Straight Up Mindset

Monday, October 23, 2017

Improvement Series: Week 2 - Breaking Bad Habits

"Chains Of Habits Are Too Light To Be Felt Until They Are Too Heavy To Be Broken"

-Warren Buffet

Welcome to the October edition of the Straight Up Mindset Blog. This months series is the Improvement Series. Last weeks topic was over Self-Awareness. This week we will be talking about Breaking Bad Habits

This topic is something that we all have difficulties with. Even the best out there still deal with certain habits that are tough to break. They also understand these habits need to be broken if they are hindering you from reaching your goals. Everyone's habits are different, some are very negative when it comes to resolving issues. Others like to avoid issues and challenges all together. Myself for example, I have a bad habit of procrastinating and then scramble to get things done in the llth hr. Now I am not proud of that, but it is something that I am constantly working on everyday. This bad habit of mine has prevented me from taking advantage of a lot of great opportunities. Instead of doing what`s needed to be done, I was not prepared when an opportunity presented itself.

Understand that breaking bad habits is not an easy task. As mentioned in our previous blog, you have to be aware of these bad habits. Self-Awareness is key to finding these bad habits and starting the process in changing them. You have to be honest with yourself. Many times we don't want to admit we have an issue in the first place. The first and biggest step is to realize and admit what ever bad habits you have is a big problem. Once you've done that you are already half way there. The next step is to come up with a plan on how you are going to break this habit. For instance, one of the things I made sure to do to break my habit of procrastinating was to be conscious when that feeling came up. Once I recognized that feeling, I acknowledge it, had a very positive and motivational internal conversation with myself. Then I proceeded to doing and accomplishing my task at hand.

Another key component to breaking and building better habits is consistency. Its not something that is just going to work after one try. Think about it, you developed these habits over time and repetitive execution. It becomes apart of your daily life and routine. It is now second nature to you, which is why you don't even realize you are doing it. In order to break that cycle and develop a new routine you have to do it consistently. This is why when we present the 30 Day Challenge to you guys we give you 30 days to apply the principles we provide in the blogs. You've heard us say it, “It takes 21 days to build a habit”, we give you 30.

Listen, its going to be an uphill battle, you are going to have successes and failures in this process. Just remember to keep pressing forward, be consistent and eventually you will break those bad habits and probably won’t even realize it because it will then have become second nature to you.

Straight Up!!

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Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Improvement Series: Week 3 - Changing Your Mindset

Whether You Think You Can Or You Cant, You're Right

-Henry Ford

Welcome to the October edition of the Straight Up Mindset Blog. This months series is the Improvement Series. Week one's topic was over Self-Awareness. Week two we talked about Breaking Bad Habits. This weeks topic is over Changing Your Mindset

This is the most over looked area when it comes to self improvement. Whether a person wants to improve their health, career, relationships....etc. Everyone seems to start on the outer stuff and neglect their mindset. The body does what the mind tells it to do, this applies to all areas in life. The quote above by Henry Ford is so true. However you look at a situation good or bad, what you think is what the outcome will be. It's that simple and it comes down to whether or not you believe in your abilities.

I was listening to a Michael Jackson song "Man In The Mirror" and to be honest I have never really paid attention to the lyrics until one day in my car I happen to catch what he was saying. The main part of the chorus is "I'm starting with the Man In The Mirror. I'm asking him to change his ways. If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change." I have been listening to that song for years and for some reason those lyrics are just now getting to me. The point of the song is if you want to make a change in the first place you need to start with yourself. You have to completely reprogram your mind to start thinking in a different way. A perfect example is when I was younger I didn't like the thought of change and having to adapt to whatever the situation required. I liked to stay in my little bubble and just be safe and comfortable with the known. Being uncomfortable and not knowing what's up ahead scared me down to the bone.

I even contemplated on quitting a job because they were going to promote me and I didn't think I would be able to do the job and succeed. Can you believe that?? Who have you ever heard quitting a job because they were scared of success? I doubt many if at all any, but that was my mindset at the time. So scared of change, I found a million and one excuses of why I shouldn't take it. I approached a lot of situations like this because my mindset was in a bad place. It was at the point I knew I needed to do something about it and I did. What I did was I flipped the situation around and instead of thinking what if I fail, What if I completely just fall on my face and let everyone down. I started to ask myself, What if I succeed? What if I knocked this thing out of the park and take the bull by the horns. Now my whole outlook changed, my demeanor changed, my approach changed and the result was I did succeed.

