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Take Time To Look At How Far You Have Come With A Victory List — Ticking your victories with drawn checked boxes

I have always suffered from a lack of self-belief and the worthiness of my accomplishments. It’s been with me ever since I can remember. I use many strategies to overpower these feelings. A major one is the creation of a victory list.

I first learned this from Jack Canfield and I want to share with you how I use a victory list and the benefits you can receive from it too. It’s like the list after creating a bucket list with all your accomplishments to date.

Unlike many lists you have to do, this one is exciting.

Here’s why and how you should do it…

Why You Should Have A Victory List?

I think it’s common to go through life and undervalue your accomplishments. Most people are caught up in their past mistakes or worrying about the future. I have too been that person. But when you brush away the negative fog that’s blocking your mind. You will find clear routes to take.

End of the day no one wants to be stuck in life by their thoughts. So the quickest way to move forward is to find a way to channel the mind and release the chemicals that make us feel good.

A victory list is just that. It allows you to remember all the times you have succeeded and embody that emotion. For me sometimes I forget I’m actually a good public speaker. When I revert back to my introverted state I somehow think I’m not a good communicator when in fact I have spoken to over a thousand people and was congratulated on how well I did. That’s a victory that can be put on the list.

Having a victory list allows you to increase your confidence and self-belief that you can achieve anything in your life.

How To Implement A Victory List

There’s a simple 3 step process I apply to get the most out of my victory list

Recall every accomplishment. When I’m writing down my accomplishments I wanted to incorporate everything in my life. Sometimes we can take for granted our childhood accomplishments of walking, reading and writing but these are major accomplishments. Even been here today on earth you have beaten between 40 million and 1.2 billion sperm cells in the race to be alive. So when your write down your victory list include everything from birth to the present.

Create your top 5. Once you have a list of all your accomplishments you can order them in any way you like. I personally but them into decades. This helps me to see them more clearly. Then I create my top 5. These are the accomplishments that I gather the most energy from. The top 5 should relight the fire inside you that you can achieve anything you set your mind to.

Keep It close to you. Keeping your victory list close to you allows you to fuel up whenever you need. Some days you might need it more than others and haveing it quick to hand is important as having fuel stops nearby when you’re driving. I have it on my phone but you can write it out and laminate it. Get creative but keep it close by.

How To Create More Victories In Life

When I looked at my victory list after its completion. I was actually proud of myself and also shocked at what I have achieved.

After all the emotions had sunk in another thought popped up. “What else can I achieve?”

This is a great question to ask because your victory list is limitless. We all have one life and getting to work on achieving all the things we want in life without fear is the way forward.

Yes Theory practice seeking discomfort. This is a powerful message. By seeking discomfort in your own life you will find achievements abound. I believe also in creating discomfort. You have the power to create your future through believing and feeling your wants into existence.

Every achievement on your victory list is there because you seeked or created discomfort in your life. Everything on your list would have been a challenge or you overcame adversity.

The victory list is the best list you have and creating the rest of your victory list will be the journey of a lifetime. Just embrace fear when you’re going after your goals.

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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