You Should be the Hardest Worker in the Room

Why you should be the hardest worker in the room

Listen, no one is going to do the work for you. Every day is a new day and trust me, it doesn’t always feel like it’s getting easier. In fact, some days it can feel like you’ve taken 3,000 steps backward and it’s harder than it’s ever been. Feeling that? Why put in so much work then?

You put in the work because it DOES get easier. You put in the work because the bad days are just that… bad days. Even when you are feeling like you haven’t made any progress whether it’s in the gym, in school, or at your work, you’ve made the progress.

I like to talk about the power of compound interest. Compound interest is a great financial tool, but you’d be surprised how much you can leverage it in your daily habits and life as well. All it takes is a little more effort today than it did yesterday. If it’s harder than it was yesterday to do half the work, so what? If it feels hard, then you’re doing something right, just keep at it.

My promise to you is that if you keep up the hard work, even when it feels like it’s too much, you’re going to cross over that hump and you’re going to enter into a world of infinite possibility.

How to Leverage Compound Interest in Life

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Ok, so how do you leverage compound interest in life? The math on this is easy.

If you are working an 8 hour day, work 1 more length longer. Maybe you work 15 minutes more today than you did yesterday. The next week, work 30 minutes longer. I guarantee you that extra work doesn’t feel as hard as it did when you first tried it.

Just tell yourself… one more.

How about at the gym? If you’re doing 20 reps, I want you to do just one more! Go for 21. Does it burn? Does it feel like too much? Great! It’s not too much, it’s just one more!

Being the hardest worker in the room means you have to be willing to cross the barrier of what you thought was possible. Remember, it’s not what you were born with, it’s all about what you’re mindset is and how hard you’re willing to work for it.

I’m going to give you my secret to staying motivated. Watch this video. In fact, save this video and play it every day. Maybe you move on to other motivational videos after that, but I can tell you that if you put the time in to grow your mind and change your mindset, you will change your life.

Ben Lionel Scott on YouTube

Affirmations to Work Harder

Looking for a way to challenge yourself to work harder? Try these affirmations to work harder and see where they take you…

1. I AM the hardest worker in the room.
2. I AM embracing pain.
3. I AM unafraid to grind everyday.
4. I AM doing one more of everything I do.
5. I AM pushing past any limits.
6. I AM enjoying the process.

Stay motivated and stay strong. Remember, not every day is going to feel like the best day. Those are the days that you will progress the most.

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What Does Grind Mean in Life?

The word grind means a lot of things in our culture, but what does grind mean in life? It clicked for me finally what this word really means and how we can apply it to our lives. You hear entrepreneurs and athletes say it all the time – they’re in the grind. I’v even been saying it a lot lately!

Can anyone find their grind? I’ve been doing a lot of deeper thinking lately. Critically asking myself questions of how or why we do certain things. When it comes to self development, I really wonder if every person is able to find their grind, or if it’s reserved for people who have a certain trait.

For example, if you’re someone who seeks spontaneity, then do you find yourself able to get into the grind? Or, if you’re someone who enjoys doing something different every day rather than repetition, do you avoid “the grind” altogether?

First, let’s start by answering the most important question.

Per Google’s definition, the grind in life meaning is: “hard dull work.” Isn’t that negative! But, just wait… Miriam Webster Dictionary defines it as: “dreary, monotonous, or difficult labor, study, or routine“. Now that is pretty unfortunate.

It’s unfortunate because so many of us our programmed now to think that “difficult labor, study or routine” is negative. Why must it be dreary or dull? Why can’t repetitive work just be that, monotonous and hard. Should’t we decide whether the monotonous, hard work is dreary or not?

In fact, that’s exactly what we have to do to ensure the grind continues to hone us. We have to be willing to do the hard work every day to get better at something and to grow. If we aren’t willing to do that, or we shy away from the grind because of a negative connotation then we are doing ourselves a disservice.

What if the grind is something we need in our life? Then, we need to change the way we define it and the way we view it.

Repetition

Students working hard at their skills. Photo by Andrew Neel on Pexels.com

Repetition is key to getting better at something. You’ve heard the term “practice makes perfect”. This is the more simplified version of that statement. Just do the hards things every day over and over and over again until one day you wake up and that hard thing is no longer so hard anymore.

