[00:00:05] Okay, welcome back to the Daily Mastermind. George Wright [00:00:10] III, I am your host with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and [00:00:15] education. And today I wanna challenge, um, something I think almost every entrepreneur and business [00:00:20] owner sort of struggles with at times, and that is the belief that if we wanna accomplish more, we [00:00:25] have to work harder.
Think about it, like the grind, the hustle. Um, you know, we're [00:00:30] constantly being told to hustle more, push harder, work longer. And listen, I'm a big believer in hard [00:00:35] work. Everybody knows that that works around me. Um, I've spent most of my life building businesses, [00:00:40] pursuing opportunities, and trying to create something bigger and better every day of the week.
Uh, but, but [00:00:45] here's something I think, you know, I've been thinking about a lot lately, and that's what if [00:00:50] working harder isn't always the answer? You know, a lot of times it's the questions [00:00:55] we ask. What if the very thing that you believe is driving your success is actually the thing that's holding you [00:01:00] back?
Let me tell you what I mean by that. You know, we, we hear a lot about creating 10X results and 10 times [00:01:05] the business, 10 times the income, 10X this and that, and I love the idea of thinking bigger, I [00:01:10] really do, and I think we all should be challenging ourselves to grow. But here's the problem. We can't [00:01:15] work 10 times as many hours.
You can't create 10 times as much energy, and you certainly can't keep adding [00:01:20] more responsibilities, projects, and commitments, and at some point, something has to [00:01:25] change. You might be feeling that, like, deep down. You know, I, I, I can tell from personal [00:01:30] experience that this is something that you will learn over the years as you get more and more responsibilities.[00:01:35]
And, you know, I've spent a lot of my career running multiple businesses, developing new ideas and [00:01:40] relationships, and constantly looking for, you know, new opportunities. But I've always had a strong drive [00:01:45] to accomplish more, and I don't think that's a bad thing. In fact, I believe that the drive is one of [00:01:50] the things that gets you the results that you wanna get.
But I've also found that there's a big [00:01:55] difference between being busy and actually making progress. And when you're running businesses and [00:02:00] managing teams and, you know, creating content, developing opportunities, trying to do JV [00:02:05] partnerships, it's really easy to believe that the answer is just more and, and work now [00:02:10] like most won't, so that later you can have what most won't have, you know, more hours, more projects, and all this.
And [00:02:15] sometimes, without even realizing it, you start measuring your success by how much you're doing instead of [00:02:20] what you're actually accomplishing. And, you know, I've had to remind myself of that many times. [00:02:25] And just because I have the ability to push harder doesn't mean that that's the best way forward.
So here's what I've [00:02:30] come to realize. The goal isn't to see how much I can accomplish in a day. The [00:02:35] goal is to create consistent, meaningful progress towards the business and [00:02:40] life that I actually wanna create. And that's the distinction. Because I don't wanna, you know, [00:02:45] lose my drive. I don't wanna stop thinking big.
You know, and I certainly don't wanna stop pushing new [00:02:50] opportunities and, you know, greater levels of success. But, you know, I do wanna make sure that the [00:02:55] effort I'm putting into my business every day is taking me somewhere that matters, [00:03:00] and I wanna be able to continue making the progress over long term, not just for, you know, a week or a month until [00:03:05] burnout, and, you know, for years and years and years to come.
And it's, it's sort of why I wanna really share [00:03:10] a powerful conversation with you today. So as many of you know, I'm a co-host of the Franklin Planner podcast, [00:03:15] and I recently had the opportunity of intervi- interviewing, um, Greg McKeown, [00:03:20] and he's the bestselling author of Essentialism and Effortless Sold millions of books.[00:03:25]
Greg has spent years helping people rethink the way they approach priorities, [00:03:30] productivity, and achievement. And during our conversation, he shared a perspective that really [00:03:35] challenged, you know, the idea that greater results have to come from greater effort. In [00:03:40] fact, he raised a question that I think every entrepreneur should be asking, and that's: How do we create [00:03:45] dramatically better results without constantly demanding more from ourselves?
[00:03:50] And I thought the answer that he gave, you know, to this question was so valuable that I wanted to [00:03:55] share it, or at least this portion of the conversation, with you here on The Daily Mastermind. And by the [00:04:00] way, if you enjoy the, you know, this, this section, I really would encourage you to go listen to the [00:04:05] full interview on The Franklin Planner Podcast.
It's being released, um, it probably got [00:04:10] released before this episode, but we're gonna go way deeper with Greg into his ideas on how you can apply [00:04:15] them in business and life. He's got some great tools. Uh, but before I play this clip, I want you to think about [00:04:20] something. Are you creating the kind of progress that you can continue to build on, [00:04:25] or are you constantly pushing yourself harder, hoping that eventually all the effort's gonna pay [00:04:30] off?
Because sometimes the biggest breakthrough doesn't come from doing more, it comes from changing the [00:04:35] way you think about what you're doing. So with that in mind, here's my conversation with [00:04:40] bestselling author Greg McKeown. I hope you enjoy.
