How to Win The Day With Your Morning Routine

by vanessa | Sep 11, 2019 | Entrepreneurs, personal development, Success

HOW TO WIN THE DAY WITH YOUR MORNING ROUTINE.

How you start the day matters because it determines whether you will have a successful day or you won’t.

It has taken me years to understand how important it is to have a morning routine that helps win the day. My mornings used to be the worst, I’d wake up at 10 am, be too groggy to do anything constructive and I’d watch television, as a high school, this was normal for me. Then I went to college and it was rough, my bad routine made it hard to do anything. I was always late for class and when I’d go to class, I used to sleep.

It is embarrassing to admit that I was that kind of student. It took me years to realize that we take mornings for granted and because of that most of us don’t excel at our mornings. This is normal, but the most pivotal hours in your day are the early mornings. By the time mid-day comes or the afternoon, it is hard to be alert or to concentrate on certain things.

When I was twenty-one I realized that if I wanted to win the day, I had to understand how to create a morning routine that will help me win the day. The last couple of years I have discovered the secrets behind a successful morning routine so that you can win the day. Most of us underestimate the importance of routine so we don’t win the day. As a result of this, we don’t make as many strides as we would like and we don’t progress past a certain point.

Here’s what you need to realize we all have choices and it starts early in the morning. Every bad decision we make doesn’t push us forward instead it pushes us back. The more we keep going back, the harder it is to become successful in our efforts. The more cumbersome it is to excel in any area and that is the problem.

When you make the decision to not listen to your alarm, you are training yourself to not follow-through. And that is why many people struggle with self-discipline. How you end the day starts with how you begin it. I have listed all the ways you can win the day, this is a snippet of what a successful morning routine looks like.

This is so powerful that when you start implementing it your life will change.

Hour of power

I learned about this from the great Tony Robbins who advocates how important it is to spend time thinking about your day. An hour is a lot so you don’t have to do it for that long. This strategy will help you win the day because it consists of you thinking about what you want to do. When you are clear with your goals, it is easier to achieve.

How you go about doing this depends on how much time you have to give and what you want to achieve in the day. When I was doing this, I did it to the tee. But with time I shortened it to 30 minutes. The hour of power consists of visualization, writing down your goals, reflection, exercise, meditation, and gratitude. Why should you try out the hour of power because it is Tony Robbins. He is the leading expert on how to have a successful morning routine to win the day.

What I like about the hour of power is that it will help you build your life. When you are starting from scratch it is difficult to know which direction you should take and that is where the hour of power comes in. It will help you change the way you think and give you a start to your day that is guaranteed to make you happier.

If you want more information on how to do it and what it entails, you can find it here.

Protein breakfast

Carbs will make you feel tired and it is the worst thing to have in the morning. Not saying you can’t have carbs, but make sure your breakfast is for champions. Have you ever wondered why athletes drink egg yolks. When I was I kid, I used to think they were crazy, but now I have come to realize that is not the case.

Despite, it being disgusting egg yolks actually fuel athletes. I am not saying go and eat egg yolks, that is crazy and unless you are training for a marathon and are used to eating raw things, I don’t recommend it. Though, you can still have a protein breakfast. There are dozens of recipes out there with eggs in it that will give you energy so you can win the day. The key here is to find out which one works for you.

Another secret to getting energy is by making yourself a banana chocolate smoothie. When I started drinking this early in the morning, everything changed for me. I used to be so tired in the morning and I’d drag my feet, but when I added a banana chocolate smoothie to my morning routine everything changed. I no longer was dragging my feet through the day, but I was now doing more. Learning more and I wasn’t as tired as I used to be.

When I don’t drink my smoothie, I do feel extremely tired and I struggle to do any work. If you follow any successful person, you will realize that many start their day with a breakfast that helps give them energy. If you want to start the day right, I’d recommend changing your breakfast. Figuring out what will give you the best chance to win the day.

Your go-to mantras

What do you do when things get difficult? What do you do when you are stuck on a problem and there seems like there’s nothing you can do about it. Everything you do, you have to be careful because it can affect you in more ways than you can imagine.

It is so easy to lose sight of things, for you to get lost among the rumble and have no clue on what next to do. No one is born being great at solving problems and it does take time to figure everything out. For you to understand what you should do next. I get that, but that is why it is great to have a go to mantra so that when life gives you lemons you can make something out of it.

Throughout your day there will be times when life gets a hold of you and won’t let you go. Your emotions will run rampant and your thoughts will go wide. Negative thoughts will plant in your mind and it will be difficult to get rid of them. So write down your list of mantras and look at them when you are down or when you lose sight of your dreams.

Here are a few examples of what it could look like

I can do this
If I have problem X, I need to take time to think about how I can fix it
I made this mistake, how can I make sure that I don’t make it again
What should I do when I am not getting the results that I want
Reflect on my successes through the month
What did I do right?
This is not the end of the world

These are a few examples, right down your go-to mantras or sayings that you will tell yourself. Why is this important? Because if you want to win the day you can’t think negatively. You can’t dwell on your emotions, you need to focus on your strengths. That is what makes the successful who they are, they try to not let doubt affect how they run the day.

Practice Stoicism

Marcus Aurelius is known for being a stoic philosopher and he used this philosophy to live his life. You might be wondering what is stoic philosophy. It is an

ancient Greek Philosophy that was developed by Zeno Citium basically it teaches people self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive

thinking.

Why is this philosophy important to win your day? This is where Stoicism comes into play and why Marcus Aurelius is known for his display of this philosophy.

Many of us spend the day angry over things we can’t control. We are so used to using our emotions to control our days that by the end of the day, we are so tired

because we were consumed with things that had nothing to do with us.

It takes time to implement this, but you will have a more productive morning if you start practicing this philosophy. How do emotions ruin our day, because

throughout the day they will be things that test us from the driver who almost caused an accident to the annoying traffic jam, you co-workers who are talking

about you or your boss that refuses to give you a raise.

