So protect your time. One of the things that commonly happens is you get more and more successful, as you become more and more the author of your own story and are actually out there producing results and people are watching this happen, you’re living your life. What happens is people want more of your time. They want more of you. They want more of what you have. These are the demands upon your time are gonna become greater than ever. If you’re a business owner, this is very, very true, because people not only want your lifestyle they always want to know how to do your business. And so your demands are gonna be great, not only from your staff and your team but also the people around you. So, that can be friends but acquaintances, I mean, I get messages all the time and I’m not popular by any means.
So, by being your author of your own story, this is gonna happen to you too. And what I want to do is, you want to make sure you have a sacred time, a sacred hour. I call it the hour of power that I got from Tony Robbins and I just call it that now, it’s totally different. But, having that sacred time and I’ve actually expanded my sacred time quite a bit. So as of this recording I actually don’t communicate with people via chat or email any time before 10 a.m. or any time after 4 p.m. and I’ve condensed that with my team from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. is when they can bring issues to me. Now, of course, emergencies are totally different. They all have access to get emergencies. I’ve gone another step where I’ve actually put on my iPhone, and I’m sure you can do this Android, the do not disturb. So I have the do not disturb setting set to do not disturb me before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m.
Now, the reason I did this is I wanted to get away. I was having Facebook on one screen. LinkedIn on another screen. I had HootSuite, which is monitoring all my social profiles. I had email messages streaming in. Text messages. Phone calls. This was taking up my whole day. I estimate that I was spending about 90% of my working day putting out fires for other people and at the end of that time, then at the end of the day I had time to myself to focus on me. And even worse than that I was burned out and then I’d go see my family and it just didn’t work for me. So I put this protection in place and my energy is abundant, my focus is abundant. Now, I work before 10 a.m., I get up at 5 in the morning. I love what I do. I love producing. So, I work but I have focus time now. I take my hour.
So, a dedicated hour. This is where I’m gonna ask you to start with. Just an hour. Carve it out. Wake up an hour earlier. You can do it, all you have to do is go to bed an hour earlier, it’s not that difficult. I heard this all the time as an excuse in the fitness field but it really isn’t hard to do. So, wake up an hour earlier and set aside that time. That is your sacred time.
Now, what I will also want you to do is communicate this with the people around. So if you have a partner, you’re in a relationship, your family, let them know you’re doing this and just say, “Hey. This is something I’m testing out for myself.” And I’m not asking you to stick to this but test it out. What I say, just make sure it works for you and that’s what I always do when I get advice or opinions from experts, is I test it out. Some things work for me and some things don’t and that’s great. But, test it out for yourself and I think you’re gonna find that this hour of sacred time, an hour of power, or whatever you want to call it.
Your protected hour is an hour where you’re gonna get massive clarity on things that have been circling in your head. You got time to meditate. Now, and if you don’t meditate just take time in silence to think or time just to sit and be still. You can do a walking meditation, which is something I’m often doing and read something, listen to a book. This is a great time to get the daily growth hack out that we’re talking about and your journal. So you can write down the thoughts you have, what those action steps are, and take action. Stop being one of those people that just listens and listens and takes in information but never acts. You know, there’s too many of those out there and I used to be one of them. So, I’m asking you to take massive action and part of this today is take that hour.
Take that hour and put things in that hour that fill your soul up. Fill you up. That can be going outside, that can be meditating, it could be exercising. I try to keep my exercise outside of my hour for power because I think it’s so important but also exercise gives me so much more and that hour of sacred time gives me that focus that I can’t really do while exercising. You know, it’s just a different kind of focus. I can’t produce or write while I’m working out. If I could that would be a pretty lame workout, but you get the idea. So set aside that sacred time, that sacred time for you and communicate with everybody. Communicate with your loved ones and let them know you’re not setting them aside you’re simply set aside an hour for yourself so you can come back better and fill them better.
I can tell you, my staff, my coworkers, my friends, my wife, they can all tell you that I’ve expanded this hour of power or this sacred time to multiple hours and when I talk to them or when I help them, I am able to pour into them at such a greater level. I’m able to be present. I have ideas. I’m able to sort through their problems quickly and it’s also trained them to figure out their problems on their own. You see, what happened is my messages from me got cut down. People that knew I was setting aside this sacred time all of a sudden stopped messaging me. At 10 o’clock, I got on at 10 and I expected a hundred questions to come my way immediately and they didn’t. You know why? ‘Cause they had to power themselves. They were empowered by me not being available to solve their problems to solve them themselves and took care of them. And guess what, my team is way smarter than I am and so the things that they were taken care of just became better. They weren’t just my ideas or my solutions to issues.
So, in your own life, you could be the manager of your family. Same thing. What are the other solutions they can solve by you taking time for your sacred time?
That’s it for me today. Have a great day and remember to go out and be the author of your own story.
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