The secret I learned from an old course I found on eBay.
On this episode Russell talks about loving the work you do can make it hard to get what you wanted in the first place and that’s why having a set schedule is so important.
Here are some interesting things you will hear on this episode:
So listen below to find out why having a set schedule will help you avoid becoming a workaholic.
---Transcript---
Hey, everybody. This is Russell and I want to welcome you to Marketing in Your Car.
Hey, everyone. So I was in the office today for two hours and about 27 minutes getting some stuff done as quickly as I could and then racing back to the house to go play some more.
We were playing and goofing off and having so much fun last night. My kids are there swimming and I'm not. I've just got to get home because I'm going crazy. I don't want to be working today.
I'm driving home and I started thinking like, I don't know about you, but I really, really enjoy what I do. Like too much so I think.
Like when I’m at home I'm thinking about going to work and things like that. And on my vacations I just want to get back to work. It's kind of this obsession. Hopefully you guys as entrepreneurs feel that.
It's funny, I was listening to podcast from Jason Moffat the other day and he was talking about how if he sold his business he would be done. He'd never work again. He'd just do cool stuff.
I was like, "Not me, man. I just want to keep working and working." And for the last two or three days I've been like, "That's kind of sad."
It's like a means to an end. What are we trying to do? Most of us get into this business because we're trying to accomplish something or do something and then when we get there we have so much fun in the process that we just keep doing it. Which is good. It's good that we enjoy what we do.
But it's also like, if you're not careful it will consume your entire existence. I don't know about you guys, but I love eBay. I only go to eBay about once every five or six months, because every time I do I end up blowing a couple thousand bucks.
I do the same thing when I go to eBay. All I do is I search like every old guru's name I can think of. Like Jay Conrad Levinson, Jay Abraham, Dan Kennedy, Chet Holmes, Tony Robbins. Old school direct mail boot camps.
I try to buy old courses on eBay because you can always find the good old stuff there, like tons of stuff. One time I found this tape set, and it was Jay Conrad Levinson and Jay Abraham and Chet Holmes. It was called Guerilla Vs Gorilla.
Anyway, I bought the tape set. I tried to find it online like a digital version. They don’t have it anywhere. So I bought this tape set and I bought this thing on Amazon where you can put a tape in and it will record to an MP3.
So I had my brother go take all the tapes and record all the MP3 and then change it to an audiobook format. That's the format I like listening to my stuff in. I was going to put it on my phone so I could listen to it for however long it took me to listen to it.
So I was listening to it and it was really cool, just these two guys' different teaching strategies. Jay Conrad Levinson is like boom, boom, boom! Dropping bombs of gold, thing after thing after thing. Just rapid-fire insane bombs of gold.
And then Jay Abraham is more like the strategic stuff. Anyway, Chet Holmes came with a practical application. It was amazing. In fact, I should go find whoever owns the rights to that and beg them and buy it from them. Because it was one of the best products I've ever gone through. It was insane.
So anyway, going through this whole training, one of the things I remember, one of the bombs of gold that Jay Conrad dropped that was just so valuable, he was talking about our habits.
He said a lot of times entrepreneurs get into business and they work 100-hour weeks so they can get to the point where they can work like four-hour workweeks, like Tim Ferris's four-hour work week or whatever your goal is.
He said the thing is when you create a habit it's hard to break it. The problem is that you do that, but you get into this habit of working 10, 12, 14 hours a day and after five years of doing that trying to get to this goal, but the time you actually could do it you have such an engrained habit that you can't ever leave.
It was interesting. He said basically if you want to be successful with that concept from day one, if you want to live a four-hour-a-day work life, you have to set that from day one. Otherwise you create the wrong habit and you'll never be able to get back to it.
He said if that's your habit from day one, then you'll stick with that. And you'll adapt and get all the same stuff done that you needed to, the bigger and smaller type formant.
Anyway, I thought it was kind of interesting. So I'm kind of using this new moving process and everything as an experiment where I'm going to try to set my actual dream schedule now.
Because when you move it's like you're shifting and you're shaking up all of these habits. Suddenly I'm waking up in a different bed. I'm looking out a different window. I'm ordering different food. All those kind of things.
So my wife and I as we're moving in, we're buying different food or buying the food we want for our new habits. I'm really excited about, I read a blog post from Preston Ely a little while ago who is one of my favorite people/writers in the world.
It's amazing. If you search Preston Ely and then something like daily routine. Actually I think it's Warriorinaire, like millionaire and warrior put together. Like morning routine or something like that. It's the coolest blog post.
I probably read that at least 50 times. It's him minute-by-minute, what he does in his morning routine. I keep reading his, and Tim Ferris is always interviewing people like, "What's your morning routine?" and all these kinds of things.
I don't want to just have a morning routine out of me just kind of bumping into one. I want to craft one perfectly. In fact, I even bought a domain name called WhatsYourMorningRoutine.com. When I get mine mastered I'm going to make a whole video showing it off.
I'm trying to create that right now and trying to create my work schedule, my workout schedule and my fun schedule. I want to have time with my kids and make this new pattern today.
Because I don't want to set it six months from now when I have more time. I want to set it today. Because like Jay Conrad Levinson said, I need to make that pattern happen today and really solidify it so that moving forward it's there. I've always got it.
So that's kind of my goal with what I'm going to be doing. I’m excited for it. I just wanted to sort of give that to you guys. Hopefully it will give you permission to stop what you're doing.
Maybe you're not moving like we are, but do the same kind of thing. Shift your bed. Turn your bed around. Go through your covers, throw out all the crap and re-buy a bunch of stuff. Or do something to just radically shift your perspective on everything.
The way you wake up in the morning, what you do, and actually crafting a morning routine, crafting a blueprint, crafting how you eat. Consciously designing these things so they can become the pattern. They can become the habit.
That way, if you follow it for the next month, two months, three months, it becomes the pattern. And if you're following that pattern the right way, it will just change everything for you. You'll be able to stick to something and it will just make everything more awesome.
That's what I’m doing. I'm excited for it. I hope you guys will try it out as well. I'm giving you permission to do it. So just do it.
Talk to your spouse or significant other and say, "We're throwing all this stuff away. We're doing this. We're moving this." And just design it by choice, as opposed to what you're doing right now by default, and then watch the results that come.
Anyway, I am officially at the new house. Oh man, I'm so excited. I'm going to go swim, have some fun. I will talk to you guys all again later. Thanks everyone.