Winning The Day Part I: Why You Need A '...

Do you have a routine?

I mean one that makes you the most efficient and productive person you can be?

Or maybe you struggle with feeling that you’re pulled in many different directions at the same time…

Do you find that you can’t clear the clutter of your busy life (or even your own mind), long enough to focus to get stuff done?

Your to-do list is seemingly never-ended, and at the end of the day you’re not even halfway through it...

Well, JP Moses here with a thoughtful and actionable Mindset Monday lesson. I’m taking you on an interesting (maybe even fascinating) journey where you’ll learn how to win your day by creating and using what I call sacred routines.

Take a breath and read on…

What Had Happened Was…

So, I received an email from a student that got me thinking about this dilemma. The student said:

“If there isn’t order, I’m not able to function as well as I could. I’m constantly forgetting things, and I experience feelings of confusion and lack of organization.”

Then he added… (and I love this!):

“Structure comes before organization.”

Bingo!

If that’s your problem, then this lesson may turn out to be a lifesaver for you.

I’m going to walk you through my own journey and share my struggles in this area and tell you how I’ve solved them. I’ll be sharing time-tested tips, proven tools and a solid plan for how you can start winning the day, each and every day.

A huge part of this is creating your own sacred routine that sets the stage for you to win the day (before the day even starts).

Here’s a quote that has made a big difference in my life—it may help you as well:

“When you wake up, think about winning the day. Don't worry about a
week or a month from now -- just think about one day at a time. If you
are worried about the mountain in the distance, you might trip over
the molehill right in front of you. Win the day!”
~Drew Brees

2 Critical Things

These 2 critical notes underlie the concept of winning the day.

1. Sacred routines aren’t always easy to do, because they’re often in friction with our built-in norms that we’ve developed over our entire life. It’s how we’ve been hard-wired. And just because they’re difficult, doesn’t mean they’re wrong.

2. Developing sacred routines takes practice, and that’s how they eventually become easy and become a winning part of your life.

It’s no different than anything else in life...

awesome Any time you’re learning something new, there’s a learning curve to deal with. Sometimes it’s even painful to learn something new.

If you don’t like some of the ideas that I’m about to talk about because they don’t feel good, just make sure you don’t discount them simply based on your feelings.

I’ve learned that it’s worth it in the long run.

What Does Winning the Day Mean?

Let’s step back for a moment and find out what it really means to “win the day.”

It means different things to different people…

For me, it used to be coming to the end of the day and seeing how much I had accomplished that day. How many things can I stuff into my day? The more things I stuff into the day, the more I win the day.

But over time, this just didn’t feel right...

The real turning point for me came when I read Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. This book taught me that it’s not so much about what I accomplish, but about being in control and owning my day.

This is the opposite of operating in reaction mode to everything.

I say it often: “Either you run the day or the day runs you.”

And on the heels of that: “Either you run your life or other people get to choose to run it for you.”

If you have no clear vision for your life, then you are living everyone else’s vision for your life. In the same way, not having a clear vision for your day, means the same thing.

Ask yourself: Who is really at the wheel of my day? Who’s driving my car?

Each day is a journey. You’re in the driver’s seat. Most people too easily let others into that car and let them grab the steering wheel…

When that happens, you’re not getting where you want to go.

Decide in Advance

Winning the day is all about you deciding in advance:

a. What specific destination do I have for today’s journey?

b. What’s the best route, and the stops I need to build in, to help me get there effectively?

routine What I just described will only happen when you are proactive.

It cannot happen reactively as things are happening around you. This means you get to keep your two hands squarely on the steering wheel most, if not all, of the time.

The sacred routine is a way to craft your vision for your day. The goal is to stay out of reaction mode and into crafting the day as congruent as possible with your values, goals and vision.

The more you do this, the more you’ll sense yourself winning your day, whether you’re busy or not.

I Feel Like I’ve Crushed It

In my life, I run 3 different businesses and that amounts to a lot of stuff to do…

But even when I have super-busy days, if I’ve approached the day with my sacred ritual, then run my day based on that – at the end of the day I feel myself soaring.

I’m excited because I feel like I’ve just crushed it!

This quote from Tony Robbins describes perfectly what I’m saying:

“If you talk about it, it's a dream, if you envision it,
it's possible, but if you schedule it, it's real.”

Bottom Line

You struggle each day trying to get certain tasks accomplished, but for some reason all you feel is confusion and chaos.

If that’s true for you, then it’s time for you to step back and take control of your day by implementing your own sacred routines.

It will never happen by wishing. You must become proactive.

Coming up… in Winning the Day Part II, I’ll share several practical tools and techniques that I use to take control of my day. Hopefully, these will help equip you to take control and to start winning your day too.