Latest / Getting After It / 207 - What Arnold, Jocko & Tony Robbins Taught Me About Hard Work

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207 - What Arnold, Jocko & Tony Robbins Taught Me About Hard Work · Getting After It

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: All right, my friends.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode of Begin After Podcast.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: As always, I am very happy that you are here with me today.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: And as you can see on the table here, I got a few things that we're going to be going into.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's reading day, guys.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: We are going to have a good time learning.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what my whole goal is, is I want to make education a little bit more fun, right?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: But uh it's been a minute since you've just had a podcast with your boy, and I'm excited.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: I miss you guys.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I mean I'm I'm also very glad that I've been able to have my mom on Jace, uh Allie.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: But it is always special to me when I get to do these these episodes because at the end of the day, there's way more solo episodes than there are guests.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: I would like that to change, and I'm hoping that it changes.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: But before we begin, a couple housekeeping items.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, my friend Braden.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: He just ran Leadville 100 in Colorado and he crushed it.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: He came in in 29 hours.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and if you don't know what Leadville is, it is a hundred-mile race.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it's arguably one of the hardest races in the U.S.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it is 100 miles, and he absolutely crushed it.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Andy Glaze, I think, was uh 27 hours.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: So Braden was right on his tail um up until you know kind of the end.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, pretty amazing.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So big shout out to Braden.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm having him come on the podcast uh relatively soon to share his story and what his experience was there.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then the other housekeeping item is I'm gonna have a baby soon.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know when that's gonna happen.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Allie's about three weeks out from her due date, and so uh there might be a time where the podcast stops for a bit.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh just know it's probably because I had a child, and the child is very important to me.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: The podcast is, but child gets priority, guys.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Hope you understand.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm sure you do.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And as we talk about me becoming a dad, we're gonna read a little section from The Daily Dad.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think the last time I read from this book was a solo episode, and to give you an idea of what this is, it is 366 meditations or daily pages on parenting, love, and raising great kids.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's from Ryan Holiday, who I I love his writing.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's a great author.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and really he's the main guy that got me introduced to Stoicism, so I owe a lot to him in that sense.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: But let's go to today's date, and I'll read you what today says, because I think it's pretty interesting.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: August 23rd says they don't need a lecture, they need this.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then here's a quote from Seneca.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Which teacher is more worthy?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: The one who savages his students if their memory fails, or their eye clumsily falters when reading, or the one who prefers to correct and teach with admonitions that bring to a blush to the student's cheeks.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Show me a brutal tribune or centurion, and I'll show you one who makes soldiers desert pardonably.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then Ryan goes on to say, as John Steinbeck was riding east of Eden, his son Tom was not taking school seriously.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: He was acting out.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Steinbeck's wife thought Tom needed a lecture about this.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Steinbeck, then in the middle of writing about two very different, unruly sets of sons, knew that wasn't quite right.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: He needs more than that, he wrote in his journal.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: He needs infinite patience and discipline.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh, infinite patience and discipline is a hard line.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: He goes on to say, not only is what or not only is that what your kids need, but it's what we all need.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Patience and discipline.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Kindness combined with firmness.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: An infinite amount.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody wants to be lectured.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody wants to be nagged.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: What we need is to be understood and held accountable.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Think of your own troubles as a kid.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: When you were acting out, when you weren't taking school seriously, when you were getting into trouble, did getting yelled at help?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: What you really wanted, what you needed, was for someone to see why you were doing these things.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: You needed someone to guide you back to the right path and to help you realize the consequences of being off it.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Patience and discipline.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: That is what you need.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: So give those things to your kids.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: They deserve it.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Very powerful.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's why honestly I I love Ryan Holiday's writing because a lot of the times he says powerful things in a very small number of words.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that is effective writing, in my opinion, and I love that.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: But I love what he says at the end.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Patience and discipline.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: That is what you needed as a kid.