#393 - Wasted Steps. Every Step Counts.*

Small mistakes don’t just steal time—they train your brain to repeat the wrong move. We dig into “wasted steps,” the two-part nature of learning, and how efficiency becomes a superpower when life applies pressure. Using jiu-jitsu as a living lab, we explore how calm breathing and clear choices under tension translate to better decisions in creativity, work, and relationships. From the mat to the mic, we show why effortless performance is built on deliberate practice and ruthless reduction of rework.

You’ll hear how a simple grocery misstep turned into extra trips and lost momentum, and why tiny systems—lists, checklists, quick post-mortems—protect your day from drift. We connect the dots across comedy, boxing, golf, and negotiation to show a pattern the pros share: less thrash, more intention. Instead of pushing harder, learn to move cleaner. Instead of trying to be clever, let precise words and prepared timing do the work. Efficiency isn’t about rushing; it’s about choosing once and committing.

We also talk about breaking bad loops and the cost of encoding the wrong habit. Every repeated error becomes muscle memory you’ll have to unlearn. So we lean on simple practices: breathe before you move, name your options, pick the highest leverage action, and close the loop with a quick review. Keep your checklist visible. Finish the task in front of you. Then roll into the next rep with focus.

If this hits home, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves systems, and leave a quick review with your best tip for cutting wasted steps. Your feedback helps more listeners find the podcast and move with purpose.

Transcript

Learning And Mistakes Framework

Efficiency Lessons From Jiu-Jitsu

Pressure, Calm, And Clear Choices

The Grocery List Misstep

Apply Lessons Or Waste Movements

Craft, Checklists, And Consistency

Closing Notes And Be Efficient

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Wasted steps. You know, guys, on my last uh podcast episode, I was talking about lessons learned. And part of the lessons learned, uh, it's really I believe that learning is a two-point phase, you know? And uh that would be learning and making mistakes. But the thing is, if you learn from your mistakes, then you are uh that's that whole lessons learned thing that I was talking about. But wasted steps, wasted steps, what I mean by that is I'm implying that if you don't learn your lesson or how many times it takes to learn a lesson or something like that, or even if you just want to be blatantly dumb and not learn from your mistake or your stubborn or whatever it is it might be. You know, I talk about efficiency all the time. And I giving full credit to jujitsu, jujitsu really opens up my mind and my uh point of view for a lot of different things. But for example, the the more that you train jujitsu at the lowest level, you're not efficient, you're using all types of energy. The higher you go, the more efficient you are, the less you're working and the more effective you are. No different as in comedy, as in life. Um, if you really try to say something, it gets funny and you're really working on the delivery, but it's not funny, it's not gonna work. But if I don't try to say something in a funny way, and the words are so powerful, it works on its own. So that kind of speaks, in my opinion, to the magnitude of efficiency. And ultimately, I think that whether it's golf, again, using your energy efficiently, whether it's golf or boxing or judo or comedy or jujitsu, fill in the blank, whatever it is, right? Efficiency is key, but it really does come in two steps. It comes from learning something, and then if you do make mistakes, right, learning from those lessons and not repeating them. Repeating your mistakes is the biggest waste of everything that you could possibly do. Okay. Because instead of instilling a good memory of you're doing the right thing, you're instilling another bad one. That's why it's so important to break bad habits because you're training your body to learn and accept it, which is never acceptable, right? Um, I have a lot of things personally that I do that's wrong on a daily basis. And that's not good. But I try every single day to remedy that. Okay. And I want to believe that whether it's a character flaw or something like that, I always try to like self-examine myself, but I look at it through the lens of jujitsu. And that helps in my comedy, it helps my relationships, it helps in business, it helps negotiations, it helps in absolutely everything. So train jujitsu, guys, for real. Now, regardless if you train a jiu-jitsu or not, I feel like there is no more physical test that you could get uh besides doing that, specifically because you are learning how to, and I don't want to talk about jujitsu, but I just have to touch on this real quick. You're learning how to think under a pressure situation. It teaches you to re to calm down and relax if you are pressured, and how to think clearly when uh and concisely and how to make the right choice out of multiple options with all this going on. There's no other sport, in my opinion, that effectively you can do that in a controlled way. Because unlike boxing, you can clinch, you can hold somebody close to you and you can kind of like buy seconds. You know how in boxing they they clinch? That's because they're trying to like buy some seconds to kind of figure out what to do, or maybe to take a breath, or to any number of things, right? But the seconds, the minutes under tension, under pressure, okay, in jujitsu, in my opinion, it is unlike anything else. And if you do chess, if you do um a sport, if you do anything, you regardless of whatever you do, it teaches you how to calm down, to relax, and to think. And not even that. Again, make the correct choice. Okay. I could go off on a whole other tangent on jujitsu, but I've already done that. So I'm not gonna try not to do it again. Um, but uh yeah, I was just thinking about something, uh, a personal issue that happened. Not nothing like emotional or but just like a small, dumb little thing. Uh, and it had to do with going to the grocery store. And um, you know, I'm big into making lists and stuff, and I didn't make a list and I wasted physical steps. I had to end up going, I had to go back twice for something that if I wrote a list, okay, and I needed to get all of these things, I could have saved minutes, I could have saved hours, and it just put a negative impact on the rest of my day. Um, so again, lessons learned. If you learn a lesson, apply it, okay, because otherwise, it's the alter, it's the alternate, uh, alternative uh scenario. You have to learn from your lessons. And if you make mistakes, learn from those mistakes. Otherwise, you're wasting your steps, you're wasting movements, and you're not being efficient. And that's what jujitsu in life, in my opinion, is all about. If you want to be an expert at something, if you want to be a leader, uh an independent sales guy, great doctor, lawyer, attorney, fill in the blank. You have to be efficient because every moment that you have counts to be better. So don't waste those moments. Kind of intense, kind of uh laying it on thick right now because I have to get caught up on these podcast episodes. And uh only the work is gonna get it done, right? And um uh now I have to be efficient and get this done. And now I have to roll into the next thing. I'm literally have my checklist in front of me as far as my daily tasks, my daily to-do go, uh to-do list goes right now. And it's right in front of me. So without further ado, I'm gonna work on my comedy, work on rehearsal and memorization, because as a constant professional, you have to be uh master of your craft. And that's what I'm always working on, being better at every single day. So without further ado, I hope everybody has a beautiful rest of your day. I'm excited for everything going in. Iran, it's really happy. It looks like the people are gonna be liberated. Not even gonna get into that, but I'm just really happy for uh everyone in Iran right now. So, y'all have a beautiful day, a beautiful night. I'm binge well done. Be efficient, don't waste your steps. Be better. I'm out. Peace.