this is auto generated and may only be 80% accurate. 

[00:00:00] Chris Furlong: Yo. Yo yo. Welcome back to The Further Your Lifestyle Podcast, conversations on lifestyle passions and hustles. My name's Chris Furlong. I am your host and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you, episode 98 today, and we are basically coming off from last week's episode. Now, if you did not listen to last week's episode, we dived into, I guess, decanting and exploring cliches and how a big part of those are actually, they're refer back to.

[00:00:27] Chris Furlong: Doing the work. And that in itself is another big cliche, which I think we all get stuck on when we hear conversations with people in interviews or we hear other people say, you just gotta do the work, or you just gotta take action. And it's one of those things that we do throw around and it comes across as, it can come across as a very frustrating and very annoying, but at the same time, there's a lot of essence to it and there's a lot of meat that goes into when we say, You just gotta do the work or do the work, or keep doing the work.

[00:00:54] Chris Furlong: Now there's a lot of works in this episode, so buckle up. We're gonna be diving in and getting a little bit more further deep in terms of what does this actually meant. And I wanted to focus on this today simply to. Help further the point, or I really drum into you that the sooner you understand this and the sooner that you click, then the sooner you can start moving forward with less fluff holding you back.

[00:01:15] Chris Furlong: But at the same time, I also wanna be making sure that you understand that there is no off-the-shelf solution or one size fits all, or a perfect way in enabling us to actually get to where we want to be. So we're gonna be talking about that today, but really the whole episode will flow like this. We're gonna touch on first, what does it actually mean?

[00:01:34] Chris Furlong: Do the work or doing the work, and how can we remove that overwhelm that Hobbs around it? Because I said before, as we say it, there's a lot of fluff that goes with it, and I want to help debunk that and help you understand what are, what do we actually mean and how can it make, how can we make it easy for you to actually do the work and, and start to move forward?

[00:01:52] Chris Furlong: I also am going to be touching on how achieving our goals will be different for everyone, and it's not a one size fit. Situation like, you know, you can't just take one thing and apply it to everyone. So EV this is unique to you as well. So you are gonna learn something that is relevant to you. We're also gonna touch on why should we be flexible and we should be open to having different paths in achieving our goals or getting to where we want to be.

[00:02:15] Chris Furlong: And as I said before, there's not always a clear path or a one set linear path to where we want to be. So that will be another big discussion of this episode, and then we will also dive into a bit of a reminder. , uh, that it's not always a straight line, as I just said, but it's also important. Adapt and be persistent in our pursuit in whatever it is that we're trying to embark on.

[00:02:38] Chris Furlong: And for those that are maybe here thinking, ah, yeah, I already know what this means. I already know what it means to do the work. I'm already taking action. That's great. That's great. But I'm gonna ask you, and I'll finish up with asking you a few different questions to challenge your mindset and to challenge you, and that's where we'll wrap it up.

[00:02:54] Chris Furlong: So let's dive in.

[00:02:58] Chris Furlong: What does doing the work mean and how can we remove that overwhelm that Hobbs around it? So I will be clear. Yes. Anything. Takes time and takes effort. Sometimes it'll take a lot of time. Sometimes it will take a lot of effort and sometimes it, you know, it's a mix and match of all that. It might not be a lot of time, but it might be a lot of effort, or it might be not much time, but a lot of effort and it is that simple.

[00:03:21] Chris Furlong: That is, that is the core basics of when we need or want something. There is going to be time and effort that comes into it, but I also understand that's not what you want to hear. That's not why you are here and that's not what you are wanting to get from this. But if we break it down, what is, you know, if we, we strip it back and start to dive into that cliche of doing the work, what does it actually mean?

[00:03:42] Chris Furlong: Well, from my understanding, it means being proactive. It means breaking down big tasks into smaller tasks. It means making progress rather than focusing on the perfection. It's also about continuous improvement. And iterations of evolutions in which we can progress. Now again, there is a little bit of fluff in there.

[00:04:00] Chris Furlong: You're like, this all sounds great, but I'm going to be going through all these different points to help you understand from different perspectives because we all learn differently. We all understand, and we all click in different ways of hearing things. So I'm gonna do my best to help. Make sure that that's gonna be possible in this episode.