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: So give those things to your kids.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: They deserve it.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's interesting.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: As I become a dad, as I get closer to that day, and as Allie progresses through her pregnancy, like I already want to do everything for that kid.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I want to show up for him in every capacity I can.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be there for his big milestones.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be there for advice when he asks me for it, which I don't know if kids do that.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: I asked my dad for plenty of advice, so that's what I'm basing it off of.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I really just want to be there for him so he can learn from some of the mistakes that I I made as a kid and um hopefully become a better version of me.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like that is ultimately the goal, right?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: We want our kids to be better versions of our ourselves.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that brings us into our topic for today, which is hard work isn't enough.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: This will make sense in a second, but hard work matters.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And do not get me wrong when I say that hard work isn't enough.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: I will be the first person to tell you that hard work truly matters.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: But effort without direction is just exhaustion.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: You need a vision worth chasing, the discipline to keep on showing up, and the mindset to endure the dark stretches, and the humility to change your approach when the work isn't actually working.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And even then, you might fail.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you won't come out of that attempt unchanged.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to learn from it.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we hear all the time it's it's been programmed into us from a very young age, I believe.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: But work hard and you will succeed.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: That is what the equation seems to be for many people, and that's what people tell you to do is work hard and you'll succeed.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I believe in hard work.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Hell, I mean, this podcast is called Getting After It.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about hard work.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: But the older I become, the less I believe that hard work by itself is enough.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because I've worked incredibly hard at things and sometimes they did not work.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've trained hard and missed goals.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've worked hard professionally and not gotten the outcome that I wanted.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I've put hundreds of episodes into this podcast without it becoming some massive show.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there's an important distinction to make here.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: You can still work incredibly hard, but in the wrong direction.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can still wake up early, stay late, be exhausted, fill every minute on your calendar, and convince yourself that because you're tired, you're making progress.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Those aren't the same thing.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I truly believe that hard work matters.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that is something that is has paved my life to this point today.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: But the kind of work that changes your life is consistent, directed, adaptable work.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: That idea kept coming back to me.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I recently got a bookshelf, and I love filling up my bookshelf with books.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I as I was unpacking a book or a case, I found this.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's called Tools of Titans, and it's by Tim Ferris.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what this book is, is it says the tactics, routines, and habits of billionaire icons, and world-class performers.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is an accumulation of a lot of Tim Ferris's podcast that he has done.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he's a very famous podcaster.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's been around, I think, longer than Joe Rogan, long time.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and his whole idea has just been to learn from other people by interviewing them.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And as I was reading this book, just going through it, there are three people who I think oddly enough fit together in terms of what their their topic is, and for me it's it's learning how to work hard.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so those people are Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jocko Willink, and Tony Robbins.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: An odd bunch.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't know, that's uh that's a pretty good bunch there.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I I wanted to go into some of these today because I think what we can learn from them is very powerful in uh in this concept of what we're talking about, which is hard work is not enough.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's an important variable to get there, but it's not the only thing that will get you there.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's other things that have to go into it.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna go into that today.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to read some of these things to you.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it's a good reminder for myself, but I'm thirsty, guys.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you can get some ASMR when I do that.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Either way, that is the nectar of the gods.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll start with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, oddly enough, like I don't know if you guys are familiar with this story, but he came to America and in 1971, he actually created a uh he started a brick lane company with uh Franco Columbo or Columb Columbo, which was oddly enough, like his favorite training partner when he was uh becoming the Arnold that we know and love today.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but anyways, so he worked hard from the beginning of him getting to America, and I think that's one thing a lot of people miss about Arnold is he was not just a bodybuilder, he was not just an actor.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Before that, he was doing manual labor.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Before that, he was investing in real estate.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: So he has a really he's an interesting story to me.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um because I love the clip of him on The View where they're like, Don't you think immigrants should come here legally?
