231. Habits, Rituals And Discipline Are The Fuel For Your Success

You see, when it comes to the insurance industry, we think the training has to come by way of knowledge, product and strategy. But I'm going to tell you, that is not the secret sauce. The secret sauce is what is going on between the ears. The secret to your success is the work you're putting in off the field when no one is watching.

Hey, welcome back to Bullpen Sessions Podcast. My name is Andy Neary and this is episode 231. Today we're going to talk about three things. We're going to talk about habits, rituals and discipline.

Now, before we get there, I want to make a very quick announcement. This episode is sponsored by Complete Game Consulting. Yes, that is my company and I have a very big announcement. Our next broker branding academy is coming up starting May 10th. If you are an insurance professional, whether you sell commercial insurance, benefits, life, disability, you name it, and you know you need a better strategy to open doors, this is what this academy is for. So if you want to know more information, go to the Show Notes, click the link, schedule a free strategy call with the team and we will see if the academy is a fit for you. It's 12 weeks, all 12 of our complete Game Playbook module courses. Value of almost $20,000, and you get it for a fraction of the cost. So check it out. If you're an insurance professional, schedule your strategy call and we will get you enrolled. All right, let's get back to today's episode.

Habits, Rituals and Discipline. Something that is very near and dear to my heart now, very few times.

Is one of my solo podcast episodes.

Directly from another episode that I have done in one of my interviews. But today's episode is one of those moments. This episode today comes squarely off the shoulders of a conversation I had. In fact, the last episode, episode 230 with Clay Harbor. You got to take a listen to that if you get a chance. Something Clay talked about. Clay is a former NFL tight end who has gone on to have a very successful career in sports broadcasting, sports media. And one of his philosophies, he calls the four quarters to victory. And those four quarters to victory come down to habits, rituals, discipline, and knowing your why. And today, you know, thinking about the four quarters to victory, I really wanted to focus on three of them, Habits, rituals and discipline. And give you my own interpretation of those. Not only how they've impacted my career, but what I think they can do to help yours. Because if you know anything about me and my company, Complete Game Consulting, one of the things we're very focused on is we are on a mission to help 25,000 insurance professionals reach their full potential. Key words. Key words being reach their full potential. Truth be told, I don't think enough people in the insurance industry, heck, enough people in life today, are striving to reach their full potential. And this message really hit home for me shortly after my pro baseball career was over. Because when I talk about my pro baseball career, a lot of people are actually shocked. The way I talk about it. They think my story is somebody who overcame a bunch of odds. 5 foot 9 pitcher who didn't throw overly hard, and here I am with a chance to pitch in the Milwaukee brewers organization. I know that's how the story sounds, but I'll be honest. The reality is it's a story of an athlete who did not live up to his full potential. And because when I got to pro baseball, I just wanted to fit in. I got away from the habits and the rituals and the discipline that I used in high school and college to have a ton of success because all I wanted to do is fit in. I was. I was being impacted by the people I was surrounding myself with. And truth be told, I did not live up to my full potential in pro baseball. Now, did I have what it took to make it all the way to play for the Milwaukee brewers in Miller Park? I have no idea. The odds say that I probably didn't. But I look back and say, you know what? I don't know. Because I did not live up to my full potential. The same holds true for the first 10 years of my insurance career. My first 10 years in insurance were abysmal to be polite because I was not living up to my full potential. Why? I lacked the habits, I lack the rituals, and I lack the discipline. And that's why I want to focus today's episode on these three subjects. Because today I'm happy to say they have a much more positive impact on my life and my business. And I'm watching a lot of advisors in the insurance industry struggle right now. And when I look at where they're falling short.

It'S this concept, this theory of living up to their full potential.

Now, the definition of reaching full potential is going to mean something different to. To every single person. But as you listen to this episode, I want you to do a gut check. I want you to look in the mirror and say, listen.

Am I living up to my full potential? Am I doing everything I can do to have success in business and success in life? Now, I'm gonna be totally honest with you. I am still a work in progress. But you know what? I am a hell of a lot better today than I was 10 years ago. I am in a much different position today as a professional, as a person, as a boyfriend, as an uncle, as a son, whatever that might be than I was 10 years ago. And I just want to share what I'm doing today to improve these areas of my life because I think they could help you. And that's what I want to use today's episode to do, is help you.