[00:04:17] Chris Furlong: Doing the work, it also means being realistic. It means breaking down the process. What does a big dream really entail? Or what does a big goal, or what does a big mission, or what does a big journey really entail? What does it require of me? Now, I've touched a lot on this over a few episodes, ask. Over the last few episodes actually as well when focusing on goals and how to actually achieve your dreams and things like that.

[00:04:39] Chris Furlong: And this is then again, another whole lens of that. It also means when being realistic that understanding what can be the timelines for whatever it is that you're trying to achieve, you know, there is expectation. Or there is expected times in which we create around wanting to make these things happen.

[00:04:56] Chris Furlong: But we also need to be realistic and understand. It's like, you know, will this take 10 years? Will this take five years? Will this take six months? Will it take two weeks? And you have to build that expectation based on the assumption that you are doing the work that you're making, the progress that you're putting in the effort.

[00:05:12] Chris Furlong: Because if you're not doing the effort, then the time will be push. Again, these are very basic linear approaches to, I guess, making progress and how we can view and have an understanding of making progress. And it also assumes that you keep doing things and it also assumes that you are making progress.

[00:05:29] Chris Furlong: And it also assumes that if you are making progress, you'll eventually make it. Now in theory, this is actually true. If you keep doing things and making progress, you will eventually make it. But I'm not here to tell you that you just need to keep grinding. I'm not here to tell you that you just gotta keep hustling, that you just need to keep doing, doing, doing, doing, and you'll get what you want.

[00:05:46] Chris Furlong: I'm here to tell you that yes, you do need to do things, but how do we do this the right way to make it so much easier for. From a mental capacity, but then also with the effort capacity as well. So what I will tell you is this, if you keep making progress, assessing the progress and applying the learnings, then you'll enable momentum.

[00:06:06] Chris Furlong: And what was once hard will become easier. It becomes simpler, and then you can start the process again. And by taking the next step up, like walking up a staircase in which at first it will be hard because you've gotta take that step, but then you'll build that momentum and you're able to then enable your.

[00:06:23] Chris Furlong: to be doing whatever it is. Easier again, and then you can rinse and repeat. Let me give you some examples. Learning a new skill, and I, I actually spoke about this in my recent newsletter. If you haven't checked out my newsletter, there is a link down in the description or you can go to see furlong.com.

[00:06:38] Chris Furlong: But essentially, If you wanna learn how to play the guitar, if you've never played the guitar before, you wanna start learning, right? So the first thing that you're gonna do is you're gonna practice learning. Today. That might be me doing some research, actually getting the guitar, having a bit of a strum, and just figuring out where's what, and what are the chords?

[00:06:54] Chris Furlong: What are the basics? Maybe more terminology. In theory now, you'll do some more practice learning. Tomorrow, or you need to do some more practice learning tomorrow. And then in a few days, maybe you can start to pick up, Hey, I can pa play a couple of different chords. I can play a few chords in a row, or I can start to strum with while playing chords.

[00:07:13] Chris Furlong: And then in a few weeks, maybe you can even start to play a bit of a tune or a bit of a song. And then as you start to progress with that consistent practice and learning, you're able to. Play a whole song without even looking at sheep music or not even thinking about it. And that that is the ability or the power of learning and putting in effort and applying, I guess learning, repetition and going through the whole idea of building that momentum because you don't have to then relearn everything you've already learned up to this point.

[00:07:42] Chris Furlong: So now it's just about how do I learn a little bit more to add. Another example of this is learning is like a train going through a tunnel. Everyone wants the light to be back, like it's dark. You're going through a tunnel, whether it's on a train or in a car. It's dark. I mean, you've got headlights, but if you are going through a tunnel, it's dark, right?

[00:07:58] Chris Furlong: You get the point, and the only way to. Get to the light is to travel through to the other side. Now look, yes, you could go backwards to get it, and a lot of people do this. A lot of us do this. We, we look ahead and we see it's dark. It's scary. I cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. Therefore, I'm not going to embrace that.

[00:08:14] Chris Furlong: I'm not going to embark down that path and. That's not really good because then we never move forward. The only way to get through the tunnel is to go through the tunnel and then you'll get the light. Another example of this could be building fitness. When we first start a, uh, I guess a fitness routine, and again, these are, these are very generalized and, uh, generic in that sense, but it can be very challenging and we may struggle to, you know, complete the exercises that we have to do.

