In this episode, we discuss how you need to have the right perception first, if you want to feel like doing something and how to do so.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons that you can reflect on in your journal so you can grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and have a better career, better relationships, and better personal finances while you enjoy your morning cup of coffee.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
At the end of today’s podcast episode, I’m going to give you a prompt question to reflect on in your journal. The idea is to take one to five minutes to reflect on today’s lesson and write a minimum of one paragraph on how you can apply the lesson in your life life. You can use an actual journal, a word document like on Google Drive, or your note-taking app like Evernote. The idea is that you’re actually thinking about how to process the information to help you improve your life.
In today’s episode, we’re are going to talk about how where the head goes, the body follows. Perception precedes action. Right action follows the right perspective. This is a very important concept that I learned from Ryan Holiday who is one of my favorite writers. If you think about the quote, if you want to do the right things in life, then you have to have the right perception about those actions. Especially if you want to do the right actions that will propel you in life.
The reason why I sacrifice so much time with my Go With Joe Business is that I have the perception that if things work out for this business, then I’m going to get the life that I desire. If I don’t believe that doing all this work will give me a better life, then I won’t take the action required to make it successful.
If you want to take the extra work of going to the gym, eating well, making sure your home looks good, and a whole bunch of other things, then you just need to have the right perspective that those things are beneficial to you. Life is very emotional based. We do a lot of things that will either help us fit in or make us feel good. So if you perceive that the action you want to take is going to help you out, then you’re more likely to do it.
If you don’t have the right perception, then you’re more likely to take the wrong action. If I don’t believe that working out for me is very good, then I’m not going to the gym. If my perception is that I’m going to go through something painful instead of something that is going to make me stronger, then it’s normal for me to want to avoid pain and skip going to the gym.
The action you take can be boring, frustrating, or stressful, and if you perceive it as these things, then you’re not going to these things. Your head is telling you not to go in that direction. Your head is going to be your first body part that moves, and then your body will follow. Your body is not going to magically appear at the gym before your head does. Going to the gym takes effort by the head first. Just thinking about this morning, I told myself that I was going to go to the gym and this workout. I need to go to the gym in order to do my physical therapy exercises for my back.
If I go too many days without doing my exercises, then I start to feel pain between my shoulder blades. So my perception is that I need to go to the gym to do my physical therapy exercises and I’ll also do the elliptical and some other type of exercise while I’m there. My perception is there so I can do the right action.
So if you want to take the right type of action if your life, then one of the first places to start is not to give yourself self-limiting beliefs. A self-limiting belief will give you a perception that partaking in that type of action is no good. It’s not worth it. Have the right perception of life is crucial to your success. I would say it’s better to have a more optimistic perception than a negative. I don’t know what the right balance or maybe it’s situational. For a business, you want to be 75% optimistic and 25% cautious. And in other situations, it should be the other way around.
There is not going to be a one size fits all scenario. But if you trying something new and pursuing a new goal, you’re going to want to have a positive outlook. You want to have hope, where this thing you’re doing is worth it. Since I know this has worked out for me in my life, I’m going to wear rose-tinted glasses but the glasses are clear enough to let me know when trouble is coming my way. Something crappy could happen to me, and I know on average every 90 days, something in my life is going to get messed up. I should just expect it when it happens. I can’t get mad at it, I can get a little frustrated, but I need to have the right perception that will get to take the right action again.
So if you look at your life right now, are you satisfied with the action that you’re taking? If not, what can you change about your perspective so you can take the right action? What new information do you need to receive? What new experience do you need to have? Figure out a way to change your perspective and you can probably start seeing new ways to start taking action.
That’s it for today’s episode, and to summarize it, where the head goes, the body follows. Perception precedes action. Right actions follow the right perception. So if you want to start taking positive actions that will lead to positive actions, then start with giving yourself the right perception. This is the fastest way to start giving your life the outcome you want. If you don’t have this perception, then you’re just not going to take the right action and you’ll end up with a life that you probably don’t want but will deal with since your perception is telling you that you can’t have anything else.
So in your journal, think about something you want to accomplish. Do you have the right perception about it? If you don’t have the right perception, what can you do to give yourself the right perception? Remember when you tell yourself one negative thing, you need to hear ten positive things to cancel out that negative thing. Hopefully, this journal exercise will help you to move in the right direction and hopefully, you can go back to this exercise in the future when you need to get the right perspective.
Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and just pay for shipping and handling.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
I’m also trying to do a feedback Friday episode, so if you have a question that you would like to have my answer on the air, just e-mail me at [email protected]
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Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
*Music outro
