This Daily Habit will Change Your Life

How do we create a process in our life that's simple, impactful, effective, moves? The needle gets the job done. That's what I obsess on. That's how I get to build new companies, partner with great people. I speak all around the world, write my books, do my journals, launch kbb, help people in every area I possibly can, speak at my high performance masterminds that some of you come to launch. Like, how do I get to do all that? Because I have simple, effective ways to move the needle in my life. That's what I want to teach you. So you guys ready for some teaching? Whether you got your journal or not, if you don't have one, you should get one. But if not, I don't care if you use. Right now I have a pad sitting here that I used this morning because my journal was in the other room. But I don't go anywhere without this. This is literally my life. Like, everything I've done for you in the last month is in this book. And every month I keep these books, I burn through one. I bet you every two months I burn through a journal. But I don't just journal in a way. If you guys have the journal, you went through outcome journaling. You know that training. But this one's going to go deeper. This is a completely different approach that I want to share with you guys today. So there's three types of stuff. Are you ready for this? I've got your journal. It's time to start writing. There's a difference between being busy and being productive. We all know that. You're like, oh, that's brilliant, Dean. But you know that already. But a lot of times I do it. I don't know about you. I still slip back into being doing busy work and I feel like I had an accomplishing day. And then I look, I'm like, no, you just found a way to keep your brain busy. But did you actually move the needle in your life? Did you move towards a bigger future? Did you grow? Did you. Did you become a better version of you today than yesterday? And I really need to measure that. But again, if it's a complicated app like write in what I ate for lunch and how many calories it was, you don't do it. So here's what I. So I'm going to give it to you the way I do it. There's three types of things that I write down in my journal and kind of three types of things that we do on a regular basis, right? So there are things in your life and this is what you need to write down. And some of you can text it in here, which I love. When you guys do that or not text it, post it in here. There's things that you must do, right? So let's label it 1 through 3. There's things you must do. So what are some things you must do? You might want to do them, but they're a must. Like at 3 o', clock, at 2:40, the days I have my kids, I must. It's just a part of my life. I ain't missing it until they tell me I can't do it anymore. At 2:40 I must go pick up my kids from school. Yes, I could send my assistant. Yes, my wife can go. Yes, their mom can go. But for me that's a must. I must go there, right? There's other stuff. I must go, I must go. If you saw that other training I had to get. Oh, I cut myself shaving today. But the other one I had like 3 pre cancers. I had to get burned off. There's must things of like going to a doctor and making sure you're maintaining yourself. There's must. I don't mean it in a bad way. There's good must and bad must. Picking up my kids a must. I love going to the gym in the morning. I don't know if I always love it, but I must go to the gym every morning because it puts my head in the right space. So there's must do stuff. So you kind of just got to label that. And always, always, always question, must do stuff. Like I must go hang out with my friends on Thursday night because it's how we all bond. Well maybe that's what you must do in your 20s and your 30s. I don't know. Every time I go there, we don't talk about anything positive. We talk about what's wrong with the country, the world, the president, my family, my friends. I end up talking shit about my boyfriend or my girlfriend. Like I don't know if that's a must anymore. So I would question all the musts. But if you must do Monday morning meetings with the team, that's a must. But again, this is all stuff. I write everything in my journal. I'm going to try to tie this all together, right? When you get the journal you get that 20 minute training. I give you the tactical this I'm giving you the heart behind the simplicity of why this has moved the needle so much in my life. Right, so what are some of the musts you do? They're just on the calendar, no matter what. And I would really analyze, Are they a must? Can you delete them? Are they a must? And if they are, can you make them better? Like, if you're going to do a Monday morning meeting, can you show up and actually move the needle in your life? Like, this is all going to come down to what the journal says is what are the most important needle movers in your life? Because we get stuck in minutia. We get stuck in the hypnotic rhythm, Dale Carnegie used to call it. We get stuck in the hypnotic rhythm of a day. We get stuck in a hypnotic rhythm of a weekly routine, of a monthly routine. And you don't realize. It's like, wow, I've been doing the same workout. Oh, I've been getting the same coffee. Oh, I've been handling the meetings the same way. Oh, I've been picking my kids up and I'm kind of not in the best mood in the same way. And it's like, screw that. Time to shake this shit up. Like, how do I improve picking my kids up? Like, some days I'll have a crazy day. I'll pick my kids up. Like, yeah, I'm just waiting in this line. I'm like, no, I'm going to park. And when they come out, they're going to see my big smile. I don't care what I feel like I'm shaking this up today. I must pick them up because I want to, but I'm going to do it different. Like, I'll show up sometimes. We have weekly meetings for the teams, and it's very, this is what we did this week. This is what we accomplished. We took what we measure. We look at our scorecard, and they do that. And some days I'll just come in like, yo, what's up, everybody? I want to tell you about this story with my kid. And I'll just shake it up and I watch their faces. It just shuck up. If we're going to do a must, shake it up and then really analyze those musts, Right? Okay, second part. So there's stuff