It sounds like a weird, half-semantics quibble, right? A “deadline” vs. a “goal”? Why does the word choice matter? To me, the word choice (and as an extension, the word meanings) make all of the difference. I like to think of a deadline as a goal that cannot be changed – a deadline is something more finalized, a goal is still an aspiration up in the air. Turning a goal into a deadline can be used to motivate you to take action. Let’s get into a little deeper detail.

We all know what a goal is. A goal is something that you’re working towards – a final product, a finished masterpiece. But because of the nature of the word “goal,” we think of goals as being more lofty and something that isn’t exactly concrete. And the word “goal” is so vague, as well; the word “goal” can be stretched to apply to nearly anything. Visiting the South Pole can be a world traveler’s goal, but a college student’s sole goal in life might be to make it through a week’s worth of classes without feeling burnt out.

A deadline, however, isn’t lofty. It’s specific. A deadline is a deadline – a dead line. When something is dead, it’s absolutely dead. Its status will be forever unchanging: no longer alive, no longer up for discussion. A line is something that’s concrete; a line is immovable, it’s as clear as black and white. A deadline, therefore, is something that’s forever unchanging – a line that cannot be crossed under any circumstance.

We often think of “deadlines” in various ways, so I’ll do a little bit of clarifying. Here are a few different types of deadlines, with definitions:

• Daily deadlines. Things that you can reasonably expect to be done by the end of the day. An example of a daily deadline would be writing up a new blog post for your personal development blog.
• Weekly deadlines. Things that you can reasonably expect to be done by the end of the week, sometimes sooner (possibly within the time frame of three to six days.) An example of a weekly deadline would be creating a series of five blog posts on a topic you’re passionate about.
• Biweekly deadlines. Things that you can reasonably expect to be done within a time frame of two weeks. These deadlines generally have a bit more depth than a weekly deadline. You might be able to accomplish a good chunk of a two week project within a week, but that extra time you give yourself could be the difference between “good” and “outstanding.”

I hesitate to go any farther than biweekly, because monthly deadlines more or less fall along the lines of goals and goal setting. Things that take a month or longer can  be broken down into daily, weekly, and biweekly deadlines.

I know what you’re thinking at this point. “You just defined what goals are and instead swapped the word ‘deadline’ for the word ‘goal.’ How is this any different?!”

It’s different because it makes me feel different. It should make you feel different, too.

You could have a goal that you need to walk for 30 minutes a day. That’s a fabulous goal, on the outside. But what if instead of referring to your walk as a goal, you referred to it as a deadline? Think about how you would phrase that deadline – “The deadline for walking 30 minutes must be done by 6:00 PM CST today, no exceptions.” Now you created a sense of drive and need solely with your words. With no choice but to either complete your objective or fail, you’re much more likely to be motivated to take concrete action.

Deadlines pick up where goals leave off. Goals may be what you wish your future to be like, but deadlines transform those goals into realistic action steps. How will you ever expect to achieve your goals if you don’t complete the deadlines you set for yourself?

* * * * *

A deadline is like a goal that’s cast in stone. How different would your life be if you thought of goals being as unchanging deadlines instead of wishes and dreams you aspire towards?

Practical application: Pick one goal that you’ve been mulling over that you want to accomplish. Choose an aspect of that goal to work on, and set daily, weekly, and biweekly deadlines for accomplishment. Be crystal clear with your planning and deadlines, and work towards competing those objectives, no matter what.

But you know what? All of those crippling excuses for not sharing your creative works don’t matter. As soon as you come up with something creative, you need to put it out there ASAP. If you look throughout history, every single success story in any artistic field has tales of flops and tales of successes. But what defines those successful people from others is the fact that they kept trying again and again and again. If one thing they tried wasn’t successful, they immediately moved on to something else. Let’s look at a few examples.

Mozart was an incredibly prolific composer . He only composed a little over 30 years, but he wrote over 600 sets of pieces by the time he died at age 36. Starting when he was about 5 years old and ending literally on his deathbed, he never stopped the process of creating new artistic works.

The odd thing in Mozart’s story is that he only composed works purely for higher. He couldn’t sit around and wait for divine inspiration to strike at the perfect moment. No new compositions meant no money on the table; no money on the table meant he couldn’t support himself or his family. But even without sitting around waiting for a spark of creativity, he still managed to continuously compose and expand his accomplishments, creating beautiful masterpieces along the way.

