Todd Burkhalter | Author Archives

Habits: 7 Habits of The Ultra Successful

September 17, 2020

If you’ve ever known anyone ultra-successful, you know that they can appear to be a different breed. We’re not talking about someone that’s a straight-A student and goes on to make $250,000 per year. We’re talking about people that win gold medals, become billionaires, or impact the entire world in some way.

These ultra-successful people are all unique, but they share many of the same habits.

Mimic these habits of successful people and become more successful yourself

Get up early

The vast majority of the most successful people in the world get up very early. They make great use of this time, too. They have a morning routine that often includes exercise and meditation or prayer.

Try getting up an hour earlier and have a plan for using this time effectively. Do this for 30 days and evaluate the results.

Practice self-discipline

Success requires work. High levels of success require doing work that most people aren’t willing to do. It takes self-discipline to do difficult things day after day.

Work on your self-discipline each day. You have countless opportunities to do this. If you need to lose weight, throw out 25% of your lunch each day. When you feel like taking a break, force yourself to work for another 15 minutes.

Become action oriented

People with mediocre levels of success often like to plan, but they struggle to actually take any sort of action. Successful people take intelligent action. They are the masters of getting things done. They’re also great at getting started on new projects.

Read daily

Reading saves years. Without reading, you’re forced to figure out a lot by yourself. A book written by a competent author is like a mentor. The world is full of experts. Why try to do it all yourself? Stand on the shoulders of the world’s all-time greats.

Buy a good book and use the information in it. Life is too short not to take advantage of the expertise of others. Remember that it’s not enough to read and understand the information. You must apply it.

Get clear on your goals

Ultra-successful people know exactly what they want. The average person does not. You can’t make progress toward a goal if you’re not aware of your goal.

Decide what you want. Make a list and be precise.

Say, “No” to practically everything

Highly successful people avoid distractions much better than the average person. Many of us say “Yes” to almost every opportunity. Successful people say “No” almost all the time.

Decline offers that don’t assist you in the pursuit of your goals. Everything you do either brings you closer to, or takes you further from, your goals. Before agreeing to something, ask yourself, “How does this impact the pursuit of my goals?”.

Persevere

The most successful people have a tenacity that most of us fail to demonstrate. We give up far too easily.

Set goals that truly excite you. That will encourage you to continue when the going gets tough. Practice persevering when you want to quit. Learn how to grind and get things done. Perseverance is a combination of faith and pushing through discomfort.

Your habits largely influence how successful you’ll become. Effective habits result in great results. Poor habits lead to undesirable results. One of the most effective ways to take your life to the next level is to create habits that support your goals.

The most successful people in the world have the best habits for success. Pick up a couple of these habits and integrate them into your life. You’ll be glad you did!

In Leadership Leadership, Personal Growth, self improvement

Own The Day

July 3, 2020

Each passing day can seem inconsequential, but the totality of your days is your life. So, each day matters a lot. If you can get the most out of each day, you’re going to have an amazing life!

However, conquering the day doesn’t happen by accident. It requires focus and intention.

Learn how to master the day and in turn, your life:

Realize the power of each day. A day doesn’t seem like much. You’ve experienced plenty of long days where it seemed you accomplished nothing. It’s true that a single day might mean a lot, but a small amount of progress each day can result in a dramatically different future.

Realize the power and potential of each day and be determined to make the most of it.

Have a plan for the day. Have a detailed plan for the day and for the week before you even think about going to bed at night. When you wake up, grab your list of to-do items and get busy as soon as possible.

There’s an added bonus to planning out your day the night before. Your brain has a chance to think about your list of items as you sleep. Your brain will predict the challenges you’re likely to face and have a few solutions in mind.

Try it and you’ll find that your day goes much more smoothly.

Wake up earlier. If you want to own the day, get started early. Successful people tend to get up pretty early. How successful do you want to be? A successful person doesn’t scramble around in the morning trying to find a pair of clean socks. Start your day as early as possible and grab it by the throat.

