Transcript: MOTM #435 Manage Expectations and Setting Realistic Time Frames

[Transcript starts at 1:21]

Hello my podcast people and welcome back to another episode of my favorite podcast. This is actually the second to last episode of the year, and I thought at only apropos to perhaps talk about next year and get ahead of a question that I know some of you are going to be asking yourself. Perhaps before actually we get into that, let's say Happy Kwanzaa.

That is today. If you listen to this episode the day that it drops, Monday the 26th, it is the beginning of Kwanzaa, Happy Kwanzaa to those you that celebrate. Uh, we should say happy belated Hanukkah and happy belated Christmas cuz it's coming up after that. And perhaps most importantly, happy deleted birthday to my brother.

He just turned 30, uh, I had him on the podcast in 2020. I had him on for episode 234. We talked about environmentalism. He blew my mind. Definitely give that episode a listen. Thank you Courtney. And we've recorded this, that episode, during Covid and you know, I've watched him grow up and it's flown by. The time has just flown by.

We recorded it 2022, that's, you know, two plus years ago, or excuse me, 2020, that's two plus years. He's 30 now. I'm literally, I'm eight years older than him, so watched him grow up. Absolutely. The time. I'm just like, if you're watching the video, you see I have my hands on my head cause I'm just like, it went by so fast.

And that's what I think is the perfect segue for today's episode. And yes, that was a planned segue because I be writing an outline for my episodes. So the segue here is when you remove urgency, time tends to go by pretty quickly, which is actually great because as it relates to online business, which is what this podcast kind of circles around, shit takes time.

Just in general, shit takes time. You want your knee to heal. It takes time. You wanna get better at something. It takes time. But when you remove urgency, when you don't need it to happen yesterday, the time tends to go by pretty quickly. So I'm gonna share a quote with you and it is from LL Cool J, and it is from the 1999 shark film, Deep Blue Sea.

I am a sucker for a shark movie. Maybe you don't know that. Jaws is actually one of my favorite movies. Absolute sucker for a shark movie. And in Deep Blue Sea, LL Cool J, he plays a preacher and he explains the theory of relativity and I was just like, yes. So in the film he says, grab hold of a hot pan a second can seem like an hour.

Put your hands on a hot woman, an hour can seem like a second. It's all relative. Like how good is that quote though? Right? Cuz we get it. We understand that. This is what I want us to think about as we move into the new year. Any goals that you may have, any resolutions that you may, may have, any intentions that you may have, any words that you picked for the next year.

By the way, episode 434, that was last Thursday's episode, I talk about how I plan for the new year, my word for the year, right? I don't really set goals or anything like that. Nothing wrong if that's what you do, but give that episode a listen if you haven't already. What I want you to think about is as we go into this new year, as you're setting your intentions, as you're setting your goals, as you're setting resolutions, whatever it is, give it the time that it takes.

How much time, as much time as it needs, right? Really just that theory of relativity makes so much sense there. When you're gonna try, if you try to force this and you're like, I need it to happen right now. I gotta lose weight in five seconds. I gotta get better volleyball in two seconds. I gotta have the best launch ever.

It will not happen and it's gonna feel like it's taking forever. If you let it be, all right, you just enjoy the, the process that time tends to go by incredibly, incredibly quickly. So I said this in the little teaser, which if you're watching this on YouTube, you didn't hear the teaser cause I don't put the teaser on cuz it's like kind of redundant and weird.

Uh, but I said this in the teaser, which was, that sound of, you have like the kids sitting in the back seat for whatever reason I think of Chevy Chase, right? And like driving, is that his name? I don't even know. Driving, and you got, you're going on a road trip and you got kids in the back seat. I don't have kids, but I imagine. And they're just like, are we there yet?

Are we there yet? It's fucking annoying. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, to me that's annoying. Maybe you are a parent and you're like, I love it. I don't know. But to me that's annoying. That is annoying to me as a coach. I don't want my clients and they don't say this, because we've trained it out of them. They know better. Are we there yet?

Are we there yet? Knock it off. It takes as long as it takes. We get there when we get there. Now y'all know I want nothing but the best for you. You are my people. I want you to have the biggest launch ever, your biggest launch ever. I want you to make all the money. I want you to have the most ideal schedule.

I want you to be able to build and create and live your best life. But the reality is this shit takes time. How much time? As much time as it takes. We know hard work is the price of entry and efficiency is earned. You just gotta give it time. So hopefully if, if you're setting New Year's resolutions, you're doing goals, whatever, you're giving yourself a realistic timeframe.

And to me, that realistic timeframe is simply as long as it takes. The flip side that maybe some of you're wondering is like, well, when do I know how, when do I know when to quit or when to stop? I made a post about this actually on Instagram. We'll link that, but to me, you call it quits when you're like, I don't wanna do this anymore.

