Simple Steps for Success for High Achievers
I started writing Sunday Sunshine after experiencing the dread and anxiousness ahead of the workweek. It’s referred to as the Sunday Scaries, and LinkedIn reports that more than 70+% feel the scaries each Sunday.
The quality of your week ahead is determined by the quality of your thoughts about the week ahead.
AND
Setting yourself up for success is self-care.
What does a winning week ahead look like?
These simple steps don’t take long — but they make a HUGE difference in how your week unfolds.
What would it be like to have a spectacular week?
Start imagining the week you want and what would have to happen to achieve it. Visualization is one of the most valuable and underused creation tools. Imagination comes from the largest and most creative part of our brain. That act of imagining pulls us from the scaries in our primitive brain (fear, flight, freeze) into the most creative part of our brain. Using your imagination as a tool is visualizing an impossibility and then considering 'what would have to be true for it to be possible'**. Start by asking, 'What if.'
(**This is a great journal prompt!)
Write Your To My Future list.
The To Do list never gets shorter. It’s filled with equally weighted work; when you check off two biggies, three more get added. This week, focus on the quality of your work, not the quantity of work. Quantity of work is a vanity metric that rarely shows up in the results we want for a spectacular week. The quality of your life changes when you focus on quality work. The Two My Future list promises three commitments you’ll make this week towards your extraordinary future.
Review Your Calendar for Outcomes
Decide the outcome you want to create for each meeting this week and what you must do or say to achieve it. Too many high achievers attend meetings without deciding ahead of time on the outcomes they want to create, which is why meetings go off the rails. Your time is your greatest asset, and if you want spectacular, spend your time creating quality work that you pre-determined with set outcomes. When you know what outcomes you want, it’s your roadmap to success.
Must Have Meetings
For spectacular to happen this week, you want to filter your meetings. I cancel or postpone meetings that are not a ‘Must Have.’ Look for those meetings that have become habit and routine and not generative. Touch-base meetings are a waste of time. 1:1 meetings are not a Must-Have without a set agenda and outcomes ahead of time. Cancellation playbook:
I need to move this meeting to next week.
I think ‘Sarah’ might be a better person to attend this meeting, and I’ve added her to the meeting invite.
My day is slammed. Please do what you can to move forward without me, and circle back if you still believe we need to meet.
Take Back Your Time
I review my week ahead as early as Wednesday the week before. Every open hour not booked gets blocked off for Super Think time—your time to create the spectacular. CEOs and high achievers say they have no time to think. There is no time to think until you create it. Work on quality work with the most impact on you, your team, and your business. Always quality over quantity.
Make One Bold Ask
Bold results come through bold asks. Make a list of bold and outrageous asks that would make a meaningful difference (think: spectacular) to you, and see what comes up. For all aspects of your life. Seeing this long list will help you see what's important (quality). Life is not a waiting room. You get what you ask for. I wrote about my practice in more detail here.
Take 10 minutes today to intentionally CREATE the spectacular experience you’d like this week.
You are your most important asset in life. Be good to yourself--by extension, you will be good to others.
