Are you a creature of habit? Does your day go by routinely? If yes, then you are already set for a bright future! In this episode, Kofi Nartey is joined by none other than his beautiful wife and social entrepreneur, Mimi Nartey, to discuss how creating a daily routine sets you up for lifetime success. Mimi dives deep into the biggest challenges many of us face when creating these day-to-day habits and shares how we can overcome them. She provides the strategies to help you create daily success habits, so you can fully be the master of your life. Full of insights on our psychology and identity, this conversation helps us see which parts of our lives push or limit us from reaching our full potential. Small habits build momentum towards excellence. Join Kofi and Mimi as they guide you towards this pathway to success.
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Daily Routine Or Daily Failure With Mimi Nartey
Why It’s Important To Have A Daily Routine And How To Create One.
I’m super excited. I’m always excited to share with you guys and to do this. In particular, we’re going to talk about a very popular subject, daily routine/daily habits. We’re calling it Daily Routine Equals Lifetime Success: Why a Daily Routine is Important and How to Create One. I’m joined by a special guest who’s been here before. Speaking of daily routine, my forever guest, my beautiful wife, Dr. Mimi Nartey. Please say hello.
Hello, guys. Thanks again for having me, Kofi.
Let’s jump right into this. We are going to get to some great bullet points on how to start your day and how to build out your daily success routine and habits. Let’s start with the why because if we’re not motivated to do something, we’ll never do it. Why is it important to have a daily routine?
I’m excited to talk about this as well. The why is critical. I’m going to jump in a little hot and heavy with a big idea here.
Brace yourselves, guys. We normally warm up and build into it. We’re jumping right in. I don’t know what she’s going to say, so let’s go.
Daily routines are important to address your subconscious programming. The single biggest challenge that we face is our subconscious programming, which are the subconscious thoughts, beliefs, and values that we hold that inform us about the relationship between constructs. What do I mean by that? I mean what’s the relationship between success and struggle that we believe? Do we believe that there can’t be success without significant struggle? What’s the relationship between people who come from places we come from and ultra wealth that we’re holding in our mind?
Do we think that a certain level of wealth isn’t for people from our backgrounds? This is where all of our limiting beliefs come from. We have this subconscious programming, things that we’ve picked up from the way that we’ve been raised, from what we’ve been exposed to, or what we haven’t been exposed to. A daily routine is a key strategy to address subconscious programming by building in daily. 1) Time to work on your mindset and 2) Actions that support the new beliefs that you want to hold about yourself and your potential.
That is heavy. That was the doctor and Dr. Mimi Nartey right there. My first bullet point was it starts with an idea. Why do you need a daily routine? It’s because you have to have an idea, a plan, or a goal that you’re working towards. That daily routine in those daily success habits is part of the plan to get there. Now everything you said, and I had no idea where you were going to go with it, seems to fit neatly, messily, strategically, or perfectly in the middle of what I’m saying.
It starts with an idea or goal, and then there’s the plan to get there. Part of what you are addressing and what you dropped in terms of knowledge is our psychology which helps us, prevents us, aids us, and slows us down in whatever capacity from getting there. How a daily routine or daily habits will help us break through those limiting beliefs or limitations that we have on a personality or psychological level.
We’re going to use the words habit and routine synonymously. I know that they’re slightly different, but we talk about daily habits and daily routines. You can google the daily habits or success habits of certain people or industries, and it’s a very popular topic. If you say habit, it’s the same as routine. Routine is the same as a habit.
I’m passionate about the pathway to success, even this full mogul journey that we’re on in the show, and what it’s about. Let’s talk a little bit about that and even dig a little deeper into what you dropped as your framework for this and the personality limitations. We’re setting those goals and talking about the steps to get to those goals. How do this daily routine and daily habit factor in?
One thing about myself is I’m intentional. Again, I’m exposed to a lot of people that I see. They’re promoting or trying to influence with their different daily routines. It’s worth it for me to dig deeper to understand why. How is this servicing them? Beyond quality skincare routine and getting that glow, how is this making a difference and amounting to a difference in people’s lives? I want to believe that. I know it makes a difference in people’s lives because I do know that there are certain habits or routines for highly successful people.
