1-2-3 To Do: Well-Being Practice

Create a 1-2-3 To Do List Each Day This Week

Simple Instructions:

1. At the start of each day, make a three-part to-do list comprised of the following: One thing you must do. Two things you’d like to get done. Three things it would be nice to get done.
2. Do at least the “must do” by the end of the day.

Watch this video for an explanation of this Well-Being Practice from Whole Life Challenge co-founders Andy Petranek and Michael Stanwyck.

Why Is This Practice Important?

Life can often turn into an undifferentiated mess of the truly important things mixed in with the immediate problems that show up moment by moment.

For a host of reasons, things that are critical to other people can pull us away from the things that are most important to us. We resist addressing our own daily priorities and we give urgency to that which is not truly important. As a result, some of the most important things to us linger on the back burner.

If, instead, you begin each day by defining what is most important to you and then using that as your map, you’ll begin to see how easy it is to navigate the shark-filled waters of other people’s concerns and needs. By identifying your most important priorities, you can start to manage which items aren’t negotiable for you and which you can compromise on in order to serve other people’s needs.

Once you can identify and complete the big stuff, you can operate each day with less of a sense of “way too much to do.” The things that actually move your life forward and need doing can get the fuel they need. Meanwhile, the less critical things can stay on your radar, but cease to add the pressure that clouds your ability to see what really matters.

This week’s practice is an exercise is setting your priorities for the day so that you can care for yourself, create momentum, and still get done what needs to get done

For More on This Practice

One of the best ways to be successful is to imitate successful people. Danny Dreyer, creator of ChiRunning, knows how to get things done, whether that’s a 100-mile ultra-marathon or building an amazing life.

Hit play on this special ten-minute discussion with Andy Petranek and Danny Dreyer for a deeper context on this week’s practice. Please, subscribe on iTunes to be notified when we release the full-length conversation with Danny.

Michael Stanwyck

Michael Stanwyck is the co-founder of The Whole Life Challenge, an idea that developed during his seven years as a coach and gym manager at CrossFit Los Angeles.

He graduated from UCLA with a BA in philosophy as well as a degree from the Southern California School of Culinary Arts, and feels food is one of the most important parts of a life - it can nourish, heal, and bring people together.

Michael believes health and well-being are as much a state of mind as they are a state of the body, and when it comes to fitness, food, and life in general, he thinks slow is much better than fast (most of the time). Stopping regularly to examine things is the surest way to put down roots and grow.

He knows he will never be done with his own work, and believes the best thing you can do for your well-being starts with loving and working from what you’ve got right now.