How I break my negative spiral in 1 day

👋 Hey ,

During winter time, lots of people feel a lot worse than usual.

More depression, more loneliness, less energy.

I feel that. And most likely you do too.

Maybe you've even set some new year's resolutions, and failed already. Or things are just not going the way you want them.

Last weeks were like that for me as well (except for breaking the resolutions).

Until last weekend.

Last Saturday I was at the first Story to Glory event of my friend and first business partner Pira Balasingam.

It was all about mindset and shifting identity to become the person you want to be (more on that in a later email).

There was this one framework that really got to me and made me feel like I could take things into my own hand again.

And I would love to share it with you.

The Framework

Think of a moment when you felt really bad...

Did you have low or high energy in that moment?

Now think of a moment when you felt really good...

Now did you have low or high energy in that moment?

Most likely, your first answer was low, and the second was high.

So your mood seems to have some impact on your energy; interesting...

Now when you have high energy, do you think you are more likely to go to the gym? Eat healthy? Reach out to friends you haven't spoken in a while?

Yes, probably, right?

And when you're in a good mood, do you think you are more likely to do these things?

Yes, probably, right?

And let's turn it around...

After a good workout, great conversations with friends or a new step in your career, how is your mood? And your energy?

Now what we see is that all areas of your life seem to have a bidirectional connection with your mood and energy.

For the visual learners... it now looks something like this.

We might not even realize it, but our Mood and Energy are often responsible for how we perform in the most important parts of our lives.

AND

How we perform in the most important parts of our lives indirectly impacts all of our other parts of our lives - through our mood and energy.

Okay...interesting...

Now What?!

For me this gave me 3 important insights that I started implementing this week (and I feel much better already):

1) In what parts am I lacking right now? What choices do I make in favor of

being comfortable versus what I should do.

Example: Worked a lot on the couch under a blanket last weeks because

my room was too messy to work in, but I didn't feel like cleaning up. Quite

some procrastination too.

2) What areas of my life am I giving too little attention - resulting in indirect

negative impact on all other areas?

Example: Haven't spoken a couple of very good friend in weeks. Only

focusing on work doesn't give me optimal performance in that area, while

deteriorating other areas.

3) Low energy and mood can be fixed by doing what needs to be done.

Example: Woke up feeling very tired every day. Didn't feel the drive I know

I have inside me.

Now along with Pira's event, there's a thirty day challenge where we have daily action points that are designed to tackle exactly that what's making us feel bad & low energy.

My action points:

1. Waking up on time. (Decided on the evening before)
2. Start playing my favorite song immediately after waking up (makes the first 3 minutes of the day instantly better)
3. Make my bed
4. Go to the gym and/or do mobility exercises and/or run
5. Clean room
6. Work with focus on the tasks I set in my calendar.
7. Journal
8. Ask myself, would future me be proud of this day?

And the last question actually helps with all decisions made during the day.

You know very well what your future self would want you to do.

And most of the times, that's exactly what you need to do.

However, I often decided otherwise in the past weeks.

Now I know why the impact of sticking to what you know is right, is so powerful.

Hope this framework will make you think.

Where can you improve?

What can you do daily to let this framework work in your favor?

What 8-10 tasks will together guarantee that I've had a good day?

And then the hardest part.

Stick to it.

Be great,

Bart Gommers

The Road to 10 Mil

PS: If you want to make your life better by joining the challenge and start working on the habits, I made a Notion template to track your habits.

Reply to this email with "yes" and I will send you the link to the template along with the instructions to set it up.