Preparing and Planning

Last night I gave a talk to a group of high school baseball players on the benefits of mentally preparing for both practice and games. Mental preparation for sports is a great parallel to life. Just as in sports it's important to prepare mentally for your day.

Mental preparation includes imagery, positive self talk, relaxation or arousal techniques. In athletics, these ingredients prepare the athlete for performance in allowing them to rehearse how they want their performance to go, stay relaxed and prepare a strategy. Having the mind rehearse the performance builds inner confidence, positive thoughts and thus a better performance.

In life use this principal to prepare for your day. Take the time each morning to lay out your day. See yourself handling a busy day with calmness, stay positive and work your plan. Visualize yourself handling the unexpected things with calmness and clarity. While you can't predict what exactly will happen in a day, you do have choices about how you react.

Your thoughts are in your control. Your thoughts direct your focus, confidence and performance. Think positively, direct your focus, plan your day, then confidently perform your best.

Have A Plan, Work Your Plan

Have a Plan, Work your Plan

When we have daily success in our lives, we receive the benefits from feeling good about ourselves as people. When we create a positive environment for ourselves and others, we learn and perform better.

When we recognize harmful thoughts as they happen, and change them to helpful ones, we learn and perform better.

Here’s a way to incorporate daily success into our lives and our to-do lists!

If your goal is to fit exercise into your weekly schedule, here’s four steps to accomplish that goal.

1. Make the time: Look at your daily routine. Where can you find 30-60 minutes to exercise each day. Finding the time might require you to change your routine…which is good, because your current routine is not allowing for the exercise time. Write your exercise time on your calendar. Make an appointment with yourself.
a. Wake up earlier,
b. Change your morning routine so that you go to the gym instead of reading emails or reading the paper.
c. Take a walk before your shower.
d. Use your lunch hour
e. Pack your gym bag and leave it in the car

2. Have a workout plan before you go to the gym.
a. Know what you will do before you get there.

3. Have a contingency plan.
If the kids are sick, it’s raining, or you’re called to a last minute meeting, have plan B in mind to implement if going to the gym is not going to work today.
a. Jump rope
b. Push ups
c. Go for a walk/run

4. Be happy with progress-not the results.
a. Remember, Action is progress.
b. Track your progress. Write down what you did, how you felt, your HR, miles, weight in a workout journal after each workout.
c. Every so often, flip through the pages and see how far you have come.

Exercise is now part of your daily routine! Make no excuses!

So, what about you? How will you implement these tips into your life to increase your daily success? Post your reply.