Today is bittersweet for me.

For the last 15 years I’ve been working a 9-5 corporate job in the aerospace industry. I remember when I started, the company was a smaller private company and when I left, it was public and part of a multi-billion dollar organization. I started as a part time receiving clerk and worked my way up to senior leadership during those years.

Today is bittersweet for me because today was my last day at that company. Three months ago I told the CEO that I would be leaving before the end of the year to pursue my SaaS startup (PodMatch) full time… And here we are.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “Ah, Alex must have hated his job!”

Although I know that many people hate their jobs, that wasn’t the case for me. I loved the aerospace industry and the company I was working for. It was a great career, I was considered “extremely accomplished’ for my age especially. But, again, here we are.

As I’ve been telling people, I’ve received mixed responses. Some people think I’m crazy, some are very worried about me. On the flipside, some people are beyond excited about what I’m doing.

Here’s what I’ve learned through all of this:

Some of you may already be aware of this, but every year on my birthday, I pray and ask God to give me a word/theme for the year. My year for the 32nd year of my life is CHANGE. When I first picked this word, I was nervous, unsure of where it would lead. Because of this, I wrote down these words that are worth sharing in this post:

“Good things are supposed to happen to me through these changes in my life.”

Some days I believed these words, some days they even inspired me. Some days they made me scared, but regardless, I’ve never let fear stop me – And that is why I am where I am today.

No one knows what will happen. When you step into the unknown, it’s just that, unknown. All you can do is take hold of fear, and pursue great instead of good, even when it means sacrificing the good. Take calculated risks when you can calculate, and when you can’t, trust yourself and have faith.

Get your people in your corner:

• I spent time in prayer and felt peace from God to make this transition.
• My wife supports me through this as we’re now both full time with PodMatch and Creating a Brand.
• Many of you have supported us as well. (I’m thankful to have so many great people believing in us!)

I’m optimistic about the future. The one thing I know is that this will make me a better leader, friend and servant of others as a result of these changes in my life.

For the memories, here is a picture of the building that I took after concluding my exit interview with HR:

Here I am now, at the end of my last day, looking forward to the future that’s in front of me with a smile on my face! Thankful for what equipped me to take on the future.

What’s holding you back from the future you desire? I challenge you to take a step to make a change to overcome that fear today.

“Can you believe we’re already halfway through summer here in Florida?” said one of my coworkers just last week. I immediately felt uneasy; not because I hadn’t realized it was ‘already fall’ but because why “already?” I thought to myself, “Isn’t it the same amount of days and time that it was last year? How did it sneak up on you? …Man you need to learn to begin taking control of your time! ”

Comments regarding how fast time is passing have always irked me. Every year is the same amount of time, right? So how does it pass us by quicker and quicker?

Related Post: Two Things You Can Do Today To Better Discover Your Purpose

Many people feel that life is passing them by. This is something that I’ve been pondering a lot lately. Why does life seem to be so quick for some people? Because the truth is, time is always the same… 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 365 (or 366) days in a year. That’s it, it’s always the same.

Although my perspective has always been accurate, recently someone, we’ll call him Bob, challenged my thinking about how quick time seems to pass us by. Which in turn has inspired me to write this blog post today.

As I was having a conversation about time with Bob, he said the following to me:

“Life feels shorter to people each year because it is getting shorter.”

As you can imagine as soon as I heard this my facial expression could only be described as visual confusion. (Similar to Obi Wan as he learned about the clones.)

Anyway, back on track here. Bob went on to explain, that every year represents a percentage of your life. Every year the year you’re in represents a smaller percentage of your life. – LIGHT-BULB! Here’s what this means:

Example: From ages 1 to 2 you’ve lived 100% longer. From 2 to 3 you’ve lived 33% longer. Now, once you go from 20 to 21, the percentage has dropped significantly. And once you hit 60, it’s drops even more significantly.

So, my mindset changed…

Every year does get shorter when you base it upon the overall percentage of your life lived.

With that said, although Bob was right as to the reason people say things like, “Can you believe it’s fall?” or “This year has flown by, hasn’t it?” The fact is, every year is still 365 days, no matter how long you’ve been alive.