If you go through Mozart’s catalog of works, you’ll see that most of his stuff isn’t even performed today. The first 200 to 300 works are pretty average, with some exceptions of course, but it didn’t stop him from composing the next piece. Even if one of his works failed miserably, it was still a brand new work to share with others. People kept hiring Mozart because they appreciated his compositions and admired his skills. Mozart never, ever took a break or quit; he worked nonstop on becoming an even better composer until the end of his life.

The best artists, the best writers, the best actors, the best directors, the best artistic people in the world are obsessed with continuously creating and throwing their new works into the hands of the public. If a new song or a new movie is a flop, so what? There’s always next time. They learn the lesson from the failure and move on.

Lady GaGa has been touring on almost a constant basis since early 2008, and now she’s selling out stadiums. Liberace started performing in restaurants when he was about 22 years old and didn’t stop until he was forced to due to extreme sickness, in his mid 60s; by that time, he was selling out Radio City year after year. Madonna constantly revives her career by sharply turning down different roads every single year, never halting to take a break. When she finishes recording a brand new record, there’s promotions and a tour to be done. When the tour is wrapped up, she undertakes another creative project almost immediately.

Great actors never stop honing their craft. A new role is always available for them to take on. Directors continuously direct.

The bottom line is that any famous person in any field, any success story, will have a long list of works behind their names. They might not be perfect works. They might not be works that people will look at in 20 years and think they were anything special. But to these people, it doesn’t matter – it’s a process of growing, of reinvention. It’s a story of becoming successful not right out of the box, but because they truly believed in their creative talent and did everything in their power to get that talent in the hands of other people.

Not every sonnet that Shakespeare wrote was a literary masterpiece. Not every piano piece Chopin composed will enter someone’s piano repertoire. Not every piece of art that Picasso painted was considered among his best.

Getting your work out there isn’t sitting on a completed work and thinking of ways that you could possibly perfect it. It’s doing the absolute, very best job you can at the time and then getting that work out into the hands of people who would appreciate what you do.

Will the average person notice the slight awkwardness of a brush stroke in a painting? The odd musical phrasing in a classical piece? A flubbed line in a play? Nope. Not at all. The average person is going to be focused on the piece of art being presented – the item you created. Not all of the imperfections that you personally see when you view your art.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of constantly sharing your works with the world is that you’ll be able to get first hand, live experience that shows you what works and what doesn’t work. Without this kind of awesome feedback, you’d never be able to know how to hone your craft into something greater. It’s one thing to be able to write a novel that you think deserves to be on a best seller list; it’s another thing to give it to somebody so they can assess what you’ve written and ofter a critique. Getting into a cycle of creating a work, sharing a work, then creating another even stronger work is something that will help you your entire life.

Think of it like a real world tennis lesson. When you first start playing tennis, you’re probably going to be absolute terrible. But with a teacher, and some practice off court, you can surely expect your skills to gradually improve over time… to the point where you might be pretty competent at hitting those balls. With the right mix of dedicated practice and a teacher to guide your moves to make sure you aren’t making any beginner’s mistakes or picking up on the wrong technique, it’s easy to see how your skill level would begin to improve and eventually soar.

Sharing creative works works the same exact way. Instead of learning tennis, it’d be creating valuable works for the world. Instead of hiring a private coach, you’d get real time feedback from your friends, family, even strangers who stumble upon what you do. Instead of practice, you’d be refining your process and coming up with an even better item to share with others. This process never changes, no matter if you’re learning a new sport, picking up a musical instrument, or writing a book of poems. Remember when you first learned how to drive a car? The method was exactly the same. You try, you got feedback, you tried again.

Creating and deliver value is at the heart of any creative career, ranging from fashion to music to acting to art. But it’s not enough to create a few things in hopes that one of them catches on with the public. You need to be the person who strives to always create something better, something brand new, every single day of your life. Be the person who takes every single completed work and shares it with the world.

Timeboxing is a fairly simple time management technique. When you have a task to accomplish, you set aside a certain amount of time to complete that task. You do your very best to complete that task, regardless of the final outcome. For example, say you’re writing a new blog entry on timeboxing. You give yourself an hour to do that task in, and however it comes out is how it comes out.

With timeboxing, the quality of what you’re producing is still very important, but the overall concept is to get a finished product churned out for you to use and for people to see. The end goal is a completed item, task, or project. You can assign any amount of time (30 minutes, an hour, two hours, etc.) to any task (cleaning, writing, reading, etc.) In addition, you can always go back and revise what you’ve hammered out.

