Episode Transcript
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Scott Radford (00:03):
What do you do
when you feel utterly lost? When
you feel like you've got acomplete lack of meaningful
direction nowadays, and whenyou're probably someone who's
really used to having thatdirection, having that drive,
and that really clear vision ofwhat you're working towards.
I know that a couple of yearsago, I found myself in this
position, everything I thoughtsuccess looked like everything
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that I'd put down on paper Iwanted to achieve. And yet,
there was something missing thatalmost prevented me from waking
up in the morning with directionand a real drive to continue
building something. And truth betold, I probably lost years in
this not just months in tryingto understand what it was that I
wanted, that I didn't alreadyhave. Because everything that
people tell you looks likesuccess, I thought I achieved, I
(00:46):
had money and the job that Iwanted, I also even had the new
indicators of success, the timefreedom, I had more time than
anyone in their 20s couldpossibly want. And I still
didn't know how to build a life,that would put me back to
operating as my best again. Sothat's where my journey began
with the podcast andinterviewing some of the world's
(01:07):
highest performers to understandhow they got to a position of
success. And then were able torealign and go again in a
completely different direction,how they're able to build that
success day after day inmultiple different avenues. And
so today, I wanted to share withyou the four pillars that make
up this game plan. The first twopillars help you orientate and
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initiate and the second two willhelp you then accelerate in
whatever the new direction isthat you have found. And you're
going in. Now the first pillarthat helps you orientate
yourself that I think youabsolutely have to start with,
and that's seeking clarity.
Clarity basically helps youprovide the foundation for every
decision you make. And you mighthave heard on the clarity
podcast that I did that it alsohelps create the safety for you
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to go all in. Now I know youprobably know what I mean, here,
you've maybe even thought thatthere's one or two different
things that you want to try ormight even be more in alignment
with who you want to be. Andyou've given them a little go.
And you've not got the earlysuccess or momentum in that new
endeavour. And the truth of thematter is, you're never really
going to find the success you'vealready created in life unless
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your mind understands that it'ssafe to go all in, think about
the thing that you createdsuccess, and you probably
weren't absolutely all in on it.
I knew that with my flighttraining, for instance, I threw
money that it would take medecades to earn back in order to
do a career that at the time,nobody was even recruiting for.
I mean, it was utter madness.
But all I knew is that that wasthe direction I wanted to go in.
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And those steps are the stepsthat I had to take in order to
achieve that. And you don'treally think of the consequences
of what happens if I don't get ajob. Or if this doesn't work
out, because you can't afford toyour mind just tells you that
it's safe to go all in. And it'ssafe to commit to this new path.
Now, that's really easy to dowhen you've got a clear defined
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path, like flight training, orwhatever it was that took you to
the successes that you have. Butit's bloody really hard when
you're trying to define a newpath or carve out a new path
that hasn't even been definedyet. And so in order to create
the safety that the mindrequires for you to go all in,
you first need inner clarity.
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Now when we're talking aboutinner clarity, we're talking
about core values, essentially,who you want to be and
referencing back to the podcastthat I did on clarity, if you
can just come up with threewords that will define the best
of who you are, that will beused to guide your personal
life, and just write them downon a piece of paper, and then
figure out how you're going toremind yourself to show up under
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those three words under thosethree values every single day.
And maybe even do the same withinteractions. What three words
or values can you live by, thatare used to guide the
interactions you have on a dailybasis, because that's going to
be where the differentiator is,if you can intentionally show up
and interact with the people youneed to in the way that you want
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to interact. That's clarity,that's understanding who you
want to be. And I use this oneall the time, because it's
pretty mental how we set up ourwork as pilots, every time we
check in for a new flight. We'reflying with people we've
probably never even met before.
So before I check in, I alwaysasked myself, What are the three
words that will describe thetype of person I want to show up
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as? So if they were to describeme after we left after that
initial interaction? What threewords would they describe me as?
So I'd normally put somethinglike how can I look competent
and capable? How can I be joyousand fun and not take myself too
seriously, that's a reallyimportant point of how I want to
show up. And so I'll always tryand understand how I can marry
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those two, certainly on my firstimpression with my colleagues
that I'm just about to go flyingwith for three or four days.
