The foundation for any personal transformation lies in daily habits and rituals. By shifting the way we spend our time each day, we can change our lives and the lives of others. This hits home for mastermind leaders especially, because they play a role in guiding and mentoring their members.
Too often, mastermind leaders get stuck in a state of overwhelm and paralysis when contemplating the ambitious goals for themselves and their mastermind group. Instead, they should focus on a series of small adjustments to their daily life that will produce a cumulative impact on your long-term goals. We overestimate what we can do in a short time, but underestimate what we can do over the long haul.
These minor adjustments in your daily routine will result in compounding, exponential progress. Just as important as knowing which daily habits to embrace, however, is knowing which habits to avoid. Bad habits can be hard to break, but if you ignore them, they’ll hamper your ability to perform effectively.
Let’s explore some daily habits mastermind leaders should embrace. These have the power to change our lives and the lives of our members. If some of these habits sound familiar, that’s because many of them were touched on in John Mark Comer’s book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.
Small Steps to Eliminate Hurry from Your Life
This first practice is as simple as it is powerful. When driving, go the speed limit. Although it may seem like an overly simple practice, Comer describes it as revolutionary, and he notes it’s probably not mentioned in any self-help book.
The practice also has spiritual significance. Simply driving the speed limit is an example of separating yourself from hurry, anxiety, and complexity. Another simple and related practice: get into the slow lane. Settle into your seat, enjoy the passing scenery, and relax.
This third practice might prove a bit difficult if you’re from LA. Come to a full stop at stop signs. Observe how hard this is for you if you’re from a fast-driving city, and how that might just be an indication of what Comer calls a “disordered heart.” This simple practice represents the importance of pausing daily life to center yourself, regroup, and destress.
This fourth practice is a bit more unique. Show up for an appointment ten minutes early, without your phone. This just might help put you at ease before an important meeting, especially if you spend those ten minutes relating with another human being, enjoying some quiet time, or even praying. Too often, we rush between tasks and responsibilities without giving them the care and attention they deserve. This simple practice can help to disrupt that unconscious pattern.
Check out The Mastermind Playbook for more daily habits that can make a drastic impact on your productivity and happiness, as well as that of your Mastermind members.
Adopt Habits that Create a Sense of Space and Calm in Daily Life
This next practice might seem a little counterintuitive, but it contains hidden wisdom. For once, get in the longest line at the grocery store. You might wonder why you’d ever waste time on purpose, especially since we live in an efficiency-obsessed culture… but that’s part of the answer.
However, it can occasionally be wise to deny ourselves something we want. There is a reason why so many different religious traditions include practices like fasting and asceticism. Consciously denying something you’re conditioned to want can create a small hole in the ego, through which a great sense of purpose and calm can come through.
Here’s another practice that will seem counterintuitive and difficult to implement, but yield amazing results: turn your smartphone into a dumb phone. The inspiration for this practice comes from Jake Knapp’s article “My Year with a Distraction-Free iPhone (and How to Start Your Own Experiment)”
There are no hard-and-fast rules for creating your dumbphone, but here are a few ideas to consider. Take your email off your phone. Take social media off your phone, and schedule times to check it each day or each week. Disable all push notifications. Delete news apps and news alerts.
More generally, simply delete all the apps that don’t make your life dramatically easier and keep the ones that do. Put the apps that you keep in one central, easy-to-access place on your phone. Finally, consider putting your phone in grayscale mode. This will reduce blue light so that your phone does not disrupt your natural dopamine cycles. It could even help you to get to sleep more easily.
If you’d really like to do a digital detox, consider getting a flip phone. Be a good parent to your phone, and make sure to put it to bed before you. This is a big transition for many, considering that 75 percent of people fall asleep with their phones, and 90 percent of people check their phones upon waking up.
Another powerful practice is to set daily time aside for writing and responding to emails. This will allow you to do all your administrative work at one time, and limit distractions for the rest of your day.
If you really want to eliminate hurry from your life, it will take some work. However, if you try even a few things from this list, I guarantee you’ll become more centered, peaceful, and all-around better for your job, family, and mastermind group.
Check out The Mastermind Playbook for more information on daily rituals that can make you a more effective leader.
