Student Of Life Podcast

Joe Hafner
  • 5.0 (13)
  • Philosophy

Welcome to Student of Life, a podcast for people seeking personal and professional fulfillment. Our goal is to get your mind working and help you discover important questions to ponder as you work toward creating a more fulfilling existence.

  1. 10/15/2017

    Is your life ruled by confidence or by doubt?

    In today's podcast we look at doubt and confidence, how to build confidence and overcome doubt.   We review the five strategies for overcoming doubt:   Revisit Past Successes Stop Worrying about what other people think Talk to some Encouraging Load up on Inspiration Don't do Nothing   Thank you for listening to Student of Life. If you enjoyed it, please review us at iTunes and Stitcher. It makes a difference and encourages others to check out the show.   Also, Joe's new novel, Rooster's Leap, is now available on Amazon. Please check it out here.

    37 min

  2. 10/01/2017

    Is your self perception holding you back?

    What you believe about yourself is just as important to your success as your skills and talents.  Are you overvaluing or undervaluing your abilities?   In today's podcast we look at the Dunning-Kruger Effect and how having Superiority Illusion can hurt you.   We review the seven behaviors which help you to discover your Purpose:   Quiet Time Step outside your comfort zone every day Surround yourself with people you admire Weed negative people and negative thoughts out of your life Stop lying to yourself - No more excuses Never stop learning Become an aggressive goal setter   We examine how to study yourself to discover where you might be over or under valuing your abilities and talents.  Finally, we lay out a plan for how to apply metrics to your core competencies, which allows you to gather data to demonstrate where you measure up or fall short.   Thank you for listening to Student of Life. If you enjoyed it, please review us at iTunes and Stitcher. It makes a difference and encourages others to check out the show.   Also, Joe's new novel, Rooster's Leap, is now available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions. Please check it out.

    35 min

  3. 09/17/2017

    What's keeping you from your goals?

    Everyone has goals and dreams they hope to achieve.  What's keeping you from going after yours? Are you willing to do what it takes to accomplish something significant? It all starts with discipline and sacrifice. "Flipping the Switch" allows you to create great momentum by implementing positive behaviors that move you toward your goals.   In today's podcast we cover the four steps that allow you to Flip the Switch...   The Trigger - The event or thought that gets you started The Path - The clear goal and defined plan for reaching your goal The Mindset - Understanding your own psychology to create an All In mentality The Grind - Building your sacrifice muscles so you can accomplish the little things that make a big difference.   Thank you for listening to Student of Life. If you enjoyed it, please review us at iTunes and Stitcher. It makes a difference and encourages others to check out the show.

    42 min

  4. 08/27/2017

    What are you afraid of?

