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The Moonshots Podcast goes behind the scenes of the world's greatest superstars, thinkers and entrepreneurs to discover the secrets to their success. We deconstruct their success from mindset to daily habits so that we can apply it to our lives. Join us as we 'learn out loud' from Elon Musk, Brene Brown to emerging talents like David Goggins.
Hello and welcome to the Moonshots
podcast. It's episode
276. I'm your co-host, Mate Parsons. And
as always, I'm joined by the man
himself, Mr. Mark Pearson Freeland. Good
morning, Mark. Hey, good morning, Mike.
Good morning, listeners. Good morning,
subscribers. And good morning, everybody
who's turning up today to check out a
brand new topic on the Moonshots
podcast. And boy, Mike, do we have an
exciting one ahead. I had to jump in and
say it at that time. Oh, listen. Um,
very excited. I feel like we just want
to do it, don't you? Yeah. You know
what? I feel we are in a pragmatic uh uh
activity focused mindset for today's
show 276. And I think it's all thanks to
our author who we're now kicking off a
brand new series with. And that author
is Darius Fau. Now, some of our members,
some of our listeners might be familiar
with Darius's work, but if you aren't,
don't worry because the next few weeks,
we're going to be diving into his
mindset, his behavior, and his
attitudes. Now, because we are
productivity experts ourselves, we like
getting into the details of being
entrepreneurs. We're going to kick off
with one of Darius's most popular books
and that is Do It Today: Overcome
Procrastination, Improve Productivity,
and Achieve More Meaningful Things.
Mike, occasionally we run into a
powerful headline and sub headline for a
book. I think this one's probably up
there with something that's definitely
promising a lot of bang for your buck.
Uh, yeah, you said it, man. It It's
promising a lot. But I do think what
we've got on offer for our listeners and
members and viewers is an author who
might be new to many people. Um, he's
certainly not as well known as, you
know, your Dave Allens and many of those
other productivity gurus that we've
focused on the show. But I tell you
what, Mark, here's what I think's ahead
for our members, viewers, and listeners.
This is a full spectrum 360° look at
productivity and I mean that it spans
everything from the mindset to the
activities that span the best modern
practices. So if you like Dave Allen, if
you like Carol Dwek, this show is for
you because we're going to talk about
almost like this is as if David Gogggins
and James Clear got together and had a
baby. That's what you got right here. So
Darius Favo is amazing. We're going to
do a bunch of his books. Today is all
about do it today. So Mark, where do we
want to start this adventure? Hello,
Mike. Uh I think that's a pretty big
promise that you've already given our
listeners and members. So the next stage
when we do have something as big as this
is to drive straight into the author
himself uh kicking us off with something
powerful. I'd argue that this opener
we've got is going to help paint the
picture on the ideas of overcoming
procrastination as well as getting us in
the mood to figure out how to be more
productive. So, let's hear from Darius,
the author of today's topic, do it
today. help us understand what his main
important issue is in the world today, a
big lesson we can take from the book and
how Mike, you and I, all of our members
and all of our uh listeners can be
executors.
If you are looking for the secret to
success, if you are looking for, you
know, the answers in YouTube videos,
productivity books, self-help books, uh
all these things are great for
inspiration, but ultimately what it
comes down to is you have to do the
work. And you probably heard this
before, a lot of people have said it,
but
often we just hear it and we don't
really apply it. But honestly, I
guarantee you if you apply it and if you
execute consistently year in year out,
you will get to where you want. It just
takes a long time. For me, like I've
been I've been on this path for eight
years. It's a very long time. And for
me, for for the first several years, it
seemed like I wasn't going anywhere
because now I might make just 10k a
month in royalties completely passive
off my books and articles. So when I
started it wasn't even a few hundred
bucks, right? And even until I was
looking at my data, even until like
2020, it was like somewhere between 1 to
2,000 a month. So, it's gone up quite
high. And and that progression that
takes time, right? So, if you want to be
successful, if you want to improve your
life, whether it's your health, wealth,
happiness, doesn't matter. Start
adopting this philosophy of do it today.
And I have an article about this as
well. If you haven't read the book, it's
for free. You can check it out on my
website. I'll link it in the
description. But start applying that
philosophy. And you can do that right
now. What's something that you had on
your list of priorities or in in your
mind, something that you wanted to do
for a very long time, but you still
haven't done it. right now as you finish
watching this video, take one step
towards that goal. If you want to move
to a different city, find a realtor or
something. If you want to start a
business, create a business plan. It
doesn't matter how big or small it is,
whether it's actually helpful or whether
it's silly or whatever, doesn't matter.
Just do something. Take that first step
and then the next day take another step.
