the biggest roadblock to success today

Summary

would you take investment advice from a sticky note in a coffee shop. no. but you’d take it from a billionaire saying the exact same thing. same information. different source. that gap is the entire problem with success right now.

1. you don’t take action on the sticky note. that’s good judgment. but the information itself is now in your head. that’s where it gets interesting because we’re now drowning in sticky notes. YouTube, podcasts, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram reels. every platform giving you the supposed answer in 60 seconds. all free. all unverified.

2. the four most dangerous words in self development are “I already know that.” knowing something and acting on it are unrelated. the medium is the message. the source determines whether your brain converts knowing into doing. that’s why information overload is the actual roadblock today, not lack of information.

3. step one, narrow the field. pick one to three areas of your life you actually want to improve in the next quarter. spiritual, financial, business, fitness, whichever. write them down. forecast where each goes in ten years if you do nothing. that’s the gut check.

4. step two, find one reputable source per area. a coach, a mentor, one book, one podcast. then go all in. blinders on. implement everything they say as fast as possible. don’t shop around. don’t second guess. if it doesn’t work you can pivot, but you have to try the thing all the way first.

5. step three, put the implementation on your calendar. then let the calendar convict you. how much time did the last three weeks actually contain for the thing you said matters. that audit will tell you whether you’ve been learning or just consuming. knowing is nothing. implementation is everything. try harder.

Transcript

would you take advice from a sticky note

And that is what is causing such a problem today. I really feel like it’s this generation, this moment in time, it’s the biggest problem facing people who want to get success and take action. It’s not lack of information, it’s lack of implementation. The most impactful business is the business that genuinely improves another human, a better human business.

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All right, quick question for you today. And that is, would you take investment advice from a note in a coffee shop? Maybe you would. Maybe you wouldn’t. Most of you, I’m assuming you wouldn’t. Good decision. So hear me out. Here’s what happens. You walk into a coffee shop, you order your coffee, you go sit down at a table, you’re waiting for your coffee, and you notice there’s a little sticky note on the table that hasn’t been touched.

It has today’s date on it. And then written in very small print, it says, I don’t know, Bitcoin’s going to triple tomorrow. Invest everything you can today. And it was written today, it’s going to triple tomorrow. And so the advice ultimately is, put all your money in Bitcoin today and you will triple all your money tomorrow.

Then you could just sell it and immediately you win. But the chances are you’re not going to take action there, right? So here’s another, you know, best case scenario. You see this note and maybe you Google to see what the world is feeling. Maybe you get on Reddit or Twitter and you’re like, what does the world feel like Bitcoin is going to do tomorrow?

Maybe it just gives you enough curiosity to look into it. Then you ultimately realize there’s not enough information to make a decision and why would you put all your money into trying to do that? Or maybe you put in a small portion because you believe in signs and you’re like, hey, you know what? I’m going to do it.

the medium is the message

I’m going to put some, it’s not a lot. I’m just gonna put a thousand bucks into Bitcoin today because I trust that note. But chances are 99% of the people listening to this podcast won’t do any of that. They would laugh, maybe throw the note away, maybe leave it there. Move on, go about your day. But it is new information that has been put in your head.

It is something that you now know. You just don’t know how useful the information that it is, if it’s true, if you should take action on it. And that is today, ladies and gentlemen, that is right now. That is the generation in times we are living in with everything. You’ve got YouTube, you’ve got podcasts, you do have Reddit, you do have Twitter, you have all these social media platforms, you have Instagram reels trying to teach you everything in 60 seconds or less.

You have so much information coming at you, information on how to do something, whether it’s true or not true, does not matter. The information is there and it’s all free. How to grow a business, it’s out there, all free. You can do it off of free, 100% free information. You don’t need a consultant, a coach, a program, anything, right?

Or do you? Would it be more beneficial to pay somebody to help you shortcut the process? And that, I think, is where this gets so interesting. There’s a book called The Medium is the Message, or more of a phrase, The Medium is the Message. I do think it was a book by McLuhan, something like that. But kind of moving away from that, I feel like that is everything today as well.

You know, the medium is the message. The medium that’s being communicated through, that is the message itself. How I look at that in today’s terms is where the information comes from is all the validity on whether or not a person’s going to take action. Because knowing something, the four dangerous words, I already know that, versus I have already taken action on that, are very different.

And so when we look in today’s world, a note in a public place on a coffee table, and you’re just like, I don’t know about that. But say you had a billionaire come talk to you, and this billionaire said, hey, I am putting all my money into Bitcoin tomorrow because it’s going to triple. And they actually do it, and they show you that they’re doing it.

step one, pick the areas that matter

Your risk tolerance just went way up. Like say they’re putting every dollar they have on the line to ride this Bitcoin wave, and you see it, then you’re like, okay, I’ll do it. Same information, one’s just coming from a more valid source, right? And that is what is causing such a problem today. I really feel like it’s this generation, this moment in time, it’s the biggest problem facing people who want to get success and take action.

