Shownotes
Sponsored by Shady Poplar Farm Mangalitsa pastured pork. Email ken@constructiveliberty.com to order whole or half hog.
In this episode I share 9 tips to help you make the most of each.
- Wake Up 10 Minutes Earlier
- Keep the Same Sleep Routine Every Day
- Eat a Healthy Diet
- Exercise Daily
- Accomplish One Task Toward a Larger Goal
- Make a Daily Big 3 List
- Take Regular Breaks
- Be Present with Those You Love
- Prep Your Day the Night Before
FAST-ACTION STEPS
1. Sit down and review your goals. What steps can you take in
your daily schedule to progress towards accomplishing your
goals?
2. Take 15 minutes this evening to tidy your living room and
kitchen. Take a moment to pick an outfit for tomorrow, even
if you are staying home.
3. Set your morning alarm for 10 minutes earlier than usual.
Enjoy an unrushed morning as you get ready for the day.
Join the men's community mentioned in the episode: a place for men to find purpose, fulfill their God given potential, and reach the NEXTLevel of growth and impact in their personal, professional, and spiritual lives.
Follow the Constructive Liberty podcast and join in the conversation:
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Connect with Ken (your host) here:
Transcripts
Hey what is up guys and gals welcome back to another episode of the constructive liberty podcast bringing you the best strategies tech tools and mindset to help you create a life,
Speaker:and career you love.
Speaker:Today is Wednesday, January 18, 2023, and this is episode number 137. Today I want to share with you nine tips to help you make the most out of every single day of your life.
Speaker:Because if you're not making the most out of your days, are you really even living? Before we get into that though, I want to talk about our sponsor.
Speaker:Shady Poplar Farm, which is the farm that belongs to my wife and I, raises the best pork on the planet. Mangalitza pigs. Words can't even describe how tasty this pork is.
Speaker:Mangalitza is actually a red meat pork. Very fatty. It is the best pork you can buy. We've got three pigs left that you can pre-order today, whole or half hog. Just send an email
Speaker:to Ken at ConstructiveLiberty.com. Put pork in the subject line, express your interest if you want a whole or a half hog or we can discuss pricing on that. I do have the price,
Speaker:set for that. We do $5 a pound hanging weight, which is when it's at the butcher, hanging,
Speaker:on the rail, already been skinned and gutted and all of that. These pigs average out between to 225 pounds hanging weight. It's $5 a pound. I need a $300 deposit if you're.
Speaker:Interested. Right now I've only got three pigs left out of the ten that we started with originally. So go ahead and get your order in if you're interested.
Speaker:$5 a pound. Send an email, Ken at ConstructiveLiberty.com. Alright, enough of the sponsorship crap. We got all that out of the way. Today I I actually don't have a quote.
Speaker:It. I always have two, three, five, seven quotes. I don't have a quote of the day today. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to share with you my life mission statement, okay? Or one
Speaker:of them, because I can never stop at one. But here is one that I have written. It's on my desk. It's,
Speaker:plastered right there behind the camera. So I see it every time I sit down right here. My life purpose, my mission statement is to be free to live with purpose, on purpose, and to embody all,
Speaker:that God has created me to be. To fulfill my unlimited potential to be everything that I've been created to be. And it's with that in mind that I created a community. It's a brand new community,
Speaker:for men. It's online, it's virtual, but it is to help men to find their purpose and to to fulfill their God given potential.
Speaker:The life and career that is full of growth and impact, that reaches out, makes a difference in their community. So if you're interested in joining that, it's,
Speaker:kind of a second sponsorship today I guess. I don't know. It's a free community.
Speaker:So I'm gonna drop a link where guys can join. It's in the show notes. It's cool.
Speaker:It's gonna be the best thing on the internet. Better than even the the mangelitz a pig pork. So there is that. So let's jump right into it. Nine tips to help you make the most out of every single day of your life. So I am,
Speaker:going to minimize my camera right here and share my screen. Let me see if I can put myself right up there in the corner. So how can you make the most out of every single day of your life? The day-to-day struggle of getting up and,
Speaker:going to work and coming home and then going back to bed can leave us feeling so depleted. Like day after day the same thing over and over and over again and,
Speaker:it's just like I don't have anything to look forward to except the weekend when I still have to get up and work around the house and then go to bed. And it's,
Speaker:just like how what's the point of life sometimes. I did a live stream on Monday talking about purpose and fulfillment. And I shared with you how the last couple years of my life has really been a struggle because I haven't felt purpose.
