What’s Playing in Your Earbuds?
How many times have you just been walking around the house or in the car and all of a sudden a song pops into your head? It could be a song from years ago or from yesterday or from just minutes ago, you just don’t know how it got there and you just start singing, humming along and moving to the beat. This happens to me all the time and I’m sure it happens to you.
What if instead of that song you could put something into your mind that’s going to help you move it in the direction that you want to go to? Move and pull you in the direction of your dreams and allow you to become more of the author of your own story and growing into exactly who you want to become.
The Pink Elephant
Now, what do I mean by when I say the pink elephant? Well, try this. Don’t think of a pink elephant. Well, you can’t. The first thing that pops in your mind is the pink elephant, and you gravitate towards that thought. The same thing happens when we say, “I don’t want. I don’t want to be like my father. I don’t want to be like my mother. I want to stop eating doughnuts. I want to not … etcetera, etcetera.”
When you’re thinking in the negative, your mind subconsciously takes out that negative connotation and thinks you want to move towards it.
Magnesium
Today we’re going to focus on your body. In particular, we’re going to talk about supplementation and we’re going to talk about magnesium. Magnesium is a mineral that most people in Western societies are deficient in.Magnesium has a lot of benefits. Some of the reported benefits are an increase in energy with a supplementation of magnesium. Calming of your nerves and anxiety, which is something that I can attest to. Help with digestion by relieving constipation. Now, this is also something to watch out for. With excessive magnesium supplementation, it’s actually going to act like a diuretic.
Rapport
Today I’m going to talk about rapport, and rapport really falls under two of the five to thrive. That’s your relationships and your business. Now, it actually will sprinkle all over the place, but let’s talk about why rapport is important. First of all, rapport is really the ability to establish a connection with somebody else, the ability to establish that connection where they feel like you actually get them, you understand them, and you are like that person.
Now, rapport has some negative connotations, because it’s an NLP tactic, so it’s neuro-linguistic programming tactic, that’s often used by salespeople to get you to buy things, so what they’re trying to do is get you down that know-like-trust factor. So when they feel like you know them, you can relate to them, and you have rapport, it’s easier for them to sell you things. But there are other ways to establish rapport.
Box Breathing
Today I’m going to talk about box breathing. Now I first learned about box breathing from Mark Divine, a fantastic author, founder of SEALFIT, a former Navy Seal, and also just a great inspiration. I highly recommend doing a quick Google search and seeing some of Mark’s writings, as well as his videos. Well worth your time.
I currently use box breathing with my clients, as well as in my daily practice. Before I get into how to use box breathing, let me talk about some of the benefits and some of the ways that I utilize it currently that I think might benefit you.
You and the Million Dollar Thoroughbred
Imagine that you just went out and invested in a million-dollar Thoroughbred. A racehorse of supreme quality. Now when you take this horse home, are you going to go to the stable and feed this horse junk food? Are you going to push this horse beyond its breaking point causing injury, causing fatigue? Are you going to allow this thoroughbred to stay up late, are you going to keep it up really late and wake it up early in the morning so it gets sleep deprived? Are you going to treat this horse poorly? Of course, you’re not.
Effective vs. Efficient
What’s the difference between effective versus efficient? When I talk about “effective,” what I’m really talking about are are you doing the right things? Are you spending a lot of time on Facebook, Instagram, rather than working on your Five to Thrive?
What I’ve found is really going through your Five to Thrive, that’s mind, body, soul, relationships, and business, and knocking those things out first thing in the morning. Here I am, doing this Daily Growth Hack, and it’s 5:45 in the morning and I’ve already done some reading and I’m about to go to the gym. What I’m really focusing on is making sure my time is effective, and I’ve picked those key things that I need to be doing in each of my Five to Thrive to move the needle significantly.
5 Questions To Ask Before You Hire a Life Coach
Making the decision to hire a life coach is one that many consider, but since it’s become one of the fastest growing industries, how do you know who to work with? Here are 5 questions you should ask any life coach you’re considering working with: What experience do...
Evening Breakdown
The evening breakdown, this really has to do with relationships. Now in this talk, I’m going to talk about your relationship with a significant other, but you can apply this to a roommate situation or somebody else that you’re very close to that you see on a regular basis. Now, I got this tip from Tim Matthews, owner of The Powerful Man Group. Now, The Power Man has a website and a Facebook group for you guys. I really recommend you go check it out.
There’s a lot of value that Tim supplies there. This evening breakdown is something I try to apply to my life with my wife and I want to share that with you. It really comes down to six key factors.
Window Screens and the IRS
I got a message from somebody in our Author of Your Own Story group and he said, “Doug, I have to talk to you. I have a story. Something happened to me,” and so when I reached out to him in a follow-up, I got to hear what their voice had to say and what they told me was, “About 10 years ago, all the window screens in our house had totally been gone,” so in other words, they had been damaged over time, ripped out or what have you. So, for the past decade, they had been without window screens in their home. Now this has caused all kinds of problems. They have had dirt coming in. They’ve had tons of bugs for over a decade.
Blue Light Has a Dark Side
Blue light, as you probably have heard, comes naturally from the environment, comes from the sun. But it also comes from staring at screens, or fluorescent lights overhead, or anywhere else in your household. The problem with this blue light is that it really can disrupt our circadian rhythm.
Now, our circadian rhythm is the body’s natural biological clock. One of the problems with this is not only causing strain on the eyes, but it also disrupts sleep patterns. And if you read studies, most people, especially in the U.S., have horrible sleep patterns. We don’t get the recommended seven, eight, nine hours of sleep a day.
It’s Good Enough
It’s good enough. How often do you hear that in conversations, especially at the workplace or at home? Now, this topic came up in the Author of your Own Story Facebook group. Member Breck Morgan posted this. He asked the question, “Hey, oftentimes I’ll hear people at work or even in my home life say, ‘Hey, it’s good enough,’ and it really bugs me. Am I really just settling? Is everybody settling when they use that term?”
The answer to that question is no.
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?”
Starting Fresh
Here I am in a forest, and if you’re watching this on video, you can see that the forest has actually been burned down. It’s a controlled burn. If you’re listening to this, I’m in the middle of a field right now. It’s a controlled burn where they’ve come in and they’ve burnt the whole ground of the forest here.
Why do they do that?
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.
Modeling
So when I’m talking about modeling, what I want you to think about are those times in your life when you’ve found yourself modeling somebody else. You see, often times we have these subconscious actions, or things that we do, in our daily lives that are a result of modeling something we took from a parent, a sibling, a coworker or usually somebody early on, even a teacher.
Now to give you an idea of what this is like, there has to be a time in your life, if you’re like me, where you’re like, “Oh crap, I’m growing up just to be like my dad.”
Feed Your Mind
What am I talking about when I say, “Feed your mind”? Well, one thing I noticed, it was actually on Facebook. That’s where I keep up with old friends as well as family and get all kinds of information. I noticed there were several posts on there asking questions about books and books that people had read recently.
Show Me Your Calendar And I’ll Show You Your Priorities
I was having a conversation with a friend recently, and we were talking about dreams and priorities, and he was telling me about all the great ideas that he had, and all the things that he was going to do. I thought it was really a great conversation. Then, what I realized was something that I talk to a lot of my clients about. With coaching clients, one of the first things I ask them is to send me a screenshot of their calendar. Now, they often think this is weird, like, “Why would I send you my calendar?”
Well, the reason I ask them this is if you show me your calendar you’re gonna show me your priorities. Sure, many of us say, “Yes, family is first.” Or, “Yes, my business is so important.” Or, “My health. I know my health is really important.” But when I look at your calendar…
