OSR 014: Five Tips To Help You Change

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In this episode we will talk about:

In this episode of Operations Self Reset Podcast we talk about five tips to get you started in the journey of the new you.  It’s not easy to just hear something motivating and take action.   I relate coffee to motivation.  As soon as you drink it you get the feeling of an “I can do it” attitude.  As the coffee wears off you start to second guess things you were going to do.

These tips are not mind-blowing or super secret.  They are tips that work for me and I want to share them with you.  When I was searching for answers I discovered these tips through my time researching, reading, and talking to others.

I hope you find value in them.

In this session you’ll discover:

1. Wake up refreshed.

Figure out how much time you need to get the best night’s rest.  Personally I need six and a half hours to feel great in the morning.  I also suggest not hitting the snooze button at all.  It will be hard at first but I highly suggest trying it.  You will feel tired at first but when you get in a rhythm it’s worth it.  Upon waking, drink water.  You lose one and a half liters of water when you are sleeping.  I suggest drinking water to hydrate your body.  You take care of your body; it will take care of you.

2. Break the wrist and walk away.

This line is from a movie.  I associate this with refusing to do things that are not in our own personal big picture.  If you are able to stop going out, reading the hot news in Facebook, or wasting time on other things, you can get so much done.  Focus on your personal big picture. When things come into your life, take a second to see if this will help you reach your goal.  If not, just say NO, then break the wrist and walk away.

3. Set Goals.

I like to break down my goals into daily goals, weekly, monthly, or yearly.  I make sure I hit everything on my daily goals.  When it comes to weekly goals I like to know what events are coming up so early in the week I can spread my plan over the course of the week instead of setting one day aside.  Monthly and yearly goals are the same.

4. Finish Projects.

I am very, very bad at this.  I am not very good at dedicating myself to one project and tackling it.  Knowing what are some of your weaknesses will help you find a solution.  I know what I need to do—I just need to FOCUS.  That’s a whole podcast on focus.

5. Organize your Life.

An organized life is an organized mind.  I need to make sure I have a clean spot to do what needs to be done.  It’s nice to come home to a clean house.  Things are in place, you feel like you can focus more, and it makes you feel good.  If you are a person who has lots of clutter around, try to remove it ASAP.  It will help you move towards success.

Those are my five tips; I know there are better ones but these are my KISS tips.

Keep It Simple Silly.

[spoiler]You’re listening to Operation Self Reset with Jake Nawrocki. Now it’s time to reset your life.

Hey guys and welcome back to Operation Self Reset. I am Jake Nawrocki, and this is the one and only place to change the person you are to that person that you strive, that you crave, that you just know that’s inside, and you just need to let that person or thing or idea or emotion out there and just kick butt in life. and that’s the thing that we’re trying to uncover today. So, my true fans out there, I do appreciate you guys with the emails and saying, “Jake, where the heck have you been?” And I appreciate the wake-up call because I have been super busy and like anybody. It’s August here and you’re enjoying the warm weather, you’re hanging out with friends and family and things like that and to be honest I have just not had the time to put aside and make a podcast. But that is why I want to check back in with you guys and say that I am back on par, dedicated to helping you guys change your lives because I know how challenging this process can be. I know the issues that arise, the things that you want to figure out, just everything that kind of piles upon you when you are trying to figure out the best way to tackle life, and that is what I’m trying to do here today.

So last time we caught up, I was asking about feedback on time management, and I actually am currently still in the process of researching different ideas and tips and ways to get more out of our day. So before I share tips on the subject of today’s podcast, I want to tell you that these tips are not mind-blowing. These tips are not Russian spy, super secret, CIA operative level secrets and/or tips. These tips are KISS. KISS tips. And if you know KISS, KISS stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. So the back story on the KISS method for these tips is because a lot of you guys have been emailing me and I really, really do appreciate it. I personally want to try to reach back to every single email that I get. You guys have been emailing the heck out of me and I’m loving it, so it’s going to take me some time. And if you guys listening right now have a question, feel free to email me at support@operationselfreset.com. I promise, I promise, I promise I will get back to you. I will answer. I will help you the best I can, and just let me know what’s going on with you. That’s all I ask in return.

