Speaker 1: 0:00

Yo yo yo. Welcome back to the Further your Lifestyle podcast conversations on lifestyle passions and hustles. My name's Chris, I am your host and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you. Episode 174 today, and the topic is this the greatest opportunity you have in your life. This is really important stuff, right, and for me, this holds dear to my heart. Simply, it's probably been a common thread over the last couple of weeks. As we get into this episode, you'll understand how it does relate to the last couple of episodes.

Speaker 1: 0:30

Today holds so much potential and importance on you doing what you want to do, on ensuring that you're taking the steps in the right direction, but also just becoming a better version of yourself. See, the beauty of today is we actually own it. We can take control of it. No, not everything will be perfect, right, I get that there's a lot of things outside of our control, but today is what we can manage. Today is what we can handle. We can't do anything about tomorrow, but if we do stuff today, it can influence tomorrow. Right, we can also learn from the past to influence today so that we can then make tomorrow better. We'll get into all that. So we're going to roll the intro in a second, but please get cozy. If you do have any questions or comments, you can chuck them down below as well. If you're here on the YouTube and, of course, if this episode resonates with you, please send it to someone, share it with someone or maybe you just enjoyed it. Hit the like button, hit subscribe and follow along. Really, do appreciate you being here.

Speaker 1: 1:27

Let's roll the intro and let's get into it. So the first thing I will ask you is what will you do today? That is the first topic that we need to break down when it comes into. The greatest opportunity of your life is today. You'll never have today again. We can dive into the whole guilt tripping of if you don't do this today, then you're not going to get ahead. I'm not here to say that. You probably feel that way, but you can do what you want with your life.

Speaker 1: 2:00

My goal is really to help people further their lifestyle. So I want to provide information, I want to provide insight and I want to provide you the understanding and the importance of why today is so important to help you further your lifestyle, right? So the first thing we can dive into is the importance of planning and setting intentions for the day. Do you know what you want to do today? Do you have a plan? Do you have a goal? Do you know what you want to be doing tomorrow?

Speaker 1: 2:26

I'm not saying that you should be setting out down to the dot in routine, but for me personally, I like to follow a bit of a routine, so I've got something to fall back onto. It keeps me grounded, it keeps me focused and it keeps me on track. I know what I need to be doing, I know when I want to be doing it, but sometimes I know those things don't necessarily go as planned. Now I work for myself, so it does make that a lot easier to do. When you work for someone else, maybe you don't have all those abilities to be able to slot things in where you want them. However, by planning you can become prepared and you can set really clear intentions for the day, and I think that's how you can actually start to win.

Speaker 1: 3:03

The day is when you do take the time to prioritize tasks and make each moment so make the most of each moment that you have. So, for instance, I've spent the first couple of hours this morning well. Since doing my run, I've been doing content. I usually spend these next couple of hours or an hour or two recording content in advance. That gets me ahead two, three, four, five I think at the time of me filming this one, which is the 30th of June. This doesn't come out till and I said this last week this doesn't come out till the 11th of August. So I'm already almost a month and a half ahead because I'm doing something today that enables me to get ahead and then I'm able to focus on doing other things through the week and I don't have to worry about getting this ready, because it's already going to be ready so far in advance, right. And it buys me time back. That's essentially by spending a few extra hours today. You can do this with food preparation. You can do this with exercise.

Speaker 1: 4:00

We spoke about this in one of those episodes just the other day where you can either take the tough decision today, so you don't have to do the hard work later, or you can make the easy decision today, but you're going to have to do the hard work later, right? So if it means eating five donuts, you're going to have to work a little bit harder to get that off, but if you just have the one donut, maybe you don't have to work as hard a little bit later. Those are the types of concepts and the understandings that I'm really trying to help people understand of what will you do today, right? So what will you do today that is going to lead to a better outcome of today, but also, potentially, some better outcomes for the rest of the week, for the rest of the month, maybe even for the rest of the year? Setting in practices, routines, schedules, processes, things that are going to make your life a little bit easier. What can you do today about that? So that's part number one.

Speaker 1: 4:48

Part number two is how will you treat yourself today? And I think there's a huge, significant point that we tend and I do this, I'm talking to myself right here there is a huge, really significant point about having self-care and looking after ourselves and maintaining our wellbeing. This can be mentally, physically, emotionally, all these different ways. Right, we have needs. Right, you need to make sure you're addressing these needs. How can you start to focus on doing so much big things and trying to plan for yourself for tomorrow if you can't even get today all sorted out? So I think the best way to do that is making sure you are looking after yourself, can you bring in some self-care practices, can you bring in some daily routines. That's going to enable you to highlight bringing this into your life. So for me it might be whether it's going for a run, that helps me mentally. It also helps me physically. But putting in place those time blocks or those times where you can spend time with loved ones, spend time with yourself or play some video games or work on some hobbies or read a book, go out for a jog, go to the gym, work on learning a new skill, just being able to do what you enjoy.

