Mental WOD 29: The 'NOT' To Do List...

I'm scurred!

When we talk about getting ahead in life or trying to achieve our goals or even what we must get done throughout our day, week and life we make TO DO LISTS.

For most of us the problem with hitting our goals is not wanting too or even trying too. It is what we are doing wrong! All of us are great at starting out on our GOALS, but most of us are not great at finishing them.

I hear my friends (acquaintances) say all the time:

-"I just started this new diet!" How their your weight now (1 year later)?
-"I am starting my new workout program on Monday". Are they still on that program 6 months later?
-How is that marathon training going?
-Gotta love New Year's Resolutions right?!

What is getting in the way? There are waay too many distractions out in our lives constantly throwing hurdles in front of us and taking our attention off our plans. TIME is crucial to us and one of the things in our lives that we can't get back. So in order to achieve what we want we have to value it and use it wisely.

For this week's Mental WOD, ask yourself the following questions:

What are willing NOT to achieve?
What DOESN'T make you happy?
What is NOT important to you?
What gets in the way?

This 'NOT' To Do List can be equally if not more valuable than your traditional To Do List.

P.T.S!!!

Mental WOD 24...What TIME Is It?!?!

Armen knows what TIME it is!

After the first 2 weeks that someone is a member at our CROSSFIT AFFILIATE they receive Nutrition Check In session. During this session I hear just about every excuse in the book on why they aren't where they want to be. Some people think they eat pretty healthy, some people know they don't, some think they have NO TIME to eat healthy, etc... So what we do before that session is ask that they write down everything they eat in a food log for a week. Just by making themselves aware of what they are putting in their mouth, it answers a lot of questions about why they are not in the kind of shape they would like to be in. What I have found is logging other parts of our lives works the same way.

For the longest time I have been a procrastinator with my time. I was the kid that waited all summer to do his book report and was pulling an all nighter with my mom yelling in my ear, "Why did you have to wait ALL SUMMER to start this?!?!".

Recently, I picked up a new book, Organizing for Success and the reason why I was attracted to reading it was because in the introduction the first thing that the author wrote was if you are going to get anything out of this book you must create and keep a time management log for one week. This resonated with me because now I was in a similar position that many of the clients I deal with were in with their nutrition, I am in with my time management. I have read the books, I have listened to the CD's I knew the answers but it never really sunk in, until I put myself out there and logged my time on paper.

After logging my time for a week. And PRE-PLANNING my day the night before. I have never felt in more control of my time and my days. It has been a very empowering habit. A big chunk of my day was filled with interruptions and distractions that would stop me from completed the goals and tasks I had set out to accomplish. Now I not only know what I want to accomplish in my day, I have a plan and schedule to make it happen. Distractions and interruptions will still be there, but with a plan and a schedule it is much easier to get right back on track and get everything done.

Your Mental WOD of this week is to keep a time management log of your day.

It is not as hard as it sounds. Simply PRE PLAN your next day in the evening or that morning of (most of us know what our day generally looks like anyway), have your log with you that day, and continually update it throughout the day and see how much more you get done not to mention how much more in control of your day you will feel.

P.T.S!!




http://cpmfitness.blogspot.com/2011/04/mental-wod-2-plan-your-day-night-before.html

Mental WOD 20: No Time...M-A-K-E Time

Down with the No Time Excuses...

I love this time of the year. The holiday season is filled with family, friends, holiday events and parties. There is so much excitement in the air. For others this can be an overwhelming time of the year. With the end of the year deadlines, Xmas parties, family in-town, you going out of town it can get to the point of too many things to do in too little time to do it.

So then the infamous phrase that pays in fitness I love to hear, "I just don't 'HAVE' enough time to workout". So then my response is, "Well you need to make time!". They then proceed to tell me about all the things they 'have' to do.

"But I have deadlines at work"
"My parents are in town next week"
"I have this, I have that..."

Most of us know the old saying that we all have 24 hours in a day:

Why is it that some people are millionaires and some people are in 50k of debt?
Why are 2/3 of Americans obese and some people in amazing shape?
Why is the divorce rate 50%? What is the difference between the marriages that stick vs. the marriage that don't?

What is the difference? The ones on the successful side of the fence learn and practice how to M-A-K-E time.

So when I say you need to MAKE time this is exactly what I mean:

M - odify your time. You either control your time or your time controls you. There is no gray area about it. For those people that work around the clock: Can you seriously say you are working every single second for 16+ hours a day 7 days a week? Never looking at facebook? Texting your friends? You couldn't plan 10 minutes to workout. You couldn't roll out of bad and start your day with some pushups and light stretching?? Fact is you have the power to modify what you do with your time. Look honestly at your day and what you spend your time on. Find ways to modify what you do to add more time on what is important and reduce the time you spend on less important activities.