That's the key. You have to do it every
single day. This that's why it's called
do it today, right? Because if you do it
every single day, you get into a mindset
of hey, I am an executor. I finish. I
start things and I finish them. I just
keep going. It doesn't matter what
happens, whether I experience any
obstacles, roadblocks, doesn't matter. I
just keep moving forward. And a person
like that will always win. And that is
the most important thing.
Mark, being an executor, as I listen to
Darius talk, then I can't help but get
vibes from um Darren Hardy and the
compound effect. How about you? Yeah,
big time. I think Darren Hardy's
compound effect is standing out in this
idea of tiny gains. You know, our our
members will be familiar with one of our
recent uh shows that we we uploaded as
well. The idea of getting progressively
better each day, I think is where Darius
is trying to lead us here with the
concept of doing it today. You know,
stop putting it off. Um, I think break
it down into small little manageable
bite-size pieces and then just start
focusing on 1% better each day as James
Clear would say. Yeah. And you know what
was interesting though is he picked up
on a couple of things that I think are
worth breaking out a little bit. First
of
all, he alluded to the fact that he had
been writing and publishing for years
and getting fairly minor results. He
said really, you know, he'd been when
you do the the numbers, he'd been
writing for four or six years as a
published author and only getting a,000
bucks a month in royalties. So, could
you imagine like you've just gone and
slaved and written a book. Maybe he was
up to two books at that point. you only
had a thousand bucks a month in revenue,
you'd be like, geez, was that all really
worth it? And he was alluding to this
thing that actually the winners are the
ones that just keep going.
And what's interesting is I think many
of us, and I think bookw writing is a
great
analogy, bookw writing is one of those
things where people, you know, how many
people do you meet that are writing a
book? Now, what percentage of people do
you meet that I actually published the
book? You know what I mean, Mark? Yeah.
It's a lot smaller, isn't it? Right. So,
he's like, "Oh, you got to you got to
write a book, you got to publish a book,
and then you got to write another book,
and then you got to publish another
book, and you'll still be going for some
years, maybe before you really start
going, oh, wow, it's really starting to
produce some financial value." But I
think the point in this, Mark, is that
let's say that was a six-year process.
Many of us give up at six weeks or six
months.
And there will be these moments at six
weeks and six months where you question
everything. There will be these moments
at 6 months where you're like, I think I
should just throw it all in. This isn't
going to work. Right. What he's alluding
to is a huge learning that we have on
the show. We've discovered together,
Mark, that you've got to do it every
day. Keep going. rain, hail or shine for
day, week, month on year on year and
there is no such thing as an overnight
success. I think that's the massive
lesson. So, it's like finding the
ability to keep grinding when you're
like not seeing results, right? Yeah.
Big time. I mean, look, when you break
it down like that, Mike, I'm reminded of
somebody like Tom Brady, you know, maybe
this is a tenuous link, but but bear
with me for a second. Mhm. Here's a guy.
He's coming out and he gets picked last.
Imagine your motivation getting picked
last. You're finally cracking into the
big leagues and that's where you're
greeted with. He has to grind. Everybody
has to grind. sports, in the boardroom,
setting up a new business day to day.
But what happens is he keeps on working
at it day in day out, day in day out,
day in day out. And then he becomes one
of the most popular and most beloved
players of all time. But he started at
the bottom. Yep. So remember this,
Michael Jordan was not number one in the
draft. Michael Jordan did not win a
Premiership, did not win a ring in the
world finals in basketball in the first
year. I'll give you the current day
version. Brock Pery, quarterback for the
49ers, was not the first pick at high
school. Was not the first pick at
college. Wait for this. He was
technically the very last player picked
at the end of the draft. Like the draft
was completed for the NFL in
America. It was completed Mark after
Brock. There were no names after him.
So, he was the bottom. He will announce
very soon a $50 million plus dollar a
year contract with the 49ers. He has
been to the Super Bowl. Didn't win, but
he's been to the Super Bowl. He's been
the NFC
champion every year he was in the NFL.
And yet, he talks very explicitly about
he was the last in the NFL draft, not
the first for college, not the first for
high school. and he just kept going. I
think this this is so important to hear
because I think many of us have good
will, good intention to do something
special. But in the moment when we're in
that valley of darkness where we can't
see the progress, we can't see the
results, we lose touch with our vision,
we lose touch with our hopes and dreams,
and we give
up and we stop because it's hurting too
much and we don't see any gain in the
future. And this is like a a a
resilience that we've seen in a similar
way from David Gogggins, right? And
we're going to come back to David Gogins
again in this show. But I think the
point here
is if you do something every day, you
can make it a small thing and manageable
and celebrate. I did everything I set
out to do today. All my positive,
constructive, positive habits, I did
them all today. you just do them
tomorrow and just keep going and trust
the process. I think there's so much to
that because in those moments of truth,
we often abandon trusting the process. I
I couldn't agree more and I I want to
circle back to the concept of no
overnight success. And we are going to
hear from Darius later on in the show
talk about setbacks being, you know, a
source of energy and motivation to go
out and get stuff done. But Mike,
whenever we do start something new, it
is so tempting whether it's a new job,
new industry, just a new hobby even, it
gets uncomfortable. You know, obviously
we'll probably talk about running in
today's show as we always we always do.
