Order of Man - FFN 010： Work the Plan

00:00:00.000 You're a man. You're committed to the work required to forge your own destiny.

00:00:04.600 Your blood. Your sweat. Your tears.

00:00:07.740 You will not be defeated. You cannot be deterred.

00:00:11.460 Nothing stands between you and the victory you seek.

00:00:14.640 You're a rock. Steadfast, resolute, and unwavering.

00:00:18.400 And, at the end of the day, the job will be done.

00:00:22.400 Welcome to your Friday Field Notes.

00:00:25.160 Hello, men. What's going on today? I am Ryan Michler, and I am the host and founder of Order of Men.

00:00:29.440 Now, if you're listening to this show for the first time today, I want to welcome you to the show.

00:00:32.800 You'll find that this is a show about all things manly.

00:00:35.080 So, whether you're looking for career advice, relationship advice, how to be a better leader, how to communicate more effectively,

00:00:41.120 how to protect yourself and your loved ones, whatever it may be, you are in the right place.

00:00:44.980 Most of the guys listening to this show know by now this is the Friday show.

00:00:48.240 It's a short show of my ramblings for the week.

00:00:50.500 But if you are new to the podcast, make sure that you subscribe so you never miss this, your Friday Field Notes,

00:00:56.860 or our full show, which is released each Tuesday.

00:00:59.580 Now, next week, we've got a Navy SEAL coming on to talk about raising boys.

00:01:03.100 So, if you're a father, you'll definitely want to catch that one.

00:01:06.360 Now, let's get into the conversation for today.

00:01:08.180 I want to talk with you about something that really isn't all that glamorous.

00:01:11.500 It isn't really all that exciting, but it's what separates the most successful people on the planet

00:01:16.240 from those that merely scrape by in life.

00:01:18.380 It's the concept of working a plan.

00:01:21.160 Too many of us these days are flying by the seat of our pants, hoping that things will go our way,

00:01:26.200 that Lady Luck will somehow smile upon us and allow us to win the lottery or find the women of our dreams. 0.94

00:01:32.160 She works hard to make us believe that luck is a real thing and that if somehow, someway,

00:01:36.980 we just wait long enough that we will catch a break.

00:01:39.960 And I'm here to burst your bubble today, guys.

00:01:42.200 Life just doesn't happen that way.

00:01:44.000 Now, you might be telling me that it does for some people.

00:01:46.360 And to that, I say it's probably the exception, not the rule.

00:01:51.040 So, I, for one, I'm not the kind of guy, the type of guy to sit and wait for things to happen.

00:01:55.920 I'm going to go out in the world and I'm going to make those things happen for myself.

00:02:00.120 We live in an incredible time in history where someone can actually go out and do just that.

00:02:05.100 They can go make what they want to make.

00:02:06.800 They can have what they want to have.

00:02:08.280 They can come from nothing, extreme poverty, a broken home, prison, whatever,

00:02:12.300 and completely change where they are in life.

00:02:15.820 It reminds me of the movie A Knight's Tale, if you guys have seen that,

00:02:18.540 where they talk about changing your stars.

00:02:20.680 There's no fate here, guys.

00:02:22.200 There's only what you do.

00:02:24.700 And that leads to the results that you are currently experiencing,

00:02:28.220 whether they're good or bad.

00:02:30.120 So, let's talk about this.

00:02:31.300 Let's talk about working a plan.

00:02:32.900 In other words, let's talk about making things happen in your life.

00:02:37.020 I want to give you a few steps and a resource or two that you can start using today

00:02:41.260 that will set you on the right track.

00:02:43.300 And I don't care if it's in your marriage or the relationship that you have with your

00:02:46.740 kids or the promotion you're seeking or the business you're starting, whether it's health

00:02:51.220 and fitness goals or picking up a new hobby, the process, it's always the same.

00:02:56.940 And it all starts with identifying what you want.

00:02:59.260 That's it.

00:02:59.940 That's the first step.

00:03:00.920 It's amazing to me how many men haven't even completed this first step.

00:03:04.680 They haven't taken the time to identify what they want.

00:03:07.820 What do you want?

00:03:08.380 So, I want you this coming week to focus for the time being on four key areas of your life.

00:03:13.520 What do you want for your own self-improvement?

00:03:16.020 What do you want in your relationships?

00:03:17.920 What do you want with your wealth?

00:03:19.300 And what do you want with your health?

00:03:22.400 Get out a notepad and start writing those goals down in each of those four categories

00:03:26.700 I mentioned, relationships, health, wealth, and self.

00:03:29.100 Now, from there, you need to download a guide that I put together.

00:03:32.720 It's a weekly planner.

00:03:33.480 It's the one that I personally use.

00:03:34.720 If you go to orderofman.com slash weekly planner, it's a spreadsheet.

00:03:38.120 You'll be able to download, again, the exact document that I use to plan out my week.

00:03:43.700 And this is where you're going to list your goals.

00:03:45.300 But more importantly, this is where you're going to reverse engineer.

00:03:49.260 This is what I call it.

00:03:49.880 Reverse engineering the process of actualizing those goals.

00:03:53.140 And more important than the goals themselves is the action steps, guys.

00:03:56.780 It's the action steps that you'll need to implement in order to achieve those goals.

00:04:00.740 Stephen Covey talks about starting with the end in mind.

00:04:03.280 That's what we're doing here.

00:04:04.060 We're starting with the goal, and then we're working back into the steps that we'll need

00:04:08.920 to complete on a daily basis.

00:04:10.280 So, for example, if your goal is to lose 20 pounds, your action could be work out at least

00:04:14.920 one hour daily.

