When Vision Becomes Reality ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES
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Summary
In this episode of the Friday Field Notes, Ryan talks about the importance of having a clear vision for your life and how to turn that into a reality. He also talks about what it means to be a man and why it s important to have a vision for the future.
Transcript
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart
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your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong. This is your life. This is who
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you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
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you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler,
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and I am your host and the founder of the Order of Men podcast. If you're new to what we're doing
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here, this is a movement dedicated and designed to help reclaim and restore masculinity in this
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society that is weak and cowardly and pathetic and overly effeminate. And it's my job to give
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you the tools and the conversations and resources to equip you as men to lead your families, lead
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yourselves, lead your communities, lead your business and your neighbors well. So we have
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this conversation here, the Friday Field Notes, where you get to hear some of my thoughts from
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throughout the week. We've got our interview show where I interview guys like Mike Chandler,
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David Goggins, Jocko Willink, Andrew Vassila, Tim Kennedy, John Eldridge. I could go on and on and
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on. I think we're up to almost 800 episodes at this point. And then of course we do our Ask Me
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with my co-host and friend, Kip Sorensen. So make sure if you're just tuning in for the first time,
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or if you haven't done this yet, go in and leave a rating review. I think we've got, I don't know,
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6,000, 7,000 ratings. Let's bump those up. Those are rookie numbers, right? Let's bump those up to
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10,000. And all it would take is a handful of you or a small percentage of you going in and leaving the
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rating and review on iTunes or Spotify or Stitcher or Pandora or wherever, wherever you're
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doing the podcast thing. All right, guys, with all that said, no other announcements. I want to get
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into something that gets brought up quite often. And that's this concept of vision. Now I'm talking
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with you about this because we have a program called 30 Days to Battle Ready. 30 Days to Battle
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Ready. It's a free program. It's a series of emails that you receive over 30 days that are going to
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help you elevate your life and your performance and produce maximum results. And the first component
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of it is vision. So I ask every single person that signs up for this program. And by the way,
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if you're interested, you can do that at orderofman.com slash battle ready, orderofman.com
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slash battle ready. But I ask every single one of the guys who joins this program, what they're
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struggling with most right now. And one of the most overwhelming answers that I receive is that
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men are struggling with their vision, what they want to create, what they want their life to look
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like. And so that's the first thing that we go through. And then what we do over a course of 30
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days is work them into turning their vision into a reality. And isn't that what we all want? I mean,
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we all have vision. I've never met a single man who didn't have some sort of aspiration or goal
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for the future, whether that's big and audacious and huge, or whether it's, you know, a small little
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incremental growth. All of us have an idea of what the future might look like, but why is it then
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that? So if you do anything about it and there's only those select few who actually do, and they move
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the needle and they move in the right direction. And that's because there's three points that I want
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to share with you today that I've identified that all of my guests have incorporated in their lives
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in order to move their vision into a reality. And that's what you want. You don't want to sit
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around and daydream and think about how good things can be without actually working towards those
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things. In fact, the most depressed and down I've been in my life is the moments when I thought
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highly of what my future might hold, but there was a great discrepancy between that and the work that
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I was actually doing to achieve those results. And the wider that gap is, I call it the integrity
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gap. The wider that gap is the more headache and frustration, contention, despair that you will
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experience. And if you're in the midst of that right now, you probably know exactly what I'm talking
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about, or perhaps you've been in that position in the past. I don't want you to be there guys.
