a2b4me...The Podcast! Keeping YOU Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

Don Hastings

Here's the buzz...after years of multi-industry entrepreneurship, I decided to alter direction. Now, I share my passion and experience by helping others to consistently move from where they are today to where they want to be utilizing my goal attainment a2b4me Strata-G. Stayed tuned right here for some awesome weekly content!

  1. Making Your Habits Fun, How to Host a Good Party, and Tips for Prioritizing!

    05/25/2023

    Making Your Habits Fun, How to Host a Good Party, and Tips for Prioritizing!

    Happy Thrive Thursday! This week we discuss...Making Your Habits Fun, How to Host a Good Party, and Tips for Prioritizing! Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week... Idea #1 "Sometimes all you need for exceptional results is average effort repeated for an above-average amount of time." Idea #2 "Make your habits fun. This doesn't mean each habit will be the most fun thing in your life, but nearly any habit can be made more fun than it is currently. Ask yourself..."What would it look like if this was fun? What would it look like if meditation or exercise or writing, or whatever, was fun? Find the most enjoyable version of each habit you do." Idea #3 "10 years or 1 hour. Those are the two time frames worth prioritizing. 10 years is shorthand for thinking longer-term than nearly everyone else and doing things that are really ambitious or meaningful. Most of the deeply meaningful things in life require long time horizons: building a business, cultivating a happy marriage, growing a family, getting in the best shape of your life, etc. How do you work toward the 10-year things? In 1 hour increments. 1 hour is shorthand for doing things that can be accomplished from start to finish in a single session like a good workout, a good writing session, reading a chapter of a book, going on a fun date, etc. The key is that you finish with something accomplished, not with half-work still waiting to be completed. If you spend 1 hour working toward a 10-year project, and you repeat this day after day...you're going to end up living a lovely life." Quote #1 Physician and YouTuber Ali Abdaal shares a useful bit of advice he received from one of his medical school professors: "An hour before 9 is worth 2 after 5." Source: Twitter Quote #2 Actress and dancer Joan Crawford on how to host a good party: “The best parties are a wild mixture. Take some corporation presidents, add a bearded painter, a professional jockey, your visiting friends from Brussels, a politician, a hairdresser, and a professor of physics, toss them all together, and try to get them to stop talking long enough to eat! It's especially important to have all age groups. I've never noticed any generation gap. All the younger people I know are bright and attractive and have something to say and they dress like human beings. They love to listen, too. They make wonderful guests." Source: My Way of Life (hat tip to Nick Gray) Question of the Week... What's the one action that moves the needle more than 100 other actions? What's the one choice that renders 1000 other choices irrelevant? Most things are not worth optimizing. Master the big moves and move quickly and peacefully through the other stuff. For more on this topic, I highly encourage you to reach out to me at a2b4me.com... Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

    15 min
  2. The Value of Leaving Things Alone, Nonmaterial Needs, and Broadening Your Interests!

    05/18/2023

    The Value of Leaving Things Alone, Nonmaterial Needs, and Broadening Your Interests!

    Happy Thrive Thursday!This week we discuss...The Value of Leaving Things Alone, Nonmaterial Needs, and Broadening Your Interests!Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week...Idea #1Something I heard recently and I've tried to adopt whenever possible:"It's hard to grow beyond something if you won't let go of it."Idea #2"Broaden your interests. It's nice to have at least one surprising hobby or passion.People find it interesting. In many ways, the part of you that is least expected is more respected."Idea #3"Talent is rarely enough to assure victory and bad luck is rarely enough to guarantee defeat.Do they influence the outcome? Of course. But your response will always sway the final tally."Quote #1Jesuit priest and writer Baltasar Gracian on the value of leaving things alone:"Know how to leave things alone, for if knowing how to refuse is one of life's great lessons, an even greater one is knowing how to say no to yourself, to important people, and in business.There are non-essential activities, moths of precious time, and it's worse to take an interest in irrelevant things than to do nothing at all."Source: The Pocket Oracle and Art of PrudenceQuote #2Systems engineer and environmental scientist Donella Meadows on nonmaterial needs:"People don't need enormous cars; they need admiration and respect.They don't need a constant stream of new clothes; they need to feel that others consider them to be attractive, and they need excitement and variety and beauty.People don't need electronic entertainment; they need something interesting to occupy their minds and emotions. And so forth.Trying to fill real but nonmaterial needs for identity, community, self-esteem, challenge, love, joy, with material things is to set up an unquenchable appetite for false solutions to never-satisfied longings.A society that allows itself to admit and articulate its nonmaterial human needs, and to find nonmaterial ways to satisfy them, world require much lower material and energy throughputs and would provide much higher levels of human fulfillment."Source: The Limits to GrowthQuestion of the Week...When you're living a good day, what is one habit that tends to be part of that day?Can you find time for that habit today?For more on this topic, I highly encourage you to reach out to me at a2b4me.com...Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

    18 min
  3. Time Assets vs. Time Debts, Slow Change, and The Importance of Failure!

