How to Achieve Success through Reverse Engineering

When I share my vision board for a new year in January to my social media audience, it is most commonly met with cheers of support from my friends. I mean, that's only natural right? You always want to support your friends and their goals. What surprises people the most, however, is when I post the vision board again at the end of the year showing what I had accomplished, and what still is left to be taken care of.

The difference between goal attainment and dreams is action taken on part of the individual. You can plan for hours, days, or even months on how you are going to develop a life that you feel that you deserve, but it will never amount to anything or go anywhere without action by YOU.

So how do I achieve everything I set out to do? I plan and I permit myself to have some fun in the meantime.

Life doesn't have to be so serious all the time, that's why my vision boards always contain business strategic goals, and fun little goals for myself.  But regardless if it's a business goal, a personal goal, or just a fun goal that you have set for yourself you need to plan.

The first step is writing down exactly what it is that you want.  What do YOU want? I'm not asking what other people want FOR you, I'm asking you what you want. This is not a list you have to show others, you can keep it to yourself. But get honest about it.

The second step is putting a date on it. When do YOU want it by? Now, some people will say go way outside of your comfort zone with this, but this is a step that I usually spend the most time on because I want my goals to be challenging, but not so much so that they seem impossible. When creating a goal, think about what you have now, what you will have in the future, and the amount of time you have to work on achieving it.  Most importantly, and this can be hard, but how much heart do you have behind it, because that is going to determine a lot of what you are willing to sacrifice to get there.

The third step is to write down everything you can think of that is needed to achieve that goal. This is called reverse engineering and is a step that is most often skipped, but one of THE MOST VALUABLE steps to take. This lays it all out for you. This gives you a clear picture of EXACTLY what you need to do. It is the rough draft of the story that you are about to create. After doing this, you might need to adjust your dates a little bit and that's okay, just make sure you are not laxing on yourself to the point where you will get lazy.

The final step: take action. Take massive action to make it happen. Take one goal at a time, look at it reverse engineered, and think of how you can take one step per day (or more) towards achieving those small items on the to do list of your goal. 

At first it's overwhelming, but practice makes perfect. Not to mention, every goal you mark off is a boost to your own self confidence, and your own belief in yourself which will push you further through life to achieve things you never thought possible.

Quality vs. Quantity: Getting the Most Out of What Matters

As you may have noticed, it has been almost a month since my last blog post. A lot is going on in my life right now, which has taken me away from some of my normal and enjoyable priorities.

My last entry was about doing what you love, and what you love becoming just another j-o-b. For me, that is what a lot of things were becoming largely because I had overloaded my plate with activities. I would be lying if I said my plate was not still full; however, after taking some time off to re-evaluate what I was doing, how to do it better, but more importantly how to do it efficiently while also being effective, I believe I have found a good formula.

After talking with one of my best friends last night, she made mention that sometimes when we are very busy we begin to do tasks just to do them. Our brain begins to go on autopilot, and there is not much thought or heart put behind what we are doing. We are simply doing it to get it off of our To Do list so we can move on to the next item and if we are lucky,finish them all that day.

The problem with this method is that your quantity may remain high in the period of stress; however, the quality of what you are doing begins to be negatively affected. When your quality of work goes down the drain, the time (be it short or long) that you spent working on it was largely a waste of time. When you are extremely busy, the best thing that you can do for yourself is make the time you are spending on tasks WORTH your time. After all, your time is valuable and clearly if you are at this point there is not much wiggle room...so if you are going to do it, do it right.

This might mean scaling back, even if you are like me and that idea scares the crap out of you. Sometimes we need to give ourselves a bit of a break. This does not mean quitting, rather re-evaluating where you can offer the most value at the given time with your given responsibilities and obligations. This idea falls back on the 80/20 rule: 80% of your results are going to come from 20% of your efforts. The trick that lies before you is deciding which tasks are your 20% that will yield you the highest results.

Here's how to do it: List your activities for the day and look them over. Which one of them will have a domino effect on other parts of your life? Which ones will move you in a positive direction towards your goals? Which ones MUST you do because they are an obligation?

My suggestion: If you have an obligation that stands in the way of you doing the activities you need to do to move you towards your goals (for example: grad school paper), get that over with first. It is the ugliest, probably most un-enjoyable item on the list, but if you get it done first the feeling of accomplishment you will have will propel you to dive into your next, hopefully more enjoyable tasks with heart.