Um, but when you go for a run, yeah,
sometimes that motivation lacks and what
happens? Well, maybe it drops off. You
know, you're not suddenly running 10ks
as soon as you pick up the running
shoes. Instead, you have to put in a few
weeks of work. I think the definition of
resilience for me and that growth
mindset is those people who keep on
giving it a go. Yeah. Push through that
discomfort, don't they? And remember,
Gogggins admitted on our show, he
sometimes sits there in the morning
looking at his running shoes for 20
minutes going, I so don't want to run.
Yeah. There's so easy to come up with
excuses, but I think Darius is telling
us no more. Yeah. Yeah. And but what I
want to like focus on there
though is even the greats
have moments of self-doubt
sometimes find the grind of showing up
every day hard. So I think this is
important to know because it makes me
feel a little better. Well, gez, if
Gogggins has problems getting motivated,
I feel a little bit better about myself,
right? Cuz we cuz we're tempted to think
they're perfect.
Yeah. Well, you see the the best seller
come out, you know? Oh, Ryan Holliday's
written another best-selling book. Why
isn't mine selling? Why can't I finish a
book? You know, all these reasons come
up and as again to use a phrase from
David Gogggins, ignore those little
voices. You know, write them down,
listen to them in a voice note and then
you'll realize how ridiculous you sound.
You know, you're you're playing the
field for the first time yourself. You
can't compare yourself to somebody like
a David Gins. It's irrelevant, isn't it?
So this idea of executing is such a key
every day. Every day, isn't it? Every
single day, you just got to do it. And
you know, we should show some love and
respect and potentially we should blow
some trumpets for those members that
show up every day for us. Honestly,
these individuals have shown up,
including our longestr running
individual, Mike Bob, uh, who's been
with us, we think, for maybe even five
years. Uh, keep on turning up. keep on
contributing and keep on doing it every
single day. So guys, thank you so much
and without further ado, bring out the
trumpet and brewing out the red carpet
for our hero, Mr. Bob, Dietmar, Marjan,
Connor, Lisa, Sid, Mr. Bonjour, and Paul
Berg, Calman, Joe, Samuela, Barbara,
Deborah, Lassay, and Steve. Craig, Ravi,
IT, Raula, uh, sorry, Raul, Ola, Ingram,
Venata, Jet, Roger, Steph, Raw, and
Kristoff, Laura, Gayla, Mike, Zachary,
Austin, Ola, Andy and Jasper, Fabian,
and Guhong, Eddie and Lars, Muhammad,
and brand new uh red carpet. Mike, we're
having to stitch behind the scenes to
extend that red carpet just a little bit
as our brand new members of Marco, Ken,
Ryan, Try Man, Natalie, Jason, Malcolm,
and Emily are all joining us as brand
new Moonshots members. Thank you so much
for all of those who are new, uh, older.
Everybody who's been with us for a long
time as well as a short time, it makes a
huge difference to the Moonshot Show and
thank you for being members. So to go
into the official Moonshots archive,
Mark, June 2021 is when Bob joined as
our first member. Well, you know what?
That anniversary is coming up incredibly
soon. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it is, too. Yeah.
Good point. So, good for you, Bob. Thank
you for being with us and being part of
the Moonshots family. Absolutely. Um,
and if you'd like to become a member of
the Moonshots podcast, head over to
moonshots.io, click on the member button
and good things will happen. What will
also happen is once you get that done,
you'll be much better at dealing with
distractions, Mark. Oh, this is a topic
that I know that we love to delve into
and I'm sure all of our listeners do as
well because it is something that all of
us have to contend with every single
day. And let's be honest, it isn't
something you can just turn off
overnight. Again, it's something that
you got to work on. Uh, similar to the
last clip. So, let's hear from Darius
this time now, helping us understand why
distractions can be a big obstacle in
our lives and how we can start to deal
with
them. The biggest challenge in today's
age is dealing with distractions, right?