As I’m saying, it starts with this mental framework. That’s so important for your success. You have to release certain things that are holding you back mentally, emotionally, and psychologically. Another challenge that we face as ambitious people in entrepreneurship, sports, or whatever it is that we’re doing is, from time to time, we all lack motivation. Effectively having a daily routine keeps you moving one foot over the other even when you feel tired, burnt out, or not that into it. That’s the importance.
Effectively having a daily routine keeps you moving one foot over the other even when you feel tired, burnt out, or not that into it. Click To TweetI 100% love that. I feel like the words habit and routine are synonymous. It makes me think about the speaking that I do sometimes from stages. Whether I’m teaching a class, I’m doing training for agents, I’m talking to professional athletes, people in sports and entertainment, or the kids, I’m sharing from my heart. When I say sharing from my heart, I’m sharing from my gift. I get passionate about it.
I might start off slow, but I build quickly and I talk fast. I talk with a lot of energy and people can feel that energy, but that has to be converted into action items. I tell people that enthusiasm, the momentum you want to build, and the excitement are like caffeine. It wears off unless you turn it into action items. Habits can convert that enthusiasm and momentum into routines that lead to success.
That’s so important because you do get a lot of people that are passionate and energetic, but translating that into meaningful change in their life or progress towards their goals, usually, it’s a black box. That’s what this is. This idea of establishing your habits or routines each day from morning and night is going to deconstruct the mystery and help you move. As I said, one foot over the other when you’re passionate and enthusiastic and even when you’re lacking a little bit of passion and enthusiasm.
It connected even to my point about motivation. Daily habits are also important when you are dealing with grief, pain, or illness and as a way to keep going when you feel you can’t go on. Effectively, your routines create your mindset and your mindset creates your identity. When you are challenged in your identity by some level of trauma, it is your routines that are going to help you find your way back to yourself.
It ties, again, into my theory of alignment. We align with our emotions more so than we should. A lot of times, we need to align with the person that we truly are aiming to be owning that identity and finding ways to get back to that alignment. It’s like you wake up feeling depressed. I always say, “That’s the day you need to put on your best outfit because it’s going to help you align with the true version of yourself that you’re pursuing, which is who you actually are.”
Those habits are routines. They help you stick to the plan, and you can’t plan without a desired outcome in mind. If you’re having routines and habits toward nothing, you’re going to end at nothing. You need to establish that goal or that plan ahead of time because then, you can create the routines and habits to get there. Also, it lets you know once you have achieved that goal.
Right there, we see the benefit of routines all the way around for helping you to establish your identity and how that can be so protective. It is so that you don’t skip beats in the pursuit of your goal because of natural burnout and lack of motivation. If you are interrupted by something that is traumatic or disruptive, you have a way to fall right back into what you know is a part of your true identity.
I have a Kofi-ism that says, “Don’t let a moment ruin your momentum.” I can’t tell you how many days I’ve set out with big plans for the day. I get to the office and I forgot my computer charger. Now I don’t have a computer. You get distracted by a terrible email or a fire you need to put out at work, but it’s a moment. Those things are going to pop up every day or every week. They’re part of your journey.
You have to make sure that your routines and habits keep you on track and on the road. Those things are distractions that are thrown at you to challenge you to confirm and verify how focused you are. Are you focused and committed to getting from A to Z, reaching your goal, and reaching your outcome? You won’t know that until it’s tested.
I couldn’t agree more with what you’re saying. I have a Post-it Note on my computer keyboard that simply says, “Are you sticking with the plan?” I do think that if I break that down, what is questioning me is, “Am I in alignment with the routines and the habits that I believe are going to get me towards to arrive at the goals that I’m aiming for or striving for?” To your point, regardless of what happens during the day, as a mompreneur, there are always things that come up. I could be right in the middle of my fluid zone, and then I get a call from the school that somebody is sick.
That may not even be your kid.
In a post-COVID world, that’s true. You do have these disruptions. Do I have a certain number of things that are targets for my day that are still moving me towards what I want, even if somehow, the bulk of my day gets rerouted or rescheduled in some ways?
