Darcy Curry, Author at Author of Your Own Story

The Root And Power Of Scarcity

Now, where does scarcity come from, and is it always bad? Well, scarcity commonly comes from two angles, right? When we get into a scarcity mindset, we’re either angry, right? We’re angry at somebody, so, “This is mine, and I’m taking this,” because you’re mad. And you get into this scarcity mindset that things are going to go away.

Or it’s fear-driven, right? We’re afraid. As a business owner, I can definitely tell you, there are times that I’ve been in a scarcity mindset, especially around money. When it comes to hitting payroll, or hitting goals, and things of that mindset. Like, “Oh gosh, we’ve got to get after it,” you know? And, things are going down, the sky is falling. And, if you’re a business owner, you get this. If you’re not a business owner, trust me. Your boss feels this way or has felt this way recently. It’s just common.

So now, we know scarcity can be caused by anger or fear, right? And so relationships, that’s another one I hear all the time from my personal coaching clients is, they’re scared that their spouse is cheating on them, or is going to cheat on them. And really what they’re afraid of, they’re afraid they’re not good enough. That’s what it boils down to. We can get into that for other conversations, or a Facebook Live over in our private group, and I’m happy to do that for you, ’cause it’s really a deep dive.

But for the purpose of these short Daily Growth Hacks, and I try to keep them short. Really just think of, every time you are in a mindset of fear, or a mindset of anger. Chances are you’re also in a mindset of scarcity. And we think of scarcity, what’s the opposite? Abundance. And that’s all we really want, is abundance, and prosperity. Abundance going towards our dreams, our goals, the Author of Your Own Story Lifestyle, right? Being the Author of Your Own Story. Your life. Whether it’s a digital nomad, a stay at home mom or dad, or whatever it is. Your journey is your journey. And we want you to be in abundance and prosperity.

But now, “Doug, is scarcity bad?” No. No. Scarcity is not bad. I can tell you that, I don’t know about you, but I know for me that, when I get into scarcity mode a lot of times, I’m scared, it’s kind of like back in my early days. Especially, it’s like, “Oh payroll. Crap, payroll’s due, and how are we going to make it, and clients …” I’m like, “Hey, everything’s great.” But then I grind it out. We hustle, we make it work, and that’s what we do.

There have also been times where you’ve been in scarcity mode where fear, a fear of a loss, or a fear of something going on your life, that’s caused to propel you forward. They often talk about people hitting rock bottom, right? Whether it be alcoholics, or drug addicts, or just in general in life. They hit rock bottom, and then they bounce up, and they become successful. This is a common story, a common thread that you see, and you see on TV, the news, or people you probably know.

Now, one of the common threads with that is, they hit rock bottom, and they get scared. It’s not that, “Oh, I have nowhere to go.” It’s they hit rock bottom, they get a moment of clarity, and they’re in such a scarcity mindset that they propel themselves forward. There’s no way but up, ’cause they’re so afraid of what’s going to happen, and what could happen with them. So, just something to think about. So scarcity is not always bad. But, we want to be a little bit more in the abundance mindset, right? We want to be a little bit more that way, so we can be pulled towards prosperity more. And abundance again, of course, just real quick. Abundance is really about excitement, right? This flip side of fear is really excitement. What’s the difference between fear and excitement? They’re very close to each other.

And so, when you get into excitement, you’re getting into more of an abundance phase. So, remember that. Again, what I want you to do, and I invite you to do, ’cause I know it works for me. Is, grab your journal write out your Five to Thrive. Your mind, your body, your soul, your relationships, and your business. And look in those areas. Where are you possibly in a scarcity mindset? We all go in and out of them, right? You could be the best success coach, business coach, whatever. All of us, its human nature to go in and out of scarcity and abundance mindsets.

Now again, like anything else, it’s repetition is the mother of skill and success. And then, this case, prosperity. So, where are you entering that phase, if you are? Then what I want you to do, is think about is, what are you afraid of, or what are you angry about? And then look at the flip side of that coin, right? Are you afraid, what’s the worst thing that could happen, and then, could you get excited about it, and turn that fear or scarcity into excitement, thus abundance and empowerment?

That’s it for me today. As always, go to AuthorOfYourOwnStory.com, sign up for the newsletter. It’s free, simple, and easy. And it guarantees that you get the latest tips, tricks, and techniques delivered right to your inbox, so you can act on them when you want to, but you can always be in the conversation of being the Author of Your Own Story.

And of course, build your tribe by sharing this with three people. It’s an easy thing you can do. Just hit share, share it with three people, and start conversations that matter with people that matter to you. Go out, inspire someone simply by being yourself, living your dreams, and being the Author of Your Own Story. I will see you tomorrow.

If you like these daily growth hacks, it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to subscribe and review us on iTunes!