And so a lot of you guys have been asking, “Hey, Jake, what are some things that I can do right now? I love the podcast. I love the interviews. They’re very inspirational, motivating. What are some things I can do today?” And that is where I’m kind of starting with these tips. These tips are very good. They’re fundamental because when I was struggling personally, when I was trying to figure out who I was and why did I wake up on my birthday feeling sick to my stomach? Why did I feel like I was missing something? I couldn’t figure it out. I just didn’t know. But throughout my discovery and throughout my time of learning and researching, these were a couple of things that I picked up, and I implement a lot of the tips that I say in this podcast to some of the related interviews that I had on this podcast. But in reality, these tips were founded kind of when I was discovering myself, so they are very simple but yet they have a great, great outcome. They can really help you just do something a little different. I’m not saying all these tips are going to apply to every single person listening to this podcast and next thing you know you’re going to be worth millions of dollars and owning your own companies and flying around the world. But these little tidbits are valuable to me, and I think you guys will find some value in them also.

When I was younger, my father would always tell me to read these biographies on successful people, and I would always say, “What does this book have to tell me about life? This guy’s dead or this doesn’t make sense to me. This doesn’t apply to my life.” And he would say, “Jake, just as long as you get 10% out of something, it was worth it.” So if you get 10% out of these podcasts, I can truly, truly say to you it will be beneficial. And that goes towards everything. Not only this podcast and to all the other podcasts you listen to, to the magazines, to the books, to the newspapers you read and also to the people you talk to. They might not be in the same interest as you. You might find them corny or weird or crazy, but we can pick up just tips and points and ideas from everything that is surrounding us. So the key is just to take a little bit and try to implement it into our own lives. So it sounds like this could be a little mini podcast in itself, but let’s dive into today’s content.

So the first tip is something I truly believe can really make or break a day. And tip number one is waking up refreshed. Well, to really figure out how to wake up refreshed we have to figure out how long we should sleep. So you guys as I know have heard, “Sleep four hours. Sleep eight hours. Sleep ten hours. Get the most sleep you can. Go to bed early. Wake up early.” All that crazy stuff. But the one thing that I have found, this is the golden ticket. This little piece of information is unheard of. It’s never been documented before except on this podcast. So get ready, silence please. Prepare yourself. Here comes the answer. The answer is however much time you need to feel refreshed. Yeah, you’re probably thinking that is silly, and you’re probably saying some other words besides silly, but that’s okay. So I want to dive into this a little more. I just interviewed a gentleman called Dave Asprey. He does the Bulletproof Executive. You guys can find him at BulletproofExec.com. He is a very interesting man. He does a lot of research when it comes to chemical imbalances in the body. He tries to figure out the best way to kind of tap our circuit board, our mind, to figure out how to get the most out of it by taking pills, by drinking Bulletproof coffee, by sleeping less, by being up more, all that crazy nonsense. And there is a study that he did. If you actually sleep between four and five hours a night, you can gain an extra 10 to 15 years on your life, of living, of being awake, I should say. So that’s not saying like, “Well, if you think you’re gonna die at 85, you’re actually going to die at 100 because of this study.” No, it’s just saying you’re awake more as opposed to sleeping more. And that sounds interesting, right? You’re thinking, “Wow, think of all the extra things I can do in 10 to 15 years.” I mean, good gosh, all the crazy stuff you could think of; let your mind go wild on that subject.

So when I really started diving into this subject of how much time do we really need to sleep, I read that and I was like, “Oh, that’s so cool. It’s really interesting.” But as I realized, when I was starting the podcast here I was still working a full-time job. My wife was going into labor—she wasn’t going into labor, but we were getting prepared, getting the house in shape and stuff like that. And soon after our child was born I was continuing to pump out these podcasts and I would have to stay up very, very late and wake up very, very early to help out with the child and all that stuff. And literally, I was probably getting between four and five hours of sleep per night and probably some nights were less just because of the way our boy was waking up. And at first, I thought, “Wow, this isn’t bad.” I drank my cup of coffee, I worked out, I was eating healthy, so I really had good energy throughout doing this.

Well, it lasted for about three weeks, and then I crashed. I had flu symptoms, I had a splitting headache, and I was totally wiped out. I was useless. And that started when I woke up at six in the morning and it didn’t stop until the following day at 10 a.m. Now how good was that system that I had? Did I get a lot done? Yeah. Did I get a lot of progress on the podcast and progress with getting the house in shape and progress of helping out my wife and preparing for our child? Yes, I did. But how good was I when I was out of commission for 24 hours+. Not good at all. I wasn’t helpful. I was lying there. I was more of a burden to her trying to figure out, “Should I get away from the child? Is this going to be contagious? Is he going to get the flu?” All that crazy stuff that comes along with being sick with a newborn. So it’s one of those things I realized that was way too little sleep for myself. I need to improve on that just because I know the consequences. I know what happens if I do not get my normal amount of sleep or my “standard” amount of sleep.