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, or don't you think it's it's terrible what ICE is doing?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I think everyone should come here legally.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I did it, I did it the right way, and um I had to work hard, but I love this country because it gave me an opportunity.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so um one thing that I will say is from this uh from this section where he's talking about brick lane, there's one thing that I I think is is pretty interesting.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: So um he says we we had to make sure money was in the bank account, and then we went out and got the cement, the wheelbarrow, and all the stuff that we needed and went to work.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: We worked like that for two years very successfully.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Just think about that for a second.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, what he's talking about is he sold this guy a new patio with bricks, that's how they were gonna do it.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they negotiated a price down, and eventually Arnold's like, okay, like we agreed on this price.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so he goes to the bank, they deposit the money, and they immediately get to work.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: That is one thing I think is super interesting is is not only did he do the work, but it was like immediate.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: He knew exactly he's like, okay, this is the process.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: I close a deal and then we start.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: That way I can finish this job and go do another one.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: So he was working hard from a very early age, like as soon as he got to America.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And um the thing that I love about this idea that or this this section that Arnold talks about is that there is a central idea to a couple of things that he says.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: So he does not train to participate, he trains to win.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Arnold was not training simply because he liked lifting weights.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: There was an outcome attached to the suffering that he had, and it was that he wanted to win.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: So let me read this section really quickly.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's titled, I wasn't there to compete, I was there to win.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: I can do my Arnold voice.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: I brought up a photo of Arnold at 19.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's not Arnold, I don't know what that is.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: That was like sloth from the Goonies.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I brought up, this is Tim talking, I brought up a photo of Arnold at age 19, just before he won his big competition, junior Mr.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Europe.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: I asked, Your face was so confident compared to every other competitor.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Where did that confidence come from?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Arnold replied, My confidence came from my vision.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: I am a big believer that if you have a very clear vision of where you want to go, then the rest of it is much easier.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because you always know why you are training five hours a day, you always know why you are pushing and going through the pain barrier, and why you have to eat more, and why you have to struggle more, and why you have to be more disciplined.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: I felt that I could win it, and that was what I was there for.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't there to compete, I was there to win.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty wild.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think that's something that many of us, myself included, like especially when I'm going after and doing a race, like I'm I'm a lot of the times just there to compete.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: I know I'm not gonna win.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: But that brings up the question like, what if I did train like that?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: What if I trained like I was going to be the person who wins?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this is where I'd push beyond the standard advice of you know, just have goals, because lots of people have goals.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: The more interesting question is does the way you're working actually match the thing you say you want?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you want to run a sub-3 marathon, you're not simply trying to become someone who runs, you're training for a specific standard, and that changes the work.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Your mileage changes, your workouts change, recovery matters more, nutrition matters, sleep matters, and your pace matters.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually you start asking, is what I'm doing today actually preparing me for the outcome I say I want?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that was my whole experience when I ran a sub three.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was a completely different training experience than when I ran my first marathon.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because my first marathon, I was there just to compete.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: But with my sub three, I was there to train for a I was there competing for a specific outcome below sub below three hours.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And my whole training looked different from the beginning.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's what I think Arnold is talking about is if you have these big goals, if you have these visions for yourself of where you want to be, then train like it, work like it.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, train like you are or work like you are.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like that is a lot of the times a big factor is how we perceive ourselves.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if we perceive ourselves as someone who's just going through the motions, it's gonna be hard telling yourself that you're a successful entrepreneur if if you're just going through the motions.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like train and work like it matters to you.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think it's really interesting.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's another uh there's another piece that I want to share from Arnold here.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: So never audition, own or create a unique niche.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: So this is another thing that's kind of interesting.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: But he said, I never auditioned, never.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: I would never go out for the regular parts because I was not a regular looking guy.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: So my idea was everyone is going to look the same and everyone is going to be the blonde guy in California.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Going to Hollywood interviews and looking somewhat athletic and cute and all this.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: How can I carve myself out a niche that only I have?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: He is a massive man, so that's a fair question.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, the naysayers were there, and they said, Well, you know, the time for bodybuilders has passed.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was 20 years ago.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: You look too big, you're too monstrous, too muscular.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: You will never get into the movies.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's a dangerous thing to say to someone who is driven.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: You will never blank.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's what the producer said in the beginning in Hollywood.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's also what agents and managers said.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: I doubt you're going to be successful.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Today's idols are Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Woody Allen, all little guys.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the sex symbols.