Jobs are getting more complex. We're
required to collaborate more and we're
all getting more bombarded with
notifications from all over the place
and as a result we can't work on our
tasks without getting interrupted for
like five minutes. Right? Another
challenge many of us struggle with is
personal energy. Right? If you work
eight hours or maybe even more hours on
a day, we only have a few hours for
everything else. So, a lot of people are
spread too thin because we also have our
personal demands like, you know,
relationships and family and doing
groceries and paying bills and working
out and relaxing and reading and you
name it. All good stuff. But here's the
funny thing. You can address all of
these challenges that you don't have
time and don't h have the energy by
improving your productivity skills. But
like I mentioned, it's important to be
aware of what's exactly standing in your
way uh to becoming your most productive
self.
Uh I I talk about this a lot on the
show. Mhm. I I I want to take what
Darius said and take it to another
level. I think we're at
war with things competing for our
attention and our energy. So people
there's this really great theme of
beyond time management. There's this
idea of managing your focus, your
attention, your energy, which is a way
of saying
like a time, managing your time is a
reflection of managing your energy,
which is a reflection of managing your
priorities and what matters. Focus, do
the one thing. Mhm. But I do believe
that distractions are so
pervasive
that it requires us to have this
enormous
self-awareness that we really are and I
like the vocabulary. We're at war for
our own attention because I think about
something that really drives me crazy. I
have set uh I'm very careful with
notifications, Mark. So, I do not get
any email
notifications on my devices. I will deal
with email when I open up Beanbox and I
don't want to be seeing bing bong bing
bong.
Right? So, with this similar idea
though, I'm like, "Oh, I do need to get
my Uber notifications. For example, your
driver's just about to arrive. This is a
very helpful notification to make sure
that I'm there to meet up with the
driver." But Uber use that permission to
receive notifications to send me all of
their marketing messages. Yeah. So I'm
getting things like there's a promotion
on Uber Eats and I'm like this is not a
notification like and I really resent
it. So I'm like almost like should I
just turn off all my all my Uber
notifications? Yeah. Yeah. But but I'm
this sensitive and uh uh to it because I
know what I'm like. If you say to me,
"Oo, interesting email from someone I'm
working with." I'm like,
"Oo, my mind jumps to to conclusions."
So, I do everything in the world
uh to write my journal before I even
look at my email in the morning just
because I know as soon as I've seen my
inbox, all my uh collaborators in Europe
and the US will have sent me things
overnight. So, I usually have a pretty
big first first batch of email. I'm
like, "Oh my gosh, I don't want to look
at that because I'll be off to the races
and working, right?" Yeah. So, I better
just get out that journal, clear the
head, own the day. That's the war for
attention. And I think many of us don't
even realize, and if we do so, I think
the critical thing is to be
absolutely rigorous in playing defense
and asking yourself, do I need this
information? because there's so much
coming at you. And I think the what
Darius is setting up for us, you want to
be an executor, man. Go to war with your
distractions, right? Yeah. Yeah. I
you're totally right. And I think
the idea of distractions for me goes
beyond just the notifications as well,
don't they? You know, we know that Cal
Newport has a not a vendetta, but he's
not email's biggest fan. you know, he
thinks it's he wrote the book, The World
Without. Exactly. I would say where uh
Daryus is speaking to me in this clip as
well is regarding my and you said the
word earlier, focus of any task that
I've that I'm trying to accomplish. So,
for example, let's use a relatable
situation where you're working from
home. What I find happens when I'm
working from home, maybe my focus strays
a little bit. Ah, you know, would really
handy, I've got guests coming over
later. If I put the dishwasher on now,
great. They'll be clean. Ah, but if I'm
going to do that, then I'm going to have
to empty it. Okay, I better make some
space. So, suddenly you start, my mind
starts to uh uh go down a different
path, let's say. Then suddenly, ah, but
if I'm washing the dishes, maybe I need
to get a dishloth done. So, I'll put on
the washing machine. And then suddenly,
you've got at least an hour of your time
probably burnt. And where I see the
value of Darius's call to action and
reminder to us that we can be the
masters of our time is focusing
ourselves and prioritizing what it is
that we're doing. And like you say,
Mike, writing a journal in the morning
before opening the emails is a great way
of keeping your prioritization list
clear. Um because as soon as you do your
energy is taken up elsewhere. For me
that's a big problem. You know if I do
allow like a distraction to come into my
mind man I am uh instantly going to
decrease in my ability to deliver
whatever it was that I was trying to do.
What are your some of your tips outside
of you know silencing notifications to
try and help you stay in the mode when
you're writing a big presentation? Well,
I mean there's all the practices. Do it
at the same time, same place every time
you do it. Even play the same music.
