Transcript:

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Hey and welcome to the real Jeff Armstrong podcast today we're going to be talking about why we should not wait, because really there is no perfect time except when there is and we'll get into that so stick around, as we jump straight into it and begin talking about why we should be action oriented, and why we should not necessarily wait for the perfect time. I hope you're doing really, really well today. It's been a beautiful day for me the sun was out, we got a break from the all the rain that we've had which has been great so got out, got to do some yard work, and it's just been a good day, been a really good day, you know, some days are more motivated than others. I'm much more apt to be able to make progress in my work, and today was kind of one of those days so it's actually pretty late. It's been 1118 right now so I am coming in at the tail end of the day here to record this episode, but I, you know, I've really made a commitment to be able to do this, and I don't want to keep making excuses on oh I shouldn't do this because XYZ because I found that, that's pretty slippery slope once you start making excuses, at least for my own self and in my own experience so that's why I want to do this, and I hope that's maybe a lesson in itself. And it got me thinking about why we why we don't want to waste time waiting for the perfect time. Okay. I chose this topic because I see so many people who wait on taking action to get the things that they want or accomplish the goals that they want and what ends up happening really is they end up taking mediocre steps. Anyhow, they take mediocre action, and it ends up delaying excellence and not actually achieving their goal so it's almost like they don't give themselves permission to give full out action so then they kind of do this like halfway action, which doesn't really result in the outcome that they want. And I see this pretty regularly actually so I've seen in my own life, when I have, like, okay, buying things like on Amazon, let's just say on Amazon. I have seen times when I'm like, I'm just gonna wait on the perfect price. Right. And then it ends up going out of stock, then it's like, you know, I waited because I spent all this time thinking about the perfect price and trying to achieve the perfect price instead of just obtaining. What I wanted to get, and then moving on to the next thing. And maybe just doing something like increasing my income, you know, and so it's kind of silly really to wait on something like that when I could have just taken action, and then continued snowballing all my other action. So when I say snowballing action I mean that our actions tend to add up. Okay, so this is why I'm, I'm a big proponent of trying to spend less money to a degree. I think that we can very easily. Try to spend less money, and we put so much effort into spending less money out of fear and trying to sort of hoard our, our income. When in reality we would be able to be much more abundant, if we if we took that energy, and actually focus on being able to improve the lives of others, and increase our income. So, there's, there's a lot of dangers that we actually encounter when we operate in fear. And we don't take confident action so that's what that's what I want to talk about today. So I asked the question to you. Have you ever delayed in taking some sort of action in seeing the negative results in it. Now, we will talk like I said about how sometimes waiting is good, but I believe that the good type of waiting is actually not inaction. Okay, there's a positive type of waiting. That results in good things and we'll talk about that here in just a minute. You know, something that something else I see people wait on a whole lot is finding a passion and then growing like that passion, you know, we tend to put those sorts of things off the things that aren't, quote unquote, essential, you know, we end up chasing the things that aren't really that essential around. And I just think that's really, really, you know, we get 510 years down the road we look back, we're like, oh man I wish I would have started that. And so, again, you know, I say again because I mentioned this in another one, another podcast episode about the power of small incremental steps. If we look at life from a long term perspective, we begin to see that the power of these little actions, over time, adds up. It builds a snowball. Right. So for example, like if I said, Okay, I'm going to save $100 this week. It's not bad, right. If I say it I'm gonna save $100 but I'm gonna save that hundred dollars by instead of, you know, going out and buying this chair, from the store where it's $100 more expensive. I'm going to go around to the flea market, and try to find a chair, that would fit that need. So like you go and spend 10 hours on it, looking around at the flea market or whatever. When you could have had the chair for more. That would have just come directly to you. You know, maybe even have like a return policy and everything else so trying to save many times can actually be not as productive, not as profitable so that's what we're getting at. Now, I would say the reasons that we wait because of fear, lack of motivation, which we talked about that a little bit in the episode about small. The power of taking small incremental steps. Another reason is lack of realizing that we must act in order to get the outcomes that we want. Okay, so if we have a mindset where we tend to think that, oh, whatever is going to happen is just going to happen. I, that sort of that can be very self defeating now if you're really positive, it can be also self defeating in the sense that if you just think everything's gonna work out. Well, it might not, you know, I mean there's truth in being able to proactively influence outcomes in life. And I have met people that kind of just had this as this, this aspect of like whatever happens is going to happen. And for my own experience, that's a really scary sad place to be in. And, you know, there's a difference between being like a control freak. And just saying, oh whatever happens happens, you know, I believe that you can seek to influence your outcomes, while also realize that whatever happens, is going to happen. I believe it's a both, and when it comes to that so I just don't think that it's a smart position to begin though, to say, yeah, you know what, whatever happens, it's going to happen so I'm not going to seek to take action, and that that's something that we have to ask ourselves, because that's a pretty. That's like a very subtle line of thinking that we get into. And so we have these dreams and goals, and how many people have gotten 50 years down the road, and they haven't achieved the things that they really could have achieved to reach their full potential. In it, it happens in these little steps. Okay, these little incremental steps and other reasons that people don't take action. You know, I would say that, believing that there is a perfect time for everything is kind of dangerous, So I mentioned that sort of upfront, thinking that, oh well all the things