All right. 3, 2, 1. Let's get it. Welcome to another episode of what's your problem? The podcast. I am your host Marsh Buice . And on what's your problem. We're going to deal with three universal problems. Every social status in life has to deal with. They will never go away. These three problems. I may have never met you in my life. But I can tell you what your problem is. Adversity uncertainty and complacency. And so you need some skills to develop.
So that way you can handle the adversity, embrace uncertainty and never settle again. And these five skills you already have within, they all start with the letter C. And they were going to build your confidence. That's another C they're going to build your confidence. So that way you can handle the adversity, embrace uncertainty. And never settled again. And so those five CS quickly or communication. Curiosity creativity, continuous learning and action and productive confrontation.
So when you work within those five skills, every single day, you'll be RFA ready for anything. Do you know everything? No. Will you be ready for anything? Absolutely. So when uncertainty comes about. When adversity pops up. When you feel that complacency kicking in that I'm going to talk a little bit about today. Then you got to ask yourself. Okay. I'm starting to get into this rut. What am I not doing? Chances are you're not communicating, not only with yourself, but also with others.
You've stopped being curious. You're living in statements. You're not being creative. You bitch, about what you don't have instead of using what you do have. You've stopped learning. So you're no longer a continuous learner. Which I'm gonna talk about today, or you're not confronting some things, not only in yourself, but you've got to set some boundaries and some things that you won't tolerate from others as well. So when you find yourself a little in this wheel, slippage, just.
Look back at this, these five CS. What am I not doing well with? So I hope that these bite-size episodes that I bring to you. We'll trigger one of the five CS, one or many of the five CS. And you say, ah, okay, I get it. And so I may not point blank. Here's how you be a better communicator today. I'm not necessarily the Chris Farley man down by the river. And a van down by the river. I'm not necessarily those Saturday night live fans out there can appreciate what I just said.
If not YouTube, it. But, you know, they're, they're laced with communication, curiosity, creativity, continuous learning, and action and productive confrontation. These things they're just embedded. In my messages itself. So today, man, I want to talk about quickly about the opportunity cost. And seizing some of these opportunities. And so this idea. For this episode came from. A book that I just was going through my public library app. Those of you who do not. Subscribe to your public library.
They have free books. You can get them on Kindle. You can check them out for 14 days. Go get a library card. And then you can check these books out for free. There were some books that I read for free. That really resonate with me. And I call those lifetime books. I go buy the book and then I put them on the shelf. Cause I've referenced back to them often. But most of the books that I read, I just read and move on. So why spend the extra money? That I don't necessarily have to, and I learn this.
This is where I got creative. When I was at the bottom rung in the ladder, man, I was demoted. I had $11 and 18 cents in my account. I had $10,000 in obligations coming up the following month, dude, I didn't have no money. I didn't have enough money even buy a book. So I had to get very creative. I got a library card. And so I began to check out these books, but I didn't have to go to the library. I can check them out right there on my couch.
And so this, uh, this random reading that I did today, I was finished. What you started, those who are watching on the video, finish what you started the art of following through taking action executing and self-discipline by Peter Hollins don't know who Peter Hollins is. I just like the, uh, the, the title of the book. So I opened it up and this morning I set my timer for 15 minutes. And the chapter that I read was about staying hungry. And that's about how do you stay hungry?
Because I have lost my hunger in many, many instances though. So. Th the, the greatest time is when you're chasing for something and you're gunning for something, but after a while, And you are, you achieve the goal? You lose your hunger. And so you have to, I did, I think probably back in the six hundreds series, uh, about, uh, always be burning. You gotta adjust the burn. And so that's what great athletes do legends like Tom Brady.
I think that's what I referenced to in that, in that, um, I'll bring it back. Probably I'll clip it out and bring it back to four. Uh, Uh, what's your problem? Uh, soundbite. But, you know, it's, it's about adjusting the burn. So that way you continuously grow continuously evolve. So in the chapter, let me read quickly for context, what Peter Hollins writes. He says everything in life. Is an opportunity cost.
