I came up here for a marketing and copywriting retreat, and to work on one of my biggest weaknesses, which is writing. It’s been pretty epic training. I’ve been around some super smart people from all around the world. That was probably one of the coolest things, just hanging out with people from Russia, Europe, South America, North America, Asia. I got to be around a lot of smart people and a lot of different things, but what I really enjoyed the most about this trip is not having a phone. All I can do, really, is text on WiFi if I need to. Most of the time I keep it off so I could focus on what we’re doing and going through our training.

Another thing I really enjoyed about the training, they wouldn’t allow us to use a laptop. You could only use notepads and pens so that way you’re staying off Facebook. You’re staying off your email and you’re really getting to focus on what you’re working on and what you’re trying to accomplish. We don’t realize how much time that gets eaten up by Facebook. Then you start not paying attention, daydreaming, and you miss half the seminar, so I really enjoyed that part. It made me think a lot of times, now, when I go to seminars, I’m not even going to use my laptop. I’ll use notepad and paper and then retype my notes and stay off Facebook and things like that because that can drain so much time. 

Then the phone too, you’re constantly getting texts and emails and everything. It drains you of your time. Even if you get your life set up where you can go out and get your task done, constant barrages of texts, emails, and phone calls will slow you down. You’re putting out stupid fires that most of the time can get fixed on their own. I’ve really enjoyed not having a phone. I spend a lot of time thinking, writing, and trying to innovate for myself and my companies. Dreaming big. Looking at the really, really big picture and then working backwards from there. If we don’t dream, a lot of times we’ll end up doing the same thing. You set your goals too high and you don’t hit them. As long as you set them at least above the average, you’re going to do a lot better than most.

I’ve been doing a lot of that, and then reading and thinking a lot. I read, before I went on this trip, about how Bill Gates would take think weeks, where basically he would disappear for a week a couple of times a year. There was no family, no friends, no employees were allowed to bother him, nothing. He would just basically disappear for a week, read a bunch of books, innovate, and think. They said that during the height of Microsoft that was where most of the innovation came from. So if it worked for Bill Gates, I think I can squeeze in a day or two.

I ended up staying a day and a half longer than I planned on. All I’ve been doing is reading, studying, thinking about what I want to do, and setting my plans. Setting my goals so I can accomplish those this year and the next three, five, ten, whatever and just keep pushing from there. I highly recommend that, if you can squeeze away a little bit of time to disappear, even for a day. Just read and think about the things you want to do and the things you want to accomplish.

For me, this training was pretty overwhelming. It was a lot of good stuff. At the end you have to decompress a little bit. Usually, I’ll just jump on a plane, fly right home, and be exhausted. So I stayed a little bit longer than normal to just really dig in and focus on the things that I need to get done. By doing that, it really made me think about the sacrifices that you have to make to be successful in whatever thing you choose. It could be a sport. It could be a job. It could be a business. It could be a career. It could be anything. Your average person is just going to do the bare minimum and just get by, but then your successful person, they’re going to make the small sacrifices. They’re going to sit back and be like, “Hey you know what, I’m going to skip this meal so I can get in better shape so I can chip away at that.”

It could be anything. It’s putting down the remote, turning off the TV, and reading a few pages of a book. It’s not going to hurt anything but it’s going to help you get to where you want to get. Finding the way to make an extra class each week or building that Facebook campaign that’ll get you a new student or a new customer. All these thing, if you do them, they’re going to compound. I know we talked about that in a previous episode, the compound effect. I’m a big believer in that. The more positive things you can do, even if they’re super small and micro, when they compound together it creates a huge result.

Those are my tips for this week. Try to get some “you time,” read, goal set, and plan. Try to accomplish some things. Look at the things you need to do in your life that you want to do and then look at the small areas you could make sacrifices where you can get out there and crush those goals. Get after it. Keep crushing your goals and we’ll see you next week.