Defined 02 Develop Your Edge by Grit2Great

ISSUE 02/ WINTER 2015

develop your edge

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DO YOU want to level up? Learn how to focus your attention on professional growth with a tangible approach.

The Future The Past 04

Set your Frame of Mind The way you perceive the world around you has a huge impact on your success.

08 13

The Present 16

History Repeated Perseverance and commitment foster the opportunity to change history.

morning routine dictates how your day will go, read the essential tips for a start to a productive day.

Proven Strategies

Do the Thing You Hate, First You have to do

The Day Starts the Night Before Begin to focus on upcoming events well in advance; several tips included.

The Morning Your

6 Strategies for starting your day oﬀ on the right foot.

the toughest thing ﬁrst and the rest will go smoothly.

Limit Distraction Do you know how to focus on the task at hand eﬀectively?

Don’t Get Eclipsed No

Final Thoughts The ﬁnal

one should want it more than you, if you want it, get it done!

ideas for how to develop your edge.

introduction || First and foremost Defined is a quarterly publication built just for you. After years of coaching clients from many different backgrounds, we’ve recognized there are four important areas to life. These four areas are Health, Wealth, Relationships, and Personal Investments. No matter where you come from, no matter what your background is, these four areas of life are something we manage on a daily basis. In fact, a large part of success in life is predicated on how we manage these areas. That’s where Grit || Great comes in. Grit || Great is a personal development agency that accelerates personal growth to achieve your highest dreams, goals and aspirations. We help you define greatness in yourself, as well as, show you how to use obstacles and setbacks as opportunities so you can get from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow. We work with wide range of clients from businesses to individuals who have specific areas of development they wish to pursue.

Our tailored and behavioral based approaches helps you grow your business, make more sales, builds confidence to live the lifestyle you want to live, creates breakthroughs in your career, it helps with building strong professional and personal connections, it helps find time for your passions, AND it can help with developing general fulfillment in your work and overall life. Whether it’s wanting to develop goals around health and nutrition, to dating and relationships, to wealth and wealth management, or developing keystone habits and core characteristics: You define it, we’ll help you build it. Follow us on IG/Twitter @Grit2Great Copyright ©2016 Grit2Great, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without written permission from the publisher.

Our Team For Questions and Feedback reach out to us at info@grit2great.life

7095 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90028 Suite 575

Pavel Petrov

Justin Jensen

Sameem Rouhani

editor & contributor creative director

editor & contributor

Phone: (+1) 323-484-6082 www.grit2great.life

set your

frame of mind || MINDSETS ABOUT THE DESIRE TO WIN, WILLINGNESS TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, GO AGAINST THE GRAIN AND LEAN IN, AND HOW TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Being super productive, having ambitious goals, getting an edge, not settling for average, or being eclipsed by the competition is something we all want. But how do we get there? How do we develop this edge? With so much information out there, with so many tactics and strategies, how do you find a system that works for you? Those of us in this vein have a fiery heart to do more, to achieve more, and to be more. We don’t like being second place.

SUCCESS IS NOT FINAL, FAILURE IS NOT FATAL: IT IS THE COURAGE TO CONTINUE THAT COUNTS. -WINSTON CHURCHILL 4

DEFINED Develop Your Edge

Yet, for as much ambition as we have, for as much willpower and motivation we have, not working smarter -or harder- harms the results we want and strive for. As they say, procrastination is the killer of all dreams.

If you’ve ever worked your butt off but felt little satisfaction and are left with an undesirable result, then you know exactly what we’re talking about. The process is chaotic, it’s high pressure, and there’s a lot of unknowns. Often, it’s hard to even be focused.

Yet, none of this is more pronounced than when we connect ourselves to a mission. Something, where we bring to the world --or to ourselves-- of which has never been done before. At this moment, there is a great wave of emotion when we “jump off the cliff ” into our mission. The jump is an awfully exciting time in our lives where we’re put to every test imaginable. It’s in these moments of high stakes where we really see what we’re made of. These are the moments of true growth and progress in our lives. This leap can be a journey that includes many new opportunities from a new career path (sales, engineering, journalism, building a business, signing up for areas outside of the “job description”) to working towards a raise or promotion, to starting your own business, or giving something back to the world. Really, it can be anything where the stakes are so high, and there’s so much pressure to succeed, that the idea of failure is not an option. The only direction is forward.

