*PING* 

*PING* 

*PING* 

The phone on the couch's armrest was blowing up with notifications and as my hand automatically reached to assess the situation, I could feel an intense pair of eyes staring at me.  

"How can you be successful and productive with all those notifications popping up demanding your attention?" she asked. 

Like a deer caught in headlights, I simply stared at my life coach who I was bunking with in an airbnb for a leadership conference. 

Who doesn't have their phone CONSTANTLY on, I thought.  Don't most folks have notifications on?  Wait, you can turn them off?  

It was in that weekend back in 2014, I learned a few things about working from home and utilizing social media.  These hacks I still use today because they help me stay focused, productive + efficient with my time... so, let's break them down for you.  This way you aren't caught like a deer in headlights! 

01//...

One of the books which was recommended to me as I embarked on my entrepreneurial journey was:  Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy.  If you haven't heard of this book, it's all about doing the tasks you know will move the needle in your business... FIRST!  

I'll make sure to link + show the book cover down below so if you are interested in reading it yourself, you snag the right one.  And yes, it's a link where if you purchase, I do make a small commission.  

Yet here's the thing, how do you know which tasks are actually FROG LEGS?  When everything in your business feels important, how do you justify which task is a frog leg and needs action NOW?!?

TIME TO REFRAME 

First off, let's state the obvious... we all have 24 hours in the day.  I am most likely going to butcher this quote and for the life of me cannot remember who said it first.  However,  it had quite an impact on me and how I look at my day-to-day...

Something about the start of a new year folks begin talking about a "word of the year" or setting resolutions... and it just makes me want to go, bleh.  Especially when I learned that most folks who set resolutions, don't follow through with them. Ouch!

Besides, I don't want to make S.M.A.R.T. goals (which sounds a wee bit silly stating this out loud), but I don't want to have one word to resonate on all year.  I long for MORE adventures, more experiences, more memories created so that when I'm eighty or ninety years old, I can say in 2022 this is what we did!  These are the experiences we had!

And this isn't something I just stumbled upon myself but actually learned from a community created by Jesse Itlzer.  So, props to him + his team for opening my eyes to this new way of mapping out my year and creating my life's resume.  

01//  IDENTIFY YOUR YEAR DEFINING EVENT

The first thing to get placed on the yearly calendar was my "year defining...

QUICK BACKSTORY 

We were getting hit with some rather gnarly winter storms up in Northern Idaho, so the trips to the grocery story were quite limited.  This means mama was running low on a lot of ingredients; however, we have a tradition in our house --- PANCAKE SATURDAYS!

Using a smorgasbord of ingredients which we had on hand, this recipe was formed.  And it was approved by our twins, the Gillies who at the time were eight-years old. 

Now, I should tell you that these pancakes are gluten free!  They are not technically "paleo" unless you remove the dairy and substitute with coconut oil.  You do you, boo.  I didn't have coconut oil, but I did have one stick of butter in our fridge so that's what I used. 

RECIPE

Here's the list of the ingredients!  I should have named these "kitchen sink pancakes"... but, alas, we did not.  

• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup of grass fed butter (or coconut oil), melted
• 1 banana, mashed
• 1/2 cup of brown...

If you ever drive by my place in the early morning, you'll most likely see someone (ahem me) in a knit hat, hoodie with yoga pants walking barefoot in her yard.  Every single morning come RAIN or shine...I walk for a few minutes with my bare feet in the soil.

Why exactly?

Because it's said by placing your naked feet on the ground, free electrons are taken up into the body which release the positive ions that's been built up from free radicals, inflammation, exposure to technology/screens, etc.

It's known as grounding... or earthing, pending on who you ask.

BENEFITS OF GROUNDING

Excess amounts of positive ions in our bodies can disrupt cellular metabolism and increase inflammation.  Hello!  Heck, no, inflammation has got to go!  *Could you hear me chant this out loud?*.   Anywho.

By putting my feet in soil for just 10 minutes every morning, the benefits I could reap include:

• reduce inflammation
• balance body's rhythm
• boost my mood and energy...

Full transparency.  The vision I have on my heart feels quite ginormous that the ONLY way it will be filled is through miracles.  I call it a "God-sized hole on my heart" type of dream.  A dream stated out loud to my "then bestie, now husband" back in college.  

And it's the purpose or the mission behind my business. 

If we have ever had an in-person conversation lasting over 5 minutes, then you probably already KNOW what this mission is... and why it's important.  And if you don't, we'll get to it in a wee bit.  

01 // MISSION STATEMENT 

First, how about we talk on the importance of having a mission or even a mission statement for your business.  And I think it can vary from the WHY of your business... you can have a "WHY" factor plus a "MISSION" for your business. 

The WHY is what you love... how you want to serve... who you want to help. For instance, I absolutely love serving women entrepreneurs particularly...

Holy Toledo, this year flew by so ridiculously fast, am I right?  The fact that we are counting down to the New Year baffles me.  However, there is something about the New Year which sorta feels magically.  Like a clean slate.  A do-over.  Change for new beginnings which is ridiculous as EVERY morning is a clean slate... a change to start over, to shift your mindset + choose wisely.  

Yet there's something refreshing about the New Year... and we aren't going to talk about setting resolutions or commitments, this is just a quick read about the actions I've learned throughout the years to do to ensure the next year will be epic!

*epic by definition (adjective):  grand in scale or character* 

TAKE INVENTORY OF THIS PAST YEAR

This practice always seemed a wee bit time-consuming to me; however, if we do not take time to reflect back to assess how we did things, the outcomes, the lessons, etc.... then we are most likely...

If you have been an entrepreneur for longer than a second, you most likely heard the phrase... Identify Your Why!   Know Your Why!  Go Back To Your Why... when you feel like giving up! 

And on the off chance that you never heard of this before, let me fill ya in.  Your "WHY" is known as the driving force of your business.  It's a deep, impactful and quite personal reason YOU get your tired little bottom out of bed every morning to dive into your business. 

Your "WHY" is what you'll dig into and hold tightly as your will power to keep going on the entrepreneurial rollercoaster is thrown off the tracks.  Your "WHY" keeps you grounded and keeps you hungry for your goal.

HOWEVER..... 

I think there's MORE to knowing your WHY to keep yourself moving forward.  And it's not having more discipline (which can't hurt) or hiring a coach to hold you accountable (which also can't hurt).... but it's truly realizing your...

Before we dive into my first mastermind experience, let's define what exactly is a mastermind.  When you google mastermind it comes up with the following:

Mastermind (n):  a person who supplies the directing or creative intelligence for a project. mastermind.

OR

If you search for what is a leadership or business mastermind, it comes up with this definition:  being a member of a mastermind is a powerful strategy used by high-achieving leaders to move ahead quickly on their goals.

Well, hello, that is exactly the intentions I had for joining my first mastermind.  I wanted to surround myself with high-achieving women who were focused on moving forward in their business. 

And when I joined my first ever mastermind, I was surrounded by amazing women... most of whom, I kept in contact with today roughly five years later!

I had a truly beautiful experience and learned, oh so much; however, I fell into a trap of following the same exact business road map...