🦉60-day productivity roadmap, What should you do with your life? How to make the world a better place, and more.
Spend more time implementing wisdom, not collecting it.
Episode #741: Jim Collins and Ed Zschau
Podcast episode length: 2 hours 31mins
The biggest metric Jim Collins cares about is his “creative hours spent in a year.'’ He must exceed 1,000 hours of creative work/per year. Why? Creative work is meaningful work that helps you create the impact you wish to create. If you are not intentionally allocating time for creative work, you are not maximizing your full potential.
Three things create a rich, well-lived life: 1. increased simplicity, 2. time spent in a flow state, and 3. time spent with loved ones.
Simplicity allows for deep, meaningful work. Complexity doesn’t always mean better.
The only way to paint a masterpiece is to start with a blank canvas.
Not sure where to put your energy or what to do with your life? First, make sure you have the right mindset. Don’t get sucked into external success metrics.
Don’t ask how you can be successful; ask how you can be useful. - Peter Drucker.
Now, to find out what you should do with your life - 🦔 The Hedgehog concept 🦔 :Â
Write down your answers to these three questions. What can you be the best at? This is a broad question. I think of it this way: What comes easy to me that is hard for others? Is it valuable to others? If I worked hard at it, could I sell it as a service or product?
To me, the economic engine question means, what are my financial goals? What are your financial goals? Do you want 100 million, or can you live your best life making 100k/year? Define what version of financial freedom you want. That will decide which profession or lane you should choose.
Back to this episode’s notes……
Entrepreneurs don’t necessarily have to start companies. Good entrepreneurs take valuable ideas and implement them. The ability to implement and act on an idea qualifies one as an entrepreneur. Take the ‘actionable’ wisdom and apply it.
An optimist is one when others are saying - this is going to be hard; they are saying - this is going to be fun.
If you can make the world a better place, even in a small way, that’s how good it gets. That’s the human pinnacle. Leave this world a little better than you found it. If you want purpose in life, lead with this.
Did you know that Ed Zschau was pivotal in lowering the federal tax on capital gains from 50 percent to 28 percent? Thank you, good sir!
The best way to help someone find their way and nurture them is through encouragement.
If you need inspiration, read biographies. Pick any written by Walter Isaacson or this book on Sam Walton, Disney, and other great entrepreneurs.
The image was generated via Ai.
The best way to leave a mark on the world is with other people's feet. Enable, encourage, and inspire people so they can be useful to others because you were useful to them. -Ed Zschau
Episode: The Ultimate infinite minded CEO with Trek Bicycle's CEO John Burke
Podcast episode length: 32 minutes
Enabling others to succeed will bring you success in both personal and professional life.
Your performance follows your expectations. Learn how to set clear expectations by watching this inspiring documentary - Guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns.
Stop emphasizing the effect (the end result) without understanding the cause (what will lead you to success). Example: While sales targets are important, tactically reaching out to prospects and honing your closing skills is way more important. Spend a disproportionate time on understanding and skillfully addressing the cause. It’s the recipe for short-term and long-term success.
If the focus should be on running the next play to perfection, how do you know the right play? Simon Sinek, the author of 'Start with Why'’ frames this as the Infinite Game. The framework helps you choose the right game and rules and teaches you how to play. Watch Simon briefly explain the 5 pillars of his framework here.
Steve Jobs believed people confined themselves to a box and limited their full potential. What box are you in, and what will it take to break that open?
If you run a business, how well do you understand what your customers go through to do business with you (customer experience)? Spell out the steps: They go to your website, click this, talk to this person, etc. Chances are you will find gaps and ways to improve your customer experiences.
Good companies care about customers; great ones obsess over them. Which one are you?
Failure is only crippling for the mentally paralyzed.
The thought of failure is often far worse than the failure itself. Take the plunge already.
Episode: Focus like a Pro - Your focus roadmap for optimal output
Podcast episode length: 44 minutes
Key productivity philosophies: 1. Happy people are productive people. 2. One tweak can lead to massive productivity gains. 3. Your systems should be simple and actionable.
The book that was handed out at Steve Jobs 'memorial service - Zen Mind, Beginners Mind
To be more productive, optimize your TEA - Time, Energy, and Attention.
Focus is not the ability to do
just one thing. It’s the ability to say No to all the other things.Good decision-making comes down to two things: 1. knowing how to get what you want, and 2. knowing what's worth wanting.
Your 60-day roadmap to being more productive:
Week 1-2: - Eliminate distractions (Declutter your desk, turn off your notifications/limit your screen time). Focus on doing deep work.
Week 3-4: - Schedule the important task and stick to that schedule. Apply the Pomodoro technique. Have a mindfulness practice.
Week 5-6: - Upgrade your brain by exercising regularly and optimizing your sleep. Hydrate.Â
Always review weekly to determine what is working and what needs to be refined.
By 60 days, you should have a framework unique to your life. This framework will help you get more done and do the right things without running around like a headless chicken.
Episode: Memorial Day Mailbox Q&A
Podcast episode length: 44 minutes
Differentiate between urgent and important tasks. Do the tasks that are both urgent and important first. It's an oldie but a goodie.
Create the right environment (both in your head and outside). I used to put a flag on my desk to signal my co-workers that I would be doing deep work and unavailable for questions or social calls. In the world of remote work, mark yourself ‘away’ on Zoom or shut down your Slack while you are doing deep work.
Bedtime (the exact time you go to bed) is the single habit that has a ripple effect on your productivity and energy. Make it consistent. Use devices like Amazon Alexa to call out reminders for bedtime.
Episode 144: Communicating through Conflict with Amy Gallo
Podcast episode length: 22 mins
You should stop avoiding conflict. Learn to handle it objectively and professionally instead.
