According to Psychology Today, The most common self-sabotaging behaviors are procrastination, self-medication with drugs or alcohol, comfort eating, and forms of self-injury such as cutting. These acts may seem helpful in the moment, but ultimately undermine us, especially when we engage in them repeatedly.

It is all about “activation energy”! Stop looking at self-sabotage as a stand-alone issue that keeps you from getting what you want in life and start seeing it simply as a lack of motivation for doing what needs to be done when it is supposed to be done. Once you get a grasp on this concept, your life will never be the same again! Totally a game changer.

You’ll definitely learn great stuff out of this short video. Enjoy it then apply it

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Photo: Kevin O’Mara

ظهرت المقالة Are You Standing In Your Own Way? An Easy Guide to Crushing Self-Sabotage, Once And For All! أولاً على أكاديمية سائد يونس.

The market is full of books, articles, tools and various sorts of content on time management. Yet we see more and more people complain about their inability to manage their time effectively. If you’ve read this fare, most probably you too struggle a bit with time management and so did I, until I found a magical formula that worked like charm for me.

The fault of traditional time management is at its core. The books on this topic are great and you get really excited motivated while reading one. You might try a method or two or even all of them, yet slowly but surely you’ll get back to the normal state you’re accustomed to. If you’ve ever tried one of those methods where you should track every minute of your time for a week or so, you’ll know what I mean. Tracking itself is ok; it gives you a good and accurate insight of the measured variable/variables, but in the case of time, it is not as easy as portrayed in books!

So what should you do? Here are 7 simple steps that you can start applying today:

1. Never try to micromanage your time

Micromanaging your time will not bring you any good. Instead, it will stress you out and turn you to a living freak. We live in a world of high uncertainty where nobody can predict for sure what’s going to happen in the next couple of hours, not to mention calibrating a schedule for 24 hours or even a week.

Continuously breaking your schedules and pushing away appointments and tasks will make you feel bad. It will affect your self-image and weaken your trust of your ability to ever stick to a schedule of any sort again.

Action step: instead of micromanaging your time, macro-manage it. Always look at it as a whole, divide it into blocks of 2-3 hours each or regions – morning, noon, afternoon, etc. – and try to allocate important tasks into those regions without specifying a numerical hour:minute:second value to it. This will give you flexibility and reduces the stressful urgency you feel when you try to chase your time by the minute. Also it will eliminate the amount of guilt you feel when you –for example- send that important email on 4 pm instead of the scheduled 15:35:20!

2. Focus on your most important outcomes for the day

An outcome is a desirable result you want out of something. Each day should be defined by its most important outcome. Usually a day will have an outcome or two that can be classified as important outcomes and rarely there will be more than three.

Action step: before you go to sleep in the day before, grab a small piece of paper and a pen (I chose to do it the old fashion way and leave the sophisticated mobile apps for something else) and write down your most important outcome/outcomes for the next day. By doing this you will clear you mind and most importantly you will be more likely to achieve those outcomes.

3. Beware, to do lists are dangerous

Entrepreneurs are fond of to-do lists. They’re a practical way of keeping track of all what you want to do. They also give you an exaggerated sense of achievement; since the mere act of writing stuff down makes you sometimes feel as comfortable as when you’ve achieved them – sounds familiar?

Do you remember being so eager to buy that great book/audio program/online course you’ve wanted for so long and felt like it will be the book that will change your life forever, and finally you bought it? What happened next; just after you’ve put it on the shelf or laid it on your desk? You were so satisfied and felt so comfortable that you didn’t have to read it anymore! This is exactly where the danger of to do lists resides; writing them might subtly sedate you into not taking any further action. Even worse, by the end of the day when you review what you did and didn’t, you easily postpone the uncompleted tasks to the next day. Surprise! This will satisfy you for the rest of that day – because scratching items out of to do lists is linked subconsciously with achieving them even if you’ll rewrite them for the next day, and then to the next and so on.

Action step: instead of being obsessed with to do lists, use them as a ways to remember things without falling in the trap of the to-do illusion. Never postpone a task more than one time; make it a personal must and stick to it.

4. Utilize the power of NOT-to-do lists

“Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

When I read that quote for the first time, I immediately fell in love with it. Our days are full of tasks that should be done – or at least so we think. Most of these tasks are trivial matters that don’t contribute substantially to our wellbeing and success. In this sense, NOT-to-do lists play a much more important role than to-do lists. They allow you to live a richer, more fulfilled life.

