Want to Improve: Measure!

To improve in anything we must hold ourselves accountable. We must find a way to measure the progress towards our goals. If our goal is Eudaimonia, we must measure our progress toward living with integrity with our highest values.

Are we operationalizing virtue each day?

Here is an example of how your Carpe Diem Journal can help you measure your progress towards your ideal identity for the Big 3 Areas of Your Life (Energy, Work/School, Relationships) It’s a good practice to plan your goals in the morning in our (AM time block) and reflect each night in our PM Time Block).

Flipping the Switch — The Entirety of Mental Toughness Training!

This is a phrase that we purposefully recite in almost every note that we write.  We do this because you can sum up our teaching in that one command, “Flip the Switch”.

Mental training is that easy, and that hard!  To be happy and successful this is the only thing that we need to do, “flip the switch”.  When? As emotions and circumstances outside of your control arise, moment-to-moment, day-by-day, for the rest of your life! The process is simple:

  1. Create more moments of awareness
  2. Celebrate noticing those moments of awareness
  3. Choose to act as your best selves in those moments; “Flip the Switch”

This is what we refer to when we say “Flip the Switch”! You will never be exonerated from this process.  And that’s a good thing because in this process is where you will find happiness, joy, confidence, and eudaimonia. Eudaimonia is an emotion you may not have heard of but it’s what we are all after it is what Aristotle called “the summon bonum” or highest good.  You will shine with radiant enthusiasm when your primary purpose is all about high-fiving your inner soul and more consistently expressing the best version within yourself.  Experiencing Eudaimonia is the process of “flipping the switch”!

All the inspirational stories, pre-game speeches, ancient wisdom, scientific studies that you will learn in this course and have already heard again and again throughout your life are designed to encourage you to “flip the switch”!

However, before you can “flip the switch” you must do the pre-emptive work.

  1. Your job is to distill this inspiration and wisdom into practical tools that you will have available ready at hand to “flip the switch” at the moment that you need it.
    • These tools will come in the form of: a mantra, meditation, prayer, power-pose, visualization, or if-then command.
    • You must journal, experiment, and reflect to chose your response to each emotion and circumstance that you can imagine facing throughout your day.
  2. Once you have a response “ready at hand” for each emotion, your next step is to:
    • Confidently seek opportunities to practice “flipping the switch” (invoking your chosen response to both pleasant and unpleasant emotions).

Continue this process, moment-to-moment, day-by-day, for the rest of your life! The more you practice, the more you will see the benefits.  Now, when you celebrate noticing moments of awareness,  you will notice that your initial response more closely resembles your most empowered response. “Flipping the switch” will become less dramatic as you spiral-up into the best version of yourself. You will experience higher highs and lower lows. As you continue the process new levels of happiness will open that you never dreamed possible.

 

Carpe Diem Journaling/Framework to Live Every Day Deliberately

This module is all about operationalizing your virtue throughout the day. In our “Identity Module” we got clear on the grand vision of who we want to be, why we want to be that person, and then developed our “mantra reel” and “power poses” to create a protocol to remind ourselves to be that person more moments throughout the day. In this module we will continue to gain clarity on our identity goals for energy, work, and love by mapping out our ideal day. We will put pen to paper and journal to reemphasize our identity for each of the three domains, while tracking and measuring our behaviors throughout the day.

