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DAY 1 of 365

Day 1 – Yesterday was my birthday, and I shared a big (possibly crazy) goal I’m working towards. I actually have MANY big, scary goals I’m working towards like…

  • Acquiring a big beautiful sailing yacht to charter and play on.
  • Building a sizable retirement pension from real estate investments.
  • Expanding my business nationally.
  • Getting in the best shape of my life (without injury). 
  • Teaching my kids the equivalent of an MBA in Business education before they graduate high school.
  • Planning a kick-ass trip to Italy to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.
  • Writing and publishing a daily journal (every day!) for a year. 

These are just a handful of things I’m working on…

And I honestly don’t know yet IF and even HOW I will pull them off, 

but I thought it might be fun, possibly helpful (or at least entertaining) if I shared my day-to-day struggle towards my goals, the wins and the fails this year, and it would HOLD ME ACCOUNTABLE in ways I haven’t experienced before. 

The funny thing is… I actually believe writing and publishing EVERY DAY for a year is the hardest and scariest goal on that list.

Because writing does not come easy to me. Every sentence is a struggle, and it takes me SO LONG to write even a few paragraphs, especially with my ADHD brain.  

BUT I know if I can conquer this goal, it will help me conquer all the other goals on my list. It’s like the LEAD DOMINO; it creates momentum and forces me to plan, be tactical, to commit.  

I’ve proven to myself I can do hard things. A few years ago, I committed to doing 100 burpees, as fast as possible, every day for a year. I HATE burpees with a passion, but forcing myself to do it did wonders for my self-confidence, and it led to me making improvements in many parts of my life.

So, this is my public declaration that I will post an entry each day. 

Feel free to call me out if you DON’T see me post something.  

I’M SERIOUS. Call me out if you don’t see me post. 

So, here is Day 1 of my 46th year around the sun; tomorrow, on Day 2, I will share my best parenting win of 2023 and how it came after YEARS of failing. 

Until tomorrow, 

Cheers to you and yours,

Walk Before Run

Quote Image for 'Walk Before Run' a The Sweet Life article by Mike Turner

Walk Before Run

It’s softball season in our household, and both my girls pitch on their teams. They don’t play softball in one of those year-round clubs. This is just a seasonal little league team.

Therefore, they haven’t really practiced or played any softball in 9 months.

I’ve been trying to get them to do some pitching drills to sharpen their skills, but they have convinced themselves they don’t need them.

Which is silly, but a clear view of how all our minds work sometimes. We want to run before we can walk well.

In Navy Seal training, learning a new skill starts with a lecture followed by slow hands-on practice with a watchful instructor making sure every step is done with precision. This is their crawling stage. Slowly they add more speed, mastering each step during the walking stage until finally they are allowed to run.

I remember practicing the same wrestling move over and over again in high school, which wasn’t very fun. I craved learning new moves until I figured out if I could be the best at 3 specific moves I could win.

There are times when we should run when we’ve barely learned to walk. Sometimes opportunities come your way, and that is when we need to sprint, so they slip through our fingers.

But the opposite is also true; knowing when you should slow down to master the walk.

An example of this is lifting heavyweights in a gym. I may be strong enough to lift that barbell full of weights over my head, but if I don’t have each step of the lift mastered, I will injure myself. So I will not attempt to this until I invest the time to master the details.

In business, we often injure our success because we skipped the walk before we began to run.

It’s showing up to an appointment unprepared. It’s not taking the time to research because we assumed we had enough information. It’s hiring too quickly. It’s starting a new expensive venture without taking the time upfront to investigate and test out the idea. All of these are examples of running before walking.

I often struggle to pump my own breaks when I get excited about new projects and ventures. But it’s necessary to practice discipline and patience to avoid making fundamental mistakes, just like my girls with their pitching technique.

We must wax on, wax off, and paint the fence.
(This is a Karate Kid movie reference, for those of you who haven’t seen it, go watch it, it’s the perfect analogy of the principle of learning to walk first).

Join The Community!

Join our Facebook GroupJoin the quest for “The Sweet Life.”  Request access to our Facebook Group.  Let’s learn from each other!  GO HERE

Free Audio Book Download

Full Unabridged Audio Book “Vagabonding With Kids” by AK Turner!  GO HERE

Take The SWEET LIFE Assessment

See how you score? Identify your strengths. Discover areas in your life you want to improve. GO HERE.

Giving Back

Amanda and Mike launched an Impact Club in their hometown of Boise, Idaho in 2017, and have had a blast gathering like-minded individuals, families, and organizations to make significant impact in our community, raising over $200,000 locally and over $1.5 million nationally.  

