Hey, guys, and welcome back to another episode of your Brains Coach podcast. My name is Angela Shurina, I'm your host, I'm your Brains Coach, also Executive Coach and now Change Leadership Consultant. I'm going to tell you about this later, but here we are to share, learn, practice, discover and then figure out how to apply these brain-body tools to take better control of our brain, this most sophisticated machine in the entire universe, created by Mother Nature, to use it better, to take better control of our thoughts, our emotions, of our decisions and, most importantly, the actions that we take to shape the life experience that we absolutely love living. You know, guys, part of my big part of my mission is to learn and share, distribute at scale our superpowers that we as human beings have. You know, compared to other animals, we have so many superpowers just by being human. We're just equipped with this rich, amazing, robust toolkit for navigating life, for creating, adjusting, building the conditions to suit us better, to then create a better world for everyone who lives in it. But the issue with that is we've been given, for example, this brain, but nobody gave us a user manual like hey, this is how to use it to maximize its potential. Have you thought about that when you buy your phone, when you buy your computer, when you buy any simple piece of tech, when you buy your headphones or a knife, there is a user manual. This is how to use it to maximize its value and to minimize its risk.
Speaker 1Every piece of technology comes with its risks and with its potential, just like knife. Have you ever thought about that? Every tool has the positive potential and then also has a danger that, when misused, you can cause problems and issues. Like knife, you can cut your food so you can cook it, digest it, bring more life into your body. Or you can cut your finger and then pull it to death if you don't have medical assistance or don't take proper care of it, or if you or go and hurt other people. So every piece of technology has the potential to harm us. This is just how technology works.
So when we talk about these days like, oh, social media is bad or phones are bad or this, but every technology comes with responsibility of learning to use it more for good, but it also has the potential of being misused, just like our brain, very often my clients would come to me with this conundrum you know, I know what I got to do what will work better for my life, but I just don't do that. Why is my brain playing against me? And brain, it's a sophisticated piece of technology. Again, the argument is the most sophisticated piece of technology the universe nature created and it gave it to us, but no freaking user manual. And that's why very often in life we struggle, we hurt ourselves because of not knowing how to use this technology. So that's a long intro, but today we're talking about one of the tools from some of the top, elite, high performance of the world the mindset tool, the mental skill that they use to navigate the most chaotic, unpredictable, high-stakes situations, to not only navigate them, make great decisions, take great actions and succeed. So today we are going to be learning, you are going to be learning, and hopefully putting into practice one of the mental skills you all possess, but don't usually use it.
Speaker 1Our focus across time to shift temporal horizons. We can either focus on our near future, almost present. We can focus on our present. We can focus on our past. We can focus on our distant future. We can focus on details of any operation, of any process, of anything, or we can focus on the whole picture, right, the tree and forest. We can do both, whereas most animals don't actually possess that where the focus is driven completely by the environment and the situation. But you, as a human being, have this ability to focus where you need to focus to perform at your best. But how often do you actually ask yourself this question when should I focus to perform my best right now, instead of focusing on all the things that can go wrong? Let's say, for example, when flying to another country, you can focus on the things that you can control Getting your tickets and documents together, putting all the safety stuff when in the plane, going through the procedures you're told to go through and then take it one step at a time and handling the situation and things that you can control, versus thinking about all the things that can go wrong but, most importantly, that you have no control over. So the skill of navigating chaos, of uncertainty, a lot of unpredictability, change that is just going to accelerate nonstop, this skill is going to be one of the key skills that you need to possess, that you need to develop, that you need to master in order to succeed in today's world moving forward Masters of Uncertainty.
So this weekend I finished reading a book by my dear friend who I got certified with on one of his core disciplines for leadership training, that he developed Attributes if you want to learn more about that, so attributes 25 hidden drivers of optimal performance. But today we're not more about that. So attributes 25 hidden drivers of optimal performance. But today we're not talking about that. We're talking about Masters of Uncertainty, the latest book by Rich Davini, a former Navy SEAL commander turned highly valued business high-performance leadership trainer. He introduces a tool in this book Masters of Uncertainty. The subtitle is the Navy Seal Way to Turn Stress into Success for you and your Team. So in his book Masters of Uncertainty, he introduces a tool called DPO Duration Pathway Outcome a neuroscience-backed method for increasing certainty, the sense of control in uncertain situations.
Speaker 1And why is it important? Why is it important to feel like you have control, like you have agency, like you can produce actions and create success or desired outcome. Why is it important? Because when you feel like things are out of control, like you have no control over a lot of things, and if you focus there, what usually happens? You slow down, you are paralyzed by analysis, you are afraid of taking action because you think what if this goes wrong? What if this goes wrong. What if this goes wrong? And I don't know what's going to happen. So why take any action at all? I'm just going to freeze and save my energy, but if we know anything within our current environment, freezing while the change is happening will mean that you do almost nothing and you're just going to be thrown from one side to the other by all the things that are just only going to accelerate the change that's going to accelerate.
Speaker 1So why use it? Why use this tool? To make smarter, faster decisions, without getting paralyzed by analysis in an environment where so much is unknown, to take the next step, produce results and keep going, one step at a time, until the bigger objective is achieved. Navy SEALs use this tool DPO, duration, pathway, outcome, this mental skill to navigate highly complex, fast-paced and predictable missions with ease, flow and confidence, not to mention also getting results while doing so. And you can use it to calm anxiety, feel more at ease, make wiser decisions and take action despite all the uncertainties.