Join The Discussion

Revisit: Imagine You Are The Idea

Recently, I had someone reach out to me, and they wanted help with a new product they were developing. What they wanted to do was hire me as a consultant, but truthfully, they just couldn’t afford our fees for our agency. So what I did, though, is I didn’t want to leave them empty-handed, so I provided them an idea.

I just told them, “Hey, look, here’s something simple you can do. You’re at the infancy stage,” and I know many of you listening to this have ideas, and you’re at the infancy stage, where you’re just developing them. I said, “Imagine you are the idea.” So let’s take a cereal box as an example. I want you to imagine that you are the cereal box. Now, if you’re a cereal box, how do you make yourself more attractive so customers want to pick you up and buy you? How do you make yourself more attractive to the grocer, so you get more shelf space? How do you make yourself actually fit into a shopping cart better? How do you make yourself stand out from all the other cereal boxes?

Maybe you’re a parking meter. How does it feel when coins are inserted inside you? What does it look like once you’ve expired? How could you be even easier to use as a parking meter? Well, now, one thing that could come to mind is credit cards. Well, how could that be easier? Well, you could say, “I could use bitcoin, and I could just transfer that over, or transfer it from my mobile device.” The key here is to imagine that you actually are the idea, whatever that idea is. So if I’m Author of Your Own Story University, if I’m actually that university, how do I actually let you know how amazing I am, how amazingly jam-packed full of useful information I am?

And there are several ways you can go about it, but what I want you to do is pick your idea. Whatever idea’s floating around your head, grab a piece of paper and imagine you’re that idea. How do you feel? How do you look? How do you interact with the world? And what could you do better? What is it that can make you more user-friendly? What is that idea? Putting yourself in that idea’s shoes gives you that mental shift that often people need to actually push a little bit further forward. Now, this is obviously a small and simple trick, but I’ve learned over the years that at the infancy stage of product development, this is a great way to get you out of that linear thinking, that really analytical thinking of developing the product, and actually get you more user-friendly, and bring you to market, and bring up new ideas, and I hope that does that for you too.

That’s it from me today. Remember, build your tribe. Go out there and share this with at least three people you know. If you’re not doing it, do the work. Come on now, you’ve got to do the work in order to get any benefit of this. Imagine your idea. Be that idea. It’s a simple exercise, but it pays dividends. Even if you’re a service company, imagine you’re the service. You can do this, and you can apply this to all kinds of aspects of your life. That’s it from me today. Remember, go out and be the author of your own story.

If you like these daily growth hacks, it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to subscribe and review us on iTunes!

Join The Discussion

Revisit: Just And Only

Now, I just got back from a run and I wanted to shoot this quick video because it’s a topic I had earlier with a client of mine I was working with. The two words that came up were just and only. In this conversation, he was telling me, “Doug, I’m just doing this,” or, “It’s only one time.” It’s only one time I’m doing it, or only one cookie or whatever it was. So in our conversation, it happened to be around the area of business. The words just and only kept coming up in this conversation. That’s when I stopped him. Let’s just say his name was Rick. I said, “Rick, it’s not just, and it’s not only. Take those words out of your vocabulary.” So what would you say if you took out the word ‘only’ in that sentence?

What he was talking about in his business is, it’s only one time that we skipped the sales process. This sales process was breaking down all the elements in his marketing and sales funnel. This was causing a lot of disarray in his business, but he kept on saying, “Oh, it’s only this one time. It’s only this one time that this key employee missed the sales meeting.” It’s not. What he really should be saying is, “This key employee missed the sales meeting.” That changes the whole paradigm. That changes the whole structure of the conversation. What Rick was also doing was in the area of his body. He was talking about, “I only cheated on my diet just this one time. I only cheated on my workout and skipped it, just Wednesday.” “Well, it wasn’t just Wednesday, Rick,” because what was happening is he was doing this from week to week. Every time he did this, these just and only, they kept on adding up. They kept on compounding. What he was doing was lowering his standards.

Oftentimes, when we just the words just or only, really what we’re doing is justifying our own lack of expectations, our lack of standards, and our lack of commitment to actually producing quality work and content in our lives. As we lower this bar, we’re continuing lowering this. What it does, is it really makes it easy for us to become complacent, lazy, and make excuses. So what I want you to do is think about your day. Think about those times when you use your vocabulary, how often are you using the words, ‘just’ or ‘only.’ So if it’s in your body, and a body is an easy one for me to keep coming back to, because it comes up so often. “I just skipped the workout on Wednesday,” or “I only overate last night.” These things come up all the time.

