Motivation, Healthy Productivity and Wellbeing: Emptying the BS Tank

This is Veronica from the Lemon Tree Mindset. So I'm trying something different today. As you can see, I'm doing a real live, no screen, no office, no background. I just finished my workout in the morning. This is Hong Kong. This is actually my girls' school. I just, uh, drove them and we did a track session together. It's 8 AM in Hong Kong, and I wanted to do a session to do something a little bit different. A lot of people ask me about motivation. They ask me about productivity. how to get things done. And some of you might know that last year I actually published a book with Penguin Random House called The Anti-Procrastinator. That is very self-explanatory and talks about how not to procrastinate and get things done. And I wanted to share some of the tips that work for me, that have worked for me over the years, because I think we all have our own procrastination demons. And as a creator, as a creative entrepreneur, I think it's very easy To lose that motivation, to hit a wall, to feel like we don't do enough, and therefore we end up just with an empty tank. Personally, there's a few things, particularly 2, that have helped me in the past 10 years or so achieve a lot of things that matter to me. Okay, so I'm going to talk a bit about the things that are important to me, my values, what I love doing, and I'd love for you to reflect on what are the things that are important to you? What are the things that you would love to achieve in life. And in my case, for example, I love exercising. As you can see here, I'm actually training for a half Ironman this weekend in China. So sport is something that's really important and I want to prioritize. Another thing that's very important is family time. I'm a mom, so I try to do as much as I can with my girls. And in fact, we just did a track session together while they were running with their schoolmates. I was doing my own training. And so having this family quality time is super important. And it's not always easy, to be honest. With kids and school and different logistics. And one third thing that I don't talk about very often, but I do love, is languages. And some of you might or might not know this, but I actually speak 6 languages. I started learning them when I was a kid, so I didn't really have a choice. But with my family, we moved countries every 4 years. So I'm originally from Spain, from the Canary Islands. I don't know if anyone has ever been there. And when I was 6, we moved to France. Then when I was 11, We moved to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Then I moved, uh, to the Netherlands. And then when I was an adult, I finished my studies, law degree, by the way, in Italy. Then I moved to Taiwan and then I lived in China. And now Hong Kong has been home for the past 19 years with a break in Australia. And so throughout this period, learning languages has also been something that's very important to me. And I'm sharing this because we all have different values. We all have different things that matter to us. And it's important that we chase our dreams. It's important that we make time for those because time is limited. Honestly, I lost my dad when I was in my early 20s. So I do know that time is not granted, right? It's a gift. And so what do we do with our time? How do we do the most of it? So the first thing that I wanted to talk about that I find is so important and effective to really make the most of your day is sleep and getting ahead. I'm not a big fan of The 5 AM Club. I don't know if you've read it, but it's very prescriptive in terms of you have to wake up. At a certain time. And it's not so much about what time you wake up, but actually creating a good habit, creating a good habit of sleep. Most humans need between 7 or 8 hours. And for me, it's more about how you create a good habit the night before. When I was doing my research, I discovered that there's actually a type of procrastination that is called bedtime procrastination. And many of us struggle to do that, like to really have a healthy habit, go to bed early. And when you do that, what happens the next day is that in my case, for example, I wake up at 5:00 AM or sometimes even 4:30 AM without an alarm. I think that's the key. And when you have a good quality of sleep, you feel refreshed. You feel that you're ahead. There are 2 things that happen when you wake up early in the morning ahead of everyone else. One, your motivation tank and your willpower tank is full. And that means that you can really tackle any type of task, whether it's doing the track session like I just did, whether it's doing the admin tedious stuff. So whatever that might be, you're gonna have more motivation to do it. Second is, I call it the BS tank. The BS tank is where we have all our excuses, and that BS tank is gonna be empty in the morning. I can't say I'm too tired. I have had all these meetings. I have had all these calls. And so that's a good combination when you have your motivation tank full and the BS tank empty, because it really means that you're gonna be able to tackle Whatever it is that gives you most resistance. I'd love to hear from you. What is it that gives you the most resistance? Is it exercise? Is it doing the admin stuff? Is it whatever, whatever that might be? It's great to get that done first thing in the morning. What I've also realized, and I'm sure those of you who are parents, especially of young