A - dust your schedule so that HIGH priority things get done first. It is easy to gravitate towards doing what is easy but usually the easy things are not that important which is why they are easy and we want to do them first. Start or plan your day with what matters most. It is no secret that you are going to get interrupted during the day, because it happens everyday.

K - now what is important. This is the easiest but hardest thing I have found personally. Have clear priorities. Sometimes I feel I want to accomplish so much that I end up getting frustrated and end up accomplishing nothing. You know what you want. Focus on what will get the most bang for your buck. The hard part is being honest with yourself, once you are, everything else starts making sense in your life.

E - liminate your BAD habits. If you have gotten to this point you have a great idea of what to do. This part is catching yourself as it happens during the day. Our bad habits have a sneaky way of creeping up on us. Being aware as they happen and having an alternate (good) habit to replace the bad habit is the key to victory.

-During that lull in your day and you reach for the diet coke --instead-- only have water available and reach for that.
-When you call yourself fat (out loud or in your head) -- you have a 10 burpee penalty.
-When you want to stay in bed and sleep instead of going to an early morning class -- sleep in your workout clothes, with your gym bad already packed and the alarm is set in the bathroom and loud enough to hear it so you have to get up to turn it off!

Now get crackin'.

P.T.S!

Time Can Be On YOUR Side...

Dressed TO Impress

I found this post that has really made a difference in my day. I used to believe if I write down a to-do list everything would magically get done. The problem is, our day's are filled with distractions. Creating this type of routine everyday no matter how you 'feel', no matter how 'busy' you get, will result in you 'getting things done' and moving forward everyday. In the beginning it is going to take constant reminders, double checking yourself, setting phone/calendar alarms, but just like any new habit, once you make it automatic you will reap the benefits.

P.T.S. your thoughts.

An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day - HarvardBusiness.org:

Managing our time needs to become a ritual too. Not simply a list or a vague sense of our priorities. That's not consistent or deliberate. It needs to be an ongoing process we follow no matter what to keep us focused on our priorities throughout the day.

I think we can do it in three steps that take less than 18 minutes over an eight-hour workday.

STEP 1 (5 Minutes) Set Plan for Day. Before turning on your computer, sit down with a blank piece of paper and decide what will make this day highly successful. What can you realistically accomplish that will further your goals and allow you to leave at the end of the day feeling like you've been productive and successful? Write those things down.

Now, most importantly, take your calendar and schedule those things into time slots, placing the hardest and most important items at the beginning of the day. And by the beginning of the day I mean, if possible, before even checking your email. If your entire list does not fit into your calendar, reprioritize your list. There is tremendous power in deciding when and where you are going to do something.

If you want to get something done, decide when and where you're going to do it. Otherwise, take it off your list.

STEP 2 (1 minute every hour) Refocus. Set your watch, phone, or computer to ring every hour. When it rings, take a deep breath, look at your list and ask yourself if you spent your last hour productively. Then look at your calendar and deliberately recommit to how you are going to use the next hour. Manage your day hour by hour. Don't let the hours manage you.

STEP 3 (5 minutes) Review. Shut off your computer and review your day. What worked? Where did you focus? Where did you get distracted? What did you learn that will help you be more productive tomorrow?

The power of rituals is their predictability. You do the same thing in the same way over and over again. And so the outcome of a ritual is predictable too. If you choose your focus deliberately and wisely and consistently remind yourself of that focus, you will stay focused. It's simple.

Mental WOD 16: To Do List Don't Mean Crap Unless...

You execute it!

Knowledge is NOT Power!...Unless it's applied.

We all have great ideas. We all have great intentions. We all can PLAN AHEAD, but does any of it really mean anything unless we actually DO IT and PULL THE DAMN TRIGGER???

For the purpose of this post I am referring to starting a healthy new habit i.e. adding in an additional workout in a week, stretching, running, reading more, writing a blog, cooking your meals for the week, etc...

Everyone operates a little differently. So here are a couple options to see which principle or combination of principles will work for you to 'JUST DO IT!'

-Find Time: PRE-PLANNING is always a good idea. But until you work your new habit/To-Do item into your weekly routine CONSISTENTLY it will always be hard to implement.

-Make Time: Last weeks MENTAL WOD 15 is a good way.

-Find a Coach: One of the reasons why CrossFit works is because a really good coach is on your side. When you don't show up, they CALL YOU! And you magically show up. Not brain surgery just having someone in your corner will do wonders for your consistency.

-Recruit a friend: Find a friend that has similar drive, goals, and attitude. When they are down in the dumps, most likely you will be on and can help them through it, and vice versa!

