Monday Matters: Bring Bacon if Necessary

I’m incredibly excited to introduce you to an awesome example of someone who exemplifies what I mean when I say, “Living richly!”

I met Ryan earlier this year and I was blown away by what he’s doing.

I knew you’d love to hear about it.

I’ll leave the rest up to him.


Monday Matters: Bring Bacon if Necessary

A guest post by Ryan Eller 

Ryan Eller

The only thing that kept me motivated to wake up at 5 a.m. was bacon. I should have gone to bed earlier than usual in preparation for the next morning’s wake up call, but my body wasn’t accustomed to this time of the day.

From my experience, 5 o’clock only came once – in the afternoon.

That’s when being awake at 5 was both acceptable and reasonable. This was a new challenge for me, one that started when I read a tweet from Jon Acuff. A tweet that asked people if they were ready to start a journey.

A journey of what?

My journeys always started in a foreign country or at least in a car. Sometimes even on my way to a plate of brinner – that beautiful combination of breakfast at night – but certainly not through Twitter. However, I am not one to turn down a journey, so I accepted.

It turned out that the journey he wanted to lead was a journey of starting.

A journey to live.

A journey to challenge others to move toward their hopes and goals.

He asked us to risk something that would propel us in the direction those dreams.

He called it “30 Days of Hustle”

A risk towards my dreams, huh? This sounded fun, count me in!

I knew the one thing I needed to risk was my time. I have learned over and over that big dreams require a ridiculous amount of hustle.

This is why I decided to get up at 5 a.m.

It would give me the extra time I needed to work on the newest project for my company, a project called:

#LiveYourList

The idea was simple. I wanted to find a way to give back by helping others check items off of their bucket list. The problem was I didn’t have time.

Isn’t that always the issue with big dreams?

They require time. Time that we don’t have. We live busy lives with loads of responsibility and adding to those tasks can be difficult.

I found out that 5 a.m. was the time reserved for big dreamers. I had few distractions and lots of opportunity to work on helping others.

I think the problem with most big dreamers is that we forget that big dreams and goals require doing the small things right (tweet to share)

Small things like waking up early, keeping to our word, and showing up on time.

If we want to get ahead in life and give back to others we need to be willing to do the things today that no one wants to do, so that tomorrow we can do the things no one is able to do.

That is what #LiveYourList is all about. Giving, dreaming, and being intentional about our decisions.

So this Monday wake up early.

Hustle on something bigger than yourself.

Reward yourself with bacon if need be.

Monday Matters, make it worth it.

Ryan

What’s one bucket list item you’d add to #LiveYourList? Leave a comment below.

Ryan Eller is the founder and lead consultant of Paradigm Shift, which provides custom-built team-building and leadership training. 

He has facilitated in over 20 US states and hosted leadership conferences in Cuba and Brazil. Ryan has the goal of hosting a leadership training in all 50 states and all 7 continents.

You can check out the Paradigm Shift blog here and Ryan’s blog here. You can also follow him on Twitter @ryan_eller.

Thanks for stopping by this edition of Monday Matters with Matt Ham – thanks to Ryan for giving us a great example of investing in others.

If you have something to share or would like a question addressed on a future Monday Matters, please email me at [email protected].

Don’t forget to stop by next Monday for another encouraging story.

Have a great week and thanks for making Monday matter!

MH

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3 Responses to Monday Matters: Bring Bacon if Necessary

  1. sparkvoice February 19, 2014 at 2:01 pm #

    Enjoyed you having Ryan on your blog – fun content, and seems like a great person. My bucket-list includes writing a book and creating a fund to help people do good works overseas.

    • Matt Ham February 19, 2014 at 2:05 pm #

      Those are both awesome David! What about a book that raises awareness to fund overseas? Check out Ryan’s stuff, he’s rock solid!

      • sparkvoice February 19, 2014 at 3:36 pm #

        Appreciate that thought!