In an effort to bring The Best Ever Listeners even MORE value, Joe has started a special segment of the podcast. In these segments, Joe shares something he has either recently learned, or even something he’s known for a while that he thinks can be valuable to everyone else. In this episode, he’s addressing feeling “blah” and how to power through it and still be productive. If you enjoyed today’s episode remember to subscribe in iTunes and leave us a review!
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TRANSCRIPTION
Best Ever listeners, I’ve got a special segment for you, and every now and then I’ll be doing these special segments when I come across something that I learn in my entrepreneurial journey, and I think it will be helpful for you as well… So I hope you enjoy this episode, and more importantly, I hope you get some value from it that you can then apply to your life.
This episode is gonna be focused on what I call the Overachiever’s Guide to BLAH Days. I think we all have those days where you’re just feeling like… BLAH. You’re just feeling like you don’t wanna do stuff, you’re tired, or you’re hungover. In my case, last night I had two glasses of wine, I had five hours of sleep, and on top of that, yesterday we closed on a large apartment deal, so there’s certainly a little bit of sense of accomplishment, although my main focus on the apartment deals and when I celebrate is when we do the first investor distribution, and I’ve wired my mind that way… So there’s not a whole lot of celebration when we close a deal, but still there’s a little bit when we close the deal. So that was yesterday.
Today there’s a little residual hangover from the two glasses of wine, there’s sleep that I wish I got more of, and I also haven’t really exercised today, so that’s another variable… Plus, I have a slight sense of accomplishment from closing on a deal yesterday. So there’s a perfect storm of stuff that today I have just felt BLAH. I felt like a lazy bum. Now, I’ve done some stuff – I’ve had a Follow Along Friday with Theo earlier, I have had an investor conversation, I have gone for a walk with Colleen, my wife, and Jack, our 12-pound Yorkie with tons of attitude… Actually, he’s got a great temperament, unless you’re another dog while we’re walking, and he’s on his leash – then he’s got a lot of attitude. Besides that, he’s a great dog.
So I’ve done some things today, and… What time is it? It is [1:37] PM when I’m recording this… But I haven’t gotten just a lot of momentum yet, so I’ve started thinking, I wonder if any Best Ever listeners out there have come across this, where you are typically an over-achiever; I like to believe my identity is that of an overachiever. Normally, every day I’m “BAM, BAM, BAM!”, but today I just feel blah… So I thought, “What can I do to shake out of this and turn this around?” and then also what can I do to help others who might come across this situation turn it around for theirself as well.
I’ve figured out a three-step process, and I’m implementing right now, so it’s not just theory-based; I’m actually doing it. The intention of mentioning this is to help you out if you are an over-achiever, which I imagine you are, because you’re a Best Ever listener, so you’re crazy like I am, and you’re into this real estate thing and you’re consuming a lot of content about real estate on a consistent basis… So I imagine you’re an overachiever, and I also imagine that some days you have kind of a blah day, so here’s a three-step process for your guide to getting through, overcoming and transforming your blah days into productive days.
Step one, get excited. Why do I say get excited? I say get excited because you’re an overachiever and you’re having a blah day; well, that means that other days of the week are not blah, otherwise you wouldn’t recognize it being different. Also get excited because when we do achieve great things, it’s so easy to get caught up in the moment when you’re totally motivated. When you attend a Tony Robbins conference everyone’s pumped up. When you attend a real estate conference, everyone’s connected and BFFs. When you’re attending a local meetup, everyone’s talking “Oh yeah, I’ll do this, I’ll follow up with you, I’ll give you a call, I’ll e-mail you.” Everyone’s all about it.
But then something interesting happens – people don’t follow up, and people don’t do things that they say they’re gonna do when they’re not in the moment, and that’s what separates you and I from other investors, because when we’re not in the moment, we’re still making progress. So that’s why I say get excited, because when we do come across a blah day, that’s when we get the muscle built even bigger.
Tony Robbins talks about which rep builds the most muscle when you’re on a set of ten? The first one, the second, third, all the way to the tenth…? Which one? What would you say? It’s actually the 11th. The 11th rep gets you the most muscle, because then you’re really pushing your muscle. Same thing with what I’m describing right now – when we have a blah day, that means that we’ve had a bunch of good days up until this point, and then we want to push through which builds the muscle even stronger when we have the greatest resistance… Because on that 11th rep, what is there? There is the greatest resistance, and when we push through that, the muscle gets bigger.
So that’s why I say get excited – we’re pushing through the resistance, and we’re getting stronger as a result of it. Number one.
Number two, after you get excited, then get moving and create something. My suggestion is on the blah days to focus on creating something that is of interest to you, and that way you’ll get momentum. There is fulfillment in creation, there is not fulfillment in maintenance. When we create something, then we’re going to get really excited. That’s what I’m doing right now – I mentioned I’m following this process, I’m creating a podcast episode, so I’m following this process because I believe in this process.
So when you are having a blah day, first get excited, because you’re gonna push through the resistance and you’re gonna get stronger, and second, get moving by creating something.
And third, reflect back and give yourself some props. “Nice work on this!” It’s tough, and it’s something that most investors, most entrepreneurs, most businesspeople, most people in general don’t do. Generally, when they’re having these challenges after they’ve had some good, over-achieving days, they just don’t do anything, and that’s what separates you and I from other investors… Not in a bad way – I’m not saying “us versus them”, I’m simply making an observation, that when we push against resistance and we create something by moving and creating something, then we are separating ourself from what other people do.
And then third, like I mentioned, reflect back on what you just did, pat yourself on the back and get excited, and perhaps write it down. That’s where my daily journal comes into play. I’ve mentioned on the show multiple times before, but I’ll mention it again – I do a daily journal, every single day. Out of the calendar year (365 days) I probably only miss six or seven days total. Pretty much every single day I’m writing in that journal.
I’m writing “Hey, today was a blah day, but I’m an over-achiever and I follow the three-step process of getting excited, because I’m gonna have resistance, and I’m gonna grow my mental muscle, my entrepreneurial muscle, whatever muscle because of that, because there’s gonna be a lot of resistance. Two, I got moving and I created X, or XY, or XYZ, and three, now I’m reflecting back, because darn it, it feels good that I was able to push through this…”
And it was pretty cool, because I worked on a project that I wanted to work on. And you know what, I cut myself some slack, because I realized that there are some days where I’m not gonna have as much sleep, and I’m gonna be cranky, or I’m gonna have a couple glasses of wine, or beer, or whatever you drink – or maybe you don’t drink; maybe too much sugar, or whatever it is – and I’m not gonna feel the best the next day… Or I’m gonna accomplish something pretty darn big the previous day, and then the next day I’m gonna feel like I have a little bit of complacency, even though I know inherently that’s a terrible thing to have in business…
So I’m gonna cut myself some slack and I’m simply going to follow this three-step process of getting excited, getting moving and creating something, and then I’m gonna reflect back.
Those are the three steps to your guide to making a blah day a productive day for all of you over-achievers. I hope this is helpful, and thank you for being a listener to the Best Ever Podcast. This is a special segment that I haven’t done before, but you know what, I might start doing these more often, because there are some messages that as I’m going along through my entrepreneurial journey, as I’m building a company, there are lessons that I’m coming across, and who cares about what I learn – it’s more about what I learned that can be helpful for you, and if I have something that can be helpful for you, I feel like we should have a special segment to mention that, so that you can benefit from the stuff I’m learning along the way, too.
I hope you’re having a best ever day, and we’ll talk to you tomorrow.
