Latest / The Growth Project / Episode 383: The Productivity Monster

Transcript

Episode 383: The Productivity Monster · The Growth Project

• 0:00
  I choose, and there's great freedom when we choose to be content with a work, with the effort I put forth.
• 0:05
  If I don't ever make that choice, I'm never satisfying the tension that exists between what I should have done and what I did.
• 0:16
  Welcome to the Growth Project, a broadcast module by AMP, which is now powered by Elliot Davis. And, excited to do my first podcast with Anthony, a Libra.
• 0:25
  for those new due to the podcast and new to AMP Los, we are a human capital division of Elliot Davis where we exist to help you be better and pursue better, to be better for the people that matter most, to help you pursue better and the things in your life that are really important.
• 0:39
  And so our focus for the Growth Project is to provide you information that hopefully inspires you, that hopefully is backed by science, that sparks your curiosity and encourages you to take action. So each time you come to listen, there's a little bit of inspiration, a little bit of education and encourage you to have a little bit of application in your life.
• 0:59
  So we appreciate your listening. Anthony, excited about today's topic. You introduced a term to me that I haven't heard framed, productivity or dysmorphia. So I look forward to breaking that down with you. But talk about today's topic. What do we want to focus on today? Yeah. I think the easiest way to talk about this is you think about, like this, this being of this productivity monster.
• 1:22
  Right? And it's this, this idea that why does it feel like. No matter what I do, it's never enough? Why are the goalposts always shifting further and further back? And I think it's partially contributed to this idea that we exist, especially in United States, where productivity is everything, right? We are. We need to be constantly, constantly moving. And especially now with with AI, with technology, what we're able to accomplish on any given day, in any given week, is even further and further accelerated.
• 1:52
  So our ability to wrap our heads around, hey, like was able to actually put my name on the day, it was actually put me put my name on the week, so to speak was it's truly me being productive. It's a question mark, right? It's difficult to come to terms with this idea. Like, hey, am I doing enough? And why does it feel like I'm not doing enough?
• 2:11
  Yeah. And I think it's it's pervasive. And no matter what field we work in, we've had a long history in the sport space. In the corporate space. I hear this all the time. And the physician space and health care, when we're measuring RV use, how productive are you? And so not only asking those questions, am I productive enough?
• 2:28
  You know, I think the underlying question is, is it really making a difference? Am I making a am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing? Am I am I so busy checking a box that I forget about the work and why I'm doing it? And so when we measure our success and our self-worth and our happiness about what we're able to accomplish, we're always going to fall short of the goal.
• 2:48
  And so I think this is a wonderful topic for us to break down is like, how do we how do we live in this performance world? And not let it define us and actively rethink the way we look at our work and our productivity in that process? Yeah. And, and this is, this is not to say like ambition and drive are good qualities to have.
• 3:10
  Those are those are very good things. It's just there is a turning point where that drive can hollow you out, so to speak, right where you are checking the proverbial box. And every time you do check a box, the meaning in that gets a little bit less and less. It means a little bit less than it once did.
• 3:27
  And it leaves a lot of questions like, what am I doing? What am I actually doing this for? And I think too much of a good thing is still too much. Yeah. And and that ambition and drive unchecked, productivity unchecked. Not having the right perspective or right lens with how we view success, how we view our self-worth, what are we working toward?
• 3:49
  I, I always go back to, my son, kind of what, you know, where the start is at such an early age. He was not going to play T-ball at the age of six. And and one of my friends says, you know, he's going to fall behind. I might fall behind what? You know, that that I think that's kind of what starts at such a young age that we put on.
• 4:08
  Like, if you do this and you have to do this, especially in America, you know, I think maybe other cultures and other countries maybe have a little bit different lens. But if you if that's the American dream and we forget that we are guaranteed life, we are guaranteed liberty. But is the pursuit of happiness the pursuit of success not necessarily achieving it, that we are guaranteed here?
• 4:33
  I think you hit, hit, hit the hammer right on the head. Yeah, that's how that goes. Yeah, yeah. And so if we all can kind of fall victim to that, I've got to just especially, you know, think about how the life is laid out. And we were in graduation season. My son just graduated from Clemson.