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Look at you.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: You weigh 250 pounds or something like that.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: That time is over.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I felt very strongly and had a very clear vision that the time would come that someone would appreciate that.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually, the very things that the agents and the managers and the studio executives said would be a total obstacle became an asset.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And my career started taking off.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: So that is one thing that I I found rather interesting too is you know, a lot of the times we think that we have these flaws or that we're not cut out for certain things.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: When in reality, sometimes, like Arnold, we just need to make it, right?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like we need to be the person who has a uh a better understanding of what our strengths are, even if it doesn't seem like those are going to be going to be there.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: So um that's Arnold.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to make a call here because I like winning doesn't always mean beating someone else.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you interpret Arnold too literally, this becomes another second place as the first loser kind of speech.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not where I'd like to take this.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: For most listeners, win winning means establishing a standard that demands something from you.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: The opponent might simply be the person you were six months ago.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's the distinction I want to make about Arnold is you know, he does say, like, I was training to win.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Winning could mean a lot of different things, especially if you're comparing winning to the old version of yourself.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I think there's a couple things that you could do here.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: One, ask yourself, what am I actually training for?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: And not what do I want?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: But that becomes okay, what outcome is my current behavior preparing me for?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because you bring your behavior may tell a very different story than what your goals are.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: So just do that evaluation a little bit.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think it's very important.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And to Arnold's point, you have to have a vision.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you'll notice that there is a sequence from each of these people that we'll talk about.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, Arnold, he says, work hard, but have a vision.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's the theme, that's what we're focusing on here.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're gonna talk about one of my favorite people ever.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: I bet you can guess who it is.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's Jocko Willink.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's Jocko Willink.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I love this man.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: And as you can see in this book, this was I wrote this when I was in college, but you can see it says um it says, one of the best interviews I've ever read.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then I have it written huge at the bottom and highlighted in yellow.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Read this when you want to give up.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: So you know it's it's already damn good.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: But um doing the work whether you feel like it or not.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: That is the whole concept of Jocko willink.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the more interesting idea that I've identified through studying Jocko for a while is discipline is the ability to deny a present desire in service of a future outcome.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, that's harder because discipline isn't simply, oh, go for a run when you when you don't want to.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's relatively easy.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes discipline looks like go to bed, don't buy it, don't eat it, put your phone down, don't react, or do the boring work instead of the exciting work.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a conflict I've noticed in my life with present Brett and Future Brett.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Present Brett always wants comfort, but future Brett wants the benefit.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, present Brett gets the vote.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: He's the one that I listen to, and that creates an interesting question for me, and that is how much discomfort are you willing to accept today for a person you haven't yet become yet?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive into some of what Jocko talks about.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: And some of these things are are hilarious, and I love them.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um but here we go.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: So a couple things.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, if you want to be tougher, be tougher.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is interesting, but I like it.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to be tougher mentally, it is simple.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Be tougher.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Don't meditate on it.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: These words of Jocko's helped one listener, a drug addict, get sober after many failed attempts.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: The simple logic struck a chord.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Being tougher was more than anything a decision to be tougher.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's possible to immediately be tougher, starting with your next decision.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Have trouble saying no to desert?
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Be tougher.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Make that your starting decision.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Feeling winded?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Take the stairs anyway.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Ditto.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter how small or big you start, if you want to be tougher, be tougher.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm outlining that at the beginning because I think people uh a lot of the times overcomplicate what discipline means.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um I definitely did when I was on my journey to get there.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: But to Jocko's point, if you want to be tougher, tell yourself you're tougher, and whatever next decision you make, make it in that.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Make it with that in mind that you're gonna be tougher.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um and a big uh excuse I hear all the time is that people can't wake up early.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: I recently uh Because my testosterone was low and I had some other health things going on.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I struggled getting out of bed at 5 a.m.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: When in reality that used to be a habit that I've had for six years.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And um I had to be tougher.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's really it.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Once I got my testosterone fixed, I had to be tougher.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: I had to get out of bed and get my workout done so I'd have the rest of the day ahead of me.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: And Jocko, actually in this book, he has something where he says it's it's another section titled A Good Reason to be an early riser.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I have written next to it, amazing.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was so lame in college.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: But he says this I'm up and getting after it by 445.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, where do you think I got this name?
