Unleash Your Vitality » results

Back To Health: Where Are Your Current Daily Habits Taking You?

John Brackett — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:47:05 +0000

I’d like to focus exclusively on your health here for a minute.

What kind of results are you experiencing today? Are you feeling inspired and full of energy all the time? Are you satisfied with your body and level of personal fitness – or at least working hard towards that end? Or do you feel lethargic and beat down, worn out? Out of shape and not feeling like you’re at the top of your game?

The single most important thing for you to realize is that right now there are countless people experiencing exactly what you’re experiencing; but even more important, there are countless people experiencing the exact OPPOSITE of how you’re currently feeling. Grasp the real importance of this: if you’re feeling tired and “out of it” all the time, stressed out and falling out of shape, there are countless others who have turned that around in their lives and found themselves with boundless energy and inspiration, the body of their dreams and an incredible state of health and overall vitality. You can do this, and it’s entirely possible for you.

On the other hand, if you’re experiencing incredible health right now…just realize that your daily habits have taken you there. Never take your daily habits for granted, but rather maintain and continually build upon them in new, exciting ways. You know where you stand on this scale. With 1 being a state of chronic disease and 10 being a state of incredible, luminous health and vitality, where would you place yourself on a scale of 1-10? Ground yourself and realize that this is just your starting point on a path that will lead you beyond what you ever thought possible.

This becomes possible for you through your DAILY HABITS. Your daily habits are the actions you take consistently every day that either move you progressively forward or progressively backward. Your current daily habits are the cause and effect that determine your health, fitness and energy levels. All of the results you’re experiencing today, and will experience in the near future, stem from your current daily habits.

Let’s pull out the magnifying glass. Zooming in on fitness, if you never worked out and just sat at a computer all day, you’d likely have less-than-optimal personal fitness levels. On the other hand, if you live an active lifestyle and commit to a few powerful workouts every week, you’re on course to enjoying an incredible body and experience of life. It’s not your genetics. It’s not your lack of time. It’s not because of work. It all comes down to the effectiveness of your daily habits.

In changing your results, you need to take a glance at cause and effect. The causes are your daily habits – the actions you take consistently every day. The effects are the results you’re seeing – your state of health, personal fitness, energy levels, mood, enthusiasm in life, mental performance, etc. To change the effects (your results), all you have to do is change the causes…your daily habits.

The only way to really see your causes – and the effects they bring you – is to become aware of them. The best way to do this is through a daily checklist of some kind. It could be on a small notecard you carry around in your pocket, a folded 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper, a task list on your cellphone, or any other way you can think of. The true value of this practice is first and foremost building an awareness of your current habits. By taking the same actions consistently every day (or every week), you can track your results and see which actions are really panning out for you and delivering value to your life.

It’s almost like running a business: you wouldn’t just hire someone to do a few random actions for your business each day. You’d have a step-by-step plan for them to get the most out of their time. Manage your life in the same way. Track your daily habits and notice how they make you feel. If certain ones instantly improve your mood and energy, keep them and even see if they could be improved upon! The ones that take away your energy, ditch em and replace them with new, empowering daily habits.

Here’s your 60-second action step of the day:

Grab a notecard or quickly fold up an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper in half. Whatever you chose to go with, hold it so it appears tall from top to bottom (not short and side-to-side). Title your card or paper, “Current Daily Habits” and brainstorm some ideas. Include your morning routine as it is today, and then think of some ways you could improve it. This could means batching tasks together, such as bathroom tasks, to save time and energy, or adding new habits that give you energy in the morning. Include your work schedule as a single habit, and if you have a lunch break in-between schedule that in as well.

=> Here’s how mine starts out as a real-life example:

Current Daily Habits:

* Watch MindMovie and Review Goals/Objectives

* Morning Water w/ Celtic Sea Salt

* Shower Up

* Superfood Smoothie w/ Fresh Greens from Garden

…………………………………………………

I start my day by watching an inspiring “MindMovie” – a blend of pictures, affirmations and music to get and keep you focused on what you want in life. I then head downstairs and grab my morning glass of water with a pinch of celtic sea salt (for electrolyte content). After that splash of hydration, I then shower up to start my day and make a tall superfood smoothie for breakfast (heading outside to the garden to grab some fresh greens to blend in). This gives me the mental clarity, focus and concentration I need to tackle the day head-on.

I include this just to give you an idea about how you can innovate and improve existing systems. Notice how I have that glass of water before my shower, which allows me to hydrate myself in the morning before eating breakfast. It’s always about the little things we do each day – our daily habits. Start your list now and leave me a comment below — if you’re up for it, even post a few of your own daily habits! Looking forward to hearing from you.