Those habits allow you to own your day instead of your day owning you. I remember hearing this podcast that if you don’t take control of your day, you wake up and you start checking emails right away instead of focusing on your list and your priorities. Your inbox from your emails becomes your to-do list and you let other people determine your priorities. You let other people determine what you’re going to do with your morning, your middle of the day, and your afternoon. These habits and routines give you control. You wake up and start with your goal in mind versus reacting to what the world throws at you.
To even push your point a little bit further, not only will people be dictating what your to-do list is, but they will be taking you on their emotional rollercoaster. Having your own routines and habits are for you to be the master of your own emotions at different points during the day.
We need to quit and spend another minute or two on that because it’s so important to guard ourselves against external emotions. You can only control your reaction and response to those things. Your reaction is usually an emotional reaction. Your response is thoughtful response. I always say, “Don’t react but respond. The reaction is with emotion and response is with thought.” You also have to guard yourself against other people’s emotions. I did a Full Mogul focus and finished a Friday post on Instagram about, “You’ve got to stop building up your emotional armor. Instead, start dodging the bullets.”
You don’t want to keep getting stronger. I can take this from external pressures and external people and take on other people’s problems and emotions. Sometimes, you have to pull a matrix and avoid other people’s emotions. Block other people out of your world and stay focused on what you’re doing. There’s a time and a place where you can engage with other people and take on some of their challenges. There are other times and places that are even more important where you have to stay focused on your own.
I agree 100%. I would say in the roles that I have as a wife and as a mother, there is a lot of sharing the emotional processes of other people. It is what makes it so important that I dedicate time in my day to manage my own emotions and focus on getting myself into a routine that’s going to have me balanced and aligned emotionally and psychologically.
If there’s an inevitable part of your day where you have to take on other people, that’s part of the role. It’s important, as Mimi pointed out, to guard part of your day for yourself.
I used to do a lot of work in social justice parenting. You’ll have my platform going and some different things that I do there. Social justice work is heavy work, and it is emotional work. What you are doing is saying, “I would facilitate crucial conversations or difficult conversations for people, where we’re talking about social identity hot-button things around parenting their children.” I was basically holding the safe space emotionally for that. What I realize is I need routines. I need time to retreat, recover, and fill my tank up. Connecting back to myself through a certain process is my way to keep myself safe and continue to be able to give at that level.
That routine and those habits are systems that we create for consistency so that being human doesn’t have to get in the way because we are all human. We have faults as humans. If we can create systems that we are dedicated to and committed to, that’s how we move forward. We break through the inconsistency of being human, having these emotions, being on these rollercoasters sometimes, and having to deal with other people, but knowing that we have an endgame in mind.
Even owning that identity as we talked about it, it’s a reframing. We always talk about the be, do, have versus do, be, have. The be, do, have is owning the identity and letting those habits and routines align with that identity. As an example, you want to start working out because you want to be fitter. Reframing that as, “I’m already a fit person. Now, what are my habits?”
It’s like, “I work out because I am a fit person.”
Exactly. Let’s jump into a little bit more of the content. We’re racing through time here. I know we’ve got a few more things we want to share. We want to jump into how to create daily success habits. Before we do that, let’s talk a little bit more abound some of the strategies and things you’re approaching in creating habits, why it’s important, routines that we are using ourselves, or things you want to share.
It’s around this idea of how I get started. How do I create a daily routine? What is that going to look like? From the MIMI Method perspective, there are several things that need to be part of your daily habits. It’s several things that need to happen on a daily basis. First of that is meditation.
We did an episode on the MIMI Method, but tell people what MIMI Method stands for. It’s an acronym.
It’s Minimizing Inefficiency to Maximize Impact. That’s a method about being really strategic, focusing on efficiency, and having the biggest impact that you can on the lives of others while reaching your fullest potential. For the most important daily habits, I’ve got meditation. That’s worship, prayer, gratitude, and reflection. For me, on some days, that’s fasting. Whatever that process looks like for each person, it’s about that connecting on a spiritual level, That’s what’s important as one major component of a daily habit. Another one is movement. That’s exercise or stretching. It could be yoga, bodywork, or something that gets your blood flowing. Those are my first two.
Those are amazing. It’s important even as you’re approaching and creating it. Now we’re getting into that content. We’re getting into the second part. How do you create your daily habits? These are strategies and tips for creating those daily habits. You have to identify your full mogul buckets. By this show, hopefully, you’ve tuned into the first episode, which gives you advice and tips on how to get started on your full mogul journey.
