DO 8 | Know Better

 

If there is one thing that has become so emphasized in this age of information overload, it is that there will always be ways to become better. We are all capable of progress, growth, and going to the next level. In this episode, Julia Gentry and Travis Gentry reflect on Maya Angelou’s quote that goes, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” They talk about how we’re on this endless journey of learning and how much access we have to information that could help us become the best version of ourselves. Applying this to real-life experiences, Julia and Travis then relate this to fitness and having that accountability to put to action the things you know. At its core, knowledge is not power when not applied. We have to make the conscious decision to do better in order to be better if not the best.

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Know Better, Do Better: How To Be The Best Version of Yourself

What’s the title of this episode?

When You Know Better, Do Better. It was stimulated by the Maya Angelou quote that I love which says, “Do the best that you can until you know better, and then when you know better, do better.” We’re going to talk about that. I want to caution people, myself included. You and I have, over the years, trained ourselves because we know that the minute we start asking questions, we’re going to be responsible for the answers that we’re going to find. It’s like be careful what you wish for and be careful of the answers that you look for because there is this whole idea that when you know better, you’re going to need to do better.

You struggle with that and we have to. We’ll give examples in our own personal life but just because you know it, doesn’t mean you do it.

That’s why I want to caution people because we’ve trained ourselves to think this way.

Now it irritates us if we don’t do better. Once we know better, we’re like, “Let’s do this.” Unless you’re consciously aware of that, you get new information. We’re in the information age but it’s almost like the information overload age. We have so much information out there. Now, there’s inaction with the information that we have because you’re deciphering, and depending on what you’re looking at, you can see 2 or 3 different perspectives on one thing.

Let’s talk about the information age. What we’re meaning is that you can get online and google any question that you have, and there will be pages upon pages of answers on how to make more money, how to lose weight, best places to live, how to have more passion in a marriage, and how to be healthier. It doesn’t matter. Almost any question that you could pose, it’s going to have pages and pages upon results. The problem is it’s almost like we’re googling more but we know less because there’s so much information.

I don’t know about know less, you just do less because it’s almost analysis paralysis. If you’re standing there and you look at four different paths, and you’re like, “Per the information I know now, I could go down now these paths,” as opposed to starting to walk down one to see and you don’t act on any of them.

If I could use the word no or if I could italicize the word no, that’s what I mean. Cognitively, we know a lot but we know less. We were falling prey to what everybody else is doing, and all the suggestions, input, and Google Search terms that now, I personally italicized know less. I’m losing my own voice because I’m listening to all these other voices, opinions, and other ways to do things, which in theory are there to help, but now I’m losing my own voice, which means I’m doing less. We’re going to talk about that.

Where’s that showing up in your life? Give an example. It’s almost like from consciously incompetent to consciously competent where you know something. Health and nutrition is an easy one because you can look at it from working out. There’re many different styles and ways to work out. With the workout as coupled with food and nutrition, there’re many ways like to eat, not to eat, take supplements, not to take supplements, fasting, and not fasting, and all these things.

My example and why we’re doing this in the gym is because we’re going to talk about some principles. One that I wrote about in the book but was established in one conversation that we had in the RV, which was the lifting until failure. I remember when I was trying to gain more muscle tone that I wasn’t even willing to google how to do it. Because we were onto ourselves, even a couple of years ago back then, I wasn’t even willing to google how to change up what was happening because I wasn’t getting any results. I was running harder, cycling faster, and lifting more weights quicker. I was doing more of what I had already been trying to do.

I remember when I walked in and I was venting because it meant if I googled it and if I asked you your input, I consciously and unconsciously knew that you’re going to give me an answer that’s going to ruffle my feathers. I’m going to have to do something and I’m going to know better so I’m going to have to do something different. I can’t control it. I have to try something new. I have to lift heavier weights, which quite honestly makes me uncomfortable.

I don’t know if you did. I don’t know if you consciously knew. It’s almost like sometimes, you don’t even know the right question to ask. You’re like, “I’m going to keep doing the same thing and if I do more, I get more.”

When we start asking questions, we're going to be responsible for the answers we're going to find. Share on X

I was afraid of being wrong and then feeling weak and a new way. I catch myself in this habit. The minute that I start to feel like I’m doing something wrong and then it imposes that if I start changing away, I’m not going to be good at doing it. I find that that’s a real slippery slope for me so I will even avoid the answer, the truth.