Unleash Your Vitality,

– John Brackett

Leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

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How To Literally Hand-Pick Your Own Beliefs…And Start Seeing The Results You REALLY Want

John Brackett — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:19:51 +0000

Welcome back :)

Before you begin, you may want to review last week’s post with a quick scan of the eyes (or read it if you haven’t had a chance yet!).

We left off talking about how your beliefs determine the results in every area of your life; your beliefs set up your expectations, which then determine your behaviors (the actions you take)…what’s left is the RESULTS you see in each area of your life.

So did you get a chance to really think about what kind of results you’re seeing in each area of your life? What kind of expectations do you have for various areas of your life? Did you even pick up on a few beliefs you feel like you might have?

Because you read on and proved to me that you’re here to learn, I’m going to give you a valuable secret I learned early in life:

“Typically when you reevaluate something, your belief about it changes”

While seemingly simple, this one little phrase holds the key to change in every single area of your life (believe it or not). Stop. I want you to really think about this one. Can you picture a time in your life when you reevaluated a thought or belief you had, and your belief about it changed? Here’s a quick example: you walk into a music venue and a band is playing. Everything sounds awful – the sound is all over the place, people are playing random parts and it’s just generally a mess. You quickly form a belief that this band is TERRIBLE! But what happens next?

Then, you hear the sound guy yell “thanks for the sound check, guys” and head out of the room. The band comes on and plays a jaw-dropping set later on that evening. After hearing the band, you hold the belief that “this band is AWESOME!”. What changed in between? How did this belief suddenly do a 180-degree turn? It’s because you reevaluated the band and how good they were. No belief is set in stone; it simply carries on with consistency until it’s challenged by reevaluation.

Another practical example (the good stuff’s on the way!) could be about how a “green smoothie” would taste. Because it’s green, many have a psychological aversion that screams “bland vegetables!” and denies the possibility of anything satisfying. That belief is instantly changed by reevaluation when you actually taste one for yourself and realize that it’s a fruit smoothie, just PACKED with nutrition :)

So here you are with a newfound understanding of beliefs and how they create the world around you. And you even know that you can CHANGE those beliefs by reevaluating them. But there’s still one more question in the barrel: how can I effectively reevaluate my current beliefs?

Deliberately crafting your own beliefs – and not leaving them up to chance – is one of the most powerful and effective choices you can make in your life. You don’t have to wait around for the perfect experiences to fall into place to craft your beliefs into something supportive. YOU can reevaluate – and hand-pick – your own beliefs, the ones that empower you in living your own, unique lifestyle.

Speeding up the process of reevaluating your beliefs can happen in a number of ways, but perhaps the most effective is by taking advantage of the alpha and theta brain wave patterns you can access upon waking in the morning and before going to sleep at night. At these critical mental states, you’re more open to SUGGESTION – and when you consciously choose what to suggest to your mind, day-after-day, you start seeing changes take place at a foundational level.

This is where you get to decide the rules of the game. You can think to yourself “it’s not enough” over and over, saying “it’s not enough money”, etc. OR you can suggest your own hand-crafted belief statements. If you immerse yourself in the phrase “I always have more than enough” every morning and night, you’ll begin to radiate out the feeling and experience of having more than enough. I’m not one of those people who thinks that thousands of dollars will fall into your lap overnight. What really happens is that you become familiar with the feeling and experience of “I always have more than enough” – even if you’re just playing around with it in the privacy of your bedroom :) With repetition – which causes continual reevaluation – your belief of not having enough begins to lose its foundation and shift over to your new belief that “I always have more than enough”.

Your mind will start to feel the cognitive dissonance between the two beliefs and constantly reevaluate to see which one is true. When you continually focus and concentrate on that new belief, you give it the edge it needs to win the battle of reevaluation – essentially, it passes the test. This belief, when it firmly takes hold, then begins to change your expectations and your behaviors. Suddenly? You find yourself taking new actions that are bringing in better results. It’s the stuff you always knew you could do, but always put off or never took seriously – not because you weren’t capable, but because it was out of alignment with your past beliefs.

Two incredibly effective tools are:

1) Belief Statements:

Belief statements are written statements that spell out the exact belief you’d like to develop, or the precise feeling and experience you’d like to have. One of the most powerful statements out there is the one mentioned earlier: “I always have more than enough”. The feeling of not having enough is what drives people to race their hearts out and stress, tear-down and abuse their minds and bodies to the farthest possible degree. Whether it’s feeling like you don’t have enough time to get things done or enough money to live comfortably, the feeling of not having enough is a challenging place to be in. This simple belief statement, given emotional repetition, can change that experience from one of scarcity to one of abundance – “having more than enough”.

