Live Life With Purpose with Adam Smith

    If you would have asked me five or even ten years ago if I had a plan for my future and if I believed it would unfold perfectly, without hesitation I would have said “yes”. I had no idea how far off base I was on planning, either. While I will tell you how important it is to have a plan, because it will send you in the right direction, what it won’t do is end up perfectly. Sorry if you are a perfectionist. I know this is the last thing that you want to hear right now. Even though I will make a plan for the next five years this October, what I will not do is solely rely on this plan? Why? Because while you used to be able to make five or ten year plans and things would stick closer to the plan, the truth is that everything is changing at a much more rapid pace, especially with anything related to business goals. So, here are three things that recovering perfectionists, like myself, can learn about developing plans in 2015: 1. Plans will change, maybe even drastically. If you are like me, you don’t like this answer. But, plans will always change. Your one-year plans, five-year plans, and ten-year plans will all be different. If you were to ask me ten years ago what I would be doing today, I would have told you that I wanted to be a business owner, but I had no idea what type of business it would be or how it would happen. If you told me I was going to be a writer twenty or twenty-five years ago, I would have laughed. I don’t have that typical, ” I knew that I wanted to write since I was ten years old” story. I didn’t realize I loved to write until my freshman year of college. At ten years old, I wanted to be a professional baseball player. I landed a long way from that dream, but I now realize that ideas, this world, and our perspective change, and that’s a good thing. In high school, I knew I wanted to own a business, but writing wasn’t even on the radar yet. I am very thankful that my perception changed. 2. Even though we don’t land exactly where we plan, it sure does help us move forward.  I have lived life both without planning and with planning, and I have to say that that living with a plan of some sorts motivates. No matter who you listen to on how to develop your plan and what you think it should like, a plan is always better than no plan. Why is it important to plan even though it probably won’t turn out exactly how you think it will, then? Because, not only will a plan get you moving in the right direction, it will also get you thinking in the right way. 3. Future plans not only let you dream, but they encourage it. When people tell me they don’t have a life plan, my next question is always, “When is the last time you dreamed?” This usually takes place in the second or third life coaching session without fail. Planning requires dreaming. I would dare you to dream a five year plan out and pick yourself to be in a completely different spot than you are today. If your plan doesn’t have you growing in any way in the next five years, you need to come up with a different plan. But, if you are willing to dream and take risks, you are well on your way to creating a worthy plan for your life. All you need is a little imagination. When you dare to dream, even though plans rarely come to pass with perfection and you don’t know where you will end up, doors will open long the way. That’s what the journey gives you. Go and make a huge plan for your future, today.

    We have all found ourselves at times in life where things could be better. Life looks bleak when we feel we have done everything in our power, and still the results that we see don’t seem to match our efforts. But, we can still press forward and see things differently in these times by developing one thing in our lives – the habit of thankfulness. Thankfulness is such a huge part of your journey to living out a life of purpose. Most people only look for this thankfulness in the huge events that happen in life, but your perspective changes for the better when you decide to be grateful for everything that happens in life, including the small things. Thankfulness can even be found when life isn’t going well, but this requires you to change your outlook on life. When you decide to be optimistic and thankful, even when times are rough, it is thankfulness that will get you through these valleys. This outlook causes you to view the world differently and helps you choose to see the good in life once again. You already know that life is better when you let thankfulness have a bigger hold in your life, but what about those times where you just can’t seem to find it? What can you do when the world is crumbling around you and you can’t seem to find a way out? Well, thankfulness is still your best answer. You may not be able to control your current situation, but you can control your current perception. Try this – In this moment, how many things can you count that you are thankful for with just one minute of your time? Hopefully, you had so many things to count that you couldn’t stop coming up with things to be thankful for.  But if not, I have three ways to pull more thankfulness out of your life so you can begin using it for positive fuel in your journey: 1. Take the time to pause and reflect on a daily basis. Busyness will attempt to rob you from thankfulness every chance that it gets. It is the number one thing you need to fight in life, because it is your absolute biggest enemy that will detain you from thankfulness and a life filled with joy. 2. Listen to your language. Do you want to know the quickest way to see if you are living out thankfulness in your life or not? Listen to the words you are speaking. Are they thankful and positive or unthankful and negative? Listening to your words will let you know your heart’s perspective, because people who are thankful speak thankfulness into their lives and into the lives of others. 3. Fight for unity in your relationships. It may sound odd to fight for unity, but your relationships will either cause you to want to be thankful or to be ungrateful for where you currently find yourself along your life’s journey. When there isn’t unity in your relationships, it is almost impossible to be thankful for the positivity that is filling other areas of your life, even if everything else is approaching perfection. Once you fix your relationships, you will be able to fix your outlook on life and find more thankfulness on a daily basis. Take the time to pause and reflect on a daily basis, listen to your language, and fight for unity in your relationships. Try implementing these three thankfulness principles in your life and see the immediate difference, today. 

