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Todays show continues on from the #306 show.

It’s part 8 in the series where I turn my signature paid product ‘Silence Self Sabotage’ which is a 6 step system to create your best body gain mindset into podcast format.

Parts 1-4 covered the first two steps where we: DEFINE & ALIGN your body gain goal with your values and your beliefs.

Parts 5 and 6 covered steps three and four that’s: ELIMINATE & EDUCATE.

This week we’ll cover steps five and six that’s: STRATEGISE & PRIORITISE.

Here I will uncover the systems to ensure you can enjoy sustainable health. You’ve laid the foundations and now it’s time to make some time and implement.

In steps five and six we will also:

• Set your standards for success.
• Design your perfect fat burning (body gaining!) day.
• Let your negative emotions propel you forward.

Ok, let’s get rolling…

Your attitude towards time is a critical factor in all you will accomplish and it is probably the most common excuse I hear from clients who are not achieving their health goals: “I don’t have enough time”.

There are 4 words that fat loves to hear: I. Don’t. Have. Time. No time all too often equals more time for you and fat. 

I would like to pre-frame this by saying that you will never have enough time. You will never be caught up and there will never be the right time to start. To have more time to start spending on your exercise and meal planning necessitates stopping something you’re already doing. As such what you don’t do is just as important as what you do do! You will only get your time and your health under control to the degree to which you discontinue lower value activities.

And how about productivity? Are you curious to know Richard Branson’s thoughts are on being most productive? 

I certainly was keen to hear what the man who built the Virgin Group empire of more than 300 companies and 25 billion per year in revenue had to say. The scene is Branson’s own tropical island Necker and there is rapt attention when marketing legend Joe Polish asks the best way to become more productive, Branson replied – exercise and went on to say “I can achieve twice as much in a day by keeping fit”

(if you’re interested in checking it out – search You Tube for Richard Branson on exercise and productivity)

In terms of prioritising tomorrow is the busiest day of the week and we can’t get back yesterday (!) so that means NOW is the always the best time. It is also true that every goal and everything you want to accomplish requires time – sounds obvious doesn’t it? However, how often is it that you’ve set a goal – even a specific, achievable and compelling goal and a realistic timeframe in which to achieve it and then you’ve failed to follow through and actually allocate the exact weekly and daily time you will need to invest to achieve that goal.

I’m raising my hand to this one. It’s taken me years however I now know that if it doesn’t get scheduled it doesn’t get done.

Those goals you dream about that never make it to your calendar? Those are the goals that remain unaccomplished. Let’s change that now. It’s matter of setting aside the exact amount of time you will need each day and then disciplining yourself to accomplish your body gain goal by taking it just one step/one day at a time.

As Confucius said: “A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step”

A brilliant illustration of this is the one oil barrel at a time approach to traveling 500 miles across the heart of the Sahara desert. Totally flat and barren, without water, a blade of grass or even a fly – hundreds and hundreds of people had perished crossing this exact stretch of unforgiving desert. The sameness stretches on into the horizon in all directions like an endless yellow sand parking lot.

To counter this featureless terrain, the French marked the track across the desert with black 55 gallon oil drums 5 kilometers apart (exactly the curvature of the earth). This meant, wherever it was daytime you could see the oil barrel you were approaching and the oil barrel you’d just past.

A single day is like an oil barrel. One at a time is all you need to tackle to keep progressing in the right direction. A great tool to hold yourself accountable is to design your Health Standards for success that will guide you on this body gain journey.

Standards are the things you absolutely do: The musts. You always get your standards. 

I’d like you to think of an area of your life that you are completely happy with. Perhaps it’s the same area that you refereed to in your effective motivation strategy in show #306. Something you do really well. You hold yourself to high standards (whether it just happens naturally or you make a more conscious effort). Either way the results for your discipline are evident.

Everyone has at least one such area in their life. Perhaps it’s your intimate relationship, your career or finances. It may be your relationship with your kids or with your friends. It may be your spirituality or possibly it’s a hobby. As you think of this particular thing you do so well, this skill you’ve already mastered I’d like you to start to become aware of some of the aspects that you believe make you so effective in this area.