Everything in life is an opportunity cost, which means that everything that you do will call for something from you. It's going to require something from you. So every act. Takes time. or effort. That could be committed to something else. See, there's a switch to everything. There's a cost to everything. So if you choose to just chill out, there's an opportunity cost associated to that. So it's going to. It's going to cost you time and could that time be better served for something else?
There may be times that you have earned your laziness and you say I'm not doing anything today. This past weekend. That's exactly what I did. As a matter of fact for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I shelved it, man. And you know, I bang the drum on. Process prior workout every single day. No, I listened to my body. I was burned out. And so I seized the opportunity of laying up for three days now, was I active? Did I eat like shit? No. I kept regimented. Uh, our kept my regimen.
Uh, on the healthy side of it. But I didn't go buck wild. But also, I just chilled out from the weights for a little bit. And then I came back to it on Sunday morning. Great. To be back. It increased my hunger level again, meaning I was hungry. I was, I was hungry to get back in the weight room, chew up some of them weights. And I got back in there. Cool. So that's an opportunity cause see, it's going to cost you something. So back to what he's writing every act.
Takes time and our effort that could be committed to something else. So here's the way I look at it for every action. There's a seizing or opportunity associated to it. It is. So you got to ask yourself. Does the action that I'm taking right now? Am I seizing the opportunity for advancement. Toward my ultimate self. R. If I take this action. Or the action that I'm taking right now. Does it diminish me? And I'm actually shrinking. I'm fading away.
And those opportunities are just going to continue to pass by see every day, man. There's two sets of opportunities. You've got to kind of look at it. There's opportunities that you have to do out of obligation. Okay, you got to go to work. Can't phone it in because you got rent to pay. But then there's other opportunities that are optional. And most people don't seize those opportunities, which is what I'm going to unpack a little bit today because people that I coach.
There are a lot of them almost all across the board. They all say, man, things are doing it. Things are going pretty good. So once we kind of get out of the mud, we get the wheels going a little bit about 30 days into it. They're like, man, I'm good. Everything's going good. Jobs people say that all the time, man, I got a good job. Sure. It may satisfy the now. It may pay the bills right now. But, and everything may seem fine. Until you get pushed out. Or you get fired?
Are you job gets eliminated. Are the economy changes and you know, the tide comes up on you. And you realize how out of whack you are. And so because you had a good job and because things are going good. You've gotten lapped. And so all of these skills. All of these knowledge and know-how. You could have been adapting. And, and attaching to the experience that you have yet, you let those things just go by because there was no mandate. You weren't forced to do it. And because everything was good.
You got complacent. See good. Breeds complacency. So if you were saying, man, things are good. That means that you're getting complacent. That's why I talk about the three problems, adversity, uncertainty, and complacency, complacency being the biggest thing right now. So the complacency, how do I stay hungry? Is, I've got to seize these opportunities. First off, you gotta be aware. That there are opportunities and it's not like you just snag everything.
You're not a dryer sheet and you just attached to everything that flies by. No, but when you know what you're going for. And it's aligned with your higher future self. Then everything that I do, the actions that I take. Are in alignment. That bring you to your destiny. So for me, I want to be fit. I want to be a 50 year old, 60 year old, 78. I want to be super fit. I want to be lean. And I want to be wealthy.
And the wealthy aspect of it is not only financial, but it's mentally, it's emotionally. It's spiritually. It's relationally and it is physically. So it's those parts. It's multifaceted wealth, not just one area. I don't want to, I don't, I don't even have a desire to be a billionaire. I don't want those issues that come with it. But I want to be, I want to have abundance. Not only financially.
But also where I don't have to so much worry about things, but also not at the sacrifice where I lose my spiritual or my mental component or I burned relationships around me. I don't, I don't want that. So back to my original point, cause I kinda got off feeder road there. The opportunities when you just are good. And opportunities are passing you by. Then. You're eventually going to hit a dead end. And when you do and you have to get back out there on the market, let's say your job ends.
Or is eliminated you get back out there in the market. It's like, you've been locked up for 20 years. You get out on the street and you're like, what's this thing called a cell phone. I mean, eh, That's what happens. It makes me think about the movie. I'm going to get you sucker. Where the guy, the pimp gets out of jail. And he's got these fish tank shoes on. He stepping out because when he went in jail, back in the seventies, Fish tank shoes. We're the thing.
