#1586 - 1 Way To Be Real About Your Priorities

Same Today , episode number 1586 , one way to be real about your priorities . I think one of the best places to get in terms of growth is where , instead of saying I don't have time , you say it's just not a priority . Now again , there is a fine line to that .

It just doesn't work that way , but- .

Let's say you're an entrepreneur , you're a dream chaser , maybe you make art , maybe you make stuff and you sell it on Instagram or you sell it on TikTok or whatever it is , and you're just not messaging people or you're not posting whatever it is . If I was scrolling on social media I would do it , but I'm not doing what I should be for my small business .

That is a priority issue .

I say this all the time . I don't have time to post on social media , but I'm on social media for 25 minutes scrolling . That's a priority issue . It's not a time issue . The one I really like that I use with Alan behind the scenes is there's probably a lot of us who struggle to get up and go to the gym , hypothetically .

Now , not everybody wants to work out in the morning , I understand . But if you struggle to get up in the morning and do your morning routine , but every time the new iPhone comes out , it's easy to get up and go wait in line . Black Friday in the US you're waiting in line at five o'clock in the morning . Christmas morning Christmas morning you wake up early .

Thanksgiving morning you wake up early . It's most likely more of a priority thing than it is a time thing , and I remember thinking of this early in the entrepreneurial days because I would see people do things .

They would get up and they would drive an hour into Boston to go to a sporting event , but they wouldn't drive 15 minutes to go to the gym and get a workout in .

Now I don't want this to be a super hardcore episode of beat yourself up and all that , but I think this is a very valuable question to ask yourself . If the thing that I am avoiding was blank , would I do it ? If the gym was the bar , would I do it ? If the coaching call was a movie , would I do it ?

If the personal training session was a movie , would I do it ? A concert , would I do it ? Just because at least it can help you get the understanding of what your priorities actually are and then from there you can work on the identity stuff around it , scheduling it , all that stuff .

But I think just the baseline awareness of right now I'm not prioritizing this at the level I should is a good place to be , because it can be empowering when you understand that and then , if and when you don't get certain goals , you know exactly where to point . I got out of shape at the beginning of last year .

I think I was not nearly as good a shape as I wanted . I was not prioritizing fitness , I just wasn't . Did I have time to exercise ? Yeah , I could have gotten up and gone . I just didn't prioritize it at the level of the goal that I desired . So that is my jam for today's episode .

It's very difficult to have high standards in all of those Like exponentially more difficult . I actually wanna break down the math for people , so I did this in book club . Let's just say , hypothetically , you wanna be the top 1% in health . That's one out of a hundred .

Let's say you want to be the top 1% in wealth and you also want to be the top 1% in love . Let's just say , hypothetically that means it's one over a hundred times one over a hundred times one over a hundred . And so what's a hundred times a hundred times a hundred ? I'm not the one .

1% in health , wealth and love , you're one in a million , that's how the math works out . What did ? You say You're one in a million , oh thanks , brother I can't tell if you're being playful or not .

They said , and Brandon is just like , yeah , man , that sounds pretty easy . He's just laughing , you know , because it's eight o'clock at night . No , it's seven o'clock at night and we're still crushing , trying to work . But anyways , my point is too many priorities will destroy your self-worth .

It happens to me probably once a quarter , maybe twice , maybe once a month , I'm not sure . But when you have really high standards in many different areas , it can be so detrimental , it can be really hard . So how do you level up each one of your priorities ? Where I like the tripod analogy , we'll use health , wealth and love .

In this case , you can only unlock one of the legs and lift it up at a time . It's not like you're going to unlock all three legs simultaneously and lift the camera up . I mean , maybe you could build that off , but I can't MacGyver that . So I think that's a good metaphor for priorities , and so I try my best to condense my life into a couple priorities .

I've been talking a lot about the Dreamliner lately , but in the Dreamliner there's the top three most important tasks and you write them first thing in the morning . So I woke up this morning and I look , I wrote down my top three gratitudes , I wrote down my top three most important tasks , and so far it is seven PM .

I've been working pretty much all day , not in a negative way but in a positive way , towards the dreams and goals that I value , and I've only gotten one out of those three done . So I'm only one third done with the tasks that were my quote unquote priority .

But we've recorded several episodes , I've been on several other podcasts , I've done several coaching calls today , so it's not like I'm just sitting around doing nothing . So the point that I'm making is this If you are spread too thin , no matter what , it is a priority issue and there's got to be a way to reprioritize .

And so I like this little system that I kind of created called the G3 target , and we do this at NLU with all the team members , and the reason why it's the G3 target

is the G stands for genius . Whatever your genius zone is . Now , don't take that too far . Don't think I have to be a genius in this in order for it to . That's not my point . I just called it the genius zone because ideally I want everyone on the NLU team to be in their , in their genius zone .

That's kind of the idea , but don't look too far into the genius word . Okay , but the target is the cool part , because the the target is you want to stay on target , you want to stay on target . You want to stay on target . So we can share Kevin's in mind and then you can create your own .

