Day 8

After a long night, or shall I say short night of sleep, I’m up alive and kicking ready to start the day. Today I am focused on what I call my “get to” list. Labeling tasks as “get to’s” or "opportunities seized" instead of “to do’s” creates a buzz and excitement around the list versus a “have to or else” negative attitude. Every night before I go to sleep I write down the top most important item of the day that will propel me forward in my dreams and goals. I have found that it’s ok to write down a huge list, but most importantly to do a short list of 1-3 actionable items that are usually the most challenging and influential towards my visions.  In the past, I would have knocked out the easiest items to accomplish, check email, etc. However, I have learned that the most important items that make the biggest difference usually got pushed to the bottom of the list and potentially not accomplished at all. Regarding  checking Facebook, other social media, and email first thing  in the morning, I have come to realize that those apply to accomplishing somebody else’s “get to’s” and living for someone else’s dream and vision. Not my own. Responding to email is not the first thing I should do if I want to get the most challenging “opportunities seized” done preferably before noon. After lunch is when we mentally start slowing down, which is also why their is the typical craving for an afternoon coffee or nap.

LESSON OF THE DAY: Knock the most influential “get to’s” first, then you can read your emails, etc.

I will say I have read The 1 Thing as well, by Gary Keller of Keller Williams. Now, it's the most redundant book I have ever read, but let me tell you it will drive the point home like no other! Also, I think the statement “don’t sweat the small things” can be applied here. If the small things get pushed to tomorrow, that’s much better than the big things which can create resentment, as well as negative self talk amongst us. I’m known among my friends as "Ms. Positive", and where this relates is that finishing our challenging items before noon creates additional excitement for the day as it sets us up for the ultimate success, living our dreams and being our visions.  

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love.

Day 7

Sunday Funday??!? Not necessarily this time. After walking my dog, I end up going with my girlfriend to run errands. As one that doesn’t really cook, grocery shopping takes 15 minutes or less, and my cupboards are constantly bare as that’s where I’m comfortable. However, I join her on a grocery shopping "Event", shall I say? It took us 3 hours to shop, we went to multiple places, and I think we were in the produce section of one store alone for 45 minutes. 

Ahhhhhhhhhh! I complied and dealt though, as I realize that doing things that make me uncomfortable typically have benefit. Where is the benefit in this one may say? I suppose a full fridge of healthy items, juicing, and not needing to go out every moment, could result in a healthier self? The real test is that I want to work this whole time, and there are actionable items that I’d rather be focusing on with regards to my company ShopAddiKt. It takes some time, but eventually I figure out what really is happening here: This is the perfect example of me pushing aside the need and excitement that work brings me, to just BE. This is about shifting my thoughts to connecting and enjoying the friendship I have with my girlfriend. When I shift into that mode, I am immediately relaxed and I am happy in the present moment.

LESSON OF THE DAY: When you shift your perspective, any negative can become positive.

Today, I really get nothing business oriented accomplished, but my friendships are deepened, I support another friend at his event, and we all have a ridiculously good time until the wee hours of the evening. And, at the end of the day, it’s not about business, it’s about family and friends, those that I take a stand for and that also stand for me.  This also supports my personal definition of Success: Happiness in the Present Moment. I mean really, what else is there?

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love.

Day 6

Today it’s time to move on to the next place of residence with my friend in Downtown Los Angeles. However, first, I’m off to meet a girlfriend in Manhattan Beach. While en route I lead a successful conference call which is full of progress and excellent feedback. Then I arrive earlier at my coffee date, so I decide to write some notes as there are mailboxes 5 feet from my car. Its right there, so why not make use of the time. I love sending people cards that are little surprises that make them smile.

Earlier in the morning I had challenged myself to reach out to nine random people from my phone book that I haven’t spoken too just to catch up. At first I wondered why I wanted to do something like that, but then I just started dialing. First person I called actually answered the phone, I hadn’t spoken to her in quite a few months, and it was so nice to just touch base and catch up about what’s going on in our lives. Well apparently, she was in a transition period and looking to get into a new career path in the food industry. Funny, because the next thing you know, I’m at my computer reading an email about an event that’s all for the food industry and in NYC where she lives. So of course I send it her way, and maybe it will be of use, or maybe it won’t. I just find it interesting how that opportunity popped up, and had I not called that email would have ended up immediately in the trash.

As, I continue to make my calls, I have all sorts of self talk about why these people that I call friends wouldn't want to talk to me, or maybe I don’t really want to talk to them, but remember this was a challenge so I continue. I end up calling people I normally wouldn’t, and by the time I’m talking or leaving a voicemail, I’m super excited and curious about what’s going on in their lives. I mean normally it’s all about me, my closest friends, and business. So it’s really nice to step outside the circle, and reach out to people that I don’t normally talk to. I should be talking with them more than once a year right vs purely through Facebook right??!?! In fact calling these random people actually brightened my day and gave me energy.