Speaker 1: 5:57

I talk about. I actually I don't think we talk. I think it's actually the next episode. We talk about the difference between needs and musts. I think it's actually the next episode. We talk about the difference between needs and musts and sometimes we feel like we need to do all these things because that is what the society is putting pressure on and I won't get into too much detail because it is next week's episode. The things we must be doing is actually ensuring that we're looking after ourselves, doing what we want to do.

Speaker 1: 6:20

And I'm not saying you should be selfish and don't care about anyone else. What I'm saying is you need to learn to look after yourself so that you can bring out the best version of yourself, because if you're not comfortable, if you're not feeling it, if you're not loving yourself, how can you go out and make the day the best day possible, right? Does this make sense? I think. To me it is clear as day now, because I used to be so focused on making sure I'm meeting the needs of others, or people's expectations or society norms, that I forgot to check myself at the door and say, hey, how am I doing? Have I done this for a while? Oh, I haven't done that. So put in those boundaries, Put in those things. That's going to enable you to be successful, enable you to win the day right, enable you to be successful, enable you to win the day right, because if you're not looking after yourself again, how can you expect that you're going to be able to take control of the day? The next one is what about the things you want? And there's a quote from CS Lewis that says you're never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. I think this is a really short point, right, it's.

Speaker 1: 7:24

Sometimes we get so focused on things Someone else's dream, someone else's idea. So for me, I document my journey reselling on eBay and I remember when I started I used to watch other people's content and I used to get the thrill and the excitement from watching them because I would feel like I'm experiencing what they're experiencing, whether it's entertainment. But I feel like, oh, we're going to go in here, we're going to find this. Oh, we've sold it together. We've made this much money. I haven't got any money.

Speaker 1: 7:50

The person's done the work right, but you get the thrill of it and you get stuck on someone else's dream. So then you want to go apply and think, oh, I can do this, I want to go do that, he does it this way, she does it that way, I'm going to go do it. And then you realize that there's this separation of you're not meeting the same expectation or you're not getting the same results, but you're not really that passionate about it. But you think you are because you get passionate, you get excited when you get to watch that and consume that content. My point is here make sure you're setting your own goals and the things that you want to do. It's okay to be inspired. It's okay to learn from others and seek how they're doing things, but find what it is that you want the things that you want and start to work towards them. Dream big, set big goals, be ambitious that's fine and make sure, with the power of what you're doing today and looking after yourself, you can start to bring focus of success of the things that you want. And we'll talk a bit more about this as we progress into some of the other areas of today's topic.

Speaker 1: 8:52

But I just wanted to bring that out because I think sometimes we get lost in translation of what is what we want versus what we think we want, versus what maybe others have projected onto us that we haven't realized that's not really what we want. So the next one is how will you interact with others today? And this comes back to today right, everything that we're doing. So, before I get into that, what are the things that you want to do today that are going to get you to where you want to be? Right? That's really what I was trying to say there. So the next point is how do you interact with others?

Speaker 1: 9:22

People have such a huge influence on our lives we don't even realize it. There is that statement or saying that when we surround ourselves with people, we are a version of them. For instance, if I surround myself around five people, I'm getting a version of them, a version of them, a version of them, and I'm then bringing out five different components of someone right, and that can be good or bad. So we need to make sure in your day life, what you're doing today, because today is your greatest opportunity what are the relationships and the influence and the positivity that's coming into your life, but also what's the negativity, what are the things that are coming into your life in the day from other people that's bringing you down? I think we need to be very strict in handling that and sometimes it's hard to see it, but when you start to dig into it, you can start to see oh, I spent all my time with this person and then when I go into the new week, I've changed my perspective, maybe good or for the better or for the worse. So you need to start to be self-aware of these things and maybe you realize, maybe because that person's influence or the way they've been talking gets you fired up or gets you passionate about something which maybe you didn't realize you were. But are they your thoughts or that's just you taking hold of it. So I'm not here to say that you should make a list of all your friends and decide who's worthy or not. What I'm trying to say is it's good to be self-aware of these things, because who you're interacting with will play a big part and influence in your life, especially if you're a follower.

