Doing some of the things you say you’ll do can be a challenge. Morning Hustlers’ Greg Santos, however, has got it more or less figured out.
Now Greg helps other people with follow-through. Listen and discover how you, too, can become someone who gets things done.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 35:21 — 32.5MB)
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Podcast highlights:
01:02 – How Greg beat out many to be on the show
07:08 – Deciding to finish what you started
12:12 – The crazy bathroom exercise that puts things in perspective
18:18 – What keeps people from following through start to finish?
20:24 – How small things build up to a habit
26:17 – Combating the deep-seated mental shortcuts
28:15 – The entrepreneur in you versus the worker
31:10 – What most excites Greg at this point
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If you find it hard occasionally to finish what you started, you’ve got plenty of company. Our guest in this episode had the same trouble achieving goals. Thanks to some personal initiative and mindset work, however, he not only sees things start to finish now, but he mentors others to do the same.
Greg Santos is host of a daily 5am online call, attended by entrepreneurs and professionals from around the world. At the age of 25, he has invested over $30,000 in his business self-education. A few years ago, however, nothing used to stick. He would start out excited, then fall off the wagon two to three weeks later.
Deciding to finish what you started
The big change came when he turned 23. He realized, one, that he didn’t have all the time in the world to make his dreams come true. Two, he learned from Jim Rohn that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. His circle, he reflected, wasn’t really ambitious and invested in themselves.
“You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
From that point on, he made an effort to surround himself with the right people, those who would hold each other to a higher standard.
The crazy bathroom exercise that puts things in perspective
For any uncertainty about what you want in life, a mentor of Greg’s recommended a somewhat strange exercise. It was to lock oneself in the bathroom for two days with food and water but no technology. While there, you were to write down the answers to the questions, Who am I? What kind of life do I want to live? And who are the people that I want to spend my time with? You were to get crystal clear on exactly what you like, what you don’t like, what you will tolerate, what you won’t, what kind of life, everything. Map it out.
Greg did the whole two days and emerged with more clarity, he says, than he had ever had in his entire life. He had a sense of purpose, and knew himself and his values.
He wouldn’t recommend the bathroom exercise for everyone, but he does suggest taking the time alone to sit down and write out exactly how you want to live your life, the kind of people you want, and who are you and who do you want to become. James agrees, referencing something he and 10XPRO‘s John Lint talk about, that you’re only one log cabin weekend away from your next big thing.
What keeps people from following through start to finish?
Environment is one big thing that can block follow-through, says Greg, hence his decision to change his companions.
Lack of accountability is another, which is why Greg has four accountability systems set up. Besides his 5am call, he says, he has two other accountability systems that he runs through by the time it’s 6:30 in the morning, plus a weekly call where he meets up with other people to go over their week. These people are also seriously working towards something. They all agree there’s nothing more important at that stage in their life than their goals and making something amazing happen.
A big thing, says Greg, is that the more you start following through with the things you say you’re going to do, the more you’ll start following through with the things you say you’re going to do.
When he first started waking at five in the morning, it was an inconsistent thing – he’d do it for a couple of days or a week. What he needed was to make it a habit, and to drown out the voice in his head that said he wouldn’t be able to do it.
How small things build up to a habit
He began to strengthen the habit with little things, small building blocks to build a foundation.
He made up his mind he would be in bed by 8:30 every single night. It didn’t matter what day of the year it was – Christmas, Thanksgiving, his birthday – he was in bed at 8:30, despite some backlash from friends and family.
Once he had his bedtime down, he set to work on writing his goals every day, something he focused on for three or four weeks before it became a habit.
It’s a slow build, says Greg, but once you’ve done it 30 or 60 days and built that trust with yourself, you achieve what Darren Hardy calls Big Mo, which is big momentum, where it becomes easier to do the thing you’re aiming for than not to do it. But it starts with very small things.
“People are playing at a mediocre level, by default, and it’s a matter of tuning.”
James thinks people are playing at a mediocre level, by default, and it’s a matter of tuning. If you can take responsibility, and step up, and control and own your own actions, you can achieve something. Surrounding yourself with the right environment is very important. And it’s very, very critical to take back ownership of yourself from what the government and people around you may want you to think.
“It’s very, very critical to take back ownership of yourself.”
Combating the deep-seated mental shortcuts
One thing you have to realize, says Greg, is that we have cognitive biases in our brain, which basically means we have mental shortcuts that our brain takes that make it easier to make decisions. Those biases are not designed for us to necessarily thrive. They were useful back when our ancestors needed them for survival, but no longer.
“The brain always wants to take the easy path.”
There’s a big bias called temporal discounting, which basically means that we will have a tendency to lean more towards feeling good now than later. The reason for this is that our ancestors had to take all action they possibly could to survive now, because there was no guarantee of survival later. Once we understand that, we can figure out ways and set up systems to combat it.
If, for instance, you want to eat healthy, you can decide that at 5pm, you’re going to eat a specific meal. Without that decision, you will likely just choose something that’s quick, easy, and tastes good, but may not be the most nutritious option.
The entrepreneur in you versus the worker
We have two different hats, says Greg, referring to one of his mentors, John Sonmez. We have our entrepreneur hat, which is basically the planner hat. We put that on and say, this is what we’re going to do. We plan out our days and weeks and make sure everything makes sense.
Then we have our worker hat. Once we’re done planning and we have pre-made our decisions, then we put the worker hat on. The worker in us is the person who’s not thinking so high-level. It’s the person in the muck doing the thing. And when you have that hat on, you have to 100 percent just do what your entrepreneur hat said to do. And you can’t question it.
Understand, however, that you are a human being. Occasionally, you will mess up. And the worst thing you can possibly do is really making it hell in your brain. So don’t beat yourself up.
Every day, you declare victory and say, Alright, what went well today? Did you work when you didn’t feel like working, even if it was for five minutes? Maybe you meditated for three minutes. You’ve got to celebrate the little things. You’ve got to build yourself up, and that’s going to take some time. Discipline is like a muscle. Over time through consistency, you will build it up.
So be proud of yourself for the actions you are taking, be proud with the little things you are following through with. And before you know it, you’ll have Big Mo on your side, and it will be harder for you to not take action than it will be for you to take action. Because you follow through so much with your word and what you say that you refuse to go back to where you were before.
“Enjoy the process all the way through, the journey is the reward.”
Until you reach that, celebrate the little things, and enjoy the process all the way through. The journey is the reward.
If you want to know more about Greg, you can find him on Instagram – GregSant0s. And if you want to join his 5am call, it’s 5am Pacific Standard Time, every single day of the year, and is 100 percent free. It’s called The Morning Hustlers. Go to morninghustlers.com, and you can join the Zoom link. It’s 15 minutes, and attended by ambitious people from around the world.
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