How Changing The Stories I Told Myself Has Changed My Life.

I want to talk to you about a few lies that I've told myself over the years . I think we hold ourselves back , we cause ourselves a lot of anxiety and depression and those types of things by not being our true selves , and it all comes back to the stories we tell ourselves in our head and a lot of the time you repeat those stories and they're all lies .

So today I'm here to talk to you about the lies that I've told myself definitely a lot in my early days , starting my career and getting into business , and then some of the lies that I still fight with , or some of these lies that I'm going to go through with you today I still battle with on a daily basis . So , yeah , we'll get stuck into them .

There's a few of them to get through . I actually made a few notes about this one because I think there's a lot of stories and lies that I know I tell myself regularly , but I've tried to nail this down to the top tens , the ones that I don't know . They could even be like . I call them my demons . I have to fight them all the time .

So number one is I don't have enough time and , to be honest , this is the number one lie that I hear from everybody that reaches out to me now .

So with my training , business , live Life , build and our software quotas and look even just builders and tradies in general reaching out for advice we all feel like we don't have enough time , and reality is you've all got miles of time .

It's just you're not prioritizing your time correctly and that all comes down to personal scheduling and all those types of things . But I constantly used to tell myself that I was busy .

Everyone around me would constantly be telling me that you're always busy , you don't have enough time , and it's something that if you keep repeating to yourself , you don't you , you feel like you don't have enough time and you end up .

If you're not scheduling your time and taking the time , if you're not scheduling your time and taking the time to and I'm not just talking about work and jobs and those types of things , I'm talking about personally scheduling your time you will do exactly what I used to do back in the day , and that is constantly tell myself I don't have enough time turning up

to site , talking to trades , talking to clients , whatever the case may be . So many people reach out to me now and ask me how do I do so much ? They see all the stuff I do on Instagram and in my stories and stuff and what I talk about , and it all comes down to changing the stories that I tell myself in my head . Having a personal schedule .

My days are scheduled from 5 am in the morning to 9 pm at night . Schedule my days are scheduled from 5 am in the morning to 9 pm at night . My the phone calls I need to make , the meetings I need to have the , the proposals I need to work on , the like everything it's all in there , it's all like there's no . I call it white space .

So , um , there's no time for me to get lost and waste uh , scrolling on social media looking at shit that I don't need , making phone calls that I don't need to make , talking to people that I don't need to talk to . And when you do that , it is unbelievable how much you can get done .

And the other most exciting part is when you are so well scheduled and you stop telling yourself that you don't have enough time , you actually end up having an unbelievable amount of time .

So not only do you get way way more done , you actually end up with a lot more time to be able to spend with family , friends , camping , fishing , going away on weekends , whatever the case may be . So number one lie is telling yourself that you don't have enough time . Take seriously , take that sentence out of your vocabulary .

The next lie that I told myself for a very long time was that I don't deserve it .

I used to get stuck in this mindset like things would be going really , really well , and then , all of a sudden , you might have a tough meeting , or you might have a tough day , or you might have a few days in a row or a week or whatever , where things don't quite go your way , and I'd drop back into the old habit of telling myself that I don't deserve

to be running a business , I don't deserve to be earning what I earn , I don't deserve to be growing and all these things .

And again , when you're constantly telling yourself that you don't deserve things or you don't deserve to have such and such or whatever the case may be , it doesn't happen because whatever stories you tell yourself , whatever you're constantly repeating , that's what happens .

And just like all you , a lot of you people that probably listen to this podcast like I , used to think this was all woo , woo shit . So I fucking oath , I'm good enough to be doing this like I've . I've been in the industry 27 years . I've got a shitload of experience I've been through .

I've dealt with more shit than most people will deal with in their entire lives . I've lost I couldn't even tell you off the top of my head it'd be well over a million dollars by making stupid decisions , not knowing how to run my business , not understanding my numbers , not not working with clients properly .

So I believe I've got incredible amounts of experience , knowledge and and real life like in the trenches that I can share with all of you , and that's to be honest . That's why this podcast is Australia's number one construction podcast , because I'm putting myself out there and telling it how it is from real life experience .

So I think it's something that a lot of people deal with on a daily basis is telling ourselves that we're not good enough , and , yeah , I don't let that one get to me too much . Like I said , it is still one that floats around I do battle with .