In addition, once you have picked out the 20% of activities that will give you 80% of your results, work those next. And don't just do them to do them. Remember, the other tasks are not giving you 80%. Sure, they contribute here and there but they are not the "head honcho" of things you need to do. So rather than looking at them and thinking "I must get these done!" Stop. Breathe. And work on your 20% with a lot of thought, effort, and heart behind it. Put your time and effort into these tasks and watch it payoff...then you can go do the other small activities if there is time. By always focusing on what matters most, you can continue to move in a positive direction even when times are tough

Nicole's Method: I use the Reminders app on my iPhone for my daily To Do list. I write everything in there that I need to do for the next day (clearing out my brain before bed) and then when you click on the little "i" icon, you can add a priority to those items. My ugly obligations get highest priorities because I want them out of the way ASAP, then my 20% items get the next highest priority, and the trivial tasks that I would LOVE to get done, but if I don't it won't push me further ahead or make me fall behind get the lowest priority. I hold myself accountable to this list and resist the urge to go to the lesser priority items until they are the only ones showing on the list. I have found this works for me.


Do any of these ideas work for you? Do you have other ideas that you would like to add? Feel free to comment below and don't forget to follow me on Pinterest at Nicole Murray Fitness for various boards pertaining to how you can better your health, your fitness, and your life.

Make today awesome!

Meal Planning Made Easy!

I find nothing exciting about meal planning - nada; however, I find that when I actually take the time to plan out what I am going to be eating for the week, it really helps me to stay on track. As you all know, I love food. I love bar food the most, and pizza..you know, the WORST ones for you, but I know that I am no longer 15 these things can catch up with me pretty quickly.

So, I meal plan. And it's always been boring. It is that one thing I put off doing because it just isn't fun! I don't do "not fun". Blah. Recognizing this problem, I decided to take the task and chop it into smaller tasks. Instead of sitting down for an hour on a single day and figuring out what I'm going to eat and grocery shop for, I do it one day at a time. So for example, today is Wednesday so today I will be making up my meals for next Wednesday.

For me, lunch and dinners are the issue. I have the same thing for breakfast every day (a loaded protein shake), and my snacks are typically a fruit and string cheese, or a fruit and almonds in the morning followed by my Shakeology in the afternoon. Lunches and dinners are scary because if I don't have it planned I'll find an excuse to go out and eat..because again, I love food. So here is what I do:

Step 1: I enter in my "usuals" into my meal planner (template for you below) for the week. There, done, with little thinking involved.

Step 2: If I need anything for my snacks (like grapes, almonds, etc) it goes immediately onto my shopping list WITH the location where it is cheapest (Ex: Aldis Almonds, Trader Joes Bananas)

Step 3: I browse either my nutrition guides that I have received from my Beachbody programs (most common method) or I venture off onto Google and find some random blog. I choose a pretty simple lunch that I can either make and it feeds me for days, or a standard salad for which I use no dressing and instead add in various vegetables for flavors (try sweet peppers! Yum!) Add my choice to my meal plan, and the ingredients into the shopping list app

Step 4: Same thing for dinner. Now me personally, I plan my dinners around the weather. If its a nice night, I prefer it on the grill..if its chilly and crisp, I like it from the crockpot. I try and consider my moods when I plan my food. Think about it, if you know you are swamped at work on Wednesday do not pick some complicated dinner dish! Pick a crockpot meal..simplify your life. Onto the planner it goes, and into the food app

That's it! I'm done! I do this every day and the entire thing takes me 5 minutes at the most!

Here is a simple template that I have developed in Google Docs that you are free to use. I also try and make it a habit to upload my meals onto myfitnesspal.com to check the levels of sodium, protein, etc. to make sure I am not over-indulging in anything https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ap9-a6TgtaAqdHBmWkxfbkRfRlZXWFZGM0I5V2NKMFE&output=html

Oh, and while I'm at it...here's a little tunage to make it more fun. Nothin' like a good ol fashioned meal planning party!
  Questions? Comments? Concerns? Email me! nik4213@gmail.com

3 Tips for Crushing an Overwhelming To Do List

When life hands you multiple tasks to do at once, what do you do? Do you run the other way? Do you put your nose to the grindstone and just “get it over with”? Or maybe you lock yourself in a closet and have a good cry (no judgment). We all handle stress differently, and this past week of my life really had me thinking about the way in which I manage mine.

