Elevenses with Charlie - Are you maintaining momentum or managing to make it through the we

Hi, it's Charlie Hugh-Jones here. This is Elevenses with Charlie. Now, you probably guessed that it's a little bit later than 11 Eastern Time today, so I'm pretending that I'm in Central Standard Time for Elevenses. Now, you remember earlier this week I've been talking about what Elevenses is. For— in England, one of the traditional breaks in the morning, the mid-morning coffee, was around 11 o'clock, and it was called elevenses, where you had a treat, something special, something of worth, a cookie of some kind, or a piece of cake that would just help you get you through, give you a lift in the morning after you'd done 3 hours work from 8 to 11 in the morning. So that's what I've been doing all this week, has been elevenses. And so this time that I'm trying to maintain for everybody to give you some value, to share with you some Tips, some things I've learned in working with my clients, some things I've had to apply for myself, tools and strategies. This week's been around being more productive. I'm going to continue that theme today. That's what we've been doing. So I'll just wait a moment or two for one or two people to join us live. Gives me an opportunity to have a sip or two of my coffee. Mm-hmm. That's good. A lot of people drink tea in England, but I'm still a coffee drinker. You may hear Bangs, drilling, I was gonna say somebody is cutting tile just outside the window downstairs, so you're gonna have a buzzsaw going off as well. It all just adds to the, the colour and context of this live today. I've said before, the sky isn't falling. My wall right here is not about to fall over. If you hear banging, it's because upstairs they're doing a lot of work refurbishing something. But hopefully that won't distract you too much from getting value from this today. So on Monday this week, we looked at the power of no. How do you define the edges, create the boundaries from colleagues, from work, from distractions, in order to make sure you create the space to focus on something that matters to you? That was Monday. Tuesday, Well, actually it was Wednesday. I missed Tuesday. Wednesday, I went through this idea of, have you said 1,000 nos to get to your right yes? You have to know the criteria on which you're saying no. And I quoted Warren Buffett being— saying that his job is to say no 1,000 times before he picks the right investment thesis that he's going to work with and explore. Yesterday, I was asking the question as to whether your to-do list is your kryptonite. The very fact that you have so many things on a list, you think you've captured something, you may be super busy, and yes, that removes the worry that it was just in your head by putting it on your to-do list, but the structure of your to-do list leeches and saps you of strength and energy and leaves you feeling exhausted, possibly overwhelmed, sometimes not fulfilled, but definitely not as productive as you can be. So, um, hi Mariana, nice to have you on board. Thank you for, uh, for, for being with us this morning. If you've got any questions, um, pop it down below in the comments, or anything that resonates with you, um, or if there's anything that I'm saying that you want me to elaborate further on or unpack a bit more, just ask me. So great to have you with us this morning, Mariana. I appreciate that and the like. Thank you. So yesterday we were talking about to-do lists, are they your kryptonite, and I gave you 5 things you can do differently In order to reduce the effect of a to-do list disempowering you and increase your productivity by doing these 5 things. Today I am asking the question, it's Friday, it's nearly the weekend, are you maintaining momentum or are you just making it through today? Because sometimes that's what happens during the week. We start off really high, really with lots of energy, and as we go through the week, We tend to dip. We get more worn out. Our energy reserves, our patience reserves, our resilience reserves, our willpower reserves are running on empty, and we need to get to the weekend in order to refresh and restart. Um, I'm telling you, you don't have to experience that through the week. Right now you can see my energy coming through Friday is really strong, so I want you to be able to finish strong on a Friday with everything you have purposed to do, the people you're wishing to serve, the money you're wishing to make, the difference you are seeking to achieve. So I want to give you 5 things today that may be sabotaging you getting to the end of Friday maintaining your momentum. I'm gonna give you 5 things that if you do them differently and if you master them, you are going to be able to continue to maintain that momentum throughout the week so you can finish strong. And so, those 5 things are as follows. One of the things that we self-sabotage throughout our week, it starts right at the beginning, and you've heard me talk about it already if you've seen the earlier lives this week, is you have zero planning of your fundamental goals for a week. Did you get that? Zero planning of your fundamental goals for the week. You're showing up every day. You're coming with your energy, you're doing the tasks that are in front of you, but you haven't looked up, you haven't done the horizon scanning and said, right, this week, these