1. GET YOUR HEALTH IN CHECK
People don’t understand the importance of looking after their mental, physical and spiritual health.
The difference it makes to your outlook on life, and also how you are perceived by other people can make your entire life experience different.
I believe that most unhealthy people are operating at 60% of their capabilities, and that is probably being generous
You want to enjoy your journey of getting healthy again, so start small and make incremental changes.
Some ideas below:
- Start making your own food
- Begin the day with a nice big glass of water
- Don’t turn your phone signal on until an hour after waking up
- Add in an 15 minute walk outdoors to your day
- Start your day with a 5 minute focused stretch
- Write down your thoughts on paper. Make space in your mind
- Journal to improve memory and remember highlights of each day
- Find some form of exercise you enjoy and do that more often
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2. ELIMINATE ONE FOOD THAT IS SLOWLY DEBILITATING YOU
Hippocrates authored the famous quote, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”
Modern diets and meals are slowly killing you. The amount of processed food (junk) far exceeds the amount of good wholesome food consumed.
Only YOU are responsible for what you put in your mouth. Getting conscious of what you are eating will change your life 10 fold.
None of our diets are perfect but we can all do better.
Try eliminating one thing at a time, like:
- Chocolate
- Sweets
- Fizzy Drinks
- Chips/Crisps
- Alcohol
- Bread
- Ready Meals
- Unhealthy Sauces
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3. SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE BY DROPPING TWO THINGS THAT ARE SUCKING YOUR TIME AND NOT SERVING YOU 100%
Modern life is complex and busy enough as it is. Us humans are not the smartest and have problems saying No and removing things from our lives.
We think we need to be constantly on the go and doing more things. This is often to our own detriment.
Also, for some strange reason we do things to please other people, or because it’s the right thing to be ‘seen’ to be doing.
- Write down lists of what you do.
- Then write down what it is you don’t like doing.
- If they exist on both lists, then remove them from your life.
Your limited time and energy should be spared for things that bring you joy and purpose.
Be wise.
Be ruthless.
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4. SPEND A WEEK WRITING OUT, GETTING CLEAR AND REFINING YOUR 2024 BUSINESS AND LIFE PLANS
This has been a life changing exercise for me
Making the effort to write a business plan can get you really fired up. Great business plans have emotional and logical elements.
Now, do this for your life too.
What do you really want in life?
What do you really want in 2024?
Write it down. Start planning. Put it out there.
- Write freehand with whatever comes to your mind.
- Sleep on it.
- Write down new thoughts the next day.
- Sleep on it.
- Refine.
- Sleep on it.
- Continue until you are satisfied.
Done right, you will feel very different going into 2024.
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5. INTRODUCE ONE NEW GOOD HABIT THAT WILL IMPROVE YOUR OUTLOOK AND LIVELIHOOD
As keen as I am on simplifying my life, there are always improvements to be made.
These are relative to each person.
You will know what your missing habits are because you have probably been putting them off for the last few years.
Once again, pick something small, don’t overthink it, and just gooooo
Some ideas:
- Start making your bed
- Have a cold shower each morning
- Introduce a breathing practice
- Read a few pages of a book each day
- Limit the amount of scrolling you do
- Send 1 grateful and inspiring text message to a friend each day
- Share your knowledge with the world
- Learn to do something with your hands
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6. FORMULATE YOUR THOUGHTS
Most people do not sit down and think deeply about things.
We live in a world filled with uninformed opinions.
This actually makes it easy to stand out.
- Whatever you are interested in, get a pen and paper and start writing down what you think about that topic
- Then listen to Podcasts, read books, or watch documentaries to deepen your knowledge
- Write down what you learned
- Then seek alternative views to your beliefs, so that you are not in an echo-chamber
- Write down those opposing views and what your thoughts are about them
- Now you have put yourself in the top 1% of people
Also, with all the information in the world, our minds our often cluttered. Especially with negative self-talk.
It’s why I highly recommend having a daily journaling practise.
Get your thoughts out of your head and onto paper.
Make space in your mind
Allow yourself to experience some mental clarity.
This is one of the best free medicines you can give yourself
Having formulated thoughts:
- Allows you to participate in meaningful conversations
- Adds stature to how you are perceived
- Helps you to stand out as a thought leader
- Builds trust
- Adds to being a great leader
- Gives you skills to handle difficult encounters
- Separates you from the pack
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7. ENGAGE IN HEALTHY DEBATES
Not many people these days seem to want to engage in debates. Everyone seems to want to get their point across.
We need to listen more and be less tribal
Humans are sophisticated creatures, yet we don’t necessarily act that way.
The Socratic Method of Dialectics states – “When two people have a conversation a third thing gets known”
You never know what you might learn from others who have opposing views.