I'll show you how OCD I am about this. I
even listen to the same ambient
frequencies. So when I started doing
that, by the way, yeah, it works really
well, doesn't it? How have you
experienced it? I've been using uh so
listeners and members, I think you've
probably heard of us talking about music
for concentration in one of the previous
shows. Um, the one I find uh quite
helpful, Mike, is 40 Hz. Oh, look at
you. Yes. 40 Hz on on YouTube is, you
know, somewhat repetitive, I must admit.
But actually, that's good because that
repetitive
melody and frequency. There you go. Gets
me into the mode. Yeah. So, so
definitely if our listeners, viewers and
members are interested in this, the
thinking goes like this. There is
particular music that enhances
productivity and focus, different
frequencies of music. So, if you just
type that into YouTube, you're going to
get back a bunch of great stuff. I like
to take a little bit of a frequency
approach with a little bit of ambience
almost ASMR kind of vibes. And the trick
here is to play either the same or
similar styles of ambient background
music while you work so that they become
a trigger to your body. Oh, I hear that
music. That means focus time.
It works exactly the same for working
out. If you listen to the same playlist
every time you run or work out, then
what will happen is you might be feeling
a little flat, but you get that music on
and it evokes like a kind of an
experience where like I was actually
feeling a bit knackered, but I got out
and put on the music and I kind of got
after it. I felt quite good by the end.
This is how you can help yourself to
achieve the these habits. I think um the
other thing to be aware of
Mark is there's this uh productivity
concept called switching costs. And I'm
not talking about switching costs from
one product to the other. I'm talking
about switching from task from one to
the other. And I think we've all
experienced this thing where you've
worked really focused on something and
you've zipped it out and you're like
great tick done. Then you need to work
on the next thing. But it's not like you
can recreate the momentum and flow that
you had on the previous task. You cannot
recreate that instantly on the new task
because the first thing you go is oh
where were we? Where was I exactly? And
oh there was a detail I can't remember.
Do I go left or right with that? I'll
give you a great example. So, I was on a
call earlier today and uh a colleague of
mine based in Amsterdam and so I'm in
Sydney and we're working on a bunch of
stuff together and I had sent some
things over on Monday and today's a
Friday and in the meantime we'd had some
other things uh going between us,
different
projects. So, I had been sent an email
and I responded and provided a different
bunch of stuff to my colleague. And then
when we talked
today, what I needed to do is say, "Hey,
let's go back to my email from Monday
just as a reminder. Here's what you were
responding to my note. I have now
responded to your note. I've also added
a few things, but I've taken it a step
further. So, I want to give you some
background and thinking before we review
the things that I shared." And we needed
Mark 15 minutes to switch into this
topic. M because if I had just said, "I
did A, B, and C. What do you think?"
This person, he would have just gone,
"Oh, uh, hang on. Could you just walk me
through it again?" That is the switch
happening right there. You're switching.
You're getting into the zone, into the
subject matter. The same thing happens
when we're working on something. You
cannot, it is impossible over eight
hours of a day, each hour, just
switching instantly and being in like
fifth gear on the new task.
How many times do you think, "Oh, I
might get up and make a coffee or you're
like, maybe I need to go for a walk or
maybe I'll watch some news for a
second." Just it's like you almost need
to detox, you know? It's like, "Uh, I'll
go and put the dishwasher on like you
said." Yeah. Yeah. So, I think if you
think about
this knowing that you have the tempted
to be distracted in the transition, I
think that's where we're most
vulnerable.
So, if I'm going to switch from task one
to task two, if I'm going to do the
dishwasher as like a little mental
break, that's actually quite good. But I
have to hold myself accountable. I got
to be back on the tools in 10 minutes.
Period. Mhm. Otherwise, what I am
terrible at, and my wife will attest to
this, by the end of the day, you're two
hours behind. Yeah.
I mean, how true is that, Mike? Um, I
quite like this definition of the
transition. That is the opportunity to
get distracted big time. Yeah. Um for me
some of the ways that I try and
um establish a habit
uh to to take from our master series of
the power of tiny gains is to inject a
little bit of exercise into those
transition moments. So if I'm sitting
down in front of my computer, let's say
I'm studying something or learning
something new, I will probably get a
little bit uncomfortable because maybe
it's something new. It's a little bit
scary. It's I don't know what it is. So
now I'm gonna have to figure it out and
uh I need to go and you know maybe use
chat to fatigue, Google, YouTube,
whatever it might be. And instead by
giving myself a little bit of time to
physically move that then gets my brain
into something that's a little bit more
akin to um a sponge I suppose to learn
something new. So for me when I'm
switching I mean I totally believe you
switching costs are dire you know they
they take up so much time and they
really do decrease the quality of your
your time when you are spending on it
get some physical exercise move around a
bit change your scenery get your eyes to
refocus on something different ideally
maybe a little bit of light to take from
Andrew Huberman's uh advice to us the
first thing you do in the morning is to
go out and get some sunlight I'd argue
Mike it's the same when you're going
between tasks. Absolutely. I think
be be ready for this war for your
attention. Don't get distracted
because as as I was saying earlier, it
just catches you out at the end of the
day. You're like, "Oh my god, like I'm
so behind." And I'm I'm just way too
optimistic on that. But actually, when
we talk about being overoptimistic and
planning things out, actually this next
clip really does set us up with a set
almost a series of tactics to play out
in order for us to boost productivity.