    I didn’t start off the year with a podcast on goals, but I should have. I believe in the power of goals, and hopefully you do, too. Goals are what gets you looking ahead, making a better impact, and assists you in implementing your best plan. Yes, I am a huge believer in goals, but of course, we need more than a plan to see real success. Without action in your plan, you are all talk. You can have the best plan in the world, but it takes action and proper execution to obtain the results that you desire.  This being said, it is the last day in March 2015, and maybe you haven’t began moving on your dreams for this year, yet. That means that one-fourth of this year is already over and you haven’t created the good momentum you need to see results. Your year so far might be the busiest time you have ever experienced in life and you are wondering where the last three months went. Or maybe you are on the other side of this, are already checking your goals off, and you are well on your way to making 2015 your best year ever. If that’s you, I absolutely love that you are seeing your desired results in your life right now! But, if you are one of the people out there wondering where the last three months have gone and still don’t know quite where to begin to make this year great, I have three awesome tips for you. If you will let me, I want to help you take your foot off the brakes and show you how to begin accelerating immediately. Here we go… 1. Realize just how much you want to accomplish your goals. It doesn’t matter if your goals have to do with health in all areas, personal/fun, relationships, finances, or your career, you have to be “bought in” to take the first step. Without buy in, you will never be committed, and without commitment, your goals won’t accomplish themselves. But, when you decide you are in it to win it, your goals will begin to be fun, rather than some duty you sort of want to see happen. 2. Be aware of the magnitude of your goals. Your goals are big. They are huge. They will impact you. They will impact a magnitude of other people. But, they will only have impact if you see them through. 3. See 2014 for what you gained from it, see 2015 for the opportunity it is, and see 2016 for where you will be. Maybe 2014 was great for you. That’s awesome. You can continue that momentum into this year and keep building on your success. Or, maybe it wasn’t so great, and you need some big changes in 2015 to get things going in the right direction. Want to know the great news in this situation? You can begin right now! The great decisions you make right now will change your life forever for the better.  That’s your answer to see even better results in 2016. When you start making great decisions now, you will reap the benefits immediately, but also in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. No, the journey to accomplishing your biggest goals is hardly ever easy, but adopting these three tips in your own life will make the journey much easier. Now, take these tips and apply them to accomplishing your goals, today. Please leave a review on iTunes if you enjoyed this episode.

    Being fully satisfied within a career was always a journey for me, before I found the life we are currently living out. I can remember that even in the midst of 2006 that I was unhappy with the job I was in, but it would take another six years to finally leave. This time span felt like a never-ending roller coaster that wasn’t ever going to let me off. By 2009, we were anxious for any type of change that could and would take place, because we were searching for more of something. This “something” couldn’t be figured out by either of us, but we both knew there had to be good momentum found in movement. Jasmine and I wanted more stability than what my job was offering us then. We wanted to plant roots in a place that we loved, and we didn’t want to waste our life sitting on the sidelines. We knew we had to do something about it, so we did. Later that year, we moved to Colorado, the state we had dreamed about for years, in search for something new. We moved west with a plan of staying employed with the company I had been with over the years, only until I could find another career in Colorado. That didn’t seem like too far of a stretch, and we were highly optimistic, thinking that I would switch careers in a few weeks or months at the latest. In the meantime, we would also help plant a church in the Denver area along with some friends we came out with from Georgia. Life was exciting, new, and full of adventure. Well, I ended up staying with that same company for nearly three more years, for a total of ten, before we would leave what was familiar to us. Remember how I said we moved out thinking that I would just find another career shortly after we moved out to Colorado? Well, things didn’t happen the way we planned. It’s funny how time has a way of getting away from you when you let it. At the beginning of 2012, it was finally time to leave my career of ten years with the same company. The main factor that caused me to leave was that my marriage was falling apart. (You know, it’s funny what choosing to work every hour of the day will do to you and your family. It will create distance. Let my life teach you something. Don’t do it.) My marriage desperately needing my attention and the constant reminder of needing to explore a different career for the past six years were the two driving forces behind me making this much needed transition. Yes, this is me reflecting on this time in life only three years later, so not much time has passed. But, one of the most important lessons I have ever taken away is to be a quick learner of life, especially from those times that have so many valuable takeaways in them that you can’t help but take a step back and take notice. I am thankful to have learned many beautiful life lessons during this season that helped mold me into the person I am today, and they will never leave me. The process of leaving my job was like nothing I had experienced before. I have to say that I felt like a fish out of water as I searched for what I would be doing next, because after doing something for ten years, it was the only thing I felt comfortable with and qualified to do. I felt trapped in a box of preexisting qualifications that I had bestowed upon myself, without expanding my future horizon. I was only able to see my skills as it applied to working for that company, rather than seeing my full potential within something entirely different. I was seeing that I needed to go and gather up a bunch of new resources and abilities, and hopefully have something better to offer a future employer. Not that there is anything wrong with gaining new information and developing yourself further – I’m not saying that. What I am saying is that you already have tons of information and potential within you right now waiting to be released. At that time in life I felt inadequate,

    Let’s face it. When you barely have enough time to breathe, you can’t focus on other people, because having too little time only allows you to focus on yourself. And if people are what life is all about, then we need to be aware of what our place is in the world around us and it is also important to be available for listening to what people have to say and filling the needs in their lives. If the importance of time seems like a great concept, but you are still navigating the concept of time, here are three quotes from people who understood how to use time to their advantage to influence the world around them and beyond. Steve Jobs said, My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time. Benjamin Franklin said, Lost time is never found again. Nelson Mandela said, We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.   All three of these people understood keys to getting more done with their lives. They realized the power in stopping the complaints about the amount of time they had, and instead relentlessly followed their life’s purpose. As you begin to take the importance of time to heart, you will see that time is the most important resource you have at your fingertips. We all get the same amount of time, but what’s different is how every person spends it. Are you ready to spend your time in better ways? Here are three takeaways from these geniuses that we can all use to take back our time and get our lives back to a better pace.  1. Know What You’re Focusing On All The Time In an interview with Apple’s head of design, we gain some rare insight into the mind of Steve Jobs and see just how much emphasis he placed on focus. Not only for himself, but for those around him. Most people refer to focus as what they would like to accomplish right now or within a set time frame, but for Jobs, “focus” was a singular, long-term, and constant obsession. Jobs knew what he was focused on, and that’s all that mattered all the time. Steve was the most remarkably focused person I’ve ever met in my life. And the thing with focus is, it’s not this thing you aspire to, or you decide on Monday, ‘You know, I’m going to be focused.’ It is an every minute, ‘Why are we talking about this? This is what we’re working on.’ You can achieve so much when you truly focus. (USA Today) 2. Your Daily Routine Will Guide You    Benjamin Franklin’s daily routine says it all. First, you need to know what you are doing, so if you are just taking life as it comes, take a lesson from Franklin here. As we look at his daily routine, we see just how important a detailed schedule really is and how important it is to use focus to take our time back for what makes the most impact in this world. So, what exactly do I see from his routine?  I see four things from his day. He never failed to plan, work, examine, and have fun.  If you implement these four things in your life, you will live out great days, weeks, months, and years. Your life will produce influence when you set your day up for success through a great daily routine. 3. Positivity In the Midst of Life Brings Influence By just looking at the life of Mandela, I learn a wealth of knowledge that I can use on a daily basis. The fact that he was in prison for 27 years and was able to accomplish all that he did in much less time than the rest of us have, is truly remarkable. He took having a positive outlook on life to a whole new level. I mean,

