On day 4 (or is this 5) of my 30 day chronicle of my life and biz… in an attempt at creating a ritual of writing everyday… I am scatterbrained as ever.

Here’s the deal…

I’m in the middle of this little launch in my real estate business… and it’s heavy on videos and audio that to tell you the truth… I’ve crammed the last week to really create for our readers.

As you know… my wife and I are buying our first house… and we’re having some little speedbumps that are keeping us from closing when we want to close… and these speedbumps are costing us a bunch of money, time, and headaches.

And…

I’m working on about 3 other projects that are all suffering a bit as of today.

Here’s why…

I Can’t Focus Right Now!

I wrote a post about the importance of focusing a while back and… just like all entrepreneurs… sometimes fall off the focus train and become completely scattered.

Today I’m in one of those modes… and it sucks a big one.

You know the feeling… you have a few projects going… get phone calls… have new fires come up… and all of the sudden you look back at your day and you see that you pretty much got a whole lotta nothing done.

For instance, today I recorded a podcast, got our next video for the rei site done, put out a couple fires… one of which is really eating at me right now (the one about the house and it closing later than we wished… and costing us a bunch of money)… and a couple other things.

Heck, I wasn’t even going to write this blog post today because I thought I didn’t have the time to do it… until I remembered that I had already publicly voiced that I’m going to write for 30 days straight and if I didn’t I would do something big that I really don’t want to do.

Here’s Where I Went Wrong Today

Okay, I finally sat down and reflected on the day a bit.  What made me less productive and more scattered today than usual?

Here we go…

• I went to bed late last night (2am) because I was pushing to get a client’s work done
• I woke up late because I’m the type of guy who has to get 8 hours of sleep or I’m total garbage the next day
• Waking up late pushed back my schedule and I didn’t go through my morning ritual like usual
• I started working BEFORE I wrote out my priorities for the day… and got off on tangents
• I ate breakfast late and still haven’t had a 2nd meal…

All in all, this is the perfect recipe for a very unproductive day and being scattered as heck like I have been today.

How You Too Can Have The Most Unproductive Day Ever

Here’s my simple 5 step roadmap so you too can have your most unproductive day ever.

1. Stay up late and do work that you hate doing… it’s really great for your energy and morale
2. Be sure to wake up as late as possible… then first thing go and open up your computer and check your email (the first thing you do everyday should always be getting distracted as heck by 92 emails in your inbox)
3. Forget about eating breakfast… in fact… forget about eating lunch too… because you’re too busy answering emails and putting out “fires”
4. Don’t plan anything at all… just work on whatever comes up and even then… most importantly don’t completely finish everything you start
5. Stare at the computer screen for 6 hours straight… it’s like the technology version of carrots… very good for your eyes and energizing as heck.

And a bonus step… to follow that day up with another awesomely unproductive day… be sure to stay on your computer all evening and after midnight… then repeat the whole process again.

I’m settling into my “new morning routine” of waking up early (tough to do when you’re a lone ranger internet marketer) and getting crap done early in the morning… it makes me feel better when I get up early… but it’s tough to create a new routine for pretty much anything in your life.

Anyhow, as I’m writing this this morning… I’m getting work done on my business… without actually having to do the things myself.  My Virtual Assistant is taking care of things for me.

You see… three months ago I had a breaking point in my online business.  I was spinning my wheels and pretty much getting nothing done everyday… but I was working hard as heck at it.  You know the gig.  You do EVERYTHING in your business… you find yourself buried in your computer for hours on end hacking your way through html, submitting articles and social bookmarks, etc.

The “busy work”.

Then… once I started to actually make some good money online (away from my offline marketing consulting)… I decided that something had to change… and what had to change was TAKING ME out of MY BUSINESS.

I Was Hurting My Own Business and Progress

So, here’s what I did.

Nothing special… crazy new… nothing like that.

I just took the advice that people were giving me for months on end and buckled up and finally hired my first virtual assistant.

Just like with anything… the first month is pretty much a wash as far as having the work my VA did for me actually take time off my hands.  The first month you have to train your VA, write up the processes for things you want them to do, and on and on.