You have to know the buckets that you’re feeding into and the identity that you are owning that these daily habits will support. If you haven’t identified your full buckets, now is a great time to revisit that. Who am I as a person? What am I trying to accomplish? What impact am I trying to have? Who am I trying to help? Who do I need help from? How do I stay aligned with all of these different buckets?
All of that precedes this. You understand who it is that you want to be, and then these are the important bits that need to be a part of your day so that you can make sure you can execute that identity. As I said, firstly, this idea of meditation and reflection. It’s something that’s spiritual and philosophical. The movement being another one. Let me add another one, which is learning. Learning needs to be a part of your daily habits because you need to be on a daily basis developing your expertise and staying intellectually stimulated.
Learning needs to be a part of your daily habits because you need to be developing your expertise and staying intellectually stimulated on a daily basis. Click To TweetThat’s something that is part of my daily success habits that I presented at Inman. I took the main stage at Inman. It’s a big real estate conference. There are a lot of entrepreneurs and techpreneurs. Mostly, real estate people. They had me present my ten daily success habits. You can find it on YouTube. It’s a ten-minute video on YouTube. Google my name and put daily success habits. It’ll pop up. Read and reread is one of them.
I always share that with the agents that I train and the people that I talk to. It’s not about reading a bunch of new books every year. It’s about rereading books that you’ve read because it’s about retention and the information that you can own and apply. When you’re reading, highlight the parts that stand out to you. Usually, you will highlight about 30% to 40% of a book. When you reread, only reread those highlighted parts. That’s part of learning. It tied directly into what you said.
As I said, you’re learning to develop expertise. It’s not about necessarily exposing yourself to everything. I was a college professor for a couple of years. I would always tell my students, “What does it mean to be intelligent? It means that you know how to know things. It’s not that you know everything. We’re not going to be successful at knowing everything.” I would challenge them to swing by the library after class and look at all the books they’re never going to read before they die. It’s not about accessing every single thing, but it’s about finding one particular practice, epistemology, and philosophy. It’s finding the things that reinforce that and getting mastery of that concept and process.
Coming back to Bruce Lee’s quote, “I fear not the man who studied 10,000 kicks, but the man who studied one kick 10,000 times.” It’s mastery. It even ties into the 10,000 hours.
Ten thousand hours invested into one process will make you a prodigy. That’s Malcolm Gladwell.
You also have to have specific guidelines that apply to your personality and plans. If you google daily habits or if you watch mine, for example, it may not apply to your plan or your personality. I’ll give you an example. When I was doing daily mantras and affirmations, and I had a list of things, the consistent words that I saw on my full-page list of affirmations were focus and finish. That’s what applied to me as a serial entrepreneur. It was like, “Focus on this before starting the next task. Finish this before announcing it. Finish this before starting a new venture.” That’s what applied to my personality and needed to be ingrained in my daily habits.
I love that you’re saying that and talking about personalizing what it is that you’re doing to yourself. I would say these elements that I’m offering are elements that you are going to operationalize in a way that makes sense for you. For the most part, based on what I’ve seen as far as different successful people. What are the components of their day? What has worked for me? What am I observing that has worked for you? What are we trying to instill in our kids?
These are the general most important things that need to be part of your daily habits. They do need to be personalized and align with your brand, your personal goals, and the identity that you are taking on. No matter what that is, there should be some component of meditation, movement, and learning. This one is planning and scheduling on a daily basis to assure that you are organized. You are moving towards your goals, you are building your brand and you’re feeling accomplished on a daily basis.
A couple of notes on that specifically. It should align with the highest and best version of yourself and the most centered version of yourself. You have to have something in your daily routine that you know is centering for you. For me, it’s working out. If I can work out, I know that’s one part of the day that I fully own for myself. It’s very centering. That’s why I’ll even do my no-sweat quickset.
I’ll go in my work clothes. If I don’t have time for a full workout, I’ll do a ten-minute workout because I get to own those ten minutes. I’ll do one exercise, except pull-downs, leg breasts, leg extensions, or whatever it is where I won’t do enough to break a sweat. I keep the momentum for that bucket in my life because it’s a very centering bucket for me.
