The 5×5 Method And Vision Boarding, With Bonnie Hardie

008 Bonnie covers The 5×5 Method: “The 5×5 Formula To A Rock Solid Day” And Vision Boarding

Join the conversation on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chrisnixon/

Detailed Show Notes With Transcript: https://chrisnixon.com/episode-8/

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GUEST LINKS For: Bonnie Hardie

Website: https://bonniehardie.aweb.page/p/f99536ab-ccc8-4dc3-b8b4-65f935835c10
YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCS8yxH_r_hRxqYBT6jlCP4w
Join her Email list to receive Mindset Tips, Life Hacks, Info to have an Attitude of Gratitude: https://bonniehardie.aweb.page/p/f99536ab-ccc8-4dc3-b8b4-65f935835c10

Tools mentioned in this episode:

• The Pomodoro Technique – https://lifehacker.com/productivity-101-a-primer-to-the-pomodoro-technique-1598992730
• “The 5×5 Formula To A Rock Solid Day” – meditation, journaling, practicing gratitude, deep breathing, and grounding yourself

BOOKS

The 5×5 Formula To A Rock Solid Day By Bonnie Hardie https://www.lulu.com/shop/bonnie-hardie/the-5×5-formula-to-a-rock-solid-day/ebook/product-9p5md9.html

LINKS

Website: https://chrisnixon.com

Blog: https://chrisnixon.com/blog

Podcast: https://chrisnixon.com/podcast

SOCIAL

LinkedIn: https://chrisnixon.com/linkedin

Facebook: https://chrisnixon.com/facebook

All socials: https://linktr.ee/chrisnixon

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**This episode Copyright © 2022 Chris Nixon***

Music: spacedust by airtone (c) copyright 2022 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/airtone/64741

Chris 

So I’d like to invite you to share your name and the field of work that you do. 

Bonnie 

My name is Bonnie Hardy. I am a mindset life gratitude coach, based in Central Florida. I’m also a podcast guest coach. 

Chris 

Thanks Bonnie, it’s great to meet you. So tell me Bonnie, what does productivity look like for you? How do you manage your tasks and day-to-day work and roll that up to your goals and vision. And ultimately to your purpose in life. 

Bonnie 

Well, Chris, thank you for having me here on your podcast. I do appreciate it. Productivity is very important. There’s always a lot of things to get done as a business owner. So I have different like timeframes that  I do things. I go through my emails and get them all done. I give myself 30 minutes to do Facebook. I use something called the Pomodoro technique, where I set a timer for 30 minutes. You can set it for 20 to 30 minutes. I usually like to do 30 minutes 1st and what I do is I’ll do one thing for 30 minutes straight. Whether it’s going through my emails, going through my messages, going through Facebook groups, I do that for 30 minutes each, and then I can get a whole lot done. Instead of toggling back and forth between multiple things. That that doesn’t leave you very productive. So mainly using Pomodoro technique and I have usually a set schedule start times each day. I’ll only be doing Facebook then only be doing emails. So that keeps me, you know, on this straight level path to getting everything done that I need to get done on a daily basis. 

Chris 

When did you pick up the Pomodoro technique? 

Bonnie 

I picked that up about a year and a half ago. I heard people talking about it and I said, you know, this is really cool ’cause you work for 30 minutes and then you take about a 10 minute break. And then you go back to work and you can do the same thing again, if you want to do some emails again? You can do emails again or you get to do something else. Usually I like to break it up. I’ll do Facebook, then I’ll do emails. And then I’ll sometimes I’ll view any videos on YouTube, then send out any emails for my mailing list and stuff like that, then I’ll bunch that up, but it’s a real lifesaver, really helps. They keep you going. 

Chris 

So how about on the higher levels? Bonnie, how much time do you spend, or when do you take time to look at your goals? Do you do like quarterly goals or annual goals? 

Bonnie 

I usually try to, well I have like a yearly goal and then I break it down into monthly goals and now since its the end of 2022, I’m working on my goals for 2023 Personally, professionally. So I’ll start working on what I want to have done by the end of next year, and then I’ll break that down. And this by this time frame, this needs to be done, by this time frame this needs to be done. Then I know I’m on track to make my goals. 

