1 Million Dollars in 365 days…

People often ask me how I find the time to do everything that I am doing, with relation to my business interests, family, friends, social and sporting activities. Well, the truth is that I have my days when I don’t have time to do everything I want!  I think it boils down to a fundamental - you have to MAKE TIME to do the things you love to do.

Do I make time to do everything I do all the time? Maybe not at first, but I always find a way to be grateful for whatever situation I am doing. Do I like cleaning the toilet? No, not until I realise how lucky I am to have a toilet! Imagine not having a toilet and having to go in the bushes all the time?! Reminds me of being back in Africa… (haha only joking). See how much we can be grateful for!

How to get more time out of your day:

1. PRIORITISE - Write down the things you want to accomplish everyday and then prioritise them. Don’t be afraid to limit yourself. You’ll soon find out what your actually capable of every day.
2. BE TRUE TO YOURSELF. You are more likely to complete things if they mean something to you. As we have previously covered, your time is your most important asset, so be careful what you commit to. You need to view your time as valuable, because if you don’t then neither will other people.
3. GET UP EARLY! No one seems to like step! Well, if you’re not willing to make some changes to your life, then you’re not going to get any different results - it’s that simple. What if you work full time? How will you get time to do those other things that are important? Why not get up 30 minutes earlier each morning to focus on something that’s important to you? Work on your new business idea, pick a hobby, spend time with your kids if they’re awake!
4. DO THE LITTLE THINGS - make sure you put the little things on your list of stuff to do. Not only is a great and encouraging to tick off items on your “to-do-list”, but sometimes the little things can have a big effect on your day.
5. KNOW YOUR GOALS - Like I’ve said before, it’s important to know where you want to go. Write down your goals and put them somewhere where you can see them daily. This way you can put some simple steps on your list, which will get you closer to the achievement of those goals.
6. EXERCISE - If you’re anything like me, you’re thinking - I’m already so busy, how can I fit more into my hectic day? Well, to start with, you’re going to need some more energy! So why not start off your day with a run/swim/yoga/Pilate’s/brisk walk? It’s amazing what even a quick walk can do for your energy levels, creativity and problem solving skills!
7. MAKE TIME FOR YOUR ONE THING - For me this is my family. Everyday I make sure that I fit my family in to my life. Whether it’s helping out with bath time, reading stories, taking them swimming, going for a walk, or even taking them for a drive. It’s awesome to spend time with my kids and wife, and this is something that has the ability to re-charge me and ensure that I am always committed to achieving my goals.
8. HAVE FUN! I know it sounds cliche, and it probably is. The truth is, that like anything in life, if you’re not having fun doing something, there’s little chance of you continuing to do those things. If you’re having fun, while you cram more into your day, then you’re going to keep doing it, which means you’re going to achieve more!

Those are some of the practical things that I do in my days. Please feel free to add some tips in the comments section on what works for you.

Have a most excellent day!

Kind Regards

Ryan Kilfoil

The Kiwi Millionaire

My loyal subscribers, spam assassins and random blog hunters! Welcome and thank you for your patience over the last week or so. I’m fully recovered from my marathon and I’ve been having the most amazing time taking action to achieve my goals!

Now as corny as that sounds - it’s the truth. The people I have been meeting just keep getting more empowering - and they all seem to be in the right industry, willing to lend a hand with whatever challenge is at hand….coincidence? I think not….

On my path to make a Million dollars, I have a number of strategies in place, with new plans being made daily Recently, I have just acquired an Email Marketing company. I’m really excited about what we are doing in this space and know that this is going to be one of the must-hear stories in my interview on October 6th 2009!

I’m also currently undertaking due diligence on another start-up company, which I hope to be involved in within the next month.

Why am I investing in companies?

I see these organisations as opportunities, vehicles to achieve my financial goals, so that I can continue my work to achieve my other goals and help people be successful in their lives.

So do I have hundreds of thousands of dollars lying around, ready to splurge on the next new business idea? No - not yet.

Am I smarter than everyone else out there? No.

Am I crazy? Some people think so.

The thing that separates me from average Joe out there, is one, simple word. Action.

“Action is what happens when you decide to stop dreaming and start living your dreams!”

So stop worrying about what other people think and take action on something that’s important to you. That’s what I’m about to do.

On personal note - thanks to everyone that has emailed me over the past week and I will reply to you all personally - it means a lot to be able to help other people.

Have a happy, productive and empowering week my friends

Part 1 (The Preamble):

There are so many things in my life that I am grateful for. One of these great things, is the ability to talk to all sorts of interesting people on a daily basis. I think this is one way you can definitely inspire yourself to take action everyday. There are some amazing people out there, and just talking to them gets me excited and motivated to achieve the things I want in life.

Over the past few weeks I have talked to some very interesting and successful people with regards to my fundraising efforts for Stop the Traffik to try and canvas more support. Some of the coolest people were listed below:

• Mike Pero from Mike Pero Mortgages
• Michael Mayell from CookieTime
• Scott Townsend from Just Tees

Without a doubt, Scott Townsend captured my attention the most. This 21 year old from Hamilton is doing some amazing things. He is the director of http://JustTees.co.nz and has come up with a crazy stunt, designed to get his business some more exposure. This is entrepreneurial thinking at it’s best!

While I can’t blab on about it too much on this post, I will talk about it at a later date. In the mean time, have a look for yourself - RIGHT  HERE! While you’re there, you may as well vote and tell your friends to do the same. Crazy times call for crazy measures!!

So I was supposed to be talking about a butterfly right?….

Part 2 The Butterfly Story:

Someone else that I met yesterday, said something pretty profound. I thought it was an excellent analogy, so decided then and there to share it with you all:

We’re all looking for success in our lives, whether that comes in the form of money, love, being healthy or a combination of these things (plus other things I haven’t mentioned). Let’s say that whatever our goal is like a Butterfly in the wild. For this purpose, our goal can be “to earn a million dollars in one year” (don’t know where I got that idea from!).

So we set out to catch our butterfly. So perhaps we buy ourselves a net to catch this butterfly with. We then spend a considerable amount of time and energy trying to catch this $#%$ butterfly with out net. It just so happens that this butterfly is one of the world’s most elusive butterflies and proves to be a challenge. So it’s time to bring in the big guns, we then purchase an even bigger net (with extendable pole) in our attempt to finally get hold of this creature.

This carries on for some time (I told you it was an elusive butterfly!). Eventually we give up. After maxing out our credit card at “Net’s R Us”and spending a good part of our time chasing this butterfly. We look around us and realise that the world hasn’t stopped while we were chasing the butterfly. Our famillies are older, our children grown up. There are some experiences that we have perhaps missed, even though they were important to us.

Some people spend their whole lives chasing the butterfly. Sometimes this can become all-consuming, and they never get the chance to refocus their lives on what’s important. So perhaps this is your chance. Your chance to refocus on what’s important in your life.

But if I don’t chase the butterfly with my expensive nets, then I’ll never get what I want!?

Well, what if I were to tell you that there are other ways to bring this butterfly into your life? Why not spend some time making a garden. Very soon, Butterflies will be FLYING TO YOUR GARDEN! No chasing involved You can grow this garden and add to it as you want. It won’t take up much time, which leaves you with lots of time to spend with your family and friends and on the other important things in your life.

So focus on the important things in your life, tend to your garden and let the butterflies come to you. Don’t spend your life trying to catch the butterflies and miss out on all the wonderful things life has to offer. Happy gardening…

If you are looking to vote for your favourite charity in the $10,000 Marathon Challenge please click here. Right now, I have some way More exciting to talk about!

If we look carefully enough, we can find miracles happening everyday. I was lucky enough to experience one of these miracles at 4:07am on Sunday Morning. My wife gave birth to our beautiful little daughter - Sophie.

 It was without a doubt, one of the most amazing experiences of my life. More amazing than everything I have achieved so far, more amazing than walking on searing hot coals, more amazing than travelling the world. This was an experience that cannot be defined by words.

The miracle of life is something that humbles me, as no amount of money or success can actually buy life. Yet, this precious event is something that people of all ages, races, beliefs and religions, have been blessed with the ability to experience. It seems to put everything into perspective.

If believe there is no better motivator in life, than your children. What parent wouldn’t sacrifice everything for their kids? It brings another dimension to your life, one which cannot be bought or sold.

Even in their infancy, children can teach us so much about life. They can show us how precious life is. They can show us how how something so small, can change so many lives. They can show us how silence, is the most powerful sound on the earth.

For those of you that have children - remember to be grateful for them. Hug and them and tell them you love them. Remember, there are a lot of people out there that would do anything to be in your position. Next time your children are driving you up the wall, stop and focus on what’s important. They are.

So it’s the end of the month. January for the year 2009 and it’s almost all but over. How has this month gone for you? Have you been improving your life and feeling more empowered every day? Or have you stayed the same, in which case some might argue that you were going backwards?

Either way - the month has passed us by. We will never get those days back, those precious minutes. Does it matter? Only if you are looking back right now and thinking “I wish I had done a bit more of this” or “I wish I had started to work towards this goal”.

What stopped you? Unfortunately folks - we only have our selves to blame. I believe that we have complete control over our lives. Now some of you might think that’s a lie. If we have complete control, then why does bad stuff happen to us.

Well, I said we have complete control of OUR lives. In other words, if something bad happens to us, we have control over what happens next. Are we going to let this thing annoy us, anger us, and consume all our energy? Or are we going to accept it, see what can be learnt from it, and move on, a little bit wiser than before?

The choice is yours. And it always has been. It wasn’t that long ago when I came upon this realisation and to ber perfectly honest - it has changed my life. I feel so much more powerful, knowing that I am in control. Sure, there are things that happen that I can’t control, but I can control how I respond to them.

That means that when someone cuts me off in traffic, I can chose to not let that person use up MY energy being pissed off at them. I can then chose to go on with my fantastic day and not let it bother me. I can also be grateful that I don’t drive like that and that no-one was hurt by their foolish driving.

The flip-side would involve me getting very pissed off, honking the horn, pulling the fingers at them. They might pull over and things escalate into full on road rage, or perhaps they pull the fingers back at me and continue driving. Then I spend the next 30 minutes angry because this jerk pulled in front of me.

I get home and see my wife and kids and I’m grumpy and mad, not at them, but I’m short with them and impatient because I’m still incredibly pissed at that jerk! Not only has this ruined my morning, but now my wife is mad at me because I shouted at the kids. I didn’t mean to shout at the kids - I was just mad at the jerk who cut me off.

So it’s not really fair that my wife’s mad at me. So now I’m mad at her cause she’s being unreasonable and I end up going out to the pub and drinking because I’ve had such a crap day. At least at the pub I can talk to other guys about their crap days and we can all feel sorry for ourselves together.

See how easily one little event can change an entire day, month or even your whole life! So next time something bad happens to you, remember this story and remember that you have the choice to choose how you want to react.