One thing to point out because this is important as it relates to the philosophy of the whole conversation that we’re having is that your daily routine is not your daily to-do list. It’s a different thing. Your daily routine would be like for me, working out. My daily to-do list would be what I’m going to do exactly for working out. In my daily routine, I need to lead generate for my business. For my daily to-do list, how many calls am I going to make? Who am I reaching out to? What am I saying?
That’s an important point, too. Your daily routine is the things that you’re making sure of, the boxes you’re checking, and the buckets that you’re touching on a daily basis regularly to keep you centered and motivated. It’s to make sure that you are moving every day towards your goals, regardless of what life throws at you each day.
Even for us, part of our weekly routines is our walks. It’s about a 2-mile roundabout walk and we talk about all this stuff. We might have season two of the show be our conversations from our walks as well.
I wish we could record this one.
They’re so good. I remember on one of our walks, we were talking about daily habits and you talked about the idea of sequencing. I thought that was great because certain things build on other things. Certain habits build on other habits and certain habits set up the next habit. Do you remember part of that conversation?
I do. It’s related to a concept called Habit Stacking. You have to stack certain habits on top of each other in order to be full and stable in your identity. This is important because sometimes we have a bunch of habits, but we’re still not executing on our identity and thus, not executing on our goals. It’s because maybe the foundational habit is not there. All of those habits that you have aligned with either a different identity or some aspect of the same identity. If the foundational habits and identity aren’t in place, then you are on unstable ground.
You have to stack certain habits on top of each other in order to be full and stable in your identity. Click To TweetLet’s give an example of something like that. Is there anything that comes to mind? I’ve got a couple of things that come to mind like making your bed. That’s an example that we talked about. You talking about that with even the kids and the importance of making your bed and even doing it in an excellent way.
You have to be certain to embed excellence and efficiency into your day. I was going to talk about this a little bit more when I talk about certain supplements of a morning routine versus an evening routine. It’s important that you have, in your morning, intention setting and planning. As I was mentioning, some kind of self-care routine, which is pretty normal. We all are hygienic, but then also have small projects that build momentum toward excellence. That’s because excellent execution builds momentum for your day.
Small projects that build momentum towards excellence. It’s such a good statement. If you’re not driving, write that one down.
When I say small projects, what do I mean? The scale is making your bed as I said. We’ve got children that are pretty clever and sometimes they use that cleverness for good and sometimes they use it to try to work my nerves. I’ll get comments like, “Why do we need to make the bed if we’re going back into bed in the evening?” It is a small project that they can execute in an excellent way that starts to build momentum in their day toward excellence. They start the day being organized, tidy, and getting themselves going in this momentum.
It touches on all of that just making your bed. Remember the event we went to for the Navy SEALs Foundation? It was Admiral William McRaven. He wrote a book called Make Your Bed. He was talking about this idea of making your bed in the morning. You think about the military and the precision with which they do everything. He even said he brought that precision to making his bed.
It’s exactly what we’re talking about. It starts your day in a certain way. It’s a certain level of organization, detail, and excellence. What I loved is he gave the story of the whole writing-the-book process and why he wrote the book. He also said, “At the end of your day, if your day has been bad, at least you have a beautiful bed to come back to.”
I’m going to give a couple of other little tips and hacks for starting to figure out how to put together your daily habits and daily routines. I’ve used acronyms and cheat codes to help me remember the broader ideas or things that I need to do that day. I’ll give an example. I’ll give last year’s first. In 2022, I did 531. It was my cheat code.
Every day, I was going to have five personal touches for my business and for my life. I was going to make three deals happen. What do I mean by making a deal happen? For my people in real estate, they’ll understand this. If you have a listing or a buyer, you have to be proactive in getting the house sold or finding a house. Making a deal happen meant that if my buyer had seen everything on the market, how do I find off-market opportunities?
How do I reach out to agents who might have new listings coming? What doors can I knock on to see if people are willing to sell? If I have a listing that hasn’t sold yet, what agents can I put it in front of? What buyers can I put it in front of? How can I reframe it, reposition it, and share new videos and photos that I haven’t done before? That’s my making a deal happen and then one personal interaction with a center of influencer or key person that I needed to continue building a relationship with.
