[Monday Motivation] How to use your drive to work to accomplish your goals

For years, I had this desire to launch a business and have full ownership of my time.  The only problem is that I worked extended hours and didn't have much time to invest into building a new reality.  Because time was of the essence, I took on a strategy of utilizing my drive time to the upmost.  I can say, without a doubt, that my commute was an integral part of my success. Let me break down exactly how I used my drive to work as part of a freedom strategy.

1. Learning
In the early years, I would visit the local library on the weekends to select a bunch of audio books to learn from that week.  When I first began this habit, my commute was about 45 mins one way.  In a five day week, I would listen to nearly 10 hours of personal growth content. Jim Rohn advised us to work harder on ourselves than we did at our job and that's exactly what I did.  I'd listen to instruction in the morning and apply the insights during the workday.   In my mind, I was listening to books but, in reality, I was receiving valuable training from various mentors.  Training that would eventually pay off big time.

2. Planning

Eventually, I had my own office and could listen to books while at work.  Then I decided to use the morning drive for a new purpose.  It was time to put my intentions into action but first, I needed to develop strategies .  At the time, I had no clear idea of what to do so I leveraged the drive to work as a time to brainstorm. I planned my day, week, month, quarter and the rest of the year.  Everything did always go as planned but the act of doing so was very powerful.   Once I got into the habit of planning, I could no longer get in a car and listen to the same old songs on the radio when I could be building my future.

Part of the time, I was planning, the rest of the time, I used the commute to activate the law of attraction.  I did lots of visualizing (with eyes open).  Sometimes I would even verbalize my future reality. Example, one time I shared my goodbye speech to my coworkers (even though I hadn't landed another job).  Although it wasn't real, that speech felt, in my car, so intense and powerful. Months later, it manifested in the form of my first work from position.  

Another random thing I would do on the drive to work was switching up the route every so often.  Driving is one of those things that we tend to blank out while doing. You can easily get in your car and follow the same route to work you've driven countless times before, without ever being present.  To me, this is a senseless waste of valuable time.  To keep from being complacent try following new routes and exploring unfamiliar parts of town.  

3. Assessing & Course Correcting
I have this ritual of recording voice memo sessions where I talk about all aspects of my life.  It's kinda like an audible diary.  Once a month, I would update the status of my goals and detail what was working well versus what wasn't.  The end goal was to set intentions for the upcoming 30 days and learn from the mistakes of the month before.  Since then, I've increased the frequency of this habit to a weekly recap versus monthly. That way I increase the probability of actually achieving these goals. I owe so much of my success to this amazing habit of updating my monthly progress and it all started from my long car rides.

A lot of us have big goals.  But at the same time, we have work, family, and other responsibilities.  Instead of remaining stagnant with our actions, let's get crafty about how we allocate our limited time to propel our goals forward.