The Fastest Way of Getting from A to Z in Less Time and with More Energy

“Chance favours only the prepared mind”. Louis Pasteur

Are you always making decisions? Are you always confident of making the right decisions? Do you make them in a hurry or are they considered and thoroughly analysed or do you just use your gut.

Whichever way you choose how often are you correct? Are you 50%, 70% or nearly right all the time? Whatever your estimated success rate I am going to show you how to get to your decisions faster using up less energy and with more effectiveness

The one thing you need to make a decision is clarity and energy, a fuzzy head and tired body will lead you more often then not into confusion and possibly move you temporarily into the wrong direction. But why take that chance? Correcting your choice will cost you either time or money or both.

Do you want to take that risk? Do you want to ensure you make the right decision first time round and get to your destination faster?,

So how do keep your head clear and your overall energy up through out the day even when you’re under pressure to make a decision? There are a number of strategies, which look at your state of mind and your overall body both internally and externally. Both your body and mind need to be in a ready state at any point in time to help you make your decisions even ones you have to make a snap decision for.

These strategies for the mind and body can either be done in isolation or you can choose a combination you are comfortable with. The benefit of executing all the strategies is the synergistic impact on your overall well-being and performance. Either way following through these strategies on a regular basis will leave you feeling fresh energetic and focused.

“Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how you’re going to use it by knowing what you want and what it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus”. Oprah Winfrey

So lets look at your body first, if your body is tired, feeling lethargic your output will be affected, your stamina decreased and your focus blurred.

The following tips will help rejuvenate your body:

1. Sleep at least 7½ hours a day to ensure your body has had enough chance to repair itself during bedtime.

2. Each morning have a nourishing breakfast, avoid if you can sugary cereals, syrups, jams and sugary carbs and increase your protein content. Use any of the following depending on your preference and cultural background e.g. eggs, Soya, turkey or chicken breast slices and lean bacon or any other protein alternative.

3. Avoid large quantities of simple carbohydrates at lunchtime to avoid increasing your blood sugar spike responsible for the sharp energy high and dip after 3pm.

4. Have lean cut meats or vegetable protein with salad and a small amount of carbohydrates at lunchtime this reduces the amount of sugar entering your blood stream and maintains your energy levels keeping you sharp and alert to handle any stressful situations

5. Walk briskly 30 minutes a day – (do check with your doctor before any physical pursuits)

6. Aerobic exercise helps with the drainage of toxins from your body saunas and massage are also other good ways of doing the same thing but is more relaxing!

7. Reduce your caffeine intake if you drink too much tea/coffee. Some caffeine can be beneficial but too much could disturb the sugar balance, even more so if you are also eating a simple carbohydrate like a cake with your coffee.

Now that you have tips for you body you now need to turn your attention to your mind

“The energy of the mind is the essence of life.” Aristotle

The following tips will help remove clutter from your mind:

1. Avoid alcohol. It will either make you aggressive, passive or sluggish.

2. If you need a quick energy boost before an afternoon meeting, roll your ears towards the side of the head back and forth and at the same time massage them very firmly for 90 seconds. This will give your mind a kick and increase your alertness.

3. Increase the amount of water intake it helps send electrical messages between cells so that your muscles will move, your eyes can see and your brain can think.

4. Breathing deeply through your nose for 3 seconds and exhaling through your mouth for 6, at moments of stress can help calm the body down and aid with mental clarity with practice this will become second nature.

5. Meditation, Yoga and gentle martial arts like Tai chi all help to relax our bodily systems and reduce the impact of stress.

Okay now that your mind and body are prepared the next step is to make those decisions.

The first thing to do when faced with an impending decision:

1. Is to rank its importance 1-10
2. Do you have to make the decision immediately
3. Analyse potential outcomes
4. Do a pro and cons sheet for each
5. Value each pro and cons
6. Total up each pro and con for each outcome
7. Make decision

If the decision is not to your liking you’ve missed something out, your head is still cluttered with emotion so here’s a very powerful tip below

Powerful Mind Strategy

Emotional Stress Relief (ESR) – in times of indecision find a safe place to go and sit or lie down. Place fingertips of both your hands with a very light touch just above your eyebrows on the bumps of the forehead and think/visualise about the issue you have. This light touch has a harmonising effect on the energy of the forebrain and is the place where new solutions without emotion can be found. You end the ESR session once the image of the issue has dissipated.

Now go back to the decision making process, you will find your answer I guarantee it.

So there you are tips and strategies to reach your decision faster with less stress and more energy. By following them on a regular basis not only will your decision-making abilities improve so will other parts of your life in terms of your overall well being productivity and performance.

Who says the best things in life are not free, they are but it depends what you’re looking for!

