Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Why Your Micro Choices Determine Your Life w/ John R. Miles EP 145

Starting point is 00:00:00 Coming up next on the Passion Struck Podcast. Too often we live our lives on autopilot. That is why intentionality is so important. Intentional living is about understanding your purpose and asking yourself, why do you do the things that you do? And then being content with the answers. Living with intention means closely examining your daily microchoises and making changes accordingly.

Starting point is 00:00:25 If you're not happy with what you see. Welcome to PassionStruct. Hi, I'm your host, John Armiles, and on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of

Starting point is 00:00:45 intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long-form interviews the rest of the week with guest-ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become PassionStruck. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Momentum Friday, an episode 145 of PassionStruck. Thank you, each and every one of you, who comes back weekly, to listen and learn, how to live better, be better, and impact the world.

Starting point is 00:01:25 And over the Memorial Day weekend, we passed a huge milestone for this podcast of achieving over 1 million downloads. Something I have to honestly say when I started this podcast, I never thought would ever become a reality. Let alone, and only 15 months since we launched this podcast. It tells me that the content and the interviews that we're putting out here are resonating with fans worldwide and we are growing this passion struck movement so rapidly. Let's talk about a couple of the episodes from earlier in the week in case you missed them. One was with my friend Trisha Manon where she talks about how to lead with

Starting point is 00:02:01 heart and leave a lasting legacy. I then had on Dr. Sarah Faye, and we talked about her new book, Pathological, The True Story of Six Missed Diagnosis. And then, if you missed my solo episode from last week, it was on why you have to feel to heal. Please check them all out if you haven't had a chance to listen to them. Also next week, we are doing the official book launch of Dr. Michael Slepian's new book, The Secret Life of Secrets. And Dr. Slepian is one of the foremost experts in the world on this topic of secrets. In episode you're not going to want to miss. I also wanted to acknowledge

Starting point is 00:02:36 our fan of the week Arthur Aldridge who writes, What an incredible interview. That episode with Keegan Gil was one of the most intense podcasts I've ever listened to. How he survived a Mach 1 ejection and is alive to talk about it is a miracle. Incredible interview and John Tease is out the best from his guests. All the episodes of Passion Struck are amazing, but this one was unreal.

Starting point is 00:02:59 Thank you Arthur so much for giving us that great review. And I know Keegan will be happy to hear that interview resonated with you so much. And if you love today's episode, or other ones that I've mentioned, it helps us so much when you forward these to friends and family members to get the word out about our movement and the Passion Strike podcast. Now, let's talk about today's episode. In society today, a lot of emphasis is placed on our big decisions, like having children,

Starting point is 00:03:25 getting married, learning to drive, buying a house, getting divorced, or quitting a job. But the reality is, is that it's the thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of microchoises that create our character and determine our identity. We often forget that our habits are the sum total of our daily choices, and that it is in each one of these microchoises that we make that lead to life's achievements and ultimately build up who we become. They also greatly influence how we address big decisions in our lives and how people regard us. Now what is a microchois? A microchois is basically any of the decisions that you make every day that you're oblivious

Starting point is 00:04:03 about but shape the course of your life and therefore your reality most strongly. It's that choice to do what we can at any moment between the time that we wake up and when we go to bed. It's the little steps we take from our starting point to our immediate objective and it is these day-to-day microchoises that ultimately shape our lives. In today's episode, how will we talk to you about how to effectively approach microchoises? To achieve your goals and live your best life, it's a simple and empowering idea that has the entirety of its effectiveness focused on what can be done in the present moment. To illustrate this microchois concept more clearly, we will examine the true story of American professional investment manager, speaker, lecturer, author, and Guinness world record holder, Steven Dunier.

Starting point is 00:04:50 Steven learned how to apply intentionality and the power of microchoices to alter his decision-making approach. Thank you for choosing PassionStruck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let the journey begin. Stephen Dunier was born in July 1967 in the city of New York. He grew up a very bright and curious boy, but often found it challenging to settle down and focus on one task at a time. As a result, he was a consistent C-Minus student from kindergarten all the way throughout high school. All along, he really wanted to focus

Starting point is 00:05:31 and be a better student, but he couldn't. Then, in his junior year in college, he decided he would start making intentional changes to become an A-student. He knew he would have to change from just thinking about the big goal of becoming a better student. And instead focusing on the marginal adjustments, he could make an actual actions, he could

