Are you tired of sabotaging your own success? Do you want to stop getting in your own way? Does it frustrate you that another year has gone by only to remain the same? If so, listen up.

I believe there is really only four key factors to your success.

If just one of these are missing, you will fall short.

Each of these four factors acts as a load-bearing pillar in your life.

Your life will be the same a year from now without all four of these pillars in place.

Evaluate the most successful people you admire and you’ll find evidences of all four of these truths.

What are they?

1. Lofty Vision
2. Unbroken Focus
3. Positive Attitude
4. Passionate Community

While they sound simple, let me assure you they’re not easy.

Only by way of intentionality can you infuse these four factors into your life.

Let’s take a closer look at each one.

1. Lofty Vision

Do you struggle with boredom? Are you tired of getting pulled into bad habits? Does procrastination trip you up more than you’d like?

You don’t have a discipline problem, you have a vision problem.

“You don’t have a discipline problem, you have a vision problem.”
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Mark Batterson summed it up in his book Wild Goose Chase when he said:

“I think vision is the cure for sin. One reason many of us get entangled in sin is because we don’t have enough God-ordained vision to keep us busy.”

Could the reason you struggle to reach your potential not be a discipline problem but a vision problem?

Do you have a lofty vision for your life that both scares you and excites you at the same time?

“Do you have a lofty vision for your life that both scares you and excites you at the same time?”
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Action: Take a few minutes and right down the answer to this question: What would your life look like five years from now if you could do nothing wrong?

2. Unbroken Focus

Another key factor as to why we don’t push projects forward and reach our goals is due to broken focus. We spend most of our days switching from one task to another, putting out one fire after another, and giving in to one distraction after another.

When was the last time you wholeheartedly got lost in your work and reached a “flow state”? A state of mind where you were dialed in and moving something significant forward?

Unbroken focus doesn’t happen by accident. Margin in your life doesn’t show up like an unexpected guest, but must be invited through intentionality.

“Margin in your life doesn’t show up like an unexpected guest, but must be invited through…
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I accomplish unbroken focus each week by way of “focus sessions.” They are 60-90 minute blocks of focused, uninterrupted work. Each Monday I look over my calendar with the goal of scheduling 3-5 focus sessions for the week ahead.

Ideally, I want my focus sessions to be as early in the morning as possible. I find that I’m more creative, engaged, and mentally sharp in the mornings. In fact, each morning I tell myself, “Do creative work first.” This helps me to stay off of social media and email.

Action: Look over the next seven days and find 3-5 focus sessions you can schedule in order to work on your most important projects.

3. Positive Attitude

Your thoughts will dictate your actions. That’s just the way it is. Negative thoughts lead to weak actions. Positive thoughts lead to courageous action.

Your frame of mind in the morning will dictate how the rest of your day goes. This is why so many successful people have morning success routines. Spending an hour or two in the mornings sharpening the saw of your mental, physical, and spiritual life will reap benefits into the rest of your day.

What you sow, you will reap.

Successful people don’t see their morning routines as taking up valuable time from what they really should be spending their time on. They see the hour in the morning as the fuel they need to tackle their day.

Action: Write out a simple 30-60 minute morning success routine that you could start tomorrow.

4. Passionate Community

Jeff Goins says it best: “Every story of success is really a story of community.” There is no such thing as “self-made success.” Every story of success had mentors, peers, and customers who were part of the success.

In a given week, who do you spend the most time with? This question is super important. Jim Rohn was famous for saying, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

This is why being a part of a mastermind group is so important to me. I’ve been with the same group of people for over three years now and my life and business are better because of it.

They challenge me to think bigger, to overcome obstacles, and to be more giving. Is your life surrounded by a small, passionate group of people who are heading in the same direction as you?

But how do I join a mastermind group?

Where do I find one?

Well, I got tired of asking that question and decided to just launch my own. I’ve even created an entire online course on how to launch a mastermind group.

Action: Launch or join a mastermind group within the next 90 days.

Can you see why implementing these four factors can make a difference in your life?

They’ve made all the difference in the world for me and now I hand them over to you.

Use them and you’ll never be the same.

The post The 4 Keys to Unstoppable Motivation appeared first on JonathanMilligan.com.

Did you know most billionaires don’t use to do lists? Instead they focus on three primary areas. These three focus areas make them super productive.

In his latest book, The 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management, author Kevin Kruse made an interesting discovery. Out of the seven billionaires he interviewed, none of them talked about their “to do list.”

In his own words:

“What I discovered is that highly successful people don’t prioritize tasks on a to-do list, or follow some complex five-step system, or refer to logic tree diagrams to make decisions. Actually, highly successful people don’t think about time management much at all. Instead, they think about values, priorities, and habits.”

Let me be clear. I don’t think a “to do list” is a waste of time. How you execute what needs to get done is better than perfecting a “to do system.”

When you are clear on your values, priorities, and daily habits, execution becomes easy.

“When you are clear on your values, priorities, and daily habits, execution becomes easy.”
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Let me quickly share with you how this works in my own life and business so you can do the same.

Values

A question I like to ask is: “What are you ultimately trying to accomplish with all the hard work you are doing?” When I asked myself this question, four work values came to mind. I wrote an entire blog post on this (see: The Power of a Personal Vision for Your Life).

For me, the main things I wanted from all of my hard work was lifestyle, impact, financial freedom, and effort. I wanted the freedom to work anywhere with unlimited income potential while making an impact on others.

