I promised my Wondertwin that I would write about productivity

So what did you do today? Did you set out and accomplish specific measurable goals that will directly lead to your own personal fulfillment and success? If you’re like most people, the answers to these questions are, “I don’t know” and “Huh?” respectively. Conversations about taking precise, measurable actions every day that lead to your own personal success do not commonly occur for most people. But, almost everyone, at some point, complains about their lack of success. So, if you could take specific actions each day that would lead to your success, would you do it? And, furthermore, how would you go about doing just that?

Most business coaches and motivational speakers put a heavy emphasis on writing down your goals, affirmations, visions, etc. I personally enjoy quite a lot of variety in my life so I prefer to make these things up on the fly, although I do have some of the core ideas written down. Another common tactic is to meditate or seriously focus your energy on what you would like to have happen in your life. Some tout journaling and some push intensive conferences and seminars. No matter what, the underlying idea is to define and focus on your true purpose in life, which leads to you personal version of success.

Depending on your life, job, family, and personal self-image, it could be quite possible that a lack of contentment and confidence leads to procrastination and lack of progress. You may end up with days and days of “busy work,” but no real measurable progress. If this is what you are dealing with, I would start with meditation (otherwise known as sitting quietly with yourself) to get clear about what you’d like and also some sort of program to redefine your self-image. There are many professionals who can help guide people past mental blocks in life to a place where they are able to move forward.

Once you have your purpose, self-image, and confidence secured, how do you figure out what to do each day? Many systems exist that can help you develop goals, break them down into measurable pieces, mark off project steps to show progress towards completion, and so on. Depending on your personality type, these kinds of tools might help keep you on track. For others, this over abundance of organization seems like a waste of time and does not help lead to success. There is no one way for everyone… just find a way to summarize your efforts that works for you.

So now that you’ve defined what you’d like to do in life in whatever way that works for you, how do you make it happen and how do you measure your progress? The answer to that question varies depending on who you ask, but the overall idea is to focus the majority of your time and effort on productive activities that lead directly to accomplishing your goals. And how do you define those activities? Well, that is so highly personalized that no one else can really tell you what will lead to your own success! At the end of the day, do you feel like you’ve made progress towards your goals? If so, great! And if not, what were you doing instead?

With all this said, I urge you to be focused, stay focused… But don’t miss out on what’s right in front of you. We can work for hours, days, months, even years on projects or career paths that never end up serving the overall purpose of our lives. Then what? Some of us are so focused on what we believe to be the most important aspects of life that in order for us to experience the greatest opportunities that represent our true life’s purpose, we must suffer through great loss in order to open up to new possibilities. Staying present and seeing the opportunities around us that appear when we least expect, is the essence of life.

I’m going to get a little warm and fuzzy now. Work within the flow of your life! Understand who you are and acknowledge when the right ideas and opportunities appear for you. So many amazing people have figured out their true paths and can offer great guidance. But part of all this is not being so desperate for success that you are willing to give just about anything to just about anyone who promises you the answers that will make you successful. No one can give you these answers; they can only offer inspiration that leads you to finding your path. A truly great guide acknowledges this truth and empowers you to find your own way.

So, what is productive for one person is unproductive for another and what makes an amazing day for some may seem like a bore for another. Each person creates their own vision and truth for the day. Follow your own guidance. To do this, take the time to define what is important to you, at least in your own mind, if not on paper. And then do what you need to do to make those things happen while remaining open to life’s possibilities. Let loose and accept the times when you need to be lost in order to find new opportunities. Your truth is a discovery process that you embark on every day. Yes, be strong and focus on what you’d like in life, but also be open to what you never dreamed would come along.

It’s no secret that we’re all human (at least to my knowledge!). Well, part of being human is that we are literally a live being and we continue living and thriving under a certain set of criteria. If the conditions are not met, we start to deteriorate into disease and eventually die. There are many facets to this process and aging is certainly a factor, but the choices we make every day shape the vitality of our lives even more profoundly… Did I lose some of you? That’s ok, this is a process! Think of a plant… if you don’t water a plant, what happens? So why do you assume that it’s not important for you to drink water? This is a basic life necessity and soda doesn’t cut it!

So I say, why would anyone feel that they don’t need to concern themselves with their own health? Maybe it’s cool to say you don’t care, maybe you are a manly man and don’t have to care, maybe you’re just not that into health… Regardless, I would urge all of you who fall into the “I don’t care” category to take a second look at what you’re not caring about. You can’t escape being human and so; you may as well find a way to be your healthiest you!

Now, the flip side of this, of course, is the question, what is healthy? That my friend is going to be a long conversation and here’s a secret… the answer is different for everyone! There are some universal truths like drinking adequate amounts of water, that can help us all, but the nitty gritty of health is varied and different for everyone. This is one of the reasons people don’t care to involve themselves in the topic. They just don’t feel like finding out what will work for them is an important enough endeavor until there is a crisis… and some don’t even care then. I think we’ve reached a place where this ambivalence is no longer a viable option!

My mission is to help people with their health goals- to help get them from where they are to where they’d like to be- and to send out ripples of improvements that will shift the current status quo from a general lack of concern to an awareness and then eventually to positive action. After all, it is within each of us to care for ourselves… we are the best providers of care for our individual and unique bodies because only we can feel the effects of our own decisions.