Secret OWL Society: What makes life work

Showing posts with label What makes life work. Show all posts

How to Stick to the Books You Know You Need to Read

Look at your bookshelf. Chances are, there is really only a small handful of books that you know are more than a little crucial for you to read right now - in terms of getting the information you need to take life/business/goals to the next level.

Sometimes, the books that we really need to read are the hardest ones to pick up. Maybe it's because we're afraid to have our excuses taken away for why we aren't taking action we should be taking.

This is when you need to ask yourself WHY you need and want to read and work through a particular book. You need to identify HOW it is going to help you.

To do this:

- Get that book, a pen, and a Post-It Note (I prefer the 4x6 ones).

- Imagine the life you will live, the person you will become as a result of having applied the wisdom of that book to your life/business/mindset.

- Write it down on the Post-It Note.

- Stick the Post-It Note on the inside cover of the book.

Now, every time you open the book, read what you wrote first and you'll get even more excited about what you're about to learn, apply, do, be, and have - all as result of the 15-30 minutes that you are going to spend reading your book every day.

What do you think of this tip?

Tell me what you're currently reading and give a quick tidbit on how you want your book to change you and your life.

New Year's Mastermind Meeting Printable

It's New Year's Eve here on Guam and my Mastermind group and I just had a special year review and 2014 goal setting meeting last night. I put together a quick printable to help guide us along.

Just click on the printable to view and print. :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

How to Design Your Own Life Binder

My Life Binder is a map of my life and when I open it, I'm able to "point" and say, "I am here."

I created this out of the need to have something that gave me a tangible way to measure my progress from Point A (where I am now) to Point B (where I want to be) in all the different areas of my life and all in one organized place.

I didn't want a million notebooks, sticky notes, paper, apps, Word docs, etc. I wanted something simple and cohesive that I would enjoy using.

Et voila! The Life Binder was born.

You improve what you measure.

You develop what you focus on.

I bought a regular 3 ring binder with plastic sleeves on the outside to insert a dream board as the cover of my Life Binder.

I also made sure that the inside of the binder's covers had pocket sleeves for holding paper and note pads. On the sleeve itself, I taped the sticky notes and tabs for immediate access.

To make these category dividers, I bought a stack of scrap book paper and cut it to be the same size as a regular sheet of paper. Here, I simply wrote in the different sections of my binder with a Sharpie marker and decorated it with washi tape. The numbered, colored tabs attached to each section are from some other office supply system - I just cut the tabs off and taped them to my own system! I also inserted these dividers into plastic slips to keep them neat.

The first section is where I keep my schedule and plans for the month and the week.

This is my number one favorite tool for planning my week. See how to use it HERE.

The Life Binder is a great place to keep dream boards and your goals so that you can keep looking at them.

Have fun with your Life Binder. There aren't any rules, except make sure that it works for you - in other words, you keep using it and it helps you design the life you want to live and keep "it all together."

Next section: MY GOALS!

Again, this is made out of scrap book paper material and washi tape. My binder didn't start out this pretty and put together. I just kept improving it.

Another dream board!

As I come across ideas, I find a way to make them tangible enough to put in my life binder right away. When something goes in my binder, it's like I'm affirming to myself, "This is important. I'm going to work on this."

The above pic is a ONE SHEET LIFE PLAN. It's an idea I got from Robin Sharma. Make a one page plan of what you want your life to look like and read it every day. The one I did here is for what I want my life to look like when I turn 30 - 4.5 years from now.

What I like about the Life Binder System is that these kind of things don't get lost in some random notebook.

And What Makes Life Work!

Again, if you are not keeping track of something, you're not going to stay on top of it. This section in my binder makes my life easier.

Look! A quote I like.

So under the What Makes Life Work section is a page for all my passwords. This definitely makes my life easier.

Gratitude. Gratitude makes life work.

I keep a page that I keep adding to as I figure out what makes my life work better so that I can remind myself to keep doing these things. For example, having clothes made for me instead of wasting time and money trying to shop for clothes in stores, works for me and I want to keep doing this and not default back into shopping at stores.

This piece is important. Every month, I track any significant accomplishments I've had. It helps me realize that even though some goals are taking longer to happen than I'd like, I'm still making awesome progress overall!

I have a daily method of operation that I strive to make second nature.

This section is for the projects I'm working on. Any ideas, articles, notes go here.

So, for example, for the Secret OWL Society project, I can keep print-outs of something I want to read and put into practice to help me with this particular project.

And financial peace is something I am working on in my life. This is where I keep track of my budget, income streams, money goals.

A helpful money article with advice I want to follow.

A printable to help me keep track of set monthly expenses.

Yeah, I drew that.

A section to keep track of my business goals, activity, and milestones. Very important.

This is a printable from Darren Hardy and his book The Compound Effect. It's in my binder because I get to keep coming back to it and scoring my performance in the different areas of my life. I'm thinking of creating something similar for OWL that helps people track the level of responsibility that they are taking in their lives. We all want to work on taking 100% responsibility, don't we?!

I keep track of the people that I am helping and giving value to here. All of us should be working on developing a team of like minded individuals around us that we can DO life with and link arms with and succeed together.

Ooo, yet another dream board!

This section can include random articles that I printed out from the web for reading up on later.

There you have it! A work of art, love, time, focus.

Just ask yourself: what are you doing now to measure the progress you're making toward the life you want to live overall?

Don't wait to make your own and don't stop working on it. As long as you're improving and changing, your Life Binder should be improving and changing along with you. It's really a reflection of my life. I feel like when I am spending time working on my Life Binder, I am really working on my life.

Have any questions? Leave a comment. I will answer you. Here to help. :)

Treat your network like gold

One of the most important lessons I've learned about what makes life work (especially if you are an entrepreneur), is the importance of making contacts and staying in touch.
But what does doing that look like in day-to-day reality?
I found that just collecting people's business cards was not helping me build relationships with my new contacts. I knew I needed to find a solution because the one thing that I kept hearing super successful business people say is that their list of contacts was their most valuable asset.
And then I found "base."
In short, I love this program/app because when I enter the info on a contact I can...

1) Tag the contact under a label I create: OWL member, Simply Clean client, France Contact, etc. This means that by clicking on a tag, all the contacts with that specific tab pop up. This is helpful when I want to do something like send all my OWL members an email to the next workshop.

2) Make a note for the contact. I do this mainly to make sure I remember how I know/met the person.

3) Schedule an action for the contact. I love this because when the day comes that I need to do something regarding a specific contact, I get an email reminding me of what I planned to do.

I learned from master networker Harvey MacKay that we should be adding people to our list of contacts every day and finding a creative way to stay in touch. The first step to doing this is setting yourself up so that at the end of the day or week, you can take all those scribbled notes and business cards and input them into a rolodex that helps you manage your business and life in a productive, efficient way.

Designing a successful life comes down to the relationships you build with the people that become a part of your network. So treat those names, phone numbers, and emails like gold.