Action step: Put it your goal to differentiate between what matters the most to you and what doesn’t. This should originate out of your heart and guts. Then start to eliminate as much as you can of the trivia and daily nonsense.

5. Schedule time for recreation and relaxation and stick to it

Usually people falsely assume that productivity is related exclusively to workplace or business. However, being productive simply means that you produce large amounts of desirable results and goods. In order to be able to do that, you should rest; relaxation and recreation are integrated parts of productivity.

The time you spend resting is not wasted at all; as long you do it consciously for the sake of your wellbeing. If you want to cut trees you can’t do that forever without sharpening your saw every now and then; because it will wear gradually until it becomes useless.

Action step: put aside an hour a day for total relaxation. It has nothing to do with the time you allocate for sleeping. During this hour you can meditate, listen to calm music or just lie down and admire the lovely clouds and the blue sky. Consider it a chance to recharge you batteries and increase your productivity.

6. Use the Pomodoro Technique®

The Pomodoro Technique® is a time management method. This Technique helps you to transform time into a valuable ally by helping you accomplish what you want to do and charting continuous improvement in the way you do it.

This technique helps you eliminate distractions by working in 25 minutes time blocks. You should totally focus on the task for 25 minutes then you take a 5 minutes break. You repeat this cycle 4 times and after that you take a longer break for 20 minutes. Your brain will use this time to assimilate new information and rest before the next round of Pomodoros.

Action step: learn more about the Pomodoro Technique® by visiting their website (Link) and try to integrate it into your daily routine. You will notice large increase in productivity within a couple of days. Try it, it is amazing!

7. Use the 7-minutes rule

Procrastination is one of the worst productivity killers on earth. It sneaks into your life unnoticeably a little by a little until it takes control over your whole being. One of the biggest reasons behind procrastination is that our brain gets intimidated by the perceived complexity of a certain task and therefore, it tries to protect you by moving away from that task.

The 7 minutes rule is a diplomatic way to ease your mind into doing any task you want. You simple say that you will do that task you’ve been putting away for just 7 minutes. Then if you like it you’ll continue and if you don’t you stop. Once you get started, you’ll gain momentum and find it much easier than what you thought. You’ll hardly stop at that point and before you know it, the task is done!

Action step: make a list of 3 important tasks that you’ve been postponing for a long time. Pick one of them and give it a try for 7 minutes. Once the task is completed, do this for the remaining 2 tasks.

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Photo: listentothemountains

Start today and notice your progress for the next week. I will be glad to receive your feedback and comments on what worked best for you and which other methods you use as well.

Stay Lively
Saed

ظهرت المقالة Forget About Time Management. Use these 7 Incredible Steps And Gain Instant Control Over Your Life Today, Number 6 Is Unbelievable! أولاً على أكاديمية سائد يونس.

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ~Plato

Many people would say that fear is their worst enemy. That might be true; because fear can paralyze people from taking action and moving forward. It comes hiding in different shapes and forms- like fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of heights, fear of closed places, fear of success, and the list goes on and on. It is the main reason that most people live and die without achieving their dreams or even a part of them. It is the reason behind many failed marriages and broken relationships. And it is the reason why people fail – personally, professionally, socially or in any other arena in their lives.

Fear is really a monster that can eat you alive. In some extreme cases it turns to a mental illness called paranoia – which is defined by the Collins English Dictionary as “a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion.” The majority of us haven’t reached this extreme level, but we do struggle with fear and fearful thoughts every now and then.

To get a closer look on how powerful fear is, watch this video:

Fear has tremendous amounts of control over humans just as with animals. So wouldn’t it be great if we can leverage this power and use it to our benefit? The answer is yes it will be great and yes we can!

The key is to shift your perception and start looking at fear from a whole new perspective; a simple mind game that you play with yourself. That’s it.

Have you heard the saying “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” before? Since fear is your worst enemy, then you should keep it the closest. This means that you first have to know what your fear/fears are, understand them and employ them to work for you rather than letting them enslave you.

If you try to ignore your fears and pretend like they don’t exist, they will fire back big time. What if I told you: Do NOT think of a pink elephant. What happened in your mind? Have you NOT thought of it? You did, right? This happens all the time when you try to dictate on your mind what NOT to do – it goes and does the exact same think you are trying to avoid.

