Category: Awareness

Learning how to optimize your life..

When I set out on my personal growth journey back in 2015 I was truly starting from the ground up. I had terrible habits of sleeping in until 10am, smoking weed everyday, watching countless episodes of Law and Order and eating so many sour patch kids I couldn’t even keep track. Even though I had a little bit of money in my savings account, was in decent shape, and well rounded regarding social norms I knew there were ways I could improve, I just had little awareness of the endless possibilities that could be achieved.

OPTIMIZING OUR TIME IS IMPORTANT. BECOMING MORE EFFICIENT IS SMARTER. LIVING BETTER IS NECESSARY.

I knew that I was squandering time sleeping in and watching Olivia Benson catch rapists all day but I didn’t really know where to begin. I felt like reading a book instead of watching TV sounded like the right thing to do. I also heard that successful people like Jeff Bezos and Darren Hardy wake up early so I figured I’d give that a try – just gotta trust the process, right? “All change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and so gorgeous at the end.” – Robin Sharma.

By 2017 waking up early and reading everyday seemed to get easier and more enjoyable – rising before the sun just “hit different” and learning about personal growth from some of the best authors in the world was inspiring me and seemed to be adding motivation and ambition to my life.

This is where my life got interesting. As I was implementing more and more good habits it gave me more time and energy to focus on new ones. I had made waking up early and daily reading so automatic it took zero of my mental attention, self discipline, and willpower muscle to accomplish that. It had allowed me to use that stored energy on adding yet another world class habit into my life.

Optimizing your time is not multi- tasking, it’s nearly impossible for us to focus on two things at once. Optimizing your time is defined by making the most out of each moment. For example, you can optimize your time with your family simply by putting your phone away. Or you can optimize your time sleeping by implementing a world class nighttime routine. Getting things done faster is not always better we should shoot for “more efficient.”

Fast forward to 2020 and my habits are now sharper than a sword held in the hands of a soldier in the Roman army. I wake up at 5am Monday through Friday and immediately begin to play an audiobook on my phone. The moment my eyes open and I regain consciousness my phone is hammering positivity, personal growth, and self development into my brain. From there I usually drive to a Tesla charger ( I don’t have a garage so I usually have to drive somewhere to charge my car in the morning especially if I have appointments that day.) During this time of charging I sit quietly in solitude and meditate. When I meditate I try to lose my thoughts in time, if you have ever meditated you know that this is a challenge but just being aware of your thoughts is building awareness and consciousness in your life that does not result in linear results but compounding results over time. From there I drive to Starbucks (listening to audible of course – right now I’m reading “Effortless” by Greg Mckeown. A great read on how we can make hard tasks effortless and productive work enjoyable.) When I get to Starbucks I don’t always drink a coffee because I’m frugal and wise with how I spend my earned income and don’t want to waste it all away on a $150/month Starbucks habit. It’s not the cost I’m concerned about, it’s the habit of being a spender that I’m focusing on avoiding and also overtime $4 coffees could be millions if invested in the S&P 500 or Bitcoin. At Starbucks I read about 20 pages or so of an inspiration, spiritual, or personal growth book and then write a blog, which I’m doing right now. This is a peek into my world class morning routine and even though routines can be altered and changed, this one has yielded me incredible results.

Now I can bore you with all of the other mundane tasks I perform on a daily basis all of which help push the needle closer to my goals of feeling better in my body, accomplishing 12 Ironman races in a row, and becoming one of the most successful personal growth and life coaches of all time but I’ll spare you the agony. (If you are genuinely curious feel free to email me at zacharyrance@gmail.com and if I can make the time we can chat.)

• So what can you learn right here, right now?
• In what ways can you optimize your life?
• How can you make the most of your time?
• Which daily tasks can you make easier or perform with less friction?

These are questions I ask myself daily.

My point is this, in order to step into the greatest version of ourselves each and everyday we must ask ourselves how we can optimize our life and time. What can you do to add more value and pack more of a punch into what you are already doing?

Some ways I optimize my life:

• Listen to audible while I drive.
• Practice spanish on Duolingo while I poop.
• Order paper goods and menial house supplies on amazon.
• Put my phone away while I spend time with my family.
• Meditate while I charge my car.

I encourage you to find ways in which you can optimize your life

Good luck.