But…

Once you get past that first month or two… and your VA passes the test… you’re on your way to being a REAL ENTREPRENEUR and having that entrepreneur lifestyle.

What I Outsource Right Now

Right now, I admit that I still suck at really handing off everything I should to my Virtual Assistant… just haven’t cut the umbilical cord on everything yet.

But, here’s what I have my own VA doing for me:

• Article posting
• Social bookmarking
• Editing videos
• Submitting videos to video sharing sites
• Creating podcasts and editing the podcasts
• etc.

Really… I want to start handing off even more tasks… I guess I just need to buckle down and really think of the things in my business that AREN’T FUN.  Truly… if you’re an entrepreneur you should be doing it because you enjoy doing it.  So, anything you don’t think is fun should be outsourced.  Period.

How To Know What To Outsource Yourself

Here’s what you need to do…

1. Write down the tasks that you’re currently doing yourself in your business throughout the day/week.
2. Write down how many hours you spend on each task every week/month.
3. Write down what you hope to make in income in the next 12 months… then divide that by 12… then by 30… then by 8 (basically compute your hourly income based on what you hope to make in the next 12 months).  For instance, if you hope to make $100,000 over the next 12 months… your hourly worth (figuring 8 hours a day… which is WAAAYYY to many hours to work a day is $34/hr.That’s the number that you value your own ti

   me at.  Anything that you can hire someone for less than that # should seriously be considered to be outsourced (for like $5 $10 an hour to a VA).

4. Then, take the 2 tasks that are taking up a ton of your time but worth the least to you as far as your time value.  Find a virtual assistant, draw up a process map for them to follow to complete those two tasks for you… and hire the VA for a couple weeks as a “trial run”.
5. IF you like the VA, stay with them and increase the hours as needed
6. If you don’t like the VA, keep looking until you find one that is great!

It’s really that simple.

Here Are Some Websites To Find Great Virtual Assistants

• www.elance.com  (bid type site)
• www.guru.com   (bid type site)
• www.agentsofvalue.com  (great company according to a friend of mine.  They’re based in the Philippines and charge about $5-$8 an hour)
• www.teamdoubleclick.com  (mostly based in the U.S… charge between $15-$30 an hour)

I found my current virtual assistant simply by typing in the type of VA I was looking for in Google.

At the time I was looking for a virtual assistant to do audio/video type stuff.  So I went to google and typed in “multimedia virtual assistants”… scrolled through a few sites… interviewed a few people… and went with the one that I felt the most comfortable with.

Really there’s no science to this. You just need to buckle down and make the decision that you’re going to find a virtual assistant for x number of hours a week and run a week or two trial until you find a VA you like.  Spend the $100 it takes to hire a VA for a few projects and get after it.

Do what you love to do and what you think is fun… have someone else do the other stuff… that’s what being an entrepreneur is all about… it’s not about doing everything you can in your biz.  Sound good?

Let me know your thoughts and questions.

Okay, for quite a while now I’ve been saying that I’m going to start working more and more away from the home office and at other places like Starbucks and other places around the city.

Well… I’ve finally been forced to do it for a whole week and I’ll report on it as I go… and I already have a feeling I’ll be doing it a lot more when I get back from my road trip.

But, first… I want to get out my first impressions and what I’ve learned so far this week in working remotely.  All in all… I love it… but there are both downfalls and big positives which I’ll pass onto ya as I find them.

Here are a few…

Why Working Remotely Is A Great Thing…

1. The music is pretty cool (listening to Bob Marley right now… great for creativity!)
2. The change of scenery and location gets the creative juices flowing… it’s good to break up the routine every now and then
3. Your office follows you where ever you go… and there’s a billion places with free internet access (even Starbucks… to a point .
4. I’m getting a bunch more done… way more productive today.  I think it’s mostly because I had an iced coffee and it gave me a bit of a buzz .
5. It gets you out of the house or office… and into the real world where you interact with more people.

So far, I really love working remotely… but I have a feeling that I’ll have to find 4 or 5 different places to rotate between to break up the “routine” once again.

Okay… working remotely isn’t all roses.  Here’s a bit I found that I don’t really like all that much.