Don't ignore conflict because conflict can serve as a delivery mechanism for the truth.
Set up psychological safeties (trust and mutual respect) to make disagreements comfortable.
Focus on the problems, not the people - don’t make it personal.
Conflict can be productive if you do the following:
Ask what you are really disagreeing about. Take the emotion out of it.
Change perspective and think about what could be a strategic and rational reason for the other person to have a different opinion. Don’t judge before you understand someone’s motivation and intention.Â
Revisit your goals. Which opinion gets you closer to the goals? Care about the truth and not about being right or getting your way.Â
Turn the conflict into collaboration by inviting people to share their opinions/beliefs. This will make them less defensive.
Empathy, assertiveness, and curiosity - 3 good ingredients to an effective communication recipe.
Episode: Dr. Gary Steinberg - How to improve brain health and offset neurodegeneration
Podcast episode length: 2 hour 42 mins
Enteroendocrine cells (EECs), such as neuropads, are sensory cells of the gastrointestinal tract. Most EECs reside in the mucosal lining of the stomach or intestine and sense food in the gut. These cells release hormones based on what you eat, your external environment (hot or cold), your PH levels, emotional state and communicate with other neural cells inside the body in your organs and brain. It’s a vast, interconnected network of information.
Common gut surgeries like gastric bypass can remove these neuro cells and completely change a person’s natural cravings towards foods. These surgeries cause changes in gut tissue and cells and have been clinically shown to increase the risk of alcoholism in patients post-surgery. Removal of certain stomach tissue and cells can cause a newly found affection towards the taste of alcohol and increased emotional satisfaction from alcohol.
Humans are amino acid forging machines. Your microbiome needs and craves protein. If you get a meal with a decent amount of protein, your microbiome will signal for more protein-rich foods. If you are a Vegan and eat lower amounts of protein, ensure you eat plenty of fiber to feed your microbiome. Fiber helps synthesize the amino acid production necessary for many bodily processes.
Eating sufficient protein will help reduce your cravings for sugary foods.
Many older civilizations balanced fiber, carbs, and protein in every meal. This combination naturally provides amino acids, sugars, and fiber to feed the microbiome.
The Vagus nerve pathway is one of the most important, as it can accelerate or halt the production of necessary hormones.
Modern humans may have it backward; we live in our heads. We need to go back to listening to our gut feelings and instincts.
Learn to listen to the body's signals if you want to be healthier. We are trained to ignore pain or other sensations, which is detrimental, especially long-term.
Episode #790: Vienna Pharaon - How to overcome a difficult childhood
Podcast episode length: 1 hour 24 minutes
‘Trauma’ needs a rebrand. Don’t simply attach yourself to the prevalent dialog of a ‘tough’ childhood or an alcoholic father, for instance. Look for people, beliefs, and incidents that truly impacted you negatively. What are the stories and beliefs stopping you from moving forward in life? It could be a girl in 5th grade refusing to date you because you were too short. If that small incident shaped how you relate to women years ago, it needs addressing.
Excellence is birthed through hardship. Make sure you remind yourself of the hardships you have endured. Here you are, still grinding, still thriving despite those hardships.
Good therapy provides better language to reframe incidents, experiences, and people. For instance, your entire relationship with your mother can change (for the better) if you think of her as the daughter of your grandmother. This reframing calls for empathy and a deeper familial lineage and connection.
Therapy rooted in ‘family systems’ can help you uncover how your closest relationships impacted and continue to impact you behaviorally and emotionally. It can uncover deeper causes and impact of your family dynamics.
Don’t expect the world to love you for who you are and what you do until you love yourself for who you are and what you do.
Human survival is the dance between authenticity and attachment. Watch Gabor Maté explain why it is so critical. This is why telling your children you love them for who they are is important as a parent. It is equally important to tell yourself that you love yourself for who you are. This doesn’t mean you ignore your shortcomings. You can continue to develop yourself without shame and punishing yourself or feeling less than.
Spend time analyzing your roles—for example, the protector, the provider, the doormat, or the easy target. You may use your own labels. This exercise will help uncover which relationships and situations impact you negatively (remove these) and which are positive (grow these).
Ask yourself these uncomfortable questions:
What was something you wanted as a child but didn’t get? Don’t rationalize your answers. Just pay attention to what comes up. For example, you felt neglected by your father. Don’t rationalize by saying he had to work and was busy. Sit with the emotion of being de-prioritized.
Where are you the most reactive, or with whom?
Origin healing - witnessing and grieving your past trauma creates healing.
Understand what kind of communicator you are. Are you passive-aggressive or a straight shooter? Knowing this can help you and those around you calibrate, especially when there is conflict.
459: Using polarity to improve your relationships with Magda Kay
Podcast duration: 46 minutes
Polarity keeps a relationship 'spicy'. A constant give-and-take, like the difference in temperatures, creates the current in the ocean; a balanced give-and-take creates a healthy rhythm in a relationship.
Sex is what makes a relationship romantic. Otherwise, it’s just a friendship. Zeesh.. I thought it was PG13 over here..guess not.
Anyhow, agree or disagree?
Passivity kills the sex life. Give your partner the attention and energy they deserve. Set aside one evening every week where it’s just you and your partner - nothing else matters. Give them your undivided attention.
If there is an issue in a relationship, focus on the woman first. Happy wife, Happy life as proverbial advice has lasted long for a good reason. Women are like the sun; when the sun is shining, everything thrives.
Check out Magda's book here.
I hope this was useful.
What is the one idea you will implement this week?
Knowledge is only power if acted upon. Get after it.
Please share with someone who might find this useful.
Much Love,
PM
I agree with Veronica, this is brilliant!