One time in Italy a woman saw Picasso on the street. She ran over to Picasso and asked him if he would take a few moments to draw her something on the back of a napkin, Picasso reluctantly obliged. Picasso started to sketch a marvelous creation on the back of her napkin and after just a short 5 minutes Picasso handed her the napkin and said “ok ma’am that will be $30,000 dollars”. The woman replied “but Picasso that only took you just a few minutes to draw” and his reply was “No it has taken me my entire life.”

One of the most prolific and talented violinists to ever do it performed at a show in front of thousands in the audience. After the show a man who was in the audience walked up to the virtuoso violinist and said “Sir that was an amazing show i have never seen anyone play the violin like you did today, I’m so impressed.” The Violinist thanked the man for his kind words. The man then said “I would give my entire life to play the violin like you.” To which the Violinist replied, “I did.”

What are you willing to spend your life on to achieve? What are you willing to give your life for?

It’s said that in order to become a master at anything you must first put 10,000 hours of time into it – 10 thousand hours is roughly 2.7 hours per day for the next 10 years (if my math is correct.) This is a powerful theory because based on this fact any of us can became a master at anything. Let’s say that you are 60 years old and you had always wanted to play the piano but you never started and you think its too late now. Well if you were to play for just 2.7 hours per day for the next 10 years by the time you are 70 years old you will become so good at playing the piano you would now be able to call yourself a master and play the piano better than anyone you know!

So what are you willing to give your life for? You don’t have to die over it but what are you passionate about putting 10,000 hours into for the next 10 years to become a master at?

Be aware, time is slipping away…

Do you want to spend 10,000 hours scrolling through your phone watching people dance on Tik Tok? Do you want to spend 10,000 hours of your life becoming a master at watching Netflix? What do you spend 2.7 hours doing everyday because that’s what you are on track to become a master in.

Even if you just put in 1 hour per day in the next 20 years you could become a master painter, or a master pianist, or a master gardener, or a master at speaking Chinese or building, creating, writing poetry. Use your time wisely, you cant get it back.

I’m currently in the middle of reading “Mindset” by Carol S Dweck, PHD. It’s a very interesting read that discusses the two types of mindsets us humans have – Growth Mindset or a Fixed Mindset. 

In the Growth mindset failure is praised because its an opportunity to learn. In a growth mindset we always believe that we can get better, stronger, smarter, and more learned. In the growth mindset the sky’s the limit and regardless of our natural born talents we can rise to victory and overcome any obstacle that’s put in our path.

I love this book because it is challenging me to find areas of my life where I could have a fixed mindset and where I am reliant on my innate qualities and not pursuing growth or putting in more effort into the things that I value most. 

It is never too late to grow, learn or be better and I want to challenge you to do all 3 of these. Send me an email to zacharyrance@gmail.com with answers to these questions below on how you can cultivate your growth mindset and rid your past of any fixed mindsets you could have. I’m looking forward to hearing your responses.

• Where can you learn more?
• What can you do to get outside your comfort zone?
• How can you be better?
• How can you have a better mindset?
• How and where can you stretch yourself further?
• How and where can you put in more effort?
• What do you value most?
• What do you want to give your all for?
• What do you need to change about yourself?

Willpower and Self Discipline

It’s said that willpower and self discipline are muscles that we as humans have the ability to develop and grow stronger. Now I am not a scientist but i have read plenty of books that can attest to this and prove that this is true. There are many things in life that are worth questioning, this one however is not and I’m going to take a leap of faith here and believe this notion to be true.

So how can I apply the knowledge of knowing that willpower is a muscle and use that to my advantage? Well, just like my daily endurance training sessions preparing me for my Ironman race I must do daily strength building practices for my self discipline and willpower muscles.

So what’s the first step that you can take right here, right now? I feel like there are many different places to start and even though one might not know where to begin – self awareness is the first step.

When is your willpower muscle weakest? Maybe it’s in the mornings when you pass starbucks to buy a $6 cup of coffee.

Where is your willpower strongest? Are you good at resisting dessert after dinner?

Becoming self aware of your weaknesses and strengths is the foundation for creating more self awareness around self discipline and willpower – so lets start there. Make a list of these strengths and weakness’s and share them with me at zacharyrance@gmail.com and I’ll reply with some useful information that will help you gain control over your life.

There are so many different things you can do as a person to reach your full potential and attain your goals and willpower is something that must be honed in on if you want to succeed in life. Willpower is the foundation for execution. It’s what allows us to feed our focus and suffocate our distractions.