You can probably hear in my voice; I’m a little stuffed up. I’ve been fighting a cold, and from what I’ve been told by other parents, this is just the beginning, with being around a lot of infants and children from all over the place. I love it, but it actually, my immune systems doesn’t as much.
I actually had the opportunity this particular weekend … As I’m recording, it’s Friday night … This weekend to have a guy’s trip, an awesome guy’s trip I was really looking forward to, up in Vancouver Island. Really excited about it, but getting sick, obviously a setback. My wife was having her family come in, her cousins, her female cousins, and their kids. So our house was gonna be filled, and they were looking forward to this woman-only connection time. I had a couple of options here. One is I was gonna take my adventure van and just take off into the wilderness, but they happened to shut the roads down in the mountains cause of the snow. And then I thought, “Well, I’m getting sick, I’m not sure what I want to do here.” So with a little bit of push from my wife, I actually check in to the nicest hotel in the area that we live in. This place is absolutely amazing. I’m still unpacking, but I just got here and wanted to shoot a daily growth hack for you.
The reason I wanted to shoot this was because, often times, in the past what I would have done is gotten really sad. Got bummed that I was missing this guy’s trip. I may have even gone, but I knew it was the wrong decision. It was wrong for me to go because I’m not feeling well. Two is, I know there would be some debauchery and fun going on, and probably staying up till all hours of the night, which I love, and I love doing. Especially when I connect with different people. It’s something I enjoy, but not good for me right now. I also don’t want to pass this off to anybody else. I’m really here to rest, recover, but also focus. So what I’ve chosen to do, instead of lamenting on, “Oh, I wish I coulda,” or going out and maybe even doing something like I was planning on doing, which is taking my adventure van out into the wilderness where it’s gonna be cold. I decided to get this hotel room, and it’s just absolutely beautiful.
I brought two backpacks with me with the idea that I have enough items such as recording materials, that I can actually get some things done as I feel inspired to do. What I also did is, I’m starting to plan for 2018 already. This seems early to most people, but I’ve been doing this for a long time in my businesses, but also my personal life. Just planning with the idea, because I’ve already set my 90-day plan for this particular quarter that we’re talking about now, which is the mid-November, December, is the finishing the quarter of when I’m filming this. Obviously, it’s October, November, December for that quarter. But I’m planning January, February, and March of next year, and also looking back and reflecting on what I’ve done and what I haven’t done. I’ve also encouraged everybody, when you watch this, every week you should be doing this too on a weekly basis.
I also took my Five to Thrive, and I created a quick list before I left out the door, in each area what I wanted to focus on during this kind of retreat that I have for myself that I’ve set up. For my mind, I’m gonna re-read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, and I printed out a whole workbook that I found online that somebody else produced. This workbook just has questions and answers, and I’ve read this book many times, and I think it’s fantastic. Like a lot of books, and when you hear audio or songs in your head, you start to repeat them, they start to be almost like mantras for you, and I think this book has a lot to do with success that I’ve seen in myself, and certainly with mentors that I’ve worked with have also talked about it.
I wanted to go back with it with a fresh pair of eyes. I’ve learned a lot in the last year and a half since I read this book last. I’ve grown, so hopefully I’ll get some new nuggets out of it, as I often do with books. And my body, I brought a foam roller with me, so I’m gonna be foam rolling this weekend. I was starting a new strength training program, I actually hired a strength coach, and so I wanted to make sure I do my due diligence and get that foam rolling going. I also brought a dry brush, just to get some lymphatic system moving around, for the lymph nodes. There’s a spa here. Actually, in my room, there’s kind of a spa tub. So I brought some essential oils and things of that nature. So I’m gonna relax. I’m gonna enjoy myself, really treat my body well. I have a whole fridge, the whole mini fridge, as well as my van that’s parked outside is filled with nutritious snacks, so there are no excuses to go get nachos or pizza, or what have you.
Then for my soul, for my soul, I brought things to meditate. I brought a couple of meditations that I really want to go over. They’re guided meditations that I really enjoy, so I can sit down and meditate. There’s a fireplace in my hotel room, so I’ll be lighting a fire in the fireplace, and sitting down and meditating, going through these guided meditations that I really enjoy. If you have any questions about what I’m using, or meditations that I’ve created, I’d be happy to give those to you as well. And then my relationships. I actually have a list of the top 50 people that I want to reach out to in 2018, and I’m starting to recreate that list and see where that goes. Some of the people for 2017 that I’ve wanted to reach out to get to know, some have been great, and they’ve become good friends of mine, and I’m very proud of that. Other people that I’ve met and got to know, I realized that all things online, whether you listen to audio, something like this, or a video, or podcast, those people, you know, you’re seeing one side of them. So it’s not always what you see.
Unfortunately, some of those people, although I got a chance to meet them, and they were on my list, they didn’t quite meet my expectations. I found out that they were putting on a show. That happens, we all experience that, right? With people that we’ve met. So I look at my next list. And again, I’m always looking, not to climb the ladder, so to speak, but I want to surround myself with people who are playing life in their level at a higher level, to inspire myself and people that I can contribute to. This doesn’t mean I get rid of old friends, I just don’t do that, I’m a very loyal person, but it does mean I look at my old list, and I look and see, “Well, who do I want to meet? Who’s inspiring me out there? Who’s actually out there really living life at a bigger level?” You know, you meet somebody who’s really going after it, it’s really inspiring. Those are the kind of people I want to meet.
In my business, I have a list of KPIs, key performance indicators that we’re looking at, so I want to look at those KPIs and how we’ve done for this year, but also what we’re gonna be doing moving forward. I’ll be doing some funnels, some other marketing techniques that we utilize, because I own two agencies, going through that and how we will push those out. Also with The Author of Your Own Story business, we’re really putting a big push on it coming in January, right? For the January push. I’ve had so much of my focus be on other businesses that I run, that Author of Your Own Story and these daily growth hacks even, have been pushed aside a little bit, a little bit more than I would like to. So I’ll be a lot more active in the Author of Your Own Story group coming into December. That’s either a warning or something you can look forward to. So make sure you go over to that Facebook group and check that out.
Anyway, I wanted to share this with you because I thought about these daily growth hacks, and giving insights and tips, and I thought about the old me, and how I really would have been down, right? I would have gone out with the guys here in Bend, Oregon, where I happen to be, rather than going to Vancouver Island. I would have made the best of it, but not to the level that I’m doing now. I just want to share that with you of how you can do this, and really restore yourself. Because we go through this at micro levels all the time, don’t we? Where little setbacks happen, and you just really need to get better at pivoting and turning. You know, in sports if you’ve been an athlete, you know that that happens naturally for good, you just pivot on instinct without thinking. By doing these things with repetition, like re-reading books that really inspire you and bring you success and joy, by getting those into your mind over and over and over again, you just be able to pivot and move in that area of your life.
That’s it for me today. I hope you got something out of this. Remember to go over to authorofyourownstory.com so you can get the latest tips, tricks, and techniques, and know what we’re coming up to, and get deliver them right to your email box. Have a great day, enjoy your time, and remember, go out and be the Author of Your Own Story.
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