Look at a life, your life, as a work in progress. It's a W.I.P. It's a W.I.P. in perpetuity. That is the essence of the High-Performance Lifestyle. Those of us who are always working, always striving, always growing are living an Optimized Life. This is a life defined by Full Engagement, Maximum Joy, and Total Fulfillment. Heck, it is not like this everyday. We are human. It's not possible. It's why there is always infinite upside potential. Think about that. In front of you is INFINITE UPSIDE POTENTIAL. No matter your station in life, your situation, we all share this common characteristic; we harbor an eternal hope that is lit by the reality of INFINITE UPSIDE POTENTIAL - I.U.P.
When the Spark of that hope motivates us toward some kind of change, we have a chance to move one step in the direction of our I.U.P. Sometimes, it's little things, and sometimes it's big things. My recent little thing is to follow the Wim Hof Method. I'm stacking two new habits into my morning routine. One takes an extra 10 minutes (I can find that by avoiding cat videos), and the other one takes a few minutes in the Shower. I practice Wim Hof breathing before my morning meditation walk and cold exposure in the Shower. After a week of these new habits, they have become ingrained.
The Triggers: The start of my morning routine and Jumping in the Shower
The Routine: Wim Hof breathing and Cold Exposure
The Reward: For each a sense of accomplishment AND powerful euphoric states.
The Spark was hearing about Wim Hof a third time. The follow-through was digging a bit deeper to satiate my curiosity. The consistency is now established through simple HABIT STACKING.
My new big thing is to create a little new content every day. This BLOG POST is a big weekly project for me. It's not extensive work, but it's not inconsequential either. I've been toying with creating video content. My Spark was one of my incredible clients. He lives halfway around the world, and I wanted to send him in-between session video insights and thoughts about his superb goals and admirable journey. So I stacked, creating small video messages to him at the start of my 5 am morning meditation walk. This is another Routine with the Reward being the videos he created for me. I was thrilled.
The Trigger: My established Morning Meditation Meander
The Routine: Pull out my phone and record 2 minutes of what's on my mind.
The Reward: Accomplishment of a cycle of learning creating video content and the feedback I'm getting from my clients.
The final new habit is all about planning. My first coach, Dave Cattle, once told me, "planning is Sexy." Well alrighty then Davo! I wasn't about to argue. But it's so true. And what better time to plan than the first thing Monday morning.
The Trigger: My Monday Morning Journaling
The Routine: What big blocks do I need to work on to move the ball on my most significant projects
The Reward: A great night's sleep because I planned and executed to plan.
Collectively, these aren't big things to execute on, but together, they all reinforce my belief in INFINITE UPSIDE POTENTIAL.
PHOTO CREDIT: Fireside, Horseshoe Pond, Saint Regis Canoe Area, Adirondak Mountains - JKAWSKI