Carpe Diem Journal Instructions

Welcome! we’d like to introduce you to our daily journaling practice.
We journal to hold ourselves accountable as we build the habits into our daily routine that will help us reach the goals we set for ourselves on and off the field.
Directions:
  1. Please print out copies of the journaling template.
  2. Every day, Spend as little as 1-minute filling out the journal template.
  3. When you have completed the exercise.  Please complete and send a picture of your first entry in to a coach/teammate, parent, or within your kohort group text.  Making our entry public will hold us accountable.
Here is a short how-to video walking through completing the journal entry. I also attached an example below.
1. Start in the open space at the Top (YOUR SPACE, remind yourself of who you want to be TODAY) Suggestions:
  • Write a quote you’re pondering from a book you’ve read, a speech you’ve heard, or your Coach’s daily wisdom.
  • (Choosing a pillar of Utah lacrosse, and write how you will practice it throughout the day is highly encouraged!)
  • What’s your AthleteType? Reflect on your strengths– how will you share them with the world today? Reflect on your weaknesses. What precautions will you take to make sure that they don’t get in the way of your success?
  • Draw a picture reminding yourself of the person you want to be.
  • If you are using the single-page template – you can use this space to plan your day i.e. Plan your day in a segment of this space. Reflect on it at the end of the day. We suggest using the format: (www.bulletjournal.com)
2. Your Daily Identity, Virtues, Behaviors:
  • The minimum (i.e. “floor”) version of completing the daily journal involves writing as little as one word for each component of The Big 3 Areas of your Life (You can do this in 60 seconds):
Simplified 3 Areas of your life:
    1. Energy — Identity, Virtues, #1 Behavior to install, #1 Behavior to delete.
    2. Work/Lacrosse — Identity, Virtues, #1 Behavior to install. #1 Behavior to delete.
    3. Love/Leadership/Relationships— Identity, Virtues, #1 Behavior to install. #1 Behavior to delete.
The 3 Components to establish habits for each area of your life:
    1. Identity: Who are you committed to being today? (In Energy, Work, and Love.)
    2. Virtues: What are the qualities you’re going embody today? (In Energy, Work/lacrosse, and Relationships.)
    3. #1 Behavior: What’s the #1 Most Important Thing for you to do today in Energy, Work, and Relationships)?
3. Plan/reflect upon your day – Plan loosely in the AM, reflect in the PM! If you really want to dial in our your planning, we encourage you to apply the BulletJournal Method to this section.
  • AM -Jot down what you plan to do throughout the day
    • You control your AM’s. This is the time before worldly inputs. No distractions. Be creative before you’re reactive. What’s your every-day protocol?
  • The IN-BETWEEN – Log your meetings, practice, lifts, tasks needed to get done.
    • 1.2.3.4.5 Now What needs to be done on each task!
  • PM – Take this time to reflect on your day, and even start writing your journal for the upcoming day (Tomorrow starts in the PM!)
    • This is the time after obligations– “Shut Down Complete” from worldly inputs. Shut done your work, the news, numbing TV, and commit to appreciating your relationships and/or your personal time for relaxation, hobbies, etc.
4. Measurements/Daily Targets:
  • Energy (0,1,10,100,1k,10k,25): These numbers can mean anything to you, the idea is to continually move throughout the day. We don’t want to workout once and be slugs the rest of the day. As humans, we have to move, to cultivate the energy we need to grow in our chosen work and love. here are some ideas of what the numbers may mean to you:
    • 0 – Did you meditate? Reflect for a moment, Decide to be great today? check it off!
    • 1- 1 sun-salutation when you wake up, 1 smile, 1-moment of gratitude, 1 push-up
    • 10- 10-pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 10 min of meditation, 10-breaths when you feel intense emotion.
    • 100- 100 burpees, push-ups, air squats spaced throughout the day. Movement is better than a cup of coffee, we need to stay focused.
    • 1k -1k meter row, 1 mile, a floor of an endurance exercise each day.
    • 10k – steps!
    • 25 – 25 min work-out, movement activity segment each day.
  • Work blocks ( Deep-work, Team-work, Monkey-Work): Tally each work-block throughout your day
    • Deep-work – Phones/notifications off. No distractions. Homework, practicing your sport, etc.
    • Team-work – Collaborating with others: team practice, group projects, partner activities.
    • Monkey-work – Checking emails/phones while performing work. Responding to other’s demands.
  • Love (0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0):
  • 0.0 – Did you take time to energize yourself today? (read, journal,work-out, meditate, write, time in nature?
  • 1.0 – Did you spend time 100% present with a friend, teammate, or family today ( no checking your phone, or watching TV unless intentionally doing so i.e. deciding to watch a movie together).
  • 2.0 – Did you share a MMPR (micro-moment of positivity) with a stranger, classmate, store clerk. Try to go a layer deeper than hello!
  • 3.0 – Did you encourage someone to do more of what they’re great at today? Did you intentionally compliment someone to let them know how much you appreciate them?
Make this journaling a priority. It will change your life. All we ask is a floor of 1-minute a day. No excuses–intentionally become the person you want to be!!

Journal Every Day .. Or just Draw a Picture– Rehearse your Identity in 10 seconds!

