Bookend Your Day

“Think in the morning, act in the noon, read in the evening, and sleep at night.”_William Blake

                                                       

Encarta defines bookend as follows: “Make something occur, on both sides or at the beginning and end of something (else).” 

I first heard of the concept of daily bookend from the Darren Hardy, the author of a great audio book entitled, ‘The Compound Effect.’ 

In his book, Darren explained the concept as a strategy for making the most of our mornings and taking complete charge of the evenings.

In essence, when you bookend your day, you deliberately plan to accommodate spontaneity during the day but you fiercely refuse any interference at the star and end of every day.

This one concept, if thoroughly understood and applied can elevate our game to a whole new level. As Darren Hardy clearly conveyed; it is one of the best kept secrets of highly effective people.

Whenever I study the biographies of great leaders of nations and industries, one strong pattern that I notice is that the kind of things they do early in the morning is extremely different from the engagements of an average person. They use the start of their days to accomplish tasks of supreme value.

And this is easier for them to do repeatedly because of an intentionally designed evening routine, which reduces the amount of friction that could stand in the way of their high performance every following morning. 

Evidently, a habit driven routine is the simplest strategy we can use to make steady progress towards our goals because it enables essential things in our lives to move on auto pilot; it enables us to stay on course towards realizing our ambitions in an almost effortless fashion. 

Roy Baumeister, the author of ‘Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength,’ says that when we strategically design our daily routine for high performance; we are making a very smart choice in the management of a precious but limited resource of willpower.

From practical experience, a good routine not only conserves our willpower; it also provides the very support we need to withstand the ups and downs of everyday life.

Once a morning routine is thoroughly established, we will easily tackle some of the important tasks of the day before the chaos and interruptions of life could ever get in our way.

How to Start Your Bookend

With this insight into the power of routine, I am guessing someone is pumped up to get started right away.

To such a go-getter, I suggest you first determine the most important things you want to accomplish at this stage in your life, business or career. 

Then try to install the key behaviours that must happen for you every evening that will enable you to make the most of its following morning. 

Secondly, after you have installed the right evening-to-morning habit, eliminate any suboptimal behaviour— especially during this period of your day— that could easily sabotage your efforts in the long-run.

The final and perhaps most critical element of effective bookend strategy is this: 

1} Make your decision clear.

2} Make your decision non-negotiable.

For bookend to be truly effective, your routine must not only be clear; it must be iron-clad. 

For example: instead of deciding, I will sleep and wake up early, everyday.

It should be: I will sleep and wakeup at the exact same time, every single day.

Please understand that if you are not serious about this last part, then you’re not really serious about becoming highly productive in your mornings. 

You see, highly effective people are not superhuman in anyway; they have just learned to be earnest with what most people tend to be careless about.

Change: Start Showing Up Better than Before

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

George Bernard Shaw

Jim Rohn was an American business philosopher who had a positive influence on a countless number of people in many countries around the world with nothing more than certain principles, plain wisdom and practical truths. 

Though he wrote and published many useful books on those principles, yet the cornerstone of his entire philosophy is based on one straightforward sentence: “If you will change, everything will change for you.” 

After a deep thought on that one quote, I realize how promising and hopeful it really is. Therefore, this article will prod us— not to change our entire lives but—to change with regard to just one principle: the truth of consistency.

In this life, the people we respect the most are those who are somehow able to do the necessary things more consistently than us. They are the ones with a level of consistency we wish we could bring into our own affairs.

They are the ones who show up and deliver day after day while everyone else struggles with lethargy, procrastination and indifference.

They are the ones who seemed to have figured out the secret of successful living; they are the ones with a Midas touch: the ones on top of their games.

They are the ones who don’t seem to have the time to complain or dwell on past performances. They are the ones highly focused on the process of constant and never ending improvement. 

As proven in the best researches available, consistency is noted to be a key trait of this crop of people; consistency is undoubtedly, their magic bullet as Tynan, the author Superhuman by Habit writes: “Consistency is everything.”

Again, my message today is simply to encourage us to learn to show up as the best show up in important areas of their lives. Put another way: I am urging us to be far more consistent than we have ever been.

