¶ The Power of Design for Success
a little bit , but it's okay . One , two , three , Four , five , six . one , two , three . Four five , six .
Nice .
All right .
Ray you ready for this , hey ? 0.1% improvement Storytelling Yes . All right , your intention is to better storytell . Better storytell , if that's a word .
Better storytelling . What are you plugging ? Next elimination always the first one of the week .
next elimination Group coaching for me . Okay , My intention is to be present . be in flow .
Kid wants to be present . He wants to be in flow , ready . Next level nation . Welcome back to another very special episode of Next Level University , where we teach you how to level up your life , your love , your health and your wealth . We hope you enjoyed our latest episode . It was episode number 1,365 , the two most important things to know about yourself .
Today , for episode number 1,366 , we're talking about two more things The two D's of consistency Bump , bump , bump . So it was . What night was this ? This was probably Friday night . I had a long day . Taryn had a long day . She was laying in bed .
I just brushed my teeth , got ready for bed and I walked in the bedroom and I said you know what's really interesting ? Alan has practiced the same routine every single day for I don't know , probably like seven years now . And I said I was thinking about that while I was brushing my teeth and I had a breakthrough .
I said not only is he a very , very disciplined human being so that's D number 1 , discipline but he also has a really , really , really good handle on the design of his life . I said Alan's not exactly the type of person who is gonna stay over somebody else's house . There's not a lot going on . His life is designed very simply and it's designed for success .
And I was telling Taryn I said it's interesting . You can either be and this isn't the exact place I wanna go but you can either be really disciplined , you can have a really good design , or you can have both .
And I think a lot of us when we feel like we're struggling with discipline , one of the reasons we're struggling is because we have broken the design . If you feel like doing something is really really , really easy right now , my bet is you're not drastically more disciplined , you just probably have a better design .
Think about the times where you are the most successful with some of your habits . Was it the fact that you just hunkered down and said , okay , i'm gonna be super , super , super disciplined ? Maybe that's how it started , but hopefully you got to the point where you were able to design that success into your life .
And it's interesting how a thought I had when I was brushing my teeth can become a reality of an episode touching people all over the world . Kev so what I designed . Yes , alan so .
First and foremost , i gotta turn my fan off soon for the next episode , for the next episode .
No , I just turned off right now . No , I turned it off , go ahead .
You're gonna hold Facebook .
I'll do the Jeopardy . Yeah , i'm gonna do the Jeopardy theme song Good , perfect , do , do , do , do , do , do , do , do do . For those of you who might be the younger generation , there was a game show called Jeopardy , hosted by one , alex Trebek . It was a great , great , great show So much better . We're back .
So much quieter . Yeah , yeah , because last time I listened to the episodes I could hear your laptop fan And you , emilia , and I . Emilia and I have a podcast as well . Kevin and I are sticklers for audio quality . We try to Kevin more than me try to be Okay .
So the second D of design , i think , is more important than the first D , and so the habit that Kevin's referring to is I have what's called a morning mindset workout . A lot of my clients have it as well and they all have their own . So pick a video anywhere from two to five minutes long and prime your mind first thing in the morning with it .
Now , have I done it every single day without missing a day for , i think , eight years now . Yes , have I done it every morning ? No , absolutely not . Sometimes it's the afternoon , sometimes it's the evening when I realize I've forgotten to do it . But my point is is that it's three clicks away .
Back in the day , kevin , when the iPhone first came up , i used to design user interfaces at an electronic computer engineering my bachelor's degree And I was doing this thing called UI design and essentially there's something called three-click satisfaction . One of the reason why everyone loves the iPhone is because it's so simple and so easy to use .
So anything that you want to do on your phone should be three clicks away aka great design . So if you wanted to order Domino's , how many times would you have to click to get into the Domino's app ?
To get into the app Yeah , Click the icon to open it . It logs in based on your face and then you click once to the menu .
And what they do on the Domino's app , which I know very well , is they have pre-orders . You're your past order , so do you have an order saved ?
Like Terry Kevin's special or something . No , i do on Taco Bell . Okay next .
Yeah , so it's click , click , click . Food is coming . And I did that with this morning mindset workout . So I open my phone . The home screen has YouTube on the bottom right . I click YouTube , clicked the library in the bottom right hand corner . I click morning mindset workout and I hit play . So that's four clicks .
