daily plans

What’s your morning routine?

Kim · April 7, 2016 · Leave a Comment

I have always believed in the old mantra “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man (or woman!) healthy, wealthy and wise.” Its been what I repeatedly told myself when, a few years ago, I decided that rising at 3 or 4 am would be the smart thing to do. And I did it for some time. During that year or so I didn’t have the best morning routine, other than getting up early, but I did it and it really increased my business exponentially.

And then I got lazy. I got tired. I got unfocused. I even got depressed. And during all of that, things really went haywire for me. What had started to become a booming business, suddenly became something that overwhelmed me, contributed to the exhaustion, which contributed to the depression, which contributed to the overwhelm…and around it went. And my clients started to disappear. Which didn’t help matters any either!

Last summer I started sleeping in. I did, however, find the motivation to make a major change in my life that really helped my depression and exhaustion, but it threw my routine (and money-situation) into a virtual tilt-a-whirl and took me some time to climb out of.

Fast forward to the late winter and early spring of this year (2016). I gradually renewed my determination to success in every area. I began a slow climb out of a major financial mess that I allowed to happen around me. (You know, this IS going to be a passage in one of those “back when I didn’t have two nickels to rub together…” stories, eventually. lol) I began to focus in on where my business was heading, how to be at the top of my business game, how to improve not only my business but myself.

And that includes focused training and reading. I took a course on premium packages for selling business services. I am taking a digital marketing certification course. I’ve read…alot…both normal reading and audio books. And we aren’t talking novels either.

In the last month things feel like they are starting to come together. I have been reading 6 Months to 6 Figures* by Peter Voogd. I fully intend to read it again, with pen and paper nearby, and slowly work through the exercises included. As it is, when I’m reading now (like at the park, a sporting event or sitting in a waiting room) I have to work through them just in my head. I started reading this book in late February, and at first wasn’t making much time to push through it. But when I did, it was a great read.

Its not just about making money. Its about changing your life. Its about building your business by reworking every aspect of your mindset and routine. Its about creating that freedom lifestyle that we all so deeply desire.

Here’s where the irony of it comes in…

Early last week I saw a post on Facebook by my friend Sunshine Boatright about the #5amClub. I thought, “ha…I do that!” although its been more like 6 am lately and only that because my little boy has to catch the bus a little after 7. I had to laugh at myself after realizing that it didn’t mean “get up before dawn and piddle around the house doing nothing of any real importance, and maybe check email and Facebook.” haha! I followed the hashtag through and figured out what the #5amClub actually is! (This video explains it best…)

So, now the funny part…back to that book I’ve been reading for a while. Turns out the author OFTEN quotes Robin Sharma…that’s the dude in the video above… and while he may not have originated the idea of the #5amClub, he sure has brought it into popular practice among the success-minded, entrepreneurial warriors of the world.

See how that circle came around? Gotta love it.

So what’s your morning routine? Are you a part of the #5amClub? If not, give it a try for a week or so. Or better yet, commit to it for 2 months! Get up, shake it off, drink some water, exercise (as much or as little as your current fitness level will allow), read something useful, delve into a training course you’ve been putting off and absolutely plan your day. If you are a Christian, I urge you to spend that post-workout time in the Word. (The workout time wakes you up and helps you to focus, that’s why I say do it after it.)

You can listen to music during your workout, or listen to a podcast or audio book. Some mornings I do Zumba to inspriational or Christian music, and other days I walk or do yoga-like stuff while listening to a spoken message of some kind.

Oh…and don’t forget to drink your water! That’s almost as important as the rest of it! If you want coffee, great, but please don’t start your day with it. Water is the lifeblood of your body and it is what truly will wake you up. At least a glass or two first thing! (Learned that bit of info from my friend JP Temple! Check out his work!)

I’ll keep you up to date on my #5amClub progress. I’d love to hear from you about yours! Leave a comment below. And if you are looking for support, you can find it in several of the links I left above.

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Some of the links in this blog are *affiliate links*.

What do high school wrestling and Leap Day have in common with your business

Kim · February 29, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Friday and Saturday I sat through many hours of high school wrestling. My son and several of his wrestling teammates had made it to the state championship tournament. I will admit, and hopefully this doesn’t make me a bad sports mom, but I do not like wrestling one little bit.So, most of the tournament when my son was not competing I spent reading on my Kindle.But some of the time I sat just watching people. You can learn a lot from watching people, especially high school athletes focused on winning. And it reminded me of entrepreneurs.

Some of the kids, mainly the ones who would not compete again on that day, were goofing around as teenagers do. Play-wrestling, doing cartwheels on the wrestling mats during breaks, looking at their smart phones, or just plain old horseplaying with their buddies. Others were intensely focused on their goals. These were the ones with a straight face, a determined expression, ear buds in and attached to their smart phone with some kind of motivating music playing, keeping their muscles warmed up by stretching, jogging or jumping up and down. They seemed oblivious to all the commotion going on around them. Even when they were competing, they seemed not to notice the screams of support and even the occasional boos (directed towards a referee who made an unpopular decision) coming from the stands. Their focus was on one thing and one thing only…overcoming their competition, finding the weakness, figuring out that one move that could set them apart as the champion. (The only time I noticed any of them look away during a match was when they looked toward their coach for some direction.)