Greg McKeowin: Yeah, I mean, effortless is, is [00:04:45] based on this idea that that there's a, a [00:04:50] connection people have made, and it's kind of invisible, [00:04:55] which is that the more important a thing is, the harder it will be.
And, [00:05:00] and we, we-- it's like a, a bad 1980s motivational speaker, right? Like, you know, [00:05:05] "This is gonna be so important, but it's gonna, it's gonna kill you. It's gonna-- You need 150% you're gonna [00:05:10] have to..." And we've all had versions of that speech. We've had like that full version, but also [00:05:15] people just do talk like that.
Like, "Yeah, it's, this is gonna be so hard, but it's gonna be so worth it." [00:05:20] Well, of course that can be true. I'm not for a second saying that can't, that is never [00:05:25] true. But does it always have to be true? And what's the risk of [00:05:30] thinking and operating like, "Yeah, if it isn't brutally hard, I must not be doing [00:05:35] enough.
I must not be sacrificing enough." And so effortless [00:05:40] is really like an insecure overachiever's guide to healthy [00:05:45] productivity. It's saying, "Look, what if I could [00:05:50] disconnect that sacrificial you know, [00:05:55] extreme way of thinking from the thing I... is most [00:06:00] important? What, what options might be available?"
And you can think about it like this. You can say I've asked [00:06:05] audiences these two questions many times since writing "Effortless." I say, "Okay, put your hands up if you want to [00:06:10] achieve 10X results." That is, you know, in quality of relationship and in your [00:06:15] output, 10X. Every hand.
George Wright III: Sure, everyone.
Yeah.
Greg McKeowin: Okay. So then the second question, "Okay, [00:06:20] who can work 10 times harder?" Right. No one. There, there's nobody [00:06:25] in these rooms, right? These are hardworking, intelligent, talented people. You know, they're [00:06:30] the hit squad. None of them have even close to 10X [00:06:35] more effort. Well, so what do you do?
You know, if you just try to go to 10X [00:06:40] doing more of what you've been doing, then you're gonna hit a plateau, you're gonna [00:06:45] burn out way before you get there. And so my suggestion is [00:06:50] really, like, we have to, we have to unlock all of this. We have to find a different way of approaching it. [00:06:55] We have to see it differently so that we can, you know, find an easier, [00:07:00] lighter, gentler way to accomplish what matters most so that we can get to 10X but [00:07:05] without burning out.
And that's really the, the, the value proposition of Effortless, is [00:07:10] an antidote to the 10X dilemma.
George Wright III: Well, I love that it challenges your beliefs too, because at the [00:07:15] end of the day, the starting point almost always is reframing how you see [00:07:20] things in order to be more productive, fulfilled, [00:07:25] and everything like that, right?
It, it begins with a shift in your mindset, not a [00:07:30] strategy or a tactic or something that you would, you would apply, and although those do come into play. [00:07:35]
Greg McKeowin: Yeah, I mean, I think so. I, I think, I mean, there's a word that I use in Essentialism I think is [00:07:40] metanoia, and that means to see yourself, others, the world [00:07:45] through new eyes, to see it through that new lens.
And yes, I think that is really the [00:07:50] most valuable contribution in some ways that I'm trying to make in [00:07:55] any of the things that I'm writing and working on is how are we currently seeing it? [00:08:00] How-- Can we name more precisely the current [00:08:05] lens that's invisible to us? And if we can name that lens, then is there [00:08:10] an alternative lens?
Is there something different that could unlock a whole different [00:08:15] approach that is, that's better, that's gentler, that's healthier, that [00:08:20] gets us closer to what-- to the life that we really want to have? I mean, I'll give you just one [00:08:25] illustration of this. You know, if you can imagine, if you go back to me, with me to like the [00:08:30] 1850s, right?
So of course, this is way before anybody's thinking of how do we get to the moon, but [00:08:35] the equivalent of the moon, uh, you know, uh, goal [00:08:40] i- that is, is the moon shot is who can get to the South [00:08:45] Pole Because nobody's ever done it, not in all of recorded history. And then it turns out that [00:08:50] even after s- unsuccessful attempts, another two sets of, you know, two [00:08:55] teams set off attempting to be the first.
And it captures the imagination and the newspaper and so on [00:09:00] of the times and who will do it. Will e- will either of these teams do it? And, and, and one team's [00:09:05] from, uh, from Great Britain, the other from Norway. Uh, and the first team, [00:09:10] you know, they, they are just operating out of this mindset of if, if you can [00:09:15] just do more, if you can do your maximum...
Well, it's like this, [00:09:20] maximum effort equals maximum results, which actually sounds so [00:09:25] reasonable even now when I say it. It's like, yeah, that, that must be true. Maximum effort will [00:09:30] equal maximum results. And so they go with that. So what does that look like? Well, day one, they go, [00:09:35] you know, they, they're gonna maximize it.
