it easier to make adjustments on the fly later.

Don’t forget you. Most importantly you will use the pre-emptive technique to prepare your mind for setbacks, tiredness, procrastination, mistakes and failures and anything you know about yourself that will harm your progress. I have planned from a list of the many emotions that will affect my performance from fear to overconfidence. By writing down these emotions I was able to focus on when fear starts to appear. I then prepare my mind when fear pops up it’s a sign that I’m on the right track. When I feel overconfident I prepare my mind to know a mistake is looming. By preparing and analysing myself it allowed me to control my emotions more effectively.

Focusing On You Builds Mental Strength

The true control we have is not the events of the external but of the internal. The person we know best of all is ourselves. That’s why planning ahead of our habits and emotions will help create a new pathway in our minds to overcome our own shortcomings.

When I was coaching people early on I was very direct in my message. I learned that one approach does not fit all and a coach should be able to communicate effectively with many different hats.

When I prepared my mind to be conscious of my approach to different people it allowed my coaching to become more effective and listened to.

By planning ahead to focus on what’s in your control which is you. Helps you improve and overcome obstacles.

When Planning Ahead

Here are the simple tips to help you plan ahead more effectively.

  • Clear your mind on paper of all possibilities
  • Become a sculpture and create your plan
  • Expect it to fail and prepare the mind for that
  • Focus on you as you are the key to it all
  • Enjoy the ride

Thanks for reading. You can get more actionable ideas in my Mindset Monday email newsletter. Each week, I share amazing content that will develop your mindset into the best version you can be. Let’s build an amazing community Enter your email now and join us.