4 Ways to Find Your Sweet Spot and Master Your Day Through the Eyes of a Child

How do you find your sweet spot to master your day? If you were to google productivity, habits of successful people or entrepreneurial secrets, you would find a wealth of valuable tips on routines, habits, and the behaviors of highly successful people. No doubt we can all glean valuable insights from those who are highly touted for being productive and winning their day.

But I would like for you to have a deeper view of what productivity actually is at its core. What lies beneath productivity? Two things come to mind — a sense of personal accomplishment and greater freedom. With that being said, how can youopen your mind to think differently for yourself? How do you take into account your uniqueness, and your lifestyle to increase your sense of achievement and discover a newfound freedom by mastering your day?

More often than not, you must change the lens from which you see the world in order to experience growth and positive change. You see finding the sweet spot to master your day actually goes much deeper than a to-do list and it most defiantly starts prior to sunrise.

Let’s dissect the deeper issues first and look at our mindset foundation; then we can touch upon how customized routines can help you master your day.

Be curious with me and let’s imagine we are looking at productivity through the eyes of a child. There are three things a child truly excels in:

• Expectancy
• Curiosity
• Creativity

Expectancy

Expectancy is thinking or hoping that something, especially something pleasant, will happen. A child has no judgements as to the “why” of things — instead they live in awe and with a sense of wonder. Unfortunately, because life has a way of robbing us of our expectations, as adults we lose the art of thinking and acting expectantly.

Curiosity

Curiosity is defined as a hunger to learn. Children are curious by nature. They explore, they question, they wonder, and are constantly drawn to new things. While they are exploring, they are discovering. Unfortunately, as we grow up, curiosity fades and we become adults who have stopped discovering hence our curiosity is stifled. Dr. Marcia Reynolds, neuro behavior expert, believes that curiosity is the most underrated emotion that has the power to drive success. She coaches her clients to cultivate the joy of curiosity at work to increase learning, productivity, creativity and engagement.

Creativity

Creativity is the freest form of expression and a non-negotiable skill for the entrepreneur. It defines our ability to be successful in the workplace. Without it, there are no new ideas. Once again, children are leading the way in this skill. They love to create and express themselves freely without judgement.

So how can we embrace that vibrant child that still lives inside each one of us and have him or her find that precious sought after sweet spot to master our day?

1. Have an Expectant Heart

For a season in my life I experienced so many heartaches and disappointments that I actually starting believing nothing good would ever happen to me. I got into the bad habit of expecting to be let down. I never wanted to get my hopes up because I didn’t want to be hurt or disappointed again. Then I realized that this was not only wrong but that it was causing a dark cloud of negativity and hopelessness over my mind. I heard a sermon at church one Sunday that was a game changer. The pastor used a term I had never heard before; he said we should cultivate an expectant heart.

An expectant heart believes for the best but isn’t a slave to the outcome. Knowing that God is good and that he wants the best for me, created a powerful mindset shift in my belief system. I now dream big, I plan, I write my goals, I work hard and along the way I’ve raised the bar on my expectations both personally and professionally. If you want to succeed and rise above mediocrity, you must raise the bar on your expectations.

Action Steps to Raise Your Expectations:

• Develop a growth mindset
• Check in periodically with your brain to see if negativity is subtly creeping in
• Refuse to settle for par

2. Unlocking Curiosity

Some of you know that I was a stay at home mom and homeschooled my 4 children. As part of their science program, I included journal writing once a week. The title of the journal was, “I wonder!” This one exercise fostered an inner thirst inside of my kids to expand their thinking. Since curiosity unlocks a world of opportunity, how can we as adults develop a more curious nature? Researchers have found that journaling by hand and listening to brain music helps unlock that childlike curiosity. Another way to tap into your curious nature is to start asking yourself powerful, open-ended questions.

Good questions stimulate your mind to expand and search for answers. Some good questions to start asking: What are the advantages to this? How can this be improved?

Action Steps to Tap into Your Curious Nature:

• Start your own “I wonder” idea journal
• Develop the habit of asking yourself powerful, open-ended questions
• Create Mind Maps to expand your thoughts

3. Boosting Creativity

Creativity makes the world go round. As a child, I had the misconception that creativity was a gene given to those artistically gifted. I believed I was the most uncreative person on the planet. I was not poetic, I certainly couldn’t sing and I failed in art class at drawing stick figures. Because of my perceived lack of talent, I judged myself and that judgement created a limiting belief in my belief system — I didn’t think I was creative. While I may not have an artistic bone in my body; I have discovered that I am a very creative problem solver. I’ve also realized that creativity is more of a learned skill then it is an inherent quality, thus it can be cultivated.

