No don't go in there, Daddy's working.
Jonathan: Talked to my buddy the other day, this guy I went to high school with, man, we used to... when we were kids, we used to skip school to work on our cars and it wasn't like we were tweaking the engines or doing any kind of performance work, we were adding speakers and amplifiers as many we could fit, as many as we could power until we either blow a fuse or something would catch on fire. Then when we got it working, we would take them out to the beach and we never got out of our cars at the beach. We would just cruise up and down the beach with our systems booming. Oh man, out of high school, we both got trades. [0:01:00.4]
He became a plumber and got a really good job with his uncle I think it was or his step-dad. I joined the union, IBEBW 606 in Orlando and became an electrician. Gosh, amazing, amazing, amazing when I look back and think about how much has changed; how much is different. I was talking to my buddy the other day. Every once in awhile we catch up whenever we can and we were just on the phone grabbing a quick chat – reminiscing and I asked him, "Hey man, how are you doing?" His response, livin' the dream. Living the dream. I was like, "What dream you are you living homey? Hanging out in like in plumbing? Hanging out in bathrooms? Hanging out in lift stations? Hanging out under sinks? [0:02:06.5]
I'm sure you've heard it before haven't you? Livin' the dream. I'm not trying to say that maybe he does believe that's living the dream but I know him well enough to think that if he were really living the dream he would be off fishing somewhere and not sweating his ass off in some new construction digging out trenches for pipe. But I could be wrong. Anyways, today we're going to talk about that idea of living the dream. Look maybe you are not living your dream right now, maybe you're chasing it but it's not working out. Maybe you are running out of energy trying to pursue this dream and maybe it all comes down to getting the wrong advice. [0:02:59.0]
That's what we are really going to explore today. So what I have for you is as usual – surprise, surprise – I've got my three step framework. Three things that we're going to talk about today: Listen, Look, and Live. So let's jump in. You guys know that I like to experiment; I like to try new things. I like to get out of my comfort zone and if you want to grow that's what you have to do. You have to get out of your comfort zone; try new things and find out what stretches you, what makes you grow, what makes you better because that is the only way you will live a fulfilled life is if you're constantly improving; constantly getting better; always striving to do better one way or another. And before I jump into this I want to remind you of something because this is one of the things I have struggled with so, so much in my life, and sometimes when we're talking about striving and doing better and achieving, we might have the tendency to look outside; look at other people, look at your friends or your family or your co-workers and compare yourself to them. [0:04:22.8]
And really to live a life of constant improvement – you've heard this before and I will say it again because it's that important; you have to be comparing to yourself. So whatever you're the baseline and you're always trying to get better and create a new base. I've been studying stock charts too much now. Back to what we were saying now. If you're constantly striving to get better chances are that you do look around for good influences like I've got a whole library of books back here, I got audio courses, I got plenty of training on my hard drive and on the cloud and I'm sure you do too because you wouldn't be listening to me right now if you weren't that kind of person that was always trying to get better. [0:05:12.7]
But one of my favorite guys and I have talked about him on this show before, the guy he's known as – what do they call him now – I think he has a new title – he's the King of the One Email Workday, Mr. Ben Settle. I have done a couple hundred shows together; you can find them over at The Podcast Factory. He is a super productive guy. He's got a great business. He's got a newsletter and last I heard he's got 500 subscribers at 100 bucks a month and that's just one of his gigs. He really does; he's a powerful email writer – one of the best in the world if not the best. Even though I don't read his emails anymore because I have worked with him for so long; I'm like how much Ben can you take? [0:06:01.2]
But I admire this guy. I admire his business. I like what he is doing and he is one of the most insanely productive people we know. In fact, Cupcake loved working with him because he was always – I mean the guy never missed a deadline, he was always ahead, he was always coming up with new ideas, he was always delivering. So I like that. I'm thinking, man, I'm a slacker right because all I want to do is – is I have it in my morning formula – all I want to do is work no more than 20 hours a week and spend the rest of the time with my family or outside or hanging out or getting better – I don't know but all I want to do is a 20 hour work week and that's a lot way more than Tim Ferriss would like but I see this guy, Ben, he's productive. I've worked with him for years. I want to try that so he teaches me his note card system and this is how he does it. He's got a 3x5 note card and he just writes out what he needs to get done for the week or for the day on the card and just goes about checking things off. [0:07:09.9]
I think, man, that sounds simple. I can do that because I'm used to having a journal and overthinking and gratitude and planning...I'm like let me try this. Maybe that's why he's so productive because he's just got a note card, he's not spending so much time planning as he is doing. So I try it out. Within a week, it's like the walls are falling down on me. Nothing is getting done. This note card is just looking at me, taunting me and I can't seem to get motivated. I don't know what the heck is going on in my business but the thing I changed was this frickin' note card. Ben's system may work for him but it did not work for me. So when we're talking about living the dream, you got to be careful who you listen to. [0:08:01.0]