Why Working Remotely Can Be A Pain In The Arse…

1. Can’t control your environment totally. If you’re in a Starbucks (or a small computer repair/internet cafe like me today in Roseburg, Oregon… small town), you’re in someone elses environment… and they for the most part control it.  For instance, right now I’m in this little place in Roseburg (my wife has a job interview today in Roseburg… so I’m working from the road)… and there is a lot of talking in the background because there is a customer who just brought in a computer for repair.  No biggie… but it is background noise I can’t control.
2. Finding free internet access can be tough sometimes. Internet isn’t always free out there… especially if you’re in a small town.  As I said, I’m passing through a small town in Oregon right now and the choices are pretty slim for wifi spots.  There are two Starbucks here… but both are in grocery stores and aren’t all that nice.  So, I just drove until I saw an “Internet Cafe” sign and went on in.  This particular place cost me $5 for the whole day… and I got a “free” iced coffee out of the deal.  So, I found a cool place… but it took me 20 minutes to find it.
3. It’s not totally private… so I have to walk outside for some phone conversations.  Earlier today I had to take a call with a client where we were talking about semi-sensitive stuff (not FBI stuff… but things that the whole world shouldn’t know).  Of course, I had to walk outside to talk to him and it’s almost 100 degrees today!  Also, there are a couple video screen capture projects I need to get done but I don’t want to slap on my headset microphone and start talking with my “radio voice” right in the middle of this little place.
4. The connection sometimes sucks. Even if you have wireless broadband… the connection can be in and out sometimes and really ticks me off.  Cross my fingers, but for the past 3 hours my connection has rocked… but for the first hour I was here it went in and out about 7 times.  So, be prepared to have to fiddle with your connection every now and then if you’re on the “house” wifi network.

That’s about it for now.

Tomorrow I’ll be down in Medford, Oregon (town of about 100k in Southern Oregon)… and will be searching for a Starbucks tomorrow morning to get a bit of work done.  I’m actually excited about it… cause this really is the “internet lifestyle” (read my “lifestyle entrepreneurship” article) and I’m loving it.

By the way… I may start to report every month on my progress in my different business endeavors so you can see what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, and how profitable it is for me.  For instance, last month I created another $800/month in recurring revenue (an additional $800/month) that pumps out to me whether I work or not… I know when I got started that I wanted to know this exact same stuff… so I’ll pass on the wealth.

Hey, I know I’m a bit behind the curve in the whole mobile working thing… but what are your experiences in working remotely?  Where do you like to work at?  What are your tips for being more productive when working remotely?

Okay, as you can see… I’ve been away from my personal blog for quite a while now (wayyyyy tooooo loooonnnggg).

Really, there’s no good excuse.  But, let me fill you in to what the heck I’ve been up to that has pulled me away from my personal blog.

Just a quick note:

I’ve said it time and time again that your own personal brand is possibly even more important than the brand of your company (not in all cases).  If you are a consultant, marketer, employee, etc… your personal brand is huge and should be constantly built over time.  As you see… I’ve neglected my personal brand in exchange for building the brand of another company of mine… and to tell you the truth… it feels terrible!

Okay, What The Heck Trevor Mauch Has Been Up To…

Don’t pay attention to my "3rd person" title.  Every now and then the 3rd person just seems to fit right.

Anyhow, over the past month or so I’ve been crazy busy.

1. Relaunch Of The REI Brain, my real estate investing website – I started The REI Brain (The Real Estate Investors Brain) back in 2006 as a little hobby.  First it was a crappy little website that I designed myself and threw up there with information that I’d learned in my own real estate investing endeavor.   Actually, Alexa still shows the old crappy design as the image for my site (how long does it take for the image to be updated… anyone know?).

   Anyhow, for the past several months I’ve been working on launching a new redesign of the site to bring it up to date now that there’s a good bit of traffic to the site now (over 70k pageviews a month).  Well… we just launched the new design (with the help of two awesome wordpress designers)… and right now I’m just working out the kinks and selling ad space like crazy.

   Check out the site << … and let me know what you think!

