The Holy Standard
Welcome to The Holy Standard - the podcast for women who don’t just want to grow, they want to lead. Here, we build spiritual authority, internal systems and bold standards that make you unshakable. If you’re done with watered-down faith, fluffy self-help and surface-level success... you’re in the right room. Let’s raise the bar and our standards.
The Holy Standard
High Performance Hot Takes
The nuance between discipline and hustle culture matters—it's possible to be ambitious and restful, structured and spontaneous when we understand that God designed our personalities for specific purposes.
• Waking up early only makes sense if you're getting 8-9 hours of sleep
• Working longer hours should only be justified if you're getting high focus output
• If you cannot do something forever, don't do it for a day—consistency matters more than intensity
• Breaks are critical for both productivity and spiritual growth
• Learning and honing skills is more important than busy work
• God's design for you is aligned with His purpose for you
• Pay attention to what traits get strengthened as you grow closer to Christ
• Christianity and being a follower of God often look different than what we initially expect
• The Lord wants His daughters in order—prepared and disciplined while also resting and trusting
If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show. Share it with friends who might be struggling with finding balance between discipline and rest in their faith journey.
Welcome to the Holy Standard, the podcast for bold, god-led women with strong spirits, sharp minds and high standards. This is where kingdom authority meets high performance discipline. Together, we're raising the standard for what it means to be a woman of God in business holy and high level. Welcome to another episode. It is so weird because there are times that I go to film my podcast and sometimes I feel like it's the first one I've ever done and I have a hard time, for whatever reason, just jumping right back into it. So we are just going to jump in today and I really want to talk about just the nuance, because obviously here I am talking a lot about discipline and structure and having ambition and all of these things, and I think it is very, very important to lay a very clear divide in why it's important to have that. But also where is the other side of it right? Because I think that something I've noticed about this generation is that we struggle so much with nuance. We struggle so much with it. We are constantly going from one extreme to the other and then we're wondering why we have any sort of dysfunction in our lives, and so I really wanted to talk on this because you know, obviously, again, like I said, there's a lot of messaging that I feel like I'm putting out that, if I'm being honest, is being misinterpreted as this like hustle, grind, set mindset type of motto, and that's just not the way that I live. So, for instance, I was posting about how I was getting up at 5am through the entire month of July and you would be shocked how many people I saw making posts and maybe I was just sensitive because I was posting every single day, but specifically in that month I had a good like three to four people I saw specifically that were mutual followers, like, go to bat and get really angry about you shouldn't need to wake up at five and whatever. It was right. And what I thought was interesting about that was I mean, first and foremost, I felt this need to defend myself and then I was like I mean, if they don't want to wake up at five, they don't have to. I'm not forcing them to, but there's often this misunderstanding of my heart, posture and doing it, and so I'm not making this out of defense, but I want to also just shed some light on what it means to live in the nuance of working hard, waking up early, being a high performer, but not having that, that fall into hustle culture or any toxic way of being, any dysfunctional way of living.
Speaker 1:You know, because right now what we're seeing is there's two very different sides to the pendulum. There is, you're either hustling, hustling, hustling, burning yourself out into the ground. You're probably listening to Andy Frisella or David Goggins or Tim Grover, and it's very much. You know. Don't listen to your feelings, just do what you need to do, and for a lot of people, that has led to self-abandonment. And so again we see that pendulum swing to the complete polar opposite side, where now we're not taking any responsibility, we're actually becoming avoidant, and we see this so often, right?
Speaker 1:Women who are like I don't need to wake up, I don't need to work hard, it just comes to me, just flows to me, right. But you know, we're also seeing a lot of women don't just want a man's credit card and to have that define them. A lot of us actually want to work hard and want to, you know, work towards something noble and be able to build something up. And is that not just the holy and the noble pursuit of life is to consistently excel and become better, right? I think if all of us just had this life where we're just sprawled out eating grapes in the field all day. We would be bored, if we're honest, right. And so it's not to say, hey, don't go, have that rest, don't go be in your quote-unquote feminine. And it's also not to say, hey, we're going to swing the pendulum all the way onto the other side and hustle, grind. It's like why can we? Where is the disconnect where we have such a hard time integrating both of the two sides?
Speaker 1:I started out very much hustle rah-rah, if you know. You know, if you've been here for long enough, you would have known that I was very much like dark sport. Every day I wanted to bodybuild. I was, you know, working 14 hour days, getting up at 4 am. Yep, you heard me. I was awake at 4 am Every single day, which was so normal back then. But I look back now and I'm like I was delusional, but it got me to where I am today.