Perhaps, this is the only key lesson we need to implement for everything to fall into place. Perhaps, this is all we need to do to step up our game for good. 

Let’s give it a try in response to the words of an American historian, Edward Everett Hale who said: 

“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”

For example:

To be a better student, suspend improving everything else, just improve one thing: show up more consistently with your deep regular study than ever before.

Do that long enough and you will be surprised at the depth of understanding which you can uncover. Apply the same principle to any other key area of your life, one step at a time.

Finally, understand that we don’t have to change everything at once to see a radical improvement that we envision; we just need to start showing up more consistently than we have ever done.

A Determined Soul

“A determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a machine shop.”_Robert Hughes

While in college, I learned an essential lesson from one of my unpretentious schoolmates. He was one of a kind who managed to come out on top of his class despite the odds. 

He was from a humble background and had to hustle a great deal to make ends meet. In addition, he was relatively slow to grasp complex concepts taught in his class. 

To catch up, he would often attend tutorials after class with the help of his brilliant classmates. Sometimes, one might feel for him and wonder if he was really going to make it through to the end.

However, to everybody’s surprise, he graduated summa cum laude, being one of the top five students in his department; he was far ahead of many seemingly smart ones.

Doing What We Can with What We Have

A remarkable result of this nature can serve to correct our assumption on what we sometimes think is necessary to win in any challenging endeavour. 

I think what is truly required to win is not what many of us choose to focus on, a lot of the times. After reading this article, you will understand what I mean.

For starter, think over the narrative above: some students in his position would probably feel sorry for themselves for not having a sponsor to cater for their needs. 

And some others might even blame fate for not being as quick-witted as the apparently smart ones in his class. Neither of which is really helpful for the self-esteem necessary to win a gold medal in any game.

However, my guy was not such a person. He was different: a truly determined soul was he; the kind of person who takes full responsibility for their outcome, no matter the situation.

You see, it takes a special form of courage to own one’s situation by not letting what one cannot do interfere with what one can still do. Such is the courage displayed by every determined soul: the courage to gratefully convert personal disadvantages into an advantage.   

Most people think greatness comes from having the most desirable situation possible, but they are missing the point. I guess you will agree that it’s easier to waste time dreaming about perfection than to make the most of an undesirable situation. 

It’s easier to think you need to be able to buy all your books by yourself than to decide to befriend the school library because you can’t afford the books on your own.

Think about this…

Even if having a sponsor would have given the guy a huge competitive advantage, he achieved the highest possible class without one because he decided to rely fully on himself. 

Even if having a quicker wit would have made him a star from the start, he ended up with magna-cum-laude without one because he decided to show up every day for deliberate study and practice.

Even if being the most naturally gifted person would have given him a unique privilege in his class, he achieved exceptional success without one because he understood the power of committing to the ordinary.

As you can see, in most cases, what we think is our hindrance is really not so. We don’t need a perfect situation for greatness or for happiness. Our main obstacle is our wrong assumption and misguided thinking. 

The solution here is to adopt the mindset of a truly determined soul; someone who has learned to focus and act upon what matters most, in any kind of situation. 

Don’t be trapped in your past or be deluded by your future. Instead live fully in the present moment by displaying a great sense of gratitude and responsibility.

In a nutshell, never let what you don’t have hinder you from doing what you can do today—and every day that follows.

Deadline: Use It to Get the Right Things Done

“Goals are dreams with deadlines, and without those deadlines, our dreams are dead in the water.”_Mark Batterson

What do we call “the time by which something must be done or completed?”

It is a word which many people—students, writers, artistes, entrepreneurs, politicians, etc—sometimes fear: deadline. 

Even though, it may sound less attractive in our ears, deadline has great value for anyone who is proactive enough to work on the right kind of things— as soon as possible—whenever results do matter.

Indeed, there is huge potential in both setting and honouring proper deadlines.

The power of deadline lies in its tendency to compel us to take the most vital action— in pursuit of our goals— as opposed to merely staying in motion.  

