Self Improvement Daily Podcast

Cal Newport wrote a best-selling book called “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There”. The main concept is pretty self-explanatory - If you want to achieve a new level of result you need a new approach. Our actions and tactics are perfectly calibrated to create the level of results we’re currently getting. You need to chance the input in order to create a new output.

What’s more difficult to understand though, is when and how to put that into practice. Not only is there an unconscious resistance to doing things differently, but there’s a logical argument too. Once you’ve put so much time and effort into something, and it produced for you, it’s hard to admit that it’s become the exact thing that’s now holding you back.

In your health, maybe it’s someone who lost 20 pounds and can’t get the last 10 off. They need to experiment with new diet and exercise plans to reach their goal, even though what they’ve been doing has been effective for them. In business, maybe someone doubled revenue last quarter but it didn’t increase in the next. They need to explore new strategies that build on the growth they’ve experienced.

The really tricky thing is - If someone wants to improve the recommendation usually is to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. It’s the 80/20 rule, 80% of the outcomes come from 20% of the activity. Double down on what’s producing results and that will continue to drive growth. 

With that in mind, the question becomes… How do you know when results have plateaued and it’s time to make a change, and when it’s time to stay the course?

I don’t think there’s a straight answer to that, but here are a few influencing factors to consider:

- What’s the current rate of change?

If things are still improving but only slowly and incrementally, especially when compared to how it used to be, that suggests that the opportunity is saturated.

-What’s your honest intuition about it? Do you feel like there’s still genuine upside, or has the opportunity been squeezed?

Don’t underestimate your own impression on where things are at.

-How radically different is your vision for where you’re headed compared to where you’re at now?

The bigger the gap, the more reason to consider changing course. I understand that growth is a progression, and that you need to hit intermediate milestones on your way to something bigger. But also mind the gap and always be curious to explore if there’s a better way.

When you’re in a season of maintenance, keep doing the same things. But when it’s time to grow, that involves doing things differently. And that’s what will ‘get you there’ where you’ve imagined in your mind.

‍

All day, every day, we are so consumed with what we’re doing - juggling tasks at work, running errands, making time for people, making plans… And it occupies all of our attention.

Yet amid all of that, there’s something we’re doing the entire time that we’re not even aware of, and when we give this one thing more attention, it changes your life. Every single time. What is that thing? Breathing.

Throughout the day, our breathing is so constricted. We’re so uptight and tense that it causes us to not breathe as deeply or effectively as we could, which then promotes a stress response that further restricts our breathing. But when we bring conscious awareness to our breath, when we choose to slow it down and breathe deeper, it offsets all of that in a matter of moments.

But don’t take my word for it, let’s take literally one minute, together to breathe deeply. Don’t go on your phone or get distracted by something else; give yourself the gift of inner peace right now in just 60 seconds with a few long breaths. I’m setting a timer… 3, 2, 1, go. Just breathe.

It’s impossible not to feel better after 60 short seconds of breathing. And this gift is something you always have access to, whenever you want it, and it costs you nothing.

I encourage you to find moments throughout the day to practice a minute of breathing to reset and recenter yourself in preparation for whatever comes next - and give your best to all the ways the world needs you. 

‍

Many people who are ambitious or growth-oriented have an ‘all or nothing’ mindset. When things are on, they’re on and it generates an unstoppable force forward. But the second that momentum is lost, or something bumps them off trajectory, it all falls apart. They completely fall off their commitment. And it’s unfortunate because this means progress is never sustained, it’s constantly being undone and redone in a way that’s high effort and low pay off. 

The ‘all or nothing’ mindset is based on a misunderstanding of what it means to be “all in”. What it’s not is being fully committed to taking action at all costs. That approach sets people up for failure. Life is too unpredictable for everything to always work out exactly how you want it to. Our action is often the byproduct of our environment, which is too variable to rely on.

What’s far more practical is staying fully committed to showing up at all costs. And that’s because showing up means different things within different conditions. In one setting it could be the effortful approach to follow through and do the hard thing. But in another it could be re-engaging with the commitment after life happened, and getting back on track when you get knocked off.

That’s not to say that being ‘all in’ on something is easy. It’s painful to look at the instances where you didn’t meet expectations. And it’s precisely that pain that causes people to stay disengaged. The embarrassment and shame is a big hit to their self-esteem, and they unconsciously avoid accepting any shortcomings because of what it might mean about them. But by having the commitment to show up, look at their weaknesses, and be honest with themselves, they can work through it and get back to doing their best. 

