The Extra Mile - Positive Thinking During Covid-19

It’s the last Extra Mile - positivity during COVID lockdown, and I’m going to wrap up this series with the Japanese concept of Kaizen..

Kaizen means continuous change, if you break down the characters in Japanese, ‘change good’- it’s self whipping and a sheep on alter... self change + sacrifice for the greater good basically. You make small sacrifice for the whole group and aren’t just thinking for yourself constantly.

Kaizen is this idea that a business never arrives, and the employees are empowered from the ceo down to the assembly line to make continuous improvements, never stop making those improvements, and always making it a little better. As opposed to radical changes or top down management - this is about small, constant rhythmic changes and empowering the team throughout the company.

Small ongoing positive changes can reap significant improvements. What small changes are you going to make today, and how can you better empower your team to own that result?

This has been Tim Brown.

This is Tim Brown and this is the Extra Mile, Positivity During COVID-19. Today I want to talk about why Grit is so important for company culture.

Angela Duckworth says “If you want to be grittier, find a gritty culture and join it. If you can not find it, then create it.” - company culture forms our identity - just like you become the top 5 people you hang around, If you have a culture where people persevere, and are better after a problem happens than before... you will start to own that ideal as well.

•  Encouraging people to have difficult conversation. Allow people to have those conversation
• Allow people to make mistakes, grow from them, allow people feel their mistakes.

Grittiness, and hardiness get things done, mental toughness is not a nice to have, but a crucial component of emotional maturity. And we could all use a little mor of that, especially during this time.

Follow the daily podcast on Spotify at hookagency.com/extra , join me every weekday (til the end of the week) after my mile run for a couple minutes of positivity!

This is Tim Brown - thanks for listening :)

This is the Extra Mile - positive thinking during Covid-19, and yesterday I talked about 5 ways to get more grit and one of the strategies is Brian Tracy’s ‘Eat That Frog” getting the hardest thing on your to-do list done early in the day is the basic idea. 

I really appreciated a lot of ideas in this book 1. the idea of writing down your three highest value tasks the night before... 2. the idea that saying no is a magical way to create time, and 3. That Writing it down is essential, and there’s something about physically writing that helps engrain our priorities and our goals in our minds. 

Having priorities and sticking to them - is a demonstration of grit. Soft people don’t have self discipline, and lack of self discipline will lead to enjoying life less in my experience. 

Follow the daily podcast on Spotify at hookagency.com/extra , join me every weekday (til the end of the week) after my mile run for a couple minutes of positivity!

This is Tim Brown - thanks for listening :)

This is the Extra Mile - positive thinking during Covid-19, and I talked yesterday about how important Grit is – persistence, mental toughness, why successful people have grit. But how do you cultivate that? I came up with 5 ways to get more grit:

1. Challenge yourself daily - try to do something really hard each day. Be 
2. Invite haters – “To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” Or… invite them, be real, be ok with people disagreeing. I tell people on my team to be in a ‘gotta catch em all’ mindset, because haters will come, especially if you say anything even mildly controversial. Sometimes people lie about what they really believe because they don’t want to be insulted - don’t let that be you!
3. Do something that seems impossible - the first time I completed a 365 day challenge I felt a sense of relief, I really thought I might not be able to make it. But then I did it 4 more times! Inspire yourself, climb that mountain, finish that giant book, finish Ozark on Netflix - I don’t know, knock it out ;) lol 
4. Seek discomfort – this mindset is so powerful, and I talked about it yesterday, but doing this regularly practically can be as simple as doing something that socially challenges you. Ask 2 people you ‘idolize’ to chat with you over the phone for 15 min. Maybe they’ll pick you up on it. That’s how I got Grant Cardone + Seth Godin to collaborate on content – shots in the dark, sent a letter, sent an email. Boom - things I didn’t think would ever happen, happened. Bar raised for what’s going to blow my mind. 
5. Eat the frog – Take your hardest task for the day, and make it the first thing on your to-do list. Maybe even do it before 9am. It’s oddly motivating because everything after that feels easier. 

Those are my 5 practical tips for getting grittier - thanks for following along! Follow the daily podcast on Spotify at hookagency.com/extra

This is the Extra Mile - positive thinking during Covid-19, this week we’ll be talking about the important of Grit and how to get more of it, I just tested the ideas in a book called Hell Week, had an 80hr week and I think that’s probably a little over where I stay mentally sharp but I wanted to test my grit.

David Goggins says motivation is fickle - motivation comes and goes, your going to need something deeper, you’re going to need to steel your resolve and get shit done even when you’re not motivated.

Angela Duckworth says that a lot of people that are talented oddly have less grit, count me as one of those people perhaps I always felt like I had a handicap and had to work harder than other people but she also found - that consistently “More grit equaled more success” 

I see so many people seeking comfort. Personally, professionally, and the problem with that is that it’s a phantom. Even if you were swaddled in a machine and bottled fed formula and opioids all day - there would come a day when you’d need more. Comfort is a bottomless pit, and just like ‘novelty and thrills’ seeking it constantly will leave you empty. You have to seek discomfort - oddly it’s the strongest possible flex. Cause discomfort will come - and you’ll be way more mentally resilient if you sought it out vs just let it happen to you against your will. Align with the natural rhythm of life - seek discomfort.

Follow the daily podcast on Spotify (this is the last week!) hookagency.com/extra

This is Tim Brown, thanks for listening!

Bye :)

Hey it’s Tim Brown and this is the Extra Mile - positivity during COVID-19. 

No one is perfect about goal setting and habits - so more important than perfection is the ability to be hearty and return when you fall off.

And more important than perfect consistency, is a general rhythm that most of the time you’re making progress. Because that regularity + is where you get that compounding benefit. I just finished a year of doing 365 logos in 365 days - and I was horribly spotty at it, This was my 5th year doing a 365 day challenge and I’m going to chill for a while. 

It is crazy though how much I would progress when I did one thing every day for 30 days in a row though - daily is a beautifully effective rhythm. So my 15 min challenge to you today, is to find one thing you want to better at, and start a 30day challenge and share it on Instagram or social somewhere (which is great for keeping you accountable.)

Next week may be the end of this 4 week weekday challenge for me - if the full lockdown in Minnesota ends, but you can find all these episodes in a mega guide at hookagency.com/positivity - Next week I’ll be talking about Grit, and some of ya’all  need more of that too. ;) 

*points at self* 

Talk to you then! Tim brown, subscribe to the daily podcast after my mile run, hookagency.com/extra - thanks for joining.

We’ve talked about vision, goals, and habits… now I want to introduce the under-rated hero.. which I call BUMPERS. 

They say putting out your workout clothes the night before increases your chances of follow through, and in my experience things like this really help. To me – calendar invites, a note on my phone with my to-do list, and anything else that is a nudge like alarms on a phone, or an accountability partner - are bumpers (like you know in bowling) and are the most likely elements to help you stick to your habits. 

Bumpers are beautiful – and  I strongly suggest that you use them heavily in your goal setting and habit creation. A good book around this book - is Atomic Habits, by James Clear - in it, James suggests that you can go real small with your habits, like 2 minute meditation, just as long as you DO IT, it’s the pattern he says that’s important. He gives examples of people that go to the gym day after day even if they didn’t work out - just to get in that rhythm.

So my suggested 15 minute exercise today is super simple. Do you have any ‘bumpers’ that help you stick to your goals? Try to write down 1 or 2 for each of your top 5 goals!

Thanks for listening! Quick link to this series as a podcast on Spotify - hookagency.com/extra (join me every weekday after my mile run for a couple minutes of positivity)

Habits are huge when it comes to accomplishing the goals you set out for yourself. I like to come up with 5 key goals for a 3 month period, and based on the book 12-week year, create a weekly habit for each of those 3 month goals. 

It’s interesting because we’re starting to get to the super specific moment where we’re implementing HABITS that are directly in line with your DREAMS. HABITS…. DREAMS.