But the reality is if you just skip the workout this week, and maybe next week, you just give out two workouts, or maybe it’s just three. You only overate three times this week, that adds up over time, and it adds up to lack of commitment and which diminishes. It makes you feel like you’re a liar internally. Now this lowers your standards, as I said before, which causes a lot of problems here. It really blocks you from becoming the author of your own story. You’re setting up your own barriers in front of you, and blocking your recognition of these barriers being there. So what I mean is, what we’re doing, is we’re making excuses for ourselves, but we’re also lying to ourselves. Your subconscious mind picks up on these little lies.

If I say I’m going to run tomorrow, and then I wake up and say, “You know what, I’m just gonna sleep in this once,” or, “It’s only one time that I’m gonna skip,” really what I’m saying is I’m lying to myself. I lied because I made a commitment that I’m going to go running in the morning, and now I don’t do it. Then I’m making an excuse. That’s lowering my standards. What I want you to do is grab your journal out, grab it. Write down your Five to Thrive and look where, if anywhere, your constantly saying, ‘just’ or ‘only.’ Oftentimes this is in the body, relationships and business are the three areas I see this come up most with the people that I’m coaching one on one and in conversations with on a regular basis. Now, for you, it could be the spirit, it could be mind, or it could be none of them or all of them. The key is, to be honest with yourself. That’s how you actually progress and become the author of your own story.

It’s facing those realities. So what I want you to do is take out those words in your vocabulary. Take out ‘just’ and take out ‘only,’ because if you take those out, you get to the truth of the situation. I’d love to hear your feedback. Go over to authorofyourownstory.com, sign up for the newsletter, and shoot me an email. Let me know how these two words, ‘just’ and ‘only,’ are playing in your vocabulary right now. I’d love to hear your experience, once you take them out, what you recognize in your own language, and therefore, your own behavior. As always, I want you to share this with at least three people. The first three people that come to your mind right now that you want to have this level of conversation with. Look, you’re taking your time. I try to keep these short and simple, under five minutes, and you’re taking your time, your personal time to listen to these. I hope you’re doing the work.

Now, what I want you to do is take that next step and share this with at least three people, the first ones that come to mind, so you can have conversations that matter. That helps you build your tribe and become the author of your own story.

If you like these daily growth hacks, it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to subscribe and review us on iTunes!

Join The Discussion

Is It Working Or Not?

A snapshot in time, the present moment. Ask yourself, “Is it working or is it not?” Now, oftentimes we kind of fudge things around. You know, “Is your diet or exercise program working?” “Well, you know sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. You know, sometimes Doug I’m on it and sometimes I’m not.” Well, that’s BS, right? Either it is working, or it’s not working. And if it’s working sometimes that means it’s not working for you.

Now, we can apply this to all areas of our five to thrive. The key is just getting honest with yourself, and really breaking it down. Why do we want to do this? Well, we want to do this because we want to stop walking around with blinders, giving yourself false pretense to actually getting to the path that we want to go on. It’s so easy to drift off course or to swerve as you’re going on the path to your goals, your dreams, and your desires. And this happens to us in all areas of our life. And we’re constantly swerving, right? But the key is that course correction. You know, they say an airplane is almost always off course, but the difference is it is constantly course correcting on its flight path. Whether it be going from Los Angeles to New York, or from New York to London, it is constantly going off course, but again, every split microsecond it’s re correcting or course correcting. And that’s what we want to do in our lives as well.

So, what I invite you to do is go ahead, grab your journal, write out your five to thrive, your mind, body, soul, relationships and yes business. Write those out, and what you’re doing in those areas. Is it working for you? Not for me, not for the person next to you, or your friends, or the people that you look up to, or your coach, your mentor, not for them but for you. This is Author of Your Own Story, you get to write into your own dreams, loves, and your own passions. Is it working for you? And the answer’s simply yes or no. It either is working, or it’s not. And if you’re kind of like, “Well, I don’t know if my relationships are working.” Well, they’re not working then. You either do know it or you don’t it’s simple.

And so, what I want you to do is write that down. Now, an area of relationships maybe you have several categories, you can break those down. Or if you’re like me maybe you own several businesses, and you can break those down too. So, you can say business one, two, three, four, five, six is it working in that business or not? And you have different answers for each, and same goes for relationships, intimate relationships, friendships, co-workers, etc.

And so, when you have that list, and again, you’re being bluntly honest with yourself this is a chance to rip off the mask and just be real. And so, let’s say it’s the area of body, it’s an easy one for most people to understand. So, you want to ask yourself, “Hey, look. Is my body a 10? Or a nine even, on my scale.” Now again, it’s your scale not mine. And it’s not some scale of a cover model on a magazine or anything, it’s just for you, what you want your body to do. Is what you’re doing working? And if you answer no, then what I want you do is say, “What do I need to do to course correct this?” This is your opportunity to make a plan. Now you may want to seek out advice. You may want to seek out advice from a fitness or a nutrition expert. You may want to take a course, or maybe you know what to do, and you’re just not doing it. Then you can ask yourself why.