    I started reading leadership and self-help books at first, because of professors making it a requirement in college. I then took a career path that also recommended reading them, so I could grow along the way. It was great advice, but if I’m honest, at that point in life I was reading them out of duty, rather than reading them because I enjoyed them. It just seemed like everyone made the same points over and over again in these books, but worded them in different ways, hoping that readers wouldn’t notice. As I began writing more often, I began enjoying books much more than previously. It was fun to see the ideas that others had, but still not much had changed in the past ten years on what authors were serving with their words. I began seeing how stale the topic of leadership really was, and also what it needed. I saw that leadership needed to return to the reason the word even exists.   Here are the three main points that I see most leadership books miss out on and why they are too important to miss: 1. These leadership books I am talking about always places the importance on you, but never take it one step further.  Leadership is always about impacting other people, but leadership books seem to always look out for numero uno. I get it. You have to be better to impact other people, but that’s always where it stops. What if I told you that if you are stopping there, you are missing out on impacting people and ultimately missing out on leading well? You can read all the leadership and self-help books that you want to, but if you don’t actually share your knowledge and put them into action, then you aren’t leading; you are just consuming.   2. If other people are so important, then empathy and love are the biggest leadership traits there are.  empathy – the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Again, you have to care for others deeply in order to lead well, and the only way to do this is to listen to the needs of others and act upon them. Since this is true, then empathy may be the best tool in your leadership arsenal, while hustle is the best tool in your advancement tool belt . Maybe you are in your car right now, listening to this podcast, and saying back to me, “Well Adam, you don’t know how little time I actually have to talk with others, let alone be empathetic.”. While that may be a valid point to you, everyone else in this world is in the same boat. Like I have said before, it’s less about the amount of time you have, and more about what you do with the time that you have. I am not asking you to create more time, but rather choose to use it more wisely than you are right now. Choosing better ways to use your time should include loving other and showing empathy towards them as well. When you can relate to people, you will know how they need to be helped and what you can do to best serve them and lead in their life. Listen, I know you are busy. Everyone is busy. But, that cannot be your excuse anymore. When you choose to take the time to stop long enough and hear someone else’s story and then show love through your life, you are leading. That’s the best way each and every one of us have to lead in this moment.   3. You don’t have to wait for “someday”. This being said, you already have everything you need to lead right now. Most books will tell you that when you are a manager, or “in charge” in some capacity, or become a CEO of a company, then maybe just maybe you will be ready and able to lead. But, what this misses out on is that you already have the essential tools in your possession to lead with your life every single day. You have a full heart and the ability to care and do for other people. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you are not enough,

    Consistency is something that I have always struggled with. I can get on these kicks of doing awesome things and then will suddenly stop them due to not seeing fast results. Just because something is good, doesn’t mean that it will always bring the immediate results that I want, but it also doesn’t mean I should stop doing them. I one day came to an epiphany. Just because immediate results don’t come, that doesn’t mean you should stop. Doing things just because they are good for your mind, body and soul are good enough on their own.  I understand that we are human and there are days we just don’t feel like it. For those days we still need consistency in our lives, but how? Here are six ways to have more consistency in your own life and push through those times that you just don’t feel like it. 1. Pursue what you are extremely passionate about. Plain and simple, you will only consistently do what you really want to do. I have heard people as of late diminish the importance of passion, but I couldn’t disagree more. You need passion for what you are doing for it to work long-term. Find your passion for life and find passion for the greatness you achieve routinely. When you continuously practice passion, you won’t be able to keep yourself from attempting those things on a regular basis. 2. Cut out all of the life-draining excess. All of the things that you are sort of committed to are just wasting your time. Cut out those things that you sort of want to do and see how much better you become at consistency. 3. Create life-giving routines. Consistency demands structure, unless you are trying to be routinely free-spirited. Consistently performing routines will get you where you want to be faster than just about anything else. 4. Use a positive vocabulary. The way you word things will help you see life in a more positive light. Wording what you need to accomplish in a more positive manner will help you be more consistent, even with the things that you don’t necessarily want to do. 5. Believe in the benefits of consistency. You won’t care to be consistent unless you see the true benefits of it. Sometimes you have to retrain how you see things in order to do what you need to do, rather than just the things that you want to do. 6. Know the why. Why do you want to be more consistent? Do you believe it will actually make you better? Do you believe that it will help you accomplish more? If so, then you are well on your way to becoming more consistent in life. Those are the six things that will keep you more consistent with the things that you want and need to do in life. Go and find more consistency, today. 

