Hey guys and welcome back to another episode of your Brain's Coach podcast. My name is Angela Shurina, I'm your host, I'm your Brain's Coach and it is my job here to bring to you all the best recent, cutting-edge, most important, useful and no BS tools brain-body tools so you can take better control of your thoughts, of your emotions and, most importantly, actions. So you could take better control of your thoughts, of your emotions and, most importantly, actions so you create a life experience that is closer and closer to the one you absolutely love living every day. Yesterday I met up with a friend who I met back in Mexico and he now lives in Thailand, between Thailand and Serbia, and like amazing guy who built themselves from being an ordinary guy to making millions in dollars in his company. Amazing guy in so many ways. And he told me Angela, you know what, the next time we'll meet, I want you to have the best life ever. And I told him you know, eric, I actually already am having the best life ever. Yes, I don't have your kind of revenues yet, but I'm absolutely loving every single minute of my day. I'm in my flow, in my zone, I'm doing what I love to be doing and, yes, there are hardships and challenges, but I absolutely am loving every single moment of my life because I am the one who's choosing all of it, not the hard stuff. You know you can't expect life to work on your plan and just deliver, deliver and deliver. That's just not how life works. But in major, in macro, I am choosing the life path that I'm walking and that feels incredibly satisfying, and that's what I'm wishing for you, for all of you guys.
Speaker 1And I'm an executive coach and one of my most important jobs with my clients is to help them find that, create that, that life path that they love. Living with all these struggles and bullshit and, using the words of one of my favorite writers and authors, elizabeth Gilbert, choosing your own shit sandwich, something that you don't necessarily admire, but it's part of your work. Just like in everyone's life, we have those stuff that isn't necessarily we'd like to do all of the time, but it's necessary to allow the work to happen. So, as an executive coach, one of my main jobs is to help clients to carve their path, to set the goals, to create clarity, to figure out what their purpose in micro and macro ways might be and how they can live it daily in their lives, and also it's the biggest job being a coach is to help my clients have difficult conversations with themselves. I ask challenging questions, I ask curious what I call them and interesting questions and questions they wouldn't necessarily naturally go about asking themselves, but those are the questions that they need to ask themselves in order to start thinking themselves out of, maybe, the pattern that they were stuck in, whether that's health, relationships or their professional goals. And also it is my job here, guys, to ask myself difficult questions and to help you ask yourself challenging, difficult questions and have those tough conversations with yourself so you could take yourself out of the stuckness of your life in some area of this pattern that you keep repeating, that doesn't allow you to move forward, and then so you could do the things, take the actions, make the plans, set the goals and take yourself out of this pattern and into a new one where progress and change happens.
Speaker 1Today's podcast. I'd like to start with a quote. And today, guys, it's all about having these tough conversations and realizing that often we are making our own success, we are making it harder for our own success to find us, and the reason for that is our own sloppiness. We do the hard work in a necessary struggle where it doesn't matter, and that makes success much harder. So here's, let's just dive into that with Marshall Goldsmith and his book. What Got you here Won't Get you there. I highly recommend you picking it up. So the quote from the book if you study successful thousands, like literally thousands of executives, of CEOs, to become better leaders and to succeed even more, he helps 1% of 1% to become even better. We all have our things to improve. And so the quote from the book if you study successful people, you'll discover that their stories are not so much about overcoming enormous obstacles and handicaps, but rather about avoiding high risk, low reward situations and doing everything in their power to increase the odds in their favor. Odds in their favor. Success doesn't have to be hard, and yet we make it that much harder by choosing the dumb thing in the short run. Often An honest conversation with self. Guys, let's have it. And after you finish listening to this podcast, you too, just stop and have this conversation. You too, just stop and have this conversation.
