Good Life Project - How to Accomplish Big Things | The 2022 Plan

Episode Date: January 3, 2022

Is there something big that you would love to accomplish in this new year? Something maybe you've been thinking about for a while, something maybe you have tried to figure out, try to succeed at tried to accomplish in the past, maybe something that was a new year's resolution in the past, though, it doesn't necessarily have to be. We live in different times and, very often that affects what we want to accomplish. And this thing that to you is big, it doesn't have to be big to anyone else. It can be something internally. It can be so as important to you as learning how to get really comfortable in social situations, it can be something external, like running a 10k it can be something like finding a new job, or something that is just really deeply personal, like writing a book or pretty using a podcast, whatever it may be.Is there something big that as you step into this new world, you would love to make happen this year, but really can't wrap your head around how to make it happen? Well, if that's you, then this entire episode is going to help you a ton. I'm going to walk you through what I call my Success Scaffolding, introducing you to the eight elements. I call them the eight Ps and each one of these is critical to succeeding at anything that is not sort of, you know, accomplished in the blink of an eye. Anything substantial, anything that will take effort that is sustained over a longer window of time, anything where the stakes are higher and really deeply meaningful to you, anything where maybe you have tried in the past and just it hasn't worked for so many different reasons. What I'm about to share with you may also explain exactly why past attempts have not gotten you to where you wanna be, and also give you a really powerful step-by-step framework to accomplish anything big in nearly any context, any part of your life. That is what I'm going to walk you through today. Success Scaffolding, the eight Ps, and how to accomplish anything really big. So excited to share this framework with you.You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKED.Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So question for you, is there something big that you would love to accomplish in this new year? Something maybe you've been thinking about for a while, something maybe you have tried to figure out, tried to succeed at, tried to accomplish in the past. Maybe something that was a new year's resolution in the past, though it doesn't necessarily have to be. We live in different times and very often that affects what we want to accomplish. And this thing that to you is big, it doesn't have to be big to anyone else. It can be something internal. It can be something as important to you as learning how to get really comfortable in social situations. It can be something external, like running a 10K. It can be something like finding a new job. It can be something that is

just really deeply personal, like writing a book or producing a podcast, whatever it may be. Is there something big that as you step into this new world, you would love to make happen this year, but really can't wrap your head around how to make it happen. Well, if that's you, then this entire episode is going to help you a ton. I'm going to walk you through what I call my success scaffolding, introducing you to the eight elements. I call them the eight P's as in the letter P. And each one of these is critical to succeeding at anything that is not sort of, you know, accomplished in the blink of an eye, anything substantial, anything that will take effort that is sustained over a longer window of time, anything where the stakes are higher and really deeply meaningful to you, anything where maybe you have tried in the past and just it

hasn't worked for so many different reasons, what I'm about to share with you may also explain exactly why past attempts have not gotten you to where you want to be and also give you a really powerful step-by-step framework to accomplish anything big in nearly any context, any part of your life. That is what I'm going to walk you through today. Success scaffolding, the eight Ps and how to accomplish anything really big. So excited to share this framework with you. I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever.

It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised.

The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were gonna be fun. January 24th. Tell back and we are diving in. This is super exciting. Now there tends to be this sort of energy that captures us. It captivates us in the beginning of every year. We get all motivated and excited. And there's the quote, new year, new you thing that goes on all around us. And we sign up for gym memberships and we commit to this and we commit to that. And we're going to make big things happen finally. And then, and then life happens and it kind of gets in the way. And if the last two years have been any example of how life can get in the way, how unexpected things can drop into our paths and completely rewire the totality of our experience, let alone our desire to accomplish anything that is deeply meaningful to us, to put us into a situation where all sorts of things come

our way that we didn't see coming, we didn't expect, there was no way we could anticipate. And yet we have to respond to them because this is our life. And not all of them are bad, by the way. Some of them are fantastic. Some of them are not great, but whatever it is, life happens around us. And life has happened at scale and complexity in a way that many of us have not seen in decades, in the last two years. And that has derailed a lot of plans. It's derailed a lot of quests to accomplish things that are deeply meaningful to us. For some of us, it's actually inspired entire new aspirations and quests and mega visions and goals. But even those, once we start to set them at times like this, where everything is changing in the blink of an eye, if we don't understand how to set ourselves up for success, to accomplish the big, deeply meaningful things in life,

especially not in a vacuum, not in a laboratory, but in the real world where things change all the time, then we sort of lock ourselves into a cycle of wanting things to change, wanting big things to happen, seeking, and even investing effort, and then somehow consistently coming up partly there, halfway there, quarter of the way there, entirely failing at the quest, or getting really, really close, and then not quite landing where we want to land. So what I want to share with you today is a really powerful framework I call success scaffolding. I developed it years ago, and every year I tweak it a little bit based on my own experience

of stepping into my life, stepping into the world, sharing it with other people, and getting feedback on how to keep refining it. It is a framework that is built around a lot of science, a lot of social dynamics, a lot of human behavior, a lot of goal achievement, and a lot of laboratory work, and a lot of lived experience and experimentation in the real world. And it is a structure, it is a framework that will equip you with what you need to set that thing that you want to accomplish and know that you actually have what you need in place so that pretty much no matter how you change, no matter how the world changes around you,

your likelihood of succeeding, your ability to respond to any changes in circumstance, internal or external, goes up dramatically. And your likelihood of actually doing that thing, getting what you want, goes up dramatically. So I'm going to walk you through the entirety of this framework. But before we do that, I want to let you know, you're welcome to take notes. You may want to listen to this two or three times. In fact, you may want to just listen to it for the first time, just once through, just so you can get your head around the entire framework. Just kind of listen.

And then a second time, listen and then pause and then do each step in real time as you're listening. All of the eight elements. And it may take you some time to work through all of them because I'm going to ask you to do some work before you even start to take the first step into the thing that you want to accomplish. And that, by the way, is the very thing

that dramatically increases the likelihood that when you take that first step, you will be so much more successful. And one last thought here. You don't have to take notes along the way because I am going to give you a one page heat map or flow chart, a mind map, I guess would be the most accurate description, visual mind map of the entirety of all of the success scaffolding, all of the eight elements and all of the sub elements, all in a single visual page that you'll be able to see.

So you'll be able to actually click the link in the show notes and then be able to download that one page PDF. So you can look at it, you can print it out, you can use it as a guide when you're doing this yourself. So you don't have to worry about taking notes along the way. I'm going to give you a one-page PDF that mind maps everything that I'm sharing with you today. So just settle in, find a cozy place, listen through once just so you can get the whole framework.

And then when you're ready to start doing the work, then listen through again and you can listen to an element, then pause and then do the work. Listen to the next element, then pause and then do the work, then listen through again, and you can listen to an element, then pause, and then do the work. Listen to the next element, then pause, and then do the work. So let's dive in. So success scaffolding is made up of these eight different elements. I call the eight P's, as in the letter P. And yes, I finagled a little bit to try and get them all to come out as P's because it's kind of fun to be able to say that, but they're pretty on point still. So we're going to start out and go sequentially. And this is kind of the order that you would do the things in when you're setting up your success scaffolding to help ensure that that big thing that you really, really want to

accomplish this year finally comes to be. So we'll start out with the first P and that is picture, picture. So there's this old phrase, you know, like unless you understand where you want to go, you're never going to really be able to get there. You have to paint a very clear picture of where you want to be. Now, this is interesting because in the world of things like entrepreneurship or art, you can't necessarily know exactly what that thing is going to look like before you step into it and experiment your way into determining what it's going to look like. But even then, you can have really strong sense of the qualities that are important to you and what you want it to

look and smell and feel and taste like. You can have a lot of specificity, even though you don't necessarily know exactly what that final thing is. And then on other things, you do know exactly what it looks like. If you want to walk a 10K, you know what it's going to look like to cross that finish line. And you can paint a picture in your mind of what it's gonna feel like and smell like and sound like and taste like. If you want to create a body of art and have a gallery show,

if literally like maybe your big thing is, I'm gonna spend the entire year developing my chops and then I'm going to create either a gallery show in somebody else's gallery or I'm literally gonna rent a space myself and hang my own show and invite friends to come. How awesome would that be, by the way? That's been a fantasy of mine for a long time. Maybe I'll make it happen this year, but it's probably a 2023 thing.

So whatever it is, the first P is to create the most specific and sensory picture that you can create of the thing that you're trying to achieve. What does it look like? What does it smell like? What does it sound like? What does it feel like? What does it taste like? Create as vivid an experience of it as you can.

And the reason is because the more senses we bring into it, the more your brain's GPS starts to get dialed into it and starts to figure out all sorts of ways subconsciously. It starts to run a script that you are not even aware of that starts to direct your efforts in a way that lets you step into the world and take micro actions throughout the day that start to align with you moving closer to that picture. Neuroscientist Srinivasan Pallay describes this as your brain's GPS. We don't even realize it's happening, but when we get hyper specific about the place that we want to land, specific in terms of detail and specific in terms of sensation,

we really paint that picture. Our brain starts to work on it in ways that we're not aware of. And it directs us to make decisions and take actions that lead us in micro steps towards it in ways that we don't know is happening. And yet it happens all day, every day. So we want to get really, really, really clear, not just because of the subconscious aspect of it, but because of the conscious aspect, because when we have clarity around the place that we want to arrive, what that big accomplishment looks like, feels like, then we can start to more effectively build the rest of our scaffolding to allow us to take the steps necessary to get there. So the first P is picture. Paint that picture.

Now the second P is purpose. Purpose. And here's the thing. If we were talking about something small, something where the stakes weren't all that high, something where it didn't take a whole lot of effort, a lot of decision-making, chances are pretty good that you're not going to have any sort of inner demons that arise around it. You're not going to have a ton of external barriers or challenges or circumstances that would be substantial enough to really knock you off course. But when we're talking about accomplishing something that is big, and again, big is entirely subjective. This is about you.

It doesn't matter if it's big in the mind of somebody else. When something is big and deeply meaningful and you really want to make it happen. And for it to be big, we also need the stakes, the internal stakes to be high. It really has to matter to us. Well, then that is also going to take a sustained effort over a longer window of time. And during that window of time, you are going to meet different challenges, internal ones. Your brain is going to start doing things that may not be super supportive, self-doubt, demons, all those other fun things. And then external circumstances, the world is going to change in ways that may be meaningfully

difficult for you to do the thing that you said you wanted so much to do. And when those things come your way, when adversity comes your way, whether it's internal or external, one of the most powerful allies and defenses and power moves that you have in that moment in time is a deep understanding of why you said yes to this thing in the first place. Why does it matter so much to you? What is the deeper purpose behind the picture? Ask why. Because when you have a very well-defined, well-articulated and clear reason why,

when adversity comes your way, this becomes a really powerful way to counter that and to say, yes, it's hard. Yes, I didn't expect these things to happen. Yes, I'm going to have to change a whole bunch of things along the way to make it happen. But I still believe it's possible. And I understand why I said yes in the first place. And that reason, my purpose behind the picture is still as valid and as powerful as it was on the moment that I said yes. So the second thing is we want to actually write down what is our reason why? Why does this matter so much? Why does this big thing that we

really want to accomplish matter to so much? So you start with a simple journal prompt. This matters to me because, but we're not going to stop there. Now you're going to write your answer to that. It can be a sentence or two, and then you're going to look at what you just wrote and you're going to say again, and this matters to me so much because, and then you're going to finish that sentence. So why does that first sentence really, really, really matter to you? Right?