Be mature in conversations with others who have contrarian ideas and don’t let your opinions and emotions get the better of you.
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8. ENCOURAGE YOURSELF TO HAVE TOUGH CONVERSATIONS
Most people will have sleepless nights due to conversations they need to have but avoid having them
This creates high levels of anxiety and stress
Relationships and marriages are destroyed because talking is dodged
Promotions and pay rises are left on the table because you were too scared to talk up
Ease yourself into tough conversations by:
- Writing down what it is that you want to say
- Take these notes into the conversation with you
- Explain that this has been on your mind and that you’d like to read what you wrote
The pure relief you will feel from writing out and then saying these words out loud, will feel like a revelation
There are many other tools for tough conversations, but starting small will build of your confidence and then ultimately become second nature
- The respect you garner from entering into these conversations is huge
- The trust you build up is massive
- The self-belief you start to feel is priceless
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9. MANAGE WHO YOU SPEND YOUR TIME WITH
There are real-life energy suckers roaming this planet. Eliminate these people quickly.
It doesn’t matter how positive or high-vibing you are, the vortex strength of Negative Nanci’s and Energy Suckers can bring down the best of us.
Moving on from these people is one of the most important things you can do for yourself.
Rather seek:
- Those who inspire you
- Those who challenge you
- Those who encourage you
- Those who make you think differently
These types of people are engaged in pursuit of their dreams and are supportive of your dreams too.
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10. SET OUT TO BE HUGELY ORGANISED AND PREPARED FOR 2024
99% of people will begin next year with zero plan. They are head down, stuck in the rat race, and will continue their lives that way.
The sad reality is that people never plan their lives, days, weeks, months, years.
This means you never have a vision, something to aspire to, something to focus on.
Life should be lived by design not by default
If you want to change your life, start by changing your day
Scenario Planning is an extremely valuable resource in today’s economy.
It’s not sexy, but heck, it’s worth doing!
Anticipate both opportunities and speed-bumps for 2024.
This will literally determine if you succeed or get crushed.
With the state of the global economy it’s not a good time to be in the ‘winging-it business’.
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11. IDENTIFY WHICH BUSINESS AND SOCIAL CIRCLES YOU’D LIKE TO OPERATE IN
Relationships are such a crucial part of your overall wellbeing and truly impact your outlook on life.
It is ok to be in a ‘different flow’ to those in your social circles. Sometimes it means putting those relationships on hold, sometimes it means moving on.
Sometimes, you are the one moving on. Sometimes, they are the one’s moving on.
It’s not something to be taken personally, it’s just the ebb and flow of life.
Don’t be afraid to remove toxic relationships and energy suckers from your social circles.
When it comes to Business, seek out those whose message you resonate with. You probably know them already.
Create a list of 5-10 names whose circles you’d benefit from being in.
Ask yourself, “What can I offer them and why would they want me in their circle?”
Start engaging with them and offering your thoughts and expertise, either online or in-person.
Provide a strong reason for them to take notice with the value that you create in 2024
Be realistic and manage your own expectations, these sort of things take a long time and require nurturing. Maybe a year, maybe 5 years.
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12. RE-DEFINE YOURSELF ON A GRAND SCALE
Stepping into the arena and giving it your all, requires having your own back.
- There is nobody coming to save you.
- There is nobody that is going to change you.
- There is nobody going to hold yourself accountable.
If you want to change, you must stop lying to yourself with empty promises.
You must stop letting yourself down by not following through on goals you set yourself.
Look yourself in the mirror and tell your future self that you are going to make some drastic changes with fierce self-discipline and fierce self-compassion.
One of the toughest things to do is be reflective and honest about the improvements you need to make.
Identify behaviour patterns and shortcomings which you need to address:
- Lacking resilience?
- Getting easily triggered?
- Judging others?
- Not planning?
- Making excuses?
- Kicking the can down the road?
- Same approach to conflicts?
- Blaming others?
- No accountability?
- Learning new skills?
- Giving up too soon?
Being honest with yourself is very difficult, but a necessity to help you grow and improve.
You are also going to have blindspots on where you need to make changes. At some point, you will pay somebody like a Coach, to help you with these
I truly believe that none of us were put on this planet to be watered down versions of ourselves.
Be bold. Be courageous. Be confident.
Start creating a step by step plan to recreate yourself on a grand scale.
The world needs your uniqueness.
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13. WORK ON YOUR SPIRITUALITY AND FAITH
People get tensed up and triggered when you speak about this stuff. What you need to understand is you can decide what these mean for you.
We are all on this planet for a short time, on some sort of soul journey together.
So firstly, have faith in yourself. Have faith in your own soul. It chose your physical body and now you are one.
I repeat, start by having faith in yourself.
