Matthew Dicks Recap: How to Propel a Creative Life

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Welcome back. It is midweek and it's that time when I go back and look at our previous episode and give you some of the key takeaways, the little gems that I think will make all the difference in your life, in your leadership, in your business. So our last guest was Matthew Dix. He's an international best selling author, wrote so many books and his most recent one, Someday is Today, really struck a chord with me because I feel at times in my life there's been things that I've left to tomorrow and that tomorrow turns into next month, next quarter, next year, and sometimes that's health, fitness, writing that chapter, taking action, having that conversation, whatever it might be. I've pretty much done all of those things, delayed them and procrastinated on them. So Someday is Today is all about taking those next steps. I want to share some of the key takeaways and just before we do that, what is the one thing that you need to take action on, the one thing that needs your attention right now?

Incrementalism. I loved this word. When we were chatting, he talked about incrementalism. And my takeaway from that is incrementalism is the act of small incremental steps that eventually, over time accumulate to something great. And how relieving is that concept that we don't have to always take massive action? And hey, I've been to Tony Robbins events. If you haven't been to a Tony Robbins event, I definitely encourage you to check it out. It's full energy, high energy, and it's massive action. Now that's awesome. But also in terms of sustainability, that's not always possible. And massive action is not for everyone because it really does take a lot of energy, does take a lot of resources, does take a lot of your focus elsewhere. But incrementalism, I love that concept. It's those micro steps. And when you think about it, all great things happen with tiny steps. Just by taking one step towards the direction that you want to go in, you're so much closer to that end outcome. And here's the one thing I would say that I'm guilty of a lot. If you've got four minutes, just four minutes between something and another thing, and you've done your breath work and maybe you've got up and stretched, but you've still got this little bit of time, sometimes that will be filled with scrolling on social media, right? Sometimes that will be filled with just busy, being busy. Because in my mind, and I'm sure possibly in your mind, most tasks in my mind take 20 or 30 minutes. If you want to do something of substance, you need 20 or 30 minutes. But actually that's not the case. That's just a narrative. That's not true. Four minutes can be an enormous amount of time. What could you do in that small increment of time? What could you do? Just a tiny little thing. Could it be, as Matthew was saying on our last podcast, to unload the dishwasher, Even just a third of the dishwasher, because it takes more than four minutes to do the entire thing, but then it's a third of it done. So when you come back, you've only got 2/3 to go. How could you use those little 4 minute, 9 minute, 11 minute blocks more effectively rather than scrolling on social media? I'm going to challenge you to think about what are those tiny things you could do. Send that text back to your boss, your client, your family member, post that postcard, clean that countertop, make the bed, switch the laundry to the dryer, what are those small things? And they're tiny. But the idea of incrementalism is to achieve a successful outcome over time. But do it in a flow state, do it without burning out, do it without stressing out. And to me, I mean, it's just such a relief to think that that is actually a possible way to achieve excellence. Now, another thing that Matthew talked about was having a life goal. And he talked about this as a goal that you never actually achieve. You're constantly striving towards it. And in your life, you're not going to achieve it, but the journey to getting there, that's really going to be where all the gold and all the juices. And I started to think about it, and I think of that as the High Performers Horizon. You're climbing the hill. You can see the top of the hill you climb. And as you get almost to the top of the hill, you see another peak just in the distance. And you're like, okay, that's the top of the hill. That's the real top there. You move towards that. And as you get towards the top of that next peak, there's another one. To me, that's the High Performers Horizon. You're always pushing towards the top of your Everest. And to me, that's you're in pursuit of excellence. You're in pursuit of something that really has incredible meaning to you.

So don't let perfection be the enemy of progress. That was a big takeaway from Matthew. Don't let perfection be the enemy of progress. If you were perfectly trying to get to the top of the hill, but a new peak kept popping up, you might give up, you might lose hope, you might procrastinate. Never let perfection win over progress.

Micro celebrations, right? The idea that when we get to the end of writing that book and it's published and we sell a million copies, we celebrate. Well, Matthew was saying, because he is a writer, why don't we celebrate at the end of every chapter? Why don't we celebrate when we just finish the book? And in fact, he said one of his friends just recently finished a book not published yet and suggested, why don't we have a party that's called I've wrote a book and you didn't, because so many people talk about it and never do it. So I want to challenge you and ask you, where could you have a micro celebration this week? What have you achieved this week? That was a small step, but it's a step towards a bigger outcome. And how could you celebrate that? Is it that you spend time at a beautiful restaurant, have a lovely dinner? Is it that you buy yourself a new pair of running shoes? Is it that you get your favorite magazine? Is it that you book a trip to Vanuatu? Up to you, right, what it might be. But, you know, when you look at failure, you know, celebration and failure, you would say they're possible opposites. The one thing that Matthew talked about with failure was people are not actually really paying attention to you as much as you think they are. So stop worrying about failing, because you are going to fail and nobody actually really cares. They're going to get on with their life. They're going to be thinking about what they're going to wear to that thing tonight, what they're going to buy tomorrow, what they're going to watch on tv. They're not focusing on your failure. You are. So just remember that you can fail and fail fast and move forward. Don't sit in the failure and wallow. Move forward. It's so important. So I want you to think about someday is today. What does that mean to you? What's that one thing that you got to do today? Is it a conversation you've been putting off? It might be 30 minutes of pain to deal with that conversation today, but it might then be 10 years of joy because you've had the conversation. Is it that you've got to book that personal trainer to come to your house at 6am and pay them up front for a month so that you actually commit? It's the short term pain and the long term gain. So if you haven't had a chance to listen to that episode with Matthew, I think you'll love it. He's a great speaker. In fact, he's a renowned speaker. He, he had so much gold. He shared some incredibly inspiring, shocking stories as well. So if you get a moment to go back and check it out, I'd love you to do that. And just remember that not everyone around you has it together. You might be looking at people going, wow, they have it together. But in fact they may be struggling, they may be under the surface challenged with life. So I'm going to ask you to do one thing. If there's an episode that you think might benefit them, just copy the link and send it to them on Instagram, messenger, on Snapchat, on WhatsApp, on text, on email. Whatever way you communicate with them, say, hey, was thinking of you. You might enjoy the Lead on Purpose podcast. I appreciate you doing that and I know they will appreciate you doing that. Thank you for listening. Thank you for checking in. I've got some incredible guests coming up. We are just nine episodes counting down to our hundredth episode. A huge thank you for listening in and supporting and sharing the show with your friends. But for now, get out there and lead your life on purpose.