December 23, 2025 • 43 mins
Video Version: https://youtu.be/avwW87UDQoY
In this reflective and forward-looking episode, host Bo Kemp closes out the year by addressing the real reasons most people fail to achieve the goals they set — not because of lack of ambition, but because of five predictable and universal objections.
Drawing from the LifeDesyn System, Bo breaks down the five barriers that quietly derail progress: time, money, fear, doubt, and partner resistance. Rather than treating these as excuses, Bo reframes them as structural problems that require intentional design, clarity, and communication.
This episode serves as both a personal audit of the year behind you and a strategic planning session for the year ahead. Bo explains why time must be protected and structured, how money functions as fuel—not the objective, why fear is best managed through systems and clarity, how doubt dissolves through small, repeatable wins, and why partner conflict is often rooted in surprise and uncertainty rather than disagreement.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode: Why “not having time” is a design problem, not a scheduling problem, how to think about money as a tool for execution, learning, and opportunity, the difference between fear and danger — and how structure reduces both, why doubt cannot survive evidence, and how small wins compound into confidence, and how to engage partners early to build support, sustainability, and trust.
This episode provides the architecture of transformation — helping you turn reflection into execution and intention into momentum. If you’re serious about closing the gap between where you are and where you want to be in the coming year, this conversation will give you the framework to move forward with clarity and purpose.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:01):
The right idea can change everything, but the right
community changes the game.
The First Million is always thehardest connects entrepreneurs
and real estate developers tothe best books, podcasts, and
social channels, and live eventsthat fuel success.
No hype, just knowledge andnetwork and next level growth.
Join us on Facebook andInstagram at the First Million
(00:21):
Podcast and turn your firstmillion into your foundation for
more.
(01:42):
Most people skip this step.
They roll into next year withunexamined habits, unchallenged
assumptions, and unresolvedbarriers.
But not you.
Not if you're listening to theshow.
Not if you're committed tobuilding your first million,
financially, emotionally,professionally, or creatively.
Because the way you close oneyear determines the altitude at
(02:04):
which you begin the next.
And that's why today's episodeis personal.
Today's episode is about you.
Today we're talking about thefive objections, the five
internal stopping points thatkeep talented people from
becoming who they were meant tobe.
These objections shape yourperformance this year, they
shape your opportunities nextyear, and the core of the life
(02:26):
audit inside of the Life Designcourse where the real work of
transformation begins.
Whether you're watching this onvideo or listening in your car
or on your walk, by the end oftoday's session, you'll know
exactly which of the fiveobjections has been limiting
your progress and what to doabout it.
Let's get started.
Why the five objections matterand how the life audit makes
(02:47):
them visible.
People think their obstacles areexternal.
I didn't have time.
I didn't have money.
I was scared.
I wasn't sure I could do it.
My partner would never supportthis.
But after coaching thousands ofprofessionals, builders,
entrepreneurs, I'll tell youwhat's true.
Your obstacles are rarelyexternal.
They are internal narrativesthat shape how you use time,
(03:10):
energy, money, focus, andrelationships.
And that's why the Life Audit,the first step of the life
design system, exists.
It's structured, diagnostic thatevaluates your energy, your
values, your financialreadiness, your purpose, and
your path alignment.
It reveals patterns you can'tsee.
It clarifies choices you haven'tnamed, and it exposes
(03:32):
assumptions you've never tested.
As we move through the fiveobjections today, I will bring
in the life audit exercises, thesurveys, the worksheets, the
reflection tools, because theyare what makes the difference
between knowing your objectionand actually overcoming it.
Let's begin with one that peoplesay first and defend the
hardest.
I don't have enough time.
(03:53):
If there's a universalobjection, this is it.
But everyone believes it's theirtruth.
But time is the only resourceevery human being receives
equally.
So the real question is not, doI have enough time?
The real question is what am Idoing with the time I have?
That's why inside the lifedesign system, the time
objection is not addressed withmotivation.
(04:16):
It's addressed with data,structure, and awareness.
We ground this objection in twosimple goals.
Goals that becometransformational once they are
consistently met.
Goal number one, find two hoursper week to invest in learning.
Goal number two, find twentyhours per month to invest in
(04:36):
doing.
These two goals become thefoundation of your growth.
The two hours of learning buildyour long-term capability, the
knowledge that compounds, thetwenty hours of doing build your
habits, the actions that createmomentum.
But neither happens by accident.
They happen because you audityour time and engineer your
(04:56):
schedule.
And that's where the life designtime objection exercises come
in.
The exercises that reveal yourcapacity.
Inside the Life Audit Workbook,we start with a sequence of
exercises designed to exposewhere your time and more
importantly, where your energyare actually going.
The energy inventory, one of thesystems, tracks your physical,
(05:19):
mental, emotional, motivational,and social energy across
multiple days.
The time commitment map helpsmap out every commitment and
rating it by what drains you,what energizes you, what's
non-negotiable.
The Energy Pie chart is avisualization strategy that
helps you understand how yourenergy is distributed across
(05:39):
work, family, recovery,self-care, and obligations.
And the capacity thresholdjournal identifies the one hour
a day that you could relocate,reallocate, and identify what
you need to let go in order topursue other opportunities
around business.
These exercises work together.
They reveal not just where yourtime is going, but what you're
(06:01):
doing with your time.
But the real breakthrough iswhat these exercises produce.
They produce an ideal workflow,and that's what I want to unpack
now.
If you're watching the video,you'll see a slide titled Time
Commitment Example IdealWorkflow, 12-hour workday.
To our audio listeners, let mepaint this picture.
(06:22):
This is a slide of a full dayschedule that includes sleep,
morning routines, think work,meetings, breaks, relationship
time, and personal time.
It's broken into time frame,activity, goal, purposes, and
support.
On the right side, there's someinsights summarizing the design.
Goals, for example, for me,around seven hours of sleep,
(06:44):
plus two hours a day dedicatedto body, mind, and soul, so that
roughly 40% of my day isdedicated to mind, body, and
soul.
17% of my work day is dedicatedto think work, opportunities to
be thoughtful, to addsignificant value.
17% of my day is dedicated topeople management, people that I
need to connect to in order toexecute the work.
(07:07):
And about 30% of my day isdedicated towards developing and
maintaining relationships.
This is not a rigid schedule.
This is an engineered framework,a time-aligned system that
supports your goals, yourenergy, your long-term
development.
But here's what's important.
This ideal day didn't appear bymagic.
It emerged from a life auditexercises.
(07:28):
The energy inventory showed whenI was cognitively sharpest.
Those slots became the 7 a.m.
to 9 a.m.
think work window for me.
The time commitment map helpedreveal how many meetings were
draining, which led to limitingoperations meetings to 9 a.m.
to 11 a.m.
and pushing relationshipbuilding into my late
afternoons.
(07:49):
The Energy Pie chart made itclear that I needed daily breaks
to sustain creativity, leadingto the 11 a.m.
walk, music, and meeting block.
And the capacity journalidentified where my reclaimable
hours were hiding, whichunlocked the time for deep work,
reading, studying, and strategicthinking.
This ideal day created theconditions for the two goals.
(08:12):
Two hours a week of learningwere found inside the 7 a.m.
to 9 a.m.
block, and 20 hours per month ofdoing emerged from the open
afternoon blocks that hadpreviously been swallowed by
unscheduled and reactivemeetings.
The ideal workflow didn't createtime.
It revealed it, and then itstructured it.
Let me bring this to life withmy own story.
(08:34):
There was a period when I knew Ineeded to deepen my
understanding of truststrategies, legal structures,
and tax planning.
I knew this knowledge wouldshape the way I built wealth,
protected assets, and set uplong-term structures for my
family and future investments.
But like many of you, I didn'thave the time or so I thought.
I was running an organization,multiple organizations,
(08:55):
traveling, managingrelationships, supporting teams,
raising a family.
It felt like every hour wasspoken for.
But once I completed theexercises that are part of this
life audit, something becamecrystal clear.
I had time.
It just wasn't organized inservice of my goals.
And through the time commitmentmap, I realized realized that I
wasn't using my early morningseffectively.
(09:17):
I also realized that I hadscattered low value activities
throughout the week that drainedme but added little to my
purpose or outcomes.
So I made a shift.
I carved out two hours per weekinside my ideal 7 a.m.
to 9 a.m.
think work block time,specifically for tax, trust, and
legal structure learning.
Two hours, not twenty, just two.
(09:40):
And over weeks and months, thosetwo hours created exponential
returns.
The more I learned, the more Icould see the opportunities.