LESSON OF THE DAY: If people hold real estate in my phone book, they are important to me and calling them isn’t scary it actually pumps me up full of vibrant energy.

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love.

Day 5

Today was purely devoted to connection with people. I met with a friend for coffee that I haven’t seen in almost a year that just happened to be in LA Well it turns out he’s also been living on the edge in his own version of the “Urgency Experiment”.

He had a meeting with someone in Beijing and doesn’t believe in Skyping so he booked a ticket to meet in person. Told the guy he was staying a few weeks so then that person introduced him to others, who introduced hims to others. Next thing you know, a guy says you should be in Hong Kong, so he books himself a ticket there within 2 days and goes for a week. The guy asks of course who are you meeting there; and my friend has no meetings set, but tells the guy you told me I should be there and I trust you, so I’m going. 

UNBELIEVABLE!!! This man sets him up some meetings with his friends in Hong Kong, and next thing you know these people are so inspired with my friend that they are now hiring him regularly as a consultant and flying him to China. Apparently there are now also some business ventures in the works. This is all because he seized an opportunity without fear!

Holy Shit Balls! This was inspiring to me, I mean seriously just when I think I’m living on the edge; there is always something else I could be doing to stretch myself.

1^st LESSON OF THE DAY: Just when you think you’ve stretched, it becomes comfortable. Time to stretch again!

Then I volunteer with the leadership program I’m in with answering phones. I get to talk with strangers and talk to them about their visions and what ails them. In some cases, people were crying with me pouring their hearts out and I felt like they could be my new best friend as all I wanted to do was reach through the phone and give them a big bear hug. This proved again from Day 2 the lesson learned of the intimate connection that can happen when you are present and listen. I intend to meet these people in person now, as our conversations were so powerful.

Last big moment of the day was talking with a friend. I don’t know about you, but do you ever care enough about someone so much, that you try to help them and fix the situation? I had a friend that I got really grumpy with because they were so resistant to everything I said. I mean, we were the closest of friends and then POOF complete disconnect! So instead of continuing our conversations on text like we have been over the past weeks, I pick up the phone. Instantly I realize everything is ok, she’s having some hard times and I just want to be there for her to support her. Our relationship is restored in my mind, and apparently it never was off, oh the power of our perception and stories. Geesh!

2^nd LESSON OF THE DAY: My perception is not necessarily correct, and it’s important to talk in person or at minimum on the phone if I want to maintain my relationships with people.

Next thing you know, I feel my day is complete, so I head home have a nice walk with my pup and create a cozy space to work on my book, “I Fired Myself with a Non-Compete”. 

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love.

Day 4

7a -waking up, exhausted, but realizing I have essentially 4 hours to figure out how to do my webinar, get it running smoothly, etc  I JUMP out of bed. It’s stretch time! My heart and anxiety levels want to go through the roof, but instead, I take my Pup out and focus on living in the moment and breathing knowing it’s all working out perfectly and that I’m going to make a difference in someone’s life today.

7:45a I am realizing that the internet is horrible where I am, and I need a solution to prevent breakdowns, so I reach out to my buddy about working from his office and thankfully that was not a problem.

9:30a- I make it to his office, fine-tune my notes, make sure the presentation uploads online, do a last minute Press Release, I mean why not right?!? Ha!!! I really crack myself up sometimes.

10:15a- I reached out on Facebook to see if someone could help me test out the webinar to make it works, and found someone within minutes.

10:25a- Tester complete, I’m starting to feel more comfortable, ok I can do this. I’m not looking as clear onscreen as I’d like, but who cares, it’s about the information right? I’m helping people here! That’s my intention.

10:45a- With 15 minutes to go, I start posting that online on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

10:55a- Meditation time…Deep Breaths, Intention, Vision. OK I’m totally pumped. This is happening!!!

10:58a- I am live and ready to go!!!! A whopping 4 people attended. Regardless, I did the webinar as though there were thousands. I finished in 30 minutes on the dot, and I had 3 of the 4 stating told me they appreciated the information I shared and wanted the presentation to practice what I preached!!! 

Whoop Whoop!!! Complete success. The feedback was great, I was told I should definitely do it again.

Mission complete, I stretched myself, I was extremely uncomfortable, but I made it happen and people learned from it. I even had one person that didn’t make the call reach out and share that they were willing to do my 5 step program for 60 days to give me a success story!!

LESSON OF THE DAY: Magic is created outside the comfort zone.

For the rest of the day, I did not party, but continued working as usual, and then ended up talking on the phone for over 3 hours straight with friends, family, and colleagues.

Seriously felt like one of the best days ever!!!

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love.

Day 3

HOLY  SMOKES!!! What a day. Yes, I'm working on my startup, ShopAddiKt, as well as consulting startups, however I am also enrolled in two different leadership courses which are all about getting us out of our confort zones to make a difference in how we live our lives. 