  The question, “What is your main purpose in life, Adam?” has stuck with me ever since he asked me. That came from a friend years ago. I have thought about that question many times along the way, and have had many different answers for it as well. After we cut past all the other things that matter in life first – God, family, relationships – I was challenged to dive deeper with my life’s work. It took me months to come up with an answer, but that was because I was making it too difficult. I looked over all of the subjects I had talked about and written about over the years, and as I looked at my different thoughts, I was finally able to put the answer to this question into words. So, here it is – My mission in life is to challenge selfishness. What I love doing is helping others find areas to show love and help others along the way. There are so many facets to living a great life, and this is the foundation of it all. If there’s one thing I am on this world to fight against, it is selfishness, because I have been there and have learned to hate what it turned my heart into and I see it in the world around me, too. It’s destroying lives, and people don’t even realize it. Listen, if your outlook on life is that it is all about you and it’s you against the world, then I have news for you. To live a healthy life, full of beautiful relationships and impacting lives, this cannot be your approach. Everything is not about you. It’s about others. To sum it up in one sentence, this message is my life work. It is the foundation for everything I believe in. People are all about more, more, more, never being satisfied with just giving themselves to loving people. I have spent years destroying selfishness in my own life, because it creeps in, until one day you look up and realize that you have been living the opposite of a better life. I have seen the destructive path that it can cause. I have seen it destroy lives, because the pursuit of those lives were after the wrong things, and it cost them dearly. Of course you can change and bounce back from anything, but it’s always best not to go through heartache and pain if you don’t have to. So, spread love instead of selfishness, because if there’s one thing this world needs less of, it’s selfishness. Remember that as you search yourself, as you get ready for your day, as you encounter and embrace people, and as you end your day. People need you to show more selflessness than any other thing you could give away with your life. My challenge to you today is to search yourself of selfishness and rid yourself of what has you focused on the wrong things in life. After you do that, don’t stop at just one area of selfishness, because there are probably be more. That’s how it works for me, anyways. It’s a daily walk my friend. However selfish you have been in the past, it will be a process, but it’s a journey worth embarking on. Go, and change the world around you with fighting selfishness, today. 

  Everyone comes to a point in life where they have to decide what they feel compelled to do, and once this decision is made, you then need to decide what to do with it. It’s a true crossroad in life. Do you keep doing what you have been doing because it’s the easy thing to do and it “works”, or do you follow the road less traveled – the one where you step out and take a huge risk? This road is the one where you are driven to do what has been filling your mind for years, but you haven’t had it within you to pull the trigger, quite yet. You’re waiting for something, but don’t know what it is. You keep coming up with excuses as to why you can’t do that one thing, and all the signs are pointing to why you can. But, still you focus on the excuses as to why you can’t take the next step. * I’m too young. * I’m too old. * I’m not educated enough. * I don’t have enough experience. * I don’t have enough time.   These excuses keep coming and the fear from it all keeps piling on top of each other. You have given into the lie that it is too late for you to pursue your dream(s) and have settled. There is still that internal pull to that burning passion within that continues to move you. It’s what matters most to you and that subject matter you want and need to share with others. When you truly decide what the most important thing you have to share with others is, doing what’s important will become your sole purpose. My advice to you – Whatever you do with each and every breath, do what is truly important. That’s your answer to doing something great. What’s your biggest conviction? What are you burning to tell other people about? What do people need to know about in order to make their lives better? Those are all things you have contemplated and you probably have your answer. You’ve just been so busy telling yourself all of the reasons you’re crazy, instead of focusing on why your passion is brilliant. The truth is that there will be no better moment than right now for you to do what is important to you and pursue your dreams. You are different for a reason. You are uniquely wired to bring about change to a world that needs you. Pursue your important passions and go make a difference, today.

