Jon Acuff's Blog, page 24

How much power does a positive mindset really have?

Colleen Barry lost her job in the entertainment industry during the dot com bust in 2001. Her unexpected unemployment led her to take a job making pizzas in a wood-fired oven, doing freelance graphic design, and eventually becoming the “lobby barista” of a real estate agency. Today, she’s the CEO of the same company where she used to serve espresso to prospective clients. Listen to this week’s episode of All It Takes is a Goal to learn how choosing a positive mindset allowed her to climb the ladder and how you can use the same strategies she did to achieve your goals too.

Books mentioned in this episode:
There’s No Such Thing As Luck by Colleen Barry
Start by Jon Acuff
The Dip by Seth Godin
Lead with Luv by Ken Blanchard and Colleen Barrett
Mindset by Carol Dweck, Ph.D.
Pema Chödrön
Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy

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Order Soundtracks, Jon’s newest book available wherever you find quality books!

The post Just Say “Yes”: How one woman’s positive mindset took her from barista to CEO appeared first on Jon Acuff.

How does a goal go from an idea in your head to something tangible you live out every day?

Joseph Sojourner AKA Sojo is a rapper, public speaker, sneakerhead, and good friend of mine. Like a lot of people, Sojo was once just a small-town kid with big city dreams. So how did he go from Akron, Ohio to traveling the country, working on movie sets, and living out the dreams he’d had since middle school? Listen in to our discussion to learn what it takes to pursue authentic goals, take control of your story, and actually finish a goal.

The post Small Towns, Big Dreams: How to achieve an authentic goal and live it out with Joseph Sojourner (Sojo). appeared first on Jon Acuff.

The last thing an overthinker needs is 800 new ideas about transforming overthinking. So in this episode, I simplified two years of research into three words. How?

Well, I’ll tell you exactly as I read you the entire Introduction and Chapter 1 of my brand new book Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking. Want to learn how to make your thoughts fight for you not against you? Listen to this week’s episode and make sure you pre-order your copy of the book at soundtracksbook.com.

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Preorder Soundtracks, Jon’s newest book out April 6th, 2021!

The post ATG 12: Soundtracks: How 3 simple words can completely change your overthinking appeared first on Jon Acuff.

Resilience is a popular word, especially in the midst of what we’ve faced in the last year. We all need it, but what does it actually mean? In this episode, I’m breaking down exactly what resilience is and how you can build it with the three soundtracks I use when overthinking starts to get in the way of progress.

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Preorder Soundtracks, Jon’s newest book out April 6th, 2021!

The post Building Resilience: 3 Soundtracks to Use When You Don’t Feel Brave appeared first on Jon Acuff.

I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that your memory is a liar.
We tend to think our memory is telling us exactly what happened in the past but that’s never what it does. It adds details. It deletes details. It distorts details. Your memory is a real rascal, a word I’m trying to bring back. That’s the bad news. The good news is that your memory is malleable. You can hack it. In this episode I’ll share the two memory tricks elite athletes use to accomplish big goals.
Follow Jon on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.Preorder Soundtracks, Jon’s newest book out April 6th, 2021!

The post Memory Hack: How to hack your memory with the two tricks elite athletes use to accomplish big goals appeared first on Jon Acuff.

John Lee Dumas is a goal machine. I took about a thousand notes during this fun interview and so will you. If you want an encouraging, practical story from someone who built a whole new life, brick by brick, this is the one for you.

John’s new book The Common Path to Uncommon Success is available for pre-order. You can also find out more at the Entrepreneurs on Fire website.

Follow Jon on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

Preorder Soundtracks, Jon’s newest book out April 6th, 2021!

The post Uncommon Success: How to make little decisions that lead to huge results with John Lee Dumas appeared first on Jon Acuff.

When he was 21, Will Smith was going to move to Los Angeles. He was from West Philadelphia born and raised, on the playground was where he spent most of his days. (I just made you sing.) His manager, James Lassiter, told him, “Listen, if we’re going out to L.A., we probably should have a goal.” The transition from rapper to actor would not happen by accident and Lassiter knew if they went to LA without a goal that city would eat Will Smith alive. “I want to be the biggest movie star in the world,” Smith replied. That sentence in and of itself isn’t that unique. A thousand people riding buses from the Midwest out to Hollywood say that same thing every week.

But what he did next radically changed his life and it’s a simple principle you can use to change your life, too. I call it, “Borrowing someone else’s diploma” and I’ll explain how to do it in this episode.

Follow Jon on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

Preorder Soundtracks, Jon’s newest book out April 6th, 2021!

