MM#283--A + S + GOYA = R

Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, David Kaiser.

Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute. Way back in Mojo Minute 238, we featured a great book Brian Cain wrote, called One Percent Better, a story about how to close the gap from where you are to where you want to be. If there's one book that seemed to capture the essence, the nub, the root of how to change your mindset and to think in terms of the Mojo Academy's reason for flourishing in this life, it's this very book. Back in Mojo Minute 238, brian taught us this nugget of wisdom about how to invest just 14 minutes and 24 seconds of our day to set our intention on becoming a better person by living more genuinely. Not sure if that's a word, but just like the movie Animal House, we'll just keep rolling with it. Ha, living more authentically, living with more direct attention, living with more focus versus just mindlessly walking through each and every day. That is why I'm excited to share with you today another gem and another nugget of wisdom from this book. Do with that spirit and with that intention, let's go to our first poll quote. Today's success hotline message was about exactly how to go from temporary to legendary. Dr Gilbert talked about A plus S plus G-O-Y-A equals R. Suddenly explained. Dr Gilbert is using an acronym that means Ability plus Strategy, plus. Get Off your Anatomy and Do the Work Equals the Result. Sunny recited aloud as she wrote it on the whiteboard in my classroom Mr Big Ability is not something you are lacking to be the optimal version of yourself. You are simply blocking it. How we unblock our ability is by giving you the right strategy. In this case, that strategy is simply your 1% intention. You then have to get off your anatomy and do your 1% intention each day. When you do that, you will see better results. Holy smokes, holy smokes is right. Whoa, that is a golden nugget. Put simply, we don't lack the ability necessarily, but our real issue is we don't have the right strategy. That is super important point to help us clarify where we are going and what might help us to get unstuck in our life. Now two examples from my own life to further bring home this point. Growing up, I wanted to play professional basketball. I worked at it very hard, each and every day of my life. All the way through high school I shot basketball, played basketball. Played in open gyms, played on outdoor courts, played in outdoor courts in neighborhoods. I had no business even playing in. The goal was to find the best and play against the best to help me get better. I was cut my freshman year of high school basketball. That didn't stop me. I kept practicing, kept getting better. I made a team. My sophomore year of basketball I quit the team because I hated the coach. I couldn't stand him. Looking back, if I was mature enough, I should have powered through that bad experience with that bad coach, because I still would have been improving at a much more rapid rate. But hey, we're all young and dumb in our lives. So I quit. Bad move, yes, but the fire in the belly was still there. I wanted to play professional basketball. I watched videos of the great Michael Jordan, jerry West, even Charles Barkley. I remember watching Charles Barkley Sir Charles, blocking out to get rebounds. He was called the round mound of the rebound. That was his nickname. I was watching videos of Charles Barkley blocking out, trying to get better fundamentals. I copied, or tried to copy anybody and everybody to get to the goal. My junior year still, I was shooting basketball every day, practicing in open gyms, and I kept showing up. I made the team. My junior year played on JV as a junior until the last seven games of the year got moved up to the varsity, more maturity was happening. I played my whole senior year and started as our point guard, still practicing, still shooting each and every day, and by now I fell in love with the game of basketball. I loved everything about it. I loved everything it was giving back to me. I had been playing it successfully since I was the age of five or six at Monterey Elementary. And here comes the key nugget I get to college, I go to the open gyms, I do the very hard conditioning programs. My university won the division three national championship the year before In basketball. There was two division one transfers that helped them win that championship. So I remember concisely gardening a kid in the main tryouts after two months of sincere, hard, dedicated work. I remember guarding a kid smaller than me, who played at smaller school than me, and I remember him making every shot that I as I guarded him and I was a better defensive player than I was offensive. So I remember really putting a focus on okay, this little kid is not going to get a shot off. I mean, I am directly focused. I'm going to be in this kid's grill. He is not going to get a shot off and, wouldn't you know, shot after shot, I was on that kid like glue. I mean, I had a hand up in his face every time, so close I could have probably poked his eyes out. I had a hand in his face, I wasn't late, I was in excellent defensive position and this kid made seven out of seven shots and I walked off the court and at least had the humility to say to myself this is a different level, this is unheard of. I've never seen anything like this. I watched him another two or three games. The kid missed like two shots out of the next 20. The kid could flat out shoot the basketball, but my dream of playing basketball in the NBA ended walking off that court. And back to our nugget of wisdom today. Put simply, I didn't have the ability to play the next level. But for most of us that happens as we grow up. Most of us don't go on the reach the upper limits of a professional sport or the upper limits of a special military unit or the upper limits of most things. But here is what is stopping us. It's not that we don't have the ability, but that we lack the correct strategy. We don't give ourselves even a chance, we shut down everything immediately, and that's the wrong course to take. If I never went to college to pursue basketball or test my ability against people better than me, I would have never known that I couldn't play. And now I share that experience because it was a great learning process for me later in life. Sharing this lesson with you now and Brian helps us to understand this you don't lack the ability but, most importantly, you just lack the strategy. Now back to my story to help us illustrate this even further. Two and a half years ago, I started this podcast. I knew nothing about podcasts, I knew nothing about the radio or media, but I started the podcast because I have a passion for sharing these nuggets of wisdom with you all. And you keep listening. So the podcast is growing. Then you have to ask the question do I lack the ability to do this podcast thing? Well, I don't know, not sure. Well then, how's my strategy? Well, I'll be tweaking this and that to see if we can make things a little bit better. But the worst thing I could have said to myself and done is not to do anything about podcasting. I mean, what if I said I don't know anything about podcasting? Therefore I don't have the ability and therefore I will not try. You have to try, you have to give yourself a shot, you have to bet on yourself in this world to live a flourishing life. You can't be on the sidelines all the time. You have to venture out to try new things. You have to put that equation we learned about in the beginning and put it into practice. And here it is again A plus S plus G O Y. Sorry, g O Y A equals R A plus S plus G O Y A equals R A plus S plus G O Y A equals R. So in today's Mojo Minute, let us learn to reach for the stars, to find out the limits of our ability, because oftentimes it's not we lack the ability, but we simply lack an effective and correct strategy. And once we find that strategy and keep all other things constant in our equation, like getting off our anatomy, which is important, don't discount it. But we at the Mojo Academy, that's a given, not even a question Hard work is part and parcel of what we do. It's a no brainer. But let's keep reaching for the stars and when we do, you'll find the strategy that works and then you'll be living a flourishing life. Thank you.