  If you have followed me for any length of time, then you know that Evernote is my favorite app and tool on the market. I have been asked many times how I use the app, and I am finally to the point where I feel the need to break it down, so that others can benefit from the process that I use to save time in the writing process. Why? Because I don’t know how I would write without Evernote. It’s been a huge help to getting important ideas out of my head and into writing. Here are the 3 ways that I use Evernote to the fullest:   1. Have a brain dump folder.     This is essential for me, because I can even forget what I was going to write in the amount of time it takes to switch folders. I also have about 50 different potential blog, podcast, and book ideas that go through my head on any given day, and Evernote allows me to cut past the usual brain dumping process when I have a brain dump folder. This allows me to skip the brain dump process when I sit down to work on my writings. All of the content I need to expound upon is already in this folder. Convenient, time-saving, and painless. 2. Have different folders in which your content will be sifted into.     I then use my already labeled folders for blog posts, podcasts, and books. When I have a chance to go through it all, that is when I am able to section all of the week’s content into the designated folders that I have already created. Doing this allows me to open that specific folder that I need to work on for that day, and dive right in. Talk about saving time and energy. The folder feature is the best thing that Evernote offers. It has caused me to recreate my entire workflow and allows me to accomplish more in one day than I used to in one week. If you are like me, then you find any and every way to save time that you can.   3. Use the sync feature with Evernote, so that you can write on the go.   I used to use Pages on my phone more often, but I got tired of not having everything in one program. I got exhausted with moving information from one page to another, and then having to make sure that I was working on the most up-to-date document. I wanted to use Scrinever, but they don’t offer an iPhone app to let me write all my ideas on my iPhone Plus when I am on the go. I am the biggest fan of keeping all content in one place. I am a believer that when you have less content in other places, it is much easier to piece the puzzle together.   These are the three steps that I have found to be best when using Evernote. No, I wouldn’t call myself an Evernote expert by any means, but I do know that Evernote offers me more flexibility than any other tool out there, and that alone makes me a fan of Evernote for all of my writing.

    Thank you for tuning into Live Life With Purpose. It’s a new year and I hope your 2015 is off to a great start! I also know you have a lot of awesome goals that you want to accomplish this year, and are well on your way to making them happen. But, what if I told you a key ingredient that will not only help you reach your goals, but will allow you to be more effective with your goals, will help you accomplish more, and will help you achieve your goals faster? Ready? You need more people to help you be more effective in 2015. I don’t care how awesome you are, you need to surround yourself with other awesome people to be even more awesome. Incorporate more people than yourself and watch as greatness grows. You don’t have all the answers, so it’s time to start seeing where you could use some help.   Do you want to grow your business exponentially this year? Listen to business podcasts, join a business-centered mastermind group, or read business-minded blogs and books. Do you want to run a marathon? Seek out help from other runners, print out a training schedule, make healthier choices, and begin working out on a more regular basis. Do you need to begin setting your family up better financially? Use online resources at your fingertips for great advice and listen to what people like Dave Ramsey says on his radio show. Do you want to start writing your book this year? You can read helpful writing blogs, find that subject that is burning in your heart, and then sit down and write out your take on it. Do you want to take your relationships to the next level? Be intentional and sit down at the beginning of each month and see what days work out for you to hang out with people. You can make it consistent by making it the same dates every month. This will make you even more intentional with relationships.   Whatever it is that you want to accomplish in 2015, the resources available to us now are far greater than any other generation before us has encountered. Also, see that every solution I offered you won’t cost you a penny. All of these tasks I gave involve content or services from asking questions to other people, but it is all free! Too many times people want to offer services that will cost you an arm and a leg, but there are better answers to your current circumstances than throwing money at it. You can work towards your dreams right now, even if you don’t have the resources to invest right now. Stop using that excuse in 2015, and start gathering the information you need from others to succeed. Sure, I offer a coaching program to people who need more of a push in their lives to reach their goals faster,

  The purpose of this podcast is for you to understand what issues might be present in your life and then you should be able to have takeaways to apply in your life and live a life with more purpose. So, what are we talking about today to help you achieve this? Sleep. This topic is so important, that I am dedicating a podcast episode to it. Sleep may be more important than you previously thought. I am seeing an increase on the belief that more sleep is a good thing, but for every person who thinks correctly about their need for sleep, there are five other people who brag that they can get by just fine with five hours of sleep or less. The mentality that less sleep allows for more time during the day is a false belief, because the energy that comes from having the correct amount of sleep for your body is used to be more effective in the hours of the day that you already have. It isn’t about creating more hours, it is more about increasing productivity within the hours that you already have. There are countless studies out there stating the importance of sleep and how it can actually help you, and I am just going to reference one here. The Harvard Women’s Health Watch suggests there are six reasons to get enough sleep: [quote] * Learning and memory: Sleep helps the brain commit new information to memory through a process called memory consolidation. In studies, people who’d slept after learning a task did better on tests later. * Metabolism and weight: Chronic sleep deprivation may cause weight gain by affecting the way our bodies process and store carbohydrates, and by altering levels of hormones that affect our appetite. * Safety: Sleep debt contributes to a greater tendency to fall asleep during the daytime. These lapses may cause falls and mistakes such as medical errors, air traffic mishaps, and road accidents. * Mood: Sleep loss may result in irritability, impatience, inability to concentrate, and moodiness. Too little sleep can also leave you too tired to do the things you like to do. * Cardiovascular health: Serious sleep disorders have been linked to hypertension, increased stress hormone levels, and irregular heartbeat. * Disease: Sleep deprivation alters immune function, including the activity of the body’s killer cells. Keeping up with sleep may also help fight cancer. If this isn’t proof enough that sleep is beneficial to your life, then take the time to read a few more of the pro-sleep studies available to read that go in more depth on sleep cycles, how much sleep people actually need, and the importance of understanding REM sleep. Here are three ways to find better sleep: 1. Wind down mentally without electronics. 2. Write down what is on your mind and get it out. 3. Don’t do too much close to bedtime. If you don’t take my word for it or you don’t want to listen to Harvard’s research due to the belief that you keep too hectic of a schedule to get more sleep, then you may need to make the decision yourself to sleep more in order to be more productive, energetic, and effective. Don’t wait until exhaustion forces you to get more sleep. See the benefits and begin getting better sleep, today.