Repeating the task or the effort will eventually lead to an outcome. Really, just think about probability. If you roll a dice over again, repeatedly until you get the outcome you want, it will happen. It may take a lot longer than you expected, but there’s a chance every time when you roll that dice that you’re going to land on the outcome.

As with probabilities, there’s a guaranteed chance you will get your outcome if you just try and you put in the effort to keep trying. Whether you’re learning a new subject or trying to accomplish a goal, the outcome will happen. You don’t know when, but you have to keep going. This work state, this effort phase is really what entrepreneurs and athletes, creatives, and other people who recognize you have to hone a skill call “the Grind.”

Small Tasks Turn into Big Changes

A critical part of the grind you have to remember is that it doesn’t always happen in large, massive moments. The daily grind is a series of small tasks that turn into something bigger over time. As you know, you can’t transform overnight. But, a series of small changes can lead to something really wonderful.

As the dictionary would tell us, this grind isn’t so easy. You may find it incredibly dull. You might actually call it “dreary” if you use that term, and I would say that some days it does feel that way. But, if I’ve learned anything over the last 22 days of the new year, it’s that each day is what we decide to make of it.

We can wake up and dread the grind and the work we have to put in, or we can celebrate it and push through it. It’s all about our mindset when it comes to these repetitive tasks each day. They won’t be as exciting on the 20th day as they were on the first when you were just getting started. So, how do you keep going?

It’s all about mindset! On that note, I’ll leave you with this video that has really transformed the way I look at the grind. If you’re aiming to achieve something, I hope you find this helpful to achieving your dreams.

Join the 5 AM Club – How to Make Waking Up Earlier Easier

Hey everyone – I’m recruiting! Really… it’s for this cool new club that gets the day started before the sun even thinks about rising. We do fun things like workout in a quiet gym, grab coffee in an empty coffee shop, get emails sorted before anyone has a chance to fill up the inbox, and most importantly, we spend time with ourselves.

Waking up earlier doesn’t just literally add hours to your day to get things done, but it also is better for your health. As an early morning workout enthusiast, I find that my body actually burns more calories throughout the day. I’m more energized, more alert, and I’m not as frantic trying to pack in all the important tasks while juggling work.

So, this is my recruiting pitch. If you’re not open to it now, I hope you’ll take some time to consider. Maybe even just start small – it’s amazing what 15 minutes can do!

Check out my Instagram for motivation.

Tips for Waking Up Earlier

So, you think it’s too hard? Well, maybe you haven’t found the right method to help you get started. I’m sure you’ve heard people say, just wake up 5 minutes earlier every day. Eventually, your body will naturally begin waking up earlier. While yes, it can be that simple, we all have those days where it just isn’t enough. You have to dig deeper, have a better strategy and be ready to fight the mental fog that will inevitably try to convince you to stay in bed.

1. Find your why.
2. Develop a routine.
3. Create a mantra or adopt a strategy.
4. Stick with it for two weeks.

Your Reason for Waking Up Earlier

I’m a big a fan of finding your why. Whether it’s a purpose for working out or purpose for getting more time back in your day, the reason for waking up earlier is the most critical to finding success. So, what’s your why?

Figure out the why that motivates you to move. Something has to rock you out of bed every morning, even on the days when it’s too difficult to get up. My why is made up of a few things that leads to a talk track in the mornings. See, you are your worst enemy every morning. Either you wake up with a positive mentality or you fall prey to a mindset that will slow you down.

When I wake up, the first thing I think about is what happens if I don’t. The implication of not getting out of bed when my alarm goes off at 4:15 is that if I stay too long I may miss a workout for the day, I may not get in those good feelings I get when I’m done with the gym, but most importantly, I may not get time to do something I love. I may not be able to go for a run or sit down and write a blog. Some days, I have a lot of work to do and my career, plus my side hustles like this blog and another business I’m helping to build may not get my attention because I have other priorities.

I’ve found my flaw – I’m inherently a person who hates letting other people down. And even worse, I hate letting myself down. So, I MUST wake up. I MUST get started early. Find yours.

An Early Morning Routine and Your Strategy

In addition to finding your why, make a routine and have a strategy. One of my favorite quotes says, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” My way of looking at life is all about strategy. When you don’t have a way to tackle a challenge or a method to follow, you are likely going to fail. If you need a strategy for getting out of bed try following this sequence:

Alarm Goes Off
Talk Track: Tell yourself your Why.
Strategy: Avoid negative thoughts by counting backward from 5.
Movement: Stand up and get out of bed.
Talk Track: Tell yourelf your Why.

