Your success might come down to a simple word…NO. Do you hear it enough? Do you realize the number of times you hear NO is directly related to how many times you hear YES? On today’s Dave is joined by author Andrea Waltz as we recap our conversations based on her book, “Go for No. Yes is the Destination, No is How You Get There.”

Author Andrea Waltz talks about staying persistent in embracing and even pursuing “no.” Successful people fail eagerly while failures avoid failing. There seems to be a stigma about failure that makes us feel bad and even want to quit. We think, “I’m probably going to fail, so why even try?” That attitude holds us back from some amazing opportunities because being willing to fail is what creates the chance for success.

Author Andrea Waltz encourages us to track our failure rate. She wants us to be aware of how many times we get a “no,” and even set goals and celebrate how many times we will hear “no.” Tracking your frequency of “no” gives you an awareness of how you are doing and enables you to make adjustments in your message. And celebrating them is a way to make it fun. Remember, the more times you hear “no,” the more times you’ll hear “yes.”

Author Andrea Waltz encourages us to intentionally increase our failure rate, go out and hear “no” more often. When we overcome our fear of hearing “no,” things happen, and opportunities fall into our lap that might never have happened otherwise. Establishing “no goals” tends to drive our activity up, which creates more opportunities for us to hear a “yes.”

Andrea Waltz encourages us to give ourselves permission to fail. When you change your mental model of how you view failure, seeing it as a stepping stone between you and success, it changes what is possible. Usually, we equate hearing the word “no” with a failure, so it’s about seeing the word “no” as a space between you and the “yes.” Instead of giving up when you hear “no,” just increase your “no’s,” and when you do the “yes’” will come.

Your brain is like a computer. It’s like the central processing unit for your body, mind, emotions…everything you are and do. And just like a computer, sometimes we need to change the programming to get the results we’re looking for. On today’s show, Dave recaps episodes 371-374 where Sir John Hargrave shares proven hacks that can help you change the way you think and make you more productive, positive, and happier.

Sir John Hargrave walks us through the process of setting and achieving compelling goals. It’s about imagining what you want to do with your life. Think about how important it is to figure out for yourself where you want to end up. It’s amazing how little time we all spend doing that. Instead, we just float wherever the tides of life take us. But when you start to become the master of your ship there’s no limit to what you can do.

Sir John Hargrave says we have what he calls “loops,” or ongoing, habitual messages we tell ourselves. Usually, they’re just below the level of conscious awareness, embedded in our operating system. He shares a trick to help us develop more awareness of those loops, helping us find the ones that are preventing us from getting where we want to go. We can then reprogram those loops with their more positive alternative.

There’s no end to the digital distractions that surround us. And research shows that the more distracted you are and the more you try to multitask, the less you get done. If you want to be effective and live up to your full potential, get rid of those distractions. Turn it all off and you’ll be more focused and happier.

Studies show that meditation makes you healthier, makes your relationships better, and makes you calmer and more focused. Sir John Hargrave teaches a concentration hack to strengthen that “top-down” attention to make ourselves better able to stay focused on the things we want, like our tasks at work. It also helps us resist those “bottom-up” interruptions like random thoughts and text messages that jump out at us constantly.