Category Archives: Experiments

Experiments conducted

Mindfulness

Experiments, Goal Achievement

mindfulness

The Present Moment

The reality is that the only time we every have is the present moment.  Therefore if we are not mentally present in the NOW then we are wasting away our lives.  We are missing the only time we have.  If we spend our now thinking about the past or future or problems etc. then we are not here!  We also cannot get anything done and get what we want out of life unless we can focus on the present.  Every past moment was a now (now gone) and every future now depends on what you do in this now. Now is all that matters!  How you turn up to now impacts the next now – ad infinitum.  We all want to be happy but we keep chasing happiness in the future.  This is because our mind gets distracted with negatives and has a problem being here in the present moment.  Our minds have a tendency to hang onto negativity.

Flow

We need to be able to focus on doing one thing at a time, being in Flow.  Flow is that wonderful sense of being present and totally focussed – everything else in life being excluded – totally focussed on the outcome and making intuitive decisions about what to do.  According to Jim Fannin, mental performance coach to some of the world’s top athletes, the average person has 2-3,000 thoughts in one day.  A sports champion however has 1,100 or 1,200 thoughts in one day.  The champion thinks less and has eliminated 30-40% of their thoughts.  Everything is in a flow state of mind avoiding thought into the past and assumption thinking into the future.  Champions are fully focussed on what they are doing in the present moment.

Purposeful focus, developed through the regular practice of meditation and maintained through the regular checking-in to reality throughout the day, enables us do just what we need to do to achieve our objective for now.

mindfullor

Mindfulness Meditation

One of the most well-known types of meditation is mindfulness meditation which is when you intentionally pay attention to whatever is here in the moment.  Mindfulness meditation is a gym workout for the brain.  Brain-imaging studies show that meditation sharpens attention and memory.  Perhaps most importantly, it has been linked to increased happiness or life satisfaction and greater compassion.  Meditation also helps in stress relief and helps people in chronic pain or suffering from depression.  Simple body focused mindfulness can improve flexibility in the brains sensory attention system and we can learn how to regulate negative or repetitive thoughts.

I have meditated for about 10 minutes per day each morning for the past number of years.  I also practice bringing myself back into the present moment throughout my day.  As a result of my doing these exercises I have found that I am much more present and focussed than I used to be.  I have observed that I can now, for the most part, follow conversations more closely and listen more intently to what people are saying.  I can sit in a meeting and keep focussed on what is being said.  Before I started meditating I tended to be distracted by my own internal thoughts – a constant chatter from my inner critic.  I find that I am now able to observe my thoughts and am less controlled by them.  I am also able to focus my attention on whatever I am working on for longer with much less distracting thoughts than I used to have.

Body Scan Mindfulness

This is an example of an exercise to practice being more mindful.  For this particular exercise schedule 5 – 10 minutes in the morning or whenever you can relax and are not likely to be disturbed.  Just allow yourself to pay attention to the sensations in your body.   If, while doing this exercise, thoughts intrude, that is okay – just notice the thoughts, notice yourself noticing the thoughts and gently guide your awareness back to your body.  This mental exercise is available as a free mp3 audio to listen on your computer or download. Please listen to the audio and allow yourself to be guided through the exercise.  To download please click the link below and then right click and ‘Save video as…’ to download the mp3 file.

Listen NOW

100 Day Challenge Update – Day 99

Experiments, Goal Achievement

Goals

100 Day Challenge Update – Day 99 of 100

As I write this I am on day 99 of my 100 Day Challenge.  Please see back to my post nearly 100 days ago and see what I wrote then: https://lifeisalaboratory.com/goal-achievement/100-day-challenge

How did it go? I had five goals and I have not achieved one in full!  I have partially achieved some of my goals however which is good progress.  For example one of my goals was to run a marathon.  Well I managed to run half a marathon.  Another was to publish a book that I am working on.  I did not publish the book but I did make great progress in writing the book (Experiments in Personal Change – eventually completed in October 2015).  Another goal was related to purchasing a property – that did not happen but was beyond my control.  How do I feel now? I feel overall that I learned much from the 100 Day Challenge and I have gained far more value than I paid.  I feel that I will carry the skills learned into improving my next quarter and setting new goals for my next 100 Day Challenge which I will complete on my own.

Two key lessons come to mind when I reflect on the 100 Day Challenge I am now completing:

1.  My un-achieved goals should not make me feel down.

“Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so?  Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live.  Before they know it, time runs out.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes

An email from Steve Chandler arrived in my inbox just now and prompted me to write this post (I recommend signing up for regular emails from Steve Chandler .  Steve is a life coach, author and speaker and a rock of good sense – www.stevechandler.com)

In reference to the above quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes Steve says:

“I love waking up to those two choices I have. I can get ready to live, or I can live.  This getting ready to live is often a misinterpretation of the goal-setting process…………. It’s beautiful to have goals, it’s wonderful to have projects; but I don’t want them to be an excuse for me to try to live in the future.”

My partially completed goals should not make me feel like a failure.  I still can live fully today.  I am complete today even if I failed to complete all my goals in the 100 Day Challenge.  As Wendell Holmes said I just need to live today to the fullest and stop getting ready to live when I have achieved some goal or other.

Carpe_diem

2.  I had set too many goals!

I had set 5 goals at the beginning of the 100 Day Challenge.  Listen to what Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Computers said to his company shareholders:

‘We are the most focused company that I know of. We say no to good ideas everyday. We say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose. The table that each of you is sitting at today, you could probably put every product on it that Apple makes, yet Apple’s revenue last year was $40 billion.’

In hindsight I should have set one to two goals for my 100 Day Challenge and really focused all my energy on achieving those goals .  I feel that I was trying to achieve too many disparate goals and my energy dissipated between them.

If you would like to try out the 100 Day Challenge for yourself please see: www.goalsguy.com . The 100 Day Challenge programme will guide you on how to set focused goals for the next 100 days.  You will also be guided on how to conduct a weekly review and planning process which is a very valuable skill.  Each day of the 100 day challenge you will be emailed a thought provoking and inspirational message.  One huge benefit of the 100 Day Challenge is that you will be focused on goal achievement over the next 100 days and you will likely make progress towards achieving your goals even if you don’t achieve them fully. Keep in mind my experience – focus, focus, focus and set 1-2 key goals.  In fact set 1 to 2 WIGs (wildly important goals).  WIGS have the power to transform you life.

Also remember to live each day to the fullest – you are complete today even without achieving your goal.  Don’t let your goals be an excuse for living in the future.