Repisode 944. Habits Alone Won't Make You Successful.

Most people think good habits are the secret to success. They’re not.

Habits are the road you travel—but they’re not the vehicle that gets you there. The real game changer? Metaskills.

In this episode, I break down why habits alone won’t get you where you want to go, why people burn out when they rely on them, and how metaskills—like communication, curiosity, creativity, continuous learning & action, and productive confrontation—keep you relevant, adaptable, and Ready For Anything.

We’ll talk about how these five metaskills grow with you, how they turn repetition into transformation, and why developing them inside your daily habits is the ultimate upgrade.

Check out the full write-up on my Substack and subscribe so you never miss an episode or article.

Want my OYP Daily Checklist? DM me, and I’ll send it to you for free.

And if you’re ready to take things to the next level, I’m accepting a select few clients into my OYP Lifestyle Operating System private coaching program.

Transcript

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All right. 3, 2, 1. Let's get it. You know, habits alone are not going to make you successful because, you know, there are good habits, and we always talk about building good habits, like it's the ultimate answer. But the truth is habits are neutral. Because there are good habits and then there are what I call tendencies. And tendencies are the bad habits. These are the things that you default to when you're tired, when you're stressed, when you're angry, or you just, you just off track. And most people, they don't talk about that. I live by a daily Core six, and these are six things that I do every single day that keeps me on the road. But just being on the road doesn't mean that I'm gonna reach my ultimate destination. It's how I travel That determines everything, and this is where the power of meta skills comes in. Habits are what you do. Meta skills are how you grow through what you do. Meta skills help you learn faster, adapt quicker, solve harder problems, and stay relevant in a changing world. And so when you develop the meta skills, this is what's gonna make you RFA ready for anything. Do you know everything? No. Are you ready for anything? Just depends on how well that you consciously develop the meta skills. Just with habits alone, you're just checking the boxes. Yeah, and I talk about that a lot. Check the box. Checking the box is necessary. It prevents me from having to negotiate with myself because I know me, if I enter into negotiations with myself, I'm gonna lose every single time. So checking the box is good. This is what gets you on the road. That's your habits, that's the road. But it would be like me getting on I 10 and just getting on the road just to get on the road's sake. And that's why people talk about developing good habits. They're talking about getting on the road, but there's no like clear cut destination, like you're just driving just to drive. And this is why people who just talk about developing habits and work habits without the meta skills, this is why people run outta gas. They burn out. They quit, they're frustrated. Things aren't working because you developed habits, but you didn't develop the meta skills within those habits. That's a totally different game changer there. So think about it like this, if you're working with Excel or Google Sheets, okay, that's a skill, alright? You can learn the skill learning how to. Adopt and adapt to new software, new technologies that come out. That's a meta skill. If life is a game, then meta skills are your cheat codes to life. You want the cheat codes. It's through the meta skills. Meta skills. Make sure that you can keep up and keep growing as everything else does too. Keep learning, keep growing, keep adapting as everything else comes up too. The people that are standing around bitching about everything, wish things would stay the same. They're like hind, solo, frozen in a block of ice on Star Wars. I don't remember which one that was. Wasn't it a block of ice or something? And it is like he and that, that's, that's what it is. I mean, people, they developed some skills, but then see technology. Inefficiencies in the world at large just kept changing. And they're like Han Solos stuck in the ice with their 1972 skills that they got from anywhere, university. I mean, that's where they are and this is why they're stuck. I mean, think about the Aristotle quote. You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is not an act. But a habit. But this is where people miss the whole point. It's not about the habit itself, it's about what you develop, the meta skills within the habit. So now when we're talking about meta skills and you see that Aristotle quote. People chase the habit part and you're totally getting it wrong. It's the meta skills which you do, the development of those meta skills. This is the thing that's going to make you elite and forever relevant in this ever changing world. Habits are what you think, okay, I can tell you what my habits are. I can send you my daily core six. Send that to you for free. That's what to think. How to think. Is the meta skills. That's where you adopt it for your own, and you learn the meta skills within those habits. This is what's gonna take you to the next level, promise you. So what are the meta skills? They all start with a letter C. And the beautiful thing, about these meta skills is they evolve, they grow right alongside of you. The more you work 'em, but also the less you work 'em, they, they will erode too. They don't just, it ain't set