What doors are you opening each day? 

This morning, during my morning meditation practice (feel free to call me a monk!) I had the realisation that one of the key aspects of physical transformation is the ‘tiny choices’ we make on a day-to-day basis…

The choices we make today amalgamate and shape our future.

The breakfast you had this morning, affected your day, was it positively or negatively?

Did you choose the healthy option, which subsequently gave you a stable supply of energy or did you pick the sugary, tasty pick-me-up food which made you feel sluggish, affected your mood and helped the tummy role expand a little further? That tiny choice impacted the rest of your day.

And of course that’s just one example of the many decisions we have to make on a day-to-day basis.

What about…

• Lunch?
• Dinner?
• Exercise?
• Managing stress?
• Finances?
• Work?
• Family?
• Friends?
• Daily disciplines?

The key question is….

Are You Making the Right Decisions? 

It’s something that seems so simple but how many of us are fully aware of the choices we are making today and how they impact our future.

Are they taking us closer to what we want or further away?

Defining A Clear Purpose…

The best way to help you make the right decisions is to firstly figure out WHAT YOU WANT.

What are the things that are most important to you?

Is it your health, family, friends, career or something else? It’s usually a combination of things. Write down your priorities and then go into more specific detail about what you want.

Put your priorities in sub-categories and set small goals for each, for example…

#1 Health & Fitness:

End Goal = to lose a stone in weight, to fit into size X jeans, to feel better about body image

How i’m going to do this? 

• Exercise 4x per week
• Eat 1 portion of fruit per day
• Eat 1 portion of veg per day
• Use My Fitness Pal to log my food
• Go to see my personal trainer 2x per week

#2 Finance:

End Goal = to buy a house and start saving for the future, so I can support my family

How I’m going to do this? 

• Put £300 per month in a pension
• Save £500 per month for a house deposit
• Seek the right professional financial advice I need (like from pillar wm for example)

#3 Self Development:

End Goal = to keep learning, so I can improve in all of the areas of my life that are important to me

How I’m going to do this?

• Read for 20 minutes each day
• Listen to an audiobook for 20 minutes per day
• Invest in private coaching 1x per week

Once you have outlined your priorities and put some goals in place you are much more likely to make decisions conducive towards achieving those goals. Also, by law of attraction you will attract things, people and places into your life which will help you get there.

Client Example…

I remember around 6 months ago listening to a client express their frustration about how far away their goal seemed. There was serious doubt about whether or not they could actually do it in the first place.

Feeling overwhelmed he just couldn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. The issue was that he was trying to reach a goal that was unobtainable within the frame of mind he was using, and unless he changed his approach it would become a self-fulfilling prophecy – he wouldn’t reach his weight loss goal!

What I did with him was similar to the above examples about getting his prioritise organised and then setting some tangible ‘to-do lists’ each week so that he could take small steps, which over time would lead to a big improvement.

I got him to write down an action list, for each day and for each week, things like…

• Monday – gym, positive affirmations, daily reading, meal prep
• Tuesday – walk 10,000 steps, positive affirmations, reading, etc
• Wednesday – spin class, affirmations, reading, meal prep

Etc, etc.

As he completed each task he would tick them off and give himself a hypothetical pat on the back, a well done – this was to positively reinforce the behaviour and get his brain used to associating these activities with a personal reward (reward being a positive feeling about taking action)

What we also did was attach a forfeit, in his case 10 push ups per failed task if he didn’t complete what he set out to do.

The overall intention was to associate pleasure with taking positive action and associate discomfort (having to do push ups) with inaction.

The end result has been fantastic, and although we have modified the reward and discomfort system it continues to motivate him to make better decisions.

Take a moment to pause, and think about whether your daily decisions are serving you or holding you back?

Then put a plan in place and go and kick some ass!

Nick 🙂