Latest / Financial Survival Network / Time for You to Choose Greatness -- Christina Curtis #5821

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Time for You to Choose Greatness -- Christina Curtis #5821 · Financial Survival Network

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Think of like athletes. They create routines that maximize speed and agility and strength.
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And as business people especially, I'm an entrepreneur and a working parents and
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a leader, all three of those things. I need a routine every day
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that's going to unlock my highest quality thinking. And here's where we mess up.
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You're listening to Carrie Lets's Financial Survival Network, where you get valuable information
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the Financial Survival Network now more than ever. Go to Financial Survival Network dot
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ever, and welcome. You are listening to watching the Financial Survival Network.
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Well, I'm your host, Carrie Lets. You know, we're always looking
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for ways to help you become great, to help you raise elevate your game,
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to help you become the person that you should become. And a lot
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of the time it sounds like spiritualism and gobbledegook. But every now and then
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somebody comes along and writes a book that's actually based on fact and experience,
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proving to you that you two can do it. And that person today is
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Christina Curtis Christina. It is great to have you on the show. Your
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book Choosing Greatness, an evidence based approach to achieving exceptional outcomes. And hey,
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so success is no accident. In other words, right, success is
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no accident. There's a lot of science around how to actually achieve the level
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of success you want personally, professionally from a wealth and well being standpoint,
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and that's what we talk about in the book. All right, so what
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are the three most important factors in judging whether somebody will eventually become a success
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or not? Hm, that's an interesting question, you know. The first
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thing is whether they can get comfortable being uncomfortable. I think it's really important
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carry because success, I mean what a success means. It's different for each
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person, but regardless, it is something that they have not yet attained.
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It is out in the future somewhere where they have to create a tension between
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where they are now and where they want to go and get there and guess
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what it means choosing new patterns of behavior, new thoughts, new actions,
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new approaches, and when you try something new, the brain's response is often
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to say, hey, hold the phone, I don't want to do anything
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new. I've been doing this for as long as I can remember. It's
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working just mine, thank you very much. The brain is an economical organ
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It does not want to burn mental calories. It doesn't need to, so
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anytime you try change, you get discomfort. I mean, I think of
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it this way. If you're on a treadmill and you hit moment three.
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For me, maybe for other people it's later, but you hit moment three
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and you're like, I don't really want to be doing this anymore. Your
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brain will rationalize why you can slow down, get off, or do other
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things because it doesn't want to. It doesn't want to grow, it doesn't
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want to push through to that next layer. So getting comfortable with being uncomfortable
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is critically important. And the people I work with who are at the tightens
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of their industry, at the top of their game, they are every year
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building up a higher and higher tolerance to manage discomfort, which means they can
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scale, which means they can grow, which means they can take on things
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they're not capable of achieving yet. But they're going to lean in and figure
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out how and build the teams that will get them there. I think that's
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really important. That's the first one does that resonate when you carry absolutely And
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I once read that successful leaders are able to manage ambiguity, meaning that there's
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two conflicting thoughts or events taking place, the average person will just throw up
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their hands and they'll just choose one, but that a leader can keep those
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two conflicting thoughts in their mind and move ahead in spite of it, and
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actually a chain results. And maybe both these thoughts that appear to be conflicting
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really aren't. They might fit together. But I don't know what your thoughts
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are about that. It's a little out there, But what do you know?
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It's not out there, it's right down the middle, it's right on
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the fairway. If you think about the second one, which is objectivity in
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a balanced approach, it means don't just react, don't just react. We
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actually operate on autopilot forty two percent of the day, Kerrie. So we
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wake up and we do what we've done before again to conserve mental energy and
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stay safe. We've already done it. We're safe now, So I guess
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if I repeated, it's all good. The challenge is we become very binary
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in our thinking. Should I do this or that? Should I choose this
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or that should I engage this way or that way? And the reality is
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between one answer and another, there's whole rainbow of options that could also be
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true. And cognitively we tend like I say to you, did you like
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the movie Barrett Forrest Gump? You may say yes or no, very binary.