That’s different. That’s interesting because we’ve talked about this many times. The fact of not asking as opposed to saying, “I’m going to do more of what I’m doing to get the result,” as opposed to when I made that comment of lifting until failure. Your interpretation is you’re wrong so you’re doing it wrong. You had nothing to do with, “It’s great information. I’m not lifting until failure,” because of the results that you wanted. You’re not looking to do a triathlon or Ironman so you need the endurance, so you’re not necessarily looking to go to failure. You’re looking to build muscle so you are doing more reps at a lower weight as opposed to saying, “No, I want to build muscle so I’m going to shift that.”

This is what happens in this process of like, “I have to know that.” It says, “Do the best that you can until you know better,” which implies there’s always going to be a better. That’s why I love her quote if you take it and piece it apart. In a spirit of excellence, do the best that you can until you know better, which is about progress, growth, and going to the next level. There’s always more for growth. We have people ask us that all the time, “When are you going to be done?” We’re like, “Never,” because then that would imply we’re never done growing, learning, and trying. We’re never going to be done. It implies that until you know better, then when you know better, do better.

Here’s where this could happen is that if I start to know better, it implies that everything that I’ve been doing has been wrong. I’m not saying this is accurate. If I know something different, I’m going to have to do something different, which totally means that maybe I’m doing everything wrong. Now there’s accountability and you’re going to have to do better, and that implies accountability. That’s “hard.” I even remember when you asked me, “Julia, are you lifting until failure?” I could see myself at the gym looking at myself in the mirror going, “No, because that would imply that that hurts.”

It is interesting because I love that. I like it when I can’t get anymore. I’m not looking to pick up a weight, do a bunch of reps, put it down, and be like, “I want to see.”

I like high intensity so I’ve been getting my intensity burn. My life of working out flashed before my eyes because that was not the way I was approaching it, and it didn’t mean it was wrong. I’m still getting a good workout and it’s still good for my heart. I still have a fine physique and all the things, but I knew that what got me to where I am wasn’t going to get me to where I needed to be, which means I was going to have to go back to the gym, do things differently, and lift until failure at a different way.

Which is in all areas of your life.

We’re talking about fitness and I’m turning this over. We are not going to be talking about fitness any longer. We are going to be taking this concept and putting it in every area of your life.

We’ve developed that habit and practice and yes, the truth will piss you off before it sets you free. When you have new information and you feel all the emotions behind like, “I’m wrong and I’m stupid. I’m not good enough,” it’s because you are doing it wrong with new information and I get that. There are many areas, whether it’s finances or relationships. When you feel like you’ve been doing something wrong and practicing something that hasn’t gotten you the result, there’s emotion behind it. As opposed to taking it as feedback and information and saying, “Now I can be better at this. Now I can do something and have a better relationship. Now I can figure out my finances as opposed to hiding from it, and fix the holes.”

Let me ask you this because I heard you say this one time, and I don’t remember who you were talking to, but you had made a comment. They had said, “Travis, I don’t know how to do that.” Your comment to them was, “I say this with as much love as possible. Did you know how to wipe your butt when you were a kid? No, you learned. Did you know how to ride a bike when you were 3, 4 or 5? No. What did you do? You learned.” What you were trying to do is to dumb down something that’s like, “Of course, I wipe my butt. Of course, I ride my bike now.” You were taking them back to this like, “You learned it.”

In those moments when you go, “I don’t know what to do next. I don’t know how to do that,” that moment that feels hard could be the opportunity to lift until failure. What is that barrier for people? It’s because they could google it. We’re in the information age and I could google how to lose money, make more money, and have more passion. Almost any question, we could google to find any answer. There are probably a million books written about the topic.

The Bible probably has loads of information on different things. There are counselors, therapists, and all the different things. Do them all. For the person that’s like, “Travis, I don’t know how to start a business. I don’t know how to connect in a conversation with my wife.” When we’re taking this to other parts of our lives, what is that space? If we were sitting here 100 years ago without all the information that we have now, may be fair, but what is that space? What’s happening potentially?