The more I understood, the moreprecisely I could restructure my
assets, the more I understood,the more I could identify
strategies that most peoplenever gain access to.
But here's the truth.
None of that would have happenedwithout leveraging these life
(10:02):
audit exercises, because thoseexercises created the ideal
workflow, and the workflowcreated the conditions for
transformation.
Those two hours per week alteredthe trajectory of my financial
life.
They reshaped my ability tobuild wealth, structure deals,
protect assets, and influenceeconomic outcomes.
And the same is possible foranyone who applies this process.
(10:25):
The time objective is not aboutyour calendar, it's about your
alignment.
The life audit exercises showsyou where your energy peaks,
where your time leaks, whereyour commitments misalign, where
your hours are being spent onthe wrong priorities, where
small adjustments produce majorcapacity.
And the ideal workday is theliving blueprint of that
(10:48):
insight.
When you follow thesestructures, you don't just find
two hours of learning and 20hours of doing.
You protect them, you honorthem, and ultimately you rely on
them to propel your futureforward.
Because the learning hourscompound your intellect, and the
doing hours compound youraction.
Together, they build your pathto mastery.
(11:10):
And overcoming time objection isthe doorway to every other
breakthrough in the life designsystem.
So now that we've dismantled thetime objection with structure,
with exercises, and with realworld proof, let's move into the
second major barrier, the beliefthat you don't have enough
money.
I don't have enough money.
(11:31):
Now that we've reframed the timeobjection and identified two
foundational goals, two hoursper week of learning and 20
hours a month of doing, we canfinally talk about the objection
that sits right underneath it.
I don't have enough money.
For many people, this objectionfeels logical.
It feels responsible, it feelsgrounded in reality.
But here's the truth, money isnot the goal.
(11:54):
Money is the support structurethat makes your learning
possible and it makes your doingprofitable.
Money is fuel, but unless youclarify what that money is
fueling, you'll never generateenough of it because the goal is
vague and the path is undefined.
Inside the life design system,we overcome the money objective
by breaking it into threeescalating budgets, each one
(12:17):
supporting a different stage ofyour transformation.
Let's walk through them one byone.
The learning budget, the leastexpensive and most foundational,
supporting your two hours oflearning per week.
When you commit to learning twohours per week, you must also
commit to investing in theinputs that make those hours
meaningful.
(12:38):
This is your learning budget.
The budget covers books,courses, master classes,
seminars, conferences,specialized training, audio
programs, learning communities.
Depending on your goals, thisbudget can range from$500 to
$10,000 per year.
What matters is not the amount,what matters is the intention.
This is the budget thatstrengthens your capability.
(13:01):
It is the fuel for yourlong-term growth.
It ensures your learning hourscompound into mastery rather
than stagnate into repetition.
A person with a learning budgetis someone who has decided to
become more valuable, notsomeday, but now.
(13:53):
The budget for this searchusually comes in a range between
$2,000 and$20,000.
The purpose is simple.
You are investing in the processof finding new income.
Yes, people can reallocate fundsfrom personal spending or from
savings.
Many can carve off enoughsavings to support both the
learning budget and the earlystage search efforts.
(14:14):
But for most, the opportunitysearch requires a commitment to
future income, not just cuttingexpenses.
And this is the budget thatconverts your clarity into
traction.
It's the investment that beginsto multiply your earnings
potential.
The third and final financialgoal is the investment needs
budget.
This is a budget that funds theactual opportunity you discover
(14:37):
through searching.
It fuels acquiring a business,launching a product, investing
in equipment, securingprofessional services, finding
initial marketing, buildingsystems, entering a franchise,
or creating any form of newincome.
Depending on the nature of thisopportunity, the budget can
range from as little as$10,000to as much as$100,000 or more.
(14:59):
This is not the first budget.
This is not the beginner stage.
This budget only comes afteryou've built the learning
foundation, you've invested inthe search, you've identified a
viable opportunity aligned withyour skills, values, and risk
profile.
This budget is the engine thatturns vision into execution.
(15:20):
It's important to say thisclearly.
One, there's a financialreadiness assessment.
This exercise helps youunderstand your financial
(15:42):
starting point, monthly surplusand deficit, non-negotiable
expenses, optional spending,savings rate, your debt profile,
your current assets, liquidity.
People often discover that theyhave more flexibility than
expected, or that small andtargeted adjustments can unlock
significant resources.
Number two is your risk profileassessment.
(16:04):
Here we evaluate your emotionalreaction to risk, your tolerance
for uncertainty, your personalversion of safe, your recovery
capacity, whether you leanconservative or aggressive in
opportunity selection.
This tool ensures your financialdecisions align with who you
are, not who you think you'resupposed to be.
(16:24):
Risk doesn't disappear, but itbecomes something you can
evaluate rather than avoid.
Number three, values alignmentaudit.
This is where the realbreakthrough happens.
You evaluate whether yourfinancial decisions honor your
values, support your long-termidentity, reinforce your life
vision, align with your familyand partner responsibilities,
(16:46):
and reflect the future you wantto build.
When your values align with yourfinancial strategy, money stops
being emotional and it becomesintentional.
Money is not the barrier.
Money is the infrastructure thatsupports your ability to learn,
to search, to choose, and tobuild.
Money is a tool, a tool that isuseful once you define what
(17:09):
you're building.
When you break down theobjection of money into its
three components, the learningbudget, the search budget, and
the investment budget, youtransform something overwhelming
into something actionable.
You move from I don't haveenough money to I now know what
I need money for.
And once you know what you needmoney for, you can create a plan
(17:31):
to generate, save, and investthe amounts that are required.
This is how you overcome themoney objection.
Not with hope, not with luck,but with clarity, structure, and
intentional financial design.
Now that we've reframed moneyinto these three strategic
budgets, let's talk about theobjection that stops more people
than any other.
The one rooted not in yourschedule or your finances, but
(17:54):
in your emotion, fear.
What if I fail?
Fear is the most human of allobjections.
Fear speaks in whispers andquestions.
What if I fail?
What if I make the wrong move?
What if I'm not ready?
What will people think?
And for most people, fear is notloud, fear is paralyzing.
It doesn't stop you by force, itstops you by doubt.
(18:17):
But here's the truth fear almostnever comes from danger.
Fear comes from uncertainty.
And this is where the lifedesign system and the work that
you've already done around timeand money becomes
transformational.
Because the fear you feel todayis not the fear you will feel
once you've completed theprocess.
Let me explain.
(18:40):
Before you apply structure,before you audit time, before
you clarify your financialgoals, risk feels amorphous.
It feels like standing in fogwith no sense of direction.
This is when people eitherfreeze or leap blindly.
Freezing is paralysis.
Blind leaping is recklessness.
But once you've completed thetime objection work, the ideal
(19:03):
workflow, two hours a week oflearning, twenty hours a week of
doing, the learning, search, andinvestment budgets, something
profound starts to happen.
Your risk profile starts toshift.
You move away from guessing toknowing, from hoping to
planning, from reacting todesigning, and you're no longer
(19:23):
dealing with vague fear, you'redealing with structured,
informed decision making.
And in this environment, riskbecomes calculated, not
reckless.
A calculated risk is with time,budget, a process, support
systems, a measurable purpose, aknown upside, and a managed
(19:43):
downside.
Fear doesn't disappear, but itbecomes something you can manage
and evaluate, not something thatcontrols you.
Now let's talk about one of themost important shifts that
happens when you commit to twohours per week of learning.
People enter this processthinking.
They fear failure, but what theyactually fear is the unknown.
(20:04):
As your knowledge compounds,something remarkable starts to
happen.
You gain the ability not only toassess the risk of taking
action, but to assess the riskof not taking action.
Most people overestimate thepain of failure and
underestimate the cost ofinaction.
This is how they get stuck.
Five years in a career they nolonger love, ten years with no
(20:27):
financial progress, 15 years ofnot knowing how to change or how
to take the next step.
But once you start learning,once you start understanding
markets, industries, revenuemodels, assets, tax structures,
pathways to entrepreneurship,you begin to see clearly
inaction has a measurable cost.
(20:48):
And sometimes that cost is fargreater than the cost of trying
and failing.
People rarely calculate theincome they didn't earn, the
opportunities they neverexplored, the skills they never
developed, the years they can'tget back, the regret compounds
quietly over time.
The learning process reframesfear because it reframes
(21:09):
reality.
Knowledge doesn't just expandyour options, knowledge expands
your courage.
Inside the Life Audit Workbook,we use a set of exercises
designed to take fear apartpiece by piece.