You got to make sure that they have similar goals, that they have similar dreams, that they have a similar personality because if you look at Ben, Ben doesn't have a family. He doesn’t want a family. He just wants to walk his dog on the beach. I mean that's ... I like the idea of walking on the beach with a dog that's cool but that's not me. So when you're looking to get better, when you want to live that dream you have to be careful who you listen to. You got to check them out. You got to see if their values align. If they are indeed good people that are worthy of you emulating them. And even if they are maybe still their goals and what they are looking for in life is not the same as yours. So that's why you got watch who you're listening to. Let's move on. [0:08:55.6]
Have you ever heard of this circadian rhythm thing? It's ... I'm just studying up on it so I don't know a lot about it but the basic idea is that we all have certain rhythms by night and day and in order to be more productive, to be happier, to be healthier, we should get in tune with our circadian rhythms and live our lives that way. It sounds great. It sounds awesome. I'm all about getting better. So I've got this – he actually hosts – another host – I guess I'm talking about everybody on The Podcast Factory today anyways his name is James Pollard, his show is Financial Advisory Marketing and he is a guy – one of my friends laughs and he calls James, "The Ben Settle for Financial Advisors" so yeah, they are similar in the way they talk and they are also similar in their work ethic. [0:10:05.8]
So apparently these are the kind of people I attract here at the The Podcast Factory, hard workers who want to kick ass and take names. Anyways that's beside the point. James and I work together on his show and I was fascinated when he started talking about circadian rhythms and how all that plays into how productive you are or how the sleep you get really determines the kind of day you're going to have which I mean it's common sense I guess but if you don't sleep well, you're going to be pissed off and grumpy all day at least most people are. I'm right there with you. I thought for awhile I only needed six hours of sleep but I'm starting to rethink that. Anyways, so yeah back to James, I'm getting off the point here. He was talking about circadian rhythms and working your day around that so you're more productive. [0:11:06.9]
He recommended a book, The Power of When which I have only read part of. I'm still reading it because I'm fighting the circadian rhythms which is what we are going to talk about. But The Power of When is a cool book and you take a quiz and find out what kind of animal you are. There are bears and there are lions but they all have different circadian rhythms and are more productive at different times of the day. So James turned me on to this whole idea and he was like, "Yeah, this sounds cool. I'm down for a change right now. I'd love to get more out of my day. This sounds awesome so I'm going to try it." But knowing what a big change it was, I put a time limit on it. I'm going to try this for 30 days. [0:12:00.0]
See how I like it and if it works I'll keep doing it and if not I will not do it anymore. So yeah, I went about trying it. I took the quiz and I was a lion and I'm supposed to get up at a certain time – 5 or 5:30. Then I'm supposed to eat something within the first 30 minutes of waking up and then do some important work. I thought, "Hey yeah, that sounds good; all sounds good." It changes what I usually do. I might wake up at 3:30 or 5:30 depending and just my morning formula and go to the gym but sure let me try this out. The results were ridiculous. Whatever was going on, I brag about wanting to work a 20 hour work week but just something when I changed my rhythm that I was able to work 6, 8, 10 hour days get things done and just crush it. I thought, "Man, this is serious." [0:13:03.8]
Then as I kept going, things started to fall apart. Sure I would get those 6, 8, 10 hour days and crush it and get a lot done but I wasn't getting my workouts. I wasn't getting my family time. I wasn’t getting any happier. In fact, I was pissed all of the time. Cupcake was afraid to talk to me. Hudson couldn't come around me because I was so damn grumpy. Again another failed test but what I had learned from the last time was I could just keep doing it and think that maybe I was doing it wrong or something but I put a time limit on it. I put it 30 days and the first couple weeks, I just went by the first couple of weeks, I would have been like, "Damn this is awesome, I'm getting more work done than ever." But into the third and fourth week, I was starting to hate life. I didn't enjoy my days. I was angry and I didn't know why. [0:14:09.4]
So this is something that when you're trying to live the dream and you're trying to upgrade your life, yeah, you have to get influences from outside. It's absolutely necessary. You have to watch who they are and make sure that they are worthy of listening to but you also have to look. Look at what you're doing and see how it's affecting you. The best thing that I can tell you better than anything is experiment. But you got to limit your exposure, get some feedback, and figure out if this is working for you. I mean if you over commit then you're going to burn out and die, hate life. If you don't change on the path that you're on, you're either not going to grow or you're going to be in pain forever that's why we need change in life. You just got to make sure that you limit your exposure and you look at what's going on and make sure that you're on the path to your happiness. [0:15:19.3]
Speaking of being happy, you know what would make me really happy right now? If you went to wherever you listen to podcasts, I don't care if it's on Google, Stitcher, or iTunes – wherever it is – iHeart radio wherever you're hearing me, wherever you're listening to this- wherever you're tuning in, go there and subscribe. Smack that subscribe button. Give me a high five on being happy by smacking that subscribe button. Let's get back in there.
