Level Up Your Life

Greatness Magnified's Sarah McVanel joins Mark on today's episode of Level Up Your Life to discuss the Flip Side of Failing. Why is it so important to experience hard times? Why are we almost required to go through tough experiences before things get better? Mark and Sarah go in depth about failure, and why the most successful people on earth (well, in Canada) have attributed their biggest successes to it. They also talk about their own personal experiences and share stories about their own moments of crisis and how they lead to amazing transformations in their lives.

• A crisis moment that lead to a massive life transformation.
• A wacky idea that ended up being a great one.
• What's conditional, what's optional, and what's not
• What does leveling up look like to you?
• What is the Flipside of Failure?

"Once you truly start to look around at your life, and all of the things that you have been putting up with, you actually realize that you've been settling"

"We didn't want to create new problems while we were trying to solve other problems"

"We have to be able to let go of what is in order to reach for what could be"

"We have the definition of failure all wrong"

"Failure is a part of that process"

Get Flip Side of Failing!

https://greatnessmagnified.com

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More Mark:

• Your Best Year Yet transformation Program
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• Click HERE for one month FREE Audible

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Level Up Your Life! This week, Mark Black dives deep into why having a growth mindset and why it's a crucial thing to have if you want to experience success in your life! While someone with a fixed mindset may experience hardships that knock them down and keep them there, often they hold themselves back before ever really trying! A person with a growth mindset is more likely to see the opportunity to improve their situation and go for it! When then fall, they fall just as hard, but often choose to see failure as a something to learn from, pick themselves up and try again! Tune in to learn more about having a growth mindset, and how to develop one of your very own!

Let's get ready to level up!

In This Episode:

• Growth Mindset: The most important thing to work on.
• The differences between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset.
• Are you really bad at math? Why a fixed mindset is detrimental.
• What goes a growth mindset look like?
• What if a 1 year old had the same mindset as a 60 year old?
• Fail, learn, grow, repeat

"The more people that are living their life at the next level, the better our world becomes"

"We want to strive for have a growth mindset, as much as possible,  in every area of your life"

"Most of the things that you think are limited, are not."

"If you are afraid to fail, you will not succeed to the level that you could"

"The people at the top are the ones who are working the hardest to learn"

"Failure is a part of the process"

"What is a way that you can challenge yourself on a regular basis?"

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More Mark:

• Your Best Year Yet transformation Program
• Mark's website
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• Mark's Twitter profile
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• Click HERE for one month FREE Audible

Welcome to this week's episode of Level Up Your Life with Mark Black. This week, Mark wants to know: Are you in a funk? If you are, do you know how to get out of it before it becomes a downward spiral? If you do, that's great! But if you don't, don't worry, this episode will help you get an idea of how you can combat those blues and get yourself into a better state of mind and being. Everyone on earth has bad days, and sometimes even bad weeks. You're not alone on this one, but do you have the tools you need to get back on track? Tune in and learn a few for yourself.

• Are you in a funk right now?
• For better or worse, everything is temporary. This too shall pass.
• The higher you fly, the harder you crash, and it's difficult to predict when.
• Challenge your beliefs, change your outcomes.
• Knowing what you want and why you want it.

"We all have periods in our lives where we struggle"

"How do you get yourself back on track?"

"As human beings we horrible at having a good sense of what the future will really be like"

"When there's an end in sight, we can find the drive to make it through"

"You can choose to believe something different"

"We tend to think that more things are objectively true than actually are"

Share the show!

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More Mark:

• Your Best Year Yet transformation Program
• Mark's website
• Mark's LinkedIn profile
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• Click HERE for one month FREE Audible

Welcome and thank you for checking out another episode of Level Up Your Life! Today we're talking about problems. More specifically solving problems. Mark is here this week to burst our bubbles when it comes to ever getting rid of all of our issues, dilemmas, obstacles and challenges. It turns out: we're always going to have them. While that may sound a little bit depressing at first, it's actually not a bad thing. Problems make us smarter, stronger and overall better at dealing with things in our lives as we learn to overcome them, and Mark is keen to share 3 key steps to dealing with any problem you ever encounter! We all have problems, but not all of us are dealing with them as effectively as we could be. Using these steps, you can figure out where you may be lingering too long on any given issue, and potentially come up with an even better solution than you thought possible! Tune is and get a handle on some of the more difficult things life throws at you!

• Why is problem solving a valuable skill? How can it help you in your day to day?
• Mo money, Mo problems
• What kind of problems do you prefer to have?
• Putting it in writing
• Open up your mind will help you deal with the problems that come up
• Don't quit, don't be afraid. You have the capacity and ability to handle it

"Things are changing at a pace unlike anything we've seen before"

"What role do problems play in your life?"