It's actually four clicks and it's actually playing . So this is the morning mindset workout .
Please don't copyright strike us , eddie .
Yeah , so Eddie's a friend , and it's actually really cool story because when I first started doing this , i had been doing this every day for three years before I ever met Eddie . Hmm , and then Eddie became a friend . We co-hosted at an event . He became a client . It's just such a crazy story because I didn't even know him when this first started .
He was like a hero of mine , you know , but anyways . So owed to excellence is the name of the video . It's three minutes long and If you really do ever want to be disciplined , you kind of have to choose something That is the least amount of friction . A Good analogy for this is James clear talks about this in atomic habits .
He says there was someone who Wanted to stop eating so much popcorn . So what they did ? they still love popcorn . They took the popcorn , they put it up in their garage and they had to grab a ladder to get to the popcorn . Now , if they really want to get the popcorn , it only takes 60 seconds to go grab it . But he added resistance on purpose .
They say if you want to stop watching TV , you need to unplug the TV and put it in your closet . If you want to start reading more , you got to put your books right by your bedside table . I Think I have three books four books on my bedside table , because I know that I'm not gonna get up at night Out of my bed , go grab a book and then bring it .
I instead , i just want to be in the habit , and so the idea underneath this is just design your life around the things you want to do more of and , really more importantly , design your life in A way that makes it difficult to do the things that aren't good for you .
I thought that was a long , dramatic pause . No , no , no , that's it , that's okay . Usually you , not you , usually you're nod your head when you're done . You have your tells , you have your poker tells that I I recognize I've cast tells a couple podcast tells . I was on a show the other day and they were mentioning the seven episodes a week .
I we get a lot of love when we , when you go on other podcasts , people like wait , you do an episode every day and I said honestly It's not that , all things considered , it's not the most challenging thing in the world . We have a really good design where Monday you can't book on our calendar , no matter what . You can't pay us for something .
I mean you , you could , we could move it , but you and I do not have anything .
You're thinking about it . Right , we'll reach out , no , but we don't .
We don't have any availabilities , right ? So if I send you my calendar link , you can't book on Monday . It's not even an option . That's it . That's a really good design that helps . That makes things a little bit easier . Where , say , you and I had open calendars on Monday And we had to find time in between then ? then it would be a lot of discipline .
Thinking back to COVID , you and I were really really , really productive when we were in the lockdown because the design was great . I can't go anywhere . I know there's nothing else . I cannot go anywhere else . It's . It made things in a way , in one way , a lot easier . In other , many ways , many , many , much , much , much more challenging . But that's so .
Here's the other thing . Okay , cool , covid happens . We can't leave , so we're at home working , awesome . There's the design , but then there's the also the discipline of . Well , taryn was home too , and if she wanted to watch Netflix at noon , there's nothing that's stopping me from watching Netflix at noon , other than the discipline . So these two go hands-in-hand .
It's almost like The more designed you are , the easier it is not to have to rely on pure discipline . The more disciplined you are , the easier it is to lock into design . It's almost like one adds a lot to the other one and vice versa .
I was going to , i was going to say the 3Ds and the other one was going to be drive , because I was listening to The Art of Impossible and they were talking about drive . But I thought I really think discipline and designer the reason , the reasons most of us don't succeed . Why is something so hard ? Okay , let's do this .
Why is something so hard in the beginning , but also so easy in the beginning ? It's easy in the beginning because you haven't had to worry about breaking down your discipline yet . It's hard in the beginning because you haven't created a design yet .
A new routine is challenging because it's new and there is no design , there's no muscle memory , there's no flow , there's no momentum . But it might also be easy because there's not a lot of discipline to start .
You don't have a lot of negative reps with it , you don't have a lot of resistance around saying , oh , yesterday sucked , it's going to be hard to do it today . It's very interesting how the way you set something up determines how long you're able to actually do the thing . These are just connected very , very , very nicely .
One of the reasons why I've helped so many clients be consistent is the design piece . They don't suddenly have more discipline , but they do suddenly have better designs . I remember back when I was fitness coaching , whenever I was with a client who wanted to choose a gym , i would say these are the three most important things . Number one 24-7 .