Reach your full potential in business and in life. That is the key. Now, it's something you're always going to be striving for, let's not get that confused. However, if you apply the right habits, the right rituals and the right discipline, reaching your full potential.

Is almost gonna become a given result. What I'm gonna share today is as we go through each of these, the habits, the rituals and the discipline. I'm gonna share with you three things I'm doing today under each of those categories that I believe are having a big and positive impact on me personally and professionally. So if you are struggling right now to have success, and you know it's because you're probably lacking in some of these areas like habits and rituals and discipline, I think this is going to be a really good episode for you. But let me start here.

Why am I talking about this subject? Well, when it comes to the insurance industry, where a lot of my listeners come from.

I understand that I have not sold the most insurance in the industry. That's a fact. I was not the greatest, the best insurance sales rep. However, I believe these habits today that I am instilling and implementing into my life are what have allowed me to go out on my own and build complete game consulting and do it with very, a very high level of success. It's not my knowledge, it's the habits, the discipline and the rituals. I'm gonna say these three words over and over again today. So until they're ingrained in your head, because this is how important they are. Now let me level set. I'm not a kid. I'm not a person who was born with good habits and rituals. In fact, go back to my childhood. I was a chubby, lazy.

Kid who was always seeking the easy way out. If you go back and look at the 10 year old version of me.

I was anything but disciplined. I had no habits, I had no rituals except grabbing the bag of Cheetos out of the cupboard on a nightly basis.

I didn't like doing hard things.

I just wanted the easy way out every single time. In fact, if you saw me as a kid and compared to the person I am today, you would not believe that was my childhood. I wore glasses that were thick enough to burn ants. I was the only kid who made the A team in sports with B cups. And back then, when mental health wasn't as much of an issue as it was today, Levi's decided that they were gonna make a pair of jeans just for me and call it husky. That was me. In fact, I remember. I'm probably going off on a tangent here. One of my biggest enemies in grade school was not the bully at recess. It was the Presidential Fitness Test. Do you remember the Presidential Fitness Test? Oh, I still. I don't know if they still do these today, but if you remember growing up as a child of the 70s and 80s, every year we had to go do this fitness test. Pull ups, push ups, climb the rope, all those things. And I can remember being the fat kid. The Presidential Fitness Test was the worst thing in your life because you knew it meant embarrassment. There was no way I was going to be able to do a pull up. There was no way I could do more than five push ups. And looking up at the ceiling with that rope hanging from the gym ceiling, oh, hell no. I'm not climbing that thing.

And back then, I was anything but habits, rituals, and discipline. And I'll be Honest, at age 45 today, I still look back at that fat kid I was, and it still impacts me today. I know people tell you you shouldn't use your childhood as motivation or fears as motivation. But I'll tell you, when you were the chubby kid, you were the fat kid, the kid that got picked down a lot, the kid that avoided attention because it was usually negative attention. It still motivates you today.

It still motivates you today. In fact, I've shared this story on a past podcast episode. When I was playing pro baseball and we were in Missoula, Montana, pitching against the Missoula Osprey, standing on that mound and having that entire stadium filled with 5,000 people chant, how can you pitch when you're 5 foot 6? When I was on that mound in the moment, I felt like the fat kid all over again. I felt totally out of place.

And so whoever tells you that your childhood doesn't impact who you are today, they're full of shit, because it does. And it can be negative, but can also be positive. I use it today to be a positive motivator. I don't want to go back to that kid who lacked habits, discipline and rituals. And that's what motivates me today. That's what drives me today to get up every single day and try to reach my full potential.

Now.

One thing we are very proud of at Complete Game Consulting when it comes to teaching is we have two models we live by. In fact, these two mottos are in our core values. Number one, we go first. So no matter what we teach you, no matter what we teach your team, we have tried and done ourselves first. And number two, everything we teach, we still do ourselves. Why is that important? Well, what I'm about to walk through today, when it comes to habits, rituals and discipline and what I'm doing in my life to have success with all three, I want you to know what everything I'm about to teach you, I am doing today. I believe it is so important for.