You’ll want to read these belief statements out loud (if possible) every morning and night for the biggest bang for your buck. This gets your whole body and mind involved, and increases the impact of the words; it allows you to feel that experience more fully and anchor it in your mind. If you can’t read aloud, try quietly reading them over to yourself at a comfortable pace, perhaps “hearing them” aloud for more impact. Do whatever gets you to really feel those beliefs to be true for you in that moment. Over time, these written statements become more than just beliefs on paper – they become your expectations…your new beliefs.

2) Visualization:

I’m sure you’re well aware of the power of visualization in sports and peak performance work. It’s been proven to enhance performance in athletes who first emotionally visualize themselves competing and/or winning and then actually going out there and performing…time and time again. This is your chance to use this incredibly powerful tool to enhance every area of your life.

You can spend just 1-5 minutes visualizing your new beliefs or powerful scenes in your mind as you wake up in the morning and before you fall asleep at night. A well-balanced routine is to go through visualizing yourself radiantly alive and healthy, then moving on progressively to money, career, relationships and mental performance. Although it takes only minutes a day, this creates new, vivid imagery in your mind – and new neural pathways and connections. The more you visualize these things, the more they take root and the more you allow yourself to experience the wonders your mind can actually bring to you!

Action Steps:

__ Create a list of 10 (or more) new belief statements that you’d like to develop (health, money, career, relationships, general beliefs, etc)

__ Place this list (written out or typed) by your bed; it could be on a table or nightstand, tucked away in a book, hidden in a drawer or just out in the open!)

__ Read over these new belief statements every morning upon waking and every night before falling asleep (as close as you can reasonably get)

__ Create daily habits and take actions that reenforce these new beliefs (by taking action from these beliefs, you build a stronger foundation more quickly)

__ Notice the incredible change in results that takes place as your beliefs change over time

* Make that list now! There’s no reason to put this off when the chance you take is leaving your beliefs to chance itself. Take me up on it and let me know what kind of results you start seeing in your own life by leaving a comment here on this post or by sending over an email through the contact links on the upper right-hand panel. Don’t leave this to chance…you deserve to have more than enough :)

Unleash Your Vitality,

– John Brackett

=> Leave a comment below and let me know what’s on your mind!

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How Your Beliefs Determine ALL of the Results You’re Seeing In Your Life…and the 2 Clever Strategies You Need To Change Them

John Brackett — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:08:44 +0000

I’m not sure.

You may be the type who just read the title above and started nodding your head in agreement. You know, on a core level, that this is something true and important, and you’d like to go deeper to get some results from it. Or you may be the type of person who just rolled your eyes but decided to read on anyway- because there was one spark, one glimpse that there may be something important for you personally on this page.

This post is for both of you.

The truth is, your beliefs – whether you chose them consciously, picked them up from your parents and relatives, or even from friends and teachers in school – determine the results you’re seeing RIGHT NOW in every area of your life. There’s a large lie out there that whatever you’re experiencing right now is just temporary, and you’re “just on the tip” of breaking through in all of the areas you’d like to see more progress in. That feeling of being “just on the tip” of breaking through is a result of the beliefs you’ve held in the past and continue to hold now- and it’s responsible for the actual lack of results you’ve been noticing lately.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Whatever you’re currently experiencing right now IS temporary…but only if you choose to take up the initiative to change it. What happens is that most of us get caught in never-ending, vicious cycles that we always think are just about to end (day-to-day, week-to-week, year-to-year). It’s like your neighbor’s dog chasing after a car that you know it’ll never quite catch. Everyone on the outside can see it- just not the one “in the game” themselves.

Let’s take a look at this on a deeper level. Have you ever had a friend or relative who always talked about this being “the year” for getting healthy, fit and in control of their bodies? How many years did it take for this one to be “the year”? Did it happen at all? What usually happens is that while they’ll admirably set incredible goals for themselves and talk about it with friends and family, their behaviors never really change. As soon as they start getting more workouts in, the desire for sweets and “rewards” goes up. It’s like there’s an internal thermostat that won’t allow them to break free of their current body and habits. When they eat better, they suddenly can’t find the time to work out. So they either continue on the rollercoaster or call it quits and head back to their old comfort zone. Why does this happen?