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WINNING ISN’T EVERTHING, IT’S THE ONLY THING. -VINCE LOMBARDI

Together, these elements (the risk, the thrills, the unknowns, the what-ifs) make for exciting times but also, on the contrary, can be extremely stressful times with moments of fear and doubt creeping in. Think about this endeavor because it’s important to take it all in and to be sure in the direction you’re headed. One way to know if you’re on the right track is if you feel the pressure to succeed as you dive into your mission. If you feel it, then welcome to the game of pushing your limits. This is where you start the process of becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable. If you don’t feel this pressure, or if you’re too comfortable, then it’s time

DEFINED Develop Your Edge

to think about shaking things up because boredom, bad habits, laziness, and overall unhappiness follow not being challenged. If this sounds like you then it’s time to pick a new direction or mission. Yet, what we feel when we’re doing something new and unknown is often this: chaos and doubt. Things seem unorganized, out of order, dysfunctional, and the next steps aren’t quite as clear as we’d like them to be. This is what it feels like to be beyond the comfort zone. And, this is actually good thing.

A SUCCESSFUL MAN IS ONE WHO CAN LAY A FIRM FOUNDATION WITH THE BRICKS OTHERS HAVE THROWN AT HIM. -DAVID BRINKLEY

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history repeated ||

STRIVE NOT TO BE A SUCCESS, BUT BUT RATHER TO BE OF VALUE. -ALBERT EINSTEIN

DEFINED Develop Your Edge

Think about the journey of Christopher Columbus as he set sail to go discover the new world. His group set out to discover a whole new life, they had a rough idea of where they were going, they prepared as best they could, they went through tremendous hardship, they persevered, and in the end they changed the world forever. But during the journey absolute chaos and doubt reared its ugly head. Many men died along the way as they were lost at sea, and nothing seemed to go to plan.

While you may not want to change the world forever you probably want to change YOUR world forever. In most cases it’s simply getting from where you are today, to where you want to be tomorrow. However, In between those points is growth -masked by sweat, tears, and hard work. The only way to get through to the end of the journey is with persistence, taking risks, learning from failure along the way, not succumbing to self-doubt, and relishing in each and every small victory.

The lesson? It’s perseverance and commitment that foster the opportunity to change (personal) history.

Over the years, we’ve found that one of the biggest stressors hustlers experience is a big disconnect between

YOU DON’T HAVE TO CHANGE THE WORLD

to-dos and prioritizing what’s needed to be done -- crippling their execution. In turn, this feeds into stress caused by not having enough focus and being spread too thin in too many areas. Together, these two factors can create boatloads of stress and make us feel like there’s too many moving parts, not enough time in the day, and can make us feel like we want to shut down. This is what lack of order looks and feels like, and this can make us feel like a failure.

The Priority of Prioritizing Just like people have a wide range of personalities, attitudes and aptitudes, so do productivity systems. We’ve tested several different methods, apps and strategies over the years. What We’ve discovered is there isn’t a onesize-fits-all solution. Just like there isn’t one way to live a life. We’re unique and multi-faceted and so are the ways we like to do get things done. For example, we may use a calendar for important dates, important

reminders, and managing chunks of our time. Additionally, we may use a notepad and pen for the various to-dos that come up in the day. Then, we may use another app (or apps) to keep track of our health goals, and we may use another app or spreadsheet to keep track of longer term goals or habits. It sounds like a lot and slightly chaotic, however, it really depends on perspective. If you think about it, the method(s) above are just helping you ensure your success. It’s a way to self manage and prioritize what’s important, especially, if this has been

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an issue in the past. If these apps, calendars, and reminders help you get a raise, promotion, or land more work, would it really be that bad to ensure you’re using them daily? Probably not. Because the alternative is fallen victim to bad habits and reinforcing them. A good book called “The Power of Habit” basically describes how everything we do is habitual -- to the point of what shoe we tie first. Habits rule our everyday life and the only thing that separates super successful people and super unsuccessful people is their habits. This is because habits are a compounding effect: the more we do something repeatedly the more reciprocal results we get. For example, if you eat 3 Big Mac meals per day, and don’t exercise, you’ll be sure to gain (earn?) an extra few pounds over time. By contrast, if you were to manage a budget of calories and stay in a caloric deficit, then over time, you’ll lose the weight. MATH.