DO 8 | Know Better

Know Better: Be careful of the answers you look for because there is this whole idea that when you know better, you’re going to need to do better.

 

It’s understanding your deep-rooted beliefs so you’re not taking action or seeking the biggest shifts that we’ve had in our life. We’re on this journey and path to seek out mentors, even in our lives. If you don’t have a mentor in your life that has the results and the fruit of whatever it is, they can exponentially help you speed up that learning curve and get you the results that you want. There are certain things that you can google or YouTube. You’re self-sufficient and you can figure it out. If you have someone that can come alongside you, guide you, and point out all the things that you can’t see because you’re in the midst of it and they have the fruit, then you don’t make it mean anything about you.

That’s what you saw. You hit on the belief thing. We’re getting into tactics of what’s one thing that you could do, but there is something there about what keeps us from getting clear. Even to that point of like, “Before I decided to get to gain muscle tone or before I spent 3 or 4 months exhausting myself, running the track harder and doing all the things, before I even started, what stopped me from going, ‘I’m going to ask Travis because he’s got a dope body. I’m going to ask him what he does and his mindset.’ I’m going to google even how skinny girls get more muscle tone because I got to figure out more body tones that are similar to mine. I could line up all of the things in my favor to get the results that I want. Why did I not even do that? Why don’t we stack the cards in our favor?”

That’s where you start to break down, “Why am I not?” What is the belief behind why I would not make a phone call or send someone an email saying, “I need help. I need a coach and a mentor,” or asking someone that you already know?

Call your own bluff. Figure out what it is.

Sometimes you’ll have friends that have the fruit in their life that you want and you don’t ask them. They’re the last person you ask.

It’s because you feel stupid and competent.

“I should know this already.”

“Now they’re going to know that I don’t know what I’m doing and then they won’t want to be friends with me.” “They judge me because they know more than I do in this area.”

That’s the silliest thing, someone asking you if you know something.

It’s like the biggest compliment.

It’s like, “Awesome.” Most people are open like, “I’d love to share with you how I do what I do. I’ve been waiting for someone to ask. I have the information. Let’s sit down. I’ll help you.” We’ll map this out.

If I look, there are probably three things that have gotten in my way. The first is my ego wants to be right. To your point, my belief. “I want to be right that I’ll never make it. I want to be right that you’ll judge me. I want to be right that I can’t have what I want. I want to be right about whatever I believe,” because we’d like to be right. Nobody likes to be wrong. That was it for me. Number two is then once I asked you the question and you give me the answer, then I’m responsible. If you believe in this whole mentality of know better, do better like, “I’m accountable for what I know, not what I think I know,” then there’s a responsibility factor, which means I got to level up my game.

We're never done growing. Share on X

Now I need to talk to you more kindly because I know how. Now I need to learn how to manage my money because I know how. Now I need to learn how to build the business because I got all the tools. It’s a responsibility thing, and then the third is I have to get outside my comfort zone. At the gym, even though I know how to kick my own butt like nobody else’s business and I can keep up cardio wise with you, that’s still my zone of comfort. If I change lanes and I start doing weights, I’m now uncomfortable. I’m outside of my zone of safety, security, and stability, and I am uncomfortable in what I’m doing. Those three things every time.

How often do we as people surround ourselves in certain areas that are less than us?

To make ourselves feel better.

“I’m not as heavy as them.” “My relationship is better than their relationship,” as opposed to saying, “I want to seek out people that have this amazing marriage. Their kids are well behaved and they respect and love each other.”

I want to be humble enough to say, “Tell me how you got here. Tell me how you have these results in your life,” but it goes back to those three points. “I’ve got to get out of the whole ego. I need to be right.” Because the minute I say to you, “Tell me what you’re doing because I’m not doing something,” that’s one thing in my life.

It’s amazing the story that we play out in our heads, whether it’s me or someone else. You’re saying, “They’re going to think less of me.” I didn’t think about it. More people care about themselves than they do you. It’s not like I’m going to be like, “Julia doesn’t know to lift until failure.” How often do we do that? It’s funny that I’m even saying that now because there are different areas of my life where I’m like, “I shouldn’t know at all.” You’ll never know it all but there’s a shift when we come out of school because the whole point of going to school is to learn something. You go sit in a classroom and the teacher teaches you a topic. Do they expect you to know the topic? No, of course not, so you go sit there and you learn. You go to college and you pay way too much for someone to teach you more, and then you get out of college and you believe for some reason that you should know everything about finances, relationships, and raising kids. As opposed to saying no.