From there, you are well on your way to the rest of your day. Remember, what you tell yourself and the words you use are critical. If you let a negative thought creep in, then you’ll be a victim to your own mind. You must battle it and having a strategy is the only way you’re going to win.

Forming an Early Morning Habit

When you’ve developed your strategy, you’ve honed in on your why, and you’ve identified all the ways you’re going to make yourself successful at waking up earlier, the next step is creating a habit. The only way you’re going to make this last is if you do the work to stick with it for two weeks.

These are going to be the hardest two weeks, but it’s so important to not give up. Two weeks or 21 days is all it takes to form a new habit. Then, it gets easier. In fact, once you stick it out, you should be able to make your routine stick through even the toughest, darkest, coldest days. Just remember to follow your strategy.

What are you waiting for? Write down your strategy today when you have a few minutes, then get started tomorrow. There’s no time like now!

75 Hard Challenge – Day 35

I’m about halfway through the 75 Hard Challenge, so I thought I’d share my progress and thoughts on the program so far. For those of you who haven’t heard about Andy Frisella’s 75 day plan for getting strong. I wrote a bit about the intensity of the program and an overview in a blog post a few days ago. If you’re interested in learning what it’s all about, check that one out first.

So, now to the progress. 35 days into this and I have a lot of adjectives to describe how I feel. Here’s a general list:

• Amazing
• Proud
• Influential
• Big
• Improved
• Achy
• Fit
• Better
  
  As I mentioned in my original post, it’s definitely not easy and there are a lot of aches and pains that accompany this program. But, those aches and pains are indicators of growth and that’s exactly the goal when you start 75 Hard. I’ll get down into the detail of those adjectives I’ve described above in my progress update below, but one question I have for you is – if you could consistently do something for 75 days knowing that at the end of it there’s a 100% guarantee of even a slight improvement in your mental and physical health, would you do it? I’ll let you think about that for a few minutes.

Physical Progress on 75 Hard

According to a lot of articles out there, working out twice a day is not always the best for your body. And I agree! You have to listen to what’s going on with your muscles and you need time to recover. It’s proven that during recovery is actually when your body is doing the most growing. But, don’t for one moment think that it means you can’t be active more than once a day.

Sometimes low-impact, easy activity is better than nothing. Also, with the right alternation of muscle groups, you can workout pretty much every day twice without working out the same muscle group too soon.

Physically, I think I may be in the best shape I’ve been since high school. I am more of an athlete than I ever was and I’m leaning into that belief. Part of this program is that it reprograms you to think differently about what you’re doing to and for your body. Eating has become a science. Working out has become a career.

When I say I feel amazing – I mean I feel clear of mind, focused, energized, more capable and stronger than ever. When I say I feel proud – I feel like I am confident and able to showcase the hard work I’ve put into my body. Sure, I’m achy, this is super tough. I have to refuel and think about vitamins and foods that are going to help me replenish and rebuild. These are all ways that in just 35 days I’ve experienced complete transformation. And I say transformation because honestly, I never had this will power before. I’m consciously noticing my body changing, my fat melting, my muscles becoming more visible, and my eating habits becoming more of unconscious decisions.

Mental Progress on 75 Hard

What’s even better about the impact that 75 hard has on our bodies is that it truly impacts our brains. I crave the motivation and the hype I get from reading and improving my mentality. Each day I wake up ready to read my identity statements, watch inspirational videos and get motivated to improve.

I’m currently reading Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill. (Side note: one of the requirements of 75 Hard is to read at least 10 pages a day.) Hill expresses one way that people are capable of achieving more money and more success that is probably the number one thing I’ve struggled with my whole life – belief.

What’s amazing with 75 Hard is that I’ve really changed my mentality to accept what is mine. I have cast aside any negative self talk and replaced it all with positive self talk. This positive self talk has led me to finally figuring out how to believe – really believe. I’m not talking about the type of “wishful thinking” belief that most people go around claiming to have. I’m talking about “deep down, I’ve got a fire within me, this is an unshakable truth” kind of belief.

It’s been 35 days and I SWEAR, I’ve affirmed and manifested a completely new life. I undoubtedly look back at my life just last month and think to myself how drastically different it is compared to this moment. I do plan to go deeper into this topic in the coming weeks, but I will leave it at this.

