Are You Switched On, Or Switched Off?

If you work in an office, no doubt you have heard a lot of people talking about how excited they are to switch off as the year comes to a close. People start to arrive a little late, go home a little early, extend that lunch break just enough to fit in some extra Christmas shopping. The reality is, a lot of these people are switched off all year! Christmas is just an excuse.

Now I’m not suggesting you should give up Christmas lunch with your family to keep grinding away at your computer, because life is about balance, and recharging the batteries is crucially important. What I am saying is while some people switch off at the end of the year, successful people will be planning for 2017.

Review Your Year

To know where you’re going, a good place to start is to look at where you have been.

Review your 2016, the goals you set at the start of the year, and be honest. Have you achieved what you wanted to? Are you where you want to be?

If the answer is no, what happened? What stopped you from achieving your goals?

Often I find that people don’t achieve their goals because they haven’t given themselves the right tools. First and foremost, you need to work on your psychology. It’s so important, before setting any goals, to clear away any negative emotions that are keeping you stuck.

Secondly, so many people don’t know how to set goals properly! At Live it Now we spend two full days working on your psychology, setting your goals, and giving you the steps you need to achieve them.

Goals For Motivation

To get you really switched on, your goals need to motivate you! They need to be so specific, that when you picture yourself in the future, you get a clear picture of how your life looks.

This is why when people set a goal of ‘I want to lose weight’ it doesn’t work! We have this powerful faculty called our unconscious mind, and it takes the path of least resistance. Every. Single. Time. If our goal is to lose weight and we lose 100 grams, the unconscious mind says ‘great! Job done.’ So, we need to give the unconscious mind something it can’t easily get out of. This means if we want to lose weight, we get specific, and say ‘by X date, I will look at the scales and they will say Y kilograms.’

Gary Vaynerchuk has a lifetime goal to buy the New York Jets. Now that’s both motivating and specific! Every decision he makes, he makes with his goal in mind. Will he have some down time with his family over the coming weeks? No doubt. However, he will also have one eye on 2017 and an action plan that moves him another step closer to the owner’s office at the Jets.

Recharge Your Life

Taking a break may sound like switching off, but there is a subtle difference.

When someone switches off, it can be like going into hibernation. They will eat too much, and usually eat the wrong foods. They will drink too much, because you know, it’s Christmas. They will stay up late and watch lots of TV, because they have ‘earned it’.

Recharging on the other hand means restoring your energy so you can hit the ground running. Christmas is the perfect time to get back to nature and reconnect with the earth. I always suggest to my coaching clients to use this time to get away and stay in the country for a few days. If it’s not possible to get away, just spend one day hiking in a national park, breathing in some fresh air.

Take the kids to the beach, turn the TV off, go on a picnic, enjoy a healthy candlelit dinner with your partner, meditate, try yoga. The important thing here is to unplug, turn off devices, and spend some time in the present moment.

By doing this, you will become energised, you will gain clarity around what you want to achieve, and you will become focussed on your goals.

Live it Now is the perfect place to look at where you have come from, where you want to get to, and to give your batteries the recharge they need for sustained success. Join us at our Live it Now Christmas Spectacular and get yourself switched on for an incredible 2017!

And as Oprah Winfrey once said, ‘Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.’

Kindest regards,

Matt Catling

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