You want to go through each of these items here. In my mind, is what I’m doing working or am I that person that grabs a book that I really want to read, and I read the first chapter and then I go onto the next book and the next book, and next thing you know I have 100 books with only one chapter read. Is that working? Probably not. And then the areas again like relationships, is the area of relationship with your spouse working? Is the area of relationship with your co-workers working? Is the areas of relationships with your friends working? Do you have the friend groups that are allowing you to live fully, and fully to your potential? Are these people that are pushing you and pulling you up rather than putting you down? Or are these people that just want to get drunk or high with you, or really just want to gossip? These are all poisons and toxins in the body and the soul. So, what is it for you?

And then look at your business. Are you getting as much as you want out of your business? What’s your take-home pay? That’s a key indicator. What are you taking home? And is your business filling you up, or is your work filling you up, is it passion? Are you contributing to the world? Are you giving more to the world than you’re taking away? These are questions you want to ask yourself. Is it working? Yes or no.

That’s it for me today. Do the work. Do this exercise, I think you’re going to get so much out it. And I love all of you that keep responding to me. Send me your results. E-mail me. Go ahead and throw something on social media, I’m easy to find. LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. I’m here for you and I want to support you on your path to your journey. Make sure you share this with at least three people that you think would have a great conversation with this. Build your tribe. Build the tribe of people that are going to pull you up to your own journey. I will see you tomorrow, have a fantastic day and go out and inspire someone simply by being the Author of Your Own Story.

If you like these daily growth hacks, it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to subscribe and review us on iTunes!

Join The Discussion

The Need For Growth

People often ask me, why do high-end successful business owners and coaches turn to me for coaching? Well, the idea is really simple. We need to always be growing. And so, the conversation revolves, and they say, well Doug, these people are already successful. I know some of your clients. They have a private plane. They have a successful business. Now, not everybody does, right? Some of my clients are actually entrepreneurs just starting out. They’re willing to take the deep dive, but all of them have the same need, the same desire, and that’s growth.

Just like a plant, if you’re not growing, you’re dying. For these people, what they want to know is, what is that next level? What is that next level of growth in their journey, in their mind, in their body, in their soul, in their relationships, their business? We take it a few steps further. We include wealth, growth and also fun because those things are also important too.

What happens is, these people are actually more interested often times, in the person that they’re going to become along that path. Yeah, they’re already successful in business maybe. Right? Those people that are successful in business though, getting to the next level, the only change that they’re looking for, is the man or woman that they’re going to become on that journey. That’s what I help them with. Now, the same thing with your body, right? I work with a lot of coaches, so business owners in the fitness field who have phenomenal bodies. However, they’re always looking for that next level. An example is, I have a coaching client of mine right now who’s diving deep into Wim Hof Method. A phenomenal athlete, great shape, but he’s diving even deeper into his fitness. It’s not because he needs to. It’s because of who he’s going to become and the gifts that he can impart on other people from his journey and what he learns.

Now, you don’t have to be a billionaire, a millionaire, or super successful right now. Whatever station you are in life, you should be on a quest to grow. If you’re listening to these Daily Growth Hacks, you obviously are. You’re obviously on a path. I hope you’re doing the work. I talk about that often, but I’m going to drive it home. Do the simple stuff. Do the exercises that we talk about in these Daily Growth Hacks. This is you and I having a conversation. And yeah, I can’t hear you right now, but you can comment to me. Many of you reach out to me on social media, and we also have a conversation. Constant growth is evident, whether you’re just starting out, you’re a student, you’re a housewife, or you’re just starting out in business, or you run a $100,000,000 corporation. Always the growth is what we go for. The reason we go for growth again is not just to get to the next level. Sometimes stuff is just working really well, but it’s the person we become to get to that next level that is the true journey that’s worth going on.

I ask you today, in your five to thrive, where are you growing? What is your next level? Who are you going to become when you hit that? And then, lets reverse engineer it. Who do you have to become to engineer it? That’s the secret sauce. That’s it for me today and make sure you share this with at least three people so you have conversations that matter. Remember, it’s always been said, you are the product of the five people you spend the most time with, and you and I just spent time together, so go send this out to three more people so you can have conversations that matter. As always, go out and just inspire somebody simply by being the author of your own story. I’ll see you tomorrow.

If you like these daily growth hacks, it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to subscribe and review us on iTunes!