When I say I feel influential – I mean I feel like I have the power to change the world. When I say I feel big – I mean I feel like I am the greatest, no one can knock me down. When I say I feel better – I mean I feel like I’ve reached a wonderful place in my life where I am improving every day.

The progress I’m making on 75 Hard is just that. It’s progress. Isn’t that what we’re all after? Wouldn’t just some progress every day make you feel good about your life?

Motivation Programming

What is the difference between a motivation program and motivation programming? As I dive deeper into the world of positive psychology, motivation, identity creation and the concepts that drive us as humans to achieve our ultimate goals, I have focused on a few terms at a time to break down and discover. Today, I simply wanted to learn a little bit more about motivation and its uses.

Defining Motivation

Wikipedia probably has the best explanation of the term motivation.

“Motivation is a driving factor for actions, willingness, and goals. These needs, wants or desires may be acquired through influence of culture, society, lifestyle, or may be generally innate.”

So through this definition we have ourselves two versions of driving factors that influence our lives – intrinsic motivations and extrinsic motivations. Intrinsic is something we desire internally. Extrinsic is something that externally rewards us. You can tell if it’s an intrinsic motivation or an extrinsic motivation by asking yourself from where the desire stems and what you’re getting in return.

Motivation is something we use every single day. We may not even realize that most of the actions we take are just results of motivations pulling and pushing us in different directions. The greatest thing about motivation though is that you can use it to your advantage when you realize how to manipulate it on your own accord.

Using Motivation

You wake up any given day and you have to “motivate” yourself to get moving. Maybe it’s the idea of getting a paycheck at the end of the week that motivates you or the desire to get that next promotion. Some people are motivated by the desire to want change for their family. Others are motivated to seek a better physical condition whether that’s internally or externally. Whatever these motivations are, they usually are inherent in our actions. We sort of let the motivations unconsciously take us through each action.

Unsurprisingly, due to our need for immediacy and value, we expect motivation to just work when we really need it. Otherwise, there isn’t a single thought we put around what is motivating us to do one thing over another.

This reminds me a lot of people who talk about praying only in situations when they need God. They say they are regretful that they neglect their relationship with God most days, only reaching out to Him when needed. Motivation is very similar. We tend to forget that we need motivation to accomplish our goals. So, we only rely on it when we think we really need it.

Needing Motivation

When I looked up “motivation program” in my web browser, I found a really interesting search results page. Every single item on the first page related to “Employee Motivation”. Why do we only think about motivation when it comes to work – work in the physical sense or work in the mental sense – athletes and employees?

And, it’s interesting to me that you can find countless articles about how employers can alter your actions by influencing your motivations. Think Google’s incentives to give all employees a reason to stay at work for longer hours. Think about maybe some of the benefits and incentives your employer gives you to stick around.

So, instead of letting others externally influence our motivations to do what they want, I thought about why we really need motivation in each day – to accomplish what WE want. The reality is, you can’t get where you need to go if you don’t get the motivation. That’s what your employer knows and they’re using it to their advantage!

Let’s then reframe this idea and think about “Motivation Programming”. Motivation programming is the new way to go about achieving your goals and accomplishing more in your day. It’s all about seeking the right motivation each day and programming your brain to crave it, seek it and follow it.

Daily Motivation Programming

Any new habit or routine is going to be difficult at first. You’re going to despise it for a little while and will even find yourself annoyed at the whole thing and ready to give up. However, you have to fight through it. Again, I’ll preach that our brains are constantly trying to get us to go back to what’s comfortable. Constantly deceiving us, our brains are tricky things, focused only on getting immediate satisfaction.

To get into a new frame of mind, try waking up every day and watching a motivational video or listening to a motivational podcast. Do this for a week straight and see how you feel. Do it when you don’t want to, then keep on going. Here are few great options to get started:

Ben Lionel Scott’s Weekly Motivation on Spotify

The Motivate App on the Apple App Store.

Motiversity on YouTube

Morning Affirmations to Change Your Day

I have a secret to share, the secret to claiming life’s gifts and achieving the rewards of each day… morning affirmations! I know I know, you’ve heard it before. You’ve tried them. You make an effort to get them done, but you can’t seem to stick to the routine or convince yourself they are true.