    Fear keeps many people from being everything they created to be, from achieving their potential, from realizing their vision for themselves, and being able to spend more time working in their purpose. For many, fear is the biggest impediment to fulfilment in their lives.   What's the definition of fear? Fear is an unpleasant emotion cause by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or a threat.   The key part of that definition is two words: the belief.   Some fears do have to do with something really causing pain or being a threat, but many of our fears are simply the belief that there will be pain or a threat. It's not real, but we allow those beliefs to get in the way of us being able to do the things that we want to do.   So, if this belief can stop us from achieving our goals, why we were created with fear as one of our emotions?   If you're walking through the woods and all of a sudden you see a mama grizzly bear and two cubs, if you're smart you're probably fearful and wanting to get away from that. Likewise, if you come across of burning forest fire, you probably will be at least a little scared of that.   When it's not just the belief, but there really is something that's a threat to you, fear is a good emotion to have because it will keep you alive. It's a healthy emotion. It's helpful in that case. That's good fear.   But the bad kind of fear is when there's not actually any danger and the fear keeps us from realizing our potential. Those kind of fears—the ones about things that won't really harm us—they're a barrier to us reaching our goals. It's the belief that there is danger that keeps us from moving forward. Those are the fears that we generally need to overcome to be able to have fulfilment in our lives and achieve the things we want.   Where does fear come from? Danger. As we just discussed, these are the real situations where it's justified to be fearful. For example, if the captain of your airplane announces that the plane is going down. That's a situation of real danger.   Facing uncertainty or the unknown. When you don't know what's coming, your mind can play games that make it seem worse. That's a belief that makes you fearful rather than reality, because the reality is unknown.   A prior bad experience. This can be your bad experience or someone else's bad experience that you've witnessed. For example, a person who has been through a horrible divorce is so scarred (and scared) by it that they won't date again.   Ignorance and lack of understanding. This is where your belief is built on a lack of understanding and causes fear, like when the people in Columbus's crew believed the earth was flat so they were afraid of sailing off the edge of the world.   Allowing fear—or indeed any negative emotions—to stop us from doing things we want to do in our lives is being a slave to that emotion. When you allow fear to grow up like a weed, that fear is really your master. A slave is completely submissive to the master and has no free will. Fears make you a slave because they diminish your freedom.   Fear and The Four Freedoms Dan Sullivan talks about four freedoms: freedom of money, freedom of time, freedom of relationship and freedom of purpose.   Joe worked in Real Estate and one of the biggest problems agents have is the fear of making prospecting calls. This is called, "call reluctance". How does this fear impact the four freedoms for an agent?   Freedom of money: if you're afraid to get on the phone and make your prospecting calls, you're not going to do as many deals and you're not going to have as much money. That's going to stop you from having the freedom of having the money to do what you want to do.   Freedom of time: often people have a big plan but because of the fear they spend two hours on Facebook instead of prospecting. Fear leads to procrastination and if you're procrastinating you're losing your freedom of time because your time is being diminished.   Freedom of relationships: if you're afraid to do your prospecting, that's fewer people you will interact with. In turn, that's reducing your sphere of influence, and shrinking your comfort zone, and ultimately reducing your freedom of relationships.   Freedom of purpose: if you're doing all of those other things—you don't have money because you're not making calls, you don't have time because you're procrastinating and you don't have the relationships that could be built by going out and prospecting—that's going reduce your ability to work in your purpose. Fear has limited your freedom in those situations.   The biggest problems many people have with their fears is they avoid them or they won't even admit that they have fear.   Lying to your self only makes it worse. Admit your fear—there is no shame in being afraid. Every one is afraid at some point. In fact, there is great strength in admitting you have a fear. Hiding it, avoiding it, ignoring it, pretending it doesn't exist? That's a sign of weakness. If you try to hide from it or pretend it doesn't exist, it causes you to have less freedom and it keeps you from achieving your goals and your dreams.   