7:00 Am City Airport London
Chewing on my “healthy option” breakfast I look at what other people are eating and think about how often they order the same food. If there is one thing I have learned in business it´s that it´s not about being the hare, but the tortoise if you want to win big long term. (I´m naturally a hare…so this is hard for me.)
My life is a result of what I do every day and a very high percentage of that are my habits about 80-90% of our thoughts are the same as we had yesterday and so on and so forth. This means it´s very challenging to change your thoughts and it´s also something that takes a lot of time, but that is another article.
Have you ever heard the saying; “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle What habits are you currently engaged in that do not add value to your long term goals? Yes, long term goal, because compounding is the eighth wonder of the universe according to Einstein.
“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it…he who doesn’t…pays it.” – Einstein.
The good news is that we naturally form habits to simplify all the information we are exposed to every day. Do you have to think about tying your shoelaces? Nope you just do it. So of our week that consist of 168 hours there are quite a few routines you must do;
The basics
56 h sleep (that´s based on 8 hours a night)
7 h travel
40 h work
14 h eating/cooking
7 h maintenance (shower, gym etc.)
3 h shopping
= 127 h
That means you have 41 hours left to do other things of your choice
What I do (this list will be a bit more detailed)
Must do:
56 h sleep
4 h travel (about ⅓ of the time I work from home or from local coffee shop)
10-60 h work (I must work about 10 hours a week, but don´t have to)
20 h Eating/Cooking (investing in my health is a long term focus and I do want to invest here)
2,5 h shower
3,5 h morning meditation
1,2 h writing evening journal
Minimum routines based on 10 h work
97,2 h Must do
73,2 h free time
What I fill my free time with
7 h reiki
3 – 7 h exercise
7 h reading/education
1-10 socialising
3 h meditations
115,2 h
52,8 free time (this is usually filled with working, because I love what I do, but I can decide not to…)
Writing and thinking about what you do week in and week was quite an eye opener for me and I was shocked at how much time I just spend without it being well spent time! Slightly frustrating! What things can you do today that give you leverage for the future? If you save 30 minutes a week, that´s 26 hours a year that you could be spending doing something else and in a lifetime it equals (i will use 60 years as this is more realistic) it gives you another 65 days to do whatever you like.
How does this relate to what you do in your business? Are you a one man band trying to do everything? Then you may consider employing a virtual assistant in the Philippines and start leveraging other people’s time so you can have more idle time for yourself, family and friends if this is what you want.
The same principle goes for money and everything else you do in life. You got it health wealth and happiness is something you can compound in your life and NO there are no shortcuts in life. That 1 minute of doing something matters, so try to do something that you want to compound in your future, but of course don’t forget to just live as well.