Alchemy For Life

Author Mark Bradford
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  • MENTAL HEALTH
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Welcome to the Time, Energy, and Resources Coaching and Podcast! Our coaching style and podcast are all about helping you make the most of your time, energy, and resources so you can achieve your goals and live a more fulfilling life. Whether you’re looking to improve your productivity, reduce stress, or simply make better use of your time, we have the tools and strategies you need to get started. Join us on this journey and discover how to take control of your time, energy, and resources and unlock your full potential.

  1. MAR 15

    What behavioral mapping reveals about Elon Musk

    Disclaimer: this episode is based on my proprietary behavior mapping system. This system is used in conjunction with a discovery conversation I have with an individual. In the case of mapping public figures this is purely an independent analysis and opinion based on publicly available research. See citations below article. Transcript: You’re probably like me in that you’re a very visual person. (see below!) Well, hey there. Welcome back. Let’s talk Elon Musk. But before we do that, let’s talk about behavioral mapping and my book BeCAUSE!. Freud’s Pleasure Principle: Monsters and Unicorns Okay, wait. We have to back up from that and we have to talk about Freud’s pleasure principle. If you are an old fan of this show, you’ve probably heard me say this a bunch of times, but let’s sum it up really quickly. Freud’s pleasure principle is based on the fact that we are binary individuals. We seek pleasure, we avoid pain. Everything and anything we do is broken down into those things. I’ve had a number of episodes on this and the book BeCAUSE! is based on this, but I give the seeking pleasure and the avoiding pain a face. The seeking pleasure is a unicorn and the avoiding pain is a monster. They are neither good nor bad. They are not devils and angels. They simply are. Visualizing Behavior: My New Mapping Software After the book BeCAUSE! came out, I ended up developing patent pending behavioral mapping software. It’s software that allows me to actually map this stuff out. And you’re probably like me in that you’re a very visual person. This episode might be a little bit longer than my self-imposed 10-minute limit, so please bear with me. Paradoxically, when I talk about Elon Musk, I actually want you to not be thinking of him, but to be thinking of you. Every episode of this podcast starts out as an article on Alchemy for Life. This one is no different, and you’ll be able to see the visual mapping on the site if you’d like. You can follow along on there or if you’re listening in your car, you can just visualize based on what I’m telling you. Deconstructing Elon Musk: The Childhood Trauma Most people are familiar with Elon Musk. He’s a rather polarizing person. He’s someone who won’t stop talking about going to Mars and now the moon. He’s someone who created an empire. He owns Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, now X, the Boring Company, and X AI. He’s had some romances. He’s currently not married and he has a lot of children. What most people don’t know is what I actually found out in the map showing why all of this is happening. And again, because audio is literally linear, meaning you talk in a straight line, you stop it. You can’t go into branches and things like that. It’s a little harder in audio to tell you what something on a screen can tell you, but I’ll do the best I can. When he was young, the family dog bit him. It was actually a pretty vicious bite, but he was terrified that the dog was going to be put down. He needed medical attention, but he kept refusing it because he said, “You need to promise you’re not going to put the dog down.” Unfortunately, they put the dog down. And this was a very traumatic thing. And I can imagine for myself, and I’m sure you’re thinking about this, too, that’s a very traumatic thing to have to go through. You blame yourself. You think, well, maybe there’s something I could have done to not have the dog bite me. It’s horrible, horrible feeling. And it’s a feeling of losing something and someone that’s really important to you. You feel like you’re literally responsible for the death of a living creature. and that you have no control. So imagine that. It puts a pretty strong pleasure center. It puts a pretty strong unicorn in place that says, “Hey, follow me and you’ll have more control. You want more control.” Yes, I want more control. As with a lot of things, sometimes you also have the opposite in place. You have a monster that says, “It really feels bad to lose control.” And I’m sure you can understand that. I’m sure there are times in your life when you’ve lost control for some reason and you vowed to never lose that control again. Whether you were placed in a very unfortunate position due to your job or relationship or or even in your childhood The Teenage Existential Crisis when he was a teenager and we all remember just how wonderful and clear thinking we were as teenagers. He read both Shopenhau and Nietzsche. And I’ll tell you that Nichi is actually on my wall among five other people. But it’s not exactly something you would read out loud at like a children’s birthday party. So for him, he deeply regretted reading that stuff because it created in him an existential crisis. And imagine that’s essentially what being a teenager is, is having an existential crisis. You you question life. you’re halfway between being an adult and being a child. So reading that created in him a monster of avoiding the feeling of having existential dread and personal meaninglessness. We all want purpose in our life. Imagine removing that as a teenager. Imagine questioning all of that and saying, “Oh my god, this feels terrible. I I I can’t experience this.” So, conversely, it creates the unicorn that makes it feel really good when you feel purpose and meaning. It’s the same one most of us would have. The Scars of Bullying and Humiliation When he was in school, he was severely bullied and beaten basically to the point of not being recognizable. Some of us were bullied, maybe all of us were bullied. And it tends to shape us sometimes in bad ways and sometimes in good ways. But to compound this, when he came home to his father, his father blamed him for this and made him stand for 2 hours while he bered him and called him a loser. How would you respond to that? How would you psychologically speaking respond to that so that it would never happen to you again? You would have a monster that would be very strong in making sure you avoid humiliation and being vulnerable. And from the bullying, obviously you would have a monster that would say, “I’m never going to be bullied again. Never.” This is probably the first time you’re hearing about a lot of this stuff. Probably what you tend to hear about Elon Musk is his purchase or he makes a decision that you think is chaotic or egotistical. you’ve probably never heard any of this other stuff unless you have read his bio or multiple bios and things like that. Connecting the Trauma to the Billionaire’s Actions So, now that you know the monsters and unicorns that he has in place, what actions did these cause? Well, let’s go through them. If you’re trying to avoid the pain of bullying and the monster keeps getting in the way and saying, “You’re going to be bullied. Don’t do that.” Wouldn’t you be a bit combative on social media? Wouldn’t you make sure that in an interview you’re not going to be bullied? Wouldn’t you make sure that when you are dealing with the feds or other court systems or other CEOs that you would tend not to back down? In fact, maybe even not back down even when it’s to your detriment. If you’re avoiding the pain and fear of scarcity because of what happened with your dog and that you had no control over that, and you’re avoiding the pain of humiliation and especially vulnerability and bullying because of the place you’re in as someone who is almost a trillionaire, would it not affect your approach on forming a family? If you are married and have children, you are in a position of vulnerability. You have more vulnerability right now than someone who, let’s say, doesn’t have children or isn’t married. If you’re in a loving relationship, that’s part for the course. It comes with the territory. It’s something you welcome. But if you combine a fear of scarcity and you’ve developed a sort of pleasure for having absolute sovereignty and control of any and all outcomes and you have a terrible monster that makes it feel horrible. If you are losing control, you would be in a unique position to want to perpetuate the human race, but not in a traditional way that causes vulnerability. which is why he has 14 children across four different women and he is presently not married to any of them. This monster for avoiding pain and the fear of scarcity, working together with this pleasure of having absolute sovereignty and control and this extremely strong unicorn pulling him towards the feeling of purpose and meaning would obviously lead him to the creation of Space X so that he could continue to make the race multilanetary. Oh, and that monster telling him that scarcity feels bad, he helps as well. And guess who’s also looking over his shoulder? The monster that’s avoiding him having the feeling of existential dread and personal meaninglessness. You’re definitely listening to that monster if you are trying to perpetuate the human race on another planet. If you are avoiding losing control and you certainly enjoy the absolute sovereignty of being able to change the outcome and you enjoy the feeling of purpose and meaning and you’re terrified of having existential dread and personal meaninglessness, would you not purchase the most well-known social media platform in your attempt, at least according to you, to save free speech? Mapping Your Own Monsters and Unicorns Whether you’re a fan or not of Elon, whether you’re completely neutral or not, you can’t help but empathize with some of the things I’ve described. And like I said, you’re more likely to think of you than of him in these situations. What would you do? What have you experienced? What emotional turmoil have you gone through? What horrible things have you gone through in your childhood, in your teens, and even in your adult life that have shaped who you are? Those things just don’t go away. They stay wit