Courage is not the absence of fear, courage is being afraid, but doing it anyway.   There is nothing to be ashamed of in being afraid. What you should be ashamed of is if you're afraid and you don't face it or you won't even admitting you're afraid. When you refuse to deal with that fear it rents space in the back of your head and becomes a stronghold in your life to keep you from doing what you want to do.   It's time to figure out how to get past your fears. Joe has six strategies to help you overcome the fears.   Strategy One: Reframing Physiologically, your body reacts exactly the same to fear as it does to excitement. All of those extreme sports people doing all kinds of crazy stuff don't realize they are physiologically terrified because they're so excited.   One way to reframe is to just say, 'Oh my gosh, I'm so excited I get to do this,' instead of saying 'I'm so scared I have to do this.' You trick your mind into being excited instead of scared.   Another way to reframe is to use the Fear vs. Danger scale. Take whatever you're afraid of, admit to yourself you're afraid, admit your level of fear and fill in on the left side of the scale between 0 and 10 what you're fear level is. Then go to the right side, which is the danger level, and be honest about what the danger level really is. When you look at it and say, "well, there is no danger, there is no reason to be fearful," that allows you to have the courage you need to attack whatever that fear is.   So reframing is taking your mind and shifting it from fear to excitement and or taking what you think your fear level is and comparing it to the danger levels, so that you can reframe what it looks like to you and make it something easier for you to attack.   Strategy Two: Strength in Numbers If you're afraid of something and you can find someone else to do it with you, that's always a way that can help you to take that leap of faith instead of sitting there scared by yourself. And if you can find someone who's not afraid of it to deal with it with you, that's great. Or if you have someone else who you know is not going to chicken out at the last second, who is afraid of it as well and the two of you do it together, that is just a great way to overcome the fear. It will help you to push through it by having that buddy to do it with you.   Strategy Three: Find a Mentor Whatever you're afraid of, there is a good chance somebody else has already confronted that fear and lived to tell about it. If you can find somebody else who's already succeeded in what you're afraid of, you can learn from them how to do it and use that as your springboard to being able to face the fear yourself. That's exactly what Joe did in starting this podcast—he learned from podcast guru Paul Colligan, whose book gave Joe what he needed to push through and start doing the podcast. When you find that mentor it doesn't have to be someone you know. It can be someone who has written a book, who's got a blog, who has a podcast or videos on YouTube. Or it can be someone you know who had success tackling whatever fear is in front of you.   One key thing: all you perfectionists out there, don't get caught in paralysis by analysis. Don't be studying so long that you never do anything. Lots of people spend so long studying their fear, they never actually attack it, so find the minimum you need to do and then dive in and do it.   Strategy Four: Develop a Powerful WHY A WHY in your life, a reason why you need to get through that fear that is so powerful the prize for achieving your WHY makes the fear pale by comparison. You just say, "I'm going through that fear because this is so important." What is your WHY? What are your reasons and purpose? Achieving that and living out that potential God has placed in you can help you push through whatever fear you're facing.   Strategy Five: Lower Your Expectations There are many people who allow their pride or perfectionism to keep them from doing things they fear. They have this misplaced notion they should be great at whatever they try the first time they try it. So until they know they can be great, they don't do something and they let fear of it not going well, or the fear of not being perfect, to stop them from facing that fear. When you do that, you diminish your life. You can get so much joy and satisfaction from trying new things. You need to be more childlike where you know you're not going to do well the first time you do something.   If you're facing a fear and you're afraid you'll fall on your face the first time you try it, just get it over with.  Then you get the bad one over with to start getting better. Lower your expectations and quit expecting to be perfect.   Strategy Six: Do It Scared Whatever it is, just resolve y

