Start With A Win - How to Shape Your Mindset with One Simple Question

Episode Date: September 1, 2021

In this episode of Start With A Win, Adam and SWAW Producer Mark pick up the conversation about Adam's first authored book, Start With A Win: Tools and Lessons to Create Personal and Business Success. Adam announces he will be donating all book proceeds to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Adam initiates the conversation by addressing two common questions that determine life approaches: “Do I get to?” Or “Do I have to?”These questions not only shape your mindset but force you to stop and reflect on how you think about yourself. Once people become conscious of their attitude and choices, it can potentially create doubt. Doubt generates from fear and overwhelm, challenging people to push beyond capabilities. Confront challenges with an “I can” attitude—rather than “I can’t.” Adam explains how lacking the proper attitude/mindset will create barriers to seek and overcome daily challenges. Without seeking challenges, people will never experience victories—victories power, educate, and inspire us. Adam always asks himself three questions in every situation:1) What is the challenge?2) What is the necessary attitude to get started? 3) What actions are needed to overcome the challenge?Adam outlines the significance of appreciating micro-wins/moments. Enjoying the tiny actions and commitments will enable your thoughts to build momentum as you navigate daily life. He shares the concept of falling forward in life and how it teaches us how to create wins as people are consistently psychologically training to respond to future situations. Life is a compilation of missions—experiences and interactions that shape who we are and how we respond. Start With A Win provides insights to turn mindsets into actions, which create successes and ultimately build upon each other. Pre-order your copy of Start With A Win:https://www.amazon.com/Start-Win-Lessons-Personal-Business/dp/1119807077https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/start-with-a-win-adam-contos/1138838681https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/start-with-a-win-tools-and-lessons-to-create-personal-and-business-success_adam-contos/28078881/#edition=58850831&idiq=46017298Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ Leave us a voicemail:888-581-4430

Hey, Adam, a lot of people have been asking this. How do you start your day with a win? Oh my gosh, that's a great question, Mark. And thank you for asking. In fact, I just spent the last year writing a book about how I start my day with a win. You want to talk about that today? I would love that.

Every day is filled with choices. You're here because you're choosing to start with a win. Get ready to be inspired, learn something new, and connect with the win nation. Coming to you from Denver, Colorado, home of REMAX World Headquarters, is Adam Canto, CEO of Remax with Start With A Win. How are you starting your day with a win today, Mark? I'm starting my day by centering myself and making sure that I am present in this moment, hanging out with you, talking about starting with a win.

All right. I had to throw that in there. No, that's good. I like that. Adam, you wrote a book. We've talked a little bit about it and we kind of did a highlight of chapters and things like that a few episodes ago. But yeah, I mean, this is an exciting time for you. I mean, writing a book's a big deal. And the other awesome thing is that all proceeds are going to go to benefit the Children's Miracle Network. So that's just awesome. That's just so cool. Yeah. In fact, that was a decision we made today. Collectively, I was talking to the marketing team. I talked to actually Dave Linegar, who is the co-founder of Remax,

some amazing other entrepreneurs that I know. And I thought, I want to make some impact with this book. Instead of just, hey, it's on my bucket list. I want to write a book. Let's do something good for the community in the process of this. And there's a lot of really good information in the book, a lot of great business and personal and leadership tips to help people start with a win. But how do we continue that impact? We thought, well, why not donate the author's proceeds from the sales of the book?

So obviously, there's expenses that go into printing it and the publisher and the distributor and the resale and all that other stuff. They've got to pay their employees or whatever. But any profits that are for the author after that, I'm going to donate 100% of those to Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, which is – it's about the kids. We have – every dollar given to that charity goes locally into your local area to help the hospitals and help the kids. And just so many lives have been saved that way, and lives have been changed. So I can feel good about my five book pre-orders, that not only am I going to benefit those who I share it with,

but I'm also going to benefit by helping others that are in need. So that's cool, man. I'm excited about that. I think that's really awesome. Well, at Remax, we call it when we give some results, some proceeds from the sale of a house, we call it a miracle home. Well, this is a miracle book now. Let's go. Yeah. So we're excited about that. But you want to talk about the book a little bit? There's some

really cool things in here that we can share on the podcast. Yeah. I think we're going to highlight a lot of different things about this book over the next several weeks before it comes out. But yeah, I'd love to hear more about it and inspire our listeners to take action in their own lives as well as pre-order the book. Awesome. Well, just to start with, let me break down the book a little bit. The way that the book is laid out, there's two parts to the book. The first part is about you and intrinsically how we approach things like our attitude and the framework that we have in order to create those wins. And then the second part of the book, which is the majority of the chapters, probably two-thirds of