Speaker 1: 10:50

If you're a leader, the same thing you have a responsibility in which what is the influence that you're putting upon other people's lives? So, when it comes to this, I think we need to think about a couple of different strategies. How do we communicate with others? What kind of empathy are we showing? How are we building strong connections? What positivity are we bringing to conversations or into relationships? But also, what negativity are we bringing as well? This works both ways. If you're going out and you're being very negative to other people, that's the influence you're putting and that's what you're putting into today. Right, that potentially could come back and bite you in the butt, because we don't necessarily understand what everyone's going through, and that's why it's very important to build this effective communication way of how we conversate with people, making sure we do have a level of empathy to understand where people are coming from, so we can understand, maybe, what it's like being in their shoes, and then we can build that strong connection.

Speaker 1: 11:45

For me, I'm always about making sure that I do have the right people in my life. I wouldn't say that I have a strong, like a large amount of people in my life that are close and deep, and I do have. I've got all my subscribers, I've got all my followers, I've got all my listeners, which is you. I do have some online friends as well that I've never actually met in person, but we interact on a very regular basis. But then I have my close friends that are close to me, and then, of course, I've got Carla, then I've got family, and you do want to pick who you want in your life, but understand why, right, and I'm not saying that should be the only people. You can bring more or less people over time but I think we underestimate how the power of interactions and influence of other people can make a difference in your life, or how we can make a difference in someone else's life and, at the end of the day, what you're consuming your day with is what's going to be basically an output of your day after or of your days.

Speaker 1: 12:40

The next one I want to ask you is what will win the day? Is it going to be you or the day Now? This is like a concept of mindset of how your daily success is influenced, and it comes back to the things we've been talking about with how we're interacting with people. Are giving ourselves permission to be successful? Are we looking after ourselves? Are we doing things that's going to enable us to actually make the steps forward and look? A lot of this comes down to experience. When we do something Like, for instance, if you touch a hot stove, you're going to know not to touch that hot stove again the next time. You're going to be cautious around it. So we learn very quickly.

Speaker 1: 13:18

But I think, as I've progressed through life, and especially since taking a chance on myself and trying to become a better version of myself, but also building a business now having team and interacting with other people and also having a level of influence on other people, I think for me to, in order to be bringing out the best possible opportunity in a day, is I need to bring this approach of positive thinking, a level of resilience, but being willing to overcome challenges. Now, I've said it before, probably a hundred times on this, like I'm a routine junkie. I like to have things in a flow and a way that enable me to make the success a little bit easier, because I know if I do this here, it's going to be easier to do the success a little bit easier, because I know if I do this here it's going to be easier to do so. If I do it then I'll get it done and that way it helps me win the day quickly.

Speaker 1: 14:07

If you're going through a period of time where you have to do more out of your comfort zone to enable you to grow, to get ahead, to win the day and to start to bring in that level of success that you want to see, you need to make the work that is hard as easy as possible to do. For instance, people that want to go to the gym and they hate going. That confuses me, because maybe you don't understand why you're going to the gym. But if you're wanting to go to the gym and you're struggling with motivation and you're not being able to understand how to get through that, what are the friction points that are holding you back from being successful and going to the gym? Is it the early mornings? Maybe you just don't do early mornings, maybe you're going to be a night owl in the gym, maybe you need to do your gym work at night, and those little things will make a huge difference in enabling you to actually win the day or not.

Speaker 1: 14:56

And the point is, you want to take control of the day and there is always going to be that big frog or that big thing that you know is the worst thing you want to do for the day. It's the hardest thing, the struggle, it's got the most friction points, but if you can conquer that, everything else seems to just run smoothly. And that's really what I'm talking about of how can you win the day and don't let the day win you. So how do you bring that into your life? What do you do to make that happen? The next one is what is the one thing today to keep your thing in flow, or what's one thing you can do today to keep your one thing in flow? And look, this comes back to another common thread that we talk about all the time If you want to further your lifestyle, there is always going to be one thing you can do today that's going to enable the thing that you need to be doing for the week, for the month, for the year, for the years, to get you to where your North Star is, or your bigger goals, dreams, ambitions. Now, I know I speak that like it's so cliche and so easy to say, but the reality is the time will pass anyway. We've spoken about this last week, I believe it was.

Speaker 1: 15:58

So you're better off just making sure you're putting in the reps and being consistent with it, right? Staying focused and maintaining momentum is the key thing here. What is the one thing that you can do to get ahead? If it's selling on eBay because I know a lot of you listen who are selling on eBay then what have you put on eBay today that is going to sell, right? Have you done anything to ensure that you're going to get sales today? You want to lose weight. Have you done anything today that's going to aid in helping you lose weight? You want to get a promotion at work. What have you done today to ensure that you're going to be your 100% best at work tomorrow, so that you can show up and show that you're more than capable of getting that promotion at work? All these different things. They all add up. They all add up.