I started to take that approach towards everything I came face to face with. I'm not saying that I won every single battle. Trust me I have the scars to prove that but the percentage of the battles that I did win increased and my progressions always moved upwards. All it took was for me to think differently and approach things differently. I didn't always know what I was doing, I didn't always have it together. Many times I'm scared out of my mind and don't have a clue as to how I'm going to make it through but eventually I figure it out and majority of the time it works out.

So to make a long story short just remember, "If you want to make a change you got to start with yourself." You have to have a different mindset. You will not always have the answers upfront, you wont always win every challenge but you will prevail. You have to believe you can and the outcome will work in your favor. You heard us say this on our last 30 Day Challenge Video, "You Win Some, You Learn Some". Meaning you will fail but the lessons that you get out of those failures will make you a stronger and wiser person.

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Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Improvement Series: Week 1 - Self-Awareness

"Being Self-Aware Is Not The Absence Of Mistakes, But The Ability To Learn And Correct Them"

-Daniel Chidiac

Welcome to the October edition of the Straight Up Mindset Blog. This months series is the Improvement Series. Week One's topic is called Self-Awareness.

Having self-awareness is key when trying to improve everyday. It's having the understanding of your strengths, weakness and your overall personality. It allows you to understand other people and how they look at you, how you react and your attitude in that particular moment. Its a major component in self-control of your emotions and your ability to evaluate certain situations.

Self Awareness allows you to stay true to your internal values and not make harsh decisions, which we are all guilty of doing when things get chaotic or change in an instant. You might have also heard the term "Emotional Intelligence" used in its place. Having self-awareness or emotional intelligence gives you the ability to understand and accept the things that makes us human. This means that when you make a mistake or miss on a opportunity instead of getting down and beating yourself up about it, you are able to understand what happened. Ask yourself, "why you made that choice," Correcting your mistakes and learning from them is what growth is about and is the very essence of how you grow mentally and emotionally.

In order to get past certain obstacles in life you have to be extremely honest with yourself and figure out why you are not getting to where you want to be. Whether its because you are bad with money, you procrastinate, or if you like to displace anger on someone else for your actions. Whatever your obstacle is for you, truly accept that it's problem and address it the right way. The more you know about yourself, the better you will get at adapting to the ups and downs and constant changes of life.

At the end of the day, you can go do a million conferences and mimic your routine after the most successful people out there, but none of that matters if you don't deeply understand yourself and know how you tick. Knowing this will allow you properly apply them to your life. So, before you move forward with trying to fix the external issues you're facing, take a look inside of yourself and learn everything about you. So that moving forward, you will have a better understanding of how you got yourself in your current situation. Make the best decisions to correct it and avoid making the wrong choice in the first place.

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Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Execute Series: Week 4 - 30 Day Challenge!!

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Execute Series: Week 3 - Execute

"I Dream, I Test My Dreams Against My Beliefs, I Take Risks, And I Execute My Vision To Make Those Dreams Come True"

-Walt Disney

Welcome back everyone to the September edition of the Straight Up Mindset Blog. This month’s series is Execute. The first week we talked about "Know What You Want". Second weeks topic was called "Write It Down". This weeks topic will be over "Execute"

This is it, this is what it all comes down to. As mentioned in the first weeks blog, you have given some serious thought into what it is you really want in life. You've talked about it, you've visualized it and now you are absolutely certain what it is you are after. Next step, we asked you to take that information and write it all down. Write it down anywhere, a notepad, diary, in your phone or a sheet of paper. Where ever you can write it down, go ahead and put it all there. Remember, when you write it down the percentage of achieving those goals increases.

Now here comes the crucial part. It's time to take those plans, ideas, goals and make them come to life. IT'S TIME TO EXECUTE!! In order for any plan or idea to work you must execute those plans. The one area that a lot of us fail in is the execution. We feel that because we did everything prior, all the other stuff should just magically happen. No, you need to follow through all the way to the end and that means putting things into action and making moves. Example: You want to lose weight, ok, you have planned out your diet. You have scheduled your time for your workouts and the only thing left to do is to just do it. No more talking, no more fantasizing, WORK!