If you can’t change anything about it, stop worrying about it and refuse to let it control your day. Most successful people use stoicism to control their morning.

Why should this be part of your routine because, in the beginning, this won’t come naturally?

Whenever something happens that you can’t control, you need to take a few seconds to ask yourself if it is worth worrying about it. If it isn’t, take a deep breath

and concentrate on your goals and think about how you want to achieve them.

Gratitude list

Most of us think about think about anything else because you ask yourself what did I do wrong. This is a normal response to life not happening the way you want. We all go through it, but when you focus on what you don’t have, you will never be grateful for what you have. It is important to be grateful. There’s an awesome exercise you can do to make life easier for you and also to help you win the day. I learned this from Peter Voogd who often talks about how important it is to have a routine that will help you win the day.

Though this exercise is not solely a gratitude list, it does help you reflect on what you should make life happen for you. Life doesn’t happen to you even though we have been made to believe that, it happens because of you. Your decisions impact how your day will start and end. Every little thing you do matters, so this might seem stupid, but in the long run, it is beneficial. If you want to know more about what habits you should have to make your life better, here’s a post about it.

Three things you are grateful
Three things you are committed to making happen?
What are you willing to give up?

Wake up early

I didn’t start with this because I wanted to show you how important it is to start the day and have a morning routine that will help you win the day. However, you won’t be able to win the day if you don’t wake early. How early you want to wake up depends on you and what your goals are? It depends on where you want to go and what you want to do.

Some people wake up at 5 am and that works for them, some wake up at 4 and there are few who wake up at 3 am. Waking up early is not only mentally beneficial for you, but it is also physically beneficial. The reason why most of us are always tired is that we sleep late and wake up late. When you sleep late, you sleep longer than you normally would have if you went to bed earlier.

It does matter what time you wake up and what you sleep. And I can’t stress enough how important it is, but I will list a few benefits of how important it is to wake up early. Hopefully, I can convince you how beneficial it is.

Get things done in a shorter period of time
Can concentrate and prepare for the day
Won’t have to rush to get to work therefore making you stressed
This will take the pressure off
Can think about how the goals you want to achieve throughout the day
You will feel lighter and happier
Reduces grogginess
Reduces brain fog

Review your morning

When it comes to your morning routine, it will constantly change and that is a good thing because what works for someone else might not work for you. But you won’t know what is working and what isn’t if you don’t review your mornings or your days.

This is by far one of the most important things to do so that you can win the day. Reflect on what you achieved, what mistakes you made or what you didn’t do. Keep reviewing your life so that you can understand how to improve it.

Reviewing doesn’t have to be bland as you might think it is. Imagine your life as a movie on a big screen and you are watching yourself on screen. Think about every action you did in the morning as if you are watching a character. If you were a movie critic what would you say about that character?

This is more than just about your morning routine, but also about your actions. What decisions are helping you and which ones are messing you up? Maybe, you spend too much time gossiping with your co-worker, does this help you or does it do more harm. Maybe, you yelled at a friend because they said something you didn’t like.

It is normal to become emotional, but you need to ask yourself if it is worth arguing with your friends, manager or co-worker. Does that help you achieve your goals? Write down your trigger words. These can be anything that makes you emotional and next to it, you can write down how to let yourself not get emotional.

When we are emotional, we make rash decisions that can affect us long after the day has gone. To win the day, you have to understand how to control your emotions.

When you start implementing this, your life will change and you won’t believe how so much will change. It will be much easier for you to win the day. Here’s a post on why self-reflecting on your day is important.

What is your main takeaway from this and does your morning routine look like? Comment below

Keep Pushing

Vanessa

On Dying, Losing Hope and Fighting For Your Dreams

by vanessa | Sep 4, 2019 | Blog, motivation, personal development

On dying, losing hope and fighting for your dreams.

Time is a limited resource and we need to learn how to use it better so that we can start fighting for our dreams.

“Life is short,” is a well-known statement that we can all relate to it. I have learned that understanding that life is short will help you to fight for your dreams. Most of us pretend as if we have all the time in the world and that death is nothing more than just a word. We avoid it like the plague because death reminds us of a loss so deep it cuts through us. Maybe, your loved one died or we watch it on a daily basis. Almost every day there’s a story of people dying regardless of where you live.

No one wants to talk about because death has a way of making us feel small or we feel as if we are insignificant. As though are mere existence is to serve a function of the ecosystem. We are like the ants who help the ecosystem function or we are the cause of the ecosystem crumbling.

But often death has more of an effect on us then we like to admit and for me, I understand that a lot. I am only in my twenties and I have had three incidences with death. I don’t like talking about it because well it is one of those topics, you talk about. It isn’t like talking about the weather, by the time I was seventeen, I was sure I would die at 32.

Another somber story of a young life gone too soon. When I had reached my late teens, my health had crumbled far too many times, I was addicted on prescription medication and I was suicidal so thinking I would die at that seemed natural as if that was my destiny.

Even though I nearly died, I never took life seriously and I never fought for my dreams. It didn’t matter how many times I visited the hospital, how many times I saw the flashing lights or when my heart was giving in. All that didn’t seem to move me. Maybe, I didn’t care for the longest time and I let my health give in.

I let myself get addicted to medication. I know it is getting really dark and the reason why I writing this is for you to understand how short life is. Beyond a doubt, it can be gone in seconds when death truly wants to knock you out. And that is what happened in 2018, I almost died. It is ironic that it wasn’t my physical health that was at play here, but my mental health. Then when I thought I had made it to the other side, a few months later, my health took a turn for the worst.

For the better of ten years, I dabbled with illness from thing to the next, but I had thought my health was better. Then for a whole month, I was sick. Most people think that all this is simply getting a common cold. Yeah, that wasn’t the case. I was bedridden, couldn’t walk and that was the most embarrassing thing. Not being able to do simple things like walk to the couch, bend down or even lift up something.