To put it simply, to be ‘all in’ means that you’re committed to never quitting. That no matter how bad things get or how far you fall behind, you’re still in the game. That you refuse to let setbacks get in the way of creating what you see for yourself.

Our growth process isn’t going to be perfect. We can’t expect it to be. Which is why we need to stay in the game, accept that there are going to be ups and downs along the way, but never lose sight of what we’re building towards. 

Being ‘all in’ is a spectrum of showing up in the way that you need to, whatever action that might be, as your next step forward. And as long as you never stop showing up, you’ll always be right where you need to be - giving yourself another opportunity to grow.

If you're ready to start being more consistent and dedicated to being your best on a daily basis (rather than just when you feel like it), click here to sign up for the 21 Day Super Habits Challenge.

For years I was in a vicious and discouraging cycle. I was trapped thinking that I was growing and improving because I was spending so much time on it listening to podcasts, reading books, going through content. I’d put hours every day into my self-growth yet my life wasn’t changing, and I stayed stuck at the same level while I saw everyone around me succeeding.

I call this being a “personal development junkie”, and this was my problem. I felt like I deserved to improve, was “doing all the right things”, and was frustrated it wasn’t happening for me. And it’s only by working through it that I can see I was missing the most important ingredients.

Knowledge isn’t power, it’s potential power, and in most cases our fastest path to improvement is to apply what we already know.

It might feel productive to learn new things, but really it’s distracting you from making the most of what you already know by putting it into practice. And since I know this problem so personally, I want to offer my perspective on it and suggest a way to support you with it.

First, make sure your learning has a purpose. For some people, listening to a podcast while you prepare dinner is entertaining and motivating. It’s perfectly fine to learn for those reasons, but call it what it is and don’t convince yourself it’s anything else.

Second, if there is a knowledge gap, put your time into the right resources that will bridge it. This is the action step to take when you don’t have the right ideas or understanding you need to pursue forward. And when that’s the case find the knowledge source that does, consume it intentionally to get your questions answered, and move quickly into implementation.

Pat Flynn makes the distinction between ‘Just In Time’ information, which is exactly what you need to know when you need to know it, and ‘Just In Case’ information which isn’t immediately actionable or applicable to your current situation.

But again, more often than not, someone’s limited success isn’t a matter of not knowing what to do. It’s about helping them follow through. It’s not enough to read “Atomic Habits” and expect to have good habits… You need to put the knowledge into practice. Your learning works when you work it, and that’s what causes your life to change.

I was able to initiate that shift for myself when I started my night time performance tracking routine. I knew feedback was important, but I didn’t have a system to receiving it. I knew having a daily schedule was important, but I hadn’t gotten in the habit of it. I knew gratitude journaling was life-changing, but I hadn’t gotten consistent with it.

But once I did, I started becoming the resilient, disciplined, productive, and happy person I wanted to be. And if you want to see the process I’ve used and perfected over the course of a decade, and for me to teach you how to implement it for yourself, watch this video where I go through the whole thing step by step.

It was at a Mastermind with high-level entrepreneurs who have a ton of responsibilities, commitments, ambitions, and roles. This is at work, at home, and within themselves. And like anyone else, the way to maximize your ability to handle it all is by being more efficient and optimizing your life.

It’s within that context that the metaphor of being the “surgeon in the room” was presented. What does that mean? In a hospital setting, a surgeon does only the thing that they’re uniquely qualified to do. They ensure that their time goes exclusively into the highest leverage activities and processes. 

There’s an orchestra of things that need to happen, yet they’re not involved in any of it:

The Charge Nurse makes sure the room is set up correctly...

A nurse practitioner consults the patient beforehand...

A Scrub Tech double-checks that they have all of the right equipment...

The billing department works with the patient’s insurance to process billing...

Everything else facilitates the surgeon’s role - to safely complete the surgical procedure.

As you think about your growth trajectory, how can you be the surgeon in the room? What can you delegate within your work so that you’re not bogged down in menial tasks? What chores and errands do you have on your plate that could be outsourced as a service or to support staff? 

And then, what parts of your life require you and only you? In what ways are you impossible to replace, or you refuse to be replaced because it’s so fundamental to who you want to be or how you want to show up? The argument is, everything else should be set up in such a way that you’re enabled to do that at the highest level possible.

