Get Rid of Your Excuses
Now, I’m shooting this Daily Growth Hack for you because I’m getting a lot of questions about this. And the questions aren’t about excuses, they’re about actually pushing forward and how to do it. And people that have actually gone through and set up their 30 or 90-day plans, but haven’t done the work necessary. And so, what I wanna remind you is a story that you’ve all heard before, and that’s about a Spanish explorer Cortes, and when he landed in Veracruz. One of the first things that he did is he told his men, “You can either fight, or you can die,” and he burned the ships. Now, this eliminated the third option, right? They could have fought and won, they could have died, or they could have got back on those ships and headed back to Spain. But by eliminating one of those excuses, those men fought and they fought very hard. And of course, you know the end of this story, they actually won.
Revisit: Categories of Improvement
So, what are categories of improvement? Categories of improvement is just another way of talking about how to categorize your life and look at where you want it to go. So, we’re going to break your life down into two main sections.
We’re calling them containers here. We have personal and then we have business.
Challenge the Rules
Now, according to the ancient prophecy, whoever could untie the Gordian Knot was destined to become King of Asia. Now, people failed and tried this over years, and came from all over the world to untie this knot, but nobody could do it. Then, Alexander the Great tried, and he tried many times himself. Finally, he decided, “I’ll make my own rules.” He pulled out his sword and slashed the knot, thus untying it. Now, as fate would have it, he took over all of Asia.
Revisit: Listening to Words
What do I mean by listening to words? Well, we got a lot of feedback from our Growth Hack about listening to audiobooks at two or three times speed. Got a lot of information and I love hearing from you, so thank you.
One of the questions I got was, “Doug, I don’t have the audiobooks. A lot of the books that I enjoy reading either come in hardcover or Kindle versions. What do I do then?”
Revisit: The Ever Changing You
The ever-changing you. This idea came up when I was having a conversation with a friend who was asking me, “Doug, why do you have a coach? You’ve been coaching people for years at a high level, you’ve been doing personal development since you were in high school, why are you still doing this?”
The reason is, I’m always changing, right? Every time I peel back a layer of my life, peel back the onion so to speak, it exposes something new. I’m changing my thoughts, my patterns, my beliefs.
The Newborn and the Cellphone
Earlier today I was actually rolling on the ground with my newborn. He’s six months old. As I was actually hanging out with him for a little bit, my phone went off. Normally I have my phone turned off, but I wanted to check the message. As I was checking the message, in that moment, I realized that I wasn’t being present, so I just set my phone down. Now, it wasn’t more than about 10 seconds that my little boy – Bodie – he actually saw the cell phone on the ground and went for it, and that was the fastest I’ve ever seen him move.
What If Everyone Was Watching You
So, what if everybody was watching you? You know, this morning I got up early, and while I was actually foam rolling getting ready for my workout, which I’m about to go do now. And while I was doing that, I was watching Gary Vaynerchuk’s talk to the Dutch Brothers Company. Now it’s two and a half hours, so I just got into the beginning, but one thing that Gary said that I thought was really interesting as he talked about the times that we live in. The times that we live in today versus our grandparents. So Gary was relating with saying, “Hey look, when your grandparents were around, your grandparents could have been jerks and they just had to move, right? So your grandparents could have lived in Portland and something could have happened, they could have done something bad, or something could just have happened in their lives and they wanted to move away from it. Now they could have moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and nobody would have known, and they would have started afresh. But nowadays, everything we do is carrying with us, right? With the advent of social media and the internet. You really can’t hide from things. Whether you’re doing bad things or good things, they do carry with you.”
How Is Your Network?
Now, throughout life, we have multiple networks. Right? We have our family network. This is our core group of people that we grew up with, but also our extended family. For myself, I have my two brothers, my parents, but I also have my extended network of family, which are my in-laws, so that’s Erin my wife’s family as well. This is my network as far as family, but I also have groups or pods of networks of friends. Then, of course, we have business networks. Now, I have several different businesses so I have different networks that fit into each of those businesses.
The Billionaire and The Beggar
What do the billionaire and the beggar have in common? What do the young and the old have in common? What do you and I have in common? We all have 24 hours in a day. And the difference is, is what we choose to do with each of those 24 hours. Now, you could say, “Well, circumstances happen, Doug. And it’s actually not in my control.”
