Monday Motivation - January 6th

Good morning and happy 2020!New decade, new year, new week, new day...Now's the time when everyone has the hack (or weirdly 'anti-hack') to make sure you stick to your resolutions (aaarghh), commitments, changes to make absolutely sure that this year will most definitely be your best year yet. No pressure guys.Well, unfortunately I don't have all the answers (sorry!) but here are a few things that I think will help you move in a direction that you'll find worthwhile with a certain degree of ease and grace...Watch thisAbout Time. Those of you who have followed these emails for a while will know that I recommend this movie every year. And every year I get a dozen emails thanking me for the recommendation. It's an uplifting story about growing up and moving through life staring Bill Nighy and Rachel McAdams – it’s currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Enjoy!Read thisThe Tail End – Wait But Why. I make a point of reading this at least once a year, too. This Tim Urban post is a beautiful and confronting way to look at our life and breaks it down into practical components. For example, if you read on average five books a year, how many books will you read for the rest of your life? How does knowing that you may only read another 300 books influence how you choose those books? He goes on to explore how much time we have and will spend with our loved ones... humbling. An absolute must read.After these it'd be a good idea to take a few moments to reflect on what you would like more of – and perhaps a little bit less of – in your life. Write them down. Share these with someone you love/trust. Make a plan to incorporate more of the stuff you want and squeeze out the stuff you don’t. This may sound super obvious, but not many people actually do it and end up doing the same stuff again and again.So book 'that' trip, enrol in 'that' class, call 'that' person, go for 'that' run, eat 'that' salad, open 'that' savings account and set up the automatic transfer... you get my point.Make it easy to succeedIn a recent post I suggested a process to help make it easy to become a 'runner' by setting up your environment to make it more conducive for you to go running. You can do this for almost any other situation you want to make a change in.For example, if you've decided to not eat junk food or give up alcohol for a month, you can make it easier by not buying that stuff when you're in the supermarket. Again, this sounds so obvious, but most of us are on autopilot and just buy the same stuff, ending up with a chocolate bar staring us in the face at 9:30pm next to a glass of red! So make a shopping list and stick to it. (It's tricky to eat chocolate if it's not in the house.)I also recommend the book The One Thing (a great gift, by the way), which helps instil the concept of figuring out what's 'the one thing' that, if I do it, a bunch of other stuff is either automatically done or becomes irrelevant.Enjoy the start of this decade.Be mindful.Be creative.Be kind - to yourself and others.Peace,Luke