Starting point is 00:05:50 take every second and every minute. So instead of thinking and trying to accomplish his school tasks in their entirety, he decided he would only focus on the bits that make up the whole and on what he could achieve in just five to ten minutes. If he got an assignment to read five chapters in a book, he wouldn't think of reading the whole five chapters, or even one chapter at a time. He would break it down not only to a page at a time, but further into paragraphs. And then sentences and finally words. He knew everyone can easily

Starting point is 00:06:19 read a word. And if he was able to focus on that specific micro-choice, to read a word soon, he would read two words, and then three, and then a complete paragraph, and then a chapter, and eventually, all five chapters. He focused on the things that he could do in each immediate moment to advance the achievement of his ultimate goal. And from that point forward, all the way through his graduation, he became a straight A student. He got on the president's

Starting point is 00:06:45 honor roll and was on the dean's list every single semester. Steven then went on to one of the top graduate programs in the world for finance and economics. Using the same approach of focusing on his micro decisions, he achieved the same result that he did in college, finishing his graduate degree with distinction. He continued to develop his habit of approaching tasks at the micro level and felt that he could take this new skill and apply it to his professional life. He started out as an exotic derivatives trader for credit swists, which led him to become

Starting point is 00:07:16 the global head of currency operations for Bank of America and then global leader of emerging markets for AIG international. It helped him deliver top-tier returns as a global macro hedge fund manager, which he did for 12 years and became the founder and chief investment officer of two award-winning hedge funds. Steven then decided to apply the effectiveness of microchoises to his personal life and his ambitious goals. He started with the desire to learn how to speak German. Instead of listening to music on his iPod during his daily hour and a half commute, he would listen to language tracks every day.

Starting point is 00:07:55 He purchased the first 33 CDs in the Pimseler German language program and transferred them onto his iPod. He then removed all the music that was on his iPod, so that he would only be left with one option, which was to listen to the German language program. He did this consistently, and ten months after he started, he listened to all 99 CDs in the program. After that, he traveled to Germany to advance his language skills with a 16-day intensive German course and was able to speak German almost fluently afterwards. Later in his career, he had just moved back to the United States from London and was 25 pounds

Starting point is 00:08:32 overweight. He wanted to rectify his weight issue and also get in shape, but he realized he wouldn't use it if he simply registered and paid for a normal gym membership. He also knew that simply having a goal that he wouldn't eat certain types of foods that caused him to be overweight in the first place would simply not be enough. So he didn't set a vague resolution to lose 25 pounds, but rather set the goal to hike 33 trails in the front country of Santa Barbara Mountains, even though he had never been on a hike like that before. He knew it wasn't about the 33 trails or even one trail, but about those tiny little decisions to consciously drop every distraction,

Starting point is 00:09:12 put on his hiking shoes, and then take one step, and then two until he had hiked one trail and eventually all 33. By the end of the year, he ended up walking all 33 trails, lost the 25 pounds and participated in the Peer to Peek half marathon, which is one of the most challenging half-marathons in the world. He didn't decide to stop there, instead he decided to do more. Through the daily application of microchoises, he earned his auto-racing license, learned

Starting point is 00:09:39 how to fly helicopter, did rock climbing and skydiving, and learned to fly planes aerobatically. He further read 50 books in 52 weeks, learned how to unicycle, used jumping stilts to hike, and learned how to play drums. After all these accomplishments, his wife suggested that he learn how to knit. And taking her suggestion, one day he was sitting under Eucalyptus tree, that's 2.6 miles up the cold spring trail in Santa Barbara. And began thinking, wouldn't it be nice to cover this in yarn? So he was knitting for the next 82 days, no matter where he was, whether that was a board meeting on the trading floor at the hospital or on an airplane.

Starting point is 00:10:16 One stitch at a time and 82 days later, he had done his first yarn bomb. Just in time for the second annual International Yarn Womming Day, he went on to do more projects, which included wrapping a massive boulder, a top, the Saddle Rock Hiking Trail, above Montecito, California, and creating a giant starfish reflective yarn and hanging it 40 feet above the seven falls trail. He didn't stop at knitting, but went on to crocheting

Starting point is 00:10:42 and got ambitious enough to take on the challenge of creating the world's largest granny square, which had more than a half a million stitches, was 1,311 square feet weighed over 60 pounds and consisted of 30 miles of yarn. He crocheted this granny square for two years, seven months, and 17 days. And currently holds the Guinness World Record for the largest granny square ever made. Steven Duniae acknowledges even today that he still is the average person he was when he was in childhood. And he says he has no exceptional talent. He takes on huge, ambitious projects that people seem to marvel at, breaks them down to their smallest forms, and then just makes micro decisions

Starting point is 00:11:25 along the way to improve his odds of achieving them. Like Stephen, we can all achieve our most ambitious goals by focusing on the microchoises and the actions that we take in the tiny moments that make up every single day. Let us now take a look at the importance of microchoises, the hindrances to optimizing them, and how we can apply them for effective living. We'll be right back to the Passion Struck Podcast. Oprah Winfrey, she's living, breathing proof of the power of passion, running away from home at age 13, starting a media empire, and now worth $2.6 billion.

