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What is Beyond Your Default?
What Is Beyond Your Default? "Everyone keeps telling me I should be happy, but I'm not." “I feel stuck.” “I have a calling, but where do I start?"
Right now, you have a choice. You can continue living within your default norms, playing it safe, clocking in and out every day, and scraping by to achieve what's supposed to make you happy hopefully. Or you can choose to accept the challenge of living beyond your default. Stop wishing to live your "best life” and start living your best life. Success leaves clues. And they're waiting for you to discover them.
Being human in the superhuman framework is all about. And, again, I asked you to jot words down so that you would see patterns. And when you see patterns, you'll realize what I meant by their bricks that layer on top of each other. But being human in the superhuman framework is about authenticity. It's about vulnerability, and it's about embracing our true selves.
George B. Thomas:You've heard us talk about being a whole ass human previously on this podcast. It's about honesty. Interesting. Showing our strengths and our weaknesses and connecting deeply with other humans who they realize they may have strengths and weaknesses either same or different than us as well. Authenticity and vulnerability, by the way of being human help us build deep, meaningful connections, and they foster supportive communities.
George B. Thomas:That community could be your family. That community could be broader than that. That community could be that you have 500,000 followers or a 1000000000 followers. But being human, your whole ass self authentic and vulnerable with your strengths and weaknesses is what unlocks that superpower.
Liz Moorehead:Welcome back to Beyond Your Default. I'm your host, Liz Morehead. As always, I am joined by the one, the only, the man, the myth, the legend, George b Thomas, who's already jamming out on the mic to some invisible music.
George B. Thomas:Yeah. I'm super excited. The fact that we're gonna give birth to something that I pseudo tried to create, but has been behind locked doors for multiple years, and now we're bringing it to light. We're gonna talk about it. I know this is the beginning of something for this, and so I'm super excited to have this conversation.
George B. Thomas:And, also, the other side of this is I've wanted to create this and get it out because I think it's a thing that will help the humans on this journey of a life beyond their default in, like, micro milestones. I don't even know if those two words are supposed to go together, but I'm gonna call a micromilestones in one's life.
Liz Moorehead:I love that. Well, before we dig into it first, what was your low light and highlight from the weekend?
George B. Thomas:Let's just say the low light is I didn't get much work done. Although the highlight is I didn't get much work done because, yeah, because the highlight was its Father's Day. I mean, come on. It's funny what happened in this situation because I kept getting asked, what do you wanna do? What do you wanna do?
George B. Thomas:What do you wanna do? And I kept saying, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. And so when the rubber had to meet the road, I got asked, what do you wanna do?
George B. Thomas:To which I asked myself, well, self, what would the family wanna do? And so I said, hey. Why don't we go to Dave and Buster's and play games and eat some food? And so for Father's Day, we went to Dave and Buster's, and we ate some food, and we played some games. Yeah.
George B. Thomas:Other than that, during the weekend, I also spent a copious amount of times in the pool. Not my pool, my friend's pool. I don't have a pool. I'm not that guy yet, but I will someday probably. And I love to swim, so there was, like, a lot of fish moments.
George B. Thomas:There's a lot of playing video games. So all in all, the highlight was just spending time with family and friends and enjoying life. And, again, which led to the low light of, I didn't get much work done on the weekend.
Liz Moorehead:I'm not gonna call that a low light. I think you're allowed to have a weekend every once in
George B. Thomas:a while, and it's just Every now and then. Just every now and then.
Liz Moorehead:Now and then. Every now and then. I'll start with my low light. So you know that old saying there's no such thing as bad pizza?
George B. Thomas:Incorrect. Until it's moldy.
Liz Moorehead:Well, okay. So it wasn't rotten. It was pizza that could not decide what kind of pizza it was. It was neither thin crust or normal crust. I was offended.
Liz Moorehead:I had bad pizza this weekend.
George B. Thomas:Wow.
Liz Moorehead:Like, I was morally offended. It's kinda hard to do. I know. You know, and the worst part was it was in New Haven, which is a town known for its pizza. So maybe I just caught the chef on a bad day.
Liz Moorehead:Maybe this pizza pie maker had just gotten dumped, and he was taking all of his aggression and sadness out on a poor pile of dough. All I have to say is I'm not gonna name names. I'm not gonna name where it happened, but it it hurt my soul.
George B. Thomas:So if there if anybody's listening in New Haven, just be careful.
Liz Moorehead:Be careful out there, man. It's wild. It's wild. So the highlight, you and I talked last week about how the newsletter that I write for beyond your default, beyond your default dot com forward slash newsletter
George B. Thomas:Yeah.
Liz Moorehead:Has undergone some radical shifts. I'm getting more clear about my writing. I'm getting more aggressive about the message. And I've also started publishing it as videos on TikTok, and I'm doing a lot of different things. And within an hour yesterday, as I was driving back to Maryland from New Haven, I got 3 different messages.
Liz Moorehead:1st, from a friend of mine via text that said, every email you send is a personal attack. Please don't stop. Then somebody wrote to me, this felt like watching a movie to me. Exactly what I needed to hear, and you are an extremely talented writer, and I hope to hear more of your writings in the future. And then another one.
Liz Moorehead:I came here to find out what the obscure movie trivia was. I also do obscure movie trivia. Yeah. And instead, got a message from the universe that it has been begging me to hear. Thank you.
George B. Thomas:Oh, that's good.
Liz Moorehead:So it's one of those things where as a writer and you know this, George, as a content creator. When you're actually in the act of creating something that is really flowing out of you, it feels amazing.
George B. Thomas:Yeah.
Liz Moorehead:Then when you actually send it out and you go back and either reread what you wrote or rewatch what you made, you're, like, do I just sound like a crazy person?
George B. Thomas:Or makes you wanna vomit.
Liz Moorehead:You're like, oh, I'm gonna be like, yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So it was just really nice, and I've been continuing to get, like, text messages from people. I woke up to an email this morning from someone that just said, ouch.
Liz Moorehead:That's a compliment. Love it. I'm gonna take that as my highlight, because it has been an immensely rewarding thing to be able to write that newsletter each week, sometimes multiple times a week if I'm feeling extra spicy. But I would like to put that out there as a testament to you have to do things that are raw and completely scare you in order to make an impact.
George B. Thomas:So here's what I love about that, Liz, is that for years years years, I've always had this saying that I've talked to people. I said, listen. Listen. God is gonna shape you with hammers and chisels and saws, not tissue paper and toilet paper. And the fact that you and I can be one of the hammers, the chisels, or the saws that God is using to, like, impact these people's lives, it like, this is the purpose or one of the purposes that I was like, I wanna put this into the world.
George B. Thomas:I wanna make sure that we're doing this thing so people do have those, like, ouch. That's a compliment moment in their lives. Mhmm. Because that's when growth happens. Like, that's when the seed gets germinated, and now it just needs water and sunshine and a little bit of life's manure to give it just like oof.
George B. Thomas:The Life's manure. Yeah. Listen. Think about that. Right?