have to be just right before I can actually take action, there's a there's a Bible verse, I don't remember exactly where it is but it essentially says that the lazy person will they don't do stuff, and they're lazy, because they're, you know, afraid there's a lion in the streets. You know like your fears can always find something if you're going to be afraid of something. Your fear will pick something. And we'll give you all the reasons that you shouldn't do something there's another verse that talks about. I want to say it's like the, you know, something about like, I'm definitely paraphrasing here so bear with me. If the farmer, just always pays attention to the clouds and the weather, he's liable to not get his crops planted, and he's labeled not have a harvest. Right, so there is wisdom in sort of like trying to understand the times and the seasons and the weather. But if that prevents you from ever taking the action you need to be able to do the things you got to do. Then there's an imbalance. Okay. So, I would say that the perfect time exists, but these times are pretty rare. Okay, the perfect time to do something is very, very rare. I think that's very true in our marriages. Like, there's very rarely a perfect time to be intimate with each other if you have kids. Okay. Like, there's almost a very rarely the perfect time right. It's very rare that you're going to find the perfect time to start a business or it's going to be very rare that you invest in your business, in order to get ahead and get a return and build a business that is, that makes an impact on people. Right, it's very rare to say, oh, I've just got all the free time now to build a business that has free time. You know, it's kind of like this infinite loop thing like well I need free time to build a business, it gives me more free time but I don't have free time so how can I build a business that has free time. It really comes from taking that massive action, and being prone to taking that action. So you know when to wait. Because I don't want to get in this mode of like, Oh, you got to go go go go doo doo doo doo doo. Okay, so I mentioned, I think that the right type of waiting, doesn't mean that you're doing nothing the right type of waiting is still doing something, you know, your internal world can be developing a perfect example of this from my own life as I was reading a book. And it was a really really good book and I was like man I'm learning so so much. And then I was like, I've got to stop reading this book because the read any more right now would prevent me from digesting and taking action in due time. On the stuff that I've already learned. Okay, so it was essential for me to wait to slow down, so that I could digest what I had learned, and then take action on that information. So, there is a time to wait. I just think it is, it's generally. Number one, those times are few and far between. Number two, when we are waiting. Okay. And let me say this before I go any further, I do think that we need to rest. I don't want you to hear me saying that we shouldn't rest so that we shouldn't. We shouldn't wait on things to develop. Okay, I'm just saying that finding the perfect time for taking action is very very rare. Okay, so I want that to be the stark contrast that there's a stark contrast between. Okay. I'm taking massive action. And then the contrast between. Okay, I need to wait. Because the action that I've taken recently or whatever else there needs to be sort of internal developing that occurs. Okay. But, waiting in a sense of the fear base waiting like, I don't know if now is the right time, I hear people do that so much. And then I see those same people that are worried about not having time or whatever else they end up spinning that time on something. Same with money. I see people say, I just don't have the money, but then they spend their money on something that is not going to like it's frivolous stuff, you know, so if you're in motion towards your goals right like trying to achieve your goals. Then you're going to be building momentum. Okay, so that's kind of that's kind of the point here that there's a power to being action oriented. Okay, there's a great power to that. And it couples really well with that taking taking those small consistent steps towards a vision that matters so if you have that listen to the podcast on the power of small consistent steps, it pairs very, very well with this one. So, let's see. So I would say that the best thing to do is take massive action because the quicker that you can fail, the quicker you'll learn, and then actually achieve things. Okay. Let me say that again, the quicker we fail, the quicker we learn. And therefore, the quicker and better, we will achieve. Okay, so I like to use an analogy of AI artificial intelligence Okay, the way that AI learns at this point. Anyhow, is that it will make the most amount of. It's called weather calm I think calm data pools. Right, so, like, like if you wrote like a robot is learning how to play chess, it will, it will figure out every possible scenario, and it will essentially fail as much as possible until it finds the things that work. And then it learns that in humans are really no different. Except there's an emotional aspect. Okay, there's an emotional aspect to humans where we get afraid of failure we feel we take it personal, it sort of bolsters our insecurities. Right, when really, we should look at failure more like robots do is is a learning experience a data pool, to be able to extract knowledge, so that we can then refine our action. So, the saying is the quickest one to fail. In the end, wins, so we have to learn to embrace failure. Okay, so, you know, in terms of tips for taking action if you're someone that struggled with that or you just want more tips, to be able to improve on being able to be someone that takes this massive action in their lives. Tip number one would be fail quickly learn to embrace failure, and then fail quickly. Okay. Tip number two, would be to realize how short. Our time is here, right, like, our time is really pretty short I mean you talk to someone that is in their their later years in life and they'll tell you like, life goes by quick. It's so cliche at this point my little Christmas right as a kid, it lasted so long but now it's like there's three or four Christmases every single years what it feels like comparatively speaking, if not more Christmases than that a year. Right, so we have to learn to realize and have a mental picture of like, My days are, are not that long here, and then decide, do I want to have to look back in live with that regret of. If I only would have taken action. So, realize how short time is. The next tip I have for you is surround yourself with people that use their time wisely and realize that their time is short. And they're people that are taking action. Okay, if you if you don't know people directly in your life that are like this, read books by people listen to podcasts by people that are like this. Get in Facebook groups of people that are like this. Right. Surround yourself any way you can with people that are action oriented