are the most important things I need to have achieved in order to get to the end and say to myself, I had a good week. It's not just about the paycheck, it's not just about another investor. Well, that might be one of the goals that you have. But it's about what did you plan at the beginning of the week that you were going to accomplish? Gave you focus, because as you're going through the week, that keeps your head up, keeps your head lifted. So the first thing I'm saying is, one of the things that would sabotage you having momentum getting to the end of the week is zero planning of your overarching goals for the week. You may have planning for a day or a morning, but what was the week about? If you knew what the week was about at the start of the week, and you got to the end of the week, and you focused and maintained, used the power of no, done your planning and scheduling of your tasks to get there, you will continue to maintain your energy. It's one of the things that sabotages it. The second thing that you may have done this week to sabotage maintaining momentum to the end of the week is not celebrating the small wins. I'm going to have a cup of— a bit of coffee now. I hope you're tracking with me on this. The second thing is not celebrating small wins. When we're teaching children— I'm not calling you children, but I have 4 of them— teaching them to brush their teeth, we were trying to set goals for them, and we wanted them to have a habit of cleaning their teeth every day. Now, just making them clean their teeth every day is not a sufficiently small goal for them to get a habit going. We had to Set smaller goals. 30 seconds of brushing a certain part of their teeth. 30 seconds of brushing a different part of their teeth. And we created 7 segments where they could brush their teeth. And each time they finished one, we were like, yes, well done. You have achieved that small goal. And they felt affirmed. They felt they'd achieved something, even though it wasn't the habit that as parents we wanted them to have. Sorry, banging the microphone there. They were able to do little spots. These are little dots on the way to a goal. So throughout the week, there are small things that you may be doing that you accomplish that you need to just stop for a moment, reflect on, and go, yeah, nailed that, got that one done. Okay, maybe small. It may be, you know, that last week you made 10 sales calls and this week you made 11, just one more. Celebrate it. What you do to reward yourself, even if it's just looking in the mirror and going I grew this week. I did something more. That's one thing you can do. It doesn't matter. Make sure you celebrate the small wins. You've had, say for example, there's been conflict between you and a coworker or one of your direct reports, and you have managed to help them not resent the correction or the wisdom that you may have had to offer, but you've helped them reapproach that, and they are, they are getting towards the end of the week. With less antagonism or stress towards you, celebrate that in the middle of the week. Don't let it go unsaid. We're built— our brains work on a reward mechanism. There are hormones and chemicals that are released when we tell ourselves we're owed a reward. Some of them are automatic, and some of them we can choose to trigger. And so I'm saying by looking at your week and small things throughout the day, yes, I managed to focus this week on that one task, usually I do 20 minutes and then I get distracted by email or there's a Facebook post or I allow someone to come into my space and ask me a question in the middle of doing another task. Now, we think we're achieving some goals when we do that, but actually we are avoiding deep focus. That was the thing I talked about yesterday, one of the 5 things to do deep focus. Work on one thing without distraction. Use the power of no to create space To not be distracted. If you've managed to do that this week and you said, right, I managed to do 90 minutes on that report I was writing, or that investment deck that I had to create because I'm an entrepreneur and I need to find some new funders, stakeholders for my business, I managed to write 3 more slides solidly there without distraction, celebrate that. I know you haven't got the deck out yet and you've not circulated it to the investors, but you've done those things. Celebrate them. This is not the same as celebrating— what's the word— being average or just showing up. No, these are small wins. So that's 2. One of the things you do to sabotage yourself is not celebrating small wins. You can turn that around by celebrating small wins. Okay, the 3rd thing that we often do to self-sabotage managing our momentum throughout the week is that we don't hang out or associate with people that energize us. Okay, sometimes we are so head down and so focused that we just get through the week. There are people at work who, you know, drain your energy and you haven't been able to say no to, or there is You know, you have a particular senior to you who always winds you up, or you have clients who particularly are very draining and demanding. You wish they were more streamlined in their needs, they were clearer in their direction, they didn't change scope on you 20 minutes after they've just given you instructions and you've set a whole team going on something, and that