7 Ways to quick start everyday in life
Most of us suffer
to some extent from work-aversion. Some of us like out work, and most
us at least dont hate it, but wed still rather be doing something
else most of the time. Thats why they call it work right?
Thats aversion makes getting started the hardest part of any job.
Writers block gets the most press, but folks encounter
executives block and plumbers block
and computer programmers block, too that state of semi-paralysis
brought on by a fear and pain and just plain old lack of want to.
We all have to learn to work through the aversion if we want to maintain
the habit of eating regularly. But some of us perform time consuming start
up rituals before we start to work and many dont really work effectively
for several minutes even after starting. You may not even be aware of
your rituals, which makes them hard to get rid of. Some of your warm ups
may actually help prepare you to work, but others may simply postpone
the inevitable confrontation. Those are a waste of time, and you need
to get rid of them. Heres how.
1. Prepare Mentally:
Back at the turn of the century, a famous man called Charles Haanel called
the subconscious mind a benevolent stranger, working on your behalf. For
all the subsequent research on the working of the brain, researchers have
yet to encounter a better description. You can get that subconscious stranger
working for you on any job that you have to perform.
The night before the job, tell your subconscious exactly what you want
to accomplish the following day. Youre not issuing orders here.
Youre not telling the subconscious how you intend to do the job.
Thats part of the conscious planning stage. Youre simply planting
the idea, giving that larger mind that exists outside of conscious thought
time to mull and sift, combining images and ideas, amassing energy and
positive attitude. Instead of letting the subconscious disaster tapes
play, a visualize yourself performing exactly as you wish.
This is particularly helpful if youre going to speak to a group
or otherwise put yourself before an audience. This isnt a matter
of wishing will make it so. Positive visualization wont
cast a magic spell over your audiences. But it will affect your behavior,
helping you call forth your best effort by concentrating energies and
consciousness. For some great athletes, this ability seems to be a natural
gift, no less than speed, strength and coordination. They talk about a
strange kind of prescience during which they seem to see themselves hitting
the home run, intercepting the pass, or returning the backhand baseline
volley before they actually make the play. What comes to some as gift
you can claim as tool.
2. Prepare physically:
You should have your physical tools assembled and accessible before you
begin the job. If possible, stake out a specific place for the work, when
you can keep everything you need within easy reach and leave stuff out
between work sessions. That way, you eliminate time spent pitching camp
and then tearing it down again each time. Also, when you become accustomed
to doing a job in a specific, youll be focused and ready to work
as soon as you enter that place. It doesnt have to be fancy or even
private. It just has to be yours, and it has to have the tools you need.
3. Map the terrain:
Before you begin the trip, figure out where you want to go. Remind yourself
of your purpose. Whats in it for you? For your organization? For
the client or customer? If you cant answer these questions, save
yourself time and effort and ensure that youll do a better job by
taking a few moments now to get that information you need and to focus
on what you hope to accomplish. If you still arent sure, seek out
the authorization, approval or verification you need. Again, a few minutes
spent here can save hours later. And youll work more efficiently
and confidently. If the work involves several stages, write them down
first. Dont try to create the sort of orderly outline only an English
teacher could love. Just jot down the steps or ideas in the order they
occur to you. Then number the items in proper sequence.
4. Start anywhere:
If you arent ready to start at the beginning, start someplace else.
You cant escape certain sequences. A plumber has to turn off the
water before disassembling the pipes, for example. But jobs often contain
a great deal of flexibility. The finished product has to be assembled
in the proper order, but you dont necessarily have to tackle the
components in that order. A director shoots a movie in the most practical
sequence, getting all the location shots before returning to the studio
for the interiors, for example. These separate scenes become the raw material
for the finished movie. If the director and the editors do their jobs
well, the viewer cant tell in what order the scenes were shot, the
movie tells a coherent, entertaining story. The seams dont show.
When you are thinking your way through a problem, it doesnt matter
where you start. It only matters that you start.
5. Start Anyway:
Researchers know lots of writers who have suffered from blocks at one
time or others. Poets seem especially susceptible to the disease. But
the working stiffs who write on deadline day after day never seem to get
blocked. Lots of times they write when they feel lousy. Lots of times
they worry that lack of time has forced them to do a lousy job. Folks
who cant afford to get writers block dont get it. The
same goes for plumbers block, CEOs lock and bus drivers block. The
poet can afford to wait for inspiration. The rest of us do the job, inspired
or not. If youre good at your, a professional in the best sense
of word, your mood doesnt show in the finished product. Nobody can
tell whether or not you felt like doing it. Fact is, they dont even
care. Theyre interested in the results, and the results can be just
as good regardless of the mental anguish you felt dragging yourself to
the task.
6. Lock out the
critics:
We all make mistakes. Writers get to make theirs in private and they can
give themselves the chance to fix them before anybody else sees them.
But when Green Bay Packer quarterback Brett Favre throws an interception,
half the known universe sees him do it and theres no way he can
pull the ball back and take the play over. But researchers know a lot
of writers who compose their rough drafts as if a Lambeau Field full of
rabid fans and multiple millions of TV viewers were watching. Even worse
they write with their editors perched on their shoulders, ready to pounce
at the first sign of dangling modifier.
Maybe youre doing your job that way too, feeling the eyes of editor
or boss or critic while you try to think your way through a challenge.
Its a two step process, first the doing, and then the judgment.
Just as an NFL quarterback has to shut out the howling of the mob and
concentrate on the receiver, you have to shut out concerns about judgement
during the process of creation. If you dont you wont take a chance,
try out an idea, risk a failure in the eyes of the invisible
judge. You might even be afraid to start, and getting started is the only
way you will ever finish.
7. Stop before
you need to:
Momentum is a wonderful feeling; especially when you have got a lot to
do and not much time to do it. The last thing you want when the job is
going well is an interruption. Common sense tells you to keep working
until you are finished. If you cant finish the job in one sitting,
you work until you are exhausted or until you run into a snag you cant
work your way through. But it actually makes a lot more sense to stop
before you get too tired and before you reach a snag.
If you give yourself too much time, you will build up an aversion to the
task, the very material blocks are made of. But if you have stopped in
mid stride, sure of the next step you will take, you will come back to
the job confident and even eager. You wont have to waste any time
getting back into the groove, because you wont have gotten out of
it.
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