Start With A Win - The secrets to commitment (Part 2 of 2)

Episode Date: March 1, 2019

Adam finishes up his discussion on commitment by integrating the attitude from last episode with the execution. Many people fall short of total commitment because they believe that they just need the right mindset and things will fall into place. Think about a relationship: if both people had decided to be committed and then they only give 50% effort, the relationship is going to fail. Both people have to give 100% effort in order to be truly committed to each other and the relationship.So how do you turn your commitment into action?Segmenting your goals into microcommitments – When your alarm goes off, don’t focus on the big goal of making it to the gym or getting to that 9am meeting. Focus instead on putting your feet on the floor, standing up, walking to the kitchen, getting your cup of coffee, and so on. These are microcommitments that are very easy to execute and will give you the momentum to just keep going until you’ve accomplished the main goal without being overwhelmed.Mastering the art of showing up – As we have already discussed, the hardest part of commitment is deciding to do it, so now you are equipped to conquer the last hurdle of showing up. Don’t overcommit early on, and surprise yourself and others by overdelivering.Eliminate distractions – Entertainment is the enemy of execution. Designate time in your day for checking social media and set your devices aside when it is time to get down to business. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you will be more productive if you take a “brain break” by mindlessly scrolling your feed.Create an environment that facilitates success – Set up some ground rules for yourself about what you will do and not do, and be consistent. The intensity of your commitments will have an impact on other people as well, creating a culture that is mutually beneficial and productive.Links:“Miracle Morning” by Hal Elrod: https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Morning-Not-So-Obvious-Guaranteed-Transform/dp/0979019710/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1550070986&sr=8-3&keywords=miracle+morning “Atomic Habits” by James Clear: https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1550070966&sr=8-2&keywords=atomic+habits Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/adamcontosREMAXCEO/https://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/

At top of the 12th floor of the REMAX World Headquarters, you're listening to Start With a Win with CEO Adam Kantos. And let's start with a win, everybody. It's Adam Kantos here, top of the 12th floor of REMAX World Headquarters. Nobody in the world sells more real estate than REMAX. Super happy to be here today. Got with me here, producer Mark. How you doing, Mark? I am so wonderful.

So wonderful. Yeah. I'm trying to think of like how many, what is it, superlatives? Yeah. Yeah. How many of those can I like think of or create? There's not enough. You need one to use every time, right? I know.

Like the signature one. There you go. So good is one of my favorites. You know, when I ask you that, I kind of expect that one to come out. Really? So Good. So Good. Yeah.

It surprises people. In the elevator today, they're like, how are you doing? I'm like, so good. They're like, it's freezing though. I'm like, yeah, but I'm just so good. Yeah. We're standing here, right? Yeah.

Come on. We're live. And it's beautiful. We're out here looking out the 12th floor. It's like this painted picture outside the window here. We got the snow-capped Rockies in front of us. Like Bob Ross came here and just painted our background for us. Yeah, we got a few fluffy little clouds out there. Some happy trees.

Happy trees, exactly. Well, Wade, what are we talking about today? I think we're continuing our series on commitment. This is part two of commitment. I love the word commitment, okay? It's just, there's so much in life that is encompassed by that. And when I think about commitment, I think about the two things that I define commitment, because we all have a different definition of commitment. And you look at the Urban Dictionary definition of it, and we read that last time. It's so cool. But really what it boils down to is what is your attitude about something and how do you

execute on it? You're in it. And I was told a story long ago by somebody about commitment. And they said, you have to look at the difference between interest and commitment. And the difference between interest and commitment is like bacon and eggs. So the chicken was interested. Okay. The pig was committed.

That's so good. It's true. He went all the way all the way baby he is committed to that to that breakfast but that's commitment he's all in sorry to any vegans out there uh yeah well didn't work for the chicken or the pig on that right yeah but uh good source of protein bacon and eggs but anyhow so i want to talk about execution okay how do we implement that into our commitment because you can talk about something all day long. Yeah. But until you execute on it, it's a dream without action.

It's like committing to marry someone and then marrying somebody. Yeah. Oh, totally. Yeah. Or committing to the relationship and talking about the relationship, but not actually executing on the relationship itself. Not doing something. And that's an interesting way to begin that thought, Mark, because execution is not a 50-50 in life.

