Month: January 2018

How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be in Life

How do you get from where you are to be where you want to be in life? Well for me what works best is talking small steps towards my goals.

When I was growing up I loved music and wanted to learn to play the guitar. I was fortunate enough to get a guitar for my birthday one year but then it was up to me to learn how to play it.

How did I learn how to play?

Well I listened to a song I wanted to play on repeat and would slowly test notes on the guitar until I found the right one and would repeat the process over and over again until I would eventually learn the song.

As I repeated this process I got to the pointed where I could hear a song and figure out how to play it within a few minutes.

“Repetition is the mother of all skill”

This is a concept I practice to this day. If I want to learn something I break it into small chuck and consume information how to do it then do it, learn from it and adjust.

This brings me to my point, last year I started doing 30 day challenges to help me get closer to my goals. I loved it so much that I have decided to do it again this year but instead of calling them 30 day challenges, I’m calling them Monthly Challenges since they’ll start and end with the months.

My goals this year are focused on health and to learn to market better. Here are my Monthly Challenges for the first half of the year.

  • Jan –  Meditation Every Morning – Learn Clarity and Focus
  • Feb – Short YouTube Video Every Day.  Learn to find my voice and story telling.
  • Mar – Facebook and Youtube Video Ads Testing.
  • Apr – Limit meat intake to 3 times per week.
  • May – Listen or read a Blinkist everyday
  • June – No challenge, take a vacation

 

2017 Review and Goals for 2018

2017 has come and gone in gone in what seems like a blink of an eye. As I sit down and write this post on New Years Day 2018 and reflect on the past year I am so thankful for everything I have been blessed with and my accomplishments in 2017.

2017 Goals Review and What I Learned

I went back and reviewed my goals for 2017 and will provide an update to how things went and what insight I have gained this year.

  • Consistently work out/ jog at least 3 times a week.
    This started out great at the first half of the year and the later half. I was doing the 7 min workout app or jogging consistently the 1st half of last year. I even did a 30 day challenge where I did the 7 minute workout everyday for 30 days. When summer vacation hit I slacked off and didn’t get back into the routine until the last few months of the year. Lesson Learned. If you fall of the horse get back on as soon as you can and don’t beat yourself up about. Your health should be priority number 1 over everything else.
  • Grow business by at least 15%
    I am very happy to say I grew SeedProd’s revenue by 18% last year. I did this through more product offerings, bundles and better marketing.
  • Finish becoming debt free.
    In December of 2018 I became 100% debt free include my mortgage. I go into detail on how and why I did this my Debt Free and it Feels So Good post.
  • Strategize an investment/retirement plan.
    I really did not do anything significant in this regards. I did think about actions I needed to take but did not act on any formal plan. This goal will roll over to this year. I will say my current investments did great this year.
  • Contribute more to my kids college funds.
    I contributed the same to my kids college funds and they are doing great. Both kids have a nice 5 figure fund so far and they are 3 and 7. However my opinion on college is changing as cost and the ROI of college seems to start to diminish. I went to college and graduated. I’d say I learned more from the experience as opposed to the actual education. As college costs increase kids are graduating with mountains of debt and working that glorious 9-5 job college’s promise take years just to break even. Check out this great podcast on why you lose money going to college. While I am a firm believing in education there are now many other ways to get that education. You can find in-depth knowledge on any topic you want on the internet. And most of the successful people I know own a business and most did not even go to college. So while I’ll still contribute to a fund for my kids of college. I will be teaching them to have an entrepreneurial mindset.
  • Never stop learning
    I read tons of books this year in the topics of Marketing, Business and Personal Development. I can’t rave enough about an app called Blinkist. It breaks down books to 15 minute reads or listens and pulls out all the good actionable stuff. I probably read a round 50 + Blinkist version books. As far as full books, podcast and conferences, courses I consumed in 2017.
    Books
    Tools of the Titans by Tim Ferriss
    The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy
    The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
    DotCom Secrets by Russell Brunson
    Email Marketing Demystified by Matthew PaulsonPodcasts
    MarketingSchool.io
    StartUps for the Rest of UsCourses
    Traffic MBA Facebook Video Ads Mastery
    Advanced Ecommerce Marketing Course

    Conferences
    Microconf
    WordCampUS

  • Focus on Learning Marketing Better
    I contribute my business growth this year from a lot of the tactics I learned from the above resources. I tend to hyperfocus when trying to learn something. I find the expert in that topic and consume.
  • Review goals monthly and writing more about my experience on this blog.
    I failed miserably at this. But this will be a top priority for this year. Sharing my knowledge.

In addition to these goals I did several months of 30 days challenges. Here’s a few I did.

March – no social media, FB can be toxic and most people are addicted to it and don’t even know it.
April – daily exercise, using the 7 minute workout I referred to above.
May – cold showers, I would turn the water as cold as I could get for about 20 seconds. Post forth coming on why this year.
July– daily meditation, used the Clam app, more to come on this as well.
August – read every night, no tv

So there you have it, not to mention I was so blessed in so many other ways in 2017. I was able to take my kids to Disney 3 times this year. Yes, we are Disney nerds. More to come on this as well. I have Disney down to a science and will share my strategy.

2018 Goals

On New Year Eve as I laid in bed prior to Midnight I was thinking about everything I wanted to do and accomplish this year. I hope I can recall everything because I had it perfect in my head 🙂

Anyway, here it goes… Ezra Firestone of Smart Marketer talks about the importance of having a motto to drive your Business and Life. So after doing to some reflecting and thinking here’s mine. Gratitude, Give and Grow. This is what will drive my goals for Business and Life going forward.

If you do some research of what actually makes people happy and gives you long-lasting joy you’ll see that gratitude and contributing back are driving forces. It’s crucial you also get clear on the difference between pleasure and joy as well. Pleasure is short, joy is long-lasting.

This year I plan to start my days ( I did this some in the past but this year everyday) with a morning ritual where I give gratitude through prayer and just focusing on things I am truly grateful for and happy about.

Most people focus on what they don’t have all the time. Try focusing on what you do have and see how that makes you feel.

In addition to gratitude I plan to add visualization to my morning ritual. I would have never became debt free or have a business, etc… if I hadn’t visualized these things. You have to know where you want to go to get there.

Meditation will also be a part of my morning ritual. I did a 30 day challenge this part year and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have a very busy mind as I’m sure most people do. Meditation helps calm a busy mind and build your focus and clarity muscle. Your ability to focus will determine how successful you are.

Also I’ll will be adding some form of exercise. Jogging or a workout. I’m not looking to become Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I am looking to become fit and healthy.

A major part of becoming healthy is your diet. This too will be a focus this year. More raw and less meat and processed. I made great strides in this last year. This year it’s a focus.

So the goal this year to is implement this morning ritual everyday and be mind and body health focused.

Up next my business. Just like every business, the goal is to grow. Last year I did a lot of consuming on the topic of marketing, this year will be focused more on implementing these things I have learned and blogging about the results.

In the department of giving back. This blog will become a lot more active this year I’ll document and share my knowledge and journey and hopefully will inspire other to achieve whatever it is they want in life.

Ultimately the goal is to be thankful for and enjoy my life, my family, friends, help others, to grow and enjoy the process. I also realize that I don’t have it all figured out, there is no such thing as perfection and that’s OK Gratitude, Give, Grow

Conclusion

So here’s to a great 2018 and remember there is no such thing as failure. Any situation you can label as a failure or as a painful you can find a lesson in if you look hard enough and apply it to the greater good. Cheers to you and to life!