Episode 135: What is Your Life Scorecard?

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero, and I'm asking you a very important question. Do you know? Do you know what it takes to have a full, meaningful life? And I know that every single one of you out there going, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, bullshit. Let me ask you a question again. And this is a question that I want you to ask yourself. I'm just going to be your voice So let me be the voice inside your head. Do I know what it takes for me to have a full and rich life? Am I willing to pay that price? Am I willing to put in that energy? Am I willing to sacrifice myself, my time, potentially my friendships, my beliefs, my religion? Am I willing to do the things that it takes for me to have a full life, which means I may have to be the biggest contradiction of my own self? Everything that I believed before, everything that I don't even know, I may have to learn it. I may have to undo myself. I have to believe that— I have to come to epiphany that my entire life was hypocrisy, that it was a lie. Are you willing to go to that length to be the full person, to be that person that you always wanted to be? This is— I'm the voice in your head, and this is what you should be telling yourself and asking yourself all the time. Let me tell you and frame it for you. Yesterday I was at an expo, one of these building expos. We have plumbers, electricians, roofers, and it was towards the end of the expo. Got there late. And it was on Friday. So at the end, these guys are drinking, having a wonderful time, being drunk as hell, right in their booth, or right beside the booth, drinking their beer, totally red-faced, slurring, everything like that. And then the other guys who weren't that were complaining. Yet the guys who were drunk were complaining. Laughing, but saying, calling people idiots and da da da da da. And here's the conclusion. If you want to be this ultimate incredible person and all that, do you think you're getting there by being negative? Do you think you're getting there by spending the end of your day being drunk? Is that the way you see yourself? Is that the way when you see people who have made it and things like that, do you think they spend the end of their day drinking something? Do you think they spend the end of their day complaining and being negative? How do you think you want to spend the end of the day when you're there? I want you to visualize yourself being where you want to be. How the hell do you spend the end of your day? Now, there's nothing wrong with drinking, but are you drinking to toast? Are you drinking to forget? That is a serious question. And I'm going to say it again. Are you drinking to toast, to celebrate the risk, the amount of energy, the sacrifices you made during the week? You may not have succeeded at a damn thing. You may have failed at every single thing. But are you toasting yourself or are you Feeling sorry for yourself and trying to drown it in some fashion? In a Häagen-Dazs, and a glass of wine, and a beer, and cookies, and cake? How do you end your week? Call your bullshit. How do you end your week? How do you push yourself? On Monday you go, "Oh, big week. Oh, Monday, so much to do." Is that the way you start your week? Let me ask you something. How the freak do you end your week? How do you feel at the end of your week? What's your scorecard? What's your report card? How do you grade yourself? Or do you drown yourself in some ice cream, cookies, cake, beer, wine, maybe some drugs? How do you score yourself right now? Take a moment. Pause the podcast if you have to. If that hurts too much, you can't do it. You're probably just gonna listen to my voice, keep on going. I'm pissed right now. What's your freaking scorecard? How do you see yourself? Call your bullshit. You want to be that person? You want to be that guy? Do you know how much risk there is? Do you know how much it is? Let me tell you something. Do you know what it feels like? And you probably do, that's why you want to do it. But let me remind you, do you know what it feels like for no one to believe in you, to no one to believe in your ideas, your thinking? That's what it takes to be that guy, that girl, that woman. Because to be that person that everyone envies, you have to go through years and years of muck of everybody not liking you, denying you, not believing you, because no one understands you and understands your beliefs, understands your emotions, your passion. Think of some of the greatest coaches in sports when they came out these new plays, this new thinking, radically changing everything. Everybody made fun of them. Think of the first guy who did the high jump. Remember the high jump before? They would almost hurdle it. And then some guy came and he actually did it backwards, his back forward. Everybody in the front was like, "What a ridiculous." Now it's the only way you could do a high jump. The people who changed the world, we're talking about high jump is such a small thing, it's a big thing. All the people who changed all of us, the risk that they've taken. Let me ask you, what risk did you take today? That could change the planet and all close to 8 billion people. It's that easy. Just be that guy. Just be that woman. What have you taken? What's your damn scorecard right now? I am so tired of seeing people who— let me give you another one. You got people in their 50s and 60s sulking. My health is horrible. Is this you? My health is not where it's supposed to be. I don't look like I'm what I'm supposed to be. I got maybe high blood pressure, my heart's not that good, I'm overweight, blah blah blah blah blah, aches and pains and things like that. What the hell have you done to get yourself there? Have you been eating right? Have you been exercising? Do you understand what I'm saying? This is a hard talk because to be that guy, it costs— it's going to cost you But if you are where you are, don't bitch. Don't complain. You're the outcome and product of you, of your habits. It was no one