  2. MAR 5

    The Dark Side of Repetition & What’s Really Causing Your Pain

    Well, hey there. Welcome back. Let’s talk about the dark side of things. I don’t mean the dark side of everything, even though that sounds kind of exciting, doesn’t it? Okay, let’s rewind. The Psychology of Motivation: Monsters and Unicorns My recent book because talks about fundamental building blocks. In simple terms, it’s built on Freud’s pleasure principle. And in simple terms, Freud’s pleasure principle states that we basically do everything based on two sort of drivers. One is to seek pleasure in all forms and to avoid pain in all forms. These two driving factors are neither good nor bad. They are neutral and sometimes they’re used to great success and sometimes they’re used to your detriment. In the book, I take those semi-intangible concepts and I give them a face. The avoiding pain takes the form of a monster. The seeking pleasure takes the form of a unicorn. But the book goes farther than that. I then go on to talk about something that really separates all high achievers from everyone else. And that is essentially repetition. And there are many books out there and I cite some of them talking about this repetition and how you become an Olympic athlete by repeating. But the thing that everyone else forgets about or ignores is, well, how do they repeat so much? What drives them to repeat? And of course, it’s the monsters and the unicorns. The Secret Weapon of High Achievers And I have always said to myself, or rather recently, whatever you repeat, you enhance, you create, and you achieve. At least that’s what I tell myself. And that’s what because is about. It’s about repeating something over and over and over again. And and it doesn’t have to be a 4 secondond action. It can be something that’s fairly long term, something that takes days or something that requires a lot of nuance, but if you continue at it and repeat it and repeat it and repeat it and stick at it, you will achieve it. You can do great things this way. You can make amazing changes this way. But like the monsters and the unicorns, repetition is neutral. Think about that. The very concept of repetition doesn’t carry with it good or bad. It doesn’t carry with it constructive or destructive. It’s both and neither. So swimming almost constantly will make you a better swimmer. Practicing speaking will make you a better speaker. Studying and practicing repetitively and diligently will get you your realtor license, your pilot license, etc. The Dark Side of Repetition: How Unconscious Habits Hurt Us But my friends, let’s talk about the dark side. The dark side of repetition. And you know what’s interesting about that is that from a lot of people’s perspective, the dark side is actually what they know better. And I’m not saying it’s because they live in the dark side of repetition, but it’s because that sort of has been their perception of it. Stop making that face. If you keep making that face, it’s going to stay that way. Do you remember that? Did your parent ever say that to you? How many of you grind your teeth? It’s also called bxism. That’s a repetitive thing that people do with their teeth where they just clench down or they grind them side to side and it has tremendous negative impact on your health. Ergonomics is based partially on people repeatedly doing something that’s bad for their body. You can sit in a bad chair for a little while and not a lot’s going to happen. But if you spend hours and hours in a chair that’s slightly tilted or lifts your legs off the floor and puts a lot of pressure on your arteries and so forth, it can have really devastating health effects just just from sitting. You can eat good food and even in smaller portions, but if you eat it fast, it can also affect your health. Eating it fast once isn’t going to do a lot, but every time you eat, if you eat fast, it’s going to affect you. You will find or probably have found that you have aches and pains that are actually caused by you. And they’re caused by you in a way that is just repetitious. It’s, for example, I had an issue with my ankle for a while. I didn’t know where it was coming from. It it really hurts and I couldn’t remember doing anything to it. I couldn’t, you know, I would I would go work out. I’ i’d run and all that stuff. I wasn’t doing it incorrectly. Something was going on. And I found that when I would work at my desk sometimes, I would sort of let my ankle flop over to the right. So, I’m putting all this tremendous pressure on it just because that sort of felt, and you can see the quotes, felt comfortable. But what I was doing is hyperextending some things and really causing some damage. So I just had to become aware of that. I mean, it’s the same thing with even crossing your legs, squishing up your your hand and arms at night and tucking them in so that you’re constantly woken up with tingles and things because you’re sort of squishing up like a dead spider. This extends to the way you speak, the negative self-t talk, the way that you interact with others, preconceived notions that you continue to repeat, and the list goes on and on. I mean, how many times in your life have you had this thought? Oh my god, I did it again. How to Predict Your Triggers and Break the Loop If you’ve ever had that, it can be really frustrating because it’s something you do repeatedly that you probably can’t even predict. And that seguays us into the next section, which is, okay, we’re aware of this, Mark. Now, what do we do about it? Well, predicting your habits or just embracing something you do and saying, wait a second. I think I’m probably going to do that again. I’m about to eat. I should probably somehow figure out how I cannot eat fast. I’m hungry. I shouldn’t suddenly impulsively say I want three times as much food because right now I’m really hungry. That sounds really good. I’m sitting in my chair. Do I have the right chair? And if I do, am I sitting in some weird way that I think is comfortable or compensates when I’m stressed? I’m working on something intensely. What am I doing with my jaw and my teeth right now? I keep squinting my eyes. Do I just need different glasses or am I sitting too close to my screen? I seem to have a headache every day at the same time. What is it that I’m doing? Having a little bit of forethought can help dramatically. And I guess that’s one of the pluses of this repetition. It’s going to repeat. So, at least it’s sort of on a predictable schedule. And as I talk about in my micro seminar, do it to a fault. Things that you do can be attached not just to time, but to actions and feelings. So you might just do something when you’re feeling a certain way. It can even be when you have joy. You might do something around the same time or you might do something around the same activity. The whole concept of triggers essentially is described in what I just said. And in fact, there’s a section of the book because it talks about triggers that they’re your monsters and unicorns that sort of raise their hand and say, “Hey, I’m here. Just so you know, I’m going to be doing this thing.” So, give some thought to your repetition in your life. It is one of the most powerful things that you can use from a from a 30,000 ft view. Repetition in general is an amazing thing and it can do amazing good and amazing harm. So let’s try to limit the harm. Let’s nip that stuff in the bud and let’s try to use it for good. Outro If this made sense to you, then check out my over 300 other episodes that talk about interesting things like this. If you know someone who you think would benefit from this quick 10-minute podcast, feel free to forward it to them as well. And thank you as always for listening. And feel free to provide any feedback. Take care. Want a proven tool in your asernal for getting things done? try CheckMark™, the no-install todo list that lives on your phone and your desktop. It’s completely free. BONUS: The excersizes mentioned in this episode can be instantly copied to your checklist clipboard.