George B. Thomas:If you think about how you garden, you needed to have sunshine, you needed to have rain, and you you gotta add a little compost to it. Mhmm. Life will give you the compost. Trust me. But it's what you can grow out of that that is the magic part of what we're doing.
George B. Thomas:So I'm super excited to hear all of those things.
Liz Moorehead:Yes. I am excited. But you know what I'm mostly excited about? To get to this framework that you've been teasing, but I want to set the stage a little bit for our listeners because over the past, if you can believe it, 41 episodes, George. This is our 42nd episode.
George B. Thomas:I love it.
Liz Moorehead:I know. We've excavated deeply personal topics that make up what it means to have the human experience. Relationships, fear, forgiveness, anger, morning routines, self care, which I know is now your favorite.
George B. Thomas:It is. Still Yeah. I know. Yeah.
Liz Moorehead:You're here. Welcome.
George B. Thomas:Welcome to
Liz Moorehead:the self care club.
George B. Thomas:I'm here for now.
Liz Moorehead:Stillness, our perception of time. I could go on. But this week, we're going to zoom out because I want our listeners right now to think about your life that you're building. Like, you're building a home and you have the ability and privilege to build and design this home in a way that is perfectly suited for you, which is much of the thesis behind the conversations we have. Right?
Liz Moorehead:Whether we're talking about forgiveness or relationships, how those show up in our lives are completely unique to us. Right? Now how I would design my house, George, is I would love to put in rich textures, exposed brick. I love cozy nooks and deep dark colors and kind of intense eclectic artwork, but you might prefer well, actually, maybe you might not specifically, but a girlfriend of mine.
George B. Thomas:Like, I can I can tell you that it's gonna be, babe, do you like that? Sweet. That's how it's decorated. Mine is real easy. Just, babe, if that's what you like and I have a place to sit down, we're good.
Liz Moorehead:That's so fun. My friend, she would be totally different from mine as well, although very specific. She wants her home to look like it fell out of a Nancy Meyers 19 nineties rom com movie. Maybe if you're listening to this, you're more modern. You're more minimalist.
Liz Moorehead:It doesn't really matter. The reality is is that we all work to define what our beyond your default home looks like for ourselves through our unique approaches to relationships, our dreams, how we navigate our emotions, all that good stuff. But we need to remember that all strong houses, no matter how different they are, all possess many of the same foundational elements and attributes that make them safe, structural, and functional. A roof, strong walls, floors, all of those really important elements. AC, plumbing, all of the things that take it from a slab of bricks and concrete and drywall to a functional place to live.
Liz Moorehead:So today, we're gonna take a look at your superhuman framework, the blueprints, the foundational elements, if you will, that will help all of us build our beyond your default house within life.
George B. Thomas:So,
Liz Moorehead:George, this framework is not new. I had such a blast digging through this document that you shared with me, but then I saw the date. Yeah. You thought I wasn't I I was surprised you didn't delete this before it got
George B. Thomas:to me. Like, crap.
Liz Moorehead:Yeah. Did you see the first question? Sir, you wrote this on May 26, 2020, not only 4 years ago, but during the height of the pandemic. Yeah. Where did this come from?
George B. Thomas:Well, I mean, let's be honest. The state of the world at that time and the mindset of humans was definitely, like, a precipice of, like, like, humans need love, and how can I deliver this to them? The other thing too, if if I rewind a little bit, like, for all the years that I've been doing, I think 2014 is when I would, like, put the flag in the ground that I started creating HubSpot specific tutorials. And at the end of each of my videos or to because I did more than just tutorial videos. But at the end of the videos, I would end with, and don't forget to be a happy, helpful, humble human.
George B. Thomas:And I was reminding the community how I wanted them to show up. But a little hidden secret is, and maybe more importantly, is that on a daily, if not multiple times a day when I was releasing these videos, I was reminding myself how I wanted to show up. I wanted to show up as a happy, helpful, humble human. And here's the thing. Every one of those words comes from something that historically happened to me.
George B. Thomas:Right? So, like, when we think about humble, you can go back and listen to the episode where I talk about my motorcycle accident because I allowed ego to get in the way. When you talk about being human, you can go back to the thing that I was, like, immediately drawn into HubSpot because of being a recovering youth pastor, because of working at a bar, because of this life that I've had and understanding humans at different levels and layers of life financially, spiritually, emotionally, just seeing the broad spectrum and realizing, man, it is really about being human and showing up as our authentic self. And then helpful, I mean, in my core, it's like it's about servanthood. Happy like, I'm a happy go lucky guy.
George B. Thomas:Like, I've been blessed with that in my life. So then I realized in 2020 and watching everything that was going around me that there was probably ways that I could impact how I showed up past happy, helpful, humble, human. And so during the pandemic, by the way, Liz, is when I lost £79. Everybody else was talking about gaining, like, the freshman 15 again when this was happening. I lost £79 because I was also focused on the healthy word, so it came into play.
George B. Thomas:And I was eating healthy. I was walking 3 times a day. Like, I just was in this mode. And so all of a sudden, it was happy, helpful, humble, human, but healthy human. And I didn't change the outros to my videos, by the way.
George B. Thomas:I didn't add that word in there. It was still happy, helpful, humble, human, but I personally was focused on healthy. And then I started to think about how this was becoming like, wow. This is basically like a holistic way of thinking or living. And I'm like, well, shoot.
George B. Thomas:I should probably add that word in because we should be looking at, like, everything across the board and having a holistic view of what's going on in our life. And and so I started to think about, okay. Well, what other ways could I make my life better if I had these levers or buttons or things that I could start to pay attention to. And what historically has been in my life that I can either tweak for the better or pay attention to when it's, like, noise or nonsense and actually use it for good versus evil. And that's when hungry and by the way, I'm not talking about, like, eat some food hungry.
George B. Thomas:Like, hungry, like, you gotta have a fire in your belly. Like, let's hustle. Let's have some work ethic. That kinda hungry. But hustle in obviously a balanced way, which we've talked about that on this podcast as well.
George B. Thomas:But, you know, I've always had this, like, I wanna do something. I wanna be something. I'm not like, let's go. And so hungry and then humorous because, I mean, listen. I was a class clown, and that's why my math teacher told me I never amount to anything.
George B. Thomas:And that's been the fire in my belly to actually give me that hustle. And then honest, you know, I've always been taught. It's like, hey. You show up as an honest human. And then I would say the last one which we touch here and there on this podcast, but we're trying not to make it overly too abundant.
George B. Thomas:So it's like a light spread of butter or peanut butter, whichever you like best, is the holiness, right, or the spiritual or religious side of these conversations. So, literally, it it became this, like, level up for who I am and who I wanna show up as. And, again, we've kind of we've talked about this different elements of this, which by the way, as we are digging in this superhuman framework, I'm like, oh, oh, oh, oh, we need to do episodes on this, this, and this. Like, just listeners know that there's some future episodes coming out of this. But all these ages put together from my past and who I am and how I wanted to show up and the things that I knew I wanted to get better at, we we basically came up with 10 elements, all starting with h, to be this superhuman framework that we can pay attention to and roll with as we move forward in life.