Right. Yeah, that's right. So, we've
already started to scratch the surface
of some useful tips that you and I find
helpful in the hunt for good
productivity. Well, Darius, our master
of ceremonies today with do it today, is
going to now come back with us with some
more tips, his own tips on how to focus
and how to uh improve our productivity.
So, let's hand over the mic to Mr.
Darius
Fau. Okay, here's tip number one. Focus
on one thing per area of your life.
Pretty groundbreaking,
right? Um, all of this stuff is obvious,
but let me ask you this. Why are you
still doing a million things at the same
time if you know that it doesn't work?
Productivity doesn't mean doing more
work. It means working on the right
things. When you focus on one right
thing after the other, you can achieve
pretty much anything that's humanly
possible. Just remember that you can do
more than one thing. Period. Right? This
advice is that you can focus on one
thing per area of your life. So, one
thing for your career, uh one thing for
your life, uh for your relationships,
for your hobbies, etc. Okay, here's tip
number two. Set goals that are within
your control. To be really productive,
you want to change your perspective on
goal setting. Instead of setting goals
like I want to earn $100,000 this year,
focus on the activities you need to do
to earn that amount. It could be
something like I want to spend at least
6 hours a day on my business or
freelancing career. Look at what you
really control and then set goals based
on that. Otherwise, you set a goal
that's outside your control, fail, and
then give up. Tip number three, use time
blocking. Form the habit of putting
everything on your calendar instead of
your to-do list. When you block time on
your calendar, you realize that you
can't do 500 things on a day, right? You
have to be selective with your time. And
this strategy will help you to have more
clarity and that will help you to get
more things done. I've been using this
method for years and it's one of the
best productivity tips that you will
find. And finally, here's tip number
four. Use the Pomodoro method. By taking
strategic breaks throughout the day, you
will get way more stuff done than ever.
It's no wonder that so many people swear
by this method. It instantly improves
your focus, right? And the technique is
super simple. You just set a timer for
30 minutes, dedicate that time to one
task, take five minutes off, and then
repeat the cycle three more times, and
after four intervals, take a longer
break. And I use an app called Be
Focused, but any app will do. The key is
to have a visual of the timer. If you
haven't been working this way, I
recommend starting today.
Lots of good stuff there. I mean, we've
talked about time blocking being super
important. I will attest to getting
things in the calendar with realistic
time allocations helps you go,
"Oh, yeah, I probably got a little too
much on the list today." And obviously,
you know, having goals, but actually
Mark, I want to call out the focus on
what you control because that is a huge
respect to Steven Cvy, Seven Habits, one
of the greatest um self-help books ever
written in my opinion. Yep.
Focus on what you control. And we do see
this pattern with James Clear and other
authors. And I love this idea because
let's break it down just a bit together.
In the end, let's say you want to earn a
million bucks. That's a
goal. Now, what you have to do is
derive, well, what activities would I do
over the course of the year, over the
course of six months, over the quarter,
over the week, over today? What am I
going to do today that if done tomorrow,
this week, this month, this year will
get me to that goal? Because in a funny
way, once you've set the big, hairy,
audacious goal, you almost don't need to
go back to it because you need to divert
your attention to the smaller measurable
activities you would do right now.
Because if you know that sending 10
sales emails a day will get you the
million dollars in revenue, then
actually you need to become obsessed
with what is the best way for me to send
those 10 emails a day. If I need to make
10 calls a day or if I need to make 10
pieces of content a
day, you can obsess about that because
you know that is your journey to the
million dollars. You don't need to keep
going back to the million all that much.
Maybe you do for a little bit of a
reconnecting with mission and vision and
why you're going about it. But all the
challenge is in making sure you do 10
calls a day and not nine or you don't
skip a day. Right? That's where all the
hard work is.
So he is talking about if you become too
focused on just the end goal of which
not everything is within your control
you lose touch with the fact that you
could just focus on those 10 calls a day
and you have absolute complete control.
And here's the thing Mark what I
find is when I focus on those 10 calls a
day and I've done that I actually feel
pretty good at the end of the day. Were
they 10 bad calls? It doesn't really
matter. I did the 10 calls and I can say
I set myself a goal and I achieved it so
I'll get at it again tomorrow. So you
get a little bit of a like a a boost
from that regardless of the outcome.
