For someone to be locked in is an act or instance of becoming unalterable, unmovable, or rigid.
But this is opposite of what we do when it is the middle of the year. Whenever we get to July in any year, there is always the tendency to slow down. Or go with the flow. After all, what was not done from January to June might not happen in July or the rest of the year.
Please don’t think like this. The year is not over. We are in halftime. You still need to maintain momentum. Staying locked in is an important process in doing your best this year.
Stay Locked In
I love how Topsy-Kola Oyeneyin (TKO) puts it. This is from her newsletter.
If the first half was challenging or disappointing, that’s okay; it’s an opportunity to start afresh. If it was great, congratulations! Now is the time to build on it – don’t lose focus. Either way, don’t fixate on the current score; you’re playing for the entire game, not just the half, and the game isn’t over yet.
This is like how football players get to rest for a few minutes after the first half and before the second half begins. In those minutes, their coach comes to encourage his players to ensure they get the victory they need.
It is July, and you are in the same position too. So, before you go back in full gear, here are 7 reminders on how to stay locked in for the rest of the year.
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Be consistent
Don’t abandon the goals and dreams you wrote at the beginning of this year.
Keep transforming your goal into simple regular habits by building rhythms and routines that work for you. Create and maintain checklists that break down your goals. Then take notes to measure your progress.
When you consistently work towards a goal, you are more likely to succeed.
2. Maintain Focus
This is what allows you to completely concentrate your entire being on a specific activity to achieve it.
When doing your daily tasks, be present in the moment. Treat everything you do as important. From big things to the little things. The better you focus when you do the little things, the better you’ll do in big stages.
Stay focused and keep moving forward.
3. Build privately
This is what I call a magical life – build in secret, celebrate in public.
Living a magical life for the rest of the year is learning a secret recipe to success. Your life is hidden in plain sight yet accessible only to a chosen few. Don’t confuse noise for success. Take deliberate quiet actions, rather than announcing your intentions to the world.
This is a rare art form you must learn to adopt.
4. Increase your chances of getting lucky
Life is in cycles and seasons will always come back and go.
This means you will have several opportunities in life to experience breakthroughs. Before these breakthroughs arrive, work hard and learn to recognize and act on opportunities. This is how you create your own luck.
Because Luck happens when preparation meets opportunities.
5. Love People
85% of your financial success comes down to your personality and how you treat people.
Be friendly. Don’t criticize, complain or condemn. Give honest and sincere appreciation. Always show empathy and put yourself in people’s shoes when communicating with them.
Learn to love people, not the way your school mates, novels and movies taught you, but the way your creator tries to teach you everyday.
6. Keep leveling up
You are the main character in your life. Act like it. I love how this quote put it:
Become the greatest your bloodline has ever seen. Then pass it down.
The quest is simple. Improve yourself. Prioritize your health and goals. Take actions daily and build relationships.
That’s 6 already, but there’s a 7th culled from Ecclesiastes 12:13, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
The Fear of God is important… to ensure that while you plan on finishing this year strong, you are also looking at the bigger picture (your life) as well.
Stay Locked In, my friend. The world awaits your legacy.