Join The Discussion

Focus On What Matters

Just yesterday I was sitting in my office and my office is at home, and I was working away on a big project. We’re launching a huge program that we think is a game changer here. And as I was working on it, I have glass windows, glass doors, on my office and I looked outside and I heard the words, “Da-Da.” Now, I looked to my right and there was my young son smiling, and he was just gleaming from ear to ear. Now, I was so focused on this project. I was working hard and I wanted to get it through. Now, I could have easily stayed and worked on my project, and that was the first reaction that I had. My first reaction was, ah, that’s cute, back to work. Let’s get some focus time, maybe I’ll even close the drapes so I can just focus on this project.

And then it hit me, and it hit me really quickly because it’s something I work on, right? I work on these triggers and I work on them with my clients, so it’s always in my mind. I thought, why am I building this program? Well, I’m building this program for two reasons. One, is I think it’s going to make a huge impact on the world and help a lot of people. The second reason is I’m building this program because it’s going to allow me the revenue, the income that it’s going to produce to spend more time with my son. Well, wait a minute, why don’t I just do that now? And so, I just shut down my computer. I went outside and I wrestled with my son for an hour. It was so much fun. He was giggling so hard he was drooling. I was giggling, I was probably drooling. It was amazing. It was a miracle in time and space.

And so what I started to think about is, where else am I actually not focusing on what matters? In the area of my body for example, this is something that I’ve been really focusing on since being a new dad because I let myself slip a little bit, right? I’ve used the excuse of not sleeping. I go to the gym and I’ll work out, but I’m not working out as efficiently, and why am I doing it? Well, the real reason I’m exercising is not just to be healthy, because I’m actually really healthy, is I want to be able to play with my son more. So, I’ve turned my second workouts in the day to play times, right? So, I grab my son. I squat with him. I throw him in the air and I’m doing lunges with him, and he’s giggling. He has no idea that I’m getting a workout in.

So, it’s actually focusing on what matters is the key for me and compounding that time. So I’m going to ask you, what matters to you? Grab your journal, write out your Five to Thrive, and where are you not focusing on what matters in your mind, your body, your soul, your relationships, your business. Pick one of those, find out where you’ve diffused your focus and you aren’t focusing on what matters as much, and change course. Today’s the day and now is the time.

That’s it for me today. I will see you tomorrow. As always, share this with at least three people that you know and love and you think would have conversations that matters so you can build your tribe. I’ll see you tomorrow. Go out and be the author of your own story.

If you like these daily growth hacks, it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to subscribe and review us on iTunes!

Join The Discussion

Stop Holding Onto Things For So Long

The other morning, I was driving to the gym, it was 5:30 in the morning. And as I was driving down, I came up into a roundabout, and suddenly another car entered the roundabout going pretty quick. I hit the brakes to slow down and found myself on a patch of black ice. Now, to give you some reference, I’ve lived my whole life by the beach. In fact, the coldest place I’ve ever lived is Santa Barbara California. Now, recently, my wife and I moved up to beautiful Bend, Oregon, and we live by the base of the mountain, ’cause we love the mountains and the outdoors, and all it brings to us. So I hit this patch of ice, and I course-correct instantly and immediately to avoid the car.

What it got me thinking was, “Wow, if I wouldn’t have reacted as fast as I reacted, I would’ve hit T-bone right into this car.” And most likely, just would’ve caused damage to the car, maybe some light bumps and bruises on myself and the other driver. But by course-correcting and reacting right away, immediately, I was able to avoid an accident, and both of us went on our merry way, and I had a fantastic workout. But it got me thinking, “How often in my life do I not course-correct as quickly? How long do I stick to something longer than I need to be doing? I’m not agile.” Well, I started looking at my Five to Thrive, as I often do, and I encourage you to do the same. And I saw this in many ways; in my body, in the area of nutrition. I’ve definitely not course-corrected as quickly, ’cause I wanted to try a certain thing. Maybe it’s certain ketogenic diet or intermittent fasting. I have clients that are in these fields, so I definitely wanna try whatever their promoting, or before I promote something to one of coaching clients for example.

So where else? In relationships. How often … I remember formerly, just being newly married, I would beat my head against the wall doing the same thing over and over and over again, thinking what I was doing was the absolute best and why couldn’t my wife, my partner, understand that and just kept doing it, over and over again, rather than course-correcting quickly. Now, in retrospect, hindsight is 2020, as I look back, I was able to realize that what I was doing wasn’t working and course-correct it quickly, I would’ve shortened the gap of misery in the relationship, right, so much quicker, so so much quicker. My poor wife would’ve been a lot happier too.

So other areas, with friendships I’ve seen myself do this. In business, right? How often do we, as high-level achievers, and I know you are if you’re listening to this Daily Growth Hack, how often do we just stick it out because we’re grinders, we’re alphas, we can do this, rather than just course-correcting as simple … as quickly as possible, like I did when I hit the ice.