Speaker 1:Okay and that's a very important distinction that I want to make as well that a lot of people who are on the other side of things, which we'll get into are able to do that because they put in years, if not months on months on months of work in order to get themselves to that place, and I almost want to compare it to. We see a lot of people in the fitness space right now talking about intuitive eating, and while I think intuitive eating can be deeply healing, especially for a lot of women who have maybe come from a background of, you know, disordered eating and what have you, the structure that macro tracking has given me has helped me so much, more than anything else, and I have not been able to swing into the quote unquote feminine side where I'm intuitive eating without first macro tracking right. So let's not diminish the work required in order for us to get to that place where you know you can rest a little bit more right, where you can enjoy the fruits of your labor, fruits of your what, your labor, the work you have put in. Okay, and I'm also speaking from this from you know, about a year and a half ago, undergoing a lot of the gut issues and stuff that I had going on, I was told essentially, sleep in, stop going to the gym and I don't want you tracking your macros. Here's an anti-inflammatory diet and here's your supplements, and it was so polar opposite of what I was used to, but it really I like swung so hard into. Okay, I'm just gonna rest, I'm not gonna push myself too hard, like if it's hard I'm just not gonna do it, because at that season of my life that was what was being asked of me and I think that every season in our life serves a purpose.
Speaker 1:But what's been so powerful about kind of this comeback that I'm coming into is getting to integrate both sides. I'm not choosing one or the other. I'm not going fully into the hustle like I will wake up at 5 30 in the morning and I will also spend two hours of my day reading my book in the sunshine. There doesn't need to be this huge polarity where it's one or the other. We get to do both, we get to have it all.
Speaker 1:And I honestly even just hate the conversation of masculine and feminine which is so funny because it used to be something that I teach on but it really is so isolating for so many people where not only does it start to become an identity framework that a lot of people live by which I think is super dangerous but it also starts to make us feel like we need to pick sides, and I hear it from women all the time I'm too masculine. I just need to get out of my masculine. My relationship is, you know, dying because I'm in my masculine. That's not necessarily true, right, it's not. Oh, this is a feature that I need to get rid of it more.
Speaker 1:So it's like, how do I integrate the other half of just? You know, we see this as I'm either really hardworking or I can relax, and the truth is, for most women, they just don't let themselves have downtime. This isn't to say that you're too masculine, because those traits for myself being a little more hard-headed and bold and driven and just overall resilient, like all of those traits are some of my favorite traits about myself. And I'll be honest, there was a time where I felt like I had to shut the door on that version of myself because, also, she had hurt me so much, going through so much of just like the hustle, culture and stuff that I went through, that I was really reluctant to actually enjoy those parts of who I am.
Speaker 1:But I just think it is so, so heavily crucial for every single one of you to be able to see that you're not masculine. You're not feminine, you're a human being and the way that that displays within the way that you live is so important to pay attention to, especially as you start to grow closer with the Lord. And actually, something that I put into my channel today, that I had done a devotional for my clients, and something that I think is so important, is like let us consistently marinate on the verse that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. If you're more hardworking than the next person, can we trust that the Lord has done that in good favor? Right, if you are a little bit more outspoken than everybody else, can we trust that the Lord knew what he was doing when he made you? Like that, if you're a little bit louder, if you're maybe a little bit quieter, if you're smaller, if you're bigger, if you're whatever, can we just trust that the Lord knew what he was doing? Because I truly believe that God's design for you is aligned with his purpose for you.
Speaker 1:Right, we don't want everybody to be the same. We don't want everybody to look the same, to act the same, to have the same personalities, because we need the variety and the different assignments that the Lord has for us. So that's really what I want you to sit with there and you know whatever insecurities that you feel even come up in that is to just consistently sit with that. In what ways do I feel like I'm not enough or too much, because it doesn't equate to the people that I've put around me or the things that I see on social media. And then where can we also step into? How do I feel like the Lord might be actually using this trait of mine to do good and to further his assignment?
Speaker 1:And what I will say for sure is there are a lot of things we are called to die to self. We are here to become more like Christ, not more like whoever I want to be, and so what I will say with this is there is obviously going to be traits and part of your personality, and you know things of that that you're going to let go of and that are going to change over time. So I'm not sitting here being like don't change, everything about you is perfect, because I'm just going to be honest, that's not the truth. We're called to change and to be sanctified and to be refined by fire, mind you and so that might come with a little bit of pain of letting some things go, and I know firsthand.
