Stop stressing about the world — Focus on THIS

I'd like to ship you a free copy of my book Habits of High Performers. If you come and join the 2026 goal setting workshop, I will ship you one of these today. The link is in the notes. Please come and join me to set up the very best 2026 you could imagine. If you've set up goals in the past or New Year's resolutions and they haven't substantiated, I'm here to help you across all the key pillars of your life, nail your goals. I'll see you there. Welcome to One to One with James Laughlin. I'm a former world champion and now I work with and coach professional athletes, entrepreneurs and CEOs of billion dollar companies. I'm going to share with you in this episode some of the insights and strategies, some of the tools that I use with my clients. Every week I'll bring you an insight, an action or a tool that will help you go from great to to greatest. My mission is to cut through the noise and help give you the tools that truly transform your mindset and help you to take the right actions towards your desired outcome. So let's dive in. The Lead On Purpose podcast is sponsored by NZ Mortgages. Learn more at NZMortgages Co NZ the world is a mess and here's how you take back control. This goes out to any of you who are feeling overwhelmed, concerned, upset, fearful of everything that's going on in the world around us. Global economic challenges, future world wars looking like they're looming. All of this uncertainty has a powerful impact on many humans. However, high performers and leaders respond in a very different way. I'm going to show you what they do. The high performers that I've been fortunate enough to coach throughout the years. I really make sure that we get clear on three things. One, how do we refocus when the proverbial hits the fan? When you number two, how do you reclaim your power? And number three, how do you stay grounded? Those three things are crucial if you want to navigate this chaotic world in a way that feels like you're flowing, that you're not overwhelmed, you're not burning out, you're not full of fear and stress. And there's very practical and tactical ways that we do that. I'm going to take you through the exact same process that I take my one to one clients through. Those people who are running small teams, large teams, corporates, professional sports teams. They're doing things in the world that matter to them. But external forces sometimes make for chaos in their world so let's jump in. What is it that high performers do differently when chaos hits? Well, they do one thing very differently. This is the one thing I want you to think about when chaos hits, a high performer or a leader who's deeply connected with their why, they go, okay, there's a problem here. There's, there's problem around me. But problems present possibilities. They look through the lens of what's possible. They are possibilitarians and those are the type of people I want to support and help and have more people developing this lens of what's possible. I often say, wtoh, when things get tough, what's the opportunity here? You know, I've had people had to deal with earthquakes, floods, death. And I always say to them, wtoh, what's the opportunity here? You know, I catch myself at times not focusing on what's the opportunity and getting sucked into the chaos, caught up in the noise. And that's never helpful for making useful and pragmatic decisions. So the first thing high performers do differently when the chaos hits, they take a breath, they pause, and they ask themselves, what's the opportunity here? Because they know that problems present possibilities. You know, Trump makes decisions on tariffs. It sends stock markets tumbling. Great. When people are selling, it's a great time to buy because they're in a hurry to get out. It's the best time to buy. So high performers and leaders who are connected always look for opportunities when others are running and scrambling, full of fear. So that's the first thing is just to get clear on what are you doing when you're feeling stressed, when you're feeling overwhelmed, Are you pausing, taking a breath and asking wtoh? Or are you letting the overwhelm take control of your decisions? Hunkering down, hiding, running. That natural human response of fight, flight, freeze, appease. I want you to think about what you do. And taking a moment to pause and breathe gives you perspective, heightens your self awareness and allows you to answer the question effectively, what's the opportunity here? Okay, that's the first thing. That's what they do differently. Now, how do high performers shift their focus from what's out there to what's within? Well, look, I always talk about controlling our controllables. That's so important that we actually control the things that are within our control. But often we look at everything and try to manage and influence and manipulate other things that are fully out of our control. So political leaders, you personally probably have very little influence on them. You know, the clock and time passing you have very little influence. It's going to keep moving. But there's other things like your attitude, like your energy, your actions, your responses. You have full control over all of those. So we want to shift away from what's out there to what's within. How