I had to question everything about life, ask myself if I was truly living and start making better choices. That one month made me deal with things that I tried my best to forget.

In less than a year, I had to deal with two near-death experiences and it taught me invaluable lessons that I want to share with you.

Stop being a people pleaser

If you want to fight for your dreams then you need to stop trying to please everyone. For the longest time, that is all I cared about, pleasing people. When I was fifteen, one of my closest friends at the time told me that. She told me I wanted to please people and like most fifteen-year-old kids I was stubborn. I refused to listen to her.

It is only later, I realize how right she was, I wanted more than anything to please people. Due to that I never fought for my dreams, I didn’t want people to think less of me. So, I followed the normal path, chose to hide in the background. Be a shadow and people’s tail. What I have learned is that does you no favors, I get it we don’t want people to think you are an attention seeker, but as a result we try our best to please others.

And that is all I did, I nodded my head when people said something, I never spoke and now I realize what a mistake that was. In life, you have two choices when it comes to your dreams, you either build someone else’s dream or yours. When I heard that, it changed everything and I saw that often we overlook that one detail.

We stop fighting for our dreams because we think it is a smart decision to make. The wise choice that won’t make us look like a fool and that is exactly what we do.

Don’t get accustomed to your mess

I was accustomed to my mess. For the longest time, I was okay with life being that messed up. Most of us don’t realize how easy it is to get used to a certain routine or bad habit. Whether that is thinking negatively or being used to the mess, accepting that things will never change or even certain statements that are false. Here are few examples of these statements, “I will never be financially free,” “it is okay to be broke,” “I am incapable of achieving X, Y or Z,” “my friends struggled so will I,” “I have been ill for years, I won’t get better.”

It is easy to get used to this way of thinking and when you have this kind of mindset, you won’t fight for your dreams. No way will start exercising if you believe that you will never lose weight. You won’t ask for a raise, especially if you think you don’t deserve it. I could go on, but I am sure you get the point.

When we get used to our mess then well life happens and we do nothing about it. We don’t try to improve because we think that we can’t. We never strive for anything better because we were told we don’t. Don’t get accustomed to your mess because if you do it will hard finding a way out of it.

We forget how to stand up for what we believe in

Kids are relentless, they fight for what they believe in, even when people tell them they are bonkers. They don’t care, they befriended kids despite what anyone says, they sign up for things even when everyone around them tells them not too.

To a kid, what matters is making the most of their time and standing up for what they believe in. By the time we turn thirteen, we lose that strength to fight and start thinking more about what other people think of us. We stop going for our dreams and start trying to blend in. We start acting like everyone else or trying to because we think that is how we can survive the next years of being a teenager.

Then twenty comes and now, we are full-fledged recruits in the blending in-crowd. We do what everyone does and that is the problem. When you forget how to fight for what you care about, you don’t want to fight for your dreams. Why would you fight for something if truly believe you don’t want it?

The crazy thing is that there are so many millennials who hate their jobs and dream of financial freedom. That isn’t an exaggeration. The reason why most people don’t go for their dreams is because they have forgotten how to stand up for what they believe in.

When I was thirteen, I wanted to be a fiction author, I had written a book of short stories and I was going to publish it. I never did because people said I sucked as a writer. Maybe, I did. I had people tell me the stories were good, but the problem was I believed what other people told me. And it went downhill from there.

Eventually, I stopped fighting for my dream and started doing what everyone else told me to do.

You don’t have to do a 9-5

Just because everyone is doing a 9-5 doesn’t mean you have to. The same thing goes for doing online business, just because person A is doing it doesn’t mean you have to.

It all comes down to what you want out of life, what fuels you and pushes you. Who do you want to be? You might be thinking if you don’t want to do a 9-5 or be an entrepreneur what is there left. The definition of an entrepreneur has changed in recent years, it has gone from startups to blogs to membership sites or hosting summits to book conventions or teaching people how to dance with a course.

It isn’t the same as it used to be. Despite the online space, we don’t understand we can achieve the impossible. We lose hope that we will never find a way out of our situation and we think that the only safe bet is having a 9 – 5.

That isn’t even the case. You can be an indie author and make hundreds of thousands of dollars in a year. You can be a guitarist and teach people how to learn the guitar. You can be a gardener and teach people how to take care of their garden.

I want you to believe in the impossible so that you can create the possible. I want you to fight for your dreams so that you can live a life of purpose.

Better habits

I am a sucker for poems and good fiction books. One of my absolute favorite poets is William Ernest Henley, he wrote a poem way back in 1888. It was called

“Invictus.” One of my favorite lines from the poem says, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”

Basically what happens is a direct result of your actions, I do believe that there are things beyond our control, but what ultimately happens is due to our decisions.

Here’s an example, you choose not to wake up early so you are groggy and have to rush to work. That decision might seem harmless, but then you get into a traffic jam and it takes you longer to get to work.

By the time you get to work, you are angry and moody, your mood affects the people around you and how you see the world. You see it as tainted, your boss is mean to you and as a result you are on edge. You belittle your friends and say the wrong things, they, in turn, draw away from you. You start to dwell on this and your negative limiting beliefs makes it harder for you to deal with life.

I am not saying this is how you will react, but a lot of people go through the rough patches of life because one action they have made. If you want to fight for your dreams, get better habits. Habits can make or break you and at times it can appear harmless until it isn’t.

Learn to be okay with not being okay

Being a blogger has taught me that it is okay to be vulnerable and if you met me years ago. I was a brick wall. Impenetrable to the highest degree and I didn’t let anyone. Which usually meant most people had no idea who I was and I didn’t mind it. In fact, I preferred it. I didn’t want people to know my darkest secrets.