So I started testing a little bit on myself, and I would go to bed really early. I would go to bed at 10 o’clock. I would try to wake up as late as I could. Obviously, having a newborn this isn’t a really true dedicated study, so results may vary. But I realize now that’s too long. Then I started to go to bed later and later and later by 30-minute chunks. And I personally realized that my optimal, my optimal personally, my optimal time to sleep—there are times that I’m waking up with the child and stuff like that—so between six, five and a half, six and a half hours give or take, a little bit of disturbance there in between in the evening, but I know personally that that is my optimal time to sleep. And so the thing, when it comes to sleeping and you can read about a million different ways. You can buy pills and you can put devices on your face and that band-Aid that goes over the bridge of your nose that allows more oxygen in to get you in that REM cycle quicker, sooner, and sleep faster or whatever. But I know my optimal time to sleep is about six and a half hours. And so I know if I go to bed at whatever hour, if I go to bed at 2 o’clock in the morning I know I need my six and a half hours no matter what. Will my schedule get thrown off a little bit? Sure.

So what I’m trying to say is that you guys listening right now, try practicing on yourself. If you’re on your normal routine right now and you always wake up just exhausted and you’re just, “[Groaning 10:28] I can’t believe I’m going to work today. I can’t even keep my eyes open.” You need toothpicks to keep your eyelids open. I wouldn’t suggest doing that. So there you go. That’s my little tip with the sleeping. Try it out on yourself. If you feel that you wake up really exhausted, try going to bed a half an hour earlier or vice versa. If you wake up and you feel like you’re really just overtired, well, then stay up a little longer or adjust your schedule on either end. That’s just something to try out.

I know we get in these routines and it’s tough to break that routine because we’re so used to staying up at 10 o’clock to watch the 10 p.m. news, then we go to bed at 10:30. We wake up at 5:30 but I still feel really groggy, just ridiculous. Well, the key is maybe adjust that. Try to break that habit of going to bed at a certain time. You can put your kids to bed at 8 or 9 o’clock, or whatever time you put them to bed. You should try doing that to yourself. Try dedicating and say, “This week, I’m going to try getting 7 hours of sleep this week and see how I feel.” Again, it’s going to take time for you to adjust so just keep that in the back of your mind, but you will get little glimpses early on, “Wow, I do feel good. I don’t feel tired in the afternoon or anything like that.” So try it out. Let me know how it works. If it doesn’t work for you and you hate it and you think, “This was the biggest waste of time,” just don’t come over to my house and wake me up during my sleeping period because I need my optimal six and a half hours. So there you go. So that’s with the sleeping.

Now, let’s talk about waking up. Now there’s a lot of devices, there’s a lot of ways, everybody wakes up differently. We hit the snooze button again. We go in that deep sleep. We hit the snooze button. It felt like two seconds and you’re all flustered, and that’s not a good way to start your day. So I want to also challenge you to not hit the snooze button. What? Well then what is it made for? Well, yeah, cause the snooze. But really, do you think the extra eight or nine minutes or ten minutes—however that snooze button is timed—is that gonna make or break your day? Probably not. It’s actually probably going to throw off your day because as soon as you hit that snooze button, your body instantly goes back into that deep sleep cycle and then it gets awoken again with that very high-pitched noise, whatever it may be. So there you go, just make sure when that alarm goes off, get on up. And you’re probably thinking, “Jake, what does this have to do with resetting my life?” Well, to be honest, everything that you do has a reason behind it. If you start to be dedicated as soon as you wake up, that triggers your mind to focus on every single thing that you are doing in that day. And you’re probably thinking, “No, that doesn’t make sense.” It does because studies have shown that your body and mind are interlocked. It’s almost like the good angel and the bad angel. Your body might be craving one thing, but your mind knows the other. Or vice versa. Your body might be saying, “No, that’s not right to do.” But your mind is saying, “No, I want to do it.” That’s called addiction. So we got the sleep down. We know how much time we need to optimally be at our peak potential. So we got that down. Check.