Liz Moorehead:Wow.
George B. Thomas:That's the background story.
Liz Moorehead:Right. So when I was in the pandemic, I just spent a lot of time watching the godfather on repeat. I didn't make a superhuman framework, but that's fine.
George B. Thomas:That's fine. Well but the thing, I made it, but it never got launched. So but
Liz Moorehead:Well, it's getting launched today. That's why we're here. So, George, before we go into each one, I do want to ask you a quick question. At a high level, how did you choose each of these to be the pillars of the superhuman framework? And what is the result of them and how they all work together?
George B. Thomas:Yeah. And, again, kinda going back to my, like, intro answer, I picked them in the fact that they were probably one of 3 things. 1, something that historically I had in me, but knew that I wanted to grow to be better. By the way, based off of something that I heard on the internets that I pseudo didn't agree with, I don't think I've ever shared this, by the way. But I heard Gary v talking about, like, doubling down on what you're good at and forgetting about what you're not good at, like, ignoring it almost.
George B. Thomas:And I think he's even changed his tune on this over the past, like, years. But I was like, nah. I don't necessarily agree with that. So, like, I actually wanna get better at what I'm good at, and I wanna get better at my weak points too. I don't want to have, like, a right arm that has, like, you know, massive bicep, and then my left arm looks like it's like a stick.
George B. Thomas:Like, why would I do that? So I wanna grow everything. And so there are things that were in me that I knew I wanted to grow, or there were things that I wanted to input into me that weren't there, but I wanted to have along the way. And then there were just some other things that I knew fundamentally. It was like, and this would just make you a better human.
George B. Thomas:And you, like, you can literally correlate those to, like, the honesty, the holiness, the healthy. Like, those 3 I don't care who you are. Those 3 could just be a layer. But here's the thing. They all do kind of stack on each other.
George B. Thomas:So think about, like, you're building a wall. I mean, obviously, it's called a framework, but you're building this wall of, like, if you think about them, right, one begets the other. So, like, if you're hungry and you've got some hustle, you're gonna be able to build something. And while you're building something, you're gonna be helping others. And when you're helping others, that's gonna make you happy, and that's gonna make them happy.
George B. Thomas:You're gonna reach a place in life where you realize, like, man, I'm humbled by where I'm at, and maybe I just should show up as a humble person because I'm a blessing bomber, because I've had this hustle that created this thing that helped people that I'm happy. It's gonna make life easier. You're gonna be in a different place. You're actually gonna be able to spend time on your health. You're probably gonna be, somewhat humorous or understand how to use humor because as you built this thing that was helping people because you had that hustle, now all of a sudden you've built a community and relationships and you've been doing communication.
George B. Thomas:Now all of a sudden, we've got enough of these where it's like this holistic view. By the way, you've probably been showing up as a human the whole entire time. Otherwise, you haven't gotten this far. I I don't need to go the rest of the way, but you you see how they kind of just build on each other to become this, like, really firm framework. And by the way, this is gonna impact the later question that I know because I peaked that you're gonna ask me.
George B. Thomas:Like, when you grow in 1, it's hard not to have grown in another. Like, that's how these work together. For instance, if I do something that I'm like, I'm gonna grow my spirituality or religion side, Most likely, it's gonna impact 1 or 2 of the other things that are inside of this framework. And so you don't have to get discouraged and, like, oh, crap. Now I've got 10 things that no.
George B. Thomas:No. No. It's like when you pull one lever, you're, like, bringing 2 or 3 things up to the next level with it. So that's why this was kind of picked and how they work together. So, hopefully, people find value in that.
Liz Moorehead:Well, let's dig in. Let's start with happiness.
George B. Thomas:Let's
Liz Moorehead:Talk to me about it.
George B. Thomas:So and, again, these are all kind of based on the framework. So when we think about happiness pertaining to the superhuman framework, it's about finding joy. And by the way, get your notepad, your pen, your iPad out because, again, I want you to mark these words down that impact your brain. But superhuman framework around happiness is about finding joy, gratitude, and a positive outlook on life, and it means approaching both the micro and macro moments. So, again, the color of the leaves, the feel of the breeze, you know, watching your dog run and play in the park, or the macro moments of life where it's bought a new car, bought a new house, your daughter got married, what whatever it is for you, but then sharing the positivity of those moments with others along the way.
George B. Thomas:And when you can focus on happiness, it helps create a positive mindset that drives personal and professional growth along the way. And by embracing things like joy, we can better handle stress, which by the way, many of us can use something that helps against stress, that's the joy in one's life. Overcome challenges, which I don't care how hard you try. There's always gonna be new challenges that are gonna come your way, and truly enjoy the achievements in our life and feel good about them and give them time to marinate and be there as these celebratory moments. So that's what I think about when it comes to happiness inside the framework.
Liz Moorehead:How hard do you struggle with that, George?
George B. Thomas:This one's relatively easy for me. Like, I just feel like I find great joy in life itself. Like, here's how micro I've gotten about this. I woke up today. Alright.
George B. Thomas:That's my immediate thinking. Right? Or, like, I have running water. Alright. I have money to, like, pay rent this month.
George B. Thomas:Alright. You know, I employ my children. I employ my wife. I have several businesses. I get to do multiple content.
George B. Thomas:Like, I have so many things to be happy about. But trust me. I have moments where I get in my own head, and I start to worry, and I start to fret. And then usually, I circle back around and be like, dude, you dumb. Why?
George B. Thomas:Why did you do that? If I had to give this, like, a 100%, I'd say 75%, I'm good with, like, just being happy, showing up as happy, understanding joy, and maybe 25% of the time, I battle with the demons in my own brain being my, like, worst enemy, but I try to keep them at bay.
Liz Moorehead:Alright. Let's head into hungry hustle. And this this felt like a way back machine one for me, because this is one of our first episodes we talked about hustle. But take us through it.
George B. Thomas:Again, all of this is kind of in the framework. Right? So being hungry or embodying this hustle, that hungry, that fire in your belly in the superhuman framework, It's all about maintaining what I'll call a relentless yet balanced. I there's a key there, pursuit of growth and improvement in one's life, personal and professional. It involves what I would say by the way, when I think of hustle, I literally go to the words, strong work ethic.
George B. Thomas:Ethic. Like, that's what I'm talking about. And a continuous desire to learn more and out of that, achieve more. This element of the superhuman framework, it highlights the importance of ambition, maybe a word that you might wanna jot down, and perseverance, which, by the way, perseverance is such a core piece of trying to get from here to there. Perseverance is such a core piece.
George B. Thomas:Like, Liz was talking about designing a room. If you're trying to design your life, you've gotta persevere. Because sometimes when you're constructing things, the electrician wires the house wrong. The drain gets put in the wrong place. So you have to have that perseverance in reaching what will eventually be our full potential.