Chris 

So it sounds like you’re applying a project management style technique to it. 

Bonnie 

Yes I am. I’m extremely organized and sometimes I’m too organized. I have too many things right now and I have to you know, color code everything, but it makes it work because you could be very busy when I know this is trying to have a life outside of that, but I know what I want to accomplish by this time next year so I know what I need to do now and then to accomplish it. 

Chris 

So, you talk about having things colored, is this on analog like on paper or do you have it in electronic systems? 

Bonnie 

No, actually most of the time I actually just write stuff down. I do have a scheduler that I have online that I go into, but I like to just write stuff down and then I do like color to code. Like this task is very, very important so I code that green; this task I need to do, but it’s not super-duper important, and I’ll code that red and this task doesn’t need to be done right away, but it needs to be done within a couple days and I’ll code that yellow so that way I can tell you know what’s my most critical tasks that need to be done today, this week, this month, this this year. 

Chris 

So what other tools have you tried? Have you tried some that you don’t use anymore? 

Bonnie 

I, mean, sometimes I’ve just tried to, you know, sometimes I kind of throw spaghetti at the wall, and then whatever I just like go, you know I’ll be doing like emails, but then I’ll hear a message come in Facebook, so go right away to check it. You know then I get logged into Facebook stuff then OK, well I have to go, you know who’s commenting on things? I’ll start seeing what people are doing. So it’s like, well, we’ll try to stay as focused as possible. And there’s a few people that when I get their private message, I’ll answer them as soon as possible. Or some people you know the message can wait. So if I need to really go through all my emails and I need to go through that because I’m getting, you know, emails from people that are scheduling interviews and stuff so I need to keep those organized and stay on top of that so that I know exactly when I need to be with someone. I need to know what I’m talking about, you know? 

Chris 

How many interviews would you say you’re doing in a week? 

Bonnie 

You know it, it varies this week this week is kind of a shorter week because we have Thanksgiving in the United States on Thursday, so some people aren’t doing anything, but this is my second one today and I did one on Sunday morning and I did one on Friday night so it just kind of varies it might be weeks I might do 2, might be weeks, I might do 8. So you never can tell. And actually, right now I have interviews scheduled out as far as February, so you know. Keeping busy with doing podcast interviews and summits and stuff like that. 

Chris 

So Bonnie, I’ve seen on your social media some posts about your 5 by 5 system, would you like to share that? 

Bonnie 

Yes, thank you for asking me about that Chris. My 5 by 5 formula to a rock-solid day. So there’s five things with five different activities to do in the morning for one to five minutes each to start your day off strong and they include meditation, journaling, practicing gratitude, deep breathing, and grounding yourself. Now this is kind of bespoke for each person, you can take one and do it for 5 minutes every day. You can take one only do it for one minute and. It depends on what it is you want to do and you can do in any order you want. Like with gratitude, I tell people to name, write down 5 to 10 things you’re grateful for every day; and they always have to be something different. Don’t be saying the same thing over and over again. So I like journaling. You write down, you know how your night was last night. Did you have a good night sleep? Not sleep are you tired. Are you feeling well? What kind of day do you want today to be and you could also do this at night. I would say this is what I’ve done for today. Meditation this is kind calming everything down, emptying your mind of everything, trying to get rid of as much stress and kind of bringing you back to center and say OK this is uhm, if you’re upset about anything, try to get rid of that try to just relax yourself. Deep breathing, in through the nose out through the mouth. And you do that five to 10 times and that’s going to calm you down. Grounding yourself. You go outside if it’s not snowing, it’s going to go inside by bare feet and stand in either the grass or the dirt and reach arms up to the sky, kind of look up and just kind of pull everything together. That just calms you down too because touching the earth like that makes you, you know, grounded more and so it calms you down too. So basically all of these they end up calming you down. They end up getting this focus on what you. Want your day to be like and then get you thinking about if yesterday wasn’t that great, what can I do different today to make today a better day. 

Chris 

So what would you say inspired this program for you, Bonnie. 