2. Finalizing Projects With Consulting Clients –

   Technically, right now most of my income comes from my consulting projects.  Small to medium sized companies who already have websites… but are struggling to make them drive the new clients in the door like they want, hire me to dissect their overall web presence, develop a plan to effectively market their website online (using a lot of "Web 2.0" stuff), and execute that plan.

   Anyhow, so I can focus more on my own projects I’ve decided to cut back a bit on my consulting so only about 25% of my income is consulting… and the rest is from my own internet ventures.  I’ve heard it said a few times before… the best SEO’s don’t consult… they can make more money optimizing their own websites than they can getting paid to optimize other people’s websites.  This is sooooo true.

   To me, for an internet marketing and SEO consultant… I make way more money when I apply what I know to benefit my own online businesses.  The economic model just isn’t working for me as well as a consultant unless I were to hire a staff to run the consulting company… so I could spend more time on my own projects.  I’m not sure I’m ready for that.

3. Golfing Waaayyy Too Much –

   Well… I guess I shouldn’t say way too much.  You can never get too much golf… can you?  I’ve been volunteering at a local municipal golf course here in Lake Oswego (Oregon) in exchange for free golf.  I work only 3 hours a week… but get free golf the whole summer.  Pretty good trade off for me… and I get to meet a ton of new and interesting people.

   The other day I recorded a bunch of video with my Flipcam while I was at the driving range to see what I could correct in my swing… man… after watching that video I found a couple things that will instantly change my game… I’ll keep you posted.

4. Family Stuff –

   If you don’t know me… I’m married (2 years this year) and don’t have any kids yet.  My wife is graduating from graduate schoole next month so I’m helping her wrap up some things with her school and helping to plan a little lunch get together for family after graduation.  That doesn’t take all that much time… but it’s definitely high on the priority list.

   Also, I just got back from camping in the high lakes of Oregon with cousins… and am heading to the Oregon Jamboree next week… heading down Bend and Roseburg, Oregon to go on job interviews with my wife (she’s graduating as a Physician’s Assistant) in two weeks… heading back down to Southern Oregon to camp at Emigrant Lake with family again… then after that it should be quite for a bit (I hope).

   This is what entrepreneurship is all about… doing what you want… when you want.  I wouldn’t ask for anything else.

Other than that… I’ve just been doing some "behind closed doors" projects that we’ll release later in the year in the real estate investing world.  I’m really excited about that… I’ll let you know when it’s time.

Whew!

Okay… to tell you the truth.  I really don’t expect you to care about why the heck I’ve been a slacker on this blog.  Bottom line is that I’ve been slacking big time and there’s no excuse for it.

I think a big reason for the "slackage" (I’ve trademarked that word… don’t use it is that I haven’t focuses the topic of this blog down enough. It makes it way harder to write great content when I really don’t have a specific aim behind the blog other than to promote my own brand.

The Future

The future of this blog will be two fold:

1. To further build up my own personal brand
2. To chronicle my entrepreneurial ventures, ramblings, and "life wisdom" that I pick up as I go

In the past I think I tried a bit too hard to be everything to everyone as far as marketing and the internet goes.

Guess what!  I’m not all that great at a ton of things!

So I’m going to stop writing about things that don’t put that fire in the pit of my stomache… those things that other people are way better at and that I’m just mediocre at (like web design, offline marketing, etc.).

From now on, I’m ONLY going to write about things that really inspire me and get me out of bed in the morning.

Things like:

• Entrepreneurship and helping others break the entrepreneurial hamsterwheel
• Internet marketing for honest, ethical, and cool people
• A bit of search engine optimization advice (since I’ve had a pretty damn good track record of cracking competitive search terms effectively)
• Life success ramblings as I learn the "game of life".  People can always learn from the mistakes and successes of others… so I want to share mine with the world to see if I can help to make a difference (no matter how small) in someone’s life

That’s it.

Be on the lookout… over and out!

It has taken me quite a while to learn this simple of the simplest of things in life and business.

But… once I started to pull my head out of my @$$ and realize that I had a whole heck of a lot going for me… things really started to turn around in a big way.

For me it’s simple…

Whatever the heck is good about your life… show big ol’ amounts of gratitude each and every day for what you have… and what you will have.

