EP 178 Design your Own Life Rhythm
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Sara Mayer: [00:00:00] Welcome to the bold goal crusher podcast for anyone looking to stop letting life get in the way and start crushing bold goals. I'm your host, Sara Mayer, and I'm thrilled to navigate this journey with you because it's time to start boldly achieving without working double time. So let's dive in.
Sara Mayer: Hello Bold Goal Crushers! Today I want to talk about the monthly rhythm. So many times we focus on habits and things we need to do every day, but We don't focus on our monthly rhythm or things that we need to do weekly, monthly, and yearly because one day can get away from us two days, sometimes get away from us, but I don't know about you.
Sara Mayer: Sometimes I've set New Year's resolutions [00:01:00] and then months and months later, I'm like, why didn't I do anything with that? And that's because our weekly and monthly rhythms are off. Our weekly and monthly rhythms are off. So every week. There are things that you need to accomplish in the week, and there are things that just happen and move the week along.
Sara Mayer: Obviously, we all have the same number of hours in the day, but some of us accomplish much more than others, and some of us are just simply not as focused. And that's because we haven't designed our weekly and monthly rhythms. If you work in a building or an office for a company, you will notice that there are rhythms like people come in at a certain time.
Sara Mayer: They may take breaks at certain times. They may go to [00:02:00] lunch at certain times. They may have a regular drumbeat of meetings. Every Monday may be a standup meeting. Every Friday you might get paid or it might be every other Friday, but there is a natural cadence and rhythm to what's going on in that company.
Sara Mayer: Some people may call it company culture. I don't necessarily think this is the culture, but this can set the tone for the culture. And This may be intentional or not intentional. So one of the companies I worked for, they intentionally tried to drive the culture or the weekly rhythm, I would say. They tried to drive the weekly rhythm so that people could be more successful.
Sara Mayer: And could have more work life balance so that they were not burning out top performers and they [00:03:00] were really teaching people how to work. And for many of you, your company may have this rhythm, but it may not be intentional. Alternatively, if you don't work at a company or if you don't work in an office, maybe you work from home and have more freedom and flexibility, you may have your own rhythm that is driving your days, driving your weeks, and then in turn driving your months and years that you have intentionally set.
Sara Mayer: Or maybe you haven't intentionally set. So for example, when we all went home for COVID, many of us went home for COVID, unless you were an essential worker, we might've had a challenge adjusting to being at home. So at work, we had this regular schedule. We knew when we are going to the bathroom breaks, we knew when we were taking lunch or we were skipping lunch or whatever our schedule was.
Sara Mayer: And then we [00:04:00] went home. We had a major shift in that. So if you are sitting in your cube or in your corner office at. At your work or you're sitting at home, I want you to take a look at what your current daily and weekly and monthly rhythms are. So for example, as an entrepreneur, I do create content. One of the things I create is this podcast, and I know that I need to create every month, four solo episodes, four guests episodes.
Sara Mayer: And I also like to put out four blogs that are related, but not related to the pod, not podcast content. And I also have four emails for the month that is one thing that is a part of my monthly [00:05:00] rhythm. Now, if I do it on the first or the second or the third, it doesn't really matter as long as I put out four.
Sara Mayer: Pieces of each of the content that I'm trying to put out. And this is an example of a monthly rhythm. And because I do this monthly, I know that when I do these four things every month, I will accomplish what. I have set out to accomplish for my content creation goal. And it's really easy for me to let the days go by where I'm like, Oh, I don't want to work on that today, but.
Sara Mayer: Then at the end of the month, what will happen is I have all this stuff to record and create right at the beginning of the month. And then that puts undue pressure on others who are working with me and I'm [00:06:00] intentional about. What I need to create per month. And this didn't come easily easy to me when I first started off as an entrepreneur, the one thing that I struggled with was the monthly rhythm, the weekly rhythm, the daily rhythm and the yearly rhythm, a company does yearly reviews that doesn't happen as a sole entrepreneur. So I had to create those things to help keep me on track. And so a lot of companies, people will talk about the machine. It's hard to change the machine because you've done the, they've done these things for so many years. It just happens and things just happen and they don't know why it happens, but there is a benefit.