You ultimately become what you do every day.

from succeeding. You can plan all you want but execution is where it’s at.

If you think it’s not important to develop systems to effectively manage your time and goals then it’s basically admitting to being OK with average; Average income, average weight, average smarts, average friends, average career, AVERAGE AT EVERYTHING ON EVERY LEVEL.

All success is, is a succession of execution over and over and over again.

If you want the results, if you want your goals and dreams to actually happen, then it’s time to take yourself more seriously. It’s time to invest in a system which helps you achieve your goals, helps you get faster results, and keeps stress levels down to a minimum so you can have a laser focus on success.

Work Smarter, Not Harder Before we get to the 5 Points to Kicking Ass we need to understand one very fundamental truth that keeps people

So how do some people keep executing like animals and don’t give up in the face of obstacles and challenges where others do? Because they LEAN IN. They lean into their goals, they lean into the difficulties head first, if they feel like quitting they lean in more by default and double down. This is because they understand that there is only two fundamental ways to live your life. You’re either leaning in or you’re leaning out of life. Leaning out of your life is doing the complete opposite of what it takes to get you to where you want to be. It’s like watching TV when you could be building a business. It’s like skipping a workout because you “don’t feel like it”. It’s like ignoring your budget and buy-

WHATEVER THE MIND OF MAN CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE, IT CAN ACHIEVE. -NAPOLEON HILL

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LEANING IN IS DOING EVERYTHING YOU CAN EVERY SINGLE DAY.

ing things on impulse when you know you should be cutting costs. Leaning out is essentially giving in to self-sabotaging behaviors over and over again. Leaning in is doing everything you can, every single day, to do what’s necessary to achieve your goals. It’s going left when all you want to do is go right. It means making choices that seem hard in the moment but have huge benefits over time when made over and over again. It’s to do the thing you know you need to do even if you don’t feel like doing it.

But how do you know when to lean in? It’s the very moment when you feel discomfort and for a minute you try to convince yourself out of it. It’s when you want to make an excuse, “It’s ok if I don’t do this now, I’ll give it a shot tomorrow.” or any moment where the easier thing to do seems like a better option. When these thoughts come in, this is your compass. So when the thought of doing the easy route becomes appealing, it’s time to lean in and take the harder route instead.

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the day starts the night before || THE IMPORTANCE OF DUE DILIGENCE: PLANNING AHEAD We tend to compartmentalize our days. When we wake up our day starts, and when we go to bed our day ends. It’s ok to think this way. Humans have been thinking this way for awhile now. But just because it’s the norm, or has always been this way, doesn’t mean it’s the best approach. For example, what if our actions from the previous day ring into the following day. When does the day start? The night before or when we open our eyes? For example, if we get hammered on a Wednesday night, somehow make it home, and wake up in the morning with a splitting headache while hitting snooze as many time as possible before getting fired, when did the day actually start?

the actions taken the night before (drinking heavily) ended up screwing us over the next day (with a hangover from hell). Drinking is a pretty obvious example, and there’s plenty of other examples out there that produce similar and not-so-ideal consequences. Watching too much late night tv or playing hours of video games into the night tends to disrupt our sleep patterns. Heavy and starchy foods tend to make us tired a couple of hours later. Not putting in time into a presentation tends to make us come off as unpolished and unprepared - you get the idea. Bottomline: We make the most of our days by planning before executing. In his book, “Eat That Frog!” Brian Tracy covers this topic very well. He essentially says that for every minute spent in planning you save as much as 10 minutes in executing. That’s quite a return on investment! Whether this is actually measurable is subjective, but the point is abundantly clear. A short amount of planning makes for highly effective executing. Here’s how: * It lays out clear step-by-step actions to take towards a goal.

Obviously, the night before.

* It reduces the amount of time one needs to “think” about the steps before executing by saving mental energy and willpower.

It works like this: All of our actions have reciprocal consequences --when we put time into X we get Y as a result. In the case above,

* We have more concrete action items in front of us and helps with focus (as opposed to abstract thought and distractions).

ALWAYS BEAR IN MIND THAT YOUR OWN RESOLUTION TO SUCCEED IS MORE AIMPORTANT THAN ANY OTHER. -ABRAHAM LINCOLN

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It’s also much easier when you have it planned out and are able to focus instead of trying to manage all the hundreds of things you need to do every day at the same time. A few minutes of investing your time into planning pays off in big ways when your time is most needed.

