Latest / Harder Than Life / The One-Degree Shift That Changes Everything

Transcript

The One-Degree Shift That Changes Everything · Harder Than Life

• 0:07
  I'm Kelly Siegel, and this is Harder Than Life, a podcast about self-love, self-awareness, business, and health. We tell outrageous stories and boil everything down to simple, practical advice you can start using today. Let's get living.
• 0:24
  Welcome back, Heart and Life Nation. This is your guy, Kelly Siegel, and you're listening to the Heart and Life Podcast, your go-to place for real talk, real growth, and real transformation. Today, we're diving deep into one of the simplest yet most powerful truths about success. Small changes lead to massive results.
• 0:43
  I'm not talking about flashy overnight transformations. I'm talking about the quiet, consistent adjustments you make every single day. Whether you're stuck right now or if you're grinding but feeling like you're not getting anywhere fast, this episode is for you. And let me remind you, you're not alone in this journey. I've been exactly where you are. And I'm here today to share how making tiny, consistent tweaks can completely change your life.
• 1:09
  So buckle up and get ready because today is the day you start turning those small changes into big life altering results. I'm sure you've all heard death by a thousand cuts. That's the opposite. Small little incisions that ultimately make you bleed out. Well, I'm going to give you the path on how to do small incremental changes that build your life up. So there's a myth of instant change.
• 1:37
  Everybody hears, oh, he was an overnight success, overnight results. Man, did they not see all the work that was put in before that. So let's get brutally honest. We're sold this lie of instant change, instant results, every day that success happens fast. That overnight success is real. But I'm here to tell you, overnight success takes years of consistent small actions.
• 2:04
  It took me years to build national technology management. I don't know why I keep accentuating years because it has been years. I've owned the company for 20, I've owned it for 25 of the 27 years it's been in business. It took me 20, what did it take me? Five years to build national technology management and to profit. It took me years to build my physical foundation. I've been
• 2:28
  Working out for 30. It probably took me five, again, five until I figured things out and started building. And it took years to build mental mastery. Again, I can't stop saying years. I will work on that. So again, years to build NTM, years to build my physical foundation, and years to build my mental toughness. It didn't happen instantly. Nothing worth having ever does. Let me say that again.
• 2:58
  Nothing worth having comes fast or easy. But here's the good news. It doesn't take massive leaps every day. It takes small, consistent steps, consistency compounds. You cannot beat someone who refuses to give up. They just keep coming and coming and coming.
• 3:21
  So just think about it. Just 10 pages a day of reading got me through over 300 books. 10 minutes of daily meditation transformed my mental clarity and emotional intelligence. Small actions consistently done create unstoppable momentum. Let's talk science for a second. Research from Duke University found that around 45% of our daily actions are habits.
• 3:49
  not conscious decisions, but habits. Imagine if just half of those habits moved you toward your goal instead of away from them. So my question is simple. Are your daily habits setting you up for massive success or quietly sabotaging your future? Be honest.
• 4:07
  And you know, you can look at the results. That is a hard, hard, hard pill to swallow, guys, is realizing that you are the reason why you're getting the results you're getting, whether good or bad. If they're good, you're happy. If they're bad, there's nobody to blame but yourself. Remember, one finger pointing away, three are pointing right back at you. Don't forget, nothing in this world needs to happen outside of you.
• 4:33
  for you to win. It all starts with here. Three small changes, massive impact. Let's get specific. Here are three, three powerful examples of small changes you can implement immediately. Trust me, these will change your life. First one, your morning routine. You guys have all heard it.
• 4:53
  Years ago, I didn't have a morning routine. I woke up, grabbed my phone, and reacted to whatever fire drill was going on at NTM at the time. Now I own my mornings. My daily routine is simple and yours can be too. Wake up early or just wake up earlier, even if it's 30 minutes. First thing I do, express gratitude. Literally, if you think your life stinks, imagine not having one.
• 5:20
  So if you can't think of anything to be grateful for, just be grateful that your eyes opened. Write down three things you're grateful for or say them out loud. I try to switch them up every single day and I don't use the same one for a week because I can sit back and be grateful that my daughter is sleeping in the other room. The third thing of my daily routine is meditating, starting with 10 minutes. Quiet your mind. I use the daily call map as a guided meditation.
