You’re reading The 4 Thieves of Productivity (Avoid Them At All Cost), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

“…at any moment in time there can be only ONE Thing, and when that ONE Thing is in line with your purpose and sits atop your priorities, it ill be the most productive thing you can do to launch you toward the best you can be. Actions build on action. Habits build on habit. Success builds on success.”
— Gary Keller, Jay Papasan from The ONE Thing

One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it. Give up the following four thieves of productivity in order to get more of what you want, and less of what you don’t. Let’s get into it…

1. Inability to Say “No”.

As a rule of thumb, you should avoid saying yes to most things unless they’re connected to your most important goals. If you’re afraid of saying no to someone because it might hurt their feelings, come up with a way to say it that you’re comfortable with. Here’s Seth Godin on saying no: “you can say no with respect, you can say no promptly, and you can say no with a lead to someone who might say yes. But just saying yes because you can’t bear the short-term pain of saying no is not going to help you do the work.” Love it.

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2. Fear of Chaos.

Stuff happens. Messes occur. Wives (and husbands) get angry. These things happen. But it doesn’t mean you should give up on your goals. Chaos is natural. In fact, the more you focus on what you want, the more of it you’ll probably get. That’s okay. In fact, problems are a good thing. When you’ve got problems, it means you’re taking action. You can’t grow unless you take action. And the more action you take, the more problems you’ll face. In fact, one of the biggest differences between productive people and unproductive people is this: when productive people come across a problem, they keep going — they take action. When unproductive people come across a problem, they stagnate — they stop.

Create time blocks to control the chaos in your life and remain as productive as possible. Use your time blocks to work on your most important projects, and protect them with your life. In time, you’ll learn to deal with the chaos in your own unique way. But don’t let chaos control you. YOU control the chaos… by focusing on one thing at a time. One time block at a time.

3. Poor Health Habits.

Poor health habits— especially poorly managed energy habits— are one of the most underestimated thieves of productivity. Your health and your success are intertwined with one another and depend on each to survive and thrive. For maximum energy management and productivity, plan your days to include the following:

1. Meditate / pray for spiritual energy.
2. Eat right, exercise, and sleep sufficiently for physical energy.
3. Spend time with friends and family for emotional energy.
4. Set goals, plan, and calendar for mental energy.
5. Time block your most important goals and projects for business energy.

4. An Environment That Doesn’t Support Your Goals.

Did you know that if one of your close friends becomes obese, you’re 57% more likely to become obese [1] as well? Crazy, eh? This is because the people we see and spend time with most tend to set our standards (see: The Law of Averages).

The final thief of productivity is about getting your game up! It’s about raising your standards in every arena of life — your goals, your habits, and your surroundings. I think Oprah’s got a great little nugget of wisdom when it comes to this: “Surround yourself only with people who are going to lift you higher.”

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It’s about the journey.

Here’s a quick recap of the four thieves of productivity — avoid them at all times, unless you want them to highjack your productivity:

1. Inability to say “No”
2. The fear of chaos
3. Poor health habits
4. An environment that doesn’t support your goals

You’ve read The 4 Thieves of Productivity (Avoid Them At All Cost), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading Why Refusing To Acknowledge Your Inner Potential Is Dangerous, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Did you know that refusing to acknowledge your inner potential sets you up to be fooled? It was Soren Kierkegaard that said:

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”

Yes, it is true that you have more power and inner potential than you are currently using. Refusing to acknowledge this is a dangerous road you should desist from plying. Also, believing that your refusing to acknowledge your inner potential is humility or wisdom is akin to delusion. Both scenarios are dangerous and can lead you into the following:

1. Underachievement

There are more failure stories than there are successes in modern life today because the minds of many have been beclouded by the pressure of doing just enough to survive. Many are trapped in jobs they don’t like because they have refused to acknowledge their inner potential to develop better skills set to create or get a better job.

Imagine if President Barrack Obama had refused to acknowledge his inner potential to become America’s first black president, perhaps he would have underachieved relative to his inner potential—ended his political career at the senate level.

There’s always a next level in life and your getting there begins with acknowledging your inner potential.

Be it in business, academics, family or relationship life, refusing to acknowledge your inner potential can turn you into a perpetual underachiever. Don’t let good spoil your great, you’ve got to acknowledge your inner potential to move beyond mediocrity into excellence.

2.  Poor rewards

Except you are willing to do more than what you already do you may never be phenomenal and can’t attract phenomenal rewards.

If you are not where you think you should be at this moment; if you don’t like your pay cheque; if you feel you are not getting enough from life; that’s what you get for refusing to acknowledge your inner potential.

An elephant that works like an ant will never enjoy the elephant’s size of reward; rather it’ll keep getting the ant’s. Why? This is because the elephant refuses to acknowledge its inner potentials to do the elephant-sized works for the corresponding rewards.

Great people are not born great; they are only born with the inner potential of greatness they acknowledged and maximised.

3. Life of regrets

We can all relate to one incident or the other in our lives where we wished we had done a little more or worked a lot harder. We knew we could do more, we were told we could but somehow we refused to acknowledge this and therefore didn’t do anything about it. That thought there, is regret.

Who wants to go through life like that? Well, that’s what refusing to acknowledge your inner potential can lead you into—the “I-wish-I-did-more” lifestyle.

Imagine if Thomas Edison had stopped at the penultimate trial before the eventuay breakthrough. His last mistake would probably have been corrected by the next scientist and voila, the light bulb shines through. Then, Edison would have regretted refusing to acknowledge his inner potential that he could do more.

Takeaway

Refusing to acknowledge your inner potential is tantamount to losing them and the benefits they could bring if you’d maximise them. You’ve got to realise that you are doing yourself a great disservice by not acknowledging your potentials.

From underachieving to getting less than you deserve and regretting your inactions, not acknowledging your potentials is setting yourself up for a mediocre lifestyle. You have to let the best of you come alive.

How have you been able to acknowledge your inner potential? Please share in the comments.

Diena Diallo is an author and the founder of Diena Simply Natural. As a hair stylist and health coach, she helps women looking for change to feel beautiful about themselves, so they can live confidently through life and stay healthy enough to achieve their dreams. You can register for a free account and grab a copy of her self-help book, The Invisible Seed, where she shares her journey from depression to total self-healing.

You’ve read Why Refusing To Acknowledge Your Inner Potential Is Dangerous, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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