In this episode, we discuss how to be a professional in life.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista, where my goal is to give you quick lessons on how to grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so you can have better careers, better relationships, and better personal finances.
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.
In today’s episode, we’re are going to talk about how Professionals stick to the schedule and amateurs let life get in the way. I feel that one of the best things you can do in life is to stick the schedule, it is one of the surest ways to be seen as a professional. If you can’t stick to a schedule, then you will be seen as an amateur. Sure there are things that happen that can cause things to not happen on time like your flight being canceled due to weather or something happens to your health, but most of the time, people let life get in the way of them not completing the task.
When I was in the Marines, it was ingrained into our minds that we needed to accomplish the mission by the deadline no matter what. It might mean that we would have to stay late and accomplish a task or come in early. At my last duty station, I was in charge of the finances and making sure that things got paid on time and sometimes I would get requests at the last moment that caused me to scramble. Like when a company would forget to schedule something like port-a-johns for people going into the field. Then I would have to figure out how to get port-a-johns so that Marines had a place to go to the bathroom while they were in the field. You most likely had to call in some favors but you did what you had to do to get the job done.
That experience in the Marines, made me want to stick to the schedule as much as possible. Sometimes I do fail and mess up. I’m not perfect but I try to reconcile the incident by giving even more value than I had promise and follow it up by giving an apology. I don’t want to burn any bridges with folks because I don’t know when I might need to use that bridge in the future.
So a good way to stick to the schedule is not to over-commit to many things. It’s going to be hard to keep track of everything and you might have a conflicting schedule and you will have to choose. It’s like that trying to spin plates, the more plates you have to spin the more likely that one is going to fall if it’s outside of your experience level.
80% of success is just showing up. A lot of people don’t show up. For example, I know I have to be a professional with this podcast by making sure that I have an episode ready every Monday through Friday. That’s how people will start to see me as an expert. The longer I can stick to the schedule, the more credibility I will earn. If I take a day off, it’s not going to help me in the long run. Running your own business is a lot of work and there are tons of things that I have to do, so I have to know how to remove the unimportant stuff so I can focus on the stuff that matters to me.
When we start adding unimportant stuff to our plate, then we’re not going to be able to get to the important stuff. When you hear the Howard Stern Show, no one is going to care that he spent extra time playing video games and starts missing his show recordings, they are just going to go something else that will entertain them. One of the rules for power is to garnish attention at all costs. And if you’re consistent with your messaging, then you will garner more attention then the person that sporadically does a show.
So that person will be an amateur and get paid what amateurs get paid. While a professional gets paid way more than an amateur. If you look at the NBA, those professionals will get paid at a minimum of $897k for having zero years of NBA experience, while a g league development player will get paid $35k for their five-month season. There is a huge pay difference between what an amateur gets paid.
Just look at Howard Stern, he gets paid $90 million a year while an amateur podcast host will get paid nothing if they do it sporadically. So if you want the status, control, and finances of a professional, then you have to stick to the schedule of a professional. It’s simple but it’s not easy. It can be a grind but if you have your priorities straight and your desire is there, you will have an easier time than the person that doesn’t.
So to help you stick to the schedule, you have to be good at having boundaries and knowing how to say no to the unimportant things in life. Life is full of distractions and people want you to focus on their stuff but if you do that then you’ll end up an amateur that will struggle.
All this depends on what you want out life and what sacrifices you’re willing to make to become the type of professional that you desire but you should know what you want out life and then go after it.
Plus dealing with professionals in life is so much better than dealing with amateurs. You get things done faster and you have a better experience where you’re not pulling your hair out. Since I don’t want to be a hypocrite, then I will strive to be a professional versus being an amateur. The world would be a much better place if we had more professionals in it. It requires higher standards for yourself, but what’s wrong with having higher standards in life.
One of the reasons why I am creating this podcast is because I want people to know what higher standards look like. You don’t know what you don’t know, and hopefully, know you know after listening to today’s podcast.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode, to summarize it, remember that professionals stick to the schedule and amateurs let life get in the way. So have higher standards for yourself and start being a professional.
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.
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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.
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