And then he gets out on the, on the streets and the whatever nineties. And it is like people are looking at him like he's freaking crazy. When he went in jail, he looked the part. When he got out of jail, he was out. That's what happens to our life. Many times we imprison ourselves. To seizing the opportunities. And so when we get out there on the market, the open market, we're getting out there and bell bottoms and fish tank shoes, and RI and people are looking at us like crazy.
Like, bro, I did those skills like back in eighth grade. And that's all you got. That's what I'm talking about. So you got to seize these opportunities. So this is a cautionary tale for all of those people out there who say marsh, I'm good. What opportunities. Can you seize right now? Because even though things are going good, is great. So while things are going good. What better time? To take. These smaller risk to seize these opportunities to advance your knowledge.
Your skillset, your know-how, your collaborations, your connections, and they're of such low consequence because the market are the balls. Has it mandated that you got to do these things? So the fact that you're, you, you can do these things. And not even get bothered by it and you can actually. Subtly advance your skills, knowledge, and know-how. And you're just, you're just inching along and they're of such low consequence that you can almost take. A hobby approach to it.
You know, it's kinda like that retired man who goes out in his, in his shed, in the backyard. To tinker a little bit on his woodworking. And he just tinkers for a little bit, but he doesn't have. You know, he doesn't have to get it into Walmart stores or hobby lobby. He can just would work a little bit. Once he's tired with it. He goes inside and watches a little TV. That's what you need to do. When things are going good for you, seize the opportunities.
Do a little woodworking on your skillset, your knowledge know-how and then when you don't want to fool with it. Uh, you know, after 15, 20 minutes an hour, walk away from it, go back to your normal life. But if you do this every single day, You'll keep your curiosity going. You'll get more creative. And you'll be a continuous learner. That's three of the CS that I'm talking about right then and there.
Now on the flip side of this, too, if you are new on the market, say you just got out of school and you see all of these people that you're surrounded with and they've been putting in. You know, decades of time. And you think, man, there's no way I can get to that skillset or that knowledge they've been doing this for so long.
Being encouraged because all of those people that you're looking at right now, and you think you don't have the skillset, if you will seize the opportunities right now, they're going to cause you some time they're going to cost you some energy. But if you will seize these things consistently all the time. Then what will happen is there's plenty of all of those people. They're all complacent. And they're all good.
And so they're not advancing their skills like you are, and not only will you catch them. But you will surpass them as well. See, remember it's consistency over intensity. So many times people make the mistake, they start off. With intensity. But they can't. Be consistent, but if you You start with consistency. The intensity will naturally gravitate from there because you're just going to continue to raise the bar a little bit. If you seize the opportunities. . So how do you stay hungry?
Peter Hollins says there's two different ways to do this. The first one, I don't so much like the second one I do. The first way. to stay hungry. And to seize these opportunities is to make the motivation. Stronger than the action that you're taking. In other words, let's say, well, let's take it for me. When I started in sales, I had no stove, no refrigerator living in a sketchy neighborhood. So the opportunity, the cause. Uh, so when I got into sales, I was willing to make the sacrifice.
I was willing to put in the time and the energy. To buy a fridge to get a stove and to get a pot of that sketchy ass neighborhood. So it costs a lot. But 26 years later. It's fabulous. It's uh, I've made more money. And am more satisfied. Successfully. Not that I'm complacent. But I'm satisfied that I continue to grow in the industry changes all the time. So I have to evolve with it. So I just keep pushing the envelope. But see, that was an opportunity cost that I was willing to do.
That I was willing to take home. That's what it's got to be like for you. So back to Hollins' point. For a period. You can. Make the motivation. Stronger. Than the sacrifice. So it's willing and what, I don't want to do this. I don't want to work 12 hours. I don't want to come home and do extra work, but I'm willing to do, so say if you get into college or go back to college after being in the job field for a while, but you want to advance your skills, whatever.
So you, you see the difference on that? The second way is what I like better the second way is to make the sacrifices smaller. So in other words, you make these things so small that you don't have this drudgery of. Oh, my God, let me do this thing because it takes time man, to be a master. And the mastery part of it gets monotonous. The, you start off bright and shiny and it's new opportunity. But after a while, man, it kind of loses its luster.
