You’re Losing $50,000 A Year
Now, this is a conversation I have often. How many times are you actually wasting time during your day? Now, when I have this conversation, of course, it’s usually over somebody’s goals. What I’m talking is about how much time is actually spent on social media, on Facebook just catching up on what people or doing or on YouTube watching videos that you don’t even care about, in fact, videos that leave you less inspired when you walk away? These could be music videos or how-to videos or something else. Or TV, right? How often do you sit down to watch the news for an hour or watch your favorite show for two, three, four, five hours over the time? How are times you just not being efficient, kind of like twiddling your thumbs and finding yourself just walking around your house aimlessly?
The Power Of Inspiration
Now, this is a quick tip, but something that’s really easy to do. We all know the power of inspiration, the power of inspirational thoughts, inspirational movies, inspirational images, yet how often do we lose these inspirations right after we see it? Maybe you see an inspirational image in a magazine or an inspirational movie, and then after leaving, a day, two, three, four days later you lose that inspiration. Well, inspiration comes and goes, but one quick thing that you can do, right here, right now, today, to increase your odds of getting inspired, is by adding inspirational images to your desktop as well as to your phone backdrop.
ANTS
So what the heck do I mean by ANTS? Well ANTS is simply an acronym for Automatic Negative Thoughts.
Now these are the thoughts that go on in our heads subconsciously when we’re driving, you know, taking a shower, or having a conversation with somebody and then all of a sudden you start remembering things from the past or you start thinking things, “Well jeez does this person think I’m not smart enough? I’m not good enough. I’m not rich enough.” Whatever it may be. They happen automatically.
Knowledge Is Not Power
Now, I’m not traveling with my family living the Author of My Own Story lifestyle, and so I apologize if you’re watching this and you’re seeing dimly lit lights or if you’re hearing this and you hear a baby crying or talking in the background. We’re having a great time with my family.
One of the topics that came up was knowledge is power. Now, for me at least, when I was a kid watching cartoons, there used to be a commercial that would come on and it used to say something like, “Knowledge is power.”
If It’s Not True, It Shouldn’t Bother You
Just yesterday, I was relating to a friend a story that happened in one of my businesses. See, somebody talked about me and talked about what we were doing, and they had two parts to this story. The first part is they said, essentially, that Doug, me, was being inauthentic, that I was actually being cheesy and fake. The second part of the story is they actually said they read an article, and the process we were taking this particular client through was the wrong path, and they didn’t believe that they should go down this path.
The Answers Are Not In The Mirror
All too often, I always hear from self-help gurus and business coaches and the like that the answers that you’re looking for are right in front of you. You just have to look in the mirror. They have the best of intentions, and what they’re really saying is that all the answers to the problems that you’re seeking, all the solutions you’re looking for are within you. All you have to do is look in the mirror and dig deep within your soul. The answers are right in front of you. Well, I don’t find this to be true at all. See, if the answers were right in front of you, you would have the solutions.
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?
Show Up
Now, today’s topic, Just Show Up, applies to all of your Five to Thrive. I was listening to an interview by Bo Eason; now, he’s a former NFL football player, renowned actor, and playwright. Bo was talking about how he was never the most athletic person, he was never the best of the best. And we’re talking about NFL athletes, you’re talking about the greatest, right? And he played with people like Jerry Rice for example, and Joe Montana. But Bo is saying is, one thing that he always is, he showed up. Not only did he show up, but he always showed up early. He was one of the first guys in the locker room, or so he thought, and I’ll tell you about that in a second. He was also the last to leave.
What if you were the CEO of your life?
Now, it’s no secret that my private coaching clients are mostly business owners. Now, one thing we commonly talk about is how great their business is. They have key metrics in every area of their business if it’s running well. Now, one thing I often talk to them about is, why aren’t you running the rest of your life as if you were the CEO of your life? And this usually takes them back. They usually wonder, “well, wow, I never thought of it that way.”
Revisit: Case of the Mondays
Today I’m going to talk a little bit about your soul, and kind of in an abstract point of view. Now, if you’ve ever seen Office Space, you know when the woman talks about it. She says, “Oh, you’ve got a case of the Mondays.” Or something along those lines. Now I love the movie, and I haven’t seen it in awhile, but it always plays in my head when I heard somebody complain about the work week coming up.