For this week's Mental WOD not only start a healthy new habit but set yourself up for success. Post and your thoughts, comments, and questions...just P.T.S!

Mental WOD 15: Get Up 1 Hour Earlier

Human...Turkish Get-Up's in the morning???

Every morning I wake up (@645am most days) watch MY WIFE get up and go workout. And I...roll over and snooze for another 45min to an hour. I am so impressed by her work ethic and consistentency. Rain or shine she is up and ready to go, and she is not a morning person, trust me:-) And the results speak for herself. Today I was 'planning' on getting up with her, but the same old story happened...GRRRR!

So I am just gonna pull the damn trigger and do it this week and make it this week's Mental WOD. Plan to get up every morning 1 hour earlier than normal and add in a workout, journaling, prayer, affirmations, or anything that is going to promote you to be better and empower you for the rest of the day.

Why???

Get up one hour earlier than the rest of your household. Gain clarity on your priorities and start your day empowered. "Use the time as an inspirational hour—reconnect with you mission, core values and review your goals," says Robin Sharma, motivational expert and author of The Leader Who Had No Title. "This will build deep focus against distractions as you move through your day." Or spend your hour meditating, visualizing achieving what's most important to you, writing in a journal, listening to music, reciting  affirmations or exercising.

Just DO IT early birds!

What will you do with you extra hour?

P.T.S!

Mental WOD #9: One Thing at a Time

"Iced or HOT coffee...What should I do???"

We live in a world of information OVERLOAD! Personally, I catch myself over thinking and over doing too many things at once.

The world’s information avalanche actually can hobble learning, Schwartz says. Learning is most efficient when dispensed in spaced cycles rather than in one big glut. And when projects likewise are broken down into smaller chunks, you can maintain high levels of focus as you conquer interim challenges.
The capacity for absorbed attention is perhaps the most influential factor on productivity.Multitasking is actually a time-waster, with studies showing it takes 25 percent longer to work on multiple assignments at once (actually switching back and forth between them) than if the tasks were completed sequentially. Email, a tremendous distraction, saps and squanders mental energy that could be applied to more meaningful work. -Found from http://www.successmagazine.com/on-your-mark-get-set-recharge/PARAMS/article/1389/channel/22

To preserve your mental energy, focus and increase your productivity, I would like to introduce this week's Mental WOD...Do things one at a time.

After you PRE PLAN YOUR NEXT DAY work your TDL or tasks throughout the day, one thing at a time.

Avoid the distraction, stay focused and finish more and finish better.

Mental WOD #6: Tune Out to Tune Back In

Dr. Lindsey doesn't have a TV...so we can be friends:-)

Lets cut to the chase on this one. We all watch waaay to much TV. And if you think you don't...your wrong, YOU do! (Still don't believe me, keep reading and look at the stats below, stats don't lie)

I do. I noticed a big difference when I was recently moving and cut the cable early. I had so much more time on my hands. I was always early for everything. I had time to spare to clean, cook, fold, walk the dog, read, etc... I distinctly remember thinking to myself, "What should I do now?" Wow! It was crazy.

This week's Mental WOD is to cut (at a minimum) half the time you watch TV and a max out effort of turning it off completely.

What about the NBA playoffs?
Desperate Housewives?
American Idol?
My reality TV shows?
Bahhh!

Think of TV like you cheat meals. Use in moderation. The less you watch the better you will become.

From Whole9 site. For the FULL read click HERE

Television can just as easily fill the same psychological need as food. You turn on the TV for comfort, as reward, for “company”, for some perceived “human” connection. You turn it on because, well, it’s there. And you let it run, assailing your brains with messages you can’t control, for hour upon hour every single day. When that TV is on, you are not present – not for yourself, nor for those around you. The television turns you into a spectator, not a participant in your own life. And the worst part is that you’re not even aware of what you are doing, and what you are missing as a result.


How many of us have turned down the opportunity to interact with a real, live person because we have to watch our show? How many of us have blown off spouses, children, friends – people standing right in front of us – because we are too distracted by the characters on our TV screen? How many of us know more about our favorite American Idol contestant or sitcom actor than we do about our next-door neighbor?

Average Viewing Habits

• Time the average American watches TV each day: 4 hours
• Time the average 65-year old has spent watching TV: 9 years
• Number of hours per day that TV is on in an average U.S. home: 6 hours, 47 minutes
• Percentage of Americans that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66
• Percentage of Americans who say they watch too much TV: 49

TV and Children

• Number of minutes per week parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 3.5
• Number of minutes per week the average child watches television: 1,680
• Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours
• Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1500

What we are watching

• Number of murders seen on TV by the time an average child finishes elementary school: 8,000
• Number of 30-second TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000
• Percentage of local TV news broadcast time devoted to advertising: 30
• Percentage devoted to stories about crime, disaster and war: 53.8
• Percentage devoted to public service announcements: 0.7

YIKES! P.T.S.!!!

