Ask yourself these 3 questions as honestly and as quickly as you can

1. What do you dream of?
2. Have you decided that you MUST HAVE it?  If you have any doubt of 0.01%, you wonder if you should have it go back to question 1, really think about your blocker, or pick another dream.
3. Have you planned how to spend your limited energy in service of this dream TODAY?

NOTICE, OBSERVE AND FEEL

Repeat these questions daily, faster, and faster. Take 10 mins to really let yourself dream. It is a great way to develop your mission, your spiritual energy. The same way you make a crease in a page by doing it repeatedly, you will make a permanent crease in your life with a sense of purpose. It is where passion comes from, and it will make all your dreams come through. If you want to get more details on the importance of vision and create a passionate vision, check out this link. If you want some great tips to get you into a peak state, check these from Harvey Mackay, author of the book. “Swim with the Sharks.”

WANTS AND DESIRES

The brain is energy efficient and will always seek the path of least resistance. This is how we form anchors and shortcuts, so by experience. We do not even need to think of the actions we need to take. When faced with a new task, the brain is asked, “Start this task now, or is there something to still get resolved.” The brain will put the task back on the to-do list if there is an inkling of ambiguity. There must be absolute clarity to do the task mindlessly. This is what we shall call a NO BRAINER. Ambiguity causes cognitive dissonance, and the brain strains over doing a task; it does not absolutely agree it is ready to start. This conflict resolution is an energy vampire.

Decide on this, if I gave you 100 dollars for every dollar you gave me, would you do that deal? You are certain that you should do this. That is called a NO BRAINER. We are all smart people. Similarly, you want your question #2(Have you decided that you MUST HAVE it?) to become a NO BRAINER. Now that was a “logical” example, but “wants and desires” are emotional. We want the same clarity of certainty for our emotions. We want NO BRAINER wants and desires.

When we procrastinate, we repeatedly ask our-self questions, “Do we proceed or not,” but the answer should be a NO BRAINER. I am sure you can recall the exhausted feeling despite having done nothing productive. The only action taken is mulling over the tasks to be done. The sobering truth is that willpower and discipline draw on the same limited energy resource available to us on any given day. The ritual of “You have already decided” is energy efficient.

You have made up your mind. You can now use that conserved energy to move you further along in your journey than if you had used it to overcome cognitive inertia. Face your fear and DO it anyway. You will never regret it.

DOING

I was out rock climbing, and I saw this guy climb a 5.12. If you are not a climber, let us say that it is a difficult rock face to climb and requires crazy skills and strength. When he was done, I asked him, “What was your secret?”. He told me you only have 3 minutes of energy to spend there. If you do not finish the climb in 3 minutes, you will run out of energy (and you will not complete it). This is true about life and the way we spend our energy during the day. If you spend more energy on things you care little about, you will run out of energy to finish your climb to your dreams.

CHANGING

My mother told me that people do not change. I think she is right, but people also change, so that too is right. “I think” means that I am both the subject and the object in the sentence. I am both the consistent now and the future of change at the same time. We need resolve and energy to push past this contradiction to be the same person and become the dream. I believe this is what the 1800’s German philosopher, Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, talked about when he coined the term “Dialectic.”

If you were to change every behavior about you, then are you still the same person?

SHOWING UP

Case Study of Exercise:

1. What do you dream of?  I want to exercise 3-4 times per week to have a longer life and better quantity life. (29% of people who set this level of goal achieve it)
2. Have you decided that you MUST HAVE it?  My response is YES as it impacts diabetes and cholesterol. Long term, we must control diabetes and cholesterol factors. 39% of people who clarify their resistance get to achieve it.
3. Have you planned how to spend your limited energy in the service of this dream today? I am going to the gym on Tue, Wed, and Thur at 8:35 pm (91% of people who manage energy reserves and use rituals achieve it. These are good on these days and times, and it requires no energy to know when and how to act for me). If you pick your clothes, it further reduces the mental load to get started on your gym routine.
4. As a bonus, you will want to add a consequence for not keeping the ritual. E.g., pay $15 to a charity if you do not keep the routine’s agreement on the date and time. This adds a boost to your ability to get things done.
5. Double bonus, if you add a treat like a nice meal or delicious protein shake as a reward for the task getting completed, you can use this vision to drive you into getting started.

My 3 biggest reasons for failing to finish personal goals are:

1. It was not truly compelling: What do you dream of?
2. Unacknowledged resistance to change. Have you decided that you MUST HAVE it? If you have any doubt of 0.01% or wonder if you should have it go back to question 1, really think about our blocker, or pick another dream.
3. It was too ambitious, too big, and needed to be restructured. Have you planned how to spend your limited energy in the service of this dream today?

Go forth, set your SMART goals, and destroy procrastination.

Stephen Choo Quan

Thanks for reading ❤