#1480 - Do You Recognize How Much You've Grown?

I think it was really three questions to bring clarity to your relationship , but we're gonna leave it as one question because that was the goal . That was let the latest episode today . For episode number 1480 , do you recognize how much you've grown ?

This is an episode that we have done in the past , but I Think it's an episode always worth doing because if you're a new listener or you haven't had the opportunity to do a perspective Revisit , today is a great day to do it . I Was having a conversation with somebody recently and they said how's how's life , what's new , how's everything ?

And I said it's everything's really , really good . I'm just going through a little bit of an identity thing because Everything's a little bit weird .

It's very weird to me that it's almost another year of podcasting and the business has grown a ton and nlps , next level podcast solutions we have 50 something clients now and I remember when there was just one , and we have days where we get three times the amount of listens in one day that we got in the first year . That's mind-blowing to me .

I don't understand that . And we've done 11 rounds of group coaching and we were in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh recently for a speech , and it's just . There's a lot of weird stuff that I just it feels very , very weird for me . And then I look back and the reason it feels so weird is because a lot has changed in a relatively short period of time .

Five years , six years is a long time , but the amount of change that I've felt over the last five or six years is just amazing . It's incredible , and a lot of the things that I'm experiencing on the day-to-day today are things that I never really Expected to experience .

I told Alan I feel like I'm on the other end with a lot of things that I never really thought I'd be on the other end of . But I want to tie this in Can you give us more of those , more what ?

I want to phrase this correctly you believed we'd be Everywhere we've been and you will almost always believe we're gonna get to where we . We're gonna get to you . It'll never really be a surprise for you . I'm gonna say no , I knew we'd make it here .

But I'm okay with admitting it because I don't really feel like it lessens anything about me admitting it where I don't think I can really ever hear other people say I don't really know how I got here and I pinched myself and really mean it .

of content where I can look back and say where was I on April 15th of 2020 ? Oh yeah , I remember what was going on in my life . If you're not a podcaster , you might not have that . This would be a really good opportunity to do one of two things .

One , if the last time we talked about this and you heard me say take out your cell phone and record an audio note or write something or record a video of what's going on in your life right now , now would be a great time to pause the episode and watch that video .

If you're not , if you're driving , or listen to that audio or read what you wrote to yourself . If you don't know what I'm talking about , I think this is a super powerful thing Right now , take out your phone and record a video to yourself and audio to yourself , write a message to yourself of today is whatever .

It is Thursday , the fifth Thursday , october 5th 2023 . This is what's going on in my life I am in a great relationship or I'm single . I'm the most abundant I've ever been with money . I'm the most scarce I've ever been with money . I really feel like I'm falling in love with my body .

I really feel like I'm struggling to love my body and write out where you are and then check in in a month , three months , six

months , a year . I'm blessed because we have the content and I can look back and say , oh yeah , I remember our first client , I remember our first speech , I remember our first podcast episode . I think that perspective is super important , but we have to create it .

You have to put a line in the sand to say this is where I'm going to start my perspective , and then that's the one you can always look back on . So I would challenge you . That would be my early next level nugget . I don't think we did next level nuggets in the previous episode . Right here , jeff .

That would be my next level nugget for this episode is do that practice and when you check in six months from today , because you know I'm going to bring it up again . Of course I love . These are like my favorite episodes . Next time I'm going to , I'll say the same thing and that can be a reminder of oh , yeah , yeah , let me see .

All you have to do is make a note in your iPhone or Android , or record a video in your phone and save it . Just save it as reflection journal , and then you'll always have it . And then imagine , in five years , if you have 15 of those , 20 of those , 30 of you , those you're going to see your growth in real time . That would be pretty cool .

I think we even suggested to do that in group coaching back then when she was in gratitude with attitude , which was one of our groups Kev she hasn't missed . Since then she has one video per day .

It's wild to see how far she's come . I remember when I first met her she wanted to fear chase and she was putting a video a day in the gratitude with attitude WhatsApp group , and I think Greg at the time was in that group as well . And he was doing the same thing . That group was on fire .