Fast forward to now, WILL. Every day, WILL. W stands for Workout. Every day I want to do something, whether it’s a little walk or a full-on hour-long workout. If I have the time, it’s great. Sometimes my no-sweat quick set where I go a ten-minute break in my office. I go to the gym next door, do that set, and come back. The I in WILL is for Impact. I want to have an impact every day on somebody in my firm or my life.
The two Ls are for Lead Generation For My Firm, so building the brand, getting the name out there, and creating opportunities for our agents. The second L is Lead Generation For My Clients and My Business. Come up with your own acronym. These are little hacks you can use. Come up with your own cheat code so that every day you’re not reinventing the wheel. This is part of the daily routine.
I love that because I started going through that list of important things to incorporate into a daily habit. I talked about meditation, moving, learning, planning, and scheduling. This is also a way for you to even add additional emphasis and priority to certain aspects that are important to you. I want to throw in a few more that I didn’t get to mention as far as what should be a part of your daily routine, and what should be a part of your life and practice on a daily basis.
Romanticized moment. As an individual, you should have certain moments and beats in your day that are designed to be a little bit more romantic, beautiful, elegant, and luxurious. That could be the skincare process and routine. We see that all the time. Influencers show this elaborate skincare routine where they’re lavishing themselves with all kinds of beautiful creams and rubs. It could be getting dressed. If you’re into fashion as I am, that moment is a romantic moment of styling yourself, pausing, and making sure something is beautiful and intentional.
As an individual, you should have certain moments and beats in your day that are designed to be a little bit more romantic, beautiful, elegant, and luxurious. Click To TweetThe one that I use all the time that I do on a daily basis for sure is a coffee break. I have a pretty expensive espresso machine. I’m not going to say it on air because I don’t think my husband knows exactly how much I paid for it. I’ve got a beautiful espresso machine and lovely coffee. It’s a whole coffee syrup bar. At different points during my day, I will take a beat, come down, and have that process.
That, to me, feels romantic, beautiful, luxurious, intentional, and personal. That’s an important beat in my day and it’s part of my routine. Everybody should have certain elements of their day that are romantic in that way. That could be going for a walk, spending time in nature, whatever that means or looks like for you. That’s because synthesizing things gives us inspiration. It feeds our souls in a certain way.
I’m going to find out how much this thing costs but I will vouch for it. I call it your coffee bar because you created it. You ordered that machine. You’ve got the coffees laid out. You have the syrups and the different vanilla and coconut flavoring. It’s beautiful. The product is good. When you make a cup of coffee for me, it beats Starbucks and Coffee Bean. It’s amazing. I can imagine that being part of your day is a chance to have that romantic moment.
Two more things really quick that need to be part of your day. I would say connection with your partner. You already dropped that. We’re trying to go for walks. That’s important because on a daily basis when you’re in a relationship, you want to be able to offer support and get support. Connection with your kids is the same thing. You want to be able to make sure that you’re hitting the beats with them. The relationships that really matter to you, you’re investing in them in some way, big or small, on a daily basis.
In some way, big or small, you are investing in the relationships that really matter to you on a daily basis. Click To TweetAnother one is knowing how to identify the things that will make that day a success. You have to identify the things that if that thing gets done, this day is a success. If it doesn’t get done, the day is a failure. That comes from The Science of Getting Rich, the book that we’ve both read and listened to on audio multiple times. That has to be part of your day.
It’s funny because I had that as a key element of a morning routine. Remember, I was saying you need to do some intention setting and planning so that you have your schedule together on a daily basis. You need to have your self-care routine and small projects that are building momentum. Also, you need to address the one big thing that gets checked off on your to-do list for the day that will already make the day more or less a success or something that’s important.
A bigger-picture goal that you’re working on. You need to get that activity done to make sure that you are foot right over left moving towards what you want. For example, we have children that are athletes. For our daughter, that’s soccer training in the morning. You make sure you get that done and out of the way. That also prioritizes the identity soccer player in her own mindset because we are servicing that identity initially in the morning and then right after that, jumping into schoolwork.