But that’s the thing about successfully finding your path to freedom and joy, it’s hard work. It’s telling yourself that even if you don’t want to, you will. Your desire to change must be stronger than your deceitful identity. See, your old “self” will always try to convince you that it’s not worth it. You will sabotage yourself over and over again, until you decide your stronger than your own self. Usually, it’s our own mind that is our biggest enemy, yet we don’t stay vigilant against it.

So, make it this easy for yourself. Decide today that you are going only focus so much on yourself that you have no time to focus on what other people are doing. There are no external competitor’s for the foreseeable future, only your internal self.

Copy and paste these affirmations into your notes on your phone or somewhere you can find easily each morning and read them. it only take a few minutes to rewire your brain.

10 Affirmations to Read Each Day

I AM grateful I AM happy.
I AM grateful I AM loved.
I AM grateful I AM optimistic.
I AM grateful I AM strong physically and mentally.
I AM grateful I AM committed to my friends, family and partner.
I AM grateful I AM disciplined to work hard.
I AM grateful I AM joyful and kind to others.
I AM grateful I AM learning and curious.
I AM grateful I AM welcoming money and wealth into my life.
I AM grateful I AM a representation of the hard work I put in every day.

These are very simple, but very powerful statements. If you’re feeling a little adventurous or maybe like you have other statements you would like to affirm in your life, then adapt these and change them to fit your needs.

You should be asking yourself the right questions to ensure you’re living life to the standards that you intend.

1. What am I willing to do today to reach my goals?
2. Who am I going to influence and impact with positivity?
3. How am I going to change the world and lives around me?
   
   When you start to think about life in this way, it’s amazing what you can accomplish!

Identity – Discovery, Decisions, Determination

When it comes to your identity, you’ve probably heard of “identity theft” or “identity crisis” and you may have felt scared or anxious when thinking about these topics. What most people are scared to lose, they rarely stop to think about how it’s created and protected. I’m not talking about identity theft protection or ensuring your personal information isn’t leaked online, sure that’s important to us and we are triggered by the idea of losing our identity to the dangers of the world. Rather, I’m talking about the identity that forms your habits, thoughts and actions. This is the identity that someone couldn’t steal from us because it’s uniquely ours.

Identity is what drives your decision making. I talk a lot about conscious choices in this blog. Whether you’re making big life decisions or small daily choices, when you walk through life making them consciously you are honoring your identity. You’re saying in those moments that you know exactly who you are and what you stand for. You take action based on that understanding of yourself. But, what happens when you want to change? When you go from being a tv watcher to a gym goer, or you go from being a casual drinker to a sober friend. These are identity changes that we struggle to embrace and stick with.

See, I used to think I was lost. You may have also found yourself in this situation – wondering who you are, what your purpose is, and why you’re living this path. I used to question everything about my life, until recently when I listened to an amazing motivational video called Recreating your Identity.

Recreating Your Identity

In this video, the speaker talks about comfortability. He suggests that we all believe we are a certain person or on a certain life path because we are programmed to believe it is right for us and that we just need to embrace it and fall victim to it. He says that we look for change and we look for opportunities to grow, but our identity can actually get in our way. He says “your identity is going to literally go out of its way to deceive you, so that you go back to your old identity.” Isn’t it crazy to think our own self can get in the way of reaching a new potential. We’re tough beings…

But, he then goes on to talk about how we can recreate our identity, recreate who we are.

Consider the choice to be sober from drugs and alcohol. Consciously, I’ve not had alcohol in 30 days. But, a big part of my life has previously been to hang out with friends and family and enjoy a couple of drinks. We drink and dance, making a party out of any situation when we can be together. While I love that time with my family, drinking doesn’t need to be part of the equation to still be fun. However, I’ve sought comfortability in that. It’s familiar to me. Not participating scares me because it’s different.

But, as I learn to build my identity and become authentic and genuine to myself, this identity I create is just another conscious choice. In this motivational video that I watched, the speaker talks about going through four phases of transformation. These are:

• Inception – the excitement stage: “ignorance on fire” you are so pumped up you are going on pure excitement
• Deception – the moment of truth stage: “consciously incompetent” you may quit because you realize how hard it is to change
• Transformation – the summit stage: “consciously competent” you are aware you’re getting results and you’ve made it through the hardest parts to see that things are actually working
• Identity – the new you: “your new self” you have developed a whole new person and your new actions are now unconscious choices that you make every day

I like to think I’m in the Transformation stage of my new identity. With consistency and patience, I’m starting to make choices that are more in line with my new character and way of living. My new identity is just around the corner. I’m not sure how long the Transformation stage will need to last to finally be in that “unconscious competent” stage, but the key here is that you must make it through the Deception to get closer to change.