it and forget it. It's like a muscle. You gotta work these skills, these meta skills, every single day. First one is communication. How you talk to yourself, how you communicate with yourself is what you're communicating with the world. This is how you persuade. This is how you empathize. This is how you influence, communication are the values. Values are what you stand for. Principles. Or how you govern what you stand for. It's how you operate within those things. So the better you get at communicating, number one with yourself, that's going to give you or put you in a position of strength to have a full body life. Faith, family, fitness, finances, fulfillment, they all start with communication. Another meta skill is curiosity. This is your figure it out. Muscle life doesn't come with instructions. There's not a play by play. The answers are in the questions that you ask, and initially some of your questions are going to be shallow, but curiosity is a muscle. The more you use it, the deeper it becomes. So whenever you're just about to make a judgment, a statement, stop, rephrase it into a question, get an understanding from the other side, from someone else. Don't be a no at all. Be a no at all. I don't know at all. Hmm. Tell me about that. Even though I have prejudices or opinions or judgments or experience freeze that form it into a question, this will begin to open up, crack open.'cause some of these lids of curiosity have been closed a long time. You'd be amazed how many statements you make throughout a day versus wonder all. Questions. It's how you get a full body life. And the more you do this, they will, they will open you back up and start planting new seeds of growth. And then this just becomes a metas skill that you just continue to develop and you're no longer just reacting to everything. People react because they make a judgment based on what they see, and they rock off of that. They may, they do something, reactionary outta that, versus they see the same circumstance, but with curiosity. They ask a question, our questions, and this way this gives them the ability to respond and be patient. Patience. Is within that communication and curiosity, it's all layered within all of these actually, because patience is the expectation that there's going to be trouble? There's going to be blind sides, there's going to be embarrassments, but I stay even killed because this one action doesn't define my whole life. Okay. The third meta skill is your creativity. Be resourceful when you lack the resources instead of bitching about what you don't have. Okay? Use your curiosity and your communication meta skills. To help be creative. I mean, think about it. Back in the days when you were a kid, the pine straw house that you made was the best thing ever. You were so proud of it. You used creativity and you stayed out in the yard all day long. The tree house that you built out of the lumber in your pawpaw's shed, he didn't take you to Home Depot. Hell, they didn't have Home Depot. If you're my age. They ain't take you to no lumber supply store with a list of lumber and nails. No. You pulled old nails outta boards and you re straighten 'em out and then you reused them. That's that creativity. Start with what you have. Start with free. Earn what you need through the experience. Develop, what you want. Okay, that's pro level, but man, you gotta put in hundreds and thousands of reps and hours. You, you'll develop it along the way. It'll come, it'll come organically. And then fourth one. Fourth, meta skills, continuous learning and action. It's not enough to learn. It's how you apply it as well. This is the rhythm that I live by every single day. So, as you know, I do random reading. I pick a book off the shelf every single morning, and I read 15, 20 minutes, and then I try to write about what I just read and that writing aspect. My takeaways without looking back at it. I just developed that skill and it's a crazy thing, man. You'll learn something, you'll write about it, so you can develop it, you'll share it. That's part of my daily core six. I share it not only to be a value to you. But I share it Also. Everything I'm sharing, I'm, I'm, I'm learning also is what I'm learning right along with you. And if I can share it clearly and concisely, then I can learn it deeper. So, you know, it's really a cheat code for me. You know, I love to share, but there's so many benefits that I get if nobody listens to these episodes. The fact that I got to share it and learn it deeper and can clearly communicate that. And right with curiosity and creativity. That's a meta skill And these cross-pollinate across every area of your life. Fitness, your faith, your fitness, your faith, your family, your fitness, your finances, your fulfillment. Gotta say in order so I can just rail it out. And so what's crazy, man? You, you're right about these things. And then the crazy thing is, is you'll come across that very same, same thing that you just read about and wrote about today. Then all of a sudden it happens in real time. It happens in life, and it's like so coincidental. I think coincidences are God's way of showing you that He's listening. I really do. But you won't have coincidences if you're not developing meta skills. And then the last one's productive. Confrontation, confrontation's key, man, you gotta confront some things in your life. You gotta face some things head on. You gotta get on some head on collisions in your life. Now look. There are some confrontations too that need to be addressed. There are some boundaries that you need to set with people. There are some, some things