It is a new year and I am sure you have set a lot of New Year’s resolutions. Hopefully most of you are still succeeding in your resolution, but unfortunately many of you may have given up already or will in the next couple of months.
There are a lot of different reasons why most people do succeed with their resolutions, but I believe there is one major underlying factor why people do not succeed in life or enjoy it enough. Are you ready for it?
The flow-on effects of positivity
You might be thinking, “What are you on about, Finn?” But please hear me out. I do a lot of reading, study and discovery of how you can be a better person and achieve massive success in your life, and what I found last year is that everything came back to the importance of being positive.
Every day in life is different and you never know what is going to occur, you may have great moments, boring moments or really bad moments, you generally can’t control these, but you can control how you feel about each moment and day.
Every successful person (which to me means a truly happy person) I have met so far has a method or routine which helps them to appreciate the great things in life and not let the bad things get them down.
I have tried many different ideas from different people, but it is important to find what works for you, as we all have different ways of responding to people. I have now combined a number of different ideas into a daily approach to life.
In the life of an entrepreneur, it is very hard to find routine, but I have worked out the one thing I can control in the day is how I wake up in the morning.
I recently went to an Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO) summit in Sydney where we were extremely lucky to hear Warren Rustand speak. He shared his key to success, which is a 31 minute routine that he does every morning. It was similar to some of the things I was already doing, but I liked his structure more so I combined them both.
This is now what I do every morning:
1. Wake up and roll your legs out of bed and sit and answer this one question for one minute: what I am on Earth for today? (Do not check your phone and emails or allow yourself to think about how tired you are or what you have on today.)
2. Find a nice quiet spot in the house and for 10 minutes sit and just think positive thoughts. (I think about all the things I am grateful for: the amazing wife I have, my awesome friends, the team at work, my supportive clients, my health and all the great things in life.)
3. Read a book which has positive messages for 10 minutes. (I read books which are thought provoking, things about the brain or opportunity or the future – this is a good one.)
4. Write in a journal for 10 minutes reflecting on your life and your experiences from the previous day. (I write my three favourite moments of the previous day, learnt experiences and what I would like to focus on today.)
What this does is put you into a positive mindset and you have completely controlled your headspace for the day. You haven’t let yourself start the day stressed out by seeing a bad email sent by someone overnight or allowing yourself to get stressed about the day.
Now you might think I don’t have time in the morning to spend 31 minutes doing simple things like this, but I strongly urge you to give this a try for a couple of weeks. You will soon learn that you are crazy not to make the time, as you will find that you are so much happier as life will seem a lot easier as negative things won’t affect you as much. You will become a better worker, family member and friend.
I urge you to combine a bit of fitness with this routine each day as we all know the benefits of fitness and it is a great way to turbocharge your morning positivity routine. For cyclists like me, who often meet at 5.30am, this might mean you have to get up at 4.45am. But I know from past experience the day is going to be so much better if I do my morning positivity routine.
I would love to hear about your experiences from doing this routine and if you have any tips on how you stay positive please share them with me as I am always looking to improve.
Have an amazing and positive 2014!
Finn Kelly is the CEO and co-founder of award-winning Gen Y financial advisory firm Wealth Enhancers along with the parent company, premier private wealth management firm, WE Private.
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