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I want you to turn your vision into a reality. So for the sake of just getting into it, let's talk
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about it. Number one, I want you to dream big, but work small dream big, but work small little
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counterintuitive, not the dream big part. Everybody talks about that. You got to dream big. You got to
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have these big, hairy, audacious goals. And you do. And I think that's important. I think it's
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important that you really think about your life in the most opportunistic grand way, because if you're
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going to think about your life in any way, it might as well be the biggest, the best, the most
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wonderful, the one where you create the most prosperity for yourself and the people that
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you care about. So keep dreaming, dream big. Now, once you start having these dreams, it's not
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enough just to sit around in fantasy land and just pontificate on what could be, you actually have
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to put it into work. But what I see a lot of guys do is they'll dream so big that they think their
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actions need to be big as well. That if they don't hit the grand slam or the home run, then it's not
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worth doing it all. Well, that isn't true. The most successful people in the world. And again,
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I've identified this because I've had hundreds and hundreds of podcasts with extremely successful
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men is they work small. And that doesn't mean that the work they do is insignificant. It means that
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they're working on small little daily actions that are going to inevitably over the course of 30 days,
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90 days, 365 days, 3000 days, 10,000 days, et cetera, will produce and yield the biggest results.
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So what most goal planners and self-help gurus and all these kinds of people will do
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is they'll say, Oh, dream big, dream, dream, dream, dream, dream, dream. And they'll talk about,
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you know, the secret and you can manifest, you can will it to existence. Well, I mean, that's nice.
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It sounds really good, but what I would suggest, and I think the better, more pragmatic approach to
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this is that you dream big. And then you start to reverse engineer the process into small actionable
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steps that you can do it on a daily basis. Now I bring this up because I've been thinking a lot
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about this as we have built our, I should say, I remodeled our barn. And when we moved to this home
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and this property a little over two years ago, it was a mess. I saw the potential. I had vision for
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what this barn could potentially look like. And over the past several weeks, we've really done some
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things that putting railings on, uh, refinishing the floors, adding new lighting. We're putting,
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uh, two big, huge industrial fans in there to move the air and keep it cool. Like we've done some
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things over the past couple of weeks that have really, uh, made it into what I had envisioned
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it would be two and a half or so years ago. And as I was thinking about what we've created,
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it would have been very easy for me to be overwhelmed with how much work needed to be
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done. Right. Everybody tells you big, hairy, audacious goals, like think grandly, think big,
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all great. But if it actually is so big that it becomes overwhelming to you that you don't move
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forward, then you're never going to turn your vision into reality. So have that big goal.
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Here's my vision for the barn or here's my vision for my job. Here's my vision for
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my relationship with my wife. Here's my vision. And then now we reverse engineer into those small
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daily steps. Uh, when we started building the canoe, my son and I, it was very overwhelming.
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I took the book that I received and it's a big thick book on how to build a canoe. And I started
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to read the entire thing. And I was so overwhelmed with all of this work that I actually delayed
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our start because I was so overwhelmed with it. And somebody wise told me, you don't need to read
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chapter two or three or four or 10. You just need to read the chapter that you're on right now.
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And as I started to do that, and I focused on not the entire project, but building the strong back,
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which is what the, the, the bench that the canoe is built on, then setting up the molds,
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which is what you build the canoe around, then doing the strips, then doing the stems, then closing
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the bottom, then fiberglassing it, then sanding it, then fiberglass, and then sanding it, then
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glassing it. Like it just focus on one step at a time guys. And over the course of 30, 90, 60 days,
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whatever it is a year, 10 years, you will see those big incremental changes in your life because you
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focused on the small. So again, number one is to dream big, but work small, work small. Uh, number two,
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I call it focused variety, focused variety. We actually talked about this on our ask me anything,
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uh, on Wednesday, uh, with regards to people losing focus. Cause it's easy to lose focus.
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You know, we get distracted or things aren't as exciting as they once were the luster wears off.
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Uh, you get distracted with life and everything else that you have to do. And so it's very easy to
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fall off of the path that you're on because of everything else. And it's hard to focus at times.
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I get really hopped up and hyped up about projects and things that I have going on. And unless I can
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focus over long and sustained periods of time, I'm never going to achieve the results that I want.
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So I've learned a tactic that I've applied in my life called focus variety.
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And so it's not haphazard variety. It's not just random, whatever pops into my mind variety.