Taking a practical approach, not all of us have the means to get help in all non-essential areas of our lives. Finances, knowledge, and others needs act as constraints. And if that’s the case, my encouragement would be to become clear on what the first opportunity would be. This is your first step toward redesigning your life so that it’s more supportive in creating what you envision for yourself. 

Serious life change is mistaken for being massive, sweeping, and disruptive. But more often than not it’s iterative and an evolution over time. You have the ability to guide the direction of that growth, and that happens by removing one constraint at a time.

Even though we live in a world that’s comfortable and all of our needs are catered to, let’s not forget our evolutionary past. Humans are designed through evolution to be patient, resilient, and durable. There are few animals capable of running the distances that humans can, and that’s because our hunting strategy was to outlast our prey. We’d track animals until they got too tired to escape. It’s a gritty way of life, and it’s wired into each one of us.

However, because our survival is ensured by the fixings of modern life, that side of us doesn’t need to come out as often. Author Michael Easter calls this “The Comfort Crisis”. 

In his book (by the sane title) he elaborates on all of the concerns that come from our modern world: We live in temperature controlled environments when our internal systems require variation… We keep everything clean and it weakens our immune system… We’re sitting all day sedentary when our bodies need movement. 

And with all these things out of whack it’s no surprise that rates of obesity, mental health issues, and cardiovascular disease are at an all time high.

Since we don’t naturally get the things our mind and body need any more, we need to find our own outlets for it. Working from a standing desk and midday walks helps with blood flow and muscle activation throughout the day. Cold exposure through a plunge or shower kickstarts our metabolism. Getting some sunlight in the morning kickstarts our circadian rhythm, and eliminating blue light and screen time in the evening helps us wind down. 

Our natural spirit of resilience, dedication, and toughness is masked by the comforts of our modern world. Deep down we still have the same drive that propelled our species forward for millennia, it’s just not being expressed. 

We can consciously bring that side of us out when we need to every once in a while, but the real goal is that it’s infused as a spirit within everything we do. And the way to bring that forward is by intentionally doing hard things. Push yourself in a workout, get in cold water, do a breath work routine, take a bold action in business. It’s unbelievable how small consistent actions like that ignite a fire within you.

Every high-achiever who wants to be the best version of themselves is constantly battling a desire to want to do more. More experiences, more time with loved ones, more trips, more businesses, more impact initiatives, more self-care and self-awareness. And that's because making the most out of life truly involves pushing the boundary in all of these areas, and more.

The challenge is, ‘doing more’ isn’t all it’s cut out to be. While it’s good in theory, it’s different in practice. I want to offer a reality check that gives voice to the perspectives and tradeoffs that come with doing more.

First, what’s the purpose for doing more? Many people seek to do more, and become more, because they view that how much they do and who they are isn’t enough. It’s a means to filling a bottomless pit. When our day to day matches that of the person we admire, we expect to feel the same admiration for ourselves. But we bring the same belief system that sees what we’re doing today as not enough, and it comes to the same conclusions in different circumstances. 

Second, especially if you’re already fully busy, doing more of one thing requires doing less of another. It works out if you know that you’re wasting time, but if you’re not, then something needs to be pushed out in order to create space for what you’re bringing in. It’s great to want to add on a new volunteer position, but be practical about what that means for your current commitments. Something new will certainly take time from something else.

For many, that thing is sleep, which brings us to the final point - we each have a finite amount of energy. Our energetic state is most responsible for the quality we bring to the things we do. Doing more means you’re putting energy into more things, which takes energy away from everything else. That is unless you’re investing that time in life-giving activities that fuel your body and soul. 

I’ve found that when people say they want ‘more’, they really mean ‘better’. They don’t want to work more to make more money, they want to make more in less time - they want to work better. They don’t want 5 volunteer roles they’re committed to, they want one that offers more and better fulfillment. 

When we reframe the desire for growth as a pursuit of ‘better’ rather than ‘more’, our life opens up. We can actually deliver on having a more expanded life because we’re no longer operating from a finite and linear capacity. We tap into the exponential equation that life offers.

I’ve always liked the expression ‘there’s a window of opportunity’. Sometimes it can feel like we’re pushing really hard against a rock-solid wall that won’t budge. No matter what we do, or how hard we try, we don’t make any progress. 