Teachers and mentors, those who are giving advice, to back up their advice with execution. If you're getting advice from somebody who is not executing on the words coming out of their mouth, it's somebody you shouldn't be taking advice from. What you're going to hear from me today, I apply in my life every single day. And it has helped me to have tremendous success in business and life. As I mentioned, I am still work in progress in some areas. We all are. But I think these habits, rituals and disciplines that I'm going to share with you are going to help you start heading towards the right direction of achieving your full potential. You see, when it comes to the insurance industry, we think the training has to come by way of knowledge, product and strategy. But I'm going to tell you, that is not the secret sauce. The secret sauce is what is going on between the ears. What's your mental strength? What's your mental athleticism? What's your ability to instill the habits, rituals and disciplines to have success? Because I'm here to tell you, as somebody who has had success both in sports and in business, the secret to your success is the work you're putting in off the field when no one is watching. It's not what happens in the boardroom. It's not what happens when you're speaking on stage. It's not what happens when you're trying to close a proposal. Nope. It is all the work you put in when no one is watching. When I was pitching at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and I knew that I had to change my habits and rituals and my discipline to become a better pitcher and a better teammate, that is when I started achieving success. That's when I started putting all the work in off the field when no one was watching. When my buddies wanted to go out and get drunk on a Friday night, I hit the weight room on Thursday night at 9pm when they were out for drinks at the local bar, who had the Thursday night specials or they were hanging out at the apartment. I was in the gym, working on my craft. That is what is going to create success in your profession and your life today. Because I have to say this, and I know this is going to probably hurt some people to hear it. One thing I struggle with by observing the behavior in the insurance industry is I see a lot of people who appear to have a lot of financial success. But when I look at them both visually and how they, how they lead their lives, I can tell these are not successful people.

How successful are you if you're making a lot of money, yet you feel like shit? You barely can wake up in the morning, you have no energy, you're on the road, eating late, eating like crap, drinking too much, Are you successful?

That's a question you got to look in the mirror and ask yourself. The insurance industry plugs way too much emphasis, puts way too much emphasis on financial success. I want to know what these people are doing with habits and rituals and discipline in other areas of their life. Are you truly successful? Yeah, you can sell an insurance policy, great.

But how long is that going to last if you don't have the right habits and rituals and discipline? Now, if you're struggling and you're not selling enough insurance to have the success you want, what you're about to learn, I believe can help you get there.

And here's the problem when it comes to this type of training, what I like to call the mental game of insurance, nobody teaches this. When you enter the industry, which, by the way, very few do, by design, right? You are sold the dream of financial success. And you are sold that if you hang around long enough and just do the right things from a sales standpoint, you're going to have success. But here's what they don't teach you. They don't teach you how to be mentally tough. They don't teach you the habits you need to instill to have this success. They don't teach you about rituals you should incorporate in your life every day. And they do not teach you how to be disciplined on and off the field, in the office, outside the office. No one teaches you this. I'm going to teach you it today. Because I truly believe if you apply the athlete's mindset to your business, to your life, you're going to have a lot of success. And for those listening in, if you are that former athlete, this is going to make a lot of sense for you. And I'm willing to bet you're probably incorporating a lot of these into your life already.

Now, here's the question I want to pose before I get into habits, rituals and discipline and how I'm using all three today to have success. Here's the question I want to pose. What are you doing right now to give yourself an advantage on the competition?

I heard this said in a podcast recently. I believe it was a Lewis Hows podcast. And I thought that was such a good statement. They were asking Lewis Howes why he instills the habits and the rituals he does. And his comment was his answer was, I want to try to get any advantage over my competition I possibly can. And again, bring this back to the insurance industry. When we think of giving ourselves a competitive advantage, where does our mind go? It goes to product advantages, strategy advantages. Right? Sometimes price advantages. No, no, no, no, no. What are you doing to give you an advantage over your competition? What are you doing off the field? Your competition isn't that is going to help you crush them on the field. And I'm going to talk about a few here that I think have had a huge impact on my life to the point today where we are growing substantially at complete game consulting. There are days where I feel, and I don't share this, to be arrogant by any means. I want to make a point. There are days I feel unstoppable simply because I know I'm instilling the right habits, discipline and ritual. And that's the key. You can feel unstoppable because when you feel unstoppable, guess what? You, your confidence is at an all time high. When your confidence is at an all time high, you are going to take the necessary actions to achieve the success you desire. Which means, guess what, you're reaching your full potential. So let's talk about habits.