"You are always going to have problems"

"Problems, when not dealt with effectively, can really devastate your life"

"Oftentimes, That first gut reaction isn't right"

"Never stop trying to solve the problem"

"Your first solution will not always be the best solution"

"You have the ability within you to solve every problem you will ever have to face"

More Mark:

• Your Best Year Yet transformation Program
• Mark's website
• Mark's LinkedIn profile
• Mark's Twitter profile
• Mark's Facebook profile  

Click HERE for one month FREE Audible

Today's episode is going deep into the topic of relationships! How do we create that thriving relationship we all want and yet still find the time to do everything we need and want to do in our lives. When you work full time or run a business, have children (the more, the merrier) and still have to devote time to your wife, to friends and to other family members, how do you keep the whole thing from crashing down? In this episode of Level Up Your Life, Mark Black gives us a look into his life, marriage, and fatherhood. He shares the details on what he's doing right, where he's failed, and what he's learned about the whole thing. Being a husband, a father of 3, and an international speaker and coach may not make him an expert, but he has a pretty good idea of what to avoid! Tune in and turn your relationship in the direction you want it to grow!

• The myth and misconception of work/life balance
• Is it ever going to be perfect?
• It's not about you!
• Communicate, communicate, communicate!
• Giving what they need instead of what you want to give
• What is your #1 priority?

"If all we do is measure our priorities by how much time we spend in each area, we're going to get a misrepresentation of the facts"

"You never arrive. You never get 'there'"

"We can always be growing, we can always be improving, we can always be nurturing our relationships"

"You have to be the kind of person who tells the truth, no matter what"

"At the end of our lives, all that will matter will be the lives that we've touched and the difference we've made"

More Mark:

• Your Best Year Yet transformation Program
• Mark's website
• Mark's LinkedIn profile
• Mark's Twitter profile
• Mark's Facebook profile  

Click HERE for one month FREE Audible

At some point in your life, you've been coached through something. You know that life is easier when you have someone to talk to, who can provide you with perspective and help usher you through the issue at hand. But what would you look for in a coach? What results can coaches actually help you get? Who do you trust enough to hire? How long should we work together? There are plenty of things to consider when you decide it's finally time to invest in someone who can help you go the distance. In this episode of Level Up Your Life, Mark goes over the benefits of having a personal or professional coach, and gives 5 things to look out for when choosing the right coach for you.

• What coaching really is and why you might want to have one.
• What are the major benefits of having a coach?
• What does a good coach cost?
• 5 Things to be looking for when choosing to hire the right coach for you.
• What format of coaching would suit you best?

"A coach is somebody you hire who is trained to help you get results"

"There is a high likelihood that you could benefit from coaching"

"None of us stretches as far as we could stretch"

"You are much better at keeping commitments to other people than you are at keeping commitments to yourself."

"They can show you mistakes that they've made"

"Coaching is absolutely a two way street"

"Every time I have grown significantly, personal or professionally, it's because I had coaching at some level"

More Mark:

• Your Best Year Yet transformation Program
• Mark's website
• Mark's LinkedIn profile
• Mark's Twitter profile
• Mark's Facebook profile  

Click HERE for one month FREE Audible

When we think about discipline, it often comes with a less than pleasant feeling attached to it. It's not sexy, and a lot of people struggle with self discipline for a number of reasons. But why does discipline matter? Why would you want to do without the things you want now? Why would you deprive yourself of the things you could go out and get right now? In order to have the things you've always wanted. Discipline is the ultimate tool to losing those extra pounds, saving all of that money, and even seeing that business success you've dreamed of. It doesn't even need to be unpleasant in the moment! Here are 5 tips to help you build a little more discipline into your day to day life, so that you can start having better tomorrows.

• Discipline doesn't have to be a dirty word
• Why do we want to be disciplined?
• Practicing self denial self-denial
• Rewarding yourself when it's appropriate to do so!
• The subtle art of planning ahead
• The secret is in the structure: Make your life a little harder on purpose
• Gamification of your goals

"Discipline is key to realizing any level of success in your life"

"You have the capacity to be more disciplined"

"Any time we are saying yes to something, we are also saying no to something else"

"Discipline is not about saying no to ourselves forever"

More Mark:

• Your Best Year Yet transformation Program
• Mark's website
• Mark's LinkedIn profile
• Mark's Twitter profile
• Mark's Facebook profile  
• Click HERE for one month FREE Audible

It's said that we should have mission statements in business to know what we stand for, but they can also be helpful in our personal lives too. How can we grow consistently in the right direction? First, we need to know what we want to achieve and second, what kind of person we want to become. The best way to ascertain this is to list out our core values.

