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Since the dawn of time it has been known that humans are prone to procrastinate and leave things off until the last minute. As I lay in bed, trying to gather my thoughts, I reflect on how I planned on writing this post all week. I gave the topic careful consideration. I even subjected my self to listening to a 3-hour long audio book on the subject.

Despite all this preparation and forethought, here I am, feeling inadequate for not being able to bring myself to write the darn thing. Instead, I filled my weekend with videogames and Super Bowl coverage. Perhaps, and I may be over rationalizing, there is some good that can come from procrastination.

In other words, can procrastination be used as a tool for productivity? Let's explore the possibilities.

First, let's start setting common ground: what exactly is procrastination? A dictionary defines it as follows;

pro•cras•ti•nate: 1 | noun | the act of procrastinating; putting off or delaying or deferring an action to a later time
2 | noun | slowness as a consequence of not getting around to it

By this definition, procrastination is not as bad as we make it out to be. In fact some of the greatest minds in history, including Leonardo DaVinci, Albert Einstein and Matin Luther King Jr. were known for periodically leaving important work off until the last minute in favor of other less monumental tasks.

Take Dr. King's famous I Have a Dream speech for example. It is one of the most widely known decrees of the Civil Rights movement in the US, and it could have not been possible if it were not for the fact that Dr. King was still making edits to his speech right up to the point he got on that podium. The famous lines we all are familiar with were not even on his notes, but rather an impromptu collection of bits and pieces of another sermon he had given elsewhere. Prompted by an audience member shouting "tell them about the dream!", Dr. King went off script, and delivered a powerful speech we still remember today, over 50 years later.

In this age of information, it seems as though there is no end in sight to the constant stream of notifications and emails we receive at all hours on all our devices. No wonder exhaustion sets in and we let our guard down, allowing for mindless distractions to occupy the space where more " important" tasks should reside. For this same reason, maybe procrastination is not a dragon me must slay at all costs, but rather a pet we can train and wield in the fight for more fulfilling lives.

Why do we Procrastinate?

No one can say for certain, however what research has demonstrated is that at a certain level, procrastination is a biological response to an external threat, real or imagined. It is a defense mechanism we use to protect ourselves psychologically from the shame of not being able to complete a task we know we should be capable of accomplish.

Imagine being a cave-person tasked with starting the communal protective fire for the night. Instead of admitting to ourselves and our tribe that we have not quite mastered the art of fire making yet, we spend the bulk of the time gathering twigs and subsequently arranging them by size, color, and dryness. The illusion is that we are contributing towards the original goal of creating fire, while at the same time not actually getting around to it. The consequence is that night will inevitably come and we are just delaying the inevitable. Not only will we feel the remorse and regret for having let our tribe down, but we will reinforce this behavior next time it is our turn to light the fire again by reminding ourselves of how we failed the last time.

How to Procrastinate Strategically

The mind naturally needs periods of rest in order to replenish it's energy reserves. The best way to be able to procrastinate strategically is to schedule in your calendar as a proactive measure instead of a reactive one. Mark Twain is credited with the quote:

If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.
Mark Twain

Mark Twains quote is not to say that you should eat the frog whole in one bite. If the goal is to eat the frog, by all means quarter it and eat it in sensible bites. Just like you would eat a nice juicy porterhouse steak in small delicate bites, the same goes for attempting to eat a whole block of plain tofu. For your daily tasks, the same logic still holds. Break down your least desirable or most challenging tasks into smaller actionable steps early in the day so that you can get them out of the way sooner. In a way, by not attempting to do it all at once, you are procrastinating by intelligently putting off more desireable activities. By actively breaking a task down into its individual steps it becomes much easier to make progress towards completing our work.

Another useful tactic to ward off procrastination is to replenish our mental energy and leave the sub-conscious to do the heavy lifting while we relax. During the weekend, schedule some much needed Rest & Relaxation and make it a point to engage in tasks that require a lower cognitive gear, such as gardening, watching a sunset, or hiking out in the trails with friends.