George B. Thomas:And I think this hungry slash hustle, it encourages ongoing learning and resilience, perseverance, resilience, ambition, which are key traits for facing life's challenges and moving past what this entire podcast is about, and that is beyond your default state. So the the hungry, the fire is probably why you actually ended up listening to this podcast anyway and why you're on the journey before you knew it was a journey beyond your default.
Liz Moorehead:Quick question for you, though. Just again, this is something where hit the archives. We did an incredible conversation about hustle, but I would love, George, for you to give our listeners at home a quick reminder of what hustle isn't because sometimes this definition can get really corrupted.
George B. Thomas:Yeah. It's not working your face off not to steal somebody else's statement. It's not like grinding yourself into the ground. It's it's not, you know, this, like, toxic culture. It's it, like, it's almost anything that you would search on the Internet around entrepreneurial hustle mindset, just go read that and be like, oh, that's not what we're talking about.
George B. Thomas:Like, we literally lean more into Alright, George. What do we have next? Helpful. Wee. Woo hoo.
Liz Moorehead:Alright, George. What do we have next? Helpful.
George B. Thomas:Woo hoo. Yeah. So helpfulness in the superhuman framework, it's characterized by having and if you've listened to this podcast for any length of time, you've heard these words. But it's a servant's heart, a willingness to go the extra mile, and a focus on assisting others over yourself. It it means being approachable.
George B. Thomas:It means being vulnerable, and it means being generally interested in the other's well-being. Like, the humans around you literally caring how they are and where they're at. Being helpful fosters community, which, by the way, I've had people just say to me, like, your default state is community. Like, you don't even know you're building community, but you're building community. That literally ties back to the helpful and to the servant's heart.
George B. Thomas:And so it fosters community and supports and strengthens relationships. Again, why do people say, man, it always feels like you're working with your friends, not your clients? Because it's it's relational, not transactional. Why? Because it's about being helpful and having a servant's heart.
George B. Thomas:Right? See how all of this kind of ties together. But the best part about being helpful is it positively impacts others, hashtag the ripples, by the way, and it aligns with the value of serving and uplifting. I just need a hand up. I don't need a handout.
George B. Thomas:You've heard that on this podcast before, but it aligns with the value of serving and uplifting those around us.
Liz Moorehead:What's the difference between helpfulness and destructive self sacrifice?
George B. Thomas:Oh, well, I mean, what it's in the title, I think, when you ask destructive, like Right.
Liz Moorehead:But we don't always realize in the moment that that's what we're doing.
George B. Thomas:Yeah. I think that, again, not to sound like a broken record, but in all of these, I think there might even be a little bit of a balance. Right? There might be two sides of the coin or a yin to the yang. And so when I think about helpfulness, when I think of a servant's heart, it's coming from a place where you know that it's good for them, but you also know by doing good for them, it's good for you.
George B. Thomas:Like, it's gonna fill your cup as well. And I will say, to kind of answer your question, there should be a layer of, like, paying attention to or, well, I'm struggling with this one, to be honest with you, because I'm thinking of me. Right? I'm looking into my heart. And for some reason, my brain's going to, like, the first time that I got in a situation, it wouldn't matter.
George B. Thomas:I would just help no matter what. But I would have this thing in the back of my head. If the same type of thing from the same human happened again, then there'd be a buffer. There'd be a difference. So some sort of paying attention to that you're not getting taken advantage of or that it hasn't become destructive to you or you haven't completely depleted your cup by giving, like, again, it should be a your giving and serving because it's helping them and filling your cup at the same time.
George B. Thomas:But, again, I don't wanna give a hard and fast rule of, like, because to me, servant's heart, I'll use the word it flows freely.
Liz Moorehead:Let's stick into humble and humility.
George B. Thomas:Yep. God had to break me for me to learn this one. But humility in the superhuman framework involves recognizing and valuing others, their contributions. It's the recognition of staying grounded. I battle with this because sometimes you can ground yourself too much and actually suppress the awesome person that God created you to be.
George B. Thomas:In keeping, though, I think a big one for this is an open mind when I think of being humble as well. It's about putting others before ourselves, and it's definitely about avoiding arrogance. It's a healthy understanding of ego, and we've talked about good ego, bad ego historically on the podcast, so you can go into the archives on that. But humility, I believe, is essential for if you're going for personal growth, true personal growth. There's a level of humility that is essential to be in there versus growth for egotistical or narcissistic reasons, especially if you're gonna build strong, respectful relationships with humans based on the fact of your humility.
George B. Thomas:And I think it helps us acknowledge our own limitations. And because when we can acknowledge our own limitations and see our own weaknesses, that helps us understand where we can focus our continuous improvement as we kind of journey down this road of of personal growth.
Liz Moorehead:How do you keep yourself in this mindset? Because you and I have both shared on previous episodes how life, circumstance, God has done that. Lovely thing that he does to so many of us which is like, okay. So just hold on. You're at a 15.
Liz Moorehead:We're gonna need to bring you back down to a 6. But, you know, this is one of those things where I feel like it's a kind of a constant practice. Yeah. How do you keep that?
George B. Thomas:So for me, I think it might be easier than the normal, human out there unless they have something that they can tie to. And, again, for me, it was literally I let my head get too big. I was very much ego. I had a motorcycle accident. I broke my wrist.
George B. Thomas:I couldn't pull up my own dislocated my shoulder. I couldn't pull up my own pants at 23, 24 years old. Anyway, I'll just never forget that day. I'll never forget the day when I couldn't pull up my own pants. I'll never forget the day that God had to break me to get my attention.
George B. Thomas:And so whenever I feel myself getting close to the point that I once was of, like, the big head and the egotistical, like, I transport myself back to that 24 year old kid, and I immediately deflate and, like, nope. And and I used to have some things, Liz, and I still kind of do this. Although no names to be named, I get yelled at when I do this. Actually, there's multiple humans that do this to me, but I used to have this trigger where I'd be like, well, I'm just a guy, and I'm just a guy was my reset or my let the air out. Right?
George B. Thomas:Like, because usually people would be like, ah, you're awesome at da da da. Or
Liz Moorehead:I wonder who could have challenged you on that.
George B. Thomas:You did this, and I'm like, I'm just a guy. You know? And, like, literally, when you did the intro today, like, the man, the myth, the legend, like, you always do, I viscerally wanted to be like, I'm just a guy.
Liz Moorehead:George, that's because I'm here forever to be your hype man. You do realize that. Right? Like, God realized you did not have a hype man. You would never do it for yourself, so that is my job.
George B. Thomas:Yeah. So so that and see, that kinda goes, like, with the question you had. It's like, I've learned to maybe not hype myself up, to keep myself humble, and then because it really is truly about what they say, not what I say. So, like, if somebody feels like they wanna stand up and say that thing now the hard part about this is I have had to teach myself along the way to just accept it. I am good at that.
George B. Thomas:Versus always, like and this is what I said kind of in the beginning of, like, pushing myself down too far by trying to stay humble to where I'm, like, degrading the awesomeness that God has created in me as kind of I've been through this journey of life.
