1987: One Life Hack Every High Achieving Entrepreneur Should Know by Michael Mehlberg on Entrepreneur Efficiency

0:00This is Optimal Work Daily. One life hack every high-achieving entrepreneur should know by Michael Melberg of MichaelMelberg.com. It was 4am and the house had long since settled into its frame after a day of heavy traffic. Every creek had worked itself out. Every computer had gone into hibernation. Every child had sunken into their slumber. It was calm, peaceful, silent. My sleep, however, was interrupted by a deep, unsettling feeling that something was wrong. A gasp for air, sucking in oxygen quickly as if my head was forcefully plunged into a bucket of cold water. My eyes shot wide open, searching for the source of trouble, unable to find it in the black of night. Somewhere, subconsciously, I realized that I was late, 30 minutes late to be exact, 30 minutes late waking up to catch a flight home before the weekend, a flight I desperately did not want to miss. You've been there before, right? Whether for work, school, a flight. You felt that sudden rush of adrenaline from realizing you were far behind schedule.

1:03It's a terrible feeling, but strangely freeing at the same time. And you woken up on time, you might have dilly dallyed around the house, slowly sipping your coffee while surfing the internet for useless news. You might have taken a 30-minute shower. You might have even made time to catch some morning television. But not now. When you're late, you fire out of bed like a Tomahawk missile, tackling your morning routine with a rare clarity and focus. Why? It's not just because you're short on time. It's because you're in a situation where nothing else matters. You can only be laser focused, single-minded, and driven to your one and only goal. Get to your work, or school, or flight, on time. Your situation gives you purpose, and purpose is the greatest, most fundamental life hack everyone should know. My purpose is important. I love life hacks, every single one of them. Meditation, rising early, planning my day, etc. They all provide the tweaks my routine needs to be more productive, get more done, stay balanced, and find happiness.

2:05But without purpose, almost none of these life hacks work. Don't believe me? Consider these examples. Meditation is great. It clears your mind. It resets you and recharges you. It's the medicine for momentary distraction. But without purpose, guess what happens? It doesn't take long before the next great idea clutters your mind, distracting you, and draining your decision-making power. Waking early? Another great life hack. It gives you more thoughtful working hours in the day. In the quiet solitude of pre-dawn, one can achieve great things before the world rises. But without purpose, getting up early only gives you more quiet hours, not more productive hours. Without purpose, you may find yourself answering emails, surfing the internet, and otherwise working on distractions, assuming you can will yourself out of bed early to begin with. Keeping your phone out of sight? An excellent life hack for some. It's easy, too, when you have a purpose and recognize how the phone distracts you. Without purpose, though, you can't really be sure your phone is, in fact, a distraction,

3:08can you? Without purpose, what will you work on when your phone isn't distracting you? How about planning your day in detail? A great idea, and one I do every day, but if you don't know your purpose, what exactly are you planning, et cetera, et cetera, blah, blah, and so on. So here's the deal. Purpose gives you motivation, making it easier to wake up early, easier to put down your phone, easier to put your meditation to work. Purpose helps you focus, making it simple to filter out the noise, and clear how your decisions will or won't help. Purpose helps you prioritize, making it simple to know which tasks will have the greatest impact. Purpose allows you to know if the people around you help or hurt. Not everyone is a good influence. Not everyone can be the friend you need right now to realize your purpose and achieve your goals. Purpose lets you set a vision for your life. What do you want it to be? How do you want to live? With purpose, you can finally concentrate on setting and achieving meaningful goals. In short, purpose is the critical driver to every facet of your life, and finding it

4:12is, therefore, the ultimate life hack, though to be fair, it's not really as much a hack as it is a process. How to find your purpose? Spoiler alert, according to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, is 42. Since that didn't make any sense, the creators of our universe constructed a planet full of people, earth, to search for the question. Though this book is science fiction comedy, it has a ring of truth to it. Our purpose seems to be to find our purpose. Ugh. So, how do we find it? What questions can we ask ourselves to understand our purpose? Create a vision for our life, set our goals, and forever more be focused, motivated, and clear. The 100 years exercise. A hundred years ago or so, your grandparents were born. They get or not, they created and passed on a set of values to your parents and then on to you. What values did your grandparents instill in you? And how did they build a legacy that you are now following?

5:15Once you've answered that question, look to the now. On a scale of 1 to 10, how alive do you feel? Where zero represents a zombie-like state, and 10 represents completely full of joy and life. Why did you choose that number? Why didn't you pick a lower number? What would you have to do differently to select a bigger number? In other words, what would you have to do to feel more alive? Now, zoom 100 years into the future. You've got grandchildren. What values have you instilled in them? What legacy have you left in their minds? What things did you accomplish that they will remember about you? Now you've got answers in front of you from nine questions all related to where you've come from, where you are, and where you want to go. If it's not sticking out like a sore thumb, look deep into your answers for your purpose. It may be in there hiding somewhere, staring you in the face. Use your purpose to guide you. Did you find it? Did you find your purpose? However you get there, the alignment of your values with your vision for life will make

6:15for a joyful and meaningful existence. I hope that helps. I've spent dozens, if not hundreds, of hours over the past ten years trying different life hacks, only to realize something fundamental was missing. That something was purpose, so I took five years and went searching for mine. After reading dozens of books, listening to hundreds of podcasts, and reading even more articles, I finally found a set of questions to help me find it. And once I did, every aspect of my life, clarity, focus, productivity, organization, time management, everything became exceedingly clear. The funny thing is, my purpose has changed over time. Yours will likely change too. You just listened to the post titled One Life Hack Every High Achieving Entrepreneur Should Know by Michael Melberg of MichaelMelberg.com. And thanks to Michael for giving us permission to narrate from his blog today, he is a family man, an entrepreneur, business professional, fitness nut, organization freak, productivity

7:18junkie, and the author of Home Early, a book about destroying distraction, becoming powerfully productive, and finishing work before dinner. And you can get the first chapter of that book for free, along with a bunch of worksheets right on his site, which again is MichaelMelberg.com, so come on and check that out and show him some support. But I think that does it for today, I thank you so much for being a subscriber or follower of the show, depending on what podcast app you're using, and hope you have a great rest of your day. And then I'll see you right back here tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.