What do you mean by there’s freedom in a schedule? A schedule is so constricting. I want to be able to do what I want when I want. Well, I do too. But I’ll tell you, this is a battle I’ve had over the years. And I can also tell you this is something we’ve talked about in a previous daily growth hack. But the question keeps coming up over the over again in my conversations with coaching clients, but also in the Author of Your Own Story groups that we have. So, I want to clarify it a little bit more.
When I say, “There’s freedom in having a schedule,” really what I’m saying, is there’s so much time we waste. We only have so many hours. Let’s say for example, in a typical work week, you spend a couple of hours on Facebook — which the average person spends way more than that — but let’s just say you just spend a couple of hours on Facebook, or just social media in general.
And maybe that’s a couple of hours watching TV. And during that time, if you’re like most people, you’re flipping through the channels a majority of that time or talking and somebody about, “Hey what do you want to watch on Netflix?” “I don’t know, let’s scroll through.” And looking at the movie listings, or whatever it is.
And you aggregate that out on average. On average of the people that I’ve talked to, and I look at statistics, it’s four to six hours of wasted time per day. Now, if we look at an average work week, that’s 20 plus hours a week. Multiply that after an average of 52 weeks a year. It gets astronomical.
And then even if you put the average cost, the average daily cost, let’s say you make $20. Say you make $20 an hour. And I’m guessing if you’re listening and this, you make a lot more. But let’s just say you make 20. You’re looking somewhere around 40, 50,000 plus a year in opportunity cost. What’s even more important, is the opportunity cost of you being the Author of Your Own Story, and utilizing that time better.
So, what do I mean by, “There’s freedom on a schedule?” Well, I used to have this mindset, in my early 20s, that didn’t want a schedule. That was my goal. And I actually have that now in my life, where I don’t have to have a schedule. I have the lifestyle, and the job opportunities, that allow me to wake up when I want, go to bed when I want. Work when I want, or not work at all. I’m very fortunate in that matter. But what I found is by having a schedule, I’m able to actually map to my day, my weeks, my months, my years, and my time, to actually optimize my lifestyle for me.
Now, oftentimes what happens is people sit down, and they write down their schedule, and it’s filled with things they don’t want to do. The have tos, and the should tos. Now of course, if you have the should tos, you’re setting yourself up for judgment and disappointment already. You’re saying, “I should do this,” and you’re already setting yourself up for something that you should’ve already done, so therefore you’re wrong, or you should do, be you’re not going to, therefore you’re wrong in that sense.
What I want you to do is look at your day. Look at your ideal week. I always do this. And we talk about every Sunday or Monday planning out your week. If you haven’t done the 30-day roadmap for the 30-day game. Or if you’re a coaching client and in our Author of Your Own Story Group, you want to make sure you’re doing the 90-day game. You have access and all that material.
But what you want to do every Sunday, Monday, is plan out your ideal week. Review the past week and then plan out your ideal week. Now, fill it up with things that fill you up. If video games are your thing, and that’s your jam and that’s really what lights you up, then make sure you add that time to your week’s schedule. I’m not saying this just has to be filled with just productivity time. It doesn’t.
This is your story, not mine. You’re the Author of Your Own Story. Write an epic novel. This is your chance. This is your opportunity. If you want to have movie time. I love movies. My wife and I love watching them. What we want to do is actually maybe pick a few movies that we actually really like and add them to our queue. It’s really simple when you’re going through Netflix — or if you have another online movie distribution system, or your TV Guide, or whatever it is — just to simply click and save, so you can come back. Or create a list based on recommendations. There are tons on the internet.
That’s just an easy way of scheduling it in. By scheduling, you’re actually able to look back. You’re able to look back on the past weeks, months and years, and actually, achieve the goals that allow you to be the Author of Your Own Story. Look, successful people don’t get successful by accident. And those that seem like they do, often fall off the rails.
But more often than not, you hear about them being successful after they put in the hard work. The 10, 15 years of hard work that it took them to be successful. They’re doing the little things they aren’t being talked about, like scheduling their days. Scheduling their days for optimum productivity in their own lifestyles. So in other words, you’re able to actually do those little things that add up. Those micro-details that add up.
You know, in your body for example, in your five-to-thrive. If you want to lose 40 fat pounds, you don’t do it overnight. You don’t do it the next week, the next month. It’s impossible. Certainly not to do it healthy. But it’s little workouts every single day. Little micro changes a day. Then you can look back upon it six months or a year later, and you’re 40 pounds gone. That’s amazing.
Well, you can do this in all five categories of your five-to-thrive. And that’s was I’m going to ask that you do today. So, what I want you to do is pull out your journal, write down your five-to-thrive. That’s your mind, your body, your soul, your relationships, and you’re a business. And write down what you want to do. Where do you want to be productive in those areas each week? What are the micro changes that you can schedule in each week?
Look if you’re not scheduling it, it’s not going to happen. You and I both know, you don’t schedule your workouts, they don’t happen unless that’s the one area you’re focused on. Now, this goes for relationships too. You need to schedule connection time. You know, if you’re not in an intimate relationship, maybe you don’t even want to be in one, schedule time with friends. Schedule time with family.
Hey, you know, at lunch, I’m going to never eat alone, so I’m going to go walking with a friend, or it’s going to go have lunch with a friend. Do something along those lines, but make sure it gets on your schedule. By scheduling things you’re able to be much more efficient with your time, which gives you so much more freedom on your downtime.
There’s nothing more I like that having a weekend with my wife and my son and being able to do whatever we want to. We look at the day like a blank canvas that we can paint anything we want to. And that is true freedom. And when we schedule those times, we’re able to talk about it. Think about our next adventure and trip.
We’re doing that right now in our lives. Where do we want to go? What do we want to do? And we’re able to paint that into our schedules and into our lives. And then when we have that time for freedom, that schedule allows us that freedom. It allows us that bandwidth, which to grow into. We only have so much time. So much time here on this earth in this one experience called life, and I want you to get the most of it.
Start today. Start now. You deserve to live the best life possible right now. This is the first step to becoming the Author of Your Own Story. So, here’s what I want you to do. Grab your journal. Grab your five-to-thrive, and write down two things that you should be doing each week in your five categories that you can schedule right now. And then I want you to schedule it.
Just write it on your calendar. Whether you use Outlook, Google calendar, whatever you use. Paper calendar, I don’t care. And then what I want you to do is share this with three people. You need to build your tribe. That’s the key to becoming the Author of Your Own Story and a successful person. You need to have people around you. People that lift you up and build upon you, like the wings you fly on.
The key to doing that is share with them what you’re listening to and what you’re going through. And that starts with this. The Author of Your Own Story: Daily Growth Hacks. So take this one particular video if you’re watching me, or audio if you’re listening to the podcast, and share it with three people. Do that right now. And maybe you can just share it and just say, “Hey, I’d love to hear what you think about this.” Or “Hey, This really impacted me in these ways.” And share.
If you want bonus points, I encourage you to go deep. So, just not only share this, a message with them but tell them what it means to you. Tell them maybe something that you forgot, like “Hey, I realize that I’ve been talking about losing weight for six months, and I haven’t done anything about it. So now, I’m scheduling it into my days, and I’d like you to join me.” or “I’d like you to keep me accountable.” or “I’d like to talk to you every day. I’ll put a five-minute check-in every day to make sure it’s on my schedule.” Or a weekly check-in. “Every Sunday let’s get together and form a mini-mastermind group, and let’s talk about our goals.”
Three people are all I’m telling you. All I’m asking you to do right here, right now, at this moment. That’s it for me today. Remember, go out and be the Author of Your Own Story.
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