But I definitely know back in my earlier days of even just being an apprentice , like during my apprenticeship I battled on a daily basis because I was always telling myself I'm not good enough to be doing this like and a lot of that come off the back of the people I worked with and like I know like it come across as a bit of banter , but just like if

you're a young guy on site or like a young guy or girl doing an apprenticeship and you've constantly got people on site having a dig at you or yelling at you or all those types of things , you it does make you question whether you're good enough .

And for anyone that's in that situation now , like , just ignore it because , like , look at it , look at how far I've come , look at how successful I've been and I was . I was told that back in the day and I definitely thought I wasn't good enough , but I pushed through and I kept going and I kept going .

So , yeah , seriously , don't tell yourself you're not good enough , because every single person in this world is good enough .

So believe in yourself and push yourself and I guess the big thing is and what's got me to where I am today is even though telling myself I'm not good enough is something that I still battle with you've got to believe in yourself and you've got to run your own race .

Forget about what people are saying , forget about what other people are doing and just focus on yourself . The biggest thing is to always , always , put in the extra 1% . I definitely believe that that is the number one thing that has got me to where I am today . Like I'm constantly pushing myself to impress people .

Show up , turn up , do what I say , follow through on what I say to people and yeah , I believe I'm good enough . Yeah , I believe I'm good enough . So , if you're like me and you're telling yourself you're not good enough , again throw that lie out the window and out of your vocabulary .

The next one is I think this is something that a lot of people deal with . The next lie is that I'll be happy when I get there or I'll be happy when I get , and seriously , I think this one ruins people's lives and social media has made this one so much , so much more common . Like I used to always be trying to impress people , I think prove a point .

And so I was always telling myself like I'll be happy when my business gets , or I'll be happy when I earn so much , or I'll be happy when I get that new car , or I'll be happy when I get that new whatever the case may be like motorbike , boat , fishing rod , like just all the shit , those new tools .

Or I'll be happy when I get earn a certain amount of tools , or I'll be happy when I get earn a certain amount of money , or I'll be happy when I buy that house , or then it becomes I'll be happy when I get five houses and I'll be happy when I get 10 hours .

Like , if you're not happy with where you are now , what makes you think you're going to be happier when you get what you think you want ? Because reality is , it's human nature to always want more .

And so if your thing is that you'll be happy when you get the new car , yeah , you might be happy for a few days or a few weeks or possibly a couple of months , but then you're gonna want to go to the next level and you're gonna want a different car or a better car again .

So I think you've got to change your mindset on the way that you look at things , and a huge , huge turning point in my life was being comfortable with where I was at Getting off the internet , getting off social media . Well , back then there wasn't a lot of social media , but just getting to a point in my life where I didn't have to have more .

I was content with the size of my business , the amount of money I was making , the , the tools I had , the tool trailer I had , the truck I had , like , and it was unbelievable , like I actually like within a 12-month period .

It was incredible how , once I stopped focusing and thinking that , when I got to the next level of whatever it was , things just started to fall into place , and I feel like it's because I wasn't so focused on it .

It allowed me , it freed up my mind , my space , to focus on the business and focus on myself and just live life every single day and to the fullest .

And when I started doing that , the business started running better , my life started being better , I started spending more time with family and friends and just dropped the focus on trying to get to a level or achieve things and and like , at the end of the day , like fuck me , they're just possessions , like I don't want to be .

One thing that I've realized is I don't want to be the richest man in the graveyard . I don't want to be . I don't want to pass on a shed full of cars and and heaps of property to my , my kids and my family . I want to pass on memories and and experiences and those types of things .

So , yeah , I , if , if you , if you're like I was , and you're constantly telling yourself that you'll be happy when you get , um , I definitely think that is a lie that we all tell ourselves . And it can really . It's a powerful one .

Like it can really take over your life to a point where you're spending every spare minute sitting on the internet or sitting on social media looking at things and looking at possessions that other people have , and you've got to ask yourself , like , is that really what I want ?

And I know , with like these days , with social media , like , fucking , everybody is a coach , everybody's a mentor , everybody's got something to say , and my frustration with that is a lot of the people that are putting themselves out there haven't got the runs on the board , they haven't got enough experience , they've had a couple of wins and all of a sudden like

yet they might have earned enough to buy a nice car , they might earn enough to buy a nice house , and then they're promoting that , and yet they haven't been in business for 10 , 15 , 20 years . They haven't got in business for 10 , 15 , 20 years . They haven't got all the runs on the board .