I often use timeboxing when I’m practicing piano. Oftentimes, when you’re practicing a certain skill, like learning a musical instrument or a sport move, it’s easy to practice for hours on end but not get any real work accomplished. The more you practice, the worse your actual practicing becomes. Timeboxing practice into a limited amount of time forces you to make intelligent decisions based on the time you have and what needs to be done. If I give myself exactly one hour to practice, am I going to diddle around playing showtunes? Of course not! I’m going to be practicing Chopin. In this case, timeboxing works very effectively. When time becomes scarce, my practice sessions shoot up in value. Less time to mess around, more time to buckle down and get to work.

Here are some other useful uses for timeboxing:

• Highly creative work. Creative work needs to get done one way or another, and oftentimes amazingly creative people don’t bother with setting deadlines. But if no tangible work gets completed, how will the world see their gifts? Use timeboxing to get that creative work done, such as composing a song or writing a blog entry.
• Finishing off lots of little tasks together. Can you finish off 20 little things that need to be done today in a course of an hour? Batch them all together and knock them off one by one instead of doing one here, one there. Saves time and energy.
• Tedious, ugly, massive projects. Most goals that one will try to obtain in life can be broken down into numerous projects. Some of these projects will be enjoyable to blaze through; others, not so much. Use timeboxing to make an impact in completing the nastier projects bit by bit.
• Stuff you just wanna get done. Some stuff isn’t fun to do, but it’s not exactly something that can fall into a category. If it looks like a huge, looming, annoying project, use timeboxing to knock it off of your to-do list once and for all.

Remember, the goal of timeboxing is a totally finished item. You can always go back and revise if you feel the need to later, depending on the item itself.

What can you be timeboxing and completing today? Why haven’t you done it yet? Get to work!

Reading this sent me into a think mood . How many of us honestly strive to live by Trump’s values? In our careers, do we give a sincere attempt to put out our best products, or do we settle for the average? Do we reach out for a genuine impact on other people, or do we figure a simple smile and “Nice job!” is enough of a reward for a job not so well done?

Are you constantly perfecting what you’re creating?

If you’re a blogger, are you constantly trying to out-do yourself every single time to create work with a higher impact? Or are you stuck in a complacent writing rut? If you’re a musician, are you practicing to become even better, day in and day out? Or have you settled for being an okay guitarist, playing average-level songs?

People want the highest quality they can afford. They hate to settle for the mediocre, the bland, the boring. If you’re not producing and putting out the highest quality content you possibly can, what’s the point of creating new content? People won’t flock to what you have; they’ll gravitate towards something even better.

For everything you ever attempt to do in life, you should always be asking yourself, “Is this the absolute best I can do?” If it’s not, immediately start doing your best.

This is silly mindset to some people, but to me, it’s really an interesting, awesome way to live. I want to be the best that I can be, no matter what I’m putting my mind to. If I’m playing the piano for a group of people, I want to be playing at the best level I can, whether that group is of 5 people or 150. If I’m writing a blog post, I want that post to be the absolute best I can make it, whether it’s going to be read by 5 people or 15,000. 15,000 would be nice, though.

Constantly demand perfection from yourself and from others. If you’re creating something, don’t settle for a product that’s just okay. Really, honestly try to top yourself each and every time. Always go bigger, go better, do something more interesting.

Are you striving to leave an impact on others?

Part of the reason I love what I do is because my work can leave such a profound effect on people. Okay, I know that’s bit of a cliche thing to say, but in my experiences it’s totally true.

The strongest memories I have of performing at the piano aren’t necessarily of me being on stage performing, but of the reactions I get afterwords when I’m meeting the crowd. It’s an amazing feeling to see the effect I had on so many people who had the opportunity to listen to me play; it’s like I want to rush on stage and perform once more just to see the audience’s reaction once last time.

Of course, my feelings toward blogging is the same thing. I might not be able to see everybody’s face to face reaction to my writings, and it might take a while for some of the ideas I’m explaining online to trickle down into real life and make an impact in other’s lives. But regardless of how much time that takes, I love communicating what I know through these posts. I love the positive comments and feedback I get. I love knowing that somehow, somewhere, what I’ve said here sincerely made a difference in somebody’s life.

The bulk of your life’s hours are going to be spent whittling away at your career(s). But are you doing work that truly leaves an impact on others? When you explain what you do to others and when your products get into other people’s hands, what are their reactions? Happy, enthusiastic, and ecstatic? Or bored, lackluster, and apathetic? Are they thrilled as much as you are about what you get to do every day? Do they even care? What kind of an impact are you truly leaving on the people you meet?