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Getting after it?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: He literally says it in this book.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Page 415 of Tools and Titans, if you want to read it.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I am up and getting after it by 445.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: I like to have that psychological win over the enemy.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: For me, when I wake up in the morning, and I don't know why, I'm thinking about the enemy and what they're doing.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: I know I'm not on active duty anymore, but it's still in my head that there's a guy in a cave somewhere.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: He's rocking back and forth, and he's got a machine gun in one hand and a grenade in the other.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's waiting for me, and we're going to meet.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: When I wake up in the morning, I'm thinking to myself, what can I do to be ready for that moment which is coming?
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: That propels me out of bed.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a little extreme.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: But you get the point.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there is a psychological win over the enemy, you could say, but for me, it's a psychological win over the day because I know I've already started my day with something difficult.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: I am not just getting out of bed, but I am also pushing myself physically.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that kind of primes my brain for the rest of the day.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that it does require a lot of discipline to get out of bed and then go to the gym and then work hard because you're tired, you're exhausted, and it's what it teaches about yourself to you that I believe gives you a lot of self-confidence.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's important to me is waking up early and um trying to really start the day strong.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: And Jocko, um, like I said, he's really inspired me on a lot of different ways.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: But one thing he talks about quite a bit is the ability to adapt.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Adaptation is so important, especially when you're trying to be disciplined and with your own goals.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I have a baby on the way, like I said, potentially three weeks out.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: And my goals are going to adapt.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm well, I'm going to have to adapt my goals.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: My routine, I'm going to have to adapt.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because now it's not just my wife and I.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just me taking care of myself or taking care of my wife.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's a baby involved.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that baby is going to require a lot from us, which isn't a bad thing.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we're expecting.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: We want this.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to need to adapt, which is fine.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think it just gives you a different challenge to pursue.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: And adaptation is important with any goal that you're pursuing.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, last year, before my 50k in Moab.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, Coke Zero is just a gem.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I never really liked it when I was younger.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't like Diet Coke or Coke Zero.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was like, those are just disgusting.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like fat Bret wanted the fully leaded sodas, but now it's like, you can't pry that out of my hand.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, it's the best.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but anyways, so before I ran my 50K, uh Drew and I, my brother, we were gonna go out and run.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: And um we had this whole marathon planned where we were gonna go out and run in the desert, and it was gonna be great.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, come to find out that it had started raining at around like 3 a.m.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was like by the time we got to the trail, it was a complete downpour and it looked like it was flooding.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: So we were kind of bummed out, and we said, okay, well, we still gotta get this running.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go and let's go to the gym.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so we literally ran an entire marathon on a treadmill.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying like that, I'm saying like, look how tough I was because I ran a marathon on a treadmill.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: That experience friggin' sucked, like it was so boring.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it was nice having Drew there where we could chat and stuff.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: But um, the point of me saying that is that I had a goal, which was run a marathon.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been better out on the trails, but I I needed to get it done, so Drew and I went to the gym to go there.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's an important piece about discipline is that you're going to have to adapt.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like I said, adaptation is key for keeping these habits and being successful long term.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, it's it's good to get out of my comfort zone.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: I like to be put out of my comfort zone because it allows me to get better and and figure out um how I can continue doing hard things while maintaining my life, like maintaining my personal relationships and and who I am as a person and that kind of thing.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um but before we jump into Tony Robbins, I want to share this last section uh from Jocko.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it's called On the Importance of Detachment.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: All right, here we go.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was probably 20 or 21 years old.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was in my first seal platoon.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're on an oil rig in California doing training.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: We'd come up on this level of this oil rig, and we've never been we've never been on an oil rig before.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's gear and boxes and stuff everywhere on these levels, and you can see through the floors because they are steel grating, not solid material.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: That would be a little uh little dis or a little concerning to me.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's a complex environment.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we come up and we all get on this platform, and because of the complexity, everybody freezes.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of waiting, I'm the new guy, so I don't really feel like I should be doing anything.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: But then I said to myself, somebody's got to do something.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I did what's called high port with my gun.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: I pointed my gun up toward the air to indicate I'm not a shooter right now.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: I took one step back off the line, looked around, and I saw what the picture was.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Then I said, hold left, move right.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody heard it and they did it.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to myself, hmm, that's what you need to do.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Step back and observe.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: I realized that detaching yourself from the situation so you can see what's happening is absolutely critical.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I talk to executives or mid-level managers, I explain to them that I'm doing that all the time.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds horrible, but it's almost like sometimes I'm not a participant in my own life.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm an observer of that guy who's doing it.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: So if I'm having a conversation with you and we're trying to discuss a point, I'm watching and saying to myself, wait, am I being too emotional right now?