you must do and then there's busy work. Okay, now this stuff gets written in here. I don't want to, like, just totally dog it be calling it busy work. Like, you shouldn't do it. But this is stuff that's habit driven. I want you to identify things that are habit driven. This is busy work, but this is stuff. If you're currently working in a job, there's busy stuff you do all day and you have to that's how you get a paycheck. That's how you help the company grow. That's how you do what you do. If you own your own company, there's stuff that's busy work. I did busy work all morning. Legit. I was on the phone closing a partnership deal for an hour, talking about the contract, talking about each person's roles and responsibilities, all that kind of stuff. That's kind of busy work to me. I kind of hate it, but I have to do it. But once again, you got to analyze the busy work, the repetitive stuff that you have to do, not the stuff you must do. That's different. The busy work you have to analyze, is it busy work that actually keeps the company stable or keeps your job or keeps your family or keeps that stable, but doesn't really move the needle in your life? And then there's some busy work that, come on, it's time to let it go. Stop doing it, literally. Find a different way. Hire a virtual assistant in the Philippines for $5 an hour. Hire an intern, a college intern, at 15 bucks an hour and get them to pick up your dry cleaning and run the errands and go to Home Depot and build the signs or help you, your graphics. Go to fiverr.com, go to 99designs and get your logos done. Stop going online and playing with your logos for, you know, 10 hours. And in between that, you're stopping by to see what the Kardashians did. I'm not knocking the Kardashians, and most of you don't watch, but some of us know more about the Kardashians than we know about how to move the needle forward in our life, about marketing, right? Don't go online and say, I want to look at all these other sites and how they're doing it. And all of a sudden you're like, oh, my God, Bruce Jenner did that. Like, maybe that's not topic. I don't watch the news, so maybe that's not hot in the news anymore. But I'm sharing this stuff because. I watch so many people get sucked into busy work. That's not a needle mover. And the reason I'm sharing this and how I. I hope you're loving this, because I'm just sharing it real and raw. This little journal changes my life because I write it all down. I write down what I must do. I write down my busy work, and in no form, I'm just telling you mine. Mine is sloppy. Like, this is just what I write every single day of My life, everything goes in here. And the busy work in here, the must do stuff. And when I get the chance every two weeks and we'll get to it, to kind of bring all of it forward on the sheet that in my journal it's three columns. It's the needle movers. And most important, it's the what do I need to do today, this week and this month? And then what should I stop doing? When I kind of take all my notes from like a week or two and I bring them for them and kind of condense them, I get to go. Why would I think I must do that? I must not do that anymore. Or that busy work? Yeah, that's the foundation of my company. I don't love it. And someday I want someone to do it for me. But right now I got to do it. That's busy work that must be done. Let's just call it busy work. It's effective work. I don't want busy to have a negative connotation on some of it. But maybe it's effective work. Don't love it. Got to do it. Let me find a way to like it. Let me find a way to like it. But then there's also busy work that you're like, I don't need to do that anymore. That busy work doesn't do anything for me. God, the universe, my next level, next version of me, my evolution, my growth, making 2020 the best year of my life like that Busy work doesn't do crap for me. It's got to go. Alright, you feeling it now. The first was what must do stuff. Second is busy work kind of habits. You got to watch those habits. There's good habits that keep your company growing. There's busy work that doesn't do crap for anybody. Not your company, not your business, not the job you're in, not your career. None of it. Doesn't get your first mastermind, workshop, book, whatever it is you want out of life to the next level just doesn't do it. And the third. And I'm going to tie this all together, guys. I'm going to tie this all together. The third is the most important part. That's the needle movers. That is the things that you can work on that are sometimes scary, that actually move the needle in your life. That's how your career leapfrogs. That's how you get the business off the ground. That's how you take the business that's doing okay and you scale it to another level. And this is the part that really And I'm going to jump ahead here. This is the part that has changed my life and this is the part why journaling, whether mine, a pad, a white pad like this, anybody's. I'm just. This is talking about just getting it done today. That's where I know that I pass people I work with. Everybody says, how do you stay ahead? How are you always cutting edge? How have you been relevant in social media and TV and in this space for 21 years? How have you been an entrepreneur once you read the Underdog Advantage? I go more personal here on failure stories and success stories. I share stuff in here I've never shared anywhere in the world. How do you do all that? How do you do all that is because I really work and obsess on the needle movers in my life. So this is an important part. What is a needle mover? To me, it's working on your business, not in it. It's looking at it from up here and seeing where it could go, right? So I want to tell you what I journaled about this morning in a needle mover. I'm going to talk about. I want you to. And write this down right now. I want you to schedule time like you're scheduling a dentist appointment, like you're scheduling time with your kids, time with your spouse, like you're scheduling something so important. I want you to schedule time every week and eventually every day that you are going to do whatever it takes to get in flow state and you're going to spend time in your journal working and thinking through needle movers, even if some of the ideas are