But yours is going to look different than Kevin's and I's because you have your own unique core values . You have your own unique lifestyle . You have your own unique career . You have your own unique goals and dreams . So I'll share mine first . So mine is lead people is the center of my target . So picture just a target with three circles .

The center , the bull's eye , is lead people . The next layer is improve systems and then the next layer after that is track metrics and that's it . What I'm trying to stay on target and do is those things . So , yeah , my most important tasks .

I've only gotten one out of three done , but I have one , two , three , four , five , six , seven , eight , nine , 10 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 . I have 26 checks in the lead people you know team clients , emails , messages , podcasts . So I have 26 checkmarks in lead people .

So do do this if you , if you're interested , if you're not driving , draw a target , three circles and then just write the three priorities that you need to stay focused on in 2024 , or maybe just this quarter . For the next 90 days , you're going to focus on these three things .

Maybe the first one is fitness , maybe the second one is my relationship , maybe the third is your career , I don't know . You got to categorize it based on your life and if you need help , reach out Seriously , email me . I will help you with this . I do this all the time .

If you have struggled with priorities , if you struggle with priorities , if you have trouble speaking . Email me , alan at nextleveluniversecom . But seriously , I will help you . So that simple the inner circle is G1 , the next circle is G2 and the third circle is G3 . And then just track it . My executive admin , jerianne , does this .

She I think she had something crazy like 90 checkmarks the other day , I think it was like 87 . And I think she's listening . So shout out to you , jerianne . But one of her circles is family and she has four children . She's a husband , so she's taking care of her family . She gets a lot of checkmarks .

I mean , do the dishes , check you know whatever it is , and so you can give yourself credit for the things you're doing , because you're probably doing a lot more than you're giving yourself credit for . And when you start to do these checkmarks , you start to realize like wow , I had a hell of a day . Even right there .

I was feeling maybe not that good about today until I looked and 26 , that's a lot of needle moves , that's a lot of progress . So I think when you track , you might realize that you're actually doing more than you realize .

So I can't say that because I don't practice what I preach when it comes to that . But I just think the portion of giving yourself credit for the stuff that you're actually doing is huge , because what's going to happen ? You get to the end of the day . You don't feel like you accomplish anything .

You're probably not going to be super motivated or inspired the next day , but in reality you probably got a lot of stuff done . Did you get everything you wanted done ? No , but I don't know if you ever are .

Maybe we have those rare days where we say I got everything I wanted done , okay , but I would argue those are probably more the exception than the rule . I have days where I get a lot done and it's like hell , yeah . I also have days where I get like three things done , but those three things are the most important .

Okay , last year we were so behind on our taxes . It was the worst and it would stress me out every single day One weekend

. I'm going to do all of our expenses in one Saturday . That is all I'm going to get done . I will get nothing else done . It will take me eight hours or it'll take me 12 hours to do it . That will be it , but that's going to be a massive accomplishment .

It probably doesn't seem like that much , but it's something that I'm willing to sacrifice and prioritize a day for . And I think Progress is personal . You've heard me say that before . Progress is personal , but you have to know what progress means to you . And then , last thing I was gonna add , I was gonna say something else .

Oh , one of the hardest things is if you have a family , if you have pets , if you have a full-time job , if you have a side hustle , if you have a fitness goal , if you have a money goal , it's really hard to prioritize all those . That's why I like juggling versus balance juggling . I like the phrase juggling Because , in theory ,

when you're starting your fitness journey , that's when it's really really really hard . It's never easy , but that's when it's really really hard because you're building momentum , eventually going to the gym or going to exercise class or spin class or whatever it is . Hot yoga , it might be easier . There'll be less resistance because you've done it for long enough .

Hopefully Then you can start a new habit . Then it's like all right , I'll start tracking my finances . Now I got the fitness thing down . I'm weighing myself . Awesome , I'll start tracking my finances . All right , cool , I'll put in extra time at work so I can make more money . All right , cool .

When you're putting in extra time at work , you might find that you go to the gym a little less , or hot yoga , maybe you miss a class a week . And then , when you put in relationship , I want to do a date night every single week . We want to stay home and cook dinner . All right , then maybe you're not able to go work extra hours that week .

It really is . It's this constantly evolving , moving thing . But the thought is , then your relationship increases , so then you're able to put more time into the second thing , and then your fitness decreases a little bit . So you gotta go fill that cup up . It's almost like it's three cups .

Every single one has a very , very small hole in it and you just have to go back and refill , refill , refill , refill , refill , but eventually the cup is bigger so it takes longer for the cup to drain . It's always draining at the same rate but there's more in it eventually because you kind of have momentum .

When you know your partner's number one love language , you can refill the cup of the relationship that's the analogy we use much quicker than a bunch of things that don't really matter that much .

