EFR 850: Are You a Personal Development Junkie? How to Make 2025 Your MOST Successful Year Yet Using These SUPER HABITS with Brian Ford

00:00 - Chase (Host) The following is an Operation Podcast production.

00:03 - Brian (Guest) I'm not happy with who I am right now. I want to get better. Let me consume all these different books, listen to all these podcasts. My objective results, the realities of my life weren't changing at all. Huh, maybe this isn't working. Personal development junkie is the person that always got a podcast in their ear, a book on their nightstand, a TED Talk that's queued up on their YouTube channel and they're ready to go, feeling like you're being active in your personal development. That deludes you to think that you're actually growing right. It's like, okay, cool, yeah, I learned something new. And it's the personal development junkie is looking for the fix right. They're looking for that next place. What's that hack? What's that sweet spot? What's that thing that's going to separate me and get me the results that I'm looking for? And it's just like this craving that you feel. And then your behavior and your time is spent doing all the things, looking for that secret nugget, instead of applying what you already know, because you already know it.

00:51 - Chase (Host) So do you think there is a point of like diminishing return and personal development?

00:55 - Brian (Guest) I think we've all reached it. When you review your performance with that non-attachment which is like this was the objective performance, I did not do it. This non-attachment which is like this was the objective performance, I did not do it. This is the reality and the circumstances that caused that performance. Now, as a feedback loop, what it does is informs you of two things. First is what's up? My name is Brian Ford, I'm the founder of Self-Improvement Daily and you are listening to Ever Forward Radio.

01:26 - Chase (Host) What's up everybody, Welcome back to Ever Forward Radio, Welcome to 2025. Here we are. Can you believe it? Another new year is upon us. Now I'm not going to get bogged down in the new year, new me. We've been there, We've done that.

01:40 Look, any listener, any viewer here of Ever Forward Radio knows that every day we are given the opportunity, the choice, the blessing even to advance our life, to bring attention and awareness to unique areas of our well-being, to hold the line, to maintain the standards, to revisit the things that got us here, that give us that support, that infrastructure, that stability, that good feeling in our lives and in our relationships. Or, like, we're going to learn today and from every guest, something new, something unique, a reminder even of what we need to come back to or what we might want to try out in our life to hopefully advance us forward, to help us keep living a life ever forward. You're in for a real treat today. My man, Brian Ford, is not only an outstanding guest, incredibly intelligent, so well-spoken but a personal friend. He is someone that has been a part of my coaching program and my group coaching mentorship the Everford mentorship for the last several years, and it has been an honor to get to work side by side with him to grow personally and professionally and just keep sharpening his skillset and sharpening his ability to help others. I'm so honored to sit across the table today with Brian Ford and someone who has personally gone through his programs and all the things that he's bringing to the world.

03:01 Look, this episode brings any curiosity to your life, to your personal development journey. I cannot recommend enough reaching out to Brian. I'm going to have his website, his social media, everything that you need to connect with Brian in the show notes. So do yourself a favor. If there's any part of your gut, your intuition, your curiosity does like what Brian is saying really strikes a chord with me. I would love to learn more, do it. And he is hooking it up. We have an incredible offer exclusively for Everford radio listeners. I'm going to have it linked for you in the show notes, but all you need to do to get closer to Brian and to get closer to your goals today in a very specific way head to newyearforgoodcom slash ever forward. That's slash ever dash forward. Newyearforgoodcom slash ever dash forward. Again linked for you in the show notes. You don't have to remember it.

03:54 Brian is going to help you make 2025 your breakthrough year, with lasting habits and extraordinary impact. I would implore you all to check out his 21 day challenge to help change your life and change the world, because we are partnering with the Glendoverty Memorial Foundation to help ease the transition from military to civilian work for the special operations community by providing educational scholarships. Jake Glenn Doherty's best friend on the show before who has started the supplement company, Bubz Naturals, the collagen company, and coffee and MCTs and so much more, and 10% of all sales of those products go directly to the Glenn Doherty Memorial Foundation. And Brian and I want to help bring the worlds of charity and helping others, especially transitioning service members, to the world of personal development. So what we're going to do is he has an incredible offer for you to personal development. So what we're going to do is he has an incredible offer for you and he is going to help you to use the structure of his super habits system to unlock your next level of productivity focus, healthy habits and discipline.

04:55 It's about to kick off this week. If you're curious at all, check it out. This is the best way I could recommend anybody to kickstart your new year with a foundation for success. This is going to be such a fun conversation, an interview with you. For those of you that don't know, Brian has been in my mentorship, small group coaching program and one-on-one coaching for three years three years so I very rarely get to sit across the table from my quote real job and just talk with somebody that I have had such an intimate personal knowledge with for years and it's been great to see you just excel in everything you put your mind to. I can't wait because just your knack for systems and habit awareness and habit creation and metrics and productivity and just the whole personal development world, it's what you do, it's how you help and coach other people and the work that you're going to be doing and creating, and I just know that this is going to be so special but also so informative and practical for people. So with that man, officially welcome to the show.

06:06 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, thanks, chase, super grateful for you. And yeah, I cannot understate the influence and empowerment that you've provided me in my career, in my life, and I know it's just the beginning.

06:16 - Chase (Host) My pleasure, man, my pleasure. So Ever Forward. We're here to learn ways in which we can keep moving forward in life, to live a life ever forward. I say, what are those two words mean to you, Brian?

06:25 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, I mean ever forward is continuous improvement and it is being your best, as best as you can be. So it reminds me of the Maya Angelou quote, which is you can do your best until you know better and when you know better than you do better. And that's where being ever forward is this constant pursuit of becoming more aware of what better even looks like, because you can only do your best as you are right now and as you pursue more awareness, more information, more insight and context, then you can use that to do better next time. And it's constantly looking at yourself in the mirror and being self-aware to understand how you can do better, consuming more information, to understand exactly what's around the corner, lessons other people have learned on your behalf that you can incorporate and never relenting in the pursuit of becoming more aware.

07:11 - Chase (Host) In that effort, as we wrap up the holiday season, there's still time for merrier mornings after celebrating. I'm talking about Z-Biotics. What is it? Well, it's quite simply the drink before you drink.

07:25 Z-biotics pre-alcohol is a probiotic drink that breaks down the byproduct of alcohol responsible for those rough mornings after drinking. Look, I don't throw them back like I used to, but now, in my late 30s, even a glass or two of wine with dinner, i'm'm feeling it the next day. So what do I do? I down my Z-biotic pre-alcohol just minutes before enjoying my wine or my beer or any holiday cocktail. And I got to tell you the difference is, for me, like 80% better the next day than without it. And that's because it's breaking down a toxic byproduct of alcohol called acetyl aldehyde while I drink and while I sleep, which sets me up for a great next morning. I love these so much I even put them in all my family members stockings this holiday season.

08:14 So if you'd like to enjoy an adult beverage from time to time but want to kick that less than ideal feeling the next day to the curb, let me put you on Zbiotic. Check the show notes for the link or simply head to zbioticscom, slash everforward10. That's Z-B-I-O-T-I-C-S dot com, slash everforward1010 and use code everforward10, that's everforward10 at checkout to get your discount and feel mo better the next day after a night of drinking. If you don't feel the difference, you got a money back guarantee. There's nothing to lose and everything to gain. Zbioticscom slash ever forward 10.

08:54 So if it wasn't clear in his kind of description there of ever forward, this guy is really committed to personal development. You're committed to awareness and learning, but absorbing but then also applying, and you have this great concept in your work now about being a recovering personal development junkie. I love that. I can definitely relate. I started cracking up as soon as I read it because it takes me back to a lot of different phases and places in my life of personal development professional development, listening to podcasts, going to expos and seminars, reading books, just just in this intimate, passionate love affair with wow, like I can learn more, do more, be more and I can apply more. But there comes a time and a place where maybe more for the sake of more is happening. So I'd love to hear your interpretation, man, of what does it mean to be a recovering personal development junkie? Who really can relate to that?

09:54 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, I mean, I feel like anyone who's kind of in the world of being a better version of themselves. They've experienced a part of it. Right, the personal development junkie is the person that always got a podcast in their ear, a book on their nightstand, a TED talk that's queued up on their YouTube channel and they're ready to go. And it's the feeling like you're being active in your personal development that deludes you to think that you're actually growing right. It's like, okay, cool, yeah, I learned something new, but have you applied it right? Or, oh, okay, yeah, there's this new book recommendation that's going to help me in my career in this way. But what actually changes about your behavior and it's the personal development junkie is looking for the fix right, they're looking for that next place. What's that hack, what's that sweet spot, what's that thing that's going to separate me and get me the results I'm looking for? And it's just like this craving that you feel. And then your behavior and your time is spent doing all the things looking for that secret nugget, instead of applying what you already know, because you already know it right. So the personal development juggie in my own experience was you know, okay, cool, I'm not happy with who I am right now. I want to get better. Let me consume all these different books, listen to all these podcasts and my objective results? The realities of my life weren't changing at all. And that's when I had to take a really stern and honest look at myself. Of huh, maybe this isn't working. And the personal development junkie in me was like, no, no, but it's out there, you're going to find it. It's just it's not working yet or you haven't gotten there yet. And it makes you feel good, it satisfies you, it fulfills you because you feel like you're growing. But all of this, all of our growth, all of our efforts, everything we're learning, is in pursuit of one thing, which is to actually change our life, not to talk about it, not to feel like it, but to get new results. And if you're learning, then yeah, there is a certain amount of learning that's required in order for you to improve.

