248: Turning Frustrating Setbacks Into Massive Success - #GrowYourLife

Hey, everyone, thanks for listening to the Grow youw Life podcast. My name is Jeremiah Krakowski, and in this podcast we talk about ways for you to grow in your life and in your business to make more money as a coach, trainer, or mentor. Now, today we're going to be trying a brand new format that we have never done. And what we're going to do is I'm actually going to be playing a video game while I do the podcast, and I'm going to be doing the podcast the same as I do, but I'm going to be talking while I'm doing this, and you can actually watch in the corner while I do this. If I need to switch over to, say, you know, chat GPT. Because we're going to be doing something with chat GPT. Look at that. We can actually switch over to it right here. As far as this goes. Okay, so it's just like the regular podcast, but this is going to be the format that we're going to do this, and here's why is I actually find that I can get into more of a flow state and talk with you while I'm doing something like playing a video game. So understand, if you're listening, you're pretty much not going to be able to tell any difference between the podcast and. In fact, I think the podcast is going to come across a lot better. The quality is going to be a lot better as far as this goes. But if you want to watch what I'm actually playing while I do this, you can go to YouTube and watch the YouTube version of the podcast where it actually has me loading up a game. Right now I'm playing Madden Football, which is one of my favorite things. You might hear the sticks on my controller just a little bit while I'm talking, as far as that goes. But again, this is kind of the inaugural episode where we're going to be trying this out and we're going to see how it works. If it doesn't work, we're going to go back to the other format as far as that goes. Okay? So listen, I'm excited to do this to come with you today. What I want to talk about today is discipline. And this is a subject that a lot of people are like, you know, you know, oh, my gosh. And in fact, it's almost so juxtaposed to what I'm doing right now. Some people see the idea of playing video games as a lack of discipline type of activity. For me, I actually find that the more that I play video games, the more that I am alert and aware, by the way. Pause here. I'm probably not going to be looking at the camera the whole time because I'm actually looking at the screen in front of me, just above the camera. So realize that that is going to be the format while we do this. What we're going to be talking about is in your business, disciplining yourself to do the stuff that maybe you don't feel like. And I was listening to a Joe Rogan podcast last night. It was with the Rock, and they were talking about this quote that really got me from Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson says this, that discipline is doing the thing that you don't want to do with incredible enthusiasm and excitement while you do it. And so that's one of the principles that I think is something that as business owners, we need to adapt to. Why is that? Because there are things that we don't want to do in our business. There are things that are not fun for us as far as that goes. You know, it's not always sunshine and rainbows building a business. And so we have to realize the reality of that is that it's not always fun. It's not always going to be an exciting experience. And we're going to have setbacks. We're going to have moments where we feel like quitting. We're going to have times where we want to give up. We're going to feel like the algorithm is against us and everything is going against us, and things are not going how we, quote, unquote, wish that they could. Okay, from my experience, here's the thing. You know, when I started in my business, one of the biggest reasons why I actually struggled to make money is I had this belief that someday everything was just going to come together for me and things were going to finally work out how I wanted them to. And I was waiting, rather, for things to get better before I started in my business, instead of just taking advantage of how they were as they are right now. And so I want to just encourage you in this, Take advantage of the cards, how you have been dealt them. We're not always going to get the deck of cards how we want them to be. Understand that things are not always going to be how we would like them to be at all times, and that's perfectly okay. What you got to learn to do, though, is to stay consistent when you run that campaign and it doesn't produce the kind of financial results that you want, that you keep on going, that you keep on moving forward as far as that goes, kind of Like I just did with this football game right here, I'm actually playing really well while I'm doing this, which is kind of impressive. So here's one of the ways that I see that this manifests for coaches, mentors and trainers is that a lot of the things that we need to do in our business are hard. They're difficult, they're simple to learn, but actually taking action with them and actually doing them is sometimes the hardest thing that we have ever done. For instance, building a landing page, it might feel like two steps backwards for every step forward. You literally might feel like you're regressing with every offer that you're launching. And I'm telling you, as part of building a business, this is normal. This is part of the process. And so realize that we need to stop