Yeah , what I want to share here is if you don't have content online that you can look back at I mean , I do this with clients . I told one of my clients recently . I said , listen , I looked at your entire Facebook and I know that probably sounds creepy . I don't mean that in a negative way . I just looked at your past . I need to understand your past .

I need to understand your present and I need to help you align for the future that you want . I need to understand where you came from and who you are and your family and the dynamics and who's what .

When you do research online of someone's Instagram or someone's Facebook , there's a lot that you can deduce about their past , their present and their potential future . You can do this with yourself , though . Every now and then , I'll go through past photos . The other day , I was actually in my iPhone . I have iCloud notes and that used to be one of my journals .

I have a bunch of journals behind me as well , but Kevin is saying do a video journal , take out your phone , do a video . Talk about where you are , talk about your dreams , talk about your goals , talk about your aspirations , talk about where you're struggling , talk about where you're succeeding . Yes , yes , yes .

The other thing to look back on is your journals . If you have a diary or a journal or anything that you write your thoughts in , that , go back . I have a journal entry from 2016 that I recently read and it is wild . Do you care to share with the class , I mean , some of the quotes ? A lot of it was quotes and stuff .

I can share some stuff you made me share my cringe worthy messages to that young lady .

Okay , success is actually a short race , a sprint fueled by discipline , just long enough for habit to kick in and take over . That was Gary Keller from the One Thing . In order to get what we want , we must deserve what we want . The world is not yet a crazy enough place to reward a bunch of undeserving people .

Charlie Munger , what he's trying to say there is you have to earn your way to success . You have to do the hard work . These are just some examples . I have a Jim Carrey quote in here .

I learned many great lessons from my father , not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don't want , so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love . These are quotes that I used to log because they were pebbles toward my success back then , and you can just tell Some of the quotes that I wrote .

It's like I wasn't a podcast , or I wasn't a speaker .

I told Kev there was a couple episodes ago that I talked about Chauncey's Peak and how I'm considering myself a hiker Emilia and I hike all the time . Now it's awesome , I don't know all the time , once per quarter at least , and so four times a year .

And we went to this place called Chauncey's Peak , which is my favorite hike of the I think seven that we've done that are pretty significant Appalachian Trail , blah , blah , blah . And this Chauncey's Peak experience was fascinating because I think it's a great analogy for life , one of the best .

When you're it's raining , it's wet , it's difficult , it's rocky , you're trying every step not to twist your ankle , it's not necessarily all fun , even though it is beautiful . Okay , it's definitely challenging , fitness wise , particularly if you want to do it in a good clip to get home before dark .

I get to the top of this thing and it's one of those things where and I articulated this on the last episode you get to what you think is the peak , and you realize it's not even

close . And then you get to the next level and you realize there's another level . And you get to the next level and you realize there's another level . Eventually you actually get to the peak . And there was this point in Chauncey's Peak where we can go right or we can go left .

I wanted to go left because it looked like there was a higher road , higher part . She said , let's try , right . I went with her intuition , because she knows nature better than I do . It ended up being the best view ever of all time . I would have skipped that altogether . Quite frankly , I shouldn't have , but I did , I would have .

So we go with her , I divert to her , I go to this and it's the most beautiful view , one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen in my life . Now it's misty , it's foggy , but you can see our car like four miles down the way . This is the analogy . Life is a lot like that .

You're climbing and you're trudging and you're trying not to break your ankle and it's hard and you're out of breath and you . It's beautiful if you look around but it's challenging . But then you look up and you look back . You're going one step at a time and it's challenging .

But then when you get to the top or whatever that next level is , when you look back you go holy crap , look how far we've come , even though all along the way it felt like you weren't getting anywhere . So I said , I did some math and If you've ever seen the movie Ace Ventura , when nature calls , I've seen this one .

You've seen it nice , the slinky down the stairs Mm-hmm , everyone loves a slinky , a slinky , the big staircase . So I crunched some numbers . Let's say you were to wake up in the morning and you were to do three steps in the right direction , towards your goals , towards your dreams , towards your next level , whatever that is .