We are all prone to procrastinate at one time or another. Recognize it, and plan for it. What activities do you find yourself procrastinating on at the moment? What do you think your brain is trying to protect you from? Let me know in the comments below.

I a spend considerable amount of time commuting from Oakland to my job in Sunnyvale. Though my job does provide the ability to use the company shuttle to get to and from work, I have learned to appreciate those quiet hours in the morning, contemplating the day ahead and getting mentally prepared listening to my favorite motivational speakers.

Every afternoon however, for the last 6 months on and off, I have made it a ritual to listen to an audiobook or podcast that will help me sharpen the saw and become a better employee, husband and overall better person.

Below, I will attempt to keep a list of the books I listen to or read for all of 2019, with a brief summary of what key insights I learned from it.

Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science  of Contentment, Calm and  Confidence by Rick Hanson

Overall I found this book quite shallow. Granted this book was written six years ago, the "H.E.A.L." methodology used by Dr. Hanson was not actually as intuitive as it appears on first pass.  It is effectively a mixture of mindfulness practices and guided meditation. The basic premise is based on the fact that our brains are naturally programmed to identify negative events, and that this can this natural negativity bias can be overcome by linking positive emotions and feelings to known worries, self-doubts and thoughts a few seconds at a time.

You can save your self a lot of time listening to the explanation of the four steps of "taking in the good" directly from Dr Hanson himself on his website. Or watching the short TEDx talk below:

The End of Procrastination: How to Stop Procrastinating and live a Fulfilled Life by Petr Ludwig

Elephants and hamsters. This short book provided a couple practical tips on how to avoid procrastination, but overall felt as though it was shaming a whole swath of people who may not be able to to just stop procrastinating. Petr opens the book with his near-death experience an how this gave him a new lease on life and the needed motivation to be able to take on challenges he would have otherwise left for tomorrow or the day after that.

Petr draws inspiration from NYU Psychologist Jonathan Haidt's work which personifies the intangible concepts of the rational and emotional processes in the brain as an rider, and an elephant respectively. It follows that in order to be able to defeat procrastination, one must make a path for the elephant to make progress, and carefully direct it by means of carefully thought out achieveable milestones.

Later in the book, a person's learned helplessness is personified as having a "hamster". Referred as such based on another scientific experiment where a hamster was placed in an enclosure with a clear lid, after several days of trying to leave the enclosure and failing, the hamster stopped trying to leave the enclosure, assuming it was impossible, even after researchers removed the barrier. Petr argues that similarly, we too have learned helplessness due to having experienced failure before.

All in all, in my view, the most practical advice from this book is to avoid taking too much at once. Break down your tasks into bite-sized actionable steps. If you have to plan an event three months from today, perhaps a good place to start would be to research at least one venue. Breaking down tasks into actionable steps will yield a higher degree of overall success in the long run.

Power Moves: Lessons from Davos by Adam Grant

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this audio book. Not only does it offer practical, advice in different areas, it is filled to the brim with interesting anecdotes and interviews with various leaders from around the world.

In a nutshell, this book touches on the changing dynamics of power. Who wields it? How is it used? There is no doubt the power dynamics are changing around the world. The prevalence of the internet has empowered far more people with more information as well as given people a larger platform. It is now quite common to find a 20-something-year-old living with his parents to have a much larger and influential reach than the SVP of Communications at a company like Microsoft.

The book is divided into the following sections:

• In the Arena -- Changing power dynamics at Davos, influencer vs hierarchical power
• Power Reveals -- Power reveals a person's innermost desires, analysis of presidential speeches (including Nixon, Clinton, Bush Jr, Obama and Trump)
• Powerful Women -- How does acquiring power differ for women as opposed for men?
• Team Power -- How have the roles of employers and employees changed? How can teams be empowered?
• Culture Change -- How power can be used to create cultural change in institutions?
• Robot Power -- If the future is AI and ML, what type of new power will the technological advances bring?
• Power to Truth -- How do we help those without power? How can we foment cultural and emotional power?

Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brené Brown

Brené Brown challenges the notion that  leaders should be unflawed and unflinching, by inviting them to be vulnerable. Not in the extent of oversharing or with the intent to be manipulate other's emotions, but rather by having the courage to manage uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. It leads us to do the soul-searching needed to stay in the hard conversations, tell the truth and be willing to give and ask for feedback when it is hard.

She comes across as an authentic and caring leader. Not only does she open up her book by retelling an anecdote of a incredibly humbling experience speaking to a room full of C-Level business people (not sea-level), but also issues the reminder that people are just people.

We all have our own faults and despite them, we are in one way or another called to be leaders. Wether it is for work, or at home, at any point in time each one of us will have to be the beacon which others follow. In Brown's refreshing take on leadership as an empathic journey, she provides a wealth of wisdom that applies in all facets of life.

Her approach sounds simple on the surface, but requires deep introspection at times. Brown provides language not only to do the deep work required to evaluate and identify our own values, but also a common language to build a common understanding amongst teams.

Of the biggest take aways, is the concept that "clear is kind, unclear is unkind." In my interpretation, it is always far better to be upfront about how we're feeling and what we expect from others. This concept alone melts away so much misunderstanding and trust that can often corrode relationships and lead to anxiety and burnout. As an example, if a person asks if you can take on an additional project, the kind thing to do would be to explain exactly the reason why you are not able to take it on instead of begrudgingly saying yes, or coming up with an excuse.

Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People by Vanessa Van Edwards

In this book, Vanessa Van Edwards teaches us how to hack social interactions. How to create a good impression on the first five minutes, how to decode other's inner motivations and values in the first 5 hours, and how to build lasting relationships in the first 5 days.  

The best part, is that everything she teaches is based on solid neuro-science and behavioral studies he has reproduced or conducted herself as lead investigator at scienceofpeople.com.

One of the most memorable parts of the book for me was when she explained the concept of big talk. We are all familiar with the concept of small talk, and well, small talk leads to little more than passing the time until it is time to go and do something else. Instead, the concept of big talk is like getting on Space Mountain at Disneyland. It is thrilling and exciting, it generates memorable conversations that will lead others to not only remember you but like you more for it!

The premise is that instead of engaging in boring small talk with questions like "do you live around here?", try a more engaging "are you planning to travel anywhere any time soon?" conversation sparker. Van Edwards selflessly shares her favorite conversation sparkers and dopamine generating conversation starters on her site.

There is much to learn from Captivate and is definitely worth multiple reads. I look forward to read it again in the near future.

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James  Clear

From losing weight to building a billion dollar company, Atomic Habits posits that it is not enough to set ambitious goals. It is only through the power of habits that the highest performers are able to accomplish what may seem impossible to mere mortals.

As it turns out, it is really difficult to start new habits, and nearly impossible to get rid of bad habits. Of course, this is only true if you are not familiar with how habits are formed in the first place. Following up from the groundwork laid out by Charles Duhigg in his book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Clear outlines his own framework for establishing new habits and breaking bad habits.

In a nutshell, we are constantly scanning our surroundings and behaving accordingly to the triggers around us. Each visual input can unleash a chain of involuntary actions into motion that we execute flawlessly and often times without thinking about it. Putting it into perspective, if we paid closer attention to our automatic behaviors and decided to make improvements in different areas of our lives by even 1%, the compounded benefits of those small incremental actions would yield enormous dividends in the future. As Clear defines it, these atomic habits (in the scale of atoms), can lead to atomic results (in the scale of an atomic bomb).

When it comes to habits, a common figure thrown around is that it takes 21 days to make a new habit, however, Clear refutes that by stating that a habit is formed once it has been repeated enough times to become automatic. Each habit begins with a cue, which triggers a craving, which in turn causes us to follow through with a response (wether in thought or action), which leads to a reward, and the cycle starts all over again.