[00:08:41] Chris Furlong: However, as we continue to work out, as we continue to progress, as we continue to build, um, A routine of fitness, meaning we can start to improve our fitness and the exercises become easier. Eventually we can do more reps or we can lift more weight with ease, or you can run further, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:09:00] Chris Furlong: Again, if you're not doing any of the effort, you're not gonna get any progress by doing 10 pushups today, doing 10 pushups tomorrow, 10 pushups the next day, 10 pushups, the. You might be able to start saying, I'm gonna do one pushup now extra. Now I'm gonna do start to do a couple more extra, or they'll become a lot easier to do.

[00:09:16] Chris Furlong: This applies with so many other things, like such as building a business when we first start a business. If you have any relevance to this for myself, you know, I run a reselling business and it can feel challenging and it can feel very overwhelming at the start. We all start from zero. However, as we continue to progress, gain momentum.

[00:09:32] Chris Furlong: Learn the basics of business, how to manage finances, dealing with customers, you know, how do I pose things? How do I source things? How do I sell things? It becomes easier to manage and grow, and eventually we can achieve bigger and better goals. We can set bigger and be better goals, and we can build a sustainable business with a lot more ease.

[00:09:49] Chris Furlong: It also applies to improving our mental health as well. When we first start to work on our mental health, it can be very hard to overcome. Because we don't know what we don't know. However, as we make progress, In, you know, trying to become comfortable or dealing with our emotions or dealing with our stress, or dealing with our mindsets, they can start to change.

[00:10:11] Chris Furlong: And what used to be very hard for us to comprehend or very hard for us to deal with becomes a lot easier to manage stress, for instance, and again, As the more you do it, the easier it potentially becomes. I'm not saying it's going to be easy just straight away. Over time it becomes easier. This is like a broken record episode because I talk about this almost every single episode, but.

[00:10:33] Chris Furlong: Now before you say, oh yes, eventually, eventually you'll get here, eventually get there. And that's why I'm saying I talk about this quite a lot. Um, don't get cynical with me because there's a bit more to this that I wanna dive into, right. There's some, I guess, some Phil philosophical concepts or laws, if you will, which you know, have been around for years in which people referred to and, and people.

[00:10:54] Chris Furlong: I guess based a lot of the theory and how these things work. And I wanna go through these. I've actually done a little bit of research and I've pulled them out so I can read them to you. And there's a whole bunch here. I think I've got four or five, might be a little bit more. Uh, but the first one is the Law of accumulated effort, which states that small, consistent efforts over time will ultimately lead to great results.

[00:11:15] Chris Furlong: This concept is related to the idea of compound interest. If you don't know compound interest, it's when you start to, you know, put in small investments. A period of time that can yield significant returns. And an example of this would be, let's say I invest a hundred dollars today and do nothing with it for 10 years.

[00:11:32] Chris Furlong: And let's say the interest rate is a 5% interest per annual return, meaning every year. So in 10 years, I've put in only a hundred bucks, but I would then have about $65 of interest on top of that. So I would have about $165 after the 10. I mean, it's passive. I didn't do anything. But the difference is when you start to be consistent.

[00:11:53] Chris Furlong: If I invest a hundred dollars a day in each month for the remaining months of that 10 years, with the 5% annual interest, yes, you would've invested $12,000, but you would've also earned $3,593 in interest added to it. So you've actually walked away with around 15,000, um, $693 as you. By that consistency, by adding that consistent routine of putting in a hundred dollars every single month for 10 years, you're gonna get some really good benefits.

[00:12:24] Chris Furlong: The same thing applies to effort and progress. The next law is the law of adaption, which states that as we continue to work on something, our mind and body adapt to the task and it becomes easier to accomplish. This is related to the idea of muscle memory and the process of skill acquisition, and this is why actually batching and getting into.

[00:12:44] Chris Furlong: a place or an environment where you can enable your flow state is so important because all of a sudden you start operating almost like a repetitive machine where you can just do things seamlessly because your body's in the groove. It's like when you start a new routine and you, if you start getting up early in the morning and then.