It wasn’t like I was auditioning for a talk show or trying to be a reality TV star. So, for me, it didn’t make sense for people to know me and I was okay with that. What I have come to understand is we are all trying to be okay, to pretend as if we don’t have problems because being vulnerable sucks. No one wants to feel as though they don’t have control of everything.

You need to be okay with not being okay because only then can you solve your problems. Only then can you actually be okay? Quick question what happens to a driver that doesn’t want to admit they are a bad driver. Firstly, the driver never improves and therefore, is a danger to himself and the people on the road.

Life is exactly like that and you need to be okay about not being okay. You have to accept that they’re certain things you won’t be good at. You have to accept that everything takes time.

As odd as it is, you have to be okay with not being okay so you can fight for your dreams. Pretending as if life is okay will make it harder to see what you need to do to fix the mess in your life. This is a hard lesson to learn, but it is crucial for you to learn it early on.

What are you fighting for?

Most of us do things and we don’t even know why we are doing it. This is why there are a lot of unsatisfied people, after some time you forget why you are doing this, if you don’t have a strong reason for what you are doing. It is important to understand why you are doing this so that no matter what comes your way, you can move past it.

If you don’t know what you are fighting for, by the time you are forty you will start questioning everything about life. Ask yourself why you are doing this, what you hope to gain from it and once you do that, it will easier to get up in the morning and do what you do.

It will be easier to go for your dreams and fight for them. You won’t care what people think about you because that won’t matter as much as your dream. The reason why you are doing what you are doing.

Every successful person will say the same thing, know what you are fighting for because only then can push past all the obstacles that come your way. Only then can you work on your dreams even when you are broke and unemployed. There are people who have done it before. If a homeless person can become a billionaire then there’s nothing stopping you from achieving your dreams. To fight for your dreams, you need to understand why you are doing this or it becomes pointless. Here is an awesome inspirational blog post that will help you go in the right direction.

Keep hustling

Most entrepreneurs will never tell you this, but before you have the money to invest in your dreams, you have to be okay with being broke or hustling.That means doing more than you normally would. So, instead of working for a few hours, you have to work more. Do more so that you can achieve what you want.

This is what it means to fight for your dreams. The easiest way to start is by creating a side-hustle that will help you get to you where you want to be. It doesn’t matter what side-hustle is. Some side-hustles won’t work depending on the country you are in, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do a side-hustle.

The reason why you need to hustle is so you can achieve your dreams a lot faster. Most people give up before they have the chance to actually create an impact because most people don’t like the thought of working for their dreams. They want it yesterday and if only that was the case, but sometimes you got to do things you don’t want to do so that in the future you can have a better life for yourself. Here is a post about quick side-hustles you can start at home so you can make a bit of money. Most times when you have to fight for your dreams, it requires you to work harder than your normally would.

What are you willing to give up?

This is another thing, most people don’t talk about, but you have to give up something and that is a great way to fight for your dreams. When I was starting out, I had to give up time and eventually money. You don’t go anywhere in life without giving up something. Most people don’t want to do this, but when you are willing to give up something now so that you don’t have to do it in the future, doesn’t that make it worth it.

As life gets complicated and we get older, we are going to have to give up certain things. As a nineteen-year-old kid, I didn’t give up much, when I went to College that changed. I had to give up my bad sleeping habits. I am not complaining about it now, but in the beginning, there was resistance until there wasn’t.

In the beginning, giving up Netflix will feel like a burden until it isn’t and you actually don’t mind not watching any of your favorite television shows. As time goes, and you get more freedom, giving up all those things will be a blessing in disguise. Most of us aren’t willing to give up something in order for us to fight for our dreams and that is the problem. If you don’t push yourself, you will never know what you can achieve.

What is your main takeaway from this post and what invaluable lessons that you learned? Comment below.

Keep Pushing

Vanessa

Productivity Hacks to Manage Your Time Better

by vanessa | Aug 7, 2019 | Entrepreneurs, personal development

7 Productivity hacks to manage your time like a boss

These productivity hacks will help you manage your time a whole lot better.

Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. I am recommending these tools because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something.

Many of us struggle when it comes to productivity. If we took at a look online, it is easy to discover that it is one of the most searched terms and there’s a reason for this. Truth is, most of suck us at productivity and to actually be successful it is one of those skills that is needed. Without it, life becomes a whole lot harder.

You need to be productive at work. You require it at home, the list goes on and on.

If you want to make progress, you need to know how to be productive, but most of us struggle knowing what productivity hacks we need in order to truly be a success. So, the millionaire dollar question is what are the productivity hacks that can help us manage our time better. In this post, I list down the best

productivity hacks that will help you to manage your time. Success never comes easy and most times we require a little help to push us in the right direction, that is what you will learn about in this post. How to manage your productivity like a boss.

Stop multi-tasking

Growing up my mother always said, ” a woman should be able to multitasking,”

And I’d say. “Well, most women aren’t like Dexter’s mother or you, so I don’t think multitasking is for me.” I’d cross my arms as a form of protest.

She’d roll her eyes. “As a woman, you must be able to multi-task.”

For all the women who can actually multi-task, I’d love to know how you do it because I can’t do it. Studies show most people struggle to multi-task, usually, when we try to we lose focus. Though I have come to realize there are certain things that are easier to multi-task, when you are cooking, it is a lot easier to do this because you are using the same type of brainpower. You can’t multitask between reading a book and writing a blog post for example. It doesn’t make any sense.

What ends up happening is you put far too much pressure on yourself and that in itself is never a good thing.

You need to understand that multitasking is the worst things you can do for yourself, most successful people don’t do this. You can’t do two things at once and still manage your time better. This is one productivity hack that will definitely help you manage your time better.

Keep track of your time

Many of us are terrible at keeping track of our time, that is the problem. We have no idea what to do next or how much time we are wasting doing trivial things.

