Set Yourself Up For Long-Term Success

Hey there. You look, you look good.

You look really. You look ravishing even.

Hey, fastlaners, forgive me, I was just talking to my cat there. And today I want to talk to you about a concept that radically changed my life a couple of years ago. I read a book and to be honest with you, remember anything from the book? Except for one little quote. I don't even remember the name of the book. I was at a friend's house, I pulled a book off the shelf that had an interesting title. I started browsing through it and there was one quote in there that really stood out to me. And it took me a while to implement this, but when I started to really get this concept, my life went in a completely different direction, went to a new level. And it was a concept that went something like, poor people set daily goals.

Rich people set yearly goals, and really rich people set 10 year goals. And this concept really stood out to me and I have incorporated it in a slightly tweaked way in my life. And I think that it has made all of the difference in, in my success, happiness, well being, health, everything. And I was actually just on a podcast this morning and somebody asked me what do I think is the biggest differentiating factor and why my businesses have exceeded far beyond most people who try to hack it in this business. Why has my life accelerated so quickly in the last three years? And I said it is simply because I am willing to think longer term than the next person and I act and plan accordingly for that very long term. That is the big differentiating factor between me at the helm of all of my businesses is that ability to think really long term. Now I want to start this conversation by talking a bit about how the brain works. The part of our brain that evolved first, we call lovingly the croc brain. The part of your brain that is out to survive. It is in charge of finding food, of procreating, of identifying danger. It is when there's a loud noise, you look up or an animal scatters. It is because it is the primary part of your brain that runs in the face of danger, or the part that is looking for a piece of candy that is sugary that will give you a quick hit now, but long term won't serve you. It's the thing is a part of us that keeps us alive. And most people have their lives run by that part of their brain. It is the part that keeps you thinking very, very short term. And we market to this. Everybody markets to this. They market with.

Carby, sugary food or Sex or, or fear anything. Fear based. That is political parties do this really, really well where they act like there is an imminent threat and the other party is are the evils that are going to threaten our lives and our livelihood. It is where we have the fastest response in our brain when it comes to business. There are a lot of entrepreneurs who are run in their decision making by this part of their brain. By making decisions in the short term, by making decisions that are made to keep you alive and really don't serve you in the long term. What I have found is that those who are extremely successful long term are those who are able to listen to, but switch off the desire to fulfill that short term, that those short term needs or those short term desires and instead plan for a much better tomorrow. Or really 10 years from now. You see, 10 years from now most of you will still be here. In fact, 25 years from now, most of you listening to this will still be here. That day is going to come. But most people don't ask or intel intentionally create what they want to be in place at that time. Now there are certain limitations to this. Ten years ago I didn't think I would be a father. Some things change along the way, but there's also things within our control. Like what your health is 10 years from now, what your body and your business look like 10 years from now. And they will be dependent upon the things that you do now and the things that you do five years from now. And if you spend most of your time going after quick win after quick win after quick win, 10 and 25 years will come and you will say, why don't I feel like I have arrived yet? Because I'm still chasing after the wind. I am still chasing small win after small win after small win. I like to compare success to a fire. I like to say success is like a fire. Most people are looking for the spark, they are looking for the kindling. They are looking for things to get things going. They're cold and they want fire now. So they're looking for the match or the spark or the kindling to get something going. And they fire think that if they could just get the spark, if they could just get the lighter fluid, if they could just get the kindling, then everything would be fun and easy and then life would be grand and they get the spark. And what most people do is they say, okay, I gotta go get another spark, I gotta go get another piece of kindling and you can build a decent flame with a little bit of kindling. And just by adding kindling. But most people literally burn out by chasing after kindling. They're not willing to go out and get a log, to get a large piece of wood. They're not willing to pick up the heavy object and to build a fire to roar to life because it takes more effort to do so. So just like a fire, success is a buildup of momentum. It is a spark that ignites a fire that builds, and when given the right ingredients, will become a roaring fire. But most people settle for those quick wins. Give me the spark, give me the kindling, give me the match, give me the little thing that is going to make me good. Now, I don't want to worry about logs. And we lie to ourselves and say, once I have the spark, once I have the quick hit, then I'll worry about all the other stuff. But most people never actually do that. Those who are really successful are the people that identify where the logs are now, and they start stacking them up so that when the spark hits.