    10 min

  3. FEB 25

    Conflict resolution in just three words

    Tell me the problem in three words. Well, hey there. Welcome back. The “Favorite Three” Listening Game Today I want to talk to you about something that was a communication tool and kind of a game. And it all centers around the number three. When my kids were younger, I used to play a game with them in the car. And the game was Favorite Three. And it was such a natural hit that we would use it at parties.. And it really is kind of a not only a cool icebreaker, but it’s sort of a demonstrator of how well people listen. It’s a game you can play with your staff and in meetings, too. If you have a staff meeting and you’re waiting, you can play Favorite Three. It kind of sharpens your mind a little bit in the process, too. So, here’s how this works. Favorite three basically means you pick your three favorite things. Someone asks you your favorite three things. I mean you can say what’s your favorite dog breed? What’s your favorite Italian food? And what is your favorite state? You go around the room and people answer. They don’t say well my favorite state is… No. In the order that they were asked they need to answer. Usually, there’s a long pause while people’s gears are turning. Seriously, try this. So, the person asking the question names the person who needs to answer and they start and go around in a circle. Many times people actually forget and they’ll say, “Well, wait, what was the second one?” It’s literally three things that you have to remember, but for some reason, for some people, it’s actually quite hard to keep track. So in the example that I just said, the next person would say hopefully husky pizza Colorado and then it would go to the next person and so forth. And those people are devoid of context. They just know the answers of the person in front of them. all the amazing things that we do in life, all the things that we can work through, reading entire novels and keeping track of screenplays and and all the complexities of your job, you may actually have difficulty with that. So, play it at your next event and tell me how it goes. Using Three Words for Conflict Resolution So, here’s the other thing centering around the number three. This helps in conflict resolution. And again, this is something that I used with my kids when there’s a conflict or when they had a conflict and there was a lot of back and forth. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of two people talking over each other and screaming and emotions and things like that. I would pick one to start and I would say, “Tell me the problem in three words.” That was it. And then the other person would go and tell me the problem in three words. And it’s really easy to figure out which person is stuck in their emotions and which person is just trying to convey a point. And it’s all because of the three words that they choose. And this is something you can do in your relationship. I mean, if you’ve been married 20 years, you can still do this and say, you know, tell me in three words. Now, people don’t like to have their communication filtered, adjusted, or controlled. So, it may be difficult for some personality types, especially in the heat of the moment, if you tell them, “No, you’re not allowed to communicate to me in sentences. You need to tell me that in three words.” So, use carefully and wisely. But even in your job, if you need to do conflict resolution, this may be really eye opening and you think, “Mark, they’re just going to take three verbs.” No, they’re really not. You’ll be shocked at which words they choose, especially the first time. And when they sort of get the gist of it, they’ll choose better words. They’ll say, “Ah, okay, I need to clarify.” M. And it’s that focus on the cerebral act of clarifying which allows for the emotions to leak out to go away because the focus is on communicating now instead of you know sarcasm or taking a shot at the other person and so forth. You don’t have the room for it. You literally have three words to use and don’t waste them. People aren’t going to use he is idiot. they’re going to choose other things. Okay? A Real-World HR Example: Manager vs. Creative And again, you may be thinking, “Well, this is kind of rudimentary, Mark.” No, it really is a different way to get your brains to communicate. Let me give you an example. Imagine you have a manager and someone who’s uh creative underneath them, someone who’s producing something and there’s there’s a conflict and there’s always a conflict between them and you don’t understand because they both for the most part are are fairly stellar in in their work and the work ethic, but you have them in your office because you’re the HR person and you get the creative to tell you what the problem is and the creative starts to go on and on and on about stuff and personalities and you go, “No, no, no, give me the three words.” And the creative thinks for a second and says work, frustration, recognition. Doesn’t that tell you a lot? Doesn’t that tell you a lot in just three words? The person is frustrated because their work isn’t recognized. They They’re not asking for a raise necessarily. They’re not even saying anything negative about their manager, but they’re frustrated because they work really hard. And so let’s say in this hypothetical situation, the manager goes, “Wow.” Because the manager probably didn’t even realize that, but he now has to answer himself and he thinks for a moment and he says, “And uh hours um uh documentation deadline.” And so when he may be asked to expand on that, it’s that the person under him isn’t really documenting their work. So it’s kind of hard to recognize what’s gone in on the back end. And perhaps that person also isn’t great about tracking their hours, which again makes it frustrating for the manager to say, “Well, I I don’t know how much time or effort you spent on this. I I don’t I don’t know.” Now, as an aside, this is usually a disconnection between the departments, departments like, you know, like sales and the people who actually accomplish the things the salespeople are selling or managers and creatives and all that stuff. Sometimes there’s a disconnection that really shouldn’t be there because they should have a better grounded understanding of what’s involved to create the product, whether it’s a a service or whether it’s a a tangible item. So that’s an aside. But do you see how forcing a minimum of words can make a huge difference in a conversation? How Word Scarcity Forces Clarity And I am sure that in the annals of HR and and and employee relations, there are tons of things like this. But I’m just telling you from a personal standpoint, I have used this and it’s been really amazing. In fact, I’ve used it on myself as I do with many things that I have tried to get myself to be concise about using just three words and three is really a cool number. It’s more than two and you know what? It’s less than four. So, right then out of the gate, it’s it’s a good number. So, my challenge for you would be to first of all see if you can facilitate conversation like this in a conflict. And again, if you if there are any bruises involved, I I I’m giving you a warning that if someone has really high emotions, this may not be the best thing to use at first. But it also may be good as a tool for you in a case where you are just sort of feeling kind of strung out and and frustrated and you don’t know where your head is on certain things. Now, you could use my UPS method and see the episode on UPS, but with this in mind, you can actually just use the three words to force yourself to just say, “Okay, I need to express this in three words.” And it’s pretty cool because typically one of the words is going to reflect a feeling, one is going to be an action, one might be a state of being, but you’re not going to get three words that basically mean the same because they’re so precious. And you’re going to choose you or they are going to choose words that really convey a lot of meaning or power because again scarcity creates this sort of thing. And you know when it comes to words and language and talking there’s not a lot of scarcity there. I myself force scarcity in this podcast. And that’s why we only have a minute left because I won’t let myself go over 10 for the most part. So, play the two games of three and let me know what the outcome is. I’d love to know the situation. Was it personal? Was it with your kids? Was it HR related? Was it business related? Did it actually help you to express yourself even in marketing materials in which you have a marketing material and you’re like, you know, there’s paragraphs here. This is too much. And I I want to inject this. There’s a very specific rule about presentations, PowerPoint, and so forth that people regularly break, and that is keep the text to a minimum, but people typically have paragraphs and and whole books up on the screen where just three words would make a big difference. Outro So, please try this out and let me know. And as always, I appreciate you listening. Take care.