    45 min

  5. 08/20/2017

    How do you overcome Brain Spin and Piñata Mind?

    Are you allowing 'defensive thinking' to negatively impact your life? Today, we examine two kinds of defensive thinking, Brain Spin and Piñata Mind.   Brain Spin Brain Spin is when you are fixated on just one thought and your brain spins in circles over and over again. What makes Brain Spin defensive thinking is your thoughts are just spinning around and your brain is not working out solutions. Your brain is going too fast, creating anxiety and stress, as well as the inability to think clearly. It's defensive because you are allowing your brain to happen to you. You are allowing outside influences and problems to have an impact on your ability to function because you are allowing that spin to happen.   Overcoming Brain Spin How do you stop yourself from falling into the Brain Spin trap?   S-P-I-N   When you have Brain Spin, go on offense. It's a simple process: just remember the word "spin." There's a little exercise you can do to stop the spin and get yourself back on even footing, where you can take control of your thoughts, go on offense, and come up with solutions instead of staying on defense with stress, anxiety and worry.   The "S" stands for "Stop." "Stop" means you stop, acknowledge the Brain Spin is happening. Actively engage your brain in something, instead of allowing it to passively spin.   The "P" stands for "Process". "Process" means you're going to think about whatever  it is your brain is spinning about, and you're going to dissect a little bit and ask yourself the question, "Is this something I have any control over? Is this something where I might be able to step in and make some changes or take some action to alleviate whatever is causing this stress?" You process it and figure out what the problem is.   Then you have "I", which stands for "Intervene." If it is a legitimate problem and you have legitimate options to go on offense and solve it, then you can intervene. Take steps to put on paper what you're solutions are going to be. How are you going to attack this problem? Decide what you are going to do instead of just letting that thought spin in your head. Start working on a productive solution.   On the other side of the same coin, if you determine that either, you have no control over it, or it's not a legitimate problem, then you can say, "This is not something I have any power or control over and I just need to understand that so I don't allow my mind to keep spinning in search of solutions that aren't there."   Finally, the "N" stands for "Next." The next time this happens, you need to know what you will do. Either you will start implementing your solution or do the steps to intervene and go on offense. Alternatively, if it's a problem or a worry you have no control over—for example something that happened already and you can't go back and adjust—the "Next" there is to let it go. And if you can't let it go, come up with something you will switch your thoughts to instead. Maybe you think about something to do with your business or a sports team or how you could show some love to your spouse. Come up with something else productive with which you can replace the other thought.   So the S-P-I-N steps are how you end brain spin.   Piñata Mind Piñata Mind is the opposite of the Brain Spin. Brain Spin is when you're fixated on one thought. Piñata mind is when your brain is so distracted there are hundreds of thoughts going on and you can't think of anything. There is a reason Joe calls it "piñata mind". It came from a day he spent the whole day working really hard, and was really busy, but when he looked back he was interrupted and distracted a lot and didn't accomplish anything. You are probably familiar with that feeling of working hard, doing lots of stuff but getting nothing done. At the end of the day you're exhausted but you have nothing to show for it. You didn't move any big rocks forward.   Picture a kid's birthday party. They blindfold the child,  spin him around, and hand him stick. Then they point toward a piñata. An adult is holding a rope and moving the piñata around while that kid is swinging wildly with that stick. He can't hit the piñata, because the adult moves it every time the kid gets close. So "Piñata" Mind is when your mind is just like that kid swinging wildly all over the place and never hitting anything.   Piñata Mind is a negative, defensive brain posture. It's defensive because once again, you're not taking charge of the situation. You are allowing circumstances to eat up your energy and your confidence. Unable to focus, all those thoughts to come in, mess with your mind and get you going a hundred directions at once. You are so diverted, distracted, and all over the place, you lose all of your energy very quickly, just like a cell phone with too many apps open at once. You just don't accomplish anything because you're not putting any filters in place to stop everything from coming at you.   Overcoming Piñata Mind There are four steps to overcoming it.   Start with a brain dump. Get a sheet of paper, write down everything you're thinking about in your brain. Write down everything. It might be several pages of information, but writing it down empties it from your brain. You don't have to eat up space in your brain holding onto that information anymore. Go through the list and decide what is urgent and what is important. Remember, things that are on fire are urgent but not necessarily important. Sometimes things that are urgent you can delegate to somebody else to handle. Sometimes, with things that are urgent but not important, you can just let go and not worry about them. It doesn't matter, it's not important. Find the things that are urgent and important. They're high value activities and you should be doing those first. When your brain gets to that point where your list is out of control, and you're totally playing defense, take steps build incredible momentum going in the opposite direction. The only way you can do that is to have great focus. You can accomplish two or three times the amount you normally do if you're able to focus without distraction. Close the door, go to a place where you won't be bothered, turn off your phone, close all the windows on your computer, close down everything except the resources you need to accomplish those tasks. Remember, we're trying to go from a defensive posture to being totally on offense and building momentum in our favor. So, no phone, no email, none of that turned on. So you choose one to three items on your priority list you will focus on. Attack those items! Stay on them for at least two hours. It takes a good twenty or thirty minutes to get into focus where you are really honed in and able to work well. When you get in to the zone, you don't want to leave so quickly. If you can do three, four hours, it's amazing how much momentum you can gain and how much you can get done. So, to conquer your Piñata Mind, you want to organize, prioritize, focus, and attack.   To have fulfillment in your life, you need to be doing things where you spend time in your purpose. You also want to do things that move you closer to the vision you've laid out for your life and business.   Sometimes the only way to move towards that vision is to get a little selfish and shut out everybody else, so you can focus on the things that are important to you to move them forward.   Frequently, as leaders, the last person we take care of is ourselves because we're giving to everybody else and we're the go-to person. But you sometimes have to be selfish, focus on yourself and work on yourself so you can develop momentum, stop playing defense, and go on offense when it comes to your mind and the way you think.   Take these strategies and use them. Everyone has experienced Brain Spin and Piñata Mind at times. Having some tools in your tool belt will help you overcome them, gain momentum and move toward the vision for your life.