If you’re not impacting other human beings as much as you know you can be, it might be time to find a better fitting career.

The bottom line is simple: step up your game. Only demand perfection out of yourself. Strive to connect to other people. Make real human to human connections in everything you do.

I recently started (activity) and my motivation is already down. I just can’t seem to do (activity) when I want to. What’s the problem? (activity) really needs to get done. What can I do to increase my motivation to tackle (activity) even if I don’t want to?

Most of the time, these posters and question askers will get some decent, average advice…mainly various standard motivational tips.

To me, these advice givers mean well, but they’re looking at the person’s problem entirely the wrong way. Most of the time, these people are not dealing with a motivation problem, but a self discipline problem. To understand this, let’s look at what motivation and self discipline are on their own.

Motivation is like a quick burst of flames that can engulf you into doing the activity you choose. It’s the inspiration that lets you write 5 amazing blog posts right in a row. It’s the energy you get when you take a day and work 6 straight hours on your life’s most important goal. It’s the nagging, caving in feeling that you get when you finally clean your garage – something you’ve been putting off for months.

Self discipline, however, is totally different. It’s your ability to trudge through mind numbingly, boring tasks with a half smile on your face, knowing the work you’re getting done will pay off 20-fold in the future. It’s the voice in the back of your head on day 25 of your diet, reminding you to not even touch that piece of German chocolate cake. It’s the pressure that you put on yourself to write just one more blog entry for the week, even though you feel burnt out from practicing creative writing.

When people ask “How can I keep my motivation up?”, they’re really asking “What can I do to obtain a higher level of self-discipline?”

Motivation works more as an internal gauge at the beginning of a new goal. If you have a brilliant amount of motivation when you start a goal, there’s a pretty good chance that’s the goal you were meant to be working on. If something inspires you so much that you can’t wait to take action on it, at least in the early stages, that’s an awesome sign. If you’re not registering these feelings when you start a new project, your heart isn’t in what you’re doing. Take up something else.

Motivation generally drops down a week or two after a new mission begins. You get through the first easy part, the fun stuff. Now the real work begins. You now have to perpetually keep up what you’re doing to get the results you want. This is the part where people drop new habits and new goals in favor of living their old life. Not a good move, not a good move.

This is also the stage where people try to solicit others for motivational advice, thinking their problem has to do with a lack of motivation. On the outside, this makes perfect sense. “If motivation carried me through the first week,” these people think, “it can keep me going even further.”

But therein lies the problem with this line of thinking. If motivation always decreases, you’re going to be struggling in an uphill battle to constantly revive your lifeless motivation. That’s not smart; that’s not in the least productive. Ditch this dead end thinking.

Self discipline is what aids you through these rough stages until your motivation automatically resurfaces. Instead of asking “What can I do to increase my motivation,” ask yourself, “What can I do to utilize my self discipline? How can I use self discipline to tackle this problem?” You can’t always count on your motivation to be there when you need it, but you can always call up the power of your own self discipline.

Self discipline training is hard, tough work. It’s not easy to write a brand new 1,000 word blog post in one sitting. It’s not easy to babysit four kids for two hours straight. It’s not easy to sit at the piano and practice for 3 hours on a tough Mozart sonata that needs work. Train up your self discipline by accepting smaller tasks and gradually working up to larger ones. You strengthen your self discipline while not allowing yourself to not be overwhelmed when a task is too much for you.

Instead of writing a 1,000 word blog post in one sitting, write 200 words at a time. Instead of babysitting four kids for two hours straight, take a smaller babysitting job to start out, maybe one kid for half an hour. Instead of sitting at the piano and practicing Mozart for three hours, break up your practice session into 30 minute chunks and work on a specific section in each chunk, taking breaks after your half hour is up. Smaller goals = better chance at success. Your burnout rate naturally decreases because the tasks are bite size. (Ironically, completing many smaller tasks is inherently motivating in itself.)

When you’re faced with a waning motivation on your life’s toughest goals, don’t think of what you can do to become more motivated. Instead think of it as a self discipline challange. Rephrase how you look at your “motivational” problems, and watch as your success rate rises.

Okay, okay, I totally admit it. I’m one of those people who loves to become more productive with each passing day. But while sometimes I think reading lists like this is just a form of simple procrastination, some of the lists I find are genuinely useful.