    11 min

  4. FEB 1

    Why your resolutions failed and how to fix that.

    If your resolutions failed this is why, and this is how you can have success in 2026. The New Year’s Resolution Check-In It’s February 1st. How did you do on your New Year’s resolutions? I know. I know. Here we go. But it’s not something I’m ever going to stop talking about. and we’ve had at least one, if not two or more episodes on New Year’s resolutions and how I feel about them. So, let’s just jump into it, shall we? If you’re a longtime listener, you know that I try to compress a lot of conversation. And I say conversation because I feel like you get to say something and think something. I compress a lot of that into 10 minutes. And one of the ways I do that is by using pause. And I think it’s an amazing tool to be able to use. So, I say something and then I ask you to pause and then you have infinite amount of time to think about or work through what I just said and then you restart it again. So, we’re going to do this a lot this time and it’s going to be based on this sound. If you recognize that sound, it’s the sound you get when you check off an item in check mark. So, how did you do on your New Year’s resolutions so far considering that the entire month of January has passed? If your answer was not great, then why do you think that is? Give that some thought. So, do you think it was because you didn’t try hard enough or because of something else? Well, let me tell you this. If you decided to stop doing a thing, like I’m not going to be late anymore or doing a thing a lot more, then you’re only considering the action itself. The Limits of Free Will and Willpower And the action is always motivated by seeking pleasure or avoiding pain. And now you’re going to say, “But Mark, we’re not just some tiny binary combination of fervently seeking pleasure and running away from pain.” Well, that’s not what Freud found. That’s not what I found. And that’s not what the monsters and unicorns told me. But Mark, we have free will, don’t we? Um, yeah, kind of. Kind of, sort of. Um, but it depends on your definition because our free will is modified by those constantly running programs. If you’re late all the time, there’s a reason behind the action. And that’s literally what the word because means, the reason for the action, which is why I called the book BeCAUSE!. And you can say, well, Mark, I can just do it. I just have to do it. So then you’re describing using your strength of will. And strength of will is very powerful. Well, it’s sort of powerful by itself. What happens if you say, “Look, I have this thing that really annoys me. Um, I’m I’m not going to do that anymore. Period.” and you go, I’m exerting my free will right now and my strength of will. Well, what your strength of will is going to then do is it’s going to panic and be going, “Okay, we’re doing this, but man, this is tiring and oh my god, I can’t do this constantly. There’s got to be some reason why. What? There’s got to be some reason to allow me to do this. There’s got to be some motivation.” And then the monsters and unicorns kick in. The seeking pleasure and the avoiding pain. That’s how you get it done. That’s it in a nutshell. That’s how these things happen. So if you say, “I don’t want to be late anymore. You can try to use your strength of will, but your strength of will will search around for something or someone to help it.” And both the monsters and the unicorns, the seeking pleasure, the avoiding pains, can help together. You can actually have multiple unicorns and multiple monsters holding hands together to get it done. And in fact, most of those insurmountable things that you have done in your life that you look back on and you go, “How? Oh my god, how did I even do that?” They were because you were holding hands with monsters and unicorns at the time. Identifying the Motivation Behind Your Successes So then, let’s think about this with the next pause. If you were able to adhere to a New Year’s resolution this year and it has gone successfully and continues to do so, and now that you’ve done the 30-day mark, you’re pretty sure this is set in stone, think about the why of it. What was the reason behind that action? Okay, if you’re one of the lucky ones who actually did make a difference in your life, even if it’s a tiny one, you think, well, this was kind of trivial, but you know, I’m really glad I don’t do that. I’m really glad I decided not to always finish my plate even if I’m not hungry. I’m really glad that I eat slower or I’m more sensible or that I show up on time or what have you. You have just identified the monster andor unicorn that helped you. So, here’s a crazy thought. What if you could identify the monster and the unicorn before you know what action it’s modifying? Finding Your Recurring Monsters and Unicorns Because you will find with your monsters and unicorns, and again, seeking pleasure, avoiding pain for those who don’t like the mental image, but I love the mental image. Thank you very much. You’ll find that a certain unicorn keeps showing up. A certain monster keeps showing up. And they’re responsible for multiple things in your life. They’re responsible for multiple good things that you’re proud of. They’re responsible for multiple bad things that you’re not so thrilled with. Yeah. I tend to such and such. Right. Let’s do this. What What feeling or thing tends to make you look at the ground and go, “Yeah, I tend to da da da. It’s something I deal with. Okay, let’s do the opposite. What thing do you do that you say, “Well, yeah, I really like such and such.” And it seems to affect things. If you’ll notice, I was sort of vague with both of those things because again, monsters and unicorns can modify behavior in such a way as to make you do something that you are proud of or make you do something you’re not so proud of because neither is good, neither is bad. They are just programmatic features of the way our psyche works. You can get a lot of absolute joy in helping children or helping people learn or giving. You can get that same absolute joy in having a lot more ice cream than you should. Or deciding that dinner was delicious. I’m going to keep eating cuz oh my god, is this great and fun. Or it’s so much more fun to not work than to work. And again, the same is true for monsters. It can give you an absolutely terrible feeling to feel that you’re not being a good friend. But it can also give you an absolute terrible feeling to feel that you don’t want to work anymore. I don’t want to work anymore because working makes me feel like this. And that’s the same way it makes you feel when you’re a bad friend. What? Right? Because they’re neutral. Clarity Through Identifying Your Drivers I can’t stress enough, even though you may disagree, I can’t stress enough that these driving forces need to be identified in your life. And once they are identified, a lot of things will give you tremendous clarity. And I can tell you with my coaching system that I built, and it’s not just a system, but it’s a system the the I’m meaning a system as a way of doing things, but a system as a programatical thing I made online. So anyway, I’ve actually modified that system that has worked really well to include the concept of monsters and unicorns seeking pleasure and avoiding pain to make it a lot easier to help me to identify the paths and the ways for people to succeed. You can do the same for yourself without involving me. If you want to involve me, that would be awesome. But you don’t have to involve me. You can do it yourself if you identify the monsters and the unicorns. And again, if you’ve had some failure with New Year’s resolutions and you’ve and you’ve said, “I made that New Year’s resolution this year again,” then you know that you’re targeting a behavior and not targeting the things that power the behavior. And power is really an uh apppropo word. All the energy to do a thing comes from that. Pleasure and pain generate energy. They can both generate the same amount of energy but in different ways and with different feels to it. What Will You Do Differently? So one last pause for us. So my question is now that we’ve discussed this and now that you’ve thought through your New Year’s resolutions and maybe you did indeed come up with one that really you hit a wall on knowing about the monsters and the unicorns, what will you do different to attack this issue? Well, all righty then. I think we had a really good conversation this time. I really do. So, thank you as always for listening. Take a look at BeCAUSE! it’s a quick read and it makes a lot of sense. And um keep listening and if you think this was worth sharing, please do so. I would really appreciate that. And happy February.

