Why Your Biggest Problem Isn't Time—It's Who You Let in Your Life

There's so many different avenues of just noise coming at you constantly. You got social media, you have the television, you got the radio. You can get away from it, but it's hard to get away from it. You got your phone in your hand all the time. You got text messages coming in from spam, you got emails coming in from spam, you got calls coming in from people you know, calls from people you don't know. There's so many ways to get distracted nowadays that it's almost impossible to just block out the noise and take time for yourself.

Hello, everybody. I'm here with my right hand man for 30 years, my son, Adam Weidell. Hello, Adam.

Hello. Good morning.

Let's talk about something we get asked about all the time and that is how do you cut the noise so you can get things done and it's an important thing. You know, it's like one of the issues we have to deal, everybody has to deal with from time to time. So Adam, take it away.

Yeah, nowadays there's so many different avenues of just noise coming at you constantly. You got social media, you have the television, you got the radio, you got you. I mean, you can get away from it, but it's hard to get away from it. You got your phone in your hand all the time. You got text messages coming in from spam, you got emails coming in from spam, you got calls coming in from people you know, calls from people you don't know. There's so many ways to get distracted nowadays that it's almost impossible to just block out the noise and take time for yourself. Take time to really concentrate on the things that matter and focus on getting work done during the course today because you just not unless you turn your phone off, which is almost impossible to do because you know, that's basically a workstation for most people one way or the other, with emails or even if you're on your computer, you got spam popping up, you got ads popping up, you got, you know, this discount popping up. It's just one thing after another every day, all day long, just bombarding with constant noise that gets you off track and unfocused on whatever goals you're headed towards or whatever projects you're working on that day. You know, it used to be if you would go into work earlier, stay late, you could get a lot of things done because you were the only one there. But nowadays, even if you are the only one there, you have all these other noises and distractions coming in non stop from your computer, your phone and Otherwise. So it's really important to be able to step back and, you know, at some point, maybe just turn that phone off or put it in another room while you're working. And like I said, even then you're on your computer and stuff's popping up all the time. But it's just very hard to stay focused nowadays.

So how can you be proactive and take steps forward then? What would you say?

I would say that your desire to accomplish your goal has to outweigh whatever distractions are coming your way. If you're not really into it, if you're not really focused, it's easy to get off track. But if you are laser focused and really determined to get something done, then more than likely it's going to be a little bit easier to tune out all that noise.

Well, that happens automatically when it's like when you have deadlines. Like, it's Christmas, you got to get presents for the kids or you got to get presents, it's a birthday, you got to go pick up the cat, you know, like, we got a party at six o'. Clock. You know, you got to get the ice cream and the candles and this, that, the other, and the decorations to get it out when you got something like that. The deal is, somehow we don't work. Clutter goes away as an issue. It's like, you know, the answer kind of is right in front of us. When you have something big you want to do and you got a deadline, all of a sudden the clutter goes away. That's the thing about how do I keep my mind on. How do I keep from getting sidetracked? Well, do you get sidetracked when it's your birthday? You get sidetracked when it's your, you know, Christmas is coming up or Thanksgiving dinner and everybody's coming. Do you get sidetracked from that or it's a big football game, you know, the big football fans and, you know, Alabama's playing Georgia or Oklahoma State. I mean, Ohio State's playing Michigan. Do you happen to. Oh, was that this week? Ryder cup in golf. Oh, was that this weekend? Yes, you idiot, that was this weekend. You missed the whole thing. If you're a big golf fan, you don't miss that. If you're a big football fan, you don't miss that because it's important to you. So the thing is, what, you know, I think Adam, to me, as a lot of it is people are lying about what's important to them, and they. They haven't really turned themselves loose to go after things that they could get excited about. So it comes into the first thing about what are you really going for? Because if you're finding you got a whole lot of clutter, yet somehow we're able to deal with clutter when we've got. We really got something, somehow that problem goes away. When it's something important that you want to get done and you got a deadline when you agree with that.

Yeah, I was about to mention that as well. There's nothing in the scheme of things more important than having an actual time and date that you have to get something done by because, you know, everybody procrastinates. But if you don't have an end date, then you can procrastinate for, you know, well, one day I'll get that done. Well, one day is never, you know, until you have an actual date. You're going to procrastinate to the last few minutes and then finally knock it out. But that's why, you know, you and I talk about traveling so much. I travel a bunch. You travel a month. You're back and forth to Aspen on a regular basis every few months. There's a. There is a benefit to that because when it comes time for you to leave Florida, go to Colorado, or if I'm going out of town somewhere, you know, there's certain things that you've got to get done before you get out of town. And if you weren't leaving town for a period of time, there's no telling how much longer it would be before you got those things done.