Here’s some other benefits of planning the day the night before:

WHAT IS SUCCESS? I THINK IT IS A MIXTURE OF HAVING A FLAIR FOR THE THING YOU ARE DOING; KNOWING THAT IT IS NOT ENOUGH, THAT YOU HAVE GOT TO HAVE HARD WORK AND A CERTAIN SENSE OF PURPOSE.

* keeps things in play you might otherwise forget while sleeping

-MARGARET THATCHER.

* helps ensure having a smooth continuum the next day * helps with being ready to go when waking up (this can greatly reduce stress) * frees up some of your mind’s energy so it can focus on more important things rather than playing catch up with the day *helps control of the day instead of the day controlling you.

How to Apply this Strategy 1. Grab a sheet of paper or notebook and a pen. 2. On the sheet of paper write Morning at the top, write Day about a third of the way down, and then write Evening near the bottom. 3. Make sure there’s enough space to put 3-5 items under each category. 4. Before bed, fill in the 3-5 things you need to get done in the morning, during day and what needs to be closed out by the evening. Each item on this sheet of paper should be an item that would make the day the most kickass of days. These

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should be items that will a) stretch you a little bit, b) move the ball forward, and c) be a little uncomfortable. Typically, and especially ones related around work, these are the ones we tend to NOT want to do. If this sounds familiar, then these are exactly the ones you want to do first. LEAN IN.

3. If you have a deadline on Friday and it’s Tuesday make it a goal to get it done on Thursday and submit it early. But not just early and getting it done just to get it done. Make sure this (and every one after it) is the best report anyone has ever produced. Remember to put some pride into your work.

Some examples:

4. If you have a laundry list of shit to do then mark them down in order of most difficult to least difficult and start with the most difficult first. Then, like the beast you are, knock them down one by one. Make sure TODAY is the day you kill it. Don’t leave work until every single item is marked off that list to the best of your ability. Be a part of 1% who gets there to-do lists done.

1. Calling the customer whose order got screwed up and you know you’re going to take a beating for it. Write this down and do it before checking email. Same thing, if you have to deliver some bad news to your boss or coworker. 2. If you’re in sales, and a big part of your job is making cold calls, make it a goal to do 15-20% more phone calls then you would normally do. Do these calls first thing in the day to get them out of the way first --you’ll thank yourself later.

Using this simple strategy you will never be eclipsed by someone else at work, you’ll never be the one who doesn’t reach the top. Why? Because people are generally lazy (sorry not sorry) and you’re choosing NOT to let bad habits get the best of you.

Three Main Mindsets for this Strategy

1 Take Pride in Your Work -- The quality of your work is the most important part. Not because you’re doing it for someone else but because you’re doing it for you. It’s your reputation on the line when shitty work gets passed through. Do you really want bad quality work to reflect on you? Probably not. So put your heart into your work because you care about the quality you put into your services. You care about how it impacts others, and you care about your reputation centered around your work.

Take Responsibility -- There’s only one person who looks after you more than any other person. It’s not your mom, it’s not your grandma, it’s not your dad, and it’s not your significant other. It’s YOU --the person you look at in the mirror. This is who you take care, this is who you will be with for the rest of your life. This is your best friend. Take a good look at this person and swear you’ll do your best to build him or her up. When you OWN IT you get more done because these tasks are yours and nobody elses. You do this for you.

3 Think Long Term -- No big changes happen overnight. Allow room for improvement, allow room to fail forward, allow room to make mistakes or let some old habits come through. Old habits die a slow, painful, and long death. They’re going to slip in so

expect it. If you have a day where only 50% of the items got done, then so be it. Plan for tomorrow, and get back on the horse and try again. Whether planning out the day the night before ends up saving you an extra hour (or five) in execution, there’s no arguing it can be a positive benefit to your tomorrow. The mental energy you free up from not having to be reactive all the time ends up saving you from a lot of stress down the road. This is because, by planning your days, you become a proactive force. Meaning, you’re calling the shots, armed with a game plan, that can potentially save you hours of lost time from distractions, stress, and feeling overwhelmed. You also get the added benefit of waking up with knowing exactly how you want your day to run.