Then we wake up as soon as our alarm goes off. We’re not hitting the snooze button five, six, 27, 19 times. We’re just getting up. Okay, so we got that taken care of. Now what do we do to really put our body into high gear? What’s the first thing you do after you wake up? Well, it’s either put on a pot of coffee, take a shower, or go to the bathroom. And you’re probably going to the bathroom because you were holding all that stuff all evening because you’re sleeping between your optimal range, whatever that may be for your individual self. But the one thing, the tip that I really want to share with you guys to really start on the right foot is to rehydrate you. Now you’re thinking, well, coffee. There’s a lot of water in coffee. True, very true. But there’s caffeine in coffee. Caffeine is a stimulant that constricts a lot of elements within your body, your blood vessels, your pupils, all that stuff. And it actually pushes water, H2O out of certain cells within your body structure. So by you drinking water the first thing when you wake up, you’re actually rehydrating your body. Now think of how much water you’re losing at night. You’re probably thinking, “Well, I don’t go to the bathroom at night. I’m not really losing any water.” Well, actually you are because when you’re breathing, you’re exhaling, and it’s like putting your mouth by a cup. You can see the moisture build up on the outside of the cup. So you’re losing moisture there. During your deep sleeping your mind is working, your eyes are fluttering, your body is always in motion. So your body’s always digesting, moving, perspiring. You’re losing moisture through your skin. There’s a lot of ways your body is just getting rid of fluid within your body.

Studies have also shown—because I’m doing the studies now—you lose about 1.5 liters of fluid per evening when you go to bed. Now you’re thinking, “Wow, that’s a lot of fluid.” Well, you’ve got to think of all the elements like I said. Obviously, some is going towards waste. Some is getting used in the digestion process. Others are getting used by you breathing out and also, too, by you sweating, perspiring, tear ducts, all that crazy stuff. You’re losing a lot of fluid. So I highly suggest you guys drink water as the first thing you do when you wake up. That’s what I do and it really, personally I can see a difference. It gets me, not awake, but it gets me in a right state of mind. It just makes me feel like, “Okay, I’m taking care of my body. Now my body’s going to take care of me today.” So there you go. That’s a little tip about going to bed, waking up refreshed, and—we could keep going on this subject for 25,000 hours but we’re not because we have four other tips to share with you guys.

Tip number two is called break the wrist and walk away. That is from Napoleon Dynamite. That’s a movie. There’s a funny scene—a gentleman goes to a Tae Kwon Do karate class, and the instructor asks a person to come on up and grab his wrist and he breaks the wrist and walks away. That’s a good way to get away from things—intruders or people that are trying to snatch you. But how does that relate to our own personal life? Well, the reason why I enjoy that line is because there are so many distractions in our lives. People ask us to hang out. They want to see a concert. You want to see a movie. Let’s go to dinner. Let’s do this. Let’s go drive around the block in my new car. Let’s go check out this new, cool little restaurant, this bar. Oh, hey, did you see that thing on Facebook? Look at this YouTube video. Did you hear about that new band that’s coming to town? Did you see this? Do you want to travel there? All these distractions that are just driving us nuts, and this tip really hits home to me because I am very, very swamped. Like I said earlier in the show, I have a lot going on. And to be honest, I have not hung out with my friends. I have not gone out for drinks. I haven’t really done a lot to take up my time in the evening because this is my time to really work. I’ve got to study for the promotional exam. I have this podcast, the website, and I’m doing a lot of this stuff on my own. It takes time to learn things, and it takes a lot of effort to make something good. So I know personally that I have to push away certain things in my life, and actually I reflect and I feel bad that I’m not hanging out with my friends more. I understand how important friends are. I really do enjoy my friends and the group of people that I hang around with, but the thing is I know the bigger picture. And that’s the thing when it comes to your own personal life. Everything you do—if you are searching on the internet or if you’re just talking to somebody on the phone, watching a movie—is it for the big picture? That’s how you have to think to yourself.

Now, can you enjoy, splurge every once in a while, maybe have your one movie a week kind of thing cause you’re a movie guy or girl? Sure. But you need to think to yourself every time you’re just sitting with somebody or you’re just doing this or you’re scanning on YouTube or just looking at Facebook for hours on end, is this for the bigger picture? Now, it doesn’t necessarily mean, “Oh, I have to be super busy. I have to find all this crazy stuff. Maybe I should start a podcast. Maybe I should start a website.” No, but there are issues in your life that you know you can do better in. Maybe it’s fitness, health, understanding yourself, like this podcast. Maybe you want to read more. Maybe you want to go visit with your parents. Maybe they’re not doing too well. Maybe visit other things that are very important to you, sacred to you that you want to spend time at, but you always feel you’re too busy. You never have the time.