Mental WOD #2: Plan Your Day the Night Before

Only perfect pushups allowed!

Last week's mental WOD was all about finding & defining your strength's. Snap a pic of your paper from last week and post it on the CPMFITness facebook page.

Now that you are starting to get to know your strengths lets free up your time throughout the day to put them into ACTION!

Planning your day the night before...

Time is our most precious commodity in life. You ask any millionaire, anyone that is successful or that has found true happiness what is the most important thing to achieve success and happiness = T-I-M-E. 

We all have 24 hours in a day. I always ask myself why are some people ULTRA successful and some people are LOSERZ??? 

People give me a ton of excuses for all of why they don't do this or why they are not getting it done. And the one I objection I LOVE to overcome is "i don't have time too..."

So what if you had more time YOUR day?

What would you do? Workout more? Cook more? Stretch? Read more? More time with family? 

How about disciplining yourself to plan your day, the night before?

I have found that by planning your day for tomorrow at night for 20 minutes can free up 2 hours the next day. 

For this week's Mental WOD; every evening you WILL plan tomorrow the night before. Everyone's planning is going to look different. Here are some of the things I do at night to prep for the next day:

-pre pack my lunch (courtesy of my wife...thx babe)

-lay out your work, workout and change of clothes 

-update your TDL (to do list) and prioritze it (if you are a bad*ss)

Update us with you progress throughout the week. 

P.T.S.!

Mental WOD for the Week: Play to Your Strengths...Find out How

Logan shows you what to do when you run out of rowers:-0

Growing up a lot of different people (parents, teachers, coaches, mentors) would tell me to play to my strengths. Well what if I didn't know what my strengths were?

So lets input our 1st Mental WOD for this week. To help uncover YOUR STRENGTHS you need to identify your best traits and weaknesses. Take a blank sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. Label one side "Love it!" and the other side "Loathe it!"

During a this week, carry this paper around with you and separate your activities into the two categories.

In the love column are things you look forward to doing, tasks that seem to make the time fly by or activities that make you feel fulfilled after you've completed them. Tasks that are difficult to concentrate on and things you hope you never have to do again belong in the loathe column.
At the end of the week, you'll have a clear picture of your strengths and where your passion lies. Specifically identifying the activities that strengthen you will help you purposely gravitate toward them, as well as help you neutralize the ones you hate. You'll be able to avoid some of the activities that weaken you. For those you can't, by having your week so filled with activities that invigorate you, you'll have the strength to power through those activities that drain you.

At the end of the week send me the pic of all your love's and loathes.

Check where this idea come from.

Early in his life, Marcus Buckingham was fortunate to discover one of his strengths—that he is energized by people who are good at what they do. He developed that strength into a career, during the course of which he has interviewed tens of  thousands of successful people. His interviews have led him to write books that have sold millions, to speak before untold numbers of people and to share the stage with dignitaries, visionaries and world leaders. He now works through his company to help others discover and develop their unique strengths and abilities.

Feeling a bit anxious, the 12-year-old boy took his place in front of the audience. Students at his school in England participated in the daily assembly programs and, like some cruel joke, he was picked to read a passage. Looking around, he saw a multitude of eyes—all focused on him. As he opened his mouth to speak, a curious thing happened. His words flowed perfectly, and he completed his reading flawlessly. Never before had Marcus Buckingham been able to communicate well. Since he’d learned  to speak, he stammered so badly that people could hardly understand him. He endured psychologists and therapists but, while he knew much about what was wrong, not until that day in the assembly did he have a clue how to fix it.

"I realized right at that moment an odd thing,” Buckingham says. “I’m strengthened by having eyes on me, and the more eyes the better.” While many people tend to close up when speaking in public, he discovered just the opposite was true for him. His mind seemed to work better and faster when many eyes were upon him. So he began to pretend. When he was talking to one person, he would pretend that he was in front of 10,000. And after several months, the stammer went away.

Buckingham’s discovery at 12, that he could use something that strengthened him to navigate around a weakness, marked the rudimentary beginning of his life’s work. Although it would take him a number of years to articulate his philosophy and several career moves to fully develop and refine his message, his success in conquering his stammer by using a deliberate mind game served as his first stepping stone. “Now I speak for a living!” he says. “How ridiculous is that?”

Buckingham’s father and grandfather worked in human resources, and both helped nurture his interest. His father worked for Allied Breweries, which owned 7,000 pubs at the time. His father’s quest for ways to select better pub managers led him to an American company, the Gallup Organization, in 1983. 
                 

Read the rest of the article HERE