If you did the vision exercise (hookagency.com/vision) and you did the goal pyramid exercise (goalpyramid.com) you can complement your 3 month goals you’ve cooked up-  with this template to track your weekly habits related to your 3 month goals (hookagency.com/12 and press copy) It’s from a book called 12 week year, that I highly suggest. 

The whole idea in The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran is that yearly plans don’t work because too much changes in that amount of time - and 3 months is a good increment. 

Another key point is that there are “Leading indicators” and “lagging indicators” of performance, and you need to track the ‘leading indicators’ as weekly or daily habits, get accountability, and implement systems for staying on top of your habits. He also talks a lot about time blocking for the key things you need to get done. 

I really feel like in the end it comes down to this… if you’re not plotting key actions that will drive towards your vision and dream every week – ONTO YOUR TO-DO lists, in specific days… Why do you think you’ll ever accomplish your dream? We got to find ways to make sure our steps towards are vision is systematically hitting our to-do list. Do you have those systems in place?

Check out hookagency.com/12 (and press copy) to use the Google docs habits tracking system, and check out the 12 week year on Amazon! Quick link to this series as a podcast on Spotify - hookagency.com/extra (join me every weekday after my mile run for a couple minutes of positivity)

Hey it’s Tim Brown and this is the Extra Mile - positivity during COVID-19. If you filled out the template from yesterday you have clear 5-year vision and today we’re going to break that down into smaller manageable chunks until we’re looking at the next clear steps towards that vision. (Check out the goal pyramid template I’m going to describe at a little site I spun up for it goalpyramid.com)

Why is breaking down your goals so important? Well having a vision is beautiful it can sometimes feel overwhelming so breaking it down can help you see it as manageable and make it way easier to take rhythmic, steady action towards the long term dream.

So think about it - what steps would you have taken one year from now that lead you strongly along that path towards your 3-5 year goals?

I like to have key goals 5 key categories (for instance I might choose - health & fitness, relationships, money, self-development and spirituality/centeredness- but you can choose your top 5 priorities)

Now once you have your top goal for each of those categories. - Break each of the 5 categories of goals down by 1 year, then by 3 months, then by 2 weeks, and if you want you can plot next steps into the next 3 days..  

Download the free template for this and you can download it at goalpyramid.com. 

Hey it’s Tim Brown and this is the Extra Mile - positivity during COVID-19. I believe in goal-setting, and have deeply enjoyed doing this regularly, and I want to share that with you. I’m basically putting on a goal-setting BOOTCAMP this week! Want to get your vision, goals and habits tight in a 15 minute exercise each a day this week?

Join me for a clear step by step approach to setting an energizing vision, breaking your goals down by 1 year, 3 months, 2 weeks, and week.. habits & bumpers to keep those habits in place, and how to be hearty & get back on your systems when you fall off. 

So today though – I want you to have a bit of fun and take 15 Minutes and really get your ideal life 5 years from now super clear, so you know exactly what you’re aiming for. Everything I’m going to share with you is in a 

Write out your ideal life 5 years from now. Smells, sounds, taste, touch & feel, what you’ll be looking at. How will folks be relating to you, how’s your relationship growing & healthy, family vibes, wealth & health. 

How do you relate to the world? I find it useful to look at 2-3 heroes’ you want to be like - and even come up with a couple words that encompass my aspirational identity - for me I want to be a ‘magnetic listener’ - write down your 2-5 heroes, along with your ‘heroic’ aspirational identity. A couple of words that energize you and describe how you’d like to be. 

If you write these things down along with the smells, sounds, tastes, touch & feel, and relationship of what your ideal life looks like…. It feels GOOD. It helps you look for little creative ways to make more of this stuff happen, and gives you something to shoot for that’s fun. I created a Google Doc template with each of these queries - quicklink hookagency.com/vision (and press copy) 

Also quick link to this podcast on Spotify - hookagency.com/extra (join me every weekday after my mile run for a couple minutes of positivity)