The key is to break the wrist and walk away from things that are not going to help you in your big picture. That’s really kind of a big tip for me because I understand how tough it is to say no. It stinks because you want to be social, you want to be outgoing, you want to meet other people and get out there, but if you know it’s not for the journey that you know you’re supposed to take, I would highly, highly suggest to say no and pass on. When you wake up the next day, you’re going to feel like, “Wow, I accomplished a lot yesterday. I was glad I was able to read those three chapters in that book. I learned a lot about this or that or I’m glad I went to go hang out with my mom and dad because they’re getting up there in age and you never know.” So it’s just one of those things. You need to prioritize your life, and the line that I like to say is, “Break the wrist and walk away.” So next time somebody approaches you and says, “Hey, let’s go see that Lord of the Rings marathon at the movie theater.” They’re going to show all three movies in a row and it takes like 17 hours or whatever it takes, say, “I’m going to break your wrist and I’m gonna walk away.” Give that a try. Let me know how that goes for you. So that’s my second little tip there.

So third tip. Set goals and achieve them. So broad. I could talk about this for hours on end. There’s so much data out there. There are so many little tidbits of this is a good way to do it. It’s kind of like sleep. You need to know what works for you, and I’m going to break down what I do and what personally works for me. So when it comes to setting goals, I have daily goals which is kind of my list, kind of my to-do list. I call that goals because I need to accomplish them, whatever it is: going to the post office, cutting the grass, food shopping, delivering this, that or whatever, catching up on emails, whatever it is. That is my list. So we’re going to start with daily. When I start formulating this list, I usually formulate it the night before. Like I was stating about getting your sleep, sometimes when you go to bed your mind is racing. I always keep a pad of paper and a pen next to the bed, and I write down things that I need to accomplish. Now why a pad of paper and a pen as opposed to my iPhone or iPad or whatever tablet I have next to me. Well, it’s because I know that as soon as I log onto that phone, that tablet, whatever, I’m going to be checking email. I’m going to be going on Amazon Deals. I’m going to be going on YouTube. I’m going to be checking Facebook one last time and next thing you know I’ve burned 45 minutes of just useless stuff. So that’s why I like to use a pad and paper, old school. Call me old school, call me crazy, whatever you want to do, but that’s how I start jotting down the things that I need to do.

So when I wake up, I already have the list in place. It’s not I wake up, I drink my water, I go to the bathroom, I eat, and then I formulate my list. My list is already started, so I know the three or four or five, ten, whatever things I need to accomplish as soon as I wake up. Your daily list or goal sheet will continue to grow throughout the day, so you need to keep up on it. You need to keep it with you. You need to keep glancing at it, and also if you feel that devices are appropriate for you—your iPhone or Droid or whatever—make sure you always keep that list with you. So either take a picture of it so you can glance at it throughout the day or just put it into your Evernote or to-do list or I think there’s an app called Melt, another list that you can use to formulate and accomplish things throughout the day. So that is the daily thing. That’s the daily thing I do every single day.

Now, what about weekly? Well, weekly is kind of nice because you know a week what’s going on. You know this Saturday you have a birthday party or a wedding or you’ve got to grab lunch with your old friend or a boss or a colleague or somebody on Thursday. You have to get your car maintenance done on Tuesday, so that’s kind of your weekly stuff. And weekly will turn into your daily when you approach it that day, but the nice thing about a weekly is it gives you a broader approach of the big things that need to be done so you can understand your time management in accomplishing those certain tasks. For example, when it comes to health and diet if I know I am going to be having a wedding or I’m going to be going camping or I’m going to be going up North, I know I’m going to be splurging. I’m going to be drinking adult beverages. I know I’m going to be eating snacks that I usually don’t eat. I’m going to be eating ice cream all the time. I’m probably going to be eating brownies for breakfast, whatever it may be. I know during the week then I’m going to really hold back from the sweets. I know I’m going to really hold back from any extra, little treats to myself because I know, come Saturday or Friday night or that lunch with that colleague or old friend, I know I’m going to splurge. So why not just say and note to yourself, “I’m not going to eat a lot today or I’m not going to eat a lot of sweets today because I’m going to save it for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, whatever it may be.” So that’s nice when you’re trying to handle issues that are coming in your own personal life.