    23 min

  6. 08/13/2017

    Are you a River Person or a Pie Person?

    Your mindset is the biggest tool that determines whether or not you're successful or have fulfillment in your life? It's how you think and the filters you perceive the world through.   There are some people who naturally take in what the world throws at them and see all the possibilities. There are other people who only see limitations.   Which one are you? Do you see unlimited possibilities or do you think about all the things that could stop you?   The space between your ears is the biggest determiner of whether or not you're going to have what you want in life, and whether or not you're going to achieve fulfillment and success.   Pie People and River People For Pie People, there is a finite amount of all the success, fulfillment and abundance in the world. To them, there is a limited amount, like pie. If one person is successful, it means there is a little bit less of the success pie for the next person. If you are a pie person, and you see other people doing well and having success, you percieve that as leaving less success available for you.   You know those people who never seem happy when someone else does well, or never share in someone else's good fortune? Probably, that's a pie person. It's typically a subconscious thinking pattern and most people who are pie people don't realize they are pie people: it's just the way they live. It was probably the way they were brought up. They believe their ability to succeed is limited by other people's ability to succeed.   Then, there are River People, who believe success, fulfillment, abundance and all the things life has to offer are a flowing river. They believe anybody can step up and dip their cup into that river and have as much of that success as they want because there is a never-ending supply of it. When you are a river person, you tend to share in other people's excitement when they do well. You don't think their success means you have less chance of doing well. You say, "they did well, that shows I can succeed too."   If you pay attention, the pie people and river people become very easy to spot. You want to be a river person, not a pie person. You also want to hang out with river people and avoid hanging out with pie people.   The truth is there is not a set amount of success, wealth, prosperity or fulfillment in the world. There is a constantly growing and expanding amount, for you to grab hold of. People with an abundance mentality—river people—believe the world is open to them and because they walk through life with their eyes wide open, they see opportunities everywhere.   People with a scarcity mindset—pie people—tend to look at the world as if it's against them. They have blinders on and look straight ahead. The opportunities that may be coming are flying by them unnoticed because they believe the world has a limited amount of success, and they have been locked out.   Gary Keller, the founder of Keller Williams Realty International, said, 'There is not enough business for everyone but there is enough for anyone.' Although he was talking about business and real estate, this statement really applies to any endeavor you choose to pursue. If everybody in the world was fully engaged at one time to achieve something, we probably would run out of resources and there wouldn't be enough for everybody. But the truth is only a very, very small percentage of people actually pursue those things.   There will be more than enough for anybody who is willing to pay the price to achieve success and fulfillment, because most refuse to go after it. If you want to be a person who has a fulfilled life, choose to be someone who goes after it. Choose to be someone who has an abundance mentality versus the scarcity mentality.   Characteristics of Abundance and Scarcity Mindsets What are the characteristics of a person with an abundance mindset versus a scarcity mindset? It is really difficult to have an abundance mindset if you don't believe there is a higher power helping to create big things for us. There probably are people who don't believe in God who have an abundance mindset, but it is much more difficult if you think everything is on you.   Trust in God (or the higher power you believe in) to provide. When you see people who go through life with that attitude, that's usually a sign they have an abundance mind set. Meanwhile, the people who believe everything is up to them; if they don't do it, it's not going to happen, are typically the people with a scarcity mindset because they don't trust the world and they don't trust God. They don't trust others are there to help them achieve and succeed.   Have faith in God and faith in the process. This goes right along with trust. Believe if you work hard, the abundance will come to you. Those who are scarcity thinkers only go by "what they see is what they believe" and think they are responsible for everything. Scarcity thinkers are trying to adjust the process, so they can make it more their own. They don't trust hard work will ultimately allow them to succeed and have their abundance.   