You've woken up; your sleep wasn't what we call a great night; it was sufficiently regular. You've checked your notifications, hoping something new will give you a dopamine hit, but nothing excites you. Unknowingly you're straight into your routine.

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As you enter the bathroom, perhaps you're waking the kids up or deciding what to wear to iron it because you never managed to do it the night before. You get changed, complete your parental duties, have breakfast, get the clan going, and everyone is well on their way into what the day brings.

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From the moment your eyes open to the moment you begin your day, your mood can change drastically. The weather is dull and cold; the kids are making noise, and you snoozed a little more than you wanted. You may notice the milk has gone off or someone is occupying the bathroom at the wrong time; the environment is somewhat predictably unpredictable, but you manage.

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Mental state is essential

Your state is such an essential part of you that it sets you up for the day. Imagine what happens when in a bad state of mind:

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How would your conversations go with other people?

Short and snappy. Dialogue with no depth or a lack of interest.

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How would you act?

Reactive to every little thing that isn't going your way, perhaps blaming someone for their actions.

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What does your physiology look like?

Looking down, worried, angry, slouched, slow movement.

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How productive would you be?

Lack of focus, clouded clarity, unsure where to begin, increased procrastination.

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So what can we do to align ourselves and form a better state? One way is to ask yourself five important questions. To commit to them however requires habit, so before we jump in let's touch up on it.

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Forming A New Habits

Nothing can be mastered when you do it once, the second or the third time. It's a progressive commitment that you must make to create new habits. To create, add or change something within you established patterns we must develop a new habit. Perhaps why many fail is because of the time it takes to form one.

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When Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon in the 1950s, noticed that his patients typically took about 21 days to get used to their new faces. Testing this notion, he also observed changes and behaviours himself. It didn't take people long to adopt the myth that a new habit forms in 21 days; it wasn't factual.

Read More here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonselk/2013/04/15/habit-formation-the-21-day-myth/

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In 2009, Phillippa Lally, a medical psychologist, published her research in the European Journal of Social Psychology. She examined 96 people over 12 weeks, and they had to report back whether their selected daily habit felt like it was automatic. What were the results?

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It took more than two months to form a habit; she finds this to be between 18-245 days. As grand that eight months sounds to form a habit, it can vary on each person and the activity in question.

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Read more here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ejsp.674

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Consider this.

How much will spending time creating a new, more productive habit impact your life in the next year? What if we remained in the same state every morning and allowed an already-established habit to dictate our unproductive day?

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Set yourself up for progress

A productive day can be accomplished through powerful mental conditioning from the get-go. Reframing your focus, thoughts, and state in a way that allows you to power through anything the day throws at you in pursuit of feeling like you have accomplished the day.

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Let's get aligned

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Spend a moment in the morning to establish these five questions:

1 - What am I looking forward to completing today?

2 - Long-term, what am I focused on achieving?

3 - Am I doing things that lead directly to my goals?

4 - Am I supporting myself?

5 - Am I currently present?

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What am I looking forward to completing today?

Without knowing what you want from today, you'd end up focusing on what comes at you, being distracted by something unproductive. What is an absolute MUST today? Please don't waste the day; get it DONE.

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Long-term, what am I focused on achieving?

Having something to work towards gives people direction, focus, drive and ambition. When we know where to go, we know what to do. When we don't, we float around aimlessly. REMIND yourself daily about what you are aiming to achieve.

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Am I doing things that lead directly to my goals?

Without intention, we procrastinate and create a false sense of being busy or occupied. Where are you focusing your time and energy into? Begin with the things that make a HIGH IMPACT through LOW EFFORT.

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Am I supporting myself?

Are you your own greatest cheerleader or that dreaded critic? As much as other people's opinions can affect us, YOUR INNER VOICE does the most damage.

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Am I currently present?

Don't let negative feelings distract your efforts today. If you aren't present, you're in the past thinking about what happened or hasn't, or you're in the future thinking about what you want and don't have. You may be MISSING the moment now to change the past and create the future.

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If you've had a bad day, don't worry, it's okay; compared to all your other productive days, it's irrelevant. Realign each day Champions.

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