What do you think about this like focus
on what you control? This this it's a
bit of a nuance, isn't it? Look, I I
think this is where Faux um stands out
because he's very very pragmatic and
he's really pushing us to consider how
much our attention is diverted and how
we should structure our our targets. I
like this idea of goals being something
achievable. I think we should have, you
know, big be big hags and things that
feel a little bit uncomfortable to try
and reach as our goals, but at the same
time, breaking it down each day, uh, has
helped me stay focused and get more
motivated when the going gets tough. So,
for example, if I'm trying to become a
marriage celebrant for my friends later
this year and I look at the vast amount
of work to try and do, I think, how am I
going to do this? This is 200 hours.
Let's say, okay, well, let's be honest.
Let's break it down into one hour a day.
Cool. Do that in the time that you've
got in the evenings. I do it one day.
Hey, I did it today. That's great.
Tomorrow, hey, I did it yesterday. That
means I can do it again. And so on and
so forth. Even if I miss a few days a
week, what I know and that I've proven
to myself is that I can bring it back
around and work on it with um vigor and
focus. And I think that's where Darius
is trying to help us here, isn't it?
It's not just about utilizing our
favorite techniques of time blocking,
breaking it down into tasks, but it is
just doing it religiously each day.
Trying to avoid multitasking is one of
the big things that we've learned in the
past. You know, focus on one task at a
time. That for me is such a huge um
takeaway, isn't it, Mike? If you just
focus yourself on one thing, remove
everything else. And I don't mean, you
know, put on do not disturbs, put your
phone on silent because that's, you
know, somewhat obvious to us now. But
instead, just focus on this one
paragraph, one email that you're trying
to send without trying to get bogged
down into maybe the pitch for the
presentation that you've also got on the
background. Just one thing at a time.
That little hurdle then gives you enough
momentum to get over the next one.
Totally. And it all comes together. What
you can see here is when we talk about
being an
executor, fighting the good fight on
distractions and implementing focus on
what you control, pomodora, all those
things. It's all in service of letting
your energy go to the things that you
should be working on. M it's all about
understanding that your energy can do
one thing at a time well. So it's
important that you're doing what you
should be doing. But I think also with
this energy mark you can you can manage
it on a daily basis and each day some
things work and some things don't right
big time. Sometimes those uh challenges
or setbacks rear their heads and I think
we can all say that we've certainly
experienced a few of those in all of our
lives. But Mike, something that's
consistent that we found on the show and
it bears repeating and it actually funny
enough Mike even our outro clip today
from Darius is going to help us
understand this even further and that's
that challenges and setbacks, obstacles
to use Ron Holiday's word are the way
forward and they can be utilized as
forms of energy in our lives. So Mike,
what I'm going to pitch to you, our
members and our listeners, for one more
time today with Darius's book, Do It
Today, is that setbacks can be positive
and that we can use them as our
energy. This is something that I've
really mastered over the last few years
because look, all of us experience
setbacks. The question is how do you
respond? Now the first step is to not
get angry or not let setbacks stop you.
That's great. But a higher level and
this is where you want to be is where
you start using setbacks as energy and
as motivation to improve even more. And
I recently had another setback in my
business and in my writing career. And
instead of saying, "Oh, okay. That's
okay. I won't let it influence me. I'll
just focus on my other plans and focus
on my work." I used the setback as
energy and I was even more motivated to
keep pushing forward because every
setback that you experience, you should
see it as more drive to win. Every time
someone tries to slow you down or life
tries to slow you down, soak up the
energy.
get pumped up and then move forward
because life honestly is just basically
you dealing with one setback after the
other. The winners are just very good at
overcoming those setbacks and just going
after one thing after the other because
look if you experience if you experience
a setback and you give up what happens?
Nothing. your goal will not materialize.
So on your journey on your path you will
experience many setbacks. The question
is how do you deal with those setbacks?
Do you use them as energy or do you use
that or do you let the setbacks hold you
back?
Okay.
So as many of our regular listeners,
viewers and members
know we have talked a lot about Carol's
work growth
mindset and we like you know yucker
willink problems are good right so I
wonder I want to think out loud together
about is there like a
formula like a scientific
method that we can use to prove out that
any that you can actually create energy
from setbacks. And so I'm going to pitch
it to you, Mark, and you can help me
make it better.
Mhm. Let's say you've got a goal and you
want to run 10 km for the first
time. And
uh every day you have been training and
then you think I'm going to try
and run the 10ks. I've never done it.