And then you're going to go one more time and you're going to say, and this really matters to me because, right? So for me, for example, so I wrote a book that came out in 2021 called Sparked, and it was a hurricane, you lay an effort to actually be hyper-creative and write a book over the course of a pandemic where a lot of times I didn't want to do anything. And a lot of things happened that I didn't expect to happen. A lot of inner things happened, my own brain fabricated resistance and outer things happened. And when I asked the reason why, why did I want to write this book called Sparked? Well, my first answer was because I feel like this is answering a question that a lot of people have. What should I do with my life at a time where sound grounded information is more needed than ever before? And a book feels like

a great way to get that information out. Okay. So now I go to the second level. And why is that important to me? And this is where I have to think a little bit more. Because I care deeply about other people. And I also want the opportunity to be able to create something powerful that people can interact with that may in some way, shape or form make a difference in their lives. Oh, so now I'm getting a little bit deeper here, right? And now I'm actually starting to understand on the fact that this is deeply relevant to me because it's letting me do something that is native to my DNA. And then I asked that next why, and why is that important to me? And then I'm getting a little bit more honest. So I am a maker. I make ideas manifest. That is my fundamental impulse

for effort in the world. I am fueled and sometimes obsessed by the process of creation. And then I think about what I'm really doing here. And this is important to me because it is a stunning opportunity for me to spend vast amounts of time immersing myself and allowing this impulse to make to express itself fully and gloriously in my life and at the same time create something that will make a difference to other people. And that matters deeply to me. And that is going to be really important in me being able to actually complete this thing because there's going to be really important in me being able to actually complete this thing because there's going to be a lot of challenge along the way. So that is the second purpose

and a little example of how I would do those three levels of the reason why. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X, available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum.

Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were gonna be fun. January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing.

Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're gonna die. Don't shoot him, we need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk. So we've got picture, we've got purpose.

Now, now we get to the thing that most people actually start with. The third P is plan, plan. Now, most people start with this because they figure out, well, here's the thing I want to accomplish, right? So let me now just make a plan for it. But if we don't actually start with the deeper psychology and we just dive into a plan, well, that is very likely destined to fail. And that in fact is one of the reasons why the vast majority

of folks who look to accomplish something really big don't succeed at it because we go straight to the plan, not realizing that the plan has to be built upon a framework of psychological scaffolding that allows you to actually do the plan in the real world. And that is what success scaffolding is all about. So let's talk about that plan. What actually needs to be present in that plan? Now, I can't give you a specific plan with all of the action steps for your unique big quest that needs to come from you. And maybe there are all sorts of examples of plans that work out in the world. And in fact, there are.

So if we, let's say, are looking to accomplish something physical, right? There are generally plans to train for that particular thing. And if you look online these days, how to accomplish almost X, fill in that blank, you will find all sorts of plans, like 10 steps to do this, 20 steps to do that, five part thing to do this. But what we don't think about are the underlying elements, the psychology of the plan that needs to be in place in order for it to work for our own real life scenario. So I want to walk you through four elements that need to be a part of any plan, your plan. So you can go and find or craft the specific steps, but make sure that you're folding these four elements into your plan. So you want to be able to check these four boxes

when you make your plan. First, we have that big picture, the really clear, well-described, sensory, detailed picture of that thing that we want to accomplish, right? But for many people, if we actually look at that and we say we want to accomplish that, that it feels so big. It feels so unwieldy. It feels oftentimes so unachievable that the thought of going for that big thing actually on the one hand is a bit motivating, but even more so for many people is actually demotivating because it is terrifying. It actually feels like we don't understand how to do it. It is so big that we don't believe that we can do it. And we start to have a fear response to it. And we start to have an anxiety response to it because we will very likely have to allocate resources and time and energy to this. And we will be doing it at least in part, very likely in a public way,

in an exposed way where other people know that we're doing. And if we fail, we are terrified that we will be judged a failure, that we will not be accepted. We won't fit in anymore. There's so much psychology around this. And we see this in the psychology of goal achievement. We see this in the psychology of really big striving. And even in production and innovation, we see this show up. People are terrified of doing new things, trying to accomplish things that they haven't done before and doing it in a way where anyone else might actually see what's going on with them. So there's an interesting philosophy of action taking that actually came out of industrial

productivity called Kaizen, where they start to chunk the things into tiny little steps. And what they realize over time is that they're chunking the steps, but they're also chunking the psychology and they're chunking the stakes. And that is transformative. So what we want to make sure that we're doing here is that we are reverse engineering out all of the action steps that are needed to get us to that picture that we painted in the first number. We want to reverse that and we want to figure out what are the chunks? What are the granular steps? And then for each one of those, you ask yourself a question, and what are the steps that go into that? And then for each one of those, you ask yourself a question, and what are the steps that go into that? And then for each one of those, you ask yourself the question, and what are

the steps that go into that? We actually want to get as granular as we can with this. Now, this sounds like a lot of work, and honestly, it is, but it's the failure to do this that leads so many plans to go off the rails because they don't acknowledge and accommodate the micro actions and micro decisions that are necessary to take action on a consistent basis over time. And also they don't adequately chunk the steps into small enough steps so that each one reduces not just the burden of the action we need to take, but the stakes, what's at stake in that one particular step, which then in turn reduces the psychological fear, which allows us to feel okay just taking that step because they're just not that much on the line for this one tiny action.

So we really want to chunk and then we want to chunk again into that. And then we want to chunk again into that until we feel like we've got literally all of the steps for each of the steps. And then the steps that go into those steps, I know sounds a little bit tedious. And that is exactly why nobody does it unless you can find a plan that someone else has created. And even then they've rarely done it in the context of your life. But doing this is so astonishingly powerful that it is the thing that will make you so much more likely to be able to stay on this path, on this plan. Once you say yes, and you take the first step into it. So the first element is chunking. The second is benchmarking. We actually are these kind of weird human beasts that are wired for progress. Even the most chillest of us, even the ones who say

life is just going to come, I'm fully present and I'm open to whatever life brings, research shows that we are wired for progress. It's really powerful research that shows that we are wired for progress. It's really powerful research that shows that tiny little notations of progress, when we actually see ourselves moving towards something in a meaningful way, that every little mini reward that says a little bit of progress, a little bit of progress, a little bit of progress, it actually reinforces our desire to want to continue along that path. So we need to find ways to benchmark what we're doing and take note of the tiny little wins that we're seeing along the way.

