What is the one thing I must focus on today?

Whenever I talk to him, I always end up feeling much better. He never fails to make me realize all the things I've already accomplished in my life. After meeting him, I always feel the need to give myself much more credit. The bottom line is: you can either choose to look at your accomplishments as no big deal, or you can see them as worth acknowledging. Neither is wrong per se, but one will make you feel good, while the other will make you feel like nothing you ever do is a big deal. Okay, now let's see what you can do to start acknowledging all the great things you've accomplished in your life so far. Complete three tasks Acknowledge your daily accomplishments Paul was smart and naturally funny, and for a long time he had kept his dream of being a comedian hidden. After all, who would be crazy enough to give up a lucrative career in law for a tentative try at comedy. By clarifying his values and developing enough trust in himself, he realized that it was time to do what he loved: Educate people about themselves using humor. Paul decided to make his career a top priority. His life changes looked like this: Make a transition out of the legal profession. Pursue career as a professional comic. Move to Los Angeles. Paul knew that he was taking a risk. Many of his friends and family members thought he was nuts. For a person living in a high-crime area, guns might be experientially associated with violence; Through these mental links, priming, or turning on, one idea will bring to mind other ideas that are closely linked in a person's associative network but will be less likely to bring to mind ideas that are not strongly linked.

The process by which exposure to a stimulus in the environment increases the salience of a schema. Associative networks Models for how pieces of information are linked together and stored in memory. Associative Networks Information is organized in associative networks in which closely related concepts are cognitively linked. Bringing one concept to mind can prime other concepts connected to it, sometimes without the person's conscious awareness. In addition to the immediate environment and priming, the person's personality determines how accessible certain schemas are. Chronically accessible schemas are those that represent information that is important to an individual, relevant to how they think of themselves, or used frequently (Higgins, 2012; Are you guilty of creating a long daily to-do list you never manage to complete by the end of the day? Now, how does that make you feel? Does it help you feel good about yourself? Too often, we have unrealistic expectations of what we can achieve and when we fail to meet them, it makes us feel as though we aren't good enough. However, in truth, feeling good about yourself has a lot more to do with the way you choose to perceive yourself than with reality. You can accomplish a great deal and still feel as though you're not making much progress. Conversely, you can complete only a few tasks and feel wonderful at the end of the day. It all depends on how you choose to view your accomplishments. Instead of creating a long to-do list, I encourage you to choose only three things you'd like to accomplish today. Below are a few tips to help you identify these three tasks: But Paul persisted, believing in himself and his dream. His action plan looked like this:

Create a financial plan to support my new endeavor. Investigate the life stories of successful comedians. Develop my material. Perform at a local open mike night. Research Los Angeles living options. Take Action! Revise Your Life Changes Now it's your turn to consider the life changes you need to make. Markus, 1977). Such schemas are very easily brought to mind by even the subtlest reminder. For example, Mary is really interested in environmental issues, whereas Jason is attuned to contemporary fashion. Mary is more likely to notice a hybrid car in the parking lot or express disdain over the plethora of plastic cups lying around at a party. Meanwhile, Jason has his fashion radar working and his associated constructs chronically accessible, so he may dislike the tacky cups and be more likely than Mary to notice that Cynthia arrived in last season's designer shoes. Even though they are in the same situation, the differences in what schemas are chronically accessible for Mary and Jason lead to very different perceptions and judgments of the scene. Chronically accessible schemas Schemas that are easily brought to mind because they are personally important and used frequently. People are also likely to interpret others' behavior in terms of their own chronically accessible schemas (Higgins et al. If you read a biography of Herman Melville and if honesty is a chronically accessible trait for you, you would be likely to have a good memory for incidents in Melville's life that pertain to honesty, and your overall impression of Melville will be largely colored by how honest he appears to have been. The idea is to generate positive reinforcement by completing tasks consistently. As you accumulate small wins, you will feel more motivated and your self-esteem will grow.

Therefore, you need to make sure you select three tasks you know you are able to complete today. Your tasks should be framed in such a way that you have control over them. To give you an example, my goal this year was to write eight articles and to sell 10,000 articles at full price. The first goal is up to me while the second is only partially within my control. I call the first a process goal and the second one a result goal. Both types of goals are important but, in this instance, we want to focus on the process goals over which you have full control. Thus, when you write down your three daily tasks, make sure you formulate them in a way that gives you 100% control over their completion. They should give you a sense of real accomplishment. Review your original life changes that you carried forward, make any necessary revisions, and list your three life changes here: Life Changes Now: Remember to consider all aspects of your life: your home, relationships, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being, etc Now that you know your values and the life changes you'll need to make to honor these values, it's time to get into action. Here's an effective and productive way to make these changes, using a simple three-step process: Brainstorm your way to a plan of action Anticipate and handle any obstacles These three steps are the basic philosophy that I follow whenever I start a new project or set out to make any kind of major change. Take Action! Brainstorm Your Way to a Plan On the other hand, if kindness is chronically accessible for you, his incidents of kindness or unkindness would be particularly memorable and influence your attitudes. Situational and chronic influences on schema accessibility also can work together to influence our perceptions of the world.

For example, after witnessing a fellow student smile as a professor praises her class paper, students in one study were more likely to rate her as conceited if they had very recently been primed with words related to the schema arrogance, but this effect was most pronounced for students who showed high chronic accessibility for the schema conceitedness (Higgins & Brendl, 1995). In other words, a certain situation or stimulus may prime particular schemas for one person but not for another, depending on which ideas are chronically accessible to each (Bargh et al. Can Priming Change Our Impressions of Others? Now that we have some understanding of how schemas operate, let's examine in a bit more detail the consequences that schemas have for social perception and behavior. Imagine that you recently met a fellow named Donald. You learn that Donald is the type of person you might see in an energy-drink commercial: He has a penchant for extreme activities--skydiving, kayaking, demolition derby--and he is now thinking of mountain climbing without a harness. What do you think your impression of him would be? Would you see him as reckless or adventurous? Again, I encourage you to start small. The point is not to beat yourself up because you fail to complete your three daily tasks, but to build a habit of accumulating small wins. Every day for the next two weeks, decide on three tasks you know you can achieve during your day. Then, achieve them consistently. Celebrating your small wins You want to build the habit of celebrating your daily wins. With three small wins every day, imagine how many wins you will have accumulated over a year. And imagine how much better you will feel about yourself. Therefore, make sure you take a moment to celebrate each time you finish one of your three daily tasks. The celebration process can be as simple as crossing off the completed task from your list and saying yourself, good job. You may already know the specific actions you need to take to begin implementing your life changes. If so, list ten action ideas in your journal (as you read on about the power of brainstorming, you may feel inspired to make a few changes!