Speaker 1Another quote by Marshall Goldsmith leaders create more success by making things easier for themselves, by bending the odds in their favor, by not making it harder than it has to be. And when I read this quote, I thought, yes, that is so true, but maybe not in the way that you might at first think. Like it's so much easier, for example, to be focused and optimistic and you're 100%. When you had an amazing night of sleep, right, you know that. You wake up and you're like I'm so fresh and full of energy and I just want to seize every opportunity and attack the world and create more impact and success and make things better impact and success and make things better. So why, then, do you make it harder on yourself by not doing proper scheduling so you could have the best night ever, as many nights in a row as possible? Obviously, not everything is always going to be perfect, but why don't you set yourself up for easier, fresher, better days most of nights? Because most things about sleep are setups that you do or don't do. If you're constantly finding yourself watching late night shows or scrolling your social media, it's your problem. It's not the problem of the universe or social media systems. It's your problem to figure it out. It's you who are making it harder for you to wake up, pressure and to do things better so people can actually notice the quality of your work and give you the opportunities that are going to build your success.
Speaker 1Another quote as you go through life contemplating the mechanics of success and wondering why some people are successful and others are not, you'll find that this one of the defining traits of habitual winners they stack the deck in their favor. They do this when they hire the best candidates for a job rather than settle for an almost the best type. They do this when they hire the best candidates for a job rather than settle for an almost the best type. They do this when they pay whatever it takes to retain a valuable employee rather than lose him or her to the competition. They do this when they're fully prepared for a negotiation rather than winging it. I've been thinking about that a lot, guys.
Speaker 1Success is, yes, it is about working hard, but on the right thing, for the right reason, and sometimes, quite often actually we are on worst enemies when it comes to making things more difficult than they need to be. So, again, are you making it harder than it has to be? I'm all for hard work, especially when it comes to mastering your craft and becoming the best version of yourself and to serve others and the purpose well. But let's be real, there is a difference between hard work and unnecessary, unnecessary struggle. You know what I'm talking about. Those little sleeps, leaving prep work until the last minute, trying to do everything yourself instead of delegating, not planning ahead and then pulling an all-nighter for something you could have done days ago, sound familiar Me too.
Speaker 1Set yourself up to win. It's our own sloppiness that makes things harder. Let me repeat it's our own sloppiness that makes things harder. Let me repeat it's our own sloppiness that makes things harder than they have to be. Where is your sloppiness holding you back? Deal with it first. You know I've always been a person who didn't like finances and numbers and taxes that much. But you know I'm getting better and the more I tackle it and handle it in advance, the more business life opens up to me. Now, yeah, I'm getting better at it. That's part of the reason. But also, tackling things in advance prevents a lot of problems. It's kind of like if you lead a healthy lifestyle, you know there are so many diseases you'll avoid down the road. In 20-30 years you won't have to think about dementia and losing your mind and why I can't remember things If you do the prep work 20-30 years in advance.
Speaker 1Consistently set yourself up to win. We're not cursed with bad luck, we're cursed with poor planning and lack of discipline. Often the last minute scramble for an important meeting. That's not fate, that's poor time management. You didn't have to stay up all night, you just didn't plan. Well, the good news, guys, it's all fixable. You know one of my favorite quotes these days. I don't know, I think I came up with it, at least in my own mind. When you work on shit, shit gets better. I'm like well, angela, you're going to be quoted in Time magazine one day. Maybe not with this one. The good news, again, it's fixable.
Speaker 1Better leaders, more successful people have something I call guardrail systems and I'm always working on installing as many of these as possible in my life where my sloppiness tends to show up Systems that keep me and keep you and keep successful people on track, making it easier to do the hard things to succeed, to avoid our own sloppiness. Think of it like throwing away all the chocolate when you're trying to lose weight. Yeah, losing weight is still going to be hard, but there's going to be a lot less unnecessary struggle by looking every day at this chocolate like I'm not eating it. You know you could just throw it away and you didn't have to go through this struggle in the first place.
Speaker 1How to stop self-sabotaging our own success guys? What helps? Accountability alarms? Set an alarm to remind yourself when you need to get things done, when you need to plan this project ahead of time, when you need to go to bed on time. Use your calendar right to be a long-term thinker when you're not Set up the right reminders and alarms. And, even better, ask someone to keep you accountable. Just give me a call on this day so I start working on that presentation, so I start working on this business plan, so I start working on going to bed earlier. Early planning Got a big presentation. Start working it ahead of time, girl, not the night before. When you plan ahead, you'll notice a difference in your performance, and so will everyone else, and then they will give you better opportunities and that's how you grow your success.