[00:13:01] Chris Furlong: Eventually you'll be waking it up just before your alarm, cuz your body knows I need to be up at this time. Or it's like when you start to drive a car, when you first start, it's very hard to, you know, change lanes, to change gears or to do multiple things at the same time. But then I'm not saying this is what I do, but.

[00:13:17] Chris Furlong: As you start to progress with driving, you're able to, all of a sudden now you can change gears, you can change indicators. You can turn those steering oil all at the same time while drinking a milkshake or something. Right? It becomes a lot easier. It's muscle memory. Your, your ability to be able to do becomes proficient and just natural.

[00:13:32] Chris Furlong: Another concept or another law is concept of casian. I think I've which is a Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement, also relates to this idea around the importance of small incremental changes over time in order to achieve long-term success. So just re-emphasizing the same things that we've just been talking about.

[00:13:51] Chris Furlong: And lastly, the final philosophy is incrementalism, which is, I guess, the philosophy of change that focuses on making small, incremental improvements rather than trying to make big changes all at once. And this. It talks about the consistent progress over time and that it is more effective than trying to make big changes right away in the consulting industry, we.

[00:14:14] Chris Furlong: Different ways of how we go around deploying things. And sometimes we would do a phased approach where you would do part one, part two, part three. So we're deploying in smaller increments, so less chances of issues, or there's a big bang, uh, deployment where you just do everything all at once. That can be effective for the right time and the right place, but usually doing it in incremental drops, that means you can manage if there is gonna be issues.

[00:14:37] Chris Furlong: Same thing applies with how you're making progress. If you. Lose weight. And I said, ah, yeah, you know, you need to be doing, you know, let's say you need to be doing running. And I say, yeah, if you run a marathon, you'll, you'll learn lose heaps of weight. Right? Well, you probably will. You'll probably also be dehydrated.

[00:14:51] Chris Furlong: You'll probably ruin your muscles and you probably won't actually be able to achieve it because you've gone out and just tried to run 42 kilometers. But if I say build your way up there, the journey to the 42 kilometers, yes, you're gonna lose a lot of weight. You're gonna gain a lot of strength and you're gonna gain a lot of stamina and endurance.

[00:15:05] Chris Furlong: You can see the. So now you understand, I guess, what doing the work essentially means and doing the effort over time. That's exactly what it means. Doing effort over time. So now let's dress a couple of other things. There is no one size fits all situation. Also, I wanna address around why we should be flexible and be open to taking different path and also the importance.

[00:15:28] Chris Furlong: Adapting and being persistent. So achieving our goals, um, will be different for everyone. I've said this numerous times in this episode, but also in so many episodes before this, and you're probably thinking. Or maybe you're thinking, why, why is it different for everyone? Well, it's simple. Really. It's because no one else is like you.

[00:15:48] Chris Furlong: We all have different backgrounds. We all have a different experience. We all have different environments in which we have come from or work in, and we have a whole bunch of different set of skills, lessons, and advantages just naturally. And I've, I've spoken about these before, unfair advantages. . And a good way to look at this is if I'm overweight and I have, let's say I have a, I've always had a digestion problem or something, which limits how I process my food and how I store fat.

[00:16:13] Chris Furlong: And I've never been to the gym before. I've never done a exercise. You know, routine or anything like that, and I want to lose 10 kilos. The process of losing that 10 kilos is going to be very different to the process. Who is someone that has already been going to the gym or has a gym routine, or they're used to actually regulating their weight on a regular basis, meaning because that maybe they've joint competitions or they've lost weight before, and they would then know what is their best dietary.

[00:16:41] Chris Furlong: Right. That is gonna be a completely different, how they go about losing weight compared to someone who's never done it before. Right? So you can't compare, and that is why it's not a one, you know, size fits all situation for everyone. It's important to understand our own situation and then tailor our approach to our own unique situation.

[00:16:59] Chris Furlong: Because we're different. We are built differently, we have different ideas, we have different skills, and we have the ability to perform differently compared to everyone. It's also important to remember that our goals and our priorities change over time, which is to my next point is why we should be flexible and be open to taking different paths to achieving our goals as there is not always a clear path to take.

[00:17:22] Chris Furlong: Now, sometimes we need to go out and discover. Sometimes we need to go out and learn. We need to experience and and actually figure out what it is that we want. And I know that is frustrating to hear and I know it's what a lot of people say, oh, you just need to go. Get some experience and and explore. But hear here and I'll explain in a bit more better understanding of my own experience of why this is so important and it's easier to digest this in a hindsight perspective, but I'm trying to give you that example so you can understand.