Liz Moorehead:Well, that's how I always kinda try to remind myself of that. Right? Like, when I start putting myself down too much, like, you and I talked about this last week, and I shared it as part of my highlight. You know, I really had to take my goal seriously and just start running with this gift that I have with writing. But first, I had to acknowledge it was indeed a gift.
George B. Thomas:Yep.
Liz Moorehead:And I had this image of God just hanging up in a cloud upstairs being like, this bleep down there is being, like, I get being humble, but I gave you this for a reason. Will you get to work? Can we get over this now, please?
George B. Thomas:I've never wondered I've never wondered until this point if god has a sensor button up there.
Liz Moorehead:I would like to do you think he needs one?
George B. Thomas:I don't know. Do you
Liz Moorehead:think he's the boss who's, like, do what I say, not what I do?
George B. Thomas:I'm gonna set a bush on fire? Probably not. Probably not.
Liz Moorehead:I can set a bush on fire. You cannot. That's a fire code violation.
George B. Thomas:Yeah. Exactly.
Liz Moorehead:Continuing. So speaking well, this is kind of perfect.
George B. Thomas:The next one is humor. It really is funny because because it's humorous, which and I'm just telling you that was so great. Like, if you just pause for a minute and just embrace what the freak happened and we
Liz Moorehead:just embracing it. That was beautiful.
George B. Thomas:It it is.
Liz Moorehead:That's what we in the business call synergy.
George B. Thomas:Yeah. It's amazing. So humor in the superhuman framework adds this ability to have lightheartedness, adds fun to your life. Humor definitely helps build connections, relieve stress, helps you maintain a positive outlook. Humor can enhance social interactions that you have.
George B. Thomas:It can provide relief during stressful times, which, again, we know in life that's just gonna happen. And it definitely fosters, and again, this word keeps coming up, this resilience and creates for sure a positive atmosphere in both personal settings and professional settings if it's used correctly. And, again, we've done a whole podcast episode on humor and the power of it and sword and shield and all of that good. So you could definitely go listen to it, but it really is this idea of really closely connected to joy, like humor, lightheartedness, positive outlook, relief. Like, with those things in a positive nature, it really leans into the joy of life because there's some humor and there's growth and definitely a key piece.
Liz Moorehead:You know, humor was something that we talked about extensively
George B. Thomas:Yeah.
Liz Moorehead:Last week. Extensively. That's the hyena energy episode. I would strongly urge everybody go listen to it.
George B. Thomas:Good one.
Liz Moorehead:George, very similar to a question I asked earlier, specifically about humility. I'd be curious to know how you keep yourself in check. How do you make sure you're bringing up humor as a tool of connection rather than a weapon of derision or defense?
George B. Thomas:My immediate gut reaction to that question is like, I don't know. Or I'm not sure if I do, but then I immediately, like, yeah. I do. But I think it's, yeah, I do. Because years ago, I put a safeguard in of, like, I refuse to do any type of humor that is, deprecating to others.
George B. Thomas:So usually the humor is around me, something I did stupid, or it's something that could be said that somebody wouldn't get offense to. Now are there times that maybe I slip? Yes. Do I immediately feel that Deep in my gut. Do I try to, like, make sure I'm like, oh, sorry.
George B. Thomas:That probably wasn't funny? Maybe not in the moment, but I'll definitely circle back around and do that. But for the most part, I've got a humor that is clean 95% of the time, not hurtful 95% of the time. And, again, most times, it's very much, like, in the moment, not overmanufactured. And and so I think part of this why it's hard for me to answer this question too is humor is just one of my default states.
George B. Thomas:I don't know if it's listed in the Bible as a gift. I give you the gift of humor, but it could literally be one of my gifts because some of the dumb stuff I've said from stages that were not in the original, like, scripting of what I wanted to talk about, I have no clue where they came from, but audiences freaking lose it. And so I'm like, I just feel like this is a gift.
Liz Moorehead:I relate to that deeply. One of the biggest laughs I ever got on a stage, it was at a conference. It was in front of about, like, 800 people. I don't know what possessed me to say it, George. I walked out on stage and everybody's like, yes.
Liz Moorehead:I'm like, whoo. I'm like, oh, this is so nice people. It's quite a difference from just sitting here in workshopping material with my cat. And I don't know why it everybody just started laughing and then I just went, I'm not kidding. Because I was Yeah.
George B. Thomas:Because that's usually what I do.
Liz Moorehead:It's it's amazing. That's what makes those moments so special. That's what makes those moments like, humor could be such a beautiful thing when you are using it as a mechanism by which to bring sincere joy to others just for the sake of it.
George B. Thomas:Well and I think too another thing you just hit on, which is funny and, again, very interesting into the next one that we're going into, but it was funny because it was honest. Yeah. You literally usually workshop content with your cat because we work remote. And so, like, it was just funny because we're not alone. Other people do the same weird stuff we do.
George B. Thomas:And so when you say something about yourself that comes from a place of honesty, like, they find it humorous because all of a sudden, they put your shoes and their shoes are in the same spot.
Liz Moorehead:Oh, yeah. Absolutely. That's what I always coach people. Like, don't be funny. Just be yourself.
Liz Moorehead:People will start laughing naturally.
George B. Thomas:Yeah.
Liz Moorehead:So, yes, it does lead nicely though into the next one, which is honesty. Tell us about it, George.
George B. Thomas:Honesty in the superhuman framework is about being truthful, transparent, and authentic in all or as many as you can because perfectionism. But, in all interactions, if you're honest, it builds trust, it builds integrity, and it builds trust and integrity in our relationships, which is the foundation, by the way, those relationships of trust and credibility on a macro stage or standpoint. Honesty makes sure clear communication happens, and it also promotes a culture, again, of transparency and accountability. And, again, I I want people to hopefully be jotting down words that hit or resonate with them from a standpoint of I've got that or I need more of that in my life. And so, like, for honest things like truthful, transparent, authentic, accountability, credibility, communication, relationships, like, those should be things that we're jotting down and thinking of inputs and outputs from from this h of the superhuman framework.
Liz Moorehead:You know, as I was reflecting on the honesty piece, reading through the superhuman framework, one of the things that struck me the most is that I think sometimes there are the very binary moments. Right? It's like you're either being honest or you're being dishonest, and you look in the mirror and you know. But I think some of the times that this has been the most important lesson for me to learn and the one that has been the most challenging for me to learn effectively is the moments where I don't necessarily realizing I'm lying to myself. Does that make sense?
Liz Moorehead:Like, there's a different type of honesty, I think. Because there there's the stuff we're talking about, like, honesty, integrity, trustworthiness. But sometimes dishonesty will occur because you're not willing to be honest with yourself about
George B. Thomas:the facts.
Liz Moorehead:And I'd be curious to get your thoughts on that.
George B. Thomas:Oh, wow. Nothing like the deep end of the pool.
Liz Moorehead:You're welcome. Yeah. I'm sorry. You're just a guy. I should have played it easy.
