Hey my friend, it’s Patrick Almond from StopDoingNothing.com and it’s a nice warm day here in Oklahoma City. Probably in the high 80’s if not the mid 90’s and I’m sorry if I sweat in the process of making this video. But to tell you the truth, I’d always much rather have it hot outside than cold outside, and it’s going to get cold here in a few months in Oklahoma City. But I was going through my blog statistics over there on StopDoingNothing.com and for awhile now, for a couple of years, the most searched phrase that gets people over to StopDoingNothing.com is, “How can I grow as a person?” Which means that people are searching on the search engines for that phrase a lot. Several thousand times a month a lot of them are landing on StopDoingNothing.com. We’re number one for that search phrase. So I thought I would make a quick video for you today to maybe explain to you how I am moving along with my personal growth and some of the things that have helped me kind of basically help grow. Help change my mindset and help me grow as a person. I have to admit that probably it’s taken me probably a lot longer time in life than most people to understand some of the limiting factors of my mind, and my body, and my spirit, and of the world around me.
And it’s only recently, like in the past 10 to 20 years that I’ve been adjusting myself to accommodate for some of these things. And I picked three of them and I want to share them with you today. And I want to also hear from you after you watch the video and let me know what you have done or what have you changed in your life that was like a big shift, like a major shift. Malcolm Gladwell calls it; there’s a particular phrase Malcolm Gladwell calls it and I can’t think of what it’s called. But I’m just kind of curious in your life what’s made the major shift and really helped you change things. So, I went through my life recently and I picked out these three things. And the first one is a phrase I like to use a lot and that is, assume success first and then work backwards. Assume success first, and work backwards. And I think about this a lot for example when I run a 5ks. I don’t do them often, but when I run a 5k I know that I’m going to complete the 5k. It’s not really a question of if. It’s, how am I going to train to get there? And, how good am I going to do this time? Same thing at the gym when I’m lifting weights. I pick a particular weight and it’s like I know I’m going to lift that weight today.
I’ve done it before. I don’t know if today I’m going to do more of them or make it faster or whatever. But that law or that rule can come into play when it comes to things like money and job and career and travel. Know the outcome is going to happen. And I don’t mean know as in yeah, yeah, I’m going to work on it and it might happen if I work really heard on it. No, know it and cement it in your mind that it’s going to happen. Imagine what the world would be like, and your life will be like, what your family will be like once you accomplish that thing. And believe it 100% that it’s going to happen. Don’t believe it 80% or 50% or 30%. Believe it 100%. Just assume. It’s done. I’ve heard Will Smith use that phrase once on The View, it’s done. Now all I got to do now is figure out is how long is it going to take me and what process am I going to use to get there. So, assume something is going to be done and then work backwards on doing it. Get the training, get the mindset, learn to hang around the right people to accomplish that particular goal. There have been several things in life where I’ve done that. Whether it’s wanting to get on TV more or get to a certain speaking engagement. I just know certain things that I want to accomplish, they will happen.
It’s just me putting in the time and the hours every single day to make them happen. And that’s not, often you hear people saying that person had overnight success. And that person would probably say that overnight success took five or ten years. That person knew that was going to happen, they just had to make the process to get there. So, assume success first, work backwards. The second one is bend time to your will. I must admit I did have a corporate job at one point in time and I put in my 40 or 50 hours a week. Laid around my Saturdays and Sundays. By the way, today is Sunday. But I would lay around on the weekends because that was my time, that was time for me, it wasn’t work time. It wasn’t success time; it was Patrick leave me alone I want to lay on the couch and watch TV time. And I realized awhile back that we are given so many hours in a day. We are given a 24-hour day. And all that you can use that time in various productive ways and bend it to your will. You know, look at going to bed earlier possibly and getting up earlier. That’s one of the things I do, and I really shoot for now going to bed by ten o’clock and getting up by five. It doesn’t always happen, but that’s something I really shoot for.
Look at maybe even adjusting your schedule to either working earlier or later in the day depending on where you have your energy level. That’s something else I’m big into besides time management, is energy management. But analyze your life and figure out where do you get the most use out of your time. And if you’re an entrepreneur or you’re someone who wants to be and eight to five isn’t your thing, or even being awake during the day isn’t your thing, then don’t fight it. You know, your prime time may be from 3:00 in the morning until 11:00 in the morning, or four o’clock in the night to three o’clock in the morning. I mean once you have the freedom to understand the time, you need to bend time to your will. You only have so much of it and you need to take advantage of it. You need to stop spending time in front of the computer playing obsessive amounts of video games, reading the news. Reading the news will kill the spirit. So, reading the news, watching unnecessary TV. Pay very close attention to your time and be sure that your life and your calendar is filled with the recurring events and recurring appointments you need to succeed. So again, bend time to your will. Seven days, 24 hours.