Considering that example brings me to my next point. It can be dynamic. Your daily habits can change based on your goals. That is why we said you have to have a plan or something that you’re working towards in those daily habits, and routines will get you there. You have to be able to pivot sometimes, update the habits, and change the habits. You want to have some foundational consistency or some things that do align with you.
For me, the working out or even those romantic moments that you are describing. Those things align with your inner core or inner child, the happy being inside of you that you want to make sure you’re taken care of. Don’t be afraid to make your habits dynamic as it relates to whatever the goal is at that time, whatever the plan is that you’re trying to fulfill or things you’re trying to reach, and give yourself grace along the way.
It’s so funny because we did not plan to do this together. I have here that you need to reevaluate and redevelop your daily routine periodically to make sure that you’re executing the routine that is in alignment with the next level of you. You have the routine that you’re establishing. It constantly needs to be revised. If you think about it in terms of, say a life course theory.
You need to reevaluate and redevelop your daily routine periodically to ensure that you're executing the routine that aligns with the next level of you. Click To TweetThe routine that you have established at 5 is not the routine that you’ll have established at 15 is not the routine that you’ll have established at 25 because you’re a different age and there are different things in your life. You can look at it as, “Who I am right now as an entrepreneur? My equivalent 5-year-old child entrepreneur self will not have the same habits as my 30-year-old entrepreneur self.” Not necessarily with 30 years invested, but where you’ve come in terms of the maturation of your business.
Even to double down on part of what you say. The most important part of even that sentence was the next level of you. Your daily habits aren’t to maintain the status quo. Your daily habits are to take you to the next level of you.
The Harvard Business School in the past year usually does international trips to Asia, Hong Kong, or Thailand. Harvard Business School went to Ghana. That’s amazing and remarkable. Side note, it’s cool that there’s an interest on that level academically in what’s going on in Africa. I thought it was so interesting that there was a student from the Harvard Business School, who had the opportunity to ask the president of Ghana anything.
The question that she asked was, “What is a typical day in the life of an African head of state?” It connects to this because what we have is an ambitious business student, a young woman who is trying to run a major Fortune 500 company or a nation potentially at some point. What she’s asking is, what is effectively your daily routine so that I can glean some insight and wisdom and align my routine with what your routine might be? Think about that. If I align my routine with what the president’s routine might be, even if I don’t end up president, it’s going to take me far.
I’ve been saying it a lot, but I love that too because it’s so important. Another Kofi-ism is listening with selfish ears. If you ask questions like that, the answer is going to be something that you can pull out of what you need as it relates to your daily process. For example, if they say, “I read this and that every day.” That means they read every day.
It doesn’t mean you need to read the exact same thing because you might be in a different industry, but they’re reading every day. They meditate or go for walks. I hear exercise in there, getting centered again, and getting back to my foundational thought processes. How do I access those? How do I do that for my life? That becomes something that you can emulate and that takes you towards your goals.
It helps you establish that identity. That’s that next level of you.
This has been super-duper amazing. I want to bring us home with a couple of final points. As I shared my daily mantra on the Inman stage, I’ll share it here too. I don’t say it as much anymore, but it was, “A great way to become more centered to revisit who I am. Not even who I was becoming, but who I actually was.” Give us a couple more points as we look to wrap up here.
I’ve got maybe a couple more little hacks for establishing your daily routine. One thing that I’ll share is I have distinctly different identities on a day-to-day basis. I have different kinds of businesses that I participate in. I work and manage the foundation and the charitable giving arm of your real estate company. I’m a homeschooling mom. I like to organize those different identities day by day.
Fortunately, our daughter is in the homeschooling program and it’s a hybrid program. She does go to school two days a week. I take on a different identity on the two days that I have both kids out of the house. All that to say, I have different routines for different days because that’s how I satisfy all of the buckets that I’m pursuing in my full mogul journey.
I’ll give another hack that piggybacks on that in a different way. It’s accessing the different parts of your personality that apply to those different pursuits and obligations. One hack that I came up with, and I kept it to myself because I thought people would laugh at it, is I created a name that combined the personalities of all these different people whom I pull different things from.
For three years, I never told anybody, but I refer to myself as Kofi Kobama Jordartey Wallusk. Now, I’m sure you hear some names built into that, but I’ll make it all completely clear for you. Kofi, of course, and the next Ko was for Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality. The Kobama was Obama. His tranquil approach to things that would typically be stressful to other people. That’s what I pulled from him.