Yeah, it's kind of like when we lived in that house in North Carolina for 20 something years. I forgive, let's say from 80 up till 2003, about 23 years. When it came time to clearing out the house, we hadn't moved because we lived in the same house for. And the whole upstairs just seemed to collect stuff because of you know, who. And so the thing is, when it came time to clear that stuff out, it wasn't just what we all had extra stuff that should have been. Now, you particularly are the best in the family because you always keep your workspace, your room clean. From the time you were little, you naturally. I don't know what your. I don't know where the genetics came from. But, you know, I was. At eight years old, I'd see clothes stacked outside your door and say, what's this all about? And one of these clothes you say, well, I haven't worn. These are clothes I haven't worn in the last three months. So if I worn them in three months. I probably never will. And so I want to get them out. And I've got things up in my closet now that I've had in there 10 years I haven't worn. You know, so you really have. You know, that's a skill you can learn, or it can come genetically. I don't know where that came from. But, you know, you don't have to let that. You know, clutter builds up. You know, one thing I would say is distractions. You got clutter in your life, you got too many people, you got too many things. You got things that are not that important. So you need to clear out the clutter. But another thing about that, Adam, you know, you get better at it as you understand it. You can frame this stuff in your mind and you can coach yourself through it. But I think about that parable in the Bible where Jesus was talking about where they had a. A house that was full of. Had a devil, evil spirit in the house, and they cast the evil spirit out. They said, let's. Let's go in there and cast the evil spirit out. And at Jesus point, I forget exactly how the parable unraveled. But the thing is, he said. Well, he said if you don't, it's not good enough to just cast evil spirits out. Like, if somebody's got an evil spirit in the head, you got to put a good spirit in there, because there's no such thing as a void. And if there's an empty space, he said, if you throw one evil spirit out, seven worst spirits are going to come back unless you put something good in there. So, like, if you get in your life and you start getting rid of friends, getting rid of activities, getting, you know, you're going to clear things up, but you don't put good things back in there. Things that. That can pay off for you, you know, activities that could. That can have a benefit. You know, we are supposed to be fruitful and multiply. We are supposed to make good things happen. We're supposed to be creative and compound, you know, to make, you know, fill up the earth with good things. And so it's not good enough to just throw out the trash. You got to, like, you know, put good things back in your mind, good activities. And it doesn't have to be a goal of greatness. You don't have to be of a goal to be, you know, president of, you know, Kingdom Come or a Fortune 500 company. It could be like, you know, get some goals that you want to get done Today and that you can feel good about and lock yourself in on that. It's a matter of staying really. Adam, this whole thing of clutter is whining. You know, it's like staying in control of your life. It's just, like, you're not definite about what you want to do. And there's a bigger problem behind that. You've got clutter and distractions and this, that, and the other. First of all, you're whining about it, and the other thing is you're not making. You're not exerting yourself strong enough to overcome it. But, you know, like, to me, it's like this. I can't see. You know, I'm in here, and I. I'm looking for. I can't see anything. You know, it's so dark in here. There's just. No, I can't find any yet. Moron. Go and turn. There's a light switch on the wall. Go turn the light switch on. You don't do the obvious step, you know, it's so dark in here. There's clutter in my life. Yeah, you know, it's so much. Yeah, Turn the television off. You know, dude, you got clutter. You know, take the obvious steps to. You know, so the fact that you're whining about or worrying about clutter means that you're too darn passive anyway. I mean, you gotta. You gotta hand to have to handle bigger problems than that. And so the. You gotta have targets, you gotta have goals. You gotta get excited about your life and more excited about getting there. The where you can be lured off track and. And you have to, you know, build those walls. You got to have a focus about that stuff. You know, you got to take charge, close the tabs on your computer or whatever, you know? You know, it's amazing. Adam, people complained about this before you were born and while you were growing up, when you were just going through your school years back before cell phones came in and, you know, we had cell phones to distract us and the Internet to distract people were still run ragged, you know. You know, one of the big things is the tyranny of the urgent. You know, my life is out of control. You know, I'm just, you know, housewives. We're complaining about over commitment and running around. And so it's a. We can't. It's. It's great to blame it on social media and the Internet now, but people are always like this, and so they're. You know, this is just the. One of the things you Deal with if you're. When you've got something important that you want to do with your life, and you're very clear, I've got 24 hours in the day if I want to get that thing done. I've got two boogies, so we don't need to beat this thing to death. But the thing is, a little clarity goes a long way on something like, you know, clutter in your life. And cutting the noise, you know, it's kind of like a fog. You know, it's a little bit of the fog. You know, you can't see this foggy here. It's like, well, turn on the fan, open the window. It's like you burn. You burn the toast and your house fills up with, you know, smoke and everything. Open the windows, get the fans, clear it out. You know, get rid of that stuff so you can get back to business again. So anyway, that's about, you know, I. I think that's enough on that subject. But you have anything you want to add to wrap this up?