expecting things to be different. I understand. Maybe everything in your life comes easy to you. I'm somebody that in my life, I'm extremely blessed and lucky that almost everything that I try to do comes very easy to me, except in business, because it's the great equalizer. Business itself and creating financial wealth is the great equalizer to where if you are great at almost everything, you're probably still going to struggle to make the kind of money that you want to make in business. And I think that there's a sort of belief, especially in the beginning, if you've been successful making a few sales in your business, some of you are listening. You're like, I haven't made a single sale. I've been at this for 17 years and haven't done anything. So I want to have empathy for both sides of it. Number one, by the way, I think it's actually harder if you're somebody who has had financial success. Why? Because it deceives you that the next stage is going to be just as easy as the previous stage. At every stage of your growth, at every stage of you making the kind of money that you want to make, there are going to be struggles, there are going to be things, there are going to be setbacks, There are going to be moments that you wished that things could be just a little bit simpler, just a little bit easier, that they would just come just a little bit easier to you. And I liken this to why I love to play video games. Because here's the thing, you can always grow in your skill set. You can always learn new strategies, new tactics to get better at the thing that you're doing. You know, I'm playing an online game right now with somebody who's actually on the Internet, that's actually a very hard thing. I've put in hundreds of hours into this football video game over the years, for the last probably 10 years to get better at it, to improve at my skill set. And so what that does is that makes me competitive. It's the same in business. I've been doing this in business for 21 years. Some of y' all hear me talking, like, how can I be coherent at creating content like this while I'm also streaming live online? Well, it's because I've learned how to connect, how to communicate, how to talk that way, how to be able to bring my thoughts forward, how to be able to even tap into some of the areas of my mind that are sometimes difficult to tap into and multitask by being able to do this. And it's because I've been doing it for a while. In fact, you know, I used to take business calls where I would be playing video games because it actually allowed me to tap into a part of my brain that was more functional, to be able to come up with strategies that people needed to hear. And so what's cool is I think the podcast is a very cool outlet for me to be able to do that moving forward. Again, like I said, the video version, this is a new format that we're going to be doing this. I'm probably not going to be talking as much about my video games and stuff while we're doing the podcast and things like that. But again, this is the very first time that I've ever done this format. And so it's kind of new for me, and it's. It's kind of a fun thing. For instance, I did not do very well right there. Okay, here's the thing. You're not always going to be perfect. You're not always going to make the right moves. You're not always going to make the right plays. You're going to have times where you think. Think that things are going to work out for you, and then they don't. What you have to do is you have to build up your resilience muscles, your ability to take the hits, get back up again and keep moving forward, keep doing the things that you know are going to help you to succeed in your business. Okay. Okay. And so understand that as a mentor, as a trainer, as a coach, getting clients is not the easiest thing in the world. Number one, you need to grow your email list. If you're not growing your email list, you don't have a business. If you're and by the way, just growing the email list is not enough for a business. You need to also get sales. You need to also have people buy from you. You need to also learn how to communicate in a way that gets people to purchase the things that you're doing. One of the biggest facades that I see that's out there, and it's, by the way, why I've probably never done this before, is I was too concerned about looking good to other people, to be honest. I might completely lose respect for some people by doing what I am doing right now live on this podcast. And I know that, and I understand that, and I understand that that's part of it. But here's the thing. It's authentic for me. And I know that those who connect with me, they are going to appreciate the fact that I am being myself showing up this way, and. And it's gonna allow me to show up much better and at a higher quality for people that I am meant to connect with. Okay? So realize that not always is things going to go your way. Learn to become more resilient. And you might say, jeremiah, I've been resilient enough. A lot of people connect with me. They're at their wit's end. They've been trying hard enough. I have a lot of empathy for that. And I want to tell you this, that you can still grow, that you absolutely can still improve, move forward, that you are not at a place where you can't. But one of the things that we have to do is we have to let go of trying to make everything go our way. Oh, my gosh. And this sounds counterintuitive, and this is the counterintuitive advice that I think that most people need to hear and why I'm actually