‘The 5 A.M. Club’ Own Your Morning to Elevate Your Life
“Take excellent care of the front end of your day, and the rest of your day will pretty much take care of itself. Own your morning. Elevate your life.” –Robin Sharma, “The 5 A.M. Club” I was recently given a copy of “The 5 A.M. Club” by Robin Sharma. Sharma is a bestselling author and one of the world’s top leadership experts. I knew the book would be great, but I didn’t anticipate how truly valuable it would be.
As you might have guessed, the first step of joining the 5 A.M. Club is to wake up at 5 a.m. This might sound terrible and exhausting, but as Sharma explains, it’s the best way to take control of your day. Getting an early start allows you to set the tone for the day and take time for your physical health, your emotional well-being, and your spirituality. This extra time empowers you to improve every area of your life by putting yourself in balance. Sharma’s theories are all backed by science. If you’ve ever scoffed at the idea of meditating first thing in the morning, then you should know that research shows enjoying peace at daybreak can increase dopamine and serotonin, helping you feel energized for the rest of the day. I started reading “The 5 A.M. Club” the night I got it. By the next afternoon, I had devoured the whole thing. This book inspired me in a way no other book has in a long time. Ever since reading “The 5 A.M. Club,” I have been up at 5 a.m. every morning. I’ve reinvented my day to pray, meditate, and journal before having coffee with Carol Joy, and I’m still able to get in the shower 45 minutes earlier than I would have previously. My whole day has been transformed by setting my alarm a little earlier.
“The 5 A.M. Club” isn’t your average self-help book. Sharma is famous for his fable “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.” He uses his writing skills again in “The 5 A.M. Club” to weave a tale about two struggling strangers — an artist and an entrepreneur — and their eccentric, billionaire mentor. After joining the 5 A.M. Club, the artist and the entrepreneur find themselves exploring the world, from Italy to South Africa, learning how to harness their abilities and achieve self- mastery.
Robin Sharma has written an incredible book that I cannot recommend enough.
Let the Robots Do It Automation Has Come to Small Business
Running a small business means wearing many hats. More often than not, CEOs find themselves moonlighting as marketers, customer service specialists, human resources representatives, project managers, and just about any other job that needs doing. That’s why more and more entrepreneurs are exploring automation to free up their time and focus on growing their business rather than just keeping it afloat. Automation on Your Level In the past, automated systems were solely within the purview of big businesses. Applications for organization were either too expensive or too wide in scope to fit the needs of smaller companies, but those days are over. Plenty of tools have been developed to help you and your team reduce workloads and run more efficiently, no matter your company’s size. Reducing the Chaos Unless your business is large enough for several project managers, chances are that every employee is responsible for their own organization. This quickly leads to miscommunication, conflicting schedules, and roadblocked projects. Thankfully, many basic functions of a project manager have been automated thanks to applications like Apptivo.
With features to track tasks and submit timesheets, this scalable tool allows everyone to stay up to date on the logistics of business and make coordination a breeze. Response Time Is Everything Many small businesses hesitate to bring “bots” into customer-facing operations because they don’t want to lose their human touch. But humans are busy, and an unanswered request for a quote or a delayed response to a question will quickly give current and potential customers a bad impression. That’s why software like Keap exists. Keap allows you to send automated email responses at the first point of contact. This message can be as simple as an acknowledgment that their message was received and will be answered soon. The important part is that your customers are reassured that they are being heard. Far from making your business more robotic, automated tools allow your team to focus on what they do best. That means more time for thoughtful customer service emails, personalized interactions with customers, and well-executed projects. That’s something you and your clients will appreciate.
2 • www.JayConner.com • PO Box 1276, Morehead City, NC 28557
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker