TACTICAL BUSINESSMAN

Gerritt has another exciting story from his SWAT days to share with listeners.  Put yourself in Gerritt’s shoes for this high-stress situation and identify the advantages the SWAT team positioned itself for.  You might not ever be in quite the same situation, but life happens and stressful situations will come your way. Put yourself in a position of advantage by having a general plan of action in place for events before they happen.  How do you set yourself up for success?

If you were given the choice of wifi or water, which would you choose? I certainly hope you said water as it’s necessary to maintain life. Gerritt talks about a family he observed while on a ride-along last week that actually chooses wifi over water. They had no functioning water, but all had cell phones and wifi. They made the decision month after month of wifi over water. Maybe you’re not at that level, maybe you’re just choosing wifi over your wife. Either way, it’s time to prioritize!

Lack of results is directly related to commitment, not desire. If you’re not producing the results you know you can, take a step back and ask yourself if you’re fully committed. Gerritt just lost some money to a stupid hotel in San Diego because of their no refund/cancellation/change policy. Where in life are you holding a refund or cancellation policy in your back pocket? How can you go all in when you know you have an out?

Gerritt is shifting his focus to productivity. It’s something we can all improve on as there’s a lot that goes into being productive. The root of productivity is our use of time, but Gerritt wants to dissect that further and talk about our environment. Is your environment conducive to success, or are you setting yourself up for failure? How could you plan ahead or change your environment to minimize distractions?

In Gerritt’s 15 years as a police officer, he says you wouldn’t believe the number of emergencies they had to respond to that weren’t actual emergencies. A fender bender in the Wal-Mart parking lot may be a big deal in your world; how and when will your car be repaired, is your insurance rate going to go up, who’s fault was it anyway? If no one is hurt or in danger the law only requires that you exchange insurance information, beyond that, time to get to work handling your own “emergency”.

Have you ever seen an amazing comeback and thought where did that come from?  The odds can be stacked against us, everyone could be expecting us to quit, but if our why is big enough we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.  Gerritt believes we can achieve anything we truly desire, it’s just a matter of how far you’re willing to go to get it and why you want it. When the struggles come, remember why you’re doing it, if it’s a big enough reason you won’t quit.

Ah sweet summer vacation, time to relax, sleep in late… not if you’re Gerritt’s son! “But Dad, it’s Summertime”. What makes Summer so different? The lazy days of summer were definitely a learned behavior, it’s how Gerritt grew up and how he raised his kids for many years. We’ll often strengthen justifications over time, but when it’s time for change is reward or punishment a better motivation for quick results?

When Gerritt was invited to join his friend for a helicopter ride he thought they would just hop in and go. Cue the preflight checklist and 20 minutes later they’re just about ready to go up. This got Gerritt thinking, shouldn’t we have some sort of checklist to success for our lives? When we write things down we are much more likely to accomplish them. So make yourself a weekly checklist to track what you accomplish during the week, where you did good and where you can improve.

Have you ever heard of the God Complex? This goes beyond just ego, this is when you think you can do no wrong, that you can control everything, and only the people that reaffirm this make it in your world; think Kanye West. If you are inflicted with the God Complex it can really affect your personal life and the people that don’t need another God but a husband, father or friend. Gerritt encourages sufferers to return to Earth before it’s too late.

Have you ever heard of the confirmation bias? It’s when you have your opinion and you’re only seeking our information to confirm your opinion. Gerritt shares both a business and a personal example of times he has found problems simply because he was looking for them. So how do we shift our focus? How do we skew our confirmation bias to the positive rather than the negative? Listen in as Gerritt shares his experiences.