• 4:50
  My daughter's graduating from high school. You know, think about how think about your career, you know, by this age, like, you know, the the lines of demarcation. You should graduate high school by 18. You should be out of college by 22. Whatever grad school looks like that, that that this unchecked, unspoken expectation of where you should be in your life and what you should have accomplished.
• 5:13
  And a big picture macro world, if you break that down, the micro, that's where we're getting to the productivity that I should accomplish this much per month this month, per week, this month, per day, that I should be efficient of every use of my time. And we fail to give ourselves permission to be human and look at it through a different lens.
• 5:31
  Yeah. And and the checklist never, never ends either, right? There's never. Oh, I did it. I'm done. Now I can relax, I can enjoy myself. It's like. Oh, like, now here's the next page of the to do list. Right? And it's just it's always you're always playing catch up. There's never a time in place where you're going I did it, I hit the benchmark.
• 5:49
  Now I can be happy. Now I can be satisfied. So it really does lie in that pursuit. And if you listen to our words enough, if you listen to the podcast enough, we talk about or work with us enough. The extreme words and how do you know you may be falling victim to this productivity monster? Is the extreme words.
• 6:08
  And Anthony, I've already you've heard us say it a few times. It's never enough. There's always something else to do. I never seem to catch up. I never seem to kind of cross all my task off. I it's never good enough. Which means I'm never good enough. And so if you find yourself kind of living through that lens, you will find yourself telling yourself that often that these are the beliefs and rules that you've created about your life, that govern your life and that's what we're really trying to uncover and unpack and disrupt today.
• 6:39
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:40
  if that's where I am? Talk about what comes out of that. You know, the primary feeling associated with this is never enough. What does that primary thing
• 6:50
  I would imagine deflated emptiness, right? I wouldn't even have to imagine. I've been there before, too. Like I've had that where I feel as though I sit down at the end of the day and I'm wondering, okay, yes, I accomplished x, y, z, but it still wasn't enough to do A-b-c, right?
• 7:07
  And especially in in the comparison culture that we find ourselves in, and especially with the rapid acceleration of how we get things done, what it actually looks like to complete tasks, to complete, to do lists, the the idea of, okay, if I got three things done today, well, why wasn't it four, why wasn't it ten, why wasn't it 20?
• 7:29
  And it does lead to you feel hollow. And then in turn, that hollowness leads you to. Okay, well, what else can I do now? Right. Like, what else do I need to do? Like you almost are unable to turn that off. So it's a it's a combination of emptiness. And it's also a combination of just dissatisfaction. Yeah. Yeah.
• 7:52
  And so so if I live in that world long enough, there's always something to do. But it's never enough. And then now I don't want to, I don't I'm not able to kind of satisfy that tension at work. Yeah. Then I go home and. And it's never enough at home. And so I'm in this constant state of knowing I need to do something, but feeling like I don't have the time where I can't catch up.
• 8:15
  And so then I'm working from a position of weakness and a position of guilt and, and and that language creeps in. I should be doing more, but I can't. I need to be more productive. I need to check the box. I need to disengage, but I can't. And there's nothing more stressful in one's life of knowing. You need to change the way you're thinking and doing and acting and feeling like you can't.
• 8:38
  And if you're there long enough, not only your guilt and shame evident and prevalent, they're terrible motivators in our life. They may kick start change, but in terms of sustaining behavioral change, like it leaves you stuck. And then then we keep going down the continuum. That's where we see the rapid levels of burnout, increasing levels of burnout and discouragement.
• 9:00
  Then we use, self-medication, compensatory measures that are not healthy and, and create a lot of disruption. Disruption, not healthy disruption, but disruption in our life.
• 9:13
  Yeah. And so especially when we talk about this idea of utilizing shame and guilt as a motivator. Right. Why are you doing what you're doing? Well, it's to avoid those feelings of shame and guilt and especially when we're always comparing ourselves and we always find ourselves doing things for the sake of saving face, ultimately doing things for the sake of saving my own reputation.
• 9:37
  It's going to lead to that hollowness, and it persists because it does produce results, especially in the short term. Right? You're going to do those things because you do not want to feel shame and guilt. You want to save your pride in that way. And in a way, if we're playing this game of, okay, am I being productive or not?