As an example, think about walking into a dark room in an unfamiliar home. Almost instinctively, we will reach out our hand to either side of the wall, palpating for a small plastic lever, dial or knob in search for a light switch, because that is what one must do as soon as we enter a dark room, turn on the lights.

Clear provides detailed insights and researched strategies to internalize each of his four laws in order to build new habits and eliminate bad ones. His four laws for creating a new habit are:

• Law 1 (Cue): Make it obvious
• Law 2 (Craving): Make it attractive
• Law 3 (Response): Make it easy
• Law 4 (Reward): Make it satisfying

In order to stop a bad habit, invert the 4 laws mentioned above:

• Inversion of Law 1 (Cue): Make it invisible
• Inversion of Law 2 (Craving): Make it unattractive
• Inversion of Law 3 (Response): Make it difficult
• Inversion of Law 4 (Reward): Make it unsatisfying

You can watch Clear explain the four laws below:

All in all, if I had to summarize Atomic Habits succinctly, it would be this: Our habits are a reflection of who we are, we must then do the things that reinforce the identity we wish to embody. Each habit we perform then, is a vote for the person we wish to become.

Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant

This book will make you cry. I cried. As COO of Facebook, Sandberg sparked a movement that started shortly after her wildly successful TED talk about why we have too few women leaders and only gained momentum after she published her follow-up book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. This courageous glimpse of vulnerability has lead to the creation of thousands of lean in circles where women can find the support and tools to rise up to the challenge of having the difficult dialogue needed to allow more women to excel in their fields.

Sandberg opens her book with the heartbreaking story of how she came to find the listless body of her beloved husband next to an exercise machine while vacationing in Mexico. The grief of losing her husband lead her to a long path to being able to live a "normal" life again. It took her over a year after her husband's passing before she was able to talk about it in public. You can watch her address the UC Berkeley graduating class of 2016 about the lessons she learned in death.

For me, the most powerful message from her book is that even when we plan everything to the last detail, things are bound to go wrong, and often times, catastrophically. It is not about avoiding grief, but rather how to confront the reality that the world will move on with or without us, and it is to our benefit to carry on. Sometimes option A will no longer be a viable option, and we will have to carry onward with option B, and maybe option C and D.

Of all the advice shared throughout the book the one piece that resonated the most with me was learning about the work of psychologist Martin Seligman with regards to the three P's:

• Personalization - We disproportionately allocate the blame on to ourselves for our current situation. The reality is that even if it we are partially responsible, it is naive to think that everything that happens to us happens because of us.
• Pervasiveness - We incorrectly believe that the bad situation we may be facing permeates like a sticky substance across our entire lives. In truth, there may very well be areas of our lives that is not impacted by the bad situation, all we have to do is look towards all the good in our lives despite the bad times.
• Permanence -  We believe that the bad times will never end, and that we will be stuck in the darkness for eternity. In reality, if we can see how our circumstances are only temporary, we can imagine and then build a better future for ourselves.

Overall, I can say I learned two things after reading this book:

1. As humans, we are stronger than we give ourselves credit for, and resiliency is one of the most human traits we possess. We are able to get hurt, beat and tossed around by the cruelty of life, yet we get back up time after time and find the strength within to live another day. This is not a book I'd want anyone to read while they are going through grief, but rather one that should be read as a way to prepare for the winter days, the times where we feel the will to live wane, and be better prepared for adversity before it comes knocking at our doors.
2. Everyone has hidden scars, wether they are still healing or they have been there for a long time. It is our responsibility as human beings to care for one another. Being sympathetic to someone's grief is not enough. We must be empathetic, and genuinely be there for one another, even if we do not have the right words to say.

Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity by Charles Duhigg

Currently Reading...

Tick. Tock. The mere concept of time has eluded even the greatest minds in recent history. We imagine scenarios where it is possible to travel through time, forwards and backwards. Even without time travel, we are able to imagine how our future selves would live, and can reminisce with joy on the days of our youth. Wonderful as that is, time is just one of those things we seem to think we know but in reality not quite understand.