What are some habits I am currently applying in my life? Mainly in this case, I'm going to share some business habits that I am applying right now to allow us to have a lot of success and allow us to continually to create sustained growth. The first habit I want to talk about is how I plan my weeks and my days. The first thing I do every single week, no matter where I am, it could be at home, we could be on vacation. I don't care where we are every single week I take about 45 minutes to an hour on Sunday morning and I plan my week. Now I've shared this at length. I wish I had a copy with me. I don't. I use the Clever Fox Planner. It is at a beautiful planner. If you aren't using a daily planner, weekly monthly planner, right now go check out the Clever Fox Planner. I do not get paid by them but it is an amazing planner. Maybe I should. I have shared this daily planner with so many people I think I need an affiliate link. Anyways, every Sunday morning I plan my week and what I love about the daily the, the, the Clever Fox planner is it forces me to ask myself some questions. Number one, I, I look back at the previous week and I look at the wins I sustained that week. They could be personal, they could be professional. What were my wins from the previous week? Then it asks me or forces me to look ahead at the next week, the week I'm planning for. And I have to lay out a few things I'm excited for. What's coming up this week that I'm really excited for? Could be a big proposal. Maybe it's something professional or personally maybe we're going on vacation that weekend. Whatever it is, what am I looking forward to? You got to get yourself fired up for the week ahead. And then I go into the hard work of. All right, what are my to do's? What are my biggest priorities in business? What are my biggest priorities personally? And what do I have to get accomplished this week to look at the week as a success? And which things are the most important? Because as you know.

All things do not have equal weight when it comes to priority. There is not two things which are of equal priority. There is always the most important priority and everything else. So it forces you to prioritize. So the first thing I do, the first habit I instill every single week is planning my Sundays, planning my weeks, excuse me, on Sunday mornings. The second habit which also involves planning is I plan the next day, the night before. Now you might ask yourself, Andy, why do you have to do that? You're planning the weeks on Sunday. Well guess what? Things change, things adapt, things evolve as the week go on. Sometimes you don't get to things on a given day and they've got to move to the next day. But before you go to bed every single night, you must look at the next day and lay out the day. Because when you wake up you have got to know what the game plan is already. If you're waking up on a Tuesday morning and you have no idea what your priorities or your game plan is for the day. You're already behind the eight ball. You have got to go to bed with the plan intact. The best, most efficient advisors I know in this industry are planning their tomorrows the night before. And the third habit I instill on a weekly basis, and this comes back to what we do as a company at Complete Game Consulting, is every Monday morning, I create my content for the week.

This is something that I see a lot of people struggle with. I've talked to you at length in previous episodes about how content today is the oxygen to your business. If you're not creating content, you're going to struggle. But where people struggle is blocking the time to create that content they need to create to get the attention of your ideal prospects. Well, the easiest way to do that is just block out a specific day of the week or a specific time of a day every single week and just repeat that process week after week after week. So every Monday, specifically Monday mornings, is when I create the content we need for our company. And now I know it's got its place on the calendar. It is shelved every single Monday. And I don't have to think about it. When the next Monday rolls around, it's time to create content. You see, when I look at the habits right now, the three habits that I just shared with you, planning my weeks on Sunday mornings, planning every tomorrow, the night before, and using Mondays to create my content, the content we need to grow as a company. What this comes down to is time management. One of the biggest reasons I see insurance professionals falling short of their full potential is they do not know how to manage their time. They're not using their time effectively. They're spending their time on things that are not creating results.

Just like we talk about in the health insurance industry. Do brokers help companies create activity or create results? A lot of advisors are spending way too much time on activity, not enough time on things that drive results.

So when you start thinking about instilling the habits, rituals, and discipline, especially from the perspective of habits, it comes back to time management. Are you using your time efficiently to maximize the output.

With the minimum amount of time? That's how I look at our weeks every single week, is what can we do to maximize our output in the fewest number of hours? Now you're going to see when I get into rituals and discipline where maximizing output with the fewest amount of calories or hours, or you name it, is very important to our success. It's why I'm such a big believer on creating exponential awareness for your business. How do you get one message in front of as many people as you possibly can.

With one piece of content? How can you get your message? How can you maximize your message in front of as many people as possible with the fewest pieces of content? That is exponential awareness.