Along our journey we all get to know people who we would consider leaders and want to learn from them. Most of the leaders I have come in contact with along my journey are those that are very protective with their schedule. This, I definitely don’t disagree with. Being protective with your time for your family is necessary, but what I am talking about is the time spent outside of family time. What I disagree with is when “leaders” won’t give anyone and everyone at least some of their time. I believe this one difference separates the real leaders from those who think they are leaders. Why is this? It goes back to my definition of leadership. Each and every one of us have our own definition of leadership and thoughts on what leadership should look like. Most people think of the act of leadership as this huge event that only happens a few times within a year, decade, or even in a lifetime. My definition of leadership looks more like love than anything else. Leadership is the selfless act of impacting others through your life. That’s where leadership happens. So, what does that mean for all of us? Leadership happens all the time. It happens on a daily basis. How can you change this view in your life right now? You can begin giving anyone and everyone time in your schedule. I hear a lot of leaders say they only give time to those who are important to them or that can benefit them in some way. Well, that might be the most selfish thing I’ve ever heard. When you give something to get something in return, that’s not any part of leadership, that’s manipulation. Let’s call it what it is. As discussed in the last episode, my view of time management is changing, and it starts here. This view is one that not many people have adopted, but it may be the most important view change you can have on time management and your schedule. Why don’t more people think this way? People aren’t aware how much selfishness can ruin their ability to lead with their lives. We all have to want and learn to fight selfishness with everything we have within us and let selflessness take action in all of our lives. So, how do you actually achieve a leadership lifestyle with your schedule, impact more people, and begin to manage your time better? You can start by doing these 3 things: 1. Streamline the meetings you are having already. We have all been in those meetings that cover more things than are needed. These are those meetings that are twenty minutes in and the realization hits you that you are in the wrong place at the right time. You then look at your watch an hour later and realize there are no real action items from the meeting you are in. It is all talk and you don’t have anything to actually go and do with it. With every meeting time you have in your schedule, know what you want to do with it. No, not every personal meeting needs an agenda, but know that you want to just sit and talk in those times. With every meeting you have that covers business, you do need an agenda to make the best use of your time. Use bullet points, convey what you need to and then get on to what matters most; relationships. Stop covering things that don’t need to be covered in meetings, and instead get to know people on a more personal level. You already have the time you need, but you may just not be using it in the best possible way. Use your time more effectively and impact the lives of more people in return. 2. If it doesn’t effect your relationships in a negative way, meet with the same people less often than you are right now if possible. Some of those weekly meetings you are having with mentors, friends, and acquaintances might be more effective if you changed those meetings to once every two weeks or once per month. You can use that extra time to meet with other people who you can pour life into and you will also have more things to cover within each time you meet with someone new if th...