Speaker 1Whenever you feel overwhelmed by the unknown, the fast pace of change, by indecision or even fear of making the wrong move, this tool will help you to push forward. To move forward and make progress in the most uncertain chaos. So here's what it is and how it works Duration pathway outcome. Duration when faced and that is basically every day now with a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability, shrink your focus as a human being. You can do that. Shrink your focus to only the next step. Zoom in what's today's mission? What's this morning's mission? What do I need to accomplish? Pathway Identify your next step. How to get it done Like step by step. Okay, what is the thing I need to do in the next couple of hours and what is the step by step that I need to approach it and shrink it until you feel certain that you can accomplish that. So take that action. And then outcome Create a sense of control by defining a small, achievable win in the near future. So duration pathway outcome allows you to shrink your horizon and also zoom out and enlarge it or make it bigger when you need to navigate highly complex and certain situations.
Speaker 1By focusing only on the next step, you can create a sense of agency, certainty, control, because if you take a short enough horizon let's say the next hour there's probably a thing that you can be certain about, like writing a blog post, a newsletter or LinkedIn post to potentially attract your clients Now. Will you attract those clients from that post? That is uncertain. But what is certain? That you can write that and you increase the potential of you earning new business. And that is in your control. And the result you can produce is in the next hour. And when you do that, all of a sudden you feel motivation, you feel confidence, you feel drive and energy to achieve. That is why it's so valuable. And you can also make decisions in the next hour how to distribute your attention, your resources and how to best write that blog post or that LinkedIn post so you have highest potential to attract new business.
So, navy SEALs, use this mindset tool to stay calm, act decisively and get results in the most chaotic, high-stakes situations, where you just don't know what's going to happen, what shit hits the fan. And you can do that too to navigate business and life in the most unpredictable situations. Because what's the alternative? Just sitting there and doing nothing and waiting for all of the information you need to make a decision to come to you. Well, guess what? In the future that's going to happen less and less and less and less, and you might end up doing nothing and just waiting and watching and being again thrown through one side to the other, not really ever getting what you want, how to navigate uncertainty like a Navy SEAL. Let's recap the next time you feel overwhelmed by change, indecision, fear of making the wrong move or not really knowing what move to make zoom in. What's today's mission? What's this morning's mission? What's the next hour like half an hour, if you have to what's the next move?
Speaker 1Zoom out also important, and this is also shifting horizon skill, focusing in and out. You have this capacity as a human being. Animals do not. You do Zoom out. Why does it matter? How does it contribute to the bigger picture, a bigger goal? It is important to know because otherwise, why do it? Your brain always asks this question what is it for? Maybe it is uncertain, but why? What's the reason for you to do it right now? What's the reason for you to write that LinkedIn post? Because I want to attract more potential clients. I want to grow my business to help more people. That is why that's important. Now, how exactly it's going to happen, I have no idea, but I can do this action and, based on all the knowledge and data that I have, it does have the potential to attract potential buyers and build my thought leadership, which will bring more business when done consistently and over time.
Speaker 1So zoom in, zoom out and then take action. Do the next right thing, win the next move, which will give you even more sense of confidence, control and desire to do more. It will also jumpstart your dopamine, which gives you the sense of motivation and drive this fire in your belly to take the next step as well. And that's how the most complex missions, whether in the military or business or life, get done, one step at a time. Guys, how strong is your ability to handle chaos? How strong is it? That's going to be one of the most defining skills mental skills, mindset skills that's either going to help you to succeed more or will crush you into the uncertainty of today's world, and that's it that I wanted to share with you.
Speaker 1This is the first tool described in the book Masters of Uncertainty that just came out by Rich Deviney. There is, you know Simon Sinek, read it. Andrew Huberman, read it. If you know those guys. Simon Sinek wrote a quote of. Let me actually read it. Easy to understand and simple to implement, masters of uncertainty is essential for any person or team that wants to operate even better than they do now. Andrew Huberman wrote the foreword that you can read when you get the book. Andrew Huberman wrote the foreword that you can read when you get the book.
Speaker 1I'm a fan of a lot of tools that Navy SEAL used to dominate their environments, because they're so applicable to today's environment of uncertainty in kids, in business and in real life. So pick up the book but, most importantly, put in practice. Dpo, duration, pathway, outcome. You want to more certainly understand that when you create more certainty in duration, how the time horizon, pathway, how you do the thing, outcome, the early win, the guaranteed result. So when you bring it closer into the realm of your control of things you can do duration, pathway, outcome, dpo you create more confidence, more certainty, more motivation to get it done and by doing so consistently you get a lot more done and you move the mission forward. So zoom in, zoom out, take action and keep going until success.
That's it, guys. I hope you enjoyed it and you're going to put it into your daily use. For me it's definitely daily. Like every day, I wake up and I'm like how am I going to grow my business? Like AI, all of these technologies, all of these changes are coming at me. How am I going to succeed, and so this helps me to take the actions instead of staying in paralysis by analysis, thinking like what's the best thing out there. Let me focus there. Well, you don't know what's the best thing out there, but you do know that if you develop your thought leadership, if you write this damn LinkedIn post today, that you will increase your chances of getting more business, learning more, becoming better at what you do and ultimately achieving your goals. So that's what it's all about, guys.
Thank you so much for listening, for tuning in. Don't forget to share this podcast episode with at least one other person who might need the skill to navigate all the uncertainty and curveballs that life gonna throw at them, to succeed, to get better, to feel happier and get more fulfillment in life. So share that's how we change the world A couple of ears at a time. Share a screenshot, send them Spotify link or whatever you find your podcast on Connect, if you'd like to discuss, if you'd like to share how you gonna use or use this tool, angela at brainbreakthroughcoachcom. So stay tuned for more Interviews are coming and, till next time, focus on what you can control. Zoom in, zoom out, take the next action and succeed. Talk to you soon. Have an amazing day.