Photo by Thomas Bormans on Unsplash
We often think how people get rich and we are always hook up with the idea that we can be successful by taking the easiest road. We always dream but never took an action, there are also some times when we initially did an action for a couple of days but ended up stopping it after a week or so.
We are in the generation of everything should be instant we often forget that it will take us some time for us to reach our goals. We always neglect the fact that the only way to be successful is we have to have the “consistency”.
Each one of us have 24-hours each day and how we spend each of our time dictates where our life goes. Each decisions you are making today will lead you somewhere. If you are not careful about how you spend your time, you might be surprise one day that you spend almost everything and ended not going to the place you ever wanted.
Let me ask you now, how do you spend your time? Is it leading towards where you wanted to go five years from now? Or Are you just following the crowd?
HOW WE TYPICALLY SPEND OUR TIME
1. Netflix and chill
We spend so many hours binge watching the new shows. We often feel “FOMO” whenever we haven’t watched the new trending series. But at the end of the day, does this action really helped you to be in the place where you wanted to be? We’ve been programmed to consume everything around us that we often forget what we truly wanted.
How many hours do you spend each week watching movies? Is it really worth it? Will your future self be proud of what you are doing now?
2. Social Media and Youtube
To be honest there is nothing wrong with social media and Youtube for as long as we know how to use it at our advantage. However, for most of us these social media sites are an outlet for us to see what others are doing which harms us personally rather than helps up.
We often fill the spare hours that we have consuming information that we doesn’t really need or help us be in the place where we wanted to be. Do you know how many hours you spent each day browsing social media? Those hours can be used to work on something that you’ve been pushing off because of your excuse that “you don’t have the time”.
3. Just reading books (non-fiction books)
This is somewhat counter intuitive but to be honest not because you are reading books about success it means that you will be successful someday. There is nothing wrong with reading non-fiction book for as long as you are using it to gain knowledge and ideas and took action on it.
There are times that we see finishing a book as an accomplishment which gives us an extra dose of dopamine, however, at the end of the day what truly matters is that if you are taking an action.
Don’t let reading a book or watching motivational videos as an EXCUSE for taking action, but rather use it as a TOOL to take an action.
4. Partying and drinking
Whether we admit it or not, going to clubs and drinking at the bar gives as an extra dose of dopamine or sense of satisfaction. We often forgot about real life and just making the most of the moment not thinking about future or problems we have.
This might sound fine but the reality is, we are using it as an escape to get away from what we wanted. This helps us forget actions that we should be taking in order for us to progress on our goals.
HOW 1-HOUR RULE CAN CHANGE THE COURSE OF YOUR LIFE
At the end of the day, I still believe that there is nothing wrong enjoying your time. The problem happens when we overdo it and neglect what we really need to do.
Think of it this way, would you be happier if you are making progress towards your goals instead of having this temporary entertainment? I think almost all the answer will be yes. But we are all afraid to face reality that we have to sacrifice something if we wanted to achieve it.
I recently allotted an hour each day to take ownership of my day (as I am working as an accountant in the morning and need to work over time meet the demands of my work). I realized I need to spend some time each day to work on something that I believed will be beneficial for me in the future.
I realized out of the 24-hours that is alloted to me, why not use 1-hour of it to change the course of my life. At the end of the day, no success can be build in just a day but through consistent actions, by moving the needle each day towards it.
To be honest 1 hour won’t change your life, but imagine the impact if you can do 1 hour each day for 1 year, and then 2 years, then 5 years. The momentum you are creating will be significant in the long run.
I believe that such small habit moves the needle each day towards you goal, it might not be much today but seeing yourself progressing and taking action is better than not doing it anything. This will create a ripple effect to your life in the future.
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your identity. This is why habits are crucial. They cast repeated votes for being a type of person”
– James Clear
The compounding effect of small habits that you do each day can lead to tremendous changes in your life. As you move the needle each day, it cash a vote to the identity that you wanted to create for yourself thus ultimately recreating a new “you”.
HOW TO IMPLEMENT THE 1 HOUR RULE
- Find a cue
Your cue serves as a reminder for you to take an action. Find a specific time or action that you do daily and make it as your cue. This is crucial as this helps you to be reminded of the chosen action you wanted to do.
You can use below as an example:
a) After I brush my teeth at night (cue) + I will write an article
b) When I wake up in the morning (cue) + I will read 5 pages
c) After eating dinner + I will do my side project
This creates a routine and makes taking action easier as compared to just thinking that you have to do something towards your goal.
2. Set a timer
Setting a timer helps me to be laser focus, I realized when I was implementing the habit I chose to do, I am not as focus as I need to be (there are times that I am forcing myself to write something on my blog but ended up spending 2 hours but haven’t written any). I realized that I need some sort of pressure (which in this case a deadline for me to accomplish something) The 1 hour time helps me to be more focus as it somewhat create an external pressure for me, that’s how Parkinson’s Law works.
Whenever, you set a timer each minute that ticks are like a force that pushes to make the most of your golden hour. Remember, this is your allotted time of the day (since you have you have your day job) to make progress towards your goal and you have to make the most of it.
3. Feel like not doing it? Use the 2-minutes rule
I’ve been into this several times that I feel not doing it at all. I have this excuse telling to myself that “you can just do it tomorrow”. Whenever you have this excuse to yourself the best thing to do say to yourself that “you will just do it for 2 minutes“. To be honest, the mental burden of you doing it for an hour is dreadful.
However, tricking yourself that you will just do it for 2 minutes, removes the friction and allows you to take an action easily. Once you pull yourself and decided to do it. Just do it until you feel not doing it (trust me almost every time, you will exceed the 2 minutes that you previously told yourself). The most difficult part is just “starting”, once you already started doing it the rest can take care of itself.
FINAL THOUGHT
It may not be significant now, but I believe that this will have tremendous impact in the future. Let your small consistent actions compound to something far greater than what you imagine.
Save each hour of your day towards something that is very important for you. It may be trivial at first but if you persist and continue working towards something each day, your goal will not happen now but will surely come true soon.
Start now…
Vir Glarea 