Accountability

Are You Proactive or Reactive?

May 23, 2017 by Camilla

Have you ever said: “If I only had more money I could x, y and z” or “If I only had more time I could x, y, and z.” And of course the “I hate my job. I wish I could work on things I love to do.”

No worries, I’ve said those things too. We all blur that out at times even if we know it won’t do us any good. But if you are saying those things on a regular basis you are wasting your time wishing for a future that won’t happen unless you do something about it!

No one, no matter how much you may feel you deserve it, will come and roll out the red carpet for you. Only way for you to have the kind of life you want is to roll it out yourself.

Proactive People Are Doers

The difference between those that are proactive and those that are not is how they approach their situation. Proactive people want a different future so instead of wishing it will happen they start working towards making it happen. They make a plan, take that first step, which leads to the next step and so on. Step by step they work their way towards achieving what they want. They stay focused on what they want to achieve and prioritize working on the essentials instead of the small stuff that doesn’t help them. They understand the importance of single tasking and creating a schedule.

The “wishers” want to change things but they don’t take planned action towards it. Instead of having a plan and prioritizing what’s important in order to get them to the next step, they react to every little thing coming their way and they work on the non-essentials, the things not moving them forward. Their days disappear to non-essentials. They can often be characterized by their frantic look and bouncing from thing to thing. Also called multi-tasking. They also blame circumstances a lot for not being where they want to be.

You can either happen to life or allow life to happen to you.

Definition for proactive:
prōˈaktiv/
adjective
(of a person, policy, or action) creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened.
“be proactive in identifying and preventing potential problems”
synonyms: enterprising, take-charge, energetic, driven, bold, dynamic, motivated, go-ahead “you need to be more proactive about the causes you care about”

Definition for reactive:
rēˈaktiv/
adjective
showing a response to a stimulus.
“pupils are reactive to light”
acting in response to a situation rather than creating or controlling it.
“a proactive rather than a reactive approach”

What Can You Do If You’re A Wisher?

1. Change your mindset. As soon as you default to the “If only…” say STOP and change that to: “I am in charge of my own destiny. What steps can I take right now to get closer to where I want to be?” Create a plan. Make a schedule. Hire a coach and mentor. Find support. Write down goals you want accomplish and then make subgoals on how to get there. Take some time figuring out what is important to you.

2. Realize you have enough time. American’s on average watch 4 hours of TV a day. That’s adds up to about 13 years of 24/7 TV-watching over a lifespan. Yikes! Imagine what you could do with 13 years of 24/7 time?! Even if you’re not a TV-watcher pay attention to how much time you lose being down the rabbit hole of email, social media, internet and reacting without intention to other things that eat up your time 10-20 minutes here and there. That all adds up to time you could be working on you and your life and the important stuff. It’s all about how you prioritize. Say NO more often. Use a schedule.

3. Find a role model. Surround yourself with people you wish to be. No, this is not about becoming a copycat. It’s about learning from those that are doing what you want to do. Find a couple of role models that are where you would like to be and learn from them. Ask them how they did it if you can. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in one day. Those people didn’t just go from nothing to where they are today. They got there by making a decision to be a doer and work their way to where they are.

I’m challenging you today. It’s time to stop spinning and start living. Ask yourself: Are you proactive in your approach or falling to living a life of reaction?

If you felt this post was of value to you please share with others so they too can learn how to stop spinning and start living. I create these free trainings and blog posts for you. I appreciate you! Also, if you haven’t already join my free Excel Your Life Facebook group. It’s awesome! Plus make sure you have liked my Facebook page.

Quotes to inspire you…feel free to share! You can find more quotes on my Instagram:

How to Achieve What You Want

February 27, 2017 by Camilla

Are people just born successful? Do they just know how to do certain things? Or is there a way anyone can become successful and achieve what they want to achieve?

As a coach and trainer seeing people struggle is one of the hardest things when I know if they did these things they would leap forward in ways they never knew they could. My life changed after I started incorporating the things I’m talking about in the video and I want that for you too.

Points covered in the video:

Stop trying to do it all on your own!
Successful people ask for help.
Get help. Hire a coach, mentor, trainer, nutritionist. Learn from those ahead of you.
Join a mastermind.
Read books.
Think like a child again.
On the other side of learning is mastery.

If you felt this post was of value to you please share with others so they too can learn how to stop spinning and start living. I create these free trainings and blog posts for you. I appreciate you!

Also, if you haven’t already join my free Excel Your Life Facebook group. It’s awesome! Plus make sure you have liked my Facebook page so you can be notified when I go live so you can watch these in real time. As always ask any questions you may have.

You may also like these posts:

What Are Success Habits?

Who Are You Going to Be?

Got Goals?

Quotes to inspire you…feel free to share! You can find more quote on my Instagram:

5 Ways to Boost Willpower

January 16, 2017 by Camilla

Do some people have more willpower than others? Yes, and it can have an enormous impact on your life. But no worries, you can train your willpower muscle.