• 5:48
  You can use Joe Dispenza or go to any YouTube or just do it yourself. I do a very simple and easy one. When I have nothing around, I just say, I breathe in and I say, I love myself. And then I breathe out and I say, thank you to acknowledge the universe.
• 6:07
  I love myself. And I say that in my mind. And then I breathe out. Thank you. So I remind myself that I have self-love and then I thank the universe for doing everything it does. Move your body, y'all know. By 5 a.m. I'm at the gym. Even a quick workout boosts your energy all day. I have a home gym. If I can't get to the main gym, I can go in and do a real quick ab roll.
• 6:31
  I can do some cardio on the bike, but it's not about perfection. It's about daily discipline. Try it tomorrow and tell me your day isn't immediately better. Guys, I have been doing those morning workouts for probably 25 years. If I don't start the day off with that, my whole day is off. And it's like the best cup of coffee. The beauty part about it is you get the hardest part, hardest thing you're going to do all day out of the way.
• 6:57
  And there's no excuses. There's no way that you can absolutely push it off and be like, oh, I'll do it tomorrow. Example two, this one I hated doing is audit your time. I just had on Craig Ballantyne. And you can download this, chat GBT, you can go on it.
• 7:17
  onto Google and ask for a time audit log. And it is wild because you will see where time is being wasted and where time slippage is happening. When you're picking up your phone to scroll social media, when you're on LinkedIn trying to say that it's for work. But every six months I do a detailed time audit for one week.
• 7:41
  I don't make it the full week. I have my assistant do this. So for one week, I track how I spend every 15 minutes of my day. And it's important to do the 15 minutes, guys, because you can lose a couple minutes here and there. It's 15 minutes because if you go 30, it's too much. It's too much time. So you got to see what you're doing every 15 minutes, how often you're going to the bathroom, how often you're picking up your phone. Yes, to that kind of detail, I put this on. So I was wasting hours,
• 8:09
  on emails, social media, distractions, and literally going to get coffee, going to get waters. And when I was going to do that, I would stop at the water cooler, of course, and talk to my work family. So I bring everything in my office so I don't have to leave. And I go out a back door to go to the restroom so I don't get distracted, especially when I'm very intentional about a project I wanted. So try it yourself. Okay.
• 8:35
  Track your time this week, find at least one task you can delegate or automate small changes, make big impact. And then of course, delete the time distractions. The time sucks guys. This works. It's wild to see the weirdest one. Go see how many times you pick up your phone. It is scary. They actually track that. You can go and see, see that fair warning. It's scary. It really is scary.
• 9:03
  Example three is cut one negative habit, which I kind of just told you, but that was just one negative habit in your time. This is a little bigger one I'm referring to. So I used to drink alcohol regularly, thinking it was part of me being successful, networking or relaxing. But when I finally cut out alcohol, my life transformed dramatically. My physical health improved, my relationships, my productivity improved, all from removing one negative habit.
• 9:30
  negative habit. Yours doesn't have to be so dramatic. It just, and I get all this all the time. Well, how much did you drink? It wasn't that it just, I just noticed that every time that something negative would happen in my life, alcohol was correlation. It wasn't the causation, it was the correlation. And then when I eliminated that, it opened up Pandora's box of other feelings and things that was holding me back. So I cut out alcohol for you. It could be coffee.
• 9:56
  It could be sugar. It could be sweets. It could be just any negative self-talk. That's a big one. Find one negative habit and cut it out. What's your one habit? Is it alcohol? Is it junk food? Is it endless scrolling? Is it constantly picking up your phone? Cut that one thing out for 90 days and watch your life improve. Small decision, massive change.
• 10:19
  Darren Hardy, author of The Compound Effect, shows us that small, smart choices consistently repeatedly lead to significant results. Here's why. Imagine two planes leaving an airport. If one plane shifts course by just one degree, it lands hundreds of miles apart from its original destination. Your life works the same way. Small adjustments create dramatically different outcomes.
• 10:48
  Every small action you take today affects your future legacy. Imagine your life one year from now. If you consistently improve just 1% each day, you'd be unstoppable. You'd be harder than life. You'd be happier than life. So what's holding you back? What tiny step can you take today?