Speaker:I haven't felt fulfillment. I haven't been able to grasp what it is that I'm here for, why I'm even living life. And sometimes I'm like, I'm just tired of.
Speaker:Living life. I don't want to live life anymore. I mean, I'm not bad enough to end it, but sometimes it's like what is the point? And it's because we get stuck in this rut, we're not making the most out of our life. So without making a
Speaker:conscious decision each and every day to make that day count, without doing the things to actually make the day memorable, to make it move us towards our.
Speaker:Goals in life to fulfill some purpose. We're gonna wake up in a year in the same place we are today, in the same rut, doing the same things, getting up out of.
Speaker:The same bed, going to the same job, coming home to the same house in the.
Speaker:Same family, which is a good thing, then going back to the same bed feeling the same feelings day after day week after week.
Speaker:Decade after decade without living consciously and intentionally we stay the same person or even worse we regress we go backwards that's a terrifying,
Speaker:thought I don't want to be the same person in a year that I am today I like some of the progress that I've made over the past year but I want to multiply I want to 10x that.
Speaker:I want to be 10, I want to make 10 times more progress this year than I've made in the last year, in the last 10 years. My goal is always to move forward.
Speaker:But unless we consciously make an effort to do that, make that decision, we're going to be in the same place in a year, in two years, in five years, in 10 years. Don't let that be you.
Speaker:So it's time today to make the most out of each and every day so that we don't have to feel like life is just passing us by.
Speaker:You know that feeling that you remember something and you're like, oh yeah, that was just a couple days ago or last year and it was actually 10 years ago.
Speaker:Or you hear a song and you're like, oh, I remember when that came out two years ago. And you go look it up and it's 15 years old. and you're like, where has the time gone?
Speaker:I heard that song and it doesn't seem like that long ago And it was in your freshman year.
Speaker:That will really make you stop and think. Like the time, trying to grasp the time is like trying to hold back the wind or the waves
Speaker:or even a better illustration.
Speaker:If you've ever been to the ocean and you go stand in that water as the waves wash over your feet, You stand in the water and it actually washes the sand out from under your feet and it feels,
Speaker:very unstable and you feel like you're moving.
Speaker:It's a weird feeling but that's how time is.
Speaker:Time gets away from us. Unless we are intentional, unless we make the effort to make the most out of each and every day, life is just going to pass us by and we're going to be stuck in the same place.
Speaker:But I don't want to harp on that. So here's a few things that you can do to make the most out of each and every single day. Okay?
Speaker:And you're not going to like these. I didn't claim to be somebody that shares things that everybody likes and makes you feel all unicorns and rainbows. We're not trying to have a unicorn and rainbow life.
Speaker:We are trying to make the most out of our life, to make the most memorable life possible so that when we are old and decrepit and sitting in our rocking chair and can't move.
Speaker:That we can look back and say, man, I had a good life. So here's some things that you can do.
Speaker:Number one, wake up 10 minutes earlier or 20 or 30 minutes earlier every morning. And I know what you're thinking. You're like, but Kenneth, I have such a hard time getting out of bed the way,
Speaker:it is. I just, I'm so tired. I can't do it. I can't wake up.
Speaker:It's not possible. Let me tell you, it is possible if you set your mind to it. If a lot of that is your mindset, look at it this way. When you need to, when you're,
Speaker:going on vacation, okay, and your flight leaves at seven o'clock in the morning and you have to be at the airport two hours early, so you have to be at the,
Speaker:airport at five o'clock and you live two hours away from the airport and you got,
Speaker:to account for a little bit of traffic. You need to leave three hours early to get there two hours early. You're looking at leaving at like two o'clock in the,
Speaker:morning. When that alarm goes off at 1 45 for you to jump out of bed and rush out to the car and hit the road to go to the airport, you're up. You're awake. It's a mindset thing. It's not that you can't get up earlier. It's because you have pre-chosen.