I also have separate values for my home life. My wife and I are constantly sharing and infusing these values into our home.

What do you value?

Priorities

Once you know your values, nailing down your priorities becomes much easier. How you spend your time should support your values. This is what Chris Brogan calls “time alignment.”

“How you spend your time should support your values.”
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In order to fully support my values, I need four things:

1. Lofty Vision – Are you feeling unmotivated in your work? Are you tired of feeling like you are just wasting your days? You can solve that with a lofty vision for you life. What supports me the most is to break that lofty vision down into 90 day goals. I wrote about my process here (see: Your 90 Day Goal Setting Game Plan ).
2. Unbroken Focus – If billionaires don’t use to do lists, then how do they get things done? They simply live-and-die by their calendar. What doesn’t get scheduled, doesn’t get done. For me, I carve out 90 minute focus sessions on my calendar at the beginning of every week. This supports me in getting the most important things done.
3. Positive Attitude – Your thoughts dictate your actions. Lousy thoughts lead to lousy action. Courageous thoughts lead to courageous action. What supports me the most in my daily attitude is my morning success ritual.
4. Passionate Community – Jeff Goins often says, “Every story of success is a story of community.” I believe that to be true. It’s why I’m so passionate about mastermind groups. I think every person deserves the opportunity to surround themselves with other passionate people who are heading in the same direction.

“Lousy thoughts lead to lousy action. Courageous thoughts lead to courageous action.”
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“Every person deserves the opportunity to be in a passionate community.”
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What are your priorities?

Habits

I’ve spent a great deal of time on this site discussing the importance of habits. If you want a deep dive into the topic of habits, then check out my podcast Simple Life Habits. The habits that support my values are probably different then what your habits will need to be.

As a solopreneur who runs an online business, I’ve narrowed my work habits down to four keystone habits. I derived these habits from watching and observing the best in my field. Then, I broke it down into the common habits each of them had.

I’d encourage you to do the same in your line of work. I spend 90-95% of my work week in one of these four key areas.

• Create – I use text, audio and video to get me message out to the masses. This is free, helpful content for my target audience.
• Capture – I spend time each week on growing my email lists. In a regular business, this would be defined as lead generation. My business grows, as my email list grows.
• Compile – I block out times in my calendar each week in order to package products and services for sale. This is how I earn money for my business. What are the revenue-generating activities in your business?
• Connect – I want to be intentional about growing my network. I spend time each week connect with other influencers in my line of work.

What habits support your priorities which ultimately support your values?

My encouragement to you is to spend some time alone working through your own set of values, priorities, and habits. Establishing these key areas makes everything else easy.

The post The Only 3 Things Highly Successful People Do appeared first on JonathanMilligan.com.

Do you mow your own yard? I have a love/hate relationship with yard work. In the past, I’ve hired people to maintain my yard. However, I’m teaching my son how to mow, edge and use the weed eater.

It’s a life skill every dad should be teaching their son. We take turns using the lawn equipment.

I have a tree close to the pond in my backyard (see pic). In the summer months it can be hard to maneuver around the tree with all of the low hanging branches.

Yesterday, while mowing around the tree I attempted to once again go straight through the branches. Long story short, both the mower and I almost ended up in the pond!

“That’s it…I’ve had it,” I said.

I went straight to the garage, grabbed my tree trimmer and took my anger out on the tree.

After spending ten minutes clearing out a path all the way around the tree I thought, “Why didn’t I do this several months ago?”

I had spent all Spring and Summer battling those branches every time I attempted to mow around the pond.

One decision could have solved several future problems.

This scenario caused me to think about all the other recurring problems in my life and work.

Could there be other future, recurring problems that I could solve with one decision?

I went on to identify several recurring problems that I could solve with very few decisions. I’m sure the same is true with you.

1. It all starts with awareness.

Since most of us live and work in urgency, we never take the time to step back and see the bigger issues. Instead we put out the same fires over and over again.

It’s like choosing to keep blowing out those trick candles instead of dunking them into a glass of water. How many trick candles are you messing with daily?

A great question to ask throughout your day to increase your awareness would be:

Is this a problem that keeps showing up?

2. Create space on your calendar to take care of the bigger issues.

Looking back, one of the main reasons I didn’t cut the branches earlier was because I didn’t think about it until I was mowing around the tree again. By then, my focus was only on finishing the task of mowing in as short a time as possible.

I simply told myself I didn’t have the extra time to trim the branches and drag them out to the road. When you live in urgency, you’ll never have time to solve the bigger issues.

However, solving the bigger issues is what gets you out of living and working in urgency.

Interesting twist isn’t it?

Solving the bigger issues is what gets you out of living and working in urgency.
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In order to do this, you need to make a list of the bigger issues. It starts by answering this question to any recurring problems you face.

What’s one thing I could do right now to minimize this problem from happening again?

What’s one thing I could do right now to minimize this problem from happening again?
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Once you’ve answered this question, take a morning, afternoon or weekend, and make a conscious effort to tackle the bigger issues.

You’ll be surprised at how much time this free up for you in the days ahead.

The post How to Make One Decision That Solves 1,000 Problems appeared first on JonathanMilligan.com.

Ninety-Five percent of the state of Idaho’s water supply comes from underground. The Big Lost River, Snake River and other rivers begin in the Rocky Mountains and collect in the Snake River Aquifer. It’s an amazing 400-mile underground water supply. You don’t see it on the surface, but it’s there.

