Categories
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.

Categories
Future Habits Future Performance

How To Trick Your Brain To Enjoy Hard Things In Life

How To Trick Your Brain To Enjoy Hard Things In Life

I have to start off by saying I have an addiction. My addiction is dopamine. It’s an addiction we all have and is very useful for focus and learning but if used poorly can be detrimental to our health and productivity. That’s why you have to trick your brain to enjoy the hard things in life.

Today’s focus is on the dopamine hits we get from things we do that are enjoyable in the moment but when we indulge too much can have long-lasting damage to our mental health. I finish off with a clear strategy to help guide you to a life where you are not controlled by short term dopamine tasks.

What Are Easy Dopamine Tasks?

I wrote an article about social media detox that you can read here. I explained the vast benefits of why having time away from social media can benefit your mental health. It’s true for many other forms of dopamine tasks we do, such as;

  • Junk Food
  • Gaming
  • Internet
  • Phone
  • Streaming Services
  • Procrastination

Above are the worst culprits I can think of in my own life. All of them can be positive in your life as long as they are balanced and you control when you do it. What I mean by that is don’t just do them when you feel like it. Instead, you should reward yourself with them after being disciplined.

This is how people who are successful at what they do overcome dopamine dependency on the above list.

For example, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson eats healthy all week long then allows himself a cheat meal on the weekend. If you look at a successful person lifestyle you will see the discipline they uphold within their week against short term dopamine benefits.

Dophamine Fosters Distraction

Dopamine gives you the desire and motivation to do anything, especially when they’re easy and fun to do.

Dopamine loves short term rewards that keep us coming back for more. We know this be true by just looking at our lifestyle. For instance, when we play a video game we know we’re going to enjoy it straight away or when eating sugary food we know we are going to instantly enjoy it. Whereas a book or a healthy diet will reward us later. That’s why it feels so much harder to do. The same goes for anything worthwhile in your life in the long term.

The battle is much harder in the 21st century. There are so many things pulling us away from long term success. The people in the highest seats of power know this. Facebook is a master at it and pulls the strings of its users like puppets. But it’s not just Facebook, it’s all social media platforms, news outlets, food businesses, gaming companies and the list goes on.

When we think of boredom it’s not the best feeling to have in the moment. So now people fill that time of boredom with distractions. But boredom is a good thing as it facilitates creative thought and purpose to move forward. That quiet time at the moment is a positive long term strength. You’re just not rewarded from it instantly.

What The Science Says?

As we are focusing more on understanding how to combat the dopamine realise for short term gains, so we can better manage them to refocus on long term gains.

The study I found was researched by Pernille Mette Damsgaard and is a great read here. In short, it shows how addictive dopamine is when we get it easily. The mind of the rat just wanted more and more of it. The part of the brain that it was activating was the mesolimbic reward system. This system is activated by anything dopamine-related and can easily form addictions for highly stimulated activity. For example, the use of drugs is the most highly addictive.

The signs of addiction are real and the forming of long term habits can change the neural plasticity of your brain. This is why it’s of importance to identify parts of your life where short term dopamine benefits are holding you back.

(I have to state that if you reading this with a drug addiction seeking professional help is of the most importance as we are just focusing on the list I provided above.)

How To Trick Your Brain To Enjoy Hard Things In Life

1. Identify What Habits You Want To Change

This is unique to everyone. So you have to review your life of what’s holding you back from long term gain. Is it the urge of daily sugary sweets or the need to always look at your phone for messages? Whatever is identified as a problem make it the first point of protocol.

2. Make It Easy To Begin

Like anything new making it easy to achieve increases the likely hood of it being done tenfold. So if you want to spend less time on social media, for example, have one day out of the week where you don’t go on it. By making it easy you will also be rewarded by dopamine for your efforts. From there make it two days a week or just 1 hour every day. Again it’s unique for you.

3. Create A Reward System

Using dopamine to your advantage is important. So creating objectives where your mind knows it’s going to get a reward is great for motivation.

That can be having a list of things you have to do before you can play the game.

Another example is that you don’t eat any junk food for 6 days but on the last day eat as much as you want. I do this and the urge to eat junk food is all but gone as the dopamine effect is less effective.

For every task, you want to start taking back control. Devise a reward system plan to propel you into action.

4. Have Detox Days

After the first few weeks of acclimatising yourself to the change of your habits. You should go a whole day of full detox from everything you deem to be a short term dopamine hit.

Replace this with walks in nature, meditation, alone time for reflection and journaling.

I will tell you for a fact you will be refreshed and purposeful. It’s like going on holiday for the mind. This will produce huge results for your life and it will give you back control of your thoughts and actions on a daily basis.

5. Create A System That Works For you

This article isn’t about giving up Netflix or never eating chocolate. They can provide quick short term gratification that adds value to your life. What this article is about is not letting these dopamine hits control your life and what you are meant to do.

Once you have followed the above. Creating a monthly system of when to have detox days and reward systems you’re going to do. Allows you to focus on doing the hard tasks like creating your own business, tidying up your home or reading that book you keep putting off. Then you will see long term dopamine at work when you are rewarded for your efforts in huge amounts.

Health, Wealth, Wellbeing & Mindset

By implementing everything above you will definitely see some major changes. I know I have.

Since strategising my junk food intake, I have lost weight and become healthier. When rewarding myself with game time I focussed more on my business and become wealthier. From achieving more long term dopamine hits based on the hard work I feel fulfilled and happier in my life. Finally, since I have taken control of my short term dopamine hits that hindered my life. I have developed a mindset that puts me in the driving seat of where I’m headed.

I hope this helps you in your life

With Love & Gratitude

A Final Word From The Future Mindset 

I hope you enjoyed today’s article How To Trick Your Brain To Enjoy Hard Things In Life. I hope the article has helped in some way.

If you want to take your mindset to the next level how about scheduling a 30-min discovery session to chat about your current status, results you want, and next steps. Don’t hesitate to contact me at adam@thefuturemindset.com

We are on social media platforms below but we are really excited to announce our weekly newsletter about everything mindset.

Follow Us On Instagram & Twitter

@thefuturemindset/@futuremindset_

Sign up below and enjoy the process of building your mental strength with MINDSET MONDAYS!