For the longest time, I used to be like this. I’d wake up early and before I knew it, I’d have wasted so much time doing stupid things. I hated it because I’d never know what I did with my time. Now, I make sure that I keep track of my time.

In the beginning, this will be difficult so if you want to excel at it then you need to do the Pomodoro Technique. If you have no clue what this is, I explain. Basically, you do tasks after every twenty minutes. Okay, unless you are fast when it comes to doing tasks this will be impossible. You can use the Pomodoro simply as a way to keep track of all the things you do.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to track your time. That way you at least realize what you are doing with your time. For example, have an important call and you have only twenty minutes to spare then you this technique to help you manage your time a lot better. It works great especially if you struggle with managing your time. This productivity hack is simple to implement if you want to manage your time a lot better, but you do have to be patient with yourself.

Write down your goals

One of the best decisions I ever made was to start writing down my goals, so I would write down all the things I would want to achieve in a day, week, month and year, That whole thing made things so much better for me in terms of actually achieving my goals. All the gurus say that you must write down your goals and there’s a valid reason why you should do it.

Writing down your goals makes it easier to achieve them, a reminder pops in your head every time you look at your goals. A trick here is to write in the future

tense rather than the present. So, instead of saying I want to make $10,000 a month, you say I made $10,000 per month. This whole process makes you more

likely to achieve it. That’s because you start believing that you can do it.

Write down the tasks you want to complete that day, there are a lot of things you can to speed up the process, but it helps for you to understand you must limit the number of things you have on your to-do list. Focus on at least five because when you try to do more than that, you won’t be able to achieve it. In the beginning, it is better to focus on less so that you can achieve more.

If you need a little help with accomplishing your goals, there’s an awesome course all about how you can slay your goals. Click on the banner below and it will take you straight to the sales page. Belong to a community that will help you crush your goals and excel in every area of your life.

Create a morning ritual that works

How your day starts affects the rest of your day. If you have a unproductive morning, that is how the whole day will be. Most people don’t realize this and that is why they end becoming so frustrated. You want to be productive then the simpler solution is to look at what your morning ritual is. Your morning ritual is extremely important.

For example, if you wake up at 6 am and then you are in a rush to get ready for work, chances are that is how your whole day will be like. I have discovered that the sweet spot in the morning is 4 am. You are alert, can do better and you are far more productive than if you are rushing to get ready. When you wake up early, you have time to plan your day, think about what you want to do.

The reason why most people will never achieve their goals is because they wake up too late. Your brain doesn’t have time to process everything, also when you over sleep, your body is flooded with the wrong hormones. Excess progesterone which is responsible for making you sleepy usually occurs when you over sleep. It is a hormonal imbalance.

As simple as it is, sleeping is one of the best productivity hacks you can implement so you can manage your time a whole lot better.

Track your milestones and keep note of your failures

One of the best things I ever did for myself was taking note of my failures as well as the milestones I reached. This can be beneficial to you actually progressing in life. When I was younger, I had a teacher who always used to tell us that you need to write down all your successes and failures. No one understood what she was talking about. Besides the fact we were eleven-year-old kids who had yet to learn about how the world worked, to us it didn’t exactly make any sense.

Kids hands shot up, ” why do we need to write down our failures? Wouldn’t that make us sad.”

She nodded, understanding the truth hidden behind that question. “You will never go far in life if you allow rejection and failure to cripple you.”

At eleven, I didn’t understand it, but now years later I do. Most of us don’t want to take note of our failures because we don’t want to accept that we have

failed. No one wants to go around and shout at the top of their voices, how they have failed. Unless you like feeling like crap. Most of us want to avoid that feeling and we have become experts at it.

Though, if you want to progress you have to accept both the good and bad. You have to appreciate the good and bad days, because only then can you

understand who you are and where you want to go with your life.

Deadlines are a smart way to work

Have you ever tried to get something done and weren’t motivated to do so. Many of us have gone through that. In school, it was so much easier to get things

done because we had a deadline to achieve. When we didn’t make it, we would be reprimanded or we would simply fail the grade. Our brain has been

programmed from an early age that we can do much more with deadlines.

That is the reason without them it is hard getting work done or even getting our tasks done. We have to know come up with our own deadlines, tell us ourselves what will happen if we don’t meet them. We can also give incentives if we make deadlines, This is a simple way to getting things done in time, rather than procrastinating and never doing it.

To achieve success we need to realize that we have to do things the smart way, rather than struggling along and never making it because we are trying to do

things the hard way. That doesn’t work. If you want to manage your time a lot better, this productivity hack will help you manage your time better. You just need to realize that we work best when we are under pressure and setting deadlines does the job.

Don’t neglect your sleep

A little confession to make, I wasn’t one of those college kids who could party all night, sleep for two hours and be alright. If I had less than four hours of sleep then I’d fall asleep in class. I had insomnia in school so I struggled sleeping and that made it hard to concentrate. It was then that I realized I had to have a minimum of six hours of sleep to make through the day. Here’s an article about how you can avoid being burnt out, you should read it. It will help you understand how important it is to take care of us.

Most of us now still act like college kids, yeah getting older sucks. I do get that, but if you are mentally tired, you can’t make a lot of progress. Sometimes we need to swallow the hard truth and accept that we cannot go without sleep. When you are sleep, your body is still working and that is why they suggest that you sleep for at least six hours. Most people walk around, dragging their feet and fatigue clogging their mind.

Take your time to rest so that you can be far more productive, this is a far better way to do things than to try and push yourself. That can have detrimental effects in the long run.

These are some of the best productivity hacks that you can implement today to help you manage your time a lot better.

What productivity hacks do you like the best and what productivity hacks to you do to help you manage your time better. Comment below

KEEP PUSHING

VANESSA

Why You Shouldn’t Let Your Past Define You

by vanessa | May 29, 2019 | motivation, personal development

Why You shouldn’t let your past define you

We have a choice, either to let the past define us or build us up.

