The Rule of Five

You know, it's been said that the secret to our success could be found in our daily agenda. And today, I'm going to share something that I learned from my mentor that is so simple and practical and you can implement right away in your own life to achieve better results. Hi there. This is Brent Kelly, and welcome to another daily podcast. Today, I want to talk about something called the rule of five. Now, last week, I attended something called the international Maxwell certification in Orlando, Florida. Now, this is an event put on as part of the John Maxwell team, which is courses led by leadership expert John C. Maxwell. Now, the event is inspiring. It's encouraging. You meet so many great people and you get filled with many new great ideas. And the amazing thing is, I learned all these new ideas, but the one idea that really struck home with something that I had already heard before, and it was actually taught again by John Maxwell. And I had read about the rule of five in John's book, put your dreams to the test. But when I heard it again, it was part of a keynote that he gave. When I heard it live again, it put it in new perspective to me because as I teach myself, there's a big difference in knowing and doing. We often know things. And I knew the rule of five, but the question is, how well was I doing it? And I realized I hadn't been living it out as consistently as I should have. Now, if you haven't heard of this rule, John explains it like this. Imagine you had a large tree in your backyard and you want to chop it down. Every day you would go outside and you give it five whacks with an axe. So you go outside every day and give it five wax with an axe. Now, you could do this day after day until the tree finally came down. Now, the story itself demonstrates the power of consistency, right? It also shows that you must know the goal, right? What tree do you want to chop down? And also that you have the right tools. Are you using an ax or are you using a wiffle ball bat? So let's talk about this for a second. What if you took five swings at a different tree every day so you run out and you're being consistent? Five whacks at a tree, but not the same tree. You would have a lot of injured trees, but very little in terms of results because you weren't focused on the end goal. You weren't consistent with the same goal at the same time. Mention the wiffle ball bat. What if you went out and you took swings every day with that wiffle ball bat? You'd have consistency at the same goal, but you're using the wrong tool. So what was discussed is the key to success is to know your purpose. Right? Knowing your purpose. And how do you know your purpose? Well, John talked about. It's about aligning your passion with your strengths. So what does he love to do and want to do with what you're actually good at? Right. I often joke with groups that, you know, I may really want to be a male gym, you know, a male gymnast, but the fact that I'm 63 and I can't, you know, even stretch past my knees barely is going to make that challenging for me. But once you understand, you know, understand your passion, your strength, you can begin to carry out the rule of five in your daily life. So here's the. Here's the bottom line with the rule of five, and I want you to think about this. What five things could you do every single day that would bring you the greatest return? And I'm not talking about big things. They don't have to be like, you know, do a hundred of this. I'm talking about just very simple things that are aligned with what you want. They're in your strength zone, and you can repeat them daily. So let me give just a few examples because sometimes people are not quite sure about this. As an active insurance agent, my daily rule of five was this. Every day, I would read and listen for at least 15 minutes to something positive. Every day, I would add value to at least one client. Every day, I would try to connect with one new person or business. Every day, I would learn about a new insurance coverage or dive deeper into an issue or insurance coverage. Number five is I would write and journal every single day. And I realized that if I'd be consistent with these five things day after day, I would be able to grow myself and ultimately grow my business. Now, today, as a speaker and a coach, my rule of five has changed slightly. But listening to John speak last week has made me dig deep, a little deeper into the five things that will truly provide me the greatest results. Now, so my current rule of five is this. And again, this may or may not apply to you, but it's mine, and I want you to find your own. Right now, My rule of five is I have to write every day for 30 minutes. I mean, I'm a writer and a speaker, of course, but I have to write for 30 minutes every single day. Every day, I must spend at least 15 minutes in speaker training, whether that's learning, practicing, or performing. Every day I need to read for at least 30 minutes. Could be an audiobook as I'm driving to an appointment. Number four is Every day I need a network. I want to add value to five people every day. Just five people add some value to it. Number five I need every day to think, reflect and journal. Now these five things align both my passion and my purpose to help me achieve the results I want. And you can do just the same. Just like earning interest in your bank account, the results may not happen fast. In fact, I'll tell you, they won't happen fast, but they will compound and they're going to multiply. So I'll just leave it with this. What is your rule of five? What are the five things that you can do every day to bring you the results that you seek? Hey, thanks for listening to my daily podcast again. My name is Brent Kelly and you can find all of my resources@brentmkelly.com I hope to connect with you soon.