[00:17:50] Chris Furlong: It's okay. So when I was aiming to finish university, um, I didn't really have any particular jobs I was aiming for. I didn't, you know, say I wanna work at this company, but I figured, cuz I knew that I was going to have two work placements during my university stint. I would leverage one of those to get a job, to land a job.

[00:18:07] Chris Furlong: And I did. I actually landed a job out of one of them. The other ones didn't make me an offer. The first one did, and that's where I decided to go. Very loyal to that. But you know, it worked out in my favor. Now, I didn't have any set expectations of that job, what I would be doing. You know, I was obviously, I was, you know, keen to get in there cuz that's what I had signed up to do.

[00:18:23] Chris Furlong: I signed the contract and all that jazz. But you know what it actually entails, I had no idea because I'd never worked there in. The same capacity of going in as a graduate. I'd only done a little bit of industry based learning, which was for about six, actually it might have been 20 weeks or six weeks. I can't remember.

[00:18:38] Chris Furlong: I think it was 20 weeks. But regardless when I joined that company, uh, it was a consulting firm and I started working as a graduate, of course, and I started in a technical space. Um, and I was doing a de, I was working with a deployment management team and we were doing it. An internet services company essentially helping deploy updates in a small configuration piece of databases that needed to push data out to the internet service to tell where, um, which products are actually basically being provided to that customer segment.

[00:19:13] Chris Furlong: Quite technical. Yes. And we were just doing the backend part of that. I then, after a while I rotated into doing a business analyst kind of role and I was helping create a, a bunch of different frameworks. Around. And actually they'll also design documents as well for superannuation. So superhero in Australia and also around the liquidation of people's estates when they, when they were to pass.

[00:19:36] Chris Furlong: Uh, so that's completely different too that, that technical side of things when it came to internet services. Now, after doing that for a while, I then, uh, rotated into a role of project management officer. Now, this was more of a junior officer. Think about. You know, I was doing basically helping people roll onto a project.

[00:19:54] Chris Furlong: I was, you know, in charge of getting people onboarded to the project and I was helping those, you know, that team get set up and ready to, you know, go do their job on that project. Now, while doing that, I also. I took on a bit of a side quest. I'd been doing it for a while, and my lead suggested that maybe I needed some additional experience.

[00:20:12] Chris Furlong: I needed to spread my wings a little bit, and he pushed me into a role. When I say push, he did, he gave me that friendly push and said, no, you're, you're able to do this. It will be different. You'll be a little bit uncomfortable, but it'll stretch you and help you grow, hence being the additional experience.

[00:20:25] Chris Furlong: Now, I worked as a D B T rotator analyst, and what that means is a design build tester, uh, for a small reporting applic. Um, and we were doing custom reporting for clients. That was completely different again, and I did some, you know, long stint and long hours doing that. Now, after I did that, I did that for about six months I think it is.

[00:20:45] Chris Furlong: I then had the opportunity to either continue more in that space, technical side of things, or I could come back and do more of project management stuff or pmo. And I was then offered to either come back and lead that role, what I was previously doing, like actually come back, not as just the analyst, but come back as the.

[00:21:00] Chris Furlong: which is what I did. And then eventually I became the manager not too long afterwards. So I went from doing routine tasks of rolling on team members to a project to then managing resource plans of utilization of their time. I then did the, the separate stint, um, of where I was, you know, doing that design, build testing and a bit of a side quest.

[00:21:17] Chris Furlong: And then I came back to eventually, you know, in, in short, this is over a span of all of this is over the span of seven years, but I then came back to eventually. Becoming the lead and the manager of that project management office team, um, and managing a portfolio of project resources and project budgets, which ranged anywhere between 2,000,050 4 million and with a combined total of over $105 million in portfolio costs.

[00:21:45] Chris Furlong: So this all happened over seven years. Right. It didn't happen overnight. It didn't happen straight away. It took time. I didn't necessarily know that's where I was gonna end up. And now that became my bread and butter and I spent majority of my time in that field of project management. But you gotta understand, and thus, this is my point.