You’re at the beginning of the journey of knowledge and applied knowledge. Not just like gathering information. There’s a lot of smart people out there that are broke. There’s a lot of knowledgeable people out there that are overweight, so knowledge is not power. It’s applied knowledge, practice, and understanding. It’s like working out. How you’re working out, the food, when you eat, and all that. You may try something and it may not work.

It doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.

It just maybe doesn’t work for you because of your body type or finances. It’s like flipping a house. You flip one house and you do something wrong and you’re like, “This doesn’t work. It doesn’t work this way,” as opposed to saying, “Here’s how I want to do it. Who’s doing it this way?” Calling, emailing, and being in front of them and saying, “I love what you’re doing. I love the fruit in your life. Can you please help me? I don’t know what I don’t know.”

It’s almost like, “Do you believe that a growth mentality is innately in someone or someone creates that within themselves?” Even that documentary that we watched with the Iron Cowboy where he did 50 Ironmans in 50 states in 50 days. I loved every minute of it. One of the things that he said is that, and this was after he had done 20 Ironmans in a year, and then 30 or whatever, he finished and was like, “Why do I still feel unfulfilled?” He’s about growth and he said he knew that he hadn’t reached his own full potential.

That takes a little bit of time to know that about yourself. That’s a level of awareness that takes some time to recognize that. The minute he said that, everything in me was like, “I felt that way.” Not because his results aren’t amazing. How many people could run 30 triathlons in their whole entire lifetime, let alone a year? He wasn’t looking at his results and saying, “It was unfulfilling in general.” He just knew that he hadn’t found his limits.

The way he said it in the context, I was like, “That’s true.” There is sometimes underlying and I do it where there’s a comparison to make myself feel good for the moment. If you stay in that place, you block the potential of what you have because you can be around someone that’s better than you and judge yourself. You can be around someone that’s less than you in that whatever context and judge them and make yourself feel good.

DO 8 | Know Better

Know Better: It’s important to know that growth is a choice and a mindset.

Also, judge yourself based upon where you were ten years ago or the whole thing.

Being right where you’re at and saying, “Did I show up? Did I do the best that I possibly could with the information that I have?” The answer should be yes, and then you look around for inspiration and for someone that has more fruit in that area of life, and saying, “There is more.” It’s up to you to say, “Am I at my capacity?”

That’s what I want to talk about because I love that he said he knew he wasn’t looking at somebody else. He said, “I knew that I hadn’t pushed the envelope. I hadn’t found my edge.” To the point of you got to do better until you know better, which there has to be this growth mentality around there is more. “There is more that I could know. There is a better version of me at all times. Not in comparison and not because of what the world is doing but because I know innately that there’s something more in me to give more, to love more, do more, and be all the things.” Is a growth mentality in everybody? In a few, or is it developed? How do you even get to that first hump? It’s this acknowledgment that there is more. Do better until you know better could be more and then when you know what the more is, do it. That first hump, how do you instill and develop a growth mindset?

You’ve got to want it. You’ve got to want more innately.

Is that innately in people?

It can be. We’ve done this in our life where we’ve settled for a season. You get comfortable and complacent, and it’s good enough as opposed to saying like, “I want more because I know I can do more.” David Goggins talks about it, where you’ve got 40% more. If you haven’t read his book or watch some of his stuff, he’s awesome. He’s a beast. His mindset, callus your mind, and he’s intense. I love that about him. He’s not for everybody. He’s truthful. He talks about that though where you have that 40% more. You’ve got to want to test that for yourself though. I can’t come and say, “You can do more,” even though I know you could do more. You’ve got to want to do more and believe that you can do more, and then what is it that you could do more.

Let’s make sure that we make this clear for anyone that’s going to be reading because I was even talking with a girlfriend one time who went through our six-week course. She said, “Juliet, I didn’t know that more was available to me.” I want to talk to those people. Part of it was a protective mechanism and part of it was like, “You just do what you’ve always done.” She lived in the same city her whole life. She’s worked at the last same job for the last decade and all of those things.