do we do that? Well, high performers watch very little news, they read very little newspapers, they stay up to date maybe once a week they get an overview of what's going on in the world. But they remind themselves as they're watching this chaos that they are not in control of it, they are not responsible for it. They get back to what's within my control. So I often get them and I want you to do the same. I get them to draw a big circle on a page, a real page, or if you want to do it on your iPad, go for it, but draw a circle. And what I ask them to do is think of all the stuff that's worrying you right now. The global economics, potential war, all of these things. And if you can control them, pop them inside that circle. If you can't control them, put them outside the circle. So we start writing down all the things that they can control inside the circle and the things they can't influence or control outside it. And what they start to see is that there are things outside, like the weather, time passing by, other people's decisions, global economics, that all sits outside the circle of influence. So what sits within it are your behavior, your reactions, your, your effort, your energy, your mindset. All those things that are within the circle of influence. Focus on those high performers, just double down on that. They focus less on what's out there and more around what's within. And truly, what happens within dictates in your life what happens without outside of your mind. So your mind is the starting point of what happens around you. If you want abundance, it's got to start in your mind. You're not going to attract abundance. Health, financial relationship. If you are scarcity minded, you just won't. So we have to start programming our mind for what we want. Okay, the next thing, a real practical way to reconnect with the good that still exists around you. This one very small, simple, practical step, you will have heard it, you will know it. Some of you might even be doing it every single day. But this one thing, very simple. Habit is a game changer. That is the power of gratitude. Journaling. Taking a moment to get down on a piece of paper. What you're grateful for. Neuroscientists have been studying this. There's Many peer reviewed studies on the power of gratitude. When you're grateful for something, it sets off a whole different biochemistry within you that sets you up for success to be more positive, to look for opportunities to respond with control. So all I'm asking you to do right now is every morning for the next seven days, first thing, as soon as you get up, write down three things you're really grateful for. The bed you slept in, maybe it's a family member, maybe it's an opportunity, maybe it's a client. Maybe it's the blue sky, maybe it's the sound of the birds, maybe it's your pet. Maybe it's the piece of clothing that you're about to put on. Maybe it's the water that you have access to that's clean and plentiful. See what I mean? It could be anything. There's so many. There are billions of things we can be grateful for. But practicing gratitude will set you up so when the chaos hits, you have more of a, like a residual bank of gratitude that allows you to be more resilient. So when you look at elite forces, special forces, they often practice gratitude because there's times when the chaos hits for them that they need to have this bank of resilience ready to go. So think about that very simple, practical tool. What am I grateful for? Okay. And in terms of regaining clarity, energy and purpose, there's a really simple tool. A very, very, very simple tool. I have a journal, old school paper journal, and I write in it. And at the start of every new journal, I write down what's my purpose. I write down what's my vision. I write down my values. I write down my non negotiables. I get really clear at the start of every new journal. Who am I? Who do I serve? What's my mission? What are my goals? Why I'm reinforcing what matters most. It helps me get clear. And the one tool that I've shared with many of you, in fact I did a whole episode on this, was the MVP tool the most valued priority. I want you to think about using that today. What's your mvp? Your most valued priority? Priority was never meant to be plural. Its origins. When you go back to the origins of priority, it was one singular thing that was most important. So for you, what's that? I want you to get hyper clear on your mvp. So what we've done is we've reset using these tools I've just shared with you. We've reset. These tools will not work if you don't use them. So try them, use them, test them, iterate on them. But we've reset, and this is your reminder to do that regularly. You don't need to fix the world. It's not your responsibility to fix, but you need to take responsibility for how you show up, what's happening around you, and what you can influence. So until next time, please get out there and lead your life on purpose. The Lead On Purpose podcast is sponsored by NZ Mortgages. Learn more @nzmortgages.co nz. Thanks for tuning in to Lead On Purpose. If you find this episode valuable, please share it with one person that that you think might benefit from it. And if you're serious about leveling up, please make sure you're subscribed to the show and continue to lead your life on purpose.