The 5 AM Club 66 Days Challenge – Week 6

Here am I, starting the week number 6 of my 66 days challenge. This is day number 36. I have just finished reading the post from last week, in order to be able to make a short summary of what has been going on in the past 7 days.

If you want to follow my journey from the beginning, you can go straight to the previous weeks from the links below, otherwise, a short summary of the last week follows.

week 1	week 5	week 9
week 2	week 6	week 10
week 3	week 7
week 4	week 8

Highlights of week 5

• I sold my parenting blog for more than I was expecting to get.
• I put my other blog for sale too, the auction finishes in 3 days.
• I have found an interesting job to apply to.
• I have started a online Financial Analyst Course on udemy
• I have worked more on the online shop for my flower business
• I continued waking up at 5AM although I had few days where I didn’t feel so good (in 2 of the days I took an early morning power nap as well, because of that).
• I did not make my plan for my PhD yet (it’s Friday, so I still have time to do that).
• I decided to pick up one of my remaining blogs and take it to world class level. The goal is to take it to 500 blog posts by the end of 2021.

Day 36

This is the first day of week 6. I usually look forward to this day of my 5AM weeks, because this is the morning when I read my post on the previous week, and make a list with the most relevant and important events that happened. In this way, I keep track of my progress (or not).

This morning I have 2 ideas that my mind is keeping itself busy with.

1. I haven’t made the plan for my PhD, which I was supposed to have done it by the end of this week. It’s Friday, and I have to send it to my supervisor before 4PM. I am in owe of the fact that I don’t feel guilty about it, and I don’t feel pressure. I am not motivated, and finally I stopped blaming just myself for that.
2. I have 5 blogs left in my portfolio. I need to decide on one to focus on for the rest of the year, and create world class content. 500 articles by the end of this year. Not just any type of articles, only world class content! That is what I need to do.

Since my second thought is more pleasant to think of, I will focus on it this morning. The 5 blogs that I have left are:

1. this one – has 14 posts already
2. one related to teaching math to kids, together with 2 teenagers daughters of a friend – 1 post and 7 youtube videos
3. one related to one of my passions: cooking – 33 posts
4. one related to outdoor activities – 25 posts
5. one related to engineering technologies – 6 posts

At the moment of writing this post, none of the blogs have significant traffic (25 visitors per month or less). They all are quite brand new (less than 1 year old).

So, here are the next steps that I need to take:

1. Decide on one blog
2. Come up with a monetization strategy, and an exit strategy.
3. Decide on how much money I am willing to invest for outsourcing part of the content
4. Decide on how much time I will spend myself writing
5. Decide if I will be creating youtube videos as well.
6. Create specific milestones with deadlines and make sure to keep them.
7. Come up with a prize for me for reaching each of the milestones within the deadlines.

Days 37 & 38

Weekend again. This was a socializing weekend, which means I was awake after 9 PM. I woke up at around 6-ish on Saturday, and 7:30AM on Sunday (I went to bed at 12:00AM). Some friends came over, and we had some tequila shots on Saturday. That was a good Mexican tequila we got.

This weekend I was completely off my daily routines. I felt good but also a bit guilty. I am looking forward to Monday to start all over again.

Sunday I used to meditate a little bit on my choices and my options. I am in the middle of a career change, a start-up company, personal development, and developing new skills. There are a lot of things happening at the same time now, so taking time to meditate, and reflect on those, it is not important, but vital for my mental health now.

I talked to two of my brothers about my thoughts. It helps to share your thoughts with someone else. Also, just to say them out loud. It helps me put them in order in my head. The discussions with my brothers were very productive. They are both very wise. Every time I talk to them I am pleasantly surprised to see how nice and mature they have developed. They both are “my little brothers”. But now I feel like it is me “the little sister”. I have so much to learn from them. I am humble and thankful for having them in my life. They are both very smart and very different in their way of thinking (although there are similarities as well). This is very valuable for me, because I can listen to their perspective, and are two different points of view. And then it is my point of view, and I feel like I am somewhere in the middle. I am not as brave, inspired, and creative as my entrepreneur brother, but also not as committed to 8 to 5 job and the security you get from a good job as my other brother is. I wish I can be more like my first brother, but maybe I am a bit more scared, and I am more like my second one 🙂 They are both super intelligent people, and I wish I were 50% as smart as they are 🙂 Then I would have a successful life, I know for a fact. Maybe I am, and I just need to believe in me more 🙂

Day 39

Today I had a cheat day. I went to bed around 10:30PM because I was talking with one of my brothers, so this morning, when I woke up at 4:45, I was not really ready to jump out of the bed and on the treadmill. I set the alarm for 6:45AM instead. I woke up again at 5:40-ish, then at 6, and finally I was out of the bed at 7AM. I decided to call this a lazy morning. This is my week with my kids, and it is also their winter vacation, so I need all the energy I could gather to “survive” over the week.

There are not so many things I could do this week, as I don’t have free time, but I decided, that, whenever I have some time off, I will use it to re-do my CV. Let’s get back in the game, and see what is out there. Am I attractive enough on the job market? If yes, awesome! If not, what skills do I need to improve or develop in order to be? I already know one of them, and that is the LANGUAGE 🙂 .

Day 40

My kids have winter vacation this week, so it is a bit difficult to keep up with the 5AM routine- waking up wise. I stood up today at 6:00AM, and that is because the kids fell asleep at 9:15PM last night, and I had a little bit of work to do for my start up before I went to bed.

However, I am still productive, and can’t wait to regulate everything back to normal. I hope today will be that day. I am taking the kids to this playground where they will exhaust themselves by jumping on trampolines, going up and down the slides, and all sorts of activities.

I haven’t gotten the chance to look through my CV yesterday, perhaps I can find some time to do that today. Today is my sister’s birthday 🙂 In 2 days is mine 🙂 I look forward to receiving a birthday card from my kids. They are the sweetest.

Days 41 & 42

My son and my boyfriend’s son prepared a surprise morning for me on day 42, as it was my birthday. I had the best birthday celebration ever. I never looked forward to my birthday like this before. The presents I got, I am very thankful for, but the real gift behind all of the other gifts, was love and care from my loved ones, which is priceless. My boyfriend baked a cake on his own, apparently for the first time ever. And it was edible. Points for him!

I did not have so much time for my morning meditations these two days, so I look forward to the next week when the kids finish their winter vacation. Tomorrow we are going on a trip, the 5 of us, for the first time. Is going to be awesome. I already know it.