recording this podcast episode. You know, I meet people all the time and I tell them what they need to do in their business, and yet they still don't do it. They still think that there's a different way to be successful. They still struggle to understand that if they just changed how they did a few things or if they worked on their mental health. You know, I'm thinking of a client of mine right now. So much potential to make millions of dollars, and yet she's afraid to show up on camera. That's an area that could be grown in, but instead she's focusing on everything else in her business that's not going to produce a result. And I feel sad because I see the potential in her to be successful, and yet I also see the choice that she makes every Single day, every single time I see her, to stay stuck where she's at. And oftentimes, whenever we talk, there's tears and she cries and she says, I know I could do better, but life is so hard. And I got to say this. Listen, if life is that hard, it doesn't have to be that way. You can solve for that. You can learn to grow in your strength, in your resilience. Sometimes it's going to take tough choices, changing the people you're listening to, changing your diet, even. Maybe you have health challenges. I totally understand that. You know, my mom was given a year to live, and yet she still pressed through. She didn't allow what tried to kill her to stop her. Now, I don't have experience in that, but I can tell you this. There are people right now with less experience than you, with less knowledge, with less skill set, with less ability that are succeeding far greater than you are. Why? Because they decided to just do the thing that they've been not doing. They've decided to simply just keep moving forward and to not let the thing that tried to break them, that tried to stop them, that tried to keep them from moving forward to defeat them. It's a choice. It's a choice to either stay stuck where we're at, and that's a choice to keep moving forward. And so I want to just encourage you right now that if you're somebody who feels like I've tried everything and I just can't seem to, to get the breakthrough that I need in my life and in my business, to realize that every single day is a new experience, it's a new opportunity, it's a clean slate. We're going into the new year right now, and maybe you're coming on your 18th year of trying out. I know a guy right now coming up on his 18th year of trying to make stuff work with the online marketing and coaching business. But I can tell you this. The efforts are not in vain. Don't give up. Keep moving forward. And that's where the discipline comes in. To be willing to take the hits, take the punches, and to make the decision, you know what? I'm not going to let what tried to break me, what tried to stop me win. That I am going to be willing to. Yes, I got a touchdown. I'm going to be willing to do the tough stuff, that I'm going to be willing to keep moving forward. One of the greatest things that I see that stops people from succeeding is this. It's either fear or pride. You either have Fear of it not working out of you wasting time, missing out on opportunities, things not going how you wanted to, people rejecting you, it not working out how you want it to. Or your pride won't let you show up up at that level. Your arrogance. And you might even say, oh, I'm so humble. Listen, I used to say that all the time. I'm so humble. Notice I don't say that as much anymore. Why? Because actually I know that. I know that I know where I'm called to go. And we need to address both of these things. Both of these are just as dangerous. Listen, I want you to take pride in the things that you can do. Absolutely. You need to have a high level of self esteem and self belief. And I promise you this, that if you work on what's going on between your two ears, you're gonna start to believe in yourself more. Don't ever stop believing in yourself. Don't ever stop believing in what's possible for you. Don't ever let somebody tell you, well, you're being just a little bit too, you know, self absorbed, self motivated. Gosh, this is ridiculous. This language that people have in their coaching that they think helps people and yet it stops them. The level of income that you can make is directly correlated to your level of self esteem and you can grow in that. And one of the biggest things that can help you is working on unraveling your triggers, your trauma, the things that stop you from making decisions. Perfectionism is one of the single greatest things that stops people and that's rooted in both either pride or fear. Maybe you grew up where you had to do everything perfect in order to be safe in your life. Or maybe you don't want to show up in a way that you feel is below you to other people, that you have a spirit of excellence that needs to show up and go forward at a certain level. I'm telling you, both of those are going to prevent you from being successful. So what you have to do is you have to discipline yourself, to embrace the journey, to trust the process. And this is not in some woo woo way, you need to have gratitude for where you're at today, that you have air in your lungs and energy to get up in the morning, do the thing, just as I said at the beginning, that maybe is hard, that maybe you hate, that maybe you don't want to do, that maybe you're avoiding with enthusiasm and excitement. And you also need to do the thing that you're scared of. Many times you need to do the thing that maybe You've judged other people for doing. I