During those stages the conscious choices we make, as hard as they may be, are the most vital to creating lasting change. Today my mantra is to believe in my new identity and to consciously reinforce the actions and choices that make me who I AM.

Watch the full Recreate Your Identity video here, shared by No Limits.

What changes are you making to your identity? Leave a comment or find me on Instagram at IntentlyAmy.

Seeking Authenticity

An original poem about authenticity.

I love myself she said.
All the eyes darted toward her.
I’m unscripted she said.
Her papers flew out in every direction.
Stumbling through the room, gravity felt heavy.

I need to get some air she said.
Whispers filled the quietness like waves crashing on the shore.
There’s nothing here for me she said.
With a last glance back at envious, interested eyes, she walked into the distance.
Many are left behind when you pursue your truth.

Becoming an Authentic Self

As I looked up the definition of authentic, I had a really hard time with the dictionary. First, there are several sources that have a little bit of a different flare. My favorite out of all them was : of undisputed origin; genuine. This is just the definition you get from searching on Google, but out of them all it felt as if it carried the most weight. There is something about “undisputed” that really resonated.

Think for a moment about who you are. What is your identity? Where do you come from? What do you stand for? These elements of you are, these should be characteristics of your person that are truly undisputed. Miriam Webster defines authentic as : true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character. That’s fine I suppose, sure be true to your own, but now consider being undisputedly genuine. Like no one and no thing could argue that’s truly who you are.

Today felt like a good day to reflect on what makes me feel undisputedly like myself. As I continue to work on who I AM, writing out my identify and what I believe I stand for today, I think I struggle a bit like most people with what is genuinely me. I actually think with so much that I’ve done over the last several years of my life, I lost a little bit of what made me authentic.

It’s not an easy realization. It’s actually quite sad. But, slowly, as I’ve repaired my own brokenness and focused on gratitude, blessing and self growth, I’ve come to find pieces of me that make me more authentic than ever. There’s just one last task that remains when you begin to find your authentic self – you must fight to keep it.

Fight for all you have to stay genuine and authentic. Whether it’s using your voice, questioning your behaviors, denying the temptations or the allure of what others are trying to get you to do and say. These are all the battles we must face each day to stay real to ourselves.

Today, I”m reflecting on my genuine self. I’m defining my identity in detail. One thing I know I am for sure is a writer. I love to write. I’m passionate about words and what they mean. So, the poem I wrote above is real, it’s authentic. And although one of my greatest fears is sharing the writing I do for some weird human psychological reasons I can’t begin to unfold, I know that my only way through the fear is by just letting it free.

Just like the girl in the poem, when you pursue what is real to you – it often means you leave a lot in your wake. Whether that’s people or things, usually it’s for the best. Shedding those layers makes us more of who we are, but we have to be willing to let it all go for the pursuit of who we truly are.

Please share your thoughts in the comments or find me on Instagram at IntentlyAmy.

How Affirmations Work

It’s difficult to see the science behind how affirmations work when you’re just starting out. In fact, most people – myself included when I first began – find it silly to express themselves in this way and rarely catch on to the magic for a prolonged period of time. If you’re like me, when you hear the word affirmations you probably think of that video of the little girl in her bathroom yelling into her mirror “I CAN DO ANYTHING GREAT!” I mean who wouldn’t, it’s adorable!

Want to jump in and get started with affirmations? Go to the end of this post for a daily affirmation tool you can use each day.

But, affirmations aren’t really like this….

Yesterday, I wrote an article about an interesting question I ask myself to realign my path toward the goals I want to achieve. The question is “what remarkably stupid things am I doing today that will ruin my life?” It helps me to see not the tasks I should be doing, but rather helps me evaluate the tasks I should not be doing. As I went on my day and began to think more about how this question leads me on my path, an empowering thought came to me.

