SIWIKE 2017

Thank you to everyone who has made this a fantastic year.  A few people have asked what are my most interesting SIWIKE (Stuff I Wish I Knew Earlier), so I decided to capture what I’ve been sharing with those I mentor in 2016.  For those that are not aware, I have been on an entrepreneurial journey to provide career success for all, by weaving Mentorship into the fabric of society, starting by making Toronto the Mentorship capital of the world.  And let me tell you that it has been amazing!   I feel better than I ever have in body, mind and spirit!  I have so many learnings and let me share 3 that were especially impactful to me and feel that they would be most helpful for folks as we head into 2017:

Invest in yourself

1. From the start of the year until now, I spent much more time improving myself as well as money on my personal development investments as well. As an example, I would read a lot.   But I am also a relatively frugal person, so I would not want to pay for what I could get for free.  Which meant that many of the books I read were ones that I could find online for free.  Or where I had redeemed my reward points for book store gift cards.  So getting over the fact that I should be spending money on myself as well as time in the pursuit of self improvement was quite liberating and definitely SIWIKE.
2. Creating “non-negotiable” time has been very impactful  as well, which is basically time that I set aside for myself for the week and day that is totally focused on personal development.  Not business development, but developing myself.  This means that all of the personal development I was putting off had priority during my non-negotiable time, and it’s quite amazing at the growth I felt during the latter part of the year.  Take this practice for yourself.  Pick 2 hours per week (I typically recommend Sunday 8-10 PM since most people don’t have much scheduled then, but whatever works for you).  And during that time, nothing, as in ABSOLUTELY NOTHING gets in the way of your personal development time.  Friends want to go out?  Sorry can’t.  Favorite TV show or movie is on.  Sorry, cannot.  Hungry and need a snack?  You can’t.  Need to go to the bathroom?  YOU CANNOT!  okay, maybe not to that extreme.  The point is to make YOU a priority.  So invest yourself to make yourself more valuable to the world, and you can eventually capitalize on that value monetarily or via other means.  This is SIWIKE that you should implement sooner than later!

Time is the ultimate resource

1. A lot of people would guess money would be the most important resource.  Money is important but without time, then it’s all meaningless.  You can make more money.  Get more stuff.  But you cannot manufacture more time.  And if you think about it, most of what you pay for is save you time.  Much of my time this year was spent reflecting on how I use my time.  One of my goals was to spend more time with my family.  And during the beginning of the year I would be physically there, but often not mentally there.  Have you spent time with your friends while trying to “multi-task” with your phone?  I equate it to a spork – you know those combination spoon forks?  That aren’t very good spoons, or aren’t very good forks.  So I am spending time to play with the kids, I’m with the kids.  The phone is in another room.  And it only comes out when the kids are in bed.  When I can help it.  This SIWIKE is tough to implement, and am still working on it

Be grateful

1. Taking a moment to reflect on what you have versus what you want can be quite liberating.  I was quite stressed about money and would drive my wife a little crazy.  However, a focus on the abundance that we have made the little that we want seem lessing relevant in retrospect.
2. A strategy that was quite useful is turning “frustration into fascination” which came from Marshall Goldsmiths’ What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful.  The premise is: when you’re frustrated (say you’re sitting in bumper to bumper traffic); then change your perspective into making the situation fascinating (think about how many cars must be on the road to cause this much traffic; and the number of people who must have toiled to manufacture all of the cars; plus those that had to mine the raw metals and materials that went into all of the cars and the vast distances that they must have had to travel to get from where ever they came from deep inside the earth, to the refinery, to the factory, to the dealership, to your home, then to be stuck in traffic, and realizing how fortunate you are to be able to sit in that marvel of supply chain and manufacturing;  how fascinating is all of that?).  If you can transform that frustration to fascination, and then ultimately to gratitude, you can’t help it but feel awesome.
3. Again, another piece of SIWIKE that I have not yet mastered, but am much better than when I started the year.

Start with these in 2017 and you will almost be assured to have a successful career.

Happy New Year to all and feel free to reach out to me at luki@focusinspired.com if I could be of help for your future career success!

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We are career catalysts looking to initiate the reactions that would not have otherwise happened towards your career success. “Personal trainers for your career” helping you turn knowledge into results!