And those tiny little wins may literally be just checking that action step for the day and noting that you are a micro beat closer to that big picture, right? There's another reason that benchmarking, that tracking is so important, and that is this. Human beings are also wired with something called the negativity bias. Now, this is where we tend to default to the negative spin on almost anything

rather than the possibility or the opportunity spin in almost anything. And it's a bit of what scientists believe is a leftover, a trace from prehistoric days where if you're walking by a dark space where you can't see inside because there's no light, that we assume that there's danger in there and then we don't go in and there's a survival mechanism. But that mechanism has carried over into modern day life and it stops us from doing so many things. And it makes us look at a lot of actions that we take and assume the worst

rather than the best. And if you have ever spun in your head, a doom and gloom scenario about anything, you know what I'm talking about. I think we've all been there. So because so many of us are naturally wired with this negativity bias, what we need is more objective benchmarks. We need to be able to actually track and show over time a record of action taking and progress because this helps counter that negative spin, that negative storyline that says, I'm not good enough. It's not working. I'm not moving fast enough. I didn't take enough action. When you actually can create your little journal and then say, okay, I checked this today. I took the action that I said I was going to take. Note how it feels. The ability to track that over time becomes an astonishingly powerful counter to the negativity bias and helps keep your psychology

focused on the possibility side of the equation and on action taking so that you don't crumble when things get a bit challenging. And when your own brain starts to do things that send you off the rails, which brings us to the third critical element that you want to consider when designing your own personal plan. And that is what I call workarounds. Workarounds assume things are not always going to go your way. Assume that challenges are going to come up before they come up. You want to proactively ask yourself, as I'm doing this, what types of potential challenges are likely to come up? What potential challenges are somewhat likely to come up?

What types of challenges might come up but aren't all that likely? And what types of challenges are very unlikely but still within the realm of possibility? And you literally want to write those down. There is a whole protocol that Professor Gabrielle Uttingen developed that she shorthands as WHOOP. And that stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan. So you define your wish, you really map out what the outcome looks like. And then you actually think about that next, oh, what are the potential obstacles that may come up internally and externally? And then pre-plan what will you do if and when these happen? And this is super, super important because when you pre-plan that, if and when they happen, and at least some of them will,

always happens, then you're not left in a place of scrambling and trying to figure out and being caught short, but not knowing what to do when they happen. You've literally already thought about this happening and you have the plan in place. You know exactly how you're going to respond even before it happens. And that step is incredibly powerful in keeping you on track, in not utterly derailing the plan. So we actually want you to think about the potential things, the challenges that might come up, right? Likely, somewhat likely, moderately likely, unlikely, but possible, and then extremely. And then say, if this happens, here's what I will do. If this happens, here's what I will do. Pre-plan these things.

Now let's zoom the lens out for a heartbeat here. When you think about this, depending on the sort of worlds that you roll in, this may sound like completely logical to you. And by the way, this is all based in science. It also may sound completely against what you have heard, especially if you happen to exist in the world of manifesting. So manifesting is really sort of metaphysical lens on simply goal achievement, achieving big things, making big things happen in your life, right? But it's a sort of a more spiritual bent on it. And there are some in that domain who would offer the instruction that you should never, ever, ever think about anything but it actually happening. The potential for challenges or obstacles should never come into your consideration because that actually gives them energy and makes

them happen. There's science on this. And the science says that actually the opposite is true. In fact, the science from this professor shows that in two side-by-side groups, that one group who completely ignored obstacles and didn't plan for them, and the other group who identified all the possible obstacles and then planned for them, that second group was far more likely to achieve the thing than the first group. So we actually know there's a huge benefit to anticipating what might be a challenge and then building your plan of action rather than completely ignoring it, hoping it never happens, never thinking about it. And then when it does, being completely derailed by it. So workarounds, that's the third element.

Let's get to the fourth element in our plan, and that is integration. So we have chunks, we have benchmarks, we have workarounds, and now integration. And this is really, really, really important. If you are curious about running a marathon, for example, or walking a marathon, or depending on your level ability, however you choose to implement the effort to cross the line, right? There is a plan available on the interwebs that will tell you exactly what to do for 14 to 16 weeks beforehand in order to train to make this happen.

Now, that particular plan has been used by probably hundreds of thousands of runners, if not millions. And it's been highly effective for a lot of them. But the plan also assumes that you have the lifestyle, the resources, the abilities to do the plan as it is specified. Not everyone does. So you may have a plan that says every day, this is what you're going to do.

But then your life actually is, you may be at home, you may have five kids or an ailing parent or somebody who you're taking care of. You may be working three jobs. Whatever your personal circumstance may be, you can look at this plan and say, yes, anyone who can do this plan in a vacuum in their life, I can see how that would work. But honestly, I don't have the ability in the context of my unique life to do this plan. I cannot integrate it into the life that I live in the real world.

Yes, even if I wake up at 5 a.m., just not possible. So the last element here is even when we have, when we've chunked out all the individual steps and we've created a way to benchmark our progress and we've anticipated the workarounds, now we have to ask, is this plan actually possible? Is it feasible in the context of my real life circumstances? Do I have the bandwidth?

Do I have the ability? Do I have the resources? What are my constraints? And then we have to adapt. So we want to take the plan and make any adaptations that are necessary to integrate it into the unique circumstances of our own lives. And if that means doubling the amount of time it takes to make it happen, then double the time. If that means changing the way that you need to sort of like step into it or arrange your life or allocate your resources or making the steps even tinier because that's all you

have the ability to do. Maybe you're struggling with some sort of health issue and you literally have to be very, very, very careful about how you allocate your energy. Integrate the plan into your unique life in a way that it works for you, regardless of how many millions of other people have done something similar and seen it work on some level for them. Make it yours. So integration.

Those are the four elements of the plan. So we want to take whatever plan that we want and make sure that we hold it up to these four elements and it works, right? So we have got the picture. We have got the purpose. So we have the underlying psychology. We have the plan, which now we know as a plan that is robust and adaptable.

So no matter what comes your way, you will still be able to adhere to this and to do the things that are in the plan that will get you to that final, beautiful, glorious picture. And that brings us to element number four, the fourth P in success, scaffolding. And that brings us to element number four, the fourth P in success scaffolding. And that, my friends, is possibility. Possibility. We need to believe at least a little bit that this

thing that we've said we want so much to make happen, the big accomplishment is possible. It's possible. Now, we don't have to 100% believe. We don't have to wake up in the morning and say, I 100% believe this is going to happen because that tends to be almost tending towards delusion for the vast majority of people. But we need to believe at least a little bit. We don't even need to believe 50%. We don't even need to believe 40%. It would be great if we did. The more that we buy in, the more we believe it's possible, the more we say, yes, I believe in my heart. I know this to be possible. The more powerful it is, because the more likely that will reinforce action taking. But here's the thing.

Not everybody's going to be able to get there. And what I want to make sure is crystal clear is you don't have to 100% believe this thing is possible in order to make it happen. But you do have to at least 3% believe. So the door of possibility needs to be at least cracked open a tiny bit. There needs to be something inside of you that says, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if it is possible at all, but I think it might be. I believe that it might be possible and that there are ways to make it happen.

And the more that I actually understand success, scaffolding, I define my plan and my purpose and all these other things that maybe I'm increasing my belief because I'm starting to see, oh, actually, yeah, like I'm mapping out the things that will increase the likelihood of this happening. I'm believing a little bit more, but we need to start with at least what I call the 3% rule, the 3% possible belief. And we're talking especially in the very, very, very beginning here. Because when we are saying yes to something that is going to take substantial effort,

especially in the very, very early days when we don't have any action or any proof we're going to talk about in a second to show that it's possible through our own experience. Saying yes to this big new thing, saying yes to the actions it will take has an opportunity cost. It means we're saying no to something else. And if we do not at least 3% believe that this big thing is possible, our brain will not allow us to say no to the other things. And those other things will keep intruding on us because we'll start to say, oh, but this feels more possible or this feels more important. And we'll stop taking the actions needed. So we need, especially in the early days, to at least 3% believe this thing is possible, which brings us to element number five. How do we believe in possibility, especially before we have even

started or in the early days? Because you can't just open your eyes one day and blink and say, ooh, I 100% believe this is possible now, right? Human beings don't work that way. You got to see proof. And that is the fifth P, proof. or sleeping. And it's the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS are later required. Charge time and actual

results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were gonna be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die.

Don't shoot him. We need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk. Proof. So how do we actually prove to ourselves that the thing that we so want to happen is capable of happening before we've even started into it? How do we create that in our brains? Well, there are four different ways that are really powerful.

One is we can look at similar others. So we can look at people that seem in a lot of ways similar to us, right? Maybe similar age, maybe similar gender, maybe similar level of possibility, maybe similar life circumstance, whatever it may be. We look at others and we say, well, huh, they kind of look like they have a lot of similar possibilities and resources and constraints and limitations and all the different things and support and structure and lifestyle and circumstances. And they went and did this thing that I really want to accomplish. And we look at that and we say, well, if they could do it, maybe I could do it. Now, again, we don't have to say I 100% believe that I can do it, but it plants the seeds and says the proof that they were able to do it and they're similar

enough to me. Well, then maybe I can do it too, right? It just opens the door. It gets us to that 3% or maybe even 10% or maybe even 20% in the early days that is absolutely critical. So one way that we do it is we look for people who are similar to us in a lot of different ways, or at least we perceive them to be similar to us in a lot of different ways, who have done the very thing or their version of the very thing that we seek to accomplish.

And in their success, the seeds of possibility that we might be able to do something similar, our version of that get planted, and that can serve as really powerful proof of possibility. So that's one way. We look to similar others. Another thing we look to are facts, data, and demos, like demonstrations that it's possible. So if there is research that shows that this particular thing is possible, if there's data around it that shows it's possible, or if somebody can demonstrate to us that it is actually possible, this can serve as a really powerful proof point for us, for us to buy into the fact that, well, if the data says it's possible and I believe in the data, well, then maybe it is. And then if we pile it onto seeing other people similar to us accomplish something similar, wow.

So other people like me have done this and there's really powerful research or data that shows as possible, wow, I'm starting to really believe this thing could happen. And again, proof is critical because without some level of proof, we don't have the possibility that then fuels action taking. What about the two other proof elements that I talked about? So people you trust, people you trust. So when we actually are told or when we witness people that we trust saying this is possible, that can be really powerful.

Now, this can be a family member. This can be a mentor. This can be a coach. This can be really powerful. Now, this can be a family member. This can be a mentor. This can be a coach. This can be a teacher. This can be a parent or a guardian. It's going to be different for a lot of different people. Whoever you trust to tell you the truth and to be accurate when they're telling you something, that person can actually play the role of increasing the proof that you can do this thing too. Now, here's where it gets a little bit sketchy these days, because we sometimes look to authority figures and celebrities as these people, people we don't know at all, people we've never met in our lives and very likely will never meet in our lives. And we say, well, I trust them because they're famous

or I trust them because they're massively accomplished. And that may in fact be true. And they may in fact be perceived as authorities and people that you genuinely trust. I would also just urge a little bit of caution because you don't entirely know. Make sure that when you were looking to public authority figures or celebrities who endorse

something or say, trust me, this is something that is possible, that you spend a little bit of time vetting that proclamation and probably the person. Because things aren't always as they seem. Which leads us to the fourth element and the thing that usually starts to take people from those other indicators, facts, data, and demos, similar others, people you trust into a lived experience that becomes your own internalized proof. And this is what I call micro tastes of progress, micro tastes. And this again goes back to the plan and is why it's so important to benchmark your progress because the action taking and then

the writing down or the tracking of it then serves as micro tastes of progress. And when we have these micro tastes of progress, your brain starts to say, huh, my own lived experience tells me that I am moving closer to this picture, this big accomplishment that I want to make happen. And my own lived experience is now telling me that with every step closer to this thing, I'm believing more that it's possible. It builds an internal motivation and momentum that becomes its own self-fulfilling prophecy of progress and growth and accomplishment. So those four elements of proof, facts, data, and demos, similar others, people you trust, micro-taste. And again, we're going to write these down, right?

So when you're doing the work, you're going to ask yourself, so is there any research out there? Are there any facts? Is there any data or demonstrations that would allow me to believe this is possible? Who else like me has accomplished something similar that I could look at and then buy into their experience? Or the people I trust who could help me understand how to get there and help me believe that this is actually something that I can accomplish.

And then your own action taking, those micro steps that you're going to take as part of your plan, and then the benchmarking, you tracking that and seeing every day, oh, I'm taking the action and it's moving me closer. I'm taking the action. It's moving me closer. I'm taking the action, it's moving me closer. Microtaste of progress, your own lived experience becomes the ultimate internalized, progressively building layer of proof that takes you from 3% to 5% to 10% to 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,

and eventually, wow, this thing is done. And that brings us to the sixth P, building on the picture, the purpose, the plan, possibility and proof we have, people. Yes, we need people. Even the most curmudgeonly, introverted, hermit-like person. And by the way, sometimes that's me. I love kind of hanging out in my cave. I love very small groups of people. I am more on the introverted side of the spectrum

and very likely a highly sensitive person. And still, when I'm trying to accomplish something really big and meaningful to me, I need people. And we all need people on our team because the right people can help ensure that this thing happens on a level that is profoundly empowering. And I'm going to talk about six different roles. Now, some of these roles can actually be filled by the same person, but these are the roles that are helpful. Now, do you need to have all six of these roles on your people team in order to accomplish your big thing? No. But the more of these roles you have in place, the more powerful your team becomes in helping ensure that big thing

happens. So let me walk you through the six roles. The first one is co-strivers. These are people who are sort of alongside of you doing their version of something similar and you're kind of working alongside each other. You're parallel playing. So if you're trying to launch a new podcast and you have three other friends of yours that are all trying to launch a podcast at the same time, you coordinate all your timing, you coordinate your plans, and then you're working alongside each other. So you're doing your own thing, but it's effectively your version of the same thing.

And you support each other along the way because you're kind of going through the same experience together. Even if you're not working collaboratively as a team for one thing. And by the way, you may be doing that, but you don't have to be doing that. And the energy of the co-drivers be doing that, but you don't have to be doing that.

And the energy of the co-drivers, funny enough, is commiseration. There's a lot of power in knowing that you're going through something and that you can both celebrate and commiserate with your co- strivers along the way. All the highs, all the lows, the challenges, the wins. So it's celebration and commiseration is the co- driver energy. The second role is what I call champions. Champions are the people who are going to pick you up when you stumble, when you're down, when you get the blues, when things are just not going your way and you're having trouble, sort of like seeing that possibility picture again. They're the ones who are there to cheerlead you, to say, I understand this is hard now. I also understand that you said yes to this for a reason and it's deeply meaningful and you are fully capable of making this happen.

So let's do this. You can do it. It is possible. Get back into action stance. So the energy of your champions is to cheer you on. Third, we have the accountants and we're not talking about certified public accountants or people who work with numbers or spreadsheets or databases here. We're talking about people who play the role of providing accountability. They're the ones where you show this entire plan to them. You tell them what your picture is. You tell them the purpose side. Why does it matter?

You show them the plan of action, and then you have buy-in from them. And then you ask them, now that you see this and you understand why it's so important to me, will you sort of ride alongside of me during this thing? You don't have to be with me all the time, but be available and check in on a regular basis and ask me, have you been doing the things that you have committed to doing within your plan that will get you to the place of accomplishing the thing that you told me was so deeply meaningful to you? If so, great. And if not, tell me what's happening and why so that I can provide accountability to your action taking along the way. That is the role of the accountant.

Then we have the mentors. And mentors, they go by a lot of different names. They can be mentors, they can be guides, they can be advisors, they can be coaches, right? So none of these people have to go by the particular names I'm giving you. It's the role, and the energy of the mentor is wisdom. So they either have been to the place that you're trying to go to themselves or worked with others very often to help get them there,

where they have developed a depth of knowledge and experience. They understand the nature and quality of your plan and the likely things and barriers and adversity that's going to come up. And they have developed ideas and frameworks and wisdom that will help you when you are moving through your plan, deal with whatever comes up and get to that place you so want to go. They teach you along the way how to keep learning and growing and succeeding. And that brings us to the fifth role, which is community, a group of others who will be there and say yes to you no matter what happens, where you feel belonging. And that is the energy of community, is that you don't have to fit in, is that you can show up as you are on any given day,

good, bad, inspired, uninspired, grumpy, happy, and know that you will be embraced. This can be incredibly powerful to know that you belong to something bigger than yourself. And that leads us to the sixth role, and that is challengers. And this is a word that actually I learned from Adam Grant, who introduced the concept when he was writing a book and he would literally invite grad students to see pieces of a book as he was writing it. And he would invite them to challenge him, challenge the ideas,

challenge the writing so that he could really reflect on what he was doing and make it as good as it could possibly be. Now, here's the thing. The energy of challengers is optimization. But when you choose your challengers, be sure that you are choosing people who are saying yes to challenging you, not because they're looking to take you down, not because they're looking to be adversarial or just play devil's advocate because they want to be aggressive with you. These are people who love you, who believe in you, who want you to succeed.

That is a key. These are folks who very much are on the same page with you. They want you to succeed. And they may challenge your ideas. They may challenge your plan. They may challenge your picture. They may challenge your reason why. Not because they're trying to knock you back,

but because they want you to think more deeply about it. They want you to be more honest, more true, more realistic so that you can refine them and optimize them in a way that will make you more likely to succeed rather than less likely. So your challenges happen from people where they're looking at what you're doing and asking you questions and challenging your assumptions and the things that you're saying, but from a place of wholeheartedness and openheartedness and love and support and wanting you to succeed more than anything and trying to get to a place where everything is as likely to work at the best level as possible. And that is the basis of their challenging. So those are the six roles, co-drivers, champions,

accountants, mentors, community, and challengers. Now, can some of these roles be played by the same person? Yes. So you don't necessarily need six different people in your corner. You may need fewer. You know, your co-drivers may also play the role of champions. Yes, we're all in this together. When you're stumbling, they may come in and pick you up, right? But your champions and your accountants may not be the same person because one person is charged with picking you up and cheering you on and you can do it. And your accountability person may have to actually have hard conversations with you and call you when things aren't happening and not just rah-rah challenge you. So you want to really think about what is the psychology of the people that I choose and can they play multiple roles with me? Many can, but some roles tend to

be a little bit better when they're a different person than some of the other roles. And that, my friends, brings us, we're working our way through the final two elements of success, scaffolding. We've had the picture, we've had purpose, we've had plan, possibility, we've had proof and people. And now we start to come around to practices, practices. Now, what do I mean by this? These are things that we do on a regular basis that have the effect of wiring our brain to be able to sustain action and see clearly and make decisions along the way, even when things get hard.

And this is something that was not a part of my original scaffolding because I think I really didn't necessarily understand how important and powerful it was. But having these practices developed in my own life and then working with so many others who've developed their versions of them and seeing how profound daily practices are

in somebody's ability to wake up no matter how they're feeling psychologically, physically, no matter what's going on in the world, and continue to say yes to action-taking is incredibly powerful. These practices allow us to access a sense of calm and resilience. So we can find ease, equanimity, equanimity based on wisdom, not on delusion, right? Not on ignorance, but on accepting the way that things are and still find calm. We can more easily access resilience when adversity comes our way to process it, understand it, and not let us completely fall to it. It helps us focus our attention and our energy. We can attune to what is important and it helps us discern

what really matters in the context of this thing that I'm trying to accomplish. What really matters? What really doesn't matter? What's a total distraction? And how do I make better decisions that will keep me on track as the world changes around me, as the thing that I said yes to meets the real world, meets circumstances, meets shifting, meets uncertainty, right? How do I make decisions that will keep me on track? Daily practices are incredibly powerful in helping you do that. So this one is less about something that you're going to write down or say like, you know, here's my list of people, or these are the

elements of the plan. Practices are something that you're going to look into and start to cultivate simply on a daily basis and know that they will have a slow build effect on your ability to access common resilience, to focus your attention and to discern and make better choices over time as you're working towards achieving this big accomplishment. And here's the cool thing. These very same daily practices will filter out into your life experience, not just in the context of the big thing that you're trying to accomplish, but every element of your life, your relationships, your health, your wellbeing, your vitality, all of it, these daily practices ripple out into everything.

Now, there are a lot of practices that you can choose from. Some of them are sort of like things that happen automatically on a daily basis. Some of them are intentional. Some of them become habits, meaning they're just automatic. And then some of them become ritualized, meaning Some of them are intentional. Some of them become habits, meaning they're just automatic. And then some of them become ritualized, meaning you do them every day, but you're actually paying attention to them while you do them. So some of the things that I look to, the most basic practices are meditation or some sort of mind-stilling practice, breathing practices that allow you to very rapidly down regulate your nervous system and come back to a place of calm and ease. Movement, moving your body in whatever way is accessible to you is an incredible way

to come back. But you can find your own version of these practices that get you into these states. Maybe for some people it's playing music. Maybe for some it's walking in the woods. Maybe for some it's making art, right? We all have our own version to it. Maybe for some it's listening to music. So we want to find one or two things that we can do on a daily basis that have the effect of grounding us and allowing us to come back to a place of focus and ease. So for me, I have a mindfulness practice and I've had this practice and it's what starts my morning every day. And I do it pretty easily. And the beautiful thing about any kind of meditation practice these days

is that whether you have it or not, whether you have access to a studio or teacher directly or not, it doesn't matter anymore. You can look at all sorts of online resources or apps. There are fantastic apps very often that have thousands of guided practices on them, from mindfulness to body scans, to any form of meditation, to music, to literally anything that you want. And what I would advise is that start looking at a couple of these major apps. You can literally just Google meditation or mindfulness, and it'll come up with a whole bunch of different apps and start trying out different ones and try different practices and also try different people and voices because you will resonate

with particular practices or not. And you will resonate with particular voices or not. And then over time, over a couple of weeks, you will very likely start to find a couple of different things that you can listen to. These are guided practices. And then you can turn that into a daily thing. Every day, you just find the space, 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes, whatever is accessible to you, to allow somebody to guide you through the practice that allows you to feel like

you can just exhale. Your whole body can just exhale. And your mind can come back to a place of ease and your mind can go back to a place of focus. And then if movement is something that is available to you, start to incorporate that tiny little bits of it, five minutes a day, 10 minutes a day. If some sort of other act or action is your practice, run the experiments for the first month or so just to try a whole bunch of different things. The goal is not to say like, I'm succeeding, I'm calm and resilient and focused and attuned and discerning. That takes time. The goal is simply to just try a whole bunch of different things over the first month or so, and then home in on a couple of them and then turn them into daily practices where you do it on a regular

basis. And this has an incredibly powerful effect on keeping you on track during your big thing. And then, like I said, also the ripple effect out into your greater life can be pretty astonishing. And that brings us all the way home to a kind of fun, simple one that I feel like almost is the seal on all of this. It locks all of it in. And it's also a really powerful accountability tool, but it brings it home. The eighth P is pledge. Pledge. We are literally talking about taking a piece of paper and writing down a pledge or a contract to yourself. And in that, we want to actually include a couple of different elements. We want to write down, what is it that I'm striving towards, right? The picture. We want to write down, why is it so important to me? The purpose side of it. We want to write down, these are the actions that I will

take. We want to include the stakes. What is at stake here? Is it money? Is it health? Is it relationships? Is it connection? Is it whatever it is to you? Is it a sense of agency or power or control? Is it whatever it is? What are the stakes involved? And then we want to do one other thing, which is that once we've written this down, if you're comfortable doing this, we want to share it with at least one other person. So you may share that with any number of the people on your people team. Remember those six different roles? Those are great people to start.