I was having a conversation with someone recently. They wanted to grow to the next level in their life but they felt stuck. The challenge was they couldn’t identify the issue. Have you been there? Maybe you wanted to grow to the next level in your life but you were unsure what the main constraint was that was holding you back.

She decided to make this a matter of priority, prayer,  and an acute awareness of her thoughts.  In order to do this, we have to follow the smoke back to the fire. What’s the issue beneath the issue? It’s easy to see and identify the smoke but what’s causing the smoke? This takes time.

Over the next few weeks after much thought and prayer, she was able to see that all of her limiting thoughts pointed to an underlying issue of fear in her life.

She is not alone. Fear reigns in most of our hearts. It controls, guides, and directs us like an underground aquifer. It’s a massive underground water supply. Only difference is that it’s a contaminated water source. We need to rid it.

This is certainly easier said than done and while I’m not a trained psychologist or counselor, let me give you some practical tips that I shared with her.

1. Understand the two types of fear

There’s healthy fear and unhealthy fear. Healthy fear is when the lion escapes the zoo and your mind tells you to run. This type of fear represents 5% of our thoughts in our lifetime. Unhealthy fear is all of the rejection, worry, uncertainty of the future that we allow to run free in our minds. It fills the aquifer in our life and controls every thought, action and decision. Unhealthy fear often represents 95% of our thoughts in our lifetime.

2. Stop forward thinking and live in the present

The unhealthy fear stems from us worrying and thinking too much about the future. Anytime you worry this week, analyze whether it is worry for today or worry for tomorrow. I believe 95% or our worry and fear comes from our thoughts of the future. By simply choosing to live for today, we can eliminate most of the worry in our lives.

3. Love conquers all fear

Brandon Hawk says that you are either living in a cycle of fear or a cycle of love. Now, it’s not a “sit and hold hands and sing Kumbaya” type of love. It’s more about living with enabling thoughts over limiting thoughts. Fear wants to isolate you, shut you down and keep you from living to your full potential in life. Living in a cycle of love is enabling and not limiting. It’s frees you to be at your best self for both yourself and for others.

By allowing your mind to live in the present, you’ll worry less, fear less, and accomplish more. You’ll accomplish more in your relationships because you’re fully there. You’ll accomplish more in your life because you are free from the heavy burden of fear.

The post How Our Fear Controls, Guides, and Directs Our Lives and What to Do About It appeared first on JonathanMilligan.com.

Are you happy with your current level of productivity? If not, I want to deliver over to you a life-changing, business-altering plan you can begin using today.

The one single factor that has contributed the most to my productivity is the 90-day goal setting process. If you are not accomplishing everything you’d hope to, it comes down to two reasons: lack of clarity and daily broken focus.

Clarity for me comes through setting out in a very clear direction for the next 90 days. It’s hard for us to get clear on two and five year goals. In fact, it’s even harder to get clarity on our life’s purpose and calling. Setting 90 day goals gives me clarity on the path that’s already been illuminated before me.

Setting 90 day goals gives me clarity on the path that’s already been illuminated before me.
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Focus is what allows you to be productive in the moment. It’s easy for me to know how I should spend my time today if I’ve already established a few 90 day goals. The #1 enemy to you not accomplishing your dreams is broken focus.

The #1 enemy to you not accomplishing your dreams is broken focus.
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If you are new to setting 90 day goals, then I want share with you a simple model you can use to get started. I’d encourage you if at all possible to find a day (maybe even two) to get away and establish your 90 day goals.

Step #1: Break away from your routine to evaluate, think, and plan

A few of the reasons I love the 90 day goal setting process is the opportunity to hit both the pause and restart button. Have you figured out yet that things change rapidly? Our long range business and personal goals are guesses at best.

The ones who move ahead do so by evaluating, thinking, and planning every 90 days. Doing so will allow you to ask a few important questions:

• Is what I’m doing now giving me the results I had hoped for?
• In light of the happenings of the last 90 days, is there something I should give more attention to?
• What’s working that I should do more of?
• What’s not working that I should stop doing all together?
• Where’s the bottleneck in my business or personal life?

1. Evaluate – Look over your calendar for the past three months. Are you spending your time in the right areas? Look over your financial records for the past few months. Are you spending your money in the areas that support your goals?

2. Think – We are often so busy we never make time to just think. It’s amazing how the answers begin to come to us when make space to think. I also like to think out loud on a whiteboard so I can see my thoughts.

3. Plan – After you have evaluated the last quarter and given space to think, now you can plan for the next 90 days.

Step #2: Establish your 90 day game plan

If you are just getting started in setting 90 day goals, then just set 3 to 5 goals and go for it. If you want to take your goal setting to the next level, then use the model I learned form Todd Herman, the creator of the 90 Day Year Program. The following tips are a combination of Todd’s advice and my own experience.

• Choose less than five outcome goals – When I first started setting 90 day goals, I set 10-15 goals. Honestly, it was way too ambitious for a 90 day time period. I recommend you keep it down to 3-5 goals at most. Also, be sure they are outcome driven. In other words, they achieve a desirable result in some way. My outcome goals go on a whiteboard so I can see them daily.
• Set a few performance goals for each outcome goal – You have probably heard “what gets measured, gets done.” This is what a performance goal establishes. Keep it simple here, but set a few performance goals that allow you to see how you are doing in achieving your outcome goal. I have a handful I check every Friday. My performance goals go under my outcome goals on my whiteboard.
• Brainstorm process goals (tasks) that support your outcome goal – Who is going to do what, when? This is the process level. You have achieved ultimate focus when what you do daily connects directly back to your outcome goal. My process tasks go in my to do system so I know what still needs to get done.