Revisit: Balance
Throughout my life, my balance has been up, down, or all around, as it is for almost all of us. It’s a topic that is talked about in both personal development, self-help, business, and even religious courses. Balance is just critically important to human nature. We all know it, but often times we’re just out of balance. I certainly have been. There have been times in my life when I’ve been so focused on relationships that my business or personal goals have gone to the sidelines. Or I’ve been so focused on my health and fitness, that actually my relationships have suffered. Or perhaps my spirituality or my mental development. I know for me, as an athlete growing up, physical fitness was always extremely important. Now, this ended up helping my relationships but my spirituality actually suffered. That’s where I put on the wayside. So I was really out of balance and not really feeling fulfilled.
Revisit: The 90 Minute Hour
So what is a 90-minute hour?
I mean that’s an oxymoron, isn’t it?
I mean 90 minutes is 90 minutes in an hour is 60 minutes. The 90-minute hour is actually a book I read back in high school. I went to the library and for some reason, I was just thirsty for personal growth and I wanted to be successful. The library, I knew, was one place I could start. I found this book called the 90-minute hour. Now, I didn’t realize it back then, but this was the author that ended up writing all these guerilla marketing books that became famous. You can pick up the 90-minute hour, I just checked on amazon, for as little as nineteen cents. I mean, it’s an older book but this book had a significant impact on me as a young man and it does today as well.
Prep The Coffee
Now this morning, I got up after a rough night. Our newborn just wasn’t sleeping well so my wife and I were up and down throughout the evening. And when I finally got up to start my day, I went downstairs and noticed that the coffee hasn’t been prepped. Now, I thought about it the night before, I thought about it before going to bed, “You know what, Doug? You should just prep the coffee. Grind the beans, get the water ready. Get it all ready, so all you have to do is hit a button when you come down.”
You Gotta Make Time To Play
Now, as many of you know, I’ve spent over two decades in the fitness industry, and during that time, I’ve literally worked with thousands of people. One thing that I’ve noticed over time. and I talk about it a lot. is you get two men together, they form a bond, they form a trust, they form a friendship and guess what, they turn to 14-year old buys. It’s inevitably going to happen. I’ve never seen it not happen.
Do It For The Photo
Do it for the photo. Whatever it takes. Right now there’s somebody outside hiking. There’s somebody outside swimming with sharks. Why? Because they’re doing it for the Instagram photo.
Social media’s pushed us in ways that we never thought possible. There are people out there doing crazy things. They’re becoming the authors of their own story just so they could rub it in other peoples’ faces or just so they could show people how great their lives are. I think that’s fantastic.
The Skater, the Entrepreneur and The Author of Your Own Story
Last night someone asked me, they said, “Doug, how do I know when I see somebody that’s actually living The Author of Your Own Story lifestyle? Give me two examples, just something that I can look at in other areas of life that I can really see.” And I said, “Easy, that’s really easy for me to do.” And they looked at me in astonishment. “Well, why was it easy?” Well one, the skater. The skater is the perfect analogy, right? You see a skateboarder and what are they doing? They’re trying tricks and they’re eating it hard. If you watch, there’s tons of YouTube videos as well as Instagram channels dedicated to this phenomenon.
That’s Right
That’s right. The story goes that inside a courtroom there was a really intense battle between the defendant and the plaintiff. The plaintiff told their story to the judge, and at the end, the judge said, “Wow, that’s right.” Then the defendant went up, and the defendant told their heartwarming story, as well, and the judge said, “Wow, that’s right.” Then all of a sudden the clerk looked at the judge and said, “Your Honor, they both can’t be right.” The Honor looked at the clerk and said, “Well, that’s right.”
What Do Doug’s Do?
So, in a previous episode, in fact the last one, we talked about “Who are you?” I gave you four exercises to do in your journal. During those exercises, I hope you discovered new things about yourself, and that you’re on the right path … The right path to becoming the author of your own story, and living that life of your dreams. You deserve it.