Sara Mayer: in creating your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly rhythms, but being intentional about it. So I encourage you this month to take a look at your [00:07:00] year, your month, your weeks, and your days, and ask yourself, how am I driving this rhythm? Here are some ideas. If you're an entrepreneur or. Even if you are somebody sitting in a business, what are the things that every year you need to do that maybe don't matter which month or whatever.
Sara Mayer: So maybe it's creating a memorable holiday. Maybe it is planning two weeks vacation. Yes, you should get a vacation. If you're an entrepreneur using up those vacation days, maybe it's setting yearly goals. Maybe it's Quarterly reviewing those goals, but think about those yearly things that can become a rhythm or maybe already have become a rhythm that you want to take away.
Sara Mayer: So one of the things you might want to take away [00:08:00] is the yearly burnout that you may feel around the holidays because you're doing too much, or it may be the things that are. draining you because you've said yes to too many things. But what are the, those yearly rhythms that you currently have? And then what are the yearly rhythms that you want to intentionally create?
Sara Mayer: So take some time and sit down and think about those and. How they align to your goals and then go into your calendar and plug those things in as reoccurring things. So if you're an entrepreneur, you might plug in November of every year to plan your vacations for the next year for two weeks. Take your two weeks, or if you want to take three weeks, but in November, your yearly rhythm could be to dream about [00:09:00] really thinking about your vacations for the next year.
Sara Mayer: Your rhythm in September could be to think about how you want to experience the holidays. One of the rhythms in January could be setting goals, and one of the rhythms in July could be quarterly reviewing your goals. Those are some ideas for yearly rhythms. It truly needs to be about what is your current rhythm, things that just happen every year.
Sara Mayer: And then what do you want that rhythm to be? And then intentionally creating that. Now let's talk about monthly rhythms. I already mentioned one of mine is that I have to create a certain amount of content per month. So it doesn't matter which day those things happen. And so I created this little block of time where I am truly focused on content.
Sara Mayer: That's all I do in that block of time. And I move it around sometimes some [00:10:00] days I quite simply do not feel like taking a shower and doing my hair. So recording podcasts and YouTube videos on those days, not going to happen. So I move it around. There is some flexibility, but I know that I need to do for, and for my monthly content rhythm.
Sara Mayer: That's one example of something that could be in your monthly rhythm. Another example, especially if you're an entrepreneur is you can set down and. Do a financial review of your finances. You don't actually have to be an entrepreneur to do that. You can do that as just the everyday person and review your budget and all those reoccurring charges, but you could add that into your monthly rhythm or it could be quarterly.
Sara Mayer: You do this quarterly, you have a quarterly financial meeting. So there are things that you maybe haven't thought about adding into your rhythm that you can add into your rhythm [00:11:00] so that you are able to be more intentional about the life. And the goals, the life you create and the goals you achieve back to the year.
Sara Mayer: I forgot this. I encourage you as an entrepreneur and a business leader, somebody who's working for a company, do your own review every year, pretend you're a corporation and you have to review yourself doing yourself. Don't worry. Don't. Look for feedback from others and it could be quarterly reviews or monthly reviews But put these into your rhythm checklist I encourage you to create this in Excel or maybe if you use task tools like Asana put it in Asana Where you can check off how you're doing in all these areas So once you set your yearly monthly quarterly If you want to do quarterly, a lot of people do quarterly, then it's time to really think [00:12:00] about your weekly rhythm.
Sara Mayer: Now, as I already mentioned, I do a block of content creation once a month. That's my goal. Sometimes it doesn't always happen, but I could break that up into the weeks if I wanted to. And I intentionally look at my calendar. Many of my podcasts are recorded on Thursdays. In fact, it is a Thursday that I'm recording this, and that's when I have my guest episodes.