Bonnie 

It’s just something that I like to do on my own. I’ve done on my own and I’ve realized that I’ve had a lot of success with it. It has helped me to stay calm and focused throughout the day. So I ended up starting a group program for this. I had a free private group that I ran this through twice. I did live videos every day in the group. And the second time going around, I ended up having over 60 people in the group from 10 different countries. I’ve also written about this. Explain each one what it is, why it’s important, and that as an article that’s put into a magazine, Soulacy Magazine – The Self Care Edition, and I’ve also put that into an e-book that I sell on lulu.com. So I really like this and I talk about this a lot. So and I also have a call with people now that I offer to go over each thing individually and explain each one to people to let them know which was going to be more effective for them so I do offer one-on-one coaching calls for this too. 

Chris 

What would you say would be the most pronounced benefit you’ve experienced since you started doing the 5×5? 

Bonnie 

The the most, the biggest benefit is probably just getting organized and realizing that you know this is what need I need to do for the day, and this is how my day has been, so I can kind of keep track. So it does keep me focused on what I need to do to. Being, uh, you know in the zone, basically, so to speak, to build my business and my life up in a positive way. 

Chris 

So Bonnie, the other thing that I was hoping you’d share with us here, you are a vision boarding expert I understand. 

Bonnie 

Yes, I’m actually getting ready to make another vision board. I really like vision boards because, you know, it helps you focus on what it is you want your life to look like, and this is perfect timing to start it because we’re at the end ff 2020. So just doing a vision for 2023 will help you to decide on what it is you want your life to be like. Any big events you have coming up if you want to move, put the house on there. What kind of house, how you want to be? Do you want to be strong? Want to be free you want to be you know a positive person, things like that. So I am getting ready to make my own Vision Board again for the year. And you should make a vision board like once a year or once a month or every two months, however you want to do it. The beauty of any anything in this coaching industry and personal development is you can change your mind as much as you want. Some people make a vision board every month, so people make it once and it’s good for a year. So all my services would be bespoke to that client. How it is they want to do it specifically for them, so it’s going to change a little bit, what I do for each person, depending on who that person is, what their goals are. You know what their background is too. ’cause some people, if they have some problems and stuff seeing their self-confidence they may need to work on that a little more before they start getting into the other deeper work, you know? 

Chris 

So what would you say would be the high-level steps to doing a vision board? 

Bonnie 

Well, the biggest steps are deciding what you want your life to be like and your WHY. You know, do you want a better job? Or why do you want a better job? You want it more for the money or is it more for the experience? Is it more for what you’re actually doing in the job? I tell people sometimes I’m like a 2 year old because I’m always asking “why” but why do you want this? So why do you want that? Well I just gotta peel the onion so we gotta dig deep. And figure out what your why is, then we could go on with your who, what, why, when, where and how. 

Chris 

So how would I capture my “why” on a vision board. 

Bonnie 

You would think about what your actual why is. Maybe your biggest thing that you want to do next year is maybe lose weight. And why do you want to lose weight? If you want to run, run, run with your kids. Or maybe you want to enter a marathon. Maybe you want to learn how to go ice skating or roller skating, or rollerblading or something like that. And that’s something you’ll put on your vision board. Sometimes if I move one step forward and then I have to do 2 steps back. They figure out why and then ask it again, sometimes it takes a little while to get there but we eventually do. Get through the end and like I said, we peel the onion back. We asked why and we get to the end. And when you’re done with the vision for your life. This is pretty cool, I like it. 

Chris 

So what if I don’t feel like I know why. Does that mean I can’t do a vision board? 

Bonnie 

Oh no, you can definitely do a vision board, even if you don’t know what your why is. If you don’t know what your why is think about your what. Do you like to do??? You know you put stuff up there. You know? Do you like to eat healthy? Put healthy foods up there. Do you like to, you know, ride a bike, put A bike up there. Do you like to go on cruises on a cruise ship? Things like that. You want to live in a really nice house put a picture of a really nice house on there and then eventually we’ll get it. We’ll get everything going, but anybody and everybody can do a vision board. I’ve seen people 12 years old do vision boards so everybody can do a vision board. Even people 90 years old can do a vision board. 