So I invite you to grab your journal, your Five to Thrive and look in your Five to Thrive and where you’re sticking to something too long when you should just be able to course-correct. Now, when you recognize that, course-correct immediately. Take action. Never leave the scene of a decision or an insight, without taking immediate action. That just further cements that insight into you and allows you to move so much further.

As always, go share this with at least three other people, by simply just passing it on, and having conversations that matter.

One of you reached out to me last week and said, “Jeez, Doug, I wanna share this, I just don’t know what to say.” So here’s the trick, just share it, just forward this link. If you’re watching on video, share the video. If you’re listening to this on, could be Spotify or anywhere that we actually host these Daily Growth Hacks, share the link, forward it on, and then say, “Hey, what do you think about this?” That’s a great way of sharing it. And if you’re one of those people that just got this from a friend, just know that the person that sent you this daily growth hack, cares about you and wants to have conversations that matter, right? And they believe that you have what it takes to have these deeper-level conversations. I know you do.

If you like these daily growth hacks, it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to subscribe and review us on iTunes!

Join The Discussion

The Key To Creativity Is Focus

Contrary to popular belief, the key to creativity is actually focus. I know a lot of creatives are going to be like, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I don’t like rigidity. I don’t like this out there. I want to be creative. I want to be in flow.” Well, you can’t be in flow if you’re constantly being interrupted. In today’s age, we have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, social media galore going right at us. We have chats coming up on our computer, email coming in, people talking to us left and right, so many distractions that it’s almost impossible to be in a flow state unless you actually create it by being focused.

What I’m going to invite you to do is something that I’ve been playing with quite a bit. I tried different methodologies, but it’s really setting a timer and then turning off everything else around you. That means putting your phone in airplane mode. That means signing out of chat and letting your team, your boss, your coworkers, whoever it may be, your spouse, letting them know that you have focus time at this moment, turning off all the distractions around you, and then having that focus time so you can be in flow and be creative.

You can be creative when doing accounting. You can be creative when doing art, of course. You could be creative when doing business strategy. This is why I love coming in and doing business strategy for companies. It’s one of my jobs. It’s one of the things that I really enjoy, especially on the marketing side, because I go in there and I use basic science and combine it with art and come up with a creative solution to allow them to dominate their marketplace. “It’s my version of painting,” is what I tell people. What is yours? How can you actually get more creativity in your life by getting more focus?

One of my clients happens to be a coach, and he was going through the similar thing, and we were talking, and he was just telling me, “Hey, Doug, I just don’t have enough time. Business is good. I just don’t have enough time in my life,” and when I looked at it, what I had him do was something I’ve talked about in these Daily Growth Hacks, and I do it with almost all my clients, is I said, “Send me your calendar. Tell me what you’re doing all day.” I looked at his calendar, and there was just huge gaps in the day, which is great if you’re doing things that you like to do, and he wasn’t. He was a very high-end … He is a very high-end, very respected coach, and he’ll be listening to this, so hi, but what happened for him is he was being distracted constantly, and so I had him do two things. One is I had him install a program that tracked what he was doing on his computer and his cellphone. Then I had him write down what he felt he was doing throughout the day in 15-30 minute increments.

What he found after four days of this was he was actually spending three to four hours on social media each and every day. This wasn’t social media for outreach. This wasn’t social media for a business dev. This was social media in a sense of going on, being distracted so you can avoid doing those things that are important to you. Social media, I call it cat videos. I use that analogy a lot because it’s going onto Facebook or Instagram or even LinkedIn and just getting sucked into one video, one post after another, responding to people’s comments, etc., etc., etc.

I love social media. In fact, one of our agencies actually has a thing called The Authority Maker, and a big part of that is social media dominance. However, social media can be one of those slippery slopes, as can chat, as can all other distractions, whether it be Slack, HipChat, for business, phone calls coming in. We get so distracted by all these external things in our world that we don’t actually take control and have focus.

One thing that I’m doing is something that’s called Jam Sessions. My coach actually recommended I do this, and it’s very similar to things I’ve done in the past. He calls them Jam Sessions. What we do is take 90-minute blocks twice a day and just focus and turn everything off, and, also, for some of my clients, I usually say start off with 20 minutes. Start off with a 20-minute increment, and that’s what you can do.

There are all kinds of other principles out there and things that people use to do this, but it’s the same, same idea. You can get more creative when you get more focused, and I notice that where I get the least amount of focus are in two areas of my life, relationships and in business.

In business, what happens, as I have three screens going on at any given time, plus another laptop, plus a cellphone, and I’m running six companies, and I’m talking to different people, business partners, colleagues, affiliates, staff, I’m going customers, I’m going all over the place. I used to pride myself on the ability to do that, but it just not focus work. What I’ve done is I’ve shut all that down, and so when I focus, I actually focus, and my team knows I’m not available until 10:00 AM, and after 10:00 AM, I’m only available till 2:00. What that does is actually allows them to do the work that they’re supposed to do and hyper-condensed the things that they need from you, really.