We’ve all heard that expression and it’s true! Especially when we know the importance of maintaining a daily journaling practice but don’t have the time to write a long journal entry.
Q: How do we make time to 1) remind ourselves of the important priorities that we set for ourselves 2) plan our day 3) measure our progress 4) reflect on that progress?
A: Pictures. Mantras. Short-hand!
We can create a short-hand version of the message to express these meaningful concepts.  Aside from a time-saver, a picture helps you build mental visualizations. Just like a movie, it engages more senses than a lecture or an article, thus evoking a more meaningful reminder of how we want to live (THAT’S ALL MENTAL TRAINING IS … CREATING MORE MOMENTS OF PRESENCE WHERE WE CAN DELIBERATELY CHOOSE TO BE THE PEOPLE WE WANT TO BE.)
To speak to the power of mental visualization, in “Can’t Hurt Me”, David Goggins tells a tale of hearing the “Rocky Music” and picturing himself as Rocky getting up after a merciless beating by Apollo Creed, refusing to quit, and breaking Creed’s spirit.
Another SEAL, Mark Divine (author of The Unbeatable Mind), uses a mantra “ Look good, feel good, I should be in Hollywood” to get through buds.
The point is– mantras, video representations, and pictures are a great tool to quickly focus our attention and remind us of the men and woman we want to be. The more we recite, envision, and reflect on our reminders, the more quickly we can back on track after we get knocked off track.

Live Each Day with a Sense of Urgency

We must set our intentions every, single day. Then we must act. NOW. Be the man/woman that you want to be, take the next micro-step today! We are never exonerated from this process. We must remember to live every day like it’s our last. What behaviors do you do when you’re at your best? What virtues do you want to follow. Use the blank space at the section of your journal to reflect.

Measure and Plan, Track, and Measure Your Daily Tasks— “What gets measured gets managed”—Peter Drucker

Live Deliberately. How is your progress towards your Identity Goals (Energy/Athletics, Work/School, Love/Relationships/Leadership. Use your journaling template to log your activities and measure your progress throughout the day. We recommend using the Bulletjournal system. This system has helped your coaching staff stay on track. Plan your tasks in the morning or even better, the prior night!, Throughout the day continue to reflect and add fill in the task you actually accomplished at the end of the day.

PM Bookend — Your Day Starts the Night Before

When you plan your day, it should start the night before.  The energy and mindset that you wake up with is significantly impacted by what you did the night before—no surprise there!  If you don’t get a good night of sleep, you can’t perform at your best the next day.

Creating a consistent PM ritual is one of the most powerful things you can do to improve the quality of your life.  Your PM time-block, the time after you turn off your phone and make the decision not to respond to the outside world, is your personal time to prepare for the coming day.

That preparation means proactively priming your body and mind for effective sleep.   You can choose the thoughts that will flood your mind as you sleep.  We can measure how effective our sleep is (aura ring).  If you wake groggy something needs to change.  If you wake up without a purpose and an intention for the day something needs to change.

 

Things you can change:

Always start with the fundamentals. Eat, sleep, move, breath & focus

Don’t eat before bed:

 

 

Create a nightly ritual to reflect on your current day, and plan tomorrow tonight!

AM Bookends — Win the Morning Win the Day!

It’s hard to have a bad day if you have a good morning!

So, if we can win the morning, we will win the day.  Q: How do you win the morning?

A: create micro ‘wins’ in the Big 3 areas of your life (Energy, Work, Love). i.e:

The most successful among us are creative before they are reactive.  They don’t hear their alarm go off and instantly start checking their text messages and email notifications.  They certaintly don’t immediately start scrolling their Instagram feed or dull themselves with any other form of digital entertainment; this is a recipe for stress and anxiety! Top performers prioritize their mornings as their sacred time.  Other than perhaps their PM time block, this is the only time of the day that they have complete control of their time and won’t have to react to the unpredictability of their daily responsibilities.

So what do they do? First off they wake up early to maximize their distraction-free time. Then they use that distraction-free time to create ‘wins’ in the Big 3 areas of their life (Energy, Work, Love).

They have routine that they stick to religiously.  They aren’t waking up making decisions.  You could ask top performers where they will be 5 years from today at 5AM and I would bet they could tell you to a minute what they will be doing at that time   They have programmed their habits to run on auto-piolet!

So, what is your routine? Start writing your current morning If/THEN habits: Even if they aren’t good habits write them down so you can actively choose who you want to be.

IF: I wake up :: Then I: _______________________________________

IF: ________ THEN: ________________________________________________________________________

IF:________ THEN:________________________________________________________________________

IF: ________ THEN: ________________________________________________________________________

IF:________ THEN:________________________________________________________________________

Now, cross off the habits that you want to delete.  Next let’s redo the exercise adding the habits that we want to install  Remember the identity that you have journaled upon.  What are the morning habits of that ideal-version of you?

IF: I wake up :: Then I: _______________________________________

IF: ________ THEN: ________________________________________________________________________

IF:________ THEN:________________________________________________________________________

IF: ________ THEN: ________________________________________________________________________

IF:________ THEN:_________________________________________________________________________

 

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