Daily Habits Can Change Everything!

Chapter 16 of Intuitive Business Connections

Intuitive Business Connections is a true story about the lessons learned from entrepreneur, Jadi Kindred. She reveals her trials and tribulations of growing a company from zero to six figures as a young entrepreneur and shares what helped her to succeed year after year. Based on the author’s personal experience of entrepreneurship, intuition, and connecting to cultures worldwide, she takes readers on her inspiring journey of growing her business from the ground up and achieving her dream lifestyle.

This book offers countless ways to grow personally, professionally, and socially and will shift your way of thinking about reaching your own potential.

Transcript

Chapter 16 Daily Habits That Change Everything The secret of a person's success is determined by their daily agenda.

The sum of how you live each day becomes your legacy.

John Maxwell I read in Jack Canfield's book,

The Success Principles,

That if you watch only one hour of TV every day,

At the end of the year,

That would be 365 hours of TV time,

Which equals just over 9 40-hour work weeks.

It was such simple math that I had never taken the time to reflect on before.

I knew how detrimental TV was in my life when I started my company.

I used it as a distraction to avoid calling people back,

Knocking on doors,

Or even planning on how I could expand my company,

But I never knew it actually took so much of my time.

Early on in my business,

I decided to cut cable and television out of my life,

And surprisingly felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.

Now after work,

I relax by walking in nature or even taking time to cook a nice supper,

Which I had never done before.

Since I taught some university professors who were very deep and philosophical,

I loved every discussion with them.

One of them was a 40-year-old man at the time,

And he told me about a TV series that he thoroughly enjoyed.

He said that the last five minutes of the series made him cry for over an hour.

I couldn't believe it.

The curiosity of how five minutes could be so touching as to make a grown man cry for an hour inspired me to watch the entire series.

There were 13 one-hour episodes in each of the nine seasons of the series.

That totaled 117 hours,

The equivalent of three full-time work weeks.

That meant I had to watch 117 hours in order to really understand the last five minutes.

So what did I do?

I binge-watched that show for a few weeks.

The last five minutes didn't even make me cry.

What made me cry was that I chose to use such precious time to distract myself instead of improving myself.

That was my breaking point,

Where I vowed never to start any series again.

Yes,

I still love a couple of TV shows,

But I don't have the opportunity now to turn on the television unconsciously,

Since I don't have a TV in the house.

I used to love movies so much.

Now I find them boring and such a waste of time.

I understand it can be a relaxation method for many people after a long day of traffic work and homework with the kids,

But I do believe we have infinite other choices.

I'd choose a candlelit bath,

A moonlit walk at night,

A slow supper,

Board game,

Reading,

Sitting in front of the fireplace,

Dancing,

Or simply calling family and friends to hear how they're doing.

What would you do if you cut television out of your life?

My twin sister and I are very different.

She is an employee type that loves the certainty and security of her unionized job.

I am a more entrepreneurial type that loves the uncertainty and unlimited potential of my job.

One day she told me that she is so comfortable and doesn't want to work as much as entrepreneurs do.

One evening I asked her what she was planning on doing.

Her response was,

Oh,

We are just watching TV tonight.

I told her the math calculation about how only one hour of TV a day equals nine work weeks.

Her eyes opened wider.

I don't believe all entrepreneurs work crazier hours than employees.

They just work differently.

Time is so important that I wouldn't ever want to waste a couple months of my life watching TV year after year.

This is a habit that I am most proud I kicked.

There are lots of anecdotes about millionaires who have a morning routine.

Instead of hitting the snooze and rushing out the door for work,

Successful people often have habits in the morning to maximize their positive mindset.

Books like Miracle Morning,

For example,

Talk about the importance of waking up at least one hour earlier in the morning to read something positive,

Not the newspaper.

Work out,

Write positive affirmations and gratitude,

As well as meditate.

During the commute to work,

Are you listening to the radio that can be negative at times?

Or are you listening to an audiobook about something that makes you feel good,

Encouraged,

Or more knowledgeable?

There are people who have learned new languages just by the audiobooks they listen to on their drive to work.

Some of my clients find it useless to listen to an English radio station on their way to work.

The excuse is that their drive is only 15 minutes away.

Yes,

It is.

But I remind them that those 15 minutes a day going to work and then the drive home,

Five days a week,

It totals two and a half hours a week.

At the end of the month,

That is 10 hours of extra study.

But by 12 months,

And they easily have an extra 120 hours of study time.

I am confident a lot of us would see improvement if we just installed a simple yet powerful daily habit.

Sometimes our goals seem so big,

Such as learning a second language,

But small daily actions can make all the difference.

I like this quote by Desmond Tutu,

And I think it perfectly sums up how daily actions can slowly make a huge difference.

He said,

There is only one way to eat an elephant,

A bite at a time.

We can also use break times to incorporate positive habits,

Such as daily walks.

For me,

After work,

Since I work from home,

I need to leave my office to clear my mind of the day.

My partner and I faithfully walk every day with our dog.

Sometimes we are so excited to share the highlights of our day.

Other times we want to listen to audiobooks,

And other times we walk hand in hand in silence.

When I return home,

I feel so re-energized from the fresh air and stressed,

Bursting endorphins released by the simple act of walking.

We are both very committed to our daily walk,

As it allows us both to connect to nature,

Ourselves,

And each other.