Think about who you have or who you're going to recruit to be on your people team. And then start by writing down your pledge and sharing it with them. Super, super great way to do it. If you're somebody who's comfortable doing it, you can share it more publicly. Some people will put it on the fridge in their house. Some people will put it on social media. Some people will share it more broadly. Whatever it is that you're comfortable with.

Knowing that we have not just committed to this ourselves, made a pledge to ourselves, but we've actually shared it and other people are aware of the pledge that we have made. It triggers a psychological phenomenon known as the consistency principle, which was documented early, I think about 35 years ago by Professor Robert Cialdini. And what that principle shows us is that there's something inside most people that says we want to be seen. We want to see ourself as being consistent, but we also want to be seen by others as being consistent.

Meaning if we say something or we take an action, a simple action, we want to see that we are somebody who will take action or say things that are consistent with that prior action or statement, especially over time. And if we do that publicly, we want also to be seen by other people, to be consistent. And that, by the way, is even for people who are a little bit rebellious, you say, I'm breaking all the rules all the time. There's an impulse that lies in almost all of us that this consistency principle triggers. And it is one of the things that actually affects the psychology of a pledge that makes it so powerful. There's something about it. When we

write it down, we say, this is what I'm doing. This is why it matters. These are the actions I'm taking. This is what's at stake. And that is success scaffolding. The eight P's, picture, purpose, plan, possibility, proof, people, practices, and pledge. Those make up the success scaffolding framework. So when you think about now, what is something big that I want to accomplish in my life? What is something that maybe I have thought about doing in the past? What is something that I've actually maybe even said I'm going to do? What is something that I

have started doing, but then fallen off along the way? And by the way, if it was ever in the context of a New Year's resolution, you are not alone because resolutions tend to be simple statements. And when they are not backed up by these different practical and psychological elements in success scaffolding, the likelihood of them succeeding drops dramatically. In fact, something like 90% of all resolutions fail within the first four to six weeks. And something like 85% of all New Year's resolutions are resolutions that were made in a prior year, meaning they didn't happen. When we build our big accomplishment quests around the scaffolding, things change in a really profound way.

But here's one big proviso before we wrap this up. As I mentioned, you can click the link in the show notes and you'll see a place to be able to download a one-page PDF of this entire thing. This is going to take work. One of the reasons that folks don't succeed also is because they're not willing to do the work in the early days or beforehand to walk through these steps, to set themselves up for success before taking the first step. In fact, the very first step in any big accomplishment is to set up this framework, set up the scaffolding, right? Or at least get enough of it in place so that you can start taking action in an intelligent way. And here is a really, really big red alert for you. If you listen to this entire conversation and then you go and you

download the PDF and you look at it all and you're thinking to yourself, oh, this is just too much work. I can't do this now. I don't have time to do this or I'm just not willing to do it. That is a huge tell. If you do not have the bandwidth or the energy or the will

to invest in simply spending a little bit of time with scaffolding like this, or doing the work to set yourself up for success, the likelihood of you then having the bandwidth, the energy, the time, and the will to then continue on and do the things that are necessary to accomplish this thing that you say is so dear to yourself is minimal, right? If we cannot commit to doing something as sort of fundamental, the level of work needed to just do the basics to set yourself up for success, the likelihood of you then actually having the capacity to take the actions over a sustained amount of time in the face of

adversity, in the face of change, in the face of circumstances you never anticipated, the likelihood of you saying yes consistently over time and reaching that big thing is pretty tiny. So think about that. If it's a no to just doing the work of something like this, or setting yourself up, taking basic actions to set yourself up before you start into it, it is very likely going to be a no to the big accomplishment before you even started. Because this is path while you're trying to do them and without sustained effort over time. So say yes to this first step. And that also will start to telegraph to you

whether you're in a place where you have the ability to say yes to the action taking that will happen over time. In fact, if you start into starting to fill out, to complete your own success scaffolding, and you realize you just don't have the bandwidth to do that right now, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

And it's not something that you want to judge yourself for. It may be a really powerful talent that tells you upfront, you really do want to accomplish this big thing. But in the context of your life right now, you simply don't have the bandwidth, the ability, the freedom, the constraints, the resources, whatever you need to be able to do it. And that's okay. It's okay. If it's not the right time, that's fine. Let this success scaffolding be a bit of a signal, which also tells you whether now is the time or

not. Because if you can complete this, that also becomes a really strong signal that you have the resources, the place, the capacity at this moment in time to start to say yes to this. So that's just another way to look at the success scaffolding in the context of doing something big, regardless of what you choose, whether this is a time or not, whether you choose to do something big or not, what I want you to know is you're an awesome human being. You are enough. You have astonishing value, not because you did anything, but simply because of the fact of your birth, that you are perfect in your imperfection, that everything that is inside of you is worthy and value and beautiful

and a source of grace for you and for those around you. So if it's the moment for you to step into the world and try and accomplish something big, awesome. If it is the moment for you to simply breathe and be and navigate this moment, that's awesome too. You don't ever have anything that you have to prove to anyone. You have value and worth and beauty and grace. You are enough simply as you are. And if accomplishing something big just brings more joy and energy and excitement to your life,

that's great. Again, be as you need to be. And as we look at this year ahead, which may well be filled with a lot of other change and circumstance, simply knowing that you have this framework available to you, if and when, when the time is right, can be a really powerful thing to understand. So as we wrap up this episode, I want to wish you much success in everything that you do. And that includes simply the act of being present in your own life and celebrating and savoring every moment, every step, every relationship, every breath along the way. And that is it for today. Thanks so much. Signing off. I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project. The Apple Watch Series X is here.

It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required.

Charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is?

You're going to die. Don't shoot him, we need him! Y'all need a pilot? Flight Risk.