Craig Ballantyne is a productivity and success transformation coach and the author of The Perfect Day Formula: How to Own the Day and Control Your Life. He has contributed to Men’s Health Magazine since 2000, and in 2001 he created the popular home workout program Turbulence Training.

On his journey to success Craig has had to overcome crippling anxiety attacks, and he did that with his Five Pillars of Success and Transformation. Today Craig shows men and women how to use these five pillars to lose 10-75 pounds, get a raise and make more money, find the love of their lives, and overcome any obstacle in the way of success. You can read his daily essays on success, productivity and business at Early to Rise.

In This Interview I Ask:

• 2:40 - Can Craig talk about the rules that he has, why he has them, and why they matter for people when it comes to building out these perfect days?
• 5:20 - What are some of the rules that Craig has?
• 10:20 - How does Craig consistently make time for his routines and avoid getting overwhelmed by the rest of the world?
• 15:10 - Tell me about your Five Pillars of Transformation. What are they and how do they work?
• 26:40 - What are Craig’s thoughts on meaningful incentives versus consequences for not doing stuff?
• 28:45 - I’m a big fan of the vision setting process. Craig has a story that shows how impactful the vision setting process can be. Tell us about that story.
• 41:20 - If you were giving someone the formula for building their perfect day, what does that entail?

(Some of) Craig’s Personal Rules for Success

• Get up and go to bed at the same time every day. “You can use whatever hours you want, but it’s a nice structure to really accelerate the work you get done over the day.”
• Have a rule about your health. Anything related to stress relief, physical training or nutrition. “It doesn’t have to be an all encompassing rule … but what’s the most important health rule that you can follow that’s going to give you energy and give you overall health and really contribute to your success?” This might be a paleo diet, meditation or consistent exercise.
• Work on your number one priority first thing in the morning. If you give your number one priority 15 minutes in the morning six days a week, then that 90 minutes of work every week will really compound.

The Five Pillars of Transformation and Success

1. Better planning and preparation
2. Professional accountability
3. Positive social support
4. Meaningful incentive
5. The big deadline

The Impact of Setting a Vision

“The Vision is essentially where you want to be in a couple years from now. Not only thinking about it, but actually writing it down. I call it creating a movie script for your life.”

Five years, three months and 17 days after Craig first articulated his vision to his coach – owning a business like Early to Rise – Craig bought the business of his dreams. Not something like it, but the exact business of his dreams: EarlyToRise.com.

Craig developed a mentor relationship with Mark Ford, the previous owner of Early to Rise. Mark told Craig to narrow his focus and set four goals:

• One for your health
• One for your wealth
• One for your social self and
• One for your personal enrichment or charity endeavors

How To Build Your Perfect Day

This is incredibly important. If you learn to optimize your day, and you just focus on your daily habits, your perfect day becomes your perfect week becomes your perfect month becomes your perfect quarter becomes your perfect year. This is the highest leverage point to be focusing your time and energy on if you’re going to be making some sort of habit change.

• Figure out how you best operate. Do a time journal. You’ll identify when you’re wasting time, and you’ll identify your own “magic time.”
• Solidify your sleep schedule.
• Focus on your number one priority first thing in the morning.
• Control the rest of your morning so you don’t get sucked into any rabbit holes and get through a lot of your to-do list.
• In the afternoon, deal with the chaos that the world brings you. Be prepared by planning two solutions for every obstacle you expect to encounter in your daily life.
• Finish work by five so that you can go home and focus on what counts in your life.

Resources

• The Perfect Day Formula: How to Own the Day and Control Your Life by Craig Ballantyne
• Early to Rise
• Five Pillars of Success and Transformation
• Turbulence Training
• “7 Rules Everyone Should Follow” by Craig Ballantyne
• The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Hendricks Gay, PhD
• Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life's Work by Steven Pressfield
• Double Double by Cameron Herold
• Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey

Downloads

• MP3
• Transcript

Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters