How do you keep last night's mind?

I've realized that sometimes I have great thoughts and I'm inspired and I know exactly what I want to do and how I have to do it. I struggle to sleep thinking of all the things I have to change tomorrow and the new mindset that I must have. My brain races really fast and at some point I just give in to sleep. Perhaps, the new mindset can last a couple of days but eventually I feel like I keep reverting back to what I was before. Weeks pass and then I remember my previous thoughts and how I have not been consistent implementing these changes. How do you make sure that you carry the same train of thought everyday? Perhaps I just have a terrible memory or perhaps I need to have a fixed goal that reminds me why I'm doing things. But how do you guys achieve this?

 

i) Do what you say you’re going to do.
 

ii) Set SMART goals:

specific measurable attainable realistic timely 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Writing things down can help, keep a journal. Write down things you want to change, goals and whatever intresting thoughts you have throughout the day. Whatever goals you have, break them down into more doable tasks that you can keep track of. If you want to get from 0 to 10, break it down so you go from 0 to 1 then 2 and 3 and so on. For me, it's easier to stay motivated and reach a goal if you break it down and see yourself get there step by step. You can keep track of all this stuff in your journal.

 

Felt like I typed out this post myself. I do the exact same shit. One, what guy above said is true. I bought a MoleSkin day planner and a whiteboard. Moral is I’m always writing down what I need to do and checking those things off as I go (if it is a continuous goal like trying to finish a paper then I’d put Heading as ‘Write Paper’ with 7 circles underneath to represent each day of the week and I fill in the circle if I worked on the paper that day). Can get more specific by writing down time slots each day dedicated for writing the paper so you prioritize that part of your day as actually writing the paper instead of slacking off and playing cod or some shit. Keeping track of my priorities each day and week helped me organize my time and actually got some of my ideas of where to improve and how to improve on paper but that won’t make you actually act on priorities. It’s legit gotta be a mind change where everyday you have the idea of moving forward — if I decide to take a nap or watch tv instead of exercising, writing paper, or learning new skill set I am not moving forward and for whatever reason the “move forward every day” phrase kicks my motivation in gear.

TL;DR (edit): The writing shit down in a journal will help you keep track of progress on goals, where to improve, how to improve, etc. Keep you honest. To stay consistent in your behavior day to day, it’s gotta be a mindset/something that motivates you like for me it is the phrase playing in my head “move forward every day”. Also, all the ideas you get can overwhelm you and make you not want to ever start getting on the track you have for yourself in your head, just fucking start somewhere. Make yourself start, no matter how minimal the impact is. And keep progress in a journal

 

That’s the catch-22: more things to remember to be consistent about doing that will help you be more consistent

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
 
Most Helpful

Great thread, definitely agree with the guy talking about his moleskin and setting up systems that allow you to do capture ideas and implement easier. A strong system is vital and I’d never downplay that, but one thing that for me took my ability to actually get this shit done to the next level was being honest with myself about what I wanted and what I was willing to do.

At some point you have to confront yourself on these issues and say “look, do I really want to do this? Okay, simply do it”.  It sounds simplistic as fuck, but as long as your goal is something you’re fully in control of then nobody’s stopping you from starting and seeing it through but you. Once you put work in you’ll need to refine your system and reflect on the progress you’ve made and iterate etc etc, but on some level you’re responsible for taking charge of your life and if you can’t bring yourself to take action maybe you don’t really want to get it done as badly as you tell yourself.

This all sounds a little wishy washy so as an example, for years I wanted to get in better shape and always was falling in and out of working hard. I’d be dedicated for a few weeks and then start to lose interest. I’d spend hours trying to figure out the ideal routine or how much I should be doing cardio or how much it mattered what I ate and just not focusing on lifting heavy things a lot. One day I decided fuck it, this isn’t going to happen if you aren’t committed and if you are committed it’s going to happen. I lost a lot of fat and got pretty ripped in the ensuing 9 months, and it all started abruptly because I took responsibility for putting in the work and accepted that any failure or success in the long term was 100% on me. You don’t have to go apeshit on your goal and spend 5 hours a day dedicated to it, but simply start it now and then don’t stop consistently working on it. 

 

Earum quia eum qui deleniti hic inventore quod. Saepe quidem ab modi veniam. Quisquam accusamus aut laborum quia nulla.

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