Speaker 1Delegate, delegate, delegate. Stop trying to do everything yourself. You know, delegate, delegate. Stop trying to do everything yourself. Some of my clients make millions well, not billionaires yet, but quite a few millionaires over the course of my career and I would still have to tell them and they would still feel guilty. I'm like you don't have to cook your own food, you don't have to do healthy grocery shopping, you know. You can just order meals delivered to you and you'll have your basics covered and your weight loss is going to be a lot easier. You don't have to even count all of these calories. Just sign up for a great meal plan or get yourself a chair and a personal trainer Not that complicated. And they're still going to feel guilty and trying to do all of that themselves.
Speaker 1Like I love cooking my dinners. That's why I do it. If I didn't, I would just delegate it, because the amount of time you elaborate if that's not something you want to do, something you enjoy, you can make a lot more money during that time. Your hour worth more than that hour while you're cooking dinner and you are paying someone to do it for you. So delegate, delegate, delegate. That's where winners are really amazing. Pay more in advance so you could pay yourself more in the long run and that long run is usually not that long, actually. So if you're making per hour more than you would pay someone to get your dinner done, then pay for getting that dinner done and get better at your work instead.
Speaker 1So where are you making it harder? Where are you making it harder, guys? Where is your sloppiness gets in the way? Is it in your work? Is it in your business, taxes, your health, your fitness? I'm always asking this question myself like a lot, and I've realized that half the time I'm sabotaging my own progress. No bad luck or fate needed. It's kind of ridiculous if you think about that. We allow things like social media, binge watching Netflix, we allow that to be more important than our success, and then we even make legitimate excuses to ourselves. Well, I just need to do one hour of social media per day. Really, is that how little your success worth to you? That you prefer? So give it to social media that doesn't care about you or your future at all.
Speaker 1Let's have the tough talk, guys. I'm going to have it with myself. I'm having it right now. Have it with yourself as well. Have this.
Speaker 1Sometimes we all need to have this difficult conversation, one that's not like drill surgeon you know you better. Like person, you should have and should have done this and this no, but just like honest. Where is? Where am I not owing my shit and where am I creating a struggle for myself? Where it doesn't have to be difficult conversation that feels honest, fair and action oriented, and like the one between two adults, like, hey, you're not owning this thing. You are making it difficult for yourself here.
Speaker 1What can we do together to make it work? Make it work better for you, for your goals, for your success. Where are you sleeping up? What system can you put in place to make your success easier to find you? You have the time, you have the resources, you have everything you need to succeed. The only thing missing might be a little relocation of resources, like your focus, attention, your time, your planning. So let's make a pact, a promise to each other no more making things harder for yourself than they need to be. Let's stack the deck in our favor, not in favor of Google, microsoft or other social media companies. Create success, create systems that make success easier for you and work hard where it matters. So let's make a pact, let's make a promise to each other and also get other people on board, get your tribe on board, get your people, your friends, on board. With that, let's grow together.
Speaker 1So the first step share this podcast. Yes, I am selfish in that you're going to share my podcast and it's going to reach more people. But then also I'm selfish for you, because science shows that when we work on things with other people, we always succeed better and more. So share this podcast with that person who you can team up with, so you could grow together and create more success for yourselves and make it easier for your success to find you Again. Where are you holding it back? And let's make this back. Let's unite, let's grow together, so together we succeed more and we create more and more amazing things in life and in this world.
Speaker 1Don't you agree that when you are at your best, when you feel your best, when you do your best, you create a lot more value for the world, and that's how we can miracles happen, we can make miracles happen. That's how we feel our best, we think our best, we do our best, we help others to do their best and then we have the best kind of outcome. So share this podcast, let's work on it together, let's grow together and let's make a pact. Let's not make things harder than they have to be because of our own sloppiness, not because of fate, not because of bad luck. That's it for today, guys. Thank you for your attention, thank you for your time. Share this podcast episode. Let's work on it. Let's grow together and have an amazing, no sloppiness and making success easier kind of day. Talk to you soon, angela, your executive coach. 360, dedicated to sustainable excellence, human potential and positive impact. Let's grow together.