Step #3: Spend the first hour of each workday on your 90 day game plan

I’ve written about my morning process before in a blog post called Do Creative Work First. The basic summary is you should spend the first hour of your day doing your creative work. Creative work is what only you can do that drives your business or projects forward.

Many of us start our day in social media and email. Doing so pulls you into reactive work.  Reactive work is when we get pulled into other people’s agendas and pulled away from our most important goals.

Reactive work is when we get pulled into other people’s agendas and pulled away from our most…
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You will be amazed and what you can accomplish when you have clear 90 day goals and a morning strategy for moving those goals forward.

How about you? Do you manage your productivity through 90 day goals? I’d love to hear your tips!

The post Your 90 Day Game Plan to Crushing Your Goals this Quarter appeared first on JonathanMilligan.com.

Is there a danger in loving your work too much? It wasn’t unusual for Thomas Edison to work 20 continuous hours during a 24 hour period. Many times, his 4 hours of rest came in the form of a nap on a couch where he worked. There’s even one recorded time period in which Edison worked for 72 straight hours without rest.

Therein lies the tension. When work feels like play, why choose to do something else with your time?

When you don’t have anything more compelling to do, you’ll always choose your work.
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While I’m a huge believer in loving your work, I also believe there’s more to life than just work. What’s the answer then for those of us who love our work? I think it starts by defining the term workaholic.

A workaholic is someone who has found their sole identity in work alone. I’ve written about this before, but anytime you place your identity in something that has the potential to let you down, you’ll be disappointed. When work becomes the most preeminent thing in your life, everything else begins to take a back seat.

A workaholic is someone who has found their sole identity in work alone.
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I know this first hand because I’m guilty of it. If you’re an entrepreneur like me, then you know first hand the kind of effort that goes into making a business successful. But here’s what I’ve been asking myself lately: “Is the Thomas Edison way the only way?”

After all, the reason I chose the Lifestyle Business Model was to have more freedom in general. If you remember my story, about two years ago I sat down and wrote out my big WHY. It was four simple statements that formed the word L.I.F.E. (You can read about them here: The Secret Ingredient to Building a Business and Life You Love).

A few months ago, while searching for books to read on my Kindle, I came across a book from Tina Forsyth called: The Entrepreneur’s Trap: How to Stop Working Too Much, Take Back Your Time, and Enjoy Life. I enjoyed the book so much that I challenged my own mastermind group to go through the book. For the last few months, we’ve been sharing insights weekly one chapter at a time.

While Tina delivers many great tips, I want to share with you five of her principles for working less.

• Principle #1: Get clear on your NON-working hours – There are no right or wrong choices here. This is a personal choice. But when would you like to establish non-working hours?
• Principle #2: Step away from your computer – Since I work from home, walking away from my work can be a challenge. One daily practice that has helped me is to close my home office door when I’m done working for the day. This is my way of closing down my business each day.
• Principle #3: Do not have email delivered to your phone – One of the biggest reasons email overwhelms us is because we “check” email without “processing” email. The worst offender for me is checking email on my phone. Since I often can’t take action on that email on my phone, it just stays in my inbox.
• Principle# 4: Learn how to say NO – I’m a people pleaser and it’s hard for me to say no. What I’m learning to do more of is to delay a decision until I can think about it without the emotions attached.
• Principle #5: Have something more compelling to do – This has been the biggest AHA moment for me personally. Since I love my work, I’ll always be drawn back to it. I think it’s healthy to have a few other things in my life that are just as compelling as my work.

How about you? Which personal policies are you going to put in place that allows you to live more, and work less? 

Let me start. Even though I have a million things I want to get done today, I’m shutting down my work at noon. I’m driving my two kids to summer camp this afternoon. Life is short and I don’t want to miss out on these moments.

The post 5 Principles for Working Less and Living More appeared first on JonathanMilligan.com.

If I told you discipline and freedom go together nicely, would you believe me? If not, get ready for a mindset shift today. The truth is if you want to do great work, you are going to need both discipline and freedom.

In the bestselling book Business Secrets from the Bible, Rabbi Daniel Lapin talks about the two meanings of the word “engraved” when referring to the 10 Commandments.

1. Permanent or restrictive – The first meaning is “engraved or marked in a stone.” It is permanent and no eraser can remove it.
2. Freedom – The second meaning is “freedom,” which appears to be the exact opposite of engrave.

What gives? Which is it?

To best way to understand this principle and how it can apply to your work, you need to first understand a bit about how the Hebrew language works. Hebrew words can often take on more than one meaning. The key is to find where the two meanings intersect.

Freedom is the Opportunity to Be Creative

First, let’s take a deeper look at freedom. Many of us desire freedom in our lives. It’s another way of saying we want to be in complete control of how and where we spend our time. But freedom is only the “opportunity” to be creative. It’s a subtle but powerful distinction.

Have you ever had an entire day to yourself with no other agendas? That’s freedom, but without discipline you won’t get anything done.

Discipline Focuses Our Freedom to Do Great Work

I used to fight against discipline. I saw it as only stifling my creative freedom. But slowly over time I noticed something. Those who want to always keep their options open, commit to nothing.

