#1369 - Belief Is The Biggest Thing Holding Us Back

So we did this last week And I think it's just a good opportunity for us to . I don't want to say , talk about what we're going through , but just make sure that we're sharing personal stuff with you .

One of the benefits of this podcast , and one of the goals we've had since the very beginning , is we want to share our struggles as much as our successes , and I don't know what Alan's going to ask me . I'm going to interview Alan in the next episode . Alan doesn't know what I'm going to ask me .

He doesn't know what I'm going to ask him , so I think it creates a unique dynamic . So the floor is yours sir .

You know what I'm saying . Well done , thank you . All right . So without further ado , i'm going to tell a quick story about earlier today . So Kevin and I earlier today we get in the studio And by the studio I mean our home offices , home studios And we get in Zoom And I say , kev , i'm fired up with rock and roll .

So we go into the financial calculator , which is just a web app that calculates finances , and I put in $100 into the financial calculator And we start to unpack what would happen if you grew that $100 . This is a personal growth podcast , so please stick with the analogy here . If we grew that $100 by 0.1% , ok , and I said let's imagine 0.1% for a second .

Take a pizza 10 slices . Take one slice , slice that into 10 slices . Take one of those , slice that into 10 slices . Could you eat one little bite each day . Kev's like yeah , awesome , ok , we proceed to go through this And we show what it would be in five years , 10 years , 15 years .

So if we took $100 , kev put it into a bank account and it were to grow by 0.1% per day for 15 years , you andI together we determined it would be $24,000 . So $100 , 15 years later , 0.1% , 24k . So you have $24,000 . Now I asked Kev . I said what do you think it would be ? That's 15 years . What do you think it would be in 50 years ?

And I set him up for failure here . Because of this concept is so powerful . Einstein called the law of compounding the eighth wonder of the world . I said Kev , can you guess what the number would be If you had $100 growing by 0.1% per day for 50 years ? just guess , just give me a wild guess .

And you proceeded to say I believe $24 million , i think so And then I hit Enter And it was like well , kev , you seem to be slightly off . It was $84 billion .

Still , with all the love , and again , i don't think anyone could have guessed that It's wild Why do you believe it's so hard for people to understand the compound effect ?

If you don't understand how that works , like 9 , and then I get another 9 , then another 9 , another 9 , all the way to 9 . Of those , that's 81 . Now , instead of doing that , do 9 times 9 is 81 . And then do 81 times 9 . And get that , and then do that times 9 . It's because it's just not .

It leaves the realm of understanding very , very , very quickly , because it's not 10 times 10 . It's 10 to the 10th power . Right , and those are . This is a really good one . This is a really good , really good understanding How many ? well , this is what happened for me .

I was entering a code into something And the code ended up being a number that is associated with me . It was an old phone number I had And I was like what are the odds that the code of this thing , completely unrelated to me , is a number that I know ? And I was like , well , how would I figure that out ? Well , i would do so .

There's 10 numbers it could be . It could be 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 . So 10 . And there's five of them , so it's 10 times 10 times 10 times 10 times 10 . If you do that number , 100,000? . I'll do it 10 to the 5th power .

The reason I'm saying this is that is the amount of combinations that there are , so there's 100,000 combinations it could be , and it's one that I actually knew . Which means it's a.0001% chance , which is just very , very rare , but even that thought process of there's 100,000 . Imagine this is good .

imagine if you've ever had to try to unlock something that's on like a number thing , like a number padlock or whatever , and you said no , i could probably get it . No you're not going to get it ever . You're never going to get it statistically based on that number . I think that's why it's so hard to understand , because it's beyond basic math .

If you can add awesome , if you can multiply awesome , but then it's your multiplying multiplication , which I just think is a .

So are you going to sit there and try 10,000 different things ? Right , right And so fair , okay , cool . Next question , Please .

Second question , second question Now that you have witnessed and experienced the power of the compound effect in podcasting , in holistic self-improvement , in doing spreadsheets , how would you convince or persuade or influence to ignite the compound effect in their own life so that two , five , 10 , 15 years from now they can have the life of their dreams like you have

now ?

But here's the interesting thing , number one five years from today , you are going to be drastically different than you are today . It's going to happen . You will not stay the same . It's the law of the universe . Time never stops , so you never are going to stay the same . It just doesn't work that way .

So you can either wait five years and see what happens , most likely end up disappointed , frustrated and regretful because you're just going to continue doing the stuff that you're doing and you're going to continue getting the results that you're getting , or you could say well , what if I just did five pages a day ? So five pages a day again .

I don't know the number off the top of my head . Five times 365 , whatever that is .

That's part one . Part two is even if we were just going to try to think about it from a looking back perspective , do you remember every single day of your life ? No , you don't . You probably remember a handful , but it's every single day you've ever had that has made you into the person that you are today . That is compounding That .

it's just most of the stuff that makes us better . we don't even recognize . It's so hard to recognize . I don't remember episode number 12 . I have no idea what it was . I have no clue . I don't know . I don't remember the first math principle I learned . I don't remember the first speech about speaking or communicating . I don't know . You don't know .

It's such a large addition problem that you lose sight of . This is what I would say . Number one the biggest difference between who you are today and who you want to be is your habits 100% , unless you're relying on luck and you're playing a losing game . unfortunately , you already have habits .

So the habits you are currently practicing are going to determine how you look , how you feel , your relationships , your bank account , all of that stuff . five years from today . That's a really good indication of , even if you don't know how much progress you're making or losing . if you shifted a little something , you're going to get drastically different .

So that's probably what I would say . It's just really hard . It's a really hard thing to explain because it's not logical . I mean it is logical , but it's almost not . The fact that if somebody came up to you and said if you could have a penny that doubles every day , or a million dollars , what would you take ? Everybody's taken the million , of course .

Give me the cash . I don't want a penny that doubles every day .

But just the understanding that the reason you are the way you are today is based on the habits you've had for your lifetime , positive or negative . The reason you are going to be who you're going to be in the next five years are your habits , and if you change your habits in a very small way , you can change your life in a very big way .

But it's very hard to make that land .

I didn't understand what was going on And I tend to be someone who rationality and logic is what drives me more than anything else . And if you are listening and you don't resonate with a lot of what I say , it's probably because I'm more rationally driven than emotionally driven . But trust me , underneath there there's deep emotions .

If you listen to episode 1,000 , i talked about that I said not a lot of people think of drive and work ethic as emotion , but it really is underneath everything And hopefully I've been vulnerable often enough on this show for that to shine through . But in life I try to let logic and rationality drive more than emotion .

The emotion is the rocket fuel underneath the logic Instead of some people are very just emotional and they don't have a ton of logic underneath it . And again , i'm not making that wrong . I'm an engineer , all right . So I'm an engineer who doesn't tend to overreact to much . Things Like the clubhouse is a good example .

Clubhouse was so big I was like Kev , don't worry about it . You're like we need to be on clubhouse . You know I'm like dude , don't worry about it Now . If clubhouse is around in five years then we probably should consider it Right . But I didn't think it would be . And it's still going , but barely So .

Anyways , covid was something that really threw me for a loop , and the reason why is because if you look at history and study history , there's always something that's doomsday end of world situation happening And most humans are very irrational and the news perpetuates it . So they get your attention . It's a whole thing .

I don't let the random emotional storms affect my sail of my ship . For lack of a better reason , i try not to . So in COVID I was actually very , very centered and very , very stayed the same course . I didn't change much of anything . I didn't buy toilet paper , i didn't go prepare , i didn't set up a bunker , right , i just did what I do Now .

Here was fascinating , emilia and I . This is the only time we've ever not been on the same page to this extent . Her fan bam was really freaking out and she was really freaking out and I wasn't , and I'm like sweetheart , this is it's gonna be fine , like this has happened before . We have the technology . It's gonna be fine .