Now, let's talk about rituals. Now we're gonna get a little more personal here. I wanna share three rituals I think have had a huge positive impact on my life, both in business and as part of my personal life.

And really what it boils down to is my morning routine. I look at my morning routine just like I did as a pitcher when I was getting ready to start a game at uwm. I had an entire ritual set up that started about an hour before the game. I would start on the right field line or left field line, depending where if we were the visitor or we were the home team, depending where our dugout was. And I would start out on the warning track at the foul pole and I would just run pole to pole, right field to left field, right field to left field, get my legs loose. Then I'd go to the foul line and I'd run some sprints. Then I'd do my stretching. Then I'd go into the bullpen and jump rope. I don't know why I did that. That was more of superstition or some mental. I felt like if I got my calves ready, I'd be ready to pitch and then I would go into my warming up. I had this whole routine to get ready to start because I knew by the time I took the mound, if I got myself ready with my pregame routine, I was locked in mentally on the mound and I knew I had an advantage over my competition. I apply that same concept to my mornings. Now, I'm not going to go through my entire ritual, but there are three I really want to share with you as part of my morning ritual. And I want to share why I do these because when you think about the difference between habits and rituals, I looked this up before the podcast. Habits are things you just do for the purpose of consistently repeating those activities day after day after day. Rituals have more of an outside purpose of why you do the things you do. So that's what we're going to talk about with rituals. The first ritual I have every morning is the first thing I do when I roll out of bed is I jump in a cold shower. Now, for some of you who hear that, you think the Thought of doing that is crazy. And there definitely is a trend these days around people doing cold plunges and all these things. And I think a lot of people don't even know why they're doing them. But let me tell you why. This is a big part of my ritual.

When I jump in that cold shower the first thing in the morning.

It sets the tone for the day.

Jumping in a cold shower, not one that starts warm, that you slowly turn to cold. No, I'm talking about a shower that is ice cold. Out of the gate, you are telling yourself you are willing to do hard things. And if the first thing I do when I wake up is do something very hard, it is telling my brain I am capable of doing hard things the rest of that day. Not to mention it has great effects on your immune system. I'm talking about the mental side of this. By jumping in that ice cold shower first thing in the morning, I have said to myself, we do hard things and if that's the first thing I do, man, what is the rest of the day going to look like? So that is part of my ritual, my mental ritual that locks me in every single day. It is the thing that kicks off my morning routine. Now another very big pillar of my morning routine that is a ritual of mine. Again, no matter where I am, if I'm at home, I'm on the road, is my breathwork meditation practice. Now this can last anywhere from 10 minutes to a half hour, depending on what my breath work looks like that day. But the purpose of breathwork and meditation, remember, rituals are about the outside result or the reason we do these things.

Breath work.

Sets your body up for a successful day. It helps you deal with those moments where the stress might elevate, where you fight, might feel a little anxiety. And if you are able to use the power of your breath, you're going to be able to control your emotions, your behaviors in those moments when you need it the most. Those things that used to really get under your skin, those things that used to set you off, are no longer going to do that. You're going to remain in emotional control.

You're going to be able to do those hard things without the emotional highs and lows. That's the important portance of breathwork. It's something my girlfriend Amy, who is a breathwork facilitator, has taught me is the reason we do breath work. Number one is it is always here, it is always free, you always have your breath. But number two, it is teaching you to control your emotions, to control your body.

Because you know in business you're going to deal with a lot of stress and anxiety. So why not put yourself in a position to be able to control it as much as you can? Now, the meditation part is all about the visualization. I'm a huge proponent that if I close my eyes for a few minutes every morning and I visualize what a good day is going to look like.

More often than not, it actually tends to happen.