the dumbest ideas in the world. I've had such dumb ideas when I was in flow state. I. I've also had dumb ideas that changed the world and changed my life. They don't happen when you're doing busy work. They don't happen when you're doing the stuff you must do. They don't happen when you're running late. They don't happen when you're stressed. Why do you think you get the best ideas in the world when you're in the shower or you wake up in the middle and go, oh my God, I solved that problem, right? Think about that. That's flow state without you putting yourself in it. Because your brain's not thinking of the 500 million things that are on your phone, in your life. Being a business owner or somebody wanting to start a business or parent, being a husband, being a wife, being a relative, a friend. Like all this stuff's going on it's hard to get the big breakthroughs unless you schedule it. And I do. And when I schedule it, I sit down with this and I say, what are the things that really move the needle? If there's a problem going on in my company or in my life, I write it in my journal. Guys, I hope you're getting the simplicity of this. And I really, I promise I'll wrap it all together. I'm just looking here to make sure. If you guys are liking this so far, give me a thumbs up. I've never taught this. On the depth I'm going into my personal life, I on how I handle things. Doesn't mean you have to do it like me. But I've left, I've loved, this has changed my life. And this is the first time I'm sharing it. It might even be a little clunky because I'm sharing my deepest, my deepest, like, parts of me and secrets. But if you don't schedule time and get yourself in a place to think about the things that can move the needle in your life or solve the problems in your life or fuel the opportunity, then you will continue to be busy. You will continue to do the busy work and the needed work. And then you could just use a planner and just plan your day like, just plan your day. 2 o', clock, I'll do this. 4 o', clock, I'll do THIS. 5 o', clock, I'll do This. 6 o', clock, I'll jump on the call. 7 o', clock, I'll pick up the kids. 8 o', clock, I'll do dinner. 9 o', clock, I'll take the shower. I'll go to bed, get up. I'll meditate in the morning. By 10 o', clock, I'll go to the gym. I'll do this. Planning doesn't move the needle in your life. Being in flow state and thinking how you could solve a problem or fuel an opportunity does. What in your life right now needs to be solved? What needs to be solved? Answer me one of these things and if you want to share it with everybody, let us know. What's a problem in your life that needs to be solved right now? And if you solve that problem, that one problem, it has exponential results, right? I shared this with so many of you that going back on a personal note, when I was going through divorce, I worried so much because I'm a child of nine divorces or eight divorces. Nine. Between my mom and my dad, right? They four and five marriages, right? So I feared divorce at the highest level possible. Feared it, like, for my children, because I remember what happened with me. And I didn't, like, I didn't like, never feeling confident, never feeling secure. Different houses moved 20 times, like, and I'm the man, I am because of it. But I just didn't want that for my kids. If you've been through divorce, you know, some of the things. If it didn't go right and your parents didn't handle it the way you thought they should, kind of sucks, right? I appreciate. I'm gonna look at all these. Thank you guys so much. I'm gonna see. I just don't want to get sidetracked here. But it made me so fearful and I started thinking of all these things. What if we don't get along? What if my ex bad mouths me? What if the kids are fractured? What if the kids. Like, I had a hundred things that were bugging me. And I literally sat in flow state night after night trying to think, how do I solve this problem? How do I solve this problem? And I'm like, what could be the one problem in my journal? What could be the one problem, pen in hand, that could solve many? What thing could I solve to solve many? And it seems really dumb, but in this flow state, in this needle moving state, I wrote on my journal. And I have the journal because I keep every one of them. I wrote, become dear friends with my ex. And I wrote down, I am going to become real. And that was. I wrote it down. It was in my journal. And then I just started writing down all the things. When I was in this flow state, not in work, not in busy work, not in must, stuff. Like, I set time aside and I started thinking, oh, my God, I could listen more. Oh, my God, I could write her a declaration of 10 things I will never do. I will never talk bad about her in front of anybody. Never once, not in front of God, the universe, anybody. No matter what you do to me, I will never say a bad word about you. I will never disagree with you on how we're going to handle the kids. I will never disparage you. I'll always make sure I'm there for you. When I meet somebody, I'll make it very important that we are all family, we're all friends, and there's not going to be this separation. And I wrote down 10 declarations. I thought of that in this flow state. And I sent her the 10 declarations. And then I stopped talking about it after I wrote down, I just started being it. I started listening more. I started to be more attentive. And when I met someone, first thing I said is, I hope it's okay that I don't hate my ex. I'll never say a bad word about her. And she's the mother of my children, and I want someone who loves my kids. And I wrote down all this stuff. And that merger, like all of that happened in here during flow state. Not when I was stressed out worrying about my kids. Not when I was stressed out if lawyers got involved. Not when I was stressed out if people would judge me. Not when I was stressed out thinking about my childhood, when I was in flow state, not listening to the voice that said, this is going to go bad. This is going to be like every other divorce that goes sideways and cost millions and ruin your kids. When I listen to this voice, the one I was talking about in the middle, it said, no, you could do this different than everybody else. You could work on one thing, one problem that solves a lot.