drains your energy. To counterbalance that, because you can't— there's some things you can do to get rid of that, and you can use the power of no to do it. But counterbalance it by finding people who make you feel energized. Having that conversation— you'll recognize it— the conversation that you have with somebody that lifts you up. Your head's higher, your back's a bit straighter, you feel good energy in your chest, and you feel like, right, I'm ready for the next thing. Even if it's just a 5-minute conversation with that kind of person, go find them. And if they are not situated in your workspace or in your world, Go and watch TED Talks. Go and read a book of someone who influences you and gives you energy. So the third thing that people do to sabotage maintaining their momentum throughout the week is not having people around them that energize them, that continue to feed energy into those reservoirs. So that's another thing you can do. If you don't hang out with people, what you can do is choose to hang out with people. That's how you turn that one around. So that's the third thing. The 4th thing, and this is not controversial, but you may challenge me on this. I'd love to hear what you say. One of the things that you may be doing to sabotage maintaining momentum throughout this week is having poor sleep discipline. Yeah, you heard me. I said poor sleep discipline. You know why I'm talking about this? Because you've seen the reports, you know what you're supposed to do, and you're just not doing it. The idea that we are continuing to check Facebook until 2 minutes before we fall asleep, so our screen is glowing in front of us and those photoelectric receptors in our mind are sparking and igniting, and they're the ones that are supposed to tell us to stay awake because the hormones keep being released into our brain to keep you awake. Turn your phone off, or don't look at your phone and watch your TV for the last 45 minutes before you go to sleep, because Otherwise, you are prompting your brain and your nervous system. You are triggering your circadian rhythms to say, awake, awake, awake, awake. And then you wonder why, A, it's hard to fall asleep, or B, you're waking up in the middle of the night. Yeah, absolutely. So you need to figure out a routine, or what's called sleep hygiene. I said Arianna Huffington's made a whole movement in her Thrive movement about telling people to sleep more. Because better decisions are made, more energy is made, our relationships with people are improved, our IQ can be maintained at a higher level, our resilience is increased when we sleep properly. And that doesn't mean taking drugs to sleep properly, because if you're taking drugs to sleep properly, except in a couple of very major instances, you have bad habits of going to sleep and you are medicating them rather than addressing the habits. So if you disagree on this, please put a comment below, please message me, but I can show you report after report, testimonial after testimonial that says you improve your sleep habit, you improve your energy flow, your focus, your productivity, The ability to generate sales, the ability to be creative and deliver over and above for your clients is improved if you deal with your sleep hygiene. So that's number 4. You may be sabotaging yourself and maintaining momentum throughout the week through not having good sleep habits. So you can turn that around by investigating, checking out on the web, whatever it is, in order to sleep better. The last and final thing that I want to share today, and these are only 5, there are many, many more things you might be doing. But these are 5 common ones that I've found with many of my clients, and some of the things I had to deal with in order to maintain this kind of energy for Fridays. The fifth thing that you might be doing to sabotage maintaining your energy, your momentum throughout the week, is that you're not using positive language. I'll just let that sink in for a minute. You're not using language words that are positive. What's interesting is the studies have been showing recently that keywords within our lexicon, within the, the little code books that we have for all the words that we use, some of them drain our energy, whereas some of them bring energy into us. When we use negative language about ourselves, which we all know we do because we have that voice inside us which sometimes tells us you're not good enough or you can't make it, And you've got to do something in order to shift that language. And that's a different Facebook Live and a different set of training that I do with people about turning negative self-dialogue into positive self-dialogue. I'm just talking about using the language. If you keep saying, I'm exhausted, I can't make it, I won't be able to, I'm fed up. If you use internal expressions that just are like exhausted sighs, Ugh. We know what that sound means when someone goes, ugh. You know, you are giving power to the thing that wants to draw energy away from you. So look up some of the phrases that give you energy. Think of the times, if you've got space over the weekend, to do an audit of language that you've used that makes you feel good versus language that you've used that makes you feel bad. And you need to find a calm space to be able to do that because your words are going to be different from mine. But they are