“What were you thinking?”
“Where’s Your brain?”
These questions are uttered by every parent at least once while raising kids, if not seemingly weekly. While the answer may not be exactly what you are looking for, there is a deeper meaning and process behind what goes on inside our noggins.
Fast forward into adulthood and the sheer amount of information we have and the more responsibilities we take on, the more muddled we can find ourselves. This article is the second in a series I am writing about how we can retrain our brain and truly feel like we have control over our thoughts, which is imperative when it comes to finding and sustaining success.
What Is The AIM?
The first question we must ask ourselves is what the aim is; the goal for controlling our thoughts. This may sound almost trivial, however surprisingly many people don’t spend enough time thinking about it.
I came up with a simple way to rebuild and sustain healthy brain function. Simply, it is finding your AIM. These are daily ways to Assess, Implement, and Maintain healthy thinking that leads to greater success in business and life.
Assessing thoughts is more about managing four elements of our day, something we already do but perhaps not in this way, which bring awareness.
The first element is time management. Knowing how we spend our time throughout the days and week is essential. Having a calendar of some kind (whatever works for you) is what keeps us organized.
Secondly, knowing what our talents are. This is where coaches, like me talk about working inside of our passions. When asked, we can, without much hesitation rattle off what we love to do, what we are good at, and how we use those talents inside our businesses.
Thirdly, being task oriented or deciphering what tasks need to be done when, keep us moving. We all have certain tasks that we do everyday and others that may be weekly or monthly. Either way awareness to these tasks and when they need to get done alongside of finding the best way to organize them creates clarity.
Finally, tracking what we do, mentally (we’ll get to what it could look like on paper here soon) is a good way to increase our conscious mind to remember certain things which become autonomous for us.
Implementing what we assess is the next piece. Here is where we begin to move from active thinking to active doing, which at the end of the day is what we need to create habits.
Managing time is about how we set up our calendars. Whether we have one calendar or four, having one is what sets us apart. To my surprise, I talk to at least one person a week who does not have some type of calendar in place.
Implementing talent is understanding the skills we bring to the table. Knowing what skills, we are good at, which ones we need to delegate, and which ones we need to work on keep us in that awareness.
Tasks are really breaking down life into a schedule. This is separate from simply managing time, it is about actively engaging in pursuits that may or may not be regular. Putting something on the calendar is good but taking strategic action on it causes change.
When it comes to tracking what we do, understanding the situations we encounter helps us determine if they are beneficial or not.
Maintaining what we have assessed and what we implement now becomes a regular ebb and flow in life. Finding our rhythm gives way to defining how we spend our time.
Our talents and skills become important resources for which we can pull from as needed. Hitting goals, meeting deadlines, delegating, all become essential pieces to how we get things done.
These become the routines, those habits that we create which guide us, push us, and demand us to become better versions of ourselves that sustain us and clear the path for growth.
The revelation that comes from the situations we find ourselves in and tracking what we do require us to take full responsibility for who we are, what we represent, and the value we bring to the table.