the chapters, is essentially a toolbox. It's a toolbox for creating those wins, understanding different things, your emotions, learning, leadership principles, how to deal with bad situations, things of that nature. So essentially, we're going to introduce you to starting with a win and some of the things that you need to look at in your mind. And then we're going to give you a bunch of tools and tactics to be able to create those wins. So I'm really excited about this. You ready to dive into it here? I am. I am so ready. All right. Well, Mark, the foundation for all this, and you and I actually have talked about this before. None of these concepts are foreign to people, but I'm going to give you a different perspective on a lot of them. And I'm going to open your eyes to

how should we think about ourselves? So we call it holding up the mirror. When you wake up in the morning and your eyes open, what are you going to do? And what approach are you going to take to life? Are you going to take the, do I have to, or do I get to approach in life? Cause you have to make a decision, right? Like you have to wake up and choose one of those two things. There's, there's, there's an option that has to be chosen. Well, and let me, let me give you an easy way to make that decision, Mark, because we always have this doubt. As soon as we become conscious, we begin having doubt. And that doubt is fear and overwhelm that we have something pending in the day that is going to challenge us beyond our capabilities and is going to cause us some sort of problem

internally, externally, emotionally, physically, whatever it may be. And we have to decide immediately that we can. I mean, the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning is I just, I don't care what it is. I just, I think I can. And without the right attitude, you're not going to do anything. You're not going to accomplish anything. You're going to find a way around it, or you're going to find a way to deny, decline, avoid whatever it is that shows up in front of you. And I'll tell you, everybody goes through those days in their life where they just feel like they're like, oh, I can't wait to go back to bed.

I mean, have you ever thought about it? You wake up in the morning, you're like, I just want to go back to bed. Have you ever thought about it? You wake up in the morning, you're like, I just want to go back to bed. And it's not because you're necessarily in need of the sleep, because rest is very important. We have to recover. Our bodies have to recover.

Our brains have to recover. It's that we've convinced ourselves that we don't want to face the day. And in order to get past that, it's simple. We have a switch that we need to flip that is, I can. We have to change our attitude. Because without the proper attitude, it becomes incredibly difficult to seek out and overcome the challenges in the day. And there are challenges in every day. Because the reality is, if we don't go out and overcome the challenges in the day. And there are challenges in every day because the reality is if we don't go out and seek out challenges, we don't get victories. And those victories power us and they educate us and they inspire us and they help those around us

to do even better. I mean, imagine if your kids were watching you on TV and they're like, what am I learning from this? What would they get from it? And that's the beginning of your first win is I can. It's like that micro win too, right? Where it's like, even if you wake up, maybe you got your heart broken the day before, or maybe something, a deal fell through, or maybe you got some bad news. I think it's that idea of doing that micro, I can, right? Where it's like, okay, I can put my feet on the floor, right? I can go to the bathroom and brush my teeth, you know, I can get in the shower, like, and making these small commitments to move yourself in a forward progression. And then what I find in myself, because as happy and

energetic as I am, there are times where I have to make those choices and I have to choose that I can do something. It starts to snowball. Those choices that you make start to snowball and then they compound on themselves. And then all of a sudden you find yourself like moving through your day, you know? That's, I mean, it's a fantastic approach to it and a great way of looking at it. Because ultimately you have a challenge that begins your day. For some people that first challenge is how do I get out of bed? Maybe it's because you're physically your, your challenge, or you're just so comfortable under those covers. Or maybe the challenge is you hear a screaming child that you need to go take care of, or your dog's at the door scratching going, I need to go out, or who knows what it is. But ultimately,

we have a challenge we have to face every day. And there are three questions that I always ask myself. And that happens when I, from the time I open my eyes to every encounter, every opportunity, every whatever it is, I come across in a day. And that is, what is the challenge? What is the necessary attitude to get started? And what action or actions are necessary to overcome the challenge. So, I mean, really essentially it boils down to what do I need to do and how do I make myself motivated and happy and empowered to go do that? Yeah. So what are some of those things like that, that you, that make you happy or that empower you? I mean, is it something simple as like getting your cup of coffee? Like, okay, like that coffee sounds good right now. Like what, what are some of those things? It totally is. It's everything from, I mean, from just start with getting out of bed. What's the first thing you can do to win when you get out of bed, make your bed. Why? Because it is an incomplete task that we can complete. So when you take a look at completing a task, and I'll tell you what,

there's nothing more satisfying at the end of the day than climbing into a nicely made bed. Crisp. Oh, it's amazing. You know, when you shower and then your sheets were just changed and then it's like super clean, that's the best. Unbelievable. I mean, so think about what we're doing right now. We are rewarding ourselves for the action emotionally by talking about this that way, right? Get excited about something. When you look at people that don't try to get excited about the little things in life,