Be hopeful and optimistic. That comes from the belief that you are moving forward and you are going to have all you need. That kind of belief—the river person thinking—naturally leads to hope and optimism. Scarcity thinkers are full of fear and doubt. They are afraid the world is really built against them, afraid someone else has succeeded before them and now that success is gone, not to be enjoyed by them.   Be generous, sharing and giving. The most generous people are those who think they are always going to be successful. Have you ever noticed people who may not have anything but are still very generous? They give their time and money because they believe in the abundance of the world. They believe it will come back to them. The scarcity thinkers hold onto what they have because they believe they will never get back what they let go of. They can't give to other people because they might need it for themselves down the road.   Extremely generous people are river people. The people who are really stingy and have every nickel they ever earned inside their one-way pockets—where it goes in and never comes out!—are scarcity thinkers.   Have contentment and satisfaction. It's the people who are stingy and afraid of losing what they have, who are pie people with a scarcity mindset. That kind of person is always discontented, feeling they never achieve, do or have enough. Being satisfied and content with where you're at doesn't mean you don't want more, or you're not striving for more. Being content is knowing you've given your best effort, and you are trusting God to deliver. You know you've done everything to a point of being content with where you're at because you've done what you can and know that more is coming.   Have a steward mentality. Joe believes everything he owns was given to him by God, and it's his job to manage what he's been given to the best of his ability. That doesn't just include money. It includes his intellect, education, knowledge, work and all resources. Managing and using those resources for the betterment of the world is part of being a river person. Meanwhile, somebody with a scarcity mindset will have an ownership mentality. They have the idea of limited resources so anything they have is theirs and they won't share it. Instead, pie people tend to hoard their resources.   Work on helping and completing others. When you have the attitude of abundance, you look to help other people. It comes back to the generosity, and being willing to share what you have because you believe there is more than enough. River people believe in abundance and want other people to find abundance as well. Whereas, people with the scarcity mindset also tend to be hyper-competitive. They try to beat you to something instead of helping you get there. They're afraid if you get there first there may be less for them.   Change your mindset It's not that pie people are bad people. They have fear because of wrong thinking. They often believe they have a certain level they can get to it and that's it. When you realize how the two minds work, you can have the compassion for people with the scarcity mindset instead of wondering why they are like that.   When you change your mindset, you change the outcome. When you have an abundance mentality, it's amazing how the world seems to be a different place and you see opportunities that you never saw before.   If you have noticed some pie person tendencies in yourself, how do you go about changing them?   Watch who you hang out with. Firstly, look at the people surrounding you. We are the average of the 5 people we spend most of our time with. If you are hanging out with a bunch of people who always moan and groan about the world and their lives, you will probably become a pie person. But if you hang out with people who live in abundance, expect the world to work out well for them, and they step out of their comfort zone on a daily basis and work to grab the abundance they believe is out there, then you're more likely to be a river person. Hang out with abundance people.   Let go of the outcome. Secondly, do everything in your power to achieve success and fulfillment and let go of the outcome. Trust that the work will deliver the reward, that God has your back. If you've done everything possible, you don't have any more control over the outcome anyway, so you might as well stop worrying about it.   Be content where you are, but always strive for more. Thirdly, learn to be content with where you are, but strive for more success, more fulfillment and to be a better person. If you've done all you can, good things are coming.   Never allow fear or other people to put caps on your dreams. Finally—and this is the most important one—if you want to be a river person, never allow fear or other people put caps on your dreams in life. If you have big

    31 min

  7. 08/06/2017

    Why do people fall short of their potential?