“Those who want to always keep their options open, commit to nothing.”
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Nothing gets done. Ideas collect dust. Dreams expire on the shelf. If you want to do great work, you must combine freedom and discipline. Rabbi Daniel Lapin expresses it this way:

“The more we restrict our freedom by setting rules and limitations on ourselves, the freer we are to actually be productive. The idle person who leaves himself free to do what he likes when he likes has the potential to accomplish anything, but he actually accomplishes less than the person who rigorously restricts his freedom in order to focus in on what he wants to accomplish. It is he who carves his life and time, his schedule, into granite who is genuinely free.”

“That sounds great Jonathan, but how do you practically live this out in your work?”

Glad you asked. Here’s what works for me:

1. Create a year long focus calendar – I created my first year long calendar just over a year ago. My business has doubled because of doing so. For me, I created a year long marketing calendar (you can read about it here). This allowed me to let go of future ideas and narrow in on the first deadline on my calendar.
2. Set a few 90 day goals each quarter – A second discipline practice I’d encourage you to do is set less than five 90 Day Goals. This will give you incredible focus. The deadline is much closer and you’ll need to focus to get them done.
3. Do creative work first every day – Every morning I have a simple discipline. Before I check email or social media, I do creative work first. Creative work is where you work best and make the most contribution. It’s your genius work zone. Being a full-time blogger, my creative work is writing, recording podcasts, or making videos.

“If you want to do great work, you must combine freedom and discipline.”
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How about you? How do you combine freedom and discipline in your work?

The post Why You Need Both Discipline and Freedom to Do Great Work appeared first on JonathanMilligan.com.

What if I told you there was a hidden danger that has the potential to destroy your dreams? It’s a subtle danger. It’s not the type of danger you anticipate when watching movies (which my son calls the “jump scare”).

This danger is subtle like a slow, moving tide. It’s subtle like when you close your eyes on the lazy river at the water park only to open them to be surprised at how far you’ve travelled. You wake up one day and realize just how far off course you really are.

What is this hidden danger?

It’s the hidden danger of subtle laziness. 

King Solomon, an ancient Jewish king, was well-known for the wisdom beyond his years. One day, while walking along an overgrown, abandoned vineyard, he had an epiphany. I’ll let him explain what it was:

I walked by the field of a lazy person,
the vineyard of one with no common sense.

I saw that it was overgrown with nettles.
It was covered with weeds,
and its walls were broken down.

Then, as I looked and thought about it,
I learned this lesson:

A little extra sleep, a little more slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest—

then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit;
scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.

Proverbs 24:30-34

Here’s the principle: Subtle laziness leads to sudden scarcity. 

Subtle laziness leads to sudden scarcity.
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The scarcity is sudden because the negative results of subtle laziness are not immediately seen. For the owner of the vineyard, everything appeared “good enough” day after day. After a few months he may have even justified some of the flaws or negative results he viewed.

“Well, it hasn’t be raining all that much and I can always get to it next week,” he rationalized.

I used to have a post-it note on my computer screen that simply read: “Excuses are just lies you tell yourself.”

Excuses are just lies you tell your yourself.
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So, what then is the key? How can we apply this principle to our daily lives? Here are a few insights to consider.

We are in a drift of subtle laziness when:

• We stop investing in our own growth – Being a former Executive Recruiter, I saw this scenario often. A sudden layoff opened the eyes of the individual to the fact they had done very little over the past few years to invest in their own growth. To avoid subtle laziness, you should always be growing.
• We allow our unique gifts or talents to go dormant – Many of us are guilty of placing our talents on the shelf. One of the main reasons this happens is due to some negative feedback we’ve received along the way. We simply gave too much power to one person’s opinion. Starting today, you have permission to pick that talent back up off the shelf.
• We stay in our comfort zone for far too long – In Bruce Wilkinson’s classic book The Dream Giver, he talks about the danger of the comfort zone. In the story, a fictitious character named Ordinary had settled into his comfort zone. The comfort zone wasn’t necessarily a good thing.  His comfort zone included waking up every morning to go his Usual Job (work he despised) and spending every evening staring at the Box (his television set). The way out for Ordinary was to pursue his Big Dream.

How about you? Can you see evidences where you’ve allowed subtle laziness to creep in?

The post The Hidden Danger That Just Might Destroy Your Dreams appeared first on JonathanMilligan.com.

Have you downloaded Evernote, but have no idea what to do with it? My hope is for you to change that today. Have you ever stopped to think how much time you waste every week “looking” for things?

In a few simple steps you can make Evernote your “external brain” which will allow you to stress less and get more done. While I have much to share about how I use Evernote, I want to start by explaining the top seven ways I use it everyday.

If you are new to using Evernote, it might not be best to start out with all seven at once. This is a big picture overview of some of the larger “buckets” I use to organize Evernote.

The Top 7 Ways I use Evernote Everyday

1. Reference Cabinet

The Reference Cabinet for me is a catchall of anything I want to keep. It is a notebook in Evernote. Most of the time it is something I want to be able to find later via the search function.

These are often miscellaneous items that don’t fit into one of my other buckets, but are still something I want to keep. I often will give the item a tag in Evernote and place it in this folder.

2. Content Creator Library

Since I’m a content creator (blogger, speaker, writer) by trade, this is my go-to library when creating any type of content. Inside this notebook you’ll find quotes, personal stories, surveys, statistics, illustrations, and more. When I want to spice up a blog post, book, speech or podcast, I go here for inspiration.