Fire comes roaring to life. So I invite you, I challenge you to ask the question, where are you settling for sparks? Where are you looking for matches? Are you doing it in dating? Are you doing it with your body? Are you doing it in business? An example in business would be extracting dollars from your customers in a way that serves you short term, but compromises the connection that you have with your customers long term. Another would be taking money out of your business prematurely rather than reinvesting it into your business to build something that is going to be much stronger a year from now.

Another example would be eating that food that you know is not going to serve you today, but doesn't really make that big of a difference. But if you do that every day for a long time, your body looks differently than the person who doesn't. Do you know what the difference is between somebody who is 80 and in shape and fit and mentally sharp compared to somebody who is 80 and in a nursing home? Do you know what it is most of the time? 50 years of good decisions. That's the difference. One of the great books that everyone should read is the Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. And he shows. He basically takes the whole book to beat this point into the reader's head. And it is that small decisions over a long period of time are what determines success. We have this idea that it comes in large waves, in large leaps, but really, success comes as the result of consistent decisions that are both easy to do and easy not to do. That is the difference between somebody who 50 years from now is incredibly successful and somebody who is not. If you take $500 a month and you invest it into long term strategic investments, is that going to change your life this year? No. Is it going to change your life next year? No. Is it going to change your life five years from now? Not really. If you don't do it and instead you blow that money, will that change your life this month? No. Will it change your life a year from now? No. Five years from now? Not really, but 50 years from now, that compounded growth, does that change where you arrive? Absolutely. I had a little bit of a heart to heart with myself recently where I realized that sitting at a desk all day was not going to serve me 10 years from now. If I sit at a desk tomorrow, is it really going to impact my life? Not really. About a year from now? Not really, but maybe I'll start to have some crouching issues.

So sitting at a desk on a daily basis doesn't seem to change my life from a day to day standpoint. But I know that if I do that for 40 years, I'm gonna have some serious issues. So I work at a stand up desk. I have also realized that what I put into my body like a green smoothie or a green juice or a salad every day, just call it greens. And is that gonna change my life tomorrow? No. A year from now? Not really. 50 years from now, am I going to be in a different place than if I don't have greens every single day? Yes, absolutely. This is how really successful people think. Not in how is this going to change my life tomorrow? But how is this going to change my life in the long term? 50 years from now? What trajectory is this going to put me on? What trajectory will this decision do to my life? What will consistent decisions made.

Where will that lead long term? These are the types of questions that you ask so that when you are at a different point in life, you can enjoy the fruits of that labor.

This shows up in business loud and clear and it is a great reflection of where most people are in the rest of their lives.

