Episode #14
Structure Equals Freedom
Mindset Monday - Episode 14 Transcript
Here are three words that will change your life today; structure equals freedom. I'm Shane Fielder from Samurai Innovation where we blend the secrets of the samurai with cutting-edge strategies to sharpen you and your business results. Structure equals freedom, let me tell you why this is important to you. A lot of people, a lot of clients I worked with, they want to have freedom. They come to me and they say Shane I want the freedom to do my own thing or to do what I please. I want my business to support me, I want to have time freedom, I want to have financial freedom and all that stuff. The only way you're going to get it is if you work hard at it.
Now the one way, the one path to getting that freedom that you desire is through calendar structure.
Structuring your days and your hours and your weeks so that they're productive and they move your needle forward and they help you accomplish amazing things.
What happens is… if somebody comes to me for instance and say or calls me up on the phone and say Shane, I have hockey tickets tomorrow night, do you want to come to the game with me? I will say great, tomorrow night is Tuesday, yes I can come because I know Tuesday is a free night, because I know that I’m in the dojo Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings. And typically, I don’t like to trade my dojo nights away unless it’s something monumental or one time, maybe a concert is coming to town and maybe we will never see that person again, I may figure a way to sub out one of my Monday night aikido nights to go to that concert or sometimes to have family or friends entering in from out-of-town and they've come a long way. I'm certainly going to make time to go see them because that’s an important thing that I want to put into my lifestyle.
And so I’ll make those decisions, but usually I will say no I’m sorry I'm at the dojo. Or no I’m sorry I've got coaching client work or no I'm sorry I've got other meetings book that I am already pre-booked. But here’s when I could accommodate that.
You need to have an automatic yes and you also more importantly need to have an automatic no.
What is an automatic no?
A lot of my clients said Shane what’s that?
An automatic no is the ability to smile and say no with joy in your heart and it’s undetectable. People can detect when you’re lying to them, they know when you’re trying to get out of something when you say; ah, ummmm and you scratch your head and you pull out your phone and you look at your phone. You’re trying to make up the excuse on the fly and people can smell you a mile away when you’re in that kind of thinking.
The automatic no is just having the structure set so well that you have boundaries where you can say; Thursday morning, I'm sorry I’m not available Thursday morning, I'm committed, I've got some other meetings and projects that I’m already involved in, I can't make those changes.
Here is the automatic yes part, but you know what… I know I have time Friday morning or I know I have Tuesday afternoon or you know what I can't get to that hockey game with you, I'd love to go to the next one, when is the next game? Oh it's a Saturday, oh perfect that would work good for me. And so you're giving people understanding into where you're at and you're not letting them rub you of the valuable time and energy that you need to get your goals accomplished or get your work done or whatever else it is.
This week your coaching tip for you is:
How do you build structure?
When you put definable blocks into your calendar and you protect those blocks and then you memorize those blocks and it really helps. Fill out when you’re going to work out an exercise. Fill out when you're going to have your passions and your hobbies and your pursuits attended to. Fill out when you're going to work on that key report during the day. Put in some meeting time and then also leave some space so that you can say yes to certain things and know where those blocks of space are so you can have the automatic no I’m sorry because I have this going on, but yes, I have this window of time that I can also accommodate you.
Build that structure into your life this week and go forth and forge ahead and it will give you the freedom that you desire. Any questions you have drop them at the bottom of the comments or send me an email. I look forward to talking to you.
Where in your calendar can you build in extra structure so that you can have more time freedom?
Domo Arigato.