• 9:53
  If I feel like I'm not being productive, I have this guilt. I know I'm not being complacent, right? I'm doing everything to the nth degree to ensure, okay, I'm doing what I need to do, and I'm doing a little bit more just to make sure I'm able to put my name on the day, just to make sure I can maybe, maybe, maybe work towards this.
• 10:10
  I did enough.
• 10:12
  yeah. And I think that to me is we're just trying to kind of satisfy that tension in our mind, but also to make sure we look the part that that not only do I want to satisfy my own thoughts of insecurity and feelings of insecurity, that I'm not doing enough, but I want everybody else to know how hard I'm working.
• 10:28
  Yeah.
• 10:29
  And and so that kind of keeps us. But I want to look the part. And I think that busyness that creeps in from that, you know, as Charles Stanley said, it ravages our relationships. It takes away our joy. It takes away our ability to really focus and find meaning and purpose in our life, that we just kind of get on this perpetual cycle that starts.
• 10:50
  I mean, I heard my son talking this week after graduating, like, I guess the real world starts and and and you get on this this cycle and especially for young people, this what I call survival mode that they're trying to start a family, maybe start a business, start a career and and you just get on this cycle and nobody ever says, hey, what are you doing that how is that really helping you?
• 11:16
  Yeah. And so we're in this constant state. It's why so many people we look at Anthony that when they get through with a career or they get through with the year, they get through with a life, they look back with regret and they never stopped. And they ask the meaningful questions. What is the purpose of this?
• 11:33
  And you know, the busy is better is what a lot of people believe. Busy is better. And, you know, no matter how bold the to do list can be, no matter how chock full your calendar is. Okay, I got a meeting. 8 to 9, 9 to 10, 10 to 11 to 12 to 1. Right. You you fast forward a couple months, you fast forward a couple of years and you look back and you're like, what did I actually even do?
• 11:57
  Right? Was was this even meaningful for me? Is this about is this who I want to be as a as a man, as a father, as a as a mental performance consultant? Whatever your title is, whatever your role is, whatever you identify as, and it's that guilt just spirals over and over and over again. It also plays into the dysmorphia, which we're going to talk about here in a second.
• 12:16
  Yeah. So productivity dysmorphia, right. That's that was a new word. You threw it at me this morning.
• 12:23
  And so obviously I know what dysmorphia is. It's usually in the area of body dysmorphia that we have a distorted image of our body, a distorted view of ourselves. So, help, help me help our viewers understand productivity dysmorphia.
• 12:37
  What does that really mean? Yeah,
• 12:39
  I like to. I like to talk about this more through, like a, like a metaphor or analogy. So, you know, when a bodybuilder looks at themselves in the mirror, right? And like, you know, especially when they have a lot of size, you and I look at this person like it's a big boy right there, right?
• 12:52
  Like that's a guy who's clearly hidden weight. He's clearly eating this chicken. He's taking all the right supplements, maybe even some enhanced supplements. But, you know, in their eyes, when they look in the mirror, they don't they don't see that. They see the carnival mirror, so to speak. They don't see an accurate representation of what they actually are there.
• 13:11
  And we can think about this productivity the exact same way you and I finish our days. We we do a substantial amount of work, but we're unable to accurately perceive the output. We don't see it, sufficient. We don't ever see it as enough. And especially now where we have I can do all of these phenomenal things that's taken to another degree.
• 13:33
  Like, oh, like all the things that used to fill my day can now be completely automated. What what do I do now? What is it? What is it? What is the meaning of what I'm doing? Yeah. So I think we look through a distorted lens and obviously the cognitive psychologist to me, the cognitive distortions, the the rules or beliefs that kind of govern our lives, that's where we get into it's never enough.
• 13:55
  And we're asking these questions. I see so many people get to a certain point in their career and there's like, hey, am I they back to saving private Ryan? Have I live a good life as my as my time on earth been meaningful? Have I ever made a difference? And I think that lens which which we want to disrupt some of those help the challenges of ourself makes it sure make sure that we're doing work that's meaningful, that's relevant, that inspires us.