Jon Acuff: 0:01

I love that I have sponsors for this podcast because that means I get to make a lot more episodes. Now we all know that healthcare costs are a challenge for most Americans. But what you may not know is that members of Medi-Share save up to 50% or more per month on their healthcare costs. The typical family saves up to $500 per month. If this is your first time you’re hearing about Medi-Share, here’s a quick summary. It is an affordable ministry-based alternative to health insurance that allows members to share one another’s medical bills, offers access to 900,000 plus healthcare providers, and has a proven 25 year track record. They have a huge community of over 400,000 members nationwide that is there for you when you need it the most. Medi-Share is not insurance and their members say it’s better. If you want to start saving hundreds of dollars per month, you need to take a look at Medi-Share. It only takes two minutes to see how much you could save. Check out Medi-Share today. To quickly see your savings with Medi-Share, text JON to 474747. Now remember, there’s no H in Jon. It’s text J-O-N to 474747. That’s J-O-N to 474747. Thanks.

Hey, everyone, and welcome to the All It Takes Is A Goal podcast. I’m your host, Jon Acuff, and I love goals. Why? Because a goal is the fastest path between where you are today, and where you want to be tomorrow. And best of all, finishing a goal feels amazing! You will never forget the first time you sign a copy of a book you wrote. You will never forget what it felt like to pay off your house. You will never forget the first time your small business posts a profit. That’s why restaurants have their first dollar framed behind the cash register. It’s not about the amount of money, it’s not. It’s what that money means. It means they did it, they finished. That’s the best feeling in the world. And I want that feeling for you. I want you to have that moment, I want to help you cross the finish line of whatever goal you care about. Because the future belongs to the finishers. That’s why I’m doing this podcast.

In today’s episode, I’m going to teach you a technique that I call “borrowing someone else’s diploma.” One of the things that fear does, one of its main goals at the beginning of a new adventure, at the beginning of a new goal, is to try to isolate you. You see, it’s easier to get you to believe lies and get you stuck on the starting line when you don’t have a community that’s telling you the truth. In order to separate you from the herd, to pull you from your friends, fear will tell you a very popular lie. And that lie is you have to do it all on your own. You have to do every part of this goal on your own. You can’t ask for help. You just have to do it. You’re a one-man wolf pack. It’s all on you. This always reminds me of toddlers, they’d rather fall down a flight of stairs than hold your hand because they want to do it “all by my big self.” We become adult toddlers when we refuse help from people.

And believe the lie that seeking assistance is a sign of weakness. Sometimes we’ve learned that from the people we work with. A friend of mine is a chef and he told me that he used to have a chef he reported to when he was coming up in his career. And he was looking at a book one day back in the kitchen and his chef walked in, grabbed the book, and threw it into the garbage and said, “We don’t read recipe books. We don’t learn from other people. We create on our own.” And that’s a ridiculous thing to do. But it taught my friend, “Okay, I better I better do this all on my own. I guess I just have to create things. I can never learn from anybody else. I can never ask for help.” It doesn’t have to be that way though. My friend and author Jessica Turner knows the power of learning from other people. When she was going to do a webinar for a sales team that I had done a webinar for, she called me and interviewed me. I’d learned a lot and made some mistakes. For instance, if you want people to show up at your webinar, you have to email them twice on the day of. Three hours before and then five minutes before it starts. Those are the two times. Three hours before and then five minutes before it starts. How did I know that? I didn’t, until I learned it from Lewis Howes. I learned that technique from him. I tried it and it dramatically increased attendance at the next webinar I did. I passed that on to Jessica. If you don’t have any information of your own, someone else does and will give it to you if you ask the right way. That’s the beauty of the internet. Someone has already done that thing you’re attempting to do. And best of all, they’ve usually done it publicly and left some pretty clear steps if you’ll just look hard enough. I call this borrowing someone else’s diploma. Where does it say that you have to be the one who has the experience to learn from the experience? It’s taken me 13 years to build a career as an author and a public speaker.

When I coach someone who wants to do that too, I tell them everything I’ve learned because I don’t want it to take them 13 years too. I share my diploma. This isn’t a particularly new technique either. Rapper and actor Will Smith did this decades ago. I told this story in my book Finish and sometimes I tell it to groups of leaders I speak to. One time in the middle of a speech, instead of saying “Rapper and actor Will Smith,” I combined them and said, “Raptor Will Smith.” And that’s, that’s honestly a hard thing to recover from onstage because suddenly everyone in the audience is thinking about Will Smith running around with these tiny little dinosaur arms. “Life finds a way.” Will Smith’s approach to borrowing someone else’s diploma probably started with the IRS. When he was 19 years old, the IRS asked Will Smith for $2.8 million. I don’t know if that’s done via a phone call, a letter, maybe like a reverse Ed McMahon big check with balloons, but that’s definitely a frightening day for a teenager. It wasn’t a donation they were looking for, but back taxes. Now Smith didn’t come from money. His divorced parents were middle class. His dad worked seven days a week to run a refrigerator company and his mother was employed by the school board. A run in with the IRS would have crippled most people. But Smith started gathering new information in the midst of that season.