people that are developing growing failing, believe it or not, in learning. Okay. And I would say, the next thing. The next tip would be to just do the next right thing every time. Again, in the podcast about the power of small consistent steps. I gave the example of Ana from Frozen to where she she's in a pretty depressive state, and she remembers. I want to say it was like the rock guy that that maybe said something about the next right thing, right. And if you can correct me if I'm wrong about that but she remembers the same, just do the next right thing. So that's what she does. Well, sometimes we just need to figure out what is the next right thing. Generally I say, doing some action is better than none right so like I very regularly will have this list of things, like all these things I got to do. If I will sometimes put those big burdensome things away. And just pay attention to something that like I I either really want to do, or sort of kinda want to do. I start to build up the motivation. You know I get, get a few wins under my belt for the day. And then I can move on to those other things. And this can be as simple sometimes for me it's like just I just need to go take a shower, I need to brush my teeth, take a shower shave, get a cup of coffee, whatever it is, and just feel like I'm ready for the day. Like those little things can really add up and there's, there's actually i mean it's it's really like a biohacking. If you, if you're not sure what biohacking is. I would say it's like. In this instance, it is using your body's neurotransmitter science, how your neurotransmitters were how your brain works to gain an advantage. Right. So, when we do little things and we get these little wins. It increases our dopamine levels, and we're now we become more motivated to achieve more. So it's kind of like priming the pump, you know, if you're not sure what priming the pump is actually well I was gonna say back in the day, because I do remember my grandmother heading. Oh my great grandmother having a pump that you have to prime to get the water to come out. So, it was like this. You know like this pump that went into a well, and it had a crank on it right and so you'd have to go up and down with a crank to prime the pump. In order to get the water started and it was really hard at first, but once you got the water going. It was like, much, much easier to keep it going. So the moral of that story is that sometimes it's good to start with the easier or and or more enjoyable things on your to do list and then begin building up momentum to achieve the bigger things. But what I found is sometimes the bigger quote unquote things. If they don't have to be done, sometimes it's better just to either delay them, which sounds horrible I know if you're like a person that is really really responsible, something but sometimes it really is better to delay them and I'll give an example. You know, if, if you could take the time that you spend on, let's say buy something off of Amazon okay this is a personal example, if you bought something off of Amazon. And let's say it was $50. And you need to return it because you're not going to keep it didn't work out. And so you're going to return it, but you know it's going to take you. All in all, between packaging it up, getting it to the store. Everything else you're going to spend like at least like an hour on returning it. Right. And if you can say, Can I use that hour to gain a new skill or make a new connection, or do something that will have a snowball sort of butterfly effect that affects me in my life and those around me maybe, who knows how much in the long run. Then, if I can do that. Maybe I just shouldn't take the thing and return it. You know, because if my time is more valuable spending on developing a new skill that will snowball that will that will add up over time, then that is actually better than not developing a skill by returning the thing to Amazon and saving my $50. Okay, so I that is something that I've found it's like, man, I used to be such a stickler for returning things and avoiding fees, and it's like I do just about anything to avoid fee. But then I realize I've spent so much time on this. I could really increase my income make more impact on other people and create an overall better life. If I actually didn't worry about these things as much, and just focus on the big dominoes or the big single Domino in my life so now when I'm making a list. I really look for Okay, let's identify all the things I think I need to do. Then, let's identify the big dominant. The one thing that if I do it it will have the biggest change and impact on my life. In order for me to develop the lifestyle that I believe I'm supposed to be living. And if you can consistently hit the big Domino in your life, your life will begin to shift in major ways, so that's that's a huge tip that it's like if you can just figure out the next right thing to do. If you can hit a big Domino awesome. Sometimes when I'm not real motivated, I might just pick up a guitar and play it for a few minutes, and enjoy it. You know, it's about building little wins. And then achieving the next right thing. So that's about it. The last thing I'll say is, you know, something that I have found incredibly helpful. And this is really more, for lack of a better word, this is more of a religious statement. You know, as a Christian, I found that God is in control of my destiny. So therefore I can act boldly. Okay, because I believe what happens, will turn out for the best in the long run. Now, I don't think you necessarily have to be a Christian to believe that I've met people that aren't Christians that that believe that but you know I've heard these amazing stories from like war heroes like civil war I want to say was Civil War. And if I could remember who specifically said these things I would quote it, but I don't, I don't want to say was George Washington, which was actually that civil war I know that is revolutionary war. So all the history buffs are like, Oh my gosh, come on, Jeff. But let's let's go back so George Washington. Forget civil war I think there was some civil war stories but George Washington. I want to say it was, he was quoted as saying basically like, you know, whenever it's my time to go like it's gonna be my time to go. I want to say it was also George Washington had like bullet holes in his clothing. They say that the legend goes and he had bought holes in his clothing, but like he had not been wounded. So it was almost like this weird like you know it. Now, again, it's maybe it's just legend. Are there other people it's like, I've heard stories of these great, you know, military heroes that they they almost got to the point where they didn't flinch at a bullet because they believed so strongly that when it was time to go. They would go and not a second before. And so I think this strong commitment to understanding that we get to control certain things about our existence but ultimately outside of being able to control those things there are so many factors that we can't control. And so to live in fear of those things that we can actually.