Needs to be open 24-7 . You ever show up to a gym on a holiday and then Of course , oh , it's the worst . You need to be able to Kev , you talk about this . It's like it's 11 pm and I can't sleep . I'm going to go get a lift . Need 24-7 . Got to be . Number two was proximity . How close to your home is it ?
If it's more than 20 minutes away , do not kid yourself . Do not kid yourself unless you are a really dedicated bodybuilder or fitness competitor . There's no way . There's no way . Emilia and I have a gym that we don't even like that we go to . It's two minutes away . I spend six minutes a day in my car .
That's it , one of the reasons I don't have a nice car , but the thing is there's a gym that I really love . I adore impact fitness in Auburn , adore it So good . I will not do it . I won't do it . I'm not going to spend an hour a day in my car to get a little bit of a better workout , to be in a better energy .
If you have a half an hour away , jim , you're not going to be consistent . It's just human nature . I think that discipline is literally going against human nature . I will not eat these donuts . I will not eat these donuts . I will not eat these donuts . That's going against human nature . Human nature is eat those donuts . There might be a famine or calories .
You need calories to survive evolution . Discipline is going against human nature . Discipline is setting yourself up to go with human nature . You have to do both . If you don't have both , it's going to be extremely difficult to be consistent . If it's extremely difficult to be consistent , it's going to be hard to get any really , really good results .
I've talked . For some reason Your cadence is off today . When you finish your sentences , I can't tell I've talked a lot .
I don't know how to explain it . I don't want to go down this rabbit hole , but I just feel different . I feel , like I'm more grown . I've grown a lot lately , that's all .
I like it .
Whatever that means , i'm not sure , yet I'm sending some over my way .
I'm trying to grow a little bit .
I'm always down . I'm all right , brother , i appreciate it . You better have devolved . I'm not sure We'll find out .
This is the first of eight episodes we're recording today probably seven , realistically . But we'll find out as we get deeper into the week's episodes whether or not I can pick up on your tells . I have mentioned the alarm clock that I have . It's like a watch , but it's an alarm clock that vibrates . That came from me .
What originally happened was I was getting up super early . My phone was waking Taryn up . Every morning . I was getting up and I was going and doing my stuff , which was great , but it was waking her up . It was like okay , the design is not working . The design is working . Yes , not a great design .
The design is working really good for my discipline , but it's not working great for my relationship . Okay , cool , what do we do ? She got me a present . She got me this watch that vibrates .
¶ Consistency Through Design and Discipline
The design was not working well because it would vibrate once and I would turn it off without even knowing .
So then I set two alarms , so five o'clock and five o'one , and then the discipline increased , but it wasn't to the point where I some mornings it would feel like I just forgot , i just in my sleep , turned it off and then I just woke up like an hour later disappointed . I was like , oh no , now I set five . That's the third D disappointment , disappointment .
I set five . So let's just say it's usually now I'm at a cadence where it's 530 . So I've been getting up at 530s and really , really , really good . So I'll do 530 , 531 , 532 , 533 , 534 , 535 . So that's technically , i think that's technically seven . I never get to the seventh one .
Usually I get up after the first one because I know the next one's coming , so I can't fall back asleep into a deep sleep . It's worked amazing . So the Design didn't work , so I had to rely more on discipline . The discipline didn't work , so I had to tap it back into design and then rinse and repeat , rinse and repeat , rinse and repeat .
This is why it's all connected , because when you do something consistently , the design improves , the discipline improves and you can actually figure out what's working and what's not . That is why consistency is so hard , because until you practice it , you don't really know what works and what doesn't .
It's almost like until you practice it long enough , you only know what doesn't work .
In a way , One of my clients said , alan , i know that you think that the value of your coaching is the peak performance tracking and the reports and the peak performance reports and the data . but I want you to know your coaching is so much more than that And I said I really appreciate that genuinely , like thank you .
I do know that , but you don't understand . I can't improve a system that you're not running . Like if Kev has a workout program that he's actually executing against , we can analyze his results and then improve the system , but if you're not running the system , i don't have anything to go on . I can't tell you that it's not working .