[00:22:01] Chris Furlong: This is a reminder that it's not always a straight line, but it's also important to adapt and be persistent because I knew I wanted to be manager, or I knew I wanted to. You know, working five to seven years here, I knew I wanted to trial this, or I knew I wanted to be earning this much. I had some backend goals, but I wasn't really sure what it was looking like or how it was gonna look like in getting there and look, to be honest, there was a few times there where it felt like it was just a mundane routine waste of time.

[00:22:27] Chris Furlong: Um, doing always the same things, but at the same time, I also did some really long nights. I did some 12 hour days. I did 60 hour, 60 hour weeks at some point. But at the same time, I also learned so much. I got to travel, you know, to different, uh, countries to do some training, um, in India and Malaysia and all these different places.

[00:22:44] Chris Furlong: And I got some really, really good experience and I learned and met so many people. But every so often I would pause and I would look back and think, hang. I'm no longer the guy, you know, taking directions. I'm the other one. Leading a team, setting the deadlines, coordinating with stakeholders, and managing the money.

[00:23:02] Chris Furlong: And when I clicked at that, when I actually zoomed out and think, huh, it all just happen. It felt like that. It took seven years. Um, and then obviously after that I stepped away for a two year sabbatical and took a chance on myself doing this podcast, building my business. And here we are two years later and I resigned.

[00:23:19] Chris Furlong: But the point is that, you know, things happen over time. Sometimes it will be quick, sometimes it will feel like a breeze. And sometimes it won't. Regardless, you need to be willing to adapt and adjust as needed to discover, to learn, and to become a better version of yourself. So there are some great analogies of this, and one of my favorite ones, of course, it's easy for me to refer to is the marathon analogy.

[00:23:42] Chris Furlong: You know, achieving our goals is like running, running a marathon. It takes consistent effort and training over a long period of time to cross the finish line. The key is to focus on putting on the work. Putting in the work every day rather than trying to run, I guess an entire marathon in one day. Maybe a different analogy that's a bit more relevant or not always running related is a gardening analogy.

[00:24:05] Chris Furlong: We're, you know, achieving our goals is like growing a garden or a veggie patch. It takes time, patience, and consistent effort to cultivate and to care for it. We have to monitor it. We have to, you know, get rid of the pests. We have to manage disease. You have to. Be mindful of what you're planting, seasonal and all that jazz, but just like a garden, our goals require re regular attention in, in order for them to grow and to flourish.

[00:24:29] Chris Furlong: There is also a building analogy. Achieving our goals is like building house or building a complex or building a tower. It takes time. Effort and resources to construct it. Every brick laid or every step taken is a step forward. And the keys, you have to keep laying the bricks and not giving up because if you stop, it's never going to get built.

[00:24:47] Chris Furlong: And then another analogy is the bamboo analogy, and this one is, again, growing bamboo takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of patience, it takes a lot of effort, and it takes years to break through the surface of the ground and grow. However, once the bamboo shoots through the surface, , it can grow rapidly and then it gets that snowball effect and it starts to just move very quickly.

[00:25:06] Chris Furlong: In terms of growing, and again, this represents the idea of progress is not always linear and it you have to take small steps first, be consistent to get those big results, and things start to move a lot quicker. And then the final analogy is the oak tree analogy. Now, Again, I'm, I'm reading these, I've done a bit of research and they're just really good analogies that are relevant to this conversation.

[00:25:26] Chris Furlong: An oak tree is a symbol of strength and persistence because they're big, strong, and bold, and again, it starts so small from an acorn way back when, and over time, with the right conditions and with the right environment, it grows into a powerful tree. Again, this is a reminder that our goals take time and effort to grow, but with patience, persistence, we can also achieve great things.

[00:25:50] Chris Furlong: if you are here and you're like, that's great, Chris. I've heard all this before. I've got all this in the bag. I, I've got it all figured out. I know what I'm doing. Thanks for the pep talk, but don't need it. Well, I've got three questions for you to challenge you. And look, this is relevant to anyone, but it's also just to make sure that we're keeping ourselves honest and keeping ourselves in, in, in, in check.

[00:26:10] Chris Furlong: And here are the three questions and you should ask yourself this one, what have I been doing that is getting me closer to where I. two, what have I been doing that is a distraction, but still need to be done, not relevant to your current required actions to get you to where you want to be. And question three is, what haven't I done that I should have done?