Come Up With A Better Story
Now, what I’m talking about today, Come Up With a Better Story, I get so excited and passionate about this, and we’ve talked to you about it before in other daily growth hacks, but I just had a conversation this morning with a family member. Now, of course, family people, members of ours, they can really push our buttons, right? They know exactly what to say to kind of drive our nerves or trigger us from past experiences that we may have had with them.
Don’t Wish It Was Easier, Wish You Were Better
I was having a conversation with a business owner and they were telling me “Doug, man, sometimes it’s just so tough. Running a business and running a family, it’s just so difficult. I wish it was easier.” Then to him, I said “You know what, don’t wish it was easier just wish you were better.” At first, he got taken back and he was almost like he was offended.
When I told him, I said “No. I’m not trying to offend you. What I’m trying to say is your actual success, those things that make you happen are outside of your comfort zones.”
Train Yourself To Feel Good
So train yourself to feel good. It is said that about 95% of our decisions are based on emotions, and as somebody who owns a marketing agency, this is something we leverage all the time. But how often through your day are you making decisions, conscious or unconsciously, based on your emotions? Well, if that’s statistic is correct, that’s 95% of the time. That only leaves a little 5% of the time that you’re using your rational mind to actually make a decision.
Train Yourself To Feel Good
So train yourself to feel good. It is said that about 95% of our decisions are based on emotions, and as somebody who owns a marketing agency, this is something we leverage all the time. But how often through your day are you making decisions, conscious or unconsciously, based on your emotions? Well, if that’s statistic is correct, that’s 95% of the time. That only leaves a little 5% of the time that you’re using your rational mind to actually make a decision.
I Need Space
So, last night, my wife turned to me and just said, “I just need a little space.” I had a business partner coming over and so I packed my computer bag and got ready so we could actually go and work outside of our office. I have the great lifestyle where I’m able to work from home or work remotely and I left and my wife was fine. Now, what made me think about this is, what would have the Doug of five years ago done? Well, I would have created a story. She needs space. What does this mean? What did I do wrong? Is something wrong in our marriage and our relationships? Oh, my gosh, what’s happening and how can I fix it? I would have immediately gone to this negative side, this negative commentary inside of my mind.
I Need Space
So, last night, my wife turned to me and just said, “I just need a little space.” I had a business partner coming over and so I packed my computer bag and got ready so we could actually go and work outside of our office. I have the great lifestyle where I’m able to work from home or work remotely and I left and my wife was fine. Now, what made me think about this is, what would have the Doug of five years ago done? Well, I would have created a story. She needs space. What does this mean? What did I do wrong? Is something wrong in our marriage and our relationships? Oh, my gosh, what’s happening and how can I fix it? I would have immediately gone to this negative side, this negative commentary inside of my mind.
The Spotlight Effect
The spotlight effect … well, each time when you go into a social situation or you’re thinking about making a big decision, what naturally occurs to most of us is what’s called “the spotlight effect”. That’s where we think that everybody is looking on us. They’re looking at us and they’re concentrating on the things that we’re doing and the ways that we’re behaving. When the truth is this is just a way that you limit yourself from actually achieving your potential.
Project Manage Your Life
Today, I was doing employee interviews where I actually talked to my employees about how they’re doing in the business. What I have them do is fill out kind of a long form where they’re doing checkboxes. Am I doing very good, good, or needs improvement, or not necessary in this particular category for many lists that are on there, and then I have a lot of questions. Of course, if you listen to any of these daily growth hacks, you could probably imagine I go way beyond just business to really know what’s going on in my staff and my team’s lives.
Be Coachable
Now, today, I want to talk about being coachable and what does it actually mean to be coachable? Well, many of you probably have a coach and if you don’t have a coach in one or multiple areas of your life, I highly recommend it.
A coach was somebody that can show you the way, that can show you the path and it’s also somebody that can serve as an accountability partner for you and somebody that doesn’t have skin in the game in a sense that they don’t have any emotional ties. They can tell you the real deal. Now, I remember having coaches all my life, and I still do today. Most of my coaches now are in different areas but I remember being young and having a soccer coach, right?