else that put you there. It was no one else that denied you and stopped you from getting that job, stopped you from eating that cake or that cookie, stopped you from not eating that apple or carrot. It was all you. You are where you want to be because of your laziness, your habits, your thoughts, your lack of self-confidence. Call your bullshit, but it's not game over. It's not game over. Let me tell you something. A few weeks ago, I was really pissed at myself and I said, you know what, I want to work to do 100 push-ups a day. That's my goal. And then I got really angry at myself because I said, what is this, this bull of working to 100 push-ups a day? Why don't I just start at 100 push-ups a day? And I did at that very moment. I just fell to the floor and I did 4 sets of 25. There's my 100. And I realized, why do I even— why do I or us put limitations on ourselves? Why did I even say that 100 was the goal? Isn't that crazy? Isn't that ridiculous? What a limitation. What limitations you put on yourself? What low bar do you set that you actually hit? And it's the worst thing you possibly could have done. I'm gonna say that again. What low bar did you set for yourself and you hit it? And that was the worst thing that could have happened to you. Why didn't you set the bar? Why don't I set the bar at 1,000 push-ups a day? Do you know what it takes to be that guy, to be that woman? You have to have ridiculous goals for yourself. You can't have these small, small goals. I remember when I was doing my startups, I told myself that I would not eat my first meal of the day until I innovated and I did something that no one else on the planet Earth would do. I said that every single day after I dropped my kids off at school. I did not eat anything. Took them to school, either walked them, rode with them on a bike, drove them in the car depending on the scene, didn't matter. Came back through the snow freezing my butt off, got back, sat at the table because I didn't have a desk, and I didn't eat until I did something that nobody else in the world did. That's how high I'd raise the bar. Do you know how many times that I went, my first meal was at 3:00 and 4:30 in the afternoon? And it wasn't because I gave up, it was because I pushed myself to the point of I thought of something that nobody had thought of, I connected some dots that nobody did because around 1:00 I got desperate, and I said, call the bullshit, let's go, baby. You do that to yourself every single day, you end up someplace else. You end up being someone else. Let me ask you, do you do that now? Is that how you attack your day? Or do you start your day with, no, I got to start my day off with a cup of coffee, maybe a croissant, piece of bread, maybe make me some eggs. Yeah, yeah, that's a nice way to start the day. Well, you set the bar very low and you hit it. Good job. You just stopped your day, your growth, your ability to be that guy. I'm not saying you're supposed to skip a meal. I'm saying you're supposed to set the bar all damn, damn day long, and then you don't complain and you don't feel sorry for yourself. Feeling sorry for yourself. Why is that? Why feel sorry for yourself? Just get off your butt and do it. Or as I did, just drop on the floor and start doing push-ups. It became the stupidest thought. Here I am putting push-ups on a pedestal and saying, my God, this is the ultimate thing. What a joke. It's a push-up. You just fall on the floor. How many times do you fall on the floor? Anybody can fall on the floor. And then you bend your elbows and you push them straight. You bend your elbows, you push them straight. It's called a pushup. No big deal. Going on stage, talking to people, being in front of a customer, giving a great presentation. What is that called? That's called opening your mouth and talking. You've been doing it your whole life. What the hell's the difference? Whether it's a pitch to investors, whether it's a pitch to bankers, whether it's a pitch to your boss, it's just you standing up and talking. You've been doing that since you were a child, talking to your mother and father saying, "May I have a cup of water? May I have another piece of bread?" Simplify your freaking life, but set the bar super high. Enough. Absolutely enough. I meet too many people who set the bar so low and they hit and they wonder why they're unhappy. Set the bar higher than you could possibly imagine. And just keep swimming upstream. I want you guys to go forth and spread beauty and light. But when you see the light, make sure that light, the light that is you and the light that other people see, that it shines as far as possible, because that's as far as their bar is. That's as far as your goals are. It is limitless. It is endless. There is nothing that's going to stop you. There is nothing that's going to get in your way. You are forever going to achieve, you are ever forever going to try, going to succeed. Do you understand? Nothing. Do not beat yourself up. Okay, you haven't done this before. Okay, you're not where you are before. You are not physically who you are before. Maybe you're dragging your, you're working yourself into the ground. That's okay. But now's your moment to set the bar. It's now your moment to say, this is where I want to be. This is who I want to be. This is how I want to feel. This is how I want to look like. And then you just do it. It's so damn simple. And most important thing, most important thing, forgive yourself. Forgive yourself. Okay? Don't beat yourself up. You're only human. And you're allowed to make mistakes. We're not perfect, but this is your moment, and I love you, and I believe in you. So go forth, spread beauty and light, set that bar as high as possible, and be who you're meant to be. Take care, okay? Until next time. Thank you for listening to that episode. If you want to contact me, you can contact me on my website at anglero.com, and you can also subscribe to the newsletter, or you can find me anywhere on social media with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you very soon.