Speaker 1:You know I used to think swearing was a part of my personality and I've shared really openly that I no longer identify with that. I don't want to be known as a woman who utters anything that is unholy and that just sounds so unclean and dirty. Now it's crazy because I can hear a swear word and I flinch, and I used to say them 80 million times a day, and so there's just obviously a lot of refinement and a lot of change that comes when we pick up our cross and we follow him, and so I just wanted to put that in there, because there is parts of you that you are going to have and we follow him, and so I just wanted to put that in there, because there is parts of you that you are going to have to let go of and there's also parts that we just get to enjoy and soak into. And one way, if you're sitting here and you're like, well, I don't know what parts, those are honestly valid, right, but what I will say is pay attention to what fortifies and get strengthened in you the closer you get to Christ.
Speaker 1:Because the craziest thing for me was you know, I personally had experience just getting into the Christian space was flowy dresses and women, you know, homeschooling their children and just it was a very what you would consider like feminine type of imagery that we saw. And the closer I started getting to Christ, I was like I'm getting bolder. I care less about people's feelings and more about getting my point across. I'm just a little bit more blunt and I started really feeling a lot more discipline coming up in my life. I felt the yearning to want to be a faithful steward with my finances, with my time, with my wake up, with going to the gym. I am the most consistent with all of these things that I've ever been in my entire life, not out of sheer willpower, but from the strength of the Lord, who's carried me through all of those things, which has just been a really fascinating thing to acknowledge, and so I just really encourage you.
Speaker 1:If there is a certain aspect of you personally that you're dealing with, whether it is your nose, your size, how loud you are, what have you I really just want you to sit with the fact that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, and he made you exactly like that, and can we trust that he has a good plan for you and there is an exact reason why he called you to be the way that you are. Like, stop stop making it something bad just because your best friend isn't the same way. That's the point, right? She has a different assignment than you. And just pay attention to what gets strengthened through time and over time. As you get closer to Lord, as you get more into his word, as you let him refine you, as you let him rip away the idols in your life, you will be so fascinated with the person you become, because I can promise you it will be unlike something you've ever thought was possible. The Lord's plans are so much greater than our human understanding can even grapple onto.
Speaker 1:And this is just your invitation to drop any narratives and drop any titles of. I need to be more masculine, I need to be more feminine. I need to, I need to this, I need to that. It's like you are everything that the Lord says you are, and he talks about it in the Bible, like. Once you start reading the Bible, you will get such a clear depiction of who you are called to be. Right, he says the righteous are bold as a lion. And then you can also go and read proverbs 31. Right, you can go and look at esther. You can go and just look at everything that the lord says we are and just really allow yourself to start to take that on for size, and I think what's so important to like. I'm just gonna say celebrate with me. Okay, y'all, I have 29 books into the bible, 29 books complete, and that's about 75 of of the Bible, which is crazy, knowing I have so much more to go. But obviously there's like the smaller prophet books which I'm currently going through. I'm in Ezekiel, which, holy, that is something in itself. But it's just been really cool Because, as I've gone through, that's been the biggest thing that's highlighted to me was Christianity and being a follower of God was never what I thought it was supposed to look like, and I started to take this like final form, like I feel myself just being changed and I really wanted to celebrate as well just the work that the Lord is doing, not only just in my life but just in the industry in itself, because, um, I shared about, but I was driving to the gym the other day and I was really sitting with just the content that I've been felt and I've been compelled to speak on because it felt so wrong for me and, mind you, like I am reading the word and I'm in and I'm studying and some of these trends are coming up and I'm noticing, you know, these things about leadership and stewardship and discipline, even in the Bible.
Speaker 1:And I was really sitting and I was asking the Lord just to really cover me and to help me find the words for how he wants me to like share his message. And what was so crazy was I went and did a couple of videos, just kind of like trying to like rip off the top of my head kind of what I was feeling in this space and what I felt the Lord was calling to me. And the craziest thing was is, every time I speak on what the Lord gives me, the video does really well. You can't sit here and be like this is the hook, this is the script, this is the XYZ, it's, you know, almost every time that he gives me a word and I just like outright am with it. It does so well. And I'm not here for the vanity metrics, but it is super interesting to me to just see the way that the Lord moves.