Chris 

And what have you seen for the outcome of doing a vision board? Any pronounced changes in people or any accomplishments that they made? 

Bonnie 

Yes, I’ve noticed that it keeps people more focused on what they want to do every day. You wake up, you look at your vision board, and you’re like, this is what I’m doing today. Getting me closer to this vision on my board. Is it getting me to this car I want to drive? It’s getting me to this house? Is it getting me to this vacation? So once you have that in your mind, you’re like okay. I mean obviously not going to every single day. There’s going to be time to like you know whatever, I don’t care, I will go back to sleep today. But if, for the most part, it’s you know it’s like the 80:20. Rule 80% of the time you need to be doing what you need to do to get to your future goals so just keep looking at it and you’ll get there. 

Chris 

Who is the vision board for? How would they know, that they’re experiencing certain things? or they behave in a certain way? and you know what, they should do a vision board? How would they know? 

Bonnie 

Well, basically just about anybody is good for vision board. However, some people who are kind of lost and they don’t really know what they want then they can do a vision board because the questions that I ask and stuff that we go over, it’s going to get them to figure out what it is they want in there. Like some people that just go through the motions for life basically. And it’s the same-same thing day after day. It’s like Groundhog Day. They get up to the same thing day after day, so doing the vision board when I ask the questions. Then they get to learn what it is they want to do with their life in the future for next year. 

Chris 

So how much time should somebody block out if they’re going to do a vision board with you, Bonnie? 

Bonnie 

Will be an hour to an hour and a half. We go through everything, we go through the wheel of life and we see what parts of their life they need to work on the most. And then we put that onto the vision board. So I have a unique program called “Vision For Your Life” – where I uniquely combine A Vision Board & The Wheel of Life – color coding the Wheel of Life. So you could see what parts of your life need work on most and that goes onto the vision board first so you know exactly what you need to work on. 

Chris 

Wonderful, so. Is there anything else you’d like to share about your personal productivity, Bonnie? 

Bonnie 

Stay focused as much as possible and you know sometimes put your head down, put blinders on and know what your goals are for today, tomorrow, next week, next year and really start working on it. Sometimes there’s times I’ll have like 300 emails in my inbox, but if I sit there and do the Pomodoro technique 2 times and I work on my emails for 60 minutes, I get that way down because I’m only concentrating on one thing. If you’re trying to concentrate on too many things it’s not going to work out too good, so just do one thing for a certain amount of time and you’ll get everything done. 

Chris 

So Bonnie, tell us more about your business, specifically the services you offer, and who should contact you and how would, how would you like them to contact you to find out more. 

Bonnie 

Well, people can contact me through Facebook and e-mail. I don’t have A website yet, but I’m working on that. That should be going pretty soon. And Facebook is, you know, Bonnie S Hardy and my e-mail is bonniehardie at Yahoo .com. People can contact me and ask me about any one of my programs. I’ve got the five by five form, and that’s just one call that is $147. I have the vision for your life program that. is 4 separate calls. That is $444. And if you’re looking to be a podcast guest, like an international Podcast desk which can lead to other things, I can help you get your story out to worldwide and internationally. That is a 12 week program for $1111.00. And for Black Friday I’m going to offer all three programs for a discount, it’s $1700 plus dollar value for all three programs and it’s going to be like about $1250.00 for all three programs. You don’t have to start now. You can wait till the new year if you want. I know things are crazy now I just do need a deposit to keep your spot and figure out the order we want to do everything. But just contact me through Facebook, contact me through e-mail. Tell me what your goals are. Tell me what you’re looking for and we will work something out. We’ll get on a call and I’ll talk to you about, you know, how to help you with your productivity, how to help you with your best life. I’m happy to help you be rock solid. Basically, if you are kind of, you know you’re lost, you feel downtrodden, you feel like you don’t know what your future holds, what you want to do in your future, contact me, I will help you with that. If you don’t have like a strategy for your life, you need help getting focus, getting to some direction I can help you with that. 

Chris 

Thanks so much Bonnie, I appreciate it.