You know originally I was going to call this The Three L Framework for Living your Dreams but it's so fricking boring. [0:16:00.9]
I almost used a bad word and if Huddy were here, he would say, "Bad word, Daddy. Bad word, Daddy." Almost but not quite. Three L Framework to Living your Dreams; there's got to be a better name but the reason was because we talked about listen – watch who you're listening to. We talked about looking – looking at the results, looking at where you're going. And the last part of it is live. Living the dream, you must live or else it doesn't work. The whole thing breaks down. I talked earlier about this is how do you know that what you're hearing is right? There is only one real way to know what's right, it's right for you. What is your dream? Have you decided on what you want and this is something that I see all of the time. [0:17:00.3]
I ask people what they want, I get this on calls when I'm doing calls for The Podcast Factory agency and I ask people what they want...what they want, why they want it, what they want... and they can't tell me. They don't know. They want to make an impact. But what's that do for you? It makes me feel good. Great, so why do you want to feel good? You know they can't answer. Usually it comes down to they want to make more money. The ones that get down to that answer, I can usually help but the rest of them not really. But yet you got to decide on your dream like I told you about my plumber buddy, was he really living his dream? I doubt it. But if I were to ask him what his dream is would he be able to tell me? If I were to ask you right now what your dream is – what you imagine your future to be, would you be able to tell me? If can't that's great. This is a time right now to be aware that you need to do something about it. [0:18:06.3]
So I talked earlier a little bit and I might actually talk about this on the next episode so I don't want to go too deep into it but I do this thing in the morning. When I wake up, get out of bed, actually I empty the dishwasher, and make coffee and then I do something I call "My A.M. Formula", the morning formula. I learned this from The Smartest Guys in Marketing. How about that! So three shows mentioned today over at The Podcast Factory for you to check out. But I learned this working closely with Chris and Taylor at Traffic and Funnels, aka "The Smartest Guys in Marketing". It's this idea of a morning formula. This is something where you've been programmed all your life whether you want to admit it or not. [0:18:57.1]
You have been programmed by the television shows you watch, the movies you watch, the commercials you see by most importantly and it's not their fault they didn't know better, your parents. You've been programmed by them. Actually some of the programming is okay from your parents but most of it isn't unless you had really awesome parents like me and Cupcake. I think that you've been programmed and you have a certain set of beliefs and whether they are serving you or not I don't know that's something you got to figure out yourself but I found that when I realized that I was programmed and what my programming was from my parents that it wasn't the best programming so I started reprogramming myself. One of the ways that I do this daily is with my morning formula where I have a vision of what my future looks like. So when I ask you if you knew what your future looks like I can tell you my vision right now, I don't know if it's perfect but I'm in a penthouse over here in Orlando in the same building I'm in, it's facing the lake. I've got a big outside patio and I know the unit number that I'm on even. I haven't seen it yet but I'm pretty sure it's got the view I want. [0:20:17.0]
Then I've got my son there and I've got my wife there and we have family and friends visit us there. It's just a wonderful place where we have fun. I wake up in the morning and look over the city. I think how lucky and how grateful I am and how much harder I want to work so that I get to keep all of this. See that level of visualization that's only one part of it. I didn't even get into the Park City side of the whole thing but how many of you can describe your dream like that? I'm telling you that's the level I'm at and I'm just starting it so I'm not even that great at it. But you have decide on your dream because if you don't your dream will be decided for you. [0:21:06.6]
You got to make sure... you got to plan, you got to visualize, you have to know and you have to believe that you can achieve it. So next time, we'll talk more about the morning formula. I think that will be fun. Let's do a quick recap. You want to live the dream, you got to know what the dream is – your dream, what your dream is. So Three L Framework to Living the Dream, you think I should keep that? First listen. Watch who you are listening to, make sure that their values line up with yours, their goals line up with yours, that they have been where you want to be and when you listen to them you have to look at your results. Don't over commit. Don't under commit either. But look at your results and see if they are getting you what you want. Last but not least, if you're going to live the dream, make sure it is your dream. Figure out what your dream is and then visualize it. Just the way that I described part of mine and you will be well on your way to living your dream. [0:22:21.1]
Next time, we are going to talk about programming and reprogramming yourself so that you can live a better life that's the next one. Thank you guys for tuning in to Daddy's Working and remember go wherever you listen to podcasts and hit subscribe so that you do not miss another episode of Daddy's Working. Next week, how to reprogram yourself for better results.
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