Speaker 1:And the whole video was essentially talking about. You can't sit here and you know, pray for resolution. You can't sit here and want God to give you these big blessings if you're not doing anything about it. And so there, give you these big blessings if you're not doing anything about it. And so there there seems to be just this huge outcry of, especially women of God who are lacking the discipline and the spiritual maturity and really the drive and the direction to show up in those big ways. And it was so interesting and that is why, if you guys haven't seen, depending on when you're listening to this I started and launched the standard, which is a 21 day intensive that we are starting on September 1.
Speaker 1:So if you're hearing this before September 1, and you haven't joined, I would love for you to be a part of it, because I really just felt this burden on my heart that the Lord wants his daughters in order. The Lord wants his daughter speaking up, being bolder, becoming like weapons and I don't mean that in a way that it needs to be aggressive, and I don't know when you hear the word weapon, what comes to your mind, but I just feel in my heart I think to the story of David and Goliath and we look at it as face value of what it is, but I always love to see the way that I can find Jesus in every story of the Bible, in every book of the Bible. And so, just hearing the story of David and Goliath, we have a shepherd boy coming up against the great giant, against the great enemy that everybody else is so scared, doesn't think they can defeat, and he defeats him with a tiny little rock, and he defeats him with a tiny little rock. The shepherd boy defeated the giant, and so the war did not go on to the rest of the Philistines. For us trying to battle Goliath, the battle is already won, we already have victory, but we are still in a war, you hear me. And so our job, what I truly believe as women of God, our job, is to be in battle and to be in as a warrior. Like we're going to war, are you prepared, are you fortified, are you strengthened, are you constantly putting on the armor of God to be able to go outward? And to fulfill that? And so that's my iteration when I hear the story of David and Goliath. That's what comes to my heart and that's what comes to my mind is okay, he won victory. Our shepherd won victory against the giant, against this big enemy that we thought was so scary and wasn't really so scary and we still have a war at hand that we are called to fight in on a daily basis against sin, against spiritual oppression, against all of these things. But we cannot do that, hear me, we cannot do that if you are giving way to sloth and complacency and lukewarmness and being quiet about God's word and all of these tragedies that I see, especially within the space with entrepreneurship, as well as women of God in the space. Right, it's one in the same, and so that is why I went and I created that intensive.
Speaker 1:But it's come up more and more and more and more. The more that I talk to people and the more that I share this message, people are like, wow, this hits so hard for me. You called me out like you should have held my hand first, and I'm like man if I have all of these comments that are saying that I could not imagine, if they were to step boldly in what the Lord had for them, the difference that would happen in their lives, point blank, period. And so that is my bone to pick. But I did want to spend some time today just kind of kind of going over some high performance hot takes that I have, if you guys don't know, and I haven't talked about this a ton, but just throughout my entire life of you know self development and healing and all that work that I was doing one of the primary focuses that I've always had over the last few years has really been looking at high performers. I have been so fascinated with emotional resilience, mental toughness, like looking at the Kobe Bryants and the Michael Jordans and you know, then kind of looking into Tim Grover, which he is a high performance coach for a lot of huge athletes, but really looking at these people and saying what is so different about them than us? Right, what is the big difference? What is it that they can unlock or or they get into this like mode, in this groove? What is so different about these people? And so I've been so hyper obsessed with high performance for a really long time, and when I say high performance, I don't mean always performing, I just mean when you do perform, it is high quality, it's high value. Okay, that's the difference.
Speaker 1:So I'm not telling you to hustle whatsoever, but I want to share a couple of hot takes that I have, because the second I start talking to women or people of the like, just in terms of being a high performer. I know for a fact everybody's mind goes to working really hard and burning out. At least that's where mine does. So y'all be honest with me if yours goes to the same place. And so I want to share a couple of my hot takes, number one being that waking up early only makes sense if you can get eight to nine hours of sleep. So, for example, if you're going to bed at 11 every night because maybe you get off work or you know, whatever the circumstances, it doesn't make sense to get up at 5 am for you and I. That's just I'm gonna die on that hill. Because if you want to be a high performer, the only way you're gonna be able to produce good work, focused work, efficient work, is gonna be if you have enough rest.