These are the rules you’ve created. Consciously or more likely unconsciously and they are non-negotiable.

They may not be true or even right however they do work and that as always is what matters. I imagine these current standards don’t rule your whole life though they do fit in with your lifestyle and you can achieve them consistently. This is why you get the results – like training a dog it’s simply not going to work if you only do it some of the time.

With the knowledge these standards are something that you can very definitely model for yourself in other areas of your life (let’s say body gain!) we’ll move on and this is an exercise that I’ll ask you to document at the end of todays show in action sheet #3.

First step will be to get clear on your standards for the area you currently excel in and from there you will map across – or take inspiration from and create a similarly non-negotiable and effective list of standards for your Health and your body gain goal. Your own example will get the ball rolling however I’ve also included my: Fat Elimination Standards.

Please note that these allow me to hit my goals which are likely different to yours. All I’m trying to say is if you’re ‘looking for the catch’ look for aspects that will work for you rather than aspects that won’t! It’s a good thing to consider the decent method you follow is better than the perfect method you quit. As I’m partial to acronyms my Fat Elimination Standards are an awesome opportunity to get our acronym on… so to speak! Here they are:

• Feeding frequency 3 – 5 meals per day.
• Avoid refined carbs Monday to Friday.
• Train at a set time and love what I do.

• Eat natural, nourishing, non-fake food and drink.
• Lift weights 4 times per week. 
• Include a cheat morning and rest day every week.
• Multi-task low intensity cardio for time effectiveness.Such as audio while walking to the gym.
• Include heaps of veggies with lunch and dinner(and generally breakfast too).
• Never be swayed by peer pressure or social inconvenience. The crew you hang out with will impact what you do and therefore who you become in a massive way, so it’s important to choose wisely. Choosing friends with similar interests will fast-track your body gain journey and make your healthy, sustainably lifestyle much easier. I’m a huge fan of having pictures of people who inspire you in obvious places too:such as my screen saver… the added inspiration totally outweighs the cheeky comments I contend with.
• Awake refreshed and early.For me it’s currently 4.15am as that lets me meditate, eat a great breakfast ANDget a 20 minute walk before work 5-6 days per week. For you it’s whatever time it needs to be so you can complete your winning morning routine. I covered How To Become A Morning Person including Designing A Winning Morning Routine in show #110.
• Travel by foot wherever possible because everything counts.
• Include lean protein with every meal. 
• Organise my meals and always prepare multiple meals at a time.
• Never start making excuses – because where would I stop.

Here are the links to past shows and blogs I’ve done that relate to many of these standards. Stuff like: Cheat Day / Why Lifting Weights Is The Best Way To Lose Fat / Non Boring Veg Ideas / How Much Protein To Eat.

To further hone your focus let’s design: Your Perfect Fat Burning Day.

This is an actionable plan – a blueprint for your best possible day. Of course you will not be able to follow it exactly every day. However the closer you get and the more frequently you get there, the better your results will be. As with any goal the more thorough your planning the easier and more effective your efforts will be. I would like you to take 30 minutes or so when you reach the actionable section at the end of todays to design your perfect fat burning day. If your weekend is fairly different to your week days then an ideal weekend day is essential too.

This plan is your perfect template and we want to set a high standard but it is also important to conspire for your success and ensure it is achievable given work, family and all else that your need to factor in. So with the knowledge that no one is perfect and no day is truly perfect go ahead and design the ideal day to aim for. The question to have at the forefront of your mind is: “How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I’m committed to?”…that’s a Tony Robbin’s number.

Ok, so once you have your blue-print to follow here are some of the most effective ways to magic up that extra time that you may well be thinking you need, to get close to the blue-print!

• Every minute you spend planning saves 10 minutes in execution. Each night plan and prioritize on paper your day to follow. Every morning start with your #1 task and discipline yourself to stick with it until it is complete.Studies show that multi-tasking can cause a task to take up to 500% longer due to the stop/starting and refocusing involved.

• Preventing procrastination. By definition – procrastination is putting off something we’re going to do anyway… as such it is a master time stealer to the extent that it can eat more time than the actual activity itself!