And also, too, personally, if you have an addiction per se, whatever it is—I don’t want to go into details with this—but it’s a nice way to kind of take it one week at a time. Sometimes the daily, just take it one day at a time, well, sometimes you just get caught up in that and you think, “Well, it’s only one day.” And then you do whatever it is. Well, the key is if you see the whole week and you say, “Okay. I can last this week. I can last this week.” It’s almost a bigger picture. It draws out the process a little more as opposed to that single day you’re going to feel like, “Well, it’s just one day. There’s 364 left in the year.” So I highly suggest setting a list for your daily goals and then your weekly items that you need to take care of, not only socially but also for your business or the things that you’re trying to do to improve yourself. Maybe it’s to read a book a week and you know that you need to read three chapters a night to tackle my goal of reading that one book. So in your daily goal sheet, list, or whatever you want to call it, you can put in there, “Need to read three chapters.” So then you can tackle that. So come Sunday night, you’re finishing up on the last three chapters, and you knocked out a whole book in one week.

So the same thing goes for a monthly chart also, kind of the big things. You can prepare in advance. Just setting up your life here. If you have a wedding, you need to get your suit dry cleaned or your dress or whatever, getting things in order. If you have company coming into town or you have a big project that’s due and you know you need to chunk it out. Like myself, I know with podcasts I need to start getting back into the routine of doing a weekly podcast, so I know I need to prepare well in advance. I need to prepare every single day. I almost need to tackle some little part of a podcast to get myself on schedule. So take those big tasks and break them down into your weekly or your monthly schedule.

And then you’ve got your yearly stuff. The yearly, usually it’s a big event. You’re going out of town. It might be a convention or for just vacation or you have a baby getting delivered or whatever it may be. The thing is just to mark it down so when you are glancing and people do ask you questions, “Hey, would you like to go to this conference? Hey, would you go to this Meetup? Hey, would you like to go on this vacation or whatever?” You can look and say, “No, I’ve got this going on.” So it kind of organizes your life. Now this is simple stuff. I know I’m not telling you anything new. This isn’t world-renowned. I’m not telling you I invented a thing called the calendar. No, you guys know how to use it best, but I’m just letting you know little tips. Set yourself up for success by making your lists, making them good, solid lists and then how do we accomplish those lists? Well, we do the hardest thing first. Whatever is on your daily list, knock it out first. Maybe it’s calling somebody that you’re embarrassed to talk to or you’re not comfortable talking to. Do it first. Call them. Get it over with. Done. Move onto task number two. So maybe we’ll have a whole other podcast on that, but I just wanted to share with you guys kind of ways to tackle scheduling your time.

So step number four is finish projects. I am know to get sidelined. It’s like, “Oh, a bird. Oh, I’ve got to file this paper. Oh, I should just scan it. Oh, let me go on Facebook for a second. Oh man, it looks like it’s going to rain. I’ve got to cut the grass.” And then it starts raining, “Well, I’m not going to trim. I’ll save that for another day.” And then you’re just doing laundry, doing dishes not all the way. You put them in the dishwasher but you forget to start it or whatever. So the thing is how do we finish projects? Well, again, the craziest answer is to finish it. Period. There is no real strategic, scientific, chemical reaction in your body that reacts with this when you drink this concoction that will make you finish the project. No, you just need to do it. Period. Done. So when you start a project, when you start typing that email, don’t open another tab. Don’t go to your Facebook profile. Don’t open your email. Don’t answer that phone call. Finish that task. Move on to the next. Somebody interrupted you while you’re doing that task. Finish it. Talk to that person. Answer. Return the phone call. Text. Whatever. The key is to stay on track because if you keep on chunking out little things, you do little things at a time, you keep running around like a crazy man you’re not going to accomplish anything and then it’s going to be ten o’clock at night and you go, “Oh, shoot! I forgot to finish that email. It’s in my draft box.” Well, then you’ve got to run back out of bed or whatever and finish that thing. So finish your products. Products. Or if you’ve got a product, finish that and then finish your projects.

Step number five is staying organized. When I interviewed Nate Holzapfel from the Mission Belt Co., he and I chatted. We had some great conversations. The one thing he kind of talks about a lot is not having a lot of clutter around. Living a minimalist life, allowing yourself to have an organized space at all times. And as I’m saying this, speaking into this microphone that’s on my desk, I’m looking around my office right now and it is an absolute disaster. It’s kind of crazy how I’m able to get these ideas out here because there’s so much stuff going on; there’s no method to this madness. It’s complete mayhem. Having a newborn, a lot of things are out of place, but the thing is how good does it feel though when things are clean? When you come home from a little weekend conference or that Meetup and your wife or husband or whoever cleaned up and you go, “Wow. Nice. It looks good.” Things are organized things are put away, all that stuff. There’s no junk on the counters. It’s kind of nice. You kind of feel calm. You kind of feel like you can tackle your to-do list and feel confident that you know you can accomplish it.