This is where we focus onelevated dreams and aspirations,
and the core of it is helpingyou separate emotional fear from
(21:31):
objective danger.
For those watching, the slidehere highlights three dimensions
and distinctions danger versusfear, calculated versus reckless
risk, and the cost of inaction.
Let's break these down.
Danger versus fear.
Danger is objective, it'smeasurable, it's real.
Fear is emotional, it'santicipatory, it's often
(21:54):
imaginary.
A dangerous situation requirescaution.
A fearful situation requiresclarity.
By using structured exercises,reflection prompts, emotional
mapping, risk classification,you learn to see this is real,
this is imagined, this ismanageable, this is something I
can prepare for, and thatseparation is everything.
(22:17):
A reckless risk is one takenwithout information,
preparation, budget, or plan.
A calculated risk is one takenwith learning, structure,
resources, time and strategy andsupport.
Overcoming the time and moneyobjections automatically shifts
you into a calculated territory.
Why?
Because you've reclaimedcapacity, you've built routines,
(22:40):
you've assigned learning hours,built a financial runway,
created investment categories,identified your risk tolerance,
and connected your goals to yourvalues.
This is how high performers moveintelligently, not by avoiding
risk, but by structuring it.
The Life Audit uses journalprompts, reflections, and
structured financial exercisesto help you measure the cost of
(23:04):
staying where you are.
But once you rate those costsdown, once you see them clearly,
fear starts to lose its grip.
Most people stay stuck notbecause the action is too risky,
but because the inaction feelscomfortable.
But comfort can be dangerous.
Comfort can be expensive.
Comfort can be the silentarchitect of regret.
(23:27):
When the cost of inactionbecomes visible, the fear of
action decreases dramatically.
Most people's fear is driven bythe concern of failure.
They imagine the worst casescenarios, they imagine
embarrassment, they imagineloss, but here's what people
almost never consider the costof doing nothing.
(23:48):
What you lose by not acting,skills, time, momentum and
opportunities, income, identity,and agency.
When you recalibrate risk, whenyou weigh the cost of failure
against the cost of inaction, asubstantial portion of fear
evaporates.
Because real fear isn't failing.
(24:08):
Real fear is staying the same.
The purpose of this entiresystem, the time audit, the
ideal workday, the learning,search, and investment budgets,
your risk profile and alignmentof frameworks is to give fear a
structure.
When fear has no structure, itbecomes a wall.
When fear has structure, itbecomes information.
(24:29):
This is the section of the lifeaudit process that doesn't
eliminate fear, it transformsit.
Fear becomes a teacher, fearbecomes a signal, fear becomes a
compass.
Fear becomes something you cananalyze, not something that
controls your life.
And once fear is structured,you're able to make decisions
that honor your future, notdecisions that protect your
(24:49):
past.
So now that we've dismantledfear, not by ignoring it, but by
understanding it, let's move tothe next objection, the question
of whether you can actually dothis.
Doubt.
Do you get that knot in yourstomach every Sunday night?
You've checked all the boxes,career, title, income.
(25:11):
But if you're honest, this isnot the life you imagined.
What if the problem isn't you?
It's the design of your life.
On Bo, I help high performersredesign their lives for
freedom, purpose, and realwealth.
Join my master class and I'llwalk you through the exact
framework.
Go to lifedesign.com.
That's L-I-F-E-D-E-S-Y-N.com.
(25:34):
Your new chapter doesn't startsomeday, it starts now.
SPEAKER_00 (25:41):
Your listening to the first million is always the
hardest.
We are now returning to theshow.
SPEAKER_01 (25:46):
Doubt is the quiet objection.
It doesn't shout like fear, itwhispers.
And it whispers sounds likethis.
I'm not sure I can do this, buthere's the truth.
Doubt is not the lack ofcapability.
Doubt is the lack of evidence.
Your brain isn't saying youcan't do this.
Your brain is saying I haven'tseen enough proof yet.
(26:07):
And that distinction changeseverything.
Because if doubt is aboutevidence, then doubt is
something that we can engineerour way through.
In the same way that our hopesand dreams help us separate
reckless risk from calculatedrisk to overcome fear.
We use the underlying desiresinside those same hopes and
dreams to overcome doubt.
(26:28):
Fear improves when you definethe risk.
Doubt improves when you definethe path.
Because dreams without structureoverwhelm us, but dreams with
structure, with steps, stages,and milestones empower us.
This is the heart of the lifedesign approach.
Inside the Life Audit workbook,the objection is addressed in
(26:49):
this section entitled ExpandYour Threshold of Control.
This is where we take emotionalenergy from your desires, your
wantings, your aspirations, andvision and convert them into
actionable, confidence buildingsteps.
The tool for this is called theladder of difficulty.
It works like this.
You start with a desire, youbreak it into its components.
(27:12):
You turn components into tasks,and you order these tasks from
easiest to hardest.
You begin where success isalmost guaranteed and you climb
upward.
Every rung gives your brainevidence.
Every rung builds self-trust.
Every rung increases thresholdof control.
This is not a motivationaltheory.
(27:33):
This is neurology.
Your brain's confidence center,the prefrontal cortex, responds
not to inspiration, but to wins.
Small wins, stacked wins,repeated wins.
Wins that tell your brain I amcapable.
I can do this.
I've already done the steps likethis before.
Doubt dissolves in the presenceof accumulated proof.
(27:56):
There is a truth I've seen in mywhole life and in the lives of
countless professionals.
You don't think your way intoconfidence, you perform your way
into confidence.
When you perform even thesmallest version of a desired
behavior, you take one step upthe ladder.
Your brain encodes that success.
That success becomes evidence.
(28:16):
That evidence becomesconfidence, and that confidence
restricts doubt's ability todistort your perception.
Doubt cannot survive repeateddemonstration of capacity.
This is the science behindhabits, learning, performance,
and long-term behavioral change.
The life design systemintentionally links your time
audit, your learning budget,your opportunity search budget,
(28:39):
your risk profile, values, andideal workday together because
they create the conditions forevidence accumulation.
When your time is structured,your money is directed, fears
are reframed, goals areclarified, actions are
sequenced, you stop wrestlingwith self-doubt, and you start
demonstrating self-evidence.
(28:59):
This is why we also focus on theinstallation of new habits and
practices.
Daily learning, weekly doing,scheduled reflection, task
batching, progress tracking,repetition with increasing
development.
Each habit is a micro evidencegenerator.
Each practice becomes anotherrung on the ladder.
Each action reaffirms youremerging identity.
(29:22):
And once your identity begins toshift, you start seeing yourself
as someone with capacity.
Doubt loses its power.
Let's connect the dots.
The energy inventory shows youwhen you are strongest.
The time commitment map showsyou when you can release.
The ideal workflow gives you thestructure to act.
(29:45):
The learning budget fuels yourunderstanding.
The opportunity budget fuelsyour expiration.
The investment budget fuels yourexecution.
Your risk profile shapes yourdecisions.
The value audit aligns yourchoices.
The cost of inaction reframesyour urgency.
The ladder of difficulty turnsdreams into steps, and habits
(30:07):
and practices plan createsrecurring wins.
Together, these tools dosomething incredibly powerful.
They convert desire into proof.
And proof is the antidote todoubt.
This is the process throughwhich people discover that
capability was never the issue.
The issue was the absence ofvisible evidence.
Because human beings don't needperfection to move forward.
(30:30):
We need confirmation.
We need the experience ofshowing up, taking action,
completing steps, learning frommistakes, and climbing the
ladder.
That's how confidence is built.
That's how doubt is erased.
That's how we expand ourthreshold of control.
Now that we've groundedconfidence in structure,
(30:50):
evidence in action, we can moveto the final objection, the one
that connects not just to you,but to people who rely on you.
I have responsibilities, peopledepend on me.
The final objection is often themost complex and the most
misunderstood.
When people hear partner, theyoften think spouse.
But in the life design system,partner has a much broader
(31:12):
meaning.
A partner is anyone whose lifeis meaningfully affected by your
decisions.
That might be a spouse, it mightbe a child, an aging parent, a
sibling you support, aco-parent, a business partner, a
close friend you helpfinancially, a mentor you feel
obligated to, anyone whosestability is tied to your
stability.
(31:33):
And that's why this objectionhits so hard.
Because it's not aboutlogistics, it's about your
responsibility, it's aboutidentity, it's about stewardship
of others.
People who carry responsibilityfor others do not take risks
lightly, nor should they.
But there is a truth that mostpeople don't realize.
