How To Be Productive In The Car

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How I was able to change my life really started by being productive in my car. My cute red Jeep, to be exact! My schedule, at the time, was a little insane – to say the least! It went something like:

4:30am – 8am: Personal train clients

8:00am – Lunch: Paralegal at firm in Tustin, CA

Lunch break: 1 hour, personal train a client

1:00pm – 5ish: Paralegal

5pm – 10pm: Personal train clients

I wasn’t lying when I said it was insane!

There were many mornings I would go to this little bakery because their oat bran muffins were the ONLY thing to get me out of bed at 4am. So good! Now there was often this other personal trainer there at the exact same time as me. He happened to also drive a Jeep (his was white, though) and we both had our business logos on the sides of them! Funny, right? I remember he was older than myself and I felt a little sense of competition. Just human, I guess. We weren’t necessarily friendly or unfriendly with each other. Maybe said “hello” from time to time, but we didn’t swap stories or try to network or anything.

It was just one of those things where we both knew the other was off to have this busy morning of personal training.

But the thing with personal training is… you’re not making money unless you’re working. And what’s worse? Being that kind of employee invited people to cancel like crazy. Honestly, the same can be said if you’re a doctor, a lawyer, or any professional who owns their own business. At the end of the day, you’re still kind of an employee. 

You’ve canceled on your doctor, dentist, chiropractor, massage therapist, fitness trainer, et al. I mean, you cancel on people all the time!

In turn, when you own your own business and people cancel, your income gets canceled.

And sure, you can set up rules and regulations and ask people to sign agreements so that they understand that if they cancel you’re going to charge them. But you and I both know, you do that enough times and clients are going to give you up. Can you really afford to lose that client? Can you really afford to lose that money and go out and try to find somebody new?

For argument’s sake, let’s just say that I’m able to fill my entire day from 5am until 9pm with clients every single hour. How do I make MORE money? I’ve reached my cap even if I can fill every single hour of my day! And there is no passive income in that hustle. You can’t get more hours in a day. 

What does one do, then, when trying to get more income in an already filled-to-the-brim schedule?

Well, for me, I went to a leadership conference. I finally decided to start investing in personal development. There were many famous (and amazing) speakers at this conference. You would know all of their names, trust me. But I really only heard one person that day. Brian Tracy.

When Mr. Tracy spoke, I was silenced. Or slayed, as the kids say! It literally was as if I was the only one in the room. Something about the way he delivered his message felt like it was my dad. That total trust factor, you know? When the event came to an end, I walked over to Brian Tracy’s booth where he was selling audio cassettes (I’m dating myself here). I bought them. And that, my friends, was the moment. The catalyst, if you will.

Every day I drove around in my Jeep listening to those audio tapes. I listened to them on repeat. Over and over and over again. It got to the point where I found myself saying things to people that I thought were my own original quotes because I’d heard it so many times. It was becoming the way I was thinking.

I was living that iconic quote about repetition being the mother of all learning.

A different version of me began to pull up into that same bakery where that same personal trainer would continue to be. I would see him day after day, but now the overriding thought I had was,

Dude, I don’t wanna be that guy ten years from now. Up at 4am praying that, as I’m on the way to my client’s home, she’s not going to cancel on me. And that I haven’t lost yet another hundred dollars and two extra hours of sleep. I seriously can’t end up like him. He doesn’t look that happy.

The remedy? I’m gonna spend every second in my car getting smart by listening to these cassettes. And, let me say for the record, God bless Michigan State University – but I learned so much more in my car than I ever learned over there. I learned how to be smart. I got educated on how to adapt the habits of people who were successful.

And I understood what it meant to waste time: wasted time means wasted potential.

According to the most recent study (as of this writing), Americans spend 17,600 minutes driving each year. Don’t worry, I did the math for you! That comes out to approximately 48 minutes you’re spending behind the wheel EVERY day. That’s 48 minutes you could be utilizing to enrich your life!

Knowledge isn’t everything, though. You also need time to implement. We all know people who get so excited about consuming information, but they never set aside time to implement! And if you’re not implementing, it’s futile. You can be the world’s most highly educated nutritionist, but if you are not applying what you know about food and you’re eating junk, then all that knowledge is ultimately pointless, right?

There’s so much knowledge out there! You gotta have time to put what you’re learning into action and it doesn’t just magically appear — it must be written down.

Schedule time to implement the changes that you need to make in order to change your life.

If you continue to do what you do even with the knowledge you are acquiring, you will only have the same results. We all know know the legendary quote by Einstein about how the definition of insanity is repeating the same things over and over again hoping for different results.

It wasn’t until I started scheduling time to implement what I was learning that my success really started to skyrocket!

Listen to me, we’ve moved far away from the novelty of learning on tape. It blows my mind that every one of you aren’t listening to a FREE business podcast or (almost free) audiobook. These are tremendous resources you can listen to in your car. It doesn’t have to eat up data. You can just download it. Type in the search window (of your podcast app) whatever topic you want to make yourself an expert on this month and a plethora of podcasts will pop up! I want you to listen to ALL of them – even if it’s from 20 different podcasters. You’ll get different views and perspectives and experts which will help you stay focused. It’ll keep you centered on that one thing in your car.

Can you imagine where your life would be a year from now if you spent 48 minutes a day (or however long you are in the car) learning more about business? 

Not too long ago, I was driving past that very same bakery and guess whose white Jeep I saw? Yep, you’re right. Now he’s fifteen years older and still doing the same thing. God bless him. Maybe he’s so happy. Perhaps he has found his purpose. It might be he’s helping so many people. That would be lovely! Truly.

But I know this much is true… I’d be pulling up right next to him if I hadn’t spent my precious time in that red Jeep, commuting to clients, and listening to Brian Tracy. Learning more about business. Becoming smarter, wiser, and better.

That morning route wasn’t my potential. It was my start.

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