Willpower lives in the front of our brain, namely in the prefrontal cortex, the area responsible for decision making. According to Dr. Kelly McGonigal, author of the book The Willpower Instinct, temporary states such as being under the influence, distracted or even sleep-deprived can alter the function and therefore your strength of willpower.

OMG! Read that again!

“Temporary states such as being under the influence (duh!), distracted or even sleep-deprived can alter the function and therefore your strength of willpower.”

Hello!!!!!

Now, I don’t know your personal story so this may not apply to you, but majority of people are sleep-deprived in today’s ever increasing world of do more and sleep less.

Squirrel!! Oh, FB notification…the amount of distractions that we are exposed to every day is ridiculous. If you haven’t turned notifications off your phone go read this post I wrote. If you’re addicted to notifications it’s not much different than as if you’re addicted to drugs or other dopamine producing things.

Taking notifications off my phone was a game-changer. I already had my phone on silent but anytime I would grab my phone for something there they were – the notifications! In droves. Red little dots everywhere and not to mention the banners from Instagram and Facebook.

Even if I didn’t go in and check them my brain would go “Hey, hmm…wonder what the rest of the message said?” “Hmm, maybe I have a comment somewhere I should go answer?” MAJOR distraction!

Okay, so let’s get back to willpower. When your brain is distracted and/or sleep-deprived you are automatically operating with reduced willpower. Not a great start.

Of course we don’t have to experience lack of sleep to struggle with willpower but I think we can all agree on that when we are tired it’s harder to avoid things we know we should avoid. Most people don’t exactly choose exercise over eating sweets when they are tired and exhausted.

That said, according to research people that showed strong self-discipline and willpower as children tend to fare better as adults, even decades later. Delayed instant gratification played a big role in that.

What Can We Do?

ONE: Increase your sleep and reduce distractions. A well-rested brain has more energy to help you resist those temptations.

TWO: Write things down and track. Keep your goals handy and review them often. Know why you want to achieve something. Clarity gives you motivation which helps boost that willpower to help you get to where you want to go. In a study where participants had to record everything they ate for two weeks those that tracked their progress fared better in willpower depleting tests than those that didn’t. Tracking keeps us accountable which helps us establish better habits.

THREE: Whatever you focus on expands. When you focus on that you shouldn’t have that piece of cake it grows in your mind and won’t let you think of anything else. Focus on instead that you could have that cake but you choose not to. Then focus on your end goal instead and visualize how awesome you will feel once you reach it.

FOUR: You can boost your willpower by eating a diet that provides your brain better glucose. When your brain is low on glucose your willpower also goes down. This could explain why successful people that tend to eat a healthy diet have better habits. They simply have the willpower to get them in place! And it seems as if willpower is just like any muscle, the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.

FIVE: Your mindset makes a huge difference. In studies people that think that willpower is unlimited have more willpower, while those that think you are born with limited willpower, i.e. “I’m born this way, I don’t have any willpower!” tend to have lower willpower.

Your mind and what you put into your mind can completely change your life! Now that said, eliminating triggers that deplete your willpower can definitely help especially in the beginning of you creating a new habit, or while working on boosting that willpower muscle.

Also, have reminders (like on your phone, sticky notes and friends) that support your new habit or what you are working on becoming. I have reminders going off several times a day on my phone helping to remind me of my goals and of who I want to be.

Habits, mindset and willpower go hand in hand. Here are three awesome books I’ve read that I recommend you read too.*

The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Mindset by Carol Dweck

*I’m an Amazon affiliate and should you purchase through these links I receive a small commission with no additional cost to you. However, I only recommend products I believe in or personally use. Thank you for supporting this blog through your purchase.

It’s Time to Look Back To Plan Forward

December 19, 2016 by Camilla

With that 2016 is coming to an end. Another year gone by. Which means it’s time to reflect on the year before starting a new one.

I know, it’s so tempting to start charging forward. Especially if you’re not where you planned on being by now. However, we can learn from the past and use it for going forward. We should never live in the past. What’s done is done. No matter how much you try to rewrite or bring back the past it can’t be done. We must let it go. But we can use it to learn about how to better move forward.

It’s Time to Ask Ourselves

What worked this year?
Why did it work?
What didn’t work and why?
What did you learn?
What will you do differently this coming year?

We obviously should do more of what works and know why it worked so we can replicate it for other things. However, don’t be afraid to improve things that work. What got you here won’t necessarily get you to the next level. We should always work on improving things. Growth comes by innovating.

This one is often overlooked. We should spend some time and analyze why some things didn’t work. Did we overcommit? Did we learn what was needed or did we give up halfway and if so, why? Did we do our best? Did we seek the support needed? Did we create goals that were ours or that were based on someone else’s opinion of what we should do?

What did you learn about yourself this year? What did you learn in the topic of personal growth? What do you need to learn going forward in order to improve your life? Create a personal growth plan for the coming year.

