The Only Thing Stopping You From Being Happy, Healthy, & Wealthy

I’m such a big believer in personal development. Not like, you know, get-rich-quick or self-help guru stuff necessarily but just the fact that you can be intentional about what you want in life.

What do you want? I want to have a cool Tesla, or I want to travel more. I want to spend time with my kids, watch them grow up.

The fact that we can choose what we want and then work backward to get that is foreign to so many people. They just don’t understand the concept. They think that they get what they get, because life gave it to them.

And when people realize that’s not the case, it’s like The Matrix, right? Like the red and blue pill or like all of a sudden this is a whole other world, where you can have anything you want and do whatever you want.

You just change that little mindset to: “How do I get that?” rather than saying, “Well, you can’t.”

How to Be Intentional (& Get Way More Out of Life)

For me, it’s all about how I start my day. It really is! If I start my day on the right foot, not the left foot, I start with the right actions. Right? Then, everything else seems to line up throughout the day.

I wake up, and I do a little bit of reading. I do a little bit of journaling in my Intention Journal. I do a little bit of prayer or meditation.

I do all this stuff every morning in order. I have a routine. It’s like it anchors my day. It provides the foundation for everything else.

Then, at that point, I decide what I’m going to eat that day. I say, “What am I going to eat for lunch and dinner?” I’m taking care of my health.

And when am I going to work out? I actually decide when I’m going to work out and what I’m going to do to work out that day.

What Separates Those Who Don’t From Those Who Do Is Shockingly Simple

You know, they did a study a while back. They took a group of people who wanted to work out. There were like 100 people.

To 33 of them, they said, “OK, you want to work out—great. Go work out this week.”

And then to the next 33, they said, “You want to work out this week—great. Read this motivational pamphlet or watch this video.”

Out of the first group of people, only like 30% of them actually worked out. Out of the second group of people, only like 29% of people worked out (fewer people). The motivation was crap. It didn’t help them at all.

The third group, though, 92% of them worked out. So, what did they do for that third group?

They simply had them write down when they’re going to work out and where they’re going to work out. That was that!

It was just: “I’m going to the gym Tuesday at 5.” And by doing that, it tripled the chance of them actually accomplishing anything. This applies to all areas of life.

When we are not just like, “I want to do this,” but instead, “Here’s when and where I’m going to do this,” we’re exponentially more productive. This is the power of intention.

How to Structure Each Day for Success

So every morning, I anchor my day in a strong morning routine, where I define what that day is going to consist of. I set my intentions for the day and I set my actions for the day, which I also anchor in a weekly battle plan.

For my weekly battle plan, I set what the week’s intentions are. Those things anchor my week and then make everything go better. The days that I miss it or just generally experience terrible days—those days, I just feel like I got nothing accomplished because I wasn’t intentional about it.

There’s a great book by the name of Eat That Frog! I think Brian Tracy wrote it. The title and phrase, “eat the frog,” is about focusing on and knocking out your most important task first thing. If you do, the rest of your day will be great.

Tackle your big stuff in the morning, and take time to plan. It’s like the anchor to your entire day.

Do the hard work of sharpening your axe in the morning, and then you can chop down trees all day long—you’ve got a sharp axe. It’s way easier to chop down every tree you encounter all day long that way—everything from family to relationships to food to health to faith to fitness to real estate to wealth. It doesn’t matter. It just all flows better.

How do you structure your days most productively?

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Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.