Knowing our values and what direction we want to go in gives us massive clarity that we didn't have before. During this episode, Mark instructs how to find your core values and how to best live by them.

How to identify what your values are:

• What do you value most?

• What makes you come alive?

• What do you appreciate most in others?

• What do you enjoy most in life and work?

• Where do your strengths lead you?

Mark's Five Core Values

1. Contribution

2. 1. Service

   2. Making an impact on family, community, and world

   1. I want to be better at loving

   2. I want to be better at giving love

   3. I want to be better at receiving love

3. Love

1. Health

2. 1. Wellbeing, vitality, wellness

   2. Physical & mental wellness

   1. Psychology tells us we do everything because we believe it will make us happier

3. Joy

   1. In the world, community, my home

   2. Peace within myself

4. Peace

"It's easy to go through the motions, but if we do that we don't grow."

"Think about what really really matters to you."

"You can use it as a test. Does this work within these values?"

"A lot of what I want to do in the world hinges on health."

"Doing this exercise is meaningless unless it informs behavior."

"You'll notice each of your core values link to one another."

"Don't fall into the trap of perfectionism."

More Mark:

• Your Best Year Yet transformation Program

• Mark's website

• Mark's LinkedIn profile

• Mark's Twitter profile

• Mark's Facebook profile  

Click HERE for one month FREE Audible

How do you view time and timing? Does it correlate to how you plan to meet your goals? Do you feel like your best years are behind your or that there was no room left for you to grow? Do you need a reboot?

• We need to change the way we look at success
• • Culture views success primarily in the form finance & achievement
  • Making lists and crossing items off
  • When all of our sense of value is put into goals, it's a non sum game
  • Focus on the growth that occurs as you strive to meet your goals
  • • Progress becomes the goal
• As long as we're alive we still have opportunity
• • Don't write yourself off
  • You have a lot of years of productivity left
• Examples
• • Stan Lee
  • Vera Wang

Suggested Strategies

1. Life is not about goal attainment for the sake of goal attainment
2. 1. Checking boxes
   1. Failure does not always mean negativity
   2. Failure is a necessary, required part of the journey
   3. We grow more from our failures
3. We have to reframe failure in our minds
   1. Attain success again
   2. Redirection
4. We have to be willing to hustle and grind

"Will I be able to top that?"

"Now what? The goal has been achieved. What do I do now?"

"If you decide you've reached your peak then it is true."

"There is always something you can pursue and push toward."

"We always want to be evolving and learning."

"If you're not failing, you're not aiming high enough."

More Mark:

Your Best Year Yet transformation Program

Mark's website

Mark's LinkedIn profile

Mark's Twitter profile

Mark's Facebook profile  

Click HERE for one month FREE Audible

Do you have trouble saying no? During this episode, host Mark Black breaks down five times it's imperative to say no, mean it, and how to do it. It doesn't need to be easy, but we need to recognize when something is worth our time and energy! Understand when we say "no" we're saying "yes" to something else.

1. Say no to excuses
2. 1. Stop allowing ourselves and those around us to make an excuse
   2. Differentiate between legitimate reasons and excuses
   3. Don't accept excuses
   1. Unnecessary meetings
   2. Phone/Computer
   3. Be more cognizant of where we're spending our time
3. Say no to time wasters
   1. Make exercise an intentional part of your day
   2. Stop being sleep deprived
   3. Chronic dehydration
   4. Nutrition
4. Say no to ignoring our health
   1. Everything is quick, now, don't wait in our culture
   2. Anything that matters takes time
   3. What are you willing to sacrifice
   4. Practice denial in small ways
5. Say no to short-term gratification
   1. Remove negative people from your life as much as possible
   2. Protect yourself from negativity
6. Say no to negative people

"Probably when faced with a lot of opportunities you'll want to do everything."

"I've come to learn the hard way I can't say 'yes' to everything."

"In our culture, I think we have grown to confuse loving somebody well with being nice. There are times when loving somebody well isn't nice. We have to tell someone what they need to hear and not what they want to hear."

"Time is the most precious resource we have."

"Take little baby steps."

"We become the top five people you spend your time with."

More Mark:

Your Best Year Yet transformation Program

Mark's website

Mark's LinkedIn profile

Mark's Twitter profile

Mark's Facebook profile  

Click HERE for one month FREE Audible