think one of the greatest things that I see, people judge coaches and mentors for how they promote their business. And there's a lot of crappy coaches and mentors out there that sell crappy products, crappy coaching that are not helping people. And so the level of standard that people want to show up with, integrity actually keeps them from being able to create the kind of business that's going to make them successful because they don't want to be one of those people out there. There I was also that way. I had so much judgment against coaches and mentors and trainers that I had come across in my life. And it was keeping me from moving forward. It was preventing me from doing the very things that were going to make me money. And as soon as I got over myself, literally, and at the same time believed in myself and at the same time stopped being so self critical and at the same time I stopped punishing myself for the mistake, mistakes that I made. And I actually embraced mistakes, failures as a good thing in my life, as a teacher. That every single moment that maybe I struggled in something, it was a moment for growth. It was a moment where I could learn what I don't know to progress forward. That it was a moment where I didn't have to struggle with, where I didn't have to strive and where I could get back up again to keep moving forward. I'm telling you, my friends, we get so caught up distracting ourselves from doing the very things that are going to make us money in our business because we're avoiding the pain of coming face to face with what I'm talking about with you right now. People with so much talent, so much skill set. I'm thinking about a friend of mine, he's in the mortgage business. So much talent, so much skill set could be making millions of dollars coaching and mentoring people. And yet I see him literally choosing to not do the things that are going to grow his business. Literally choosing to not do the things that could catapult him to million dollar coach status. And for whatever reason, I don't know, it's an internal struggle maybe. I bet he's gonna see this podcast. I might even share it with him. What's up, dude? You know what I'm talking about. You got so much potential, man. I believe in you. You got so much potential to accomplish greater than you could ever imagine. But there are things that you're not doing that are keeping you from being able to make the kind of money that you want to make. In a coaching and course business because of possibly either fear or standards that tie into what I'm talking about right now. You have to realize that sometimes we literally have to lower our standards, lower our standards of excellence in order to create the kind of business and the kind of income that we want to make. And this is not a popular conversation. Why? Because it's risky for me to talk about this. It's risky for me to say this because people might misjudge, misinterpret, and misquote what I just said. To believe that I'm encouraging you to put bad products out there and to defraud. I'm not encouraging that at all. You need to put quality stuff out there. Absolutely. But you need to stop being so harsh about yourself, about how everything looks. Trying to look perfect, everybody trying to. Trying to make everything perfect and realize that it's okay to just show up, give it your best shot, even if people hate you, even if maybe it doesn't produce the results that you want, that is going to move the needle forward for you. And then the second part of this is when you do do that, because I know people who've broken past this level, they're in my coaching group, you know, I'm thinking about multiple clients in my coaching group right now. They've actually broken past this, but when they actually launch, it's not producing the kind of sales they want, and they feel like everything is out to get them. Realize that resilience, that being willing to stay the course, continue the process, do the work, even if it does not produce the result that you want. And yet you still show up with the same belief, the same fortitude, the same ability to take yourself to the next level is what is going to change everything for you. I believe in you. I believe that you absolutely can succeed. I believe that you absolutely can take things to the next level in your life and in your business. You don't have to let these things stop you. Oftentimes the reason why it stops us is internally. We have these beliefs, we have these things that we're trying to avoid happening. And that's one of the questions. I literally have it written right in front of me in my office because I have to remember this. Everything comes back to this one question. And really it's taken me about this whole time of the podcast to get here is I want you to ask yourself this. If you find yourself facing setbacks, if you find yourself throwing up your hands, getting angry when things don't go how you want, and I totally get it? Like, I have empathy for that. Of course. When things don't go how you want, when people reject you, when people don't buy from you, when you invest in your business, when you run ads and it doesn't produce the sales that you want, when you. When you do a whole campaign, when you host a webinar and people don't buy from you, oh, my gosh. And maybe you've been doing it for 10 years, 12 years, maybe you relocated your whole family to a city to start something, to start a movement that you felt called to do, and it didn't produce the results that you wanted, or you're not quite where you want it to