that you need to address with people. I'm not talking about pop people in the mouth, okay? I'm not talking about telling them to F off. I'm not talking about that at all. But you probably in the development of this, you will. You'll blow things up. You gotta be a disaster before you become the master. And so developing your confrontation muscle, you're gonna mess things up. You're gonna screw things up. You're gonna say things wrong, that just take it to a whole nother level your life. And this is why people avoid confrontation.'cause they're just like, well, that didn't go well. That didn't go as planned. That went over like a lead balloon. Okay. And then we just shy away from it. This is why I'm, I'm so fortunate that the overlaps that I have in life, uh, and are in sales. In sales, you have to confront customers. There are customers that call you pissed off. They come with a head full of steam, and you have to work through those things. You gotta problem solve, you gotta communicate with 'em. So I get to develop my communication, my curiosity, my creativity, my continuous learning and action, staying open-minded. And confrontation. This is how these meta skills came about. I was at rock bottom 2017. I had to rebuild my life 'cause I blew it completely up and I was at the, I was at the border of just ending it all. And so I said, well, what are the skills?'cause I'm, the only thing I'm good at is sales. Well, what skills have made me good in sales? Communication. What else? Curiosity. Hmm. What else? Creativity.'cause I don't always have the thing in, in, in, uh, in stock or I have to switch 'em to something else 'cause this is just too expensive for 'em. What else? Well, new product comes out, so I gotta be a continuous learner, and then I have to apply it to the next customer. So I have to just continuously evolve. I said, man, if people are gonna meet me, they're gonna say, man, he's not like any other salesperson. He knows his shit. Okay, so continuous learning and then action, and then confrontation. Gotta confront customers. I'm just shopping today. Today's my first. Gimme your best price. Don't push me. I gotta confront. Gotta go in, I gotta push myself to be persistent with them and they appreciate it. A lot of times. The last thing that don't push me customer, and they're walking out with their paperwork for their new vehicle. You know what they tell me? Thank you. What they're saying is, is thanks for staying with me, man. Thanks for being persistent. So all of this to say, this is the ecosystem of my OYP lifestyle, my outwork, your potential. Potential is what you could, should, but you ain't. Okay. So I wanna outwork my potential. Okay? That's what I wanna do. And so I want to just exceed, I want, I want to get in front of God at the end, and he's like, bro. I had this laid out for you, but you, you actually, and I think he's gonna call me, bro. Bro, I had all this outline for you, man. You, you exceeded that. And it's in the right way, man. I didn't have to step on anybody or back stab anybody or get over on somebody or alienate my family or just, uh, abandon my faith. I probably wouldn't be talking to'em if, if I abandoned my faith. But, you know, I didn't have to do any of that. It's all part. And so this is what I live by and this is the journal that not only I live by, this is what I coach my clients with. They, they get this and they begin to work out of this, this journal, so the journal keeps me, lets me track not only the daily core six, but also the meta skills, the development. I can track the development. Of those meta skills. My podcast is like a live journal for me. I can track the meta skills if you go back to 2017 and listen to old episodes versus new episodes that I'm giving to you now. Hopefully there's a difference. Hopefully it's more clear and concise. Hopefully you get something more from it. It's not that the other messages were irrelevant some days. I just wanna bring some of those messages back. But in a new way because I'm in a different season of my life. But that's, that's my, that's how I outwork my potential every single day. I just win the day. When it all unfolds is not up to me. What I do and how I do it is completely up to me and you. So. The journal grows with me or shrinks with me. Okay. And it's no judgment. It's just, I could see where I get off track. I could see right then and there, and I could go back and look at it and be like, oh, here was the turning point. What were the things that led up to where I'm at right now? I can go back, I can look at those things. Let's wrap this up, man. Get your habits right, but habits alone aren't gonna make you successful. You gotta develop the meta skills within those habits. This is the compounding factor of your effort. Your effort. This is key. Your effort is. You know the habits that you do if you wanna compound exponentially, this is the meta skills that you develop within that, and this is what keeps you relevant and makes you ready for anything. So I'll leave you with this. Alright, here we go. Habits are the foundation. Meta skills are the upgrade. Boom. I mean, just stop right there. Post that, put that on your wall on social media. Tag me in it. I'll show you love. But for God's sakes, just sear that into your soul habits of the foundation. Meta skills of communication, curiosity, creativity, continuous learning and action, and productive confrontation. Bro, that's the upgrade. It's time to upgrade. Alright, let's get outta here. Share this episode with one person who needs it. Remember, keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough. Peace.