I have started new (and probably biggest yet) challenge on my Instagram! 🤩 It’s about following dreams! I’m one of those people who always encourage you to dream big and follow those dreams! I’ll be always rooting for you to work hard on reaching your goal 💪.
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BUT!
Setting goals and dreaming big is amazing and I am all for it but you need to learn to be happy during the process of following dreams, to be happy on your path, not only at the finish line ☺️.
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You can’t get stuck on „I’ll be happy when…” syndrome.
➡️ „I’ll be happy when I finally manage to get a new job and quit current one.”
➡️ „I’ll be happy when I finally move to a bigger house.”
➡️ „I’ll be happy when I succeed and when my company gets 1000 clients.”
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Do you see what’s wrong with those sentences? You’re blocking your own happiness! 😔 Thinking that you’ll be happy when you succeed you subconsciously tell yourself to be unhappy now 😬. What if it takes several years for you to achieve your goal? And what if it doesn’t work out and you won’t reach that particular goal (sometimes it just doesn’t happen, sometimes you miss your opportunity, run out of time etc)? Will you never be happy then? 😔
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Appreciate all the steps inbetween! There’s so many more steps to be happy about rather than just the final one 🏁. E.g. if your goal is to get 1000 clients you still get a milestone when you get the 1st one! 🤩 That’s a huge thing to celebrate! Somebody liked and bought your product/service! And when you get to 100 clients – woah, that’s a lot of people, you should be happy! 🤗 If your goal is to lose 15kg you should be happy about every single kilogram lots, you should be happy about yourself taking care of yourself, you should be happy now! 😊
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Remember, when setting your goal and following your dreams, make sure you’re happy all the way through the process!
Tag: dream
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY – STEP 8: Willpower
How willpower actually works?🤔
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Willpower divides into 3 parts:
🔸️Power „I want to” – power to do something even though you’d prefer to avoid it
🔸️Power „I don’t want to” – power helping push temptations away
🔸️Power „I desire!” – power that remembers what you desire in long-term
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Willpower is what differs us from animals😉. By forseeing future you are able to not give in to impulses or instincts. We often want to delete lower impulses or some feelings but they are important too! 😉 For example disgust protects you from bad food 🥩, fear from danger ⚠️ and desires help you set goals 😊.
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If you want to improve your willpower it is not about fighting impulses but about using them to help you 🙃.
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Do you know that sometimes you make decisions on autopilot? 🤔 And that’s good because there are so many of them during a day that your brain would not be able to get to them all! 🤯
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Your task for today is to notice that autopilot and improve your self-awarness 😉. Observe and write down the situations when you need your willpower. What thoughts, feelings, impulses appear in those situations? 🤔 Which moments/elements are crucial to making a decision? Noticing them will help you stop that bad autopilot and prepare for those situations earlier. 🤗
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If you want to learn more about it I advice you to read Kelly McGonigal’s book „The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It”
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY – STEP 6: Building your plan/ ‚to do’ list using your weaknesses
Today let’s talk about how to plan your ‘to do’ list using your weaknesses and how to be ready to fight any excuse! 👊
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You’ve already extablished what are your weaknesses, now knowing what could be your excuse against getting to work in the future, plan your response in advance! 😃
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Imagine some future scenarios that could be an obstacle on your way to reaching your goal and find solution for it. Write them down like this: “If situation X happens, I’m gonna do Y”. 📃
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➡️ For example, if you want to lose some weight and you plan to work out 4-5 times a week but then when that moment comes you don’t feel like it and end up staying on the sofa, prepare that strong anti-excuse sentence for you! 👊
🔸️ “If I’m gonna feel lazy and not willing to workout, I’m gonna watch supermodels on a runway to get motivated to look that way.” 😜
➡️ Or when you need to work on your start up business but don’t feel like it:
🔸️”If I’m gonna start watching tv instead of working on my business plan, I’m gonna stop and read some inspirational stories of famous entreprenours and how they started to be more motivated.”
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It is important to prepare those anti-excuse sentences earlier when you feel very excited and motivated about some new plans! 🤩 E.g. I am always very motivated and ready to get busy on Sunday evening when I plan upcoming week, I tend to plan plenty things to do the next couple of days and then often don’t feel that excited & motivated to actually do them when that time comes 🙄 – that’s why it is so important to prepare those powerful sentences earlier (I’m preparing them on Sunday when planning everything) and write them down 📃. Then in a moment of weakness read that sentence! Something like a message to your future self! 😉
Try it out!