• 11:09
  I know you got it in you. Don't be afraid. So I want to give you some more real life examples of small changes because some of you might be thinking, I do all that now. Let me share some real life examples from my own life and business. My physical transformation. If you guys look at the beginning of this year till now, we're about six months in, you can see my abs are mortified. And remember, I'm 49 years old.
• 11:31
  So all I did was I stopped taking days off and I doubled up my workouts. It sounds like a big thing, but it's not. I committed to small daily workouts instead of the irregular intense sessions. Now at nearly 50, I'm stronger, healthier, and better shape than ever before. Not from huge leaps, but from small daily choices. And sometimes that choice is just not to skip the workout.
• 11:57
  You guys have all heard about my IT cybersecurity firm, National Technology Management. The business success, we implemented this EOS, Entrepreneurial Operating System framework. Small, consistent process changes. It took NTM from stock at three million bucks to breaking the $5 million barrier
• 12:17
  and we're heading towards 10 million. Again, no magic, just consistent, disciplined actions. And if you guys own a company and are looking for IT cybersecurity made easy, reach out to me. We literally have automated things so much that we are now just over two hours.
• 12:37
  to resolve every one of our issues. Again, another example of small daily increments. We started at eight hour goals of turnaround time. It went to six, it went to five, it went to four, it went to three, and now we're titter-tottering two, and we won't stop until we get to one. I wouldn't be doing you guys a service if I didn't talk about emotional intelligence and mastering your emotions. Small daily meditations transformed how I handled stress.
• 13:07
  I also do one page of journaling every day. So I couple those two together. I became more patient, more calm, and more empathetic. And now tough conversations that used to escalate into fights turned into opportunities for deeper connection and understanding. These small habits compounded to transform my life physically, professionally, and emotionally. Hit my life, my wallet,
• 13:36
  and between my ears. So here's your action plan, my loves. Write this down. Screenshot this. Commit to it. Repeat it. Store it. Whatever you got to do. Number one, choose one positive habit to add, whether it's daily reading, meditation, exercise, or meditation.
• 13:54
  positive mantra or being around a positive person every single day. Number two, choose one negative habit to remove. It is so much easier to have addition through subtraction than it is to add. So choose one negative habit to remove alcohol, junk food, that toxic friend who's been with you for 30 years. Oh, I'm sorry. I just can't. I don't like the way I feel when you're around and I leave drained.
• 14:22
  You're an anchor, can't handle it. And then our good old friend, the unnecessary screen time, guys. Here, this thing will suck the life out of you. Take a phone vacation, telling you, it's great. And number three, start tracking your habits.
• 14:37
  Guys, what you measure gets better. Accountability creates momentum. Use a journal, an app, or a calendar. Measure your progress weekly as I can show you my notes in here and I track everything. Figure out what your most important number is. I did a podcast on that, but there's a most important number for me. It's seven. Seven hours of sleep, seven times at the gym. So after you've added one positive habit, removed one negative habit, and you're tracking everything, share your commitment with me on it.
• 15:07
  and the heart of the life nation. Tag me on social media. Tell a friend, trust me, that one accountability habit matters and will go mountains. I know some of you say, oh, I don't want to do that because they're going to make fun of me. The right people won't. They will push you. Trust me. You tell me, I'm going to reach out and give you a little nudge day in and day out because I like to see everybody win.
• 15:32
  So listen closely. You are one small decision away from a totally different life. One small decision. Small changes done consistently are the only real secret to big life-changing results. There's no magic, just daily discipline and consistency. So here's your challenge. Do one small thing today to move toward the person you want to become. Not tomorrow, not next week, today.
• 16:00
  One small thing today to move toward the person you want to become. No excuses. You got this. Let me know what you choose and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. Remember, NTM keeps you secure, simplified, and protected every single day because we live by small actions that lead to big results. You can check us out at TrustNTM.com or head on over to HeartOfTheLife.com.
• 16:26
  Until next time, Heart of the Life Nation, stay consistent, stay committed, and keep living harder than life. Please rate and share this podcast. I'm active on all social platforms and love to hear from my Segal supporters. Each and every episode is sponsored by my company, National Technology Management, the easiest and best IT company to do business with. Delivering peace of mind with technology every day, even simplifying cybersecurity. Visit TrustNTM.com for more info. Until next week, be harder than life.