So when you live an organized life, you live an organized mind. The less clutter in your physical space, the less clutter in your mental space and that is absolutely huge and very true. We all know the benefits of living in a clean house, an organized house. You know where things are. The thing is though when you do take out that stapler, when you do open up that notebook, when you do start opening up the pens and the papers and bring out dishes and all that stuff is to put them back, is to try to as best as you can—and it’s hard for me. I’m horrible at this—is to put them back where you found it, so you can keep that space clean at all times. And it’s kind of nice with computers now because the internet, you have email, and all your files are on there. Paperwork is online. But every once in a while you start printing stuff off of you printer, and it’s a disaster. You’ve got paper all over the place. You’ve got paper that’s stapled together. You have paper that you know is important but you don’t want to scan it, but you don’t know where to put it, so you then you just stack it in a pile, and it just keeps growing and growing and then you find, you’re like, “Maybe I’ll just drill this organized little metal shelving to the wall of my office,” and then you just jam that thing full of stuff. So much stuff in there you don’t even know what’s in there. So the key is to live a minimal approach to life, a minimal approach to the clutter in your mind and also, too, an organized life. Keep everything organized. Keep your ducks in line.

If you’re horrible at it, try just focusing on one room. That’s what I realized. I try focusing on the kitchen because the kitchen I know when I go in there I don’t want to be distracted by seeing wrappers of these little almond things. I love them. They’re Blue Diamond chocolate covered almonds. Oh, my gosh, it’s like liquid gold. They’re absolutely delicious. But I know if I see that, I’m going to want to dive in and then when I dive into that then I’m going to want to dive into something else and the next thing you know it’s like 20 minutes later and I’m just feeding myself. So the key is to focus on one room if you’re horrible like myself. Maybe I should start focusing on my office because it’s an absolute disaster. So there you go, those are the five tips.

So we’ve got waking up refreshed. We have the breaking the wrist and walking away. We have the setting goals, how to break them down very simply. Number four is finishing projects, not products. And number five is living an organized life. So there you go. Five little quick tips that you guys can implement in your life to kind of start anew. Again, these tips are not mind blowing, “Oh, my gosh, Jake, you’re a guru of five tips.” I hope not, but I just want to let you guys know the things that I’m trying to improve on all the time. So these are my five go-to tips. I know I need to get my six and a half hours of sleep to be optimally ready for the day ahead, so I can do a good job on these podcasts. I know I need to break the wrist and walk away when it comes time to partying, hanging out with friends, getting distracted. I know if I want to be successful I have to focus. I need to use my time wisely and put it towards the big picture.

Third, I know I need to set my goals. I need a list to look at every single day. If I don’t, I’m lost. Personally, that’s how I do it. I keep the pad and paper next to the bed so I don’t get distracted on the iPhone before going to bed. There’s a lot of little things that I try to do to streamline my life and to make sure I hit everything, and I don’t miss out on golden opportunities. A couple of years ago I missed out on a conference because I wrote it in the wrong month. I mean we all do that, but it was just very frustrating to me because that’s when I was really like, “Alright, Jake, you’ve got to focus now. Pay attention to when you’re putting this stuff in your calendar.” So then that’s when I got into the daily, weekly, monthly, yearly approach. I can see things on a broader schedule.