You know, the best I've done is
seven. and you try, you get out there,
but you run out of fuel, it's hurting
too much, it's too hard, the conditions
aren't great, and you don't achieve the
10K. Now, many people may be tempted to
give up too hard,
right? But actually, if you think about
it statistically, if you know, well,
let's look at the human race. There are
lots of people that run a lot more than
10k in one go. There are some people
that run 100k. So, let's put it in
perspective. Okay? So, I've never run
10K and I tried and I missed. Here's the
the
formula. If you can accept the premise
that if you try enough times, you'll
finally get there.
Technically, every attempt towards your
goal gets you a little bit closer to it.
Mhm. I'll give you another one. you're
trying to build a successful business
and you've had a couple of different
offerings or promotions or different
products and services. Well,
technically, you know, if there's some
sort of need in the market and you
haven't quite cracked it, it's a process
of elimination. We tried this, didn't
work. Let's go to option two. Tried
this, didn't work. Let's go to option
three and four and five. And you know
that at the end there is a finite amount
of options to put this solution in the
market. So if you've tried 20 times, you
can say, "Oh my gosh, we must be so much
closer now than we were at the
beginning." This to me is how you use
setbacks as energy. Rather than saying
it will never work, you can flip it and
go,
"Actually, we were a little bit closer.
Not much, but today we got a little bit
closer." Yeah. What do you think? I
mean, big time. The tiny gains again is
rearing its head. you know, just knowing
that you're getting a little bit better
each day is such a motivation. But I
think the other thing that stands out is
if let's say it's runners, let's say
it's Elon Musk going to the moon, let's
say it's any number of our entrepreneurs
that we covered on the show, they've
been through the struggle, too. You
know, let's say you're writing a blog or
a book and you're finding it hard to get
through and um uh and um deliver on that
promise. you just need to go out and
give it a go repeatedly and eventually
it's going to be uh relief when you
realize, hey, I bet other people have
struggled too. I bet other authors were
struggling at one point. Maybe I can
find solace and motivation in the fact
that they got through it and maybe I
will as well. Well, you nailed it
because he says, as we've heard before,
it's not like Kobe Bryant didn't have
doubts about his basketball abilities.
Yeah. He just continued despite
that. And what happens to a lot of us,
the first time we have self-doubt, fear,
and loathing, we abandon.
What we've seen time and time again on
the show is everybody has the same
self-doubt. It's those that have
succeeded find a way of dealing with it
even though they do experience that.
Yeah, that's it. I mean, how we respond
is up to us, isn't it? 100% within our
control, too. That's the good news.
Yeah. Yeah. And without challenges, like
David Gogins has said to us before, uh
without challenges, we wouldn't grow.
You wouldn't get better. It's absolutely
true. And it's the guarantee as Darius
is reminding us again as many of
entrepreneurs have challenges coming for
us. Oh yeah. Get used to it. Get used to
get used to it. Oh Mark, we've covered a
lot. What's on the homework assignment?
What's number one in your to-do days?
Well, there's a lot of good stuff in
here as it again hits all the marks for
pragmatism, productivity, and
prioritization.
So for me, Mike, I think the first clip
actually that we had something that we
can boil down into simple steps. Uh
actually going out and and executing it,
just getting it done. It's very growth
mindsety. So I'm going to focus on, you
know, trying to get something done at
least a little bit every single day.
What's standing out with you as we kick
off this new season and series on
Darius? What are we going to take from
today's episode into the next one?
Well, I I'm going to say that I feel
like I love
to try and be an executor. So, I'm going
to be with you on this one. What I love
to hear is, you know, Darius talking
about for how for so many years he was
earning hardly anything from his books,
right?
It's so good that he was open with us to
remind us, you will need to grind it
out. That is just the reality. And
there's sometimes I'll be honest with
you, Mark, I'm
like grinding again. Here we go. Do I
How long do I have to grind for now?
Yeah. Yeah. Haven't I grind ground
enough in life? You ground like coffee
beans. Yeah. On a fine fine grind
setting on this machine. All right,
Mark, I want to say a big thank you.
Those were some great clips. Four great
clips. The first of a four-part series
on Darius Favo. So, a big thank you to
you, Mark. And a big thank you to you,
our listeners, viewers, and members here
on show 276 of the Moonshots podcast
where we kicked off our Darius FVO
series with his book, Do It Today: Four
Big Ideas, Be an Executor, Get It Done.
And when you do that, you're going to
have to learn to deal with distractions.
And remember, step three is you're in
control. Focus goals, block that time,
and implement
pomodoro. Do that and you will be on the
way. But you will be. You will be facing
some setbacks and you need to use them
as energy. Don't let them derail you. If
you push through, you'll be on the way
to being the best version of yourself.
And that's what we're all about here on
the Moonshot Podcast. That's a wrap.