Another thing that I’m doing, in the area of relationships I was noticing, is my cell phone would go off, and I’ll think, “Oh, someone needs me,” or something would happen. I’d be distracted. I wasn’t being present. Having an infant, I can’t even imagine a better presence meter than a young child. He knows right away when I’m not present or if I’m on my phone, and so I just turn distractions off. I just try not to even bring it around anymore, and after a certain time, I’m just done. I’m done. I’m just with my family. In fact, I’m lucky enough that even in my office, I just walk out the door and play with my family throughout the day. I wrestle with my child. I hang out with my wife. In fact, just before this Daily Growth Hack, I was just chatting with her about things that we’re going to do today, and I want that lifestyle to you if you want it. It took me a while to get here, but I want that for you.

Part of the way that I was able to get here is having focus time, and so I invite you to look at this, as well, and the way that I would recommend doing this is where in your Five to Thrive like me are you possibly losing focus? Is it in your mind? Is it in your body? Is it in your soul? Is it in your relationships, like me? Is it in your business, like it was for me, as well? These are areas I constantly focus on or look at, and the way that I look at it is I write down my Five to Thrive, and I write out what’s true. I’m just raw, relevant and honest with myself and see where in those areas that I’m losing focus. Where I’m losing focus, I know I’m losing creativity, and creativity is the magic of innovation, and innovation and marketing are the magic of business, and so if you have any interest in business, you need to always be innovating and marketing. Those are the two things if we’re going to do anything else in business, but focus and creativity apply to all those areas. I want you to have those.

Write out in your journal. See where you’re leaking focus and then course correct, and I’ve given you a number of tips to do that. Of course, if you want more tips or deeper dives, reach out to me. I’m easy to find on social media, but now you know that I don’t always check it except for at specific times, so I’ll respond to you as quickly as I can. My team also monitors that for me. Then, of course, share this with three people that you know. Grow your tribe so you can have conversations that matter. It is so important that you actually have these people in your life that you can talk to, that you can actually grow with. They say that you’re the product of the five people you spend the most time with, and, of course, you’re spending time with me right now, and I thank you for that, but you need four other people, and so by sharing this with at least three other, you are growing your tribe and you’re growing your circle of influence, and this is going to get you to your path just a little bit quicker.

If you like these daily growth hacks, it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to subscribe and review us on iTunes!

Join The Discussion

When Your Why Doesn’t Match Your Actions

Now, I coach coaches and high-end entrepreneurs, the best of the best. And often times, what this results in, is them not calling me out because they think I have all my ducks in a row, all the time.

Well, I’m going to let you in on a dirty little secret. I simply don’t. I’m always on my journey. That’s why it’s a journey. There’s not really a destination. There are places I’m trying to do, go to, and I’m always trying to improve myself.

Just recently, in fact, the past two weeks, I fell off track, and nobody was putting me on track, which was fine because they shouldn’t have to. But what I noticed was, in all my five to thrive, things started to fall apart.

Now this, many of you might not know, the reason I came up with the five to thrive, was simply because I realized that I would focus on one area of my life, maybe business or relationships, while the other ones would start to crumble.

And once one started to crumble, they all started to come down, like the foundations or pillars in a house or a building. And so what I was doing is, I started to let my nutrition slip. I started to eat crappy foods. I started to drink more beer.

And it was fun at the time. It was fun at that time, but later on in the evening, or the next day I’d be like, “Oh my gosh. What am I doing?” And I started repeating this pattern. And as I was repeating this pattern, my health, my business started to slip.

And nobody noticed, but I did. I noticed. My coaching wasn’t as high as it could be. And again, I coach some of the top-level coaches in the world, as well as some of the top-level business people, as well as a politician.

So I need to be on top of my game at all times and I’m always raising the bar. And I noticed I was starting to slip. And my actions were not matching up with my why. The why, the reason I’m doing what I do.

One of the reasons I deliver these daily growth hacks, each and every day, for free … I give them out to you, and give them out to the world in the hopes that people will better themselves. I think this is truly the way the world would be a better place.

Not necessarily because of something I say, but people actually taking authorship of their lives, and each and every day writing a new story. But what I found for myself was, my actions weren’t matching up with my why.

I wasn’t doing what I was saying I should do. I wasn’t living my author of your own story lifestyle. And for two weeks, I slowly saw different areas of my life starting to crumble. And again, it’s not something anybody would notice from the outside.

My wife probably noticed, but nobody else would. But I knew it internally and so I had to course correct. And it was through doing the exercises that I’ve shared with you, and we’ve done, gosh over 200, almost 300 episodes at this point.

