Make Preparation Your Best Friend

Hey, welcome back to Friday Bullpen Sessions. My name is Andy Neary, and this is episode 159. Welcome to the new year. Here we are, first week of 2022. I hope you and your family had an amazing holiday season. I hope you were able to take some time, wind down a little bit, slow down a little bit, and be where your feet are. I know I had that opportunity. I went back to Wisconsin between Christmas and New Year, spent some quality time with my family, and it was good to be back. It was. It's. It's been quite a while since I've been back to Wisconsin over the holidays. So it was good to get back and, and again, just be where my feet are. I've been saying that phrase a lot lately, and I owe it to Jesse Itzler. I've heard him say that a lot about, you know, when you spend time with loved ones, you have to realize that, you know, you only have so much time with them. And if you'd actually think about.

The experiences you spend with family over the time, you'll realize how precious those moments are. Because if you have parents who are in their mid-70s, like nine, you know, I see them a couple times a year. It's not like I have 10 years left with them, 15 years. It's. I have a number of experiences left with them, and that really impacted me. And that's probably the main reason I ended up going home this winter, this, this break, because I really wanted to make sure I spent time with my family. So, Jesse, if you're listening in, thank you for that advice. Well, today I want to look forward because we're in the first week of 2022, and I want to help you make this the best year you've ever had. And I'm looking back at a 2021 I'm damn proud of. You know, when I look back at the beginning of last year, I made a really big decision. I decided that it was time to go all in on this coaching business. And I actually cut bait with my benefit advising book of business, which was generating a pretty decent recurring monthly revenue. But I knew that if I was going to build this coaching practice, this business into something that I was very proud of, I had to go all in. And so I did. And that was pretty nerve wracking, right when you're giving up a piece of revenue that you earn on a monthly basis that pays your bills. But I knew it was time to jump all in. And I'm proud to say, looking back at 2021, that not only did I replace the revenue that I'd lost by giving up my book of business, I actually had my best year ever. And so I'm very, very grateful for all the opportunities I've been given. I'm grateful for the amazing clients that I have that I get to work with each and every week.

And I'm just proud that I look back now and I actually really confidently can say that I know how to run a business. I really am confident because I couldn't have said that probably two or three years ago. So this today, I want to actually help you make 2022 the best year you've ever had by giving you the most important piece of advice, something that I have leaned into more in the last four months than I've ever leaned into before. And it's created amazing opportunities, not only in my business, but my life in general. And the word for. For the year that I want you to.

Print, to tattoo on your forehead, whatever you've got to do so you don't forget it. The word is preparation.

Now, I want to take you back four months. I know we've been talking about looking ahead, but I want to look back again for a second flashback four months ago, and I'm sitting in a hospital bed.

And dealing with a very unexpected leg infection. And I.

Contracted it while I was speaking in Columbus, Ohio. Still have no idea how I got it, but it required I spend six days in a hospital. And trust me, I went through all the mindset games of why me? How could this happen? What did I do? But at the end of the day, what it really forced me to do while I was sitting in that hospital room was re evaluate where I am with my business and my life. And one promise I made to myself leaving the hospital was that I needed. I needed to become a better student of life.

And what I mean by that is I'm somebody who's guilty of diving into things.

Picking up certain hobbies, whatever it might be, but not doing a lot of homework, a lot of research around that specific activity or that, that specific investment, that skill, that habit.

And I promised myself that leaving the hospital, I wasn't going to do that anymore. I was going to become a student of life. I was going to study how to take care of my health better, especially after dealing with a leg infection. And again, especially after contracting Covid in October. I was going to become a better student of finance, how Amy and I are investing our money. Better student of my business. And in order for me to become a better student I needed to become better at preparing myself.

And to me, preparation set the foundation.

Of everything that has transpired since I was in the hospital in late August. And what I want to walk through is how preparation has impacted my life and my business and how I think it can do the same for you. Now, right now, you might be sitting, sitting somewhere in your car, at home, at your desk, listening to this podcast. And if you are, thank you. I'm always grateful that you're listening. And you might find or might feel like you're kind of half assing your way through life right now. And don't get me wrong, it's easy to do that, especially last two years, dealing with the pandemic, dealing with a lot of unexpectedness, a lot of ups, a lot of downs. I mean, this has been a roller coaster ride for most of us. And so if you're feeling right now like you don't have the motivation, like things aren't going your way, it's kind of feel blah. I think this podcast episode is going to help you because I want to talk about preparation, how you can start creating more green lights in your. In your life. And. And I use the phrase green lights after the book Green Lights, written by Matthew McConaughey. One thing I love about McConaughey is, yeah, he's a hell of an actor, right? We've all seen him in the movies, we all love him. But he's also a wicked smart guy. If you haven't read his book Green Lights, I highly recommend you do. If you haven't listened to him on a podcast, go listen. I mean, the man is. The man is educated.

