70: The KEY to LOCKING IN A HABIT with Geoff Woods
10 Oct 2016 · 52 min
Lori Harder talks with Geoff Woods, vice president of the One Thing team, about time blocking and habit formation. They cover how focusing on one thing at a time builds success and share practical ways to lock in habits through daily routines.
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Welcome to the Earn your happy podcast.
I'm Lori Harder, founder of The Bliss.
Project, 3 Time Fitness World champion, fitness expert and cover model turned self love junkie, lifestyle entrepreneur and author.
Each week I'll bring you a guest.
Or a thought that will help you bust through your fears, connect to your soul and get focused and clear. Clear so you can elevate your life, business and relationships. We don't wait until we're ready for someone to tell us we're good enough. We take what we want and we anoint ourselves. Get ready to earn, own and unapologetically rock your happiness every single day. Are you with me? Here we go. Welcome back to the Earn your happy podcast and today I have Jeff woods on the show. He is the vice president of the one thing team. So you guys refer back to that podcast where I have Jay Papasan on talking about the one thing book. So this is the vice president for that team. So after hearing the Jim Rohn quote, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Jeff set out on a mission to surround himself with high level CEOs and successful entrepreneurs. So if we fast forward just 10 months, he went from employee to entrepreneur launching a company with the co authors of the bestselling book the one Thing. And he's been featured in entrepreneur.com and is on a mission to teach people how to live a life of focus so they can have more by doing less. And I will tell you, my life has really, really skyrocketed and changed since reading this book and having these conversations with these men. So I cannot wait for you to join in and see what happens for you. So let's get started. I am so excited to have Jeff woods on the show and I was connected to him through Jay Papasan and he is going to chat with us all about one of my favorite favorite topics. But before we do that, I want to get to know you. For those of you who don't know who he is, Jeff, I would love to hear a little bit of your story, how you got into what you do. Share with us.
Sure. Thanks Lori. So I've had a crazy transition in the last 18 months. I was in medical device sales for five years which, which was an awesome job. I wore scrubs every day. I sold a device that saved lives. I really tried to get my wife to call me McDreamy or McSteamy, but I could never get her to do it. Even though I had a quote unquote secure job and made pretty good money, I felt like, something was missing. And I don't know how many people that you've run with something was missing in their life. Maybe that's why they ended up getting in your downline. But I ended up attracting two things that happened in my life that forced me to realize I needed to make a change. The first was a colleague had a stroke, and he was 35 at the time.
Wow.
And, yeah, and I'm a young guy, I've got a young family, I had a mortgage, and I'm thinking to myself, interesting, if something happens to me like that, my wife can get a job at Pottery Barn. But that's about it, and we're screwed. The next week, my company slashed my income by 40%. So I don't know if you've ever suffered a devastating pay loss or. Yeah, it sucks. It's really hard. And it gets to the point where we almost run out of money. And I'm literally asking, how am I gonna pay the mortgage? How am I gonna put food on the table? And for anybody who's ever been in that dire of a situation that just challenges your identity as a provider, it was at that time that I heard this Jim Rohn quote that you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with, which was really interesting. Who were my five? They were great people, but not where I wanted to be. Yet I was seeking guidance from them on how to achieve my goals and wondering why I wasn't getting results. So I set out to surround myself with the right people. And you fast forward. I tap into a very powerful Rolodex of people. I launched my own podcast called the Mentee, which I launched in January of 2015. And you fast forward a year. I scaled it into one of the top 20% of all podcasts. And it's a six figure business. And that opened up an opportunity to move to Austin, Texas, to partner with Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, who wrote the One Thing. And now I'm starting that company for them.
Wow. I love that. And it's. I opened up your page and saw that quote, and I love that quote. And sometimes I'll go through my phone just to see who, like, the last five people I've been really texting with are. And I'm like, okay, I need to either change this or I'm really excited about it. Either one. But it's such a great thing to live by, and it is, like, life altering. It's like when you go to get happiness advice from an unhappy person, it's just not going to work. So I love that. Okay, so you've created something off of time blocking. So where did this topic come from? Was it something that you struggled with or was it something that you know, throughout finding your mentors and really learning what successful people do, was it something that just kept coming up all the time?
So when I first read the one thing which for anybody who has not, I strongly encourage you to. It's a top 10 business book of all time. And it really shows you the surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results. It's what Gary Keller used to scale Keller Williams to the largest real estate company in the world. So it's no joke, real world stuff. The thing that stuck with me was this concept of time blocking. The most successful people identify their highest leverage activities, and they schedule time with themself, appointments with themself to do their most important work, and they do not allow anything to violate it. They don't allow people to knock on their door and say, you got a minute? They don't allow text messages to disrupt them. They shut down the email. They focus on what matters most. And when I first came to work with Gary and Jay in my first 90 days, they said, all right, if you want to earn the title and be the CEO of this company, you're going to have to demonstrate three things. One, that you can cast a vision, two, that you can lead with revenue, and three, that you can attract and retain amazing talent. Well, to nail the leading with revenue part, I said, what's the one thing I could do to help our audience? And when we asked them where they needed help, over 4,000 people specifically emailed us and said, to time blocking.
Wow.
And so we said, we've got to create a solution around that. And so we did.
Wow. Okay. So I know for me it's making appointments with yourself. Right. So for a lot of people, maybe they're still working for an employer and they're really trying to either transition into something or they're trying to go for their goals and dreams. But unlike with your employer, there's not really consequences outside of obviously not reaching your goals and, you know, crushing your soul, but only that, Lori, not being able to sleep at night. But, you know, what are the. How did you create almost like an urgency or consequences around breaking those appointments with yourself? Is there something that we can do?
I mean, oh, God, there are so many ways that we can go with this. Are you asking about what people can do today or how we ended up finding the solution for the people who actually signed up for this thing.
Oh, well, let's talk majority. So maybe what you found worked the best for people when they're starting out, you know, when they don't have that discipline maybe formed yet.
Sure. Here's. Here's. I know that there's a lot of people who listen to this who have a fitness focus, and so I'll put it into fitness terms. Sometimes your actions today seem not insignificant, but just not super substantial. You know, if you were to have a cheat day, you know, if you had. Had an extra. Had a cookie today. I freaking love cookies. If you had a cookie today, are you gonna see it on your waist tomorrow? No. But if you have a cookie the next day, will you see it on your waist? Probably not. What about the next day and the next day and the next day? You know, it's these little. Every single day, you're either marching toward your goals or you're stepping further away from them. And on a ground level, when you're looking at it one day at a time, it doesn't seem that significant. But when you stack it up over a period of time, as you know, all of a sudden you look in the mirror one day and you don't recognize yourself, or you go to put on those pair of jeans and you realize, oh, my God, did these shrink?
That's why you always wear spandex. Don't you know this trick?
Right, right, right. Spanx. My wife loves Spanx. The same is true of. Of the opposite. When you take a little action every single day toward your goals, you don't necessarily see it, but day after day after day, those results, they really start to compound. And you see, that's when you see that hockey stick growth. And this is supported in research. Gary and Jay and the whole One Thing team did over five years of research that went into the book. And the metric of growth really is that hockey stick shape. You see it, you don't see much results. You don't see much results, you don't see much. And then all of a sudden, boom, it shoots straight up. And so I think it's people recognizing the fact that when you identify what your one thing is, that one thing that you can do such that by doing it, everything else is easier or unnecessary, and you do it day after day after day. There is a massive payoff for your life.
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So what are some of the things that maybe people aren't thinking of that are the most pressing issue? Because I think sometimes we look at a goal and it's like, oh, I want to lose X amount of weight and or I want to make X amount of dollars. Yet they don't understand that they don't have the foundation yet for that. So maybe sleep is the thing they have to focus on or cleaning out their junk drawer because it's like sucking their energy. So is there certain things that we can do to figure those priorities?
Yes. And it really comes to breaking down that question that I the focusing question of the book. And I just said it. What's the one thing? I didn't say two things. I didn't say three things. I said one thing. What's the one thing I can do, not should do, want to do, must do? It's that you actually can do such that by doing it, everything else is easier, unnecessary. I know you've got a great network marketing business. You probably have a regular practice or habit, if you will, of reaching out to other people. Lead generating. We see a lot of people who in the real estate space or the network marketing space want to identify lead generation. They say, I'm going to do two hours a day of lead generation. It's like, okay, when was the last time you did that consistently? Oh, never. Okay, well, how about we start about. How about we start with 10 minutes a day? What's the one thing you can do? Can you realistically commit to making one phone call a day? Can you set the bar so low that you know you can do it? Because the important thing here is setting yourself up for success. Think about a New Year's resolution that you set that you really wanted to accomplish but that didn't come to fruition. You ultimately hit a stumbling block and you lost your motivation along the way. So pick a lead domino that you know you can knock down. And when you knock it down consistently, it becomes a habit and you build that momentum to the point where it starts to spill over into the other areas of your life.
So I love this and it's so. It's crazy. And I know that you have had to hear this before because it sounds so wonderful, like, okay, just one little thing. Wow, this is fantastic. But people are either. I don't know if they're addicted to the extreme or they're addicted to, like, feeling like they need to suffer to get to that place. And maybe this seems too easy. Why are people skipping this over? This idea? Or they're not quite grasping it. And is there something that you see that maybe you have to really hammer home with these people to understand the why or why are people skipping over just the one little thing? Why do we wanna fill our plate?
I can share my experience with you because I'll tell you, I've been here in Austin for 10 months now, working directly with Gary and Jay. They live this book, and it's truly exceptional. And even after I've been here, I think I was here going six, seven months. Okay? So it's not like I haven't been indoctrinated into this culture. I have my monthly state of the company meeting with Gary and Jay as the partners. I bring my business plan in. And my business plan is very simple. It has three points on it. I need to do these three. These three things. Priority one, priority two, priority three. Right. That's already pretty focused. I start walking through priority number one. Gary asks me a bunch of questions about it. I answer them. I say, we good? He goes, yeah. As I start moving on to number two, about halfway through me walking him through my second priority, he stops me and he goes back to number one. I answer those questions. I say, we good? He goes, yeah. I get back to number two, I finish it up, I get into priority number three, and he stops me again. And at this point, I'm getting a little frustrated. He goes back to number one and asks more questions on number one. I answer him. I go, we good? Yes. I get back to number three, and I kid you not, I've been talking for no more than 10 seconds. And he stops me and says, quick question. Do you need to accomplish priority number three to accomplish number two? I said, no. And he said, do you need to accomplish number two to accomplish number one? And I said, no. He said, then do me a favor. Cross out number two and number three. Because if you're telling me that your priority number one is your true one thing, then don't think about anything else until you've mastered number one. Here's what went through my head. We have never been taught how to apply priority and focus to our life. Most of us have never had role models or mentors in our life who truly live a life of focus. So it's really easy to be distracted and to look around. There's more distractions and excitement around us than ever before. And now it's about recognizing the fact that when. No, when you boil down to what is the one thing that you can do such that by doing it, everything else is easier or unnecessary? And then you time block. This is where it comes in. You open up your calendar and literally schedule an appointment with yourself. Just like you have a doctor's appointment. You are not going to miss it because you called so many times, you were on hold for 30 minutes. Like, you're not missing that appointment. You do not miss these appointments with yourself because you do not have the right to do anything else until you master your number one.
So I'm a fairly. I would give myself, I don't know, maybe a wow, this is not a good score, like a seven on being focused. Somehow I still get things, a lot of things done. But with that being said, I literally had some oh, crap moments while you were saying that. Like, crap. I really need to focus on this. Like, have this be the thing yet. There are. I mean, there are other life priorities. Or maybe I have certain, you know, programs that are literally, you know, I have people that I have to answer to. And these are programs that obviously people are in and on. And what happens when there are those other priorities, like for you, maybe family or certain things that you have to do at work. So, you know, you focus on the one thing is that for a set amount of time, what does that look like?
Correct. And this, I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions about the one thing. We're not saying just do one thing in your life, folks. We're saying, take the time to say, what's the one thing I can do for a specific area of your life that you want to focus on first, whether it be your spirituality, your personal health, your personal life, your relationships, your job, your business, your finances. Pick an area that matters to you and say, what's the one thing I can do for my health? Such that by doing it will get me into better shape. And just saying, I'm gonna plant a flag in the ground. I refuse to compromise or be disturbed in this one part of my day. Because remember what I said earlier, it's about getting a series of wins under your belt. It's about building momentum. All the people that we worked with on this thing called time blocking mastery, they all wanted to time block all these different areas of their life. They said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Just pick one and just Prove to yourself that you can actually do this. Because once you do it around one area, then your confidence builds, and then you do it around another, and then you master that, then your confidence builds, then you do it around another. Does that make sense?
It totally makes sense. I'm just gonna kind of share how it worked. In my life when I was really focused on fitness, that was my one thing. It was like, no matter what, everything else would kind of fall around it. I would figure it out. I wouldn't necessarily plan a bunch of other things in my life at that point, because my number one was just making sure I had my plan the night before and making sure I got my appointment of going to the gym or whatever it was. And then once I mastered that, it's kind of like I didn't need to pay attention to it anymore, because real.
Quick, you just said something, and I want to flip it on you. What was the one thing? It sounded like the thing you needed to do was get to the gym, right?
Get to the gym. Yes.
So what was the one thing you could do such that by doing it made getting to the gym easier? Unnecessary.
What was the one thing? It was making my plan and making an appointment and knowing what I was going to do there.
So in this case, it's about boiling it down to a specific, measurable activity that's either yes, you did it or no, you didn't. For you, it was. Did you, the day before, look at your calendar and say, this is when I'm going to the gym and put it on your calendar? That single activity is what made getting to the gym easier or unnecessary for you. And as a result, I. You have the most amazing Google image file I have ever seen.
Well, thank you. And yes, it was lot. I mean, planning for sure. I just had to. I had to have it in my head the night before, and it was like a. Everything. There was no other answer. Just like, I love that quote, you burn the boats. Like, there was. Nobody was calling me. My phone was off that morning, like, And I just wouldn't even, like, be tempted to really look, you know, what was going on. So I just. I was getting there.
Mm.
So, yeah, that's amazing. And. But then it becomes a habit, and now it's in my life. I don't even. I do not even think about it. So then it was the next layer of whatever was coming up. And right now, for me, it's like the next layer is, you know, I'm now in a great meditation habit, and now it's. It's really making sure my writing habit is always good. And let me tell you, that's a tough one because I'm not necessarily always putting it in the calendar.
Oh, now let me ask you this. Yes. Did you at any point during this journey to creating all these habits, say, I'm going to make getting to the gym a habit and I'm going to focus on meditating and making that a habit and I'm going to focus on writing and making that a habit. Did you ever do all that at once?
Yeah.
How'd it go?
Terribly terrible because I would look at the chunk of time that that would take and almost get so overwhelmed that I would just sidetrack myself to death and end up doing nothing and then feel like such a failure that it just was overwhelming. I was always in this anxious, overwhelmed, probably really annoying to everyone else in my life state.
You just nailed it. It's about getting a series of wins under your belt. The number one mistake that people make is they bite off more than they can chew. They try to do too much. That's why we say, prove to yourself for the first time in your life that you can set a goal. It's something you can do, and you are just going to focus on doing that. And in all our research, it shows it takes 66 days on average to form a habit. Not 28, not 30, 66. Sometimes it's even more, but it's about continuing to do it until, like you said, you don't even have to think about it. The amount of maintenance that's required to get you to the gym at this point is very, very, very low. Now it's a habit. Then you were able to focus on meditation, which you said now is a real solid practice for you. Now you get to now you still have that first habit, you still have that second habit. Now you get to focus on the third. That's the power of stacking habits over time one at a time.
Is there anything that you see that's been one of the most important, pressing things for people to time block first? Is there a trend that you see?
No. No. Because it really just depends on what area of your life you want to focus on. And I mentioned some of them earlier. You've got spirituality, your personal health, your personal well being. You've got relationships, job, business, financial. It's pick an area, just pick one that works for you.
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I'm if we're all in let's just say we feel like all of the areas are really lacking. And I know this goes back to the one thing question. It. I think it can boil down to people needing to get really quiet to figure that out and understand what it is. But sometimes we can feel pressure around maybe money or pressure around. Yeah, typically relationships or money. Is there. Is there a way to really define what that one thing is? Because sometimes I think we get confused.
I'll tell you a story about a woman named Peggy. She was in our founding members group for time blocking mastery. She really struggled to identify what her one thing was and it stopped her from getting into action. Because she didn't want to choose the wrong thing. We encouraged her to just pick one. And so she did. She picked. It was lead generation for her real estate business. About three weeks into her 66 day challenge of time blocking her lead generation activities, she recognized something. She could not show up authentically as a leader in her office because her image of herself was so crappy. Because her health was in the toilet. She had no energy, she didn't fit into her clothes. She didn't like the way that she looked. She didn't like the way that she felt about herself. It was all bad. It was at that moment, because she had already gotten into action that she realized that her true one thing was around her personal health. And so she asked the focusing question, what's the one thing I can do for my personal health? Such that by doing it will make everything else easier and necessary. And for. Go ahead.
Nope. Go ahead.
I was gonna say. So for her it was to get to the gym. But she nailed it down even more. She joined a boot camp class because she knew if there was other people there, she'd have accountability. And the one thing she could do to make sure she got to that boot camp class, See how far down we're going with this. Was to make sure she was out of the office in her gym clothes by 4:57 every single day during the work week. That was her one thing.
That is amazing. And it really is like that down to the minute. I mean, it is like that in my life. Down to the minute. I know I have got to be out of the door at a specific time to make this happen. And it gets that way and it's beautiful because it becomes that much like clockwork. And also I love the fact that you're saying just pick one. Which did put her into action. But then it really is going to. I really believe no matter what it's going to come to the surface, because it's gonna be the one thing that stops you from that one thing you thought was the one thing.
Did we follow that 100%? I mean, I'll tell you from my personal life, when I'm in medical device sales and I know that I need to make a change, but I don't know how to. I could have sat around and just said, I'm gonna wait to figure it out. But no, I got into action. I started a podcast, not knowing what the heck that was gonna lead to. That opened up a business opportunity that ultimately allowed me to meet Jay, that ultimately allowed me to prove to them that I was the guy to build their company. But it didn't happen because I sat back and waited for the answer to show up in my lap. It happened because I got into action and I started picking up those breadcrumbs along the way.
That's so true. You just. Momentum. When you're in momentum, that's when things are going to come to you. It's when you sit there and you think yourself to death, and you're like, maybe this is it. Maybe this could happen. And nothing. You're not in momentum. I really believe it's just. Just a massive, even. It's like an. It's a whole vibe that you even carry when you're in momentum. You're doing something. That's when you're really in that, like, attraction phase, you know? So how do we know once we have our one thing, what a good time is for us to do that one thing?
So this. This is really interesting, and we've seen this happen over and over and over again, that you have to pick a time that you can control. So many people want to wait till the afternoon, but all it takes is one meeting that pops up out of nowhere, and boom, your time block is disturbed. For most high achievers, that time for them is first thing in the morning because you get to control what time you wake up. And so just do your most important work first. Not only do you control that time, but you have the willpower to get it done. Have you ever. You ever gotten to the end of the day and just had no willpower and you ate something you shouldn't have eaten? Always remember how I said I love cookies?
Yes. That's why there's, like, nothing. I just had visitors come, and they're like, you really have nothing in your house. I'm like, what does that say about my willpower?
That's right.
Like, that's what going out is. For you can like go out and get your little something like, but not in my house because after like 8 o' clock I am weak. So it's all good. But I know that it's like self awareness when you know that you're controlling your environment and then you can, you know, live the life that you want. I can't live in like a cookie store. I can't. So. All right, so that is a huge reason why all of my stuff is in the morning. And I gotta be honest with you, it's when I was waking up at like 5:30 to start writing at 6 that I was getting so much done. I was angry about it for a while, but I was getting so much done. I'm really, I'm nearing the end. But honestly, yes, if I do another book, it will. When I do another book, it will be in the morning again. Because it is, it's just, that's the time of day where nobody else is around, nothing else is coming up. And it's just so easy to get distracted because it, I think it is one of the biggest things is if it's something that you want to do so badly, I do believe there's also that rule that can kind of come into play where no matter, it's almost equal the resistance that's going to come for how bad you want it. So.
Well, you said something really important there, which is you have to want to do it. And for any of you out there who, number one, have not figured out what the one thing is that you can do first and you're hearing, oh, it needs to happen in the morning if you really want to be successful. And then you think, I'm not a morning person. Your one thing is not to get up early. Maybe your one thing is to go to bed by 10 o'. Clock. Or maybe like Jay told this story about, for the people who wanted to get up early, don't try to get up early to get to the gym when you've never gotten to the gym before. How about you get up early so you can watch Game of Thrones? Hell yeah, I'm in. Right? Something that you're excited about, that you want to do until the getting up early feels natural.
That's so smart. And really looking at that. I love that you're doing that. You're taking the thing and you think you have the answer, but then asking the extra questions around it to really make sure and ensure that you have that answer. It's brilliant. Because a lot of times that's going to Come up and stop you again.
Well, this is something we call Extreme Pareto. In the book, everybody's heard of the 8020 rule that you get 80% of your results from 20% of your activities. That's. That's called Pareto's principle. Extreme Pareto is saying, what is the 20% of the 20% of the 20% until you get down to one. It's not just saying, what's the 20%? Get to the gym. Okay, well, what's the one thing you can do to get to the gym? Oh, it's. It's me actually, the day before investing 10 minutes to plan my next day to just put it on the calendar. Or it's me putting on my shoes and being out of the office by 4. 57.
I love that. It's because it's the most important part. Otherwise that gets skipped over as well. So what is a great. What is a good amount of time for people to time block?
Depends on what the activity is. But 10 minutes, you know, can you can do anything for 10 minutes a day? And if you can't make it five, you know, just what can you do? What's the one thing you can do?
You know, it's. I was, when I was trying to do this meditation practice, I was like, 20 minutes. Come on, Lori. That's so easy.
That's a lot.
20 minutes of your. Yes. I learned that rather quickly. So I was doing really good. I'm like, 20 minutes. Oh, this is so good. Great. And then it's like, I didn't always have 20 minutes or I didn't always mentally feel like I had 20 minutes and it felt so long. And then I backed it down to 15 and I was still struggling. It was not happening every day. Then I backed down to 10 and I was like, okay, this is getting better. But honestly, it was like, make. If I didn't have time for it, I'd be like, can you sit for two minutes? Can you do this for five? Okay, so let's just. On the days that you can't do 10 or 15. So I've given myself permission because I don't want to break that practice. I don't want to break it. So I'm like, okay, two minutes and five minutes still says at the end of the day, I did it, I am guilt free. We can move into tomorrow. So that's been so helpful. Is some days it's just way less. Just like with writing. Some days, honestly, it's like I'm just getting into it and I'm finishing. Because it's only, you know, 45 minutes or an hour, and that's all that I've got. So it's just not breaking it.
You said a really important word. Permission. If I can leave something with every single person, it's. If you actually dare to implement what you listened to today, give yourself permission to fail. Every single one of you will. I wrote the course on the thing, and I fail every single time I do a 66 day challenge. I always miss a day, but instead of beating myself up, I go log into the time blocking mastery community. And I share with people, hey, I missed today, and this is how I'm feeling about it, and this is what I'm gonna do to correct it. And that inspires other people. Cause they go, oh, my God, I'm failing too. Oh, you mean it's cool? It's okay to fail. You don't look at any successful person and see a perfect track record. They failed their way to success.
Mm. So when you fail, what were some of the things. Is it a common thing that would come up for you each time, or was it always something different?
It's always something different. And sometimes it was a repeat offender. And if it was a repeat offender, I got to recognize it. Right. But you learn along the way. It's about the journey. It's not about being perfect. Nobody is.
So tell us more about it. So it's 66 days. What do you see at the end of 66 days when you take the challenge for yourself?
I'll share what I've seen happen to other people.
Okay.
It's kind of like they've been living in black and white, and all of a sudden they see color for the first time. I think is the best way to describe it. Their entire life, they have marched forward blindly, unaware of many of the habits that they have formed. And every single one of us has habits that we know that are not great habits. And they're really hard to break. And for the first time in their life, they've gotten access to a system that shows them step by step and holds their hand every single week to form a power habit, a habit that sticks. And by the end of it, they're amazed at how much they were able to accomplish in 66 days. We often say, like, see, discover how most high achievers get more done in 66 days than most do in a lifetime. Because when you can form that power habit and get it done in 66 days, it's not like it leaves you. You still have the habit of Going to the gym, Lori. Then you got to stack another one. And now you get to stack another one. What happens five years from now when suddenly you know you're stacking 10 habits? It's about 10 habits. No, it's five. About five habits a year. That's huge.