be yet. I can tell you this. Don't give up in doing the right things. Don't give up in continuing to move the ball forward. You can learn new skill sets. But I got to tell you this. It's going to take you doing things that maybe you have not tried before. It's going to take you showing up on a new level going into the new year to discipline yourself, to not let fear or pride or ego stop you from showing up again. Attitude of gratitude, amazing. That's the perfect foundation. But then we also got to do the work. We also got to do the stuff that we have been avoiding, the stuff that we've been putting off, the stuff that we have been walking away from, the stuff that we have been making excuses for again and again and again and again and again. And I meet people so often, they're like, jeremiah, I'm not making excuses. I've just been doing all the right things and it's not working. Can I tell you this? I meet people all the time. They tell me, well, listen, I'm just trusting in the Lord's will in this process. I'm just trusting in the process. And by the way, I literally just said five minutes ago to trust the process. But there's a side of it that if you get anything from what I talk about here today, it's gonna be the game changer for you. You have to do the hard stuff. You have to do the stuff that you're putting off. There might be a list. And what I like to do is I like to make a list. What I call my top three. What are my top three things that I need to do in my life? What are the top three goals that I have that I would like to change in my life? And how can I start to move things forward, to move the needle forward, to start to make those things come to Pass. And then what I do is I reverse engineer what those things look like. So, like, for instance, for me in my business, eight figure sales, that's over $10 million a year in sales. And again, I'm not talking about like 10 million in profit because really, I would end up investing a lot of that back into my business or into other investments or things to grow my bottom line. But the game changes when you hit over a million dollars a month. And I know people that have done that. I have helped people do that. I have built multiple coaching businesses that other people own and operate, that I was the CEO of, that I was consulting, consulting, and I help them get to that level. But my own business isn't making that much. Today we have a seven figure revenue business. It's incredible. It's amazing. We're making a ton of money. We're impacting a ton of people's lives. That's why I have the confidence to literally show up and play a video game while I'm doing a podcast. I'll tell you, you don't have to wait until you accomplish things to have the confidence to do the things that you want to do. And if there was one thing that I wish that I did sooner was just doing whatever the heck I wanted. Regardless of what anybody thinks about me. And listen, I'm still growing in this area. I'm not perfect at it. I still struggle at it. I still fail at it to this day, but I continue to move forward. One of those things is this. I could not care less anymore what anybody thinks about me. If anybody listens to my podcast, they get offended, they get turned off. I mean, they get pissed off. They want to sit down with me and confront me about how wrong I am. Listen, that used to destroy me when people would do that. And it used to happen. Wow, that was a terrible play. What was I thinking? Oh, my gosh. Yeah. This is like the real chiefs right here, right? I thought, I thought I was the quarterback right there, but I have to get back up again. And. And again, just like in this game. Keep doing the things that I know are going to help me. Keep doing the things that are going to move me forward. What's another thing that I want to do? I want to be less reactive and more encouraging. Also less critical. You might notice maybe today I might have sounded maybe a little bit critical. Some of you are hearing this. Maybe you feel like I was talking directly about you. You know, I shared this podcast with a few people that maybe I was using some examples, but it's because I know that it's going to help those people succeed in their life to reach those goals that they have. We're going to go for it here. We're going to try this play again. You don't have to struggle, but it's going to take you doing what you're not. And what I look at is I look at stuff from a six month perspective. One of the things that six months ago I said that I was going to do that I am still not doing and what I do is as soon as I can tap into that, it allows me to truly start to make the decisions. That was it. We just, we made first down. It allows me to truly make the decisions to say, okay, I said I was going to do this six months ago. And this is one of the strategies that I would say going into the new year that is going to help a lot of you succeed. If you have things that you've been putting off that you know that you need to do and things are not working out, you need to start to go to work and reverse engineer what needs to change, what behaviors might need to be adjusted to move the needle forward for you. What was preventing you over the last six months from doing the thing that you said that you would start doing six months ago. And then I also look at it 12 months ago for me, a big one. My son was born, he's about to be a year old. And yet there are things that I have struggled with for the last year that I'm like, no more. I got to reverse engineer what that is and what I