So my breath work and my meditation practice is very important to me. The third ritual, which is one I think most people use, is get your body moving before the day starts. I exercise every single day. And again, it's a bigger reason than why I do it. Now I spend most of my hours exercising either in the weight room or running. But the reason I do it, it is my viewpoint that if I'm going to teach others how to reach their full potential, dang it. I better be doing it myself every single day. And one of those things I'm going to do every single day to try to reach my full potential is I'm going to exercise. I'm at a point that sometimes now I actually do two a days. I exercise twice a day. I may start the day in the weight room, end the day with a nice jog. In fact, I'm doing that today, the day I'm recording this episode, because I want to make it a goal, a mission of mine, that if I'm going to practice what I preach, I better be the beacon of that example. And let's not even go into the positive impacts exercising has on your body. So these rituals are so important. When you look at those insurance advisors who are having the biggest success, consistent success, not flashes in the pan, consistent success. They're the ones who have instilled rituals like this. They have rituals in their life they're doing because there's a purpose behind them. When I look at my rituals, it's that cold shower that says, hello, morning, I am here to do hard things today. Number two, my breath work, my meditation. I am getting my body set up to be able to control those stressful moments. And I am visualizing what a positive day is going to look like. And then I get my body body moving so I can get a sweat going, which is going to help me over the long run. Now let's get into discipline.

Of all three.

Impacts factors we're talking about today, I think discipline might be the biggest one.

Because to me, discipline.

Is the one that says, what are you willing to say no to.

When you're tempted to say yes. What are those things that come up in your life that may seem mundane, that are easy to say yes to, but if you say yes to them too often over too long of a period of time, they become bad habits. They start having a negative impact on your life. Discipline is about having guardrails on what you're willing to accept and what you're willing to not accept. And you don't go off those guardrails. So I'm going to share three with you that have had a very positive impact on my life that I still apply every single day today. And remember, this goes back to the question I posed before I dove into habits, rituals and discipline. That is, what are you doing to give yourself an advantage on the competition?

Discipline, number one, diet. Diet is massive, my friend. Now, I'm not going to go into any specific kinds of diets. I'm not going to go into things you should eat and you shouldn't eat. But I'm going to share some simple principles I use and apply to my diet that I think have been very, very helpful for me. Here's why I share this. I see so many people right now.

That.

Are outselling a product like health insurance, and I struggle with this. And I know some people aren't going to be happy with what I have to say here, but they're outselling a product like health insurance and they're delivering renewals to these companies, you know, that are having a big financial impact on these companies and their employees paychecks. And they're going out and delivering these renewals and telling these companies that the reason your rates are going up is your people aren't healthy. Here you are 40, 50 pounds overweight.

If I were that business owner, I would look at you and say, seriously, you're telling me this.

When I'm talking about disciplines? What are you doing to put your body, yourself, your mind in the best position to win? So let's talk diet. Simple principles I use right now to make sure I am not overeating. And I'm using diet, using food as food, fuel, not a source of my happiness. Number one, no food after 7pm.

If you find yourself a little overweight right now, you find yourself going to bed a little sluggish right now. Check out when you're eating your last meal of the night. How close is that last meal to the time you hit the sack?

I made it a rule in my life, no food after 7pm and I hold tight to this rule so, so closely that when I'm on the road and I'm at an industry conference and I'm invited to a dinner, but I see the dinner is not going to start until 7:30. I will accept the invite, but I will go have dinner myself at about 5:30 and go enjoy them, maybe have a drink or whatever. But I do not try to eat any food after 7pm Because I know if I go to bed sluggish because I ate too close and too much to bedtime, guess what? It is literally setting the tone for tomorrow. Number two, when it comes to diet, I am very, very, very rigid when it comes to what I eat. When I'm on the road, I do a lot of travel for business. I'm out doing a lot of workshops, speaking engagements. When I'm on the road, I am hyper diligent about what I eat. In fact, I will share this when I have Amy book the hotel where I will be staying. I try to book a hotel if the city has it, near a Whole Foods. Why? Because I know I can go to Whole Foods, get the food I need, know exactly what I'm eating, and I'm going to put myself in the position to eat the healthiest meal I possibly can. Now, when I'm going out to dinner with clients and things like that, obviously we're going out to restaurants. But again, I am hyper diligent about what I am putting into my mouth. Why? Because I am literally trying to give myself an advantage over my competition. I want to go to bed feeling good. I want to wake up feeling energized. And so what I eat, when I eat and how I eat it is very important to me.

The second discipline that I apply to my life. And again, if you don't believe in these and you want to do it your way, you do it what you want. I am just sharing what I do in my life to give myself an advantage on the competition. Number two, I limit alcohol again. I go to plenty of industry events where I'm seeing people drink way too much to fit in. I know exactly what it's going to do to them the next day. And I know, I know what that has done to my life in the past. So I know if I limit my alcohol now. I was forced to limit my alcohol over the past few months given my stomach issues. But if I limit my alcohol, I know I am going to wake up every single morning fresh feeling sharp.