00:04:16.040 Stop eating food after 7 p.m. or drink a gallon of water each day.

00:04:21.060 That's it.

00:04:21.840 And that's tangible.

00:04:22.780 That's something you actually have control over.

00:04:24.880 It's the action, not the result.

00:04:26.840 Now, on this weekly planner, you're going to put in all of those action steps, and you're

00:04:30.420 literally, guys, going to check those things off as you do them.

00:04:33.300 There's power in lists and in the deliberate action of actually checking that list off.

00:04:38.640 All right.

00:04:38.780 So, I want to talk with you now quickly about prioritization.

00:04:41.620 There's a lot of talk and a lot of ideas about how to prioritize the tasks that you're completing

00:04:45.300 on a daily basis.

00:04:46.300 If you want a great book or a great resource for this, read The One Thing by Gary Keller.

00:04:51.880 And what I suggest that you do in the premise of the book is that you just focus on one

00:04:56.080 thing at a time, the thing that will have the biggest impact, not a hundred different

00:04:59.720 things, just one thing.

00:05:00.820 And there's this huge myth out there that multitasking is actually a legitimate way to

00:05:04.800 get things done.

00:05:05.920 It's not.

00:05:06.540 It's not a great way to manage your day.

00:05:07.960 As you're planning out your day, what I want you to do is ask yourself, what is the one

00:05:11.780 thing that I can do right now, which will yield the highest result in achieving my goals?

00:05:18.060 All right.

00:05:18.240 What's the one thing I can do right now that will yield the highest result in achieving

00:05:21.720 my goals?

00:05:22.120 That's it.

00:05:22.580 Now, I want you to go out and do that.

00:05:24.260 Only that.

00:05:24.920 Just focus on that.

00:05:25.940 And when that's done, check it off the list and ask yourself that same question again.

00:05:30.760 And at the end of the day, you will have gotten so much more accomplished, probably more

00:05:34.040 in that day than most people do all week or even all month.

00:05:36.680 And then you repeat that process over and over and over again, every single day.

00:05:42.920 This is working the plan.

00:05:44.460 Now, the last thing I want to talk with you about is what I refer to as an after action

00:05:47.460 review.

00:05:47.860 This is a military term.

00:05:48.840 And the idea is that after every engagement or exercise, you're going to go back and you're

00:05:53.000 going to analyze how it actually went.

00:05:56.000 Everyone's really good at talking about how to plan out your day, but I want you to get

00:05:59.200 exceptionally good at recapping your day.

00:06:02.120 Having a great plan is good, but understanding how you executed that plan is better.

00:06:06.940 And you're going to ask yourself the following questions.

00:06:08.880 Number one, what did I want to get done today?

00:06:11.740 What did I actually get done?

00:06:13.920 What didn't I get done that I would have liked to?

00:06:17.200 Why didn't I get those tasks done and how will I improve tomorrow?

00:06:21.360 So ask yourself those five questions.

00:06:23.020 That's it.

00:06:23.800 That's all you need to do each and every day.

00:06:26.040 And I promise guys, you'll have no problem achieving success that you desire.

00:06:29.920 I know this plan works, but a lot of you probably won't implement it, which is the sad

00:06:34.420 reality.

00:06:34.820 And a lot of you won't implement it because it sounds so simple.

00:06:37.520 You're probably telling yourself it really can't be this easy.

00:06:40.100 And so you won't do it, but I can guarantee you guys that it is.

00:06:43.800 It will work.

00:06:44.620 I use this process and so do thousands of other successful people and it works.

00:06:49.160 So my challenge to you, my marching orders for you are to try it for the next 30 days.

00:06:53.040 You've got all of July to make this work in your life.

00:06:55.020 And if it doesn't move on, but you won't move on because again, you'll see that it actually

00:06:59.700 works.

00:07:00.320 So again, the process is first, identify your goals.

00:07:04.280 Second, reverse engineer the process, reverse engineer goals in action.

00:07:09.380 Third, prioritize and execute.

00:07:11.680 And then fourth, complete your after action review.

00:07:13.380 It's simple as that.

00:07:14.320 Not easy, but simple.

00:07:16.280 And on that note, I want to share with you another resource you'll be interested in.

00:07:18.860 If you want to make this a strategy or a habit that you will implement in your life, it's

00:07:23.520 called the Iron Council.

00:07:24.560 Most of you have heard of it by now.

00:07:25.880 It's our elite mastermind of men working together to help themselves accomplish big

00:07:30.420 things in their relationships, in their health, in their wealth, and themselves.

00:07:33.780 So you're going to get weekly assignments, daily challenges, weekly accountability calls,

00:07:37.260 and also all the tools, the resources, the strategies, everything that you need to help

00:07:41.560 you take your life to the next level.

00:07:43.200 And so if you're interested in that, join us and the council by heading to orderofman.com

00:07:47.580 slash ironcouncil.

00:07:48.680 And I hope to see you guys there.

00:07:49.880 In the meantime, I want you to identify your goals, reverse engineer those goals into action,

00:07:54.580 prioritize and execute, complete your after action review, and work the plan.

00:08:00.260 Catch you next week, man.

00:08:01.780 Those are your Friday Field Notes.

00:08:03.540 Now it's time to crush your excuses, own your choices, accept responsibility, and live manfully.

00:08:10.320 Learn how at orderofman.com forward slash field notes.

00:08:13.820 We'll see you next week, man.

00:08:21.000 We'll see you next week.

Order of Man - July 01, 2016

FFN 010： Work the Plan

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