have done. Usually by doing this, I break it down into 6 month, 12 month and 18 month increments. And generally for me, by doing this, by being very self aware of what I told myself, let's bring this down here, what I told myself that I was going to do 6, 12 and, and 18 months ago. By the time 18 months rolls around, there's breakthrough that has happened. One of the biggest issues that we have as to why breakthrough doesn't happen is we're not asking for help. We're trying to go about it on our own. We're trying to figure out things that maybe we've never done before on our own. Brand new. We've never tried these things before. They're completely new experiences for us. Sometimes you got to humble yourself and say, listen, I don't know how to do the thing that I need to do that is going to change everything for me and I need to learn from somebody who knows how to do the thing that I need to learn how to do to keep moving forward. If you find yourself to where there are things that you committed to do 6 months ago 12 months ago 18 months ago and by the way, don't let anybody pressure you in these things. I want these to be by your choice. There are things right now that there are people, possibly even people listening to this podcast that think that I should have done 18 to 12 months ago, that to be honest, I have chosen. You know what? Not a priority for me. You need to own your choices. You need to take ownership, ownership over your choices. There's a great book that I love called Extreme Ownership that talks about this, about taking ownership over where we're at and realizing that everything that we're experiencing right now, we have chosen and realize that it is an explicit choice to do something and to not do something. It is an explicit choice to not ask for help and to just sit on your bum and hope things change for you. And we can choose differently in our lives. We do not have to repeat the same cycle that we came into 2023 with. I'm telling you this, the economy is shifting the world. In 12 months from now, as we go into 2025, we're going to know two things. One, in the United States, who is going to be president for the next four years into 2029, artificial intelligence is going to hit a critical mass breaking point that's beyond what anybody can imagine. I believe that robotics is going to have a huge breakthrough coming into this next year. And so we have to decide if there are goals that we have and it takes us impacting new people, growing our community, that there may never be a moment in time similar to what we have today. And that things A are going to get a lot harder after a year from now. And if we put off these things another year from now, we may never have the chance or opportunity that we have here today to do the things that we need to do now. Of course, I understand God can do great things. He can do big things, and I truly believe in that. But here I'm the type of person that says that I trust God as if he's in control, and I go to work as if I am. And it's not that I'm not trusting him, but I'm doing everything in my ability to do at least what I can to not let my situation control me. You know, I know people right now, they don't even go to the doctor because they think that that is not trusting God. They might Even have cancer. But they refuse to do the things that they can do. They refuse to even eat healthily. They refuse to change their lifestyle because you know what? The Lord went. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, that is literally, literally complete irresponsibility and a complete misinterpretation of the truth. Yes, God can do great things, but we also need to also do the stuff that we can do. And I don't want to over spiritualize this because this podcast isn't a quote unquote spiritual or even Christian podcast, even though I'm somebody who is spiritual and, and a Christian. But I gotta say this, sometimes I, and I remember a guy that I love listening to, Will Ford, taught this for years. Some people are waiting for a move of God, when actually God is waiting for you to move. Okay? Some of y' all are, have been meditating your way, trying to succeed, when in fact, you got to do something that maybe you've been putting off. So as we go into the new year, listen, I fully encourage being and embodying faith. I fully encourage relaxing your nervous system, doing all these things. But if we sit on our duff and we do nothing with the, with the resources that have been given to us, with the opportunities that have been presented to us, don't expect a different outcome from those situations because we are essentially choosing for things to happen that way. And I can tell you this, my friends, it doesn't have to be that way. You can make a decision today to say, you know what? I. I am no longer going to allow my pride, fear or ego to keep me from doing the stuff that is going to help me succeed. I am no longer going to let my fears and worries and doubts. I'm no longer going to let. Oh, gosh, I'm going to say it. I'm no longer going to let my faith religiously keep me from doing what I know that I should do, that I know what I am called to do. I'm no longer gonna let my belief. Maybe you're somebody who believes in, in the universe, you believe in crystals or whatever. Because I got a lot of people who listen to me. And I'm not, I'm not here to say I tell you what I believe in, but I'm not here to tell you to stop believing in something that, that you think is working for you. But belief only goes halfway. You gotta believe that you