11:40 But, given today's day and age and how accessible information is and how we hear the same thing said a bunch of different times, what I'm about to say today, it's probably not going to be my own unique information and it's not going to be the first time or last time you're going to hear it. It's what you do with that information that's actually going to change your life. The personal development junkie doesn't take that step. When I did, that's when everything started to change.

12:03 You must consistently be consuming, because the timing of that information changes.

12:09 The way that the information hits you changes, right?

12:12 There's some expression might be roomies where it's, you know, never will I step in the same river twice because I have changed and the river has changed, right, so you can hear the same message 10 years later, two days later, and it won't be the same message because you receive it differently. So, yes, always surround yourself with these ideas, but just hearing the ideas isn't enough, right? It's, it's taking action on it, and it's for it's for that exact reason, because there's so many voices and there's, so there could be conflict or there could be differences of opinion. You're trying to reconcile which one you believe. For that reason, I try and practice this policy, whereas, yes, I'm still a rabid consumer of personal development material, but I found the voices that I've gravitated toward, I found the books that speak to me most, and I let the timing and the version of me that consumes it make the difference in meaning that I'm looking to get from consuming more information, so I try and read two books. I reread two books for every one new book.

13:10 - Chase (Host) You reread two books for every one book that you read.

13:12 - Brian (Guest) Correct Because because I know that there are certain books that just are on my level, they're on my vibe, they're like, they are fundamental to who I am and there are next level, deeper lessons in all of those things that I already know work for me, but I didn't have the perspective or awareness to know what it was trying to tell me that time. So, on the second third, there are books I've read 20 times, yeah, yeah, like I read two books in particular the compound effect by Darren Hardy and the promise of a pencil by Adam Braun. Every single quarter, because those are they, they are my song, those are my, those are my soul and spirit song and it's and it's every single time. I get a different experience because I am a different person when I read them.

13:54 - Chase (Host) There are two books. I think we've talked about this before. Every January, I reread the one thing and never split the difference.

14:02 The one thing for me was the most transformational self-productivity tool in terms of understanding what priorities really are, how to set them effectively and how to get to a point to their tagline is what is the one thing that you can do so that everything else becomes either pointless or or it becomes easier or unnecessary. Right, more or less Yep, and then never split the difference Chris Voss actually he's been on the show is just this concept of negotiation and how we are negotiating things in our daily lives, professional lives all the time, and that's such a great reminder of how much value we can get out of personal development tools. But coming back to them, especially in a very specific or consistent timeline, if you're doing the work and I think this is a fair way to really assess are you doing the work? Are you applying things or just absorbing things If you come back to something that was so profound for your personal development journey and you don't get something uniquely newly as profound, then I think that might be a little telltale sign there.

15:06 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's again, it's all about timing, it's all about you and how you receive it. So it's, yeah, it's, it's another opportunity, right? And you just faithfully step into the opportunities that you're presented with and make the most of them. And if that's the same material or new material, but the likelihood that you're going to get something out of something that you already trust, that you already know, speaks to you, um, I just find that to be a greater likelihood. So that's where I invest my time. So do you think?

15:31 - Chase (Host) there is a point of, like, diminishing return and personal development, and if so, what does that look like?

15:38 - Brian (Guest) I think we've all reached it, we're already there, yeah. Yeah, I mean you can talk about there's a spiritual angle to it which is you have everything inside of you and it's just a matter of getting rid of the resistance that's blocking you from it. So, personal development aside, right, like, if you believe that, then you don't need any of this if it's already inside of you, Right, but the personal development work and the unlearning and the perspective all helps you to access that more fully. Right. So it's necessary, but it's only necessary from the point of helping you to maximize what's already there.

16:05 So that's the one side in terms of already there, and the second is, as I kind of it's the personal development junkie. It's like you know the lessons, like you know what the book is going to say already, because you've probably already read it, you've probably already heard a version of it, but perhaps you weren't ready for it, right? And that's where the diminishing returns aspect is. You can continue investing in your education around this, but the higher leverage way to actually get the results you want is to do something different with that information, and that is a pursuit of your own self-awareness, your own abilities and capacities, your own relationship with the material. The information doesn't change, but you change when you know you are exposed to it.

16:48 - Chase (Host) Walk us through a little bit more there. I love this aspect personally of we already have and know so many of these answers that we are seeking. You know we have a lot of questions and the more we read or listen or watch, I believe, or at least I can say my journey.

17:04 it all eventually comes back to this innate sense of knowing of acting or a way of believing that has always been present in my life, but for whatever reason, now I have less shame about that agreement or I have less friction or resistance to that agreement. So yeah, to your point you could go. If we have all the answers inside of us, it all comes back to this innate truth, this innate knowing. Then why don't we just, why do we need all this other stuff? Has there been anything instrumental for you in your personal development journey of getting you closer and closer to that innate knowing? And if so, what was it? And then where do you personally go from there?

17:56 - Brian (Guest) Well, you just put me on a tee. You are the person.

18:01 - Chase (Host) You are the person. No, no, no, no.

18:03 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, well, so it's so and that's kind of the model that you give off, that I try and embody, and now has rippled into some of the people that I work with and the way that I conduct my life, which is this curious questioning of the way that things are, a radical acceptance of okay, well, yeah, we have histories and contexts that have influenced us to be this way and that's okay to be this way and that's okay. You cannot change those. What do we do with it today? And it's it's embracing that confident masculinity for myself and accepting that maybe I don't have it all figured out, but I shouldn't like how could I cause? I'm human, I'm imperfect and I have my own limitations. It's coming to terms with that has helped me to step more into the faithful side of what I do. And now kind of the energy. So the second part of the question what do I do with it? Mine?

18:50 I have two different kind of North stars. One is more of like an internal, one's more of an external. The internal North star is intentionality. So it's I want to be as intentional as possible, which I define as making as positive choices as often as you can throughout the day, being as thoughtful as possible, and that requires the awareness to know what the right choice is and the discipline to follow through on it courageously, despite the circumstances or the conditions that might lead you astray, right? So intentionality is, I ask myself. I try and be as conscious as possible because that's the awareness side, and then I can make intentional choices more consistently because I'm accessing that. So that's the internal North star. What you're more asking about was the external North star, which is okay, cool.

19:31 So with all this thing that you've been doing, like, where do you put it, what do you do with it? And for me, it is to be of service, right? So if I step into situations and I try and make a difference or find ways to create value for those that are presented in front of me, by whatever reason they got there, and I'm not attached to the outcome or what I get in return or anything like that I've optimized my life for how can I just be of service and how can I be as intentional as possible? That's when I find my most fulfilled. I find opportunities and accelerations in my career are attracted to me. I find that that's when I'm in flow, so when I accept myself and I get out my own way instead of and here's an example right, so I do a lot of fundraising work.

20:22 You know, instead of me reaching out to someone saying, hey, you know what, you should really be a part of this campaign, you're going to love it for X, y, z reason and feeling some kind of guilt or some kind of salesy nature to me, presenting it to them, that's my ego and my judgment and the story getting in the way of what I'm actually trying to accomplish.

20:42 And now, because I've done this work and I can accept who I am, like, yeah, cool, like I can only do my best where I'm at right now. So, with that intention, I can then go and invite people to participate, and it's not salesy because it's just flowing through me. Here's, this is how I can be of service. If it makes sense to you, let's go for it. But you will not take action unless you yourself are aware of what's in front of you. So that's what I try and do is I try and be of service, identify those opportunities, be faithful in the way that I serve the moment and just trust that the right things will happen, because I have the right intentions, with my limited awareness going into it.

21:20 - Chase (Host) Let's go back a little bit to. Let's take the personal component out. Let's take me out of the equation and, like our personal relationship, what you were talking about you know thank you again, by the way is you had a personal mentor and you know we worked one on one and also part of this like group coaching experience. The personal aspect aside, what unique or even just what different value have you found in terms of your personal development journey by going the I'm working one-on-one with somebody, I'm a part of a small group personal development experience. On top of you know I know you do a lot of other things in your personal development because I feel like they all have such unique value and a time and a place and uh, cost and all these different things. Um, because when you say personal development, a lot of people might just go to certain preconceived notions. What really has that brought to the table for you?

22:15 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, no, I think it's touching on the value of coaching. You know, um, I have a friend who's a coach who describes it. As you know, everyone lives within the two dimensions of their own picture and there's a. They're in a picture frame, basically, and you're a static image in the picture right. So you hit your pose and you can only kind of see a little bit to your left and to your right. You don't know what's happening above you, below you, behind you, you don't know, because you are static in the picture frame.

