How often do we give ourselves undivided attention? If you’re a busy Entrepreneur like I am, along with a business, you also have friends and a family. After a long day at work, you want to spend time with your family and friends and in the weekend you plan to make time to relax but there is always something in the way. In this blog post, I will give you a few strategies on how you can slow down and give yourself some tender loving care (TLC).
My Morning Ritual
Every morning, I wake up at 5am and for the next 4 hours, I read my goals and my yearly strategy once again. This keeps things fresh on my mind and allows me to stay on purpose throughout my day. As you may know, the more you think about something that you want badly, the sooner you will achieve it. Following that, I read my book for about an hour and view my vision wall for another 10-15 minutes. During this process, I imagine myself in the pictures as if it is really happening. After this period of “recharging” as I like to call it, I go to the gym. The best part of going to the gym is that the body releases endorphins and dopamine which has a lot of health benefits and is a great way to start the day.
My Afternoon Ritual
Everything that I do, I do it in time blocks. As an Entrepreneur, there are far too many distractions, especially if you work from home like I do. Throughout my day, my vision wall is above my table so I glance at it once in a while which once again, allows me to be in tune with my vision and my purpose throughout the day. These little reminders are all necessary because the more you think about something, the sooner it becomes reality.
My Weekend (Sunday) Ritual
My Sunday is my time to reflect on my previous week and the week ahead. I usually give myself about 2 hours to read my goals, and reflect on the previous week. I find out what worked for me and what didn’t and fine tune as I go. This is also a time for me to plan and strategize once again for the week ahead. During this moment, I read my monthly and yearly goals as well to see if I am headed towards the right direction and make necessary changes if needed.
My Quarterly Ritual
Every three months (4 times a year), I usually take a mini-vacation for a day or two just to unwind and do some reflecting. I tried doing this with my girlfriend but we have so much fun together and the last time I did this was in March. We decided to go to Florida and see Disney World, then drive down to Miami and stay there for a few days and ended up in the Bahamas towards the end as well. This was a 9-day excursion and honestly, I got zero done. If you plan to invite others to your quarterly retreats in another state (which I suggest), fly or drive there and give yourself at least 1-2 days to get your stuff done FIRST, then spend the rest with a loved one or a friend. Going forward, this is how I plan to do all my quarterly retreats. The reason for the quarterly retreats is once again, time to reflect like the weekend rituals but this time, you also add an element of new sights, sounds, and exercise to the mix which we all need. Everyone needs novalty and going to new places allows new ideas to pop into your mind than you would have otherwise gotten if all you did were to stay in the same place where you were familiar with. Try it out, I guarantee you will come back refreshed and rebooted!
I guarantee that if you follow the four rituals above, you will be a lot more productive and reach your goals a lot sooner than expected. Even if you’re not an Entrepreneur, it is still necessary to slow things down and give yourself some quiet time. This is something that I believe not a lot of people give themselves.
Thanks for reading, please let me know if you have any questions or any additions to this post. I love comments and looking forward to talking to you if you decide to comment below.
-Will