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It's quick, you don't enough to think about the answer. But if
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I said, what was your favorite part of the movie and why, You've
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got to slow down and think. It's not yes or no answer. And
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so you have to be balanced and objective to slow down and say, based
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on this vantage point, based on this person asking what do I want to
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share? That's breaking a pattern. That's breaking a pattern and causing you to
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open a new part of your brain that's focused on critical thinking. And the
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executives who I work with, who are exceptionally strong leaders and who are have
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very padded wallets, who evade a lot of money, are not just reacting,
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they're responding. So they're really pausing. They're elbowing their way in that
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space between an event and their reaction to it to say, what's my long
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term goal here? And how do I need how do I need to show
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up degenerate that versus just here's how I'm going to react. Here's the emotion
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that shows up in my body, so I'm going to roll with that.
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I think responding very methodically by being balanced, no high, ike's, no
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no lows, to say here's what I need to do in order to move
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us forward is really important. So I completely agree ambiguity. You often move
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to how do I create certainty fast? And if you slow down, you'll
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realize, I'm certainty is not so bad if we could just find our best
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next step and start exploring other options and learn and learn. So cognitive dissonance
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that will set in oftentimes, especially when you're trying to do something new,
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the average person just shuts down and goes to a a auto response. Like
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you mentioned, They're just a default response without looking ahead critically. So leader's
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got to measure, got to learn to manage cognitive dissonance in a positive way
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well, and be aware of what your patterns are. One of the greatest
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things that we do when it comes to executive coaching is pausing to say what
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patterns in your day are helping you in which ones are roting your results and
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your relationships, which I'm even thinking about it. I'll use a really easy
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example, which is food. Right. If I'm walking my airport, I
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travel a time for work and I see a bag of salt and vinegar chips,
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it doesn't matter if it's nine am or midnight. I'm like, and
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I'm just going to stop and buy that bag of chips. And if my
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goal is to get fit this year, that choice is not in alignment with
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what I want to create. But I have such a pull it's automatic.
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I don't even think about it. Frankly, sometimes I don't even enjoy the
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brand of chip. I just get it. So that's an example of an
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automatic pattern. If I pass the chip stand, I immediately feel discomfort.
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Oh would have been good, would have been great to have it. So
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you feel this pull back to your regular behavioral patterns, and that's where cognitive
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dissonance comes in. I can rationalize my way at a giving up on anything.
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I can rationalize my way on going back to the way I've always done
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it in a heartbeat. But if you just recognize that's just a neurological pattern,
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a risk barometer saying, and let's just stick to what's safe. Let's
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stick to what's comfortable, you can say I don't want to choose at this
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time, hold the discomfort and choose change anyway. Right, So the people
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you talk to do they do meditation, relaxation, dance their main ways of
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a coping with stress, and be keeping their thought waves open if you will,
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yeah, well totally in addition to getting comfortable, being uncomfortable, and
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really responding versus reacting. The third point around success is setting a regiment up
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that brings out your best think of like athletes, they create routines that maximize
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speed and agility and strength, and as business people especially, I'm an entrepreneur
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and a working parents and a leader, all three of those things. I
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need a routine every day that's going to unlock my highest quality thinking. And
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here's where we mess up. We tend to think the more I pack into
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my calendar, the more productive and efficient I'm going to be. The problem
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is what I've really learned again from people who are bringing in the billions,
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not just the millions, is you need space or your body and your brain
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have a micro break so it can recharge. Because we actually only have about
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two hundred and forty minutes of high octane thinking in a day that's available to
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us. So if you just run from one meeting to one meeting to one
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meeting, come home and do one shore to the next shore, to the
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next shore, you are moving yourself back into these habitual patterns that come barreling
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down your well holed neural pathways rather than creating space. And what does that
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look like It maybe meditation. I've got a timer on my desk and I
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do two minute breaks three times a day with just sitting still and breathing,
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and it allows me to move from any risk of distress back into healthy stress.
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I work with a lot of executives who will move their body rather than
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sit still, and so they may walk one block and just listen to music,
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not be on a call, not multitask, but just walk one block.
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The goal is to get away from hyper focused intensity a couple times a
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day and creating a regimen that will bring that forwards so you can recharge,
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renew and be running as fast at five o'clock as you were at eight am.
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Right, So that concept that you're not biring on all cylinders throughout the
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day. They're ups and downs. So I mean it's a little off the
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beaten path here, but the stuff that they call food nowadays really doesn't,
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you know, like the junk food you're referred to, yea linegar, chips
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or whatever. Yeah, they're all processed foods. They really don't optimize your
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performance. Have you found that high ranking executives have a certain nutritional program that
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also aids their higher thought program? I do. And that's part of the
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regiment, right, that's their weekly How am I What am I putting into
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my body that will allow my brain to come up with high quality insights?