triggers. So you have to look back over your week and see what kind of language you've been using. Anyway, that's the 5th thing you might be doing in order to sabotage maintaining momentum throughout the week— using— not using positive language. And you can do that. Now, this isn't the same as random positive self-talk. This is deliberate, I'm suggesting. And I've got a whole host of exercises that I do with clients to help them unlock their key phrases, the ones that are suited just to them. You can find lists on the internet, you can do all kinds of things like that, but if you want to find phrases and language that is just right for you, you need to work at it, and there are tools out there to help you do it. So there are the 5 things you might be doing to self-sabotage maintaining momentum to the end of the week and maintaining your productivity. 1, zero planning of your overarching goals for the week. 2, not celebrating the small wins. 3, not hanging out with people who energize you. And when I mean hanging out, I mean choose who you read, choose who you expose yourself to, what kind of TED Talks or YouTube how-to videos or books are you reading in the week if you don't have physical people around you that are giving you energy. 4, having bad, what's called sleep hygiene. And that will be one of the primary things that I do a lot of work with clients on is setting up, replacing new habits, replacing old habits with new habits of good sleep rituals before they go to bed so they can sleep for longer, sleep for deeper, wake up more refreshed and have more energy, carry more energy throughout each day. And as you do that consistently, it will take you through momentum to the week. So 4, and then 5, not using positive language. And if we tend to complain rather than figure out what you're going to do differently and speak that language, that also robs us of momentum in our week and stops us achieving the things that we wanted to and planned. So there's 5 things. I hope they've been helpful for you. Each one of them you can do something about. I hope you do. If you want to message me, tell me which one that you've chosen to do differently. And my question that I want to leave you with today today, just as I close off this Facebook Live, is how is your next week going to be different from the week that has just gone for you in terms of your productivity? What one thing have you chosen that you are going to do differently next week so you can be more productive? I'd love to know. So please leave a comment. If you're watching this now, you can leave it now. If you're watching it in the replay, thank you for joining me. I appreciate it. Leave comments. So I'm Charlie Hugh-Jones. I'm a life and business strategist. I round off because I want you to know who I am and why I'm talking about this stuff. I help high performers and driven entrepreneurs unlock an even better version, often a more conscious version of themselves, so they can be more productive, so that you can feel more purposeful, to enjoy more resilience, and to connect more deeply. with those that matter to you. So if anything I've said resonates with you and you don't want to leave a comment, but you do want to chat to me about it, private message me. I'd love to hear from you. Alternatively, you could head on over to charliehughjones.com and book a free strategy session. Now that is specific, so you can just get a quick glimpse snapshot of where you are right now, the goal, maybe a particular single goal that you want to achieve, And some of the steps you could take right now in order to move you closer towards achieving that goal. That's free. It's 30 minutes Skype, telephone call, FaceTime, WhatsApp Messenger. I set that up and we can have a session. You can walk away with a positive action plan to do one thing differently after that session that will take you closer to your goals. I'd love you to have one of those, so please head on over to charliehughjones.com and book Book your slot now. There are only 12 per month, so you need to be quick. I think there's only a few left this month, so get in there and book your seat. There's a ton of resources over at youtube.com/charliehughjones. There's videos there on how to be more resilient, how to make and then fulfill resolutions. There's all kinds of things that may be useful to you, and I'd love you to benefit from those if you head over there. Or you can stay right here on the Unlocking the Best Version of You Facebook page because there's lots of resources there. There's, there's some Facebook Lives earlier this week and before that may be helpful that you missed. Go back, check those out. If you've got any comments on them, please share them with you. Last 2 things: share this Facebook Live with people you know who think it might be useful for them. That's a really good way that you can add value to other people. And the last thing I want you to do is like this page. It's really encouraging for someone like me who is giving value out there for people to come back and go, yeah, that was useful. If that's all you do, that's really helpful, but I'd really love to see you at one of my training sessions, at one of the masterminds, at a roundtable, or maybe you even become and work with me as a private client at some point in the future. If I don't see you before then, bye for now. Thank you for watching.