Two years later, as he got ready to move to LA from West Philadelphia, born and raised, on the on the playground was where he spent most of his days, his manager James Lassiter approached him and said, “Listen, if we’re going out to LA, we probably should have a goal.” That was what he said to him. That’s a direct quote. “Listen, if we’re going out to LA, we probably should have a goal.” The transition from rapper to actor would not happen by accident and Lassiter knew that if they went to LA, without a goal, that city would eat Will Smith alive. So Will Smith said back to him, “I want to be the biggest movie star in the world.” That sentence in and of itself isn’t that unique. 1000 people riding buses from the Midwest out to Hollywood say that every week. Smith also had very little evidence that it would work. He wasn’t a blockbuster actor yet. He was a 21 year old rapper whose biggest hit at the time had been a PG-flavored rap called “Parents Just Don’t Understand.” The goal wasn’t unique, and there weren’t a lot of reasons that it should have worked. But Lassiter, his manager, realized something brilliant. Here’s what he realized, someone had attempted this goal before. They knew they weren’t the first people to try to be big stars in Hollywood. 1000s of people had already accomplished that goal. What if all those trailblazers before Will Smith actually left a trail? Wouldn’t that goal be easier to accomplish if you could follow a trail of someone who has already done it? Of course it would! Which is why Will Smith and his manager studied the top 10 highest grossing films of all time. Why the top 10 highest grossing films? Because if you want to be the biggest movie star, you have to be in high-grossing films.

You can do some in between indie films, but you have to be in big blockbusters. So they studied and Will Smith said they studied it with a specific question. Will Smith said, “We looked at the movies and said ‘okay, what are the patterns? ‘”They went through the data and they looked for a pattern. And here’s what they found. Will Smith said, “We realized that 10 out of 10 had special effects. Nine out of 10 had special effects with creatures, eight out of 10 had special effects with creatures and a love story.” That’s crazy. And it bears repeating. 10 out of 10 of the highest grossing films of all time, had special effects. Nine out of 10 of the highest grossing films of all time had special effects with creatures. Eight out of 10 of the highest grossing films of all time had special effects with creatures and a love story. But that, that seems too simple to work, right? There’s no way you can plan a 25 year film career in the ficklest industry in the world with a top 10 list that everyone has access to. Think about how hard it is to predict results in Hollywood. There was a movie once that had Han Solo in it, Harrison Ford. It had James Bond in it, Daniel Craig. It was directed by Jon Favreau, fresh off of Iron Man. It was produced by Ron Howard, fresh off of everything. On paper, it looked perfect. That movie made $11 million. Not, not in the first weekend. Not in the first week. It grossed $11 million and was a monumental failure. It was called Cowboys and Aliens, maybe saw it. Contrast that movie with Smokey and the Bandit. Smokey and the Bandit barely had a script. They ad-libbed most of the film. Burt Reynolds would just show up on set and be like, “I got a moustache start filming! Whoo hoo!” It was directed by a stunt man who had never directed a film before. How do you even make that career transition? Someone comes up to you and goes, “Hey, You’re amazing at jumping cars have a piles of dirt. You wanna, You want to direct the whole movie?”

The plot was terrible. Here’s the plot, Bandit and Cledus must drive from Georgia to Texarkana, Texas, with an illegal shipment of Coors beer. That’s not a movie. That’s a UPS route. When asked about the movie, Sally Field said, and I quote, “I thought it was the end of everything I had worked so hard to achieve.” She thought the movie was going to be the end of her career. That it was going to ruin her career. That movie should have been a colossal failure. Instead though, it made $300 million and the year it came out. It was the number one movie except for one other movie you might have heard of called Star Wars. You can’t predict Hollywood. You can’t! Especially with a formula as simple as Will Smith’s “special effects, creatures, love story.” You need something more complex and sophisticated. Do you know why we like complex solutions? When it comes to our goals, do you know why we like them? Because then we don’t have to do them. If someone wants to lose a few pounds, and I say, “Okay, ready? Four words. Eat less, move more.” They often push back, “No, no, no, no, no, that’s too simple. It needs involve beets, like, which tastes like hot dirt. And Pure Barre and a complicated system of biking and an app that tracks how often I blink.” Blink blink blink. We like complicated solutions because then when it doesn’t work, we can blame the system instead of ourselves. Will Smith’s system was not sophisticated enough. Or so we think until we see the list of Will Smith’s six most successful movies. Here’s what they are. Number one, Independence Day. Special effects, creatures, love story. That one grossed $817 million worldwide. Number two, Suicide Squad. Special effects, creatures, love story. $746 million worldwide. Handcock. Special effects. $624 million worldwide. Number four, Men in Black. Men in Black 3, actually, it’s the third one. That had special effects, creatures, love story. $624 million worldwide. Number five, Men in Black. Special effects, creatures, love story. $589 million worldwide. Number six, I Am Legend. Special effects, creatures, love story, if you count the dog. $585 million lifetime gross. Does doing this guarantee success? Nope. Wild Wild West was a wild wild bust. But in most goals, it’s not about winning all the time. It’s about winning more than you lose. We’re not aiming for perfection. All you have to do is win more today than you did yesterday and then repeat the whole thing tomorrow. If six of the 23 movies you star in make nearly $4 billion, guess what? You get to make more movies for a very long time, even if some of them flop. Want to start a goal and increase your odds of it actually working?

