4
- 3 years ago
Tom Bilyeu, co-founder of Quest Nutrition and CEO of Impact Theory reveals 8 powerful tips on how to master the game of focus and productivity.
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00:00 This is how you improve your focus
00:02 and increase productivity.
00:03 I'm Tom Bilyeu for Goalcast.
00:05 I co-founded and built the billion dollar brand
00:07 Quest Nutrition starting from scratch
00:10 with no knowledge of the food industry
00:12 and only about $10,000 in startup capital.
00:15 We grew the company by 57,000%
00:18 in our first three years alone
00:19 and Eek Magazine named us the second fastest growing
00:22 private company in America.
00:24 How did I do it?
00:25 By learning to be deadly efficient with my time
00:28 and by staying focused long after the tasks
00:31 became really boring.
00:33 The truth is by nature I am really easily distracted
00:36 and I'm absolutely horrific at time management.
00:39 When I was a kid I was diagnosed
00:40 with hyperactivity disorder.
00:42 My whole life I've been the kind of person
00:44 that bounced off the walls, I lack discipline
00:46 and follow through quite frankly.
00:48 But what I learned is that focus is just like a muscle.
00:52 If you train it, it gets stronger.
00:54 The question is how on earth do you train it?
00:57 That's what I spent the last 20 years of my life
00:59 as an entrepreneur perfecting.
01:01 It's taken me several failed businesses
01:04 and a couple of grand scale successes
01:06 to prove out these methods.
01:07 So grab something to take notes with.
01:10 All right, here are the eight training secrets
01:13 that took me from scrounging in my couch cushions
01:15 to find enough change to put gas in my car
01:18 to generating real phenomenal wealth.
01:20 Number one, start with passion.
01:23 Willpower isn't a finite resource, but motivation is.
01:27 So when you feel like you don't have the willpower
01:30 that you need, chances are what you're really lacking
01:33 is motivation.
01:34 So you're not pursuing something that means enough to you
01:37 for you to be able to generate energy.
01:39 You wanna pursue things that give you more energy
01:42 than they take.
01:43 Now I don't think anybody's born with a passion.
01:45 I think that it's something that you build in your life.
01:48 I don't think it's something that you find.
01:49 You find something that you're interested in,
01:52 but then you're going to fan the flames of that interest
01:54 through engagement, turn it into a fascination,
01:58 and then through the process of gaining mastery,
02:00 you turn that fascination into a real full-blown passion.
02:04 But ultimately, what you're trying to do
02:06 is build something in your life
02:07 that's giving you more energy than it's taking away.
02:10 That way, when it gets boring, when it gets hard,
02:12 when you find your focus slipping,
02:13 you're gonna have what you need to come back
02:15 to that thing that you know you should be focusing on.
02:17 Then you're going to push through.
02:19 So knowing that it's not really about
02:21 having the willpower to bring yourself back around
02:24 to what you should be focused on,
02:25 but rather making sure that the thing
02:27 you're supposed to be focused around is exciting to you,
02:30 then you're gonna be able to make it.
02:31 Number two, practice grit.
02:34 And the way you're gonna practice this
02:35 is by learning to meditate.
02:36 Now meditation may not seem like the most logical way
02:39 to practice grit, but in reality,
02:41 meditating is really just about coming back to the breath.
02:44 Every time your thoughts wander,
02:45 you're gonna bring it back to the breath,
02:47 bring it back to the breath.
02:48 And that practice of over and over,
02:50 recentering yourself, coming back,
02:52 stopping thinking about this new distraction
02:54 and just come back to the task at hand,
02:56 which is your breath.
02:58 And in doing that, and that's how you're gonna
03:00 build that muscle.
03:01 So not only are there other massive benefits to meditation,
03:06 including clearing your mind,
03:08 but it's also going to allow you to practice
03:10 coming back to something over and over and over.
03:13 Because ultimately, that's what focus is.
03:15 What am I supposed to be thinking about?
03:17 What am I supposed to be doing?
03:18 And every time your mind wanders,
03:19 because it is going to wander,
03:22 but every time it wanders,
03:23 you wanna get good at bringing it back.
03:25 All right, the second part of meditating,
03:27 clearing your head, brings us to the next thing,
03:29 which is number three, cognitive optimization.
03:32 And that's one of the other benefits of meditation
03:35 is it's going to not only give you the chance
03:37 to practice coming back to something over and over and over,
03:39 but it's going to lower what I call
03:42 your background radiation, your stress, your anxiety,
03:45 it's gonna go away as you meditate.
03:46 And that's absolutely critical
03:48 because if you're going to be efficient,
03:49 you've got to be cognitively optimized.
03:52 There are really three ways to do that.
03:53 Number one, get as much sleep as you need.
03:56 However much that is, get it.
03:58 I don't use an alarm.
03:59 I built a billion dollar brand not using an alarm.
04:02 So there are no excuses about how busy you are.
04:05 I work a lot, but I'm telling you right now,
04:07 I get sleep first.
04:09 Number two, hit the gym.
04:11 I wish this weren't so because I am not a fan of the gym,
04:14 but going to the gym forces you to stick to a routine,
04:17 to go to do hard things, and most importantly,
04:21 studies show that it's the only way
04:23 to fully cognitively optimize.
04:24 You've got to get in and push your body.
04:26 It's going to help regulate the way that you think.
04:29 All right, the third thing on that
04:30 is you've got to make sure that your diet is on point.
04:32 Again, I wish that I could just eat
04:34 a tub of licorice every day.
04:36 I love junk food in ways you can't imagine,
04:38 but it doesn't help you think clearly.
04:40 And if you're going to get done the things
04:41 that you want to get done,
04:42 if you're going to achieve your goals,
04:43 if you really want to be able to focus,
04:47 you've got to have your diet on point.