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the morning || THE IMPORTANCE OF A SOLID MORNING ROUTINE The morning is perhaps the most important part of the day, because, well, logic. It’s the first thing you experience when you wake up. How you structure the beginning of your day will have lasting impacts throughout the day. Having a solid morning routine -- big or small -- will help you start off the day by giving it a nice productive boost and reduced anxiety.

Hitting the snooze button a million times. Hitting snooze a million times can be a sign of depression, being unmotivated, lack of quality sleep, or generally, not excited about the day. The very act of snooze is avoidance of getting going and warrants further inquiry. Seriously, how much benefit does an extra 10 minutes (x100) do anyways?

Before we get into some ideas on good morning routines let’s look at a couple of common unproductive habits.

Getting up and rushing out the door. Starting your day rushed and in a hurry is a great way to raise your blood pressure, which in turn, can cause

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more feelings of stress and anxiety. This anxiety tends to spill across other areas of your life and it’s worth noting. It can lead to a car accident on the way to work, it can produce poor communication with others, produces poor quality of work, and leads to poor performance to name a few. It’s important to think about these things ahead of time because it’s extremely difficult to reverse course when we’re emotionally hijacked because we started the day off on the wrong foot.

One of the main topics of Emotional Intelligence is paying attention to the physical signals you’re receiving from your body because the body and mind share a clear connection. For example, if you feel stressed you might notice yourself taking smaller, shallower breaths, which in turn, makes it harder on your body to bring oxygen to the necessary areas; which in turn, causes more stress. Which is why taking deep, belly-full, breaths can help reduce anxiety because it provides more oxygen to the core areas of our bodies by slowing down our breathing. Additionally, deep breathing lowers our blood pressure, and in doing so we start to become less emotionally hijacked. Therefore, we become more present, and it increases our focus, productivity, and quality of work. Remember this: The body follows the mind and the mind follows the body. When we begin our days without taking the time to welcome the day we lose a massive opportunity to set ourselves up for success.

Instead, these behaviors above keep us from starting our day off on the right foot. This form of self-sabotage only gets worse the more times we do it because, after awhile, the more we do something the more likely we’ll form a habit around it. It’s worth being particularly mindful of our behaviors because some of them are what really keeps us from sustainable success. Do any come to mind for you? To address any naysayers claiming there isn’t anything wrong with the snooze button, I offer this. There is no scientific evidence supporting hitting the snooze button several times is a productive strategy. In fact, there is absolutely zero supportive evidence. However, if we are to hit the snooze button a dozen or so times then we might as well set the timer for an hour and a half later to get some restful sleep and complete a REM cycle. At least from this perspective we’d actually wake up more restful and energized. There, now you can have your cake and eat it too.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A GENIUS OR A VISIONARY OR EVEN A COLLEGE GRADUATE TO BE SUCCESSFUL. YOU JUST NEED A FRAMEWORK AND A DREAM. -MICHAEL DELL www.grit2great.life

proven strategies || START THE DAY OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT In this section we’ll cover a lot of ground but it’s important to acknowledge there isn’t a clear black and white way to start your mornings. How you start your mornings is entirely up to you, and what routines you choose, will be up to you and your goals. At best, these are suggestions to get some ideas flowing.

Start with Gratitude Starting the day being thankful that it’s arrived or kicking things off with items you’re particularly thankful for is a great way to bring some positivity into the day. Especially, when everything is going up shit creek. An attitude of gratitude has been a proven strategy time and time again and is a keystone habit among many highly successful people. This isn’t about listing off a bunch of random things (although

it can be), it’s more about being sincerely thankful for what you have in your life. A simple way to do this is to make it a daily habit roughly around the same time of day. For example, while enjoying your morning coffee or breakfast, bust out a pen and pad and write down 20 things you’re thankful for. Doing this at the same time of day will reinforce the habit more easily (as your brain will make an association with it). You’ll also start to notice your days becoming more fun and positive over time. Essentially, this will train your brain to flip negatives into positives the more times you do it.

self-aware is to put your thoughts and feelings down on paper. Then, once a week look back at what you’ve written to get an objective look at your current attitudes, thoughts and beliefs. Doing this will help you see yourself in a new way that helps you better understand your own inner workings. It also helps reduce stress by putting thoughts down on paper and provides some release from particularly strong emotions. A very popular method of journaling is the Five Minute Journal by Alex Ikonn and has been recommended by Tim Ferriss and other highly successful people. It’s worth looking into.