Speaker:To not want to, to not be able to. You have set in motion the, I don't know, the chemical reactions.
Speaker:The mindset, the feelings in your body of, I can't do it. And when you decide that you can't do something, it's a very good chance that you won't be able to do it. So instead of setting your alarm,
Speaker:for eight or seven or six or whatever time you get up. Try setting it 10 minutes earlier,
Speaker:and don't hit the snooze. Don't hit the snooze four, five, 10 times. Get out of bed when your alarm goes off. I think it was Zig Ziglar who said, think of it as rather than an alarm
Speaker:clock, because an alarm is a bad thing, think of it as an opportunity clock. When that clock goes off, what do you now have the opportunity to do, to create, to be? What opportunities does that bring to you? So setting your alarm 10 minutes earlier can give you the time you.
Speaker:Need to sit, prepare a little breakfast, drink a cup of coffee. Maybe you do those things anyway, but it'll give you a little time to do that earlier, to get a little jump start,
Speaker:on some other things or to get something done that you normally have a hard time doing.
Speaker:So set your alarm 10 minutes earlier, your opportunity clock, not your alarm. And start calling it your opportunity clock.
Speaker:The second thing that you can do to make the most out of every day is to keep the same sleep routine every single day.
Speaker:We need to give our body a best chance at having that better day by waking up at the same time and going to bed at the same time. You need to go to bed early enough to allow,
Speaker:yourself to wake up early enough, but having enough sleep in between. There is a set amount,
Speaker:of sleep that each of us needs. I know some people can get by.
Speaker:Hours of sleep for day after day and year after year. Some people seem like they need 15 hours of sleep. A lot of that is a mindset thing. Yes, your body needs a certain amount
Speaker:of rest recovery time to recover from the day's deeds and to prepare you best for the next day. You need a certain amount of time. So if you can figure out what that is, I'm
Speaker:going to pause right here. All right, sorry about that. I had to pause to take a phone call right there. But you give yourself the best chance at a better day by getting enough
Speaker:sleep and by going to bed at an early enough hour and waking up early. There's an old saying that says, early to bed and early to rise makes man healthy, wealthy, and wise. And There is a reason for that.
Speaker:I don't know why, but it seems like the earlier in the night that you get your rest, so going to bed at say 8, 9 o'clock and getting up at 4, 5 o'clock is better than going to bed,
Speaker:at midnight and getting up at 8.
Speaker:There's something about it being earlier that does your body more good.
Speaker:I don't know why there is some research on that and I personally even feel better doing that.
Speaker:So take that for what you will, experiment with it, find your best sleep routine and then stick with it. The next thing is to eat a healthy diet.
Speaker:Now there's going to be a lot of people that will tell you that different kinds of diets are better for you.
Speaker:You're going to have everything from high carb to low carb to high fat to low fat to all meat to no meat to every single kind of diet out there.
Speaker:You can probably find a diet that would tell you that you should only ever eat Twinkies. And we all know that Twinkies are terrible for you.
Speaker:They last for thousands of years, I think. The best line I've seen in a movie, some post-apocalyptic movie set thousands of years into the future, they're still eating Twinkies,
Speaker:And they're like perfectly preserved.
Speaker:Use Twinkies as your storage food for like when a SHTF scenario happens. But find the kind of diet that works for you, whether that is keto or low carb or
Speaker:you know find something that you can stick with over the long haul, not something that's going to be like, oh I need to lose weight so I'm gonna crash
Speaker:here on this diet and then once I've reached my plateau or my target weight then I'm going to go back to eating Twinkies and cake and all of the things.
Speaker:Rather than doing that, find something that you can stick with over the long haul that's going to sustain you, that's gonna make you feel good, that you can,
Speaker:stick with. Find what works for you. Feed your body what it needs to give you the energy and the clear mind to do the things in the day that you need to do.
Speaker:Find what works for you. You may have to experiment with different diets. Don't just go by what everybody else says because different bodies need different things. We're at different places in our life. We've treated ourselves differently,
Speaker:and different types of food will give you different types of nutrients and and energy and all of those things.