Don’t overthink it. Find someone with an amazing diploma, and then borrow it. That’s one approach to learning something new. You find someone awesome and see what they did. The flip side though, can be equally helpful. I think it’s great sometimes to find someone who sucks at the thing you’re attempting to do, so that you can realize you can probably do it too. That’s why I tried comedy in 2018. I’d been telling people for years that I was going to do a comedy show, like a full real comedy show in a comedy club. But deep down, I was terrified of it. I always communicate with humor in my corporate speaking, but pure comedy felt like a completely different animal. It was far easier to talk about it than to actually do it. But then one night, I went to see one of the most successful comedians in the world. He was doing a show at a huge auditorium that probably seated 2000, maybe 2500 people. Before he came on, he had an opening act. And the opening act was not funny. I don’t know if that’s on purpose or not. Like maybe if you’re a comedian, you want to have a mildly funny opening act, but not a hilarious opening act. Chris Rock actually talked about that in an interview he did with Judd Apatow and Vanity Fair. He said, “The low point in my career happened about a year after I was off of Saturday Night Live. I was cocky. Even though all the evidence said I wasn’t a star I thought I was. I drove a red Corvette. I kept my shades on indoors. Anyway, I had a gig in Chicago where I was the headliner. At every gig there would be some opening act that would try to make noise, but by the time I was on stage, people had forgotten them. One night in Chicago as usual, I was the headliner. And on this night, my opening act was an up and coming comic. Now normally I never used to watch the opening acts, but I was in my dressing room and I heard outroar. I got up to see what was going on. I thought it was a fight or something. So I got up and I went to the side of the stage. When I got there, I realized that wasn’t a fight. It was people laughing so hard that the building was shaking. People were crying, standing, stomping their feet, screaming laughter, ” and then Chris Rock says, “I was terrified.” That comic he was talking about was Martin Lawrence. That’s who was opening for him. And he had no idea and Martin Lawrence was absolutely killing it. So maybe that’s just part of comedy.

The opening act is okay, but not amazing. That night though, as I sat in the dark theater watching this opening act, for the first time in my life I thought, “If that’s, if that’s what comedy is, I, I can do that.” That’s a powerful moment that happens a lot of different goals. Sometimes it’s a friend who gets in shape. Someone just like you who starts doing small, seemingly easy things over a period of time. And instead of seeing someone who seems to have a completely different life than you, someone unreachable, you think, “I, I can do that.” Sometimes it’s discouraging to me when people tell me, “Hey, you need to study Mr. Beast on YouTube, like, because he gets 72 million views in four minutes on his videos, and you need to study that.” And then I go and look at it and realize in the video, he gave away five Lamborghinis. And I currently have zero Lamborghinis. I think he creates amazing content. Don’t get me wrong, it’s just really hard for me to relate my tiny little YouTube channel with 200 views, where it’s just me sharing an idea, to what is the number one Youtuber in the world. I used to think about that all the time when people early on in the pandemic would say things like, “Ah, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet during a pandemic.” Yeah, he was also Shakespeare. He was also the greatest writer in the history of the English language. I don’t know if the pandemic is what is stopping me from being Shakespeare.

That’s a weird thing to compare yourself to the greatest in the world. So as you scan your life to learn from other people, don’t just borrow the diplomas of the best people in the world. Some days, that will be overwhelming. It’ll be discouraging. It’s not always encouraging to go compare yourself to someone that’s 10 years ahead of you in your field. Go to an open mic night. Order a product that’s like the one you’re trying to create. Take an online course in the field you’re trying to enter. Go to one session of Orange Theory in your town. Find a way to interact with people who are at your level or close to it. I promise you’ll have the same reaction I had that night in the auditorium. “Oh, I can. I can do that.” Find an open mic. And if you ever find yourself tempted to overthink anything in your life, check out my new book Soundtracks, you can pre-order a copy in the show notes.

Thanks for listening today. If you like this episode, please review it and subscribe so that you don’t miss any of the new ones. See you next week. And remember, all it takes is a goal. This episode of the podcast was brought to you by Medi-Share. Text JON, J-O-N to 474747 for more information. Huge thank you to Medi-Share for sponsoring it. J-O-N to 474747.

Producer: 18:03

Thanks for listening. To learn more about the All It Takes Is A Goal podcast and to get access to today’s show notes, transcript, and exclusive content from Jon Acuff, visit Acuff.me/podcast. Thanks again for joining us. Be sure to tune in next week for another episode of the All It Takes Is A Goal podcast.