I’m not really talking about THINGS. Ya, you should be thankful for the car you drive, the house you live in, and all of those other little luxuries of life (ya… your house is a luxury… think about how people live in Africa and other places like that… yes… your house is luxury).

What I’m really talking about is to be thankful for the stuff that is here when all of the extra stuff (car, money, nice house, etc.) is gone.

We as a society need to be way more thankful about our family, friends, health… and if we’re a business owner… about our customers and the fact that they are placing their trust in us to help them get from where they are to where they want to be.

That’s what it’s all about. People helping people live better lives… and people being thankful for what they have and grateful for the important things in life.

Gratitude + Attitude = Latitude

That little formula above is one that really works… and in a big way. As far as I know… I invented that formula (I haven’t seen it anywhere else anyway)… so don’t go claiming it as your own or I’ll send some internet voodoo your way (just kidding).

But… I made that formula up to illustrate a point and to give myself two main points to work on each and every day.

1. Gratitude: Please… please… please… be grateful for what you have. Be grateful for the talents you have been blessed with, the health for you and your family, the food you have to eat, the friends you have, your customers, your competitors… be grateful for simply being around to experience your life to the fullest. Without gratitude life just sucks… and you really get wrapped up in the things that really don’t mean a whole lot in the whole scheme of things.
2. Attitude: For me…success and having fun is all about attitude. If you think life sucks… I can guarantee you that life surly will suck. If you think it’s impossible to make $1,000,000 a year (if that’s a goal of yours)… it most definitely will be impossible for you. However, as soon as you start to take a positive outlook on things and look for the good in everything… you’ll see things begin to change a whole lot for the better. By nature I’m a pretty positive guy. People actually get pissed quite a bit about how positive I am and just doesn’t understand how I can always turn “bad” things into something positive for myself. I guess it’s just how I’m wired. But, for me… it’s simple. We only get one spin here on this earth… and every second I spend with a negative attitude or with thoughts that don’t make me feel happy… are seconds wasted out of my life that don’t get me 1 inch closer to where I want to be. Negativity is cancer. So, I make the conscious decision to be positive about pretty much everything… and find a way to feel happy all of the time. Hey, why not?
3. Latitude: To tell you the truth… I picked the word “latitude” because it rhymed with the other two words. But, when you really think about it… it fits in quite nicely. For me, latitude is freedom… it represents choices… the ability to basically do what you want. Who doesn’t want that? To me, that’s what life is about. The only thing is… I never really was able to have freedom and to do what I wanted to do until I started to be grateful for what I had and to until I really made sure I looked at things with a positive attitude. If you think about it… this same formula works pretty darn well if you use the opposites of these words.
   

Ungrateful + A Bad Attitude = Restriction

As soon as you start to be ungrateful about things and have a crappy attitude… your options start to close up and you don’t let yourself see the true picture of the kind of life you can really lead.

Hmmm…

So, how grateful are you of the people in your life?

How grateful are you for the skills you’ve been given?

How grateful are you for your health?

How grateful are you for your business and your customers?

Do me a favor and at least for today out loud (or in an email, IM, or over Twitter) let the people in your life (including customers) know how grateful you are to have them in your life.

And… to whatever higher power you believe in… express your gratitude for what you’ve been given and for what you are going to be given.

It feels so good and always comes back to you 10 times more in the end.

Oh… big props to Gary V. for inspiring this post in this video. If you’re not hooked on to the Gary V. train… get going so you can learn from one of the best.

Have you ever heard the saying that “bad habits are hard to break”? I’m sure you have… haven’t we all?

I can tell you from personal experience that bad habits are incredibly hard to break (still find myself chewing my nails from time to time… putting dishes in the sink instead of right in the dishwasher… forgetting to get a receipt for everything so I can write it off… etc.).

But…

What’s even harder in my opinion is creating good habits and getting those good habits to stick.

Is this you?

When was the last time you made a new years resolution?

Probably a few months ago huh? Well… have you stuck with that resolution? I mean really stuck with it and have it ingrained so deeply as a part of your life now that you can’t imagine living any other way?

If you’re like 95% of the rest of the population… I’d place my money on the line and bet that you dropped that good habit not too long after you started it.

