Episode 996 · Jul 15, 2024

Why You Are Not Making Progress in Life and Business

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If you feel stuck, frustrated, or like you are running hard without getting anywhere, you are not alone. On The Daily Mastermind, George Wright III lays out a clear, honest framework for diagnosing exactly why you are not making the progress you want in life and business. The answer almost always lives in one of five core areas, and once you identify where the breakdown is, you can fix it.

This episode kicks off a 12-week series on what George calls the Prosperity Pillars, anchored by the foundational belief: I create my life. That single idea is the lens through which everything else in this conversation flows.

How Your Philosophy Sets the Direction

Your philosophy is how you think, and it controls more of your life than you probably realize. George uses a vivid sailing metaphor to make this concrete: it does not matter which direction the wind is blowing. What matters is the set of your sail. Your external circumstances, the economy, your upbringing, your competition, are the wind. Your philosophy is the sail. Adjust how you think, and you can move in any direction you choose regardless of conditions.

The key question to sit with is this: do you believe life happens *for* you, or *to* you? Victims wait for the wind to change. Creators adjust the sail.

Why Your Emotions Are Holding You Back

Feeling stuck is often an emotional problem, not a strategy problem. Warren Buffett captured this perfectly:

To invest successfully over a lifetime doesn't require a stratospheric IQ or unusual business insights or insider information. What's needed is a sound intellectual framework for making decisions and the ability to keep your emotions from corroding that framework.

George takes this further by connecting emotions to values. Tony Robbins identifies six core human needs we all seek to meet: certainty, uncertainty, significance, connection or love, growth, and contribution. The question is not whether you are meeting those needs. The question is whether you are meeting them in ways that actually serve you. When your values and your emotions are misaligned, your results will reflect that disconnect every time.

What Your Daily Activity Is Actually Telling You

Hard work is not enough if it is the wrong work. George challenges the "be the hardest worker in the room" mindset and replaces it with a sharper question: are you working in your unique talent? Your unique talent is the intersection of what you are excellent at and what you are passionate about. That is where you separate yourself from the competition. That is where focused effort produces outsized results.

Look honestly at how you spend your working hours. How much of that time is in your zone of excellence and passion versus tasks that drain you or that someone else could do? The gap between those two numbers is often the gap between your current results and the ones you want.

How to Measure Results the Right Way

You cannot manage what you do not measure, and you cannot chase something you do not actually want. George offers a phrase worth writing down:

You can't get enough of what you don't really want.

Before you double down on a goal, make sure it is actually your goal. Are you pursuing wealth, health, or sales numbers because they genuinely matter to you, or because someone else said they should? Track your results honestly. Note whether you are winning or losing in the areas that matter. But George adds an important nuance: progress is not only about achieving. It is also about becoming. Asking "am I getting better?" is just as important as asking "am I hitting my numbers?"

Why Your Current Lifestyle Deserves Attention Now

Many people defer happiness until they reach the next milestone. George pushes back on that directly. You can pursue ambitious goals and live a rich, fulfilling life right now with your present resources. As Ed Mylett describes it, this is blissful dissatisfaction: you are hungry for more and at the same time genuinely grateful for and engaged in what you already have.

Look at how you are living today. Are you creating joy, connection, and meaning in your current circumstances? You probably do not need more money to dramatically improve your quality of life. You need to start living more fully in the life you already have.

Action Steps

Rate yourself honestly on each of the five areas: philosophy, emotions, activity, results, and lifestyle. Identify the one area where the gap is largest and focus your energy there this week.
Write down your core values and ask whether your daily habits are actually moving you toward them or away from them.
Audit your last five working days and estimate what percentage of your time was spent in your unique talent. Set a target to increase that percentage.
Pick one meaningful metric in your life or business and commit to tracking it weekly for the next 30 days.
Identify one thing you can do this week to improve your quality of life with your current resources, no waiting required.

You are capable of the results you want. Something specific is holding you back, and it lives in one of these five areas. Start there. It is never too late to start living the life you were meant to live.

READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT

What's up guys? Are you making all the progress that you want in your life right now? If you feel like you're stuck or you feel like you're not making the progress that you want, today I'm going to talk to you about five different ways or five areas of your life you might look at in order to find out why you're not making the progress that you want to make. So let's get into it. Welcome back to The Daily Mastermind. George Wright III here with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. And today I want to talk to you, it's sort of the first day of a 12-week series that I want to do. We're getting into the third quarter of 2024, and it's Monday morning, and can you believe we're already almost at a thousand episodes on the podcast? Boy, I hope you realize how much I appreciate you. But today on Monday, what I like to do is I like to get your mindset going. I like to get you thinking about what you need to focus on for the week. And so the first thing I want to talk to you about is having a core pillar in your life throughout this week. And on Monday, I'm going to hit a core pillar every Monday for the next 12 weeks. And the 12 prosperity pillars, as you know, are things that I've accumulated from the mentoring and the great opportunity I've had to be around inspiring individuals, successful individuals throughout my life. And the first prosperity pillar is I create my life. I create my life. Now, maybe you believe that, maybe you don't believe that, but at the bottom line is at the end of the day, you've got to decide if you are where you're headed and in your life, if you're happy with that. And you've got to decide if you're not happy with that, what are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about it? So this week, and especially today, what I want to do is I want to talk to you about five ways that you can really look at your life. five areas that you might be able to make changes in if you're not making the results that you want because you are capable of the results. I know you know that you're capable of the results. The problem is something is holding you back. And so I'm going to talk about five areas of your life that I think will really help you in your life to make changes. So let's get into it. The first area of your life that you need to look at if you're not getting the results that you want is your philosophy. Your philosophy is how you think because let's talk about this for a second. Your thoughts control your life. I know we talk about this a lot. I know you understand that your thoughts control your life but they don control everything Let me say that again Your thoughts control your life but they don control everything Your philosophy in life is sort of the set of the sail on your sailboat It doesn matter what direction the wind is blowing outside you or your outside circumstances, but your philosophy will control the direction that you're going. Meaning if you're sailing, it's not the direction of the wind, it's the set of your sail. You've heard me say that before. that takes you in the direction you want to go. So no matter what circumstances you face or how the wind blows, you can still go any direction you want by just adjusting your philosophy, your set of your sails in life. Just like you can go in the direction in a sailboat by adjusting your sails. So I want you to really look at how you think. How do you see things? Do you believe that your life happens for you or does it happen to you? Do you believe that you're a victim or do you believe that you are the creator of your life? because it's we, you're the creator of your life. Another area of your life to look at if you're not getting the results you want in your life or your business is your emotions. Your emotions, it's gonna be how you feel. See, Warren Buffett had a great quote. He said, to invest successfully over a lifetime doesn't require a stratospheric IQ or unusual business insights or insider information. What's needed is a sound intellectual framework for making decisions and the ability to keep your emotions from corroding that framework. I think that's a great quote because see, in your business and in life, to change the way you feel long-term, I'm talking not just about motivation, you have to change your values. So if we're talking about how you feel and how you feel affects your results, you've got to change your values. Let me tell you what I mean by that. We all need to feel things like those six core human emotions that Tony Robbins talks about. Certainty, uncertainty, significance, connection or love, growth, and contribution. Those six things are things we all need. Those are all things we need to value. But the question is whether you're meeting your needs in a way that's good for you. So what is it you value? What is it that you truly want in your life? Once you determine your values, you can go after those emotions and you can drive the emotions you want. Because if how you feel and your emotions are not aligned, you're not going to be getting the results that you want in your life plain and simple Another area to look at if in your life and business you not getting the results you want is how you work This is your activity See working harder on yourself than on anything else is my personal mantra but I think that you need to adopt that as well. But you've got to ask yourself, are you working hard enough or not? And if you're working hard, are you just working hard or are you working smart? How much time are you spending working in your unique talent, which is the area that you're excellent and passionate about? See, most of us hear all the time, you've got to outwork everyone else, be the hardest worker in the room. But the truth is, why not be the smartest worker in the room? Why not do things that will truly create results in your