22:40 But it can be a coach, it could be a mentor, it could be a colleague, it could be a partner, it could be somebody who is not in the picture frame that is looking at it and telling you what's around you. It's like, hey, don't fall into that trap. Hey, you might be doing this for the wrong reasons. Hey, are you sure that that's the right decision? Hey, hey, hey, right. And it's that pursuit of awareness, right, because they're helping you to see the perspective that you can't self. So, for me, what I didn't realize and this came out through our coaching with you, through personal things related to journaling and subconscious transformation, other things I've tried right, I noticed that I had in my own picture frame, this overlying belief that was running the show behind the scenes related to entitlement. Right it was. It was an entitlement to oh, but I worked hard, so I should get the result. Or oh, but I'm doing the right thing, so why isn't this working out for me?

23:27 - Chase (Host) I'm being of service, I'm helping others, yeah exactly I'm being of service, like karma.

23:31 - Brian (Guest) Where are you? Right? And I had this entitlement because I was attached, right, and that's again. I don't want to keep bringing you into it, but, like one of the primary things I've learned from you is detaching from the ego. Our first session together was momentum Mori, right, yeah, and it's like this all goes away, yeah, so let's get it out of the way now and let's live today, right. So, as I've embraced non-attachment as much as I can, I am certainly attached to things, don't get me wrong, but I'm pursuing becoming less attached and when that's the case Now, I can be faithfully of service without the expectation of getting something in return, which means I'm delivering more. Within it, it's more concentrated value. Yes, because my energy isn't taken up, worrying about what happens. My energy is going into being of service. And then, because the action is higher quality, the result is higher quality, the ripples are higher quality. Those ripples return to me. They don't need to.

24:25 - Chase (Host) Yeah, you know, there are a lot of other coaches. I know that listen to the show and I feel like being a coach yourself and working in one-on-one and working in other group experiences. There's another unique component to personal development that happens when you are the one relaying that information, relaying lessons, relaying tools, tips, tricks, services. I feel like once we become a teacher, once we become a mentor, once we become someone, passing on this information or our versions of or interpretations of it turns into this we just become a personal development conduit. We are taking it in, absorbing, applying to it. We are taking it in absorbing, applying learning and then passing it on, which for me is the ultimate gratification. And so, to the other coaches listening and watching here today, what role, what unique value, I should say, have you found by also being a coach and also mentoring other people and also passing it on? Have you found that then, when you come back to absorbing, kind of makes it different or better or unique?

25:33 - Brian (Guest) Oh, I mean, it's the accountability of practicing what you preach. You know like I, I am more disciplined, more intentional. I, I, I make better choices. I, I seek more perspective and feedback, because that's what I encourage my clients to do, and you could probably relate to this. It is so much easier to tell someone this is how it works, this is how you build your business, this is how you fix your health, this is how you rekindle that relationship, because you're not in it. There, you don't have the sabotage, the emotion, the history that biases it, hijacks your rational thinking. To just make the decision, to follow through faithfully the discipline side of it and subconscious bias.

26:20 - Chase (Host) Absolutely yeah totally so.

26:22 - Brian (Guest) So that's I mean. So what I would, what I would recommend, or what I've found to be most helpful for me as a coach, is to model it. It's also something you taught me the more that you can embody the change that you want to help other people with, the brighter your light is as an example of being the change you wish to see in the world, the more people will be pulled up to that level by your example. So for me, I've had various levels of elevation in my coaching business. Each time it has happened when I stepped up, it wasn't a new marketing tactic, it wasn't a new program or offer. It was me as the person delivering the message. That then was received differently because it came with more confidence, it came with more experience, it came with more embodiment, and that is felt.

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28:07 I want to share a personal example of a part of my personal development journey and then a follow-up question. Last year I believe it was last year, maybe the year before, but I think last year I joined a business coaching program because I I believe in personal development, clearly, and it was with someone who is in a. He runs a product company, a CBG company, and it was the easiest. Yes, just because I know him personally and I admire the way that he lives his life and I admire the way that he runs his company and I admire the company that he, the company that he keeps, and I knew, going into it, the way that he described it, that it was not 100% my world, meaning it was not hey, chase, come into this business coaching program with other podcasters or wellness industry people. It was a wide variety. It just so happens that there was one other person who ran a podcast production company but there were people that were other CPG companies. There were people that were other cpg companies. There were people running, uh, commercial real estate companies, cbd companies. It was just this, this variety, but it was the easiest.

29:16 Yes, because of the model, to your point, that I saw him live his life and run his business and I learned so much in that experience, I think uniquely because of the variety in that group. Can you speak to getting out of our lane, getting out of our known, getting out of our, dare I say, comfort zone in the personal development journey, because I feel like that is more difficult for people. If I'm going to give you my time and my money, I want to know for sure that it is directly related to my world and can directly serve me and move the needle in my life, but I'm here to tell you I found a lot of value in doing the opposite. Would you agree, and what advice would you have? Somebody in that role in that world?

30:00 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, what comes to mind first is, yeah, you can be really intentional about where you put yourself, like the soil that you choose to grow in. But making a decision and putting you, putting yourself somewhere else is the value you make the most of whatever you're surrounded by. So it's. There are a lot of people that are caught in indecision or paralysis or whatever, saying, oh well, it's gotta be right, it's this big investment or whatever, and it's the fact that you're doing something different to disrupt the current pattern, to put you in some other space, is the value.

30:32 But yeah, of course, you want to be diligent and thoughtful about well, I see this person leading in this way, doing these things more like how I want to be, and I admire that and I'm inspired by that. Yeah, this is the right home for me. I trust that. But if you don't have that confidence, or if you're kind of thinking through about like, well, there's all these different playgrounds, I can play in which one and you put pressure on that, each moment you wait is a moment that you're in the current environment. That's keeping you within the current pattern.

31:00 - Chase (Host) Oh, that's so honest, that's so true, right, that's so true, man.

31:03 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, and it's funny because, like when we first started working together, I was like, oh man, I have bad energy levels. You're kind of this health and wellness guy. At the time I was like, uh, tell me what to do, and then you took me on a wild ride. We haven't talked about health and wellness, it's been more of this like relationship with self Right and and I didn't know I needed that. But I was more open to it because you took me there and I explored it, but I wouldn't have known that that's what I needed. I wouldn't have known that environment, the trust in the source as well.

31:34 - Chase (Host) Yeah, that was a similarity I had in this other experience.

31:38 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, yeah. So I mean I'd say do something different, right? And I mean Tom Bilyeu is known for saying, saying like make a decision even if it's wrong, because if you're making, if you're making a decision, it's advancing you.

31:53 - Chase (Host) Yeah.

31:53 - Brian (Guest) Whereas if you're doing nothing, then you're certainly not advancing, you're just staying, you're stuck.

31:58 - Chase (Host) You know? How do we know if what we are absorbing is actually moving the needle in our personal development journey?

32:06 - Brian (Guest) Oh, how much time do we have for you man, the world for you all the time, um data. So I mean I my, my philosophy and protocol is extremely data-driven, quantitative and qualitatively right. So it's the objective performance, the metrics that you have and the subjective perception of how you did, and I mean this goes into just like a feedback loop of sorts, what you do. And there are a few different versions of this I like sharing. Tom Bilyeu is one of them. He's got the physics of progress, but I like John Assaraf's more. He calls it think, plan, do review, think, plan, do review. It's a cycle where first and this is a feedback loop, right you think so what could I do differently? Where do I want to go? What's my goal? What does this look like? Plan, okay, cool. How do I orient my behavior in such a way that I maximize my chance to achieve that? Think, plan, do, take action, right, all right, run the experiment, review. How did I do? How did that compare to the goal? How did that did I fulfill on the plan that I had, what variables were in the way? And then from there, you think again, you analyze, you set a new goal, and the more repetitions you get of the feedback loop, the more you're optimizing. Right. And optimizing is such a big word in personal development. It's like how do I maximize the way that I show up at everything that I do? You optimize it right? It requires a feedback loop. So how do you know that you're making progress on something, the data that you're getting? So you're measuring what you do. You review that through the lens of well, how did this go compared to what I wanted to happen, or compared to the goal that I set and within that Delta. If that Delta is getting larger between your current reality and the desired reality, then it didn't work. If the Delta is getting smaller and you're bridging the gap, then you're doing something right. And there are times when it's two steps up, one step down, two steps. But it is being vigilant about always looking at it, because otherwise you don't know the trajectory of your growth.

34:10 I've got like one of the core frameworks that I operate off of is choices lead to actions and actions influence results. So the more that you can make better choices, then you take the right actions that influence your results. The results are just the realities that you have in your life. It's the reality of your bank account, the reality of your health, the reality of the quality of a relationship, the reality of your relationship with self, whatever it is. If you want new results, you need to think, identify what that result is, need to plan what is the system or process that I'm going to use to be able to support me in doing taking action, from which I can review every single one of those steps to see how effective it was. To then run the play again and do it again.