There's not a, you do this for me and I'll do it for you type thing. And just like in a relationship, you can't go in and go, all right, I'm putting in my half. You put in your half. Sorry, folks. That's not going to work. It's got to be a 101. So I know that when I wake up in the morning every day, when I do anything, my commitment to my wife, to my family, I'm in it 100% for them. And if they don't come

and give me something back that day, that's fine because I'm giving everything I can and all I've got to that relationship. And that's how we have to look at commitment is 101. You have to be 100% into it, not dabbling in it, giving some, expecting some back. Does that make sense? Totally. It's like, well, if people respond to my post, then I'll make more posts. If people like my video, I'll make more videos. No, I'm going to make 100 videos this year, and I'm going to commit to that, and I'm going to to do it no matter if I get zero views or a thousand. Right. It's, you have to be willing to fail on your execution. You have to be willing to put it all in there and not have something come back out in order for this to be effective. And that

truly is what separates people in society, in relationships, in life is gotta be all in baby. Gotta be all in baby gotta be all in gotta be all in so let's dig a little deeper into this so how do you start executing on something how do you what does it look like yeah yeah you just can't go i'm all in all right what does that mean right right you gotta do it you have to take action action is not sitting there thinking about it you know that's called planning so two different things you got it Yeah. So you got to take action. Action starts with something called micro commitments. So when you go to begin an execution, you have to take the steps to begin that execution. For instance, we talk about exercise a lot here on the program. It's a huge part,

your commitment to health. You have to be committed to health because that's one of the spokes of the wheel of a successful life is you have to care about your body, your mind, your teeth. You got to care about your teeth. You got to be able to be healthy in life. And if you're not willing and able to put everything into being healthy in life, you're not going to be as fulfilled as you possibly can. And it's going to translate to your relationships with other people, your ability to execute on business, help people, things like that, because you're going to be struggling inside. So when we talk about starting doing something for your health, the alarm goes off. My alarm went off at 4.30 this morning. Okay. I know yours goes off like

shortly thereafter, right? Yeah. 30 minutes after five o'clock. Yeah. We're in the 5 a.m. club, baby. That's right. You know, the alarm goes off early and you're like, and for everybody out there in listener land, don't get me wrong. Nobody jumps up and goes, woohoo, it's 4.30. That's right. Nobody does that. But what people do, and I do this, is I say, step one, put your feet on the floor. It's that.

That is a micro commitment. I just told myself to do something and I did it. It was so small. Step two, stand up, pet the German shepherds that are now accosting me in the room. Hey, dad, what are we doing? And it's, hey guys, it's time to get up. Let's go into the kitchen. So I mean, every one of these little steps is a micro commitment building up to me getting to the gym. So I've won like 20 times already. Start with a win. You can start with a lot of them. And I've started winning a whole bunch. And you've got your systems and processes in the morning. There's a great book by,

it's called Miracle Morning. It's by Hal Elrod. So good. It's amazing. And that's a good way of looking at your morning and creating those wins. It's like there was that commencement speech that was one day given by the Navy SEAL commander where he says, make your bed. He goes, start by making your bed. Why? Because it's a win. It is a micro commitment. It is a win for your mind. It's a win physically. It's execution on your goals. So set the goal. I'm going to get up. I'm going to make my bed. I'm going to go put on my gym clothes. I'm going to get ready to go. I'm going to go make a cup of coffee, whatever it is, nourish my body with whatever it might be that you have for

breakfast or your pre-workout, and then go execute on what you're going to do. But every single one of those, every little one of those that you do, you have to look at as high five. High five, self. Go me. Yeah, go me. And what that does is that creates that momentum. We're building momentum. And we're also doing something else. We're showing up. And then you get yourself to the gym, drag yourself down the road. All right, I'm getting there. I know it's cold. it was like minus two this morning when i'm driving down the road you know the heater in the old truck wouldn't wouldn't heat up fast enough it's like i'm already where i'm supposed to go my car's still cold exactly yeah it takes me seven minutes to get to the gym and i'm going

it takes like eight and a half to warm up the car but hey that's the way it goes right i'm not using that as an excuse i'm still going that's just that's part of the process of getting there is every now and you're gonna go you know you spill your coffee in your lap you forget to grab your water bottle on the way out the door i don't care what it is execute keep going yeah those little things those are like bugs on the windshield just keep going yeah it's it there you're gonna there's a bug on the windshield all right we'll either pull over and do something about it or move on. But you got to get to the gym. And we've got these micro commitments. Execution starts with micro commitments, forward movement. Do you know

how a train starts? I don't know, with some coal and some steam. Well, not that way. Let the engine close. So let's say you got a coal train with like 100 cars on it or something like that. I'm not a train guy, but I know how they start. And they don't start by going, all right, let's pull all these train cars at once. They start one car at a time. So the train backs up. So you've got this distance in each of the little hooks that hook the cars together. And they back up and they stack those cars up one at a time going the other direction. And then they go forward and they pull the first car. And the first car pulls the second car. And the second car pulls the third car.

They don't pull the whole train at once. Right. And it builds up that momentum. Yeah, exactly. It's just crushing. That's it. So by the time the whole thing's moving, it just kind of spreads out and all of them are moving. But it couldn't start by just going, I'm going to move the train.