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It's focused variety, meaning that all of the variety and the variabilities that I'm going to
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engage in on, on my trek to grow the business or to build a canoe or to be on my jujitsu path or to
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improve my health or to develop my relationship or to build out the barn is all, all the work that
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I'm doing is focused on the final result, the vision for what I have. It's all focused on that.
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But sometimes I need to take a break from one particular tactic or strategy or outlet.
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And I need to focus on something else. Now, a lot of people might say, well,
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that's wasted time and energy. And if your, your metric for success was purely staying focused on
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one task until it's done, then I would say yes, but that isn't the metric for success.
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The metric for success, I assume for you, as it is for me is to actually complete the project.
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So if you're so focused on one thing and you burn yourself out to the point where you don't
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complete the project or you don't realize the vision, then were you a success? I guess you were
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successful maybe to some degree and doing one thing really, really well. But again, it's about
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completing the objective and realizing the vision. So for me, what I need to do is I need to,
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to have some variability, to have some variety in my work. And so I might be working on one task and
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I'll do that for a couple of weeks or a couple of days and I'll get really, really bored with that.
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And then I'll move on to something else that still needs to be done, that will still move the needle
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in the right direction, but recharge and re-energize and give me a new excitement and
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passion about what it is I'm doing. Because passion is important. You know, a lot of people will say,
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well, discipline, discipline is greater than motivation. Well, it can be. Sure. When the
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motivation expires, sometimes you're going to need to be disciplined and you just need to get
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a trench through and get it done. But I don't know that motivation is inferior to discipline
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necessarily because maybe you can keep yourself motivated by changing things up, focused, still
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working on the task at hand, but doing it in a different way or focusing on a different element
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or dynamic of the task in order to achieve your big results. And in that case, motivation served you
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very, very, very well. So I'm not willing to throw motivation under the bus just because I'm
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supposed to be as disciplined as I possibly could be. Now I want to complete the objective.
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And that means that, yeah, sometimes I need to trench through and other times I need to mix it up
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so I can stay engaged and stay on target. All right. And the third one, guys, I wanted to share
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with you. So number one, again, we have dream big works fall. Number two, we have focus variety.
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And then the third one is honor the journey, honor the journey. Uh, somebody had told me the other
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day, I think Michael Chandler, when I had him on the podcast or released on Tuesday, uh, he said
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something like, and I'm paraphrasing, he said that maybe the goal is the journey.
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That's a pretty interesting thought that maybe the goal is the journey. Cause most people will talk
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about the goal being the goal. Like I need to reach that destination. If that's the only thing
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you're worried about, then what are you going to do in the meantime, in order to achieve that
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objective? Are you going to lie, cheat, still sacrifice your, your morals and your standards?
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Maybe if that's all that matters, but what if instead that the goal that you should be having
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is the journey is, is honoring the journey, honoring the path, knowing that you're getting
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better, knowing that you're improving, knowing that you're working towards something. There's
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the, the Kaizen method, which is, if I remember correctly, the 1% better each and every day.
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And you honor that, Hey, I'm not the pinnacle of where I need to be, but I'm 1% better than
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I was yesterday. And tomorrow I'm 1% better than that. 1% better than that. 1% better than
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that. And isn't that a beautiful thing? Can't you find joy and satisfaction and fulfillment
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and meaning and purpose in getting 1% better every single day? Cause look at, when I look
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at the gap again, to go back to that integrity gap, the gap between where I want to be and
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where I currently am, that can be disheartening and it's going to narrow over time. And hopefully
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it's going to get smaller. Hopefully it doesn't get wider, but what if instead of worrying about
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that gap and it may be diminishing or demoralizing my goals and ambitions and desires and even
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actions, what if instead I just focused on, I'm a little better today. I'm a little better
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today. I'm a little better today. I'm a little better today. And what that requires is an
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after action. We've talked about that at length, but just recapping your day. What did I get
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done? What didn't I get done? What do I want to do better tomorrow? Where did I thrive? Where did
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I fall behind? And being very honest with yourself about where you are. And as you do, I think you're
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going to realize that you can get 1% better every day and that you do honor the process and you honor
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the journey because what most people will do, they despise the journey. Most people do, they despise
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the journey. They want the journey to be over. It's like, just give me the result, no work, no effort,
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no time, no progress. I just want the result without the effort. And that's the natural man that I've
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talked about. You know, go, go ask a hundred people today. Hey, how you doing? What's going on?
