Pretty unusual title for a blog, right? It’s personal. I will explain.
But let me start with a few questions.
Did you know that 15 minutes is roughly 1% of your day?
Did you also know that 15 minutes of planning each day can save you four hours? It is the 15:4 rule.
Based on the previous fact, you can easily surmise that 30 minutes is roughly 2% of your day.
Did you know that the American Heart Association suggests 30 minutes of moderate exercise is good for you to maintain health? Your physical and mental health depend so much on exercise that not getting enough is considered one of the 10 major risk factors for death worldwide.
So, in this article, I want to concentrate on a total of 3% of our day.
1,172: that is the number. I said I would explain…
Fictional character Forrest Gump ran 1,172 consecutive days (3 years, 2 months, 14 days, and 16 hours) in the movie of the same name. So, who is chasing Forrest Gump?
I am. But I did not start out that way.
On October 20th, 2018, with the milestone of my 60th birthday looming only six months away, I thought to myself, “I need to shake things up a bit. I need a new set of goals.” I set two goals that day that would help me in business and in health:
I would wake up and plan for 15 minutes every day before looking at my phone or the computer.
I would workout 30 minutes per day for 500 straight days. Run one day, weights the next.
As far as the 15 -minute planning goal, I have moved that to the night before. Before I leave my office, I make sure I write down my Urgent & Important tasks as well as my Important/Not Urgent tasks illustrated below.
To be fair, the second goal is not new to me. In 2015, I set a goal to work out every day for 100 days, which coincidently landed on my 55th birthday. After achieving the 100 days, I then moved the goal to 200, then 300, then the entire year. I finished with 368 straight days, which drove me to set the goal of 500.
At Butler Street, we are firm believers that The Four Cornerstones of Success®--Attitude, Personal Accountability, Perseverance, and Habit are foundational to success in sales, recruiting, leadership and life.
By the time this blog is published and barring unforeseen health issues, I will be at 701 of 1,172 days or about 60% of the way there. It is The Four Cornerstones of Success® that have guided me:
1. Attitude—positive visualization. If you can see it, you can achieve it.
2. Personal Accountability: between my Apple Watch and Excel, I have recorded every workout and continuously track my progress. My coach used to say,
“If you’re not keeping score, you’re only practicing.”
3. Perseverance: leveraging Attitude and Personal Accountability enables me to persevere by making it a priority. As an integral part of my planning process, I block workout time on my calendar either first thing in the morning or during the day.
4. Habit: is the culmination of the three previous Cornerstones. We are a culmination of our habits—good and bad. Our training clearly states it takes 21 days to form a habit and 66 days to make that habit “muscle memory” where you do it automatically.
Let’s face, Covid-19 has really rocked our world. What doesn’t break us makes us stronger! Use this time to rise up. Set short, incremental goals and leverage The Four Cornerstones of Success®.
My next big goal is to write a sequel to Become the Only Choice instead of making excuses for why I don’t have the time. I will make it a priority by committing to writing one page per day starting January 1st.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!
UPDATE: Find out if MIke achieved his goal.