“If I’ve been this blessed to experience so much of the world, so much giving, so much growth and success already in my life, then what God has in store for me next is just going to be unfathomably amazing…”

Like…. WOW. And, I don’t say this to rub into anyone’s face that things are going well for me and that I have success and happiness just flowing endlessly. The reality is that my life is probably just as ordinary as others. A lot of people are probably much more blessed than I am. But, I am profoundly grateful for all that I have. That thought I had proved to me that I really do believe that abundance and joy are not just coming for me, but they already are here. The belief I have is like a fire in me that no one can put out.

This is how affirmations work. Affirmations rework your brain to cause fierce optimism and positivity. I love that word fierce to describe the outcome of affirmations. It means “furiously eager or intense.” Can you stop fierce? I don’t think so. You can try, but it would take a lot of effort. And, so affirmations every day – simple positive phrases that you can listen to and say each day work to make you believe what maybe you didn’t know you could believe in before.

If you don’t believe that this could work for you, I challenge you to just try it.

An Easy Daily Affirmation

Each morning for the next week, wake up and say this to yourself:

I love myself.
I am grateful I am strong and confident.
I am grateful I am blessed and successful.

After 7 days, leave me a comment or DM me on Instagram @IntentlyAmy and tell me how you feel. If you’re not fiercely believing these statements and feeling their impact then keep going.

Change Your Perspective: Ask Not What Should I Do, But What Shouldn’t I Do

The best question you can ask yourself today is “what remarkably stupid things am I doing today to ruin my life?” Is that dramatic enough for you? Ruin is BIG word, but really we don’t fully understand the impact of our decisions until they’ve slapped us in the face. As I reflect on this question, it’s actually really simple for me to see that a simple change in my perspective can completely change myself.

This whole internal conversation was spurned by a consideration I had about what the difference is between perception and perspective. Perception is your interpretation of a situation. Whereas perspective is your view on a situation. Perspective is guided by your beliefs and attitudes and isn’t what you take away but rather what you bring to the table.

Consider what it takes to get motivated to accomplish your goals. Let’s use fitness as an example. You see that super fit, healthy image of a person that makes you feel a lot of different emotions. Perhaps, you see that image or person and think to yourself how badly you wish you could look that way. Maybe it evokes want, or guilt, or shame. Maybe it inspires you to go for a run or hit the gym. But, rarely are we thinking about that positive image when we’re in a compromising situation that we know will keep us from hitting our goals.

Instead, during those moments when we’re tempted by a donut or a big, unhealthy pizza that we know will just sabotage our diet, our will power crumbles. I don’t about you, but I don’t just carry magical motivation cues everywhere I go. Finding motivation in a time of what feels like crisis isn’t really my go-to. But, what if we were motivated by what we don’t want and our perspective is just skewed.

What if we saw these unhealthy habits and our view on it wasn’t that it was a delicious meal guaranteed to deliver a hit of endorphins and make my tastebuds explode with flavors? What if we thought instead that the pizza or donut is going to RUIN MY LIFE. How? Well, first it will clog my arteries or inject me huge increase in glucose levels. Then, I may get diabetes or start to gain fat around my belly that eventually causes a heart attack. That could lead to me in the hospital or maybe even premature death.

Ok, this is a very extreme example that doesn’t happen that fast usually, but let us for a moment think about how our brains are wired to think about the foods we eat in those moments. Shifting your perspective and asking yourself simply how you’re contributing to negativity or life-ruining consequences could save you from the rollercoaster of pleasure-seeking decisions that actually in the end do not provide you with any true value.

Sticking with the fitness example, now imagine looking at that desirable image of what you wish you looked like and thinking to yourself that it’s not too far off from reality. Your perspective shifts and now you’re not thinking about all the hard things you have to do to achieve that – lift weights, workout, eat healthy, but rather you are looking through a new lens of what you shouldn’t do. Suddenly, you’re making better decisions by recognizing that donuts are actually not all that good, pizza is kind of greasy and makes you feel bloated, sitting down all day makes you feel more tired, drinking a soda gets you all jittery and then makes you crash.

You simply asked yourself – what remarkably stupid things am I doing today that could ruin my life? Suddenly those things seem silly and unimportant. The best takeaway I had from reading that question to myself is that sometimes it’s just too hard to resist temptations thinking about the ways that I could make better decisions. But, when I look at it in terms of what stupid decisions I’m making and their consequences, it can be very eye opening and inspiring.

If you’re interested in exploring more on “changing your perspective”, check out this powerful other example.

I hope this helps you too! Share your thoughts in the comments or drop me a DM on Instagram @IntentlyAmy.