As children we go through growth spurts, most of it builds us up and there are moments when it does the exact opposite. Being the last born, I was always behind my siblings who seemed to have life figured out. I was their kid sister, the one who made mistakes, failed numerous times. Repeated a couple of times. I was labeled the kid who wouldn’t do much with their life. Teachers paid me no mind, every test, I always had the come see me in bold red ink.

We have all gone through those moments when we allow the hurt of our past to make way into our present and future. Maybe, it is easier, after all, if everyone thinks you’re a clown, doesn’t it use far too much energy proving them wrong. Most of us go through these moments when we decide that we should allow the past to hold us back.

The problem here is that you won’t get to take advantage of the opportunities that come your way. We have a choice in what we decide to do with our life.

Sometimes, the choice isn’t as easy as deciding what kind of ice cream you want or what you should do after work. Most times the choice is hard, but if you allow your past to define you then it will always will.

Your story is worth being

It’s easy to think that your life was harder than your friends. The truth is we all experience hardship at different times in our lives. For some it happens earlier on, some it has more to do with physical than emotional trauma. Hardship is hardship. What you experience isn’t harder or easier than the next person? Most people don’t want their experiences to build them up because they dwell in that hurt.

In the emotional heartbreak of their past and they never move past it. Never see the silver lining and find peace. The truth is our experiences make us better and therefore we should allow our story to be told. I was friends with a girl who was deemed ugly when I was a child, she was soft-spoken and intelligent. No one saw that instead they saw her flaws, didn’t deem her worthy enough and ridiculed her. Boys taunted her, saw as some virus that needed to be cured.

They avoided her. There are people who have gone through that and ended up being called the most beautiful person in the world. They’re stories of people who have vitiligo who have achieved things that most people can’t. They’re stories of people who were born different and yet, they have proved that their stories are worth being told. But when you allow the hurt of the past to define you, then it will never ever leave you.

It will never get better

Until you realize that what people say about you doesn’t define you then it will control you. For the longest time, I believed I was stupid because everyone around me acted as though I was. Was it hard? Of course, but we all go through hardship. Mine was in the classroom, playground and at home. Trying to grasp concepts I couldn’t understand.

The quitting attitude comes when we allow the past to define us. We use excuses to protect us, but in the long run, we are doing more harm than good. It affects the way we look at ourselves, our self-esteem is lowered.

You go through moments when you remember that you failed in the past, that fear pushes you back. Because you see yourself as a victim of your past. But if you don’t let go of that pain, it will hinder you. You’ll become bitter, unforgiving and angry. That is not living. I am not a personal development coach. My experience stems from knowing that the past has a way of turning the purest of souls into drones.

You need to find a way to let go of the past so you can achieve what you are meant to do.

Fear will control you

Don’t let fear control you because if you do then you’ll always be afraid to step out of your box. We’re all different and on some level, we know this. However, that doesn’t equate to us going for what makes us happy. Doing professions that we love. That is the problem, we have no idea what to do with our lives. They’re those that do, but they never go for their dreams.

Sometimes, we want people to root for us in the background. Cheer us on and what I have come to understand is very few people will be in your corner. Not because they don’t care about you, but they’re battling with their own fears. Because of that they find that they can’t build you up. They can’t cheer for you when they are so uncertain of themselves.

We walk around with mirrors, where ever we go. We want people to see us for being brave, but most of us are afraid to go after what we want. Quit the job we hate, walk away from certainty, say no to our peers and friends. It’s hard to do that. So, we pretend and we go on like this, never realizing our potential because we’re terrified.

Living a life of regret isn’t worth it

Here’s the thing it is better to fail dozens of times then regret never actually going for something. Yes, failing sucks. It is agonizing having to go through that, we all fail. Even successful people fail, we don’t know about it because their successes outnumber their failures. But everyone goes through it. I can go through a list of people who have failed, but after a while it sounds corny.

The question I want you to ask yourself is at the end of your life or when you turn sixty-five, what to you want to be known for? Then I want you to think what you want your life to be like right now, not tomorrow or a few months in the past. Can you imagine your life? Do you want to travel, see more of the world, write a book, sing on stage, do public speaking. Be featured on magazines, work for a charity, start a restaurant. There’s nothing impossible, you can do anything as long as you set

your mind to it. If you work on it, then you’ll achieve it. We were created for a purpose, sometimes, we forget that.

So, believe in your heart that you’re here for a reason. Don’t let your past define you. Don’t let the words of strangers in your past hold you from achieving all you want to.

What is your one takeaeway from this post? Let me known in the comments section.

KEEP P USHING

VANESSA

4 Things You Need To Remember When Giving Up

by vanessa | May 22, 2019 | motivation, personal development, Success

4 THINGS you need to remember when giving up

Giving up always comes at a cost and it’s important to remember that.

I woke up early in the morning, my head throbbing and my mouth dry. The day prior I had endured a speech from my parents, telling me I was making a mistake with my life. I understood where they were coming from, here I was working on an online business instead of finding a job. Three years being jobless had made me question my life’s purpose and I knew that sitting in a cubicle wasn’t one of them. There where times when giving up seemed like the only option and I had wanted more than anything to give up, but something within me refused for me to throw the towel in.

The problem was I didn’t know anyone who had done the online thing. My aunt mentioned months ago that her friend had lost everything pursuing making

money online. I started questioning whether I was making a mistake again, I had gone nowhere. And yet, I knew I didn’t want to work for a boss my whole life. I had come to realize working for someone wasn’t for everyone, I had done it for almost a year before I started looking for another company. The company I had worked for before was going under so I had to look somewhere else.

For three months, I watched television, sat on the couch and reflected on my life until I snapped out of it. That is was brought me here to this moment of building an online business. The people who I told, never said anything and I couldn’t blame them. Most people don’t make money online and that’s a fact. The problem most people don’t realize is that more people give up before they even reach their milestones.