34:59 So it's like improvement. The very definition of it is a difference in measurement. It is a previous state and a final state, and it's the difference between those two measurements tells you if improvement happened or not. Otherwise, and especially like the clearer the data is, the better the metric, then, the more insight you have into the direction of improvement. A lot of us are operating off of a performance tracking or measurement system that is implicit, it's biased, it's our own impression of well, this is how I thought it was and this is how I think it is now. That's. There's so much mud in that Like. How do you know if what you're doing is actually improving? If the data points you're using for the evaluation weren't clear to start, it's like oh well, that like is that even fair, like are you even measuring the same thing? So, and that's that's for my personal improvement systems. I try and track the things that are most important to me, and that's the first thing that anyone will tell you. If you want to change your life, track it.

35:59 - Chase (Host) Yeah. And so, speaking of tracking, we can get into kind of two main buckets of data points quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative you know what are the hard facts the variables yes, no, yes, no how many of these things equal this kind of change? And the qualitative you know how do I feel about it, what's the mood, or you know what is kind of. Maybe you know it's the less specific oriented data point, but they both matter. In my opinion, and I also personally believe in your personal development journey, there will be times where it's heavy quantitative data, it's biometrics, it's numbers, it's spreadsheets, and there's more qualitative. It's just getting to a point to where you can check in with yourself and have radical honesty and therefore take radical responsibility for what you need to continue to do, what needs to change, what's working, what's not. I believe that's very personal, but if someone wanted to really kind of get down to the nitty gritty of a couple quantitative and a couple qualitative variables to track, to measure and then to re-evaluate, where would you recommend them to start?

37:03 - Brian (Guest) Yeah. So the fundamentals, of course, like and that's another just resounding point of agreement in personal development circles is the better and more consistent you are with the fundamentals, the better the foundation you have, and the taller you can grow, the more you can do. So what are the?

37:22 - Chase (Host) fundamentals of personal development variables.

37:24 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, so I mean I, I mean, I think it's, it's simple, I, um, you know, I I draw this from heroic, a group that I follow closely. So it's energy. So your health, right, the core metrics within your health is are you moving, so exercise? What are you eating, nutrition, and are you recovering sleep? Right, so it's like. So the quantitative measurements around that would be calorie tracking for diet, right, figuring out what are my macros, what are my calories, like all of those things. That is objective, right. Then, for your exercise, what was my workout? How long was it? What was my heart rate? Quantitative, right, so, like all these things, or did I even do it?

37:59 - Chase (Host) Right, did I even do it on these days? You can, yeah, so you can get it.

38:03 - Brian (Guest) And that's the thing is, this can kind of like accordion as wide and as small as you want it to go, and, and that's the thing is, this can kind of like accordion as wide and as small as you want it to go, and then recovery, right, so it's sleep. How many hours did you sleep? What time? Like an aura ring, right, it tells you, cool, this is when you went to sleep, these were your different rhythms. This you know I wear it every single day.

38:23 - Chase (Host) What it's, it's reviewing that information.

38:25 - Brian (Guest) Right. It comes back to what we said before. It's like it's great to wear the ring and be like, yeah, it's going to help me sleep. It's like have you learned anything from it? Have you taken action on it? Like, do you have more awareness or insight that's going to actually guide your improvement in this area? You know, so that kind of ties back in. So those are the quantitative of health. So it's energy productivity right, so productivity is being able to focus right, so eliminating distractions. Quantitatively track that I.

38:48 - Chase (Host) I you're like you're, you're getting my wheelhouse. I can go on forever for this, one of the things that we're going to get into productivity next.

38:51 - Brian (Guest) Actually, okay, cool, all right, um, so then all right, let's go into qualitative. Then on energy, so the qualitative side. So okay, you exercised great, objectively and and that's where you need to hit, like a certain standard for yourself. What does exercise mean? You need to have more clarity in that. How do you define it? I call it having standards right. When you a certain standard, then you have this written out objective criteria to say that I did meet this. Otherwise, there's space for your mind to rationalize. It's a gray area where you can kind of shape the story that most serves you?

39:19 - Chase (Host) Yeah, shout out. Gabrielle Lyon said standards, not goals. Yeah, perfect. I haven't heard that before, but I totally agree.

39:26 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, and systems, yep, um yeah, so. So, qualitatively, instead of being like, did I exercise to a certain standard, you can say, well, how much did I push myself? One to five, that's subjective, that's like you could do the objective version of it, which is like, oh well, my heart rate got to a certain point, but your own experience of it, because then that informs you on more of a mindset development piece, potentially like, oh, oh well, I'm pushing myself and that's that's in alignment with a direction that I want to grow in, right, right, yeah, same thing qualitatively with your diet. It's not oh well, what did I like? What were my nutrients, my macros for the day? It was did I like? Did I make an effort to make the healthy choice?

40:03 One to five, and you have different criteria, right, and then you're like. You're like, oh well, you know what I had? Pizza, but I only had one piece and, given the environment, I did make an effort to make the healthy choice right. So it's, it's a different lens to evaluate your performance and that's what this is all for is you're getting the data that is standardized in some way. Even if it's qualitative, it's still standardized, so that you have a point of comparison that's accurate and it's usable Right. And then for sleep, quality of sleep Right, one to five. What was my quality of sleep versus how many hours did I sleep?

40:33 - Chase (Host) So those are some examples and if you're open to it, we're going to have all of your information down in the show notes for everybody. But as someone who has personally run through your data tracker sheet Scorecard Scorecard yeah, I mean I. Cheat. Scorecard scorecard yeah, um, I mean I still I have never seen anything so like attention to detail and just so, it seems at first you might think I'm gonna track all these things and it can be overwhelming, but just the way that you run through data tracking in a quantitative and qualitative manner, bro, like I've been doing this for a long time and I have not been amazed like that, maybe like once in 12 years I mean your approach to this and tracking to make it so uniform and so universal and so realistic and not scary, because I think when we talk about tracking things, that's where we lose a lot of people.

41:23 It becomes more work, yeah, you know, and personal development development. You know it takes work, but the less work ie the less barriers to entry we can have for people is going to equate to the most amount of success and the most amount of just high functioning, highly optimized people out there in the world, and that's the kind of the world that I'm here to create and support, and so like, just kudos again to you, man. Like this, this system works and it's beautiful and it's, dare I even say, painless.

41:53 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, no, I appreciate that. Yeah, and kind of the challenge that I'd offer to anyone that has that allergy to tracking is you can't improve what you don't measure Right. Exactly I just shared. And if you are dedicated to your improvement, you're like, yeah, I want to improve my relationship, I want to improve my health, I want to achieve these things, I want to be this person. You're not going to get there as effectively or as reliably if you don't have these fundamentals, like the physics of growth, in place. You know so.

42:22 So that would be my recommendation and and yeah, it doesn't need to be this big, daunting thing it's like you build a whole system and you make it as user friendly and easy and accessible and inspiring as possible. So, like one of the things that this is the personal development junkie translated two years once I knew better, right, so, the personal development junkie have a growth mindset. Oh, yeah, oh, I want to have a growth mindset. Yeah, you know. Uh, yeah, failure is just a lesson, right? What does that mean? Like? What does that actually mean in your real life?

42:55 - Chase (Host) They're just regurgitating things. Are you actually digesting them?

42:58 - Brian (Guest) For sure. But but it's a belief system, right? It's a belief that when you face a challenge or obstacle and you don't get the result that you expected, that you rub your hands together, you say, bring it on. You're like, okay, what can I do better? And how can I do better? Okay, cool. So that's the response, that's the behavior that happens, right, because thinking and mindset, mindset is just a habitual way of thinking, right, so, and if it's a habit, it's a behavior, you're doing it right and the doing creates the result, as I shared earlier. Right, okay, cool. So then you want to build that mindset, you want to build that belief system of being growth mindset. That's where the books stop have one. They don't tell you how, like, how do you actually train your belief system to have a growth mindset? And that's where, like, my theory on this is well, you've got to take consistent action. That then it swells the seed of the identity or belief that you're trying to instill. So, if the identity and belief is that of having a growth mindset, what is the consistent action you can take? That is proof and evidence of that being true.

44:06 And for me, in my systems, that thing is filling out your scorecard of doing your tracking. Why? Because every time that you show up, even when you don't feel like it, you're like ah, I really don't want to look at this. I made bad choices. This hurts for me to admit to myself that I didn't meet the standards and expectations. I let someone down, I let myself down. I have an accountability partner so you avoid, you avoid the confrontation. But when you sit down and you report on your tracking and you look at it, what you're doing is you're taking action in such a way that says you know what? I believe that I can get better. I believe that, even though I didn't show up today, I believe that even though I didn't show up today, I can grow, and this today is the lesson that will help me be better tomorrow.

45:08 - Chase (Host) So you operationalize cultivating a growth mindset by showing up and reporting on your daily performance every day good, bad and ugly. I think everyone knows now why Brian is here. I mean that section alone, I feel like was a masterclass man. So I want to shift now into productivity and I feel like a big part of the personal development journey for most people is productivity. So I want to get better so that I can perform better, work better, think better. To get better so that I can perform better, work better, think better, love better, train better. How do we get more productive through personal development?

