Above and below the line
Motivation, Travel
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Above and Below the Line

This week I got so much personal messages on Facebook and Instagram about the journey I’m in. Getting as fit as possible and making my dreams come through by being freelancer working remote. But most comments were about my commitment to my goals and questions how I motivate myself on daily basis. The best feeling I get is to make progress towards my bigger goal. Progress = Happiness. That feeling of being on top of the world and nobody can stop you. How I try to get myself in that state every day?

Happy to share my story with you <3

Above and below the lineFrom when I was young (me in the school picture being 14) and can remember I’m quite positive. See the fun things in life, love to explore and learn, challenge myself and and try to make the best of the challenges life trows at you. But sometimes the challenges getting harder and you can get overwhelmed by the situations you’re in. How can you train your brain on daily basis to make the decisions in a positive way, every single time?

In 2016 I came to Australia and  worked under John Sader of the Infinity Effect. As a teacher of the Coaching Institute he has a background as behaviour expert. John learned me the model that is called above and below the line. From that moment I try to adapt that model to most of my actions I take in daily life. It was very hard in the beginning as the video below shows, our brain isn’t programmed to think like that in certain situations. After a while it became a habit and I started to recognise situations, I could act unconscious with the above and below the line model.

Video about Above and Below the Line

Under the video I will give you a couple of examples




Above and below the line behaviours
Source: Discoverytinaction.com.au

Above below the line simplified

When you’ve a situation you can be above or below the line with the next action you take. Simplified you can see it this way:

Focus on the solution
Ownership
Accountability
Responsibility
———THE LINE ——— 
Blame
Excuses
Denial / Ignorance
Focus on the problem

Examples above and below the line on daily basis

We all know this situations right:

You need to make a difficult phone call

  1. You can think I will do it next week.
  1. You can do it right now.

You need to make the phone call anyway, so just take the responsibility to do it.
When you wait your torture yourself and will have it in your mind the whole week.
When you do it, even when its hard… you probably will feel relieved. DONE.

My personal goals

For me it is getting fitter every day. Reason and bigger purpose also known as the WHY: I want to get fit as possible, that will make me more productive. To reach that goal I need to go to the gym and eat healthy. Every time I go to the gym or eat healthy I get closer to my goal. The action is just go and train. The responsibility of eating healthy brings me closer to this goal. Being productive will make me be able to work on my projects. One of those projects (still secret) is to reach a BILLION people in ONE day with a campaign I initiated. Will tell you more about that soon!

In the mornings when its hard to get out of bed or when I see delicious food! I think: I don’t want to go to the gym today, I’m tired, I can sleep little bit more, I can train tomorrow 2 times, I can have one extra cheat meal, this extra milkshake isn’t that bad for me (one will be two, two will be three) and more excuses.

Nowadays I try to train my brain on daily basis to recognise the bullshit I’m telling myself and what can hold me back to achieve what I want to achieve. 

Above and below the lineMore examples
Need to do my administration
Invite my parents in law for dinner
Need to clean the garage
Ask for that performance appraisal at work
Need to do the laundry
Go to the gym
Write a blogpost every week.
Pay the tax on time
Etc.

Fill in your actions where you think below the line. Try to start thinking above when you’re in those situations.

Setting a goal is one thing. Staying above the line is another.

Power of the collective: When you’re with multiple people, like a business or friends you can keep each other accountable. Just my saying that below the line. But also celebrate the wins by the actions taken being above the line. Business you can celebrate sales or incoming leads. For friends it can be that weightloss, finish a 10km charity run, freelance business goal or whatever your goal is. Multiple studies show that if you share your goals you are more likely to succeed.

Sharing your successes publicly may sound a bit narcissistic, but there’s a good reason to boast about your achievements. A study showed that people who merely thought about their goals and how to reach them succeeded less than 50% of the time, while people who wrote goals down, and enlisted friends to help them by sending regular progress reports succeeded closer to 75% of the time.

And yes I feel the same way. Wherever I’m in the world, stats show a good amount of people are following my journey or even take action by seeing what I’m doing. It keeps me work harder and keeps me going in times. <3

Learning is key. I’m definitely not perfect in every situation and days can be tough and challenging but this tool makes it so much easier to make the right decisions. Start recognising what behaviour you’ve and see if its above or below the line. The best thing is that some of the decisions are habit now, so without even thinking. Unconscious I’m already taking the action I need to do, where I might stayed below the line in the past.

When I can help one person with this article, its worth writing it!

If you like it don’t be shy to share it <3

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