The post The trick Will Smith uses to pick movies and how it can change your life, too! appeared first on Jon Acuff.

Want to change your mindset? Want to tweak your self talk? Want to become more mindful without going on a 90-day Jared Leto style silent retreat in Sedona? Listen to this episode. I’ll teach you three really simple techniques I learned while doing the research for my new book about overthinking.

Join the free Overcoming Overthinking Challenge at  www.Acuff.me/Challenge  

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Preorder Soundtracks, Jon’s newest book out April 6th, 2021!

Jon Acuff: 0:02

Hey everyone, and welcome to the All It Takes Is A Goal podcast. I’m your host, Jon Acuff. And I love goals. Why? Because a goal is the fastest path between where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow. And best of all, finishing a goal feels amazing! You will never forget the first time you hold a book you finished writing! You’ll never forget the moment you cross the finish line of your first 5k race. You’ll never forget when someone paid you to do something that you actually love doing. That’s why restaurants have their first dollar bill framed behind the cash register. It’s not a ton of money. It’s a symbol. They did it. They finished. I want that feeling for you. I want you to have that moment. I want to help you cross the finish line of whatever goal you care about, because the future belongs to finishers. That’s why I’m doing this podcast. In today’s episode, I’m going to teach you three ways to start changing your mindset.

Before I do though, today’s episode is sponsored by Medi-Share. Have you guys ever had buyer’s remorse? You know that feeling of intense regret because the thing you thought you just had to have was only something used once or twice? For me it was the time I bought a really expensive road bike because I thought I was going to get into cycling. I proceeded to hang it on the wall in my garage and feel ashamed for six months. Well, I know some of you are experiencing buyer’s remorse right now for something much more frustrating. You know what I’m talking about. It’s the health care you rush to get during open enrollment last December. Well, I have some good news for you. You’ve probably heard me talking about our main sponsor for this podcast, Medi-Share. And these guys have the answer to health care buyer’s remorse. Check this out, members of Medi-Share save up to 50% or more per month on their health care costs. They say the typical family saves up to $500 per month. And here’s the best part, you can become a member at any time. So that means it isn’t too late to ditch your buyer’s remorse and switch to a more affordable health care that will save you money and help you sleep better at night. If this is your first time you’re hearing about Medi-Share, it is the best alternative to health insurance that allows you to share the burden of medical bills offers access to 900,000 plus health care providers and has a proven 25 year track record. Plus in addition to saving hundreds per month, as a member of Medi-Share, you will also have access to free telehealth and free telecounseling. You won’t find that with any traditional health insurance provider.

Guys, it only takes two minutes to see how much you could save. Go investigate that for yourself and your family at MediShare.com/Jon. That’s MediShare.com/Jon. Remember, Jon doesn’t have an H in it. So it’s M-E-D-I, that’s “Medi”, share, S-H-A-R-E dot com slash J-O-N. Alright. Let’s talk mindset. That’s a hot word right now, isn’t it? I mean mindset, mindfulness, self-awareness. You see those words thrown around a lot online, but what do they mean? There are 1,000 good definitions for “mindset.” But here’s the really simple one that I like to use, “mindset” is thinking about how you think. That’s all mindset is. It’s choosing to think about how you think, which sounds really easy to do, but is actually very rare. I learned this over the last two years when I was researching and writing my brand new book Soundtracks, which is all about overthinking. “Overthinking,” according to my definition, this is the one I like to use, is when what you think gets in the way of what you want. And it’s one of the most expensive things in the world because it wastes time, creativity, and productivity. It’s an epidemic of inaction, a tsunami of stuckness, and 12 years ago it was dominating me. It really was. I was the king of “someday,” high on thought, low on motion about a litany of things that I was I was going to do eventually. “Quit overthinking so much,” coworkers would beg. “It’s all in your head,” my wife Jenny would implore. “Get out of your own way,” school children would yell at me as I stumbled through the streets like a heavy-brained monster. I mean, did I, did I want to have 1,345 thoughts about whether there would be adequate parking at the new restaurant we are going to? Did I want to donate an afternoon of brainspace to reviewing something dumb I said to a friend three months ago in the grocery store? Did I want to put off asking for a raise for one more month, overthinking the myriad ways that it could all go wrong? Of course not. But, But what could I do?

