“Although goals are important, having a plan of action is vital to the success of those goals. Having a goal with no plan of action is like wanting to travel to a new destination without having a map.”
~ Steve Maraboli, Author.
In order to have control over the direction of our lives, we have to take the time to contemplate where we are, and where we would like to be. Then we must create a roadmap to arrive at that destination.
This involves planning, goal-setting and most importantly, taking action.
It also is important in our self-analysis that we identify our weaknesses, bad habits and negative external influences, such as toxic people, that are hampering our growth.
Looking back on the year 2018, what goals did you set and how many did you accomplish?
I love to discover different ways that promote positive personal development and one concept that I have found that has influenced how I take action towards my goals is called ‘Dark Mode‘.
I was introduced to this concept through a YouTube channel called Nelson Quest, a self-development vlog run by a young man by the name of Nelson.
Nelson A. Cuesta is an entrepreneur: the founder and CEO of AgentFire.com, a company that provides real estate website solutions.
He is passionate about self-development and ‘self-mastery’ and implements Dark Mode to achieve his life objectives.
He has used it to reach entrepreneurial targets, learn Spanish as a second language, become proficient in salsa dance and attain a level of physical health and fitness along goals he set for himself, among other things.
In videos on his channel, he shares snippets of his daily life as an entrepreneur, discusses obstacles that he has encountered in life, including self-doubt and depression and how he has been able to overcome them.
What is Dark Mode
According to the free guide to Dark Mode 3.0 on the site nelsonquest.com:
“Dark Mode is a growth strategy where you focus 100% of your energy on a specific goal or set of goals by creating ‘rules’ that you can under no circumstance break until you have accomplished your goals.
We call it ‘Dark’ Mode because during this time you cannot do ANYTHING not directly facilitating the manifestation of those goals.
In most cases, this means going ‘Dark’ (no going out, no social media, no television, and no unnecessary communication).”
Dark Mode is about making a commitment to yourself to achieve your goals and emerge a stronger, better version of you.
It entails investment in yourself, sacrifice, removal of distractions and reducing or eliminating activities of low or no value towards self-betterment.
“Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don’t simultaneously wean your mind from a dependence on distraction.”
~ Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
In the guide, Nelson shares his method of excelling when it comes to four different aspects of life: Occupational, Expressive, Mental and Physical.
- Occupational deals mainly with setting business or entrepreneurial goals. For example, you may want to start a business, create a money-making blog or write a book.
- Expressive is about developing your creative aspect and manifesting that creativity through art, dance, music etc.
- Mental incorporates self-improvement, through meditation, re-programming the subconscious mind, reading, listening to podcasts/audiobooks etc.
- Physical entails activities that make the human body stronger, more efficient and healthy, through exercise and nutrition.
Nelson also demonstrates efficient use of time-management strategies which he explains in his videos – one strategy being the increasingly popular Pomodoro Technique.
This helps him to encompass as much as he can into his day in a balanced and streamlined way, inclusive of rest, relaxation and leisure time.
Related Post: Achieve Success With Monk Mode
Benefits of Going into Dark Mode for Self-Development
- It promotes laser focus until your objective is achieved
- It involves self-analysis and introspection
- You take stock of and remove distractions
- You develop discipline
- It is a form of self-care by committing to yourself
- You do not have to wait for the New Year to start improving your life. Dark Mode can start at any time!
- It is an action plan.
- It promotes self-confidence. World-renowned motivational public speaker and self-development author, Brian Tracy says, “When you engage in systematic, purposeful action, using and stretching your abilities to the maximum, you cannot help but feel positive and confident about yourself.”
How To Set Dark Mode Goals.
Firstly, identify the bad habits that are holding you back from making progress in your life. A few examples of bad habits are:
- Unhealthy addictions (drugs, alcohol, partying, social media, pornography)
- Procrastination
- Dishonesty
- Overspending
- Laziness
- Negative self-talk
In his book, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, author James Clear states, “Some people spend their entire lives waiting for the time to be right to make an improvement.” Well, by identifying, acknowledging and owning the bad habits before entering Dark Mode, you immediately are set on a path towards changing the negative behaviours.
With these identified, you can then formulate the rules for your personal Dark Mode journey.
Put your goals in writing.
Not only does having your goals in writing give you something tangible to work with, but a study done by Professor of Psychology at Dominican University of California, Dr. Gail Matthews, concluded that people who wrote down their goals accomplished more than those who did not.
Set specific goals.
Well-defined goals, provide direction. Instead of aiming to ‘lose weight’ specify that you will work to lose 10 pounds, for example.
List your most pressing goal/s under each category – Physical, Mental, Occupational and Expressive
Determine which, if not all, of the categories that you will be working on and list your aims under each category.
List the steps/create a roadmap to make the goal a reality.
To lose the designated 10 pounds you may list steps such as:
Nutrition – Eat less refined sugars and simple carbohydrates, increase vegetable intake, moderate lean protein, healthy fats, maintain a calorie deficit etc.
Training– Program of callisthenics five days a week for 30 minutes. 50 Jumping jacks, 25 burpees, 25 air squats, etc.
Set a starting date and time
Decide on a date on which to start. From this date, you will implement all the rules you’ve set for success.
Create Time Blocks
Block out chunks of time in which you will work on the different aspects of yourself. For example, you may schedule 4 am to 6 am, of uninterrupted time, to work on writing your book or focus on fitness or meditation.
List the Rules
Based on daily distractions as well as the bad habits you’ve identified, write out the rules for this Dark Mode. As outlined in the guide, this could include no alcohol, no social media, no television, limited communication, etc.
On the Planned Day – Just Start!
When the appointed day arrives just dive headfirst into working on all you have set out to complete at the end of the Dark Mode. Remember the aim is to stay in the mode until you have achieved your goals.
Also, remember only choose up to two obtainable goals per personal aspect to work on so as not to become overwhelmed and burnt out. There will be other opportunities to start another Dark Mode session to continuously foster personal growth.
Download the free PDF on Dark Mode to determine if this method may be right for you to make massive changes in your life this year and crush some of your biggest goals!
Nelson can be followed on:
