MBA1978 Must Read: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson

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The subtitle of Don't Sweat the small stuff is actually in brackets it says and it's all small stuff. And it's actually important to remember this because one of the biggest takeaways I got from this book is how we perceive our life. Sometimes when we're building a business, when we're working on big things, when we're jugg multiple types of responsibilities in our life, we think our life is like a series of emergencies. Everything is an emergency. Everything's urgent, everything is important. But the fact of the matter is, it's not. It actually isn't. Most of the things you stress about, and I'm speaking about myself as well, most of those things are not make or break. Most of those things will not kill your business. Most of those things won't greatly affect your life. And yet we give it the same importance as if. If it did. The first thing this book really illustrates is how much we wind ourselves up, how much we think everything's an emergency. And when you do this, it kind of sucks out all the fun and happiness of life. We think everything matters. We think everything is important. But as the book simply puts it, life is not an emergency. It's a wonderful experience. You get to live only once. So stop treating your life like you're on the Amazing Race or you're rushing somebody to the hospital. This book really stresses the idea that you can't please everybody. Okay? And we often think we're going to disappoint people if we say no, and I'll be horrible in their eyes. But the reality is that people say no to you all the time and you don't think they're horrible. Right? You move on. You. You figure it out. You're just not that significant in other people's lives. What most busy people, and I include entrepreneurs, of course, what they do to themselves is that they go, go, go, push, push, push. Everything's important. Everything counts. Got to make it all happen. We overwork ourselves and we burn out. This causes us to not really perform at our best on a consistent basis. This causes us to have health problems. This causes us to not be fulfilled. This causes us to be, unh. This is not the way to live or run a business. You want to be around for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 years in your business. You don't want to burn out. You want to make sure you keep going and you pace yourself, okay? The other thing I learned is that you just can't burn out too often. What I mean is that you don't have that many tries at it, okay? If you burn out too frequently, it's going to affect your business. So one of the things that this book recommends is to force yourself to take a break, even when you think you're fine. This is why I love the preloaded year. I learned this from Dale Beaumont, where basically, when you plan out the year ahead, you schedule your breaks, including your weekends, including your holidays, all that kind of stuff. This allows you to prevent burnout. This means that you actually take a break and rest before you feel like you need it. And this is genius, because what I found is that when I don't do this, when I used to not do the preloaded year is I'm like, I'm fine. I'm fine. I can keep going. I don't need a break right now. I can do it maybe in two months. And two months can't come any sooner. I'm burnt out. I'm frustrated. I'm making bad decisions left and right. The point that the book is making here is that take a break before you need it. It shouldn't feel like you need it when you're taking it. In fact, it encourages you. Try to be bored. Try to sit down and do nothing. Go out on the porch or go to the pool or go for a walk. And do not. Okay? Literally, I'm telling you, like, don't listen to a book. Don't do anything. Listen to the birds, right? Walk around and be bored. This is how you can really recharge yourself and remind yourself that, hey, life is about just enjoying the moments, right? It's not about running to the next thing. The book also stresses the importance of quitting people pleasing, okay? You can't keep worrying so much about pleasing other people. It's good to kind of just unplug for a little bit. Meaning that you don't fulfill anybody's requests. This includes your personal life, right? Maybe sometimes you have a needy friend or a needy family member. Maybe you just kind of just say, hey, I'm going to unplug for a couple weeks, so don't worry, I'm fine. I'm going to go on a sabbatical. I won't be in contact. And you could just easily do that and just relax, right? They're not going to get mad at you. They're going to be, oh, cool, I'll get it. They're taking a break. And by the way, you don't have to like go away on a sabbatical. You could just have a sabbatical from people needing you and you trying to please them. The other great takeaway from this book is the concept of giving other people a break. Do you ever have those days where you feel like life is just harder than usual? An officer writes you a ticket a minute after your parking meter expires. The person behind you in traffic slams on the horn when you're like one second late to go. When it's a green light, you're at the shops and somebody's taking incredibly long to serve you and you're losing your patience. For many of us, this causes a lot of stress. Like, we're highly efficient, you know, high performing people that expect excellence all the time. But just before you lose it, try your best to just take a moment to put yourself in somebody else's shoes and try to just think about what might be happening to them. Maybe the person behind you that slammed on their horn desperately needs to be on time for an interview for a job they desperately need. What if that person that is just being extra slow to serve you at the store is not feeling like themselves today because they had an argument with their significant other. Imagine you're that person and you get yelled at by some customer, piling onto your day and your misery for the day. Would that make you any happier? Would that lift your spirits? Of course not so often. Even if you don't even do anything for these people, but you just cut them some slack. You'll feel good about yourself. You'll feel like you're giving somebody something and you'll realize, you know what, I got it pretty good. You know, a lot of people may not have the same opportunities or the same privilege that I have where I can, you know, get a million things done and be excited for the day. Another great takeaway from this book is the idea of how high achievers love to procrastinate relaxing. Okay, they don't procrastinate work, but when it comes to relaxing or doing something fun, they procrastinate. I always joke around with my Brazilian friends, friends that I know that are from Brazil. Is what I love about Brazilian culture is that they prioritize fun. Like fun is a part of their culture. Fun is important. People have fun. They enjoy life. And by me hanging around with people like that, it reminds me that, you know, fun is actually a requirement for a fulfilled life. And if I don't think fun or relaxing and having a good time and recharging is important, then I will procrastinate it. I will not do it. So it all starts the mind. It starts by understanding this is important. In order for me to have a good life, I got to do good and fun things, right? Like, what are you working hard for in the first place? Now, of course, it's a bounce. We don't want to do nothing but party. But often I catch myself considering canceling plans to work. Meaning, oh, I have something on the counter like, I'm supposed to go to dinner with friends. Thought about maybe I should say I can't make it because I want to just solve this one problem I have right now. Almost always when I force myself to go and have some fun and recharge and have dinner or whatever it is, I come back either that night or the next day in the morning, the problem is solved in my head, right? I stepped away from it for a bit. My subconscious brain actually had a chance to think about it. And I can think clearly instead of me banging my head on the wall trying to solve this problem when I obviously need a break. The point of this point in particular in the book is your happiness is actually very important. And as hardworking entrepreneurs, we often forget that. We often just think, I gotta achieve my goals. I gotta hit my KPIs, I gotta hit my, you know, revenue goals. Go, go, go, go. And we forget to enjoy the ride along the way because this is life. The days and the years go by. And if you're not conscious of the fact that you need to be happy and you enjoy life, you need to not procra fun and relaxation. Then those years will never come back and you'll have regret. Trust me.

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Read episode, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson. This is a very short and easy read. It's a book that you will probably reread over and over as a reminder. I sure have. It's one of those books that I just find never gets old and as human beings, we need to be reminded of things we forget. We fall into new habits, we have things that happen in life, and we forget the things that have helped us in the past. If you need a little break from overwhelm, if you need a shift in perspective, if you need a little bit of an exhale, you're gonna love this book. I highly recommend it. Thanks so much for listening to the $100 MBA show. If you love what you hear, hit subscribe, hit follow whatever it says on your favorite podcast app so that you can make sure you get the next episode automatically. We're on every single platform. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, Himalaya, you name it. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. I understand that sometimes in business it's important to sweat some things, right? It's important to feel like things are critical and you need to really knock it out of the park and focus up. But the point that this book makes is that it has to be sometimes. It can't be all the time. You need to recognize that. And but if you do feel like it's all the time, then you need to make some adjustments and this book can definitely help. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

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