Believe that you are part of something greater than the self. Something great like a collective human consciousness.
Something great like the ginormous ecosystem of other animals and plants.
Build up your spirit. That little fire inside of you.
That little fire that makes you get lost in time when you are in the flow doing something you love.
Also, get control of your spirit in those moments of temptation and heated exchanges.
Train it to help you respond calmly, kindly and with integrity.
If your faith is more religion based then don’t be afraid to live that way and with those values.
Working on your Spirituality, Faith, Religion, has many high-quality by-products:
- Live in more peace
- Living in the present moment
- Surrounded by light and opportunity
- Abundant thinking
- Creates discipline
- Better decision making
- Builds confidence
- Thinking bigger
- More energetic
- Removes fear
- Greater leadership
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14. MAKE DECISIONS QUICKLY
Have you ever wondered why you procrastinate?
Making quick decisions will change your life. The slower your decision making, the more excuses you make and the more you procrastinate.
Every time you give yourself a week to make a decision, is a delay to your life. This is your “Personal Opportunity Cost”
If you have 5 big decisions you need to make a year and take one week extra week to make the decision than you need, that is 5 weeks of wasted opportunity.
What else could you do with that time?
How much extra stress has not making that decision caused you?
Now, think about this in years.
Over 10 years, you have wasted one FULL YEAR of your life.
In a lifetime, you have wasted over EIGHT YEARS of your life.
- Start noticing how often you delay decisions?
- Ask yourself, why?
- Be conscious of how it makes you feel?
- Do you struggle to sleep because of these unmade decisions?
A skill set of quicker and better decision making will improve every aspect of your life.
- Health
- Mindset
- Outlook
- Stress levels
- Relationships
- Business output
- Finances
- Productivity
- Self-belief
- Leadership
- Confidence
- Emotional control
- Parenting
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15. CREATE SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES TO STREAMLINE YOUR BUSINESS AND LIFE
Technology is a double-edged sword.
It’s created insane amounts of opportunity, but made us more distracted than ever.
The human mind, these days, is overloaded with information. As primitive beings, we are yet to grasp how to manage this effectively.
We absolutely need systems to keep us in check, and make sure we are doing what needs to be done.
- Creating systems and processes is initially time consuming.
- However, once set-up correctly they can run on auto-pilot, or with very little oversight.
- Systems allow us to scale efficiently and effectively.
- Most people fall at the first hurdle. They want to scale but don’t put in the effort and planning required to implement the systems and processes in the beginning
- Take the time to figure these out. Trial and error. Then back to the drawing board. Iterate. Improve. Re-implement.
There is amazing software available to help in your businesses.
There is an incredible micro-outsourcing community of people who can help with specific jobs.
Use them. Provide clear instructions on your requirements to avoid unnecessary pain and delays.
Know your requirements and processes before shipping them off to someone else to help with.
In your personal life:
- Block time out of your schedule for important things
- Create routines for yourself and your children
- Turn off notifications of all kinds
- Create lists
- Speak to your partner/family about making efficiencies
Lastly, workout ways for you to track your progress. Do this daily or weekly.
This helps to keep you in check and serves as a good reminder to keep moving forward.
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16. CARVE OUT TIME FOR PLAY AND ADVENTURE
Being a father has taught and reminded me how much enjoyment I got from playing.
Adventure has always been high on my list. Mini-adventures are where the pot of gold exists.
Play and adventure:
- Keeps you young
- Keeps your curious
- Keeps you interesting
- Keeps you healthy
- Keeps your hormonal system vibing high
- Makes life fun
- Brings immense enjoyment
- Keeps you connected to nature
- Forms strong family bonds
- Creates amazing memories
- Is something to get excited about
- Gives you things to look forward to
- Gives you things to plan together
- Keeps your body activated and supple
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17. ONCE CLEAR ON ALL OF THESE THINGS, CREATE A DAILY PRACTISE AND MEDITATE ON THEM. IMAGINE YOUR LIFE AND WHAT IT FEELS LIKE
Meditation is one of those things which many struggle with and give up too easily.
Now imagine, you have a vision of how you want your life to look?
Imagine you have a sold plan of how you want your life to work, look and feel?
Well, points 1-16 above have given you a solid vision and plan.
- Each week, take a look at what you have written down to remind yourself
- Each day, sit down for 10-15 minutes, in silence and ponder everything you have envisioned.
- Think what that life looks like
- Think about how great it makes you feel
- Think about the opportunities that exist around the corner
- Think how unstoppable you are going to be
- Think about the epic changes you are going to experience
- Think about future you and how proud and thankful they are going to be
This is one of many possible Blue Prints which you can apply to your life in 2024.
I hope you make the most of your life and opportunity on this planet
Allow the world to share-in and experience your magic