The partner objection isn'treally about your partner's
(31:54):
fears.
It's about your fear of how yourchoices will affect them.
And the only way to overcomethis objection is through
clarity, communication, and anhonest understanding of how the
change impacts the people youcare about.
In this Life Audit Workbook, theobjection is captured in the
panel entitled Engage andPrepare Other Parties.
(32:16):
It has three goals.
Identify those fears, plan togain their support, monitor and
dress and address ongoingconcerns.
Each of these steps is essentialbecause change doesn't happen in
a vacuum.
Your transformation createsripple effects, and the people
in your life feel those ripples.
The question is, are theyprepared for them?
(32:37):
Have they been invited into theprocess?
Do they understand what'shappening?
Let's break down these goals.
Number one, identifying theirfears.
We often project onto ourpartner.
We assume we know what they'reworried about.
They're scared of losing money,they're afraid I'll be too busy,
they won't like the riskinvolved.
(32:58):
But more often than not, theirreal fears are emotional, not
practical.
Will our lifestyle change?
Will I lose time with you?
Will you become someone I don'trecognize?
Will I be left behind?
Will your success distance us?
Will this decision put pressureon me?
These are quiet fears, unspokenfears, human fears.
(33:20):
And until you invite those fearsto the surface, the partner
objection will always feelheavy.
This is not about convincingpeople.
It's about aligning with them.
It means sharing your goals,explaining your process,
outlining your timeline,clarifying financial plans, and
showing the risk calculationtools that you've used,
(33:40):
demonstrating how the life audithas created clarity, asking for
what you need, not assuming it.
Support doesn't mean agreement.
Sometimes support simply meansawareness, but awareness is
powerful.
Awareness builds trust.
Awareness builds alignment, andalignment reduces resistance.
This objection isn't resolvedwith one conversation.
(34:02):
It's a relationship dynamic thatevolves over time.
Change affects your schedule,change affects your
availability, it affects yourenergy, your identity.
If you've never revisited theconversation, if you never check
in, if you never ask how is thisaffecting you, then the pressure
builds silently.
Small misunderstandings becomefractures, unaddressed concerns
(34:26):
become resentment, andresentment becomes sabotage,
intentional or unintentional.
The life design system teachesyou to treat this objection as a
process, not an event, becausesolid relationships thrive when
they adapt together.
Let me share the perspectivethat people often overlook.
The partner objective isn't justabout a spouse saying, I'm not
(34:49):
sure you should do this.
It's about a child who suddenlyfeels like they're getting less
from you, a parent who relies onyour support and fears
instability, a sibling who seesyou as their anchor, a business
partner who depends on yourtime, a co-parent whose routine
changes when yours changes, aloved one who's worried, they'll
(35:11):
fall down the priority list.
When you dedicate time, energy,and money to a new project, even
a great project, your partnerand dependent will feel the
shift.
Their lives are intertwined withyours.
Your growth creates movement andmovement affects them.
What I've seen over and overagain is this most partner
conflicts don't come fromdisagreement, they come from
(35:34):
surprise.
People don't resent your growth,they resent being left out of
the conversation.
When you're up front and youexplain the change, the
timeline, the budget, thereason, the vision, even if your
partner is nervous, they feelrespected.
And when you check in regularly,they feel included.
And when you ask about theirconcerns, they feel valued.
(35:57):
And when you adjust whereneeded, they feel secure.
Skipping this step almost alwaysleads to problems, not because
of the goal, but because of thecommunication around the goal.
The partner objective is not abarrier, it's a relationship
checkpoint.
Handled well, it strengthensyour support system.
Handled poorly, it destabilizesit.
(36:17):
Overcoming the partner objectionis essential because your goals
affect the people you love,their fears affect your
emotional state, your emotionalstate affects your execution.
This objection is deeplyintertwined with sustainability.
If you try to build your futurebut lose your support system
along the way, the success willfeel hollow and often temporary.
(36:41):
But when you engage the peoplewho matter, when you explain
your structure, when you showthem your ideal workday, your
time audit, planning, thebudgets, your risk profile, the
ladders of difficulty, all thedifferent elements that we've
discussed, something profoundhappens.
They see that your decision isnot reckless.
(37:02):
They see that your risk iscalculated.
They see your growth as a plan.
They see their role matters.
They see that you've consideredthe impact, not ignored it.
This turns apprehension intoalignment, fear into
understanding, and resistanceinto partnership.
And partnership, truepartnership, is one of the
(37:23):
greatest accelerators oflong-term success.
So now that we've addressed thefive objections, time, money,
fear, doubt, and partner, we canfinally bring them together.
Let's close with the integrationthat connects all of these
pieces into a cohesive pathforward.
As we close today'sconversation, I want to bring
everything covered into oneclear integrated understanding.
(37:47):
We started with the recognitionthat at the end of every year
and before the beginning ofevery new one, the most
important thing we can do isassess who we have become and
who we intend to be next.
Whether you're aiming to start abusiness, expand your income,
redesign your career, or simplyreclaim control over your life,
(38:07):
the truth remains consistent.
Your success is not determinedby what's outside of you.
It is determined by the way younavigate what's inside of you.
That's why the five objectionsmatter so deeply.
Because these objections are notexternal barriers, they are
internal signals pointing youtowards the next level of
clarity.
(38:27):
And let's walk through them onelast time very quickly.
Time, the objection of capacity.
You've learned that time is notsomething you have, time is
something you design.
And through the life auditprocess, the ideal workday, your
energy inventory, your timecommitment map, you can discover
how to reclaim capacity to learntwo hours a week and to act 20
(38:50):
hours a month.
This is how momentum begins.
Money, the objection ofresources.
You've learned that money is nota limiter.
Money is an enabler of the pathyou're building.
And by defining three escalatingbudgets, a learning budget, an
opportunity search budget, andan investment needs budget,
you've transformed a vague senseof not enough into a structured,
(39:12):
intentional financial strategy.
This is how opportunity becomesmeasurable.
Fear, the objection ofuncertainty.
You've learned that fear is nota stop sign.
Fear is a compass pointingtowards growth.
And once you've separated dangerfrom fear, once you've shifted
from reckless to calculatedrisk, and once you've evaluated
(39:34):
the cost of inaction, fearbecomes something you can
manage, something that you canmove with, not run from.
And this is how courage becomespractical.
Doubt, the objection ofevidence.
You've learned that doubt is nota lack of ability, doubt is a
lack of proof.
And through the latterdifficulty, the habit
installation framework, and theneurology backed process of
(39:57):
stacking small wins, you builtThe evidence your brain needs to
believe in your capability.
And this is how confidencebecomes structural.
Partner in the objection ofresponsibility.
And finally, you've learned thatpartnership, whether a spouse, a
child, or parent, or anyone whodepends on you, is not an
obstacle to your growth.
(40:18):
It is a part of your design.
By identifying their fears,inviting them into your process,
creating a plan for alignment,and checking in over time, you
transform resistance intosupport.
This is how stability becomessustainability.
Each objection, time, money,fear, doubt, partner, is not a
(40:39):
wall blocking your path.
It's a diagnostic checkpoint,revealing what needs attention,
what needs structure, what needsclarity, what needs alignment.
And when you apply the full lifedesign methodology, the life
audit, the exercises, the idealwork day, the budgets and
habits, you stop navigating yourlife reactively.
(41:00):
You start designing your lifeintentionally.
This is not about hustle.
This is not about grinding.
This is not about forcingoutcomes.
This is about alignment.
Alignment between who you are,who you want to be, and how you
want to move.
And once everything aligns,momentum accelerates.
You become more capable, youbecome more focused, you become
(41:22):
more consistent, and you becomemore powerful in your own
decisions.
That is the essence oftransformation, that is the
foundation of your firstmillion, and that is what this
work is all about.
If today's episode resonatedwith you, if you recognized
yourself in any of the fiveobjections, if you felt even a
moment of clarity, energy, orpossibility, then I invite you
(41:44):
to take the next step and go tolifedesign.com, that's
L-I-F-E-D-E-S-Y-N.com, and jointhe Life Design Masterclass.
This is where we take everythingwe discussed today and apply it
to your life with a full lifeaudit, worksheets, budgets, and
tools, coaching frameworks, asystem in personalized and
(42:05):
adjusted execution plans.
Whether you pursue a sidebusiness, a full-time
entrepreneurial path, or abusiness acquisition, this
system gives you structure,momentum, and a roadmap that
accelerates your progress.
Because your first million isnot just financial.
Your first million is themillion of decisions, habits,
beliefs, and actions you alignalong the way to building the
(42:29):
life you want.