In 165 days you would be 1,095 steps up this staircase and if you looked back you'd go holy crap , look how far I've come . But here's the thing the first day , the second day , the first week , the first month , you're it's not that big a deal . It's like oh , that's all , that's all I've come , that's how far really . It's like my car is still right there .

If you can sustain three steps a day for ten years , you are

10,950 steps up , and when you turn around and look back at how far you've come , it is going to be wild . Here's the problem we don't stay consistent because we can't see that we're making any progress . You don't feel like you're making any progress .

Along the way , along the way of this six-year journey , kevin and I have been on podcasting every single episode , challenging , you know , tired . Do we have the right concept ? We have the right intention . Are we talking to the right listener , we have the right story . Is this gonna land ?

Stop saying um , stop saying you know , stop saying , like Kevin says , interesting . 8,000 effin times ? Yeah , not anymore . It's such a challenge , it's such a trudge , it's so . It's so mundane and boring sometimes sometimes , but when you look back it's like holy crap , holy crap . And so for me , math is my favorite gift , because

I crunch the numbers in advance and I can't wait for 10,950 steps and I can't wait to look back and go holy crap , look how far we've come . And To Kevin's point earlier , when he said you knew we'd get here Mathematically , I did .

What I didn't know is how beautiful the view would be , in this analogy , of having a magnificent relationship with Emilia , who I met along the journey of these three steps a day , five steps a day , ten steps a day .

But the first day you're one , you're one foot up , and then it's two , then it's three , then it's four . By the end of the month You're 30 . That's a good ladder , I would argue . Most of us have probably been 30 feet up in the air , whether it's on a Balcony , somewhere on a ladder or whatever .

Whatever it may be the bleachers somewhere talking to a painter . Sir . I was also 2009 , so I also had my my fair share of yeah scary Thatters we used to run the scissor lifts in the gymnasiums so we were like 50 feet up .

5,280 feet is a mile . Nice work . So imagine that . But it doesn't seem like it . It doesn't seem like it on the day to day . It just doesn't seem like it . So the perspective is so important . That's why I love the fact that we can go back and look at episode 500 . What was going on then ? Not a lot compared to now , but way more than the beginning .

And then here's the last piece of perspective I would give . When I know someone is struggling , usually let's just say they became an entrepreneur Again . You're listening to this . You're a dream chaser . That means you want to improve health , wealth , life . Love Doesn't mean you want to start a business or be an entrepreneur , necessarily .

But I always love saying , when I know someone's struggling remember when you left your job , because I know it probably seems , either you've forgotten about it completely and now you're just in the mud of this new thing , or you just you forgot what life used to be like before you were able to do your own thing .

Same , I've had those moments too , of course , of course . But 2018 , it's been six years since I left my job . That's wild . That's wild . Now , do some days suck and they're very hard ? Yeah , of course , absolutely , but that's a very powerful perspective for me to have the very last thing I want to share .

Dad , pet dad , pet dad , and we have this huge kitty litter . I mean , we got this big bin , so it's like a big one and I , of course , you know , let it ride for a couple days . Big bin , it's all good . You know , tauriel got mad at her dad and knocked one of them over because she's like , clean this thing , will you . So anyways , I'm

cleaning the kitty litter today and there's kitty litter all over the floor in our basement because Tauriel knocked , one of the kitty litter is over . The big bin was fine , but the little bin was knocked over and so I've got kitty litter on my feet . It's like a whole thing . So I'm cleaning the kitty litter . All good , all good , all good , I do it .

It's all good , good to go . Mom's coming home , you know , everything's good to go . Dad crushed it . Okay , I'm in the shower cleaning my feet . This is the punch line to the story , and I'm sitting on the side and I grabbed the soap and I'm cleaning my feet and I had this actual moment of isn't it so awesome that we have running water ?