children, can relate to, is that when you wake up in the morning, you have zero distractions. In my case, it was dark this morning. The kids were sleeping. My dog was sleeping. And so it really allows you to focus without notifications, without noise, without phone calls and things like that. So it's really a great way of getting ahead. And so that really allows you to have that extra hour where you're getting ahead. And instead of being reactive about your day, you're being proactive, which is amazing. So instead of having, having life happen to you, you're actually making sure that you're ahead, that you know exactly what's going to happen. You can plan. One of the best practices that I adopted a few years ago is actually start planning your week on a Sunday. And it doesn't mean that you have to be super strict. And in fact, I'm not. I wasn't even planning to do this live session, but I was feeling so great. I was like, I have to share it with my community so that other people can feel great as well. But having a certain framework so that you know what's going to happen, you can organize your time ahead. You can be planned for. In my case, for example, I do a lot of public speaking. So I make sure that if I have a big public speaking event, I'm not going to have 3 calls with clients on that day or a live session because I wouldn't be at my best. So something for you to think about, how are you planning your day and your time? If you're planning it at all, because it does make a huge difference. So good quality of sleep. And if you need some help there, there are some incredible devices I use and I'm not affiliated, but just share. I use a ring called Oura, O-U-R-A, that has really helped me throughout the years understand the quality of sleep, understand what impacts the sleep, understand the circadian rhythm, which is kind of the biorhythm that each human has so that you can really have the best quality of sleep and really feel refreshed when you wake up in the morning. So sleep is one of them. And the second thing that I wanted to talk about that I think is very important about productivity is that I think that it's been so distorted by humans because very often when we think about productivity, we think about output, what we have to do. We have a long to-do list and it's all about doing and producing an output. But look, productivity has 2 elements in the equation, right? Product— the outcome is one, the output, but the input is the other one and is actually more important. My publication is called The Lemon Tree Mindset, so I'm gonna give you an example with a lemon tree. If I told you that you have to make this lemon tree here be more productive, what would you do about it? You would probably give it more water. You would make sure that it has the right conditions, that it has vitamin D from the sun. That's productivity, right? The input so that you can have, have good output. Yet for humans, how often do we talk about input when we talk about productivity? Never. So I think it's really important to stop for a second and think, if you are the lemon tree, what do you need to have good input? What does that mean for you? I was talking about sleep before, which I think is so important. The second thing that I think is personally very important, and, uh, and I have proof, is exercise. And that's why I wanted to have this live session here. I just finished my 5K exercise session. And exercise, it's just such an incredible tool to boost your motivation. Ironically, even though you're burning calories, it's helping you You fill your motivation tank and empty the BS excuse tank because it releases the positive chemicals. It releases oxytocin, which makes you feel much more calm, much more relaxed, reduce the stress and the anxiety, which we all have one day or the other. And then the second thing is the endorphins. The endorphins, you get like this, these sports high after doing it. So whether it's a 20-minute jog, whether it's going for a walk with a dog, whatever that might be. Exercise can really, really help you with the day ahead. For many people, exercise is actually something that brings a lot of resistance. And so I do recommend that you do it earlier in the morning because you're going to feel more energized like I do now. It's 8 AM and I'm full of energy. You're going to feel much more positive. You're going to feel that you can really tackle any challenge that you have ahead. So these are the 2 main things that I wanted to share. One is how important And powerful sleep can be for you and just getting ahead, planning the day early in the morning, making sure that you are in control because that's going to empower you for the day and it's going to empower you for the week. So how are you going to start creating like this really nice and healthy routine for your lifestyle? And the second is exercising and how important it is to make it a part of your habits early in the morning, ideally, so that you can really benefit from all these positive chemicals that are going to help you be more productive, have more clarity, be sharper, and ultimately be happier and live a better life. So this is it, a very short one for me. I'm actually gonna go for a swim. I'm gonna be off this weekend to China for my half Ironman, and I just wanted to share a bit of motivation. I hope it helps you. I hope it gives you a little seed to plant your lemon tree, and let me know how you go with your motivation. Thank you. Bye.