45:34 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, it's so simple, like we complicate it right, this guy it's no, I mean okay, and maybe it's overly simplified, but it's true. You do more of the things you want to do and less of the things you don't. That's how you be more productive. So productivity needs a rebrand. We think of productivity as let me get through my checklist, let me do all the things I said I was going to do, knock it out and feel good about all that I got done today. And what that does is it rewards you for quantity, for doing more, when, in reality, what fulfills us and what we'd prefer to fill our days with are the things that we want to do, not just the things that we can do. So, true, and the to-do list are the things that we can do, and hopefully, those things that we can do connect to some strategic plan or some overall map. That there's a lens and filter that leads to the things that we can do. Right, but that's. There's an extra step to consolidate down to those few things.

46:32 But this is where it comes back to what I shared about how I live, through a lens of intentionality. Intentionality is making the choices to take the right actions that produce the result that you want in your life. So instead of thinking through oh well, I want to fit as much into my day as possible, like the current definition of productivity is what people actually want when they say productivity is intentionality. They want to do more of the things they want to do more often. And that requires, you know, eliminating the distractions and it requires having the clarity of what those things are that you want to do, that actually move the needle, and it requires having clear boundaries in place so that you know the overall harmony and balance that you're trying to cultivate in your life.

47:18 And the example that kind of shatters the paradigm of productivity is okay. So you spend an hour on social media scrolling. Most people are like, ooh, wow, could have done laundry. On social media scrolling, most people are like, ooh, wow, could have done laundry, cleaned the house, made that phone call man, what a waste. What if that's what you wanted to do? What if you enjoy going on social media into you an hour? Maybe it's the one time a week and you do it for an hour and it's reasonable to you? You catch up, see your friend's baby photos, weddings, birthdays, and you feel good about the way you spent your time.

47:52 - Chase (Host) Why judge that? Are you saying that scrolling on our phone, perusing social media, could actually be beneficial for our productivity?

47:59 - Brian (Guest) If it's, what you want to do, because, by the definition that you're referring to with productivity, it's like, well, you're not doing productive things and I am posturing that we should do intentional things, which is put in your schedule. I'm going to go on social media for half an hour and you don't feel guilty about it because we're not robots, right Like. We've got this whole spectrum of things to experience. We've got to recover. We've got these elements of our life that we can taste and touch through these different tools that we have access to. Social media is used without intention and that's why it has this bad reputation and I think most people would benefit from going on it less, if at all.

48:41 - Chase (Host) Cannot agree more, and we've talked about this, I've shared this with you. I have scheduled social media time. I have parts of my day, parts of my week, where I will make you know it, kind of changes based on other things in my life, but it might be 15 minutes, it might be 30 minutes. It's really kind of more that qualitative check-in for me personally of where's my energy, where's my mood.

49:03 Sometimes just escaping is actually very helpful to my productivity because it allows me to just stop focusing so much on trying to do, do, do, do, do, do, do, and then I become more of that conduit for ideas and connectivity and creation and other things will pop to mind.

49:18 So then I can get back to work and I love having this scheduled social media time that you're talking about, because it also, I think to your point a lot of us can relate, because it also, I think to your point a lot of us can relate when we're on my phone here but, like you know, we'll pop up from like scrolling, email, social media, text messages, whatever, and we kind of feel regret, we kind of feel a little dirty like, oh man, I can't believe. I just spent another 10 minutes an hour looking at these videos, looking at these messages, and then we begin to build this negative relation to that device and even to some of the accounts or some of the people. But what you're saying is so spot on. If we choose to take a more empowered stance in that and go no, no, no, no, I'm not giving my power to it, I am retaking my power and I'm going to go. This is when I'm doing it, this is why I'm doing it, even if that why is just to escape, like that's okay, that's okay.

50:12 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, and to connect this to a previous part of the conversation, which is well, how do you know what's the right amount and how do you feel good about it? You need feedback and so, like my standard for social media has optimized over time as I've gotten feedback and experienced oh, this felt good. Oh, that wasn't enough. Oh, it's okay under these circumstances, so that I have a clear picture of if I'm picking my phone up to go on social media, I'm like, does it fit within this clearly defined criteria that I feel good about? That I've gotten to because I've been thinking about this for a year Great prompt.

50:47 Great, right. So, for example, my social media standard is no, do not go on Instagram before noon or after 8 PM, because I don't want it to be part of my night routine and I don't want it to slow down beginning of my day for for a maximum of 20 minutes and that's more of the recreational scrolling, right. But then I have these extra conditions and circumstances that says, unless it's work related, and I don't look at anything else. So instead of being like oh well, it's outside of my window, can I do it, it's like no, I have an exception in place because that is part of my true relationship I want to have with it. Or if someone asks me to show them something that I referenced or whatever, like there's a specific purpose to do it outside of the confines of what I've described.

51:28 Absolutely yeah, that's intentional usage of the tool, right, and that's why I'm asking you to think about intentionality, not productivity, because when you change all the words you shared about, like oh well, it could be productive. If you say the word intentionality instead, then there's no judgment around what you're doing. It connects back to the intention of what you want. Yeah, so, it connects back to the intention of what you want. Yeah, so so it. So it connects back to the intention of what you want. And when you live from that energy, from that space, and you're evaluating yourself against that measuring stick instead of how many checks do I have on my to-do list that is what's going to make you proud when you look yourself in the mirror and get to sleep on time.

52:07 - Chase (Host) Yeah, that, yeah, that's. I have to laugh, you know. I think I've been there before. When we think productivity, we think, oh, I listed out all my to-do list items and me being productive means spending time building that list and checking them off. But man, I'm raising my hand here. How many times have we just added things to that to-do list that we know we're going to do anyway or hell? I've even added things in the past of I already did it. Man, it just feels so damn good to scratch that line through it and check that box. And that's the lie of productivity. That's the lie we're telling ourselves. Just by making a list and just by checking it off, are we actually being productive? Are we just trying to find a way to infiltrate our own system to make us feel better?

52:53 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, and that's where, with more awareness, as I've experienced because I was the same way I found I was like I feel better when I live with this energy of intentionality versus productivity, and once you know better, you can do better.

53:08 - Chase (Host) What tools for productivity do you see radically help, and where do we just get too bogged down? Can I give the simplest answer. Please, please, yeah.

53:18 - Brian (Guest) A schedule.

53:20 - Chase (Host) Okay.

53:21 - Brian (Guest) What do you mean by that? When you have a schedule for the day, it is your marching orders, it's your plan, and if you take the time to look at the sea of everything that you could do with your life the priorities, the things other people want from you, the balances within your health and your relationships and you get it in one place to say this is what I reasonably can do today, then all those other things that pop up, or those other things that you considered doing but chose not to, you made the choice. So instead of having the relationship of oh man, I really wanted to get to that. Now you have the relationship of I chose not to do that. And when it is higher priority, more important, more urgent, more relevant, then I will choose to do that.

54:07 - Chase (Host) Okay.

54:08 - Brian (Guest) Gary, you talked about the one thing Gary Keller calls a detailed schedule productivity super tool. Gary, you talked about the one thing Gary Keller calls a detailed schedule productivity super tool. Right, like, there's a reason why the I mean the most successful people in the world are extremely good at managing their time. It's because there are all of these elements of life that need to fit into the same 24 hours that we all have, and it's choosing which one of those things is like that determines where we invest our time throughout the day. And the reason that a schedule is so powerful is because it becomes your point of consciousness throughout your day. I love that. So, instead of trying to figure out what are you doing in the moment consciously, you have your pre-assigned priority that you get to reference to say, well, this is when I made my schedule, what I thought was priority. Now let me make a choice of what to do, understanding the history of that context and the current conditions, and that's the thing that I'm sharing on the podcast right now.

55:12 Actually, that's the thing that a lot of people I feel like are getting wrong about creating a schedule is it doesn't necessarily need to be set in stone. I set my schedule the night before so that I wake up ready to attack plan for the day, right. But I only made that schedule from the level of consciousness and with the information I had that night. If I wake up in the morning, something's gone horribly wrong. There are other priorities or things that pop up. I can't say, oh no, it's not on my schedule. I can't do that. That's not how to live life.

55:46 This schedule serves as the reference point so that it prompts consciousness to say this is what I want to do and, given the information I have now, this is what I choose to do. And that's why it's like, yeah, we're calling it productivity. Your schedule is your greatest intentionality tool because it allows you to make the choice of. I thought this was important. I now see these things are important. I can only do one right now in front of me. So let me make a conscious, thoughtful choice about what I do. That choice leads to the action, that leads to the result and that result is the reality. And then you get feedback on that result to inform you on did I make the right choice or how could I make a better choice?

56:28 - Chase (Host) moving forward, when we think productivity, I think a lot of us go to morning routine. How can we set up our mornings to make us more productive throughout our day?

56:40 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, I mean if you didn't create a schedule at night and do it in the morning.