Saturdays and Sundays should be workdays just like every other day. Again, I put in my work time yesterday, on Saturday. Today is Sunday, you can see I’m out here on my porch sweating to make you this video. I’m going to go back in and work on the computer some more and get ready for Monday where I’m going to give some of my time to other people. And the last thing that I want to share with you is know and understand that you do not know everything, and you don’t have to know everything. You do not know everything, and you don’t have to know everything. I also call this one, I’m getting comfortable with a certain level of ignorance. You’ve always heard in your life that ignorance is a bad thing. I don’t think that ignorance is a bad thing. I’m completely comfortable in my ignorance. And more and more now-a-days when it comes to me trying to, if a client requests something of me or if somebody off the street says, “Hey Patrick I know you’re good at this, so you’d probably be good at this. Do you want to help us with this? Or do you want to get involved with our board? Or do you want to advise us in some investments?” Things like that. More often than not I’m turning those things down because I don’t know them well and I don’t want to know them well.
And a very good example of this is computer programming. From probably about the age of 13 or 14 all the way up until, I don’t know, maybe my mid-30s, late-30s I was obsessed with computer programming. I wanted to be the best computer programmer there was. But I realized at some point in time that computer programming wasn’t getting me any place, so I purposely went through and got rid of every single computer programming and database book I had on purpose. And I purposely now make sure I do not ever get into those type of projects. If somebody comes to me and says, “Patrick we’ve heard that you’re good at this, will you help us develop an application?” I say you know what I’ll help you manage the application, but I do not want to do it myself. I’m going to find someone who is younger, smarter, more qualified, and more interested in doing the project than I am. So just know what you’re good at, know what you’re not good at, and be comfortable with your ignorance. And, like I said be comfortable with your ignorance, but also be sure that you have one or two things that you are going to focus on. I’m not going to say they necessarily make up for the ignorance, but to make sure you are really good at.
You may be really good on camera …
You may be really good teaching a certain topic …
You may be really good helping do project management or writing a book …
Whatever it is, get really good at that. And try to make your money doing that. That’s kind of funny. I also used to be of the mindset if I wasn’t a generalist, I might miss out on chances to make money. And that still happens. People come to me and are like here is $10,000 help us with this project. Most people would say it’s kind of foolish to turn that money down. Well, the thing is I can make more money being more fine-tuned and more focused on a particular topic and being an expert in that area than trying to be a generalist and someone that kind of works on every single thing that’s thrown at me. Because there’s an endless supply of money and opportunity out there, and if you’re not careful you’ll always be bending down, picking up, and looking for random things to work on. But focus on a particular thing and get really good at it.
And something else that actually helped me with this is this book right here by Jeff Walker. Is this by Jeff Walker? No, this is by Perry Marshall. Different book by Jeff Walker. Sorry Jeff and Perry. But this book by Perry Marshall, he picked up the 80/20 philosophy which was done by a different gentleman, and he applied it to sales and marketing. This book, by the way Perry Marshall if you’re not watching please watch this. Or someone get this to Perry Marshall so he can see it. But this book I read in the past year, and it changed my life. It wasn’t even that terribly expensive. I think it was maybe somewhere between ten and twenty dollars. But this is 80/20 in Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall, and I also went to Audible.com and got the electronic book. And this book talks about how to evaluate the tasks you do, apply a dollar amount to them, to make sure that you are focused on working on things that help you make the most money. And again, this helped me kind of whittle… oh look by Richard Koch. Richard Koch, K-O-C-H is the first person to come up with the 80/20 principle.
And then Perry Marshall the add words God was smart enough to apply it to sales and marketing. And he just goes through a lot of things in the world of digital marketing and your business and your life and shows you how to focus on the 20% that makes you the most money or helps you get the most amount from your time. And basically, giving up the other 80% and giving it to somebody else. This 80/20 book by Perry Marshall saved my life. And by save my life I mean obviously didn’t recover me from a heart attack, but it’s helping me make progress faster. I’m perfectly willing now to take my voice mails and take my calls and take my emails and reply back to them and say this is not in my wheelhouse. This is not what I’m good at. This is not what I want to focus on. I want to focus on certain things and outsource or subcontract the rest. So again, a quick recap. How can I grow as a person? If you’re asking yourself that question or you know someone who asks them self that question kind of rehash these three topics with them. First of all, assume success mindset and work backwards. Know what your end goal will be and put the steps in place to work backwards to make them happen. Bend time to your will.
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week are available for you to do however you want them to do. And don’t sit around on your butts on Saturdays and Sundays. On Saturdays and Sundays, I try to get up at the same time as all the other days. I get up, I shower, I shave, I get dressed, just like all my other days. And know that you don’t know everything and be comfortable with ignorance in certain parts of your life. That’s the third one.