04:48 You avoid cognitive fatigue.
04:51 You avoid things like brain fog.
04:53 It allows you to really be at your best and think clearly.
04:56 Number four, apply the newfound grit
04:58 that you've been building through meditation
05:00 and going to the gym to your work,
05:02 just like you force yourself to go to the gym
05:04 when you don't want to,
05:05 and you're forcing yourself to sit there and meditate
05:07 and come back to the breath,
05:08 even though I'm sure you want to do something else,
05:10 that act of going and doing the thing
05:13 that's leading you towards your goals
05:14 rather than whatever random thing
05:16 your mind throws up in front of you,
05:18 that gives you the discipline to see something through,
05:20 to have the ability to come back over and over.
05:22 When you start applying that to your tasks,
05:25 all of a sudden you're going to see
05:26 that you start working through your to-do list
05:28 and you start actually making real progress.
05:30 All right, number five,
05:31 you're going to have to change your identity.
05:33 None of this stuff is going to come easily.
05:35 Sitting down, doing the work,
05:37 what Michio Kaku calls butt power,
05:39 actually sitting there
05:41 and just getting through that task list
05:43 isn't going to be easy,
05:44 and a lot of times it's going to be really boring,
05:46 it is not going to be fun,
05:47 you're going to want to go do your version of play,
05:49 whatever that is,
05:50 but in those moments,
05:51 your identity is going to save you
05:54 because you're going to take the time
05:55 to repeat to yourself what kind of person you are,
05:59 and this narrative,
06:00 this thing that you tell yourself about yourself
06:03 is going to determine what you achieve in life.
06:05 I always say there are two things that really matter.
06:08 Number one, what you repeat to yourself about yourself,
06:11 and number two, what you repeat to other people.
06:13 What do you say out loud?
06:15 Because when you tell people what kind of person you are,
06:18 what you're about, what you do,
06:20 what you're trying to build,
06:21 you create this need for congruence.
06:23 As you're telling people that you're that way,
06:25 as you're telling people how you think,
06:26 that you're pushing yourself,
06:27 that you're the kind of person that,
06:29 fill in the blank,
06:30 focuses, has a big mission,
06:32 is working towards it,
06:33 only does what leads you toward your goals,
06:35 whatever it is that you're repeating to yourself
06:37 and to others,
06:38 you're going to create that need to be congruent with that,
06:41 and that is hugely advantageous.
06:43 Make sure that you're taking advantage of that.
06:45 All right, number six,
06:47 you've got to hold yourself to a ridiculously high standard.
06:51 The truth is, in life, there's only one path to success,
06:55 and that is set the bar ridiculously high,
06:59 and then surpass all expectations.
07:02 You don't wanna play the part of achieving your goals,
07:04 you don't wanna pay lip service to it,
07:06 you actually want to do it,
07:07 and to do that, you've gotta hold yourself accountable
07:10 to progress.
07:11 When you're holding yourself accountable to a high standard,
07:15 when your identity is tied in,
07:16 then all of a sudden,
07:17 you're actually going to be looking for those metrics
07:19 of real progress that you can identify,
07:22 and you won't be afraid to adjust course
07:24 if you're not actually making that progress,
07:26 because who you are and the way that you feel about yourself
07:30 is tied up in all of that.
07:32 Number seven, be deadly efficient with your time.
07:36 The goal here is to be proactive, not reactive.
07:38 Most people spend all of their time being reactive.
07:41 They spend a lot of time checking their email,
07:43 taking phone calls, taking meetings,
07:46 rather than saying, this is my goal,
07:48 this is my plan to reach that goal.
07:51 Whenever I check my email,
07:52 I feel a deep and pervading sense of shame,
07:54 because when you're checking your email,
07:55 you're being very reactive,
07:57 and you're saying somebody else outside of my business
08:00 knows better how I should be spending my time than I do.
08:03 So I highly encourage you guys
08:05 to keep your email checking to an absolute minimum.
08:08 I probably reply to less than five emails a week,
08:12 and I do that because I have that list of important things.
08:15 I know at all times what I should be working on.
08:17 I don't need other people to tell me.
08:19 So my advice to you is keep a list
08:21 of the most important things you could be doing
08:23 at any one time to reach your goals.
08:25 I live and die by my important things list.
08:28 Number eight, and this is one of the most important things
08:32 that any of us can remember.
08:33 80% of business is knowing what not to do.
08:37 Most people are drowning in opportunity.
08:39 People think that the hard part
08:41 is gonna be to get some opportunity,
08:43 for something to come along
08:44 that they're able to take advantage of
08:45 and really create some momentum off of.
08:47 The reality is we're all standing in a room
08:49 with 1,000 doors, and our job is to close 999 of them.
08:54 The problem in your life
08:55 isn't going to be a lack of opportunity.
08:57 I actually think opportunities come along all the time.
09:01 The problem is knowing which ones to pursue
09:04 and which ones to say no to.
09:05 And that's what feeds back into that important things list,
09:08 which feeds back into your goals.
09:09 You have to have crystal clarity on what your goal is
09:13 and how you're going to achieve it.
09:14 And that's how you're gonna decide
09:16 which one of those 1,000 doors
09:18 you're actually going to step through.
09:20 All right, guys, that's it.
09:21 If you do those eight things,
09:23 you will be well on your way
09:24 to mastering the game of focus and productivity.
09:27 Again, my name is Tom Bilyeu,
09:28 and you can follow me at @tombilyeu.
09:31 You can follow me there across all socials,
09:33 including YouTube.
09:34 Let me know how I can help.
09:35 And until next time, be legendary.
09:37 Take care.
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