As I set my goals at the beginning of each year, one of them is centered around learning something new that I want to learn. It doesn’t have to relate to my business.
And I don’t mean just learning about something but learning about it and doing it.
This year my goal was to run a marathon for the first time.
In past years I’ve:
- Taken an Improv class and performed in a show
- Taken dance lessons with my wife
- Learned how to scuba dive
- Learned how to survive comfortably in the wilderness
As you can see I have a wide variety of interests. I’ve enjoyed each of these things and they have all taught me lessons I can use in my business.
Goals Like These Accomplish Two Things:
First, they keep life interesting.
Let’s face it, we can get by with doing the same thing year after year – the same work, the same vacations, the same evening and weekend routine. But doesn’t that get old after some time?
If you’re only 40 or 45 now, you have a lot of years in front of you and who wants to be bored? After all, we only have one life and one chance. Why are we wasting it?
When I decided to train for and run a marathon I had no idea how my life was going to change. I had to plan my runs around events in my life and business. For those of you who have never run a marathon, most plans require at least 6 runs of 16 miles or more. That takes a few hours. How do you work those into a full life?
Well, you change what you do when. And since you know that on a set date you’re going to run 26.2 miles you have a deadline and it’s not like you can cram all of your exercises into a week or two.
This means that your before and after work routines, as well as your weekend routines, all change.
How exciting!
The year I studied Scuba divine I went diving. You have to be focused and prepared. After all, if you make a mistake you can hurt yourself or even die.
Camping in the wilderness? I’ve been on five trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. A remote area where you pack in everything you need and move around in canoes portaging between lakes. If you don’t get this right it can be a long, uncomfortable week.
All of this, including other topics, have kept my life interesting.
Second, it teaches me skills that I can use in my business.
Who knew the discipline it took to train for a marathon and how organized you need to be to get everything done?
I don’t just mean the running, I mean everything else you’re doing.
I didn’t want to take time away from my family and I had work to get done. When you’re the business owner much of the business success rests on you.
I needed to schedule my time tighter and I needed to make sure I was productive. I couldn’t get sucked into Facebook, other social media or emails. I had to get stuff done.
This helped me focus and increased my overall productivity.
With Scuba diving I had to learn processes and charts and keep track of everything. When you’re 50 ft underwater it’s not the time to be trying to remember how long you can stay and how fast you can ascend, especially if you didn’t keep track of how much air you had left.
With wilderness camping, it’s all about planning and preparation. Once you enter the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, you make do with what you have. If you forget something there is no place to get it, and if something breaks you have to fix it yourself with what you have with you.
All of these adventures have helped me in my business through learning new skills, deepening my focus and productivity, and gaining new experiences.
What do you do to keep your life interesting and to learn new skills?
What do you have on your calendar now that you’re looking forward to?
After all, there is always excitement when you do something for the first time. Why stop just because you’ve had more experience? Look at life with wide-open eyes and you’ll find more adventures waiting for you than you can imagine.
Who knows where you will end up and what you’ll be doing!
Brian “Living The Adventure” Hahn
P.S. If you’d like to investigate adding Facebook and online marketing to your business schedule a Complimentary Smart Online Marketing call with me. We’ll spend 30 minutes talking about your business and then at the end I’ll give you 2 or 3 specific suggestions about how you can implement Online Marketing into your business. Go to www.gosocialexperts.com/callbrian30 to schedule your call. At the end of the call, if you want my help to implement the plan, we can discuss what that looks like.