We tend to keep adding things to life but in order for the cup to not run over things needs to be edited out. We must let go of things, practices, and habits (as well as people) that no longer serve us. What are you going to quit doing this coming year? Make a “stop doing” list. Edit. Delete. Gone. Bye-bye. Decide what to edit out before you start the new year. Be brave!

Plan Your Life Like It’s Vacation

By being more intentional about how you want your year to be you can plan backwards on how to accomplish the things you want to accomplish (see an earlier video on this). However, knowing what worked and what didn’t and then be brave to edit things out, we can look back at a great year having accomplished much or all of what we set out to accomplish when the year started.

Take a moment and reflect back…then make a plan on how to move forward. Have fun doing this! Think of it as planning your vacation. Put the same time and effort into planning your life as you do a vacation. Imagine where you will be a year from now with some intention and planning!

If you felt this post was of value to you please share with others so they too can learn how to stop spinning and start living. I appreciate you! Now go and move your life forward. You can do it!

You may also like these posts:

Who Are You Going To Be?

The Accumulative Effect

Where Are You Going?

Quotes to inspire you…feel free to share! You can find more quote on my Instagram:

The 6 Foundational Habits for Productivity – No. 6 Breaks

October 3, 2016 by Camilla

Do you feel defeated because no matter how hard you work, you can never keep up? And after a long day at work you come home exhausted with no energy to spare, leaving you to wonder why you’re so tired all the time. I hear you! I lived in that state too until I learned that the way society wants us to work is extremely inefficient and holds no basis in human physiology.

We live in a society where we have been conditioned to be “on” 24/7/365. You’re expected to answer emails, texts, phone calls and more immediately while also working for 8-10 hours straight and get everything done. That’s insanity and needs to stop. We are not robots!

Time has come to wrap up this 6 Foundational Habits for Productivity series with our habit no. 6 – Take Breaks. If you missed the first 5 habits, click HERE.

Your Brain Need Breaks To Function

If you start paying attention your level of focus and concentration goes down after about 60-90 minutes depending on the task you’re doing. That’s because your brain gets tired and needs to regenerate.

Your brain goes through something called an ultradian rhythm, think of it as a wave with peaks of highs followed by lows about every 90 minutes. When your brain is on a high peak you are able to focus well. When it’s coming down you start losing focus, and that is when your brain needs you to take a 10-20 minute break.

If you are not allowing the brain to take a break, you’re messing with your body’s natural oscillation of hormone exchanges. Not only does your focus and energy go down but if you are continually ‘pushing through’ operating as if you’re a robot, you’re flirting with the path to burnout.

In other words, if you want to work smarter not harder, keep a high level of energy both physically and mentally you must take breaks at least every 90 minutes.

A great tool to help you work in focused blocks of time followed by a break is the Pomodoro Technique. You can for example work in 45 minute focused blocks of time followed by a 15 minute break, or adjust the timer based on what works best for you.

But I Don’t Have Time to Take Breaks

If the thought of taking a longer break when you step away from work for 10-20 minutes every hour freaks you out because you think it’s not productive and you have so much to do, then start with taking 5 minute breaks every hour. That will make you realize how beneficial taking breaks are and you will make the time for longer breaks.

Those 5 minute breaks will provide you with a small boost of energy and help you throughout the day. You can do a quick meditation, close your eyes, maybe a walk around the building, do some jumping jacks, dance to music or just sit on a park bench watching the birds.

Then work your way up to 20 minute breaks. And no, those are not ‘let’s surf social media for 20 minute breaks’ – these are supposed to be real breaks when you step away from work! Move your body during those breaks too! We’re not built to sit all day.

And take a lunch break, will ya! Seriously! Taking breaks, including a lunch break, will help you stay energized, which will help you stay focused, which will help you get work done and will help you feel amazing at the end of the day so you can have a life too!

Breaks Are Energy and Productivity Boosters

You must manage your energy in order to stay productive! Like mentioned the way you do that is by taking breaks throughout the day, fueling your body, getting your sleep, getting your exercise and reducing input, but wait, there’s more!

You also need to schedule in longer breaks like weekend trips, vacation and days away from social media, computers and that non-stop beeping cell-phone. When was the last time you had a day off from something as simple as your smartphone or computer? Or even a half a day? Schedule in digital free days too.

If you don’t believe me on the importance of giving your brain a break, at least read the NY Times article mentioned in this post. Print that article out and remind everyone around you that it’s productive taking breaks.

Action Step: Get serious about these habits that you have now learned. Take sleep, exercise, nutrition, morning routine, reduced input and breaks serious. You may not realize that you are living in a mediocre state of energy. I want you to live an amazing life! To experience the kind of energy you have within you, if you get your 6 Foundational Habits in shape. You CAN feel amazing and have the energy to do the things you want to do. But it all starts with you and self-care.

If you felt this blog post was of value to you please share with others so they can learn how to stop spinning and start living too. I appreciate you!