Life-changing” can be such a cliché, subject to hyperbole and overuse. “This song is life-changing.” “That donut was life-changing.” Come on.

For Yolie Aleman-Rodriguez, the Whole Person concept really earns the adjective. It was only five years ago that the now-three-year MDRT member from Tolleson, Arizona, was working 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Specializing in property and casualty insurance, she determinedly tried and failed to reach the life insurance sales level (labeled “exotic”) that would earn her free trips to places like China, Australia and Bora Bora.

She was so fixated that when she qualified for trips the next level down (to places like Bermuda and Paris), she, to the horror of her colleagues, didn’t go.

“I felt that if I couldn’t reach those ‘exotic’ levels, then I didn’t deserve to travel,” Aleman-Rodriguez said. “That was my standard. I was so frustrated.”

The upside was that, in striving for that top level, she qualified as an aspirant for MDRT. At the 2012 Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California, she happened to sit next to Logan Naidu, ACII, CFP, a now 35-year MDRT member from Durban, South Africa. “I was highly impressed,” Aleman-Rodriguez recalls thinking of Naidu’s decades-long success. He not only offered to be her mentor but raved about the Whole Person concept and the balance it provided him. 

“I wanted to spend more time with my family, work less hours and qualify for MDRT,” Ale- man-Rodriguez said. “He was just talking magic when he told me, ‘You’ve got to stop working seven days a week. That is going out the door immediately.’”

Aleman-Rodriguez put a slew of new ideas in place right away, including scheduling more efficiently and adjusting her hours to 8 or 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. Within six months, she had reached “exotic” level, qualified for MDRT and was recognized as one of the top 50 agents in her company.

These are the changes she made in each area of the Whole Person concept and how that helped reconfigure her life.

Relationships

Before: “My husband had to make an appointment in my calendar,” she said, “and he’d be lucky if I kept it.” She also rarely communicated with her mother except to write a check when she needed it.

After: Aleman-Rodriguez and her husband have a standing, non-negotiable date every Friday night, on top of now having afternoons open to spend more time together. She also spent three years meeting her mom (who passed away in 2015) at Starbucks every Wednesday morning, memories which still make her smile from ear to ear with gratitude. “Those three years that I spent quality time with my mother were the best years of my life,” she said. She also has built relationships with more family members, including taking group trips to China and Tibet and traveling by houseboat from Arizona to Utah.

Health

Before: For Aleman-Rodriguez to exercise, she joked, the stars had to line up on a specific cycle of the moon, and only for 15 minutes, maybe once or twice a month. After all, she had to run to her next appointment, and fitness was not on her agenda. Her diet didn’t help either. “I thought I would die if I didn’t have steak or a hot dog or a hamburger,” she said.

After: She works out for an hour every morning, which might be yoga, spinning or, on Saturdays, running 3 to 5 miles. She also became a vegetarian, has lost weight and feels lighter too. “Before I was huffing and puffing if I had to walk a little bit to the parking lot. Now we do eight-hour hikes up the mountains,” she said.

Education

Before: She’d read a book maybe once a year, and if a subject came up in conversation she wasn’t familiar with, she’d leave.

After: Aleman-Rodriguez wakes up at 4:30 a.m. every day and reads for an hour. Some- times these are books related to her career (like John Maxwell’s “Good Leaders Ask Great Questions”). Other times they are biographies of inspiring leaders like John F. Kennedy, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi and Benjamin Franklin. She also reads about 10 books by MDRT members per year and is striving for her CLU designation. “I became a lot more relevant with a group of colleagues,” she said. “I don’t feel like I struggle to hold a conversation. Now I can lead it. I’ll go to conferences and quote Gandhi or Nelson Mandela, where before I didn’t know much about them. There’s a level of professionalism that comes with being well-rounded.”

Career

Before: Her “overwhelming” and inefficient schedule of appointments resulted in feeling exhausted. “It wasn’t a life,” she said. “I was living to work instead of working to live.”

After: She limits herself to three appoint- ments per day and makes the most out of her time. This also includes volunteering with MDRT, giving at least three presentations per year and being involved in study groups.

Service

Before: “When organizations would come to me, I would write them a check quickly so they could leave and I could go to my next appointment. It was nothing but a check,” she said.

After: In addition to giving money, she takes pride in participating in and helping with events. “I’ve gone from being a ghost to being a real, physical person, and present in the event and enjoying it,” she said. She helps provide bicycles to third-graders in need — even putting on an event for them rather than just gathering the bikes. In addition, she hosts an annual golf tournament, with all proceeds going toward scholarships for high school students with high GPAs who can’t pay for college.

Financial

Before: She’d spend time every Sunday making sure her finances were up to date, with all receipts processed and accounted for.

After: She hired a bookkeeper to do financial recordkeeping for her, and she and her husband, for the first time, established a financial review for themselves and developed a clearer sense of their own retirement picture. She also implemented a retirement plan for her employees, recognizing that their financial situation was as important as hers.

Spiritual

Before: She often skipped church for appointments.

After: Now she regularly attends church on Sundays and includes the Bible in her morning reading. She joined the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders and meets with them once a month, has become good friends with a priest and believes her professional success and personal fulfillment have been driven by increased spiritual connection. She also works with the Kino Border Initiative to raise money for people all over the world who have been deported and don’t have resources or a place to go. “I am making a difference in the world, helping people who could never help themselves and would never be able to repay me,” she said. “I think that’s the highest spiritual feeling.”