Journal for 5 Minutes

Meditation

Write down your current thoughts and feelings for five minutes in the morning. One of the best ways to become more

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A technique few dare to enter but has widely researched benefits such as reduced overall stress, more focus and overall feelings of well being. Meditating in the

morning is a great way to start the day because it offers the opportunity to clear your head before the day starts -- leaving a clean blank state. Meditation also helps with training yourself to breathe deeply which helps you in times of high pressure or stress. Most agree that 20 minutes of meditation is the minimum amount for effectiveness. Although, if you’re just starting then try 10 minutes and work your way up in increments of five minutes each week.

Reading Reading an inspirational book for 20 minutes in the morning is a great way to kick off your day in a positive mindset. Most books in this vein have great ways to reframe negative situations, and have inspirational stories or provide insights for how to positively go about your day. Making this a habit will help train your brain to

THE SIZE OF YOUR SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY THE STRENGTH OF YOUR DESIRE; THE SIZE OF YOUR DREAM; AND HOW YOU HANDLE DISSAPOINTMENT ALONG THE WAY. -ROBERT KIYOSAKI

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YOUR WORK IS GOING TO FILL A LARGE PART OF YOUR LIFE, AND THE ONLY WAY TO BE TRULY SATISFIED IS TO DO WHAT YOU BELIEVE IS GREAT WORK. AND THE ONLY WAY TO DO GREAT WORK IS TO LOVE WHAT YOU DO. IF YOU HAVEN’T FOUND IT YET, KEEP LOOKING. DON’T SETTLE. AS WITH ALL MATTERS OF THE HEART, YOU’LL KNOW WHEN YOU FIND IT. -STEVE JOBS

look at the positive side of life and fire you up for an awesome day. Or show you how to flip negatives into positives.

Doing Logic Games or Puzzles While the benefits of brain games is still new from a science perspective, doing these can help you feel more sharp. In a way, it’s like exercising in the morning because when we typically do things that are hard we tend to have an elevated sense of confidence. In particular, logic games train your brain to look for patterns and to solve complex

problems in a rational order versus an irrational or emotional approach. Doing this frequently can help build up the logical areas of the brain so we use this more often in situations that best require logic to solve problems versus intuition.

Exercising (DONT ROLL YOUR EYES) Exercising is well documented in helping your overall health and performance, as well as, reduce stress and anxiety. Exercising also has the benefit of training you to push through resistance, to prove your mind wrong

when it wants to quit, and to keep going when it’s tough. Also, people who workout in the morning report feeling more motivated and focused during the rest of the day. They also report having an easier time sleeping at night.

get the day into high gear, and over time, will build up your own positive psychology.

Doesn’t sound too shabby, right? These are just some of the things you can do to get your day off the right way and prop you up for sustainable success. Keep in mind these are more or less suggestions. You don’t need to do all of these and have a three hour morning (unless you want to). Simply doing 2-3 of these things in the morning will be enough to

Next, come up with a game plan. Plan your day the night before and add the 2-3 things you would like to do in the mornings to kickoff the day off on the right foot. Plan for up to 60 minutes and you’ll be good to go! As always, remember, you’re doing this for you not because you “should” or because someone is telling you to do it. Have fun with this and see which methods best help you start the day right.

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do the thing you hate, first || THE IMPORTANCE OF GETTING THE TOUGH ITEMS OUT OF THE WAY

Life’s a drag when we avoid the things we don’t want to do, isn’t it? We go through our days, lurking around on Facebook reading useless but really interesting articles, we cruise through Instagram or Pinterest for interesting content, we’ll do small easy work first like answering emails or doing some light data entry, but what about that big proposal we’re supposed to do? Shit. The sales calls? F***! The looming project due a week from now? Over the horizon, the work is there, like a dark shadowy cloud. Yet, it’s surprising how a lot of us like to wait until the last minute to do something... “But I like working under pressure!” Yeah, sure, we all do. For those of us who like working under pressure it’s because these are the times when the stakes are the highest.