  When I think about this podcast and what it stands for – “to live life with purpose” – the meaning is something that I have to define to myself. What does it mean to live life with purpose? Does it mean that you need to get a lot of things done to live life with purpose? I believe that is part of it, but that is only the “how” part of the equation. The how is what leads you to the why. the why of the equation is people. We are to get things done in order to impart ourselves into the lives of other people. Everyone thinks that they can and should stop with the “how”, but if we do this we miss the entire point of living our lives well. I believe this one statement requires all of us to not only look at how we are using our time, but how we view time and time management altogether. Today, this idea challenges me with this thought – It isn’t about the amount of time you have, but what you do with it that counts. When we steward our time well, we live our lives well. We are taught from adolescence that time is the most important thing we own, but it is because time is what we give other people that makes it so important. Let us never forget the “why”. Time is only important because all people are important, not just you. This idea brings me to my next thought, which you may disagree with, but I’m okay with that. If there is ever a choice between being somewhere on time or creating memories with people in the moment, the need to take advantage of making memories in that moment is the better choice. Now, hold on and hear me out. I still respect you and I still believe in respecting your time, but realize I not only value you, but everyone else in this world, too. Yes, I talk a lot about time management and focus, but I can sometimes get lost in the “how” of things as well. The “why” should always be the reason behind the reason in everything we do. If the reason of “why” to live life always comes back to people, I would rather be known for loving than for being on time. Are both possible to coexist? Sure. But, the main downfall of using time management with the preexisting idea that you are doing it well with a full schedule is the fact that it forces you to always live in the future and never allows you to relax and just be present with the people around you. Where do you need to be next? Where do you need to be tomorrow? Where do you need to be next week? A full schedule forces us all to live in the future, and again, most people would accept that as the norm and be totally fine with living this way. When we take the time to slow down and take advantage of the current moments,we are in. it is only then that we can take the time to make an impact. I used to think that every single thing had to be scheduled in during every day, but the more that I live my life, the more I realize that I can miss out on opportunities when every single part of my day is scheduled out. My idea of time management is changing. When I talk about creating margin in your life, there shouldn’t be anything taking up this space. Leave time in your day to just love on people, because that my friend, is way more than enough. Go and give people more of your margin, today.

  Besides living out each season of life, there is the process of moving through these seasons. Within these layers, there is the motion of life that we all go through. The first layer leads you to the second one, and the second to the third. That being said, there are three significant layers to your life and how you live in them dictates how you perceive your current circumstances and even your future layers of life.   There are three layers to life and here is what each layer looks like:   The Pursuit – Like the cops in a car chase going after the bad guys in an action flick, maybe you are pursuing your biggest dreams with all you have, giving it your best Dukes of Hazard style. These are those moments in life where you will do anything to reach goals, even if it’s at 2am when you have to wake up at 5am, so you can make it to your day job on time. I am convinced that this is the most frustrating time in life. It feels like people and your job are pulling you in 100 different directions, not to mention all of the different things you need to do in the middle of the night, so that you can reach your biggest dreams. It can be draining, demotivating, and mind-boggling, but it can also be rewarding. I am a firm believer that life is what you make it, including the process of the pursuit. One of the first things that can suffer within your pursuits are the the things you hold most dear, like your family and other loved ones. The pursuit was never meant to make people suffer. Your pursuit is always meant to bless others. The only point for your pursuit is to make a difference in the lives of others. Set up your pursuit in a way that impacts more people in a positive way, rather than sucking the life out of your relationships. Tip: Make a realistic timeline and deadline for yourself to reach your biggest dreams, while including your most important obligations first along the way.   Satisfaction and Contentment – Once you are able to reach these dreams you have been chasing for so long, there is a feeling of satisfaction and contentment. Everyone is wired differently. Some choose to dwell here in this contentment and is okay to stay there and then some want more, more, more. My point I want to make here is the difference between wanting more and the need to steward well with what you already have. I believe people have forgotten just how important it is to do well with what you already have. People need to continuously want more. You can go ahead and do well with what you already have in your possession. If your first reaction is to keep going after more, you can and will miss the true meaning of life. When you aren’t concentrating on the next big thing, it allows you to step back and see the need of those around you. Tip: Pause long enough to see the needs of those around you. You already have enough in your possession to make a difference. You just need to go and do.   Fulfillment – Once someone has been working in this satisfaction and contentment for quite some time, there is a fulfillment that comes along with it. But, it directly ties into doing things for others, not pursing more things and the pursuit of one’s self. The pursuit of more is an empty journey, that can only be filled with something of more substance. That’s where fulfillment comes from. I’m sorry to inform you that this fulfillment can’t be found in yourself or your accomplishments. This fulfillment can only come from a relationship with Jesus and creating lasting relationships with people. As previously discussed in another episode, the only reason to pour into yourself is to then pour into the lives of others. Tip: Find fulfillment in things that last, not the things in life that waver.    You know, I think about this life a lot, including successes and mistakes.