George B. Thomas:Yeah. I mean, that probably is the hardest human to be honest with is ourselves because we have a skewed perspective of who we are, 1, and what we can achieve, 2. We are much greater than we think we are, and we are much better than we believe ourself to be. And in this one, Liz, what I will say is I've talked about this historically on the podcast where it's like God eyes, or it could even just be, like, father eyes or mother eyes or best friend eyes. But but a outside perspective to who you are and, like, trying to interact as that person, almost like, not like an out of body experience, but, like, out of mind where, like, you're almost, like, interviewing yourself.
George B. Thomas:Because if we're just willing to run the one narrative that happens in in an instant in our brain and not second guess it or not interview it or not try to rip it apart 3 different ways and then make a decision off of it, we very easily could have lied to ourself. So I guess what I'm saying in this one is, like, take time to diagnose what narratives you're having in your brain. Try to look at it from an outside perspective, which, by the way, may be actually getting an outside perspective or you trying to look at it from an outside perspective.
Liz Moorehead:I love it. Healthy. Something I know you've had a recent dance with.
George B. Thomas:Yeah. It was funny. I was this weekend, I was sitting in the pool with a buddy. He said this to me. He said, yeah.
George B. Thomas:So all the plans that I had, like, the master plan to do this out the window because something happened at his job. And I started laughing, and he's like, why are you laughing? I go, dude, I know you probably don't listen to my podcast because we're friends and stuff, but, like, 2 episodes ago, the title was George Had a Plan Until He Didn't. And he started laughing because it was just so aligned as this, and that is the episode where we talk about health and me being in the hospital for three and a half days, which, by the way, Liz, I have had time to reflect and think. 6 years ago, when I had my, like, scoot down the stairs and EMS took me off, and I was like, I don't have time for this.
George B. Thomas:I got a meeting in 10 minutes. I was in the hospital for 3 and a half days. This time, I was in the hospital for 3 and a half days. I sit here and I go, coincidence? I think not.
Liz Moorehead:That's always my favorite thing where it's like, you didn't learn the lesson the first time, so we're gonna come back here and we're gonna do it again.
George B. Thomas:Yep. And I literally am like, oh, crap. Like, we've been here. So you have to pay attention to your health. So health in the superhuman framework, this includes physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
George B. Thomas:So we're talking across the board. I would even maybe even add in spiritual healthiness. But it means caring for your body, your mind, your spirit so that you can live a balanced life. This one literally helps, by the way, on all the conversations that we've had previous and we'll have after this around, like, the yin and the yang, the good and the bad, They're like, did it go too far or was it enough? If you're focused on healthy inside of physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and that balance.
George B. Thomas:It's almost like healthy is the great equalizer to, like, the other framework elements in the superhuman framework. And so a healthy lifestyle is obviously very crucial for sustained energy. By the way, has anybody heard the word resilience on this episode yet? But it's resilience and your well-being as a human. It supports your our everybody's ability to pursue our goals and handle challenges effectively.
George B. Thomas:Listen. If you're not focused on healthy, you're gonna burn out, and you can either burn out and get the opportunity to rejuvenate and start again, or you can burn out burnout, which means you done. Race is over. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
George B. Thomas:This honestly for me has been one that, unfortunately, I have put in the back seat or in the trunk or in the U Haul of somebody else going to a different destination than I am, but it is something that I would definitely beg, plead, pray that myself and anybody listening to Beyond Your Default podcast would be like health is, like, one of the top main pillar pieces to help drive the rest of these.
Liz Moorehead:Talk to me about holistic. Because this one, I looked at the other ones, I'm like, I get this. And this word, I was like, so I'm a writer. Of course, I know what holistic means. But, sir, illuminate.
George B. Thomas:Yeah. Well, we almost, like, one of the things we may end up doing in the future is we may layer these, because I don't know if these right now are layered in the level of importance or the level in which one should think of them. Again, I would maybe put healthy at the top, right, as we're going through this. Holistic might be the one that would be at the end. Because when I think of holistic approach in just like I talked talked about healthy being a great equalizer, I think healthy and then holistic is maybe they're both part of the same compass, if you will, to help us navigate in the right direction.
George B. Thomas:But a holistic approach in the superhuman framework considers all aspects of well-being, again, including physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. It's about balance and harmony in all areas of life, or it could be better stated in the other nine elements of the superhuman framework. And so holistic, well-being make sure that all parts of our lives are aligned and balanced leading to greater fulfillment. And healthy, I said, was the great equalizer. Holistic is the great stabilizer because it creates stability in your life when you're when you're firing on all 8 cylinders, holistic, instead of only firing on 6 out of 8.
George B. Thomas:You can get down the road in a more optimized way, faster way. And so, yeah, healthy equalizer, holistic stabilizer of kind of the rest of these framework pieces.
Liz Moorehead:You know what I really love about that one? Because the reason why I struggled with it at first, I'll admit I had an initial self care reaction. I initially had a self care reaction because I think holistic is a word that gets thrown out a lot. It's kind of like placeholder language to basically say, look at a bunch of stuff and make sure you look at all of it and not just like a few things. You know what I mean?
Liz Moorehead:Right. And so I think what's happened though is that it's kinda like how marketers have ruined the idea of authenticity. Hear authenticity or just like, I don't wanna I don't wanna talk about it. I don't wanna hear about it. Even though that is what I preach specifically in my job.
Liz Moorehead:Holistic has become somewhat similar in that everything's holistic.
George B. Thomas:In our ecosystem, but hopefully not in life in general.
Liz Moorehead:I hope so. Yeah. Alright. We're coming down the home stretch second to last one. Yeah.
Liz Moorehead:It's gonna be weird to hear you say this word without the usual effect that we have on the other podcast that we do.
George B. Thomas:Yeah. On Hub Heroes. It it is weird not gonna be doing something like human. Yeah.
Liz Moorehead:I was really hoping you'd do that. Okay. Yeah. Take us through human. Take us through human.
George B. Thomas:Yeah. So being human in the superhuman framework is all about and, again, I asked you to jot words down so that you would see patterns. And when you see patterns, you'll realize what I meant by their bricks that layer on top of each other. But being human in the superhuman framework is about authenticity. It's about vulnerability, and it's about embracing our true selves.
George B. Thomas:You've heard us talk about being a whole ass human previously on this podcast. It's about honesty. Interesting. Showing up or showing our strengths and our weaknesses and connecting deeply with other humans who they realize they may have strengths and weaknesses either same or different than us as well. Authenticity and vulnerability, by the way, of being human help us build deep, meaningful connections, and they foster supportive communities.
George B. Thomas:That community could be your family. That community could be broader than that. That community could be that you have 500,000 followers or a 1000000 followers, but being human, your whole ass self, authentic and vulnerable with your strengths and weaknesses, is what unlocks that superpower, authenticity, and and vulnerability. Encourage, by the way, this is so crucial, self acceptance and genuine relationships with you as a human and other humans that you journey through life with.
Liz Moorehead:Why do you think it's so easy to forget our humanity?
George B. Thomas:Because many times we hide from who we are. Many times we maybe are even ashamed of who we are. Many times we feel like we weren't created right. Why do I have a big nose? Why do I have big ears?
