The Perfect Day Formula: How to Own the Day and Control Your Life

“The vision for your life is to be written as your roadmap for your success and to keep you on track.”

Most people aren’t motivated enough to work on their goals because they lack a clear vision of their desired outcome. If you don’t know what or where you're headed, it will be difficult for you to set meaningful goals and create a perfect daily routine to help you achieve them. 

Sure, you can have a robust to-do list, but if the sum of its parts doesn’t inspire you, it won’t make any sense in the long run. 

To structure your days into more fulfilling ones, you first need the end in mind.  Consider what’s important to you and use it as a basis to define what you want in life. This may take some time for some people. If you’re unsure yet of what you want, allow yourself to explore different things first. From there, find out what it is that fuels your heart.

“You control your behavior. Your success is your personal responsibility.”

We may not be able to control the weather, the doors next door, or our surroundings, but we can control our lives by how we think and what we do and say. The little habits we engage in every day significantly shape our lives. 

The main factor differentiating average people from high-achievers is their way of responding to life’s circumstances. Average people are reactive, meaning they only take what they can get and conform to what’s available. 

High achievers, on the other hand, are proactive. They plan for what they want and go for it instead of slowing down when life throws a curb ball. They take advantage of the things they can control rather than submit to unhealthy habits that prevent them from achieving success. 

If you want to be a high-achiever, you must be proactive when dealing with any situation, especially challenging ones. Then, build healthy habits that will help you efficiently achieve your goals. 

One of these is taking advantage of the mornings by simply waking up 15 minutes earlier than before and then tackling the biggest priority of your day. This is called the “magic time” as it allows you to pursue tasks that are not often carried out without regular distractions. This gives you a sense of accomplishment early in the morning and prompts you to complete more throughout the day, boosting your productivity and efficiency.

“Think of your rules as a way to eliminate your bad habits and replace them with positive routines that make the right decisions almost automatic.”

There are so many distractions around us that divert our focus away from our goals. This may include social media and other forms of entertainment such as habitual snacking or watching our favorite television shows. To avoid being carried away by these distractions, we need an effective plan in place. 

The first step in this plan is to specify your goals. The more specific your goal is, the easier it will be for you to achieve it, as you already have a clear vision of your desired outcome in mind. This will motivate you to focus more on your goals than being swayed by distractions. 

Once your goals are specified, you then need to establish strict rules that will help you deal with the distractions around you. For example, a rule for dieting or health could be not eating after 8 pm. When someone asks you if you want a snack, instead of saying, “I can’t eat that,” say, “I don’t eat snacks after 8 p.m.” It’s okay sometimes to break your rules; after all, no one’s perfect. However, you should always try your best to adhere to your rules, just like how you follow real rules and regulations in life!

“Ask the big question: What do you really want to achieve in life? Then think, are the people I’m spending time with helping me achieve this?”

Having a solid, positive support system is pivotal for success. This includes people in your network or community who support your goals and champion you, especially when things get hard. Feeling stuck sometimes is natural, and your support will encourage you to move forward. 

Since not everyone can handle or be trusted to keep your biggest goals, it’s important to pick your support system wisely. This can be done by slowly leaking your steps or goals to people surrounding you and observing their reactions, and then using it as a basis to identify who is good or bad support. Here, you’ll realize that not everyone will honor your mission, even if they are big players in your life. These are the unsupportive people you must steer clear from.   

Negative, complacent, or otherwise unsupportive people will prevent you from getting far in life, so it’s time to cut them off or keep your goals to yourself. Having negative and unsupportive people around will only keep you at their level.