And I saw some serious business lessons in all of this. In our normal day, every single entrepreneur out there who is determined to succeed is focusing on their goal, studying their competition, learning the best techniques, keeping their skills sharp and their business muscles warm, ready to jump in when we see an angle that will get us to the next level of business success. And there may be a lot of commotion around us, but we’ve each figured out our ways to focus. For some of us, its music playing loudly in our ears; for others its the crash of waves against the beach nearby; for yet others its total silence that their private office brings. No matter what your thing is that helps you to focus, I know you’ve got it.

If you know what I mean, then I bet you are among the ones who will succeed. You might not win the championship today, or even next week. But you will reach your goals, whatever they may be.

Today is Leap Day. That crazy day that comes around only once every 4 years to catch up the calendar and that gets a lot of laughs when people give a 20 year old a 5th birthday party. But yesterday I realized that today is really a lot more than that! Someone asked a question on Facebook and it really made me think:

Where do you want to be in your life and business when the next Leap Day rolls around? That’s 4 long years. And so much can change in 4 years, its hard to think about sometimes!

So my message to you today is to take some time, reflect on your goals, how will those goals translate into Leap Day 2020? (Wow, 2020!?!) Will you still be in the same boat you are in now, or will your focus and determination take you far beyond what you can even fathom right now.

At the same time, remember that there is more to life than planning for the future. My high school wrestler will be 21 years old when Leap Day comes again. My little boy will be a teenager. And my grandbabies will be in preschool and kindergarten. (And there will likely be more of them!) Between now and then are the important moments that you can never get back no matter how much success you focus on. So hug your babies, enjoy the love of your life, and watch more sunsets or sunrises. Pause, breathe, and enjoy your life as it is now, not just as you hope it will be 4 years from now. That will make the times you focus even better too.

Happy Leap Day!

The value of a daily routine

Kim · January 16, 2015 · 4 Comments

A vitally important part of getting your business and your life organized is to start your day off right with a plan and to establish a daily routine!

I’m a bit of a morning person, and I get up before the sun, so my morning routine may not be ideal or normal…but it works for me. I thought I would let you know how my day goes. Just in case you ever wondered. 🙂

First thing I do is drink some water! I read a while back that water wakes up your organs and your body much better than caffeine ever would. So I start by finishing off the bottle of water that I have beside my bed or I fill a glass and drink it down. It works too! I am almost always wide awake within a couple of minutes.

Most people suggest you exercise and do all of these various things early in the morning, but I actually find my day goes best when I get right to work. Otherwise I get overwhelmingly stressed out with thoughts of all I need to be doing. I love to just jump right in early in the morning before the family wakes up. I enjoy the silence that rarely exists in my house at other times.

So I open up my laptop after I get settled in my favorite chair, with my feet on a footstool. (And my dog usually curled up on my feet. 🙂

First thing I do is visit my email inbox. I quickly scan for any urgent overnight messages. Barring that, I go down one by one and delete all the stuff I don’t want to be bothered with opening. That cleans up my inbox A LOT! There is no reason to let your day get bogged down with all the emails you are always signing up for. Some are important, and those will stand out. (So don’t delete them.)

Then I look for (and read, meditate on, etc) my daily scripture emails and the Proverbs 31 Ministries email devotional that are usually waiting for me at that time.

I check out any emails that have subject lines written well enough to actually grab my attention and were not banished immediately to the trash. (See, it IS important to write your headlines well!)

Then I begin to open client emails, responding where necessary, forwarding to my business manager as necessary, etc. In the process of this I am mentally organizing my day.

Some mornings I have a few quick tasks to do for my clients, so I get those out of the way right away.

If I have time, I start thinking about my blog post for the day and begin to draft that.

Or I will start working one of my day’s projects.

Around 7 am it is time for my son to get up and the daily argument about “yes, you DO have to go to school” begins. Sigh. This is also the exact time that my dog decides he needs to go outside. So work gets set aside, my son begins to wake up, I take my doggy out, admire the sunrise, pray, relax, and just generally enjoy the fresh air. (In the winter anyway…it’s much earlier in the summer that we go outside.)

We are usually walking out the door to take my boy to school around 7:40 or so. We drop him off and then many days my husband and I go out for breakfast together. We relax, talk, laugh, and have a “morning date” almost every day. It’s nice. 🙂

Then it’s time to get back to work. By this time, my inbox has filled back up, so I sort it out again, respond to what needs responded to, etc. I wipe out any small tasks, then start on my big project for the day. Today, for example, I am working on some LeadPages sales pages and autoresponders for one client and a telesummit site for another.

I usually work through till 1 or 1:30, with a short break or two in there sometime whenever my bladder or my dog dictate it. 🙂

Then its lunch time, take the dog for a walk time, etc. That usually ends the bulk of my work day until later in the afternoon. Sometimes my hubby and I will go out for lunch, but usually we eat a sandwich or something at home. We may go wander through a thrift store, or work on some projects around the house.

Keeping this sort of routine keeps my day grounded and keeps me focused. There is always room for flexibility of course. Some days I am just so tired, so I sleep in till almost 7. Other days I have a non-profit meeting at noon. Or there is an appointment of some sort. But you know what, that’s part of the reason I love being self-employed at home…and yes, that’s a whole other blog post!

So what is your daily routine? Share it in the comments below! Or better yet, write your own blog post about your routine and leave the link in a comment for others to read and learn from. 🙂