Habits, rituals and discipline will change your life.

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, 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 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 going to 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 going to become a given result. What I'm going to share today is as we go through each of these, the habit, the rituals and the discipline. I'm going to 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 in 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 going to 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, 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 on 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.