And that journey starts withclarity.
I'm Bo Kemp, and this has beenThe First Million is Always the
Hardest.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for investing inyourself, and thank you for
committing to the work.
I'll see you next episode, andI'll see you inside Life Design.
I just want to take a moment tosay thank you.
Thank you for listening, forletting us be a small part of
(42:51):
your day, and for joining in inthese conversations that matter.
This podcast isn't just ours,it's yours.
We'd love for you to subscribeso you never miss an episode and
join our community where you canshare your own journey, your
wins, and your lessons.
And if there's someone whosestory you think we should hear,
tell us.
We're listening.
(43:11):
Thank you.
The right idea can change everything, but the right
community changes the game.
The First Million is always thehardest connects entrepreneurs
and real estate developers tothe best books, podcasts, and
social channels, and live eventsthat fuel success.
No hype, just knowledge andnetwork and next level growth.
Join us on Facebook andInstagram at the First Million
(00:21):
Podcast and turn your firstmillion into your foundation for
more.
(01:42):
Most people skip this step.
They roll into next year withunexamined habits, unchallenged
assumptions, and unresolvedbarriers.
But not you.
Not if you're listening to theshow.
Not if you're committed tobuilding your first million,
financially, emotionally,professionally, or creatively.
Because the way you close oneyear determines the altitude at
(02:04):
which you begin the next.
And that's why today's episodeis personal.
Today's episode is about you.
Today we're talking about thefive objections, the five
internal stopping points thatkeep talented people from
becoming who they were meant tobe.
These objections shape yourperformance this year, they
shape your opportunities nextyear, and the core of the life
(02:26):
audit inside of the Life Designcourse where the real work of
transformation begins.
Whether you're watching this onvideo or listening in your car
or on your walk, by the end oftoday's session, you'll know
exactly which of the fiveobjections has been limiting
your progress and what to doabout it.
Let's get started.
Why the five objections matterand how the life audit makes
(02:47):
them visible.
People think their obstacles areexternal.
I didn't have time.
I didn't have money.
I was scared.
I wasn't sure I could do it.
My partner would never supportthis.
But after coaching thousands ofprofessionals, builders,
entrepreneurs, I'll tell youwhat's true.
Your obstacles are rarelyexternal.
They are internal narrativesthat shape how you use time,
(03:10):
energy, money, focus, andrelationships.
And that's why the Life Audit,the first step of the life
design system, exists.
It's structured, diagnostic thatevaluates your energy, your
values, your financialreadiness, your purpose, and
your path alignment.
It reveals patterns you can'tsee.
It clarifies choices you haven'tnamed, and it exposes
(03:32):
assumptions you've never tested.
As we move through the fiveobjections today, I will bring
in the life audit exercises, thesurveys, the worksheets, the
reflection tools, because theyare what makes the difference
between knowing your objectionand actually overcoming it.
Let's begin with one that peoplesay first and defend the
hardest.
I don't have enough time.
(03:53):
If there's a universalobjection, this is it.
But everyone believes it's theirtruth.
But time is the only resourceevery human being receives
equally.
So the real question is not, doI have enough time?
The real question is what am Idoing with the time I have?
That's why inside the lifedesign system, the time
objection is not addressed withmotivation.
(04:16):
It's addressed with data,structure, and awareness.
We ground this objection in twosimple goals.
Goals that becometransformational once they are
consistently met.
Goal number one, find two hoursper week to invest in learning.
Goal number two, find twentyhours per month to invest in
(04:36):
doing.
These two goals become thefoundation of your growth.
The two hours of learning buildyour long-term capability, the
knowledge that compounds, thetwenty hours of doing build your
habits, the actions that createmomentum.
But neither happens by accident.
They happen because you audityour time and engineer your
(04:56):
schedule.
And that's where the life designtime objection exercises come
in.
The exercises that reveal yourcapacity.
Inside the Life Audit Workbook,we start with a sequence of
exercises designed to exposewhere your time and more
importantly, where your energyare actually going.
The energy inventory, one of thesystems, tracks your physical,
(05:19):
mental, emotional, motivational,and social energy across
multiple days.
The time commitment map helpsmap out every commitment and
rating it by what drains you,what energizes you, what's
non-negotiable.
The Energy Pie chart is avisualization strategy that
helps you understand how yourenergy is distributed across
(05:39):
work, family, recovery,self-care, and obligations.
And the capacity thresholdjournal identifies the one hour
a day that you could relocate,reallocate, and identify what
you need to let go in order topursue other opportunities
around business.
These exercises work together.
They reveal not just where yourtime is going, but what you're
(06:01):
doing with your time.
But the real breakthrough iswhat these exercises produce.
They produce an ideal workflow,and that's what I want to unpack
now.
If you're watching the video,you'll see a slide titled Time
Commitment Example IdealWorkflow, 12-hour workday.
To our audio listeners, let mepaint this picture.
(06:22):
This is a slide of a full dayschedule that includes sleep,
morning routines, think work,meetings, breaks, relationship
time, and personal time.
It's broken into time frame,activity, goal, purposes, and
support.
On the right side, there's someinsights summarizing the design.
Goals, for example, for me,around seven hours of sleep,
(06:44):
plus two hours a day dedicatedto body, mind, and soul, so that
roughly 40% of my day isdedicated to mind, body, and
soul.
17% of my work day is dedicatedto think work, opportunities to
be thoughtful, to addsignificant value.
17% of my day is dedicated topeople management, people that I
need to connect to in order toexecute the work.
(07:07):
And about 30% of my day isdedicated towards developing and
maintaining relationships.
This is not a rigid schedule.
This is an engineered framework,a time-aligned system that
supports your goals, yourenergy, your long-term
development.
But here's what's important.
This ideal day didn't appear bymagic.
It emerged from a life auditexercises.
(07:28):
The energy inventory showed whenI was cognitively sharpest.
Those slots became the 7 a.m.
to 9 a.m.
think work window for me.
The time commitment map helpedreveal how many meetings were
draining, which led to limitingoperations meetings to 9 a.m.
to 11 a.m.
and pushing relationshipbuilding into my late
afternoons.
(07:49):
The Energy Pie chart made itclear that I needed daily breaks
to sustain creativity, leadingto the 11 a.m.
walk, music, and meeting block.
And the capacity journalidentified where my reclaimable
hours were hiding, whichunlocked the time for deep work,
reading, studying, and strategicthinking.
This ideal day created theconditions for the two goals.
(08:12):
Two hours a week of learningwere found inside the 7 a.m.
to 9 a.m.
block, and 20 hours per month ofdoing emerged from the open
afternoon blocks that hadpreviously been swallowed by
unscheduled and reactivemeetings.
The ideal workflow didn't createtime.
It revealed it, and then itstructured it.
Let me bring this to life withmy own story.
(08:34):
There was a period when I knew Ineeded to deepen my
understanding of truststrategies, legal structures,
and tax planning.
I knew this knowledge wouldshape the way I built wealth,
protected assets, and set uplong-term structures for my
family and future investments.
But like many of you, I didn'thave the time or so I thought.
I was running an organization,multiple organizations,
(08:55):
traveling, managingrelationships, supporting teams,
raising a family.
It felt like every hour wasspoken for.
But once I completed theexercises that are part of this
life audit, something becamecrystal clear.
I had time.
It just wasn't organized inservice of my goals.
And through the time commitmentmap, I realized realized that I
wasn't using my early morningseffectively.
(09:17):
I also realized that I hadscattered low value activities
throughout the week that drainedme but added little to my
purpose or outcomes.
So I made a shift.
I carved out two hours per weekinside my ideal 7 a.m.
to 9 a.m.
think work block time,specifically for tax, trust, and
legal structure learning.
Two hours, not twenty, just two.
(09:40):
And over weeks and months, thosetwo hours created exponential
returns.
The more I learned, the more Icould see the opportunities.
The more I understood, the moreprecisely I could restructure my
assets, the more I understood,the more I could identify
strategies that most peoplenever gain access to.
But here's the truth.
None of that would have happenedwithout leveraging these life
(10:02):
audit exercises, because thoseexercises created the ideal
workflow, and the workflowcreated the conditions for
transformation.
Those two hours per week alteredthe trajectory of my financial
life.
They reshaped my ability tobuild wealth, structure deals,
protect assets, and influenceeconomic outcomes.
And the same is possible foranyone who applies this process.
(10:25):
The time objective is not aboutyour calendar, it's about your
alignment.