It's not worth it. But the flip side is that you can just keep going for as long as it is worth it to you. Now that timeline of how long it's worth it, it's going to be subjective. It's going to be yours. Understand that yes, other people will go faster and they'll do it faster. They'll complete it faster.

They'll get there faster. But also other people will get there slower, if they ever even get there. All that you can control is your attitude and your effort. This is something that one of my soccer coaches said to me when I was, I don't know, in high school, something like that, and I think at the time I kind of understood it, but now as like, you know, I'm old,

I'm like, that's literally it. Especially with sport, like all you can control is your attitude and your effort. You can't control the weather, you can't control what the other team is doing. You can't control what the ref is doing. You can't control what the crowd is doing. All that you can control is your attitude and your effort.

To me, and we'll probably maybe do another episode about this, I don't know. Cause I think the pendulum's gone all over the place, but to me, when in doubt do the most. Kind of just goes without saying, which is why I said earlier that hard work is the price of entry and efficiency is earned, right? You just keep doing this thing and then eventually you're like, yeah, this is easier.

You know, I'm more efficient. I can focus on, you know, really the efficiency. Uh, I can focus on creating efficiency as opposed to creating a habit. But considering the fact that all that you can control is your attitude and your effort, my default is do the most, give all of your effort to this thing.

Leave no nothing to chance. With that said, understand that this is still relative and subjective. Giving the most for you is whatever you can do. Perhaps you have less time than this other person. Okay. Give a hundred percent of what you can give, not a hundred percent of what this other person can give. Eyes on the prize.

Right? Put the blinders on and focus on you. All that you can control my friends is your attitude and your effort. Now one of the things that I talk about as it relates to goals and like kind of this like how long should I stick it out, how long should I be looking at things before I look to switch it up is, I throw out that 18 month quote.

I saw it on Instagram somewhere, and the quote says something along, along the lines of, if you gauge your progress in terms of 18 month spans, you'll never be disappointed. Now this is, it's also important that you look at progress from multiple different ways. It's not just, did I achieve the outcome?

It's, you know, what's that process? There's my Canadians. What's that looking like? But realistically to me, and I'm thinking about my own journey right now with, with YouTube, what would happen if you just expected it to take five years and you're like, I'm starting this thing and I may not see the, the results of this, the fruits of this labor for five years.

Would you do it anyway? Would you not get started? To me, as I'm thinking about YouTube, I don't expect some immediate ROI. I, if I did this for five years without some ROI, I would be fine. Cause I love this thing that I'm doing and I know that those five years will go by fast cuz I'm loving the process, I'm enjoying the process.

This is the equivalent of hands on a hot woman. I'm enjoying it. It's going to go by quickly. But when I'm coaching people and I say things online, yeah, I tend to try to soften the blow a little bit with that kind of 18 months cuz it is still more realistic than like six months or even a year. But realistically,

what about five years? If this, if I told you you gotta show up and do this thing for five years, would you still do it? I cannot make that decision for you, but something to think about when we're looking at at timeframes for things. Do you need it to happen yesterday then? You probably shouldn't start to be completely honest.

I said earlier, shit takes time and I'll say it again, shit takes time. And a quote that kind of bobs around my head quite often is never avoid doing something because of the time that it will take, that time will pass anyway. I'd love to amend that to say, never avoid doing something that you want to do because of the time that it will take, that time will pass anyway.

So hopefully these resolutions that perhaps you're setting or these goals that you're setting, they are yours. And to that end, you are willing to give it as long as it takes. That thing you're working on, again, the resolution, the word, the intention, the thing you wanna accomplish, whatever it is, my friends, give it time.

We're entering 2023 and we know that time is our most valuable resource. But real talk folks, what the hell else are you gonna be doing? If you want to be going after this thing, the best thing that you can do for yourself, the best thing that you can do to speed up that time that it takes is to simply give it as much time as it needs.

Alright, we're gonna wrap this one up. This is a short episode cuz we got a longer one coming up on Thursday. God willing, Godspeed. It's not God speed. I think it's God willing. Uh, I have not recorded the episode yet as I'm recording this right now, I have not recorded the Thursday's episode, cause that's gonna be with Meredith Root and Alex Parker. Bringing them on for the eleventy billion time.

We are gonna wrap up the year with them, so, God willing, that's the episode that you'll be getting on Thursday. If something happens, we'll then we'll switch it and do something else. But either way, thank you for a phenomenal 2022. We got one more episode coming your way, and then eleventy billion more episodes after that.

Uh, but you know, it's really important to me to express gratitude, to let you know that I truly appreciate each and every one of you in. Until next time, friends, Maestro out.

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How to know when to stop
MOTM #234: Environmentalism is for Everyone with Justin Dennis

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