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There’s a lot riding on finishing the project and making the deadline. The closer we get to the said deadline the higher the stakes become, and thus, we tend to kick it into high gear. (Remember cramming in college? :-) Obviously, this isn’t an optimal strategy as the motivation is coming from having to meet the deadline, versus, getting it done to the best of our ability. Often, we tend to make the most mistakes and the do the bare minimum asked of us for sake of completing the project. Without taking the time to think about how we can make a difference and make something better. Only when we give ourselves time do we really have the ability (and opportunity) to think beyond just the requirements and think of ways to do 110% so that we’re an asset, not an asshole. While the advice of doing things you hate first is pretty straightforward, the benefits are hard to deny because:

1. It helps you feel like a rockstar and boosts your confidence. Think back to the last time you did something really hard and were victorious. What was it and how did it feel? Use these experiences to propel you through difficult times or tasks ahead. 2. The rest of your day becomes easier. In the book, “Eat That Frog!” by Brian Tracy mentions he wrote the book around this old saying and principle: “If the hardest thing you had to do first thing in the day was eat a live frog, that would be the hardest thing you would have to do all day.” So, it helps to think of the difficult tasks, in a way, like a live frog. Once you’re done and over with the tasks then the rest of the day becomes a breeze.

In reality, this type of thinking, and training, helps you in many areas of your life over time. This is because there is a compounding effect that takes place every time you dive head first into difficult tasks -- with work, staying healthy, establishing good habits, with dating and relationships, etc. Doing the things you dislike, first, helps you build that inner compass that tells you to lean into discomfort. Over time, this type of mentality is what really transforms you into showing yourself what’s possible by stretching you and building the muscle of leaning into your goals. It’s these seemingly tiny achievements that create the milestones in your life. Remember, leaning into DISCOMFORT = GROWTH

3. It shows your peers you’re not afraid to tackle difficult tasks, and helps you stand out from those who shy away from hard work.

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limit distractions || MANAGING YOUR TIME, UTILIZING APPS TO MAINTAIN YOUR FOCUS.

Do you ever feel a sense of shame (even just a little bit) when you binge watch Netflix, Hulu, or play videogames for hours? These times of procrastination are an act of avoiding something we know we should be doing, like, building a business, writing content, working on personal goals, etc. In other words, the shame and guilt come from avoiding our goals, dreams, and aspirations because we know better but still chose a lower path in the moment. It sure as hell doesn’t feel good, and is a big reason why people become easily depressed by the act of repeated avoidance.

We’ve covered a lot of ground on how to stay on track but it’s important to realize where a lot of procrastination comes from. When we avoid our goals, and the life we want in general, we tend to create a huge gap in our mind between where we are and where we want to be. Since where we want to be is so much further down the road (and typically “better”) than where we are now, there tends to be a sense of comparison which reinforces the idea of “I’m not there” (and this sucks). The gap literally depresses our current lives, and that why we typically feel depressed. Because everything else seems better than what we have now. But where are we really on the time continuum? The past or future...or now?

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Technically, we’re always in the now... except when we tend to dwell in the past or future. Ironically, the best way to reach our future is doing what we need to do today. This is because you cannot get to the future unless what you’re doing presently is in-line with what it takes to move in the direction of the future. In order to do this, we need to limit distractions so we can reap the benefits of the compounding effect over time. It’s about the actions we take NOW that build our future of tomorrow. In this way, the future and the present walk together hand in hand.

In this section, we’ll explore technologies that will help you limit distraction, maximize your time, and help you live presently so you can stay focused on your mission. These strategies are more or less suggestions to give you some ideas to tailor them to your own style and workflow. Try them out, do some testing, and see which one works with you.

Habit Tracker Sent with this publication should be a habit tracker template we’ve created to help keep Health, Wealth, Relationships, and Personal Investment goals in check. This sheet also gives you actual metrics so you can see objectively where you are at. When we get metrics and have a score it bypasses any negative or overly optimistic biases that may come up. Feel free to use this template and modify it to your goals.

Trello Trello is a great project management app that visualizes your large projects and helps you see complex moving parts. There’s a ton of neat features such as checklists within tasks, ability to color code moving parts, set due dates, include team members, and allows you to create different boards for various projects.

Way of Life Way of Life is one of the top rated habit trackers out there for iOS and Android phones. It’s simple, easy to use, and you can check off your habits/goals with a press of a button. It visualizes your progress and gamifies your day to day progress. The app also keeps track of useful metrics which you can export into a spreadsheet.