The life audit exercises showsyou where your energy peaks,
where your time leaks, whereyour commitments misalign, where
your hours are being spent onthe wrong priorities, where
small adjustments produce majorcapacity.
And the ideal workday is theliving blueprint of that
(10:48):
insight.
When you follow thesestructures, you don't just find
two hours of learning and 20hours of doing.
You protect them, you honorthem, and ultimately you rely on
them to propel your futureforward.
Because the learning hourscompound your intellect, and the
doing hours compound youraction.
Together, they build your pathto mastery.
(11:10):
And overcoming time objection isthe doorway to every other
breakthrough in the life designsystem.
So now that we've dismantled thetime objection with structure,
with exercises, and with realworld proof, let's move into the
second major barrier, the beliefthat you don't have enough
money.
I don't have enough money.
(11:31):
Now that we've reframed the timeobjection and identified two
foundational goals, two hoursper week of learning and 20
hours a month of doing, we canfinally talk about the objection
that sits right underneath it.
I don't have enough money.
For many people, this objectionfeels logical.
It feels responsible, it feelsgrounded in reality.
But here's the truth, money isnot the goal.
(11:54):
Money is the support structurethat makes your learning
possible and it makes your doingprofitable.
Money is fuel, but unless youclarify what that money is
fueling, you'll never generateenough of it because the goal is
vague and the path is undefined.
Inside the life design system,we overcome the money objective
by breaking it into threeescalating budgets, each one
(12:17):
supporting a different stage ofyour transformation.
Let's walk through them one byone.
The learning budget, the leastexpensive and most foundational,
supporting your two hours oflearning per week.
When you commit to learning twohours per week, you must also
commit to investing in theinputs that make those hours
meaningful.
(12:38):
This is your learning budget.
The budget covers books,courses, master classes,
seminars, conferences,specialized training, audio
programs, learning communities.
Depending on your goals, thisbudget can range from$500 to
$10,000 per year.
What matters is not the amount,what matters is the intention.
This is the budget thatstrengthens your capability.
(13:01):
It is the fuel for yourlong-term growth.
It ensures your learning hourscompound into mastery rather
than stagnate into repetition.
A person with a learning budgetis someone who has decided to
become more valuable, notsomeday, but now.
(13:53):
The budget for this searchusually comes in a range between
$2,000 and$20,000.
The purpose is simple.
You are investing in the processof finding new income.
Yes, people can reallocate fundsfrom personal spending or from
savings.
Many can carve off enoughsavings to support both the
learning budget and the earlystage search efforts.
(14:14):
But for most, the opportunitysearch requires a commitment to
future income, not just cuttingexpenses.
And this is the budget thatconverts your clarity into
traction.
It's the investment that beginsto multiply your earnings
potential.
The third and final financialgoal is the investment needs
budget.
This is a budget that funds theactual opportunity you discover
(14:37):
through searching.
It fuels acquiring a business,launching a product, investing
in equipment, securingprofessional services, finding
initial marketing, buildingsystems, entering a franchise,
or creating any form of newincome.
Depending on the nature of thisopportunity, the budget can
range from as little as$10,000to as much as$100,000 or more.
(14:59):
This is not the first budget.
This is not the beginner stage.
This budget only comes afteryou've built the learning
foundation, you've invested inthe search, you've identified a
viable opportunity aligned withyour skills, values, and risk
profile.
This budget is the engine thatturns vision into execution.
(15:20):
It's important to say thisclearly.
One, there's a financialreadiness assessment.
This exercise helps youunderstand your financial
(15:42):
starting point, monthly surplusand deficit, non-negotiable
expenses, optional spending,savings rate, your debt profile,
your current assets, liquidity.
People often discover that theyhave more flexibility than
expected, or that small andtargeted adjustments can unlock
significant resources.
Number two is your risk profileassessment.
(16:04):
Here we evaluate your emotionalreaction to risk, your tolerance
for uncertainty, your personalversion of safe, your recovery
capacity, whether you leanconservative or aggressive in
opportunity selection.
This tool ensures your financialdecisions align with who you
are, not who you think you'resupposed to be.
(16:24):
Risk doesn't disappear, but itbecomes something you can
evaluate rather than avoid.
Number three, values alignmentaudit.
This is where the realbreakthrough happens.
You evaluate whether yourfinancial decisions honor your
values, support your long-termidentity, reinforce your life
vision, align with your familyand partner responsibilities,
(16:46):
and reflect the future you wantto build.
When your values align with yourfinancial strategy, money stops
being emotional and it becomesintentional.
Money is not the barrier.
Money is the infrastructure thatsupports your ability to learn,
to search, to choose, and tobuild.
Money is a tool, a tool that isuseful once you define what
(17:09):
you're building.
When you break down theobjection of money into its
three components, the learningbudget, the search budget, and
the investment budget, youtransform something overwhelming
into something actionable.
You move from I don't haveenough money to I now know what
I need money for.
And once you know what you needmoney for, you can create a plan
(17:31):
to generate, save, and investthe amounts that are required.
This is how you overcome themoney objection.
Not with hope, not with luck,but with clarity, structure, and
intentional financial design.
Now that we've reframed moneyinto these three strategic
budgets, let's talk about theobjection that stops more people
than any other.
The one rooted not in yourschedule or your finances, but
(17:54):
in your emotion, fear.
What if I fail?
Fear is the most human of allobjections.
Fear speaks in whispers andquestions.
What if I fail?
What if I make the wrong move?
What if I'm not ready?
What will people think?
And for most people, fear is notloud, fear is paralyzing.
It doesn't stop you by force, itstops you by doubt.
(18:17):
But here's the truth fear almostnever comes from danger.
Fear comes from uncertainty.
And this is where the lifedesign system and the work that
you've already done around timeand money becomes
transformational.
Because the fear you feel todayis not the fear you will feel
once you've completed theprocess.
Let me explain.
(18:40):
Before you apply structure,before you audit time, before
you clarify your financialgoals, risk feels amorphous.
It feels like standing in fogwith no sense of direction.
This is when people eitherfreeze or leap blindly.
Freezing is paralysis.
Blind leaping is recklessness.
But once you've completed thetime objection work, the ideal
(19:03):
workflow, two hours a week oflearning, twenty hours a week of
doing, the learning, search, andinvestment budgets, something
profound starts to happen.
Your risk profile starts toshift.
You move away from guessing toknowing, from hoping to
planning, from reacting todesigning, and you're no longer
(19:23):
dealing with vague fear, you'redealing with structured,
informed decision making.
And in this environment, riskbecomes calculated, not
reckless.
A calculated risk is with time,budget, a process, support
systems, a measurable purpose, aknown upside, and a managed
(19:43):
downside.
Fear doesn't disappear, but itbecomes something you can manage
and evaluate, not something thatcontrols you.
Now let's talk about one of themost important shifts that
happens when you commit to twohours per week of learning.
People enter this processthinking.
They fear failure, but what theyactually fear is the unknown.
(20:04):
As your knowledge compounds,something remarkable starts to
happen.
You gain the ability not only toassess the risk of taking
action, but to assess the riskof not taking action.
Most people overestimate thepain of failure and
underestimate the cost ofinaction.
This is how they get stuck.
Five years in a career they nolonger love, ten years with no
(20:27):
financial progress, 15 years ofnot knowing how to change or how
to take the next step.
But once you start learning,once you start understanding
markets, industries, revenuemodels, assets, tax structures,
pathways to entrepreneurship,you begin to see clearly
inaction has a measurable cost.
(20:48):
And sometimes that cost is fargreater than the cost of trying
and failing.
People rarely calculate theincome they didn't earn, the
opportunities they neverexplored, the skills they never
developed, the years they can'tget back, the regret compounds
quietly over time.
The learning process reframesfear because it reframes
(21:09):
reality.
Knowledge doesn't just expandyour options, knowledge expands
your courage.
Inside the Life Audit Workbook,we use a set of exercises
designed to take fear apartpiece by piece.
This is where we focus onelevated dreams and aspirations,
and the core of it is helpingyou separate emotional fear from
(21:31):
objective danger.
For those watching, the slidehere highlights three dimensions
and distinctions danger versusfear, calculated versus reckless
risk, and the cost of inaction.
Let's break these down.
Danger versus fear.
Danger is objective, it'smeasurable, it's real.
Fear is emotional, it'santicipatory, it's often
(21:54):
imaginary.
A dangerous situation requirescaution.
A fearful situation requiresclarity.
By using structured exercises,reflection prompts, emotional
mapping, risk classification,you learn to see this is real,
this is imagined, this ismanageable, this is something I
can prepare for, and thatseparation is everything.