That’s why you should always focus on what you want and keep your eyes on the result/outcome that you want to get. The twist here is to make your fear of failure very strong so that instead of paralyzing you, it forces you to take action forward.

Here’s one simple, yet powerful technique that you can use right away to leverage the power of fear to work for you:

“Close your eyes and take several calm deep breaths. Visualize yourself 5, 10 or 20 years later all sad and lonely because you haven’t achieved any of your dreams or goals. Imagine the amount of pain and regret you’ll have and make it feel as real as possible. Now imagine that everything around you is disappearing one by one; furniture, buildings, trees, people etc. then you’re standing alone in the middle of an empty desert screaming for help, but no one answers! Suddenly you start drowning slowly in a sand whirlpool and you’re scared, helpless and hopeless. Now take a deep breath and open your eyes. Have a look around you. And be thankful that none of that has happened yet. Promise yourself to do whatever it takes to succeed.”

You have only one life time, so make it worthwhile. Don’t waste your time in fear and regret. Go out there and show the world what you’ve got. Try to add as much value as you can and seek to help as many people as you’re capable of. Eventually the law of reciprocity will work for you – you will start to see the fruits of the all good that you did and you’ll defiantly reap a hundredfold what you’ve ever sown.

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Photo: epSos .de

Has there been any fear in your life that kept you from achieving your important goals? Have you successfully overcome a major fear before? If yes, how did you do that?

ظهرت المقالة Why I Love Fear: Incredible Secrets You Probably Don’t Know About Fear And How It Can Boost Your Success أولاً على أكاديمية سائد يونس.

Did I know the devastating effects and health implications of smoking? Sure I did; I was living them each and every day – no exceptions. But the pain of smoking wasn’t big enough for me to quit. I tried several times, but none of them was a deadly-serious sort of attempt.

Years after smoking I decided to finally quit, and I never looked back since. Several factors played an important role of me being able to finally quit. When I analyze the situation, I can chuck them down a few fundamental factors. In this article I’m going to talk about the first one.

When you take a decision, make it extremely hard/embarrassing/devastating for you to break it and go back to where you’ve been.

This means that you have to do whatever it takes to assure that you can’t go back. Burn all the ships, go public with your decision and announce it to friends and colleagues, stand up in the middle of a crowded street and scream your intention out load or even threaten to beat yourself up. Just do whatever it takes.

In order to succeed, you have to figure out what makes you tick and also what makes you stick – to your decisions of course! The later might not be so attractive to you, but still you have to punish yourself when necessary.
In my case I immediately announced my decision online so that my friends will know about it. Here’s the post I made back then:

Then to broaden the circle of potential embarrassment, I started an initiative to promote healthy smoke-free lifestyle in my university. I called it “ShababCare” –Shabab is an Arabic word that means the youth-, launched a Facebook page for it Link. And to make sure that enough people hear about the initiative and ride along with me, I reached out to friends whom I knew hated smoking so much that they were willing to participate in any campaign against it.

To go even further, I emailed the student affairs department at my university promoting the initiative and asking them to forward it for all students and staff members. Within one week, almost everybody in my university knew about my decision or at least heard about “ShababCare” initiative. Not all of them liked the Facebook page of course, but going public alone was enough for me to think 10 times before even thinking of returning back to smoking again.

Almost a year later I discovered that this method –self-punishment/threat- is actually a scientific strategy pioneered by the Noble-prize winning economist Thomas Schelling. The idea is simply: if you fail to achieve your goal, you give money to a charity of your choice. The tricky part is that: You must pledge to give to a charity that you HATE.

This strategy alone might not be 100% effective on the long run. You have to support it with other strategies to make sure that your decision becomes permanently carved in stone; I will dive deep into the strategic power pack I used in future articles. However, it is a great technique to start with and it gives you enough momentum to depart the runway.

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Photo: Celestine Chua

So, do you have a similar experience with smoking? Have you tried this strategy with other areas in your life and succeed? Please share your ideas and feedback in the comment section beneath.

ظهرت المقالة A Proven Simple Strategy That Will Help You Kick Out Any Unwanted Habit Forever أولاً على أكاديمية سائد يونس.