There’s A Reason You Started

The reason why giving up seems so much easier is because you forget the reason why you started on the journey. When I was a kid, my favorite song was I can by Nas. I’d nod my head and sing the song. I was motivated to be all I wanted to know. Most kids are told they can be whoever they want and reality hits.

Your dream career is frivolous and people shake their head at the idea. Most of us want to be more than who we become. That’s because we stop believing that we can truly become all we want to be. And that is how doubt comes and turns you around. From going after your dream, you start doubting you can even do it.

There’s always a reason why you started and until you remind yourself then you’ll always let doubt push you back. Adulting is hard, that is due to us believing that has to be. Sure, making tough decisions is hard, but why is it kids are relentless. Maybe because they really don’t care what people think. Little kids care more about learning and making mistakes than they do about what people think.

That is until the tide turns and we strive to make people accept us. What I have realized is people rarely spend time thinking about you unless they have nothing better to do? Normally we get this image of someone thinking about us or what we said. People are so busy with their own lives that they don’t have time to think about what you’re doing.

So, if that’s a reason why you are giving up, you shouldn’t. Then again, you could be going through the many stages of frustration. We all have been there. I used to have massive stage fright until I learned that one of the most important things is your message. This is the reason why you do what you do, what you want to be known for and who you are as a person. Everything else is noise that you need to block.

Remember there are people who have done it before

You’re not alone. There have been people who have done what you are doing at this moment. The number one reason why we give up is we believe that were pioneers. And as we all know pioneers mostly die broke or get shot.

Bit dramatic, but most pioneers make history when they are dead. In the last couple of years, that has changed, there are thousands of people making money online. There are people who have been where you are and that is why you need to look for people who inspire you so that you don’t give up.

You might not know anyone personally, but the proof is plastered on the internet. Stories break out of seventeen-year-old kids building empires to philanthropist self- millionaires. The road doesn’t have to be as hard as you imagine it. You don’t have to go alone and think that there’s no way to the top of the mountain. You have to believe that you can conquer it if someone who was living on the streets can become an entrepreneur then you can do anything. True story, John Paul Dejoria was once homeless and now is a billionaire.

There are hundreds of stories out there are of people defying the odds and most have of them had the belief they were here for a reason. They had faith that their life wasn’t just about odds, but they had a calling. If you want inspiration, just look at Lewis Howes, Chris Gardner, Dani Johnson, and the list goes on. They beat the odds, I truly believe that you as well.

Remember fear is a liar

The first time I decided to ignore the loud voice of fear in my head I was standing on stage in front of over two hundred people. Doing something I never thought I would do again. I hated pubic speaking as a kid and yet here I was a person with massive stage fright. My heart leaped out of my chest and my knees shook. The room was dark and the stage had been lit. If it wasn’t for that I would have fainted, but I did my best. Listened to the voice that said I had this and when finished I went back to my seat.

I was in my first year of university. My whole body shook as I waited for the people to be announced. I knew for certain there was no way I would win. I dipped my head, shame washing over me and then my name was called. To my surprise, people called out my name and everyone stood up. I had won a gold metal for public speaking. I was shocked, even to this day I don’t understand it.

The reason why I told you that story is because I was a shy girl who mumbled and was made fun of. I was the clown and the jab of most jokes. I wasn’t confident and I definitely wasn’t a public speaker. Often, we allow fear to decide who we become and yet, we have the choice in that decision. Only you decide who you become and fear is a tool used to push you back. To stop you from achieving anything, but you decide who you want to be. No one else.

It might seem as though giving up is your only option out there, but that is a clever lie meant to stall you from going after your dreams. You need to understand that fear only does one thing, it stops you from building up your dreams. If you were to look closer, you will realize that fear are false events appearing real.

A lot of the times fears presents itself when we are about to give up and because we allow the past to define us, we let fear. If you want to learn how not to let your past define who you ultimately become, you can read the blog post about it here.

Remember you can ask for help

Not everyone has your interests at heart, we learn that the hard way. That doesn’t mean you have to do all this alone. There are people who are in our lives who will encourage us to keep going forward. There are people who inspire us to keep moving and that can be someone from your past or present. There are also tons of free groups built exactly for that.

Sure, going alone has an interesting appeal especially when we thinking of ourselves as the lone wolf. What most people don’t understand about lone wolves they are vulnerable and weak. A pack makes you stronger and humans need support. It is our built-in function to crave it, and sometimes it is hard doing all this by yourself.

Not having anyone support you. So if you find that you’re struggling, why not search online for support groups or people doing exactly what you’re doing.

It will make the journey far less terrifying.

Giving up is not the solution your problems, if you are stuck and are about to cal, it quit, ask for help. When you do that, you will realize that giving up won’t help you fix your problems. In fact, it will do more damage than good.

Most times, we need to know that we aren’t alone and motivation to keep going. Power of Positivity wrote a blog post with 11 quotes that are sure to motivate you when you feel as though nothing is working out.

What is your one takeaway from this post? Comment below.

KEEP PUSHING

VANESSA

A Creative Way to Master the Art of Never Giving Up

by vanessa | Apr 17, 2019 | creativity, Entrepreneurs, personal development

A Creative way to master the art of never giving up

Master the art of never giving up and how you can use it to your advantage.

In this social media craze of Influencers, media entrepreneurs and people who seem to have it all, failing is far more crushing than it used to be. When I was in university, a student in the Law Faculty did a speech about Never Giving Up. It was more of a satire where he spoke on a primal level on how giving up is far easier than pushing past the boundaries. I nodded my head at every point he made, people stood on their feet and they clapped. But after the day was gone, we went on with our lives.