Focus. What are you going to do for the next hour? Ask yourself this important question each hour. Whether your objective is to write a report, return phone calls, or enjoy your favorite movie as much as possible, identify what you’re trying to accomplish and focus on doing it. Keep your mind on the identified task.

Take breaks. You can get more accomplished each day if you take planned breaks. Working nonstop leads to slowing down later in the day. You’ll ultimately accomplish more if you take a break every couple of hours.

Remove distractions. Distractions will prevent you from owning the day and from owning your life. There’s no reason to rely on your will power to avoid the distractions in your environment if you have the ability to remove them instead.

Avoid trying to be tough and stoic. Just remove the distractions to the best of your ability.

Review. You had a good day, but it could have been even better. Figure out what you could have done differently. Make a new plan for tomorrow and include this knowledge.

Reviewing your day is a pivotal part of developing your approach to life. So many people simply repeat the same mediocre days over and over. Mediocre days lead to a mediocre life.
Are you getting the most from each day of your life? Do you have a plan for the day? For the week? What are you committed to accomplishing today? What time did you get up today?

An amazing life is the result of amazing days. Spending your day focused on activities that lead to accomplishing your goals qualifies as an amazing day. An amazing life can be yours, but you have to create it one day at a time.

Like I mention in my latest book, Bullet Proof Your Finances; If you don’t design your life, someone else will!

In Education, Leadership Best Practices, Leadership, Personal Growth

A key element to living a successful life is reducing the stress that you experience. If you have been a Drive Planning Member for long you will recognize the theme of automation. This continues to weigh on my mind as something that we need to continually emphasize.

automation

[aw-tuh–mey-shuh n]

noun

the technique, method, or system of operating or controlling a process by highly automatic means, as by electronic devices, reducing human intervention to a minimum.
a mechanical device, operated electronically, that functions automatically, without continuous input from an operator.
act or process of automating.
the state of being automated.

In other words, we want to remove our own ability to sabotage ourselves from the things that we most want in life. As part of living intentionally; we can pre-determine our outcomes simply by establishing systems around the actions which we know are best for us. I have discussed this topic at The Life You Can Afford to Live in a previous post Scheduling Your Success.

Most often our own ability to sabotage our success is through poor planning. Our own laziness or simply a lack of preparedness undermines us achieving what we really desire. So, with that in mind, I want to encourage you to automate as many facets of your life as possible. This post will explore a few ideas; there are certainly others. Let us know about some of your own suggestions or personal wins in this area on our social media channels; Facebook and twitter.

Below are some of the ways that I recommend automating your life so that you do more, waste less and live a more meaningful life.

Giving

Giving is a very personal decision. One that sometimes requires us to be prayerful or at minimum thoughtful. It’s for that reason that for years I have spoken negatively of automated giving. Today’s busyness has made me change my tune regarding this matter. Deciding to give isn’t less spiritual or obedient if its planned in advance. So, I say go ahead and establish automated drafts towards the church or charity of your choosing. This will ensure that a ballgame or any unexpected event doesn’t de-rail your plan for giving.

Saving

Most of our members do a great job in this area. We have consistently taught to establish a Wealth Coordination Account (WCA) as the initial recipient for all savings. If this isn’t something that you have completed; Let’s make it happen!

Click to Tweet This: Money without a purpose will never find its intended destination.

The WCA is the first place to direct a minimum of 15% of your income. This simple automation sets you up for years of success. It ensures that your own fleeting desires do not inadvertently interfere with your Hopes and Dreams.

We will now be encouraging you to create a more detailed savings plan to include future expenses;

Including:

Vacations
Classes
Personal Growth Areas
Holidays
Date Nights

This is all designed around creating a plan for spending. Living the life that you desire, not a reactionary life.

If you need direction in this area, please contact your Drive Planning Consultant or join my Coaching for Life Program to provide you step by step guidance.

