Day 59 – Thursday – 5 Key Areas of Life – You Can Only Do 3 Really Well!
I recently heard a quote from Randi Zuckerberg (Mark’s sister) that got me thinking. She said there are 5 major areas you focus on in life 1) Family, 2) Friends, 3) Fitness, 4) Business, 5) Hobbies. However, at any given time you can only do 3 really well.
That truly resonates with me because whenever I over focus on one main area in life, I am making a choice to focus less on another. There are only so many hours in a day. However on a monthly or yearly basis, you can certainly spread out your energy and focus on all 5 areas.
This morning, even though I wanted to run and go to the gym, I had to focus on my business because later in the day I had a scheduled Paella cooking lesson (hobby) and then a forum meeting (friends). So on this particular day, I was not able to focus on my fitness or my family.
The paella lesson was at the house of one of my forum-mates, and it was loads of fun.
We then moved into our forum meeting, where we all share monthly updates on our business, family, and personal lives. The purpose of forum is to get into the 5% of what is deepest and most important in your life, which you don’t normally get to with most people. When you get that vulnerable with others, you are able to build a level of trust and support that helps you grow more in business and life. It is one of the core benefits of Entrepreneurs Organization.
As a result of everyone sharing the deep 5%, the meeting is 100% confidential. This was my second forum meeting, and I have now been in Barcelona twice as long as I was at the first meeting. (See Post on First Meeting)
Moving forward, I am going to reflect on which 3 areas I focused on that day
Day 60 – Friday – Day of the 500,000 Person Protest
The kids school was cancelled due to more than 500,000 people coming to Barcelona to protest the sentencing of the separatist leaders from earlier in the week (See Post about that day). It was more about the logistics of the kids being able to get back and forth to school vs. any real safety concerns.
I decided to do a morning run and I wanted to make it a tough one of about 7 miles up to a new location on the mountain. Instead of making a right on Carretera de les Aigües, I was going to make a left. In the process of getting there, I found the new steepest hill I have experienced in Barcelona. It was so steep it was not physically possible to run up it, and it continued that way for 1km or so.
When I finally got to the trail, I was pleased to see a friend of mine who was just finishing his run and was about to get on his scooter and head down (I guess he knew not to run up the steepest part I just came from). Instead, he took a swig of water and decided to do a quick run with me. We headed left and ran for about 20 minutes until we hit a cafe, had a quick espresso and turned around and ran back to his vespa. By the time we got there, I decided to continue straight on the trail as I had lots of energy still left in me.
Long story short, it was much further than I thought and my 7 mile run turned into just under a 12 mile run. My legs were feeling it when I got home but I was loving every second of it.
Kel took the kids to buy costumes for Halloween and I was able to catch up on work when I got home and had a couple of important meetings. Later in the day we decided to check out the protest march near our neighborhood.
We then did one of our favorite activities and met friends and their kids at the cafe in Turo Park. We need to appreciate this outdoor weather for as long as possible.
I tried to go to bed on the early side. The next day I had a 7am flight to Venice to attend The Kairos European Summit hosted at a place called H-farm.
3 out of 5 Areas Today
Fitness, Family, & Business
Saturday & Sunday Day 61 & 62 – The Kairos European Summit
I took a 7am flight to Venice to attend the Kairos European Summit. I learned about the opportunity from someone in my entrepreneur networking in Barcelona. It seemed like the right opportunity in both it’s focus and expanding my network within Europe.
I still can’t get over that I can be in Venice in under 2 hours. By 9:30am, I was driving to the venue which was like nothing I have ever seen. It is called H-farm and it will be the largest tech hub in Europe. The openness of being on a farm was so special and kept the energy going throughout the intense two days.
Of course, like any summit, it is all about the people and the networking. I connected with 8 people ahead of time who were going to be there and I was able to meet with them all. Several lived in Barcelona. One ran a legal tech hub in Germany. Another had one million students on his platform, which connects students to future employers. The content was good throughout, including a mindset magician who was only 21 years only and wowed us at different points to keep the energy up.
A highlight for me was on day 2 when we had a competition of sorts. Several people had a chance to speak on stage for up to 2 minutes, but they would not know the topic until they were up there. It was a great opportunity for us all to get out of our comfort zones and do some thinking on the spot. I am definitely going to copy that one. It was an idea from Toastmasters. We then used an app to vote for the winner. Suffice to say it was not me.
What once again stood out for me is how many people identified themselves as global citizens vs. citizens tied to just one country. Most people there were young entrepreneurs and it gave me plenty of opportunity to learn about different businesses throughout Europe.
Another theme that keeps repeating itself the past two months is People are People. They do not seem that different to me. I used to think that doing business internationally was something that was so far off in my mind due to distance and lack of understanding of other countries cultures. Now not only does it seem possible, it is 100% doable in the very near future.
I loved being back in Italy. I just attended two impactful conferences in one week and the best part is I am just getting started!
3 out of 5 Areas Today – See Post
Business, Hobby, Friends