For example, why is it that time seems to go pass us by at different rates? Specifically,  why is it that time moves much slower when we're waiting in line at the DMV? These are important questions, but I will leave them for a later post.

Over the last 4 years that I have been working in the tech industry, I have come across multiple time tracking methodologies. Today I want to share some of my favorites.

1. Track Tasks as they Happen - The Emergent Task Timer

I used to be the type of person who was absolutely clueless about where my time had gone. When I started looking for a way to record how I spent my time, I came across David Seah's page. His intuitive approach made it simple to get started and removed any barriers to get started. He graciously makes most of his tools available for download for free, though you can also purchase pre-printed materials if you so choose to.

Over the course of many months, I meticulously tracked my activities in 15 minute increments, some thing that is quite easy to do if you are able to wear headphones at work, since Mac OS  has a built-in "hourly chime" that can be set to tell you the time at a set interval. For most people 15 minute increments can be incredibly overwhelming, however the idea is still the same. To be able to visualize exactly where your time has gone. Doing this exercise, I found that taking a "quick peek at twitter" quickly devolved to an hour or more, time that did not advance my work for the day and cannot be recovered.

Being faced with those distraction periods quietly trains us to be more conscientious of how we are using our precious time and to identify when we are going astray.

2. Plan Your Day With Intention - Best Self Co. Self Journal

Another analog tracker I have used at least a year and a half is the Self Journal. Aside from guiding one to create and follow through on our personal goals 13-weeks at a time, the Self Journal is structured in a way that intentionally makes planning ahead for the following day that much easier. The approach used by this journal/planner to scheduling your day intentionally is loosely adapted from Benjamin Franklin's own method for keeping track of his daily activities, leaving no idle gaps in-between.

Now a days there are no shortage of these types of journals, so you are bound to find one that fits your needs.

3. Intentionally Set Time Limits and Rewards - The Pomodoro Technique

For those days when it feels like there just isn't enough time to plan the day, the Pomodoro Technique is my go to method to keep myself accountable of my time. The first step is to pick the biggest, most onerous task, and commit to working on it uninterrupted for 1 pomodoro at a time until it is finished. Traditionally 1 pomodoro is equivalent to a block of 25 uninterrupted minutes of focused work, followed by a 5 minute break.

The pomodoro technique was invented by Francisco Cirillo, who named his technique after the tomato-shaped timer he used as a university student to get work done. The beauty of this method is if used consistently, it will make it easier to realistically estimate how much time is needed to complete a task. – "That report that is due every Thursday at Noon, yeah, it takes me 1.5 pomodoros to finish".

Though most people can get by using the built-in timer on their phones, many prefer the visual stimulus they get from seeing an actual timer run out. Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, authors of the book "Make Time" swear by the gorgeous time timer.

4. Use Technology! - Toggl

There is no shortage of time tracking apps online, task manager and to-do lists, however a tool I keep coming back to is the simple yet elegant Toggl timer. As a tech enthusiast, I believe that the goal of technology is to make things easier, not harder. And that had been my frustration with other solutions I had tried. Trackers that only worked on the desktop but not on mobile, or worked only with Apple devices. I wanted something more ubiquitous that I could easily use anywhere with minimal set-up. Enter Toggl.

Not only does Toggl offer integrations with a wide range of industry tools and software (asana, jira, basecamp etc), It is dead simple to use. Just like a stop watch. You enter the name of your task, and click start. Once you are ready to move on to the next task, you can easily click stop and begin the process all over again. The magic doesn't stop there. This tool also incorporates the Pomodoro philosophy, making it easy to start working in Pomodoros and tracking your time more meaningfully. The app works on all major operating systems and is free for individual use or small teams of up to 5 users. And to top it off, they generate intuitive reports chock-full of insights to be gleaned from looking at their weekly reports.

My intention for sharing all the above methods is not to make anyone a "convert" to a new way of tracking time, but rather to empower more people to become aware of where their time is going. As I like to say, add these tools to your toolbox, so that you can be better prepared when the time comes.