That is huge. Especially for people. You know, so many people, they. We don't even do one a year because we get so overwhelmed and we just kind of think that we're stuck in this cycle or it's part of our DNA or we don't know why we can't get out. But through everything that I've learned, it's always because we're. Something is missing there. We're doing something wrong, we're hearing the wrong advice, we're hanging around the wrong people. We've really got it all backwards. Or we've seen what our parents or the people around us are doing. So what happens when maybe we get into. Do you see people do this over and over? Like, do the. Take the 66 days, stack the habits, but then your whole life starts to change, right?
Bingo. We call this the halo effect. We actually have a name for it because we've just documented it so well. When Peggy started focusing on getting, just getting her shoes and her clothes on and out the door by 4:57, a few things happened. Number one, she developed a habit of going to the gym. She also happened to lose 20 pounds in six weeks. She also happened to become a better leader because her self image changed. She also happened to make more money because her confidence on the phone and with clients completely changed. She also happened to make more money because she had more energy to push harder. Throughout the day, her relationships improved. Like it, it spills over into all these other areas of your life.
That's so true. I, even when I just, when I just really focused on fitness and feeling good, what comes with that?
Everything.
Confidence. Feeling confident in the gym, like knowing your way around things, you just start to have this reference point of life to carry that into everything, like always reminds me of those old projector screens where you could like lay the clear, you know, skeleton over one thing and you can just keep laying that over everything. That same idea, that same practice, that same program. And it's going to work on everything in your life. And I love that because just starting with one, like you said, it just, it spills into everything. It's so beautiful. So do you see people do repeat 66 days over and over and over to do this?
Here's what ends up happening. The People who are in this community that we have for time, blocking, mastery, it's almost like they get addicted to it because they become a family. They're all on this journey together. And by the time they're done with their 66 days and they've actually formed a habit and we're celebrating with them, we go, great, you still have 299 days left this year. What's next for you? And then again and again and again, and they start to stack those habits, and that's when it's just. I look at Gary Keller as an example who's been living this for decades, and the guy's built the largest real estate company in the world. His level of success is extraordinary. And he's only, I think, in his 50s. Like, okay, all right, I got some work to do.
Me too. Okay, so this brings up a question for me. So people who go in and decide that they want to do this because it's a freaking brilliant, brilliant program, they. They're gonna find their one thing. But what happens if their one thing to them is, like, scary? Do you see that a lot where you're like, okay, okay, my one thing. Let's just use network marketing. Because I see this all the time. Network marketing, Okay. I need to, you know, my one thing is to reach out to people, but that freaks me out. Like, I can do it, but I think the resistance around me not doing it is because I'm saying, scared to reach out. Do you ever see that in your groups?
I do. And that's usually when the community. And this is why it's so important to be a part of a community. And you get this. Being in network marketing, having that community to go to. To be vulnerable, to say, hey, this is. I'm scared, or I'm not sure what to do. The community rises up and asks you questions, you know, what is it really about this that scares you? Oh, let's dig deep. Okay. Can I support you for. Can I help you do this tomorrow? Just. Just tomorrow? Can we just do this together tomorrow and prove to you that it's not scary?
Amen. I love that I'm actually. The book that I'm writing is all about tribe for that reason. It's because so many times we try to leave where we're at or, you know, we feel that we're all alone and just the confirmation of other people or people who have been there before. Or maybe we have to leave our old social circle, you know, our old five, and go find our mentors and all of these different things that are going to help us get to where we want to go. And it's like if we don't have that other area built up, well, then we feel like we're just cast out to nothing. So without that, it's like you're not going to be as apt to want to change, to take that leap to do those things. So I love, love, love that there is a tribe around you in this who is going to always remind you. So as you're going, of course these things are going to come, come up. You're human, it's totally natural. But you're going to have the people to, like you said, backtrack and just figure that out first so that you can move forward. Because guaranteed, you get in a circle of even two people, three people, they're going to have the answers for you. And I love that all of our answers are like hidden directly in front of us in other people or ourselves. So is there anything that.
What I was going to say is. Let's go back to the beginning of our conversation. Yeah, that quote. You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
Yes.
If you really believe that in order for you to have the level of achievement that you want to have in your life, that it requires that you have the right habits, then who are the people in your life who have the same focus on developing habits to that level? And can you tap into a community of those people that are there waiting for you?