I was at dinner with them and we pulled up a laptop and I looked at the numbers . I saw a graph of the growth rate of COVID and that's when I started freaking out . The numbers were extremely scary .

That's when I realized this is real , when I saw the graph , because the graph it's not one person gets COVID , it's one , two , four , eight , 16 , 32 , 64 , 128 , 256 , 512 , 1024, . It's the magic penny . It spreads across the globe very quickly . That's also what happens when a YouTube video goes viral , ghanam style . That's all that happened .

That wasn't even a good video . It just , you know , it spreads . And so I think that that's a really important understanding that your habits are rippling into your life more than you realize , and you just have to know that if you can't understand the math .

And so after I saw the graphs , i was like , oh , this is serious , this is gonna be around for a couple years . And then I started to talk to you about it and we have to re-strategize , we have to go virtual blah , but before that it was just another fad .

I thought A lot of people are freaking out about a lot of weird stuff And I try not to let that affect me , but I just wanted to share that , okay , third question . Third and last question Wow gotta make it a good one .

I've always been focused on being successful , and what I mean by that is being good at what I do and being able to achieve what I believe is valuable . Why don't you ? you aren't someone who like focused on your career a ton Like it's not .

Like in high school you were like oh , i'm gonna focus on my career , i'm gonna build a resume , i'm gonna get a LinkedIn , right . You and I have always been a little different in that And I never understood why fully , because it's the obvious play if you want freedom and a magnificent , rich , dynamic , positive life .

Like if you're not successful you're gonna struggle , and you're gonna struggle either way , but at least you'll struggle less if you're successful . Why don't more people focus on success ?

But I never believed that before . I never believed that . I remember I told you recently I was talking to and this was months ago that that's recently to us because we talk so much , but that I was talking to the manager of the gym I go to And you were like you know you could run that gym , right , and I was like I don't know .

And now more than ever , it's like . But you know why ? Yes , i have worked diligently and I understand things at a lot deeper level than I ever have , but I also believe I could . And if you don't believe you can , you're not gonna imagine this . This makes it even harder . If you don't believe , you can do the minimum viable thing .

So the minimum viable belief we talked about that recently , right , the minimum viable belief is I don't know how to start a podcast , but I do know I need a microphone . I'm gonna order a microphone , Or I do believe I can speak . It's not gonna be great , but I'll tell a story in the first one and whatever , maybe it'll help one person .

Cool , that's a great place to start .

If you don't believe that's possible , you're never gonna believe in the 15 , 20 , 30 year goal . So think of it this way I'm a freshman in high school . The last thing I'm thinking about is what I wanna do in my 40s . I have no clue , no clue . I wanna be a fighter . I wanna fight for a living . You think I had a plan B , son ? I wanna fight .

I wanna get punched in the face professionally . That's what I wanna do . That sounds cool as hell .

It's not like it's logical , so why don't people consider it an option ? I guess how would you tell people to actually believe it ? Because this goes back to the compound effect . I mean now you know if I could talk to 15-year-old Kev and say , brother , you know you could help him become world-class right at this stage You're shaking your head .

Cool , yeah , not , yeah , yeah not in my head . Okay , talk to the listeners about that same thing . How would you get little Kevin to understand like that's a totally doable thing ? Listen , i know you're just saying it , but you really could do it and then make it land . So he actually does it .

Yeah , I know , And look at all the shit we've been through , You know what I mean . That's only six years , man , Not that long . I'm 33 . You know that's a six , not even not a six . That's a little more than a 20% of my life . Isn't that weird ? It's very hard to commit to something for 10 years . That that is all . I think that's a big part of it .

Not only do you not know if it'll actually work , you don't know if you're willing to do what it takes and you don't know if it'll be worth it Any- , But it's very hard to imagine creating something 10 years out .