I want to give people the opportunity to look up for a minute and go, “There’s so much more.” To the person sitting there going, “I don’t know what’s possible.” It’s easy to get to that black hole of like, “This is my life. This is just the way that it is. This is the way that it’s always been.” I want to speak to those people because it’s important to know that growth is a choice and it is a mindset. It is taking that excuse off the table so you can see that it’s limitless.

Do you think it was that she didn’t know? It’s because she ended up in the six-week course so she knew. She just didn’t know the right questions and the community to support her and challenge her. She knew that there was more because she wouldn’t have found us or it could have been 4 or 5 other YouTube, podcasts or whatever. She was already like, “There’s something stirring in me. There is more,” and then you take that first step so she was willing.

For her and for most people, pain and pleasure are the two greatest motivators. For most, it’s pain. She hit rock bottom and it forced her to have to look up. When you’re at the bottom, you either go straight down or you look up and go, “I need oxygen.” When you look up and you’re able to go, to your point, “Somebody else is living their best life. Why not me?” “Somebody else is making $1 million doing what they love.” “Somebody else is traveling the country in an RV.” “Somebody else has run the four-minute mile.” “Somebody else has lost 100 pounds.”

Even just starting there, it’s possible. We’d put our feet on the moon. It’s a reminder to look up and google. The news is saturated and horrible. All the bad things that are happening, doom, and gloom. The Bergens are coming. Social media is all about, “Look at me and everything that I’m doing.” What if you just googled the coolest things that people have done in their life or watch documentaries of things that looked impossible to some but became possible?

If you don’t take the time and the space to hear your own inner voice, you can get overwhelmed with everybody else because there’s so much out there. To me, it’s the first step of taking the time. If you haven’t read Miracle Morning, read that book. It gives you perspective to take the time, set your intention for the day, and practice new habits. You may not follow everything in it but he’s created an awesome community and people that are pinging each other. It’s practicing new habits but it’s allowing yourself space, setting your intention for the day, and doing something different that day than you’ve done the previous day.

Knowledge is not power when not applied. Share on X

Here’s what I would say in that mindset space, and I talked about this in the book. Space by yourself is scary for most people because it’s quiet.

It’s easy to busy yourself.

We’re used to busy, the mind chatter, and compare so we’re used to things. When you go into this space, the thing I want you to meditate on is that Bible verse that says, “Anything/everything is possible for the one who believes.” That doesn’t say some things. That doesn’t say just for you because you’re born in this country with these people. There’s no basis around that. That doesn’t have to do with the color of the skin or your political party. It says, “Anything and everything is possible for the person who believes.”

Because when you believe and you don’t doubt, it’s the doubt that’s indecisive like, “Do I believe? Do I not believe? Look at what they have. I can never do it. Now I’m in fear mode down and I’m worried. Now I’m done.” If you can go into this space and go, “I’m going to hang my hat in my life on a principle that says anything is possible for the person who believes,” even if you’re not a believer, you’re like, “That’s true.” The person who said it was impossible to run the four-minute mile, it was until someone did it or Iron Cowboy. Even his trainer was like, “This is impossible but I’ll train you.” Iron cowboy said, “No, it’s possible.” He believed.

At one point, one of the sponsors was like, “No, I’m going to do it. I’m not going to just try. I’m not just showing up to see if I can do it. I will do it.”

That’s the difference. I love it when people are like, “I’ll try that advice.” You’re like, “You’re going to try it until it gets hard.” This is the lift until failure concept so let’s use this. I love the idea of lifting until failure until I have to because we could talk about this and you go, “Yes, I’m going to do that,” and then the minute that you start doing push-ups and you look up and you go, “I can’t do another one.” Someone looks at you and goes, “Do one more.” In any area of your life like picking up that phone and making that call or having that hard conversation.

Those hard moments like, “This is the moment right here. The Gentry we’re talking about where growth happens because if I don’t lift until failure, I don’t stretch the muscle enough, which means it’s not going to break itself down to build itself back up again to be stronger.” I can’t just say, “I’m going to try to do that,” because the minute it gets hard because it will, it’s supposed to get hard. The pushup is supposed to be hard because it’s breaking down your tissue to get them stronger again. If I’m just going to try, I’m not going to do it as opposed to him where he was like, “No, we are going to do this. I am going to do this.” He rallied a whole team around him.