Here are 4 procrastinating beating tactics:

1) Be aware of when you are procrastinating – is there an internal dialogue painting a negative picture in your mind? Such as you’ve just walked in the door and the picture is focused on dragging your tired body back out into the cold and dark for that after work jog?

2) Work out a ‘scratch the record’ strategy – by this I mean what to do instead of running the old patterns. Can you take your exercise gear to work and the first picture is, work’s finished and it’s time for my mind clearing walk home! Or is it as simple as not sinking into the couch before delaying the run, but straight to getting changed and back out the door.

3) Do the thing you procrastinate about first thing in the morning – we’ve already touched on this one. It’s worth the second glance as it’s definitely a sound start to the day.

4) Refocus on the WHY – ask yourself: Is there value in doing this task? (yes!)

Do I need help from anyone else? (no!)

Is there value in delaying? (no!)

Ok, so do it already!!!

• Analyse the way you spend a typical day – what are the things you need to START doing, STOP doing and CONTINUE doing to maximise your time and your effectiveness?

Here’s an a-d of things you may choose to work into your start, stop and continue.

A. Low Information Diet– in which you consider whether time eaters such as TV, radio, newspapers, blogs, Facebook, random web surfing and checking your email and phone more than 2-3 set times per day are really going to propel you towards your most important goals (both health and business) before you indulge.

B.e aware of the 80/20 principle or Pareto’s Law – which originally uncovered 80% of the wealth and income is produced and possessed by 20% of the population. Indeed this principle can be found to be true almost everywhere. 20% of your actions will bring in 80% of the results and similarly 20% of your clients will account for 80% of your business and so on. Identify and prioritise your top 20%.

C.onsider Parkinson’s Law of Perceived Importance, in which “a tasks perceived importance and complexity will increase in relation to the time allotted for its completion.” Counter this by giving yourself shorter timeframes.

D.o say no to things that are not a priority. Now there’s no need to feel guilty if you have a little TV time habit. Take a deck of playing cards, and have each suit represent an exercise.

For example, spades may be lunges or squats, diamonds may be burpees or star jumps, hearts may be push-ups or walking prones, and clubs may be lunges or walk-outs….pick your favourite 4 of my suggestions or go with your own. If your show is question and answer; each time you get an answer wrong, draw a card and whatever the number is, perform that many reps on the corresponding exercise. If it’s another genre – pick a couple of commonly used words, phrases or actions that signal it’s time to draw a card. So if you draw a 6 of spades, do 6 lunges (per leg).

We’ve worked exercise into TV time – how about into work time too?

Each of us has a different daily schedule and varying periods of time we can work effectively and efficiently for. It’s important to work out when you are most effective for certain tasks and how regularly you need to take breaks. A lot of people respond well to the 50 minutes of focus and 10 minutes of refresh ratio. Whatever your ratio is, design your ideal refresh period – the idea is to replace a coffee or sugar hit.

=> Maybe 10 minutes of meditation or deep breathing or stretching.

=> Perhaps listening to a high energy song, doing 50 body weight exercises and drinking a glass of water.

=> Possibly a walk around the block or up and down a few flights of stairs may work more easily into your day.

As I said it’s whatever fits for you.

I feel like we’ve covered a lot that need actioning today. So let’s finish up for today and guess what?

Wednesdays show is taking a break from the Silence Self Sabotage Format (we’ll return and finish it on Friday) however in the Wednesday show I’m weighing-in on: A LOVE:HATE Relationship With Your Device.

Back to the time of the actionable though… I would love you to take 30 minutes or so to design your perfect fat burning day. As I mentioned previously, if your weekend is fairly different to your week days then an ideal weekend day is essential too.

You’ll find everything you need for this action and indeed everything I cover In shows 307 and 309 in this PDF download: action sheet #3

Thanks so much for hanging with me today. I appreciate it. I’ll be back on Wednesday with the weigh-in show and: A LOVE:HATE Relationship With Your Device.

If you liked this you’ll also like: Smart Simple Fat Loss: Prioritise v. Overwhelm.

If you’re yet to share the Healthification love – just click here to zip over to iTunes and leave an honest rating and review. It’d help me out big time. With gratitude, Kate.