Strict Workflow / Rescue Time These are two apps that have similar functions. Strict Workflow is a Chrome extension that allows you to hit a button and block time-wasting websites for a specific amount of time. RescueTime is another app, similar to Strict Workflow, but it goes way deeper into metrics. This app can track the time you spend on websites, provides graphs, metrics, and all sorts of data to help you maximize your time (and see where exactly it’s being wasted). That being said, the more practical feature on RescueTime is the website blocking feature.

Toggl Toggl is a an awesome time management internet app that allows you to see how much time is being spent on projects or activities. For example, if there are several moving parts in a project you can get accurate hours spent on each part by using it’s time tracking feature. Often times, this app is used for billing but it does have other useful applications. They also send weekly reports so you have an overview of where your time went.

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dont get eclipsed || NO ONE SHOULD WANT SUCCESS MORE THAN YOU

In this last section, we talk about the idea of getting eclipsed. This is more of a keystone mindset than a tactic. It’s centered about wanting it more than anyone else. As Mark Cuban once said, “Work like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it away from you.” Would you really want this person to eclipse everything you’ve built and

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have been building up to this point? Probably not. This isn’t about stomping all over your co-workers or being a d***. This is about letting your work ethic shine without being an asshole. More importantly, this goes back to your mission and taking pride in your work. But in the background knowing there is somebody out there who wants it just as bad as you do. Possibly more. Whether you want to admit this or not

we live in a very competitive world, and there’s really no getting around this. Competition is all around us and the ones who get to the top develop and sharpen their edge every single day. If you’re not sharpening your skills sets every single day somebody else is. And guess who’s going to win? The one who’s keeping their skills the sharpest. Don’t let your bad or unproductive habits get in the way. There’s too many

resources to help you move the needle forward out there, and a vast amount of information to help you. Frankly, your life is too much of a gift to let it waste away. There’s really no reason or excuse not to relentlessly purpose your goals and live a grand adventure in the process. Don’t get eclipsed by not giving it your all especially when you’re 100% capable of leading the life you want.

THE PRICE OF SUCCESS IS HARD WORK, DEDICATION TO THE JOB AT HAND, AND THE DETERMINATION THAT WHETHER WE WIN OR LOSE, WE HAVE APPLIED THE BEST OF OURSELVES TO THE TASK AT HAND. -VINCE LOMBARDI

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final thoughts || YOU’RE READY TO UPGRADE YOUR LIFE, NOW GET IT DONE Hopefully, by now, you’re fired up to start making massive upgrades to how you’re getting things done. One of the biggest confidence boosters ever is looking at your progress -- whether it’s written down or being tracked -- and at the end of the day having a “f*** yeah!” moment reflecting on all the things you accomplished. These are the moments in our days when we feel a sense of pride and accomplishment seeing an objective view at the progress we’re making. When we start to proactively manage ourselves instead of living a reactionary life, we start to feel a sense of control in how our lives are run. We start to feel a certain peace of mind and gratitude for the life we’re leading because it’s happening (mostly) on our time with our energy being focused on specific tasks and goals that are in line with our overall mission. Self-management is a critical skill when it comes to success in life. It’s not only critical but it becomes a fun game to play because each day is an opportunity to beat yesterday. It’s another opportunity to build the life you want, and another opportunity to see what you’re truly capable of (which is a LOT).

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This also takes time. It won’t be an overnight fix so be patient with yourself when building this new muscle. There will be days where you’re only 30-40% efficient and that’s OK. Everyone has off days and there’s always going to be things that come up unexpectedly. Know these things are going to happen. Anticipate and expect them to. That way, when they happen, you’re not blindsided and pissed off at an uncontrollable event because you understand the principle about getting back on the horse and trying again. Remember to relax too. This is about a long game strategy, so as long as you’re getting back on that horse each and every time something comes up, you’ll be just fine. Finally, work slowly and diligently in the beginning. Bringing on massive changes all at once runs the risk of burning out. Start with planning the day the night before and divide up the days into chunks for a week and see how that goes. Make this more about the game of “how do I manage myself better?” than the actual results at first. Then analyze, refine, and apply. Get it done.

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DEFINED DEVELOP YOUR EDGE www.grit2great.life