So don't make your life about things that other people have and don't think . Stop telling yourself that you'll be happy when you get to where they've got , and just be content with where you are now and forget about everything else .

And , believe me , you'll be surprised how everything really starts to fall into place because you're not focusing on the things that you don't need to focus on . Um , all right , so the next one

, the next one's a bit of a funny one . So and and there's two sides of this so the next lie is that everything is great and the way this one works is it's about not like , not being , not feeling like . You're in a safe enough surroundings to be vulnerable , and it's something that I'm . I'm quite open now . I don't .

I just tell people how it is , whereas back in the day , everything was great . Oh , anyone asked me how my day was going , whether it was catching up with tradies or employees on site , or whether it was meeting clients or um , whether it was catching up with family and friends on the weekend .

Whatever the scenario it was always like whenever anybody asked , hey , how you going ? Smile , yeah , everything's great . Like , everything's fantastic . And I've learned that like that's just a lie . And if you tell yourself everything is great all the time , it gives you a false sense of security . And I like to dig deep on this one .

You've got to be brutally honest with yourself , and it's not just about people asking you how you are . Are you truly happy with your fitness ? Like , be honest with yourself . Is it great ? And that's something this year I've taken really seriously , because it's not . Like , my fitness is not great . I want to be fitter .

I want to get back to when I was on the tools . I want to have muscle . I want to be able to run around my kids and , like , go for a jog , take my dog , like , like , and not feel like shit . So , yeah , that wasn't great . Ask yourself , like , is the relationship with your kids great ? Like , be brutally honest with yourself .

Are you spending enough time with your kids ? Is your relationship with your partner , your wife , your husband , great ? Again , you got to be brutally honest with you and these are things that this year I've really taken seriously and like my relationship with my kids is good , but it's not great . It can definitely be better . Like I need to step up more .

I need to put in more effort . I need to take my girls on individual date nights and spend time with them and have some fun . And in my relationship with my wife , like it's good , but I know it's not great . It can be a hell of a lot better . And again , I need I need to put in the effort , I need to organize more date nights .

I need to surprise her more . I need to show up more . I need to spend more time . I need to just put in more effort . I need to cook more , I need to help out around the house more like all those things . So I think if you're telling yourself everything is great in your life , then you are absolutely kidding yourself and you need to be brutally honest .

And I know it can be a hard thing to do , but when you do it again , it's incredibly rewarding . What comes of it ? When you do start realizing that most things in your life aren't great and you do need to step up , show up and put in a bit more effort . The next thing is you have enough money .

This was a lie that I told myself for a while and I'd get my business to a certain point and I'd be earning enough money to buy a few things that I wanted to buy or buy a house or investment , whatever it wanted to be and I'd get comfortable .

And then things would turn to shit again and then I'd work my ass off and I'd build it back up and I'd earn a bit more and the same thing . I'd get to a point and I'd say , oh look , it's fine , it's enough , and then get comfortable , and then everything would turn to shit again . So I think you've got to like for me .

Anyway , I'm at a point in my life where for me , it's not about the money . I want to earn as much money as I possibly can , not to have the money , but so that I can help as many people as possible . That's not about me . The other thing I want is I don't want to have to say no .

I want to be able to go on holidays with friends and family and my kids , and if we want to do something like something comes up while we're on holiday or the kids want to have an experience like . Whatever it is . I don't want to feel guilty that I can't say yes .

So I want to work my ass off and have enough money that I can do whatever I want to do . I can have whatever I want to have .

But it's also about helping people Like I want to be able to buy my parents and my wife's mom a house so they can retire and live their lives without having the stress of bills and and worrying about where they're going to live . I I have family members that I could not think of anything better than buying them a house and and helping them their life .

I have family members that work their ass off and deserve to be in a better position than what they are , but we all have choices to make and not everyone's willing to put in the time , the effort it takes to and do the personal development , so they just struggle through life .

So I want to earn enough money so that I can help people out , get to a better position in life and then they can , they can spend the money they earn on doing things they want to do . But charity is a big one for me . I would really , really , really want to . I want to be able to help disabled people .

I want to be able to invest millions of dollars in helping disabled families and , like I'm a builder , I honestly couldn't think of anything better than being able to , once a month or whatever , do a shout-out to families with a disabled child and , like , free of charge , go and build an access ramp or modify their house so that it makes their life easier .

