Finding balance in your life?
Want to get your life back?
A few years ago, I applied a simple concept to optimize what I was doing daily. It was simply to do 5 little things each day to get me closer to my goals. Back then, that goal was to grow my network. So all I did daily for over a year was:
- Follow 5 new people everyday
- Start 5 conversation with people I don’t know
- Say hello to 5 old friends
- Retweet at least 5 people
- Add 5 new people on Facebook
- Comment on 5 blog posts
The idea was to go slowly but surely. I was aiming for a snowball effect to grow my network to where it is today.
Then, I got busy. I started my internship, started work and started my own company.
This simple concept was left forgotten. More recently, I found that life was overwhelming me. I was in Thailand for a business trip when I realized that my life had gone off track.
I felt tired and felt there were too many unnecessary distractions in my life.
Too many media news, updates, rss updates etc. It was just too much for me to handle. I felt like I was working more but work wasn’t getting completed. I just felt like running away.
I had also become unhealthy.
When I got back to Malaysia, I told myself that it’s time to do something about my life. I decided to clear everything up.
I decided to bring back the concept of doing 5 small things daily, dust it off its shelf, and implement this in my life again. It started with my health. I needed more energy!
This was my number priority to put it to concept to the test. Instead of going all crazy and eating clean. I started doing 5 simple small tasks. They were:
- Avoid sugary drinks / carbonated drinks. Take a bottle of water EVERYWHERE.
- Eat cleaner, but start with one clean meal a day per week.
- Start a simple bodyweight exercise at least 5 minutes a day.
- Eat breakfast in the morning.
- Write down my goals and remind myself every morning.
From there, I slowly added it up little by little. From working out 5 minutes a day, it became 20 minutes etc. Last month, on my birthday I was happy to share that I’ve managed to lose over 30 pounds. Yay! You can read my story here.
Recently, I started to apply this small concept in my everyday life.
Of course, being me, I had to give it a name!
I called it….. ‘Power of Wu” aka POW!
What is the Power of Wu aka ‘POW’?
The Chinese character “Wu” has different meanings to it depending on its intonation. Here are some of it:
五, which means the number 5.
The number five has important meaning to the Chinese. To us, it represents the Five Elements, which are:
- Metal
- Wood
- Water
- Fire
- Earth.
These elements are regarded as the basis of the world. It’s basically the fundamental of balance for the Chinese. We also believe many good things comes in fives. For example, one would wish you
- wealth
- happiness
- longevity
- luck
- prosperity
务 which means task or business.
What I do is simple. Like my fitness. I basically simplify my life into 5 things. What does this mean for me? That means I’ll simplify my life to only be:
- Following 5 mentors.
- ‘Eat up’ 5 business books.
- Read only 5 marketing blogs.
- Read 5 blogs that are not marketing related.
- 5 Apps
- ….etc
This also means in the future, blog posts from this blog and some of Post Planner will come in Fives .
You see, this is not only about me. I want to simplify your life as well.
I don’t think we need 100 social media tips. Although that is great for traffic, but is it applicable for me and you? What if I took the best 5 out of the 100 and tell you that you should only be doing those 5? For example:
- 5 best tools you should be using for social media
- 5 best tips to simplify your life
- 5 blogs you need to read
- 5 apps to increase your productivity
- 5 everything!
You get where I’m heading with this right?
The reason why I’m planning to do this is because I believe we get caught up with too much information.
Previously I was reading so many blogs, I felt it was consuming so much of my time. I was overwhelmed. I was lost.
Today, it’s all about finding the balance.Now I’m only following 5 blogs and those blogs keeps me up to date enough. I don’t need to follow news from other sites as closely as I used to.
FIVE is just enough for me.
POW for me is what keeping me balance.
This allows me and YOU to make time for what is truly important. I’ll be using this concept into build a better version of me daily.
At the very least, I’m hoping that I’m headed towards the right direction.
high 5! Aaron
Liz Azyan says
This blog post really resonated with me Aaron. Thank you for writing it. I love how you break things down to just 5 simple things to do everyday. It’s those little things/goals we do consistently everyday that build up a solid foundation for long lasting results. I truly believe in this too. And you know, being a Malaysian and all, I’m so proud to see you fly high! I love reading about your journey, Aaron. Looking forward to your next story & pearls of wisdom.
dianaadams says
Aaron, I know exactly how you felt when you realized your life was off track a bit. The same thing happened to me in the summer of 2013 when I suddenly realized that Bit Rebels had taken over my life. My personal and professional relationships were suffering a lot, and I wasn’t happy anymore. In a split second, I made a change for the better. What I came to know later was that everyone goes through this. The key is to make changes when your mind and body ask for it – which you did. Love you brother. I’m sending BIG HUGS to you!!! <3
Brent Jones says
Love this concept of focusing on just five meaningful tasks each day. I apply a very similar concept to how I approaching blogging and social media… and it works.
What’s so powerful about your post Aaron is that it highlights how consistent and meaningful activity can really add up.
Keep up the great work! 🙂
Andrew McMaster says
Hi Aaron. A thoughtful and honest post. I really appreciate posts like this that are so honest. It is hard for some to admit they have gone off track yet here you are opening your soul for the entire World to see. I have much admiration for this and to you. What a fantastic tip for anyone. Just 5 little things each day. What I found really interesting was the “Following 5 Mentors” tip. That is eye opening. Many new people just getting into blogging etc will follow many more than 5 mentors and quickly become overwhelmed. Small digestible bite-size tasks each stay will win the race and keep your life/work balance in check.
yangmm.sg says
I came across your blog through postplanner. Great advices. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Lori Hil says
I adore this concept Aaron!
corina manea says
You can´t see me, but I was nodding while reading your post. That´s exactly what was in my mind when I decided to write my latest post about 5 PR blogs to read to stay up to date. There is so much information out there, so much advice that you just don´t know what to do first. It´s more than overwhelming, it´s invading!
I recently started to unsubscribe from the many blogs I follow. I can´t keep up with all of them, though they are very interesting. Instead of wasting time cleaning up my inbox on a daily basis, I unfollowed those blogs I never get to read.
I am going to apply “the 5 things ritual” to other areas of my life. Thank you Aaron!
Marsha Collier says
I will remember the power of 五 – Thank you
Anna Edwards says
This is a great post Aaron. As a new blogger and twitter newbie I have been feeling overwhelmed by how much information there is to consume. In turn, I tend to have mini-anxiety attacks when I’m planning blog posts.
It also trickles over into other areas too, with my Jane-of-all-trades mentality. I’m working on it though. I’m definitely going to apply this notion moving forward.
Again, thanks for sharing!
Melissa DiVietri ♔ says
you’re a fantastic writer.. personable by relating to experiences.
roto says
Like yangmm.sg below, I found you b/c of the credits on the PostPlanner twitter page. Great read you shared here, thanks!
FlipA Tip says
Yes I agree with the whole no 100 list idea. 5 is a great number, though for me I would have to choice an even number
Congrats on the weight loss so far
http://www.flipatip.blogspot.com
Ksenia Ermakova says
I completely agree with the strategy. There is so much information out there that without creating some sort of boundaries it is very easy to drown in this digital ocean! I like the symbolism behind number 5 and 5 elements theory that underpins Chinese philosophy. Awesome post!
SUNJOY says
Your mental age seem to be double to that your body age. Very well said!!
Chris @ MailOverload says
Love the POW acronym! I’m going to start using it… I’d love to hear the traffic/engagement results on 100 social media tips vs. 5 social media tips. Have you done any tests in the regard yet?