Minute With Mallon: Take Control: Dictate Your Day!

Welcome to Minute with Mallon! 

Something I Taught:

This week I was working with a client who's an attorney. He has built his practice to a point where he really doesn’t need to work anymore. But although he's financially set, still enjoys his work.

He shared with me that he wanted to stop working at 2 o’clock each day, but that he had been going past this self-imposed limit quite often.

The problem was that he had nothing planned to do after 2 o’clock, so he was procrastinating throughout his day and stopping work later so that he wouldn’t be bored when 2 o’clock arrived.

So we took five minutes to make a list of things that he loves to do so that he had fun and interesting things to look forward to as soon as the clock struck 2.

Some of the ideas that we came up with were playing golf, working on a portion of an ongoing home project, taking a walk, playing pickleball with friends, setting aside time to learn something new, writing his newsletter, and having a certain day each week that he and his wife would go out at 2 o’clock and just have fun.

He became very inspired and motivated once we had come up with a list. Now he had something to look forward to!

Then I told him this quote which I learned from author Greg Harden,

"Be a dictator, not a democracy, about things you say you want to do for yourself."

In other words, do not let yourself worm out of stopping at 2 o’clock every day.

When it comes to personal goals or self-improvement, it's important to be decisive and fully committed, rather than wavering or seeking external validation. Harden encourages taking charge of one’s intentions and staying resolute to reach goals effectively.

This mindset focuses on taking responsibility and staying committed, rather than letting distractions or indecision slow down your progress—especially for important goals. 

So what enjoyable activity will you schedule this week to create a boundary and make time for yourself?

Think it through right now. And then put it on your calendar!

Have fun!

Something to Ponder:

Acquiring things will rarely bring you deep satisfaction, but acquiring experiences will.

Something I Learned:

I'm currently reading a book called The Hunger Habit: Why We Eat When We're Not Hungry and How to Stop. Fantastic book and I'd recommend it to everyone.

One of the many things I learned:

"Nutritional psychiatry is focused on what it sounds like: researching how the food we eat impacts how we feel emotionally.  I would also add that it is a two-way street: how we feel affects what we eat.

For example, correlations have been made between diets high in refined sugars and worsening symptoms of mood disorders such as depression. One cross sectional study found that people who ate the highest glycemic index diets had greater odds of depression."

"Food = mood.  Eat crap, feel like crap."

Something I Saw:

It’s a privilege to share these insights with you each week—thank you for reading!

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Robert