    Everyone has greatness within them. God has put potential in everybody, but are you playing your part to achieve that potential?   To Joe, potential is the maximum level of success or fulfillment you could possibility reach. If you squeezed out every ounce of that special something in you, to do what you were created to do, and you overcame every obstacle and you shed off all the negatives that come at you, what you will achieve then would be your full potential.   Another great definition of potential is "the best version of yourself." If you take all the skills, experiences, qualities that you've got and you distill it down to the best you can possibly be, that's achieving your potential.   Every one should strive to achieve their potential but too many people don't work hard to achieve it. It's also really easy to get caught up in things that get you off track, and cause you to lose focus. As a result, very few people achieve their full potential.   There are three things that have a direct impact on whether your potential is maximized or falling backwards: aptitude, environment and desires.   Aptitude Everybody has some natural abilities. That goes back to your purpose, your areas of greatest strength and what some people call your 'super powers'. Additionally, what determines your aptitude, is the level of schooling or education you get. It's your character and your integrity, your core values and what you believe.   If you believe things that are negative or destructive, you're not going to move towards your potential. If you believe in things like integrity, honesty, and serving other people, those types of things will move you towards your potential. So your core values play an important role with your aptitude.   Environment The easiest definition of environment is your physical location. If you have two people and one is born in poverty and lives in a mud hut in the third world, their potential is limited compared to someone born in a Western society who has access to school, access to the internet, access to food. Those aspects of environment play a huge role in whether or not you're going to have the opportunity to achieve your potential.   Another area of your environment is your culture. Culture is the environment of a group of people, which Joe covered in a previous episode. It can be the culture of a nation, the culture of a church, the culture of an organization, the culture of a company and/or the culture of you and your friends. The culture is going to play a huge role in whether you're going to achieve your potential or whether you'll allow yourself to be pulled away from it. The culture of the groups you spend the most time with, and your personal culture, plays a huge role in the achievement of your potential.   Another part of your environment is your mentors or your role models, the people you learned from, the people who showed you the way and went before you.   Desire Desire to Joe, is directly related to your purpose in life. Why did God create you? If you have a purpose and a vision of what you want to be that is so strong it propels you toward it, that desire is going to carry you toward your potential. If you are not protecting your confidence, will-power, or energy and they are being depleted before your day even gets going, that will pull you backwards. So desire is going to play a huge role in whether you are moving forward with the potential God put in you or whether you are being pulled away from it.   Attitude, environment and desire; take a look at those things. Which of them are working in your favor? Which of them are working against you? Which of them can you change so they're working you in favor?   In America, there is an epidemic of lost potential. When you look at sports, it's easy to tell whether someone is achieving their potential, because it's all about performance on the field. You're either winning or you're not. You're breaking records or you're not.  When you're dealing with life or business, there are gray areas. You can't quite tell whether someone is achieving their potential in the way you can with sports.   Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry had both the aptitude and the desire to be among the best baseball players in history and help the Mets achieve a 10-15 year dynasty after they won the World Series in 1986. However, they didn't have the right environment. They were surrounded by a party culture. Drugs, women, drinking and they got caught up in the addictions. And because of that, although they were great for a couple of years, their true potential was squandered.   In your life, when you look at your potential and the areas where you want to be great, what areas are cheating you out of your greatness? Where are you lying to yourself or engaging in an activity or behavior that doesn't line up with where your potential should be taking you? What are you doing to correct those things? There are really five different areas that stop people from achieving their potential.   Laziness The first thing that holds people back from achieving their potential is laziness. They're complacent, self-satisfied, and don't have any goals or vision. They've just settled into a comfort zone and basically given up the desire to be anything more.   If you're in that lazy zone but you have a glimmer of desire to be more, what can you do to break the cycle?   It comes down to your WHY. Why do you not want to be lazy anymore? What is your purpose? You such a powerful WHY that you will do it even when you don't feel like doing it. Lazy is hard to overcome without goals or vision or values.   By the way, quiet time is not lazy time because quiet time is the time that gives your brain a little oxygen and that oxygen allows the fire to light that gets things going. Quiet time is a great way for someone who is complacent and satisfied with mediocrity to start. Think about what you'd like to be great at and what your purpose is. Spend time imagining what life would be like if you really got good at that and honed your skills there. If you're lazy, you need to find a WHY that's going to stop you from being lazy.   Fear The second reason people fall short of their potential, is they're scared. It's not a terrified, trembling-in-your-boots scared, but having no confidence. You never want to leave your comfort zone because you don't know what's out there. Or maybe you failed in the past and you're afraid you're going to fail again. Maybe you didn't quite measure up one time and you were humiliated or made fun of and you don't want to experience that again.   Everybody is scared, at times. It all comes back to your comfort zone. Stepping out of your comfort zone is scary.   Figure out, what it is you're scared about, and do it scared!. That's the best way. Expand that comfort zone because if you are not stretching your comfort zone everyday, it is shrinking. Every day you can move forward, every day you can expand your comfort zone, and every day you can experience what it's like to step out. If you try something new, you're not going to be good at it the first time you try it. You need to take the attitude of a learner and not be afraid to look silly or goofy. Just do it and then laugh about it when it's tough and try again to get better at it. That's how you learn, so if you're scared, expand your comfort zone and do it scared.   Lack of discipline The third thing that stops people is they are undisciplined. They're distracted. They don't know how to prioritize. They don't know how to grind. They're not able to focus for a long period of time to move the ball forward on a project. Lack of discipline comes from a short attention span, or when people multitask five things at once but actually are doing five things badly. Undisciplined comes from stretching too thin and trying to do too much.   If you get to the end of a day, exhausted because you've been so busy, but haven't actually accomplished anything important, then you may have a problem with discipline. You need to learn how to focus, and a great place to start is to read Gary Keller's book The One Thing and set aside an hour to work on your purpose.   It's important to understand, what got you to your current level of success, is not going get you to the next level of success. You have to change things.   Are you doing things now, just like you've always done them and expecting a different result? If you are, you may have something you need to deconstruct, take up a step back and reconstruct better before you move forward. A lot of times, getting disciplined and focused is one of those things.   Deceived The fourth reason people fall short of their potential is they're deceived. They're lying to themselves, saying they're doing fine when they're not. Or pretending that there's not a problem when there is. They've convinced themselves everything will go great, when it really won't. Most of all, they're not willing to admit they have a problem they need to address or an issue they need to solve.   Another way people lie to themselves is they expect it to be easy. They expect the things worth having in life to be easy to achieve. And typically, the best things in life are very difficult to achieve.   Also, people make excuses. They act like the world is against them. They're victims. Those people are deceived. The day you become an adult, your problems are on you. It's not always fair but the truth is the world doesn't care. The day you become an adult, it is your job to overcome whatever challenges are in front of you. Are you going to be an overcomer? Or are you going to wallow in self-pity and pretend the world owes you something?   It's not to minimize problems, but it's about making a decision to be an overcomer. Don't deceive yourself into thinking the world owes you anything because you were dealt a bad hand. Face your problems and your issues head on, and figure out a way to overcome them

