In this episode, Erick Rheam, discusses Element #7 of the Seven Elements of The Perfect Day, develop systems.

Building margin in your life so that you can leverage your time, energy, and mental strength to pursue significance is critical.  Leveraging systems is how to achieve this goal.

In this episode Erick discusses how to build and manage systems to create margin in your life so you have room to pursue a significant life.

There are five guidelines to follow when developing systems:

  1. Delegate - Get tasks off your plate so you can focus on purposeful activities.
  2. Automate - Focus on recurring tasks that can be handled with technology or templates that you develop once then use repeatedly. 
  3. Ping critical areas of your life - Intentionally do a self check on key areas of your life to include your important relationships, personal growth, mental and emotional health.
  4. Measure success - Measure areas of your life that influence your behavior and identify trends that inform your decisions and actions.
  5. Record progress - Leverage tools to record progress in the major areas of your life so you can evaluate your life and performance during weekly, quarterly, and annual retreats.

Resources Mentioned

  1. Subscribe to the podcast
  2. Rise Above Chaos book
  3. Work with Erick

Action Step

In this episode, Erick Rheam, discusses Element #6 of the Seven Elements of The Perfect Day, assemble a team.

No one achieves significance without the help of others, which is why it’s critical that you’re intentional with whom you surround yourself with on your journey.

In this episode Erick discusses how to assemble and manage an effective team.

When assembling a team surround yourself with four types of team members:

  1. Opinion leaders - These are folks with opinions that matter and can influence others’ thoughts and opinions of you.
  2. Champions - These are your cheerleaders.  You need encouragement and these people edify and support you, especially during difficult times.
  3. Difference makers - They have specific skillsets that you need because they support areas where you’re weak.
  4. Decision makers - These people have the power to make decisions and have the financial means to back up those decisions.

There are three guiding principles when building a team:

  1. Awareness - Be aware of the phase of life you’re in and areas of weakness that you need support through carefully selected teammates.
  2. Attract the right team members - Be willing to grow and evolve by filling your mind with good content through conferences, podcasts, books and articles.  By doing this you attract people that are evolving and are in alignment with you.
  3. Prune your relationships - Be willing to identify and dismiss relationships that are no longer relevant or toxic.  

When relating with others, follow these cardinal rules:

  1. Be curious - Be focused on others and learn their needs, wants and desires.
  2. Be relational - Be aware when you’ve become too transactional with key people in your life and learn to strike a healthy balance between transactional and relational activities with these people.
  3. Be organized -  Respect the time of others by being organized and intentional in your interactions with them.

When evaluating your current team, use these questions to ensure you have the right people:

  1. Are the right people in the right spots?
  2. Do they want to be on your team?
  3. Are they qualified to do what you’re asking them to do?

Resources Mentioned

  1. Subscribe to the podcast
  2. Rise Above Chaos book
  3. Work with Erick

Action Step

In this episode, Erick Rheam, discusses Element #5 of the Seven Elements of The Perfect Day, manage expectations.

To live a significant life you need the help of others, which means you must learn to interact with others in a healthy way.  This is accomplished by managing the expectations of others.

In this episode Erick discusses why it’s important to be proactive when managing expectations in order to minimize conflict.

There are four guidelines to consider when managing expectations:

  1. Be proactive - Being aware of your own expectations and your level of stress is critical if you desire to engage in meaningful relationships.
  2. Be clear with your expectations - Have the courage to engage in proactive discussions with key stakeholders in your life.
  3. A predictable with your emotions - If others know what to expect from you emotionally that builds trust, which is the foundation for healthy relationships.
  4. Start with the most respected person - Prioritize your relationships and manage the expectations with your most important stakeholders first.

Your reality - Clarify your reality and embrace the constraints you must manage as you navigate your life.

Resources Mentioned

  1. Subscribe to the podcast
  2. Rise Above Chaos book
  3. Work with Erick

Action Step

In this episode, Erick Rheam, discusses Element #4 of the Seven Elements of The Perfect Day, live with clarity.

It’s beautiful when a person lives a life of clarity; however, this can be hard as the Beast works hard to muddy a person's life to the point they become numb and zombie-like in their daily life.

In this episode Erick discusses what to clarify in order to insulate yourself from the Beast.

There are five areas to clarify:

  1. A personal vision - A clear vision informs your decisions.  It’s easier to make decisions when you know where you want to go with your life.
  2. A personal mission - A well-crafted mission is the vehicle that gets you where you want to go and helps you realize your vision for your life.
  3. A purpose - Your purpose fuels your journey and gives you the strength and courage to live your mission.
  4. A personal value - To live out a life on purpose, you must clarify your value to the world.
  5. Your reality - Clarify your reality and embrace the constraints you must manage as you navigate your life. 

Embracing reality can be the toughest challenge to overcome.  Here are three steps to help with that:

  1. Identify obstacles and problems - Discover what others are suffering from or their pain points.
  2. Bring solutions by leveraging your superpower - Don’t try to solve problems unless you can leverage your strengths.
  3. Ease the burden of others - Life is hard.  Look for ways to ease someone else’s pain.

Resources Mentioned

  1. Subscribe to the podcast
  2. Rise Above Chaos book
  3. Work with Erick

Action Step

In this episode, Erick Rheam, discusses Element #3 of the Seven Elements of The Perfect Day, Work Within Your Strengths.

The Beast distracts you by filling your days with meaningless activities.  By doing this you tend to work outside of your strengths and become frustrated, tired and bored with life.  