So , emilia , she doesn't care about gifts like at all , but there's a couple things that if I do them , it'll mean the world to her , and so if I focus on the things that mean a lot , it's like pouring

a lot more water into a bigger cup that drains slower , and whereas in the beginning of the relationship you don't really know each other that well , so you're just kind of winging it . I'll give you a tiny example . I used to get her flowers .

Often I would go to this convenience store near her house and I would buy her a flower like just for no reason , just show up with flowers , and she eventually had the courage to say I appreciate it , but I don't like plants that die . So instead of getting me flowers , can you please get me a plant ? Which is just a tiny example of . I didn't know that .

I thought you know flowers , but it was actually not a good thing , because now she has to watch these flowers basically die versus a plant that can actually grow and flourish . And so back to the priority thing I have to reprioritize instead of flowers , get her a plant Done . Deal Now . It fills the cup longer , better you know .

And the same goes for everything in life . And then this goes to another thing , which is shared responsibilities . With your intimate partner or your family or whoever you live with , are you able to divvy up the responsibilities so that it's not all on your shoulders ?

And in business , that's an even deeper conversation of who's supposed to be responsible for what , because as you grow and scale , you just can't do everything yourself , whereas in the beginning , kevin and I used to do everything ourselves . And then , as we grow and demand increases and we're grateful

for that we just have less and less and less time and more and more and more responsibility . So you have to learn how to focus on the right things , and the main thing is to keep the main thing . The main thing is kind of a famous quote , but there is no world where you can only do one thing .

So just you know there's a book called the One Thing and blah , blah , blah , and I study productivity a ton and I teach my clients about productivity all the time . The lowest I could get it down to is three . So Kevin is responsible for three main things right now , in 2024 . I'm responsible for three main things in 2024 .

Christina is responsible for three main things in 2024 . And it trickles to the whole rest of the team and all of us have our main priorities . That doesn't mean we don't do anything else . We still feed our pets and eat our food and cook dinner . But the proactive focal point is the target , and so I think that's super useful .

Create your G3 target and then in a week , if it's not working , just switch it up . Change it up . Switch it up and you'll find that the first target that you created it actually ends up changing .

Then prioritizing the things that move the needle in the relationship , it's different , like you could say , right now I want to prioritize my relationship . All right , cool . To Alan's point how do you prioritize it the most effective possible with making sure you're doing the right things ? Okay , cool . Then , like with finance , I want to prioritize my finances .

There's a million different ways to do that . So don't get overwhelmed when you think about priorities , but just try to be as honest with yourself as possible . Some of us don't have that much more time . That is 100% accurate . I don't always think that's an excuse . You and I have very little time . There's just not a lot of time .

So our priorities are super important , but if you find yourself having that little moment where you say , yeah , yeah , I know I say I couldn't do blank , but I did scroll social media for 25 minutes , okay , I guess blank is just not as much a priority , as I said .

Or I'll get up and go to breakfast with my friends , but I don't want to get up and go to the gym or whatever it is . Go do some extra work whatever . Maybe it's a priority issue more than something else . That's all . That would be my next level nugget .

and now I've prioritized it . Finally , and I've written every day for 17 days , so I haven't missed in January . Yet Now here's the thing I had to have this honest conversation with myself at the end of 2023 and say , Alan , you either yeah , I could make all these shoes , I don't have time 21 person team , 20 plus clients , you know all this stuff .

Yeah , excuse , excuse , excuse , true , true , true , fair , fair , fair . But at the end of the day , do you want to write or not ? Is this going to be a priority in 2024 or not ? Because is this important to you or not ? You have to have that honest conversation with yourself and go okay , Alan , 0 to 10 , how important is it that you write each day , 10 .

Okay , well then , you got to find a way . You got to find a way . So I went from 30 minutes to 20 minutes and I've been consistent thus far and hopefully I'll be able to keep it up , but it's been really challenging to keep up with and I easily could tell myself an excuse .

So , but there have been things in my life where it's like you know what , who cares ? I don't care that much , like whatever , I'm not going to do that every day . Breathwork I want to do breathwork every day . I genuinely do . I love breathwork . Breathwork is super powerful . If you want , we actually did a podcast episode back . I think it's 402 .

I know that it's 402 because I use this same YouTube video over and over again . We had Samantha Skelly on the podcast for episode 402 and it's on YouTube and you can reach out to me . I'll send it to you , or you can just look it up on YouTube . 402 , samantha Skelly hyper-conscious podcast , and the last 10 minutes is a breathwork exercise that I adore .

She picked the perfect songs . I love this and I've told myself I want to do breathwork daily . Dude , eventually it gets to the point where it's like you know what ? Honestly , I don't care , I'm not going to do that , I can't do that , but I stuck with writing .

So my point is my next level nugget is decide for yourself Is this going to be a priority right now or not ? And if it's not , just let it ride . You have to learn how to get rid of it , because otherwise you're just taking self-esteem hits all the time and it's not good for yourself .

So we put a poll in next level nation to what Kevin just talked about , and these are the five books that are available .

But at the end of the day , please go vote if you intend on joining Book Club over the next couple months .