Ep 316 | MECHS

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. You know, I have a good friend named Michael Hearn, business associate of mine, guy that is actually just launching a mastermind that I'm fortunate enough to be helping him out with. And I was presenting with Mike, uh, just a few weeks ago in his hometown just outside of New York City. Mike's just across the river in New Jersey. And we were presenting to a group of about 100 or so accomplished business leaders, and Mike discussed his decision-making framework, how he evaluates opportunities. And this framework was known as MEX. Short for mechanics. So MEX, it was an acronym, M-E-C-H-S, M-E-C-H-X. And it's a tool that he uses not just for opportunity, but really just to gain clarity around any place that he's in fact currently spending his time or will be potentially spending his time. So he's got this framework, he calls it MEX, and I, I loved it And I thought sharing it with the No Days Off Nation here today would be valuable. Now, M.E.C.H.S. The M in M.E.C.H.S. stands for meaning. Meaning. So, whatever it is you're involved in, whatever it is you're considering to be involved in, how does it look to you or what does it mean to you from a mental, physical, emotional, spiritual standpoint? Does it align with who you are and who you want to be? Does it align with what you want to be remembered for? Again, now, if you're spending time or energy or resources, this is meant to give you clarity. Is what you're doing giving you meaning? Is it giving you meaning emotionally, spiritually, mentally, physically? Is it socially aligned with who you are and who you want to be, specifically who you want to be remembered for or remembered as? So the M stands for meaning. The E, the E in MEX stands for end result. The E stands for end result. So in this particular framework, um, end result, is it leaving you happy? Is it leaving you fulfilled? Is it, is it what you desire? Right? Is the end result, you know, what is it tangibly? Can you define it? How does it leave you? Right? And is the end result of where you are spending your time or where you're potentially going to spend your time from a clarity perspective, is the end result what you in fact desire? So again, M, meaning, does this thing where I'm spending my time or what I'm currently evaluating, does it provide the meaning I'm looking for? Is it aligned with who I am and who I want to be? The end result— is the end result leaving me fulfilled or productive or happy or motivated or capable? Whatever it may be, is the end result aligned with where I want to be? Now, the C— the C in MEX refers to challenges. Challenges. Now, what challenges exist? What obstacles exist? What could stand in my way? And how do I feel about that? This is an awareness exercise. If I know the meaning and I know the end result, what are the challenges? How do I feel about these challenges? Let's get super clear. Again, remember, this is a clarity exercise. What are the challenges, obstacles that would get in my way? The H stands for habits. The H stands for habits. So whatever it is I'm spending time on or what I intend to spend time on, What habits will be involved or must be created, or do I have to double down on in order for me to be successful with this? Again, remember clarity exercise. So what are the habits that I'm going to have to either double down on or get better at or build from scratch in order to get the end result and get the meaning and overcome the challenges that we just discussed in M, E, and C? So H, what are the habits? And then lastly, The S in MEX stands for sacrifice. Very clearly, what do I have to sacrifice? What do I have to forego to get to where I want to be? What do I have to forego? What do I have to sacrifice to build the habits? What do I have to sacrifice to overcome the challenges? What do I have to sacrifice to achieve the meaning and to get the end result? MEX, M-E-X. CHS, an exercise, a model, a framework to give us clarity. Now, Mike used a few different examples that he walked through in order to explain MEX in action. I'll tell you what I'll use today. Let's just use health and wellness, and Mike used this as well. Health and wellness. Let's just say I want to spend time on my health, my wellness, my wellbeing. Right? So, let's just go general health and wellness. Now, what's the meaning behind wellness for me? What's the meaning? The meaning is that I am mentally and physically energized, that I'm emotionally stable and even thriving, that I'm spiritually connected, and that I am socially aligned. Okay? So, the meaning to my wellness is that I am mentally and physically energized, have the ability to do what I want to do. You know, it makes me feel fulfilled. It makes me feel like I'm achieving my potential. Now, the end result of my health and my wellness is that I'm able to be productive, I'm able to be motivated, and I'm capable of achieving all that I set out to achieve. Sounds rather broad, but it's— I'm trying to define what's the end result for all of this health and wellness. For me, the biggest end result is longevity. Longevity. And when I think longevity, I don't mean years on this planet necessarily. I mean healthy years when I'm active on this planet. If I can extend the number of healthy active years on this planet, then I've succeeded with res— that's my end result. I've succeeded with respect to health and wellness. Now, what challenges? Remember, M-E, now we're C, challenges. What challenges may exist with health and wellness? Staying on routine, finding time to execute, you know, having a tendency to want to do it on my own without accountability, maybe getting bored. Mike had said this when he presented, maybe getting bored with the basics, right? Like a lot of health and wellness is doing the same thing that works consistently for an extended period of time. That is a potential challenge, staying disciplined and in routine, not getting bored with the basics, finding the time to execute, and sometimes being isolated. These are the challenges. Clarity. M-E-C, now H. What are the habits to health and wellness? Well, this is obviously working out, having some sort of wellness routine. This is a food plan. This is assessing. This is tracking. This is reading, this is learning. So, you got to build habits around reading and learning and executing a plan and eating healthy. These are the habits. Now, some of these things you may have in place and some of these things you have to grow. But again, in bringing clarity to health and wellness, what habits must exist? And then lastly, the S for sacrifice. What do you have to sacrifice on this health and wellness journey? I think it's probably comfort from time to time. It's probably social events. It's probably work, right? Like you've got to sacrifice some of that. It's probably social media. It's even some relationships, right? So again, this is an exercise on clarity, right? To bring clarity. The framework is MEX: meaning and result, challenges, habits, and sacrifice. So The assignment for you today, look around your world, look at something you're currently doing or something you intend to do. And if your intention or if there's a need to bring clarity, my challenge for you is to apply this MECHS, M-E-C-H-S, meaning and result, challenges, habits, sacrifice. Leverage this MECHS framework today. And see if in doing so, doing so, you gain more clarity around whatever it is you're intending to do. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.