Right. So it's one car at a time. It's one movement at a time. It's putting your feet down on the floor. It's getting moving. It's executing one micro commitment at a time. That's how relationships work also, by the way. Micro commitments.

Yeah, that's so true. And that's how business works. Micro commitments. Because you've got, let's say you meet a customer. You don't walk in and go, hey, Mark, do you want to buy this? You're like, no. No, I don't. No.

So I just started with not just a micro-commitment in the right direction. I started with a micro-commitment in the wrong direction. I just started with you resisting our relationship. Because I'm trying to force something on you that you haven't bought into. But if I walk in and go, hey, Mark, love to buy you a cup of coffee, man. They're like, okay, cool. Can't say no to that. No.

And a lot of surveys actually start this way. They'll ask you a question and they'll gain a micro commitment in a positive direction. They're formulas for surveys, for building a relationship in a survey. But they might go, are you a male or a female? And you're like, I know the answer to that. Yeah. And you check the box. Winning.

Yes. Do you like being successful? Who's going to say no? Right. Yes. I'm a yes on that. I mean, just things like that. You're gaining micro commitments in a positive direction.

Yeah. One train car at a time. So good. That's how life goes. And that's how you start execution in life. It's how we deal with people. It's how we deal with ourselves. So we start executing on these micro commitments. And these micro commitments lead to something that James Clear in the book, Atomic Habits, talks about that I love. I absolutely love this. These lead to you showing up, okay? You show up at the gym. The train gets moving. It's showing up. It's the beginning, but you showing up, okay? You show up at the gym. The train gets

moving. It's showing up. It's the beginning, but you show up. And you should master the art of showing up. So even if you can't get your workout in, at least get to the gym, okay? Because that is step one. You get to the gym 10 times, and you're going to go, I made it to the gym 10 times, and getting to the gym now becomes boring. It's a piece of cake. Yeah. What are you gonna do next? Hop on the treadmill, baby. Literally, that is probably one of the best things that somebody with a New Year's resolution to exercise can do.

Don't go in and work yourself out really hard and get all sore and go, I hate this and I can't do it again. That's why people fail on these things. That's why people yo-yo diet is because they hit it too hard. That's why people, they overcommit on the front end instead of micro commitments and mastering the art of showing up. That's what I started this year doing the five by five workout. And it felt awkward and silly. At first, I'm just lifting the bar, right? Like you're just 45 pounds. I'm squatting this 45

pound bar. Like I could do a lot more than this. But the whole idea is that you practice your form and you just commit to doing these workouts very simply. And then you slowly add more weight. Every week I'm adding 2.5 to 5 pounds of what I'm doing. And then all of a sudden I'm getting stronger and it's not as painful. When I thought about working out, I was like, it was kind of easy last week. So I think I'll just do it again. Good for you. But anyways, to your point, it's all about, you know, once you start doing it, and if you start off doing something in a reasonable way, not just trying to kill yourself, it's way easier to show up and it's way easier to continue moving those train cars.

Exactly. Exactly. And I'll tell you, my son said something to me. He heard in a celebrity interview, the guy that played Iron Man. Oh, yeah. What's his name? Tony Stark. Yeah. But Robert Downey Jr. Robert Downey Jr. to me he heard in a celebrity interview the guy played iron man oh yeah um what's his name tony stark yeah but uh robert downey jr you know robert downey jr went through a lot of tough times yeah um you know drug and alcohol addiction things like that i think that's the case no it is yeah he almost like lost his career like he was almost done like in the early 2000s late 90s but yeah

he came back tragic but he made a decision one, and that decision was he was going to go into recovery. And I know a lot of people that have been through that. God bless them. They've done an amazing job for themselves, but they had to execute. Execute on some hard parts of life. It's interesting, you know, you talk about going and exercising and moving things on. You know what's interesting? The hardest part of execution, deciding to do it. Isn't that weird? Yeah, that is. Because your body has trouble lying for your mind. And once you decide to do something, you can start executing on it. That's the hard part, is making the decision. Yeah, it's so true. It's like deciding to get in the line at the roller coaster when you're afraid of roller coasters, or deciding to step over the edge

when you're rappelling off of something because you're afraid of heights orasters. Deciding to step over the edge when you're rappelling off of something because you're afraid of heights or whatever. Deciding is the hard part. Doing it is a lot easier. So it's getting there, deciding to do it. So we've talked about micro commitments. We talked about mastering the art of showing up. Here's another one that I've got for you to really help with execution. Eliminate distractions. So what's the worst thing that your kid can have around when they're trying to get their homework done? Like a device? A device, a video game, a video, YouTube, I don't know, whatever. Whatever it is, yeah.