Thoughts are something you have, not something you hone. We, we can’t control them, right? I mean, that’s why whenever we talk about thinking we describe it as something outside of us that tends to operate on its own agenda. We say things like, “I got lost in my thoughts” or “my thoughts got away from me” or “she got carried away by her thoughts.” Even if we are very deliberate in other areas of our lives, we tend to treat our thought life as something we have no control over. For example, a simple trick to ensure you go to the gym in the morning is to lay out your workout clothes the night before. Picking them ahead of time helps you achieve the result you want. But have you ever heard someone say that about their thoughts? “Hey, hey, hey, hey, make sure you pick the five thoughts you want to have playing in the background of your head in that meeting tomorrow.” Has a coworker ever said, “You know, I heard some gossip about our new manager, but I don’t want that to color our relationship, so I’m going to leave my three judgmental thoughts at home so that I can get to know her without any bias.” Have you ever heard anyone say anything remotely like that? I haven’t. Learning how to do that is one of my favorite things in my new book, and I can’t wait for you to read it. You can preorder a copy at SoundtracksBook.com. And the coolest thing is that if you do, if you preorder before April 6, you get the entire audiobook for free. I’m a huge audiobook person. I don’t know about you, but I love audiobooks. And that’s right, you get the whole audio book, read by me in this really deep, rich, sonorous voice. Isn’t that the right word, “sonorous” I believe? I believe it is. You get the whole thing read by me with bonus content for free if you order a copy of Soundtracks and then go to SoundtracksBook.com and fill out this really short form, so that we can get it to you, get a bunch of other bonus stuff, too. But for me, my money, the audiobook’s the best part.

Okay, okay, okay. Now, I’m sure you pulled your car over immediately to order the book and you know what, I greatly appreciate that. babies need shoes. But until the book comes out, what do we do with all these extra thoughts? How do we change our mindset? Well, I’ll teach you three really simple things you can do. And at the end of this episode, I’ll tell you about something I think you’re going to love that starts on March 1. Okay. You want to change your mindset. You want to become a little more self-aware, but you don’t have time for like a 90-day, Jared Leto-style silent retreat in Sedona. No problem. Here are three really easy things you can do to start changing your mindset. Number one, pay attention. When is the last time you listened to your thoughts? I mean, when is the last time you paused in the middle of the day and listen to the thoughts that were banging around your head? Most of the time, we’re moving so quickly through the day that we don’t really have a chance to observe what we’re thinking. I’ve heard people describe this process like watching leaves float down a river, or I don’t know, cars pass on the highway or clouds float overhead. Those are all great metaphors. But I like to think of my thoughts like Soundtracks, hence the name of the book. So during the day in different situations, I’ll pause sometimes and ask the question, “What soundtrack is playing right now?” I don’t have a complicated formula or a timer that goes off at 90 minute intervals, and I ask that question, I drink water, and do like seven burpees to get recentered, or anything like that. I just do my best to pay attention and occasionally ask “What soundtrack is playing right now?” And I don’t try to observe all my thoughts. That would be a full-time job. I think a lot of things every day. So, so do you.

So does everybody. But I do try to notice the loudest. Which soundtrack is really blaring over all the rest? For example, two years ago, I was at a 25th wedding anniversary for some friends. The mother-in-law was hosting and had gone out of her way to collect memories over the years for her son-in-law and her daughter. She read them this beautiful letter that she had written and then friends made short speeches about how inspiring this couple’s marriage was. And the soundtrack I heard, do you know what i heard in that moment? You know what thought I had in my head in that moment? The thought that was galloping through my head was, “You should say something sarcastic and funny. Like, right now! Say something really sarcastic and really funny.” As clear as day I observed that thought. “Say something sarcastic and funny.” You have thoughts like that too. Loud thoughts that clamor for attention at unexpected moments. When you do, pay attention, and then do the second step. Step number two, write it down. I never trust a waiter who won’t write down a big order. As soon as someone at my table starts remixing the menu like they’re Diplo, I get nervous. And we all have that friend, right? Who’s like, “Instead of salmon, could it be beef? Instead of bread, could it be cauliflower?” And they do like 17 complicated things, and then the waiter doesn’t write it down and I get really nervous. I mean, the funny thing is that I’ve never tipped a waiter or waitress bigger because of their memory. I’ve never thought “I better, I better add another $10 to this tip because I liked how they didn’t use paper.” It’s all risk with no reward. You risk getting the order wrong. And if you get it right, you don’t get a reward. There’s a life principle right there for you. Be aware of anything that’s all risk and no reward. When you have a thought that’s surprises you or is interesting or something you want to spend a little bit of time with, write it down. Almost nobody does this.