I think about stuff like that all the time Because , quite frankly , my life is really difficult when it comes to business and leadership and podcasting and I'm tired and you know kitty litter and making sure the house is clean and I cooked dinner for us tonight and I'm going to go to the gym tonight and but all of those are awesome problems to have and I

really do every now and then I'm telling you I do this all the time Like how much would it suck if I didn't have , like , running water . You know that would suck so bad . I think it's important to do what I call a perspective reset . There are a lot of people who don't have running water and for me , I need that .

I need to remember like this is a luxury to clean my feet right now . As funny as that is , I'm doing , I'm doing that on the regular and I'm convinced that Kevin and I would not be able to work so hard if we didn't do that . You know we would get too entitled . We would . We would get above sweeping kitty litter .

You know , and I'm not saying that , sweeping kitty litter is the best use of your time If you're a business owner . I think there's , you know , there's a this robot thing . I think you tried it . It may or may not work well .

We talk about it all the time on this podcast , but at the end of the day , this is the struggles we chose and the truth is it's way better than it used to be when we had a studio in my mom's basement .

Definitely it's way better than it used to be when we didn't have stream yard and I didn't have a nice camera and I didn't have a remarkable and I didn't have two laptops and I didn't have an iPhone 14 and I didn't have AirPods and I didn't have a beautiful condo and I didn't have pets and I didn't . Yeah , it's challenging .

Every new level requires a new level of responsibility . Our third cat , I told Emilia . I don't know if this is the time I will do it , but that's another layer of responsibility that I want to handle with Grace , and I don't know if I'm going to do a good job .

I think that's humility , and I do believe that all of us need to , every now and then , go back and look at old journals or old videos or old content or old photos or old things they posted on Facebook that they're embarrassed about , because it shows you how far you've come and it shows you that the problems you faced back then , the challenges that you got

through back then , are going to give you the strength and the courage to continue on that trek , that upward trajectory , that grudging , trudging , challenging , muddy walk up the mountain , because when you do look back you are going to go holy crap , I'm so glad I kept marching versus

. Damn . I really used to be so great , Strong work .

One of the things I often say so I don't know how much detail to go in is that the cats were having poop problems , they were having diarrhea , and they went to the vet and we had to get this somewhat expensive food . It's like 80 bucks a bag or something and it was like what ? We're going to spend 80 dollars a bag for this ? This is reckless .

And then it was . I'm so grateful to be able to provide that for the cats . That's awesome , at least . I'm grateful and I understand not everybody's in that position , but I'm grateful . Where we can provide that for the cats , let me be grateful for that , not frustrated . Plus , I order 80 dollars worth of food in a night . I'm an idiot .

So the least they can do that's like a couple months' worth . It's not that big of a deal . I second that and any chance to talk about cats I am in .

So if you have wanted to join group coaching in the past and you've missed the boat , you've missed the bus , you've missed the taxi , this is your opportunity with the discount code NLUListener . All one word in the show notes . It ends up being 96 dollars per month and that's going to get you two calls per month for 96 dollars . I have spent 96 dollars .

Worse than that , Maybe you have as well . So if we want to invest that money in ourselves , please join group coaching .

Maybe you're afraid you won't keep the promises to yourself or to the rest of the group . Take the chance . Take the chance , make the investment . I believe that you will Thank yourself . Your future self will thank you If you are struggling financially and you still want to be a part of something great .

Next-level monthly meetups are every month and they're free , okay , and they're similar to what the group coaching sessions are . They're deeper than this podcast , but not as deep as group coaching , and they're designed that way for a reason . And it's a good way for you to get in the room with like-minded people who are growth-oriented listeners like you .

So if you love this show , you have something in common with these other people , because that means you love growth . That means you have goals . So are you taking these three relationship mistakes ? Are you making I'm sorry , are you making these three relationship mistakes ?

October 5th , which is tonight actually , if you're listening to this , it's tonight at 6 pm Eastern Standard Time . Kevin and I will be there and we will teach you what those three mistakes are , to make sure that you are not making them in your relationship and to make sure that you grow together with your partner and not apart .

As always , we love you , we appreciate you , grateful for each and every one of you At NLU , we do not have fans , we have family . We'll talk to you all tomorrow .