[00:26:32] Chris Furlong: Now, I want you to take those and reflect in your rear view mirror over the last week, over the last month, over the last six months, over the last year. What have I been doing that is getting me closer to where I wanna be? What have I been doing that is a distrac? Like a side quest and what haven't I been doing that I should have been doing?

[00:26:52] Chris Furlong: So I leave it to you. This is your chance to take action. This is your chance to now take the ball, put it in your side of the core and hit it where it needs to go. You need start small. You need to start small with building some consistency. Get comfortable with that consistency. Get into a groove and. a little bit easier when you have motivation for it.

[00:27:14] Chris Furlong: And what I mean by that, if you want something and you're enjoying it, it's gonna make it a little bit easier. I would also encourage you to monitor the progress. So track your time or reflect on a regular basis. Check your numbers, compare your previous periods, understand how that progress is happening.

[00:27:29] Chris Furlong: And then once things start to become a little bit easier and you can start to realize, I've got this, I can do this. This is when you can start to see where can I now start to. What can I take more on of? What can I change? How can I bring this in? How can I level it up a little bit? Maybe I can do five more things rather than doing, uh, just five things.

[00:27:48] Chris Furlong: Maybe you can do 10 things, or whether it's building up in your reps in the gym. Maybe it's your distance in running. Maybe it's how many things are you doing for the business? Can you sell more products? Can you call more people? Can you get more? There's so many ways you can play at this. It all comes back down to you.

[00:28:03] Chris Furlong: Now, once you've done that, you've started small, you've been consistent, you've found a way that you can enjoy it and get some motivation from it. Uh, you've gotten a groove of monitoring the progress, and now things are starting to become easier. You then rinse and repeat this. That's all you gotta do. And there's a, a really good quote from Abraham Lincoln that says The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a.

[00:28:28] Chris Furlong: and each day is that chance to, whether it's starting from zero or just giving you a chance to kind of reflect, refresh, and just get back out there and give it a better shot. You know, every day isn't going to be the same. Every day is going to have its chall challenges, own set of challenges, and it's how you play that out.

[00:28:45] Chris Furlong: You know, you can take it on the chin and you can move forward or you can, so around if things don't go as planned or you can adjust or you can adapt or you can walk back. You can digress or you can move forward and progress really comes up to you . I mean, I hate to brag it to you, but it is, it's all on you.

[00:29:04] Chris Furlong: Uh, but I am here to have that conversation with you and to help you understand that there's so many different ways that we can look at this. So many different understandings and I guess laws or philosophies that we can apply ourselves to or take a parallel from to help us understand. There is no secret source to this.

[00:29:21] Chris Furlong: You know, if you want something, it is showing up and getting it done. You know, if you need to finish your assignment for university and it's due in a week's time, you've got a week to do work. You can either do it all the night before, or you can schedule some time in advance and chunk it out into pieces and get it done.

[00:29:37] Chris Furlong: That way you can get into a flow state and batch it up so you know that you're only spending two hours of that day doing it, and that's that focus time on it. And then you can break it up over five or seven. . There is no secret sauce to this. There's just different ways of how we go about it, and there's easier ways of how we can go about it.

[00:29:55] Chris Furlong: But again, you still have to do the work. Really do appreciate you being here. If you do have questions, comments, thoughts about this episode, more than happy to continue the conversation. We are on YouTube. You can drop a comment, you can hit subscribe, and make sure you stay up to date to these episodes.

[00:30:10] Chris Furlong: Uh, if you're listening, it's on Spotify, it's on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, and plenty of other great places. Make sure you are following. Make sure you do subscribe, and if you do enjoy these conversations, if you do enjoy these, uh, I would really appreciate if you could do two things for me, and that is leave a review if there's a rating, or you can leave a review, do that.

[00:30:29] Chris Furlong: That would absolutely mean the world to me and be honest, be honest. And the second thing that you can do is if you think this episode could resonate with someone else. Give it a share, send them a link and tell 'em to go check it out, to have a listen or maybe just send them a, a, you know, a timestamp of this episode of where it makes sense for them to go and listen and see if they can make a change to help further their life.

[00:30:52] Chris Furlong: Again, appreciate you being here. You have a wonderful day. Cheers.