Well, I've read my fair share of personal development, self improvement and time management books in the last 8 years and like everyone, I have my favorites.  Amongst my favorite authors are Jim Rohn, Esther & Gerry Hicks, Louise Hay, Robin Sharma and Jack Canfield - these have had the most positive effect on me as well as the classics like Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill.  But more recently, an old acquaintance from a previous failed network marketing business, recommended something new.  Gregg was our inspiration for getting started with our new internet marketing business and introduced us early on to a program called Wake Up Productive by Eben Pagan, claiming it had been instrumental to his success.  And let's face it - when a guy you know makes $10,000 in his first month and had his first $100,000 month by month 10, you feel slightly inclined to listen to his advice. (Greggs Story)

Your Personal Success Ritual - simple but effective!

In preparation for launching our new home based internet marketing business, Ian and I have spent a lot of time educating ourselves in the many aspects of running your own internet business.  we understood it was equally important to work on ourselves and our own discipline and productivity.  The late Jim Rohn www.jimrohn.com, one of our favorite business philosophers used to say "Work harder on yourself than you do on your business".  And this quote couldn't be more relevant than in your own internet marketing business, when you are using Social Media as your main method of lead generation.  Because much of it is about personal branding therefore, You ARE your business!!

So we duly inserted the 12 week Wake Up Productive course into our Weekly Method of Operation and every Sunday evening without fail after Sophie was in bed, we would settle down to the next installment. We were hooked after just Week 1!

The first week, we were introduced to our Personal Success Ritual - a very simple but highly effective technique of setting the tone for the whole day. It's a morning routine or ritual, whereby you work on yourself, making yourself strong in 3 key areas - Physical, Emotional and Logical.  His suggestions of what to incorporate include starting with a large glass of water to replenish the body, brushing your teeth, minimum 30 minutes of exercise & stretching, meditation, deep breathing, having a bath and finally a really healthy, balanced meal.  As the name suggests, this is "Personal" to you, so you can tailor it around any routine you may already have in place.

Ian and I put our Personal Success Ritual in place that night and started it the very next day.  I have to admit, it started very basic but even so, it felt good to be creating a new positive habit.  We wrongly made the excuse that we had very little time to incorporate everything Eben suggested.  I also gave myself the excuse that I'm pregnant, so couldn't include exercise.  However, over the last 12 weeks, our Personal Success Ritual has evolved and is still evolving.  We reviewed it again last night as part of our Weekly business review.  We do have more time now as we both work from home and whilst baby still hasn't made an appearance (3 days overdue!), it's no excuse not to do some gentle moving and stretching.  So our Personal Success Ritual now looks like this:

Drink a 400ml glass of water and take our vitamin supplements.
Drink our hot anti-oxidant herbal green tea beverage
Half an hour of personal development - including reading and journaling
15-20 minutes gentle exercise & stretching
Shower, personal hygiene, get dressed etc
Perfectly balanced breakfast - which for the last 8 years has consisted of a completely balanced nutritional shake - no change there!

And the difference today?  Well, just by adding in the personal development and the exercise, we arrived at 9am this morning feeling like we'd already accomplished something!  This puts you in a great mindset for the rest of the day.  Start as you mean to go on - small successes by 9am and you can't fail to continue to attract more of the same throughout the day.  

Check out Eben Pagan's website to learn more about his 12 week Wake Up Productive course and check back here regularly to find out more about how his course has improved our productivity! www.wakeupproductive.com