3. Learning Library

This notebook is for my own personal growth. As I come across great articles, PDFs, worksheets, videos, or ebooks, they all get categorized here. I use a tagging system to organize them into subjects inside the notebook. For example, if I want to spend time learning about list building, I will search for the tag “LL List Building.”

What’s great about starting your tag with “LL” is that it auto-populates all the other tags that start with “LL,” making it easier for me to give the new note the right tag.

4. Goals (Quarterly & Yearly)

Thanks to Michael Hyatt and his Best Year Ever course for this tip. I have a saved search that allows me to review my yearly goals. I have each of my yearly goals in a separate Evernote note, but by clicking on the saved search I can review all of them quickly.

5. Journaling

I also use Evernote each morning for a quick journaling session. This allows me to calm my mind and get into “productive” mode. It’s so easy for us to get sucked into “reactive” work. A great example of this is email. Checking email first thing in the morning gets you going down the “urgent” path, which isn’t always that important.

I have a few trigger questions I use for journaling so I don’t have to stare at the blank screen. An example of a powerful question I ask is: “What would make today great?”

What I write down often becomes even more important than what is on my to do list.

6. Business Checklists

One of the many frustrations of being a solopreneur is all of the recurring tasks that fill your day. They can keep you from doing the things that move your business forward. The way out is to get ruthless about organizing what you are doing into checklists.

I use a program called Clarify-It. It allows me to quickly write down the steps of a process (with images if needed) and save them into an Evernote notebook. From there, I can share the notebook with other people who can help me get these tasks done.

7. Book Notes

I’ve written extensively on my book reading review system in the past. I read one book per week. Then I capture the highlights of the book in Evernote.

For a physical book, I create an index page in the front of the book with my notes. That then gets captured into Evernote so I can review it. See my process here for print books.

For Kindle books, I go to my highlights at kindle.amazon.com and then I clip the page with the Evernote clipper. This allows me to review what I learned by using my book review system. See my process here for Kindle books.

New books I’ve just recently finished get tagged “daily review.” I will often spend 10-15 minutes every morning reviewing what I learned from these books.

As you can see, there are many creative ways you can use Evernote. If you are in a content creating role of any type, I’d encourage you to organize your work life using some of the tips above.

What are some creative ways you are using Evernote?

The post The Top 7 Ways I Use Evernote Everyday appeared first on JonathanMilligan.com.

Do you remember what it was like to be a graduate? Whether it was high school or college, there was a buzz in the air. It was both a feeling of accomplishment and an anticipation about the future.

A new chapter of your life was beginning. A new hope, a new challenge, a new future was all awaiting you. The day before my high school graduation, the doctor released me to walk without crutches. 

Four months earlier, I was on the basketball court fighting for a chance to win the state championship in Indiana. Little did I know in the third quarter my life was about to change forever.

While going after a loose ball, I broke both bones in my lower right leg. The break was so severe it required a metal rod and two pins in my leg. In an instant, my bright future turned into a dark wandering. 

In an instant, my bright future turned into a dark wandering…
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My hopes of a college basketball scholarship was gone in an instant and I faced an uncertain future. My new goals in life became super simple.

I just wanted to walk without crutches to get my diploma for my high school graduation.

Maybe your life has had its own twists and turns. Sudden, unforeseen events send you in a whole new direction or no direction at all.

What are we to do in times of darkness to return to a bright future?  

The only answer is to pursue wisdom.

It may sound abstract but pursuing wisdom is the most practical thing you can do today. 

In Andy Stanley’s book The Best Question Ever, he offers a practical question you can use in your everyday decision making. 

“In light of my past experiences, my current responsibilities, and my future hopes and dreams, what’s the wise thing to do?”

When you answer that question in a positive way enough days in a row, your hopes will not be cut short and you’ll have a bright future. We can also say it this way:

When you pursue daily wisdom, your hopes will not be cut short and you’ll have a bright future.
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How can I be so confident that this is true and will come to pass in your own life? Because this principle is rooted in Jewish wisdom and Biblical teaching. 

Prov. 24:14 states: “If you find wisdom you’ll have a bright future and your hopes will not be cut short.”

So today, if you feel as if your dreams have been crushed and your hopes dashed, while you may not know what direction to go from here, you can be confident of your next step.

Pursue wisdom today.

The post How to Have a Bright Future When Your World Seems Dark appeared first on JonathanMilligan.com.

What if I told you there is one contributing factor as to why you haven’t changed?

This factor is simple in concept, but difficult in practice.

You’ve probably heard it before, but never noticed the incredible power it holds in your life. It’s the reason you haven’t seen your breakthrough or inflection point.

The principle is simple. In fact, I invite you to write this next statement down on paper and carry it with you for the day.

“You cannot pit real pain against imagined gain and expect to win.”

I learned this principle from Rabbi Daniel Lapin in his latest book, Business Secrets from the Bible. It’s a book stocked full of timeless truths.

At the end of the day, if you have any hope for change, there must be something more than a dream or goal. You must make a deeper and more present commitment.

If you don’t believe this principle to be true, then why do so many people commit and recommit to losing weight never to see any results? Their “imagined gain” is that they want to lose 30-50 pounds this year. But when that goal is matched up against the real pain of saying no to extra dessert or yes to running a mile, imagined gain loses everytime.

“Imagined gain is not the best self-motivator when change is so painful and immediate.” Rabbi Daniel Lapin

“Imagined gain is not the best self-motivator when change is so painful and immediate.” Rabbi…
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What then is the answer?

The answer is to equalize the struggle.