• 14:22
  But we gotta make sure we aren't so distorted in our view of ourselves and our work that we lose sight of why we're doing what we're doing.
• 14:31
  and especially like the benchmarks you were talking about. Right? Okay. Like I graduated here and then I'm going to get this certification and I'm going to land this entry level job, which is going to take me to this next position, which is going to allow me to buy a house, which is going to allow me to have kids provide for my family.
• 14:45
  And then maybe, maybe one day we'll think about retirement. Right? And then obviously there's a little micro checkpoints within that. Every single achievement, every single benchmark there feels so much smaller because you're always wondering, well, what's what's next. Right. Like what's the what's the next? How do I move the sticks one more time. Like how do I continue to get to that next level?
• 15:06
  And then you look back and when you do, even when you feel exhausted, you're like, why do I feel exhausted? Will we do anything? Like what? What what am I even doing right now? Yeah, and I think that's where those expectations really take away our joy of like. Like we interpret like I have to do that at a certain time.
• 15:27
  That may be like, I believe, unrealistic, unmet and unspoken expectations are a huge source of frustration not only in our relationships with ourselves that that that we create this image in our mind of how far along we should be, and that I should be farther than I am. I should be more productive. We start should knowing ourselves as what Albert Ellis would call it.
• 15:48
  And and and we never really stop the challenge, the truth. I think that's that's a lot of the work that we do. We help people, hopefully even even Anthony Porter. My vision for my work is to help people find meaning in their suffering. Yeah, that like gleaning from Victor Frankel's like, hey, what is the purpose of your life?
• 16:08
  What is the purpose of your work? And, and you to take ownership for the vision and value. So I'm getting ahead of how to how to tame the productivity monster and how to do it more for you. But I'm getting ahead of ourselves and so if you find yourself constantly feeling like the work you do is never enough, that no matter how hard you work, you know and the doubt creeps in and you've heard me talk enough that asking questions creates doubt.
• 16:36
  You know the way the brain is wired. If I'm asking, am I doing the work that I'm supposed to be doing? Am I checking the box? Am I getting enough? None. Am I productive enough? Your brain's telling you that you are not, because you're probably asking those questions again. From that feeling of weakness and guilt. And so we're constantly churning, and every now and then we know intermittent reinforcement is the strongest form of reinforcement.
• 17:00
  Every now and then I get some type of positive benefit from my work, from my productivity, from the way I work. And so it constantly gets reinforced that, oh yeah, this might maybe it's a raise, maybe it's a promotion, maybe, maybe somebody gives you a little bit of affirmation and it reinforces some of these negative behaviors that you've created.
• 17:20
  Yeah. Yeah. And it's it's a lot it's very output driven. Right. And it's inherently effort driven. It is very, very output driven. And it's not focused on the process. It is focused on what did you yield, what did you actually finish there. And when we only think about that when you only think about the times where you had a product or you only had an all the the time and effort and energy and attention that went to that all of a sudden just goes by the wayside, right?
• 17:49
  And of course, in a in our society where we're winning is everything where we need to be productive, like and again, you hear the words that I'm using here need right. You should and you can you can play that game in your head where okay, here's the truth. What's between my ears or is the truth actually something out here that I haven't yet come to terms with that I am not able to accurately see because of what's been beaten into me, because of what my learned responses are.
• 18:18
  Yeah, I think that's one key indicator in your own life or like word, the thoughts that perpetually engage your mind. Or are you thinking about what you have to do, need, do, should do, or can't do? That's an indication that you're trying to live up to your own expectations or the expectations of others. You know that that those words right there, you know, we think the art of deep performance, sometimes the art of leadership is knowing when to add pressure, knowing when to take it away.
• 18:43
  And so I think it's really important for you to kind of, if you're listening to this podcast and start thinking like, what am I living up to? Am I in my falling victim to the productivity monster, or am I looking at myself in a different way? And I think when one of the things that you said to me that just hit home is sometimes effort is really hard to measure.
• 19:04
  Yeah. You know, it's really hard to know if if you did your best each and every day. And so without that being able to answer or measure effort, then I can go to the task that I accomplished. And and that's what we're talking about. It doesn't mean that the task doesn't matter. But but how are you defining success?