This blog post is all about 20 ways I have personally tested and used to make myself become more productive on a day to day basis. Try out some of the tips yourself. If they work wonderfully, you’ve gained a new productivity booster that’ll last you a lifetime. And if not… well, at least you only wasted a day of your life.

1. Keep a list of inspirational quotes at hand. Whenever you feel down and unmotivated, whip one out and think about its meaning for a little bit. Then get back to work!
2. If you can’t get out of a creative thinking rut, get up and walk around. Doing a bit of (very) light exercise will get blood flowing to your brain and naturally make you more alert, allowing you to kick your productivity up a notch.
3. If you’re chugging away at an absolutely boring task, take frequent breaks. Work for two minutes, then listen to your favorite song. Rinse and repeat as many times as needed. Eventually you’ll build enough momentum where you’ll continuously work on your task without taking so many breaks.
4. Snack (preferably on healthy foods) throughout the day. It’ll keep your energy levels up.
5. Look your best! Even if you’re your own boss and work at home throughout the day, seeing yourself  dressed up and looking gorgeous in front of the mirror is a confidence booster. More confidence = more motivation. More motivation = more reason to be productive.
6. Find a soul stirring reason why you’re doing the work you do. I’m not talking about a mission statement or a goal. I’m really talking about a reason as to why you’re working on your project to begin with. If you can find that passionate reason, you’ll gain motivation and productivity.
7. Experiment with brightness in your work area. I work best when my working area is brightly lit – the brighter, the better, but not so bright as to think I’m staring into the sun.
8. While on that note, experiment with the room temperature as well. I used to have an awful problem with procrastination and feeling sleepy, until I realized that the cold temperatures where I work were making me sleepy to begin with.
9. Make your work space so clean it’s absolutely nauseatingly beautiful to anybody who passes by. Not a single messy spot should be visible to the eye… or to anybody with x-ray vision with the power to see through desks. A neat working space has the same effect as de-cluttering your mind. Thinking becomes easier.
10. Light candles. Seriously! For me, whenever I light my buttercream candle, the vanilla scent actually boosts my productivity. Experiment with different scents  to see what they can do for you.
11. Have you ever tried to work with white noise in the background? It’s pretty soothing. For me, music is too distracting, probably because I’m a musician at heart. However, white noise works wonderful. Try out this tip by turning on a fan on low in the background while you work.
12. Take frequent looks out your window.  When I glance outside into the world, I’m reminded that I’m not alone on this planet, and that I’m connected with everybody else. That alone is motivating enough for me to continue on with my work with an increased productivity rate.
13. Take frequent looks at your clock. When you realize time keeps passing you by as you procrastinate,  you’ll suddenly feel an urge to actually get something worthwhile accomplished.
14. Work with somebody else. Find another person who can act as your assistant for the day, and get him or her to help you with your mission. Work always goes quicker and more productively if you can find somebody you trust who knows what they’re doing as well to aid you.
15. Find somebody who’s an expert at what  you’re doing, and pick at their brain. How do they schedule their days? What kinds of advice can they give you to make your work more efficient? (For example, if you’re learning piano on your own, wouldn’t taking piano lessons from a master at piano make sense?)
16. If possible, focus solely on one task or project for the entire day. Without having to switch tasks every hour, you can seriously boost how productive you become. Your mind won’t have to change modes of thinking so often.
17. Have to tackle a project that’s extremely boring? If possible, do a lot of little, easy tasks that are super simple right before starting that certain project. The momentum you gain from doing simple tasks you love will carry on well into that boring project.
18. Take everything one step at a time. Don’t worry as much about getting a lot done (save for unless you have a deadline) but getting quality work done. More isn’t better. Better is better.
19. While doing your work for today,  mentally think about where you’re going with what you’re accomplishing. What do you want to do tomorrow? Use that knowledge to trim the fat off the projects you’re working on – get rid off all nonessential tasks as much as possible.
20. Tackle your daily tasks out of order. If you’re forced to do a list of items, break the order that you would normally accomplish each thing. It won’t feel like such a chore to get so much work done, and you might find that pairing different tasks in a different order will get them done more quickly.

Now, stop reading this blog and tackle that task that you’ve been procrastinating on. You know you wanna finish that task once and for all!