    10 min

  5. JAN 24

    Taking the “fun” out of “funnel.”

    The Discomfort of the Sales Funnel Have I said how funnels feel icky to me? Well, hey there. Welcome back. Do you like funnels? I don’t mean like for refilling your oil or delicious funnel cakes. I mean, well, let’s let’s talk about this. So, as many of you know, there’s a concept called the sales funnel. It’s a process where you get someone into a process and kind of help them along the way to purchase your product. Now, you don’t see this that often with physical products. There’s a whole different way of dealing with that, but you do see it for services, especially certain kinds of services. And sure enough, if it’s a service that kind of gives you pause, it’s probably one that has a funnel associated with it. Funnels don’t feel good, no matter how well they’re built. And if you’re like me, you know right away when you’re in one. Are you in one now? Are you thinking that right now that by listening to my podcast, you’re in my funnel? Because if you’re listening to the podcast, doesn’t it mean that you’re starting to kind of buy into how uh I approach things, which means you might actually buy one of my books and then you might actually hire me to speak or to coach you. So, Mark, isn’t this a funnel? Well, not intentionally. I mean, there’s nothing making you move forward. Nothing in this podcast builds momentum. There is a bumper at the end right when you normally turn it off that says, “Hey, if you like this, you know, you can buy my books or do this or do that or whatever, but it’s not really a funnel. My books tell you a little bit about the other stuff that I do, but mostly they just say, “Hey, here’s the other stuff I do.” And uh if you want to rate this, that’d be great. I don’t go out of my way when it comes to coaching people to shove them into a funnel either to get them to pay, to get them to buy. I want them to make an informed decision. So, does that make me definitely not an expert on funnels? It definitely makes me someone who doesn’t construct them very well because I’m too focused on the product. Funnels vs. Professional Processes Attorneys don’t really need a sales funnel because they have sort of a a process in place. You go talk to \ the receptionist or their secretary and then make a plan to have a consult and then go from there. There are engagement letters and so forth. The same is true for real estate. If if you’re looking at a home, then typically the site you’ve looked at the home on is already tracking you, your IP address, everything. It’s very detailed and it’s kind of cool and it’ll keep reaching out to you and touching you and saying, “Hey, uh, you know, you looked at this 3 days ago, blah blah blah.” So, that’s a a funnel. A Personal Encounter with a Pushy Funnel Having said all of that, let me tell you about the experience I just had which is prompted me to do this for you. As you know, if you’re an avid listener that some of these recordings are 10 minutes long about things like this that we can learn together with and some of these recordings are about an hour long and there are people that I find super interesting that I hope you find as interesting. Sometimes I have to pursue someone for a while and it’s just because they’re very popular. They’re public figures. They’re busy. they have a certain kind of schedule or, you know, they may need a little bit more vetting of me to finally get back to me. But all in all, it it works pretty well. And again, as I said in the CEO mindset, people of the kind of mindset that I typically ask on the show where people will say, “Okay, let’s do it.” And then 2 days later, we’re doing it. In addition to having people on my show, I typically appear on other podcasts and shows. So, every so often I’m approached and I have a service uh that I use and every so often I get an email that says, “Hey, would you like to be on the show?” and and so on so forth. And different people have different processes. Some people are like me where they are the booker as well as the person conducting the interview. So, other some people have some buffers in between. Well, I recently agreed to one of these fact-finding 15-minute meetings only to find that the meeting was actually 30 minutes and only 15 minutes was spent on me and the rest of the time was trying to shove me into this person’s funnel in which this person sort of sold something that they believed I would benefit from. and it only cost $10,000. Now, for me, they would do $9,000. It was obvious to me from the moment the first question was asked, I knew that question had nothing to do with my appearance on the show and had everything to do with this funnel. Have I said how funnels feel icky to me? because I’m naively under the belief that you can actually have a customer interaction in which you sort of vet them while they’re vetting you and you’re not shoving them into a funnel. Because again, I think a funnel is something different than a process. A process is just saying, “Hey, you know, I kind of I kind of want to talk to you. You seem to be interested.” And you could argue and say, “Well, Mark, that is a funnel.” But a funnel by its physical shape kind of shows you how you get to the point where you’re falling. You’re you’re you’re you’re trapped. You’re you’re being plunged faster and faster until the end of it. The Financial Pressure Cooker And that’s how I felt for a number of minutes. At the very tip of this funnel, where I was swirling at nearly the speed of light, I was then told that I could pay for this using credit cards and that I should put the total on a credit card to give to them. And then I should put that total from that credit card onto another credit card and keep rolling it around. And that way I could, and I quote, avoid the interest. Oh, now correct me if I’m wrong, if you disagree with me, but if you’re telling someone how to pay for something and you’re coming up with very clever ways to do it, you’re not really focusing on the process or the solution. Now, of course, if you have a payment plan in place, if it’s something that you can do via subscription, if you have various products, and everyone does. Everyone from real estate to banking and so forth, typically have some sort of product or financial product. People who sell higher ticket items typically partner with merchant accounts. The very basic level is that you accept credit cards and then it gets better from there. you actually accept bank transfers and you actually accept different kinds of payment methods like Apple Pay and so on and so forth. Even in banking, there are products or different kinds of savings accounts. But if you’re wrangling someone to sort of go into a gray area financially, you know, sometimes very not that often, I I sort of wish I did the video portion of this because you’d see the look on my face. It was just incredible. Integrity Over Tactics So, I think this is a really spicy lesson for for myself and and for other people. If you do have something like a service that is sold using what you call a funnel or your boss calls a funnel or your company calls a funnel, then I think it’s the most mindful thing to do to consider how your customer sees it. Does your customer see the funnel or is it invisible? I’m sure there are people who are sales experts who talk about that all the time where they say if you can’t see the selling then you’re doing it right. I don’t know how to make you a million dollars overnight. I do know how to show you how to have integrity and to have a good product. I can tell you that human beings want to be treated as human beings. And I can tell you that you, someone who’s listening to this podcast, is probably someone who knows all of that right now. It’s probably how you conduct yourselves. You are probably someone who really does operate with integrity that you will probably even pass up what some would consider to be an easy sale because you know in the long run it’s probably not a good fit for your client and might actually cause some hardship. So I want to say if you’re that kind of person and my bet is on the fact that you definitely are that kind of person and kudos to you. Kudos to you for having integrity and trying to just have the best product or service or both and not the best funnel and thanks for allowing me to share that with you. I appreciate you Thought-Provoking Questions About Your Sales Funnel Does your sales process feel like a helping hand or a trap door? Think about the customer journey. Is it a series of informed decisions they make willingly, or does it feel like they are being pushed faster and faster toward a transaction they might not be ready for? Is your funnel “visible” to the customer? Can your potential client feel the mechanics of the sale happening to them? If they can sense that your questions are designed solely to qualify them for a sale rather than to understand their needs, the integrity of the interaction is compromised. Are you prioritizing the product or the payment method? If a significant portion of your sales conversation is spent explaining clever or gray-area financial gymnastics to afford your service, have you lost focus on the value of the solution itself? Would you pass up an easy sale for the sake of integrity? If your funnel works too well and captures people who aren’t actually a good fit, do you have the integrity to let them go, or does the system demand you close the deal regardless of the long-term hardship it might cause the client? Would you think a simple to-do list that allows you to throw things into the future for follow up would help you feel less pressured to keep nagging people? If so, check out checkmark.