He fell asleep riding his bike and crashed.

His team got him up and got him back on the bike. He had people around him that didn’t go, “You might die.”

There are a few doctors that advised him.

His core team was like, “We got to do this.”

Know Better: If you don’t take the time and the space to hear your own inner voice, you can get overwhelmed by everybody else.

 

It comes back to, you have to have a community that supports you and challenges you. Many of our friends are often that you seek to find what you want so you can go and have a good conversation with someone they challenge you. You go have another conversation with a couple of other people that are against that and you’re like, “That’s good. I’m not going to do that. Flipping houses is impossible.”

“You’re going to lose how much weight? That’s hard.”

“You’re going to make how much money? You can’t do that. You’re going to quit your job.”

If you thought about X, Y, and Z. Let’s talk about this process. We’re saying this in our own areas of life, too. You have to create some space to quiet all the chatter that’s going on around you so you can hear what’s going on within you. The big mantra, Bible verse, challenge and you need to slap up on the wall when you go, “What’s possible?” Anything and everything to the one who believes. You have to believe it and you have to go, “Growth is possible. This is possible for me.” The Bible says, “Faith of a mustard seed.” Small seeds on the planet, so we’re not talking about gigantic amounts of faith. I have to now take the step to go, “I don’t know how to do this. I’m going to figure out how to do it, and then once I know how to do it, I’m going to do it.”

That’s why we’re sitting in the gym. It’s the same concept of, if you don’t work out and then you go to the gym, and you’re like, “I want to do 75-pound curls,” you don’t start there. You start with 15, 20 or 25 and you work your way up. We don’t value the same as your mind, body, and spirit of knowing, “I have to work that as much as physically.” There’s always a battle in your mind. There’s always evil me. Evil me wakes up before me every single day and tells me all the things that I can’t do. If you don’t have the right community, people, belief, and understanding that, “I need to take one step today,” and then understand sometimes, you’re going to take a couple of steps and you’re going to stay there.

You have to be like, “I need a break. I’m getting a little maxed out.” It’s like working out, you can’t work out every single day and get the results. You have to take a break. You have to rebuild it. The same thing with your mind. Mentally, as you start on this journey or as you start to gain new information and take some steps, have grace on yourself, too, of like, “I need some space. I need a day or two, and then I’m going to start moving forward.”

Knowing that we have limits and there is a time like working out that you’ve got to take a day to rest. I remember the time that I got my wisdom teeth taken out and it kicked my butt. I was out for a week and a half. I remember when I finally got back into the gym a couple of weeks later, it felt like you might as well have started all the way over again. It’s almost like that concept of, “You don’t want to rest long.” It’s like, “Let your body rest, let it recover, and do what it needs to do but you’ve got to know that there is a window that if you don’t get back at it again. Get back out trying, failing, asking questions, finding the mentor, or having that conversation with your spouse or your friend.” If you don’t get back in the game, all of a sudden, you might as well start back over. There’s this window of rest, but not so long that I just stop. It’s like this beautiful dance with yourself, and everybody’s different but you have to know those edges of, “Don’t burn out. We want this to last, but then don’t stay out of the game so long that you lose that momentum.”

It’s like the concept of, put your hands to work for six days and take a day of rest.

Here’s what we do. We either go to the zone of playing God, and I’m guilty of this. “I’m going to work for seven days. I’m going to grind it out.” There are many grinders. I follow a lot that is all about this grinding, and if I’m not careful, that would be me. “I would push hard, and there is a God and maybe it’s me,” as opposed to, “There is a God and I am not him.” “Do sixteen Julia, but you don’t have to do seventeen. There are not even seventeen days in a week.” God, Himself, rested.

It’s also their capacity and I love the content that they put out there. They grind it. That’s their makeup.

We could probably go too far in that. There is that but God. There’s a willpower zone and there is like, “I’m going to show up and do my part but I also believe in a God who’s going to do His part, which is beyond willpower.” To the point of being able to rest.

Anything and everything is possible for the person who believes. Share on X

A lot of those people that grind it out also have a massive team that is helping them and they’ve been practicing that muscle for a long time. You can’t compare yourself to someone that whether it’s content or whatever, they’re putting out a massive amount. You have to work your way into it.