George B. Thomas:Why am I balding at 24? We're so focused on the exterior or we're so focused on, but you don't see me at my worst, or we're so focused on, like, you know, when I'm alone, this is how I think. Again, we don't have those god eyes. We don't have the perspective of others, and so we get into this, like, downward spiral, and we forget to tell ourselves how awesome we are. I mean, Liz, literally, on my, whiteboard behind me, it literally says, because I think it's important that I read a couple of these.
George B. Thomas:The top line of my whiteboard says, god created me to be awesome, exclamation mark, be awesome. Then it says, build the life you wanna live. By the way, when you were talking about, like, decorating your home, I was thinking, like, you gotta build the life that you want first. The 4th line, it literally says, it's yours to design. So build the life you wanna live.
George B. Thomas:It's yours to design. God created me to be awesome. Be awesome. And then the third line in there says, I've come a long way since 2013. This is another answer, by the way, to your question is many humans don't take the time to stop on the journey up the mountain to turn around to look back on how far they came because they are so focused on the last line that is on my whiteboard, which says in big, all capital letters.
George B. Thomas:And if that's not enough, an exclamation mark, get to the top. And so this idea of reflection, this idea of building, this idea of becoming or journeying, in our case, creating a life beyond your default, we lose that because we don't focus on who we truly are, who we can become, how far we've gotten. Because we're just in that moment at 2 o'clock looking at TikTok or in our own brain going.
Liz Moorehead:I have to be honest. The only follow-up I have to that one is that when you be awesome. And you kept saying it over and over again. It reminded me of that quote. Be yourself except when you could be Batman, then be Batman.
George B. Thomas:I love it. I am Batman.
Liz Moorehead:We got one more.
George B. Thomas:Yeah.
Liz Moorehead:We've got one more. Talk to me about it. Because this was a late edition. So I want you to explain what it is, but you know I'm coming for you about why this wasn't originally on the list and how it finally ended up on there because I was flummoxed
George B. Thomas:Yeah.
Liz Moorehead:Aghast that it wasn't there.
George B. Thomas:Yeah. Okay. I'll say what it is first even though I really wanna just go in and answer. I wanna answer. But okay.
George B. Thomas:So, the last one is holiness. And so holiness in the superhuman framework involves seeking spiritual growth. Notice I didn't say religious growth. I said involve seeking spiritual growth and a deeper connection to our beliefs. It's about striving for a higher purpose and living a life aligned with our spiritual values.
George B. Thomas:Again, I asked you to have a notepad out. Right? So seeking, striving, purpose, values, like spiritual growth provides a sense of purpose and deeper meaning in life. For me, this goes right up there with helpfulness because the servant's heart and the idea of purpose and purpose driven and meaning and helping, like, they're almost hand in hand. But but this piece right here also aligns with when you ask me about humor because holiness guides our ethical behavior.
George B. Thomas:It doesn't allow us or it helps us not cross a line, and it supports inner peace. So it also ties to happiness and joy that we talked about earlier and fulfillment, which when I think about fulfillment, it is literally the fuel for the journey that I'm actually on. That's my thought on how holiness and why holiness made it here.
Liz Moorehead:So you know what I'm gonna ask you, George? Because you know what it is. Talk.
George B. Thomas:1, I don't wanna ever offend anybody. And so I've been real careful with this podcast to have it be about personal growth, but not hitting people over the forehead with a 2 by 4 of my own spiritual or religious beliefs. However, this has always silently been in who I am. I mean, I'm a recovering youth pastor. I went to college for 3 years to actually know how to be a pastor, and and I have preached from the pulpit.
George B. Thomas:I have buried humans, have married humans. Like, people think of me as the HubSpot guy. I had a life before HubSpot, but it's not about me. It's about them. And here's the thing.
George B. Thomas:I started thinking about this framework and the fact that we're gonna actually give birth to it, and how dare I not have this be in there when it has been such a crucial part of me believing in myself, me building a framework around how I wanted to show up, who I wanted to be, the belief in who I could become, the eyes in which I were being looked at, the love in which I was given. So while I don't want to offend anybody, I also don't wanna leave out the seed that could be planted by simply having this be part of a framework that they can choose to plug in or not. But at least for who I am, it's gonna be there.
Liz Moorehead:I also think to some degree and I say this as someone who you know, we literally schedule human time because even though we talk to each other constantly, we have still to go. So this is the time we only talk as human beings and not as work people. Right?
George B. Thomas:Yep.
Liz Moorehead:But, you know, you and I have talked privately about, you know, I spent many years wrestling with my faith. I have since reconnected to it in a very big way, which has been really fruitful and illuminating. But I think when we talk about spirituality, when we talk about this concept of holiness, I think sometimes people forget, like, you define that for you. Yep. And in many ways, spirituality can be quite secular depending on what your belief structure is.
Liz Moorehead:You may simply somewhat be someone who believes in a balance, whether or not that's spiritual karma or just a more secular version of doing good to get good. Doing bad begets bad. Right? You can when you think about how, quote, unquote, holiness applies to you, you could be guided by your internal instinct, your gut, your set of values, your set of morals and principles. You are the great determinant of where those come from.
Liz Moorehead:For some of us, it is a more defined faith. For some people, it is not a defined faith, but it is spiritual. And for some, it's neither of those things. And I think that is something we have definitely stepped away from in this podcast, but it made me glad to see it because I think there is that nurturing of the soul component that
George B. Thomas:is
Liz Moorehead:wrapped up in this Yes. That I think people forget and people are afraid to talk about because they worry that if they open their mouths about it, they think, oh, someone's trying to preach to me and turn me Christian or whatever it is. Right? And it's it's not about that. It's about how you define your soul, how you nourish it, how you guide it.
Liz Moorehead:What is that internal guidance system that you have?
George B. Thomas:Yes. Absolutely. And and, Liz, here's the thing too, because I've always had this mind not always. Earlier in life, I had this mindset that I formulated. I had a journey in my life where I didn't grow up spiritual or religious.
George B. Thomas:I kind of knew about, you know, 10, 11, 12 by going and visiting my grandparents, what church was, and what that meant. And then when we moved when I was about 14, I got really deep into, like, going to church because some of our neighbors, like, he was a deacon, and they were just awesome. And they would take me and, like and then I fell away because I've joined the navy and kinda, like, you know, did that thing. And at one point in my life, I thought Christians were the most hypocritical people that I ever met in my life. In another part of my life, I'm actually a youth pastor, associate pastor at a church.
George B. Thomas:So I've just had this, like, hills and valleys relationship with it. And one of the things that I formulated out of that was this mindset of, I don't wanna be, the Christian that walks around with a 2 by 4. I'd rather be the type of Christian that walks around like Johnny Appleseed. And so Johnny Appleseed just that he puts these opportunities out into the world, and if they grow, they grow, and if they don't, they don't. And so holiness in this framework is my Johnny Appleseed moment.
