Becoming Your Best Self

Action Step #1: Gratitude

Gratitude is a critical component in becoming your best self. Your best self is thankful for all the diverse experiences that life has to offer. For the next week, I'd like you to practice saying "Thank You" to EVERYONE! This includes the person who sells you coffee or groceries, to the jerk who just cut you off in traffic. Exercise those gratitude muscles!

Questions to Ask Yourself

1. How does saying thank you make you feel inside?
2. How does it seem to affect the people to whom you say thank you?
3. What awareness into your self did this exercise give you?

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Action Step #2: Do, Ditch, Delay or Delegate

In this fast paced world, almost everyone I know feels overwhelmed by the quantity of things on their to-do list. We spend a lot of time focused on what we have to do next, preventing us from doing our best on the item in front of us. While focusing on what you're doing will help, it is also critical to review that to-do list and divide it into 3 new categories:

1. To be Ditched: those things that don't really need to be done either because their need has diminished with time or it's not actually a useful thing;
2. To be Delegated: those items that someone else can do.
3. True To-Do: those items that really need to be done and that will get you the biggest bang for the time spent.

Once you've got your true to-do's, divide them again according to the following categories.

1. This Week: All the items that really need your focus this week.
2. This Month: All the items that need to be completed this month.
3. Sometime in the Future: These are basically very low priority or "wouldn't it be nice to do" items.

I recommend creating a word processor file that includes all three lists on separate pages. I would only print out the weekly list and focus on that. At the end of each week, look at the monthly list to see if anything should be moved to the "this week" file for next week. Every now and again, perhaps once a month, check the someday file to see if something deserves to get moved to the "monthly" file. I think you'll find that eventually many of the items in your sometime file will make it to the "To be Ditched" list."

An added recommendation: on a daily basis, use a 3x3 sticky note to pick 3 items off your weekly list to focus on today. Once you've done those, you can go back to the weekly list if you want. Either way, you are going to start feeling very productive if you actually get those 3 items done!

Questions to Ask Yourself

1. What objections come up when you put an item in the ditch or delegate list?
2. Be realistic about those objections. If they are fear-based, take a deep breath and stretch yourself by letting one item go and delegating another. As that feels comfortable, build on it and ditch/delegate another.
3. Just a note: if you put something on the delegate list, make sure you tell the person what output you want and not what steps to follow (unless, of course, it's the first time the person has done anything like this.) Micromanaging will harm you, the other person, your relationship and their motivation to become better at their job.