• 19:27
  How are you rewarding effort? How are you measuring progress? That's that's what I hear there. And so we've got kind of this just busyness without insight. And, and I go back to kind of, okay, what do we do about it? I go back to my son at the age of 13. I told this story a lot. I was going to have to miss his birthday party because I had a work meeting and feeling guilty, I guess.
• 19:53
  Never know if I'm working hard for my family, but I can't be present like all those thoughts that we've talked about, I was thinking, how can I make this up for him? And so I decided to take him out of school and take him over to Clemson football practice for his for his birthday. The day after. You know, we went we had we had hunted the day before and I was going to miss his little birthday.
• 20:12
  So later that week I took him over to Clemson. I think it was an awesome day. He he got to spend time in the quarterback meeting room. We got to spend time in the team meeting room. I'm meeting with Coach Swinney and I don't I don't know where my son is and I'll walk out on the on the practice field.
• 20:25
  He's warming up with our quarterback and like you go, dad, that's a great 13th birthday. I'm thinking finally I made up for it. And so we get in the truck on the way home. It's 35 minutes by the Greenville five minutes, and I get a phone call and I'm like, hey, bud, sorry, I got to take this call.
• 20:42
  And we had not yet given him a phone. And so he just he just sits there two minutes from the house. I hang up the phone. So what was supposed to be his day? I was not present for.
• 20:55
  And that expectation. I have to take this call like I need to be present. So I hung up the phone. I said, hey bud, I'm sorry I had to take that call. And he said, that's okay, dad, you're the busiest guy I know.
• 21:07
  And I started telling him and explaining why I was busy because I didn't want my children feel guilty about my work. And so as I am well to do, I kind of got into this explanation and it was a little long winded, and he cut me off and said, that's okay, dad, it doesn't have to be like this.
• 21:25
  Yeah, like it doesn't have to be like this. And every time I think about getting falling victim to this busyness and this pace and productivity, there's words from a 13 year old echo in my head, hey, it doesn't have to be like this. And so if you find yourself falling victim to this, if you find yourself never feeling like the work you do is enough, like the good news is it doesn't have to be like this.
• 21:46
  And so here are some ways and tips that you can really challenge those lies that have perpetuated through your life that you were only successful if you were productive and complete your task. So what's what's the first thing people can do, Anthony, if they're falling victim to this? I mean, the first step is always awareness, right? That's the drum that we're going to continue to be.
• 22:06
  And I think the way you put that in that in the story with your son, like where you took the phone call at the end of what sounds like a great day, you know, you're out there in Clemson, you know, you're with the boys with Dabo, and you know, you took that call and you, you heard from your son.
• 22:20
  You're the busiest guy I know, right? And I want I want the listeners to to sit with that for a second and ask themselves, what does that mean to you right now in this moment? Because for some people, that's probably a huge compliment, right? If we if you are an individual who prides themselves on what they do and the efficiency, the efficiency that they do it with and the productivity that they're able to achieve with it, a lot of people wear that with a lot of pride.
• 22:46
  Yeah, right. And that's not I'm not going to be the one to say to take that away from you. I'm not going to say actually no bad thing. Don't do that. But context is everything there. Right? We see the implications that can have for a family. You see the implications that can have for yourself and who you want to be at the individual level.
• 23:04
  Deeper down than that, it was. That's what I learned growing up. You know, I watch my father who watch his grandfather, that that they're always doing something, the pace with which they walk. The what time do you show up for work? What time do you leave? You know, whether it's productive or not. You're still there checking the box.
• 23:23
  Because I'm going to outwork you. Yeah. And that's that's something that is still within me today that I still have to wrestle with is the pace with which I work, that I have to challenge. Okay, what's the work that I really that inspires me? What's the life that really inspires me? And that's a there's a distinction there, right?
• 23:44
  What's the work and what's the light and what's the harmony look like. Yeah, right. I know you're a big proponent of harmony over balance. Something we talked about even in my interview. Right. I like the idea of being okay. Yes, I'm very passionate in what I do, but also passionate about the man that I want to be and passionate about the life that I want to be.