Well, two weeks ago, I had a friend encourage me to do a webinar and I thought to myself, nah! Not my thing, I don’t have anything to share, not my style, and whatever other negative self talk I created for myself. Geesh! So, fast forward a week and during one of my leadership course I am essentially challenged to create a webinar and post by the following Thursday. Now, this is less than a week away, yet I accept the challenge and to top it off because of my travel to LA, I end up only having one day to fully prepare. I know funny right, I mean why not?!? 

So yesterday morning, I’m stifled as I have yet to figure out what I’m going to even talk about in less than 24 hours. I called a few of my closest friends and asked them what they felt I was an expert in, and what I had to share with others. I was told that I’m Miss Positive, always had a solution to shifting an experience that they had, and that whether or not they chose to act on it, they usually felt I was right. Also, that I was no bullshit. Knowing this insifght from my friends, I’m thinking, now how can I apply this to a webinar???

During my morning walk to get coffee with my pup, it hits me, why not do the Urgency Experiment with others? By sharing with others what I’m going thru, and sharing the experience with them, we can all hold each other accountable and act in urgency. Ok, I have less than 24 hours to go, have figured out what I’m going to sell, but what am I going to do for free?

It's 11am and I’m back at my computer. I decide to start putting it out there. I design a logo I love, create a page for the Urgency Experiment, start working on lead page for the actual webinar, but now I get to add value. I still have no idea what I’m going to talk about and it’s about 2pm. I put my computer aside, and tell myself it’s time, I am figuring this out NOW! I left my desk and went to my bed to get comfy and just sit in silence with my notepad. Then I just started writing. I wrote one thing down, and didn’t like it as it was geared towards the experiment project and I needed something that could help someone in the next 24 hours, and make a difference in their life as that was the intention anyways.

Then it hit me and just started flowing. I wrote out the game plan and my 5 steps in about 10 minutes. It poured right out of me, and I was finally EXCITED!!! I couldn’t wait to share with everyone…Yayyyy!!!

                LESSON OF THE DAY: Create a space with clear intention and let it FLOW

Now that I had that figured out, I had calls to make and didn’t actually get the invitation to the webinar out until 5p. Then, by the time I finished the title page of my presentation I had a meeting to go to, and didn’t get back until 10p. During this meeting, I found myself wanting to create anxiety and stress as I still had a whole presentation to write, but I knew deep down, I was already over the hump, and things were getting done regardless so I kept going. I hadn’t backed out yet, so nothing was going to stop me.

Around 2am, I finally finished my presentation. Mission 90% complete. I’ll save figuring out the webinar technical details for tomorrow. I have a couple of hours in the morning, no problemm, I got this.

So here we have it, a complete mission acted on in urgency, blindfolded, yet 100% accomplishable. It felt good, and amazing that things were happening because of it. 

Another opportunity presented itself during my own personal Urgency Experiment. AMAZING!!!

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love.

Day 2

On the road again! I left Marin County inspired as I headed to LA, after spending a couple hours with some good friends that had made waves of accomplishments in their lives thus far. Sometimes just being in the presence of sucess is motivation in itself. If they can do it, I can do it… right?!?!  

Immediately out of the gates I had 2 scheduled phone conversations, one with my small group leader from a program I’m involved in, and another with a complete stranger I had been introduced to, and let me tell you, when you have nothing else to do, but be present and listen, it’s amazing what can happen from that stance.

Let’s start with the small group leader. It was an efficient 10 minute phone conversation in which I discovered that my need to be independent, and not receive support from others was purely protecting my Ego which stemmed from the fact that my Mother was a stay at home Mom that didn't work (she did end up creating a job for herself eventually after we were out of the house) and of course that I’m a little rebellious.  Although, I want children of my own, I have a constant battle between accomplishing my career, and receiving which could potentially be dependent on someone.  As I want a supportive and giving relationship soooo badly, I have been continuing to fine tune this internal dialogue which only leads me to resist relationships and support from others. We discovered during the call that I need to end the fight against receiving, as at the end of the day, there is no reason for it and that “self induced” program I have set for myself is not serving me. Wowza! It’s amazing what you can learn in 10 minutes about yourself.

My next call was also stimulating as it was with someone I had never spoken to before which was supposed to be purely about our consulting business, but it lead to a potential book, and me writing this blog on my 60 day move to LA.  They were so motivated by my most recent actions in life that they insisted I write about it, as they were ready to read it. Another Wowza! I was unintentionally motivating others and potentially great things were coming from it!

I then continued the drive listening to my Ted Talks about leadership, Lean In with Sheryl Sandberg (a book I intend to read as it’s obviously my personal dilemma), the exciting entrepreneur Elon Musk, as well as talks on individuality, identities, and creativity. This was the perfect concoction as I continue learning about myself and what I’m up to in life.

LESSON OF THE DAY:  When I am open and present for a conversation,

light bulb moments shine through even during a quick 10 minute chat.

As I arrived in LA, nothing but pure passion exuded from my being as I am officially charged up and ready to conquer this world.

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love.