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And because that's your greatest competitive advantage in today's economy, how can I have
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a differential thought? How can I create the environment where those ideas come to
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life? What we do know is junk food actually decreases your productivity every day
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by twenty percent. By twenty percent. I mean, think about that.
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If I woke up and I'm like, I'm going to work hard today,
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but I'll give up twenty percent just so I can have that bag of chips.
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If someone framed it that way to me and be like, I'm good,
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I want to skip the chips. But it's really interesting. If you
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eat healthy food, your brain obviously is clearer, it's sharper, it operates
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more effectively. And so absolutely, the way that you can replan your week
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around nutrition and just exercise, even if it's just walking, will have a
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direct correlation to your performance at work. That is not me saying it.
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That is an avalanche full of research that demonstrates the brain and the body are
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directly connected. Your brain is your asset for your career. Let's set up
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an environment each week so it can perfect form, it can shine. And
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I didn't get to exercise, but you brought it up. So for me,
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exercise been a part of my life for the past forty plus years on
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with a few minor exceptions, you know, life transformations where you just kind
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of get out of the habit. But now at this point, I'll never
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stop doing it till they bury me. But I assume that most of these
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high power executives all have an exercise regiment, if not to strengthen their bodies
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and their minds, to at least keep them at their current optimal level.
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Yeah, and part of the exercise element is not just so that you can
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look good, right. I think that's the eighties and nineties mentality of we're
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in the bathing suits on the beach and I just have a vision of the
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eighties that popped in my head for some reason. Now we know there's healthy
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stress, which we call you stress. There's a level of stress that actually
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it gets you too sharper thinking. And if you're not moving your body and
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moving that stress around, it turns into distress. It gets it's a feeling
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of overwhelmed people talk about. And once you are in distress, you're connon
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of functioning. Your ability to think great thoughts decreases. So the prefrontal cortex
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where critical thinking happens, actually turns down and other parts of your brain turn
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on because you've moved into a state of distress. It is now self protection
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over goal directed behavior. So you need exercise, if only if it's a
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walk around the block they say for eleven minutes, to allow you to not
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only improve your cardiovascular help and decrease your risk of stroke, but also to
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be your best at work. And I mean that by when you use the
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word success, to be successful in results in relationship. We have to let
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go of this belief that the brain and body are not connected. They are
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one and the same. They are one and the same. And I will
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tell you I did not take care of my body in my thirties, and
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I sprinted really fast and hard at work, and I had long term implications
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and I feel really slow down my career because what I thought was the top
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of my game. When I was bringing in six figures, I was like,
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this is it, this is the top. Keeps printing. And when
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I finally learned how to create a regiment that allowed me to bring out my
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best I realized, oh, that's nowhere near the top. I've got a
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lot more horsepower. I've just been draining it ineffectively every day. That was
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a real wake up call for me. So there's some trends like in Silicon
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Valley. Some are a little disturbing, like micro dosing LSD to become where
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I'm not advocating by any stretch. I think you're messing with your body,
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your brain chemistry. Same. But one thing that of recent years that's come
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to light is fasting. And yeah, le have started a fasting regime in
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the past year, and I find that mental acuity, mental clarity, energy.
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You think, oh, you don't eat, you're going to wither,
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but actually the opposite's true, because your body shifts into fat burning load and
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your clarity, and your ability to focus goes way way up, and you're
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actually burn ten percent more energy when you're fasting than when you're not. So
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I don't know if you've had any experience with it, he's ever told you
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about it, but share your thoughts. Yeah, fasting and been a cash
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really in the past five years, I've seen an explosion around this way to
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make sure you're optimizing your mental acuty to your point, and also the way
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your body is physically responding. And it's not for everyone. Actually can have
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negative effects for some people depending on their body makeup, so it's worth talking
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to a doctor about it. However, there's another element to what you're talking
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about, which is priming your body for performance so that your brain is performing
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and it's best. That's your greatest competitive advantage, right, And one thing
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we don't think a lot about that's directly correlated this is confidence. When you
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don't feel good when you wake up and you feel sluggish because you had a
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glass two glasses of wine the night before, or you pushed through on a
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project and you went to bed at midnight and you didn't get it off sleep,
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or you're burning candle on both ends and just sprinting, sprinting, sprinting,
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and it feels like there's no and in sight. The other thing it
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gets hit is your confidence. And confidence is a skill, not a trait,
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which means you build it. You build it. You got to choose
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it every day and say I'm going to lean in and build this muscle.
