Podcasts hold a wealth of information that can be accessed at anytime while traveling in a car or on a plane, exercising, eating, cleaning. The beauty of this form of content is that it makes knowledge available to you while you’re doing something else. Based on human nature and our preference to do what is convenient, and I have no doubt that podcasts will continue to get more and more popular. This means we’re still at the beginning of what is going to be available to learn through podcasts.

And something that is underrated about the podcasting world is its power as a search engine. In the search bar, you can type in any topic that you want to learn about, and an authority on the topic has prepared a long and detailed response on that topic.  I don’t think we give that enough credit!

With all of this in mind, it comes down to something simpler. Listening to podcasts means you are interested in learning. Instead of playing some music, or having background noise from a TV show or YouTube video, you can opt in to take a moment to learn something new. Remember, as stated in two of my favorite books The Compound Effect and Atomic Habits, it’s the small accumulation of small positive choices that create indescribable and lasting positive change. Use podcasts as a resource to seek knowledge on a daily basis

Despite setbacks, struggle, challenges, and defeat, we have made progress. It might not always feel like it, and sometimes it doesn’t look like it, but we are truly farther along in our journey right now than ever before. It is important we give credit to the factors that helped us make that progress first. We should be grateful for their contribution toward our lives, but second, because they’re some of the same things that will be required to get to the next step.

As human beings, it is built into our DNA to need others for our survival and proliferation. Matter of fact, I recently learned that homo sapiens were close to going extinct until they began working together. That need and requirement is no different today, but it takes a different form. 

It’s everything beyond survival. We need others to do more at work, raise kids, find joy, run errands, and provide motivation. There are many people behind every success you have and it’s through them you could breakthrough the next frontier.

There is one small point of complexity. There are those people who helped you along your way, because they didn’t support you. That’s a reminder that you are capable and you are enough as an individual. Although it’s so much better when we can work together, sometimes other people’s inaction helps you get where you need to go as well.

What we are hearing a snippet of someone who has been really inspirational to me and my development, but through unconventional means. It’s the musician Andy Grammer, popular for songs like “Gotta keep your head up” and “It’s fine by me”. He’s always had a really contagious and positive vibe. But, he hasn’t always been a mega success. Check out this snippet that Andy shared on Lewis Howes podcast “School of Greatness” about what it was like before he made it.

Isn’t that crazy to think an international star was once playing on the street with a bucket in front of him collecting change. It’s a welcome reminder that, no matter where we are in life, our breakthrough could be just around the corner. And what stood out about this also was, he knew what he wanted and he was prepared to pursue it relentlessly. Grammer went on to say that sometimes, with the law of attraction the universe finally gives up and says, “fine, we’ll let him have it”.

I am moved and inspired by a mentor of mine, Joel Brown. Joel shared a message about dreams, taking action, and purpose that really moved me.

Joel said something along the lines of “Doubt your fears, don’t doubt your dreams”. This made me wonder why is it that we seek to validate the positive things in our life, almost needing to be convinced that it’s true, whereas we don’t think twice about the truth of the negative things in our life. It’s a self-cannibalizing cycle that destroys our self confidence and makes us settle for things we don’t enjoy, far from our fullest potential.

Fortunately, we can flip the script. 

I recently did an exercise where I wrote down some of the things I believe to be true about myself. I was very careful to include at least 2 good things for every not so good thing. 

An example of this would be if I believe I am having conversations beyond my qualifications. That’s the negative. The positives I can spin out of it are, I believe I am always prepared, and I believe I am a very fast learner.   

Getting these concepts out of your mind and in front of you to review is extremely effective at seeing the concepts at face value. You’ll see that the two positive statements help take validity from the negative statement. This is exactly what you can do with your fears and your dreams.

Let me ask you a question. Would you like to wake up an hour earlier? There’s so much to do in the day and it’s really tough to fit it all in. If only you had one more hour then that’d make it all better.

Well, here’s your chance! In the United States we just began this thing called Daylight savings time. Basically, the clock moves back one hour overnight, making 7am feel like 8am and giving us all an extra hour of rest. Well, let’s use this time to help us into waking up an hour earlier!

Time is relative and we calibrate very quickly to any changes in it. The world will operate exactly as it did before, and it’s easy to get caught up in returning to the way things were with your own personal timing.  What I propose is that we use the momentum we picked up from an extra hour of rest, and make a positive change to our routine.

Do we require Daylight savings to initiate this change? Of course not. You could pick any day in the year to change a habit. But, what choosing Daylight savings does is it gives us that little extra advantage to be successful, and serves as day one in our commitment to the new habit. 

Personally, I am taking this opportunity to get to work an hour and a half earlier than I normally do, hoping that it will free up more time at the end of my day and help me achieve a better work-life balance. What will you use Daylight Savings to accomplish?