• 24:00
  So, you know, we talk about this awareness aspect like, hey, like, hey, are you the busiest person, you know, take that a step further. What does that mean to you? Right. Like what is it? Where is it helping you? Where is it hindering you? What changes or realizations need you to make? And you'll notice it right there. Is that insufficiency that's always that's always kind of lurking there.
• 24:19
  There's an inability to celebrate the wins when you hit those benchmarks, and most likely you're probably going to be feeling some burnout if you are always just trying to to fight against that, that that productivity monster over and over and over again to keep it at bay. And so what, you know, I appreciate you kind of taking that a step further.
• 24:36
  What I think about is what happens when our values come into conflict, that you value hard work, you value making a difference in people's lives, you value productivity, but you also value being present for me as a husband and a father and a friend. And you like when those values come into conflict, what which one wins in your life?
• 24:57
  And I think that's the awareness that we really want you to feel is like, which one wins? What is your default? And sometimes it's easier, I guess hard to quit doing what works for us. Anthony. So good business and productivity and pace. If that is going to work for you and giving you some intermittent reinforcement along the way, it's hard to quit doing that.
• 25:17
  And so is now your awareness of, hey, this is where I'm falling victim to this. This is where it's really eating me up with that awareness. What can we do? Because awareness without action only increases the shame and the guilt and the frustration and disappointment.
• 25:34
  Yeah. And that takes us right to that second step there.
• 25:36
  Right. Because that you could be as aware of something as you want to be. But if you don't do anything about it, you're never going to experience change. You're never going to experience positive momentum in the right way. So when we when you go to define the word productive, you will even when you go to define busy, what does it mean to be busy?
• 25:53
  Output isn't everything, no matter how many times it's been beaten into you in whatever job you're in, whether it's football, whether it's business, whether it's the military output isn't everything. We can think about productivity and expand this definition to include critical thinking, to include more collaboration, learning productivity is also effort. Is it output? Absolutely. But it also does consist of the pursuit of that output, the pursuit of those goals.
• 26:20
  And benchmarks. Yeah I think y and y is output not everything and outcome not everything because you can't control it. Yeah. And I think this is where you got to have a different lens. As Einstein said, the same thing to thinking that create your problems can not be the same kind of thing that greater solutions. But I think that's even AI is going to supposedly make us more efficient.
• 26:43
  And and I, I'm doing a lot of work on physician well-being and physician burnout, which we know are byproducts. And the revenues which they measure, they aren't looking at the impact they had in people's lives. Are they saving people's lives? They're looking is how many hours it took to do it, and are they doing it properly? Are they getting the right code?
• 27:03
  And so to me, go back to Simon Sinek. We get so focused on what we're doing, we forget why, how we're doing it.
• 27:10
  especially with AI being top of mind right. I don't think I can't think of a day where I didn't have a conversation about AI the last couple of weeks, to be completely honest with you.
• 27:19
  And we think about what automation looks like for what, you know, tasks used to look like. The question is like, how am I going to enjoy this newfound time? It's how am I going to fill this newfound time, right? How am I going to continue to okay, now my my productivity baseline was here. Now it's up here. Right.
• 27:37
  And that is you get the key. Only keep getting higher as the clouds of the world get better. As the Geminis of the world get better, the charts of the world get better. As further agents begin to integrate into systems across every industry, you're only going to find that we're not only organizations are going to put those expectations on you, but you yourself as well.
• 27:56
  So especially being mindful and building an awareness and recognizing, okay, what does it look like to live the life that I want to lead now? Yeah. And we know there's a threshold that that when the brain is at its best, when it's performing at its highest level and, and we understand that process of peak performance. And Jim Lehrer, who created the Human Performance Institute in Orlando, which he was really did for racing for millpond, you know, that that that creating this growth sanctuary where you look at all these different dimensions of well-being, he said.
• 28:30
  We live in a world that celebrates work and productivity, ignores renewal and recovery, and fail to recognize that both are necessary for peak performance. And so there's a point of limited returns of how productive you can be. And if you start changing the lens of looking at productivity in a different way. And the next piece is how am I going to define success?