If they can do 20, 30, even 50 miles, they'll do it. Well, [00:09:40] that's the way you're gonna get there before the other team. And they do it day one, day two, day three, day four, but then, then they [00:09:45] get a day that's terrible weather, and what do they do? Well, they try to do it again, but they're [00:09:50] burned out already, so they have to just stay in their tents, bemoan their situation.[00:09:55]
And what they've created without meaning to is a boom-and-bust [00:10:00] approach to execution. And so they're just going up and down, and psychologically they're [00:10:05] going up and down, and they've just got all this dead time on their hands. What, well, they wrote in their journals, we know exactly [00:10:10] what they were thinking.
We have their journal entries. "Well, good. We don't think anyone could make progress in weather like [00:10:15] this." Well, one team could, and that's the Norwegian team. They had had the benefit of spending [00:10:20] time listening and learning and understanding the people [00:10:25] in Antarctica, the, the, you know, the, the Aboriginal people of Antarctica who [00:10:30] taught them this principle.
They said, "To survive in Antarctica, to thrive in [00:10:35] Antarctica, it's all about sweat management," which is quite a [00:10:40] useful insight because it's, it's not how far and fast can you go in [00:10:45] one day, it's can you operate in a way that never overexerts your sweat level [00:10:50] so that you have enough for tomorrow. You know, it's such an extreme environment, you [00:10:55] can't be extreme yourself in your strategy.
Y- Otherwise, it will destroy you. [00:11:00] And so they turned that paradigm, that insight [00:11:05] into a rule, which was 15 miles, one five, every day 15 miles and never [00:11:10] more. So day one, they could do a lot more, but they don't, and so on. Day two, day [00:11:15] three, they get the exact same bad weather that the British team is having, but they're able to do [00:11:20] 15 miles because they haven't burned themselves out.
The plot thickens [00:11:25] when they get within 45 miles of the South Pole Well, they [00:11:30] have perfect weather conditions, perfect sledding conditions, and the Norwegian team [00:11:35] knows that if they push themselves, break the rules, so to speak, one time, they can get [00:11:40] there in one day. And to make it even harder, they don't know where the British team is.
For all they know, the [00:11:45] British team is ahead of them, not behind them. Well, what do you do? And you can [00:11:50] see in that moment, in this sort of decision point, well, the paradigm, [00:11:55] whatever paradigm you're operating out of, would hugely affect your decision in that moment. [00:12:00] Well he really believes what he's been taught.
So the expedition leader for Norwegian team says, "No, [00:12:05] we're still sticking to it," and it takes them three days, 15 miles per day to get there. [00:12:10] They arrive at the South Pole. They've beaten the British team by more than 20 days. [00:12:15] It's not what should happen. You know, the insecure overachiever [00:12:20] inside of me really rather resents that story.
I don't really like the case study. [00:12:25] Ought to be able to push my way to victory, you know, make the exception, go the [00:12:30] extra mile, make it happen. But not only that, not only do they become the first to [00:12:35] ever do it, they also have what it takes to be able to go back, the 16,000-mile [00:12:40] journey back to Norway.
That's not trivial because the British team does not. They [00:12:45] also arrive at the South Pole burned out, depleted, [00:12:50] demoralized, exhausted. They all die on what would've been the journey home.
George Wright III: [00:12:55] Wow.
Greg McKeowin: And so, well, there it is. I'm not [00:13:00] arguing in Effortless that we shouldn't put in effort, that we should be lazy. [00:13:05] I'm arguing that we have to separate lazy from easy.
They do not [00:13:10] equal each other. Lazy is not being willing to put in effort. Easy is that something doesn't [00:13:15] require effort. If you want to make progress, you do have to find [00:13:20] easy ways to proceed. In the biography that I've been telling this story [00:13:25] from, when I was reading it from the, you know, the closest we have to the first accounts, [00:13:30] the biographer says the following.
He says, and I'm writing Effortless [00:13:35] at the time I'm reading this. He says, "The Norwegian team made progress on a [00:13:40] daily basis," and here's the phrase, "without particular [00:13:45] effort." That just about knocked me off my chair. It's an [00:13:50] outrageous thing to say. This is by definition the physically, one of the physically most [00:13:55] arduous challenges c- that anyone could even imagine.
That's why it was interesting, [00:14:00] why people cared about it, and apparently the way to its successful [00:14:05] achievement was without particular effort. I'm not saying you [00:14:10] don't put in effort or that they didn't. That isn't the primary [00:14:15] lens through which they were thinking or operating. It was about, let's say the [00:14:20] 85% rule would be the application for you and for me.
Never do [00:14:25] more than the 85 today because you want 85% available tomorrow, [00:14:30] and so on. That's the strategy for long-term success. So you don't [00:14:35] do the 110% today and then have 50% tomorrow. 85% [00:14:40] actually achieves s- s- sustainable and superb results.
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