I had a frustrating day last week. Yes, Mr. Positivity has them too.
I didn’t get a workout in to start out the day and went right into some tasks that were urgent yet not the most important.
I pride myself on prioritizing every week and every day to great efficiency. I cut the fat out of my calendar and schedule time to do good work…no great work.
I had a bunch of meetings back to back and my focus was to be present with each person or group. By the end of the day, I’ll give myself a pat on the back for presence but I found myself 6 hours behind on email and not getting to my top priority that day.
So I worked harder over the next hour…and got more frustrated. Been there? Knowing myself and being aware things were not getting better without a state change I decided I was going for a run or a massage. The run is usually my go to but smartly I chose the massage.
Quick awareness was I needed to slow down.
90 min later and after walking 15 min home in the crisp evening air I was thinking clearer.
So what did I do?
Get back at my top priority? God no.
I picked two things I could do over the next hour that would continue the calm and put me towards sleep in a good state and focused on prioritizing an early morning wake up, tackling my two toughest tasks first.
I started the next morning with meditation, didn’t open email or texts, phone on airplane mode and hammered through work for three hours.
Before lunch came around that day I finished 90 percent of what I needed to get done that day. I made up for the day before and more than flipped the angst on its head.
Here is where I get my inspiration for my best ideas or to turn around a tough day:
- Going for a run, workout or yoga
- Going to a good movie
- Seeing a good play with my wife
- After morning meditation
- In the morning at 6am
- After a 90 minute massage
- After listening to good podcast
- After spending time mentoring or being mentored
- When I travel to a new place
- When I learn something new
- On a cross country flight
I’m putting this as a reminder in my calendar weekly as a force function to review when I get out of sorts. Happens to the best of us.
What’s on your list?
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