can do it absolutely. And then you gotta actually do the work. You gotta actually show up. You gotta actually commit to actually doing the thing that maybe You've been putting off that, you know that is going to help move things forward for you. And here's the thing. Oftentimes when we set out to do this, and this is my, kind of, my last point, as we wind down here, when we do those things, they don't actually turn out how we would hope they would. They don't actually go how we expected them to. And that's why most of the time we give up or we say, oh, well, maybe it wasn't meant to be. No. Because you have just started to gain momentum. And so don't quit the momentum simply because you've started, simply because things aren't working out how you've wanted them to. Keep moving forward, keep doing the thing that you know that you need to do. And it takes a great level of self awareness. And maybe you don't have the answer to this right now. Maybe you're listening to this and you're like, jeremiah, I've been trying to do do the thing that is going to move me forward for years and I'm doing my best. We've seen progress. Can I tell you this? What if you shortened the timeline? Maybe you've been doing this long enough and you have a pace that you've been doing things at. What if you shorten that timeline? Instead of expecting it to take you another 10 years, you decided, you know what, I'm going to work as best as I can to take this to the next level for me over the next five years or even three years or even year. What if you were able to take the stuff that would normally take you five to ten years to do, and you got them done in just one year? This is actually a concept that I have heard from some of the most successful people that I've ever met when they actually approached this decision and said, you know what, what if it doesn't have to take as long as I think it does? What if I could speed some things up? And what if by speeding things up, maybe things didn't work out, but in the big picture, they happen faster? See, I think sometimes we're afraid of making a mess. We're afraid of things not going how we want. And our pride and ego keeps us from doing the things that we need to do because we're afraid of, quote, unquote, losing out or things not going how we wish that they could. Can I tell you this? That that's one of the single greatest areas that you can solve for, that's going to change your life, that that's One of the single greatest areas, that if you just started doing some of the things that you've been putting off, that you've been neglecting, that you've been taking longer to do, and you just started doing some of those things even if they seem hard, even if failure literally might be imminent. You know, I listened to interviews with people like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, and they say, you know what chances of success were less than 10%. But I knew that I needed to try. What if you started doing things that you actually had a low probability of success for and you sure you did higher probability activities? What if you asked for help even if the probability of somebody helping you or saying yes was zero, instead of worrying about trying to manage, maintain and control the choices and the decisions that other people need to make, and you started to become okay with possibly things not working out, you started to be okay with moving forward, even if things didn't go how you wanted or expected the them too. And you actually did the thing that. And maybe while I'm saying this, there's a. There's things in your life that you know that you need to do, but you're just, it's too agitating to do it. It just creates too much anxiety for you. And you've been trying to maintain your peace for long enough. Can I tell you this? That one of the biggest mistakes that I see people make is there are things that they could be doing that will transform, transform their life, that will create the kind of business, that will create the kind of community that they're even called to. And yet their need for things, quote unquote, to go how they expect it or want it, is keeping them from moving the ball forward. Because their, their ability to risk it all, their ability for things to exceed accept that when things don't work out, that they aren't bad, that they're not wrong, that it's actually okay to do something and it not go how you want it to, that it's actually okay to try something out and to fail at it. And that that's actually part of the process of success, that embracing total failure is actually how we succeed. And that one of the biggest mistakes that people make is believing that everything should always work out. Well, it's always worked out for me before. And yet you find yourself coming up against a plateau. You find yourself coming up against a brick wall. You find yourself repeating the same mountain over and over and over again that you thought that you had learned from, that you thought that you had mastered that you thought that you had overcome, and yet you end up repeating the same mistake again. And it feels like it's five steps forward, three steps back. We have to make. Make a decision to keep moving forward. We have to make the decision to get back up again, to become resilient, to rebound, even when things might not work out how we want it to, even when things don't go, quote, unquote, how we think they should, and to become okay with just trying it out. You know, in software development, there's this term called an alpha and a beta release just