Just because every year feels like less time and when you look at the percentage of your life, it is, doesn’t mean we have to let life pass us by. (This is my big point, you ready???)

We all know that “time fly’s” but you have the option of being the pilot or a passenger. Which will you be?

After leaving my conversation with Bob conversation, I decided to write this post. So after the longest lead up ever, I want to share with you 5 ways to take control of your time so it doesn’t feel like life is passing you by. I’ll position this by answering a popular question.

How do I begin taking control of my time?

• Keep a calendar.
• Write in a daily journal.
• Focus on the most important tasks
• Prioritize what you love.
• Live in the moment, not in the future.

I’ve found that these 5 points I’m sharing today have been what have helped me take control of my life and time more than anything else.

#1. Keep a calendar.

Easily the main reason that life seems to pass you by is because you’re not in control of your time. Keeping a calendar (budgeting your time) leads to control, not bondage.

My favorite book, the Bible, summarizes this beautifully:

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” – Psalms 90:12

#2. Write in a daily journal

I write every single day. In multiple places. I have a daily checklist, which I hand write with the most important things I need to accomplish that day. It normally ends up having 15 things on it, half of which repeat every day, but I still write them out. I write in my notes on my phone. A few months ago I began to journal about my previous day and the day that I’m starting. A simple way to get control of you time is to document it – this gives you clarity!

#3. Focus on the most important tasks

Continuously identify the most important tasks in your life. If you’re growing a business or getting your fitness to the next level, or even growing a relationship with someone, focus on those things! Stop spending your time on the things that don’t matter. (F.O.C.U.S. = Follow One Course Until Successful)

#4. Prioritize what you love

Stop wasting time on what you don’t love. What are you passionate about? Spend your time on that! Delegate the rest. Ask yourself this question, and get serious with the answer: Am I REALLY enjoying my life?

#5. Live in the moment, not in the future

So many of us live with our heads in the clouds. We’re not happy with where we are today, we’re looking ahead at some distant future that we desire. Here’s the deal, the grass is always greener. You’ll chase this feeling your entire life. The best way to turn this around is to learn to be thankful for where you are today, no matter where you are, or what you have. Be thankful, express gratitude!

Remember, time fly’s but you’re the pilot. It’s time for you to begin taking control of your time today!

Many of us are quick to answer the question “Are you really enjoying your life?” with a “Yes.” But if you really stop to think about it, is it really true?

In 2013 I found myself stressed beyond belief. The business that I was a partial owner in was not doing well. We were struggling to outdo the competition. It kept me up at night.

Deep down I knew we were doing the right thing and giving it 110% every single day, but I couldn’t keep myself from stressing about it.

In 2014 I hit my breaking point. I was ready to get out of the business. I no longer wanted to be involved in this because it was consuming my life. Not to mention, I was getting emails 24/7 (on my phone) and the sales I was generating were never enough for me.

Toward the end of 2015 came across this passage of scripture,

There is nothing better for a person than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that even this is from God’s hand.

After reading it, I immediately paused. I PAUSED. This was the first time in many years that I had even taken a second to think about my life and my business.

I started asking myself some big questions:

• When was the last time I took a break to enjoy life?
• When was the last time I stopped being “busy” to serve other people?
• Do I enjoy the work I’m in or do I hate it?

In this moment, I had a paradigm shift.

I was defining myself by the wrong things in life… My work didn’t need to be my identity. I needed to give it all I had, but then leave it at the office. I needed breaks to enjoy life and to help others enjoy their lives more.

My life completely changed at this moment. All of my stress was gone, I didn’t take work so seriously and I actually started ENJOYING the job again. Instead of dreading Monday’s, I looked forward to them.

It wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies, but things did change for the better all around.

Years later, the business ended up doing better than it ever had in previous years and we received an incredible offer to sell it.

The only thing that changed was my mindset about my job and my life. I started enjoying it more than ever before and logging those moments.

CALL TO ACTION:

If you’re serious about living your best life and want to answer my original question, “Are You REALLY Enjoying Your Life?” with a resounding, YES. the below episode of the Creating a Brand podcast is for you.