the little things start to eat away at them. So make those micro wins, those little tiny actions and little tiny commitments to get your day going. And you know what happens is they build momentum. They build upon each other and you're going to have some challenges that happen. You're going to have some, maybe, maybe you do go into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, which I love my first cup of coffee. Why I, I pull out my cup of coffee, coffee, pull it off the coffee maker. I'm like, oh, it smells so good. Enjoy the moments in life. My dogs, when my alarm goes off and it doesn't even have to make noise, it's just my iPhone, the light turns on on it, you know, and on the screen. It vibrates quietly.

Yeah. And my dog, I get a, I have two German shepherds, Seymour, my big German shepherd, his nose is in my face. He's like, hi dad. And I, and I, I make up this voice I have for him. I was like, hi dad. I know he's got a voice in his head someplace. And usually it's a squeak, you know, how dogs kind of squeak a little bit. Yeah. But, um, but I'm like, I love this. I love this. And those little things add up. And a lot of people are like, oh, I'm like, I love this. I love this. And those little things add up. And a lot of people are like, I'm miserable. I don't have a dog. Whatever it might be, find your wins.

Find your wins and celebrate them. And that's the best way to start moving because we have to start falling forward in life. And really what happens is that teaches us how to create wins. How do we go through life, all these experiences? And I call all of these experiences missions. They're all missions. They're experiences and interactions that shape who we are and how we respond to other experiences and interactions of people and things like that. So like if you, let's say you get out of bed and you knock over stuff on your nightstand and you're like, you know, cussing or upset or whatever, don't do that to yourself. I'm just here to say, make it a positive thing because we're psychologically training ourselves

how to respond to the next situation. It seems like it's so hard for a lot of people to, you know, train their mindset. I think it's one of those things where it's like, we need to learn how to control our minds and not let our minds control us. Exactly. Life is about what we can convince ourselves that it's about. And you take a look at people who've had major significant issues in their lives, and so many of them have found happiness and content in their lives. And you have to ask yourself why and how. And here's ultimately, and we're just talking about kind of the flyover of the book right now, then we're going to get deeper into it in the next podcast. But ultimately, if you take something from this podcast right now, this episode, it's that you can,

and you can, even if you're miserable right now, if you're having challenges, why? Why are you having those challenges and why are you miserable in some way, shape, or form? Because you don't have to be. This is your choice. It is 100% your choice. It's nobody else's choice. You can be in prison right now and you can make the choice of, I'm going to be happy today. Nobody can take that away from me. So why not figure out a way to start your day with a win? And that's where this book digs. This book digs deep into how do you take these mindsets and you turn them into actions. And then we turn those actions into successes. And then those successes build upon each other. And it's this theory of

tiny hinges swing big doors. Those successes are little tiny hinges. And the more we add to that door, the bigger the door is that we can swing and it adds up to big wins. And that's what life is about. That's fantastic. That's so great. I'm excited for this book to come out. And like I said, I pre-ordered five copies because I know that I have a handful of people I want to share it with and encourage them. And so, yeah, I'm glad that this finally came out of your mind and onto the page. So I also can't wait for the audio version so I can download it on Audible and listen to that. Mark, I was going to hire somebody to, uh, or the audible company was going to hire somebody. I'm like, I have a podcast. I think

I should do this myself. You should read your own book. I can read my own book. I'm going to, you know, I'm tempted to insert a few little Easter eggs in there for those that, that listen to the audible. Of course, you know, you can always go off track and that's right. Hey, you're like, no, no, no, I want this in there. So anyhow, I'm excited about this. The release is coming up in October, but next podcast, we are actually going to start digging into some of these concepts and talking about how we can help ourselves because here's the reality. You're a leader. You're a leader, folks. Leaders learn, learners lead. And we are here to help you take in some of these great business principles. They're all, I mean, all over timeless. So many of these things are timeless from, you know, hundreds of years ago, all the way to, to currently today, the business concepts

to help you build your business, build yourself, be more happy, have a, you know, a closer relationships to your loved ones. And, uh, let me start your day with a win. Yeah. And Hey, I got, I got two things for you. One, subscribe to the podcast and to head over to start with a win.com and pre-order the book. And, you know, say you, um, have a large team or, uh, part of a big broker or something like that. There's actually, uh, some different giveaways and some perks that you, uh, you can have depending on the amount of books that you buy. So, um, head to startwithawin.com, uh, to hear more about that. And, um, yeah, until next time, remember start with a win.