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY – STEP 5: Building your plan/ ‘to do’ list using your strenghts
First lets focus on your strenghts. In previous step you named all your advantages, what you are good at, what comes easy for you. Now use it in building your plan! 🤗
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🔸️Your strenght: I’m very organized 🤓
➡️ Example in practice: I’ll plan each week and each day precisely, what do I have to do to reach my goal. It’s easier for me to get to work with a propper ‘to do’ list.
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🔸️ Your strenght: I’m flexible / creative 😜
➡️ Example in practice: Whenever new situation/obstacle appears don’t freak out. You’re creative, you got this! 💪Just sit down and think of a new way/new plan how to solve it/go around your obstacle 🤔.
E.g. I often work longer hours at work and end up with shorter time to work on my personal projects or suddenly get some family issue BUT I don’t cancel my ‘to do’ list completely 🚫. I work around it, leave those things that I can still manage to do that day and move some other stuff to the following day. Sometimes I change my ‘to do’ list even 5 times a day 🤪 but I never cross a thing to do off my list completely.
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🔸️ Your strenght: I am able to work late hours but I’m not an early bird 😴
➡️ Example in practice: You know yourself best! If it’s hard for you to get up early (e.g. on Saturdays) don’t plan anything for early hours thinking (“ah, I’ll definitely manage to get up this time!”). If you’re a night owl plan your stuff to do for evenings! 😉 You know what your most productive time of the day is, use it!
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Next week we’ll talk about how to plan your ‘to do’ list using your weaknesses and how to be ready to fight any excuse!
What are your dreams?
We’ve talked about goals in previous post (Motivational Monday, step 3).
Now let’s talk about dreams 🤩
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What’s the difference? 🤫for me goals are about career, about work life, about something that we work on (or should be working on) everyday.
And dreams are something else. Something magical, about your personal life, your family, your free time. 😊💫
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I told you yesterday that we’re going to Mexico in the end of October.
Why? It has been my dream to go to Mexico for their Dia de los Muertos since I was a teenager 🤩
And now it’s finally gonna happen!!
This is what gave me wings lately, the reason I’ve been so happy and full of energy 😄
And the trip is happening this year as a gift from myself to myself (and from my husband and parents a bit too 🥰) for my 30th bday! Dia de los Muertos that is celebrated on Nov 2nd is exactly 1 month till my big day! 😊
I literally cried happy tears when we bought the tickets 🥲.
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Now tell me, what are your dreams?
Following dreams
Do you follow your dreams? 😗
Do you do anything you can to reach your goal? 📈
Do you wake up thinking how you can get closer to your goal and go to bed setting plans how to do it? 😉
This is how your mindset should look like 😉
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Have I ever told you the story of how I wanted to work in music industry – to be a tour manager to be exact – and so I dropped everything, I left my family, left my friends and moved to London by myself in 2013? 😀 It was supposed to be for life but it didn’t work out and I moved back to Poland over a year later.
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I worked my a** off there. Had 1 full-time job and 3 (!) internships – in a record label, with a band and in an event agency. I learned A LOT and have plenty amazing memories from that time 😍.
It didn’t work out but I TRIED.
It’s not always gonna work out how you wish it would but you find out if it has or hasn’t unless you try!
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And sometimes it will work out just like I promised myself I won’t stop until I publish a book I wrote (also in 2013 😅). It took 6 years but I did it!
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Follow your dreams no matter what!
Plan the steps you need to take to get what you want, be creative with it and work out plan A, B and even C with different paths to reach it and then work hard on it! 😀
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September is a great month to start working on our dreams (according to research it is 2nd best month, after January, when people are most motivated) sooo…starting on September 6th we’ll start new series – Motivational Mondays with Smiley Society! 😉
Smiley Future – Step 65
Last week we talked about possible difficulty in maintaining a change e.g. during holidays 😬. There might appear other obstacles and that’s why I highly encourage you to create new implementation intentions! 🤗 This tool shouldn’t be underrated!
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Task for today: Create new implementation intentions – if you need to remind youreslf how to do it check out step 10 of our Smiley Future 😉. This time make those intentions about maintaining the change. They may differ from the first ones you’ve created in the beginning of our challege then. So don’t skip that step! I promise you it is worth doing it!