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And when you're depleted and tired and feeling down, it spirals into a gosh,
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I don't know if I can actually do this. Gosh, this feels
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pretty big cash this weight. I'm not sure I really want to engage with
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this amount of weight at work or at home right now. And that impacts
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what you reach for and what you go for. So not only is a
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performance of mental acuity, but self doubt can get pretty loud when you're feeling
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burnt out. Confidence every effectively, or even if you're not feeling confidence.
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So you've got to fake it, right, Yeah, well you have to
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choose it. So the way I look at it is if I wake up
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and self doubt is ring really loudly, I've got this like low grade buzz
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anxiety that's with me in the more day. Either I can just allow that
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to happen, or I can meet it. And what I mean by that
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is there's accepting and believing that that's just you, and then there's realizing that's
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just a safety security mechanism. That's saying something is off. So I'm going
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to throw doubt here and slow you down. Because something is off, it's
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okay to recognize Itself doubt turns on anytime you're going to step outside of your
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comfort zone, anytime, because the brain's saying, hey, there's a risk
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here. There's social risk here, there's financial risk here, there's career risk
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here. Even if it's small, self doubt do doesn't calibrate. It's loud,
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and the more we allow that to run, the louder it gets.
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Versus there's fascinating research when they looked at the two thousand Sydney Olympics to say
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who are those that made metals and who didn't. And what they found was
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a common denominator in those who made metals or earned medals. I always say
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made metals, but they didn't go into a shop and make them. They
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earned the medal. Was how they engaged with self doubt, was how they
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engaged with their inner talk tracks. And they didn't give it the mic and
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say, have at it, rerun this day. I guess I don't know
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confidence. They don't have the ability to do that because it's too taxing.
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It causes you to slow down and play small. Instead, they engage and
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say thanks, I'm good, I've got it, I'm all good, here's
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what I need to adjust. Let's keep going. And that way, when
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something goes wrong, they're not immediately internalizing that something's wrong with them. Right.
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So what about the concept of visualizing success? Imagining success that's in a
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lot of these success gururus. Yeah, but there's some validity to it because
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athletes who've used visualization have excelled and have gotten as much, almost as much
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benefit as physically doing the act that they're visualizing. You know what's so cool
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about this one, which I talk about in the book Choosing Greatness, is
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when you visualize a future event playing out well or not, it is created.
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That visualization is created in the same part of the brain that stores previous
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memories. So what I'm saying is you are making a memory of something that
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hasn't even happened yet, which is really powerful because then when it comes to
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that moment, it's almost probable. It's more probable that it will play out
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that way because you've got a memory of it. You're like, I know
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how this goes. Oh, I know this situation. I know when this
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ends. It ends in a win versus. What we tend to do,
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because we're primed to look at risk, is say, oh my god,
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I got that speech in two weeks or that presentation. I'm going to flub
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it. The CEO is going to wonder what the heck I'm doing. My
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colleagues are going to think I'm not smart. I get more and more anxious,
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and then guess what happens when I get there, I'm breaking out out.
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And so making sure you are calm, balanced, objective, creating the
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regiment for your brain and your body to be showing up at its best is
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important. But so is visualizing what you want and leaning in confidently to go
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for it. All right, I think we'll leave it at that. Now
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you've made me want to go up and buy the book. I assume it's
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available in Amazon and where her fine books used to be sold. It sure
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is Barnes and Noble, you name it, Amazon, go for it.
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And it's called choosing greatness, an evidence based approach to achieving exceptional results.
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All right, and your website is Curtis Leadership dot com. I suggest everybody
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go there. You can of course obtain the book there as well. Questions
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for Christina and myself email address kl at Kerrylots dot com and we'll have a
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link to Christina's site on Financial Survival Network dot com. So just go there,
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click through and you'll be able to get the book. And while you're
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there, sign up for your free newsletter. Christuda been an absolute pleasure.
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Thanks so much for coming by. Thank you so much, have a good
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one. Thanks for listening to Carrie Lenz's Financial Survival Network your solution to today's
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trying times. For the latest, go to Financial Survival Network dot com.
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Financial Survival Network now more than ever,