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Wait a second, look at him.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: What is his reaction?
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm not reading you correctly, because I'm not reading you correctly, if I'm seeing you through my own emotion and ego, I can't really see what you're thinking if I'm emotional.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: But if I step out of that, now I can see the real you and assess if you're getting angry, or if your ego is getting hurt, or if you're about to cave because you're just fed up with me.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas if I'm raging in my own head, I might miss all of that.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: So being able to detach as a leader is critical.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Reason I wanted to share that one is because as I become a father, that is something I am very passionate about, is I do not want to be an emotional leader in my home.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I've noticed the power of detachment in many things, especially with um, especially with working hard.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like when I am working hard and I don't see any results coming from it, then that's important for me to take a step back and try to remove the emotions.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, a lot of the times that's why I journal, because I can just get my thoughts out on a piece of paper and go back and read them again.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that is important to me.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I think the importance of detachment is you're not letting emotion run the run the show.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is just you, and it is you from a um vantage point where you get to take a step back and look at the look at the scene, look at the situation through a different lens.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that's gonna be very important, especially with this next thing that we talk about from Tony Robbins, which his overarching idea is what happens when the work isn't working?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're gonna be discussing here, and this is something that's super interesting to me.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like we know from Arnold, we have know what you're chasing.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Jocko says keep doing what it requires.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: And now there's an obvious problem.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: What happens when you're doing all of that and you're still losing?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that is where Tony fits in this picture.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: Understanding what drives your behavior and maintaining a constructive mindset when circumstances get dark.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I wouldn't frame positivity as oh, everything is gonna work out, because sometimes it doesn't.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think the a better way to look at it is things can be bad without you deciding that everything is bad.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a huge distinction.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: That brings in stoicism, you know.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, circumstances are neither good or bad.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: They are what your mind thinks of them.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um that is true.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like things are neither good or bad.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: It is our perception of those things that makes them so.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had many setbacks in my life where I've been working hard, I have been trying to um do great things, and yet the results do not come.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's professionally with sales, you can have ups and downs all the time.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: And when I first got into sales, I didn't really know what I was doing.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: I realized I needed to talk to people, I needed to make calls, send emails out.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: But once I was I was doing all the work, I was calling people, I was sending those emails, I was messaging people on LinkedIn, but I wasn't getting any results.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so that meant I had to go back to the drawing board and say, okay, well, what am I doing that's potentially not serving me well?
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the point that I I want to make here is you know, there is a lot that you can be doing right, but sometimes you just need to reevaluate and think of where you're at.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he starts out with this quote.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's this section, it says, Is there a quote that guides your life?
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: And Tony Robbins says, it's a belief.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Life is always happening for us and not to us.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's our job to find out where the benefit is.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: If we do, life is magnificent.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can see how this makes sense being the last one that we're going to talk about.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because starting out strong, you know, life is always happening for us and not to us.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: Some people might argue with that.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: They might say, Well, my circumstances are crap.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, they might be.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: You might be in a hard situation.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I think there's a lot of power that you can gain from reframing your situation.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: There's a couple other things that he says short and sweet, like other quotes that he likes.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, first off, stressed is the achiever word for fear.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Second, losers react, leaders anticipate.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good one.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then set uh third, mastery doesn't come from an infographic.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: What you know doesn't mean shit.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do consistently?