56:44 I mean, I'm I'm a big fan of priming, right. So it's. We talked about some of like the energy fundamentals. You know there are super habits of sorts that I teach what you know super habits are when you think about, like, using morning to build momentum. It's a matter of getting yourself in an optimal physiological space so that you can put your full self into whatever's next. And there are certain things that you can do. Call it meditation, call it exercise, call it breath work, call it connecting with a loved one or a dog, whatever, right. There are things sunlight, there are things that you can do to turn your physiology on.

57:23 Because if you think about productivity, it's not just quantity, it is also quality. And what people overlook is how integrated your energy level is into the quality of what you do. So if you invest 30 minutes an hour, 15, five minutes in a morning routine that helps you to be more physiologically clicked on, then that transforms the quality that you infuse in everything else. And if you think of, like the big trade-off I call it the time pie analogy, which is you have a certain pie, okay, and that pie is divided into slices. This much of a percentage for your health, this much of a percentage for your productivity, this much a percentage for your family relationships, whatever. And you think, well, if I spend time on my self-care, then that pie, that slice, gets bigger and all the other ones get smaller.

58:15 But the way that energy works when you invest time in your energy is sure. Maybe an extra half hour pushes your pie from 20 to 25% allocated to health, but the entire pie gets bigger. With the bigger pie there is a small percentage of slice of productivity and relationships, but more to eat, and that's how you expand your capacity, right. So? So the morning routine helps you to infuse more quality in everything you do to expand your capacity, and that's how you live the big life that you want to wake up and attack. But you don't have that capacity without doing the background work which a morning routine is one of those tools.

58:57 - Chase (Host) You mentioned it there in productivity, and that's our habits. And I think, again, we're in pursuit of personal development. We're trying to get more productive and we really get more granular. We begin to look at our habits or creating new habits that feed into all the above. So what is your view on habits, and do you think most people struggle with their daily habits? Are they even aware of their habits? Where does that land in kind of the hierarchy of personal development for you?

59:24 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, I think habits are the sexiest thing in personal development. Everyone wants to have good habits. It's great for marketing. People want to have good habits. I call my whole philosophy the super habit system right, because there is this allure to habits which is well, if I can get consistent doing these things, then I'll achieve the results that I want. And that's the point that I want to like, make sure the connection is drawn toward. It's the habit is the vehicle to the transformation. It's the habit is the vehicle to the transformation. It's the vehicle to the result, because the framework choices lead to actions, lead to results.

01:00:00 Habits are just consistent, likely, unconscious actions, which means that you are consistently unconsciously creating a certain result. So, yeah, perfect, that is exactly what you need to think about to change your life, because the things you do most consistently and the things you choose to do most consistently then cultivate the results that you want. But when it comes to implementing habits, people think, oh well, I'm going to do this thing and I'm just going to tell myself that I'll make it happen regardless, non-negotiables, this is how it works. This is like. This is the new me. I do this thing. Don't ask me like I'm busy doing it Right.

01:00:40 But when it comes to behavior change, the factor that drives our actions and our behaviors more than anything else is our environment. So when people are so focused on getting good habits, they're thinking so linearly about I need to take this action, I need to take this action, I need to focus on this thing, I need to get in the gym, I need to do my affirmations, I need to do my morning routine, and they're thinking about the action and the habit itself. But if you want to actually build the habit and be consistent with that new action, your time and energy is better spent designing the environment around it so that the action becomes a natural byproduct of the design.

01:01:23 - Chase (Host) Okay.

01:01:24 - Brian (Guest) And the best examples that I have in environment are number one your identity and belief system. Your belief system and your identity it's the unconscious filter that basically solves all of the problems that you encounter in your life. So when you are considering a new habit or taking a certain action, your belief system is already pushing you in a certain direction. In order to get your belief system to be a positive environment to support you in being consistent with that habit, you need to do the mindset work and the belief system work to get you into that action. So that's one of the first environments. It's a mimetic environment, right? The belief systems that you have.

01:02:04 A second environment that I love, that we've alluded to, are systems. So when you have a system built into something, what you're doing is you have a certain input, a process, that is the system to produce the output, and the more that you can limit the energy, difficulty or resistance as an input to then create the high quality output that you want, the more your unconscious mind and yourself will be likely and motivated to do it. But the system itself is let's figure out, not what action or what habit you're going to do. How do we design the environment with a system so that you start doing this one thing and it leads you naturally into doing the habit and these are things that we're really familiar with, but we haven't labeled them as systems.

01:02:59 Right, habit stacking you brush your teeth and you high five yourself in the mirror. That's what Mel Robbins tells you to do with the high five habit. Right, that's a habit. Stack, that is a system. Because what does that do? There is a plan in place that helps you to do the habit of high-fiving yourself and all of the you know psychological benefits that comes with that Having a schedule for the day.

01:03:19 Okay, cool, I really, really want to make a schedule for the day, but right now, the system that we have, that underlies everything we do, is memory. If we haven't intentionally built a system, then we're defaulting to the most simple system we have, which is our memory. It's like oh, dang it, I forgot to make a schedule, oh man, it happened to get whatever. Whereas if you build a system, okay, at 9 pm I have an alarm goes off on my phone and that is going to be my disruption of consciousness that tells me okay, it's time for me to create my schedule. That's a system. Setting an alarm is a form of system that then shapes the behavior so that it's more likely to happen.

01:03:59 As I'm talking about environment, the larger analogy that I use is a river. So think of yourself in a canoe and you're in the middle of a river. So river is going to take you directly downstream. If you are just sitting there not doing anything, that's the flow, that's the current. You're going to take you directly downstream. If you are just sitting there not doing anything, that's the flow, that's the current. You're going to go wherever the river wants to take you. Your environment has a certain trajectory and pull to it that you respond to, and if you want to go anywhere else, then the river is already taking you. Then you got to row right, you got to row.

01:04:30 - Chase (Host) You got to get to the shore.

01:04:32 - Brian (Guest) That's the work, unless you realize that the behavior is the product of the environment. So, instead of you changing your position in the environment, how about you change the environment to match where you want to go? So the example for that in this analogy is let's dig a ditch. You dig a ditch, the flow and current of the water changes, and now it pushes you somewhere else. Or let's drop some big rocks in here there's gonna be a little waterfall, it's gonna disturb this and now it's gonna push you left, and if that's where you want to go.

01:05:06 So that's the idea is, if you want to get consistent with habits, it's the environment around the habits that then end up getting you there, with no effort of your own, except for the investment you put into structuring the environment to drop you there. So that's the thing is, people put the effort in the action itself. But what I suggest is you put the effort in the system, the environment, the identity. You put the effort in the system, the environment, the identity, the pieces around the action, so that then the action happens by default, it happens consistently, it becomes a habit. The habit produces the result that you want, because consistent actions lead to your optimal results.

01:05:48 - Chase (Host) What comes to mind for me in that is this idea of consciousness and unconsciousness. There are the conscious things that we are aware of that are contributing to or taking away from our productivity, taking away from our personal development. But there are a myriad of other things that we are not yet aware of that, to your point, are driving the motor that are flowing that river. How do we become more aware of these unconscious drivers in our productivity, in our personal development, so that we can take control of them and make them more conscious?

01:06:26 - Brian (Guest) drivers. Yeah, so it builds off of parts of what I've already described. Right so fundamental to what I practice, what I encourage people to do, is this baseline tracking system. And what happens? When you show up and you do your tracking, you're like, oh, I didn't work out today, but I planned to, instead of just letting it slip away and be like, oh well, I'll try again tomorrow. Which good. Like at least you're aware that you didn't do it. The opportunity is to understand the conditions and circumstances and factors that led to you not working out.

01:07:00 - Chase (Host) Is this in your tracker where you still have? Uh, you had a still track a zero right, yeah, let me.

01:07:05 - Brian (Guest) Let me better understand this and see the lessons in this, which is also part of cultivating the growth mindset and operationalizing that, so that I can become aware of what happened unconsciously in the moment, so that you are primed to recognize that the next time it happens. So let me give an example right, so, all right. This example of you didn't work out, but you intended to, okay, cool. So what happened? I had it scheduled for seven in the morning, okay, but I didn't show up at seven in the morning. What happened? What caused that?

01:07:32 Oh well, I was extra like, cuddly in bed. It's like, okay, and why is that? Oh well, because my wife was out of town for two weeks and like this was our first moment together. Then, with that awareness, I'm like, okay, cool. So now I can understand that there's this social dynamic that caused me and a need that I have socially that caused me to make this unconscious choice to snooze my alarm and to be in bed with my wife or part whatever, and that is the condition that led to this, not happening to me not going to the gym.

01:08:05 - Chase (Host) It's not me being lazy, it's not me. You know it takes a lot of that, uh, that kind of self-infliction off of our personal development or thinking that you know there aren't these other contributing factors other than just willpower.

01:08:23 - Brian (Guest) Sure, sure. And I think the point that I'm getting at, too, is when you review your performance with that non-attachment, which is this is what, objectively, like, this was the objective performance. I did not do it. This is the reality and the circumstances that caused that performance. I did not do it. This is the reality and the circumstances that caused that performance.

