School is never out for the pro.
This message is long.
It is LOADED with good, good stuff.
People like you and I dare to be different from the mediocre majority. If you were not, you would not be reading this message every week.
During my daily early morning walk which is about 60-70 minutes, 4-5 miles, & 8,000-10,000 steps I allow about 15 minutes at the very end of my walk to what my coach Michael McLean calls, “Listening to Your Golden Gut”.
Golden Gut time for me, requires my ear pods turned off after listening to
- Michael’s daily video message,
- Pastor Rick Warren’s daily message, and
- A podcast episode of OptSpot Marketing.
After these 3 powerful listens as I walk, (which is really too many, any one of these is more than enough) now I can “meditate” for ideas to grow my own personal world as I would have it.
These are ideas for my health, business life, family life, and my spiritual & gratitude life from my creator, whom I choose to call God.
By the way, for me TODAY, the order of importance of these 4 critical areas are…
- Spiritual/Gratitude
- Family
- Health
- Business
Today, Sunday, July 7th, my Golden Gut told me to share with you a little more on how I have transformed my health by losing 95 pounds, 8 inches in my waist (from size 42 to 34), have more energy today at 62 except in my high school athletic career, and launched a new business which will develop people to transform their lives as well.
All of this has happened from Michael teaching a NEW CONCEPT to me called GOAL GETTING. It is a simple thing, but not easy to consistently do.
Some of you will be tempted to stop reading now because you already know about goals, right? When Michael initially shared he was going to teach on this topic, I wasn’t thrilled.
After all, I teach the topic of how to set and achieve goals.
When I signed up for Michael’s FREE daily video messages last Thanksgiving. Plus, a few months later his 6-week BadAss World Building course I had already lost 70 pounds in 7 months under a Doctor’s plan using medicine, a customized eating program (keto diet), and accountability of meeting with my doctor every 30 days.
NOTICE the above doesn’t mention exercise. Zero exercise in the first 7 months under doctor care.
We all know we should exercise because it’s the smart thing to do. Especially this is true as we age, and our bodies deteriorate much more rapidly if we keep making poor choices which I did for decades.
Also, a couple of books showed up about the same time Michael McLean did. The two books are Younger Next Year by Crowley & Lodge and Life Force by Tony Robbins. I also got the audible version, so I can listen while driving or on my daily walk.
Michael’s Goal Getting exercise is much different than goal setting which most coaches teach. It’s what I have taught for years. It’s what I knew. It’s what got really good results.
One of the main aspects of Goal Getting is replacing negative behavior with positive behavior … and … working on only 1 or 2 new goals at once.
If you work on more than 1 or 2 goals, you’re setting yourself up to fail. Make it easier on yourself at first. I’m telling you it’s hard as it is. Go slow. You win. You’re happy. You’ll want to do more. You will do more.
You achieve this with a process formula & ruthlessly measure it on a calendar attached to a wall for you to see every day to create a Lifestyle Habit.
He calls the formula, 1-7-14-21-30-45-60-90 days to a lifestyle habit.
The calendar measurement is simply placing a Big Red “X” on the day you complete your task. Jerry Seinfeld tells the story of a new comic who asked the super-successful Seinfeld what he should do to improve. Seinfeld shared, that he wrote every day, 7-days per week, with no days off for at least one hour. He then crossed out the day on his wall calendar and said do not break the “red chain” of X’s on the calendar.
There’s a lot more to it than what I just described, and it took Michael 4 hours to teach to a group of business owners like me. A lot of this is mental.
Here are my results with the 5 process goals I created since last Thanksgiving on the business, spiritual, and health goals, plus 2 new ones I began last week.
1 … Read or listen to business-related material for at least 60 minutes every day, zero days off. I began on Thanksgiving 2021. Today, I completed my 229-consecutive day. I started with Michael’s video sent via email, average length of 20-25 minutes.
2 … Drink Water. Minimum ½ gallon. Started New Year’s Day after failing from my mid-December start. Today made 191 consecutive days. For the last 4 months, I’m drinking closer to a gallon of water daily.
3 … Walk. First thing every morning after spending a little time in solitude with my creator.
Started and failed twice in January and early February. I began again on February 10th and have not missed a day since. Today was 151 days in a row.
The secret is doing it first thing every morning, early between 6-7 am. I’ve NEVER EVER gotten up this early in my life.
Why now? Because my BIG REASON WHY (It’s Very Personal To Me) I am doing this. It gets me to bed early so I wake up early and do what my body needs …
MOVEMENT.
Most mornings, I would rather lay there. But once I got to 45 days, it’s magical how I want to get up now about 70-80% of the time. Getting healthy is my job.
Starting last February, I was walking only 15 minutes out and 15 minutes back. I built it up over a few days, 7 days, 14 days, 21 days, 30 days, and 60 days. At 90 days it becomes a lifestyle habit.
4 … Squats during my walk. On April 10th and 60 consecutive days of walking daily, I added 20 squats to my walk. Today, I do 120 squats during my morning walk with 60 of those with calf raises for added work. 91 days straight of squats.
5 … Prayer, Listening, and Spiritual Reading. I’ve always prayed consistently, especially these past 12 years. Also, I’ve consistently, but not every day, listened to Pastor Rick Warren’s daily audio message for about 10 years now.
Last Christmas, I began “building a red chain” daily for my wake-up spiritual time with my creator and listening to Rick’s message. That’s 198 days in a row today.
On May 1st, I added a spiritual reading of 10-15 minutes to my awakening time and moved listening to Rick Warren on my daily walk. That’s 71 days straight of adding spiritual reading habit.
Last Thursday 7/7/22, I added two more process goals.
One health and one business goal. That is two new goals. No more.
My other goals that I’ve achieved are a new lifestyle habit. They are in order of how my day starts …
- Prayer and spiritual reading,
- start water,
- walk, listen to spiritual and business messages, and squats
New Health Goal … started red chain July 7th …
1 … Swimming after my early morning walk. I am starting this new process goal very slowly as I have not swum much since I was a teenager.
Our pool is small, and I jump straight in after my walk. So today is only my fifth straight day of swimming short 30-foot laps. I am adding 1-2 laps daily and I can already tell the difference between day one and today.
New Business Goal … started red chain July 7th …
2 … 2-3 hours of uninterrupted study and creating new marketing materials for my new carwash business.
It is crucial that I do this work immediately after my early morning walk, swim, and shower. I feel terrific. I really start drinking the water. Plus, I add some Gatorade now during the summer as I am drenching wet from the Alabama heat and humidity.
I am rusty here as I haven’t built anything new for myself in years, but I’ve been INCONSISTENTLY working on serious business study and creating new marketing these past few months on and off in mostly one-hour periods of time with no interruptions.
You may notice a pattern in my results that I have shared.
Once you get consistent on one of your goals and turn it into a lifestyle habit you may add something else to work on to make yourself better.
I did it on all areas that I shared with you today. I did not share anything about my family, and I will tell you this …
Vanessa, Bailey, Taylor, and I are in an incredibly good place now. My two whiteboards, vision corkboard, mirrors, and cabinets are covered with our goals in 7 different areas of our lives.
We are living in the very best time in history. I am taking full advantage of it and it is my sincere hope for you to do the same.
I have given you a lot of resources in this message.
If you are still reading, what are you waiting for, buy a book(s), get on McLean’s and/or Rick Warrens list and make yourself better.