• 28:56
  I think these are like the foundation of what I've done for 20 years is probably my favorite question to ask. How can we think differently about success and where the world for success is about achieving a goal? As you said, in a certain time frame, with a certain amount of energy, with a certain amount of money, that that we get to rethink success, that it is, as John Wooden said, that peace of mind, direct result, self-satisfaction, knowing I did my best to become the best, I'm capable of becoming.
• 29:26
  And you already hinted at the worthy pursuit of a worthy goal. So what? What's how does thinking differently about success free us from this productivity monster? Well, I think it's the addition. Right? So it is progress. It is outputs. It is outcomes. But it's progress with satisfaction. It's outcomes with the appreciation of effort. It's growth with the appreciation of what it took to get there.
• 29:56
  Yeah. Right. So like the the the word with carrying a lot of water in those phrases. But when we talk about expansion of that definition of success and we talk about this idea of what does it mean to be satisfied at the end of the day to where you can actually go, okay, I feel as though I did enough, right?
• 30:17
  I not only did I do enough, I did it well too. And now I can expand my horizons in ways that I want to. And we even have to be careful. Our feelings can betray us. Yeah, right. I think that's where it's as you saying to me kind of psychology. So you are not as you feel, so you think.
• 30:33
  And to me sometimes Anthony talking about this thing, being satisfied and being content. I think to me the satisfaction leads to somewhat a level of complacency where content is more of a choice in a state of mind that I,
• 30:45
  I choose, and there's great freedom when we choose to be content with a work, with the effort I put forth.
• 30:51
  If I don't ever make that choice, I'm never satisfying the tension that exists between what I should have done and what I did.
• 31:00
  And and progress. To me, it's one of my favorite words. And so we can look at a day and look at a week and look at a life and think, hey, I'm better than I used to be, you know, imagine how that frees you up. I'm not who I want to be is. I'm not who I should be.
• 31:18
  I'm better than I used to be. And I think that's the goal. What ultimately striving for that we never reach that level of perfection.
• 31:26
  Imagine the weight that comes off your shoulders.
• 31:29
  What are some closing comments and thoughts that that we want to encourage people? As I leave, I think the biggest thing is no one person is alone with this, right? This is with a lot of the things that we talk about on this podcast in our work.
• 31:43
  These are common, right? And especially living in the United States in today's day and age, these are probably beaten into you to some degree, to be completely honest with you. And there are representations of reinforcement right there, representations of reinforcement. As you said, when you give yourself the choice that adds a lot of freedom, adds a lot of power.
• 32:04
  So where can you begin to add those choices in your life? What would change if you let your effort count before your next achievement, before your next outcome, before your next proverbial checkbox? And I think with that, to me, we talk so much about a growth mindset. One of the key factors of a growth mindset is my effort will lead to success.
• 32:26
  And when I have that lens is an increase in my confidence, my self-efficacy, and a decrease in my anxiety. And so if we can start thinking differently about success and thinking differently about ourselves, and start rewarding effort and recognizing progress, we're going to kind of probably become closer to who we want to be and how we want to be in our life.
• 32:46
  And I think what I heard you say as well, which I think is so important, is giving yourself permission to be human. Yeah. And but not accepting. I think this is I get philosophical on this, like how do we give ourselves permission to be human? Meaning how do we accept the limitations of being human without accepting the limits that being human imposed upon us?
• 33:08
  And so to me, that's the hope. That's the encouragement. And so if you find yourself today resonating with this message and find yourself just checking the box and when you get through this in the podcast, the first thing you do is go check your task list and see how much time you've wasted today or what you've done again.
• 33:24
  Give yourself or miss me, but challenge yourself. Remember through the words of my son, it does not have to be like this. Continue to clarify your vision for your life. Continue to clarify your values, rethink success and start focusing on progress, not perfection. And see how that frees you up to be who you were created to be. Well said.
• 33:47
  Well, Anthony, I've enjoyed the conversation. I've got a lot of, thoughts in my mind. I really appreciate you being on our team. I appreciate you putting the effort forth in this. And our listeners, thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting us through the years. I always get this wrong. Like us. Or follow us on wherever you're listening to this.
• 34:06
  And if you have any questions or thoughts or need a little bit more commentary on this, we'd love to answer some of these questions on our podcast. So until next time, continue to be better and pursue better.