You must make the imagined gains attractive enough and real enough to overcome the pain of taking action. The imagened gain must exist in the present moment.

While I don’t have all the answers, here are a few tips I’ve learned on how to pull imagined gain into the present moment.

1. Redefine what is a “win” for you. 

When I used to work as an Executive Recruiter, I would often become discourged when deals didn’t close often enough. The fees of closing a deal are in the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars, but it was unrealistic for me to show up every day thinking I was going to close a deal that day.

What revolutionized my business is when I redefined my “win.” If I placed a new networking call, I redefined a win as getting an email address, having a great conversation, learning something personal about the contact, and even actually getting someone on the phone.

To accomplish your goals, redefine what a win is for you.
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2. Measure your activity not your results. 

I think many of us give up on our goals and dreams because we doubt the activity. When you doubt whether the activity will help you reach your goal, you won’t act. For some of us, it’s not the activity, we simply doubt ourselves. We don’t see ourselves as athletes, so how can we run three times a week.The way through this is to measure your activity not your results.

When you doubt whether the activity will help you reach your goal, you won’t act.
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3. Break your big goals down into 90 day projects.

I’m all for setting yearly goals. But I only see yearly goals as the first step. I think you need to pull those yearly goals into the present moment to have any chance to getting them accomplished.

I do that by setting 90 day goals four times a year. It helps me hit the restart button when needed and pull my imagined gain into the present moment to equalize the struggle.

You can do this. You just need to equalize the struggle.

What’s one creative way you can equalize the struggle today? Comment below. 

The post How to Pick Up and Dust Off Your Broken Dreams appeared first on JonathanMilligan.com.

He owned a few small hardware stores in rural parts of Indiana. I still remember that day vividly. He taught me how to put together an “end of the row” sales display. He showed me how to use the “pricing sticker gun” and most importantly he taught me how to price a product for profit.

I was only 17 at the time, but I took his advice and applied it to my baseball card selling business. We now understood how to reinvest some of our profits to buy more inventory and how to mark up merchandise for a profit.

In the midst of a world that highly values education, we often forget the power of a mentor.

In the midst of a world that highly values education, we often forget the power of a mentor.
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Success Magazine asked their most successful achievers a very simple question. What’s been their biggest secret to improving their results?

• 37% Learning From Other Achievers
• 22% Waking Up Earlier
• 22% Making a Plan
• 16% Writing Down My Goals
• 3% Delegating

Writing down your goals, having a plan, and waking up earlier are all great practices, but regardless of what level you are – you need a mentor.

Are you actively learning from other achievers?

1. A mentor can be found in a specific skill set. 

You don’t have to chase down a mentor who’s super successful in every area of life. A mentor can be found in someone who is better than you at a particular thing. If you desire to traditionally publish a book, find someone who has done it and learn from them.

2. A mentor can be found in a mastermind group.

If you’ve been around this blog for very long then you know how much I value mastermind groups. I meet with mine once a week online and once a year in-person. It’s been the single greatest reason for my success in the past two years.

I’m so passionate about mastermind groups that I put together an entire online course on how to launch your mastermind group.

3. A mentor can be found in anyone if you’re willing to unlearn.

I believe there is a core genius to be found in everyone. Each person has a gift lined with gold nuggets of wisdom that we can glean from. The reason we miss most grand lessons in life is because our first response is: “I’ve already heard this before.”

The ability to unlearn and sit at the feet of your peers is how you get to the next level.

The ability to unlearn and sit at the feet of your peers is how you get to the next level.
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Are you actively learning from other achievers?

The post The Biggest Secret to Becoming a Successful Achiever appeared first on JonathanMilligan.com.

Walt’s plan was to show him his seven minute Mickey Mouse cartoon in hopes that he could secure a contract and have his short films shown in movie theaters across the United States. Walt was especially optimistic about this special meeting in the movie theater that day. He just knew that he had invented something revolutionary that everyone would want.

What happened next surprised him. 

The movie executive didn’t laugh at the cartoon, he laughed at Disney’s dream. The executive went on to tell Walt all of the reasons why his dream would never work. “Kids are afraid of mice and moms don’t love them all that much either. No one is going to pay to watch a silly mouse. This would never work,” said the executive. With that the executive laughed and stormed out of the theater.

Has anyone ever laughed at your dream? Has anyone ever given you the blank stare when you told them what you were going to do with your life? If we ever hope to keep the dream alive, we need to develop fortitude to move forward anyways.

Not everyone will understand your dream

Most of the greatest accomplishments in our lifetime once seemed impossible to many. Yet, there were a few who believed in the dream. They believed that a man could walk on the moon. They believed that you could hold a device in your hand and talk with anyone around the world. Don’t allow one person’s opinion to shut down your dream. Not everyone will understand your dream.

Not everyone will understand your dream.
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Believe in your dream even when others don’t

What if Disney had given up on his dream that day? What if he would have allowed one person’s opinion to become his reality? There would be no Mickey Mouse and there would be no Disneyland or Walt Disney World. Who can imagine a world without that? Getting negative feedback should not be a reason to pack it up and go home. You are going to need to believe in your dream even when others don’t.

Believe in your dream even when others don’t.
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Focus on those waiting for your dream to become a reality

What then gets us through the valley when our dream takes a direct hit from others? Your dream survives when you place your focus on those waiting for your dream to become a reality. You have people waiting for you and your dream. They need your advice, perspective, solution and product. Whether you change someone’s day or change someone’s life, you need to make your dream a reality. We are waiting for you. There is a dream that only you can fulfill.