Speaker 1:Like I don't know what people are doing out here, neglecting sleep and then being like I'm gonna work so hard and build an empire, babe, you can't even what do you mean? You're not even sleeping enough to be able to do that. And so the reason that I say that is because I actually, this morning, so I woke up and typically lately I've been waking up around like five, 530. And usually I'll lie in bed while Sal has a shower and it's my favorite thing in the world because I can hear it going but I'm still like half asleep, half awake, and then, as soon as I hear that, he's like getting out and doing his stuff in the bathroom, that's when I'll kind of start like getting myself up and ready and getting into my human posture.
Speaker 1:But I woke up this morning and I was so tired and so I quickly checked what my aura ring said and it said I only got six hours of sleep. And I sat there being like how is this even possible? But this is the thing is, in that moment I really sat there and I was thinking you know, okay, well, there's the side of people who would say, okay, we'll go back to bed because you're tired and you don't want to get up and your feminine energy and life's not supposed to be hard. Then we have another side of the internet that's like it doesn't matter how you feel, do it anyway. And so I really sat there and I battled with myself and I made myself a promise that said I am only going to wake up if I get eight to nine hours of sleep. I'm only waking up early if it actually makes sense to wake up early, and so I was like, nope, I'm going back to bed. And so I was like, nope, I'm going back to bed.
Speaker 1:And so, with that, what I think is super important is the standard. Not only is, hey, you can stay up late and sleep in, the standard is that you put extra effort into making sure that you are in bed at the right time so that you can go to bed around 8.39 and get those eight to nine hours period. And so that was my deal that I made with myself. I said, capisce, okay, yes, we can do that. And I just think it's so important because I see so many people like absolutely poo-pooing on waking up early, and waking up early is my favorite thing to do in the world. If I get enough hours of sleep in the night, because there is nothing better than just sitting with the word of God in silence, with my candle burning, nobody else is awake, there's no sounds, there's no life out there yet, and I'm just sitting and I can just be. I feel like I can be so much more present because I can just kind of like lock in. There's no distractions around me, there's no external pressure of what I should be doing, and I just love that. I just love it. So I think that's number one.
Speaker 1:Number two is that working longer in your day to day, in your work, in whatever you're doing, working longer hours should only be justified If you're getting high focus output done. There's a lot of people who want to do it just for their own ego and for their vain conceit, instead of looking at, hey, me sitting here for an extra three hours, I actually am not going to get any good work done, and I know that. So I'm just going to cap it at this and I'm going to go do something that actually pours back into me. There is so many times where I feel like, oh my gosh, my focus is gone. I'm sitting here trying to get my to-do list done, but nothing is moving, and so I will get up, I will go for a walk, I will go sit by the pool, I will pick up a book and read instead, instead of fighting with yourself.
Speaker 1:It's starting to learn those rhythms and obviously we want it to be as predictable as possible and getting you into good focus work. What do you need to do in order to facilitate that response? But is looking at well, why am I going to sit here and punish myself for three more hours? Because it's not time to be off work yet. And if you're an entrepreneur coming out of like a nine to five type of structure, you get this because there's this pressure of oh, because I used to work at a nine to five, I have to have these set hours and there's times where I can work and then I'm off the hook. And if you're anything like me, it's about as soon as it becomes about five, five, 30, I suddenly have this feeling like I'm allowed to not work and I'm allowed to leave my desk. Nobody is saying that, and we're actually making it worse by following those rules.
Speaker 1:So what I would recommend is, especially over these next few weeks, is just get really concrete on when you focus. Well, for example, it might be straight in the morning, for you might be later at night, I don't know like. Learn when your focus hours are. Get your focus work done then, and then what I want you to do is just be noticing how you feel when your engine starts to run low on gas, because in actuality, we only usually have about 90 minutes of focus output that we can do at a time. That's not a lot and I see so many people trying to force themselves past that, but I really think that being a high performer, like I said, is performing at a high value and having high quality work be done, which means that you're actually getting things done properly and well and in good cadence. So that comes with understanding and knowing your routines and the cadence that your brain works with, and and to not work against yourself but actually be smarter with where you're allocating your energy at every given moment.
Speaker 1:A really huge thing that I talk to my clients about is having that bulletproof brain and we actually did a training on it yesterday and really just talking about really cementing our power, because I truly believe that nothing can take your power away. I think you give it away, and that goes to what you put your energy on, what you put your focus on, what you put money towards, your time, towards all of these things that are actually a choice, and if we can look at where we're allocating these things and make more conscious, deliberate decisions instead of just having undirected focus time energy, whatever it is, because that is when we start to see a leak and that is where we start to see a lot of people get in the trap of being burnt out, anxious, overworked, confused, unclear, foggy brained all of that is really looking at, okay. Well, number one your most important assets aren't being directed towards something that is creating a leak. You're not allocating anything specifically anywhere, and then that is why you feel the way that you do. So that's my second hot take is working longer should only be justified if you're getting a high focus output done. Number three and this is for you, because I share mine and I'm about to share mine in my intensive coming up and with that, it's not going to work for every single person. A mom is gonna have very different rhythms than me, and that's so important. That distinction is so important to make.