Everyone I know who does New Year’s resolutions, always has “doing” resolutions, but never “thinking” resolutions. This is unfortunate because when you don’t have thinking resolutions you’re doing resolutions often fail before they’ve even started. Going to the gym, for instance, isn’t hard. You know where it is, like, you know where it’s located. You know how to drive there. Like you drive places all the time. You drive, you’re familiar with driving and the rules of driving. The front door of the gym is unlocked, you never have to break in. It’s right there, it’s open for you. All the things you have to do are pretty straightforward. But it’s your thoughts, how you think about the gym, that tend to trip you up. It’s a lot easier to work on a thought, once you’ve written it down. Again, I’m not writing down 1000s of thoughts. Who has time for that? But if every time I see a text from a coworker, I immediately think, “Ugh, I hate that guy.” It might be helpful for me to write down. “Huh. Every time I see a text from Sven, I get mad.” Now I don’t, I don’t work with anyone named Sven. But unless I use a really unusual name as an example, my friend Mark is going to text me like, “Hey, why did you say you hate me on your podcast? I heard you say the word “Mark” and that’s me. So why did you do that?” So today, I have to say Sven, but if I ever get a Sven in my life, I’ll have to change it to something else, maybe like Johann or Ludwig, like, I think I’ll go with one of those. Those seem pretty good. Step two, write it down. Step three, pull the thread. Thoughts are like those Russian nesting dolls. You know the ones where it’s like there’s a smaller doll inside the smaller doll, smaller doll, smaller, doll, like an onion kind of situation. There’s always a thought behind the thought behind the thought.

One of the best things you can do with a persistent thought is to ask “What does that mean?” I think about it like pulling a thread. I want to find the end of the thread to understand what that thought might really be tied to. For example, if you told me that you have a hard time saying no to friends, who want you to work for free. (See every photographer, writer, designer, developer, hairstylist, small business owner, plumber, etc.) If you told me that, that you had a hard time saying no to someone who wanted you to work for free, I would help you pull the thread. Maybe the soundtrack you’re hearing over and over is you can’t tell friends no when they ask you to work for free. Okay, well, what does that mean? Maybe the thought behind the thought is “I don’t want to look greedy,” or “I hate disappointing people,” or “If I have boundaries, I’ll lose friendships,” or “My work isn’t good enough to charge for.” It could be any one of those thoughts or maybe all of them. But once you’ve pulled the thread a little bit, you can actually deal with the thoughts. Let’s take “I don’t want to be greedy.” Okay, let’s write that down. I don’t want to be greedy. If I asked my friends to pay my rate, if I charged them the full rate, if I charged them anything, I’ll appear greedy and I don’t want to be greedy. Okay, that’s fine. That’s fine. But when you order your favorite pizza, Do you ever feel like they’re being greedy? Do you ever think “I can’t believe that pizzeria charged me for this pizza? They should just have given it to me for free!” Of course not.

You’re actually glad they charged you money because it means they’ll be around for a long time. A business that doesn’t charge money for their services, doesn’t get to be a business for very long. It’s not greedy at all to charge money. We’d go through each one of those thoughts that were getting in the way of what you wanted, and we’d knock them out one by one together. For example, what was behind my thought that told me to say something sarcastic at the wedding anniversary? That’s, that’s a good question. I pulled the thread a little bit and I realized I often use sarcasm as an escape hatch from situations that make me feel uncomfortable. Like if I’m feeling uncomfortable or awkward, I’m like, “Woah, say something sarcastic or funny.” I remember one time when that happened to me. I was at an event. There were 8,000 people there is this huge arena and I was opening for Jeff Foxworthy, the comedian, the super successful comedian. I did a couple minutes of comedy, he came out, and then he and Reggie Joiner, who’s a friend of mine, and somebody else all set up on stage to talk about this charity that Jeff was involved in. And I didn’t have anything to say to add to it and I was like, “Say something really funny.” That’s what my brain was saying. I was like, “I don’t know dude. Like it’s, it’s a lot of risk right now. It feels like very little reward.” They’re like, “No, no, you should say something really funny right now in the middle of this serious moment about a coffee charity that Jeff Foxworthy is into.” And I was like, “But I mean, he’s Jeff Foxworthy. And I just don’t know that it’s, what I say is going to be funny. And we’re kind of in a serious moment.” And so then I just stopped and focused on doing whatever Jeff Foxworthy was doing. Like I just looked at his legs. I was like, oh, cool, cool. Jeff Foxworthy. He’s like putting one his right leg over. Okay. I’ll do that too. Oh, now he’s like scratching his head. I’m gonna scratch my head. I didn’t say a single word during this 10 minute, kind of Q&A segment. I just sat up there trying not to say something really, really dumb and really, really sarcastic because I, I felt awkward, I felt uncomfortable. Okay, I need to work on that. Whoo. Like now that I know that, I need to work on that a little bit and I can because I pulled the thread behind that thought. Those are the three steps that can help you start changing your mindset.