How you show up in your business in this way determines where you are in business a year or two from now. The person who does not build systems in their business and then just says, just take care of this this one time. That doesn't really affect your business today, but done consistently. A year goes by and you still have no systems and operations and you're still operating within your business rather than on your business because you have consistently made the decision to not follow systems and processes and instead to do everything yourself. That's how you become a long term solopreneur who works 80 hours a week. This podcast is a great example of this. I walked into starting the Freedom Fast Lane podcast knowing that I would put a year's worth of effort into this with very little return. And I was okay with that. In fact, I would even argue to say that you should not go into something unless you are willing to have that mentality of I am going to go into this for at least a year and not see any result and then I can evaluate if I want to continue. That is, that is the reality of most things, with the exception of maybe really intense workouts. What other area of life do you start to see real meaningful results in less than a year? It doesn't really happen. And even if you are severely out of shape, taking a year to get back into shape, usually what it takes. But most people are not willing to sacrifice what is in front of them in the short term in order to enjoy a completely different quality of life one year from now. I recently did a promotion teaching new entrepreneurs and inviting them into my coaching group which is called the Tribe. And I made it very clear that if you want to succeed in this business, then we need one year. In one year your life will either be exactly the same or it will be radically different, but not as the result of what happens a week from now. It will be the result of simple successes built over a long period of time. That is what differentiates your life a year from now. I have had Jesse Elder on the show before, and in our first podcast together, the first of two, I quoted him as saying something that really impacted me, which was that your life is the process of harvesting seeds that were planted six months ago and longer. And you can't plant seeds that sprout right away. So the only way to change your future is today to start planting and watering different seeds. So every time you eat something, every time you go to the gym, every time you show up in your relationship or your friendships, you are watering and planting new seeds. What your life looks like a year from now, 10 years from now, is completely correlated with the seeds that you decide to plant now and the seeds that you water now and throughout the years until your life arrives 10 years later. But what we really want is the quick hit. That's what most people say they want. I just want. I just want the quick hit. Give me that and then I'll worry about the long term. But life doesn't happen that way. Life only happens in the long term. Life does not happen in quick wins. The people who do that burn out. They get depressed and lonely, out of shape 100% of the time. Why? Because when you are focused on short term wins, then you can't actually make good long term decisions. You can't. You're operating from a survival mindset when you do that. You are operating from the temporary part of your brain that is meant to keep you alive when there is danger and and to eat in the event that there is scarcity. But we don't live in a time of scarcity. We live in a time where there is abundant food, abundant sex, abundant opportunity everywhere. So the only real good decision making power comes from removing yourself from making those short term decisions and instead planting seeds for the long term. We are all doing this. We are all in a struggle between what we want in the short term and what will serve us in the long term. So I invite you to ask yourself the question, what are you sacrificing long term for short term success? I mentioned before the little meeting I had with myself about sitting and standing, I had a similar meeting with myself about walking because I realized that when you work at a desk, especially by sitting, you don't move very much. I know I don't feel good when I don't move much. But what really scares me is 10 years from now, what will happen to my body if I don't do what I should be doing, which is moving, and how do I work that into my routine so that long term.

I'm at a different place. So I added to my list of daily habits to get 10,000 steps a day. Track it on my iPhone, just track how many steps I take. Because if we're not measuring it, then we have no barometer of how it is that we're doing. So one of the things I focus on now is did I get 10,000 steps? And right now I only get it about half the time. But a few months ago I got it 0% of the time. By making it now a focused thing that I am working on, I have to evaluate if I got it done or not. Now. Walking 10,000 steps does not change my life tomorrow, doesn't change my life next week, but I think it changes my life 50 years from now. If I have consistent, consistently walked 10,000 steps a day, my body will look different than if I walked a thousand steps a day, which is about what I was averaging if I worked at a desk all day. That's scary. That is really, really scary. And most of us are doing that in a bunch of different areas in our life. If you do one thing for your partner tomorrow, does that affect you long term? Not really. It might make them smile in the short term, but does it really affect the long term health of the relationship? No, not really. But done consistently every day for 30 years, do you have a different relationship than the people who stopped appreciating one another? In the short run, absolutely you do. Success is not what you do today, it is what you do today and for the next 10 years consistently. This is really hard to do in the short run, but it makes success much easier in the long run. Today, what are you more tempted to do? Are you more tempted to do what is going to put money in the bank account today, or are you more tempted to do the things that a year from now will really grow your business? If you're like most people, you're tempted to do the thing that is going to be a win now. But a year from now, if you consistently make the decision to do what is going to put money in the bank account now, you will still be struggling to put money in the bank account. Whereas if for a year you do what seems harder to build a real legitimate business, to serve your customers, to improve your products, to improve your marketing, to improve your systems, to build value with your customer base, then you can very easily create consistent revenue and create consistent profit because you have done what is difficult all of this time. It is the same thing with your body today. Are you more tempted to go to the gym or are you more tempted to stay home? If you're like most people, you are more tempted to stay home because it really doesn't impact your life tomorrow or next week, except for the fact that you might be sore. But a year from now, if you consistently do what was more difficult, do you have more energy? Is it easier for you to stay, get back into, get into better shape? Yes. That is why life gets easier in the long term. If you do what is necessary to plant successful seeds that grow for a year, five years, 10 years, and if you don't do those things, life gets harder and harder because you are looking for quick win after quick win after quick win. And all of a sudden the sparks and the kindling start to dry up, rather than you having a roaring fire where you can just keep feeding it and feeding it and feeding it. So I invite you to ask the question, where are you currently sacrificing long term success for short term wins? Where can you start planting seeds so that five years from now your life is in a completely different place than where it is right now. In your body, in your relationships, in your business, in how you spend your time, in the expansion that you feel around people, meaning your friend groups, your master mastermind groups. Long term, how does it serve you? I tell the story a lot that When I was 21, 22, I plunked down 20 or $25,000 to be part of a mastermind group that I had no business being in simply because I wanted to learn how to think. Because in the short term the value that I got out of that was fairly minimal. But the long term value as a completely different direction of my life because I learned how to think like people who were 10 times where I was, people that I would learn from over the years, am still friends with, would introduce me to other people. I knew there wasn't going to be a short term win in that, that it was going to be a very long term play there. It's also true. In your investment portfolio, are you looking for the thing that is going to go up tomorrow or are you looking for the thing that is going to pay you a consistent dividend for 50 years? This is the difference in what makes success easy. This is the difference in who is successful and who is still struggling five years from now. It is not large leaps, it is small successes built over time. It is consistent strategic investments in your portfolio, in your business, in your body, in your customers, in your relationship, in everything in your life. It is simple, strategic, consistent investments made over a long period of time. And the day difference between you winning and you losing is usually Are you willing to play for a longer game than the next guy? Are you willing to delay gratification longer than the next guy? Are you willing to invest more value into your customers than the next guy? Are you willing to consistently delay dessert, both literally and figurily figuratively, until later than the next guy? The person who gives in first usually loses. The person who invests for the longer term usually wins. So if you are going into business, if you are unhappy with your body, look at how long it took you to get to this point. Plan for that amount of time moving forward to take you three years to get really this out of shape, then you should plan to make strategic, consistent decisions for three years and then you will have a different body. If you have spent three years failing in business, it's probably because you have spent three years looking for quick win after quick win after quick win, saying I need More information. I need to know the hack, I need to know the strategy, I need to know the secret. I need to know the thing that is missing when real. Really what you need to be doing is taking consistent steps forward for three years, not researching for three years. What do you want your business to look like three and five years from now and start planning for that. We're currently putting the final touches on a large event that we're going to be doing at the end of 2015 called Freedom Fast Lane Live. And we are bringing in some incredibly expensive, incredibly high value speakers and putting in.