Join Our Next Monthly CHALLENGE

Every month Amanda and Mike pick a month-long challenge that pushes us out of our comfort zone so we can grow, learn, and become better versions of ourselves.  Sometimes we design our own unique challenge and other times we join pre-established challenges. Email us to find out about our next upcoming challenge. Us@BusinessofUs.com

About Us

Our Story | Mike and Amanda TurnerWe are Mike and Amanda Turner, founders of “The Business of Us.” We are fierce advocates of helping entrepreneurial couples and families improve their lives, livelihoods, and legacies… READ MORE

Persistence

Quote Image for 'Persistence' a The Sweet Life article by Mike Turner

Persistence

I’m re-reading the book “The Obstacle Is The Way” by Ryan Holiday. It seemed fitting, given all the craziness and uncertainty in the world right now.

There is a chapter about persistence, and I wanted to share a few lines that spoke to me:

“Genius often really is just persistence in disguise.”

“The thing standing in your way isn’t going anywhere.”

“A new path is, by definition, uncleared. Only with persistence and time can we cut away debris and remove impediments.”

“It’s supposed to be hard. Your first attempts aren’t going to work. It’s going to take a lot out of you-but energy is an asset we can always find more of. It’s a renewable resource.”

“Stop looking for an epiphany and start looking for weak points.”

“It’s okay to be discouraged. It’s not okay to quit. To know you want to quit but to plant your feet and keep inching closer until you take the impenetrable fortress you’ve decided to lay siege to in your own life; that’s persistence.”

There is a lot of wisdom packed into those words.

I’ve highlighted and underlined them in my book, so I can revisit them when I’m feeling discouraged.

We must practice persistence. We can change course, but we cannot quit. Quitting is not an option. If that means working twice as hard, so be it. Lay siege to the obstacles in your way.

Join The Community!

Join our Facebook GroupJoin the quest for “The Sweet Life.”  Request access to our Facebook Group.  Let’s learn from each other!  GO HERE

Free Audio Book Download

Full Unabridged Audio Book “Vagabonding With Kids” by AK Turner!  GO HERE

Take The SWEET LIFE Assessment

See how you score? Identify your strengths. Discover areas in your life you want to improve. GO HERE.

Giving Back

Amanda and Mike launched an Impact Club in their hometown of Boise, Idaho in 2017, and have had a blast gathering like-minded individuals, families, and organizations to make significant impact in our community, raising over $200,000 locally and over $1.5 million nationally.  

Join Our Next Monthly CHALLENGE

Every month Amanda and Mike pick a month-long challenge that pushes us out of our comfort zone so we can grow, learn, and become better versions of ourselves.  Sometimes we design our own unique challenge and other times we join pre-established challenges. Email us to find out about our next upcoming challenge. Us@BusinessofUs.com

About Us

Our Story | Mike and Amanda TurnerWe are Mike and Amanda Turner, founders of “The Business of Us.” We are fierce advocates of helping entrepreneurial couples and families improve their lives, livelihoods, and legacies… READ MORE

Working from Home

Working from Home

My wife and I work about 10 feet away from each other. Amanda’s office/workspace tends to be the kitchen counter. She doesn’t need much space, just a laptop, phone, and a notebook.

I work at a desk with not far away, and we spend the majority of our day in these two spots. We’ve worked in close proximity to each other off and on for the last 20 years.

Many of our friend’s shutter at the thought of working next to their spouse day after day after day.

We’ve never had a problem with it. We are both hard workers, so we just do what we do, and we respect each other’s time and work, so if we have a phone call or need to record a video, we go out of the room, so noise doesn’t distract or annoy the other one.

It’s easy, comfortable, and convenient.
I can be at work within 3 mins of waking.

Having kids at home is a different story. Amanda handles this better than I do. Mostly because she is more realistic about her expectations of what she can complete each day while the kids are there.

She will tell them when she will be available to play or help them with something, and she follows through with it.

I often struggle with placing too high of expectations on our kids to entertain, educate, feed themselves, and get along while I’m working.

We don’t let the kids be on screens all day (which would make things easier), but that choice typically means more interaction with them, and therefore readjusting my work schedule.

I am enjoying the extra time with our daughters. But I am getting up a bit earlier to accomplish few more things on my list.

The key to working from home is to find a rhythm that works for you and those around you.

We’ve been fortunate to have traveled quite extensively as a family, and during those trips, Amanda and I still work. So with every hotel, apartment, or home we stay at, it requires us to figure out a rhythm for us to co-exist.

It’s less about work/life balance, but rather, work/life integration or harmony. We are in too close proximity to expect to not be impacted by each other’s presence, so instead, we figure out how to function together.

It will take practice and constant readjusting but talking with all family members about scheduled work times, free times, meals, things you need help with, things they want to do, etc., will make a huge difference. Just remember to adopt reasonable expectations for everyone, this helps to minimize frustration.

Working from home can be a blessing for you and your family, you just need to find and embrace a rhythm.

Join The Community!