    31 min

  8. 07/30/2017

    How do you win the morning?

    Do you start your day with a win every day? Are you on offense or do you start your day playing defense?   A morning routine is hugely important because it protects your energy and confidence. When you start the day with a routine where you know exactly what you're going to do, it's kind of like starting an engine. You get that thing rolling because you just go through the same process every day. There is no decision to make. There is no problem to solve. You just do the same thing on a regular basis to get the day going.   Remember the biggest drains of energy and confidence are problem solving and decision-making. Morning rituals and routines take all of that out of the equation.   Mark Twain said, 'Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.'   You want to use the morning, when you have the most energy and the most confidence, to get the big things done in your day.   Are you operating each day in your purpose, the reason God created you? Are you doing things every day to move closer to making your vision for your life and business reality?   Put a positive spin on your day. Start by instead of saying "I have to do this," say "I get to do this." This is one of the best times in the history of the world. In terms of technology, peace, abundance, the ability to succeed and opportunities to thrive. We get to do amazing things, things that move us toward our vision, toward our purpose. And if you're starting your day with those sorts of things and thinking about them, it is going to help you move forward.   Every successful person has some sort of morning routine or ritual. Margaret Thatcher, one of the greatest leaders in the history of the western world, used to get up every day at 5 AM so she could listen to Farming Today on the BBC. David Karp, the founder of Tumblr, never looks at any of his emails until he arrives at work. So he starts the day on offense.   If you get up and the first thing you do is grab your device and start looking at your texts and emails and responding to what the world has thrown at you, you're immediately on defense. You need to get your mind right, you need to get your body right, you need to get your spirit right before you start your day.   Jim Kwik just did a great podcast all about his morning rituals. His morning routine is very involved. Check out Kwik Brain, Episode 16 http://jimkwik.com/kwik-brain-016/ He goes into his nutrition. He even talks about the type of shower he takes. He gets very detailed about how he starts his day.   Ben Franklin—one of the smartest people in the history of our country, a true entrepreneur, a true thinker and philosopher—has a very famous outline of what his typical day looked like. He had a 3-hour morning ritual he did every day. He always started his day with the question, "What good shall I do this day?" So if you read from what he has on his morning routine, it says, "Rinse, wash, and address powerful goodness." He was a pretty successful guy who accomplished many great things.   What are you doing every morning? Do you have a ritual you follow? Do you have a routine you follow? Do you have a certain time you get up every day? What do you do to give yourself a win first thing in the morning? What do you do to set up your day where you will have a great success?   Joe's Morning Routine Joe has different morning routines for different days of the week. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, he will get up and go to the gym in the morning.   Last week (StudentOfLifePodcast.com/7) we talked about flipping the switch, making blanket decisions you make once, forever. So on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights, Joe has already made that blanket decision he will be getting up to go to the gym next morning. The alarm clock goes off at 4:21, which is precise and intentional because it plants a seed in the brain about beginning the day intentionally and with purpose.   As he gets up, he is saying a little prayer, "God let me be awesome today." He gets ready easily because the night before he already prepared a gym bag, clothes for the day at work, a pre-work out shake and a protein shake. He gets a big drink of water, gathers his things and gets in the car. Joe has his phone with him but hasn't looked at it yet. Six months ago he made the decision not to look at his phone anymore until after he's done some things to get on offense for the day. In the car, the seat heater goes on to loosen Joe's back before he gets to the gym. He turns on the app on the phone that does a daily reading from the bible and listens to that on the way into town. That gives his brain a chance to start easing into the day. Also, Joe knows spending time with God to start his day means he will have a better day.   At the gym, Joe walks on the treadmill for 30 minutes to loosen up his body, drink his pre-workout shake and give him time to work through his mind. It's important to give your brain free space to breath and a chance to work on problems without lots of clutter. So whatever the brain has been mulling over at night, Joe will think about during that 30 minutes on the treadmill. Otherwise he will turn on a podcast and pour some wisdom into his head.   Then he meets up with a group and does a boot camp style work out. This is great for accountability, but also because having a trainer who is leading the boot camp means Joe doesn't have to think or make decisions. All he has to do is show up and do what the trainer says. After the workout, Joe has his protein shake, takes a shower and get dressed.   By this time it's 7.30am, and having been up since 4.21am, Joe is fully awake and full of energy. It's a big win to start the day and he feels good about himself. It recharges his battery and protects his energy and confidence for the day. Next it's off to the coffee shop to do morning planning. Typically this involves spending 10 minutes reading scripture or a devotional, and then journaling thoughts. After that, he tackles any problems that need to be solved, such as presentations to prepare. And finally, the last thing is writing out a task list for the day. The task list always includes Joe's Big 3: At least one item each working ON his business, working IN his business, and personal development. These are the key things that help move him forward in all three areas.   Starting the day on offense like this means Joe knows whatever happens the rest of the day, he is following the agenda he set for the day, rather than just responding to other people and other stimulus. It gets things off on the right foot.   The morning ritual starter kit Feed 3 Feed your spirit. Schedule quiet time. Pray. Be somewhere inspiring. Feed your mind. Spend some time studying, getting education, or gaining knowledge. Feed your body. It's not just food, it's taking care of your body by working out and getting moving. It doesn't have to be a hard workout; start the day getting the blood flowing.   Protect 3 Protect your energy. Make sure you've gotten sleep, don't look at emails or texts. Be on offense not defense. Protect your will power. Do this by making blanket decisions, and when you do your planning, make sure you figure out the most energy draining thing, and tackle it first. Protect your confidence. Plan, focus your day and have a block of time where you're working in your purpose.   Work 3 This is the Big Three Work ON your business. Work IN your business. Work on yourself.   Feed Three, Protect Three, and Work Three. That's a great framework on which to build a Morning Ritual. If you don't already have one, make it your starting point. Study yourself and figure out what works for you. Try things and get on a schedule where every day you go through a routine that gives you energy and gets you fired up for the day. You continue to do it and it becomes muscle memory.   Remember, the first step to success is learning how to win the morning. If you win the morning that gives you a chance of winning the day. When you win enough days in a row them you have success and fulfillment.   If you haven't already, hit the subscribe button on iTunes or Stitcher. And if you've enjoyed it, tell your friends about the podcast!

    28 min
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Welcome to Student of Life, a podcast for people seeking personal and professional fulfillment. Our goal is to get your mind working and help you discover important questions to ponder as you work toward creating a more fulfilling existence.

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