Am I right? Hey, I do this too. There are a ton of good habits that I wouldn’t mind picking up… but it’s not as easy to put into action as it is to flap your lips about.

Here’s how I stick with my good habits… and make sure they stick

I’m the first guy to say that sticking to good habits and getting rid of bad habits takes a bit of work. When I was in high school, I remember my baseball coach telling me that I had a flaw in my swing that needed to be worked out.

For a couple weeks I did the drills like mad every single day… and kept finding myself slipping back into my old ways ever now and then when my body would forget about the new good habit I was trying to work into my swing.

I kept getting pissed at myself every day because I thought I’d be able to change my swing forever in that first day…

… I was wrong.

After about the 3rd week… my coach told me something that I never really thought of.

He said, “From my experience, the human body and brain don’t ingrain something into everyday practice until you do that thing 70 times in a row the RIGHT WAY. ”

So, what he was saying was that it takes time and a consious effort to make a lasting change… you can’t do it overnight… your body and brain just don’t change that easily when it comes to changing or adopting a new behavior.

Let’s translate that to real life…

Okay, you know I’m a baseball nut (it took up 22 years of my life!)… so for me that example I just told you is a good analogy… but hey… you may hate baseball and want it related to real life a bit better.

Recently a good friend of mine and fellow Portland marketing guy, Eric Albertson wrote a great newsletter on this same topic.

In short, his newsletter spelled out the same things I just said… but he put a different number on it… and I completely agree w/ him and have noticed it in my life time and time again.

Eric says, real lasting change usually doesn’t take place until you have practiced it religiously for 90 days.

The 90 Day Rule…

Think about it for a sec. Think of any big change you made in your life or business that has stuck until today… then think of the ones that you hoped would stick but didn’t.

Of the ones that didn’t stick... how many of those goals did you give up on before 90 days of religious execution… I mean day in day out without fail…??? My guess would be that if you truly did execute on your goal every single day for 90 days… and didn’t stray off course… that thing would be sticking like duct tape on a hot barbecue (I just made that up… don’t tease me too much about how corny that is .

And…

If you didn’t stick to it for 90 days… you subconsciously told your brain that you really don’t give a crap about that goal enough to stick with it… so your brain followed your subconscious lead and gave up.

The rule is pretty darn basic:

• Stick with something for 90 solid days… and odds are that it will stick and be ingrained in your everyday life from then on.

Think about it… can you imagine making it past the 30, 60, and 90 day marks doing that activity each and every day… and being able to give up on it? I can’t. If you can go for 90 straight days… it would be a bit time bummer to give up on it now… wouldn’t it?

30 days is a good barometer too. If you can do something everyday for 30 days straight… odds are that you’ll probably stick with it. For most people, if you do something everyday for 30 days and you start seeing good results… wouldn’t it be crazy to stop doing something that you’ve already proven you can do?

It sure would.

But, for me… the 30 day mark isn’t all that powerful because in most anything worthwhile… you probably won’t see huge measurable results in just 30 days. It usually takes more time to see life changing measurable results… like between 60-90 days.

So, while 30 days is a great feat… many people will not see the results they were expecting and give up saying, “this crap doesn’t work… I’ve been doing it for 30 days and this is all I have to show for it!”.

So… 90 days it is.

Yep, simple as that. Just do something for 90 straight days and you’ll be set.
… Ya right!

Simple, Yes. Easy, Not Always.

Why most people give up almost every time…

There are a billion reasons why people rationalize giving up on their goals… or even on small things that will help them improve their business or lives.

But, in my opinion most people don’t make it to 90 days because of a few things:

• They expect miracle results in just 30 days… and if they haven’t seen those results in 30 days… “this crap just doesn’t work”.
• They don’t pick the things that they can see the most improvement on to work on first.
• They aren’t clear on what the heck they really want… why they want it… and how important to their life it is that they get it.

So it all boils down to clarity, low hanging fruit, and realistic expectations coupled with long-term vision.

How to make your goals and “good habits” stick…

Here’s a simple little formula that I use to make my good habits and goals stick in business and in life.