But in the book, he talks about green lights and how being prepared, preparing yourself for success, creates the green lights in your life, whether it be building a business or something as small.

As setting your coffee pot up when you go to bed so that when you wake up, all you've got to do is push the on button to get your coffee going in the morning. Being prepared in all facets of your life is going to create the green light effect. What's the green light effect? Well, pretty simple, right? Imagine you're driving down a highway. Imagine that those moments where you're on the highway and you feel like you're hitting every single green light, even though there's a green light on every city block, you're hitting one green light after another, and you just feel like everything is going your way. That's the green light effect. And when you prepare for success, you prepare to be successful. The World, the universe, God, whatever you want to call it is going to bring more green lights to your life. So here's where I've completely gone head, head deep into preparation in the last four months of the year. And definitely I'm going to keep doing it here in 2022 so that I can set myself up for success. And every single day when I think of preparation, the first thing I think of is how I plan to have the perfect day. Now, this might come more from a business perspective, but if you're not planning each and every day, it's really hard to have success. Because if you don't have clarity on what your priorities are every day, you're not going to take those big steps you need to take to have success. So when I think of preparation, the first place I start is how do I plan to have a productive day? How do I plan to have a day that is productive, positive, and profitable? It's called the three P's of the perfect day. Positive, productive, and profitable. The first place you've got to start in preparation is the night before. I know a lot of people who wake up and they haven't even looked at their calendar.

And the day is about to start in a matter of an hour or two. You can't have success if you're walking into the day not knowing exactly what your goal, your priorities are for that given day. So you have to start the night before before you go to bed. You have to look at the next day, and you have to figure out what your top three priorities are and what your number one goal is for the day. You see, if you start putting that into your life the night before, what's going to happen is you're going to go to bed and as you're sleeping, your subconscious mind is going to start planning the next day and you're going to wake up with clarity. You're going to wake up feeling positive because you know exactly what you need to get done that day. So that's number one. You have to start planning your days the night before. Now, fast forward. Next morning, you wake up. What are you doing to prepare yourself for the perfect day? I've talked about my morning routine at length on this podcast, but until you start incorporating it every single day, I'm going to keep talking about it. My mornings are sacred. I think of it like.

An athlete, like I was when I was playing baseball. If I didn't go through my routine of preparation before a gay A start on the mound, I knew it was going to be really Hard to have success on the mound that day. So I had a 60 an hour long routine I would use to get myself ready to pitch the best game I could possibly pitch. And I think about my mornings the same way. When I get up, first thing I do is I jump in a nice cold shower. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it. I know some people go, man, really? I live in the northern part of the country right now and it is single digits out. You think I'm going to jump in a freezing, freezing cold shower. Yeah. Not only does it have benefits for your health, it is one of the best ways to start your day for two reasons. Number one, it wakes you up. But number two, you've already proved yourself within minutes of getting out of bed that you're willing to do the hard things that day. Jumping in an ice cold shower is a hard thing. And if you're willing to do that within minutes of starting your day, you've already proven yourself you can do hard things. The second thing I do is I jump back in bed with my cup of coffee and I watch YouTube educational content and it blows me away. How many people have told me lately how YouTube is made up of these con artists and scam artists who are using video content to persuade the way we act, the way we treat others, the way, you know, they're conning us into buying BS products. I'm like, are you kidding me? YouTube might be one of the greatest inventions ever. It is a free, let me underline that five times free library of some of the best education you will ever receive. Right now I'm starting to dive into crypto investing. I can go on YouTube and literally watch.