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And they'll say, oh, you know, here we are on a, well, it's Friday now, but as I'm recording this,
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here we are on a Tuesday and I just can't wait for the weekend. Okay. Well, you're not honoring the
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journey. What about the three or four or five days that you have that lead up to the weekend? You're
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going to waste all of that because you're so focused on the result or the end or the deadline
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that you can't find meaning and purpose and significance in the work to get there.
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What a miserable way to live. And I've lived there. I've been there.
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It's hard and it's disheartening. It's frustrating, but man, as soon as I started finding joy and being
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present and joy in the process, joy in the journey, honoring that journey, knowing that I am getting
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1% better, or at least I'm working towards it, the more joy I found in it. And not ironically,
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the quicker I reached my objective and my destination. And sometimes I looked up and I thought to myself,
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holy cow, I didn't even realize I was here. I didn't know I had arrived at this goal. There's no
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arrival by the way, but I didn't know that I had achieved this goal that I was after because I
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was so focused on the result. I've done that with my health journey. I've done that with my
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financial aspirations. I've done that with my career and business objectives. You look up and
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all of a sudden you realize, oh, I already hit that goal like six months ago. I didn't even realize it.
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Yes. Because you're focused on the journey and you're honoring that process and that system.
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And guys, there's a lot of other things, of course, that we can talk about, but I just wanted
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to share three easy mindsets, three easy strategies or shifts in the way that you view it that will
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help you achieve your visions and turn those dreams and that vision into a reality quicker.
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That's what I want for you. I think that's what you want. And that's what this podcast is about.
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So number one, dream big, keep dreaming big, keep having those big aspirations. I'm not saying to
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rein those in or pull those back. You shouldn't keep dreaming big, but work small, dream big,
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work small. Number two, uh, focused variety, mix it up. You got to change it up here and there.
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Otherwise you're going to burn yourself up and that's not going to produce the result over long
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sustained periods of time. So focus variety. And then number three is to honor that journey,
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honor the path, be aware of it, be proud of it, get 1% better every day, analyze it, review it,
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do the after action review at the end of every day and make sure you're still on the path.
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Or I guess very short one for you today, but, uh, hopefully that's impactful. Just let me know,
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shoot me a message primarily on Instagram. That's where I'm most active, uh, at Ryan Mickler.
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Make sure you follow me over there. Let me know what's working for you. What isn't working for you?
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I get messages and DMS and comments and stuff every day from you guys, which I really, really
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appreciate. It's becoming increasingly difficult to get back with you guys because so many of you are
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reaching out, but I will make every effort that I can. You have my commitment to do that,
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uh, to connect with you, to follow up with you, to even celebrate with you as you achieve your own
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goals and objectives, as you turn your own vision into a reality. I'm excited for what the future
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holds. There's a lot of weird stuff going on to say the least in society today, but it's men like us
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who are going to fix all of this to get us back on track, to bring honor and virtue back into society,
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to lead our families well, to lead with honor and integrity and strength and class.
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We're missing that. We're lacking that in, in a lot of ways. And, uh, I think we can do
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a better job. We are doing a better job. So please make sure you share this,
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let guys know where you're getting this information. If it's serving you,
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then it would definitely serve somebody else. And let's continue to turn those visions into a
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reality. All right, guys, we'll be back next week until then go out there, take action and become the
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man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take
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charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order