MM157 - Midterm Self-Assessment | MM Book Study Pt. 15

Today we take a moment for self-assessment and reflection. In other words, it is gut check time. Let us see where we are on the road to developing good habits and discipline. This is also a good opportunity to take a look at our goals.

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[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Welcome to Morning Mindset. A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel. Each episode will focus on positive and productive ways to strengthen your mindset and help you improve your relationships, career goals, and overall well-being. Please welcome your host; Paul G. Markel.

*Professor Paul*

Hello and welcome back to Morning Mindset with Paul Markel. I am your host, and today we're going to continue on with our Morning Mindset book study. Yes, indeed. We have been for the last 14 episodes, talking about the Morning Mindset: a 30 Day Plan for a More Positive and Productive Life.

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Now, this is section chapter episode 15 in the book study and the book study and the book study chapter 15 is this. It is a mid-term assessment or midterm self-assessment, and before I continue and Go one step further. I want to thank and acknowledge my studio engineer Zachary for making sure that these microphones were all set up and everything was ready to go for me so I could just come in sit down hit record and do my job.

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So thank you very much. If for some strange reason you are now listening to this and you're like what is all this? What book study he talking about a book in a book study. Yes. We are working with the Morning Mindset: a 30 Day Plan for a More Positive and Productive Life and you can pick up a copy for your very own self at Amazon as a paperback.

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Or you can get a Kindle version or if you'd like a signed version you can go to Morning Mindset podcast follow the link and you will get yourself your very own copy of the book. Alright, #1 midterm self-assessment. By this time you should have had the opportunity to do a couple of things primarily number one to establish some discipline and to establish a good positive habit.

That's right. If you've got the book, you know, I'm hoping that most of you do since you're listening to this right now. You decided that you were going to read one chapter per day. You were going to sit down over a weekend and just knock out the entire book. That's not what it's about. I want you guys to do it one chapter per day.

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So part of your midterm self-assessment. Is this what have you been doing for the last 14 days did you do? As prescribed read one chapter per day 10 to 15 minutes max probably and then discipline yourself and establish that positive habit because if we want to be positive and productive individuals, if we want to be productive humans, we have to have positive habits and that's one way to do.

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It also self-discipline. Self-discipline is well, I knew I was supposed to read that one chapter today, but I got super busy and things happened and I said to myself I'll just get it later. I'll get it tomorrow. I'll get it the next day, what have you. I'll just wait and I'll read three chapters in one day? Discipline says even if you miss the opportunity in the morning to do it, you take the opportunity in the afternoon, you take the opportunity before you go to bed before you go to sleep.

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Let's talk about our goals at the very beginning. We talked about goals, and this is a fantastic time for you to take your paperback copy of the book if you have one, and to flip back and to read your goals. Yes. Remember I told you that I was giving you explicit permission to write in your book. It's your book. It's not my book. It's yours and what I wanted you guys to do. Was to write in your book to every time you pick up a copy of the book or really any book that you're you're reading to study.

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If you're reading a book that you're not of not necessarily a fiction book. That's just for fun or you know distraction, but if you're studying for trying to learn something and you open up a book, you should always have a pen or a pencil and a highlighter close at hand and I always do that because you never know when you're going to read something that resonates with you. You think man I never thought about that before or man. I need to share that with other people. That's probably the number one reason why I read a book with a highlighter and a pen or pencil. Is because not only does it help me. Look at the world a different way or come up with new ideas quite often.

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I'm highlighting sections of books because I want to come back to this microphone and relate those with you. So hopefully if you have been doing like you were instructed you can go back to section 3, chapter 3 in the book setting. Excuse me setting goals because I need to drink some coffee and I want you to flip through and we had talked about short-term, mid-range and long-term goals.

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Take the time, and read them now you probably remember them and they're probably pretty fresh in your mind because it's only been a couple of weeks, but I want you to actually think about those and I want you to read them and there may have been one or two short-term goals that were a week goal or month goal or what have you that if you haven't achieved them yet.

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You're very very close to achieving them part of that self-assessment. Now let's say that you get to the midterm self-assessment the gut check and you realize that you have not been performing as well as you would have liked to or you wanted to or what have you let's say that. You started out with this and you should I am going to read one section per day for 30 days until I'm done.

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I'm going to discipline myself. I'm going to set that good habit, and you did it for one day two days three days, maybe four or five and then you fell away from it and forgot or what have you and now here you are and I'm reminding you and you're feeling kind of embarrassed or silly. What you need to do is you need to go back and be honest with yourself and say and ask yourself.

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Did you not read it because you really did not have the time and I'm not just talking about reading my book. I'm talking about reading anything. I'm talking about devoting your time to study or to self-improvement or to mental exercise. Are you not doing it? Because you really don't have the time or did you not do it because you allowed yourself to get lazy or you allowed yourself to be distracted?

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Like we said in each section in this should take you anywhere from 5-10-15 minutes depending on how long the chapter is and how slow of a reader well and also how much you write as far as notes and highlight. But let's just say 10 minutes if you did not read for 10 minutes today or yesterday before whenever what you do is ask yourself.

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Did I did I not do that? Because I literally did not have 10 minutes of spare time in my day or did I waste? 10 minutes doing silly crap. Did I waste 10 minutes looking at Facebook or Instagram that I waste 10 20 30 minutes looking at silly dog videos or cat videos on YouTube and that's honest gut-check self-assessment time, and if you find that that was the case if you find that you didn't read yesterday or day before but you did sit on your phone for 27 minutes and watch you know, funny dog videos on YouTube then what is it?

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Well, it's a discipline problem and it's also a priority. So assess your priorities now is the time. We're halfway through the book study. Today is the day that you look back and you say alright. Yeah, and some of you might be patting yourselves on the back right now, you give yourselves a big ol' pat on the back and you're like, yes, I did I discipline myself I listened. I read I did everything.

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I was supposed to I even wrote my goals down fantastic. That is excellent, and I'm very happy for you, and that's exactly where we want to be. Alright, we're going to move on during the next episode and we're going to go from our self-assessment to don't tell me, show me. That is coming up very very soon. I am your host Paul Markel. I'll talk to you again very quickly.

patting yourselves on the back right now, you give yourselves a big ol pat on the back and you're like, yes, I did I discipline myself I listened. I read I did everything.

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I was supposed to I even wrote my goals down fantastic. That is excellent, and I'm very happy for you, and that's exactly where we want to be. Alright, we're going to move on during the next episode and we're going to go from our self-assessment to don't tell me show me that is coming up. Very very soon. I am your host Paul Markel. I'll talk to you again very quickly.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Thank you for spending time with us today. To get show notes, submit a topic request, for more from your host Paul G. Markel, visit MorningMindsetPodcast.com. That’s MorningMindsetPodcast.com. Please leave a review of this podcast on your favorite podcast player, we appreciate your time & effort, and we look forward to reading your honest feedback.