Hey, everyone, it's Megan here from meganminns.com,
and today I'm gonna share with you the seven lessons
that I learned in 2016.
Hopefully by sharing these lessons with you,
you'll have a jumpstart on the new year
and not have to learn any of these lessons yourself.
(inspiring music)
Lesson number one is to practice gratitude.
Now, I've always been a grateful person,
but I never actively practiced gratitude in my daily life.
I actually bought a journal called The Five Minute Journal,
which I'll link to below this video
if you wanna know more about that.
And it changed my approach to gratitude,
because every morning you take a few minutes and fill it out
and part of the exercise is to write three things
that you're grateful for,
and then on the evening you reflect
on the positive things that happened that day.
By going through this and practicing gratitude every day,
it allows me to re-change my focus for the day
and instantly go from being in a bad mood
and feeling negative about things
to feeling really positive and thankful
for everything I already have.
The second lesson that I learned in 2016 was
how important working out is for me.
Not only physically, but also mentally.
I have learned that by working out,
especially in the morning, I am instantly de-stressed.
I get much clearer thinking
and get a lot of clarity when I'm working out.
And I come up with the best ideas actually
when I'm working out,
especially if I'm on the treadmill or something.
I'll be thinking about business, even unintentionally,
and I'll get really great ideas
that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
So by taking the time out, getting away from my desk,
getting out of the house,
and by working out and taking care of my body,
it actually frees up my mind to think about things
that otherwise I would get too granular on.
So working out has changed everything,
not only from a health and wellness perspective,
but really from a business perspective.
I now feel like working out is essential to having clarity,
to being calm, and to having good ideas.
The third thing I learned in 2016 is how important it is
for me to plan my days in advance.
I actually already did a video
on how I plan my day in advance,
so be sure to click the little i
in the corner wherever it is or the link below this video
if you wanna know more about that process.
So by planning my day in advance,
I get to wake up and immediately start knowing
that I'm going through the plan I set out for myself,
that I'm taking advantage of my time,
and I'm working on what's actually important
for my goals and my business
instead of just spending the day reacting to other things.
Highly recommend planning your days in advance.
It is a game changer.
The fourth lesson that I learned in 2016 was
that mindset is the foundation for everything.
I've always been a positive thinker.
I've always believed in myself and my abilities.
But I also kinda feel like even though I was feeling
like I believed in them, there was a part of me deep down
that doubted, that was afraid, that was limiting myself.
And I read a book called You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero,
which I'll link to below this video.
It really took my positive thinking and made it real.
It made it where I really truly to my core believe in myself
and believe that if I set a goal for myself
and I work towards it, I can and will achieve it.
And you kind of just are suddenly freed
from the burden of insecurity.
So, highly recommend going through it.
The fifth thing that I learned in 2016 was how impactful
it is to write down your goals every single day.
I actually have this really pretty
Eat Cake for Breakfast journal that is just lined,
and I write in it every single day.
And I actually write the exact same goals every day.
And sometimes I refine them a little bit more
or tweak them as I'm writing them,
and they do evolve, which is the whole purpose.
To me, I have really big goals for the next year.
And as we are beginning 2017,
that's where my focus is right now.
I'm not really thinking on three years down the road
or anything at this point.
So every single morning, one of the first things I do
is pull out my journal and grab a pen
and just write down what those goals are.
Again, I kind of elaborate.
I get pretty detailed.
I get very specific.
First week I started doing this,
I already was able to start crossing some things off,
because it put it on the forefront of my mind.
When I was planning my days in advance,
I suddenly was planning things
with these big picture goals in mind.
Highly recommend grabbing yourself a pretty journal
that you wanna look at every day,
and start writing down those goals every single day.
I think you'll be really amazed at the progress you see
and how quickly you start to see it.
The sixth thing that I learned in 2016 is that insecurity,
doubt, and fear are just a complete waste of time.
Now, I know that's easier said than done.
This was a lesson that I have learned the hard way.
I'm not saying I'm perfect.
I definitely have moments of insecurity.
But I'm able to come back to some key phrases
and remind myself that I can overcome that.
I went to a conference in L.A. in 2016,
and one of the things they talked about
was mindset and insecurity.
And they really talked in an enlightening way for me
that if you are truly confident in what you create
and you believe it is great and the best you could do
with that day and that time,
then it doesn't matter what anyone else says.
Someone could say something negative about it,
and it doesn't affect you, because you know
it's the best content you could've done at that time,
and you can just not even care anymore what anyone else says
and just be confident in the information
and the content you're giving to the world.
One of my mottoes for 2017 is to be fearlessly visible.
So whenever I have a moment of feeling doubt or insecurity
or like I don't wanna be vulnerable,
I just remind myself to be fearlessly visible
and step into that,
and the fear and the doubt just washes away,
and I'm just filled with confidence,
knowing that I'm doing what I want to be doing
and I'm not letting fear, insecurity, or doubt hold me back.
The final lesson that I learned in 2016 is
that hiring is a game changer.
I have heard this so much since I start my business,
that, "Oh, hiring changes everything.
"You've gotta hire.
"Hire your first person, and it'll change everything
"and up-level your business."
But I'm not sure I really believed it.
I didn't feel like my business was worthy of a team.
I didn't feel like I was worthy of a team.
I think I was afraid of the commitment of hiring a team.
But I did take the plunge at the end of 2016
and I hired two team members.
I hired a video editor,
and then I hired a virtual assistant.
And it has been a game changer.
I fully believe in what everyone else was saying before
that I was ignoring.
If you have serious goals,
if you have a lot that you wanna work towards,
hire a virtual assistant.
There's definitely things you're doing right now
that you could delegate and add to someone else's plate
so that you have more time to focus
on what you should be doing for your business,
the moneymakers in your business
and not the administrative tasks.
I love having a team now.
It's very fulfilling and rewarding.
And the motivation, knowing that I need to pay people,
is actually a benefit.
I think it was something that scared me,
and now, to me, it's an asset.
Having a team and having that obligation
or pressure to pay people makes me feel even more encouraged
to earn that money, and I think it's a bigger motivator.
So hiring is a game changer.
And if you've been putting it off,
and if you're doing too much in your business
and you're not meeting your goals,
I think it's 'cause it's time for you to hire.
So definitely go find a virtual assistant
and start delegating some stuff,
and you're gonna be amazed at what it does to you,
to your mindset, and for your business.
So those are the seven lessons that I learned in 2016.
I hope hearing them is helpful for you.
Maybe it's given you a few aha moments.
I'd love to hear if that's true in the comments below.
And hopefully this'll help you have an incredible 2017.
If this video was helpful, be sure to subscribe,
share with your friends, and hit the like button below
so I know to make more videos like this.
I'll see you in the next one.
Didn't write a script today.
Gonna be winging it.
Now I'm rambling.
I should've made notes.
Let's make notes.
Just writing notes.
Lesson number one, I forgot.
(sighs) Okay.
Got that one done.
Happy New Year's.
I should've had champagne.