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do consistently?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's your habits, that's who you are.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think it's interesting because a lot of the times when we work hard, I at least for me, I've neglected a key piece to that, and that is learning for myself, educating myself.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Tony Robbins has a section about this where uh it's called the best investment he's ever made.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: $35 for three hour for a three-hour Jim Roan seminar attended at age 17.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: He agonized over the$35 decision as he was making$40 a week as a janitor.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: But Jim gave Tony's life Jim gave Tony's life direction.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: Decades later, when Tony asked Warren Buffett what his all-time best investment was, the answer was a Dale Carnegie public speaking course taken at age 20.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: Prior to that, Buffett would vomit before public speaking.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: After the course, and this is the critical piece, Buffett immediately went to the University of Omaha and asked to teach, as he didn't want to lapse back into his old behaviors.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: As Tony recounted, Buffett told him, and this is what I want you to remember, investing in yourself is the most important investment you'll ever make in your life.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is coming from Warren Buffett, who is arguably the best investor in the stock market to date.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: Investing in yourself is the most important investment you'll ever make in your life.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's no financial investment that'll ever match it.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you develop more skill, more ability, more insight, more capacity, that's what's going to really provide economic freedom.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's those skill sets that really make that happen.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: This echoes what Jim Rohn famously said.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you let your learning lead to knowledge, you become a fool.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you let your learning lead to action, you become wealthy.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: That last part.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you let your learning lead to action, you become wealthy.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's huge.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: That is massive.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of the times we do forget to invest in ourselves.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't have to be, you know, a course or whatever it is.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: You can go on YouTube and study things that you're interested in or or skills that you want to improve upon.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I'm trying to get across with this section is that what happens when the hard work isn't working?
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: What are other things that you need to be doing to potentially help with that?
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something else that I really want to get across to you because when you're in that situation where things do not seem to be working out, where you're putting in hours and the result still hasn't come, or you're getting discouraged, whatever that is.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: Tony has a section in here called a focus on me equals suffering.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: Let me go ahead and read this because I think it's very powerful.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: This brain inside our heads is a two million-year-old brain.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's ancient, old survival software that is running you a good deal of time.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you're suffering, that survival software is there.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: The reason you're suffering is you're focused on yourself.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: People tell me I'm not suffering that way.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm worrying about my kids.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: My kids are not what they need to be.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: The reason these people are upset is they feel they failed their kids.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's still about them.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Suffering comes from three thought patterns loss, less, and never.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty interesting to me.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um suffering a lot of the times is built on our minds.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like our minds create that suffering for us.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's that Seneca quote, you know, uh, we suffer more in our imagination than in reality.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's one thing that Tony's trying to get across here is that, you know, yes, bad things can happen to us, yes, we can have setbacks, yes, we can have lose things, you know.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: But our we're the ones that are deciding if we stay there or not.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's important is is are we able to look past that or learn from it and try to become better because of it?
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's something that I uh many people overlook, myself included, a lot of the times.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but we have the power to change how we view things.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if things are if we're working hard and we're not seeing the result, then what do we need to do differently?
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: Do we need to go and invest in ourselves?
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do we I need to go and improve the skill that I have?
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: And or do I need to be like Arnold Schwarzenegger says, and and have a vision for myself of where I want to get to and be like Jocko, where I stick with it when I don't want to, and I I dig deep when I have to.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: And like Tony says, have a good attitude, be positive.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's way more things to be positive about than to be negative about.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that you're here, the odds of you being born are wild.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: And the fact that you're living and breathing and listening to me on some device, that's insane.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: We are so blessed and and and lucky, and we have so many resources.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of the times when our hard work is not working, there are resources to help us understand what we can do differently to get to that point and to make our dreams, our visions become reality and become better in the process where we can have discipline, and that equals freedom because now we have our freedom for we have freedom from health challenges or from financial challenges because we save money, like whatever it is.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, yeah, life will throw a curveball and say, Hey, now you're sick, or hey, you just broke a leg, you got in a car accident.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, I would do everything in your power to make sure that you can remain positive, even when it seems dark.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because those are the times when it's so important to keep a positive attitude.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to challenge the entire premise of this episode.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the hard work trap.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like someone works 60 hours a week, they're exhausted, they're stressed, they're constantly busy, and because they're exhausted, they assume, okay, well, I must be working hard.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: But then six months pass, nothing changes, another six months, and still nothing.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: At the same point, you have to ask an uncomfortable question.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm working this hard, why isn't anything changing?