In my last article on present and future mindsets, I explained two thought patterns 99% of the population operates on through a daily basis – a present-based, pleasure oriented mindset, and a future-based, goal oriented mindset. The self-help world loves to stress how important future-minded thinking is. One reason for this is that thinking about the future obviously works fantastic when you’re strategically thinking about which goals you want to achieve. And this reason makes sense, too – thinking too short term can severely hamper what we think we can accomplish.

But then something strange happens. We begin to think that if we don’t apply future-minded thinking to everything in our lives, we’ll never achieve our goals. Somebody else will always be vying to be one step ahead of us, and we can’t have that, can we? This is the mindset that leads to people trying to make incredible self-discipline jumps that they can’t handle: they try to get up every single day at 4:30am without any practice; they try to eat purely healthy foods; they cut out every single “bad” time wasting activity they can think of. The future-based mindset thinks of “fun” activities as unneeded time wasters. Enjoying yourself leads to not getting any work done on your goals, and that’s not acceptable.

It’s just too bad – human beings don’t work like that. We aren’t wired to have a future-based lifestyle. People need balance; we want to work hard and achieve our dreams, but we also want to have a little fun (or a lot of fun!) along the way. If I’m feeling emotionally drained, I’m going to feel apathetic. And if I feel apathetic, I’m surely going to encounter decreased motivation. We need to have fun! We need to enjoy ourselves and not become too wrapped up in the future.

Self help guru Steve Pavlina often talks about how he picks goals that are intrinsically fun and worthwhile to go after – goals that excite him in the present. To me, this is the epitome of perfect goal setting. When your goals are incredibly fun and motivating to work on every step of the way, you’re killing two birds with one stone: the present-based mindset is being satisfied because you’re immensely enjoying yourself, and the future-based mindset is happy because you know you’re working to create the life you dream of.

If you’re having trouble finding motivation, quit working on your goals and enjoy yourself! Most of the time, probably 98%, a clear lack of motivation is a hint that we aren’t giving ourselves permission to have fun in the present. While our minds might be saying “all work, no play!” our emotions are screaming out “We need some play, some of the time!”

When you’re feeling unmotivated and apathetic, do something that makes you feel happy and content. It’s as simple as that. Play an old video game that you love. Take a long walk outside and enjoy nature. Watch your favorite sitcoms. Have a deep conversation with a close friend. When you feel happier and fulfilled, return to working on your goals. You’ll have increased motivation and a drive to accomplish work that only happiness can bring.

Our human ability to imagine a better future for ourselves and translate our vision into words is something most people take for granted. As a result, most people don’t bother setting goals – they have a general idea of where they’re headed and where they want to go, which is good enough for them. And that’s totally okay! You don’t need clearly defined goals to have a sense of direction in your life. (This also includes people who set goals in only a specific area in their life and let all of the other facets slide – e.g., the manager who only sets goals to meet certain monthly quotas in her business.)

In Philip Zimbardo’s awesome book, The Time Paradox (opens in a new window), he explains there are several perspectives human beings look at time through: the past, the present, and the future. The past perspective is concerned with past events and how we relate to and think about them; the present perspective is concerned with how we’re going to find immediate happiness in our lives; the future perspective is concerned with what actions we can take right now to achieve our future goals. While the three time-frame labels aren’t exactly breathtakingly new, the unique twist on looking at the time-frames makes the book incredibly worthwhile to read.

I’ve read parts of it, and already it’s changed my views on thinking of my personal goals and my limited time. In this blog post, I want to share two mindsets with you that he talks about in the book – the “present-minded mindset” and the “future-minded mindset.” Both are ways of living and analyzing time management with. Utilizing both of their unique benefits in your life can make your life a more richer, rewarding experience.

The Present-Minded Mindset

The present-minded mindset is being totally focused on the present moment, with no regard for how your decisions will affect your future at all. Generally this means being focused on what can make you pleasured and happy immediately, without looking at the long term consequences of your actions.

Smoking is an example of a present-minded action. So is eating that double quarter pounder with cheese you just ordered from McDonald’s because you’re a bit hungry and need some fuel. Drinking copious amounts of alcohol, gambling, and whittling away your time at video games are all activities that make you happy solely in the present. These choices lead to future consequences down the road – lung cancer, a failed liver, a highly developed character in a video game – but your focus isn’t on the future. It’s completely on the here and now. What can you do right now to give yourself a little thrill?