Pretty much every penny that we can into making it the most high quality, unbelievable event that our community has ever seen. Why am I doing it that way? I actually said when we started this, I don't even care about making money from this. I want it to be the best event that anyone has ever been to. And the reason for that is because I am not planning for the short term win of selling tickets. I am planning for building up an event that establishes us as the kingpins of our industry three and five years from now. Because by doing an unbelievable job for years, it will put our business at a different point five and ten years from now than if we just tried to extract dollars from our audience. That is why long term I will beat the next guy. What are you sacrificing in the long term for short term hits for short term what feel like wins when really they are robbing your long term success? Where do you want your Life to be 3, 5, 10, 25 years from now? And what can you start planting and watering right now that will make it inevitable for that to happen? What habits do successful people that are where you are do on a daily basis? And how can you start incorporating those into your life so that in 10 years you have 10 years of consistent success that have fueled you to the point where you arrive rather than sacrificing long term success for short term temporary pleasure. Love to hear your thoughts. You can leave them at the show notes over@freedomfastlane.com as always, thanks for listening and I'll see you on the next episode.

Hey. So immediately after completing this episode, I happened to see an update on Facebook from a good friend of mine who is an author and he mentioned that two and a half years ago he had never written an article, he had never written a book, and two and a half years ago he decided he was just going to consistently start writing. And as of today, 8 million people have seen his work. That did not happen overnight. It did not happen quickly. It happened as the result of consistent success done over a long period of time. Ten years from now, he'll probably be one of the most celebrated authors in his space because of these consistent wins. That is a great example of what we talked about today, and I wanted to leave you with that thought. What are the things that you can do consistently so that years from now you are in a completely different spot? That is what determines success. That is what determines where you end up several years from now. Hope you enjoyed today's episode and I'll see you on future ones at Freedom Fastlane.