Like that sort of shit brings tears to my eyes , like it's something that I'm very passionate about . So like ask yourself the question , like , do you have enough money ? Don't lie to yourself , like , don't get in a comfort zone and don't make it all about yourself , but like what would happen ? Like think about it .

Like what would happen if someone you , your wife , your kids , what would happen if someone you , your wife , your kids , what ? What would happen if suddenly , all of a sudden , they're in a , they've got a major illness and they need expensive medical treatment ?

Like how are you going to feel if you can't afford that or it's not covered by insurance or one of those types of things ? Like I know I don't want to get in a position where I have to feel guilty because I can't provide my wife or myself or my kids the best possible medical treatment if something was to come up .

So ask yourself , like , do you really have enough money ? And then , what are you going to do about it ? Is doing what you're doing now going to get you where you want to be ? All right , the last one .

We'll wrap it up now because I'm dragging on a little bit , but the last one , I think , is a really important one because it definitely sucked me in for a long time and these days , with social media , I think it's really bad . It's , I believe it's the cause of a lot of depression and a lot of anxiety .

And the lie is that why do I have to go through all this ? And I know now , with my training business , even with our software Quotes , so many people that it's like they're looking for , like this magical answer , this magical booklet or this magical document that's just going to solve all their problems and give them the ultimate business .

And it's easy to get that perception when on social media , everyone only puts out the good stuff , and especially when it comes to trades and builders , it's very easy to get hooked on social media and see all these trades and builders doing great work and and builders building all these multi-million dollar homes and driving around in big trucks and big tool trailers

and like having all the gear . I can honestly sit here and tell you from everything that I'm doing in the industry now .

Even the ones on social media that have tens of thousands of followers are building multi , multi-million dollar homes , have big teams appear as if they're making a shitload of money , are having the same struggles and the same issues as you're having , and reality is that every single person has to do the hard yards . There is no easy way to the top .

There is no easy way to success . No easy way to the top . There is no easy way to success .

You've got to put in the effort , and something that I like to refer or compare it to now is like when you want to get fit , you want to build muscle , you want to go to gym , like to build muscle , you've got to put in the effort , you've got to do the reps and it's got to hurt , and then you have a few days off gym and your muscles recover a little

bit and that creates growth and then you go again and you push harder again and like every whatever it is every couple of times you , you do , you do more reps .

Or once you , once you can do more reps , you add more weight and then you'll get to a point where you , you do less reps and you might double the weight , like there's there's a process to getting fit , there's a process to building muscle , and it's the same when it comes to building a business .

You , no one gets to the top overnight , no one gets to the top easily . And so stop telling yourself this lie that when you're scrolling through , like when you're wasting your time . That goes back to our first lie about you don't have enough time .

I guarantee you , if most of you got off social media for 30 minutes a day and put that same 30 minutes into self-development and your business , you'd be fucking blown away by how quickly things will improve and how successful you can become very quickly . But stop looking at other people's shit . Stop looking at it and thinking like , why am I struggling ?

Why aren't they struggling ? Because reality is they're all fucking struggling . They all have to go through shit , they're all they . They all don't know their numbers , they're all not like , it's not all rosy , it's not what you see on social media .

So that is a huge one because I it got me for a very long time , um , and I know it gets a lot of other people and it is one that really affects people's mental health depression , anxiety and all those types of things . So just be proud of where you're at now , stop worrying about everybody else and just run your own race and do your own thing .

So look , guys , I hope this has been a good podcast . We're trialling a few single ones now just to get some opinions out there and give you a bit of an insight into my life and how I think and the things that I've gone through .

So , look , as always , like comment , share , give us some feedback , let us know what you want to hear , let us know what you want to know about me . And , yeah , we'll make sure we get on here and present another cracking podcast . So , yeah , thanks very much for listening and let's keep this podcast , australia's number one construction podcast .

See you on the next one . Are you ready to build smarter , live better and enjoy life ? Then head over to livelikebuildcom . Forward , slash , elevate to get started . Everything discussed during the level up podcast with me , duane pierce , is based solely on my own personal experiences and those experiences of my guests .

The information , opinions and recommendations presented in this podcast are for general information only , and any reliance on the information provided in this podcast is done at your own risk . We recommend that you obtain your own professional advice in respect to the topics discussed during this podcast .