My brain is gonna feel sharp, I'm gonna feel good. I'm not gonna have any of those lasting effects of the alcohol the night before now, Amy and I enjoy a cocktail or two on the weekends. But the point is, when I am trying to be and trying to bring my A game during the work week, there's no time for that because I have to wake up every single day feeling good, feeling sharp, and I have gotta be on point for my clients. So the advice I'm giving them is exactly what they need when they need it. If I were drinking cocktails every single night, I would not wake up as sharp as I would. I would have the brain fog and I wouldn't be giving the best advice I could possibly give. And again, I want to give myself an advantage over the competition.

Now, the last thing I do as part of my discipline every single quarter is I look to challenge myself physically every quarter. I started this last summer when I signed up for.

The Hell on the Hill race race hosted by Jesse Itzler, an all day running company in, in Maine. And it was a great challenge running 13.1 miles up and down a hill, up and down, up and down for 65 laps. And then last fall, my quarterly goal was I went and climbed the Manitou Incline, which is a famous spot down in Colorado Springs. I don't remember how many steps it is. It is a mile straight up all steps. And the goal is to try to see how fast you can finish it. I did it in 33 minutes. I think the record is like 16 or 17 minutes. But it was an amazing physical challenge. So one of my, one of my goals every single quarter is to try and challenge myself physically doing something I wouldn't normally do. And why? Because it just forces me to do uncomfortable things.

Now, the punchline to all of this, whether it's instilling better habits or rituals into your life or looking to become a little more disciplined, I didn't want to use today's episode again just to share what I do and brag about what I do. But I know it's definitely had a positive impact on me. And I think it could do the same for you if you feel like you're lacking in any of these areas. But here's the key. Here's the punchline. It's about consistency.

Anybody can show up for a week with good habits, show up for a month, maybe even a quarter with good habits. I see these people who go on these diets and all you see is the social media posts about how cool it is that they're losing this weight and going on these diets. Guess what? Nine months later, look at the picture. They're bigger than they were when they started. These people that are going to the gym, first time, they've done it for a week and now they're telling the world, where are they a month from now? It's consistency. It's that work you're willing to put in off the field when no one is watching.

There's still that piece of the fat kid in me. I know that makes sure I have the right habits, the right rituals and the right discipline. Because I never want to go back to being that kid again.

Because I know the impact it had on my life when I lacked the habits and the rituals and the discipline. I know the impact it had early on in my business career when I lacked them. I know what it did in my pro baseball career and I never want to go back there.

And if you are sitting there right now.

Willing to admit that you could be doing better.

That you could be winning a bit more in business, you could be winning a bit more as a husband or a wife or a mom or a dad.

Check your habits, check your rituals, check your discipline.

This is the content that fires me up more than anything else. Because when I look at what we do as a company, what I do as a living, there is nothing that drives my passion more than to help other people reach their full potential. And when I see that they're not, and I know why they're not, it hurts, it pains me, it saddens me because I know they're just missing a few mental shifts to change everything in their life.

And when I get on my one on one coaching calls with our clients.

And our conversations actually head down the path of habits and discipline, rituals and not business strategies.

And I see what we can do to help these people change. When I hear the stories of Andy, thank you for making this career fun again. When I see somebody who's out winning in the insurance business, who's now 20 pounds less than they used to be, who's feeling good, who's feeling confident because their habits, their rituals and their disciplines, discipline are dialed in. There is nothing that gives me more joy than that. And that's what I wanted to use this episode for you today. If you feel like you are lacking in any of these three areas, you're not alone. But look in the mirror and say, where do I need to get better? What habits can I instill in my life that I can rinse and repeat every single day? What rituals can I apply it to life that give me the purpose of why I'm doing what I'm doing and where can my discipline be a little better? Where should I be saying no to things I'm saying yes to?

If you just apply these three things consistently, your business, your life, your relationships will change forever. And I know I am still work in progress, but I know the positive impact these have had on my life, and they can do the same for you. So you know what happens when you get clarity and you mix it with confidence, man, you become unstoppable and you go do amazing things. So go do those things today. Be well.