You see this mindset with teenagers and young adults. Do you have a one night stand to make you satisfied, or do you wait it out just a bit longer to find somebody you’re more comfortable with? Risk vs. reward thinking is subtle here – you may know promiscuous sex can lead to unwanted pregnancies and STDs, but that’s not what’s on your mind. Your mind is set on what the immediate rewards are, so why dilute that with thinking about future consequences? The rewards you’d get from having sexual activity right now is far greater than analyzing the pros and cons in your mind.

The Future-Minded Mindset

The future-minded mindset is being totally focused on the future, with all of your current actions stemming from a desire to want to build a better future for yourself or others.

Why do high achievers always achieve so highly and make the rest of the population scratch their heads in awe and wonder? It’s not because they’re that different than you – it’s because they’re solely focused on the future. They have specific goals that they must accomplish at all costs, and they eschew everything that doesn’t lead directly to their desired results.

Future-minded people have no will to engage in pleasurable activities that only benefit them in the now. Choosing between watching a half hour TV show and reading a book about their desired work field, they’ll always choose the book. Distractions need to be dealt with and removed ASAP; what matters most is getting results. Anything else isn’t worth the battle.

Delaying gratification whenever the future rewards outweigh the immediate benefits is something future oriented people are masters at. If I told you that I would give you either $50 today or in two months I’d give you $100, would you choose the former or the latter? Future-minded people would immediately choose the latter. To them, the choice is simple – there’s a bigger reward to be had in the future if short term happiness is skipped.

Combining the Two Mindsets for Amazing Goal Achievement

When people set goals, it’s rarely in a present-minded mindset. Goals start out with a future-minded thought, e.g., “I wish I made more money!” Then they turn into some kind of  more specific statement, “I will make $3,000 a year completely through my personal development blog.” It’s only then do we turn our goals into a present-minded version, “I make $3,000 a year completely through my personal development blog.”

Writing out your goals completely in the present seems like a fabulous idea on the surface – if I can imagine my goals are real right now, that would make me want to act in congruent with those goals. If I feel like I’m already making $3,000 a month through my blog, I might be more apt to continuously deliver actions that really do get me those results; I’d create an awesome self-fulfilling prophecy for myself. But is a present-minded model of goal setting really worth it in the end? It’s both yes and no. If present-minded written goals conjure up thoughts of immediate happiness and instant gratification, then they can be pretty effective. Otherwise, I would personally would stick to future-minded goal setting.

It’s important to have a razor sharp focus on the future to know specifically where you are headed in all areas of your life, but it’s also equally important to enjoy your present moment as much as possible.

Present moments allow you to have immediate fun; future-minded thinking allows you to gaze into the future and allocate your time to goal achievement. Living solely in the distant future can drain your happiness bit by bit because you don’t feel as happy as you should; living without a regard for tomorrow can make your life miserable in the future. Becoming so obsessed with the risks in life can lead you not take calculated risks that could end up being major rewards.

Where do you fall in the grand scheme of things? Do you focus more on the present, skipping out on your long term goals to have fun right here, right now? Or is your focus more skewed towards the future, missing out on fun right now for a better life someday? Focusing on the future but also having fun in the present is the way to go – but you can’t go wrong consciously choosing the way to spend your time, every day.

Trying to organize your time when you have an excruciatingly busy life is like spending $2,950 of a $3,000 monthly budget, and then asking “How can I better manage the $50 I have left to get the most out of life?” It’s simply not possible, it can’t be done.

Better time management needs to start at the very basics, with a fresh clean slate. You’re given 24 hours in one day – that’s a pretty great starting point. You’re also given 7 full days in a week – another fabulous reference point! The trick is to build up from there, divvying up how much time you want to spend on various activities:

• How much time are you going to sleep per night? 6 hours? 9 hours?
• How much time will you purposely devote to your family?
• How much time absolutely needs to go to your job?
• How much time would you love to spend on free time activities that have no relevance to your future, such as video games or shopping?

You need present-minded activities to keep the fun in your life, but you also need to consciously choose how to allocate your time to future activities. (When I say “consciously choose,” I’m referring to making it a point to say “I will spend X amount of time doing Y activity because it needs to get done.” You’re choosing your activities with an intent in mind, and that purpose is what guides you to make your time management decisions.)

This is why having priorities and goals is so vital to managing time. If I’m unsure of what I’m going after, it’s easy to dawdle and get nothing of value done. Sure, I might do some activities that have a great deal of intrinsic value to me, like playing Sims 2, but that’s not going to directly being affecting my immediate life. But if I know my goal is to be able to play a Chopin nocturne perfectly from memory, I know what my time should be funneled into.