I'd love to hear from you! How do you track your hours and keep your self accountable to accomplishing what you set out to do each day? Let me know in the comments below!

Here we are, the second week of 2019 behind us. At this time of year it seems like there is no shortage of articles reminding us that 80% of New Year's Resolutions are doomed to fail by the second week of February.  Is there anything that we can do about it? How can we maintain the positive momentum going?

Hearing the above statistic of course, can be nothing less than discouraging. Life, as we all know, is unpredictable. At times it can feel like there is far too much to do, and not enough time.  Moving from one worry to the next takes away focus from the mountain top in the distance. We move from fire to fire, attempting to get our lives under control. There is no wonder why across many cultures, there have been so many representations of the human inner struggle. The fight to choose good over evil. In a sense, choosing the things we know we should be doing over what we actually do instead.

In last week's post, I wrote about the power of self-reflection. Though the benefits of checking in with oneself about where we are in relation to where we want to be are a great planning tool, it is inevitable that we may also become discouraged by our inability to keep the promises we make to ourselves.  In this regard, we can become our own worst enemies. The feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy that come from realizing we have let ourselves down are not by any means new.

Wether we are aware of it or not, our circumstances are largely a result of a decision we've made. Really. Think about it. We gripe about our inability to wake up in the morning at a sensible hour, yet we fail to realize that our decision to binge on Veep until well past midnight played a critical role in leading up to that outcome. Good or bad, there is always a choice to be made.

The good news is that no matter how bad yesterday was, we get a chance to be better today and make better decisions than we did yesterday. And it can begin before even getting out of bed.

Where we put our attention, we put our focus. What do we want to shine a light on today? There are several strategies we can employ to be able to break away from the habit of breaking ourselves down and not being compassionate with ourselves.

Though there is no fast-track way to change the habit of negative-self talk over night, it is a manageable habit that we can begin to change over time. As a starting point, here are four simple steps to begin to curb your negative thoughts.

1. Acknowledge your you are having a negative thought
2. Realize thoughts come and go, like the tides, or seasons
3. Take a deep breath in and as you exhale, visualize the negative thought drifting away, as a leaf floating down a stream
4. Replace your negative thinking with a positive version of it

Over time, you will slowly replace your old beliefs about your self with a new reality.

Another way to defeat negative self talk is to adopt, as a decision-making mechanism rule number two in Jordan B. Peterson's book 12 Rules for Life: An antidote to Chaos. In the second chapter of this book, Peterson encourages:

Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping.

In the book, Peterson reminds us that we all have faults. Yet despite our condition as fragile human beings, we generally tend to treat others, and even our pets better than we treat ourselves. A surprising statistic presented in the book is that people are far more likely to administer life saving medication to their pets than they are to properly administer medication to themselves.

One reason Peterson presents for this is that we as individuals are the only ones who are fully aware of all our own shortcomings, failures and flaws. Each and every day, we carry that weight with us. However, just as we have the capacity to be uplifting and forgiving to those we care about, we have the same capacity to be kind to ourselves and be forgiving for our past mistakes. As Peterson explains in the video below, think of it as the reversal of the Golden Rule. Treat yourself as you would someone you deeply care about.

Simply imagining yourself giving encouragement or showing kindness to someone you really care about will begin to change your perspective about why you are not so bad after all, and that even if you have made a mistake, you deserve the loving opportunity to try again.

Do you struggle with negative self talk? How do you deal with it? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!

Cat: Where are you going?
Alice: Which way should I go?
Cat: That depends on where you are going.
Alice: I don’t know.
Cat: Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.
-Lewis Carroll,  Alice in Wonderland

One important aspect of goal setting that often gets overlooked, is having a plan to regularly check on one's progress. I briefly mentioned in my post last week about the importance of goal setting. Not only is it important to have goals that are measurable and descriptive, but also that we consciously set road-markers to check on our progress regularly.