    10 min

  6. JAN 15

    The Last Episode

    Transcript of episode: Well, hey there. Welcome back. Why We Remember Firsts But Miss the Lasts There’s a lot of talk about the first time you do something. You remember your first time at something. But the reverse isn’t exactly true because it takes a bit of time to realize it truly was the last time because in some cases there’s a chance you might do it again. But thinking back on the last time can be rather jarring, emotionally draining, but sometimes can make you smile. Sometimes it can make you sad. There was a last time that you rode your bike as a 12-year-old. You put in the garage or or just put it down against the fence or what have you and that was it. You never rode it again. There was the last time you played with your Legos and then they got packed up and that was it. And yes, I know there are tons of adults now that do Lego stuff, so maybe not the best example. There was a last time that you did an art project as a kid. A last time that you wrote in a old paper journal with your favorite pen. A last time that you had a certain treat that your grandmother used to make. There was a last time you slept alone or a last time you slept with a partner. A last time you heard the laughter of your children when they were little. Even the last time you flipped a burger before you hung up your hat and went on to bigger and better things. Thinking about first times is easy because you can only have first time at something once. Your first kiss, your first love, your first time trying something. When you’re a beginner learning something, it’s your first time setting foot in a new area or even a new piece of software. If you do it again, you know it’s not your first time because you’ve already done it. But the last time is a little more difficult to record because as I said, you you don’t think about it at the time because at the time you think you’re going to do it again at some point because you’re used to doing it over and over again. But it truly becomes the last time until you look back on it 10, 15, 20, 50 years later. The Sudden Finality of Loss: Reflections on Recent Goodbyes What made me really think of this is in the last couple days, two people I knew have passed away. And for both of them, I thought I was going to be able to speak to them again. I didn’t realize the last time I talked to them was literally the last time. One of them was Scott Adams, someone uh that I had interviewed. And though I knew of his declining health, I was hopeful that we were going to talk again and sort of catch up on things. The other was a longtime client of mine, someone I’d got to know. I’d got to know both he and his wife, and I very much appreciated seeing them interact in front of me as I was interacting with them for business purposes. I always got a kick out of him and them and it was almost sitcom-esque in the way the environment felt with always being a happy ending in which I was waiting for the studio audience to start clapping and laughing. The sense of loss that we feel at a funeral is not just missing the person, but it’s the realization that you cannot interact again. that everything was a last time. Any and every interaction you’ve ever had with that person is the last final time you’ve had it. Living in a Culture of “Do-Overs” and Reboots That finality is something that we don’t experience that often in life. In fact, one could say a lot of our current culture, especially powered by social media, is one that really doesn’t allow for finality because there’s always a doover. You can always go back and rewatch something. There’s always a revival, a reboot, and what have you. Sometimes we don’t truly appreciate the finality in which life moves. It’s something to respect, to expect, and to I guess appreciate on a level. And it makes me wonder just what aspects of life we are ignoring the finality of. What parts of life are we moving in? Business, personal relationships, what have you, in which there’s some finality. there’s a last time that we aren’t really appreciating. If you’re in a relationship that doesn’t seem like it’s going to end, do you think about the last time, the last embrace, the last brushing by someone as you walk through the kitchen? If you have a client, do you think about the last project, the project you’re on right now? Is this it? Is this the last project I’m ever going to do for them? The last representation in court, the last design, the last article. Finding the Balance Between Morbidity and Gratitude Does this sense of finality make us morbid? Well, perhaps that’s what causes us to avoid indulging ourselves in it too often. We have an awareness of it, but we don’t want to live it daytoday. We don’t want to live in fear and in aversion to this thing just abruptly ending it. It’s not a way to live. But the other book end that we’re squeezed between is the one in which we completely ignore the possibility of finality. If you go through life thinking everything is futile, that what’s the point? it’s just going to end anyway. You create for yourself a relatively cold and miserable existence. But if you live on the opposite side of the spectrum in which you believe that everything is infinite and you can take things for granted, then you’re not truly embracing the importance and the magnitude of mortality. I think in my humble opinion that living somewhere in the middle is probably best that we are aware of the last times that happen but that we also embrace the present moment. A Personal Moment of Outsider Perspective I’ll tell you something odd. A long time ago, when my kids were little and I was married, in the middle of winter, I took out the garbage. And before I actually came back in the house, I stood outside in front of the window. They didn’t know I was watching. And with the very cold wind blowing, I looked inside of the house to them happily playing together and thought about what it was like to be an outsider, what it was like to be cut off from that. I did that on purpose because I wanted to see how that felt and I wanted to make sure I appreciated that it wasn’t my current position. I I never told them that I did that. In fact, this is the first time I’ve ever spoken about it in 10 plus years. And now my kids are grown up and moved out and I am now divorced. But at least at that time, it really drove the point home of what I had. And I appreciated that I did that. And I still appreciated that I did this regardless of the outcome. Preparing for the End to Appreciate the Now So even if it’s as simple as the last time you use your kurig or a favorite frying pan to a conversation with a dear loved one, the last time can really have meaning in your life. And if you stop to think about it before it’s the last time, it can not only make you appreciate things, but can prepare you for the actual last time. Who knows when the last time will be that you hear my voice on this podcast. I’d like to think it’s not this time. And I truly hope you keep listening. So, thank you. If it is your last time, I appreciate you. And if I’m going to see you again, I appreciate you as well. Take care of yourself. Thank you.

