Welcome back to The Daily Mastermind, George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. I'm glad you're here this morning and you're tuning in. If this is your first time, make sure you hit that like and subscribe. My goal with The Daily Mastermind is to help give you that daily dose that you need in order to battle your day and create the best life that you could possibly create. And so today I want to talk to you about a thought I had. I was working out this morning and I kind of, I went into a thought process because of a lot of people that I've been interacting with that I've noticed some stress and anxiety, but, you know, put aside all of the politics and the, you know, U.S. election and things like that. I noticed as we get towards the end of the year that so many people start to get stress and anxiety. And I believe that this happens, excuse me, not just because of the holidays and the pressures of those types of things, but I believe it's because a lot of us are looking back on the year and we're saying, man, are we happy with where we've gone and what we've done? And so I kind of ask you that question because I want you to really think about it. Are you happy with the results you've had so far this year? Are you satisfied with them? Do you feel like you've done everything you can do? and rather than going down the road of regret where you're wondering what you could have done differently, how you could do it differently, or on the other hand, many of you are starting to already think, what am I going to do next year? And we haven't even finished the year. What I want to suggest to you is that you take a second and you step back and you reassess what it is that you should be focused on through the end of the year. And when you do that, I want to give you a little bit of a framework because I believe most people are in a hurry to get everything done. They're trying to catch up for all the lost ground. They're trying to focus on things that, you know, maybe you feel like, wow, I've got to get it done right now. There's so many things. I'm piling my list up. I'm trying to push really hard through the fourth quarter, through the end of the year. And what I want to suggest you do is that you actually focus your time and energy, that you step back, you really assess what it is that's the most important thing that you could be working on, not only to finish the year strong, but to set yourself up to be able to crush next year. So, you know, and I think you can do both. I think you can finish the year strong, accomplish the goals. I really do believe that you can accomplish more in the next, you know, eight weeks than you've done all year. I really do. But do it in a way that you know what's going to set you up for the coming year. And so I was thinking about this thought and I go back to some of the mentors and individuals that I really respect. And one of them is a gentleman by the name of Gary Keller who wrote the book, The One Thing. So I don know if you read the book The One Thing by Gary Keller the surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results But I talk about it a lot for a couple of reasons Most people have trouble focusing And not only do they have trouble focusing but you may pick something that is not necessarily going to get you as much productivity and success as something else might. And so what do I mean by that? Well, I think as we're going into the end of the year and so many people are stressing, they tend to load themselves up so they're not focused, but they also tend to focus on the wrong things. And so there's a chapter in the book by Gary Keller. I'm going to read it to you. It's just a really short couple of pages, but it's a chapter that I believe will help you to really relate to maybe where you are right now with overload, but also to get focused. And Gary talks about how he led a life like most entrepreneurs, most successful people, most high-level, C-level individuals, where he was just getting overworked bit overstressed, which is what we tend to do as we go towards the end of the year. And I'm going to, in fact, I'll just read this to you because I think you'll get the feel for it as I do. And I want you to think about this and think about what it is you're dealing with in your life, what it is that you're struggling through and what it is you can do to really accomplish a lot through the end of the year. So I hope you enjoy this. Let me just kind of go through it. It's actually, gosh, I don't know what chapter it is. It's part two of the book, page 98. And he says, for many years, I suffered from trying to live the lies of success. I began my career assuming everything mattered equally. So in an effort to cram it all in, how many of you can relate to that? I attempted too much at once. Frustrated, I eventually began to doubt I had the discipline or the will to achieve success at all. All of my life continually fell out of balance. I started to wonder or consider that trying to live a big life might be a bad thing. Maybe when you try to live up to something that isn't possible, you can get pretty down. And I just want to take a second there and talk about this. Do you feel like you've been trying and trying and trying to get to whatever level, even if you're creating success and you're not getting there, and so you start to question whether you should be chasing it at all? Well, Gary Keller had this happening to him. And he said, I was pretty down. In an attempt to make it all work, I began to bear down even harder. You might say I started to clench my way to success. I really did. I thought that this might be the way you went through life with your jaw clenched, your fist clenched, your stomach clenched, your butt clenched, leaning forward, breath held, and body taut, tight and totally tense. I just assumed that was the feeling of focus and intensity as I struggled to live with the lies. That approach actually worked, but it also put me in the hospital. Now, I want to make a note here. Most of my career and maybe yours, bearing down, focusing, getting