Instead of scheduling activities and then looking at time management techniques, start backwards and work your way up. If you had $3,000 to spend, would you invest it in building stronger ties with your family or friends? Advancing in your career? On fun and games? Likewise, if you only had 24 hours to get your affairs in order, what would you invest it in?

Start with just your time, and fill in your activities accordingly!

1. Move around!

Closed positions = a closed mind. Open positions = an open mind.

When you imagine a person deep in brainstorming, you often think of somebody sitting on a couch, notebook in one hand and pencil in the other, blankly staring off into space. Maybe you imagined yourself in that same position! That is the worst positions your body can be in while you’re striving to be creative.

A closed position leads to a closed mind. If you’re sitting in a position that’s painful, often times you’ll become hurt and impatient. Impatience leads to thinking “Why am I doing this?”, which leads to procrastination and unproductive brainstorming. If you’re leisurely lounging on your couch, you start to feel tired and bored; this too leads to disastrous ends results.  If you’re having trouble creating new ideas, try standing up. Move around the room – imagine you’re talking to a classroom full of students, and you have to come up with an interesting presentation about your current ideas. Pace briskly around the room, use hand motions as you’re thinking, look excited and enthralled! Nobody is watching you, so put on your acting face!

Think of how you act when you chat on the phone to your best friend, telling them something exciting that’s just happened in your life. You appear thrilled and glowing, you begin to use extravagant hand motions to emphasize your thoughts. You giggle, smile, and literally act like the person is standing right across from you. Even though you can’t physically see your friend, your actions show that your mind is actively working to retrieve the memories you’re trying to relay to them. Try to jump-start your brain by physically getting excited if you’re having trouble brainstorming.

2. Think to yourself out loud.

When we’re actively engaging in brainstorming, it’s easy to only write down our ideas without questioning how that idea came to be. As a result, after the first few ideas we begin to think in a closed-minded pattern – this can lead many people to encounter a form of writer’s block. Obviously this can’t be a good thing – for example, if you’re striving for 50 ways to create passive income on your blog and you can only think of 10 ways, you’re coming up just a bit short.

Thinking out loud helps break those closed-minded patterns. Instead of creating ideas out of thin air solely in your mind, you’re forcing yourself to justify your own reasons to yourself. Doing this allows you to make new connections with old and new concepts, which then leads to a richer, more productive brainstorming session.

3. Hold an object in your hand.

Have you ever played with a Rubik’s cube before? Most people have! They’re a bit addicting, aren’t they? You begin to shuffle around the colors, trying your hardest to solve the puzzle. After a while your mind begins to wander and think of what’s for dinner, what you’re doing tomorrow night… and the problem you’ve been having at work.

Human beings are very tactile-oriented creatures. We love to play with things – even as kids we often played around with creative, colorful toys, touching everything and getting a sense of the world around us. As adults we tried to put this part of us back into a box, and unfortunately our creativity also was stored away. Next time you’re having difficulty brainstorming, try playing with something in your hands as you think: a squishy stress ball, a mechanical pencil, a metal chain. It might be enough to stimulate your imagination.

4. Get a friend to objectively question your thought patterns.

Even after brainstorming out loud, sometimes we still can’t smash our thought patterns. Asking somebody else to objectively look at your brainstormed list and ask you how you created your ideas will force you to justify your reasons to them. Once you begin to see an underlying pattern, you can then inject a bit of reasoning and emotion into your thoughts and come up with new, brilliant solutions to your problems.

For example, suppose you’re coming up with new ideas on how to decorate your front lawn, but all of your landscaping ideas include adding in more flowers. You don’t see this blind spot – flower adder! – because you’re too entrenched in the belief that to have a decorated lawn, you must add flowers. Asking your best friend to look over your answers and ask, “Why does every idea include flowers? This is ridiculous!” can lead to a better brainstorming run.

5. Start brainstorming a completely different problem.

“Brainstorming block” is identical to writer’s block. It’s annoying and hardly fun to strive to create new ideas and not be able to come up with anything.  Sometimes the best way to become a better brainstormer is to simply try brainstorming solutions to a brand new problem. Doing this allows you to start making new connections with a totally different concepts. Those connections may allow you to better brainstorm on your original problem.

What are your personal suggestions?

Brainstorming, to me, is all about creating new, creative connections with concepts and ideas you already know. What methods do you use to make brainstorming more productive and easier? Don’t be shy – share them in the comments. Let’s help each other become even better at this valuable skill.