    10 min

  7. 12/28/2025

    Limitations

    You do less, but you get more. Well, hey there. Welcome back. Do you have any limitations? Oh, yes, of course you do. Let’s talk about them. And I think your first reaction is, “Well, here we go. We’re going to explore how I’m not good enough at something or how I don’t even do a thing.” Nope, we’re not doing that at all. In fact, we are going to look at why limitations are so important and how they actually make a product, a business, and a person better. What is this? Real life? Yes, I’m here to tell you yes, it is. The Danger of Trying to be Good at Everything in 2026 I read a book a while back called The Myth of Excellence. And one of the things it says in the book, and I’m paraphrasing, is the best way to sort of destroy your business and go out of business is to try to be good at everything. Years ago, I worked at a firm that had that same motto. And they tried to be good at everything and tell all of their clients that they could do anything and everything that their clients were asking. And they couldn’t. In their quest to be good at everything, they were essentially good at nothing. The Success of the 10-Minute Podcast Constraint When I started this podcast—and we are approaching 300 episodes in 2026—when I started it, the very first episode, I set a rule for myself. I set a limitation and the limitation was I would keep the episode if it was just me to about 10 minutes. I have adhered to that and every so often I go over to maybe 11 or 12 minutes and then I apologize profusely. That limitation has helped me to have a better show. It has helped me to have a show that’s better because it forces me to be more concise, but it also makes my show very different. When people find out that my show is only 10 minutes long, they’re shocked. And they’re shocked in a very pleasant way. They’re like, “Oh, I can digest that. Oh, I’ll just go empty the dishwasher and listen to your show.” “Oh, okay. Wow, that’s it.” I’ve had multiple people come to me and say, “Oh, yeah. I listen to like seven of your episodes.” Wow. Like so that’s really a cool thing that limitation has been very advantageous. Defining Strategic vs. Self-Improvement Limitations At the time of year that this podcast episode is coming out is we’re we’re we’re ending the year and it’s when everyone is making New Year’s resolutions and saying they’re going to be better and this and that. They’re probably looking at limitations as something they’re going to overcome. And yes, there are certain things that you want to improve. You want to be better at weight loss. You want to be better at at consistency at this that the other thing. Yes. So, you’re sort of overcoming your scale and you’re saying, “I want this to be a seven when it’s only a three right now.” That’s fine. What I’m talking about are limitations that are typically self-imposed for a reason. If you’re running a business and you set limitations, you will find that very comforting. You will create a sort of comfort zone for you, your skills, your people, and yourself. You can do that for yourself as well where you have a limitation in something that you do whether it’s well when people ask for rides or they ask for favors I have a limitation of such and such and it can help you to maintain consistency and integrity and you’re kind of shaking your head right now going wait I never really looked at it that way it’s a positive thing yes it’s an absolute positive thing. Maintaining Professional Integrity with Time Limits Getting back to my use of it when I interview people and I am exceeding exceedingly grateful for the chances I’ve had so far with interviewing people. When I interview people, I always start it by telling them when I first approach them, I’m only going to use an hour of your valuable time, no more. I promise. And I’m surprised at how many of those people view that as they they act like this is a new thing. Like no one has ever approached them for an interview and said, “Here’s our time limit.” And there are obvious reasons for that, right? If you are running a show and you get somebody that you think is going to be really good, you want to squeeze every single delicious minute out of them that you can. So, you are actually doing yourself a disservice in their shortsighted view of it of saying, “Hey, I I told the guy it was only an hour, but he was willing to go longer. Darn it. Why did I do that?” Well, if he is willing to go longer, then you can go longer. And I had a guest that easily did an hour and a half and wanted to actually do more where I actually had to push back and say, “You know what? Why don’t you come back?” So again, a limitation simply related to the podcast and timing. And I want to stress again that these limitations, unlike self-improvement limitations per se, are self-imposed limitations that have to do with something that you think is a good thing. Like for example, this is not, oh, I’m just going to limit myself to have only one and a half cakes. No, I’m not talking about like limiting your eating and things like that. Those are just that’s a different concept. This concept is there’s a thing that I do or enjoy or or could do, but I don’t. The Business Advantage of Scarcity and Brand Recognition Getting back to the business again, if you’re a creator and let’s say you create 3D printed objects, you may limit yourself to things that are not so fragile or things that are small or things that are really easy to ship. Can you create and print the larger things? Absolutely. Are those high ticket items? Absolutely. Are those things that people request? Sure. But you may just say, “No, I limit myself and I don’t do those. Maybe if I do a a in-person fair somewhere, I may print those and bring those with me. But when it comes to my online store, I limit myself to only doing the little tiny things.” Could Chick-fil-A be open on a Sunday? Yes, but they limit themselves and they’re not open on a Sunday. Not being open on a Sunday costs them an estimated 1 billion with a B dollars of revenue, but they actually gain more than that because it gives them more brand recognition. It increases scarcity because people think, “Oh, I want, oh, it’s closed. Oh, I better go there on Tuesday then.” So, it’s a net gain for them limiting themselves of actually not allowing their customers to buy their products on one day every single week. Hobby Lobby is the same way and they both create a certain image in the mind of many consumers, an image that they cannot create without creating that limitation. Setting Social Boundaries to Protect Your Time and Energy If they say, “Oh yeah, we have morals and ethics and this and we want our people to be taken care of.” Sure, any business can say that. But a business that actually forces itself to be closed on a specific day can say that you too can create that perception. And I don’t mean just a perception like it’s false. I mean a perception in other people of your behavioral patterns by enforcing a limitation. You can present yourself as someone who’s very friendly to your friends and say, “Oh yeah, I’ll help out anytime. Just call me.” Okay, but a lot of people say that. But if you say, “If you want me to help you, let me know.” but you’re going to give me some lead time or I can’t help you. It shows them that you’re serious. It shows them that you actually are committing to helping them, but they are going to also have to come step up to you and say, “Hey, you know, I didn’t just think of this out of nowhere. I actually need help and I’m going to do some planning.” You know, do emergencies happen? Of course. But I’m saying by pushing back and forcing a limitation on your kindness in a way it can help people to say, “Oh, he’s actually serious about that.” Conclusion: Why Doing Less Allows You to Get More Banks, restaurants, retail, etc., etc. The list goes on. There probably isn’t a business out there that doesn’t have a limitation that they self-imposed. There isn’t a business out there that some of the people in a round table, CEO, CFO, what have you, see people, marketing, what have you, sat down and said “well you know we could do this right?” and the answer was yes but we’re not going to and we’re not going to because it is a limitation that we are imposing and there’s usually push back of yes but we’ll see this increase in revenue yes but it’s just not part of our brand or it’s just moving forward not something we really want to do. Imposing limitations on yourself, your business, etc. can be extremely valuable. It can be something that reduces your stress, reduces your time, energy, and resources. Again, it’s one of those things I try to introduce in these podcasts where you do less, but you get more. And it shouldn’t work that way, but it does. So, what in your life is something that you intentionally or unintentionally have realized you’re setting a limitation on? And if you’re a business owner, this may be something that is a 50-page document, your operating agreement. Or if you’re a person running a human being, yourself or your children, it may be something that you’ve just come to realize is something that you do. So, what do you do? What what do you not do and why? It’s something worth looking into. And again, if you’re using the CheckMark™ app, then this podcast will automatically have its own little worksheet built in that you can click and copy to your clipboard and then kind of go through the homework of this. And it’s not homework per se, but it’s something that is a really cool thing that allows you to kind of go through review of this episode. And I I don’t really know of any other podcasts out there that that try to give you a lot of good information in 10 minutes and that