I mean the actual message of grinding it out, where it could be forwarded to people like, “You’re pushing hard.” This is a lot of the people that I’ve worked with that are making a ton of money and they are grinding it out and they’re exhausted. They know it’s not sustainable. It’s the concept of, “I’m working out every day trying to get there, even though I don’t know where there is. Making more money and having more stuff, and I’m exhausted.” There’s that but what we’re talking about is a little bit of going, “How do you ensure that you’re still resting, not just in a willpower grind it zone, but then also knowing that but don’t stop for too long?”

You can grind in the context of like, “You can keep your head down and grind to then wake up in 1, 2, 3 years later and realize you’re on the wrong mountain. You’ve climbed the wrong hill.” We’re jumping all over the place and I love it. It’s understanding when to push and when to grind, but make sure you’re grinding in the right way, and when to rest. It’s different for everybody, seasons of life.

My hope in this is that all of this is going to land. A truth bomb comes and you’re listening to something that sounds good, you’re like, “I like this. I jive with it,” and then all of a sudden, someone says something and you’re like, “I’ve been avoiding that.” Someone reading is going to go, “I know that I need to be doing my morning quiet time and I’m not doing it.” That’s it. Another is going to go, “I’m in the willpower zone and I’m exhausted and I’m not resting.” There it is. Another is going to say, “The lift until failure, I don’t want to be uncomfortable.” My hope is that all of these overarching principles, there is the one that lands for you. Here’s the whole goal of this. When you know better, do better. When one of these things lands for you, you write it down, whatever the one is, and then move forward on that one thing because that’s the whole concept of what we’re talking about.

Do one thing a day that’s different than you did the day before, and then 365 days later, you just practiced 365 new habits, patterns, or trials. It’s not going to be like, “You try this and you get the results.” You may have to try a few different things and figure out what works for you. If you look at that in one area of your life and you try one new thing with your spouse of how you interact or what you say or how you say it. If he tried one little thing for the whole year, you just practiced 365 different ways to show up with your spouse. I guarantee you probably found a dozen of them that you were like, “That’s amazing.”

You double down on those until you’ve got to refresh it again. That’s the compound.

The compound on those twelve. Not tried to do all of them but like, “This work. The results and response that I’m getting are that our relationship is getting better so I’m going to keep doing those and I’m going to get rid of a few things that aren’t serving me.” Try one thing if there’s one awareness or one thing that you’ve been wanting to seek out or understand. I would also say as you start on this journey, if there is something that you want to learn and do, surround yourself with someone that has the fruit in their life. Get a mentor and get a community that supports you and challenges you to step up to the plate and not just make you feel good. It’s easy to call someone to be like, “I work two days on this thing. I’m going to take a day off.” If you’re around in the wrong community, they’re going to support you instead of someone saying, “No, do it again.” You’ll start to appreciate it.

This is something that we’re even impressing upon our kids. I even had to correct them on a few things and the last thing I turned around, I said to all of them, “When you know better.” They all three looked at me and they said, “Do better.” This is something in my hope that evokes such a heightened level of ability. Even as a country and as a world, there’s so much division and there are many different agendas. There’s a lot of fear at a bigger level of who’s going to drive this country and where our world is going to go but each one of us can become more aware and take more responsibility for being the best version of ourselves.

I know this sounds silly, but be the change that you want to see in the world. We’re going to have to start. We can’t wait for the top to move its way down. It’s like, “I have to be able to go. I need to know more so when I know more, I can do more.” That’s where we’re going to see change. We encourage you with this idea that to develop a growth mindset and then once you know that the possibilities are there, there is more out there because there always is. When you start to grab onto this whole idea that anything is possible, then you move into the zone of knowing more, and then once you know more, do more. Once you know better, do better.

We appreciate you joining us and I would say we’re super excited. We’ve got some big news. We’ll do it on our next episode. Stay tuned on that and we’ll probably do a whole episode about it. We’ve got the YouTube channel and we’re going to start putting out a lot more content as we go into this new adventure of our life. Check out our website and check out the videos on YouTube. Get some ideas and go after it.

We’ll see you next time.

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