Starting point is 00:11:59 All to say that, when she makes a big move, you can learn a lot by watching. And after she made $60 million in one fell swoop, I did some research on how. And my eyes were open to a market out there worth $1.7 billion. That, for the first time, we all can be part of no Oprah-level billions needed. How? There's a startup that's blowing the whole thing wide open called masterworks. Powered by passion, like all good startups are, and eager to change the world. To learn more, go to masterworks.io and use promo code passion. That's masterworks.io promo code passion. See important regulation A, disclosures at masterworks.io slash CD. That's masterworks.io

Starting point is 00:12:50 promo code passion. And we know all these promo codes can be so difficult to remember. So we put them in one convenient place on passionstruck.com slash deals. Thank you so much for supporting the sponsors who support this show and make it free for our listeners everywhere now, back to PassionStruct. So let's talk about the importance of microchoises. As someone who doesn't usually draw, would you believe you could if you were given a photograph of a person and told to replicate the image with just a pencil and a piece of paper? Your answer would probably be no, but do you agree that you could reproduce the image with just a pencil and a piece of paper. Your answer would probably be no,

Starting point is 00:13:25 but do you agree that you could reproduce the image of a solid gray square? Yes, probably everyone can do that. The truth is, if you could make just one tiny gray square, then you could make two and then three, and then eventually all the different shades of gray that make up the image of the person eventually come together. Using

Starting point is 00:13:45 this illustration as a guide helps us realize that what stands between us and achieving even our most ambitious dreams and goals has far less than possessing some magical skill or talent and has more to do with how we approach problems and the steps we take to solve them. When we focus on the task as a whole, we tend to see the complexity of it and often lose interest or the inability to maintain the tenacity to eventually complete it. But when we break the task down into tiny bits

Starting point is 00:14:15 and focus on the microchois as we can make in every moment, we will be so much better equipped to get things done and build successfully upon each and every goal. When you can do this and incorporate microchoices into your everyday routine, it will become recurring and you'll start doing it without even thinking twice about it. Whether you're just trying to improve professionally or learn a new thing, it all begins with a single step and grows from there and anyone can take a step. However, the most challenging step is choosing to start

Starting point is 00:14:46 the power of microchoises to intentionally take your life and career to the next level. For more on the power of choice, please refer back to episode 19 that I did on that topic. So now that we've covered the importance of microchoises, let's go over some hindrances to the effectiveness of microchoises and how to tackle them. These hindrances include, first of microchois and how to tackle them.

Starting point is 00:15:05 These hindrances include, first of all, attempting to multitask. When you attempt to handle several tasks at a time, you often set yourself up for failure and you can quickly deplete your willpower to act in the present and lose interest in achieving the long-term goals that you have set out to achieve. When you multitask, it triggers numerous responses every moment, which causes an imbalance. Every time we switch attention from one thing to another, it pays a toll on the brain. Ultimately, it uses up your brain cells and slows your performance for each operation that you're trying to perform. The second hindrance that we often face is focusing

Starting point is 00:15:42 on the ultimate goal instead of the immediate. It's great to have a vision, an ultimate goal of sorts. We all desire to focus and have something to work towards. Usually, a vision excites us. It's the ideal motivator. Without goals, our lives would be meaningless and stagnated, but by simply focusing on the big goals too much, we often lose sight of the critical actions.

Starting point is 00:16:05 We need to take every single day to achieve them, focusing on the ultimate goal instead of the process of microchoises that get you there to take you out of the present moment. So ensure your focus is on what you can do in each and every moment. These are the things that help you achieve your ultimate goals. The third thing that can be a hindrance to achieving these micro-troises is not being disciplined and specific. If you fail to acquire self-discipline, it causes many issues, including health problems,

Starting point is 00:16:33 financial issues, distraction, pro-crastination, things stacking up and overpowering you in so much more. So discipline and specificity are essential skills to develop, but most people don't know where to start. One of the most significant things that you can do to get better at being disciplined is to take small actions. It can seem overwhelming to tackle massive, intimidating projects, so don't. Instead, make those microchoises of things so small that you can't say no to them. Have a paper to write, Just start writing for five minutes.