    11 min

  8. 12/20/2025

    Top 10 things you can do NOW to be successful in 2026

    Getting unstuck Before you can move forward, you have to get unstuck a bit. Part of being stuck is worrying. Some people are really really good at it. Oh I’m sorry I’m raising my hand. Check out the how can I stop worrying episode. Sometimes life can get you really stuck. Circumstances can be such that you really just wanna give up. I feel you. And mental health is a delicate subject. If you’ve ever thought of truly giving up, check out depression and throwing away the container. You may be stuck because you think everything you’re doing is failing or you lament all of your failures as 100% your responsibility. If that’s the case, then the reverse is also true. You are also 100% responsible for your successes. Perhaps it’s time to start taking responsibility for those. That’s such an odd sentence isn’t it? If it feels weird to say that out loud then you’ll benefit from the episode taking responsibility for the good in your life. Sometimes being stuck isn’t necessarily running into a wall, but rather being at a place with lack of direction. And that can manifest as feeling like you don’t have the energy or desire to do something or you literally don’t know what to do. I created a simple and very effective way to find your way back and in the process get something as a gift to yourself. If you’ve ever lost your way, check out the episode called UPS, my secret for avoiding depression being more productive. Growing If you want to grow in 2026 you may have to learn. You may find that there are things you know quite well in fact, so well you take it for granted. And in doing so that can make it both a challenge to learn and a challenge to teach. If you adopt a beginner mindset in which you are completely open to learning, it makes it a very enjoyable experience to learn new skills and it’ll make you an excellent teacher. Check out the beginner mindset makes you a better teacher. On a related note—a lot of people equate success with productivity. After all if you’re being productive, it means you feel good about what you’re doing and you’re producing something that at the bare minimum makes you happy and is aligned with you and hopefully it’s also profitable. It may surprise you that this is one of the times in your life in which selfishness is a really good thing. If you tailor your productivity selfishly to what really makes you happy you’ll end up with a really good product and maybe surprised at how many other people enjoy the benefits of this specificity. Check out why selfish productivity may be the best productivity. We tend to present our success as milestones, but we forget we built those milestones layer by layer. If your goal is to do a certain thing, but you ignore the steps to get there you’re making it much more difficult for yourself than it should be. Everything we do in life is layer by layer. It’s iterative. You can learn a great lesson about this by listening to live your life iteratively Gaining control & Managing your energy Part of moving forward in 2026 is probably gaining some control. If you don’t have any control over your environment or yourself, nothing is going to happen. Every so often I ask myself a question that drives me crazy until I answer it… and that driving myself crazy usually ends up with me manifesting an entire book after much research and experimentation. This time it manifested itself in the form of an app that runs on both your phone and your browser. Check out what I figured out in the episode I think I found the perfect question. We are bombarded with social media and we tend to compare our successes to others. How can we not when everything from LinkedIn to Instagram shows us just how happy and successful everyone else is. But the energy you put in to showing off is energy you’re not putting into improving. Check out the silence of success and after it, you may not be putting more effort into being successful, but your effort will be more effectively applied to what’s best for you. All work and no play as they say. I actually started this podcast because I needed to learn what balance was in life. It was a comment from a psychologist I was visiting with my very young kids because of the turmoil of what was happening in the household related to the divorce. I wanted to make sure they were OK. “But what are you doing for you,” she asked. That comment truly sent me on the path to find out what life was made of and how to have balance.  If you go into 2026 thinking you are going to work yourself to death and make something happen, you need to consider feeding more to your brain and your soul than just work. The problem is that people who tend to be high achievers don’t wanna just stare at a wall or trash TV to relax they need to be equally engaged. If you’re one of these special people then check out engagement fiction for your type a brain. Bonus. More items: Subscribe to this podcast. It’s free, and only ten minutes. Spotify, iTunes Youtube and my mailing list. Use the FREE gamified productivity app. The app is AMAZING. it’s a solid todo list with fantastic features you can use on your phone and your desktop. There’s nothing to install and as of February 2026 is free to everyone. Join the brand new Only a Glance dating site. There is no other dating site like it. It focuses on intentions and having integrity. No spammers, no scammers, and it is location based. If you match at a cafe you already know that’s where the person is willing to go. Actually meet singles in your zip code. It is a completely free dating site. Hire me to do a seminar at your company. My seminars are two hours or half day, draw from 10 books and 300 episodes of knowledge. Like getting a teacher that comes with his own library. I also have patent-pending behavior mapping software. Hire me to be your coach. A 15 min call will see if we are a fit. It’s free, no obligation and we will only engage if you decide to call me back. The CheckMark™ app – for people wanting a successful 2026 You can join CheckMark and have the app on both your phone and desktop, for free. It’s a daily todo ap that’s super simple to use but also has: Long Term Goals Built-in motivations Project lists for common things you want to get done A buddy system so you and a friend can motivate each other Color coding Regenerating tasks A leaderboard The full list of these podcast episodes Go to: https://alchemyfor.life/checkmark/join.cfm Definitely a good thing to do in 2026 for success. The main CheckMark screen showing your todo list Expanded achievements keep it fun and earn you gold! You can use pre-made project lists top get things done. The MARKetplace allows you to upgrade and power up with even more goodies.

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About

Welcome to the Time, Energy, and Resources Coaching and Podcast! Our coaching style and podcast are all about helping you make the most of your time, energy, and resources so you can achieve your goals and live a more fulfilling life. Whether you’re looking to improve your productivity, reduce stress, or simply make better use of your time, we have the tools and strategies you need to get started. Join us on this journey and discover how to take control of your time, energy, and resources and unlock your full potential.

Information

  • Creator
    Author Mark Bradford
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    250
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    Alchemy For Life

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