Speaker 1: 16:42

Now I'm not here to say that I've got it figured out? 100% don't, but I think it's really important that we identify, we prioritize those important tasks and activities for the day that are quick wins, that are going to enable us to continue to build that momentum right. And it might mean getting into a flow state, it might mean avoiding distractions, it might just mean making sure that you've got accountability partner to get you in action. But a lot of the time to the last point that I said is you. It's because we make things hard that we struggle to get these things done, making me a little bit easier so that we can remove the friction, so that you can get rolling, and then it's like a snowball from there. So what are you going to do today that is going to help you get closer to your one thing? You do that one thing today and again you can win the day. All right.

Speaker 1: 17:28

So the next one is and actually comes from it stems from a quote from Steve Jobs, which is your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. It's just a common thread again, right? If not today, then when we all have this tendency to procrastinate and it's so important that we understand that. Figure out where we struggle and what our weakness is with those tendencies to procrastinate. How do we conquer them and how do we take better action? And I know I talk about action, but no action, inaction isn't going to get you the results unless you're trying to re-rest and recover and slow down. Okay, it's really important that you understand that Now.

Speaker 1: 18:10

For me, I need to do my listings in the morning for eBay because I know that after 11 o'clock it becomes a battle. I get distracted, I can't stay focused, just can't get it done Not easily. Anyway. I can do my focused, just can't get it done Not easily. Anyway, I can do my listings in the morning, send them live very quick, but after 11 o'clock it is just a battle. So it's super key that I do them at a certain time and I could say I'll do it tomorrow, I'll do it tomorrow.

Speaker 1: 18:36

I'm not talking about listings now, I'm talking about other things and you keep putting it off. That's not going to help you. Let's say something's going to take 20 minutes to get done, but we start to do it. We get distracted, so we go do something else and then it turns out it's taken two hours to do. If we had just sucked it up, removed the distractions, ensured that we were going to be set up for success. Did the 20 minutes worth of work we could just be done and dusted with it right?

Speaker 1: 19:02

Stop putting off things that you can do today. If something's going to take you 10, 15 minutes and you've got the time to do it and it's going to get you towards where you want to be, then do it and stop doing things that are not for you. I understand if you're working a job and you have to work overtime and that's all part of your bigger plan. I get it. But there's some things which we do because we're doing it to please others or to meet other people's unstated expectations, or their pressures of statements or their pressures of expectations, and we get so muddled up in all these. Oh, we need to be doing this because that person's doing it. Why, why? Stop living someone else's life? I'm not need to be doing this because that person's doing it. Why, why? Stop living someone else's life? Right, I'm not going to get onto this anymore, and the reason why I brought this up about Steve Jobs, to be honest, is he did this amazing speech and it was how, at the time, it was when he was diagnosed with cancer and it changed his perspective on life. He realized that life is short and he wanted to urge the graduates to live their own lives fully, making the most of each day, which is the whole topic of this episode.

Speaker 1: 20:06

Don't let it come to those life-changing moments for you to realize that you should take control of your life. Today is that day. We've discussed a lot, there's a lot here. I get worked up with this, but I want to make sure that you understand the importance of when we seize the opportunities, when we take back control, when we actually have this self-awareness of what are we doing and why are we doing it, we can really start to live fully and intentionally and make your day full of success. I'm not saying they're going to be perfect. Success is not perfect and there's a great quote from Mother Teresa Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not come. We only have today. Let us begin. That's true. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow we don't know, but today we do.

Speaker 1: 20:53

So if you only had today to get you to where you wanted to be, what are you going to do about it? I'm not saying go live a reckless life and party till the sun comes up or the sun goes down, but really just understand what it is you're trying to do. Take a moment, breathe back, pull back, just breathe, rest and take a day even and just figure out what it is, what you want, what you're doing, why you're doing it, where are you going, where are you headed, what does it look like? What are you thinking about? Why do you want that? All these different questions, all these different questions. It will change your perspective. If you can intentionally and tangibly do this, it will help you further your lifestyle.

Speaker 1: 21:39

Really, do appreciate being here. If this resonates with you, again, please share it with someone else. Drop a question, a comment If you want to continue the conversation, more than happy to do. Really, do enjoy having these conversations with you. I like to hear the interaction with people. I love getting comments where saying, oh, I'm going to go try this or this really worked for me. Thank you for sharing this episode because it means that I'm hitting the stuff that's relevant to our lives and my goal is to help you further your lifestyle. But I can only share what I know to where I've come in my own journey. I can't share you about stuff I haven't done yet right, so maybe you've got some experience or some wisdom that you can share, please drop it down below. Appreciate you being here. You have a wonderful day, cheers.