Once you've sorted that out onceyou understood the core values
that you want to operate by, andwho you want to be look at the
outer clarity which is the goalsetting the defining the vision
of what success looks like foryou. And also one thing that a
lot of people miss is the whywhy Why is it important for you
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to show up to work to buildthese habits to go through the
struggle that invariably you'regoing to go through in order to
create any meaningful change inyour life. And so if you're
looking at operating at yourbest again, you need to connect
back to the why, why thatchallenge now is important to
you. Because if it doesn't, thenyou'll have no necessity to
continue, when it starts gettinga little bit tricky, exactly as
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I did, you'll just fall backinto that comfort. The second
pillar is to develop courage.
And I think if there's one thingthat comes up every single time
from the guests that I'veinterviewed, and that is, they
all seem to show up and takethat courageous action
regardless, which is somethingthat I admire in those people.
And therefore, it's somethingthat I want to be myself.
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Courage helps with consistency.
And we all know that it's notreally just the action you take
that defines your success, butit's how consistent you show up
and take that action. And sowhere would you be in one month,
if you manage to take actionthrough courage instead of fear,
every action that you take on adaily basis is either informed
by an intention or measure ofwhat you want the outcome to be?
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Or it's ruled a little bit byfear, maybe by protecting
yourself your status, or doingthe easiest or safest version of
what you're required to do? Andso if you were to show up every
single morning, and say, How canI take courageous action today?
What does that look like today,just think about where you'll be
not just in a month's time, thatif you 12x, that? Well, you'd be
at the end of the year. So whataction would show that you want
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a different outcome to yourpeers and those around you. And
so, in order to do that, youkind of need to take the action
that shows the world that you'rewilling to do something
different to those around, youmake it small, it doesn't have
to be something absolutelyridiculously courageous. It can
be something that just evokes alittle bit of fear in you that
make it consistent, show upevery single day and take a
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little bit of action that evokesa little bit of fear, that shows
your brain that it's safe to doso. And then once you've
inoculated yourself to thatfear, you can then up the ante a
little bit more, until thenyou're consistently just showing
up and doing it regardless. Now,the secondary pillars are all
about how to harness what you'vealready built, who you already
are as a person in order toaccelerate through the
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difficult, ugly phase at thebeginning. And so the third
pillar is influence. So how canyou shortcut the process to
success with the attributes withthe influence that you've
already cultivated, so that youcan start creating results from
day one? Now, I know that thisis a really, really important
point to a lot of the peoplethat I coach, one of the biggest
things that holds us back frompivoting and going again, and
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operating at our best, again, isthat feeling of sunk costs. And
I know that this took me downinto a hole for so many months,
on the first day of my career, Iwas 129 and a half 1000 pounds
in debt. And so that wasfinancially in a massive sunk
cost that I had to start tryingto earn back. And so it almost
felt like madness, to give thatup after just 10 years in order
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to try and do somethingdifferent. But I'd also spent
years and years of my life fromthe age of 14, actually. And
from that moment, I was makingdecisions about what GCSEs I
did, what university I chosewhat degree I chose the fact
that I flew at university, I didUniversity Air Squadron, I led
teams, I went on expeditions, Idid everything with the sole
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focus of becoming an airlinepilot, and then you get there
and realise that you just need alittle bit more or something
different. And all of a sudden,you start thinking I've
literally sacrificed my entireadult life for this. And now I'm
just gonna like give it up, thatinfluence helps us understand
that every single step that youtook is another building block
that you can now utilise, togain an unfair advantage of the
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people that are around you. Yougoing into a different arena and
playing in there means thatyou're gonna have so many
different attributes and assetsthat you're bringing to the
party that those guys around,you just do not have. And so we
need to start thinking aboutwhat unfair advantage we get of
going into this new arena. Also,when it comes to influence, you
know, people will truly belooking forward to helping you
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if they see that you're humbleenough to ask for their help. I
know that when I started thepodcast, for instance, I got
guests, I mean, just go and lookat my first few guests on the
podcast, it is well above myweight. And that's because I was
humble enough to say, Hey,listen, I don't really know what
I'm doing. But I really, reallywant to help this type of
person. And I really think yourinsights might be valuable in
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helping them and I got them intomy vision. And so how can what
you're doing next, once you'vegot the clarity benefit those
around you and who needs you tobe the role model for change
around and I look at my wifeRose here, she's got a
moderately sized following onsocial media where a lot of
people think, Oh, how muchinfluence do you have is how
many followers you have and howmany likes you get, but she is
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able to go into a room and withthe energy that she has with the
authenticity and the brilliancethat she shows up with. She is
able to draw the people aboveher and influence those guys.