Your actual behaviors – the actions you take, which give you the results you want – are driven by your beliefs about yourself and the world around you. If someone has a goal to become healthy and fit, but believes on a core level that “being healthy is hard” and “it’s hard to eat right”, or even “healthy people are strange”, how likely are they to achieve that goal? The beliefs that “being healthy is hard” and “it’s hard to eat right” will play out in their lives over and over again, making it incredibly challenging to be healthy. On top of that, if they knew an odd-ball health guru growing up and decided that “healthy people are strange”, they’ll never really allow themselves to become a “healthy person”. It’s a classic counter-intention that destroys their odds of success in achieving any of their health goals.

Keep in mind that all of this is concerning the problems we face in achieving our goals. The solutions come up next…

Here’s another example: have you ever had a friend who just seemed to “attract” drama and controversy? Who always talked about just wanting to be in a great relationship, but ended up creating arguments with all their friends and partners on a regular basis? What is it that actually drives this behavior and attracts so much drama, when all they really want on a conscious level is great friendships? Again, it’s their beliefs about themselves and the world around them.

They may believe that they don’t deserve the perfect guy or gal. They may hold the general belief (a fairly common one) that “people can’t be trusted”, passed down from family and friends. Or maybe they just grew up watching TV shows that faciliated them having unrealistic expectations about social situations and the amount of drama that’s “normal” in everyday life. It’s all a belief game- and it’s 100% our own responsibility to change it.

I’m sure it’s becoming clear that the beliefs you hold about yourself and others determine the actions you take (your behaviors), and following that, the results you see. This applies to your health, fitness and energy levels. It applies to all of your relationships. It applies to your financial beliefs, your intelligence, and your ability to learn new things and move forward progressively in your life. But with so many variables, how can we find out what beliefs we actually hold about ourselves and others? How can we “see” our current beliefs that are sculpting our daily lives?

I’ve discovered two powerful ways to become aware of your current beliefs:

1) What Are Your Expectations?

What you EXPECT to see in any area of your life lines up exactly with what your beliefs are in that area. Think about this for a moment. Some people expect more bills to show up, credit card debt, being tired and stressed out at work, coming home and passing out, etc. They fully expect this lifestyle because of the beliefs they’re holding about how life is supposed to be (usually passed down from parents, but also from any number of other sources and conclusions drawn elsewhere).

This isn’t a one-way street. Some people consistently EXPECT to see growing paychecks, surprise gifts, joy and satisfaction at work, and a lively, rich, dynamic atmosphere at home with the family. Funny enough, they consistently take the actions that bring them that kind of lifestyle in how they work, how they treat others, and how they treat themselves. Your beliefs in any area of your life (career, financial, health, relationships, mental performance, etc) determine the expectations YOU project outward in those categories; then, you take the actions that lead to the results you expected to begin with. This presents us with a unique challenge, but an even more incredible opportunity.

Many people go through life hardly challenging their current belief structures. They hold onto what their parents, grandparents, and their parents used to think- even if it serves no purpose in helping them to live the kind of life they really want NOW. The challenge? Becoming aware of your current beliefs so you can clearly see where you stand. The incredible opportunity? The chance to CHOOSE which new beliefs you’d like to entertain, and to watch them sculpt your life in new and exciting ways.

2) What Kind Of Actions Do You Automatically Take In Each Area Of Your Life?

This one is essential because we already know that our current beliefs are driving our behaviors…automatically. Some people are “tuned” to prosperity and can make incredible amounts of money appear on the spot, while they may be dumbfounded in the kitchen and at creating a state of health in their own bodies. Others are “set” to have passionate relationships that others would die for, but may find trouble choosing a career and bringing in money at the end of the day. What’s important to know is that you’re in control of the beliefs you have.

Take a quick assessment of your own life right now. What kind of results are you seeing in your career and financial life? Are you satisfied? How about your health? Your level of personal fitness and energy everyday? Now your relationships- both with any partner you may or may not have, and with friends and family. How about your mental performance? Are you an avid learner, always challenging yourself? Or did you develop the belief that “smart people aren’t cool” or something simliar in school (that you’re still living out today)?

We come away with all sorts of hurdles to be overcome by the time we’re out of school. All sorts of beliefs have been formed (whether useful or damaging), and we live out those beliefs on a day-to-day basis. It’s up to you to take 100% responsibility for the beliefs you’ve developed, the actions you’ve taken, and the results you’ve seen in your life.

…Next week, we’ll talk about how to literally hand-pick your beliefs, so you can start seeing the results you really want.

“What you truly believe is mirrored by the actions you take, not by what you say to others or what you’d like to think you believe”

Unleash Your Vitality,

– John Brackett

Leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

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