And then the fourth thing would be the finishing of the projects just because I’m horrible at that. I know I struggle with finishing things because I get distracted and that leads into number five. I get distracted because my life is disorganized. There’s junk all over the place, so I know I need to keep a clean office, a clean kitchen, a clean workspace, so I can really focus on the task at hand. So there you go, those are the five KISS tips. Keep It Simple, Stupid tips to kind of get you in a direction of resetting your life. I found these tips when I was struggling and I was trying to figure out myself, and as you can see, I’m still working on these tips today. So maybe I got to go back to my own drawing board and try to figure out the best way to handle stuff. I think I’ve got the time down, but the distractions and organization—still struggling with. So the key is though is just to know the problem. Know the problem so you can find and figure out the solution. So there you guys go.
So some quick other news on the Operation Self Reset platform here. I have just been picked up by an internet radio station called ProgramYourLife.org. My program, Operation Self Reset, is on there. They kind of play a lot of inspirational, motivational, self-help, self-discovery shows, and I am one of nine. They’re always going to be expanding to more, so I’m very blessed to have that opportunity so if you guys do have a chance, if you really do enjoy what I’m speaking about and want to find more, maybe some different people that are speaking on the same topics, feel free to go over to ProgramYourLife.org. it’s a great website. Support it and listen to it. You can find some other great resources on there to help transform your life for the better. Like I said, I’m not going to sit here and say, “No! Only listen to me! I’m the man.” That’s not what I’m trying to stand for. There are opportunities to learn all over the place. We, you and I, cause I’m always learning too, we need to find them and we need to implement them in our lives because there’s a lot of good information out there. There’s a lot of not so good information, but there is a lot of good information, so I would highly suggest going to ProgramYourLife.org. That is ProgramYourLife.org and check it out.

So in conclusion here guys, I appreciate everything you guys have given to me. I appreciate all the help. I appreciate the comments, the emails, and you guys just listening out there. And if you ever have a comment, if you ever have an issue, a question that you need help solving, anywhere, any part of your life, feel free to ask me. Email me at support@operationselfreset.com. I’m going to be putting together some time management tips. I keep saying that, so I’ve really got to deliver now. And also, too, some more great interviews to come. I have as a guest Pat Flynn. You guys can check him out at SmartPassiveIncome.com. I’m going to put that in the show notes. The show notes will be for this episode as OperationSelfReset.com/podcast014. There you’re going to find everything we talked about on today’s podcast and also, too, a little video of the gentleman breaking the wrist and walking away. It’s pretty funny. I would suggest hopping over there and checking it out.

But back to Pat Flynn. He is a personal inspiration to myself. He is the one that gave me the confidence to come on, do a podcast, learn how to do it, set up a blog and all that stuff. He is the guru of passive income. If you guys want to check him out, I would highly suggest. Go look on iTunes. He has a podcast also called Smart Passive Income podcast. He is an amazing gentleman. He has also a great story. He was actually fired, let go actually from one of his jobs, and he decided to dabble and do the Smart Passive Income full time and it’s been working really, really well for him. Great guy. Truly, truly just down-to-earth, honest, and I think you guys are going to get a lot out of what he has to say. So really stay tuned to that. Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income coming on the podcast. And he’s kind of a big deal. He’s kind of an internet sensation. He travels all around the place doing seminars and speaking and everybody wants to talk to him because he has done so much, brought some great content and if you’re ever thinking about doing a podcast, starting a website, a blog, whatever, I would highly, highly suggest go check him out. Just let him know Jake from Operation Self Reset sent you over there. S

So that’s it for now guys. Again, I appreciate everything you’ve done. If you guys love this podcast or hate it, whatever. Go to iTunes, leave a review. It would be greatly, greatly appreciated. And I want to leave you guys with something I did up North in Door County, Wisconsin. I actually hung out with Mike Thornton, the gentleman that was part of SEAL Team Six, one of the original members. He received the Medal of Honor which is our nation’s highest award for a man in active duty for his actions in Vietnam. And sitting around the campfire and talking stories. Well, he was really sharing stories. It was unbelievable. He and I went to breakfast and on the way to breakfast I was asking him—because he’s met a lot of very successful people. He’s met every President. He’s met owners of huge, huge corporations—and I asked him, “What’s the one thing, what’s the recurring thing that you have noticed with successful people?” And he says, “Jake, like I told you before. They never give up and you never give up.” And I was like, “Geez. Okay, true. But how do you never give up?” He says, “You set goals, and when you reach those goals, you set more goals. And you keep on doing that until you reach every single goal you ever wanted in your life.” And I’m like, “So true.” That’s what I want to leave you with. It’s easy to get motivated and to get jacked and, “Whoo! This is gonna be the new me.” But it’s easy to also fall off of that train and lose interest, but the key is to keep pushing forward and to never give up, no matter what it is. Just, guys, please, for your own personal pride, for your family, for your kids, for your friends, for whoever, your wife, your husband, never give up. Never give up striving for the best within yourself and for everything that’s around you. So that’s all I have for now. Take care. We will talk to you in the next podcast episode. Thanks again.

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Links:

Pat Flynn www.smartpassiveincome.com

www.programyourlife.org

In this session you’ll discover:

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