Yeah, a distraction. That's also a problem that we have as adults. I mean, we all have the same brain. We just have more experiences based upon our age, good experiences, bad experiences, things like that. And we have to learn that we get distracted as well. It happens. There's this thing out there called social media that it placates us because we can flip through and go, like, share, like, like, comment, heart, things like that. Double tap. Yeah, double tap, swipe, whatever it might be.

You go, all right, I feel good. I've checked the box for interacting with society. You just distracted yourself for the most part. I mean, if you're creating value and you're delivering that value to your customers in order to share value and put 100% into your relationship with people, that's fine.

But I can tell you scrolling through the newsfeed mindlessly, nope. And we've built these drugs into society to help us distract ourselves from the things that we need to get done. Yeah. It's a dopamine hit. Every time you get one of those little likes or comments, oh, let me go check this out. It's the enemy of execution. It really is. Why? Because you get the same dopamine hit by executing as you do doing these things that's not executing. It's easier. So kind of crazy.

Well, yeah. And what I started to do is I started to, because in our business, right, it's important that we are on social media or posting or sharing or interacting with our sphere. But I've designated time for that, right? So I won't have Facebook on right? So I won't have Facebook on my computer. I won't have it, my notifications turned on my device, my phone. And I will say from this time to this time, we'll be dedicated to that. And then when I take personal time, maybe in the evening, you know, a half hour or something like that, I'll also spend, you know, a few minutes personal time on there, but it's all like designated. Cause I don't want to get

sucked into that trap. Cause you could easily get sucked in, start watching a couple cat videos and things like that. And then an hour has gone by and you're like, oh man. The deadly cat videos. The deadly cat video. Yeah. So it's interesting because you know what that is? That's entertainment. And it's okay to have entertainment in your life. You need to entertain your brain. Different people have different forms of entertainment. Some people might be going for a walk in the mountains or the desert or whatever it might be. Some people might be go fishing. Some people, it may be reading a comic book or surfing the web or going on Amazon and figuring

out the latest color of something that just came out. I don't know. But the reality is it's okay to entertain yourself. Just don't take the place of execution with entertainment. Does that make sense? Oh yeah, totally. But you're right, Mark. We have to entertain ourselves. Hopefully your entertainment involves something fulfilling, spending time with your loved ones, whatever. It could be mindless entertainment. It could be mindful entertainment such as meditation or quiet time or something like that. Power nap.

Yeah. Right? I love a good power nap. A little 15, 20 minutes. Heck yeah. Wake up recharged. Ready Power nap. Yeah. Right? I love a good power nap. A little 15, 20 minutes. Heck yeah. Wake up recharged. Ready to rock. Yeah.

Ready to execute. Hello. So we've talked about micro-commitments, mastering the art of showing up, and eliminating distractions. Now, let's kind of bring this together here. And that is, we need to live in an environment that we create that facilitates success.

And the co-founder of our company, Dave Linegar, says, your job as a business leader is to create an environment where the people that are in it can be as successful as they want to be. And that, I keep thinking about that because I look around in my environment and determine, what can I do to maximize my environment? And that includes eliminating the distractions. That includes setting yourself up for execution. That includes maximizing your attitude and those relationships. So you look at all those things and they're facilitated by the environment. So you're reducing the friction points, the whole process here in order to get execution to occur. Does that make sense?

Totally. Execution isn't just going in and flipping on a light going, I'm executing. You know, lights on, lights are executing. It's a little more complicated with that because we're human beings and we have the ability to distract ourselves. We have the ability to placate ourselves, to find that dopamine hit elsewhere and not actually do the things that we need to do. We can decide not to do them or not make a decision. Not making a decision to do them is making a decision to not do them. Make sense? Yeah, totally. So commitment, two things. Attitude, it is about wanting it.

It is about going, I got this. I'm after it. And convincing yourself. Yes, we have to convince ourselves sometimes. This is what's best for me. You know what's funny? You can't think both ways. Your brain thinks either this is it or this is not it.

It's up to you to pick that. The mindset. That's it. Have the mindset. Master the mindset game there. So have the attitude and want it. And execute. Do it. Go through those micro commitments. Master the mindset game there. So have the attitude and want it. And execute. Do it. Go through those micro commitments. Master the art of showing up. Eliminate the distractions and put yourself in an environment that facilitates this success.

It's about commitment, my friend. Love it. I think that's awesome. If you are just listening to this episode and you haven't listened to our first episode, go back and listen to episode one on mindset and the commitment. This has been awesome. Thank you so much, Adam. I hope this inspires and recharges a bunch of people to make new commitments and follow through and execute.

I love it, Mark. Thanks a lot. And we'll catch you guys next time on Start With A Win. Thank you so much for joining us today. Make sure to head over to startwithawin.com to get more great content. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow Adam on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. And remember, start with a win.