I go through these seasons in sales where some days I'm like. Oh, God. He's just an eye roll, but that's when I feel myself slipping in the complacency. So I get in the trade magazines. I start reading and listening to other things that start to trigger these, these thoughts again. And stoke the fires a little bit, just the burn. And now all of a sudden I'm, I'm back back fired up again. So let me relate. Making small sacrifices.
Let me relate it to, you know, say for instance, Uh, you want to get stronger? Okay. So, and you haven't worked out in a while. So instead of sitting there saying, oh, well, David Goggins does a thousand pushups a day. Well, I'm gonna do a hundred instead of standing there and you haven't worked out in alone time and want to do a hundred pushups, you're going to quit pretty quick.
But if you make the sacrifices smaller, Meaning that I'm going to do a hundred pushups, but I'm going to do 10 sets of 10 over 10 hours. Meaning every hour. I'm just going to drop down and bang 10 out. So if you do that, you check the box, you got the a hundred pushups in, see, that's making this sacrifice is smaller. And it's so small that when you question, you get into negotiations with yourself and you're like, oh, I don't know if I want to do this or not.
It's so small that you say, dude, it's just 10 bang them out in 20 seconds. You're done. Okay, so you kind of got a mind trick yourself a little bit, and if you make these sacrifices small, you can quickly do it. So I make the sacrifices small in reading instead of powering through a whole book. And you, you, you, you want to start reading, but instead of just picking up this big ass book, There's a Napoleon. Uh, almost said dynamite, there's a Napoleon hill. The keys to success.
Do that book is this thick. I was reading out of it yesterday. I don't have to read the whole damn book. I just go to a chapter and I just read that one chapter about that. So if you set your timer for 15, 20 minutes, That's normally about the time it takes to read a chapter, but if you don't finish the chapter, Something in there will resonate with you and you can apply it to your day. Boom, you got the consistency, you got the continuous learning in, you got some creative thoughts in.
So what I really like about the random reading aspect of it is not only do I stay reading. But also I get a broader field, so I'm not trying to get through this book to get to another. I kind of embrace the add side of me because something else comes out. Uh, Robin Sharma was on a podcast the other day. He's got a new book. I'm like, eh, You know, A lot of times I want to go to another book. And so this kind of embraces that where I can, I can jump in a book, jump out of another.
I've been Deion. Sanders has a new book. I've been reading that in and out. I've been popping in and out on it. So that's what the random reading, that's how you make the sacrifices. Super small. My writing time. Same thing. I set my timer 15, 20 minutes. This is how I wrote this right here. I literally read this 15 minutes. Timer went off. Then I kind of talked it out and then I said, I set my timer for 20 minutes and I wrote this out.
Not only does this embrace the fact that I have to read every day, but I have to write. And so the writing clarify my thoughts. So that way I can bring you this message. And I'm not just bringing you the message. I'm bringing the me the message to, so that way, when I step outside today, I'm ready. I'm rolling. I'm an empowered, I've got something new in the tank. And that's what keeps my life colorful. So there's, instead of the writing time is big hour long.
I don't have to wait until Sunday and write for two hours. No, I just do it every single day. And the ones that really, really. Embed and deep. I turn on the mic. And I share this episode with you, which is part of my process that I do every day is to share something of value. The actions that I take, I just, I do the same thing with my food to. My food. I'm not big in the meal preps and all this kind of different stuff. My meals take 10 minutes to make. I've done that. I've I've I've found.
Meats and vegetables that only take 10 minutes to make. So I may have something in the microwave, one thing in the air fryer, nother thing in the broiler. And so I got all those three things in 10 minutes. Everything's put together, boom, I'm done. This keeps me healthy and aligned. Toward being fit and wealthy. this builds toward my wealth. So see that, but the sacrifices are small. I don't have to go spend a bunch of money.
Trying to mail order some meal preps everything I need is right there. But how can I capture, how can I make the sacrifice is smaller. , and the benefits greater as well. That's what I'm talking about. These actions become habits, but they're so small that I can jump in and out. And I don't have this big drudgery kick in. When you dread something, I should say. What do you do you enter into negotiations? If I enter into negotiations with myself, I have lost.