Speaker:So find what works best for you.
Speaker:Next thing is to exercise daily. Regular exercise gives your body stress relief. It's an outlet for stress.
Speaker:It gives your mind more clarity, helps you to think better, and it actually gives you energy.
Speaker:Now, a lot of us have a highly active lifestyle, but you need to go even beyond that. I need to do better at that, doing more specific exercise to get my blood pumping, to actually
Speaker:utilize, build, and strengthen the muscles that I've got.
Speaker:Regular exercise is super good for you. It helps your body to last longer, and it's going to help you to live longer, actually. So get your exercise every single day.
Speaker:The next thing is to accomplish one task towards a larger goal.
Speaker:Now if you've listened to me for any amount of time, you know that I'm a huge proponent of setting long-term goals.
Speaker:I use the Ziegler Performance Planner, a personal management and goals achievement system.
Speaker:That at the beginning of the year or whenever you start your performance planner.
Speaker:Through a goal setting process to help you set your long-term, mid-range, and short-term goals. Every single day, you need to be working towards accomplishing those goals.
Speaker:What good do goals do if you're not going to work towards them? What good does it do to have goals and dreams if you're not trying to make those things actually happen for you?
Speaker:Single day, do at least one thing that progresses you towards that larger goal.
Speaker:You can reach your goals quicker by tackling them one step at a time.
Speaker:A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. That's an old saying.
Speaker:The reason that it starts with a step is because one step is easy. If you focus on the next step, on the next action you need to take, pretty soon you're halfway into that journey.
Speaker:Pretty soon you're halfway to the destination. But when we focus on a milestone like that 10th mile, the 100th mile, the 500th mile,
Speaker:when we're looking out at those things, they seem so far away and they move closer ever or so slowly and each step is harder to take because we don't see those milestones or that,
Speaker:goal getting closer.
Speaker:But if we look at each step and be like, I can do this, taking one step, what do I need to learn to take this step? What do I need to do in order to reach that next step?
Speaker:I can see 10 steps ahead.
Speaker:This is fun. I can see my progress and I can enjoy what I'm doing. I'm enjoying my life reaching the destination. Goals are as much about the journey, the becoming who you need to be to reach that goal as it is about the goal itself.
Speaker:You can set a goal to earn a million dollars, but if you don't enjoy the process of earning that million dollars, once you've reached it, then you're like, okay, what's next?
Speaker:But if you can enjoy the process of becoming who you need to be in order to reach that, it's going to be easier to stick with even once you've reached and surpassed.
Speaker:Each and every day, take one step, do one task towards a larger goal that you have.
Speaker:And then make a daily big three list. Now Nicole Soss from Living Free in Tennessee uses her, she has a method called the My Three Things where she lays out three things that she needs to do every single day and she focuses only on those three things until she has them done.
Speaker:Those, that's how she even gets through life.
Speaker:Like she sets three big goals, then she has three milestones, and then she does three tasks each day in working towards those and making the steps.
Speaker:Some people use a five, three, one method, I think it is, where you have one big task for the day. You've got like three fillers and then five miscellaneous things that you need to get done for the day.
Speaker:Whatever system works for you, Find that and then work that system. A system only works if you work the system.
Speaker:So find a system that works for you, whether that is the My Three Things method. You know, what three things do I need to do today to move me towards my goals?
Speaker:What three things do I need to do today to survive? To pay my bills so that I can wake up tomorrow in my warm house and attack the day again?
Speaker:But always have at least something on your list that moves you towards your larger goals in life.
Speaker:I think we're getting close to the end. I have a couple more. Next thing you need to do is to.
Speaker:You know if you're working super hard, you take a break. I love watching football, okay?
Speaker:Even the best players on the field take breaks. They're in for a couple of plays, then you'll see them make a big tackle or something, and they'll raise their hand like, hey, I need to substitute out.
Speaker:And they go sit on the sidelines for a couple of plays while somebody else comes back in. You work better when you work hard, and then you take a break.
Speaker:You work with a clearer mind and more energy if you give your brain and your body the breaks that it needs.
