By Michael Gidlewski

As soon as you’ve cut out distractions, streamlined your workflow to stay focused on your goals, and reached the point in your life where you can be fully present in each moment — or at least made significant strides toward getting there — you’re ready to add in some power moves that will accelerate you toward your best year ever.

The first should be an effective morning routine. This can look different from one person to the next, but it should become a power hour for grounding and centering yourself before you rush into the details of the day.

Mine is a ritual of sorts that includes prayer and meditation, time spent writing out my gratitudes, and reading from scriptures or other great books. However it looks for you, the end result should be a frame of mind in which you’re at the highest possible state to be of service to your clients and the whole of mankind.

The second power move should help keep you from getting bogged down in your e-mail inbox. Reorder your day around blocks of time for strategic thinking and other high-payoff activities. Those could be phone calls, e-mails, client tasks or something else, but they have to get your best time and attention if you want to check off your goals and not somebody else’s.

Decide beforehand when you’ll check e-mails and for how long; most CEOs and entrepreneurs spend too much time reacting to their inbox and not enough time thinking and solving problems.

Third, keep this well-plotted-out calendar and your goals in front of you all the time. They have to be highly visible. You can’t get sucked in by shiny new objects or the pull of day-to-day operations.

Stay focused on the big picture, and if something doesn’t get done at the end of the day, it likely won’t be of much importance in the grand scheme of things. When confronted with a new distraction, issue, or problem, always ask, “Does this move me closer to my goals or further away? Does it support the mission, vision, purpose, and values?”

The things that do will build on the momentum you’re creating and help pick up the pace of your pursuit toward a 2017 that’s the best year you’ve ever had.

Click here to read the previous posts in the “Your Best Year Ever” series.

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Michael Gidlewski is President of West Chester-based Achievement Unlimited, as well as a growth catalyst and motivational speaker. He works with motivated business owners and entrepreneurs to clearly define the elements of what they dearly want their lives to look like, then helps them connect all the moving parts that make up those visions to consistent action and habits. Michael can be reached at 610-793-6609 or via e-mail at michael@achievable.com.