Being in motion is quite different from being productive. To a large extent, motion is what happens when we are only thinking, planning, and strategizing. 

Not that anything is wrong with engaging in all these practices. In fact, they are essential in many cases, provided they are done in due measure.

However, many people confuse seeming to do with actually doing, so they spend too much time on preparation mode, instead of truly getting things done. 

To bring sanity to such a subtle confusion is the reason I am writing about deadline today.

Deadline is the tool that can crystallize our focus to gain absolute clarity on what really matters. It is the tool that will compel us to engage in the most vital of all actions: the only type of behavior that will deliver a tangible result that we seek.

Without a deadline, a writer can spend weeks or months—sometimes years—contemplating, researching and analyzing concepts about a great book he or she intends to write: with nothing to show for it in the end. 

But with a tight deadline, a committed writer is forced to move from deceptive moves of motion to doing the critical thing; the most important action that will get him the outcome he wants, which is: to write. No wonder Nolan Bushnell, a cofounder of Atari, Inc. concluded that “deadline is the ultimate inspiration.”

To prevent preparation from turning into a different form of procrastination, we should learn to begin our tasks with a deadline in mind.

Begin with a Deadline in Mind

“Everything is an experiment until it has a deadline. That gives it a destination, context, and a reason.”_Brian Eno

To turn our great intentions into vital actions that can deliver the result we need, we should start every project with a deadline in mind. 

This concept will help us develop a necessary sense of urgency on any important goal. It will urge us to create some target dates in the present for a goal that may take a long time to actualize.  

Personally, I apply deadline to my life in the form of a schedule. As a result, I get certain critical things done, every day, every week and every month, respectively.  

Doing this makes me both efficient and effective. Since I have a concrete yardstick for measuring performance, I don’t spend too much time on mere accessories to output.

Deadline is an aid; in that, it can train us to aim for the bull’s-eye on every project, instead of wasting precious time to run in a circle of motion. 

You see, our days have a deadline, our months have a deadline and our years have a deadline. Even our lives counts toward a deadline from the moment we are born.

Therefore, we shouldn’t be afraid of deadline but rather embrace its potential power to make our dreams come true.

A Design of Purpose

“Visualize this thing you want. See it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin.”_Robert Collier

To live a life of purpose is to live by design.

Unlike how most people choose to live their lives, men of purpose understand the power of self-direction. Thus, they envision a meaning and employ a concrete blueprint to help them stay focused on the path they have chosen to tread. 

If we fail to live on purpose, we will be annihilated by the turbulent waves and vicissitudes of times. At best, we can only hope for nothing more than a life of mediocrity.

But if we choose to live a lofty purpose and design an active plan to make it happen, we can thrive in the midst of chaos of almost any form or size. 

Therefore, I challenge you to choose to never drift again, instead live with purpose, live by priority and follow a well-devised plan in pursuit of your vision.

Purpose, Plan and Priority

“Every well built house started in the form of a definite purpose plus a definite plan in the nature of a set of blueprints.”_Napoleon Hill

A life of conscious design requires purpose and priority. Purpose signifies where or who we want to be while priority means the necessary actions to get us there.

Great men of purpose are crystal clear on where they really want to go, and consequently, they are crystal clear on what they need to do to get there. 

To join their rank, first we need something ahead to look up to, and second, we need a blueprint to stay on course throughout the journey and third, we need a clear set of priorities that must be rigorously pursued on a daily basis.

If you’re not sure how to get started, ask yourself the following questions:

Who do I want to become?

What do I want my legacy to be?

Why am I here?

What will be my greatest contribution to humanity?

Sincere attempts to answer those questions can uncover a powerful purpose from anyone—even from a heedless drifter. Once you figure it out, get to work on your blueprint to take care of the how’s questions—one small step at a time.

A life of purpose is a life of meaning and significance. If we don’t want to end this short life journey with a lot of regrets, we need to get serious—today, and not tomorrow— about the future trajectory of our lives.

Therefore, take charge of your own life by fanning the ember of a heroic purpose. And then design a blueprint to guide you on the way to making it a radiant reality.