One of the most important morning routines I do is my daily 20 minutes of yoga.

I wake up and 10 minutes later,

After drinking a glass of water and splashing cold water on my face,

I am sitting on my yoga mat stretching.

Then I do three rounds of the sun salutation,

Which helps oxygenate and clear my mind for the day.

When I was younger,

I was the least flexible student in my class.

I would bend over,

With hands stretched out as far as possible,

But would still be at least one foot off the ground.

I thought I was just born that way,

And accepted that I must not be a flexible person.

It was only after a few months of daily yoga,

Which I learned in India,

That I noticed how flexible my body could be.

I easily touch the floor now,

And it physically reminds me every day how we can in fact change when we do things repeatedly.

Working on my physical flexibility in the mornings also helped me to develop mental and emotional flexibility during the ups and downs of my days.

To work another layer of flexibility,

My partner and I try to make small simple changes out of our daily routine to work on that aspect of our lives.

Often we may feel like we are flexible in life,

Until we are asked to sleep on the opposite side of the bed,

Sit at a different place at the dinner table,

Or drive to work on a different route or put on our clothes in a different way.

We tend to be set in our ways,

Going through life unconsciously,

With set methods for small tasks.

My family knows how set in my ways I used to be when they came over to visit.

If I didn't get my daily meditation in,

Or someone created a disorder and moved some things around,

I would get so easily frustrated.

This didn't create the most welcoming atmosphere,

And I wanted to improve that part of myself.

Now when I get too comfortable on one side of the bed,

Or where I eat,

Where I do yoga or walk,

I consciously change it up.

Now change doesn't feel so abrupt for me,

And I can shift my frustrations or attachments to what I originally wanted much quicker.

Another habit which I incorporate in my habit of daily,

Is my habit of daily meditation.

Catherine Woodward Thomas said,

Prayer and meditation let us tune into another frequency and live a parallel life.

It plugs us into the source of our love.

From high school onwards,

I started to read self-help books,

And they all spoke of the importance of meditation.

I found it easier to read about its benefits than actually trying it.

After getting tired of reading about it for so long,

I finally did my first 10-day silent retreat,

Which completely changed my life.

I reached a depth of calm,

Joy,

And peace that brought me to tears weeks after coming home from that first experience.

I started incorporating one hour of daily meditation into my schedule.

Instead of allowing myself to be disconnected by the outer world,

And distracting myself with TV or alcohol,

I choose to reconnect to my inner world and find peace within.

There is something very calming about knowing that wherever I go in the world,

I have access to this inner calm.

To be honest,

For the first couple years,

Meditation was merely on my to-do list,

But slowly it became the most important hour of my day.

Now I meditate right after I wake up,

Which grounds me for the entire day.

Sometimes I have flashes of insight that I introduce in work,

Which lead to successful results.

Other times,

I have intuitive hints of people I need to call,

Or contacts I forgot about.

I normally don't notice any difference in myself when I meditate,

But I notice huge changes on the days I don't meditate.

On those days,

I would be more impatient,

Irritable,

Stressed,

Less focused,

Frustrated,

And angry.

These emotions don't serve me or help my company at all.

Meditation is no longer on my to-do list.

It now comes so natural to me.

I want to sit and connect to myself,

And it has become such a reward to me.

I no longer feel that hour is a waste of my time,

But the most important part of my day,

Especially for my company.

Sometimes loving a challenge is an important requirement for incorporating new habits.

My partner and I love challenges,

So much so that it seems we find new challenges on a monthly basis.

One that was inspired by my sister and brother-in-law was the minimalism challenge after watching the movie.

This challenge goes like this.

Day one,

You throw,

Give away,

Or donate one item.

Day two,

Two items,

And so forth for 30 days.

At the end of the month,

That equals 465 items.

When I have guests over to my home,

One of the first things they notice is my minimalist decor.

So,

Naturally,

I initially thought that I would,

That I may not have 465 items to get rid of.

Boy,

Was I wrong.

I cleaned out cupboards,

Filing cabinets,

And drawers,

And I realized that I hadn't looked through in years.

As each item left the house,

I felt even more liberated.

The more space I created in my physical reality,

The more space was created in my mind.

I knew that even if each drawer was closed and looked clean from the outside,

Chaos erupted the moment it was opened.

I knew the cabinets that hadn't been cleaned for years,

And it did have a slight nagging effect on me,

Even without me really realizing it.

As I ride in front of the warm fireplace,

I look around the room and notice nature outside,

More than the decorations inside that had distracted me before.

There really is something freeing about cleaning out your home,

And it is more enjoyable than I thought it would be.

I believe that your outer world reflects your inner world.

If my outer environment is clean,

Organized,

And spacious,

Then my inner world and mine feels that same way.

That is often why I call cleaning an act of yoga.

At a yoga ashram I once visited,

They called cleaning time karma yoga,

Or known as yoga of action.

Trying to focus on cleaning the environment was just another type of yoga that I have since adopted in my life.

Daily habits truly change everything,

Your outlook,

Perception of life,

And overall productivity.

What habit do you need to incorporate into your daily life in order to improve your overall outlook and to achieve your professional goals?

Reviews

I need to incorporate daily objects cleaning in my house and morning meditation. Thanks to guide me into this process my beauty