Speaker:As you get tired, as you get run down, your brain fogs over because it can't see past the energy that it needs to expend in order to do the next thing.
Speaker:Some people use a timer, I think it's called the Pomodoro method, where they set a timer for like 20 minutes on or 25 minutes on, take a five minute break, 25 minutes on, five minute break.
Speaker:Whatever your system is, again, we're always talking about systems.
Speaker:Whatever the system is that works best for you, have the system, work the system, always deliver. And then you also need to be present with the people that you love.
Speaker:So often when we finally get a chance at the end of the day to sit down in our big easy chair.
Speaker:We often watch a movie or flip through channels or scroll social media or bury ourselves in a book.
Speaker:But we need to take time to really connect, to really be present, to really listen to the people that are around us, to our family, our friends.
Speaker:Whoever that person is in front of you. Give them your undivided attention and see how that relationship changes. Spend time, especially with those you love, with the people that are important to you.
Speaker:When you're with them, be fully with them.
Speaker:Listen to them, talk to them, connect with them. That's so important as we live our life.
Speaker:I think this might be the last one, is to prep your day the night before.
Speaker:So often for myself, I get to the end of the day, shower and I jump in bed and I'm like, yes, the end of the day.
Speaker:The next morning I wake up, I'm like, okay, what do I need to do today? What am I going to wear? I got to go dig around in the drawer or on the shelf in the dark so I don't wake up my wife and trying to find clothes to wear and I don't know what I'm grabbing. I have to go by feel.
Speaker:Until I get my clothes on and I walk into the bathroom and turn on the light and I'm like, oh, okay, well, I guess I'm wearing this today. If you set your clothes out the night before,
Speaker:if you sit down and spend five minutes with your planner the night before, figuring out your day.
Speaker:Clear a little bit of the clutter on your desk in your kitchen, you know, set out those clothes, maybe grind your coffee the night before.
Speaker:Just use a couple of minutes to get your morning routine started the night before.
Speaker:Then when you jump out of bed, you don't have to worry about finding your clothes in the dark, they're right there. You don't have to worry about trying to be quiet with the coffee grinder so you don't wake your spouse. You don't have to worry about, oh, what am I gonna do today?
Speaker:How's the day gonna go? I'm not sure what to do and where to go all of the things and you're not worried about missing meetings because you've,
Speaker:set all that stuff down in your planner before the night before. You know what you've got to do each and every day if you take the time to prepare the night
Speaker:before. It gives you clarity of mind, gives you purpose and direction for the day. So your first thing to do is to sit down and look at your goals. Your long-term,
Speaker:goals, your midterm goals, your short-term goals, sit down and review them and think to yourself, what steps can I take today in my daily schedule to progress towards accomplishing those goals?
Speaker:What can I do right now to help me reach those goals? Get me one step closer, not a mile closer, not a tenth of a mile closer. One step.
Speaker:What is the next step?
Speaker:It doesn't do any good to look at obstacles 100 yards ahead of you if you're going to trip over the stump in the path right in front of you. What do I need to do to navigate this next step so that I can have the opportunity to.
Speaker:Navigate the next hundred yards instead of falling flat on my face in the mud back here because I was looking out too far ahead. Step number two is to take 15,
Speaker:minutes this evening to just tidy up a space. Take a moment to pick your outfit for tomorrow. Take a moment to write your meetings and your to-do list down in.
Speaker:Your planner for the next day. Do those things to help you prepare to get a better start tomorrow. And step number three is to use and set your morning,
Speaker:opportunity clock 10 minutes earlier than usual so you can be a little less,
Speaker:rushed in the morning so you're not running around the house trying to get things prepared. Just take an extra 10 minutes. You can do it. You got this. And.
Speaker:And that is the end of the presentation.
Speaker:That's the end of my slides. I'm gonna go full screen again.
Speaker:I hope that this has been helpful, inspiring.
Speaker:I hope you can use what we talked about today to actually be more present in each and every day.
Speaker:To help you move a little bit closer a little bit closer to the life and career that you love, to the life and career that.
Speaker:Provides personal, spiritual, and business growth for you, and impacts the people around you, your family, your friends, your co-workers, your community, your church, the greater community,