01:08:41 Now, as a feedback loop, what it does is informs you of two things. First, is the next time that you're feeling snuggly in bed, now you're aware of like, oh, I'm choosing to be here instead of workout. What do I actually want to do? So, instead of unconsciously choosing to be in bed, you're like oh well, but we have date night tonight, so I don't need to do this now. I'm going to have my time for this later, so you can make a new choice with that consciousness, because consciousness requires awareness, absolutely. The second thing that it does is okay.

01:09:03 Well, maybe there was something wrong with my plan, understanding that this was the environment. The environment is we've been apart for two weeks, so now, next time when that happens, I know that this is what I want to do. I would choose that again. I didn't make the wrong choice, so how can I set myself up for success, knowing that condition. Okay, I'm going to plan for an afternoon workout the next time that we've been apart for a long time, because I'm going to enjoy my morning cuddles instead.

01:09:29 So it's, it is, I call it asking, just simply being curious, non-attached, and asking why I didn't go to the gym. But I plan to why. You'll figure it out. Just keep asking why and you'll figure it out. Yeah, I, I didn't make a schedule for the day. Oh, that's interesting. Why? Oh, like, do I not believe that it helps me? Oh, did did my trigger not work to prompt me into doing it? Did I feel overwhelmed by everything that I got going on? So, and it's when you get to the truth of why, then you see how these environments are interacting with you in those moments, and it's with that awareness you can then do the work to change the environment, to change the choice, to change the plan to, to set yourself up with more awareness and with more intention.

01:10:18 - Chase (Host) Man, what you just said is so important, so powerful, because I can just imagine how many people are hearing this and going oh, like I thought it was me. I thought it was me and I think that is one of the biggest barriers in most people's personal development journey is, I mean, in many ways, yes, you are your biggest limiting or contributing factor, but when it comes to adherence and our ability to kind of, you know, have motivation or even false motivation, is, you know, like I'm not capable, but you might have the right plan. It's just the wrong environment, or do you have the wrong plan and the right environment? So I want people to go back and really listen to what you just described, because I think that just helps us detach so much from our perceived ability or inability to create or even execute a plan in pursuit of our goals. That's so helpful, man, so helpful.

01:11:10 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, and the thing that I'll add to it, which kind of connects to like it brings the conversation together, which is the personal development junkie. Right, yeah, the personal development junkie knows, oh, it's environment over willpower. Benjamin Hardy wrote a book about it. Maybe you've read it. Right, it's like yeah, of course it's environment. What do you do with that? Like, have you changed your environment?

01:11:27 Have you taken action to understand and become aware of these factors that are contributing to the choices you're making unconsciously, the path of least resistance, the flow of your river and where it's leading you? Or is it a book that you read that you felt good about? You're growing because you read the book and you learned this thing, but you didn't actually change your behavior. And that's the difference, right? So many of these books I'm not knocking these books like these books are fundamental to changing your life. What I'm encouraging people to do is to take the next step beyond it, which which everyone says like well, you've got to implement this work, but you need to know how to implement it, and that's that's where you have a system of implementation, a system of behavior tracking, a system of evaluating If the iterations that you're making are actually producing the new results that you want them to. It's having all of those tools in place so that the fuel that you have from these books is running through a better engine, and so good.

01:12:26 - Chase (Host) What do you think is the most important thing someone should consider in preparation for starting or advancing their personal development journey right now? That might not be so common or so top of mind.

01:12:39 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, well, it's this perspective shift that we've been talking about, which is New Year's resolutions. Okay, so I have this great intention and ambition for who I want to be. I'm going to get in the gym, I'm going to eat healthier, I'm going to start that new business, I'm going to be on Duolingo and learn a new language. I'm going to do these things, and that's like thinking about the habit, which is oh well, this is the new action I'm going to take. But if you don't work on anything around that no systems, no environments, no changes then you're going to be inheriting the same choices with a little more motivation, and we know that motivation doesn't last, it's not reliable and, especially when you're in unconscious moments, it's not even there. So my recommendation as you think about first there's two different ways to think about as you think about a specific resolution or intention or something that you want to bring into the new year, make sure that you have this systems and environment design around it so that you have your plan in place to execute on it. Right, okay, so it's. You want to go on Duolingo? What's your system? I'm going to do it before I go to sleep, for 15 minutes every single day, just literally having that implementation intention will help you to follow through on the behavior more often. Yeah, more systems of okay. Well, let me prompt my awareness to do this. If you're tracking, then you're aware of if you're doing it or not right. There's other systems that can supplement it. So that's one thing. If there's like one thing you really want to bring in the new year, then make sure you have the systems, environment set up for success with that thing. But, more importantly, when you think of this opportunity that is the new year, what do we ultimately want? Yeah, duolingo, more consistent exercise, healthier diet.

01:14:17 All these things are a version of one thing, which is our personal evolution, maximizing our potential, giving our best self to the people, causes and work that we care about, people causes and work that we care about, and the real work that you do to achieve that doesn't happen with a single, isolated New Year's resolution. The true, sustainable and all-encompassing elevation that you can do is to raise your standards in every area of your life. So it's not just I'm going to work on my health or my my exercising, it's how can I cultivate a new sense of discipline in everything I do, how can I hold myself to a higher standard, because with that higher standard, everything changes, not just the one thing. So if you want the one thing to change, that'll happen too, yeah. But if you do the more holistic work of stepping up To the next level, then then that that's my recommendation and that's where it comes down to.

01:15:23 It's the fundamentals, right. How do you raise your baseline and hold yourself to a higher standard in the choices that you make on a daily basis? In the fundamentals, you sleep better, you exercise more, you eat healthier, you're going to have more energy, which then, as we talked about, infuses into the things that you do. You create a schedule so you're organized. You have a new task management system so that you understand what's priority and what's not. You have standards in place about limiting distraction, whether that be on social media, video games, tv, people, people. You're aware of those things. Imagine how good you can be, how much you'll get done and how good you will feel when you attack all of those things at the same time, instead of worrying about them one at a time. And that's because the macro shift is you having higher standards rather than you trying to work on any one thing in isolation.

01:16:19 - Chase (Host) I love that man. I love that You're so, you're so good at this man. I love it as someone who I mean again, I know you personally, but you know that, aside to the last three years, because I know your personal development journey has been longer than three years where you are right now in your personal personal development journey, what is one area that surprises you the most, that has the most influence or is of most value to you that you feel you never saw coming?

01:16:50 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, Long-term planning. Yeah, so when you think about so, let me talk about not my new year's resolutions last year, right? So there were a few things I wanted to do. I wanted to visit my mom and grandma every month. I live in Southern California, they live in Northern California. Both of them are have been in difficult health, but their health has improved. But that was my intention is. I want to make an effort to be there. So it was my system, instead of like, hey, my intention is to see my family more. My system and goal was I'm going to follow up, go to Northern California, see them once a month and plan my trip for the next month before I leave. So every single time at least I'm getting one month ahead of my plan. So that's a system. I've been able to follow through on that. You know.

01:17:38 Another system, or another one of the intentions was to do two physical competitions. So I've done two Spartan races and I did running man. I went to Atlanta and did like a big running man event and like the system for that was let me book these. And like the system for that was let me book these, or at least I'd pick the events at the beginning of the year that I want to do instead of trying to figure it out, and then you lose sight of it and you forget, and then life gets in the way you build around it, right? So what was the question again?

01:18:04 - Chase (Host) You know, as someone who has been in a personal development journey for a while, what has been the most surprising component that you never saw coming. That holds a lot of value to your personal development.

01:18:16 - Brian (Guest) Right. So the long-term planning Thank you, yeah, we're back. Yeah, so the long-term planning. So it's, it's seeing what you want through that wider lens is the decision that then helps you to make all of the other decisions in alignment with it. And I am like my tracking, my scheduling, all of the like structures and systems that I have in place are one day at a time and I am so good at that, right. But I've realized that there is more information that I've been missing by having that deeper plan in place that I can start chasing and tracking toward. And so this year, one of the things that I have in place is from the one thing with Gary Keller the goal set to now process.

01:18:58 I set a someday goal which is at some point in my career. I want to accomplish this thing. What is the five year milestone toward that? What is the three year milestone to achieve the five year? What's the one year to achieve the three year? What's the one month to achieve the one year? What's the one week to achieve the one month? What's the one day to achieve the one week? Go and do that thing. The one day goal, because that ladder's all the way up.

01:19:19 And now my most important thing to get done every single day connects to my someday goal, because I have this strategic plan that ladders me back down to saying, well, what am I going to do about it today? And instead of me thinking about, well, well, what really does connect with my macro vision and the change I want to bring in the world and the things I want to accomplish in my career, in life, I don't have to think about it. It is reverse engineered from the goal and now it's just about faithfully following through on that. So I I completely underestimated the value of a long-term plan, and now that I have it, have it. It's an easy decision for me to make of what I'm going to do in the immediate, because I've already figured out where I'm headed. Now I just need to take the steps toward it.