Starting point is 00:17:07 Want to go for a walk? Just walk for 10 minutes. Have an assignment that's due. Just work on the first few paragraphs. Want to clean your house? Just start with two things to start cleaning up. Do you have a topic like today's that you would like to see us cover? You can reach us at Momentum Friday at passionstruck.com. Keep your emails concise. Use a descriptive subject line. That keeps things easy for us. Reach out to us if there's a topic you're interested

Starting point is 00:17:34 in learning about. There's something that maybe you're going through, any big decision that you're wrestling with, or perhaps you just want a new perspective on work, love, or life. Whatever's got you staying up at night, hit us up at Momentum Friday at PassionStruck.com. We're here to help and we keep every email anonymous. Now, back to PassionStruck. Another thing that can be a hindrance to microchoises is

Starting point is 00:17:58 being too hard on yourself. No one is perfect and we all fail. When we beat ourselves up for making mistake or failing, we lose the opportunity to learn and grow from that failure. So whenever you fail at putting your microchoisist to practical use, make sure you pick yourself up, understand what caused it, and make intentional efforts to do better. Also, make sure that you are frequently taking the time

Starting point is 00:18:20 to measure your daily progress and reward yourself, forgetting things done, no matter how little they may be. This will help you to achieve so much more and allow you to reach for your best. The next hindrance to using these microchois is living without passion and intentionality. Too often, we live our lives on autopilot. That is why intentionality is so vital.

Starting point is 00:18:41 Intentional living is about understanding your purpose and asking yourself, why do you do the things that you do, and then being content with the answers? Here are just a few questions for you to consider. Why do you allow yourself to have self-limiting beliefs? What keeps you from pursuing your passion? Why does what you think you can achieve hinder your capabilities? What gets in the way of keeping the commitments that you make to yourself? Why are you with your partner? Why are you allowing hustle culture to get the best of you? Note how your responses make you feel. Are they confusing or conflicting? Living with intention means closely examining your daily microchoises and making changes accordingly if you're not happy

Starting point is 00:19:21 with what you see. So I've gone over a lot of information today. Let me wrap this up and synthesize it for you. Little drops of water, they say, make a mighty ocean. In like manner, microchoises may consistently over time have massive impacts that determine the course of our lives. I hope today's episode has opened your mind to the importance of microchoises and has inspired you to pull out some of those ambitious dreams you have kept on the shelf and now can ultimately pursue. No, that no dream is too big and dare to reach for your bucket list. Think of specific things that you absolutely want to achieve, understand yourself and your abilities concerning them and take conscious actions to get you there

Starting point is 00:20:02 through your everyday microchoises. Each step is a tiny little decision that needs to be made precisely along the way to achieve the type of outcome you desire. If you don't choose to start, there won't be any choice left to take the final step of achieving your goals. So dream big, aim high, and most importantly, take things one step at a time. I wish you success in your step-by-step journey of using microchois to achieve your most significant goals. And thank you so much for joining us here today. And if you're new to the show or you would just like to introduce it to

Starting point is 00:20:35 a friend or family member, we now have episodes starter packs which are collections of your favorite episodes organized by topic which gives any new listener a great way to get acquainted to everything that we do here on the show. Just go to passionstruck.com, slash starter packs, to get started, or you can also find them on Spotify. And if there's a guess you would like to see me interview on the podcast, or a topic like today's, you would like to hear me discuss, please reach out to us at Momentum Friday

Starting point is 00:21:02 at passionstruck.com, or you can hit me up on LinkedIn or Instagram. Now go out there yourself and become passion struck. Thank you so much for joining us. The purpose of our show is to make passion go viral. And we do that by sharing with you the knowledge and skills that you need to unlock your hidden potential. If you want to hear more, please subscribe to the PassionStruct podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcast at. And if you absolutely love this episode, we'd appreciate a five-star rating on iTunes and you sharing it with three of your most growth-minded friends so they can post it as well to their social accounts and help us grow our

Starting point is 00:21:44 PassionStruct community. If you'd like to learn more about the show and our friends, so they can post it as well to their social accounts and help us grow our passion struck community. If you'd like to learn more about the show and our mission, you can go to passionstruck.com where you can sign up for our newsletter, look at our tools, and also download the show notes for today's episode. Additionally, you can listen to us every Tuesday and Friday, or even more inspiring content. And remember, make a choice, work hard, and step into your sharp edges. Thank you again for joining us.

Starting point is 00:22:24 you

Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Why Your Micro Choices Determine Your Life w/ John R. Miles EP 145

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