You got immediate gratification by being jacked in high school . You know what I mean . I got immediate gratification for being good at math . I really did . My mom was like congratulations , and my teachers loved me . You know I did , I got .

So it's almost like you have to choose something where there's at least some immediate gratification , which the old me probably would have said that that's maybe not true , But if you don't believe in yourself , there it is . If you don't believe in yourself , you almost have to choose something that you immediately get some gratification .

I don't know if they believe they actually can , or this is the other thing . Excuse me , going back to the episode that we talked about Hard Work Beats Talent . It's almost like you got to do a lot of really , really challenging stuff to do what you love . Yeah , yeah , yeah .

It's so fascinating .

I just think of it as it's almost like in the very beginning , the thing that you want to do that you love is just a supplement to you making a living . And then it's almost like this is the interesting thing . You almost have to find something where you can kind of make a living and then put the rest of your energy into doing your passion .

But since you're not able to put all the money into making a living , you don't really make that good of a living and you're not really making that much progress on your dreams .

So you're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place until you find Whatever success means to you And then you realize it's really not what you thought it was in the first place , which again I'm very grateful . I don't want to sound . I love . I love my life and . But my life is also the most challenging It's ever been . It's also the most fulfilling .

So I don't want it to be . I don't want to make it seem like this is easy , but I also don't want to make it seem like we're not Blessed and privileged to be able to do what we do . But it's still a challenge . I'm tired all the time .

You know , tomorrow , i told Alan is like yeah , tomorrow I have nine to 10 , 10 to 11 , 11 to 12 , 12 to one , and I think it's like one , 15 to 145 and then two to three . I'm back to back for whatever , however many hours tomorrow , like that's what I hear is the interesting thing , that's what I want at the beginning .

But it still sucks , just in a different way . It's still hard . Hard is hard is contextual . Mud is contextual . You will have mud . There is always mud , i don't care where you are .

I'm telling you there you know some of that stuff , but it's not about that . It's about the identity . It's about who you become . It's about being around other people that are also trying to do challenging things . It's the challenge that makes it great .

Yeah , i adore that It's , and you're never going to live a life If your life wasn't challenging at all I know it sounds awesome You would go find challenge . I know some people , i'm telling you they're not as happy without challenge .

I know some multimillionaires who used to be happier while they were climbing And now they're unfulfilled and they don't know why , and they're going to find new challenges . They're probably going to , you know , do a new fitness regiment Like the moment we get bored as human beings . We're going to go find a challenge .

You might as well choose the challenge that's fulfilling and that's going to contribute to other people . Go ahead .

Eventually it kind of transitions where you can do more of what you love and less of what you must , but your life actually somehow gets worse . That's the intro . But you're getting closer , you're actually getting closer , but just doesn't feel that way .

Because , yeah , you know , i cut my hours at work when I'm doing photography more , i'm not making any , i'm actually making less money . It's like , no , that's not a bad thing necessarily . Because , going back to what we talked about , what if you're getting better at photography ?

It says Bing . When there's a green light It's like how is it interesting ?

And we were talking , we were actually audio-ing an RTC client Relationship talks client well , on the way to the Tesla dealership And I said I know it feels like you and your partner are losing right now , but that means you're winning .

It's because you're in the mud right now , but I'd much rather you be red headed green than yellow headed red or green headed red . And that's the hard part When you feel , when you feel like you're losing , you're most likely actually getting better . When you feel like you're winning , you're actually not getting better . And it's just like the workout .

It's a tough workout that you feel like you're weak , you feel inadequate , you feel less than I was doing deadlifts and squats for the first time in a while , and the last couple of months I've been doing them and it feels like I'm losing in the gym because I'm pushing myself , i'm trying to do more than I can do , but I know I'm winning long term .

Versus what I was doing before with kettlebells , it was easier and I felt better about myself , but I was not getting stronger . So that's . I think that

that's a good analogy . So anyways , kev , what do you want to wrap this up with ? Put this in a bow package . It . Deliver it via Amazon to someone's doorstep .