Speaker 1:If you cannot do it forever, do not do it for a day, because the best thing that you can do to be a high performer is to be super good at being super consistent at the same things every day. It's setting the standard and living by it and the best way to become you know, I use this term of like the bulletproof brain of just being like untouchable, like nothing can get through. The enemy's lies can't get to me, the distraction can't get to me like nothing can get through. The enemy's lies can't get to me, the distraction can't get to me. I am as much as I can be obviously we're not God but as much as we can be. We control what we can control, and I think a really huge piece of this is, you know, I talk about not outsourcing your power, but I also think a lot of it is about setting a standard and being consistent with that standard.
Speaker 1:So it is predictable, because when and if the distractions, the lies, the whatever comes up, life is going to happen, you're going to be 10 times more likely to lean on what you do the most. And if what you do the most is that you fall back and you get lazy and you scroll, well, that's going to be what you do when push comes to shove. If your default is I've been going to the gym, waking up early, getting my work done and then also resting every single day, then it's actually still going to benefit you in those seasons, and so the whole point is is don't wait until something bad happens to start taking care of yourself. Ensure that you have an active flow throughout every single day that hits all the boxes that take care of you as a holistic human being spiritual, mental, physical, emotional If you know for a fact that you're hitting every single one of those on a daily basis. When push comes to shove and something happens I don't know what it is right, but bad things happen in all of our lives. We all get struggles, we all feel tired, we all have these things happen you are going to be 10 times more likely to be able to keep the same flow.
Speaker 1:So, again, if you cannot do it forever, don't do it for a day. And, more than anything, if you can do it for multiple weeks on end, then that's what you want to start cementing as a, as a habit and as your daily routine. So like, for example, if scrolling for five hours every single day was something that you could do sustainably and you know, grow as a person, you're getting closer to God, you're reaching your goals then that would be something that you're like okay, this makes sense to do right now, but if it doesn't make sense to do it long term, don't even do it for a day. Like, don't solidify and don't consistently allow yourself behaviors and habits that you wouldn't want long term. Right, that's pretty much all this is. There's a lot of people that look at 75 hard and they think I'm just going to go hard in the paint for like 75 days or however long, and then after that I'm going to fall off Like let's just be honest, that's what it's made for. Can we be the people that are, so we excel at consistency rather than being really really great at being good for like two weeks? That's not really what we want. So if you cannot do it forever, do not do it for a day.
Speaker 1:The fourth thing is that breaks are critical. So this actually kind of goes hand in hand with number two. But again, when I start talking about high performers, I teach my clients to be obsessed with their time, and it's really interesting because I teach them the concepts of just being hyper, just being hyper mindful to where we're allocating our resources. That's all that is right. We're taking an objective view to where do I typically put my time. Is it serving me? Is this good? And when my clients do time audits, the funniest thing is that they will try to work as much as they possibly can and then submit it to me and be proud and it's like no, because I'm actually looking for how often you rest, I'm looking for how often you spend time in prayer. I'm looking for how often you're reading your Bible. I want to know all of these things.
Speaker 1:Because those breaks are critical? Because if you want to know something, that's just so huge and I actually saw a post the other day and it just warmed my heart because it was talking about how we have these huge, long to-do lists that will never go away ever, especially if you're an entrepreneur and reading the Bible doesn't make the to-do list go away, but it makes the stress go away that's associated with it and it allows us to come into things with much more peace, with a lot more steadfastness, with a lot more comfort. And, if there's anything, if I know that list isn't going away then what I should be focusing on is well, how can I go at it better? And the only way you're going to be able to do that is if you have those breaks. The only way you're going to be able to hear the Lord and what he has for you is in those breaks. A lot of people are like I don't know if I can hear God. Well, are you giving him the opportunity to speak to you? That's my question.