It’s not lack of information, it’s lack of implementation, and it’s lack of implementation because you don’t know what information to trust. Everyone’s got something. Everyone’s got something to sell. Everyone has something that they’re doing. How can you know who to trust? How can you know which information to take action on?

If I just get on YouTube today and want to know how to grow my business, I could go in a thousand different directions. Maybe I take one of the directions. But you know what? I’m only going to half-heartedly implement that because I don’t really know if they’re right or if they’re just giving more free information that’s not very valid or valuable.

So here’s what I do. And the framework I follow to try and defeat that whole issue, all the noise, all that junk. Okay, step one, this is kind of like goal setting, but it’s more generalized. Step one, I’m just going to highlight one to three areas of my life that are important right now that I want to improve.

Say that’s my spiritual life, maybe that’s my financial life, maybe that’s something in business. So I’m going to highlight these areas. That’s step one. I frequently do these assessments. Where am I at? What would it look like if I’m taking daily action in these areas? And I’m like, okay, these are the ones I want to improve right now.

And here’s what I’m going to focus on. Step two, I’m going to get a reputable source of information or a mentor or a coach, someone I can pay, someone who’s been there and done that. They have the track record of success. And then that’s it. I am going all in with that person in step two. I’m not getting information from extra places or extra sources because it’s unnecessary and it’s just going to flood my brain with things I don’t need.

step two, find a reputable source and go all in

If I hired you as a coach, I’m going to do literally everything that you say. Every single thing that you say, and I’m going to do it as fast as I can possibly do it. So if it doesn’t work, it’s ultimately on you for giving me incorrect information. That’s how I approach a coaching situation. I’ve been on a lot of masterminds, one-on-one business coaching situations, you know, all these things, masterminds, mentorships, all this stuff.

I get in, I don’t listen to anybody else, I put on the blinders, I listen to every single thing that you say, and I implement it as fast as possible. Not because I want to blame you, but I don’t want me to be the reason that this isn’t working, right? I want to do every single thing, and if we need to pivot, I want to be able to pivot fast.

If you’re like, hey, okay, that’s not working. Let’s do this instead. Great. Let’s do it quickly. Let’s find out that didn’t work as fast as we possibly can. So step two, and that’s the hardest step, is to find somebody that you trust, go all in with that person or that information. Step three, this is very simple stuff, put the implementation on my calendar.

That’s what I do. I always let a calendar convict me of what’s actually being done in my life, because like I said, those four dangerous words, I already know that. Knowing is nothing. Implementation is everything. And so if I can look on my calendar, and I said that I want to improve my spiritual life or I want to prove something specific in business, or if I want to improve something in my relationships or my finances, let me go look at my calendar over the last, let’s just say three weeks.

How much time was I devoting to those areas I say are important to me? That’s why I put everything on a calendar. That way I can know like, oh, this area of my life or business is a little sloppy. Let’s look and see how much time I have been giving it. Let your calendar convict you. That’s step three.

Let your calendar convict you. Put everything on the calendar. This is a very simple three-step framework. Highlight the areas of importance. Get a reputable source. Go all in with them. Hire a coach if necessary. It could just also be like information, like say it’s a podcast. Say you have a podcast.

step three, let your calendar convict you

Okay, this podcast has everything I need to know about my health and fitness in it. That’s the podcast that I listen to and implement from. You just have to be sure that’s where you want to get it, right? That’s the information that you want. So you have to be very, very sure of that. Then step three, put on your calendar all the things that you are trying to, all these areas you’re trying to improve.

That way your calendar can convict you of what’s happening. This works, right? It works because you start to implement, but it works because you avoid the biggest problem. Like I said, in my opinion, the biggest problem for progress right now and the reason why a lot of people will not be successful is because of the amount of information coming in and not knowing what to do with it.

Because I hear a lot of this. I already know that they might not say that exactly, but even if I’m consulting someone in business or I’m trying to coach someone in health and fitness, something like that kind of comes up after I tell them what I think that they should do. If they are asking for my advice, if they’re asking for my advice and I give my advice, sometimes I get the response of, oh yeah, I already know that in some way, shape, or form.

I don’t care what you know, it’s what you implement. That’s why you have to look at your calendar and see what you’re actually doing to take action. Focus is everything. Focus is what will get you to the level that you want to be. But knowing what to focus on, all this free information, like I said, you were just inundated with all this crap.

Knowing what you believe in, who you trust, and taking action and complete 100% focus is what you need if you want to succeed. That’s what I needed to get to where I am now and it’s what I have to continually fight and battle to maintain. It is so hard. We do not live in an easy time to get this done, but we have to try to the best of our