Like you said, even before technology. So you got all these technological things that are noise that are dragging around. But you also, at some point in your life, have to give yourself permission to cut the people out of your life that are nothing but distracting. Because some people you talk to, they always got a story. They all got a whine. They're already depressing, or they're just sucking the energy out of you. And if it's friends, if it's family, whoever it is, it doesn't really matter. There's nothing wrong with cutting people out of your life that are just sucking the energy out of you and wasting your time every time you get on the phone with them or you see them out about. Or go to meet him somewhere. So, you know, give yourself permission to cut people out of your life as well, because they can be as big or more distracted than anything else.

They could be a source of the negative noise. And so, you know, it's just easy to remove that as an issue. You solve that problem all at once by just not having time for. You'd have to be ugly to them. But that doesn't mean you have to be available, doesn't mean you have to take all the calls. It doesn't mean you have to explain why you didn't take the toll. Called. I was covered up on some. You know, you. You can stop being defensive about, you know. You know, what I don't understand is people who usually. I think it's kind of bullying when people say to you I texted you. You didn't answer. You know, I texted you this after. You know, what's going on, you know, or I call. You didn't pick up. You know what they're doing to you folks? They're bullying you. You don't have to respond to a bully. You say, yeah, I was busy. I was doing something else. You don't have to explain. Do it like a lawyer. This is one of the great things about lawyers. They'll tell you, answer the question, don't explain. Because then you just start digging a hole, and you give them reasons where they can come in and insert themselves in their life and then give you judgment. Well, you should have this. That. No, shut up. I don't want to talk. It's like, just keep them at arm's length. But the thing is that a lot of this has to do with where you get, you know, you get on a track. I got to add this in here. I've had a phrase, Adam, that I've used my entire life in business, and that is, you've got to be specific to be dynamic. In other words, another way of saying you got to have a target. And so you've got to have. When you line up your day, you know, Elon Musk is on this big thing now. He's. You know, if you get on YouTube, you can pretty much stumble across, you know, he's had a revelation, and here's how I'm doing my business. I don't know how Elon Musk has the time to rattle on YouTube with all of the things he does, but it's good because you get a chance to hear from the world's first 500 mil.

Billion.

Billion Dollar Man. And, you know, usually he thinks pretty clearly about everything. I wouldn't necessarily listen to him on spiritual things, but the way he evaluates the world and the political and business. But the thing is that as you go in there, even Elon Musk said, you know, I was in there working 120 hours a week, run ragged in my, you know, sleeping on the floor in my offices at Tesla, where we're building the factory. But he said, eventually, I had a breakthrough. And he said, he did. That's what he did, Adam. He turned off the phones for three days, and he said, I just thought about, what are the priorities? What's the main thing that I should be spending my time on that only I can do, that I can't hire somebody else to do? And so he went in and he got on this pattern, which is what he's recommending now. He's like, every week, every day, and every week, he's got, like, three main things that only he can do where he can make his impact on the company, and he focuses on that and everything else, he turns over to somebody else that he can trust. He keeps an eye on it. But where he puts his emphasis is on three things. And this is, you know, specific. To be dynamic means if you want to move to where you're in control of your life, write things down. Andrew Carnegie. Way back in. Way back in time, Adam. The industrial age started with the steel mill. Andrew Carnegie was the richest man in the world, but his staff was disorganized, and, you know, they were run ragged. They were dealing with all these noises and distractions. So he hired a management consultant to come in. And the guy came in, and here was this his idea? He said, you don't. He said, don't pay me anything. I'll give you my idea. Try it. If it works, then you can cut me a check for what it's worth. And his idea was simply this. Take a piece of paper, start off the day, write down the first five things that come into your mind that are the important things that you want to definitely get done today. Five things. This is. He goes to the richest man in the world, and this is his big solution. So Andrew Carnegie installed that with all of his people, and they became amazingly productive. And, you know, numbers picked up and this, that, the other, to the point that way back, I've, you know, it's like, you know, 50, 100 years ago, he wrote him a check for, like, a hundred thousand dollars, which is like a, you know, million today. And he said, that's how valuable that little idea is. Now. Here it is, funny way, in the future, in today's time, you have the $500 billion man, Elon Musk, sharing with everybody. He said, this is what I recommend you do, because this is my best idea. This is what I've learned from all of my stuff. I start off the day with three things. And so, folks, I think this is a solvable problem for you, but you just got to take charge. You got to get specific. Write it down. You know, this is the way you train yourself to stay on track. You keep those things. You sort through your options. You choose some, and then you go after it. And, you know, it starts with making good decisions and then follow it through. So, anyway, Adam, final word. Yeah.

Just make a decision. Like you said, write it down. Make a decision, and just commit to yourself that you're not going to let yourself get off track by all these things that are coming in all day long.

And every little bit you improve is going to give you, you know, a definite jump in productivity. You don't have to be perfect folks, you just have to get better at it. All right, thanks. Thanks, everybody. Appreciate it. Hope you got something out of it. If you like that, think about giving us a comment or give us a rating a like on some of these review things and come see us over at Big Hitter Community if you want to follow up with us. See you later.