Speaker 1:So high performance, hot takes. Breaks are critical. I think it is so important. My favorite things to do on the weekend is nap and not have anywhere to be and to not get ready, and I I consider myself high performer. I think it's really, really important. Like, how are you supposed to play a good game if you aren't resting from the last one? You just did right. If we're looking at running a business the same way that we look at athletes, the same way we look at how Jesus ran his ministry, I say that a lot, then the whole industry would be different. So that's number. I think I'm on number four now.
Speaker 1:Number five and my last one is that learning and honing a skill is more important than putting in the busy work that most people spend their time doing, and so what I mean by that is it's the books, it's the courses, it's the YouTube, it's the podcast. All those things are really treated as supplementary for most people, when, in actuality, if you wanted to be one of the top 1% in your field, it's going to come down to your mental fortitude, it's also going to come down to your skill right Period. That's the biggest thing. And so how do we increase that skill? Well, obviously, practicing it, bringing it into your practice and the way that you work is very important. But more than that is, you have to learn it first before you start doing it. How do you learn it if you're not giving yourself any time to sit and just watch YouTube and to binge people's episodes and to look at podcasts and to write notes and to actually be present with what you are learning?
Speaker 1:So what you will know about me is every single time I read books books are my favorite. I don't love audiobooks so much because I love being able to write stuff down and like, highlight it. But if I'm listening to an audiobook, I will be taking notes. If I am reading a physical book, I am highlighting, I am going back, reviewing sections. I am treating it like I'm actually studying it, not just, oh, this is supplementary and this is fun to read. Right, it's this to me, isn't? It's not entertainment to me. I actually treat it as learning and really coming at it from that point of view. I will sit on YouTube and I will watch Chris Doe and Calloway and Myron Golden and all these people and learn from them viciously and be writing down notes as much as possible, because it is so undervalued in a day and age where people can make you think that they're an expert when they're not.
Speaker 1:It is so important to actually be the person that has the knowledge and to has the skill to be able to fulfill the work that you're trying to do and I truly think that's how you become great in this world is you start having a very specific niche in which you are highly skilled at. Because if you're just average in all these things of like sales, marketing, maybe fitness, whatever it might be if you're average in all of that, you will stay average. All in all, right, you have to get really, really good at the thing that you do Usually. Eventually, you start getting more specific and niche down as you go. It's what I've seen with everybody honestly within the coaching industry is you start getting more specific and niche down as you go. It's what I've seen with everybody honestly within the coaching industry is you start to get more niche down, more specific as you go.
Speaker 1:But a lot of that comes down to education. It comes down to knowledge and you know I had to remind my clients of this even where I was doing a diamond painting, which is my favorite thing to do. I love my diamond painting. I love doing diamond painting and listening to podcasts and diamond painting and listening to YouTubes so I can have a book beside me where I'm constantly writing down the notes of what I'm learning. But because I'm actively listening, because I'm not doing anything like I'm not listening to anything else, I love going for walks or doing something with my hands as I'm listening to things. That, personally, is the best way that I learn and it's my favorite way to spend like a Friday afternoon when everybody else is hustling and working. I'm like, no, I'm actually going to pour some time into my education and I would highly recommend, if you feel like this is something you're neglecting, make sure you have a couple hours every single week that you're designated to pouring into your education and to learning and to being better. That's a bible study, whether that's going on youtube, whether that's a book, I don't care what it is. You know where you're trying to get better at, so you get to discern where that time goes. I'm not um, but make sure you do have that time lock in.
Speaker 1:So I want to share those hot takes with you guys because I think it completely tears apart a lot of the ideology that a lot of people have when it comes down to being a high performer and being high level and building a business and being a person that sets the standard. There's this predetermined kind of what I said is the ideology around it that I'm talking about hustling and I'm talking about pummeling myself into the ground when it couldn't be further from the truth, when, in actuality, I have some very clear standards for myself. Of course, and also with that I also give myself grace. I'm also going to be a human about it. I'm also going to be practical about it, because the hustle culture honestly doesn't even make sense if you actually start looking at it from a performance lens, and so I hope that this lands you.
Speaker 1:I hope that these five hot takes help for you and I really hope that you start applying them. If you have any questions or anything came up for you through this podcast, please, please, please, don't be afraid to send me a message, share, share the podcast with any of your friends and, lastly, when you do rate the show, it bumps it up higher on Apple and spotify. So if you are here and you've been a loyal listener, I appreciate you so, so much and I would love you more than anything if you were to rate and and leave me a little review. Tell me what you like, tell me what you want more of.