to beta test an idea. You know, I meet people all the time. There's this phrase I hear people say in media. You know, you only got one chance at a first impression, I may measure twice, cut once type of person. Can I tell you this? That for most of the people that I meet and that I work with, that that's actually the greatest thing that stops them from succeeding and reaching their goals is because they're waiting for certainties. They're waiting to feel like, okay, I know for certain now this is going to work, when in fact, the way that they're actually going to get that certainty is by taking risks, by doing things, by becoming okay with failing like I've pretty much done at this football game right here. I'm gonna lose this game. But you know what? It was a great experience. I'm not angry, I'm not emotional. I'm not upset by it, because I know that the more that I play that, the more that I continue to grow in my skill set. You know, I noticed a few sloppy moves that I made that maybe I could do better in this game. And yet I still got back up again, and I'm still going to play another round again, and I'm still going to keep moving forward, and I'm not going to let what tried to stop me defeat me. Moving into 20, 24. Oh, look at that. There's another touchdown. You know, some of y', all, your goals, your life and your business look kind of like this football game, right? And thanks for those that have stuck with me, watching through this whole thing. Sometimes we just got to accept the fact that things don't go how we wish they would. Even if they look certain, it's okay to get back up again. It's okay to not feel. Well, you want to feel the pain. You want to let it, like, feel it for a little bit, but then you move forward. You don't let it defeat you. You don't let it stop you. You Change the meaning and the choices that you put behind those things. And that, my friends, is one of the greatest strategies that I believe is going to help you succeed. If you are a mentor, coach, trainer, pastor leader, business leader, this will make you more successful. You will be able to impact more people. And as we go into 2024, I want to inspire you. Number one, if this episode has hit you deeply, I want you to share it with some people. Don't hold this back yourself. Share it with somebody that you know. It's going to help impact them. And number two, I want you to make a list of what are your top three things that you want to. To accomplish. What are your top three goals? You know, number. Number three. For me, I want to have $1 million in my stocks portfolio. You know, my mom in the last year, she's in the same industry as me, coaching and mentoring. She's got a portfolio that's worth over 5 million in the last year. I want to have 1 million. Why? Because I know that that is going to be the next level. So I got to look at what are some choices and decisions that I need to make to become less reactive, less critical, more encouraging, to increase my overall sales to $10 million a year and to have $1 million in my investment account. And then I got to work backwards and look at, okay, what have I not been doing for the last six months because I actually had these goals six months ago. What have I not been doing for the last six months that I need to start doing that I've been putting off, that I've been neglecting, that I've been avoiding doing? What are the tough decisions that I need to make and what are the risks that I need to take just. Just to see what happens, to keep moving forward? And so, my friends, as we go into 2024, I hope this encourages you to start taking more risks, to start doing some of those things that you've been afraid of, start doing those things that maybe you've had previous standards of excellence that have prevented you from putting yourself out there and doing them. And adopt this alpha or beta release approach where you're willing to beta test, launch something that might even be under development, that might still be incomplete, that might not be a fully fleshed out idea, but you just want to see what happens. You just want to see how it resonates with people. It's kind of what I did today with this episode. Gosh, I have no idea how this is going to resonate. One of my longest podcast episodes, but my Goodness, it was some good content. Maybe we'll do it again. Maybe we won't. Maybe they won't all be this way. Maybe some of them will. You do not have to let what tried to break you defeat you. You can succeed if you have a goal and a dream and you apply this process and you take a look at, okay, what decisions have I avoided in the last six to 12 months that have stopped me from doing these things? And I. And listen, I know what some of those decisions are for me and we've started to implement changes. One of the biggest ones is my communication with others. I have allowed the excuse that I struggle with communication. Like direct one on one communication. I can do. I can do group talks like this, but when it comes to one on one communication, gosh, I actually kind of struggle with that a little bit. And I know that I can grow in that area and I know that it's going to help me go to the next level. So listen, I believe in you and I know that you can succeed and this can be your year. Don't let what try to defeat you or try to stop you break you. Keep moving forward. Share this episode with somebody and I'd love to hear from you your thoughts after this either send me a comment, send me a message. Dm, we'll talk soon. Grow your life, everybody. Have a good one.