(22:17):
A reckless risk is one takenwithout information,
preparation, budget, or plan.
A calculated risk is one takenwith learning, structure,
resources, time and strategy andsupport.
Overcoming the time and moneyobjections automatically shifts
you into a calculated territory.
Why?
Because you've reclaimedcapacity, you've built routines,
(22:40):
you've assigned learning hours,built a financial runway,
created investment categories,identified your risk tolerance,
and connected your goals to yourvalues.
This is how high performers moveintelligently, not by avoiding
risk, but by structuring it.
The Life Audit uses journalprompts, reflections, and
structured financial exercisesto help you measure the cost of
(23:04):
staying where you are.
But once you rate those costsdown, once you see them clearly,
fear starts to lose its grip.
Most people stay stuck notbecause the action is too risky,
but because the inaction feelscomfortable.
But comfort can be dangerous.
Comfort can be expensive.
Comfort can be the silentarchitect of regret.
(23:27):
When the cost of inactionbecomes visible, the fear of
action decreases dramatically.
Most people's fear is driven bythe concern of failure.
They imagine the worst casescenarios, they imagine
embarrassment, they imagineloss, but here's what people
almost never consider the costof doing nothing.
(23:48):
What you lose by not acting,skills, time, momentum and
opportunities, income, identity,and agency.
When you recalibrate risk, whenyou weigh the cost of failure
against the cost of inaction, asubstantial portion of fear
evaporates.
Because real fear isn't failing.
(24:08):
Real fear is staying the same.
The purpose of this entiresystem, the time audit, the
ideal workday, the learning,search, and investment budgets,
your risk profile and alignmentof frameworks is to give fear a
structure.
When fear has no structure, itbecomes a wall.
When fear has structure, itbecomes information.
(24:29):
This is the section of the lifeaudit process that doesn't
eliminate fear, it transformsit.
Fear becomes a teacher, fearbecomes a signal, fear becomes a
compass.
Fear becomes something you cananalyze, not something that
controls your life.
And once fear is structured,you're able to make decisions
that honor your future, notdecisions that protect your
(24:49):
past.
So now that we've dismantledfear, not by ignoring it, but by
understanding it, let's move tothe next objection, the question
of whether you can actually dothis.
Doubt.
Do you get that knot in yourstomach every Sunday night?
You've checked all the boxes,career, title, income.
(25:11):
But if you're honest, this isnot the life you imagined.
What if the problem isn't you?
It's the design of your life.
On Bo, I help high performersredesign their lives for
freedom, purpose, and realwealth.
Join my master class and I'llwalk you through the exact
framework.
Go to lifedesign.com.
That's L-I-F-E-D-E-S-Y-N.com.
(25:34):
Your new chapter doesn't startsomeday, it starts now.
SPEAKER_00 (25:41):
Your listening to the first million is always the
hardest.
We are now returning to theshow.
SPEAKER_01 (25:46):
Doubt is the quiet objection.
It doesn't shout like fear, itwhispers.
And it whispers sounds likethis.
I'm not sure I can do this, buthere's the truth.
Doubt is not the lack ofcapability.
Doubt is the lack of evidence.
Your brain isn't saying youcan't do this.
Your brain is saying I haven'tseen enough proof yet.
(26:07):
And that distinction changeseverything.
Because if doubt is aboutevidence, then doubt is
something that we can engineerour way through.
In the same way that our hopesand dreams help us separate
reckless risk from calculatedrisk to overcome fear.
We use the underlying desiresinside those same hopes and
dreams to overcome doubt.
(26:28):
Fear improves when you definethe risk.
Doubt improves when you definethe path.
Because dreams without structureoverwhelm us, but dreams with
structure, with steps, stages,and milestones empower us.
This is the heart of the lifedesign approach.
Inside the Life Audit workbook,the objection is addressed in
(26:49):
this section entitled ExpandYour Threshold of Control.
This is where we take emotionalenergy from your desires, your
wantings, your aspirations, andvision and convert them into
actionable, confidence buildingsteps.
The tool for this is called theladder of difficulty.
It works like this.
You start with a desire, youbreak it into its components.
(27:12):
You turn components into tasks,and you order these tasks from
easiest to hardest.
You begin where success isalmost guaranteed and you climb
upward.
Every rung gives your brainevidence.
Every rung builds self-trust.
Every rung increases thresholdof control.
This is not a motivationaltheory.
(27:33):
This is neurology.
Your brain's confidence center,the prefrontal cortex, responds
not to inspiration, but to wins.
Small wins, stacked wins,repeated wins.
Wins that tell your brain I amcapable.
I can do this.
I've already done the steps likethis before.
Doubt dissolves in the presenceof accumulated proof.
(27:56):
There is a truth I've seen in mywhole life and in the lives of
countless professionals.
You don't think your way intoconfidence, you perform your way
into confidence.
When you perform even thesmallest version of a desired
behavior, you take one step upthe ladder.
Your brain encodes that success.
That success becomes evidence.
(28:16):
That evidence becomesconfidence, and that confidence
restricts doubt's ability todistort your perception.
Doubt cannot survive repeateddemonstration of capacity.
This is the science behindhabits, learning, performance,
and long-term behavioral change.
The life design systemintentionally links your time
audit, your learning budget,your opportunity search budget,
(28:39):
your risk profile, values, andideal workday together because
they create the conditions forevidence accumulation.
When your time is structured,your money is directed, fears
are reframed, goals areclarified, actions are
sequenced, you stop wrestlingwith self-doubt, and you start
demonstrating self-evidence.
(28:59):
This is why we also focus on theinstallation of new habits and
practices.
Daily learning, weekly doing,scheduled reflection, task
batching, progress tracking,repetition with increasing
development.
Each habit is a micro evidencegenerator.
Each practice becomes anotherrung on the ladder.
Each action reaffirms youremerging identity.
(29:22):
And once your identity begins toshift, you start seeing yourself
as someone with capacity.
Doubt loses its power.
Let's connect the dots.
The energy inventory shows youwhen you are strongest.
The time commitment map showsyou when you can release.
The ideal workflow gives you thestructure to act.
(29:45):
The learning budget fuels yourunderstanding.
The opportunity budget fuelsyour expiration.
The investment budget fuels yourexecution.
Your risk profile shapes yourdecisions.
The value audit aligns yourchoices.
The cost of inaction reframesyour urgency.
The ladder of difficulty turnsdreams into steps, and habits
(30:07):
and practices plan createsrecurring wins.
Together, these tools dosomething incredibly powerful.
They convert desire into proof.
And proof is the antidote todoubt.
This is the process throughwhich people discover that
capability was never the issue.
The issue was the absence ofvisible evidence.
Because human beings don't needperfection to move forward.
(30:30):
We need confirmation.
We need the experience ofshowing up, taking action,
completing steps, learning frommistakes, and climbing the
ladder.
That's how confidence is built.
That's how doubt is erased.
That's how we expand ourthreshold of control.
Now that we've groundedconfidence in structure,
(30:50):
evidence in action, we can moveto the final objection, the one
that connects not just to you,but to people who rely on you.
I have responsibilities, peopledepend on me.
The final objection is often themost complex and the most
misunderstood.
When people hear partner, theyoften think spouse.
But in the life design system,partner has a much broader
(31:12):
meaning.
A partner is anyone whose lifeis meaningfully affected by your
decisions.
That might be a spouse, it mightbe a child, an aging parent, a
sibling you support, aco-parent, a business partner, a
close friend you helpfinancially, a mentor you feel
obligated to, anyone whosestability is tied to your
stability.
(31:33):
And that's why this objectionhits so hard.
Because it's not aboutlogistics, it's about your
responsibility, it's aboutidentity, it's about stewardship
of others.
People who carry responsibilityfor others do not take risks
lightly, nor should they.
But there is a truth that mostpeople don't realize.
The partner objection isn'treally about your partner's
(31:54):
fears.
It's about your fear of how yourchoices will affect them.
And the only way to overcomethis objection is through
clarity, communication, and anhonest understanding of how the
change impacts the people youcare about.
In this Life Audit Workbook, theobjection is captured in the
panel entitled Engage andPrepare Other Parties.
(32:16):
It has three goals.
Identify those fears, plan togain their support, monitor and
dress and address ongoingconcerns.
Each of these steps is essentialbecause change doesn't happen in
a vacuum.
Your transformation createsripple effects, and the people
in your life feel those ripples.
The question is, are theyprepared for them?
(32:37):
Have they been invited into theprocess?
Do they understand what'shappening?