People are going on trips , buying houses , buying cars and you're like , here I am , podcast or whatever . Whatever it is for you , that was always an interesting one . For me , it didn't never really bothered me a ton , because it was more like I know eventually this is going to be worth it .

If you don't believe it's going to be worth it , try to find out why . Because for a lot of us , i I believe if you don't believe it will be worth it , it's because you don't think you're gonna make it , not that you don't think it'll be worth it if you don't make it there I . That's my belief . My belief is a lot of people .

It's not that they do not believe it would be worth it . They don't believe it will be worth it because they're afraid they're gonna die on the side of the mountain Understandably too . I'm not saying you shouldn't feel that way , that that , what , what do you feel would be worth it ? that you could do . I Don't know , ellen .

I honestly I wish I had a better answer . I think it's the belief thing . You have to do enough of what you believe in so you can you have some sort of platform . And when you get a platform and again , in this it's just a platform of belief Then you can see that the mountain , the next mountain , isn't as tall as you originally thought . It's like .

Ah , okay , mmm , so I host a podcast , i get interviewed on a podcast . I never thought that was possible in the beginning . Anthony trucks my first podcast interview ever . Like , why am I on your show , anthony ? You're way too famous to have Alan and I on your show . Oh , wow , it's not that bad . I did a really good job .

Interesting , Okay , speaking , yeah , i don't know . Okay , i believe I can speak to 20 people . All right , cool , let me do that . And then Pair that with a compound effect and you do a little bit more . Dad , just , a lot can happen over five years , ten years , 20 years , and a lot is going to happen over five years , ten years , 20 years .

It's just whether or not it's gonna be by design or by accident .

That you know , if your biggest fear is bombing a speech and you bomb a speech and you get the show up tomorrow , it's like okay , i mean , nobody's gonna remember that . Nobody's gonna remember as much as I am , you know nobody's right , so other people got stuff that they care about . It's not the two kids that came in that bombed the speech .

It's not that bad , i guess . Cool man , excellent , you're excellent . Strong work , what makes me what ? you're ? very welcome . Oh , i have a podcast About podcasts . Nice work as somebody who identifies as a podcaster . If you meet me in the street and you say , hey , what do you do ? I'm a podcast , i don't .

Somebody asked me if I took your podcast away and I took all your knowledge away , what would you do ? I said good luck . I mean Good luck . I'll send you my address . You can come try to take it from me . Son We . I was just joking with him but I said this is who , this is who I am . I don't know I started podcast .

I don't know I figure out a way to start a podcast . I don't know I talk . I talk into a Campbell's .

It's called podcast growth you , podcast growth University , and I actually was talking to somebody recently who is not a podcaster yet But wants to be one , and she said , honestly , listening to that show helped me a ton because it gave me the certainty I needed to Get the final push and do it .

So maybe you don't want to start a podcast yet , a podcast yet , maybe you do . If you do listen to podcast growth you , you get a different side of me . It's far deeper than this and you're gonna learn something , hopefully , if I do my job right .

Seriously , you're already way ahead of the game . You're both so developed . So , anyways , side tangent Mm-hmm , if you have not yet read my article about building self-belief and self-worth , check that out . I know that it will unlock something . At very least you'll leave that article going . You know what ? Maybe self-worth is the issue .

Maybe I do believe in myself more than I thought . Right , and that's very possible . If you're a listener of this show , you might have sneaky self-belief . You might not . I don't know , but check it out . At very least . You're gonna have more self-awareness when you leave . Our community loves more self-awareness . That's a lot of why this show has done well .

So check that out and let me know what you think .

It'll probably be at least a half hour , so it might be a little bit of a longer episode . As always , we love you , we appreciate you , grateful for each and every one of you and an L you . We don't have fans , we have family . We will talk to you all tomorrow .