Income

Work life is generally one of the things that creates a great deal of stress and frankly interrupts most of these other areas of life. What if you could create a scenario that automated your income; possibly even making it such to forget about the stress of your W-2 JOB! Working with us at Drive Planning or participating with me directly in my New Coaching Program we can construct a plan to just that; create Cash Flow for you through investments like Real Estate, Portfolio or other Private Investments. Even if you don’t have a great deal of money there are still options to explore like Rental Arbitrage or Affiliate Programs. This will allow you to focus more on living and less on stressful work. Between my wife and I we still stay busy but we operate several businesses which allows for unique levels of freedom to operate them on our terms from wherever we are located.

Living

Most of our members are well established in the first two areas of Giving and Saving. This is where I believe that we can really transform our time and overall quality of life. Jackie and I have spent a lot of time and consideration in this area; automating our daily life. As two very goal oriented professionals involved in numerous charitable organizations and businesses time is of the essence. I want to share with you a few things that…. Well, mostly she has taught me!

Health

Create automation around your health products, doctor visits and even how you schedule prevention techniques. Here are a few to consider:

Utilize Amazon Prime, Instacart or any delivery service to routinely deliver your vitamins, personal toiletries, air filters or the food necessary to be healthy (more to come about that). Place these things on your calendar as to do’s and automate them to arrive without wasted time at the store. Ex: Look ahead and determine when you will be traveling for business or pleasure and schedule taking Airborne 5 days in advance of your trip. This simple planned technique will virtually ensure that you do not get sick while traveling and ultimately diminish your impact or lifestyle. Ex: Schedule air filters to arrive every three months (the suggested time to change them). Ex: Schedule toilet paper to arrive periodically (Something you should never run out of) Ex: Have Dollar Shave Club deliver razors at the predetermined time.

Food

Every parent knows the dread of the 5:30pm or 6pm hour. That dreaded question, “What’s for dinner?” We have found that Blue Apron is our preferred way of automating this area of our life. Each week or at the frequency of your choosing you can have every meal (every ingredient to prepare such meal) delivered to your doorstep. It costs slightly less than $10 per meal and there is no wasted time or ingredients. Most importantly the meals are brilliant! Dishes we wouldn’t ordinarily create on our own. Here are a few examples: Cumin-Crusted Pork, Tangelo & Honey Glazed Salmon, Chipotle Glazed Meatloaf and even the best hamburger I’ve ever eaten. This level of automation means you are always prepared for that dreaded question and you avoid costly and unhealthy restaurant meals.

Fitness

This may be a stretch because it isn’t true automation. However, I’d say that any effort towards pre=planning is a step in the right direction.

Plan your events for the year. Go ahead and pre-pay, pre-register for fitness classes, races etc for the entire year. Having already committed to them and paid will reduce/eliminate the wiggling out of them that often happens. Having them planned will also motivate you between events to keep training as you approach event time. Most events will also send you a recommended training schedule to be fully prepared. It’s like having a personal trainer!

Personal Time

Schedule and begin establishing a plan for paying for these nights out, vacations etc. in advance. Easily accomplished when put into the personal spending plan. One where the money is systematically/automatically transferred months in advance of the intended time. Beyond paying for these ahead of time and avoiding debt you will also find that the quality of your overall experiences will improve. Most of the improvement is due to the advanced planning/intentionality allowing you time to focus on your spouse or significant others Love Language.

These are just a few ideas that we have implemented to create an automated approach towards our life. We have found that typically this keeps us focused on the BIG Picture and less bogged down in the details. Allow me to encourage you to look for additional ways to automate areas of your life that will help you to lead the life you desire and do it with less stress. Maybe you won’t establish all of these at once but over time with an intentional approach towards automation you will begin to see that you are doing more, wasting less and creating a more meaningful life.

As you uncover ideas that work well, share them with us on Facebook or twitter.

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