01:20:02 - Chase (Host) That's so important and I think that's again where a lot of people struggle in their personal development journey is. Well, what do I do? What's the first, most important thing I do to make myself better, to get more productive? And I would challenge them to kind of go back and pick up on what you just said. Instead of thinking about or focusing so much time, energy, resources on today or, hell, even tomorrow. What do I have to do to move the needle the most is take a moment, take that day and think about what do I want my life to look like? How do I want to feel? Where do I want to be? Who do I want to be with? What number do I want in my bank account? Anything even remotely close to that, one year from today, one year from today, and then then bring it back, bring it back, bring it back, bring it back. There's your thing you need to do today.

01:20:52 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, I have a really powerful training that I share with my coaching clients and community, which is this three year, five year visualization where it's like I create this environment, which is like there is someone that appears in your room and it's you and it's your future self, and my boss is like, oh my God, this is trippy. But then the question is like and it's a conversation, it's a facilitated conversation that you have with this person, and it's a conversation, it's a facilitated conversation that you have with this person, and it's this whole conversation around. Oh my gosh, you won't believe what I accomplished in the last three years. Really, what was it? And then they tell you listen, and then your mind fills in the gaps of like, wow, they're this excited, like what is that thing? So if again it's like, how do we operationalize this thing?

01:21:29 Hey I have a strategic plan. Like it's helpful. So what is the actual thing that you do? It's a visualization, it's a goal setting session, it's having a conversation with a friend, like you do, like you take action on these things to fill that gap, that you have to plug the hole and then, with the work that you've done now, you can operate on all the things that we talked about, right? So, again, like that's, that's the most important piece to this. Like this podcast episode doesn't change anyone's life if they don't do something differently because of it. Right, you know, or you know, of course, consciousness and awareness changes, but we've we've gone down that rabbit hole. We don't need to go any further.

01:22:07 - Chase (Host) Well, brian, I mean this has been such a treat to have you here. Man, just want to reiterate, like you are so good at this and I've had such a great time getting to know you and work with you one-on-one and in the group and, just you know, being literally going through your own work and your own systems and your own uh tracker. It's just been eye-opening. And, again, for someone who I feel very confident in a lot of the systems and habits and trackers that I have in my life and have developed over the years, I was so taken aback by your approach to this that even someone who has had this top of mind for 10, 12, 15 years almost now I was like, damn, he got me, he got me. So my last question for you is where do you personally struggle the most in your personal development journey?

01:22:57 - Brian (Guest) Yeah. So one of the things you've alluded to is there. There are two really important questions to ask, as you're always on your personal development journey, which is what do I want and what am I doing about it? Right, because otherwise there's no direction, there's no trajectory. So for me, the biggest focus in my life right now is my presence with people. So, in particular, I call them love wins. I got that from heroic as well. I love when. When stands for what's important. Now.

01:23:27 Ooh I like that, and there are times when I'm working I'm in the middle of an assignment, I'm like just wrapped up a call and I've got to follow up, like I'm in it. When I'm working, I'm in the middle of an assignment, I'm like just wrapped up a call and I've got to follow up, like I'm in it, like I'm in my workday, it's on my schedule, right? Like?

01:23:38 - Chase (Host) I'm pumping right. This is my thing. I time block this Exactly Like leave me alone.

01:23:44 - Brian (Guest) But then my brother calls or my mom calls or my wife walks into the room and my tendency is to be like yeah, yeah, yeah, because I've got this belief system. That is, this is intentionality. This is what it looks like, this is what I want to be doing and what I've been leaning more toward. That I'm looking to continue improving on is giving myself more grace. To say, I made the schedule with the current information, awareness and opportunity that I had then. This present moment is providing something else.

01:24:16 So what do I choose now? And every time that I've chosen the person over the work, I've loved it. So it's doing that, so and it's inviting that. Right, it's not like I'm inviting, hey, call me during my work day or whatever. But when the moment arises, instead of having this negative relationship of, oh, this is inconvenient, this is a distraction, this is pulling me away from what I want to get done, now I'm like okay, cool, this is the choice I want to make today because this is in front of me. I miss my brother, I want to see my wife. So this is what I do and my work hasn't suffered, but the quality of my relationships, my availability, my accessibility and the feeling that I have about how I'm showing up for my life has transformed. So it's. It's only been a couple months of really prioritizing the love wins and it's going to continue to be a focus.

01:25:06 - Chase (Host) I love that man. Thank you for being honest about that and I'll kind of share. I'm in a like similar position this year, you know, as May and I have gotten pregnant and we've kind of talked a lot about how you know it's like little cute little moments like, oh, this is the last time it's you and me you're going to be doing this.

01:25:25 This is the last time this you know our lives are changing and the fact that it will never not be just us. And so now, when you know I'm homeworking or I get a phone call here in the studio, or you know, I lean in so much more to I mean technically you could call it an interruption, but I lean so much more into that gift of this is the only time now where my wife and I get to talk about this.

01:25:52 We get to navigate this obstacle or we get to go, you know, put down the laptop and take a walk and go get coffee or something. So it's it's a deep appreciation for the people and opportunities that I have in my life, but the understanding that I know I'm saying yes to, not a disruption, not an interruption, but an opportunity right now that I will never have again, and I know that's very unique. Not everybody is going to be having a kid or something, but just perspective. You know what, if this is the last time that you get to do this thing at this place, with this time, with this person, you know kind of just take that as you will.

01:26:27 - Brian (Guest) but better enjoy it yeah.

01:26:29 - Chase (Host) Yeah Well, ryan, where can my audience go to connect with you, learn more about your work? We're going to have, of course, everything listed down in the show notes and video description box, but send them somewhere, man. Where are they going right now?

01:26:41 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, so I mean we haven't referenced it yet, but I've got a podcast myself, so it's called self-improvement daily, every day for how many?

01:26:47 - Chase (Host) years, yeah, over six years at this point I thought I was consistent in podcasting man, yeah, yeah.

01:26:52 - Brian (Guest) So I mean that's I mean it's three to five minutes every single day and it's it's my diary, you know, it's what I've been learning and integrating and the stories of how I've been processing things, much like the examples I've shared today. You know, it's just kind of. This is me doing my best, with the limited awareness that I have, to try and be of service, you know, and be as intentional as possible and uh, yeah, and so I'd love for people to follow along and play there and reach out.

01:27:18 - Chase (Host) However, I can support? And uh, is your? Is your tracker still available for people? Is this you're still doing like the the 90 day challenge, or where can they go to actually like get into the work with you?

01:27:26 - Brian (Guest) Yeah, so so one of the really exciting initiatives. Assuming this gets out in time before January, it will. Okay cool, so I'd love to invite people to something I'm very passionate about. So, yeah, so a lot of what we've been describing with the tracker and everything. So the process that I support people with and implementing it is a 21 day challenge called the 21 day super habits challenge. So 21 day, excuse me, not 90.

01:27:49 - Chase (Host) Yeah.

01:27:49 - Brian (Guest) So the 21 day super habits challenge is this three week progression related to installing your performance tracking system, implementing the high leverage super habits, which are the things behind the scenes that set up your environment for success, and then building out your feedback loop.

01:28:04 Within the scorecards, you can optimize the choices and results that you're getting all the things that we talked about. You can have that in a three week process, which is a 21 day challenge, but for this new year, I'm so stoked about this. So what I'm doing is I'm partnering with nonprofits, fundraising leaders, community leaders and people to say look, all right, I want to be of service. So what I want to do is I'm going to partner with you and for every dollar that you invest in this program and my coaching, it's going to be a donation to your charity of choice, and the way that it works should you want to is we can pick a charity of choice for you and your audience where you can invite people to grow alongside each other in this 21-day challenge. It starts on January 6th and 100% of their investment in themselves is an investment in making the world a better place. Wow, you installed a super habit system, the feedback loop, the performance tracking system. All of these things in a 21 day process.

01:28:59 - Chase (Host) I love that. Thank you so much, and I have one in mind. But, before you know, when you asked me earlier before I kind of said it out loud I want to make sure that they're still running. Um, I don't know if they were just doing kind of like a like a here and now, kind of fundraising thing, but I have one in mind. But if you're here, you know this part of the podcast, I'll have it linked in the show notes again and top of the video description box. So definitely check it out and we'll connect on it. Make it happen, man.

01:29:24 Awesome Dude, this is so powerful, so powerful, just being in your presence and just honestly. This is again why I love the podcast so much is because I get to sit down with people that just pour out their passion, pour out just streams of consciousness and, like I learn so much. So this has been a great reminder for me for certain parts of my personal development and productivity tools, and my goal is you know this is going to really truly help a lot of people move forward in theirs as well. So, thank you, that's the goal. Appreciate, you know this is going to really truly help a lot of people move forward in theirs as well.

01:29:55 - Brian (Guest) So, thank you, that's the goal.

01:29:56 - Chase (Host) Appreciate you having the platform For more information on everything you just heard. Make sure to check this episode's show notes or head to everforwardradio.com.