I can't tell you that it is working . You're not running the system , so I can't tell . It's almost like the only way to improve is you have to be consistent , because and Kev , you and I talked earlier about 0.1% improvements compounded over time . So , we're on the 1,366th episode And I'm quite embarrassed . I left my fan on .
You'd think you'd figure it out , brother . Like every Monday , turn your fan off . It's not that hard . Now we should probably have a pre-flight checklist . We don't . I assume we're gonna do better and we don't . It is what it is . But the point is is I was looking at some of our old videos .
I was on YouTube with Emilia this weekend helping her with her podcast , and we have improved so much On episode to episode you can't really see it . You really can't . No , no , like alarming . It's invisible . It is invisible .
It's invisible . it's invisible Or in a way you actually feel worse .
Yeah , yep , you know , if you're listening to this just to make this concept land , go on YouTube at some point . Next level university . Check out our latest video . Okay , listen to two minutes of it . And then I want you to go 200 episodes prior . So go to I don't know 11 hundreds .
Then I want you to go to 800s , then I want you to go to like the 300s . It is horrible . The show is so bad Genuinely . It's so bad Now in comparison , right in comparison to now . It's so bad compared to other shows . Back then Maybe it was decent .
You know , whatever , the point that I'm trying to make here is we could never have improved something that we weren't running . You cannot improve a system that's not running . Imagine Apple did an iPhone and then they were like you know what , in 10 to 15 years , let's just make a better one . No , no , no , no . They had iPhone one , iphone two , iphone three .
I just got the iPhone 14 Pro Max .
So , and the 15 is about to come out in September , the iPhone is the best phone on the planet because they stay consistent , because they are disciplined , and they stay consistent , and then they redesign the phone And then they learn from that , and then they redesign , and then they learn from that , and then they redesign , and that's what's called R&D , research
and development , and we all have to do that in our own lives too .
I think about going through airport security or anything like that , where it's kind of there's a lot on the line . So , like anytime , i think , fear and there's a lot on the line . I think of airports and flying , just because there is a lot on the line at all times . Think about the designs they have , the systems , the design .
Like you go through security the same way every single time . It's a design , it's by design , and then you basically have to be disciplined with the design . And that really is how . Think of whatever your favorite restaurant is that you've gone to and then you left and said , wow , the service was really good .
That is a mixture of discipline and design , training and staffing or whatever it is . I went , tara , and I went away . We went to lunch on Sunday and it was a really , really nice place And you can tell that there is a lot of discipline , but it's also a lot by design . You could tell just by the way things flowed .
So you are no different , alan , and I are no different . That's why a good morning routine is awesome , because you start the morning with design . Can you give let's ?
give some examples . Don't ask me about my morning routine , son . Let's give some examples No , no , no in general of things you've designed , Like anything simple , relatable , Simple relatable That you've designed in your own life . I'll give a simple one .
My yoga mat is right next to the fireplace because when , when it's warmer , your joints , ligaments and tendons are more pliable . So I'm purposely and it's always out And it's actually flipped up . I'm a little crazy . Okay , so it's also flipped up Because the yoga mat it's , it's Emilia's .
So first of all , there's two yoga mats There's there's the cheap Amazon one that I bought that's underneath Emilia's nice one because I want the extra cushion , because I'm soft , and When you flip it over , there's a . There's a huge um , what's that bird ? that's got all the colors Peacock , peacock . Yeah , there's a peacock feather .
It's like really colorful and really nice , and my the housekeeper , cleoji , she flips it and cleans it , and I don't like the peacock side because I like symmetry and the design is not symmetrical , so I can't do my stretches as well .
Mm-hmm .
So I , like the other side , is like checkerboard and it's it's very good for me to know where my feet are placed to make sure I'm symmetrical in yoga . So that's by design . The fact that there's two yoga mats is by design , and the fact that it's right next to the fireplace is by design .
And the fact that it's always out and I never have to unroll it is by design , because I know I'm not gonna do mobility . No , i'm not gonna unroll the yoga mat every day . Human beings are inherently lazy , myself included .
If I want to do yoga , it better be right there and it better be flipped upright And it better be with the fireplace right there that I can flip on because it's cold in the morning . And and that's just a good example of a design .
I think that People think I'm so disciplined and I'm grateful , but I'm telling you it's more design than discipline , i'm certain .