Let's break down these goals.
Number one, identifying theirfears.
We often project onto ourpartner.
We assume we know what they'reworried about.
They're scared of losing money,they're afraid I'll be too busy,
they won't like the riskinvolved.
(32:58):
But more often than not, theirreal fears are emotional, not
practical.
Will our lifestyle change?
Will I lose time with you?
Will you become someone I don'trecognize?
Will I be left behind?
Will your success distance us?
Will this decision put pressureon me?
These are quiet fears, unspokenfears, human fears.
(33:20):
And until you invite those fearsto the surface, the partner
objection will always feelheavy.
This is not about convincingpeople.
It's about aligning with them.
It means sharing your goals,explaining your process,
outlining your timeline,clarifying financial plans, and
showing the risk calculationtools that you've used,
(33:40):
demonstrating how the life audithas created clarity, asking for
what you need, not assuming it.
Support doesn't mean agreement.
Sometimes support simply meansawareness, but awareness is
powerful.
Awareness builds trust.
Awareness builds alignment, andalignment reduces resistance.
This objection isn't resolvedwith one conversation.
(34:02):
It's a relationship dynamic thatevolves over time.
Change affects your schedule,change affects your
availability, it affects yourenergy, your identity.
If you've never revisited theconversation, if you never check
in, if you never ask how is thisaffecting you, then the pressure
builds silently.
Small misunderstandings becomefractures, unaddressed concerns
(34:26):
become resentment, andresentment becomes sabotage,
intentional or unintentional.
The life design system teachesyou to treat this objection as a
process, not an event, becausesolid relationships thrive when
they adapt together.
Let me share the perspectivethat people often overlook.
The partner objective isn't justabout a spouse saying, I'm not
(34:49):
sure you should do this.
It's about a child who suddenlyfeels like they're getting less
from you, a parent who relies onyour support and fears
instability, a sibling who seesyou as their anchor, a business
partner who depends on yourtime, a co-parent whose routine
changes when yours changes, aloved one who's worried, they'll
(35:11):
fall down the priority list.
When you dedicate time, energy,and money to a new project, even
a great project, your partnerand dependent will feel the
shift.
Their lives are intertwined withyours.
Your growth creates movement andmovement affects them.
What I've seen over and overagain is this most partner
conflicts don't come fromdisagreement, they come from
(35:34):
surprise.
People don't resent your growth,they resent being left out of
the conversation.
When you're up front and youexplain the change, the
timeline, the budget, thereason, the vision, even if your
partner is nervous, they feelrespected.
And when you check in regularly,they feel included.
And when you ask about theirconcerns, they feel valued.
(35:57):
And when you adjust whereneeded, they feel secure.
Skipping this step almost alwaysleads to problems, not because
of the goal, but because of thecommunication around the goal.
The partner objective is not abarrier, it's a relationship
checkpoint.
Handled well, it strengthensyour support system.
Handled poorly, it destabilizesit.
(36:17):
Overcoming the partner objectionis essential because your goals
affect the people you love,their fears affect your
emotional state, your emotionalstate affects your execution.
This objection is deeplyintertwined with sustainability.
If you try to build your futurebut lose your support system
along the way, the success willfeel hollow and often temporary.
(36:41):
But when you engage the peoplewho matter, when you explain
your structure, when you showthem your ideal workday, your
time audit, planning, thebudgets, your risk profile, the
ladders of difficulty, all thedifferent elements that we've
discussed, something profoundhappens.
They see that your decision isnot reckless.
(37:02):
They see that your risk iscalculated.
They see your growth as a plan.
They see their role matters.
They see that you've consideredthe impact, not ignored it.
This turns apprehension intoalignment, fear into
understanding, and resistanceinto partnership.
And partnership, truepartnership, is one of the
(37:23):
greatest accelerators oflong-term success.
So now that we've addressed thefive objections, time, money,
fear, doubt, and partner, we canfinally bring them together.
Let's close with the integrationthat connects all of these
pieces into a cohesive pathforward.
As we close today'sconversation, I want to bring
everything covered into oneclear integrated understanding.
(37:47):
We started with the recognitionthat at the end of every year
and before the beginning ofevery new one, the most
important thing we can do isassess who we have become and
who we intend to be next.
Whether you're aiming to start abusiness, expand your income,
redesign your career, or simplyreclaim control over your life,
(38:07):
the truth remains consistent.
Your success is not determinedby what's outside of you.
It is determined by the way younavigate what's inside of you.
That's why the five objectionsmatter so deeply.
Because these objections are notexternal barriers, they are
internal signals pointing youtowards the next level of
clarity.
(38:27):
And let's walk through them onelast time very quickly.
Time, the objection of capacity.
You've learned that time is notsomething you have, time is
something you design.
And through the life auditprocess, the ideal workday, your
energy inventory, your timecommitment map, you can discover
how to reclaim capacity to learntwo hours a week and to act 20
(38:50):
hours a month.
This is how momentum begins.
Money, the objection ofresources.
You've learned that money is nota limiter.
Money is an enabler of the pathyou're building.
And by defining three escalatingbudgets, a learning budget, an
opportunity search budget, andan investment needs budget,
you've transformed a vague senseof not enough into a structured,
(39:12):
intentional financial strategy.
This is how opportunity becomesmeasurable.
Fear, the objection ofuncertainty.
You've learned that fear is nota stop sign.
Fear is a compass pointingtowards growth.
And once you've separated dangerfrom fear, once you've shifted
from reckless to calculatedrisk, and once you've evaluated
(39:34):
the cost of inaction, fearbecomes something you can
manage, something that you canmove with, not run from.
And this is how courage becomespractical.
Doubt, the objection ofevidence.
You've learned that doubt is nota lack of ability, doubt is a
lack of proof.
And through the latterdifficulty, the habit
installation framework, and theneurology backed process of
(39:57):
stacking small wins, you builtThe evidence your brain needs to
believe in your capability.
And this is how confidencebecomes structural.
Partner in the objection ofresponsibility.
And finally, you've learned thatpartnership, whether a spouse, a
child, or parent, or anyone whodepends on you, is not an
obstacle to your growth.
(40:18):
It is a part of your design.
By identifying their fears,inviting them into your process,
creating a plan for alignment,and checking in over time, you
transform resistance intosupport.
This is how stability becomessustainability.
Each objection, time, money,fear, doubt, partner, is not a
(40:39):
wall blocking your path.
It's a diagnostic checkpoint,revealing what needs attention,
what needs structure, what needsclarity, what needs alignment.
And when you apply the full lifedesign methodology, the life
audit, the exercises, the idealwork day, the budgets and
habits, you stop navigating yourlife reactively.
(41:00):
You start designing your lifeintentionally.
This is not about hustle.
This is not about grinding.
This is not about forcingoutcomes.
This is about alignment.
Alignment between who you are,who you want to be, and how you
want to move.
And once everything aligns,momentum accelerates.
You become more capable, youbecome more focused, you become
(41:22):
more consistent, and you becomemore powerful in your own
decisions.
That is the essence oftransformation, that is the
foundation of your firstmillion, and that is what this
work is all about.
If today's episode resonatedwith you, if you recognized
yourself in any of the fiveobjections, if you felt even a
moment of clarity, energy, orpossibility, then I invite you
(41:44):
to take the next step and go tolifedesign.com, that's
L-I-F-E-D-E-S-Y-N.com, and jointhe Life Design Masterclass.
This is where we take everythingwe discussed today and apply it
to your life with a full lifeaudit, worksheets, budgets, and
tools, coaching frameworks, asystem in personalized and
(42:05):
adjusted execution plans.
Whether you pursue a sidebusiness, a full-time
entrepreneurial path, or abusiness acquisition, this
system gives you structure,momentum, and a roadmap that
accelerates your progress.
Because your first million isnot just financial.
Your first million is themillion of decisions, habits,
beliefs, and actions you alignalong the way to building the
(42:29):
life you want.
And that journey starts withclarity.
I'm Bo Kemp, and this has beenThe First Million is Always the
Hardest.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for investing inyourself, and thank you for
committing to the work.
I'll see you next episode, andI'll see you inside Life Design.
I just want to take a moment tosay thank you.
Thank you for listening, forletting us be a small part of
(42:51):
your day, and for joining in inthese conversations that matter.
This podcast isn't just ours,it's yours.
We'd love for you to subscribeso you never miss an episode and
join our community where you canshare your own journey, your
wins, and your lessons.
And if there's someone whosestory you think we should hear,
tell us.
We're listening.
(43:11):
Thank you.
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