CRASH COURSE – THE 9-WEEKS SUCCESS DIET PLAN

CRASH COURSE – THE 9-WEEKS SUCCESS DIET PLAN

Recently, during Diwali celebrations I met a friend of mine who lost almost 10 kgs in a span of 6 months and she was looking absolutely fit and much younger.  When I asked her the success formula, she mentioned about a diet plan she took from a dietician that transformed her completely.  She now looks much fitter, younger and energetic.

All of us want to be fit, healthy, look young and get richer and successful.  However, the problem arises when it comes to discipline and making a conscious effort to achieve the above aspirational goals.  We all plan big things, dream big goals but when it comes to execution, majority of us fail miserably and eventually we end up cursing our fate, our society, our family and our destiny.  What we don’t realize is the fact that our will power and determination to achieve success is low, leading to failures and an unsuccessful life.

To achieve success, we need to follow a regime, a plan or if I were to put it simply – have a diet plan for ourselves.  The diet plan can be both physical as well as mental.  All of us have heard about diet plans for loosing weight and getting fit, but have you ever tried a diet plan for your mind to make it lean, fit and healthy.  Yes, there is a plan even for your mind that can help you achieve success in life, in your career and make you rich and powerful. 

I have learnt some techniques that I have followed myself and believe that they truly work.  I have tried to combine all of them and termed it the “Crash Course – 9 week success diet plan”.  Achieving success in education or finances or career is no joke and if you really want to excel and be the best in the world, you have to be regimented in your life and in your behavior and develop a plan that helps you achieve that.

I have, in my earlier article ‘Why I joined the 5AM Club’ mentioned the advantages of getting up early morning and following a schedule. In this article I want to share with you a Crash course you should follow daily and if followed for a period of 66 days would become your habit, a habit that you would love your entire life.   I say 66 days because as per a research, for any behavior to become a habit, it takes 66 days.

Here is the diet plan that I would want each and every one of you to follow on a daily basis without any compromise.  I can assure you of astonishing results if these tips are followed in true spirit:

1.         Join the 5AM club

You know about it.  Get up every morning at 5AM and spend one hour daily with yourself and on yourself.   Under the Hindu mythology, early morning hours, i.e., a period of 1.5 hours before the sunrise is known as ‘brahma muhurta’ that is considered highly auspicious for doing all good things, including meditation, yoga etc.   This is the time when you should start your day.

2.         Invest in yourself physically and mentally

Start your morning with some light stretching exercises that will allow your body to regain its posture and start afresh for the new day.  Drinking a glass of water is considered very good.   Some people also recommend doing a quick 15-20 minutes exercise such as jogging (either outside or on-the-spot) or cycling or any other physical activity to re-charge your body.

3.         Read something motivational and inspirational

The first few minutes (around 15-20) should always be reading or listening to something motivational or inspirational.  Don’t pick up newspaper and don’t switch on the TV early morning. This is very important because by doing this you actually charge yourself for the rest of the day.  Listening to inspirational videos help you get fast paced for the rest of the day and you feel highly energetic to feel as if you can take the world head-on.

There are thousands of videos on You tube which can be useful for you early morning.

4.         Write down your goals

A very powerful method to achieve success.  Take a piece of paper and write down your goals in life.  Write them down in the present tense as if you have already achieved them.  For example if you are preparing for your CA IPCC exams then write down – “I am a CA IPCC qualified student” or before preparing for CA Finals you can write - “I am a chartered accountant”.  Whatever your goals are, write them down daily.  And keep re-writing them again and again every morning unless you achieve them.

The reason behind writing your goals on a daily basis is getting clarity for yourself.  When you start to write down your goals and read them every day, your subconscious mind starts to work in that direction.  Remember, our subconscious mind drives almost more than 90% of our behavior and only 10% is driven by our conscious mind.   By writing your goals and reading them daily allows your subconscious mind to achieve those goals. 

5.         Plan your day in advance

A very crucial and important way to manage your day and perhaps, one of the most taught lessons on time management.   In your diary (maintain a diary/journal if you haven’t till now) write down the activities that you need to finish today and them prioritize them in order of urgency.

Follow the 80/20 Rule.  As per this rule, 20% of all activities or jobs or work done by humans constitute 80% of the business or revenue or important and vice versa.  And this is a proven fact.  If you list down 10 items in your things-to-do list, you will realize that out of them not more than 2 items would be the most critical or useful items that should be done on high priority and remaining 8 items are of less importance. 

For achieving success, it is important that you are able to identify the 20% activities (‘the vital few’) and sift them from the remaining 80% (‘the trivial many’).

6.         Use your commuting time wisely

In today’s life, all of us commute daily and on an average would spend at least 2 hours commuting.   We commute to our office or to our coaching classes or to our clients place or to our friends place.  There are two ways to use this commuting time – either waste it by listening to radio or chatting or gossiping or else, use this time wisely by listening to educational audio podcasts.  The choice is yours, because the time that has gone will never come back.

Make efforts to continuously feed your mind with high quality mental nutrients that inspires you and motivates you to achieve, achieve and achieve.  You can listen to TED talks, or join free online courses conducted by online portals like Coursera or EdX.  These online portals offer some world-class educational programmes from some of the top Universities of the world and majority of them are free of cost J

7.         Begin with the most important task

When you start your day in office or work or when you sit down for studies, take up the most difficult task you want to finish.  By taking up the most difficult or challenging task first, you send positive signals to your mind and upon its completion the energy levels in your body and mind would be unmatched. 

By finishing difficult tasks, your body releases endorphins and a chemical called dopamine that makes you feel happy, positive and ready to take more challenges.  And that’s exactly a high performer like you would want to feel.  Isn’t it?

Stop procrastinating on the difficult things, rather take it up, plan it and complete it fully before you pick up any other job or activity.

8.         My favorite – Don’t waste time

Develop a sense of urgency in your life.  Be quick in whatever you do, whatever you think and whatever you want to achieve.  Stop procrastinating and start doing.  Take quick actions and stop worrying about trivial things.  Learn fast and execute faster. 

I am sure if you follow this ‘Crash course for Success’ diligently and without cheating you would surely start to feel tremendous changes in yourself, in your confidence, in your studies, in your career and in your finances. 

I hope I have been of service to you.  Wishing you green lights…

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Authored by Nimish Goel (www.nimishgoel.com), a qualified chartered accountant who’s passion is to coach young chartered accountants and aspiring students achieve the best in their life.  Nimish used to work with EY and PwC in India and has also worked with KPMG in Europe.  He now runs his own consulting company and runs a blog www.nimishgoel.com.  He can be reached for any queries and issues on his blog.