Going through those exact same exercises, going through my journal and doing the work, got me right back on track. And I’m proud and I’m happy to say that, I’m not only on track, but I’m stronger than I was before, and that’s what I want for you.

So what I invite you to do right now, is grab your journal. Look at your five to thrive. Now, do your actions actually match up with your why, and if they do, awesome. Keep it up. You are inspiring not only myself, but other people, and reach out to me and let me know. I love it when I hear from you.

But if they’re not, if your actions aren’t matching up with your why, with the person that you’re trying to become, or the person you say you are, then what could you do right now to course correct? Now, is it something you could do, and act immediately, right after you’ve listened to this daily growth hack?

Maybe you said, “You know what? I’ve been listening to these courses and other things, but I’m not taking action.” Well, do that. Take action today. Or maybe you just need a mentor, a coach. Reach out to me like so many of you have reached out to me before.

And if you’re not a good fit for me, I’m happy to point you in the right direction for somebody else. Now, what else could you do? That’s a question you want to ask yourself. “And what else could I be doing? What else could I be doing to course correct? Do I need accountability? Do I need just to suck it up and do the work?”

And that’s what a lot of us need. And that’s certainly what I did. It was just a matter of recognizing that I was off my path and jumping back on. That’s it for me today. As always, share this with at least three people.

Grow your tribe. That makes it so much easier for you to get back and course correct, because people that you’re having conversations that matter with, are going to keep you accountable and they’re also going to inspire you as you inspire them.

And of course, go out and inspire people by simply just being the author of your own story. It is so rare in this day and age, and I want you to have that. I want you to have it all. I’ll see you tomorrow.

If you like these daily growth hacks, it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to subscribe and review us on iTunes!

Join The Discussion

Escalation Expectation

Late last year, I was fixated on one of our companies making $600,000 in recurring revenue each month. I was tunnel visioned into this outcome, and we had designed, my business partner and I had designed a product to bring to the marketplace that we thought was exceptional. We were so focused on this product that we actually missed so many other opportunities because we were focused on the expectation or the outcome of what we were doing.

What we didn’t know or realize is after we signed up clients and customers, we started polling them. They said, “Hey, Doug, look, this is great, but what I really want is something else. This would really help me out even more.” Now had we thought about that and actually looked at the outcome in a bigger, broader perspective and allowed the creativity to flow, we would have picked up on this much, much earlier, saving us countless hours, money, time, and just headaches.

Now, I’m inviting you to the possibility that this might be happening for you in just different areas of your life, where you’re so focused on the outcome that it stifles your creativity or your ability to see other possibilities that are out there, right? How many times do you see this in your mind, your body, your soul, your relationships, and your business?

I know for me in the area of the mind, I’ve done this before with trying to learn a foreign language. I was so fixated on the outcome that I wasn’t open to the possibilities around me, and once I started opening myself up, I saw travel to South America. I saw actually talking to friends who already speak Spanish and making it fun. Now, when I was just fixated on the outcome, just fixated on that one result, the expectation that I had, I became laser-like focused one particular course of action. Those blinders narrowed me, narrowed me to that actual outcome.

Now, of course, I’ve done this in all areas of my life, all of my five to thrive, and I’m going to guess that you have possibly too. Where in your five to thrive right now are you letting the expectation or the outcome affect the way that you actually get the result. In other words, are you putting blinders on like I have and not allowing yourself to be open to other possibilities? Go ahead and write that down, and the next step is to take action. Again, I always say it. Don’t just be a digester of content. Be a person of action. This is how you get to the path of the Author of Your Own Story journey. I want that for you. In fact, this is really what I focus on with a lot of the coaches that I work with. When I’m coaching another coach, I talk to them about this quite often. I want that to be for you. I want you to be a seven, eight-figure earner because you deserve it. You deserve this Author of Your Own Story lifestyle, whatever it means for you.

Now, of course, share this with three people. You need to build your tribe. Build your tribe of people that are like-minded that are out there doing their best to raise the bar not only for themselves but for the people around them. Building your tribe is a great way of getting yourself out there. A simple and easy tactic is just simply to share this with three other people and start the conversation. That’s it for me today. I’ll see you tomorrow, and as always, go out there and inspire someone simply by being the author of your own story.

If you like these daily growth hacks, it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to subscribe and review us on iTunes!

Join The Discussion

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

The Root And Power Of Scarcity

Revisit: Imagine You Are The Idea

Revisit: Just And Only

Is It Working Or Not?

The Need For Growth

Focus On What Matters

Stop Holding Onto Things For So Long

The Key To Creativity Is Focus

When Your Why Doesn’t Match Your Actions

Escalation Expectation

Recent Posts

Categories

What If You Could Transform Your Life For The Better In Just 90 Days?