And so it's not Just about beingable to influence those at the
same level or below you, it'shelping you actually influence
those guys are above you, howcan you inspire them with how
you're showing up for them tosponsor you, or even mentor you,
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or even open the doors for you.
And finally, thefourth pillar is momentum. Now,
a lot of people think thatmotivation is what really,
really drives people. Butmotivation actually follows
momentum. And so all the highestperformers that I've ever
interviewed, plus all thehighest performers that I've
ever seen interviewed, or instudies, they all seem to be
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building an autonomously justacting through their own
operating system. Now everyone'soperating systems going to be
different things that work forme, are not necessarily going to
be the things that work for you.
But this is about really tryingto trial and experiment and
learn from and implement some ofthe tools, some of the habits
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that you can use, that's goingto get the best out of you, in
order to show up every singleday, and move the needle. And
one of my guests, SimonJeffries, I think is episode 16
talked about the moving average,and how not every single day is
going to be a killer. But whatcan you do just to make sure
that the net gain means thatyour moving average is going up
every single week, and I talkedabout this in my overwhelm
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podcast, that rhythm that flowthat you can build, that allows
you to operate at your own pace.
And then there's the obviousthings as well like productivity
and how you can build andschedule your time so that you
can optimise a little bit morehow you can focus on those
prolific tasks that actuallymove the needle, how you can
build intention on a dailybasis. And her big things like
planning the night before,unlocked so much momentum,
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because if you have to startevery single day, from standing
still position, it's a lotharder to build momentum. If you
already planned your big outlookfor tomorrow, and even just the
first hour, you can then startto build momentum to have taken
the action you need on a dailybasis. A few other little things
to help with momentum, thingslike how can you get little wins
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daily, how can you track yourprogress, individuals are 42%
more likely to achieve goalswhen they're physically
recorded. So that's writing itdown, like putting it in a diary
or putting it in your planner,also at the frequency of how
often you record and track yourprogress. Because there's more
research that shows thatcompanies that track their goals
in real time like on a daily anda weekly basis, they're twice as
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likely to hit all of their goalsin a 12 month period than those
that do on an annual basis. Somake sure you're tracking your
progress, you've got someunderstanding of where you're
at, and where you want to be ona weekly basis as well. And
finally, little things likedebriefing. That can be as
simple as just having a journaland writing in how today went
and one change you're going tomake for tomorrow. And so
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whatever it is that you're goingto use to help build momentum,
the key here is to just try andtake daily action that allows
you to continue going throughthe tough times, times where
it's probably a little biteasier to just absolutely Jeff
it off and do somethingdifferent or even doubt yourself
altogether. And just say I gaveit a go didn't really work. And
so if you're looking to get backto operating at your best again,
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if you're looking to get backout of feeling like a victim out
of feeling like someone who'sjust a little bit lost or
without direction, which iscompletely not you, then the
chances are the answer probablylies in one of these four
pillars. seek clarity, bothinternal and external. Develop
the courage on a daily basis totake the action that's required
to build consistency. Harnessthe influence that you've
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already created. So you don'tfeel like you're starting from
scratch again, and then findways to build momentum. Because
when nothing else is around,just having solid habits that
you can do autonomously is goingto be the thing that gets you
through those periods of lowmotivation. And so I'd love to
know out of these four pillars,which ones are you working on
right now? Which ones Could youdo a little bit more help with?
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Until next time, legend Speaksoon.