Uncovering Your Cloud Nine Life with Jordan Gross

Has anyone recommended a book to you? Me too. At least twice per week, someone is recommending a new book to me. I love to read and take recommendations seriously, and I do pick up 52 books every year. ? However, there’s no way I can read more than that. And that’s where I’m writing this today – I found a book reading service called ReadItFor.Me that has helped me overcome this problem! With that said, this post is my review for ReadItFor.Me. ?

NOTE: I have an exclusive discount link for you at the bottom of this post, but if you’re ready to get started now, click here. (This link will save you $1,400.00!)

You may be asking, “Alex, why do you read so much?”

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that leaders are readers. People who write books are leaders. Many of them have put years of growth and development into these books. If I can take a few hours to learn what took someone a lifetime to learn, that’s a huge win! I’m a firm believer that you can live for ten years but only grow by one year during that time. But I also believe the opposite is possible. Every year, I want to grow at a pace that takes others ten years to reach the same growth level.

My ReadItFor.Me Review (The Best Book Summary Service):

Two years ago, I had no idea that book summary websites existed. One day, I received an email in my inbox. It was from Steve Cunningham, the CEO of ReadItFor.Me. He had read one of my articles and thought I’d be the type of person interested in ReadItFor.me.

Steve was right. I instantly fell in love. I could now get the best of a book in 12 minutes??? No way! ?

As soon as I signed up for ReadItFor.Me, I wanted to put it to the test. I wanted to make sure that Steve was doing an excellent job with these book summaries. So, I busted out my notebook (AKA my captains log) and looked back at Notes from Books that I had read, front to back, on real paper, yes, that is still a thing. ?

I found three titles that I had previously read, that Steve on ReadItFor.Me, I had also covered. So, I did made side-by-side comparison. I busted out my notes and hit the play button on ReadItFor.Me.

I was in shock! Steve pulled out almost Word for Word some of my notes from each of these three titles.

At this moment, I was sold. If I was spending an entire month reading a book, to pull out the same notes that Steve pulls out and shares within 12 minutes, I knew that I had a new way to gather information and wisdom from Books.

Not only this, but I also discovered how successful people learn. I had the opportunity to interview Steve on my podcast. Here is a link to the episode that we recorded together. I learned a fascinating truth about how successful people learn, how they read, how they attend conferences, and how they turn their new wisdom and knowledge into success. ?

How my perspective on reading has changed

Now when I read a book, I am just looking to pull one thing out of it, but I can immediately implement and begin making a change in my life or business. I do highly encourage you to listen to this podcast episode; it will change your perspective on education and learning.

Listen to me interviewing Steve: How Millionaires Learn, Grow and Achieve More with Steve Cunningham

I want to share one more thing with you about how I use ReadItFor.Me. It would be easy for me to listen to each book that Steve reads one time and then move onto the next title. However, he shares so much high-level information that it is hard to capture all of the wisdom/information by listening to it once. So when I started to do, I pick one title every month, and I let it read to me during my commute to work every single morning. This means I listen to a book by Steve, 20 times in a row.

What does this do for me?

After listening to about 20 times, I have its major principles memorized. After listening to something 20 times, I know how to implement it into my life. This has been hugely helpful for me, as now I can implement practices into my life at an accelerated rate. (I’m all about accelerated success!)

Here’s my strategy. I pick one book a month, and I’ll listen to it every day on the way to work. Some of my friends have gotten mad about it. But, I knew just as much as they did about a book and they took an entire month to read it one time, in the same amount of time, I am able to memorize and implement all of the critical points. (#Winning!)

Here’s a quick video explaining more about how I use this book summary service:

I asked Steve if I could offer you something exclusive to you in this blog post. ?

Thankfully, he is allowing me to do that. He has a lifetime membership promotional going on right now, exclusively for readers of creating a brand. If you use this link, you will get a massive discount. I’m talking about $1,400.00 in savings! PLUS an additional bonus of 10 annual gift memberships to give to friends/colleague. (I gave my 10 gifts memberships to my mastermind group!)

(Limited time discount; sign up now!)

In closing, I want to mention that I am a paying customer of ReadItFor.Me. I wrote this review because I believe in this service. The value of ReadItFor.Me far out-ways the cost. And the discount I can get you just sweetens the deal. Enjoy!