Number one, pay attention. Number two, write it down. Number three, pull the thread. But we’ve only really barely scratched the surface of what happens when you turn your overthinking from a super problem into a superpower. And I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, because 2020 was like catnip for overthinking, wasn’t it? If you tried to describe 2020 as a movie, the studio would have said “No doesn’t sound realistic. Okay, so you’re telling me we’re going to have a global pandemic, questionable economy, murder hornets, and the most heated election of the last few decades, all in the same year? Nah, not believable. Let’s make that movie about the tornado full of sharks instead.” 2020 was a doozy. I’m a public speaker and essentially lost my job last March. Every event got canceled. Don’t get me wrong, I pivoted a million different ways, new podcast, new YouTube channel, virtual events. I’ve done almost 40 virtual events, it’s been great! And I was able, with all that pivoting, to right the ship financially, but there was something I wasn’t anticipating something I didn’t see coming. I miss it. Being on stage is my favorite thing in the world. It’s what I’ve spent the last 10 years of my life focusing on. And I wasn’t ready for the emotional funk that losing it would cause. And I’m not the only one who got knocked around by 2020. I think everyone lost something. I think everyone could use a little bit of help. So I had an idea. Every September, I do a challenge. It’s a free challenge called the “September January Challenge.”

The name comes from the fact that in the average year, September is kind of the second January because of the momentum of back to school. There’s all this momentum about fresh starts and new goals as school starts again. And I thought you know what, what if we did that now? Why do we have to wait to encourage each other? Why do I have to wait till September? If I learned anything from 2020, it’s that you have to be flexible. You have to lean into change. You have to experiment, you have to try new things. So that’s what I’m going to do. And that’s where I need your help. I don’t want to wait until September to do another challenge. I don’t want to wait until April 6 to share what I learned about overthinking during the research process for my book. I don’t want to wait to slingshot us all out of the funk of this year. For the first time ever, I’m going to do a five day challenge with live teaching every day. What does that mean? It means every day starting March 1, I’m going to spend an hour teaching people how to overcome overthinking. I’m going to have office hours where I’m available to answer questions. I’m going to have prizes. Spoiler alert! One is definitely going to be a LEGO set.

I’m going to fit as many fun things into that week that I can. I’m calling it the “Overcoming Overthinking Challenge” in part because it’s fun to say “the double O C.” The Overcoming Overthinking Challenge…the double O C, yeah, you know me. And the best part is, it’s going to be free. Second best part of all is Jenny is going to be involved. My wife Jenny. On Saturday, March 6, she and I will be doing a special bonus lesson called “How to be married to a dreamer.” It’s content that’s 20 years in the making and we’ve never shared it before. And if you follow me at all online, you know how rare that is. Jenny is like this unicorn. She’s incredibly elusive when it comes to stuff like this. I’m amazed that I was able to talk her into doing this. So let’s talk schedule. Here’s how the content is shaping up.

On Monday, March 1, I’ll teach you how to use empathy to overcome overthinking. On Tuesday, March 2, I’ll teach you how to navigate change and create new soundtracks for side hustle goals. On Wednesday, March 3, I’ll teach you how to build resilience and create new soundtracks for writing goals. Thursday, March 4, I’ll teach you how to hustle and create new soundtracks for health goals. Friday, March 5, I’ll teach you how to write a new anthem for your life. And then bonus Saturday, Jenny Acuff and I talk about how to be married to a dreamer. And that sounds like a lot of content. You’re right. It is. It’s a ton of content. But I think it has the potential to help a lot of people. If you’re interested, sign up for free at www.Acuff.me/Challenge. I should repeat that again, like they do on radio commercials. That’s Acuff.me/Challenge. And remember, Acuff is always spelled A-C-U-F-F, Acuff.me/Challenge.

The link will be in the show notes as well. Now I’ll be honest with you, I’m a little nervous about this because I’ve never done something like this, but I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. Acuff.me/Challenge. Don’t wait to sign up either. It starts on March 1 and that’s real soon. Thanks for listening today. If you liked this episode, please review it and subscribe so you don’t miss any of the other episodes. See you next week and remember, all it takes is a goal. This episode of the podcast was brought to you by Medi-Share. Text JON, J-O-N to 474747 for more information. Huge thank you to Medi-Share for sponsoring it. J-O-N to 474747.

Producer: 20:36

Thanks for listening. To learn more about the All It Takes Is A Goal podcast and to get access to today’s show notes, transcript, and exclusive content from Jon Acuff, visit Acuff.me/podcast. Thanks again for joining us. Be sure to tune in next week for another episode of the All It Takes Is A Goal podcast.

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In the 1800s, sailors would stamp, “Here be dragons” on unexplored, dangerous sections of maps. It was meant to serve as a warning, but what if there aren’t as many dragons as you were told? What if it was time to launch that adventure you’ve been dreaming about? What if you could beat those dragons? This short, inspirational episode is going to make you want to run through a wall like the Kool Aid man. I promise.

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The post Bravery is a choice not a feeling. Here’s how to choose it today appeared first on Jon Acuff.

You’ve got an idea, but is it a best-selling idea? Whether it’s a side-hustle or starting your own business, I share the three circles to apply to your goal of creating something lots of people will love.

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Referenced in this episode:
Billy Ivey on Instagram.

Preorder Soundtracks, Jon’s newest book out April 6th, 2021!

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