Working from home has been a blessing for many of us these days but it also brings its challenges in terms of staying focused, motivated and keeping that momentum and energy. It’s time to step it up and become an action taker again!
Regardless of whether you are working from home or not, I will here equip you with some very simple and actionable ways to make things happen in your life again.
Great habits are key to working from home
We all have “down periods” and sometimes getting back on track again can be hard and this can happen for various different reasons. The best thing is of course if we can create habits so that we always have momentum and are maintaining it. If not, we have to be aware enough to catch ourselves before we lose to much of the traction!
First step is to become aware of all the habits we have in our life and what daily routines we have created (sometimes unintentionally). Then we can replace the ones which are not serving us with new habits helping us stay on course and keep momentum and energy.
Below I have listed a few of the tips I know will work even if you feel you have been lacking momentum for quite some time!
Simple steps to getting that momentum back!
These are all generic steps, listed without any specific order and with some minor adjustments they can also be pursued in times of social distancing. I want you to use the one(s) that you find most appealing to you. We are all different and driven by different factors and the key thing is to get that momentum back again. All changes start with those small steps and you can make sure you take the first ones today by going for the “easy route”, so pick the easy ones and let’s go!
- Friends – Do something fun with your friends. We all want to have fun and the more fun we have, the more energy we get. Hanging out with friends we enjoy and who stimulate our minds and bodies is a great way of getting going again.
- Movement – Absolutely key for our well being. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as start moving that ass again! Just walk around the block listening to an inspirational talk or podcast on your phone. Take a long walk in the forest or just stand up in your living room, put your favorite music on and start dancing like a crazy person! You will for sure get energized and you will have loads of fun at the same time (curtains up or down, that is completely up to you!).
- Music – Another great way of impacting our feelings and emotions. You and only you know which songs get you going. Put that album on and just enjoy it and feel the energy coming back to you. A tip is to first write down the things you “should do” so that upon listening to those great songs, you just make them happen!
- Commitment – Committing with a friend to go to the gym, sign up for a charity run or anything else is a great way of getting motivated (almost forced into action). What is your friend going to do if you don’t follow through? Why not challenge a friend of yours right now (no, tomorrow is not a better day, the best time is always now)!
- Having fun – Everything starts in our minds. By making sure you are doing things you enjoy, you will start reprogramming your mind to focus on all the great things about having fun and doing what you love! The more you do the things you enjoy, the more fun you will have and the more energy you will get and the more you will want to keep on doing it. That energy and those feelings will spill over to other things in your life and you will become more actionable (worst case you would just be having some more fun, so why not try it?!).
- Exercising – When we move our bodies we feel better on the inside and we look better which makes us feel even more pleased with ourselves! After a good workout session (of your choice) you will feel great and those endorphins are so nice to have! The more you push yourself when exercising (do it with a friend, coach or PT), the more you train your mind to push even when it’s hard and this is one of the absolute best things with exercise as you can use it every day all your life! That mindset of stamina and determination you build will take you places you might never have been. So find those shoes and just take the first step today by calling a friend and go for that exercise you both enjoy. It could be tennis, gym, running, boxing, dancing, swimming or whatever, just make it happen!
- Accountability – By putting your neck on the line, the pressure is on. This can be done with a friend or an acquaintance or even directly on social media. If you expose yourself and tell people you are going to do it, you are much more likely to follow through! Ideally you find an accountability partner who you are accountable to and who is accountable to you. By using an accountability partner, you can both inspire and motivate each other to be moving towards your goals. I personally really like having an accountability partner. You can choose someone you know who is a go-getter and you set your individual goals and follow up consistently to push and motivate each other.
- Listen & Learn – To your role models or other inspirational people using your phone. Have these people in your head for hours every day! We really become what we think about and tend to be very similar to those we spend time with. Why not spend time with people you admire and want to learn from? I love doing this and do this every day as it can be done whilst I’m doing other things on “autopilot”. By listening every day to inspirational or motivational speakers, you will start feeling different and you will become more actionable and that’s how you gain momentum.
- People of Action – Find people who are action takers and start spending time with them. Even if you don’t know anyone you can find them via friends or social media. I always use Facebook to find groups of interest and to meet new people. The last two groups I joined were for trail runners and mountain biking (just moved to a new town). There is no way you can spend time with people who are constantly taking action without you becoming an action taker. Well to be honest, if you don’t get motivated and inspired by these people, they will move on unless you step it up! I love hanging out with and learning from people who take massive action and make things happen.
- Goal setting – This is absolutely key and if you don’t have a big enough why, you will most likely never get started or quit as soon as you meet some resistance. Would you give up on you your children if they couldn’t walk by the age of 3? Hell no! You would do anything and everything to help them start walking on their own. That’s a big enough why, which won’t let anything stop you! If you can find something like this, you will never be a quitter regardless of how tough it gets. Remember that quitters never win and winners never quit! Figure out your why and nothing will stop you on your way to success!
These are some of the easiest ways to get that momentum back and they are definitely suitable to a working from home environment where you might have some flexibility in your day. The best thing is of course to make sure you have habits you are automatically doing, which means you will never lose your momentum in the first place. It’s always harder to start from scratch than keep going when you have momentum.
I remember when one of my old bosses once asked me why I was pushing so hard when I had already met my yearly goal, “because I have momentum!”. When you are on a roll and have high momentum, just keep stepping on the gas as you don’t know how long that momentum will last for! Just make sure you listen to your body (which I didn’t) whilst you are moving fast forward and leaving your competitors behind. Also try to remember the feeling during the journey and not blindly be focusing on the goal because once you get there, the feeling you might be expecting might not occur. You have to enjoy the ride!
Creating a power circle
You can create you very own power circle by setting great routines and having the discipline to follow through on those routines. By being consistent with your routines you will create very successful habits. Habits are the things we do without having to think about them. The cool thing is that you can choose what habits you want to nurture by setting great routines and then using discipline to follow through. By building discipline and habits you are “automatically” taking action. If you maintain your discipline, you will always be moving and you will never lose your momentum and that’s how your power circle has been created!
Know what you want and why you want it. Create and organize a well considered plan for your achievement and then use your momentum and discipline to constantly be moving towards those goals of yours.
Momentum and action taking are the single most important factors to success in life. They make all the difference between being a success and a failure and it’s completely up to each and one of us. If you find yourself in a working from home environment without any colleagues physically around you, it’s even more important to make sure you don’t lose your momentum and energy. Use these simple steps to create and maintain momentum for the rest of your life and you will become a true success!
Actions to take:
- How to accomplish twice as much per week by having outstanding morning rituals!
- “Brainwash” yourself to success!
- How to be in full control – Daily Focus
- Tools for motivation – Podcasts, YouTube and Music
- Habits of highly successful people – just copy them!
- Why habits make all the difference in the world
- Think and Grow Rich – Principle 1: Burning Desire
- Think and Grow Rich – Principle 6: Organized Planning
– Jakob
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