How to accomplish more in 30 days than most people do in 365

How to accomplish mora in 30 days than most people do in 365How to accomplish mora in 30 days than most people do in 365The best ambition killer is trying to play someone elses game. - Dan SullivanCraig Ballantyne, author of The Perfect Day Formula How to Own the Day And Control Your Life, has a really powerful exercise to help you realize if youre seeking approval in the wrong places.He calls it the STUPID GOLDEN STAR Exercise. As Ballantyne asks, Who is giving you stupid Gold Stars in life? And what are they costing you?What are you getting approval for that is notlage serving you?Who is giving you approval that does not serve you?Why are you seeking this approval?What is this costing you?If youre saying YES to the wrong things, its because youre seeking approval from the wrong people.If youre trying please everyone, youll end up pleasing no one. Without question, youll not end up pleasing yourself and those closest to you.If youre not discriminate about what youre willing to work on and focus on, then youre life is far more of a mess than you think.If youre feeling super busy and out of control, then you are out of control. If you dont have time to put yourself first and have a morning routine, then your life is a mess right now, and youre being totally ineffective.You are seeking approval from all the wrong places.Youre seeking quick wins.Youre trying to do it all.Youve lost sight of your grand geistesbild.If you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing nobody. Because you cant keep up the charade forever. Eventually, your relationships will become transactional. And those relationships will end. Because right now youre forcing it. Youre not coming from a position of power. Youre trying to force success. And when you operate from this perspective - you start to make impulsive and ridiculous decisions.Day-by-day, your internal reality will become more of a mess. Youll know youre going further and further out of control. But you keep convincing yourself t hat next month will be different. Everything will come together and THEN, youll start focusing again.Not gonna happen.Youve got to pull the plug.Youve got to start running your own race again. Somewhere along the line, you forgot about WHY you were doing this. You got caught up in the whirlwind of other peoples goals and agendas and values.How to get things back on trackBallantyne has the following questions to help you get back on track so you can start getting Good Golden Stars again.What do you NEED to get approval for doing?Who are the right people to get approval from in your life?Who are the right people that you need to give approval to, yourself?Who are the people - personally and professionally - that really matter, here and now, but also in 20 years?Joe Polish, founder of Genius Network, is known for saying The people you meet on the way up are the same people you meet on the way down.If you enter relationships from an impulsive and selfish perspective, those relationshi ps will eventually come back to bite you. People wont trust you. Theyll see you as only looking out for yourself - since you used a lot of relationships to get you where youre at.You werent really thinking about them, but where those relationships could quickly get you.Your intentions may not have been hostile in the first place, but you also werent thinking long-term. You were trying to force things.When youre trying to force things, eventually everything starts crashing down. David Hawkins explains this better than anyone in his iconic book, POWER VS. FORCE. As Hawkins says, The person who suffers from innerhalb poverty is relentlessly driven to accumulate on the material level.How to accomplish more in 30 days than most do in 365Its very easy to fall into the trap of being busy, and being busy is not necessarily productive. - Tim FerrissAccording to Chris Smith, founder of The Campfire Effect If youre not feeling motivated - youre either not experiencing enough pain to change, or youre not curious enough about the power of possibility.If youre not making tangible progress, things can feel boring or not worth the time.So you need to start making tangible progress.You need a future vision that seems exciting. And you need to get back to feeling like what you want to achieve is a game.In the book, MY LIFE IN ADVERTISING, Claude Hopkins says, If a thing is useful they call it work, if useless they call it play. One is as hard as the other. One can be just as much a game as the other. In both there is rivalry. Theres a struggle to excel the rest. All the difference I see lies in attitude of mind.Your work needs to become play again.You need to make it a game.You need to get excited about making progress, growing, learning, and changing your life and circumstances.You need to get back to plotting and scheming and making plans.If youre too busy to sit and make plans, youve lost sight of what really matters to you. You should never be too busy to be able to sit i n the silence to meditate, pray, and write down your thoughts and plans.Breaking this downSeek approval from the RIGHT PEOPLEGive approval to the right peopleRemove everything from your life that is impulsiveGet back to your purposeGet back to planning and schemingMake it a gameMake your work play againBe willing to failEnjoy the work and activity in and of itself (not for what it will get you)Detach from immediate outcomes and refocus on your purposeGet back to the whimsy and play and fun of lifeAllow yourself to embrace the pain of growth and failureEmbrace the curiosity of seeing how far you can goLife becomes play when youre living congruently. When youre focusing on the right things and the right people.When youre putting first things first.When youre taking 20 purposeful steps in 1 direction rather than 1 busy step in 20 different directions.If youre not making time to have a morning routine - where youre getting clear and intentional, every single day - then youre not movin g in the right direction. Youre also not being effective.The purpose of a morning routine is to give yourself the time and space to get clear. To get yourself energized and focused. And then to set your day on the right track so the day doesnt derail you as it does most people.Then you need to get excited again. Usually, you get excited by seeing tangible results in the near future. You need a short timeline to sprint toward. You need to create a result that youve wanted, or your family has wanted, for a long-time. One youve procrastinated and stopped pursuing with vigor because 1) you stopped making your work play, 2) youve lost the excitement of progress, and or 3) youve lost focus of what you really want and got busy.Often, you cant get yourself to do what you need to because work feels like work again. And you dont have anything exciting to accomplish.Youve lost your energy and are feeling depressed. Of course youre feeling depressed - your behavior is incongruent. Youre not pu tting first things first. Youre back to sleeping-in and living reactive.Research in psychology is so clear confidence doesnt start the journey. Its not confidence that leads to success. Its successfully executed behavior that creates confidence and momentum.Give yourself a 30-day timeline to accomplish something big.Cut-off everything thats a busy distractionStop seeking approval from the wrong people (have some honest conversations, clean out your calendar and life, and focus again on the right people)Get back to your morning routine where youre getting energized and focused and clearMake work play again (it can only be play when youre making tangible progress toward something that excites you)You can make something exciting by, 1) making some form of progress, and 2) having something compelling in the near-future to look forward toGet back to plotting and scheming (literally get a white board and start writing all of your dreams down, and your values, and what youre grateful for, and what matters most to you)Get connected again to yourself and what youre really aboutThen sprint toward a vision that you know you can achieveMost people - even those at the top of their game - are a mess right now. The globalized society and the internet has leveled the playing field. If youre ambitious and willing to fail and respond well to failure - you can easily catapult yourself to the top of your fieldWherever you are, thats the best place for you to beIt doesnt get easier the more successful you become, it actually gets harder and more confusing (unless you continually re-invent yourself and never stop failing and remaining humble and grounded)Remain the underdog by continually failing forwardGive yourself less time at work and more time to play (Shawn White said the reason he has been able to stay at the top of Snowboarding for nearly 20 years is because he spends a lot of time away from the sport - he has a life outside of snowboarding)Cut yourself off when you nee d to (if you give yourself shorter timelines, youll get more done) - often 80% is sufficientIf you do a morning routine, youll focus on the right things while you are workingIf you focus on the right things while youre working, youll make progressIf you increase your ambition for what you can be, every step you take forward will be a BOLD step, because youll be willing to failThe more energy you can put into BIG AND BOLD steps, the faster youll move beyond those at the top of your fieldAll the while, youll be congruent, because youll be putting yourself (and your health) first, so you can be better at your work and with your loved onesThis article originally appeared on Medium.