George B. Thomas:It's like, I'm gonna plant the seed, and if it grows and whatever grows into is based on the human that's listening to it and the superhuman they're trying to become through the framework.
Liz Moorehead:We did it. We got through all of them.
George B. Thomas:We got through 10.
Liz Moorehead:I'm gonna admit though. I'm sitting here feeling 2 things at the exact same time.
George B. Thomas:Okay.
Liz Moorehead:I am feeling freaking excited. I am elated. I am inspired. This all makes sense to me, and I am also overwhelmed. Oh my gosh.
Liz Moorehead:Where do I even begin? I have to build windows and doors and plumbing for my house all at the same time, and it's so much to keep track of and measure myself against every day. And I doubt I'm alone in listening to this. Like, I could imagine our listeners at home are, like, this is great for people who have time. So I wanna hear from you.
Liz Moorehead:What advice do you have for folks who wanna take a first step today
George B. Thomas:Yeah.
Liz Moorehead:Toward embracing your superhuman beyond your default not
George B. Thomas:surprised not surprised, honestly. Like, both of those are completely understandable around a conversation like we just had. I mean, this isn't like a little framework. Like, it's not 4 steps to being like a good human. Like, this is a pretty comprehensive framework.
George B. Thomas:Ten things. It's a lot. It's a lot. The superhuman beyond your default framework is a lot, but there I think there's some key things to progress or will help the progression of the humans who are going through this. 1st, let me be real honest here.
George B. Thomas:Real honest. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm still working on all of these myself. I didn't list these out because I've arrived. So know that there might not ever even be an arrival. It's just destinations, which, by the way, all of these 10 destinations are going to the same place.
George B. Thomas:It's called beyond your default. That's where you're headed with any one of these 10 destinations. Number 2, usually, I'm working on 1 or 2, maybe at most, 3 of these at a time. I'm not working on all 10. Like, that's almost an impossibility.
George B. Thomas:But here's one thing that I do understand, and I mentioned this earlier in the podcast. When I'm working on 1, I'm probably elevating 2, if not 3. So if I'm working on 1 or 2, I'm probably elevating 3, if not 5 or 6, because some of these are so tightly tied together in what they do in your brain and the output of who you are as a human. So focus on 1 or 2. That that's I'm literally telling you what I usually do.
George B. Thomas:3rd thing that I will say about me, I'm not measuring myself daily, by the way. Because what I don't want people to think about is like, oh my god. I got this 10 step framework, and every day, I gotta do like no. No. On many of these, it's not daily, but more like weekly or more like monthly.
George B. Thomas:But for some of these, it might be even, like, be quarterly or yearly. I ask myself this question. Am I better at this, insert, by the way, one of the superhuman framework elements, this year than I was last year. By the way, if you wanna line all of these 10 pieces up with, next year's New Year's resolution or New Year's revelation or revolution that you're deciding to have, there's a whole article about it. You can go read it.
George B. Thomas:We'll put it in the show notes. Not even for Beyond Your Default, it was something else we did. Then these might align with, like, looking at that for, like, the next year or the previous year. But now that I've talked about myself and what I do and think, Liz, I wanna give some other advice to help you and the listeners to get started. So, 1, start with self reflection.
George B. Thomas:This needs to be your superhuman framework, not mine. Your superhuman framework. So you need to start self reflection and figure out, out of these 10, what are the ones that matter to you most? Take some time to reflect on which framework elements resonate most with you. Which areas do you feel that you need to work on first?
George B. Thomas:And then when you figure that out, choose 1 or 2 elements to focus on initially. For example, you might start with happy and healthy. If you feel that those are the most immediate areas for improvement, then boom. It's those 2 and you roll with it. And when you feel like you've exhausted all efforts on those 2 for the moment, go pick another one or another 2 and just again, you don't have to be working on them at the same time.
George B. Thomas:Key tip to this, though, build a support system. Now I don't talk about this a lot, Liz. I don't even know if we've ever brought it up during a podcast, but having a support system around this framework and around the heavy conversations we've had historically with this podcast is literally why we started to build out community.beyondyourdefault.com. I mean, it's on the website, but we just never really talk about it. And you can learn more by going to beyond your default.comforward/community.
George B. Thomas:And it's where we wanna have these deeper conversations or have accountability partners. And by the way, that doesn't mean it would be Liz and I, but as people join the community, it would be other communities keeping each other accountable about the actual superhuman framework elements that they're working on. Anyway, build a support system. Again, engage with some type of community. This could be your church community.
George B. Thomas:This could be your family community. Whoever you surround yourself with that is willing to encourage your growth, share your goals with them. Get them to help you focus on your personal development and the growth that you're trying to make here. Because this really comes down to, like, what you're seeking is accountability with this whole community piece. You need an accountability partner who can check-in with you or you can check-in with them regularly because this will help you stay motivated on the 1 or 2 that you're actually trying to achieve.
George B. Thomas:The last thing I'll say here as far as, like, getting started, please, by all that is holy, practice some self compassion. Remember that this is a journey beyond your default. The podcast is not called Sprint, and we've never talked about it as a sprint. It's not a sprint beyond your default. It's a journey beyond your default.
George B. Thomas:So just love yourself a little bit. Like, be kind to yourself. Remember that growth is a journey, not a destination. It's okay to have setbacks. Be kind and patient with yourself as you work towards your goals.
George B. Thomas:If you're kind and patient, you're more likely to get up, dust yourself off, and keep on going. But most of all, give yourself the compassion to celebrate even the smallest of wins. Acknowledge and celebrate the progress. Remember when I talked about on my whiteboard, you've come a long way since 2013. Celebrate your progress and your wins no matter how small.
George B. Thomas:Each step forward on 1 or several of these framework elements is a victory, and you have to have a victory mindset. If you have issues with that, go check out the episode where we did victor versus victim mindset, if you have an issue with that. But it's about not necessarily creating a daily habit. It might be daily for some, but think of more of this like a daily, weekly, monthly, and potentially yearly check-in. Place each element of the framework where it needs to be for you.
George B. Thomas:Have some time to measure it, have habits, have routines, schedule time for growth. Here's the one that I love about this. Listen. If you dedicated a specific time in your day to activities related to your chosen element or elements, for instance, if you're working on happiness and you set aside 15 minutes each morning, super easy, by the way. 15 minutes isn't anything.
George B. Thomas:You realize that that's an hour and 45 minutes a week? You realize what that multiplies into depending on the month and the days and how many weeks are in a month? Do you realize what that turns into in a year? The amount of time that you would be spending on actually being happy or a happier human, that is huge. Listen.
George B. Thomas:At the end of the day, like I asked myself, ask yourself the question, am I better at this or these, again, insert your own superhuman elements, than I was last week, last month, last year? And guess what? If you say yes to any of them, well, ladies and gentlemen, you're well on your way to becoming superhuman using the superhuman framework. And rest assured, you're crushing it in so many ways in life while traveling down the road of a life on this journey for what we're all trying to gain, where we're all trying to go, the 10 roads this framework heads to, that big old city, a life beyond your default.