1. Choose the 5 most important changes you want to make in your life and business
2. Write down the steps that it will take to make those changes/reach those goals… and the timeline you think you can reach the goal in
3. Use the 80/20 rule to pick the 1 to 3 goals/changes that you can see the most improvement over a 90 day period in. For instance, what activities will provide the most bang for their buck (time and energy investment)?
4. Build those 1 to 3 things into your life each and every day… and even set reminders for yourself multiple times a day to do those activities that will help you get there.
5. At the end of every day… look at your journal (if you don’t have a journal… get one… trust me!) and write down what it felt like to move toward your goal and what you can do better tomorrow.
6. Do that for 90 days… and after a while it will become second nature and you won’t even have to remind yourself to do it. It’s now ingrained in YOU… and you can concentrate on improving another part of your life or business for the next 90 days.

To me, things should be done in time chunks. 90 days is a great length of time for many goals… and most activities or behaviors can be easily ingrained in your day to day routine after 90 days of religious execution.

The disclaimer…

I don’t want to be a late night infomercial guy and tell you that all you have to do is sit on your ass, do this thing one time, and your life will change for ever (but if you buy now… I’ll give you your second miracle for free… you just have to call within the next 4.5 seconds .

Any lasting change that is worthwhile will take a bunch of time and effort on your part to make it happen.

But hey…

If it’s really worth it… don’t you think that you should find any way you can to stick with something for just 90 days? Imagine… 90 days from now you can completely turn your life or business around if you just focus on 1 to 3 areas that you want to see improvement on… and work on those every single day for 90 days.

Crazy stuff what focus and clarity does. Try it out. If you stick with it for 90 days and it doesn’t work… I’ll refund everything you paid for this advice.

Let me know your strategies for making things stick? What do you do?

Oh… before we go.

Think about this for a second. 99% of your competition won’t make the effort to use this 90 day rule. They might fudge and go 30 or 45 days… but only 1% of YOUR COMPETITION will actually follow through with something for a full 90 days.

This is your opening… you are either 90 days away from a totally different life or business… or 90 days away from looking back at today wondering why the heck you didn’t listen to this dude yap away on his blog.

Where will you be in 90 days??

It seriously took me a few years to figure this out… but I truly can’t imagine life any other way now.

What is it that has made this huge difference in my life and my successes so far?

Just a simple measly little hour.

You know how your mom always told you that you need a good breakfast to start the day off right? And how the “health gurus” say that breakfast is the most important meal?

Man… I do. If you know me… you know I’m a sports guy. Played baseball all my life (up through college anyway… not anymore , love golf now, and work out almost everyday. When I don’t eat a good meal in the morning the rest of my day is plain shot.

Is that the secret I couldn’t imagine living without?

Lol, nope. But…

Very similar.

The thing I couldn’t live without (or at least function like a productive and creative human being) is my morning routine.

Some people call it fancy names like “the hour of power” (cough… cough… Tony Robbins), “morning mind ritual”… but for me it’s just a routine that I’ve noticed when I do it… I’m productive, clear minded, positive, and get a ton of stuff done.

When I don’t do it… I stray off course easily, have a tough time getting focused in the first place, and have a plain ol’ attitude that isn’t really all that positive.

So, for me… this simple hour I call my morning routine is really just like that “eat a good breakfast” saying (actually, eating a good breakfast is part of my routine too). It starts the day off right and really sets the stage for what the rest of the day will be like.

So, what’s a part of my morning routine?

For a few years I would go in and out of having a steady morning routine. Sometimes I would get up early thinking that was the key (it really isn’t for me)… sometimes I would try to meditate for a while… sometimes I would just write out a little plan for the day.

None of these things really worked for me so I could stick with it every single day.

But, a little while back I simplified it. Before then I was trying to be too rigid with my routine and it just wasn’t working well for me.

So, I sat down and started to log the things that produced GOOD results for me… and the things that produced BAD results for me in the mornings to make me more productive and happy.