life? And the way you do that is to focus. The very best strategy I've found is to focus on your unique talent. That's the area that you're excellent and passionate about because that will separate you from your competition. That'll make a difference in your life. So look at the activity that you're doing in your life and business. Another thing to look at if you're not really where you want to be in life is you've got to look at your results. And what that means is you've got to look at how you're measuring the results that you're getting. See, great companies measure things. Life demands measurable progress in a reasonable period of time. But here's, let me give you a phrase that I've heard before that really struck me. Listen to this carefully. You can't get enough of what you don't really want. So check the results to see if you're even in the right game. Let me say that again. You can't get enough of what you don't want, but make sure you're actually chasing the right goals and things. But you do have to stop and examine your results from time to time. You've got to see, are you winning or losing? You've got to measure that. What are you doing with your wealth? What are you doing with your health? If you're in sales, are you hitting the numbers? But here's the most important I think you got to keep in mind this week. While you're achieving and while you're getting results, it's really important to understand that just results in business is not the whole game. It's not the result at any cost. So you have to ask yourself, are you becoming or are you achieving? See, I think that growth, am I getting better? Am I moving forward is just as important as am I achieving? And sometimes you have to disconnect that success and happiness, but at the end of the day, you've got to track your results and measure your progress because your progress is something that'll help you to feel fulfilled and also drive you and motivate you. Guys, the final area I want you to really look at if you trying to figure out and you saying to yourself I not where I want to be I not happy with where I at is I want you to look at your lifestyle I want you to look at how you live your life because you can be happy with how you live right now and what you have right now while you're pursuing what you want. It's like Ed Milet says, blissful dissatisfaction. You can still be chasing your dreams and your goals, but live life now. Learn to create a great life now with your present resources because the chances are excellent that you don't need more money to dramatically improve your quality of life. You just need to start living more in the current life that you have. So you need to really look at what your lifestyle is. You need to look at how you live your life and you need to look at ways to fulfill your needs in the present while you're chasing your dreams and your goals. That's something I really want you to think about. So guys, that's it. I wanted to talk to you today about if you're not getting where you want in life or you're not getting the results you want, then it's probably one of these five areas that we talked about. It's your philosophy, your emotions, your activity, your results that you're measuring, or maybe even your current lifestyle. But I want you to rate each of those areas. I want you to figure out where you're going and what you're doing, and if you're making the progress you want. And if you're not, I promise you it's probably going to be one of those five areas. But what I want to also do this week is I want to share a couple of great interviews that we've done with some successful individuals. Also, I'm really excited about our event that's going to be coming up on August 8, which is an Academy Live event. We're going to be talking about how to create your ultimate authority in the marketplace, which I believe is probably one of the hottest, most productive growth strategies you can do to grow your business and your life right now. And that's creating authority in your area of expertise. So you can go as always to my personal link in my bio, or you can go to jointheevolution.com and just look at the top there. There's lots of ways you can work together with us here at the Mastermind, but that'll have details about the event as well. I'd encourage you to get some tickets. It's actually only about 75 people that can go to that event, but it's going to be held at the Franklin Covey Leadership Center in Utah, but I'd really love for you to be there. And if not, we can definitely get you some of that key information. I'll be sharing a lot of those resources and strategies with you over the coming weeks. So I hope you have an amazing day. Do me a favor and share the episode, share this podcast. I believe it's never too late to start living the life you were meant to live but you've got to make changes and that's what I'm here to help you to do so tell me what you're up to tell me what you're struggling with what can we do to help you and assist you in every of your life have an amazing day and I'll talk with you soon

About the host

George Wright III

George Wright III is an entrepreneur, investor, and the host of The Daily Mastermind. Over more than two decades he has founded and scaled several multimillion-dollar companies and built a renowned seminar business that put some of the world's biggest names and brands on stage. With 25+ years across marketing, sales, and executive leadership, he's made a career of turning bold ideas into results — and momentum into lasting growth.

Today his mission is singular: empower driven entrepreneurs everywhere to master their mindset, unlock their potential, and live their ultimate destiny. Through The Daily Mastermind, George shares the Prosperity Principles and strategies that help people create massive change — in their business and in their life.

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