Yes. It really is everything. Whenever I've had to do, whenever I've wanted to accomplish any goal, that's all that I did. That's the only books that I read were on people who were successful in that place. What were they thinking? Because I didn't want to know what other people who didn't accomplish goals were thinking. That wasn't going to help me. So I knew that I was going to get a lot of resistance. But I wanted to see. I want to be in that group of people who say wherever you're at is your normal. So I wanted to hear what their normal was and what they were surrounding themselves with. And that is the most helpful thing, especially if people are on that same exact journey as you because they're coming up against the same things. You're all figuring it out together. It is the key, I think, to really being able to do this. So what are some of. What's. Anything that you want to add that maybe we haven't talked about that we're gonna receive if we decide to do this because I'm like. I'm like, this is brilliant. I really feel like I need this right now. Okay, Share.
I'll just, I'll put it different. Like, we'll do a little exercise.
Okay.
I want you to think back over the last five years, and I want you to think about all the power habits that you actually developed, the habits that you consciously went out and that you acquired over the last five years. For you, Lori, how many was it?
Oh, my God. Gosh, there's. There's been quite a few now. Probably. Oh, man. Probably. Like I would say maybe four or five really life changing habits.
Why were they life changing?
Why were they life changing? Because they. I mean, they brought so many different things in and each one brought a level of discipline that I was able to be. You almost become a new person to be able to handle more things. And then you layer on that. And now I'm able to do more in my life and accomplish more in a shorter amount of time with less stress and ease. And I enjoy the people that it's brought to me in each one.
Is your life more rich today because of them?
So much more rich. So much more. Every day is amazing.
Are your prospects for the future brighter because of it?
Brighter. So bright.
I gotta wear shades now. I think you're exceptional. You already did. You already did four or five in the last five years, which is more than most people. For the people who are listening to this, you know, what was your number? Was it one, was it two? Like, how was it? And this is no judgment, but, Lori, what would the quality of your life look like today if instead of only doing four or five, you had done five a year and now you've had 25 life changing power habits? Where would your fitness be? Where would your network marketing business be? Where would your relationships be? Where would your spirituality be? Where would your finances be?
Mm, I can't imagine. I mean, it's. Because it feels so, so powerful right now that I actually. It would be, yeah, I can't imagine.
Sometimes we have a hard time reading the label when we're inside the box. You just looked outside the box because you looked back on your life and said, all right, how did I do over the last five years? No judgment. That's the baseline. If the answer was zero, great. If it was one, great. Now you have the opportunity to top grade that. You have the opportunity to do better. Because there will come a day five years from now where you'll look back and say, what did I do over the last Five years. That answer is directly derived from what you commit to doing today.
So powerful. So is there anything else that you would like to add or say? How can we find your program? How can we find you? How can we find your podcast?
Yeah. So if you haven't read the book, the one thing top 10 business book of all time, I want to give a link to a training on time blocking for people to check out. If you go to timeblockingmastery.com, you'll get a training video there, which goes into it a little bit deeper. You can get all the information there. You can find me. Where can you find me? I'm all over the one thing, the one Thing Facebook page. I mean, I'm in there doing live streams twice a week. I'm becoming the face of the company, so I'm easy to find. And then the podcast is called the Mentee. I've just. I literally have been. I started pressing record when I was lost, when I didn't know where I was going to go. But I knew if I started recording those conversations, something good would happen. And I've seriously documented every step along the way that's gotten me to where I am, and it's been fantastic.
I loved this conversation. I'm so grateful for you. I think that if people just really listen to this and even, you know, sit down, find that one thing, I think life is going to dramatically change for you. So thank you so much for coming on today.
Yeah. Thank you, Lori.
All right, you guys, if you loved this episode as much as I did, make sure you share it. And until next time, earn your happy.
Bye, everyone.
Thank you guys so much for spending this time with me on the earn your happy podcast. I am so glad that you stopped by. If you could take one second to share this episode with someone you think would love it, that would be absolutely amazing and we would be forever grateful. Also, please leave us a review. If you feel so moved by going to itunes and leaving us an honest thought, an honest comment, tell us what you think, tell us what you want to hear more of. It would really help us out on our journey to helping thousands and thousands of people. Until then, don't forget to earn your happy. Thanks again, guys. Bye. Bye.
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