In this episode Erick discusses how to approach your days so that you may spend more time working within your strengths and less time on your weaknesses.

There are three types of tasks that pull you from your strengths:

  1. Draining - These tasks drain you of valuable energy because they’re usually weak areas.
  2. Others - Other people can do the task just as good as you and probably better than you.
  3. Distraction - You are proficient at the task but it keeps you from focusing on your strengths.  

Your goal is to remove as many of those tasks as possible so that you can create more time and focus your energy on your strengths.  You do this by identifying the following with each task outside of your strength zone:

  1. Eliminate - Get rid of the task altogether, because it no longer makes sense to be part of your day and it’s taking up valuable time and energy during your day.
  2. Delegate - Transfer this task to someone else that can do this task as good if not better than you.
  3. Trade - Get this task out of your day by giving it to a friend or colleague in exchange for a task that falls within your strengths.

Make a list of your recurring tasks and start looking for tasks you can remove from your list so that you can start living more within your strengths.

Resources Mentioned

  1. Subscribe to the podcast
  2. Rise Above Chaos book
  3. Work with Erick

Action Step

In this episode, Erick Rheam, discusses Element #2 of the Seven Elements of The Perfect Day, Manage Your Energy.

Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor, nor do I claim to be one. I’m going to share ideas to help with your energy. I recommend that you consult your doctor before you implement my advice. What I share in this chapter is what’s working for me and may work for you, but it’s not guaranteed. 

If you plan to take on the Beast, then you must match its energy.  

In this episode Erick outlines the six guidelines or daily habits I recommend to manage your energy to protect yourself from the Beast:

  1. Get sleep = 7-8 hours each night
  2. Take a nap = 20-30 minutes during your low energy time of the day
  3. Embrace your natural rhythms
  4. Exercise = 30 minutes a day
  5. Drink water = The rule of thumb is drink half your body weight in ounces of water each day
  6. Work within your strengths

Install these guidelines into your daily habits and overtime you’ll realize a significant increase in your energy levels that will allow you to navigate the obstacles created by the Beast.

Resources Mentioned

  1. Subscribe to the podcast
  2. Rise Above Chaos book
  3. Work with Erick

Action Step

In this episode, Erick Rheam, discusses Element #1 of the Seven Elements of The Perfect Day, Manage Your Priorities.

The first step to tame the Beast and get your life back is to manage your priorities.  We tend to overload our days with so many tasks and activities that we set ourselves up for failure.  Yes, life can be overwhelming and the Beast wants to keep you overwhelmed with activities, especially with tasks that don’t really matter in the big picture of your life. 

The first step to put the Beast in check is to identify the three most important things you need to focus on each day.  This includes all areas of your life!  So, start each day with one simple question:

“What are the three most important things I need to get done today?”

Write those three things down and focus on them.  Don’t worry about the rest of the items you need to address until you get those primary three tasks done first.  Give yourself the gift of this constraint and watch how it will begin to affect your life in a positive way.

It will be hard in the beginning, but your body, mind and soul will adjust and you will reap the benefits of a more focused mindset.

Resources Mentioned

  1. Subscribe to the podcast
  2. Rise Above Chaos book
  3. Work with Erick

Action Step

Seven Elements of the Perfect Day Introduction:

In this episode, Erick Rheam, introduces the seven elements of the perfect day and discusses why he chose to unpack each element over the next seven episodes.

In order to pursue a life of significance then you must install daily habits that insulate you from the Beast.  Erick discusses the importance of the seven elements of the perfect day and shares a couple of key attributes of each element:

  1. Manage your priorities.  Focus on the main thing and eliminate the things that distract.
  2. Manage your energy.  Create a healthy life and manage your physical resources.
  3. Work within your strengths.  Eliminate, delegate, and automate areas of weakness.
  4. Live with clarity. Clarify key components of your life so that you may live purposefully.
  5. Manage expectations.  Create healthy relationships by clarifying others’ expectations.
  6. Assemble a team.  Surround yourself with quality people with a common vision.
  7. Build systems.  Craft systems to create the necessary margin to pursue significance.

Resources Mentioned

  1. Subscribe to the podcast
  2. Rise Above Chaos book
  3. Work with Erick

Action Step

In this episode, Erick Rheam, discusses some key things to consider when mastering human dynamics and communication.

Significance Principle #5 - Master Human Dynamics & Communication

You’ve mastered human dynamics when you’re no longer surprised by what people do when you interact with them.  People are fairly predictable and it’s important to remember that when it comes to connecting with others, emotion always trumps logic.

One primary way to begin to master human dynamics is to understand that every person you meet is living out their own story and within that story they are the hero of that story.  When you try to position yourself as the hero in someone else's story then conflict usually occurs.  Erick discusses why this type of awareness when connecting with others is vital.

Resources Mentioned

  1. Subscribe to the podcast
  2. Rise Above Chaos book
  3. Work with Erick

Action Step

In this episode, Erick Rheam, discusses the importance of managing change and why it matters when pursuing a life of significance. 

Significance Principle #4 - Ignite Your Influence & Manage Change

Change is your constant companion and so you must evolve to stay ahead of the dynamic experience that is your life.  This means that you will need to encourage those closest to you to evolve with you as well.  This can be hard as no one likes to change.

Erick shares his thoughts on using key measurements of success to influence human behavior and how to make this tool a part of your significance journey.

Resources Mentioned

  1. Subscribe to the podcast
  2. Rise Above Chaos book
  3. Influencer by Joseph Grenny
  4. Work with Erick

Action Step

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