One of my goals last year, and specifically for this site, was to "write more". Since I didn't have a clear picture of what "more" meant, my vague and open-ended goal didn't materialize.  Indeed, I started 5 draft post over the course of 365 days, but the only one that ended up being published was my assertion that I would spend more time creating content for this site. In a way, I met my goal. I wrote more, even if none of those draft posts ever saw the light of day.

This year, my goal is a lot more tangible and concrete:

I will produce one article every week, touching on a subject of personal motivation, goal setting, time management or self-improvement. At the end of the year, my expectation is to have at least 52 published articles on this site.

In this case, the check on whether I have made progress on this goal is binary. I did it, or I didn't do it and the tally goes up every week. For me, this is more an exercise of discipline than it is raw output. I could easily produce 52 articles in a short span of time, and check off my list that I successfully completed my goal of publishing 52 articles. Being committed to making progress on the promises we make to ourselves is just the start to achieving our goals.

Self-reflection then is the map we check to make sure we are on the right path. And just like navigating on a map, if we don't check our progress regularly, it is likely we will end up in an entirely different place than we intended. Just like goals have to be descriptive and measurable, so must the markers we put up in order to be able to ascertain that we're on the right track.

Another goal I have this year, is to lose 15 lbs by March 31. Let's break that down. If I currently weigh 200lbs, I will weigh 185lbs on March 31. There are 12 weeks between today, January 6 and March 31. How will I know if I am in fact losing weight? I have to step on a scale. How often? My research shows that it is normal that our body weight fluctuates by 1-5lbs on a daily basis, so once a week should be enough. A healthy weight loss should be no more than 3lbs per week, in my case, I should aim to lose 1.25lbs per week, or 15lbs/12weeks.

From here, I have enough information to reflect on what worked that week that resulted in my weight at the end of the week. I also know that there are multiple factors that impact body weight. I can think back at what did I eat? How much of it? Did I do exercise? What kind weights or cardio? For how long? What can I do differently next week? What should I continue doing?

Setting up small markers to help one adjust course is incredibly important in achieving our goals. Make sure you set some time aside to put actions to make your dreams come true!

Have you set goals for 2019 yet? How will you keep your self accountable? Let me know in the comments below!

For the most part of 2018, I started my day listening to motivational videos on YouTube. Listening to inspiring messages from Tony Robbins, Mel Robbins, Jim Rohn, Zig Zigler, Les Brown, Eric Thomas and others. I finally understood how "motivation" and "success" are closely interconnected.

First off, let's establish that "motivation" and "success" are very intimately defined by each individual, but at the very core of these concepts, motivation can be distilled to the how; success to the what.

In my own path to define what success looks like for me, I have come away with three important rules to be able to maintain the motivation to be able to accomplish the goals I've set my self to accomplish and become successful.

1. Be grateful
2. Set clear goals
3. Make time

Be grateful

How often do we really sit down and acknowledge what is going good with our life? For me, It had been a long while. Comparing myself to others and looking at what was missing from my life did nothing but make me feel empty and grasping at nothing. If we start our day from a place of lack, all our focus and attention will gravitate to look for more examples of what else is lacking: the project that isn't finished, the emails that were not sent, the chores left undone. The list expands to infinity.

Flip the script! There is ample evidence that demonstrates how the Reticular Activating System (RAS) in the brain will respond to how your program it, consciously or unconsciously. A classic example of this is how a big ticket item we recently purchased sticks out like a yellow bill on a green hat everywhere we go.

Our reality is constructed of tiny interactions we have with ourselves each and every day. If we start our day with gratitude, reflect on what we already have, our mind will be immediately programmed to continue looking for the things in our life that are already present that make our life great. Being content with what already is here makes life brighter and expands to other parts of our life as well. It might be hard at first to come up with a list of things to be grateful for. Unfortunately that seems to be the case for the majority of people. I highly encourage anyone to listen to this short excerpt from one of Zig Ziglar's motivational speeches.