What are you waiting for?? Don't let all that time and effort you put into planning go to waste. You are right there. All you have to do is just execute, its that simple. People tend to not reach their goals because they fear when they try to execute that they will fail. Let me tell you something and I want you to pay close attention to what I'm about to say. I guarantee you are going to fail, there is a high probability that failure is going to happen to you and you will have to start all over. Here is the kicker though, Its OK. Failure is part of the process, its what builds you up and makes you better. You have heard us say this many, many times before. Do you think every successful person that you look up to and admire hit success on the first try every time? Absolutely not, they failed over and over and over. What they got out of it each time was how to do it better and then boom, they hit their mark. Its part of the process and it takes time. The more you do it, the better you get at executing and your success rate increases each time.

We can't stress this enough, Execute, Execute, Execute! Its very important that you let this one marinate in your brain for a while. Without the work, without the execution, all those things you thought about, talked about and wrote down, will only be thoughts. Words with no weight and letters on a piece of paper

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Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Execute Series: Week 2 - Write it Down

"Your Dreams Are Only Dreams Until You Write Them Down..........Then They Are Goals"

Welcome back everyone to the September edition of the Straight Up Mindset Blog. This month’s series is Execute. Last week's topic was "Know What You Want". This weeks topic is called "Write It Down"

We mentioned last week that you have to know what you want. Once you have figured that portion out, now its time to write it down. Put those ideas on paper. Writing it down might seem like a meaningless step, but doing this helps you visualize your goals and makes them more tangible. Studies have shown that when you write down your goals the percentage of achieving those goals increases.

After you accomplish that, break them down into 2 categories: Short Term Goals and Long Term Goals. Your Long Term Goals are going to be those big goals, your dreams, the big picture and things that would be accomplished in 5 or more years. Think about what you strive to accomplish and the reason why you are doing what you are doing. This timeline will vary for each person as everyone's goals and what they want to do are different.

The other portion is going to be your Short Term Goals. These are going to be your day to day items. The things you need to accomplish in order to get closer to your Long Term Goals. What short term goals do for you is, they build your confidence. As you start to complete each short term goal your hunger and desire to reach the big goals starts to grow. You empower yourself to not allow anything to stop you. This is the process where you grow as a person mentally and emotionally. During this time you will have failures and you will have victories. In each and every one of those moments a valuable lesson is to be learned.

These are the simple steps to building a solid foundation. Prepare yourself to watch your plans unfold and see your dreams come to fruition.

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Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Execute Series: Week 1 - Know what you want

"Vision Without Execution Is A Daydream. Execution Without Vision Is A Nightmare."

-Japanese Proverb

Welcome everyone to the September edition of the Straight Up Mindset Blog. This month’s series is Execute. This weeks topic is, Know What You Want.

Just like the quote above states, in order for you to be able to execute anything you must have a plan in place. This is usually the hardest part to figure out, as most people have never really visualized a plan. This is something that has to be true to you and what is in your heart. Sit down and think long and hard about this, you have to be able to filter all the nonsense and irrational stuff that clouds your judgment. Take money out of the equation, take fame and recognition out of it. What is your gift that you have been blessed with?

Knowing what you want is the foundation to making dreams into reality. Once you come up with that answer, you have something tangible. You have something to work towards, something to plan around. Every day people go to work and do a job that they don't care about, they have no passion for and wonder why they are miserable when they hear that alarm clock go off in the morning. Why live this way? Why waste your time and efforts fulfilling someone else's dreams?

The same amount of time and effort can be put towards something that has way more value and meaning to you. The promise of a steady paycheck can't be your only motivation. We all get stuck with that reasoning and trust me as I am not exempt from this type of thinking. So, I encourage you to sit down by yourself,with a friend, family member or significant other and really think about what it is you want from yourself and life. Figure out what is your gift you were blessed with and figure out how that can be shared with the world. Once you obtain that answer, spend every waking moment of your life going after it

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