 

My life is not simple. I work 50 hours a week at my regular job, do my coaching and other fitness training and meal planning with clients on average another 30 hours during the week, get my daily workouts in (or I would go insane), plus I am a full time graduate student. Life is anything but boring…but at the same time it can get very boring as a social life is limited.

 

This past week I let the stress get the best of me. I just freaked out, the brain went to a pile of mush, and rather than devising a plan of how to ease the situation – I shut down.   I just shut down, ignored anything that I had to do and did what most girls do best – I went shopping.

 

Now, here I am on a Sunday night when I could be relaxing trying to make sure that everything I had neglected the past week gets done so that I can start Monday fresh. Had I of just taken 10 minutes to organize my days, this would not be the case and I could be kicking back watching a DVRed episode of Real Housewives (so much better, right!?) 

Here are my tips to prioritizing your tasks, and knocking them out of the park:

 

Step 1: Write your shiz down. Anything you have to do during the day, write it down. I even like to write down weekly tasks that I must accomplish, and goals that I would like to achieve. I have a whiteboard in my office where these go and very morning I make sure I look and consider “Where am I with this?”

 

Step 2: Look for the ugliest, most boring one that you can find. What one do you want to put off the most? Do that first. Get it over with. It’s like a Band Aid…just rip it off.

 

Step 3: Physically cross things off of your list as you complete them. Believe it or not, this act releases feel good chemicals in your brain helping you to feel accomplished and a bit more excited about accomplishing the rest of your tasks on your list.

 

Hope this helps! It sure would have helped me to stick with my own advice last week, but you live and learn!

Want to see my life as it unfolds (along with all the craziness that goes along with it?) follow me on Instagram @Nik4213

KEEP YOUR SANITY! during any life challenge

Life challenges us on a daily basis.  From where we have to go, to who we have to meet, and right on down to what we have to eat - every day is a challenge. But what happens when the cosmics don't align, your stars are all out of wack, and there is not heads nor tails being made of everything? We give up. We join the spiral and rather than just spinning out of control, we spiral downward. We go back to negative ways of thinking ("There's no way I'm EVER going to get this all completed today"), poor eating ("Just call for a pizza"), and just flat out neglecting and punishing ourselves for things that might be out of our control.

The good news is, it doesn't have to be that way! Now, I'm not saying that  following these five tips are going to just turn your day right on around, but they are going to help to take some of the weight that you are feeling off of your shoulders, and help you get through your most stressful periods one day at a time.

Tip #1: Time Management - I have done a couple various posts about time management, but I cannot stress its importance enough. Yes, I know that there are going to be times where it doesn't matter how much effort you put in to your time management, you are still going to feel out of wack, control, and like there aren't enough hours in the day; but, if you feel like that after utilizing time management skills, imagine how you would have felt had you of never utilized them at all! That thought alone should be enough to prove to you that time management works.

 Tip #2: Be Your Biggest Fan - Don't go looking for a pity party, suck it up! Yes, I know you are beat. Yes, I know you haven't gotten much sleep lately. Yes, I know you feel like you are giving it everything that you have left inside of you..but don't ever tell yourself that you can't. Keep telling yourself that you can. Even if your are tip-toeing to the finish line, it is better than just sitting there doing nothing.

Tip #3: Surround Yourself With People Who Lift You UP - Those people who constantly rag on you, tell you what you "should" be doing, tell you that you aren't doing enough, or just like to constantly look down on you - remove them from your life. Easier said than done, I know, but it is possible. Start gradually by just steering clear of them, and eventually they will become a complete non-factor in your life. Instead, hang around positive people who will keep your spirits and your mood up. We feed off of each other's moods, so naturally it is best if we are around those who have a more positive attitude

Tip #4: Commit to Something New- I know, right? Like you have time for that..but you do! Think of how many times you have found yourself in a stressful situation and you let it get the best of you; now this time get the best of it! Imagine how you will feel afterwards when it is all over and you are either still on track with your life, or even better than before.  Maybe throw in a new workout program (plenty listed on this site), go for a short walk each day, or commit to eating better (which has mood boosting capabilities on its own). You will thank yourself for it later.

Tip #5: BE YOURSELF - that person hiding under all of your stress is DYING to come out and play! Let them out! Be the person that you want to be. Be happy. Be fun. Be loud. Be crazy...do not let this situation take away your personality. Continuing to be yourself throughout a particularly stressful situation, is a great way to overcome the situation.

Always remember...take life one day at a time. And if that seemse like too much, take it one step at a time. Good luck!