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Next week: Create new reward system
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Source: @chodakowskaewa‘s book “90 days – design your tomorrrow”
Smiley Future – Step 63
Today another hint helpful in maintaining change 🤩. Think whether maintaining change is attractive to you, in other words what’s your motivation 🤔
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Answer this question:
➡️Why do you want to maintain the change? 🤔 Write down all the reasons that come to your mind 📝 and keep it so you could go back to it in moments of weakness or doubts in maintaining your change 😉.
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Task for today: I encourage you to create new benefit card (check out step 38) this time focusing on benefits of maintaining your goal 💪
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What benefit card is? It is simply a list of all reasons why you’d like to maintain your goal 🤩. If you’re wondering what’s the point in writing them down and you think „I will remember them” – I’ll surprise you: in the moments of lost motivation it is easy to forget why you want something so much 😉. When you find a temptation in reach of your sight (or hand), you’re stressed and/or tired or you’re in a bad mood those reasons suddenly all get forgotten 🤷🏼♀️
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In those kind of situations benefit card might come very useful. Have it always with you (for example as a note in your phone 📱) and read it in difficult moments to make it easier to maintain your goal 😉. It is best though to read it everyday, even when you’re feeling motivated.
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Benefit card next to process visualisation (step 11) are great tools to strengthen your strong will 💪
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Next week: Permanent change
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Source: @chodakowskaewa‘s book “90 days – design your tomorrrow”
What goes around comes around
You know the saying ‘What goes around comes around’? 🤔 I totally believe in it! 🤗 And it’s not only about Karma and receiving some good energy after you give it 💫, this rule works in every aspect of our lives 😉
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In order to get good energy and get help from others you need to send good energy and help others as well 😊! I doubt that anybody would help a grumpy person that never helps anyone 🤷🏼♀️
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But also in order to grow and to be better you need to give something too – work and time 😎. The more work and time you’ll put in something (in your passion, project, dream) the quicker and better it will get back to you ☺
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There’s no shortcuts in it. You can’t expect to grow and to reach your dreams/goals if you’re not doing anything 🤷🏼♀️. You need to work to get results 💪
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Even if something does not work out you still get a lesson, an experience – that’s also your results! 😊
Stop waiting for the world to change and go change the world! 💪🌍
Nothing will happen itself 🤷🏼♀️. You need to ‘help’ it make it happen! 😉
Smiley Future – Step 41
How are you finding our latest steps about lack of motivation? 😊 Do they help you? Do those methods help you fight laziness and get to work? 💪 If not, do not give up, keep looking! Try to learn to understand your body, your needs! 🤗
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Today I want to ask you an important question: Is following your dream… a pleasure to you? 🤔
Surprised? I feel like we’re so often telling ourselves that we’re „fighting with ourselves”, „overcoming our weaknesses”, „changing for better” (do you see how negative those messages sound? 🙄) that word ‘pleasure’ is no longer in our vocabulary 😑. And it is really hard without it!
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If what you’re doing doesn’t give you any pleasure it will be hard for you to last on this path longer than couple weeks 😉
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That’s why a task for today is: find pleasure on your way of reaching your goal 🤩
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Let’s see some examples:
➡️ If your goal is to lose weight: write down what type of physical activity you like most 🏊♂️⛹️♂️🚴♂️
➡️ If you’re setting up a new business: write down what part of your new challenge you like most, maybe you like creating a business plan? Or reaching our to clients? 💬
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➡️ Turn some music you like on and make it nice background to your work 🎶
➡️ Reward yourself! 🏆
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My 3 goals I’m focusing on now are: making @smileysociety big 🔝, writing 2nd novel 📖 and losing weight 💪 and what gives me pleasure in those projects are: with @smileysociety I love reading your comments and nice messages from all of you 📩, while working on my novel I love writing and letting all emotions go ✒, putting them on paper and as for losing weight – taking care of my health makes me happy 🤗, I feel good that I eat well but also – I love the feeling after a good workout! 💪
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What are some nice things you like about your goals/projects? 😁
Next week: Thoughts that sabotage your goal
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Source: @chodakowskaewa‘s new book “90 days – design your tomorrow”
How to be HAPPY 