An MIT course on cryptocurrency, bitcoin and bitcoin for free. I can sit in on a class and taught at mit, one of the smartest educational institutions in our country, for free. So first 10, 20 minutes of the day I'm watching YouTube content. I mean, I'm, I'm getting my brain going for the day and I'm learning new things, learning new skills, learning new habits. Second thing I do is I open my book. Whatever I'm reading at that time. Just got done with the Kindness Diaries. Awesome book about a guy who took a journey around the world, hoping to get around the world just on the kindness of others. He didn't have any money. He rode around on a scooter hoping people would give him money, places to stay, free gas so he could travel around the world. Outstanding book.

I read 10 pages every morning again. Helps get the brain going, helps get myself educated. I'm learning something new every single day. When I'm done with that, I go into my breath work. I've started really diving into Wim Hof's breath work. Takes 10, 15 minutes. Gets your brain going, gets your blood going. And then I journal. I sit down for five minutes and I ask myself, what are my top three priorities today? What three things do I have to do today to be great? Great.

I also ask myself, what's one hard thing I'm going to do today? What's one thing I'm going to do today that might be a little uncomfortable, but I know it's going to move my business forward? And then I ask myself, who can I reach out to today that I haven't talked to in a while? Just shoot them a note, shoot them a text, say, hey, man, what's up? How you doing? Thought of you today. Hope everything's going well. If you do those things every morning, you write those down. Three things that I need to do today to be great. What's one hard thing I'm going to do that's going to stretch me, that's going to move my business forward? And who is one person I can reach out to that I haven't connected in a while? Just to let them know I'm thinking of them? I take five minutes to do that, and then I exercise. Now, that might sound like a lot, but that whole routine is done in about 90 minutes.

From jumping in the shower, watching YouTube content, reading 10 pages, journaling, breathwork, journaling is an exercise I have now prepared myself to have the perfect day.

Again. It's preparation. When you are proving to the universe that you are willing to be prepared, the universe is going to give you green lights. Now, what are some other areas that I've really jumped into? Making sure I'm a student of life, of being prepared. Number one, my diet. Now, Amy and I have eaten pretty healthy for a long time, but when I left the hospital, for whatever reason, I really got obsessed about eating healthy. And it started with preparing my meals the night before. You see, when you work from home like I do, it's easy to get up, start your dino, go through my morning routine, start your day, and then stop and make some breakfast, stop and make some dinner. But at the end of the day, that still takes time. So what I started doing is preparing my breakfast and my lunch the night before. So now when it's time to eat, I can just go into the refrigerator, grab my meals and they're ready to go. It saves time, it allows me to be more productive and I'm prepared. When I make my meals the night before, I'm not rushed to try to make something quick. So maybe I make something that's a little less healthy than it should be. When I spend time the night before, I can be present where my feet are, making sure I am making a healthy meal, healthy choice. It also helps too. When I'm going to my office, away from my office, the open workspace that I work at in Loveland, again, all I got to do is grab my meal and go. It saves so much time and allows me to be more productive. And the other area that I am so focused on preparation is my business travel.

I've gone so deep into making sure I have everything I need to have a successful trip wherever I'm going. If it's putting a workshop on for an agency, I'm about to head to a conference this week. I take the time to make sure all my supplements are in the suitcase, all my workout clothes, any meals I want to prepare as I go to the airport, because I know the choices at the airport aren't all that healthy. You see, when you take the time in these areas of life, whether it's your business or personal, to be prepared.

As Matthew McConaughey says so well in his book, preparation leads to green lights, you'll feel like your days are easier. You'll feel that momentum kick up and you'll feel like you're behind the wheel, driving down that highway and the universe is just throwing one green light after another. And your path to success is going to be faster than it ever has before.

So I urge you, as we kick off another year, new year, new opportunity, if there's one thing you become a student of, its preparation.

Where in your life do you need to step up and be more prepared? Is it how you plan your day? Is it your meals, exercise, spending time with loved ones? Or something as simple as making sure your coffee is made the night before?

At the end of the day, you are 100% in control of your success. But it comes down to how prepared you're willing to be.

So I leave you with that advice today, my friend. It's the first Friday of the year. I wish you nothing but the most amazing year you've ever had. And I promise.

If you are just willing to be a little more prepared for your days, for your clients, for your travels, it's going to feel like success is going to come by a lot easier. This year. So I leave you with that, because you know what happens when you create the clarity, which I hope I just have for you. Clarity leads to confidence. And when you're confident, you start taking big actions. So go take those big actions this week, my friend. Here we go. This is going to be an amazing year. Best of luck.