It was a great speech, the problem is we have become used to the norms. Every year Hollywood spits out at least three inspirational movies, but how many

people say that movie changed my life. Is it possible for a movie to resonate so well with someone it does change them? Well, it depends on who the person is. I have at least two movies that changed my life for the better and most people do. But movies, flowery statements, inspirational monologues, witty quotes, and motivational videos can only help us so far. It is up to us to be push forward past the societal norms, the crushing fears and the harm failing will do to our ego.

When I was in high school, when one failed, it wasn’t broadcast it to the whole world. There were a few sips of truth, pillows stained with tears and harsh truths that bounced off the walls. That was it. Now when you fail, people see it in full HD and that is the way it is.

Even if we take a step back, failing still hurts because the people closest to you will know the truth. And that stings. I had to repeat a grade and for years I walked around as if I was the biggest failure ever. I was so ashamed I left my previous school and when I met kids from school. They often asked me why I was repeating, I mumbled a few words and disappeared. Distancing myself from that person.

My biggest forcible was I didn’t know how to cope with failing. Even though I was pushing forward, a part of me had given up. What hurt the most was this was the third time I had repeated a grade? This became a hard truth I had to bear. Only time could heal me yet it was taking a long time to do so.

Do something you’re terrified of

To get used to failing you have to fail over and over again. To get used to never giving up, you need to have failed in the first place. There are no loopholes when it comes to experience and what I have learned is you have to get used to failing. Sure, it will hurt and most people will never do it, but believe me, it’s possible. I used to have massive stage fright and every time I went on stage I would start shaking and breaking out in sweats.

When I was in university and that was when I realized I couldn’t allow it to affect my life. So, I went on stage so many times. I could do it because I had failed at it before. I was shocked when I won awards for public singing and singing. If you went back to my time in high school I sucked at both. I was a terrible singer and even worse at public speaking. There’s no such thing as impossible. When you put the effort into something you’ll be shocked by the results.

At first, you’ll suck. And you’ll fail, it can be twice or twenty times, but the next round you’ll succeed. Often, we stop ourselves from accomplishing what we want because we’re terrified to fail.

We are all afraid of something, but when you do something that you are afraid, this will give you the boost of confidence you need. It is scary out there, but when you step forward and go forward then you are beating the odds. The odds are against us especially when you are doing something that is out of your comfort zone and that is why you need to face your fear.

If you are terrified of being on camera, just do it. Face your fear because you if you never do that then fear will get a hold of you and it will be difficult to face

them. When it comes to mastering the art of never giving up, one of the key insights is to face your fears and that will help you grow.

Start Journaling

Write down all your milestones and failures, have a timeline for every one of your failures. None of us like looking back in time and thinking about when we

failed. The only way you’ll grow is by doing this. It will suck in the beginning, but didn’t you feel the same way when you were riding your bike. And you fell and wanted to give up. It was then that your parent told you that you shouldn’t give up because then you’ll always will. So, you got back on and drove the bike. It was the same way when you were a baby, your mother or father calmed you down and you got back up.

The older we get, it’s a lot harder to do that, so you have to remind yourself. When you do that you’ll start noticing that there are times when you didn’t give up.

You then compare your milestones with your failures. The first time I did public speaking I was a fifteen-year-old kid who walked onto a stage, holding a paper. I kept looking at it. I was so bad. I suppose most are at that age, but before I went on stage they were kids who were so much better than me.

It was an embarrassing experience because I ended up dropping the paper and people couldn’t stop laughing. The thing is I don’t regret that experience because it pushed me to do better. And I did. We all have those experiences and they push us to do better. It might not be perfect, but that isn’t the point. The point is doing better than you did before.

If you want to use journaling to achieve more, Forbes did an awesome article on the topic. When it comes to never giving up, journaling will help fuel you to do greater things.

Your failures will be part of your success story

You’ll never know who’ll be. Everyone has had a story of failure before they became successful from street musicians to booed off the stage comedians. The greats have had to fail in order for them to succeed. Successful authors were once starving artists staying at home and eating ramen noodles. Motivational speakers used to suck at it and have stage fright.

Everyone has two stories, one of success and one of failure. No matter whether anyone knows who they are because we all have succeeded at in couple of things. Sure, it might not have been featured on Forbes or even Reader’s Digest, but that is our truth. The reality here is that when you play on a larger stage it is more frightening than being a success story in your household.

Take it from me we have a choice on who we become and what we do with our lives. I have known people who’d touch anything and it turned to gold until it didn’t and they gave up. I also knew people who no one noticed, they’d hide in the shadows, afraid of the world. Those people lift their heads high up where ever they go because they understand failure better than anyone. You decide what you want with your life and where you’ll go.

Maybe, the problem is you allow the past to define you and that is why you give up. Read this blog post so you can master the art of never giving by learning how to not let your past define you.

Stop allowing your past failures from stopping you from achieving all that you want to do in life. Don’t wait on the side lines, just keep going and this will help to never give up. Whatever happens in the next couple of weeks, months or years, it all depends on what decision you make. Whether you allow fear to dedicate what you do or where you go.

Scream! Let it all out

We’re so used to keeping every buried deep within. When we’re frustrated, we bite our lips and push every back. If you want to learn how to never give up, the simple solution is to let everything out. Cry, scream and shout. Wave your arms around like a crazy person, talk to mirror you. Listen to songs or watch movies and let the tears flow. Just stop burying everything.

Failure sucks and there’s no running away from that, but you can embrace it. Accept you failed and don’t try to avoid it. Even if the failure was so loud everyone on Facebook knows. That’s true at all, but it can feel like that. No matter how crushing your failure was it has defined you for the better. The one way to get over it is to go through with. Even document your failure and this will give you peace of calm,

Let go of the pain, the anger, the disappointment and the regret. Just let it go and allow yourself to face your fears and your insecurities. One of the best tricks to never giving up is to let it all out. Don’t keep the frustration in, just let it go and you will feel a whole lot better.

What reasons have you told yourself to stop going for your dreams?

Keep Pushing

Vanessa