Tony Suriano explains how small, continual adjustments keep you on track, using an airplane autopilot analogy. Physical cues like grooming and sleep signal whether you're drifting. Fear stalls dreams, so shift focus to exciting possibilities instead of pain.
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Welcome in. I'm Tony Suriano, and this is Direct Your Life. I have a question for you because I'm looking in the mirror at myself and I'm asking myself this question. Do you ever feel like you look in the mirror and you wonder what the hell happened? Your hair is overgrown. You're not shaved. There's a cut on your nose somehow. You don't even know how it happened. You look tired. You lack sleep. And you just feel like— you kind of feel like you're a drug addict. Now, I've never been a drug addict, but man, I feel like I've just been pulled in different directions. Things aren't exactly how I want them. And this is the important part because this is adversity. When you face adversity, that's when you grow. So you have to remind yourself, okay, during this time, it's temporary. What are you doing it for? What's the fight for? Are you fighting to just survive? Are you fighting for something bigger, greater? Ideally, the goals you have in line to stay in alignment with What matters. And that's exactly what I'm doing, even though I'm tired, worn out. Like I said, when I look at myself as I am right now in the rearview of my car mirror, I look like crap. I gotta say, I do. And that's okay. Sometimes we do. We feel like crap, we look like crap. But I'm here to tell you You can clean yourself up. You can get a haircut, get a shave, get a new look, feel good again, get more sleep like you used to. Because sometimes you're just off course a little. And what do we do when we're off course? We course correct. You know, when you're flying an airplane— so I'm told, I have not flown one myself yet. One day, I'm sure. When you're flying an airplane from one side of the country to the other side of the country, you have to constantly course correct, even though there's autopilot that helps sometimes. Thank God for some of our autopilot as humans, because if we didn't, we would go insane with all the things around us. If we didn't have autopilot, we would just be seeing and hearing and feeling everything all at once. So our brain does a great job of helping us Have that narrow focus sometimes. But back to the plane, you're flying a plane all the way across, let's say the US, and throughout that whole flight, you're doing these minor course corrects, and that keeps you back on track. If you don't, even though they sometimes seem small, Like, oh, you're just shifting to the right a few millimeters every 10 minutes. It adds up. And if you don't course correct, you not only will look like crap, feel like crap, seem like crap, you become crap. And that's not the case for you because you're gonna course correct. I'm gonna course correct. And that's what it's about. And that's the thing that uplifts me whenever I'm feeling like this. And this happens every so often. Hopefully not a weekly thing for you. I know it's not a weekly thing for me. But when this happens, these are the reminders I have for myself to keep me going strong and to honor the struggle, to face adversity with a nice posture. Not a sad, lower head posture, because that's not a state to be in. You have to pretend that this adversity is your worthy opponent, or it's the bad guy at the end of the film and you're the hero, because this is your journey, not anyone else's. This is your journey, and there will be many bad guys to come. And guess what? You Have fought for the boon, as we call it in filmmaking, which is just another word for the treasure, the meaningful journey you bring back once you go through everything and you share it with the world, with the people, with your friends, with your family. And if you do that, you've won. But the only way to do it is to break through those bosses in video games. Those bad guys in movies and in real life, the adversity that will always be there throughout your life. And it's your job, it's my job to stand up to it, face the fear. So many people stop their dreams, the things that matter, the relationships they want to build. They stop it because of that one Simple thing. Fear. Fear of not being enough. Fear of not making it. The hardship it's going to take. What will happen if you push through? What if nothing happens? What will you leave behind? Those are all fears. The process pain. The leftover pain. And if you focus only on the pain, you're going to avoid it because that's what our Brains have been programmed to do, and that helps us in life-threatening search— life-threatening circumstances. As you can see, my brain's thinking really fast and my mouth can't catch up sometimes. So what we need to do is just focus on the interesting, the exciting outcomes, the possibilities of breaking through and kicking these adversaries In their butts. And it's fear that stops us. So how do you really do that? Well, you have to make sure you course correct your behaviors. We have to course correct our behaviors in order to make those decisions that get us to break through. How do you change and course correct your behavior. It starts with your emotional state, your physical state, your mental state. All of those matter because if your body, your physiology is in a powerful state, your back's straight as can be, you splash your face with water, you're focused on The outcome that could be, but not locked on it, not needing the outcome, just that's a vision for you. You're gonna behave differently than you would have if, again, if you're slumped, if you're looking down, looking down at your fingernails, you're biting your fingernails because you're nervous. No, get those dirty fingers out of your mouth. And stand tall and face the battle because it's worth it. And that's how you direct your life, changing your emotional, physical, and mental state so you behave in alignment with what you know you want to do. The dreams— every one of you has a dream. Every person you walk and meet They all have dreams. So the next time you see someone, if you're in a great mood or bad mood, just remember, wow, that person has dreams. Are they chasing them? Are they playing with their dreams? Are they actually implementing to have their dreams come true? We all deserves— we all deserves some dreams. That's the playful side coming out of me. And this conversation I hope it's kind of like a conversation with you, is reminding me that playfulness is the path and curiosity is the compass. Playfulness is the path and curiosity is the compass. So get curious, have some fun, play around more. Mm-hmm. And get your posture right, get your physiology right, behave better. Better. Let's all just work on behaving better, and therefore our decisions will make more sense for the big picture. And that's how you do it. I wanted to speak about this today because, like I mentioned in the beginning, I am feeling like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. My Uncle Jim used to say that a lot. It is great. That is a great one. Use it. Say that the next time someone says, hey, how you doing? If you're really feeling busy, just say that. I'm busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. That will give some smiles. I hope this episode gave you some smiles, some insight, some encouragement to course correct. To realize you can clean yourself up. You can catch up on sleep. You can manage your energy, so then your time management will follow. And that's the message today. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone that needs to clean up their act. Share it with a friend, a family member. It really helps And also, what really helps me, if you want to do me one favor, this free podcast can grow if it gets more ratings and reviews, specifically on Apple Podcasts. That's what helps the most. So if you could swing over there, take 30, 40 seconds, and just let me know what you think about this episode, about the show, and it really helps others expand and learn and check this out. Episode out and many others. That's it today. I'm Tony Suriano. Again, I appreciate your time. Now get out there and direct your life. So that's it for this episode. If you loved it, don't forget, please rate and review the show, leave a comment, and share this episode. Thank you once again for tuning in.
