Author: Brendon Komene

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Starting Today (Day 1)

I’ve decided to blog everyday as well as Vlog everyday to share what’s going on in my life and ‘stay the course’ so I can truly help people.

Some of you may know that I lost my dad 4 weeks ago and that he was my everything. I had planned a huge year for us and now he is no longer part of it.

I didn’t need an experience like this to motivate me, to remind me that everyday is precious because I never took my dad for granted. But what this experience has done is confirmed the fact that there is no other option or result acceptable than to ‘inspire everyone I cross paths with,encourage them to action their thoughts and ideas and build a legacy that will make my dad and my son proud’.

So if by chance you happen to read this I hope you are living a life full of experiences that make your heart full. Because that’s what I intend to do. Love

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Mine O’clock

I recommend protecting the first hour of each work day — what I refer to as ‘Mine O’Clock’ — and attack it on your own terms.

Taking this hour, every morning, to make progress against your short- and long-term goals will add up to big wins over time.

On the flip side, if you don’t guard the first hour of your day — and instead spend it responding to email or rushing off to meetings — your most meaningful work will get crowded out. The day will quickly be eaten up, and your energy drained, before you even get started on our own projects.

Take the following steps to make Mine O’Clock part of your morning routine:

1. Block off the first hour of every work day

  • Set a daily recurring appointment in Outlook (or other calendar you use) so this time is preserved and shows others you are booked
  • Do not schedule meetings or calls during this hour
  • Respectfully decline or ask to reschedule all meeting/call invites during this hour, unless mandatory. If there are meetings scheduled during this time that are required, consider starting your day an hour earlier in those instances

2. Establish your daily to-do list in advance

  • Limit it to 3 (or fewer) critical items
  • I recommend writing out your to-do list the night before

3. Begin the day with your single most important task

  • Find a quiet place to work where you will not be interrupted
  • Start your day working on your single most important item. Once complete, move on to other critical to-dos from there
  • Avoid email and social media during this hour

It might seem selfish to devote the first hour of every day to your own priorities, but this routine will actually increase your productivity and impact for your company.

And it is highly likely that your boss and co-workers will respect (and perhaps follow) your routine, especially when they see your increased performance.

Oftentimes you’ll accomplish more in the first hour taking this approach than you otherwise would all day. Completing something significant first-thing gives you momentum and can set off a chain reaction of high output throughout the day.

Just imagine how much more effective we would all be if we completed our most important task of the day first thing in the morning.

There are 8+ hours in a typical workday. Protect the first one for your most meaningful work.

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No One Succeeds Alone

To pull yourself up by the bootstraps and forge your own path is noble but hardly does any one practically do it alone. You need other partners, smart hires, advisers, mentors and even stories of people who have already done it before. You can only maximise your strengths and where you fall short, you need others’ strengths to create something truly amazing.

Ask anyone who has achieved anything worthwhile and they will tell you that somewhere along the way they were inspired, encouraged, mentored or lifted toward their succeeding.

Coaches, mentors and advisors keep you accountable. Other smart entreprenuers need equally brilliant but different skill sets help them achieve their goals.

Nobody succeeds alone, any more than a child can grow and learn in isolation. Even the lonely marathon runner has a coach.

So many people have encouraged, inspired and challenged me in my career. Friends, family, successful entrepreneurs, writers and innovators. Seth Godin, Malcom Gladwell, Jeff Goins, Mark Manson, Adam Grant, Hugh MacLeod, Austin Kleon, Cal NewPort, Leo Babauta, James Clear, Maria Popova, James Altucher, Robert Greene, Benjamin Hardy, Angela Duckworth and a lot more amazing people have expanded my understanding of what is possible. Their ideas and work have transformed my thinking, habits and perception about doing meaningful work.

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Determine Your Worth

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“Define success on your own terms, achieve it by your own rules, and build a life you’re proud to live.” — Anne Sweeney, Co-Chair of Disney

Your self-worth needs to come from within; we cannot depend on others to do this for us and we should certainly not be comparing ourselves to others.

If running 5k is the longest distance you have ever run, be proud — don’t compare yourself to your colleague that just ran a marathon. By comparing ourselves to others, we are setting ourselves up for self-worth failure; someone will always be wealthier, thinner or stronger, and someone will always be able to run that one extra mile. Basing one’s self-worth on external factors is actually harmful to one’s mental health.

Fuck that. Do you, get yours.

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2017 & 2018 On Lock

I’ve been busy as shit since getting back from NZ but it’s all good!

After a brief break to get married I’ve mapped out the next 2 years and it’s FULL ON.

I’ll get into detail over the coming weeks but it involves expanding my courier company, visiting Bali, retiring my parents and taking them around the world, getting the exam invigilation services up and running, preparing my son for his first year at school, smoking weed in Amsterdam and opening up NZ’s first ‘Mr Whippy of Wine’ aka The Bromm.com Beer & Wine Cafe in Hamilton.

Don’t sleep. Die trying.

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Scared of failure?

Gary V is always on point.

We’re all scared to fail at some point and it can be crippling! The hardest thing to do is remain motivated when you’re on your own and faced with the cold hard truth that the only one halting your progress is YOU. That’s all it boils down to, no one really cares if you win or lose you’re just worried about something you’ve created in your own mind.

It’s all good to say these things and be aware of them but we need to take action so here’s some advice that my cousin gave me – focus on what you need to do, don’t focus on what might happen. And here’s a bit of advice from me: Handle your business or shut the fuck up. *I mean that in the most confronting way possible 🙂

 

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Box of Smiles – from our family to yours.

So it’s been a while but I’m back in Melbourne and my wairua is full. Just like it is after every trip home.

What blew me away was the number of people that gave money as a wedding gift I mean who would turn down money? – CHUR!!

We requested our guests bring a bottle of wine bit some of my family don’t drink and so they gave cash, the equivalent to a very expensive bottle in fact.

Given that my thing is ‘shoes’ and lots of them it would be easy to go nuts and add to my collection but considering some of the people that gave money have upwards of 4 kids ( one of my cousins has 7!!! Fuck that ) it didn’t sit right with me to just go and splash their money on more SHIT.

So this project is for all of those that donated money I will make sure it does some good and make people smile! 

Here’s the first lot of goodies we bought to make up our ‘Box of Smiles’

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Are You Paying Attention?

Finding a purpose starts with figuring out what you’re here to do. What do you love doing so much that you would do it even if you weren’t getting paid?

If you apply this way of thinking to your current means of making money and your answer is … ” Oh sh#t, not really “. Then you’ve made a start.

That’s not to say you should up and quit your job, go all in now on some half assed idea you’ve only recently felt passionate about. The transition will happen once you have clearly defined your purpose. You need to start paying close attention to the things you think about, read about and do automatically because there is a pattern there and you want to understand it.

That’s the first step. Pay attention.

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Smiles in a Box

So I had this idea, I wrote it down then broke it down and now I’m actioning it.

Let me explain. Over the weekend there were so many tragic events in Melbourne – stabbings, car jackings and even a shooting just last night in the suburb I work in.

I said to my girl ‘how do we make people feel safer?’ Referring to a platform idea I had that would connect people to provide some hope of a better tomorrow.

Neither of us could come up with an answer but then this morning I thought maybe I was asking the wrong question? Maybe the question I should be trying to answer is ‘how can I make people feel happy?’ …

So I was watching a Casey Neistat Vlog today and there was this scene:


A hotel he was staying at had a gift box of random things that did not cost a lot, required minimal time to put together and made him smile.

That’s when I knew what I was going to do. I’m going shopping for gifts to give to random people I meet that may need a bit of cheering up 🙂