Since creativity is a learned skill, how can you boost the creative genius inside of you? According to best-selling author Gary Douglas, judgement is one of the greatest limitations to creativity, including creating your life. Once again, put on the lens of a child — children don’t judge themselves, they just create.

Creativity is making connections with different parts of your brain and research confirms that collaboration or connecting with others also stimulates creativity. Another factor to consider is creative decision making. If you are looking to improve your decision making skills, a great tool I highly recommend using is the 6 Thinking Hats, a mind tool created by Edward de Bono. This tool helps you view problems from new angles and stimulates creativity, innovation and ideas.

Action Steps to Stimulate Creativity:

• Stay judgement free
• Connect or collaborate with others who share a thirst for newness
• Expand your decision making process by empowering yourself to see different possibilities

Learning to think like a child is essential to mastering one’s day, but it’s also essential to mastering your life. Developing the skills of expectancy, curiosity, and creativity not only increase your chances for success; it is a powerful motivator for achievement and can open the door to newly acquired freedom making you a healthier and more balanced person.

So now that we’ve laid the mindset foundation for mastering your day, let’s take a quick look at how routines can be your best friends when it comes to productivity. Many people miss the fact that mastering your day actually starts the night before.

4. Create Adult Evening Routines

Remember what your bedtime routine was when you were a child? Nighttime routines are vital to productivity and an essential part to mastering your day. They create structure, repetition, and cultivate a sense of safety. They also help us transition from a busy day and get ready for sleep. Have you ever heard the term, calling it a day? Calling it a day is resting content knowing that enough has been done. Somehow, as we start adulating the busyness of life, worries, meeting deadlines, fatigue, and the world of technology all vie for our attention and drain us of any energy reserves we have left. We rarely call it a day anymore.

It’s time once again to put on the lens of a child and create adult evening routines. To be successful at mastering your day, you must first be intentional at mastering this evening routine. Reverse engineer the next day and walk backwards. Doing so will help calm your mind, set your internal clock, save you valuable time and preserve your energy reserves for the next day. How so? Let’s take a look at willpower limits based on the book, The Willpower Instinct by Dr. Kelly McGonigal.

Saving Will Power

If you have read the book or ever studied the topic of willpower limits, you know that individuals have a limited amount of decision making power each day. So preparing for your morning is not just saving time, which is in and of itself a game changer; it’s also actually saving you valuable decision making choices that won’t tap into your will power limits for the next day. So how do you do it? That’s where your uniqueness and your creativity come into play.

The million dollar questions for mastering your day:

• What gives you energy?
• What zaps your energy?

For me, having to make decisions in the morning — not knowing what I’m going to wear, having to pack my gym bag, and not knowing where any of my stuff is drains my energy. I’m sharing the list of things I do to save valuable time and energy in my morning. We all are living in different seasons in life. When my kids were very young, this list was different but the premise behind it was the same — to be productive, save time, and save energy. Your situation is unique so make your own list keeping the two questions in mind: what gives you energy, what zaps your energy?

My Adult Evening Routine

• After dinner, I start thinking about what I need to do to save time in the morning
• Breakfast prep: I crack eggs and put them in Tupperware and wash my breakfast fruit
• Lunch prep: I have cooked on the weekend for the week so I just pack my lunch in a Tupperware container
• I prep two shaker bottles; one with protein powder and the second one with almond milk and brain octane oil and put it in the fridge
• Layout for the morning: clothes, shoes, water bottle, gym bag, my client’s folders for the next day, or presentation materials
• I make sure I know where my car keys are so that I’m not scrambling for them

That’s it for my evening routine. Yours will be different. The important thing is that you think ahead of time and create a routine that gives you energy, saves you time, and doesn’t tap into your willpower limits.

Taking on the mindset of a child serves as fuel to help provide much needed energy and optimism for you to find your sweet spot and master your day. This blog was actually inspired by a wise Kindergarten boy. He enthusiastically shows us his nighttime routine in the feature image of this blog. I’d say he’s got his sweet spot mastered — high expectations, wide-eyed curiosity, boundless creativity and a personalized routine. His mom says he does that every night which shows the power of consistency.

My hope for you is that after reading this blog, you will be equipped and inspired to have newfound energy and increased productivity which will lead to you having more freedom and a greater sense of achievement and accomplishment in your life.

Digging Deeper

If you like this article and would like to get additional information to help you find your sweet spot and master your day, please feel free to download my Deep Dive Activity Worksheet here. This downloadable worksheet contains:

• Coaching questions to help you master your day
• Four adult bedtime ideas to optimize your sleep
• Tips to create a sanctuary at home
• Resources to give you more information

Originally published at www.transformuniversity.net on September 27, 2017.