Here’s to faster decision making

The Problem with Goal Setting is…

Many personal development gurus have given their own versions on goal setting and all have the same end objective.

To improve your overall current position, whether it is in a spiritual, financial, social, health, family or business sphere.

Only you know what goals you need in those areas but the question really is what are you willing to do to actually achieve them?

But what you must first ask yourself is what overriding goal do you need now to drive all your other goals and how strong is your desire and motivation to achieve them?

You need to consider for a moment what your overall mission is before you set you overall goal and what impact is it going to have on your life. This will then dictate what you have to do in the short term, medium term and long term to achieve it.

One role of being a leader is to set goals, but you cannot set goals in ignorance of yourself and the people you serve. Goal setting requires conditions to be met before during and after they a have been set, or they will merely become a meaningless wish list

To stop it becoming meaningless wish list of no consequence you must first understand who you really are, which is the very premise of setting authentic achievable goals.

Only once you have become your true self and know what you really want to do, with all your heart and feeling, will the goals you write have any deep meaning to you, only then will you have a chance of achieving them.

But then believing in your goals is one thing achieving them is another. Many people go through the process of setting goals in a well-meaning way, following all the steps that one might follow but how many of you have followed all the rules set so called realistic goals and still waiting for things to happen?

The major reason for non-achievement of goals is that your unconscious and conscious mind is not in harmony. Your conscious self wants to do one thing but your unconscious mind wants to do something else. It is a state of personal imbalance; the result is either a confused state or an unexpected result.

Creating goals on personal imbalance produces stress frustration and non-achievement and I know I’ve made that mistake. I thought I could become an accountant based on incomplete information on my personal strengths but basically I was fooling myself. My ego, my position and status were leading me to make decisions that were really not grounded on who I really was. I was miserable being an accountant, not that I’ve got anything against accountants!

So if you’re not achieving your goals then what do you do? Try again, try harder you know the saying winners never quit right? I know what I want right?

Of course you do, the trouble is your not listening very well, you’re ignoring signals your subconscious is telling you. So it’s not a matter of quitting it’s matter of adjusting your seat slightly or even may be changing it all together!

Luckily for me I did see the light and I completely changed to a different career, which proved to be very fruitful and rewarding for a number of years.

But quitting definitely not, your just moving from an A road to the Motorway where you’ll be moving a lot faster and getting there much sooner and you will feel more powerful for doing it.

So when are you changing?

A vital part of setting and achieving your goal is to understand the role of your internal Reticular Activating System (RAS) and stress.

The RAS lies in the brain stem, which controls wakefulness by sending signals to the cerebral cortex, (upper part of the brain) which controls thought processes.

It works by filtering conscious and subconscious thoughts.

For example you have just bought a new car and immediately afterwards you begin to notice all the same make of cars you have just bought.

It’s your RAS, which has heightened your awareness of this car as a result of your unconscious connection with your own car of the same make and model.
It acts as a filter between your conscious and unconscious mind, which can be effected by stress.

That’s why it’s very important when you begin the process of setting goals that you are in a restful state and are reasonably stress free. As stress interferes with the filtering process between the conscious and unconscious mind and creates false expectations, which is often when goals are not achieved.

The RAS automatically brings relevant material to your attention and it is this function, which helps you to achieve your goals as long as you’re relaying all the right messages to your subconscious.

Understanding yourself, listening to your body and sending the right messages to your subconscious are all vital for goal achievement and progress. If your RAS is out of balance your likely hood of achieving your goal becomes doubtful

So not only is it important to set goals which resonate with your body it’s also important to be reasonably stress free. Your body is a complex and marvellous instrument which can allow you to achieve anything you set out to do as long you feed it with the right messages.

For example setting a goal and then thinking of all the excuses why your not going to achieve it will send the wrong messages to your RAS and sure enough you will not achieve it!

As Henry Ford said in so many words :-

If you think you can you can, if you think you cant you cant! And that is true for anything.

So when you start to think about setting goals here’s a few pointers

1. Be in restful state
2. Listen to your body not your ego
3. Know yourself know your strengths
4. Think about your ultimate mission and goal
5. Change to the motorway if you have to
6. Send positive messages to your RAS
7. Don’t quit change course!

Finally I like to finish with a few words from a wise man I know who says:

Can wealth give Happiness? Can Position give Happiness? Can
Relationships give us Happiness? All this in isolation won’t give us
happiness at all. Yes, a sum total of this would give us happiness.
But the human tendency is that we tend to go to extremes.
Sometimes we get so engrossed in relationships, money, that we forget everything else.
We have to keep a balance in our life just like we tell a child to keep a balance between his studies and games.
As it is fondly said, “All work and no play
makes’ Jack a dull boy”

We have to build our faith not through money,
not through fame, not through Position,
not through Knowledge but only through
EXPERIENCE