    05/11/2023

    Time Assets vs. Time Debts, Slow Change, and The Importance of Failure!

    Happy Thrive Thursday! This week we discuss...Time Assets vs. Time Debts, Slow Change, and The Importance of Failure! Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week... Idea #1 Something I heard recently and I've tried to adopt whenever possible: "Whoever has the most fun, wins." Idea #2 "Water never complains, but always pushes back. Always. Drop a boulder in front of a stream and the water will simply flow around it, taking whatever opening the landscape will give or, when nothing is offered, patiently building up its resources until it rises to a height where a new gap is found. Flow like water. Never complain, but always push back." Idea #3 "Time assets vs. Time debts. Time assets are choices that save you time in the future. Think: saying no to a meeting, automating a task, working on something that persists and compounds. Time debts are choices that must be repaid and cost you time in the future. Think: saying yes to a meeting, doing sloppy work that will need to be revised, etc. Time assets are an investment. Time debts are an expense." Quote #1 Actress Elizabeth Bibesco on the importance of failure: "We learn nothing by being right." Source: Haven: Short Stories, Poems and Aphorisms Quote #2 Author and recovering alcoholic Sarah Hepola on slow change: "Change is not a bolt of lightning that arrives with a zap. It is a bridge built brick by brick, every day, with sweat and humility and slips. It is hard work, and slow work, but it can be thrilling to watch it take shape. "Source: My relapse years Question of the Week... Apply the Pareto Principle to your relationships. Who are the few people that deliver the majority of happiness in your life? Can you schedule time with one of them today? For more on this topic, I highly encourage you to reach out to me at a2b4me.com Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

    13 min
  4. The Real Reason You Fail to Stick with Habits, and The Secret to Making Anything Great!

    05/04/2023

    The Real Reason You Fail to Stick with Habits, and The Secret to Making Anything Great!

    Happy Thrive Thursday!This week we discuss...The Real Reason You Fail to Stick with Habits, and The Secret to Making Anything Great!Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week...Idea #1"It's hard to build momentum if you're dividing your attention."Idea #2"Many people assume they are bad at writing because it is hard.This is like assuming you are bad at weightlifting because the weight is heavy.Writing is useful because it is hard.It's the effort that goes into writing a clear sentence that leads to better thinking."Idea #3An idea from Atomic Habits:"On any given day, you may struggle with your habits because you're too busy or too tired or too overwhelmed or hundreds of other reasons.Over the long run, the real reason you fail to stick with habits is that your self-image gets in the way.This is why you can’t get too attached to one version of your identity.Progress requires unlearning.Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity."For more on this idea, see Chapter 2 of Atomic Habits.Quote #1Record producer Rick Rubin shares the secret to creating hit records (or making anything great):"If you need 10 of something, make 30. Then pick the best."Source: The Creative ActQuote #2Author and naturalist Henry David Thoreau on the value of walking in the woods:"I come out to these solitudes, where the problem of existence is simplified.I get away a mile or two from the town into the stillness and solitude of nature, with rocks, trees, weeds, snow about me.I enter some glade in the woods, perchance, where a few weeds and dry leaves alone lift themselves above the surface of the snow, and it is as if I had come to an open window.I see out and around myself.This is what I go out to seek.It is as if I always met in those places some grand, serene, immortal, infinitely encouraging (though invisible) companion, and walked with him."Source: In Wildness is the Preservation of the WorldQuestion of the Week...What's the most fun you could possibly have in one year?For more on this topic, I highly encourage you to reach out to me at a2b4me.com...Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

    17 min

About

Here's the buzz...after years of multi-industry entrepreneurship, I decided to alter direction. Now, I share my passion and experience by helping others to consistently move from where they are today to where they want to be utilizing my goal attainment a2b4me Strata-G. Stayed tuned right here for some awesome weekly content!