Your state of mind creates emotions that bring motion of taking action and is the sixth step. By continuously improving, compounding with consistency, having grit, and celebrating wins is how you’ll let your emotions drive you forward.
Luckily, this page contains the best ideas & top research on how to get in the right state. We will break down the science between creating a positive state of mind. Whether you’re looking to master your mind to take more action, this page should cover everything you need to know.
I. Continuous Improvement: Better Every Day
II. Consistency Compounds: The Compounding Effect
III. Passion & Perseverance: Grit To Last
IV: Celebrating Your Wins: Small Wins, Big Results
I. Continuous Improvement: Better Every Day
Everyday is an opportunity to change for the better. This is the Japanese way of “Kaizen” meaning continuous improvement. By making incremental improvements and utilizing deliberate practice, you can get better every day.
One Percent Better
If you improved by one percent everyday, you probably wouldn’t notice it. However, improving by one percent everyday for a year, you would see a drastic difference from day one from the end of the year. Getting better everyday for a year would result in 38x improvements from where you started.
Small improvements will help you achieve getting better everyday. These are small things like pushing yourself slightly harder than the day before it, or mastering a habit to achieve more in a single day.
Winner Takes All
To get the complete reward, you only have to be slightly better than your previous self or others. When there is a small difference in performance, it can lead to a winner take all effect. This is where we compare relative to those around us and determine the factor of our success.
If you’re comparing against your past self, you can see success. Even if you compare to others, you can see where you stand relative to. You only need to be one percent better than the competition to win it all.
Measurement & Coaching
One way of getting one percent better is using measurements to know where your baseline is today and where you want to be tomorrow. We measure the things that we want to improve upon. If we can’t measure it, it doesn’t get managed. What this means is that we won’t have any proof of whether we are getting relatively better or worse.
Another way of getting one percent better is utilizing coaching to measure & coach you to new bests. There are many great coaches & apps out there that will find small ways to help you improve and hold you accountable to get one percent better.
II. Consistency Compounds: The Compounding Effect
Consistency is the ultimate key to success. From taking small, seemingly insignificant actions, you can get significant results. You have the choice to succeed or fail. What you decide to take action on will compound.
All Or Nothing
What prevents us from taking action that compounds is deciding and breaking away from perfectionism. This is the all or nothing mentality of reaping all of the rewards, or none at all. Your actions are not zero-sum however. Your actions are not a means to an end, they are part of your journey to bigger outcomes.
You can win by participating in the game of consistency. Showing up everyday and putting in a repetition will outpace others in the long term, so long as you decide to be consistent.
Planning for Failure
Failure is inevitable. You will have small failures and you will also have big failures. Planning for failure will allow you to bounce back to take on even more failure. This will help you embrace failure as a tool.
Mitigating risk can be a double-edged sword. You can be too risk averse which prevents you from taking risks that can reap tremendous gains. Have the mindset of being able to plan for failures before they happen. Be more risk neutral. This shouldn’t be done to the point of not taking action that is risky, but rather as an opportunity to try something new.
Taking Responsibility
You are responsible for being consistent. You have to take responsibility for everything that you do and what happens to you. What you appreciate, will in turn appreciate. You are responsible for the successes and also for the failures. Making mistakes is human, but taking accountability for those mistakes will bring the power back to you.
Facing yourself will motivate you to fight through the uncomfortable experiences and as a result you will get better. No matter how bad it may hurt you initially for taking responsibility, all bad things end.
III. Passion & Perseverance: Grit To Last
In the long-term, you will need a combination of passion and perseverance to be consistent; otherwise known as grit. Being able to maintain your determination and motivation over a long period of time despite failure and adversity is what separates those who achieve their goals or not.
Finding Your Joy
Following your passion is not generally bad advice, but what might be more useful is to understand how your passion is fostered. You can do this by discovering what you’re passionate about. Ask yourself a few questions like “What do I like to think about?”, “Where does my mind wander?”, “What do I really care about?”, “What matters most to me?”, “How do I enjoy spending my time?”.
This is finding your joy and following it. Rather than spend countless years on things we don’t often think about or really care for, we should often reflect upon what brings us joy. Our joy is our passion, and it will help make long term goals a reality. Most of your actions derive their significance from your joy, your personal philosophy, and thus you’ll have your priorities in order.
Persistent Through Trials
All of the long days, the setbacks, disappointments, struggle, and sacrifice it takes to make a goal a reality is worth it. One must embrace the high possibility of failure and persevere. When it comes to dealing with failure, it’s a necessary part of success.
Being able to quickly recognize when you fail and why you failed will create teaching moments. To identify unproductive self-talk and persist until it’s over is the difference. Looking at yourself and honestly understanding what you’re doing well and what you’re not doing so well will make it last.
Failing To Succeed
People who succeed fail all the time. Your failures are pivotal moments on your journey to success. Your successes and failures are part of the process, not the destination itself. What you might consider to be a failure, might be another’s lesson of success.
The more you fail, the more likely you’ll have learned from the setbacks you’ve encountered. As long as you don’t give up, success is a destination that you’re bound to reach with enough determination.
IV: Celebrating Your Wins: Small Wins, Big Results
Each win is a win worth celebrating no matter the size. This helps you fall in love with doing something over and over again while you look forward to making progress. Each small win you celebrate leads to an even bigger result to recognize.
Producing Positivity
Your emotions affect your actions. Your actions translate into whether or not you’ll continue to do something and influence your performance at the same time. Celebrating produces positivity. It gives you an uplifting feeling that makes you want to do more.
By producing positivity, you’re not allowing your mind to entertain negative thoughts or doubts. You’ll feel happier and notice your confidence boosting which makes you capable of taking on even more difficult challenges.
Celebrating Immediately
Choosing to reward yourself after a win is important. What’s even more important is the timing of the reward. Whenever you celebrate a win, you must celebrate immediately as you still have the context of the win fresh on your mind.
Celebrate immediately after your behavior until it’s automatic. You can choose to continue to celebrate when it’s automatic if it makes the behavior easier to do. You want to cultivate the feelings of success and confidence as much as you can.
Feeling Of Success
There is a positive feeling that we get from experiencing success. By skillfully celebrating, you are able to repetitively create this feeling. One way to do this over and over is to lower your expectations for what you should be celebrating.
It’s difficult to feel like we’re succeeding when we’re starting small. We tend to set ourselves at a higher bar of what is worth a celebration. It is perfectly fine to celebrate when you remember to do it, while you’re doing it, or immediately after doing it. Whenever you celebrate and get the feeling of success, you’re rooting your behavior to become automatic.