Sara Mayer: Now, does that mean I don't interview other people or people on other days? I do. In fact, I interviewed Amy Porterfield on a Monday because that's the day that worked for her. But in general, my weekly rhythm is Thursday recording day. So I am always camera ready on Thursday. Now, does it mean That happens every week.
Sara Mayer: No, it's flexible, but I've designed what my weekly rhythm needs to be. And [00:13:00] then that drives my daily rhythm. Now, for those of you who are naysayers and right now you're like, Ooh, I don't like to plan that much, or I like a little more freedom and flow in my schedule. If you were to look at my schedule today on a Thursday, I have one appointment.
Sara Mayer: One, for 45 minutes, it's one scheduled recording. The rest of my day is free. But this morning I set my daily rhythm and my daily rhythm is I like to accomplish two to three things that are needle movers in my business every day or my life goals. And I cannot go to bed until those things are completed.
Sara Mayer: So yes, this morning I got up. It was a very nice day out. It's a little cool. I'm sitting in Chicago. So it was a little overcast, which is amazing. And this appointment wasn't until two [00:14:00] o'clock. So I had nothing on my calendar until two o'clock. Beautiful day. I could do whatever I want, but I have two goals written down in this little planner right here that I need to accomplish today.
Sara Mayer: And one of them was to record an additional podcast. So here we are. But I got up and decided to take my dog to the dog park to go on TikTok live with her, have a little fun and play ball. And she went swimming. So of course, after she goes swimming, I have to give her a bath. And because of that. That hour long walk, which is a goal in my weekly rhythm to work out a couple of times a week.
Sara Mayer: I usually have it set at four. So I did accomplish that and I did listen to Growth Day while I was on there, but that hour long unplanned, improp Prompt to event did check off two boxes of my weekly and daily rhythm, but it allowed me to connect with my [00:15:00] dog. And for those of you don't know, yes, she's on Tik TOK.
Sara Mayer: So you can find her Tik TOK, Facebook and Instagram. She's at. Parker, the boxer pup. So check her out if you haven't checked her out, but that was impromptu. So you don't need to schedule every single day packed full. You can accomplish all of your things if you have an intentional rhythm. And today I will record this podcast and one more podcast, and I will have completed my daily goals.
Sara Mayer: So just know that you doesn't mean that. Every single hour of every day has to be packed full of activities. In fact, it shouldn't be. When you decide your rhythm and design it yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily, you will actually find that you have more free time in your calendar because those are the things that are going to drive the work and the other things that truly don't matter.
Sara Mayer: Will probably [00:16:00] fall off. So what are some things that could be in weekly rhythm? Weekly rhythm could be meal prep. It could be I want to work out five times this week. It could be I want to connect with two people. I want to read a book four days a week. Anything like that. I want to send spend some time at.
Sara Mayer: A local restaurant or hang out on the patio, or for me, it's take my dog to the dog park, you get to decide what that is. And that's the beauty in creating a rhythm. So I want you to think back to the structure of. If you've worked in an office or anytime you've ever worked, what are the natural rhythms that happen?
Sara Mayer: Yearly reviews, opening and closing the store. If you're in retail, cleaning of the uniform, sanitizing the. The certain tools you use, whatever those rhythms are, and then think about what [00:17:00] yours are. What are the ones that just happen? They don't just happen, but they just keep happening every year.
Sara Mayer: And then what are the ones you want to happen? And then go through the process of crossing off maybe some of the ones you don't need anymore. And as Frozen says, Elsa says, let it go and design your own rhythm because when you design your own rhythms, you will be in control of your life and the achievement of your goals.
Sara Mayer: So let's get to it. All right, bold goal crushers, it's time to crush your goals and everything that gets in the way because you don't have to work double time. So get to it.
Sara Mayer: Thank you for tuning into the bold goal crusher podcast where we crush goals and everything that gets in the way. I always love to support my community.
Sara Mayer: I look forward to seeing you crush your goals this year.
