Implementing a schedule and using a simple tactic of using an ‘X’ on your calendar to mark the days you performed your task in order to create a new habit is called ‘not breaking the chain’.
Mon X, Tues. X, Wed X, Thurs X, Fri X, etc, etc, savvy?
See my posts on ‘The Emerging Man Chronicles 2016’ for some calendar examples.
Now most of the success ‘manuals’ that I have been perusing have some sort of similar tool you can use as a tracking devise.
The thing that I noticed though, is setting the schedule itself causes the world around you to go all roman candle on you with different things firing off and trying it’s dangdest to pull you off of that schedule.
I’m just gonna say it, if you are trying to change your life you have to set a schedule to do that, it can not be ‘oh well something came up, I’ll get back to it tomorrow’, it just can’t!
The thing I like about the schedule is that it acts as a ‘water line’ on a boat. When the world go’s bonkers around you, and it will, when things come unglued, and they will and when friends, family and complete strangers need you right when you are supposed to be writing, working out, working on a business plan or some other life altering endeavor, they will. You can actually see the boat going up and down in the water. I have found the farther away I get from the schedule the rockier it gets.
So I started gauging the disturbances and determine if it is a ripple, wave or squall coming up and if it warrants altering the course of my schedule. And possibly the course of my life.
I have found a ripple can wait, a wave can be ridden and a squall blows over, a squall coming makes me hold onto the schedule a little tighter because I have learned if I come off of the schedule for the squall and focus on the squall, it amounts to nothing and I have wasted a day that I could have been moving forward making positive strides in my efforts to create a better me.
Now the thing about a water line on a boat is that it stays the same unless you overload the boat. Don’t. It doesn’t matter what the sea or ocean, river or lake is doing, whether it’s rising, falling, stormin’ or still…
the boat will float, at the same depth, always, unless you add unnecessary baggage. Don’t.
If you have read my articles before you know that my anchor is in heaven and that mooring is stout!
I have learned how to look at a disturbance to see what the priority needs to be and I have found when you are talking about making a positive change in your life for the better, nothing is more important.
The schedule becomes your chain/rope and the rest of your life is tied off of that. As the schedule keeps you connected to the anchor.
Disturbances, are like little dingy’s. You can keep em’ or cut em’ loose. If you keep it, your only dragging it along.
I have also noticed that with a properly anchored schedule it helps you to realize when something is really wrong.
The schedule adds a calming effect to your life right away. You can’t change the time of day, 6 o’clock is 6 o’clock. It makes you look honestly at the rest of your life and it makes you determine what the b.s. is and isn’t, you then have a decision to make. Keep it in your life or get rid of it.
I’ve been finding you get rid of it. It’s no longer more important than whatever it is you are trying to accomplish, it just isn’t!
I’ve stopped turning the t.v. on when I got home from work and discovered two hours of time to get things done, like writing, that I wasn’t using, so now I have an evening schedule.
It was a watershed moment for me.
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