Jordartey Wallace. Jordan is Michael Jordan, this killer instincts. Artey was part of my last name, Nartey. Wallace was William Wallace from Braveheart because he was such a dynamic person. He was a warrior, a lover, a thespian, and everything. He was amazing. Usk as an Elon Musk. There are a lot of things I don’t about Elon Musk. There are a lot of things that don’t make him a full mogul because he doesn’t keep certain aspects of his life together, his fatherhood, and so forth, but he’s so ambitious in what he does.
He thinks so big. From that, I can extract big-thinking ideas. Another hack, if you want to come up with your combined name, think of the people that you pull from, even if they’re fictional characters like William Wallace. There are aspects of those people or your mentors, people that you admire, and can glean something from in those moments where your personality needs to pull that out and apply it.
I only have a couple more. The second to last one is for a family. You may want to see how you can integrate morning and nighttime routines with the other members of your family. This creates rhythm and healthy codependence with your family. That’s what a family is. That’s your family culture and family rhythm where you have a partner, a partner and children, or just children.
You want to try to make sure that some aspects of those routines, maybe that’s having dinner together as a family, which we often do, or it’s date night, which is not a daily thing. It is a weekly thing that’s part of my daily routine on certain days. Those integrating and shared routines are also an important foundation for a strong family.
The last one is you want to create environments that reinforce your routine. That means you’re adding or removing people, objects, energies, or attitudes. You want to have environmental cues that are moving you towards who you want to be that are aligned with the routine and the identity. Take things out of your environment that are moving, detracting, or pulling you away from those goals. An important hack for your daily routine is to check the environment.
I can attest to this. I’m shaking my head and I am agreeing because, in our house, Mimi is constantly changing things about the environment. She’s created some beautiful, luxurious, comfortable mindset-changing environments in our home. it’s an ongoing process. My only concern is that she’s going to swap me out. We swapped out couches, lighting, and fixtures. The next thing you know I’m getting swapped out, but no. It contributes to how you feel in your space.
I’ve got a mini routine when I come into my office. I have a statue of a rhinoceros. I got a rhinoceros because the adult rhinoceros has no natural predators. That’s how I feel in my career at this point. I don’t have any natural predators.
I rub the rhinoceros’ back and then I have a candle every day. That candle is strategically positioned right behind the rhinoceros so I light a fire under his ass. It’s because you have to keep your own fire going and stay obsessed with your mission. If you don’t burn or light a fire or don’t feel that fire, then what are you doing? You’re working from a place of lack of energy. It’s one of those reminders.
I’m going to finish with the part of my daily mantra. That was the identity piece. This was one part of my daily habits. I did say it on stage. I’ll share it quickly and then we’ll wrap things up. I would get up every morning, look in the mirror, and say the following, “I am Kofi Nartey, strong, husband, father, full mogul millionaire, and man of God. I will build my business and build others through discipline execution and my ability to focus and finish.”
I would say that three times every day. It got to the point where the kids would overhear me and they would walk around the house saying, “I am Kofi Nartey.” It helped me own that identity to the extent that my kids even recognized those were the different aspects of daddy’s identity. That’s what the daily success habits or daily routine are about. It’s about identity cementation, cementing who you are.
We’re going to wrap it up. Thank you, guys, for tuning in. We hope this was helpful. Share with us on social media. You can go to Mimi Nartey @MimiNartey on Instagram or @Kofi_Sellebrity on Instagram. DM us. Let us know if this was helpful or things that you are doing in your daily routine. You can go to the FullMogul.com website and punch in some information there to make sure you get updates on the show. Share this show with somebody you think it’ll be helpful. We continue to look forward to this full mogul journey that we’re on with you guys.
Thanks so much for having me again. I’m looking forward to hearing from everyone.
You got it. Thanks again. That’s a wrap.
Important Links
- Dr. Mimi Nartey
- Full Mogul: An Introduction + 5 Tips For Starting Your Journey – Past Episode
- Ten Daily Success Habits
- Make Your Bed
- The Science Of Getting Rich
- @MimiNartey – Instagram
- @Kofi_Sellebrity – Instagram