Focus on those waiting for your dream to become a reality.
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Surround yourself with other dream catchers

While it seems noble to charge ahead alone with your dream, the truth is you’re going to need dream catchers along the way. These are people who catch the vision of what you are trying to do. For Walt Disney, he had his brother Roy. Roy’s talent was in the financing of the business. He was in the background, helping to finance the dream while Walt focused on the creative side.

There were also employees of Walt who caught the vision. In the early days, he had animators work without pay because they believed in the dream so much. They worked nights and weekends in an afford to get the cartoon done. They were lost in their passions and Walt had inspired them. Eventually, it paid off for these animators, but in the early days they were there in total support of Walt’s dream.

Surround yourself with other dream catchers.
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How about you? Are there dream catchers in your life you’ve taken for granted? Take a moment today and thank them for being a part of your dream.

The post The Day They Laughed at Walt Disney for His Dream appeared first on JonathanMilligan.com.

How about you? Do you ever take the time to look at the big picture? There is a life lesson in almost everything we encounter in life. But we have to be willing to rise out of our current circumstances in order to see them. These life lessons can help us to put things in perspective, where without them we’d just shut down. One example is the 80-10-10 principle my father taught me.

There is a life lesson in almost everything we encounter in life.
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The 80-10-10 principle in life

Do you struggle with criticism? Does it shut you down for days when someone says something negative about you, your life or your work? Or are you on the opposite spectrum? Do you bask too much in the praises of other people? Do you find your worth from those who always sing their praises to you and your work?

The real question is how do we find a balance in all of this? The answer is the 80-10-10 principle. When I was a young boy my father would often say, “Jonathan, 10% of people will dislike what you do no matter what and you can’t change them. 10% of people will love what you do no matter what you do. It’s what you do through serving the other 80% that matters.”

I’ve never forgot those words. I still let them guide me today. Whenever I receive harsh, unfounded criticism where no truth can be found, I remind myself they are a part of the 10%. When I receive praise from those who admire me the most, while I’m thankful, I’m reminded they are a part of the other 10%. This grounds me and helps me to continue to serve the middle. Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

10% of people will dislike what you do no matter what

Whether the exact percentage is true or not, knowing this delivers you from being a people pleaser. It doesn’t mean we think we’re better than other people. We just recognize the criticism for what it is. If there’s no truth to be found in it, we see it for what it is. The 10% of those we can’t make happy. And we’re okay with that.

10% of people will love what you do no matter what

We all need cheerleaders in our life. Those amazing people who are for us no matter what. They walk in the door when the whole world is walking out. They believe in us and in their eyes we can do no wrong. While I’m so thankful to have people like this in my life, there is a danger we must be aware of. If we live in those praises, we don’t stretch and grow. We are blinded by areas that need improvement. We can live off of yesterday’s mountain top, while there is still another important hill to climb today. Be grateful for these people in your life, but keep them in perspective.

What you do with the other 80% matters

How well do you serve the other 80%? Remember, it’s not about being a people pleaser. It’s about serving others well. The other 80% are neutral and impressionable. Your character, integrity, and heart to serve them will move them into the positive percentage. Your lack of people skills, pride, bad reputation, and sole desire for wealth above all things will move the majority of this group into the negative. They can be persuaded one way or another but it’s ultimately determined by you. Your actions matter.

How are you doing today at serving the other 80%? 

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Mark Twain was one of the most successful authors of his day. When asked how he had been able to accomplish so much in his career he said:

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one.”

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain
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The Secret to Getting Ahead

It seems so simple doesn’t it? But often the simple things are not easy in practice. Let’s break down Mark Twain’s advice into practical steps we can take today.

Step 1. Break complex projects into manageable tasks.

Do you find yourself procrastinating on big projects? The reason you procrastinate is because you haven’t broken down your big project into smaller bite size tasks or sub-projects. When our mind is only focused on a large, overwhelming goal, we lack clarity on what to do in the present moment. Break down your big goal into smaller tasks and then just focus on the first task.

The reason you procrastinate is because you haven’t broken down your big project into bite size…
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Bonus tip. Once you break down your big goal into smaller goals, go ahead and place some deadlines on your smaller goals on your calendar. I do this with a to do manager I use called TeuxDeux. You can read more about how I use it here (The Power of a Calendar To Do List). Since it’s a calendar-based to do list, I can easily drop my small goals on a date in the future.

Step 2. Start on the first one.

Once you’ve broken down your goal into smaller parts, only focus on the next action that needs to take place. Don’t allow your mind to get overwhelmed by all that needs to be done. Procrastination sets in when we think too much about all the details. Just focus on the first task. When you focus on just completing the first task, you’ll begin to create some momentum. You’ll also feel a sense of success so celebrate the small wins on the way to your big win.

If at all possible, do your first task, first thing in the morning. Make it a priority and avoid any other type of distraction. This is essential if you are going to move your goal forward. You need to see everything else as a distraction. Period. This is what the most productive people do. If you admire someone for how much they seem to get done, then you’ll probably find them to be ultra selective on how they use their time.

For me, I protect my mornings at all cost. It’s when I am the most energized and creative. I push all appointments, business matters, and networking tasks into the afternoon. How I structure my day is pretty simple. I have “maker” mornings and “manager” afternoons. Since I work for myself, I have both the worker hat and the boss hat I need to wear daily. Anything related to creating value in my business is done in the mornings. Managing my business must wait for the afternoon.

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