Ep 446 | Rust Never Sleeps

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. Rust never sleeps. Rust never sleeps. This is a quote I heard from endurance athlete Dean Karnazes, who I've, I've talked about over the past couple weeks as I've been reading a lot of material that that Dean's put out, specifically his book Ultramarathon Man. And of course, this book's about running and, and, and all these crazy things that Dean does. But no surprise, there are a tremendous amount of appli— there's a lot of application to business, to entrepreneurship. And so Dean's quote, 'Russ never sleeps,' is just kind of his philosophy about the dangers of inactivity and stagnation. Dean implies that just as rust forms and spreads when, when metal is, is left idle, a similar kind of decay can occur in our bodies and our minds and our ambitions when we stop moving, when we stop growing, and when we stop challenging ourselves. Let's take a step back. How does rust even come about in, in nature? Right? I think it's important, like, if we're going to talk around this quote, what does it even mean? How does rust even work? I don't know. I don't know exactly how it works. I had to do some research. I'm going to guess some of you probably don't exactly know how rust shows up. You have an idea, but you don't know the science behind it. So rust is this— is a result of a chemical reaction called oxidation. And it occurs when iron or its alloys react with oxygen and moisture in the environment. So when iron is exposed to water, it reacts with oxygen in the presence of electrolytes like salts or minerals in water. The reaction produces hydrated iron oxide, which is known as rust. And over time, rust spreads and it weakens the structure of the metal. Now, rust forms when materials are left exposed. When materials are left unprotected. It's a slow process, but it's a relentless one, which is really, you know, kind of lends itself to the "rust never sleeps" concept. It's a great metaphor because again, when there's inactivity, when things are unprotected, when things are left exposed, there's going to be consequences. So now bringing it back to what Dean had said, rust never sleeps. He wasn't obviously talking about rust in nature, but what he was talking about is how inactivity breeds decline. Physical and mental stagnation can lead to deterioration. He also was kind of talking about this need to have constant vigilance. We have to be constantly vigilant, which means staying in motion. We've got to be physically in motion, mentally in motion, professionally in motion, and this would help prevent this metaphorical rust from setting in. In my mind, it's really about maintaining momentum and never ever becoming complacent. Lastly, when I think around Dean's quote, I think about longevity and, and growth. I think to thrive, you've got to embrace this continuous cycle of challenge and renewal, like challenge and renewal, challenge and renewal. It's a cycle. And Dean Karnazes's lifestyle exemplifies this because he's constantly seeking out new you know, ultra-endurance challenges to push his limits. And I think in our respective worlds, we can do the same. We may not be running like Dean, but we can do like things in our respective worlds. So this philosophy aligns well with high performers in any field because it emphasizes the importance of action and adaptability and growth to prevent decline. Make sense? So as we're working through this, I think that we gotta dive a little bit deeper. Let's talk about physical stagnation, right? Like rust, our bodies deteriorate, deteriorate without activity. So my question for you, what's your daily movement? What's your daily fitness? What's your health maintenance performance plan? What does that look like for you? Knowing that rust never sleeps and a stagnant body will accumulate rust, What's your, what's your plan to be active? That's physical. Now, what about mental? Without mental challenges or without learning, our cognitive abilities decline. So, what's your learning plan? How are you going to be a lifelong learner and keep your mind sharp? Absent that plan, you could become stagnant. And as I just mentioned, if you become stagnant, your cognitive abilities decline, i.e., the rust shows up. I think about emotional stagnation as well. We mentioned physical, we mentioned mental. How about emotional? Stagnating relationships or unaddressed personal growth can also bring about rust. So, we've got to have a focus on emotional intelligence and on adaptability. What's your emotional, you know, stagnation or anti-stagnation plan? So we've got to, we've got to really, you know, those, those would be what I would call the metaphorical layers. But I think we've got to continue to prevent rust through different contrast or actionable, you know, steps we can take to shield from the elements. Like metal can be coated to prevent rust, we've got to build habits. In exercise, in learning, in goal setting to prevent against stagnation. We've got to have a regular maintenance plan, you know, like you'd sand or repaint rusted metal. We've got to continuously address areas of neglect in our lives and our— in our businesses. And momentum absolutely matters because objects that are in motion tend to stay in motion. So small, consistent actions that build and sustain progress counter the rust effect. I know for me, uh, a handful of months ago I had stopped reading. Life got busy, um, I got into some show on Netflix, and next thing you know, I fell out of the routine of reading every single day. Rust started to accumulate for me. I do think that, uh, even with respect to the podcast that you're all listening to here at No Days Off. You know, a lot of, you know, I get asked like, Brian, how do you have these topics every day? Well, I'll tell you, to be honest with you, it's because I'm constantly reading and evaluating and studying things. And if I stop doing that, it is a lot harder for me to be creative in thinking around the topics that we should be covering. In other words, if I stop working my mind out like that, rust accumulates. So I had to overcome this rust just about 4 or 5 months ago and get back into the learning and reading mode. For me, the answer was to go create momentum or recreate momentum. So I didn't just pick up a book and start reading all of a sudden and start cold. I had to rev the engine, I had to fire the engine back up. And I did that by reading 5 to 10 pages for 3, 4, 5 days in a row. And then I was able to increase that to 10 to 15 pages. And then over the course of time, I was able to scale it back up. So the answer for me when I felt rusty was to chunk it down and, and just set a small target and go achieve that for multiple days, create momentum, and then I was able to scale it up. So for you today, as we're wrapping up and we're talking around this idea that rust never sleeps, therefore you've got to have your WD-40 plan I want to challenge you. I want to know the areas in your world right now where rust may in fact be forming. And I want to know what's the specific step you could take. Maybe it's signing up for a fitness class. Maybe it's starting a new project. Maybe it's reading 5 pages. I don't know what it is, but what can you do today to start to shake that rust? Because again, rust never sleeps. Where's Rush showing up for you right now? Where's it potentially forming? And you could sand it and take action right now. 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.