Join our Facebook GroupJoin the quest for “The Sweet Life.”  Request access to our Facebook Group.  Let’s learn from each other!  GO HERE

Free Audio Book Download

Full Unabridged Audio Book “Vagabonding With Kids” by AK Turner!  GO HERE

Take The SWEET LIFE Assessment

See how you score? Identify your strengths. Discover areas in your life you want to improve. GO HERE.

Giving Back

Amanda and Mike launched an Impact Club in their hometown of Boise, Idaho in 2017, and have had a blast gathering like-minded individuals, families, and organizations to make significant impact in our community, raising over $200,000 locally and over $1.5 million nationally.  

Join Our Next Monthly CHALLENGE

Every month Amanda and Mike pick a month-long challenge that pushes us out of our comfort zone so we can grow, learn, and become better versions of ourselves.  Sometimes we design our own unique challenge and other times we join pre-established challenges. Email us to find out about our next upcoming challenge. Us@BusinessofUs.com

About Us

Our Story | Mike and Amanda TurnerWe are Mike and Amanda Turner, founders of “The Business of Us.” We are fierce advocates of helping entrepreneurial couples and families improve their lives, livelihoods, and legacies… READ MORE

Intensity

Intensity

Will Smith once said in an interview, “The only thing that is distinctly different about me is I am not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be outworked. Period. You might have more talent than me. You might be smarter than me. You might be sexier than me. You might be all of those things. You got it on me in nine categories, but if we get on the treadmill, right, there’s two things. You’re getting off first, or I am gonna die. It’s really that simple.”

I laughed a little when I read this because I’ve nearly killed myself on a treadmill before trying to prove to myself what I was capable of. I wasn’t competing against anyone other than my own mind.

I identify a lot with this statement because I know that I’m rarely the smartest person in the room, nor the most talented, most capable, but, I know I can push myself well beyond what others are willing to do.

I can push myself past exhaustion, I can dig deeper, I can go places that others won’t dare. Not all the time, nor in all parts of my life, but this Will Smith quote is a reminder of how we can always be the hardest working person in a room. It’s a choice. It’s a daily decision. A commitment to ourselves.

Every day for the last 7 months, I’ve done 100 burpees as fast as I can. When I started doing burpees, my time to complete them was pretty average, just under 10 mins. This is my usual starting point in most things I engage in, I have enough tools and ability to have a decent average.

But, I stuck with it, putting my full intensity into those burpees, and within 6 weeks, I cut my best time down to 6 mins. Now I was above average.

Over the next 5 months, I reached the 5-minute mark a few times, and every time I did, I had to push myself to a point where I felt I was going to die. I’m not joking. I would push myself to near blackout, and it would cause me to have this heavy, painful cough all day long, and I would feel off and out of it for hours later.

I was proud of every time I succeeded drop my time below 5 mins because I knew few people could do that.

But here’s the thing. I kept at it. Putting out my best effort each day, no matter if was a good time or an average time, it was my best effort. And in the last week, as I finished out 200+ days of consistent high-intensity practice, I broke the 4 min mark (three times).

It’s proof to me that I have the ability to become world-class at something, even if I start out at just being average. It’s taken me 7 months of daily periods of hell, but I’ve done it. I didn’t have this as a goal. My goal was simply to give it my all each morning. But 200+ days in a row of high-intensity practice has changed everything.

Will Smith is world-class in his profession because he consistently was willing to push himself harder than his counterparts.

Intensity applied with consistent practice = Results.
Without intensity, we plateau.

This recent achievement with my fitness has got me wondering what other parts of my life I can apply this focused intensity. I consistently work hard to do well in all parts of my life, and because of that, I’m above average at many things. But…

What do I want to be world-class at?
It’s a good question, maybe even the best question we can ask ourselves.

Join The Community!

Join our Facebook GroupJoin the quest for “The Sweet Life.”  Request access to our Facebook Group.  Let’s learn from each other!  GO HERE

Free Audio Book Download

Full Unabridged Audio Book “Vagabonding With Kids” by AK Turner!  GO HERE

Take The SWEET LIFE Assessment

See how you score? Identify your strengths. Discover areas in your life you want to improve. GO HERE.

Giving Back

Amanda and Mike launched an Impact Club in their hometown of Boise, Idaho in 2017, and have had a blast gathering like-minded individuals, families, and organizations to make significant impact in our community, raising over $200,000 locally and over $1.5 million nationally.  

Join Our Next Monthly CHALLENGE

Every month Amanda and Mike pick a month-long challenge that pushes us out of our comfort zone so we can grow, learn, and become better versions of ourselves.  Sometimes we design our own unique challenge and other times we join pre-established challenges. Email us to find out about our next upcoming challenge. Us@BusinessofUs.com

About Us

Our Story | Mike and Amanda TurnerWe are Mike and Amanda Turner, founders of “The Business of Us.” We are fierce advocates of helping entrepreneurial couples and families improve their lives, livelihoods, and legacies… READ MORE

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