Flow State from Couch to Triathlons

Are you thinking about how to grow your business with near and offshore staffing, but you're also wanting to make sure that it's reliable, cost effective and really well done? I think docsa talent is the way to go. Here's why. They don't just fill your jobs. They bring integrity, top talent and a people first approach that's hard to find. I've known the people at Doxa talent for over 20 years now and I say that you can count on them. I have talent. Talk to Doxatant and you won't be disappointed. Go to doxatant.com Bill G Again, that's doxatalent.com Bill G. One more time. Docsatalant.com Bill G. Check it out today. All right, I want to talk to you about mastery and Flow state. Flow state. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a psychologist who created this concept and you probably heard it referred to, you probably have a notion of what it means to you. Athletes kind of know what this is. It's when the decision, the action, the habits, everything's moving, time shifts, our satisfaction, enjoyment ramp up and we're just like, things are flowing, we're just, we're in the zone. They say, right? What would it be like if you brought the same ideas to your life that you did to your work as a leader, to your business? Right? If we brought those same disciplines to every area of life and we didn't just ignore some areas and focus on our work sometimes, then we might actually be more powerful people and that working on all parts of life might actually make our overall life much better, richer and might make us more effective as well in the business, right? Because your business, your work life doesn't end when you go home and your home life doesn't end when you go to work. As much as we try to escape problems in our relationships and family and our health and fitness and other areas of life and throw ourselves into our work sometimes, it doesn't always work like that. And the flip side as well, some years ago I noticed I was working really, really hard and I had a fantastic VIP premium gym membership and I had a premium trainer. I had this special dedicated personal trainer who had multiple days a week set up just for me. And I paid a very premium price for this special relationship, the private coaching and the thing. But then I was so busy. What I very often did is when I was late and I had worked too long, I would call my trainer and say, listen, I can't make it today. It's okay to charge me. I'm sorry. Have a good workout time for yourself. And so I would pay all of that not to work out, right? Again and again, I was paying not to work out. And then because I was so busy, I'd drive through fast food and I'd eat it at my desk. Oh my God. I started putting on pounds. My pounds really racked up. And so then one day, in doing all this leadership and training, coaching work, and becoming more and more of a coach over time, while my day job was CEO, my night job was husband and dad, I realized that one of the areas of my life that wasn't getting attention was my health and fitness. And when I was really honest about it and really realized that one of my values is never being finished, always at work on myself, I had to go to work on this thing. And so if I'm paying too much money to not work out and eating junk food at my desk and the stress and the weight are all increasing, if I'm really honest, at that time, as I was, I realized that I had already sort of decided that I was just going to get fatter and then one day have a heart attack. And mostly what I wanted to do was live long enough to see my kids grown up. And that's the honest truth. I wasn't too conscious of it until I stopped to consider this area of my life. I had to go to work on it. What's my inspiration in this area? And what's the vulnerable, self aware thing that I need to do? So first I had to deal with the thoughts and feelings that were unconscious, bring self awareness to that. And then I had to actually share something. And I realized that the inspiration for me in this moment was to be active, alive and inspired, to be lit up no matter what, DNA, what fitness, whatever I had. And so I looked around and I'm like, the gym membership's doing me no good at all. That isn't going to help. I, I need to do something bold. And so I thought, you know what? I heard a woman talking just yesterday about running a half marathon. And I thought, God, she's fatter than me. I could do something. But a half marathon just sounded like painful and not that much fun. And so not even knowing what it was really, I said, you know what? I'm going to run a triathlon. I'd heard people mentioning that. I wasn't sure what it involved, but I said, I'm going to run it because it sounded audacious, it sounded awesome and extraordinary. I'm like, I'm going to do that. And somehow taking on something bold was really inspiring. So I committed, committed myself. The opportunity for me was to do something extraordinary and bold. I was inspired to be active, alive and inspired. The emotional core. What I wanted for myself was that I found something to commit to. Then I began to act on it. You can hear the leadership flywheel at work. I had to actually plan what's involved in this event. Oh, there's swimming involved. Hmm. I better learn how to swim because I'm not a very good swimmer and I don't know how to breathe properly and I don't know the strokes and I was terribly slow as a swimmer as a kid. And. And so there's work to do there and, oh, I need a proper bike and like, all these kinds. So I started to learn about all these things and I created a plan and I researched it, right? And then I got myself coaches because I knew I would get discouraged. So I got a swimming coach and I got a running and triathlon coach and I got a bike coach. Like, I got a lot of coaches in all these different areas. And I went to work on this thing. And then for the next 10, 11 years, I. I ran 45 triathlons and marathons. I eventually did full length marathons as well when I thought the half marathon was bad. And I went from a guy who was getting fatter every day and spending too much time on the couch to a really active, alive and inspired person who was really like, saw themselves as a shining example of taking on every area of your life. So the deal is that if you'll apply these leadership principles to all areas of your life and not just give up on things, right? But deal with yourself first. Get inspired and find something to commit and act to and create a compelling plan and get the right coaching. And you apply those same things that we've talked about in our leadership flywheel to every area of your life, you will massively level up your power and start to be consistently operating in more of the zone or flow state. And that'll have an impact on the people that you work with around you as well. Um, and I just know it was extraordinary for me. Now, I stopped doing those triathlons a few years ago after 11 years of doing. I'm just. It, like expired. It didn't have any juice for me anymore. And I started doing new things like surfing and dancing and that kind of thing. Things that I'd forgotten. I love to dance. I love the music. And then I saw this thing called Wing Foil Surfing that involves a hydrofoil and a handheld wing and I've been obsessed with that lately and so I just started trying new things on because I didn't want to get super fat again now that I was traveling a lot more as a full time coach for the last 10 years. So you want to deal with every area of your life and continue to hold yourself up to that, applying the leadership flywheel principles not just to your business but to yourself and your life. I hope that's been helpful for you. My name is Bill Gallagher. I'm the Scaling Coach and host of this Scaling Up Business podcast and we bring it to you every week with something to do with your leadership, with the people on your team, with the strategy that drives your business, with the way that you execute and even your cash. Model all those topics and more@scalingcoach.com like it subscribe turn on your notifications to not miss a show at any time. We bring them here. If you want to find that back catalog you'll go to scalingcoach.com if you want to send us an email you can send us a note to infocalingcoach.com and at that website you'll also find all of our other programs, training, education, boot camps, that kind of thing, list of those events and more. Hope that's been helpful. We'll talk to you again next time. Keep scaling up until then. Bye bye Now. Are you ready to turn your goals into daily wins? You should check out our Scoreboard software. Powered by Align, it's the official software for Scaling up. With Scoreboard, you'll get an AI driven coach for priorities and KPIs and it'll help keep your team focused on what matters most. With Align, you can track your goals in real time and you'll even see results on the go. With their mobile app. You can rest easy knowing that Align has world class onboarding and support to set your team up for success. This is really more than just software, it's what I actually use to manage growth in our Scaling up client teams. Unlock clarity and results with Scoreboard by Align. To try it now, go to aligntoday.com Bill G One more time aligntoday.com Bill G that's aligntoday.com Bill G Check it out and try it now.