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer can't always be work harder.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think that there are three categories which we can separate work into, and that is busy work, hard work, and effective work.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: Busy work fills time, hard work requires effort.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that could be things like working out or working on a podcast or thinking through an outline, reading a book.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: And effective work means it's moving you towards the goal.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is not about maximizing suffering, the goal is to make progress.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: And hard work is not the answer.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: Consistent work with adaptation gets you closer to the goal.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: That is more mature, in my opinion, than just simply preaching about the grind.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, get after it, keep going.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: Getting after it is hard work, but you should be adapting along the way if things aren't working out as you would like them to.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're in a section of your life where you don't know if you're working hard, if you're just doing busy work or hard work or effective work, I would ask yourself these four questions.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put them in a show notes just in case you miss them.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: But the first is what am I trying to accomplish?
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: Second, what evidence would tell me I'm getting closer?
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: Third, is my current strategy producing that evidence?
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: And fourth, if not, what am I willing to change?
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: That fourth question matters.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because something changing sometimes changing your strategy feels like admitting you were wrong.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like it says on my bicep, good.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: Be wrong.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: Then get better.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's that simple.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need to overcomplicate this thing.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: And life is not clean.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: I will make that very clear.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you know this.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like someone else might be better, you might get injured, the business might fail, you might miss the qualifying time, circumstances outside your control can change everything.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: So was the work wasted if that happens?
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you lose, if you fail, was the work wasted?
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: No, absolutely not.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: But not because of some cliche thing saying, like, oh, there's no such thing as failure.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: There absolutely is.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: You can fail.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: But the goal gives you a reason to discover what you're capable of.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: That is what is important.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you failed to achieve the goal, then perhaps the person who originally set that goal couldn't have imagined you even getting this close.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: If that's running a marathon at a certain time, or if it's starting a business and you get, you know, two years in and it fails, that's worth exploring.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: The achievement matters, but who you had to become in pursuit of the achievement, that matters too.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that fits in really well with this identity of being um earned through action rather than declared beforehand.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you do not get gain confidence from shouting affirmations in the mirror.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: You gain confidence by building an undeniable stack of proof that you are who you say you are.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: Arnold taught me how to aim at something worth suffering for.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_00: Have a target.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just participate.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: Jocko taught me that the person I want to become will require me to say no to the person I sometimes want to be right now.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: I have to control the impulse and I have to accept discomfort.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: And Tony taught me that darkness does not require despair.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: Your circumstances can suck without your mindset having to follow them there.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's a lesson that I am still learning, which is none of these things guarantee that you'll win.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: You still might fail.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: But hard work was never supposed to be a guarantee.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's an opportunity to find out what you're capable of.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that is something that I absolutely am passionate about and I believe.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want you to think throughout the week, um, if you are in this in a in a spot where you're trying to figure out what your next goal is, I want you to tell yourself, I'm going to choose something worth pursuing, I'm going to work for it consistently, I'm going to pay attention to what's working, I'm going to change what isn't, and I'm going to see how far I can take this.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: You might reach the go, and you might not.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: But either way, you'll know more about what you're capable of than the person who never tried.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, the episode in one sentence, if I could boil it down to that, is have a vision, do the work, control yourself, stay constructive, pay attention to the results, adapt, and keep going.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's really it.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I I I've been thinking a lot about hard work and how hard work is relative to everyone.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, your hard work might look different than mine, and mine might look different than the guy next door, but effort is important and adapting is important.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: That is how we get to our goals.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've changed this podcast a hundred times.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: Probably a hundred times.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: And every time I do, I know that there's one thing that I get right, uh, a little bit more right.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that might just be for myself.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like maybe it's just I think it's better.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's the case, and I'm more proud of the effort that I'm putting in with the podcasts, then great.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know if you noticed the last episode with Ali, it was kind of cut up in different shots, and it was um, it was fun to edit.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: It took a little bit more time, but I think it was worth it.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, anyways, you become better the more you try and the more you you test yourself, and you have to be patient.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: But the work will eventually pay off.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's not from achieving the goal, then it's from becoming someone who you didn't think that you could become.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I appreciate you guys for listening to this episode.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you liked it, let me know in the comments.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I really enjoy doing a little bit of deeper dives in books and things.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: So if you guys like this type of content, I'd be more than happy to uh bring it back.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: So um, but until that point, if you haven't followed the show, please go ahead and follow that.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: Helps a lot.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: Give the the show a rating.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and as always, my friends, keep getting after it.