intense, doing the grind and the hustle, it does work to a point to a point right And he actually got to a point where he stressed himself into the hospital He goes on to say I also began to think you had to talk like a success walk like a success and even dress for success. But it just wasn't me. But I was open to any way to make things work. So I took seriously the suggestion that you are supposed to project your way you want to be. That approach worked as well. But after a while, I simply got tired of playing success. How many of you are playing the role, playing the role that you think you're supposed to do? He says, I bought into getting up before the crack of dawn, getting revved up, playing inspirational theme songs and getting going before anyone else. In fact, I became so full of this thinking that I would drive to the office while the rest of the city slept and then crash at my desk just to make sure I beat everybody else there. I started to accept the notion that maybe this is what ambition and achievement looked like as I fought the good fight. I would hold staff meetings at 7.30 in the morning and at 7.31 would actually shut the door and lock out everybody who showed up late. I was going overboard, but I was beginning to believe this was the only way you could succeed and the way you pushed others to succeed as well. This approach also worked, but in the end, it also pushed me too hard, others too far, and my world over the edge. He said, I was truly beginning to think that the secret to success was to get as tightly wound up as possible every morning, set myself on fire and then open the door and fly through the day unwinding on the world until I literally burned out. And what did this all get me? It got me success. Listen closely. It got me success and it got me sick. Eventually it got me sick of success. How many of you are pushing so hard or grinding so hard? You start to question, you start to burn out. Have you thought about that? Like, why are you burning out? So what did I do? He said, I ditched the lies. I went in the opposite direction. I joined Overachievers Anonymous and went anti-establishment in all the success tactics that actually built my success to this point. First off, I got unclenched. Now, I want you to listen to this because this is a guy that is super, super successful. The number one real estate brokerage in the world wrote a bestselling book and was getting success like most people do. He said, the first thing I did was got unclenched. I actually started listening to my body. I slowed down. I chilled out. Next, I started wearing t-shirts and jeans to work and defied anyone to make a comment. I dropped the language and the attitude and went back to just being me. I had breakfast with my family. I'd gotten shaped physically and spiritually and stayed there. And last, I started doing less. Yes, less. Intentionally, purposefully less. I was looser than ever, way laid back for me and breathing. I challenged the axioms of success. And guess what? I became more successful than I ever dreamed possible and felt better than I ever felt in my life So here what I found And this is so important because we not talking about just laying back or stepping back We talking about being intentional through the end of the year He said this is what I found We overthink overplan and overanalyze our careers, our business, and our lives. That long hours are neither virtuous nor healthy, and that we usually succeed in spite of most of what we do, not because of it. Let me read that again. You may be succeeding in spite of what you're doing, not because of it. And I discovered that we can't manage time and that the key to success isn't in all the things we do, but in the handful of things we do well. This is the point I want to make to you going into the end of the year. It's not about the number of things or the type of things you do. It's about the handful or the few things you do extremely well. He says, I learned that success comes down to this, being appropriate in the moments of your life. If you can honestly say, and this is what I want you to really kind of come to a conclusion with. If you can say to yourself, this is where I'm meant to be right now doing exactly what I'm doing, then all of the possibilities for your life become possible. Most importantly, he says, I learned that the one thing is the surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results. And so I'm going to leave you with this. What's the one thing that you can do through the end of the year? Not the five things, the six things, the stuff that's going to make you feel like you got accomplished, the thing that's going to make others look at you and think you're a hardest worker in the room. I start to hate that analogy. I'm the hardest worker in the room. I don't want to be the hardest worker in the room. I want to be the most productive worker in the room. Working long hours, getting up early, staying late, sacrificing your relationships, your health, your wellbeing, that is not success. Success is happiness, fulfillment, wealth, prosperity. And what I'm trying to tell you, and I'm learning this lesson every day as well, is that you can have that by doing less if you focus on the one thing. And the one thing is that thing you can do that by doing it, everything else becomes easier and unnecessary. And some of you, it's the thing you're avoiding. It might be sales. It might be getting up and going to the gym in the morning so that your day starts right. It might be relationships. It might be making cold calls. It might be focusing on the thing that you're the most uncomfortable with, but what is the one thing you can do through the end of the year that will make the biggest difference in your life? Think about that. I hope that's something that'll get you thinking. I hope it's something that you will take to heart and let's make the rest of your year the best of your year. And I look forward to talking with you again tomorrow. Once again, my name is George Wright III and this has been The Daily Mastermind. Have a great day. you