The Good:

• Meditating for 5-10 minutes – Nothing too heavy. Just clearing the mind for a few minutes really got me so I could think clearly and focus right away.
• Exercise – Once again… nothing too heavy. Get the blood pumping a bit and get some oxygen in the blood. This is where I come up with some of my best thoughts.
• Eat a good breakfast - This is huge for me… really gives my body the fuel it needs to start things off right. When I don’t eat a good breakfast I’m toast for the rest of the day.
• Drink a glass of cold water and pop the vitamins
• Read for 10-15 minutes… usually something that inspires me to start the day
• Write out my top priorities for the day

The Bad:

• Getting more than 8 hours of sleep – I love my sleep… but when I get more than 8 hours it just seems like I’m tired the whole day. 7 hours is great… but right at 8 hours is perfect for me… no more.
• Reading my email before 9am – The first thing I used to do was get up, turn on the computer… and read the email as I was eating a bowl of cereal. Man, I found out that this really shot to hell my morning… and made me extremely unproductive.
• Getting on twitter before 9am - I love my twitter… but it’s so addictive that it is a huge productivity killer that I just can’t check it until after I’ve done my morning routine anymore. (hey, if you’re not following me… do it… you know you should!)
• Not creating a plan for the day and making priorities – If you’d ask my wife… I’m not a guy who normally likes to plan things to the hilt. But… when it comes to business and being productive… I’ve found out that not planning out things really is a killer to getting stuff done. Not planning = wasting away the day (only takes 5 minutes… if you’re not… DO IT!).

So, I basically kept the things that are GOOD for my productivity, happiness, and sanity… and got rid of the things that are BAD for my productivity, happiness, and sanity.

Sounds simple huh?

Here’s my morning routine

1. Wake up, shake off the cob webs and go have a glass of clean, cold water... and pop some multi-vitamins. The water helps to wake me up and hydrates my body for the rest of the day.
2. Do about 20 minutes of light exercise just to get my blood pumping. This one is huge for me. When I don’t do this… my productivity is crap for the rest of the day. Nothing fancy… do some sit ups, push ups, walk outside/run in place inside, jumping jacks… whatever. Just something to get my blood pumping… not necessarily to sweat. This exercise is more to get my mind working right… not to build muscles.
3. Eat a good breakfast. Whether it be a bowl of raisin bran with a banana, scrambled eggs, omlet, oatmeal, etc. I just need something healthy in my gut or I’m a slug for the rest of the day.
4. A bit of meditation… like 5-10 minutes. I know, I know… meditation huh? Man, I used to be weirded out by that word too and thought it was only for people who wore purple robes and had shaved heads. But, when I started to do it… I realized that this stuff really works. You don’t have to do anything fancy… just sit in a quiet place… close your eyes… relax… and try to think about nothing for a while. Clear your mind. Maybe visualize your goals and the awesome stuff you’ll be doing that day. Works like a charm.
5. Read for 10-15 minutes. After I clear my mind I like to read for a few minutes. Usually it’s the latest book I bought from Borders (business, motivation, marketing, etc.). For me, this little time of reading helps me to get my brain to focus on things and to get my creativity juices flowing.
6. Write out a quick snapshot of how I’d like the day to go w/ priorities. This is key for me. I look through my journal and see what projects I have on my plate, what I accomplished and didn’t accomplish the day before, what I need to do today to accomplish my goals… and what things are highest on my list of priorities. Simple. Now I know what I’m going to do today and have something to measure my actual results against. Without measurement you can never get better.

That’s it. Simple stuff huh?

But, once I started to do this little hour (give or take a few minutes) morning routine… my productivity and happiness shot up.

I can almost guarantee you that your morning ritual is probably a bit different than mine… and it should be. But, the key is to figure out what you do when you have a very productive and happy day… what you do when you don’t have a productive and happy day…

… and get rid of the stuff that drags you down and fit the things that help you start the day off right into a morning ritual.

The key to making your morning ritual stick

Really, your morning ritual will stick only when you have truly banished the things that drag you down in the morning out of your routine. Until then, it will be tough to stick to it because your results will be inconsistent.

So, every single day you should write down what has a positive effect on your productivity and happiness… and what has a negative effect. Then, every day… work on replacing a bad activity with a good activity… and do this every single day until your morning routine is second nature… and you wonder what the heck you would do if you didn’t have this routine in place.

Try it out… let me know how it goes.

Hey, do you have a morning routine that works for you? What is it? Leave a comment below.