But when the moment comes where something moves, and you punch through in the smallest of ways and see the light on the other side, it inspires you to keep going. A window of opportunity is a visual reminder that there’s a reason to be hopeful, that there’s a reason to keep pushing, and that your efforts aren’t being wasted.

To be fair... The opening you create could be really small, and it could be closing really soon. That’s why when you see your window of opportunity, you need to take full advantage of it. And here’s how:

First, you need to act fast. The second the window opens, it starts to close. The opportunity gets less and less fresh the longer you wait. So put together your next steps as quickly as possible. Now don’t completely cut corners, but done is better than perfect. Capitalizing on the enriched environment of a fresh opportunity is just as important as putting your best foot forward. 

The mistake people make is - since they’ve been trying for so long to create an opportunity, they want their next step to be perfect. They’ve only got one shot. But that keeps them hesitating and delaying taking action, which really hurts their chances.

That’s why it’s important to be ready. Be proactive about putting thought into how things would work, or what you’d need to have prepared when the opportunity presents itself. There’s a quote that goes “You don’t need to get ready if you stay ready.” It’s that level of preparedness that will help you to take fast, high-quality action when the window opens up. 

And second, think bigger. When you deliver quickly on something that is high quality and way more than what was expected, it makes an impression. Don’t just send a follow up email - make a custom demo. Work fast to overdeliver because it sets the pace for what comes next. 

Here’s my experience with this last week. Over the course of the last 11 months I’ve been working on creating a collaboration with Jesse Itzler. I’ve attended his events, offered insights, even ran a marathon with a custom flag that had his life mantras on it. The wall wouldn’t budge. No window.

Then after another one-off email, I got a response saying he’s interested to hear more about what I have in mind. I don’t need to build the case, do research, or figure out the best way to present this opportunity. I’ve been ready for this for 11 months. So I turned around a highly-thoughtful follow up video that outlines how everything would work, fully-customized, and sent it over within 24 hours.

That’s how you seize your window of opportunity. The work doesn’t start when the window opens. It starts now as you prepare for the small chance that you get an opportunity. It can come at any time, and you need to make sure you’re ready for it.

You’ve probably heard this excuse before and made it more times than you’d like to admit: “I’ll do it later.”

Need to wash the dishes? “I’ll do it after this show is over”.

Have to follow up with a government agency to straighten something out? “I’ll do it later this week on a day that isn’t so ridiculously busy”.

Planning to workout first thing in the morning? “I’ll do it after work today, I’m too tired right now.”

We all know how this ends - You watch TV late and have a bunch of chores to do, so the dishes way until tomorrow. Later in the week your day is just as ridiculously busy as before and you still feel you don’t have time to make the phone call. If you thought out were tired in the morning you’re completely wiped at the end of a work day and feel even less likely to get a workout in.

Here’s the thing about ‘later’… It’s like ‘tomorrow’. It never comes. It’s permanently pushed off into the future. 

For whatever reason, we underestimate our future capacity. We sense that work will slow down someday soon, but new things get added to your plate. We think we’ll have more energy or motivation in a future moment. But when reality catches it’s just more of the same. So here are a few things you can do to actually follow through on the things that are important to you.

Eckhart Tolle wrote a book called “The Power Of Now”. The only time you can genuinely impact is the present moment. David Meltzer often says “100% of the things you do now get done” and that’s because you’re operating in a timeframe that you have control of - the present moment. So when possible, leverage it.

Outside of doing the thing right then and there, you can take action in such a way that supports you in doing said 'thing' in the future. Here's my process for that: If there’s a new idea that comes to mind or task that needs to get done, I capture it in my Task Management System. I don’t let myself get pulled too far out of my way, but I do take a moment to capture the thought or task in a centralized place. Then every evening as part of my wind down routine, I review all of the things I added over the course of the day and organize them so that I understand their level of urgency and importance.

Here’s why that’s helpful: ‘Later’ is undefined, and that’s why it never comes. There are no specific details to it. However, when you plan something for a future day or time, the calendar catches up. Doing something ‘later’ is different than scheduling it for the future. That’s why I create a schedule for the day. I take all of the things that I have on my list, review them, select the tasks that are most important to get done, and assign them a day and time by putting them in my schedule.

Being more productive on any given day is pretty straightforward - Spend more of your time doing more of the right things. All that requires is more intention and focus. In most cases you need to plan your day to maximize it. It gives you a definite direction to an otherwise aimless intention. So don’t do it late. Do it now, or plan it for the near future so that when the day and time comes, you do it then.