Have you ever noticed that whenever someone is about to lose something they have been complaining about ... it takes on brand new value? -Zig Ziglar

Set clear goals

Admittedly, this is still an area where I am continuing to learn and is not my strongest skill. However, setting clear goals is instrumental to achieving success, however you may define it. The key is in being able to visualize what the end outcome looks like as if it had already been achieved with as much detail as possible. Where one person may say they want to have more money, or that they want to lose weight, would finding a dollar on the street, or losing 2lbs meet your expectation for those goals?

A better goal would be to concretely define how much money you would like to have, and set a reasonable deadline by when you would like to achieve your vision. The best goals seem to also describe how one's life will become better as a result for achieving those goals.

• I will lose 15 lbs by March 31, 2019 by eating healthier and exercising 3 times per week. I will then have more energy and boost my confidence.
• I will save $1200 by the second week of April 2019, by setting aside $180 each paycheck starting January 4th. I will then have enough money to take a vacation to a beach in Hawaii as a reward for being disciplined with my money.

Having a clear marker to let you know whether you have achieved it or not will bea a great help to stay on track to meeting one's desired outcome. Each day we are able to check where we are against where you want to be and decide if any corrective action is needed. Keeping gratitude journal, as in step number one, it will become easier to know what assets we have at our disposal to help us move forward in our progress. The key is to review our goals often and adjust them just as often to meet our current reality.

Below is a short video with three different perspectives and strategies on how to set goals from my favorite motivational speakers.

• Set goals that will help you grow. How will accomplishing your goal make you better?
• Make a list of reasons why failure is not possible and read them when we get stuck or need extra motivation
• Make your goal something that will be personally exciting and pull us toward it rather than something we have to push ourselves to do

Make time

Once we have decided what success looks like, it is time to take actionable steps towards making our goals a reality. It won't always be easy. In fact it is guaranteed that there will be obstacles outside of our control. Despite the fact that no matter who you are, everyone gets the same 24 hours, some people seem to have greater freedom as to where they can allocate their time. however, we all have some degree of choice. Should we watch another episode of Game of Thrones? What harm is there in spending another 10 minutes scrolling through facebook, instagram or twitter?

There is nothing wrong with using social media to decompress at the end of the day, or watching our favorite episode of our favorite show. However there is power in knowing that we are in control of deciding what we do and when we do it. When I say "make time" I mean, finding the areas where we are spending time and we're not getting a return having spent time on that activity.

If the outcome of playing video games for 4 hours straight is feeling more relaxed and recharged, great! If on the otherhand it leaves the feeling of guilt and anxiety because we still have to complete that report that is due tomorrow morning, it is time to make better choices.

The first step to getting motivated and achieving your definition of success, is to understand what are the mental barriers that are preventing you from spending time on those things that will get you closer to your goals. Is your focus on the discomfort doing a task will cause you? Are you thinking of the process instead of the outcome? How are you mentally breaking down the steps to getting it done?

Some strategies to reclaim your time:

• Make a plan for your day
• Chose at least ONE action each day that will make you feel fulfilled, but no more than three
• Be present in the moment, when you are at work, be at work, when you are on vacation, be on vacation
• Work smarter, delegate when you can, learn new skills to optimize your time when you can't

The biggest part of life and time management is knowing what you want and having enough reasons to follow through -Tony Robbins

It takes a great deal of effort to put these three steps into practice, but if we do them consistently, they will continue to propel us forward towards a more fulfilling future.

To close with an analogy, motivation is the engine that moves us forward to our destination, and the fuel is small wins over time. How do you keep your engine going? What motivates you to get up in the morning? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

It is hard to start over. At the same time, it presents one with the opportunity to use all the colors in the palette and paint an entirely new picture.

After four years of having this site up and running, it is time to finally give it the attention it deserves. I have big plans for this site and I hope you will join me in this new endeavor.

I hope to use this space to collect thoughts and ideas I have about the world of technology, life, work, and as a creative outlet for short stories poetry design and music.

Welcome!