So the small sacrifices, the simple sacrifices. Keep me from negotiating with myself because I am going to ultimately lose. So let me ask you this, what opportunities. Will you seize today? They're going to cost you something, but will they advance you? Will you seize them to advance in life? Or will you just say, ah, not today, maybe another day. You're letting those things compound. And they're actually, you think it's a day. But for every day you don't seize.
You're probably given three days of opportunity. That stuff compounds, man, initially it looks like one-to-one. Then it goes two to one, then it goes five to one or one to five. And then it goes one to 10. And so these big events that you want to put aside and say, oh, next month, one day, I'm going to rent a hotel room and I'm going to write all day. No, you're not. You're going to be by the pool, drinking a margarita and no time because. The other action. The other alternative.
Is way more appealing. But if you make these sacrifices smaller and you seize these every single day, This will develop into a process. And you'll get this routine going and you're going to see a better version of yourself. That is the thing. That's why you drink too much. That's why you eat too much is because you are emotionally doing this because you don't like where your life is right now. You can get out of that situation, but you don't have to sacrifice everything.
All day to be able to do it, make the sacrifices smaller. I do believe back to Hollins' point. I do believe that you can for a time, make the motivation stronger than the action, meaning that I'm gunning for something, got to get out of this sketchy neighborhood. I got to get a better job, got to work these long hours, want to get promoted, whatever I do believe you can do that for some time, but. You're going to switch to making smaller sacrifices. If you want to continue on.
Because getting there is one thing. Staying there and then advancing from there is a whole nother thing you don't want to get there and slip back because, Hey, I checked the box. I got it. That's how people fall out. Let's take athletes, they get drafted and then they become a bust is because they did everything it took to get there, but then they didn't do anything to keep going. Elsewhere. They didn't do that. And so the same thing happens in our lives to where everything gets good.
We got a nice house, we got a little money in the account. We got a nice, big, fat credit limit that we can swipe when we're going to want to go on vacation and pay it down for the year. We got a beautiful spouse. We got good looking kids. We got all it got, you know, we got all the goods, but the good is going to breed complacency. And I don't want you to get complacent at all. But also you don't have to go rogue man, and get up at two o'clock in the morning and say F the world.
I don't have time for anybody else. No, you can have your cake and eat it too. All right, you can do that. And I'm living proof that you can do that. All right. Let's get out of here. I've taken enough of your time. Thanks for investing your time with me. Hopefully you get something out of it. If you did, would you share this episode with someone else? This helps get us, get the word out. We are the top 3% podcasts in the world.
And the only way I could do this, I live in a town of 80,000 people, but this is the power of the microphone. This is the power of communication. When you have a message that you can bring to the world, the world will see that message we're heard in. I forgot what it is like 2100. Or 1200. I don't know what it is. 1200 countries. And like, eh, That's actually, let me get it for. If you got a minute. All right. This podcast is heard in 128 countries and 2,120 cities. I mean, one of them. Is in.
Moscow. Uh, van Tila. I V a N T E Y. E V K a Moscow. Oh, blast O B L a S T. I mean I'm in Moscow dude. United Kingdom, Sweden, Ghana, Australia, the Philippines. Russia. United States. I mean, It's heard all over. And I don't say that to gloat. I say that. I'm humbled by it. But it's also the power don't don't ever diminish. Or knocked down the power of your message. And so maybe you don't get behind the microphone. And bring it to the world.
But you bring it to your world, whatever your world is, it could be just in this house. It could be just on your job site, but you make an impact. You make a difference. This is why I talk about communication, because it is so important. You can't connect with the world if you don't learn how to communicate. And so I hope. That when you hear these messages. That you realize I have more to offer. You have a great gift. You have a tremendous niche and no one can bring it like you can.
Don't ever forget that. And I used to say all the time and I got away from it, but maybe I should start saying it again. I remember the greatest sale that you will ever make is to sell you on you because you're more than enough. Let us know it. All right. Keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Seize the opportunities. And stay tough peace.