I'm just a little , but it's more design . Well , the more you do something , the more disciplined you are , the better you can design something . One one really good thing about having a home like a podcast home studio is everything's always set up by design . I The other day it was like oh , it's time for me to record podcast growth . You cool I .
There's no barriers , there's no resistance . I turn the camera on , i turn the lights on where we're good to go . Another one I don't do this really anymore because I don't . I don't drink pre-workout like I used to . Now I have . I drink zoas because I have them , but I used to . I would mix my pre-workout The night before . I put it in the fridge .
I would . When I was bodybuilding , i would make my overnight oats , so it'd be the first thing I it would . They would be in the fridge So I'd go walk to the fridge breakfast pre-workout , off to the gym . Now I have my AirPods charging next to my phone in the office every night . It is a lot of it is .
What can I do So I don't have to rely on pure discipline ? You , how can I make this a little bit easier ? How can I make this a little bit easier . A less friction . Less friction , more smooth .
Knowing that it will never actually be easy . Hmm , because , kev and this is the cool part you can share authentically that , even though your office is set up , you have the time available , you have the time freedom , you're your own boss , you , for the most part , you , it's all set up and it's frictionless . You still better believe before that PGU episode .
Oh right , even if you have a topic and a title and it's all picked and it's and it's bulleted out and you know what you're gonna talk about And it's all set up , you still are sitting there like I don't want to do it Definitely , and then you have no excuse . The other cool part about design is it gets rid of the excuses .
Hmm , whereas before it's like well , i didn't have my stuff and blah , blah , blah , and whereas , if it's all set up now , you can't tell yourself a story . You just got to , you just got to do it .
But I do want everyone to know , even though everything is well-designed , at the end of the day , there's still gonna be times where it's just like , of course , okay , let's bite the bullet .
So , if you're struggling with consistency , ask yourself is it discipline or is it design ? if you've created a world-class , beautiful design and you still find yourself not doing it , maybe your discipline needs to come up .
If you feel like , oh my , i'm just going against the current all day , every day , maybe we got to put some designs in place , because I think I'm sure there's way more to it . But I really think these are two of the big pillars When it comes to consistency , when it comes to success , when it comes to building self-belief in yourself and what you're doing .
Go ahead and I knew it . Hey , i knew it . I knew it that time . No nice , if you need help with the design , it's my favorite thing in the entire world . I'm an engineer at heart , always will be , and I love to design and Help people design for success . So if you need help , please reach out .
I am also an engineer . I did go to engineering school , a little school called the school of hard knocks and life experience . I don't know if you've ever heard of it . Next level nation if you are looking for a group of like-minded individuals where you can be yourself .
One of the interesting perspectives we have when it comes to people is people post different stuff on every platform . Facebook is different than Instagram , which is different than LinkedIn , which is different than TikTok Because a lot of us don't feel comfortable posting about our real lives , who we really really are , inside our private Facebook group , next-level nation .
We'll make that safe . Please join if you are interested . Link is in the show notes .
What would your life feel like If you really knew , with a high degree of certainty , that if you stay disciplined and you keep designing that , your life is going to be successful ? How much would you believe in your own future if you really were consistent ?
¶ Next Level Universe Group Coaching
Group 11 , july 11th . Group coaching is designed We've done 10 iterations of group coaching at this point and it's very well designed to help you succeed . You're going to track habits . You're going to have an assistant coach . You're going to have six bi-weekly sessions with Kevin and myself health , wealth and love .
It is going to be extremely well designed to try to help you achieve what you want . So please sign up with the promo code . Reach out to Kevin and myself . Alan at nextleveluniversecom . Kevin at nextleveluniversecom The link to the landing page of group coaching will be in the show notes . Reach out and say hey , i want to join .
I want the promo code for listeners of this show , only 30% off , which brings it to less than $96 per month . So reach out . We hope to have you in group 11 .
Tomorrow for episode number 1367 , why you're not building self-belief . I was a very , very , very good baseball player , but I never believed I was because I was missing this one thing As always , we love you , we appreciate you , grateful for each and every one of you , And at NLU we do not have fans , we have family . We will talk to you all tomorrow .
Decide , discipline and design Next level nation .