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If I would continue focusing on the things that building up.

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And the next business decisions that I have that I'm excited about. $50 is nothing like. But you know what the anxiety and the fear and the insecurities of busting my $50 water timer.

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That could steal a lot more from me than just $50. You know, not only did it momentarily disrupt my peace. You know, like the sort of like the. Oh my gosh, I can't believe that this did that.

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But it's like my mind would get so wrapped up in something like that, that's silliness. And it just from the financial standpoint that thinking, in my mind, affected me in that way, I could guarantee you could cost me, way more than $50. So, it took me a long time, honestly, it's almost like a shaman lady I have to say that took me a long time to realize like when mistake happens. I don't have to sit there and shame or insecurity or fear or beat myself up. And I did that a lot because I especially as a kid I mean I was. I've always sort of been a perfectionist. And so learning to be able to give myself grace and realizing like that, that grace is actually what encourages me to keep growing.

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Because I think I used to think of it as like, Well, you know, if you do bad. Then you beat yourself up. And if you beat yourself up and feel bad enough, then you'll not do the stupid thing. And then you'll have better results, but try this, try that on kids right like if you're a parent and you have kids, and you beat kids up not not even physically I'm just saying. Kids don't really respond to that because they end up their self esteem drops. And then they they have less power to, they have less executive function. So that actually affects their brains. It affects their self image. They have less executive function. and which results in less self control which results in them doing more dumb stuff. So there's some parenting advice right something I am still learning, because it is so easy to get frustrated with kids right but you know we get frustrated with ourselves. And so I have to like learn to to regulate even my own self frustration. But, you know, as we take action we have to learn to regulate that because if we don't, we'll always be afraid of failure. We won't learn the lessons that we need to be successful. And then, we won't actually ever make the, the massive steps towards action or the even a small steps towards action. They get us the results that we want that allow us to make impact in the long run. So I hope this, as always has been incredibly helpful to you, and has helped you to be able to think about the next steps that you might be taking. And as always, I'd love to hear from the listeners, I love hearing from you so feel free to contact me. You can go to my contact form on the real Jeff Armstrong Comm. You can also contact me if this is somewhere where you can comment like YouTube, you can also comment in the comment section, emails, contact at the real Jeff Armstrong. COMM please if you're listening to this somewhere where you can give a thumbs up or hit the notification bell or subscribe, and or leave a review or whatever else please do so because it does help and can't wait to be able to chat with you more next time. So, wherever you're at. Have a good rest of your day and I'll see you, or at least they cannot see you won't see you.

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I will talk to you then.