Bautista Planning and Analytics, LLC – Registered Investment Advisor

Tag: Coaching

  • Be Ten Times Better

    In this episode, we discuss the need to be ten better than your competition and your old self if you want to be successful in this new economy. 

    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. 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 are going to talk about the need to be ten times better. There is a good business book out there called zero to one, and it’s about innovation and competition. And one of the best ways to get what you want out of life is to be ten times better than your environment and your old self. In the book, they talk about how you don’t want to be in a competition, you want to have a monopoly and a way to have a monopoly over your niche is to be ten times better.
    If you look at cell phones before the iPhone, they were ten times worst than the iPhone. When the iPhone was introduced, I pretty quickly switched from my blackberry at T-mobile to AT&T so I could get my hands on the iPhone. This was great for me and I truly enjoyed the switch. I was able to do a lot more with my phone and it just felt good in my hand. Most people don’t make a switch to something else if it’s only marginally better. A lot of people buy a Tesla car because it’s ten times better than all the other electric cars.
    The same concept can be applied to us. I heard that an A player is worth 36 times more than a B player. An A player can do the work of 12 people or it could take them a day to do something while it takes another team two years to do the same work. To be an A player, you need to be ten times better than the other players. You also have to remember that we don’t play in a finite game where there only so many resources to go around, we can grow the pie to get larger, but we need to make sure that we’re developing ourselves so that we have more control over our lives.
    If you look at people and companies that are ten times better than their environment, they have a lot of control over their lives in the way they design their lives. I love the life I’m living right now and it’s because I’m way more than 10 times better than my old self. I love being a digital nomad that runs my own virtual financial planning business. I’m able to manage my life and all the things in it because I’m physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually strong enough to make it work for myself. If you get one percent better in each of these four cornerstones over a one year period, you will become over 3700% better as a person, which means that you’re 37 times better at the end of the year than how you started it.
    If I was to think about how I started off as an 18-year-old and compared myself to today, I’m glad I put so much work into my self-development. I’m basically a billion times better today than how I was an 18 year. I’m better able to communicate my ideas, I don’t sweat the small stuff, I get less distracted, I’m able to make better decisions, and I have a lot less anxiety. This takes time and persistence can solve a lot of problems and create a lot of opportunities. So if you want more out of life, then you simply just need to be better as a person but you don’t want to be marginally better, you want to be a least ten times better. The world is also constantly changing so this benchmark is going to change. What was ten times better 20 years ago, is probably ten times worst today. And if this is the case, then you probably don’t have the career you want, the relationships you desire, and the personal finances to make you feel secure.
    I see how the world is changing and I realize the skills that I have today won’t be enough tomorrow. I have to constantly put in the time to work on myself. If I just read, write in my journal, and make sure I work on things that are the most valuable to me, then I’m going to be fine. I know most people don’t do this, and this is one of the reasons I started Grow With Joe, so I can give people the tools to help themselves grow and be ten times better. If we all were ten times better physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, then I think the world would be a better place. I think it’s our duty to make the world a better place and a good way to do that is work on yourself and then make your slice of the world better.
    That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, strive to be ten times better as a person. I think a good benchmark is just to look at yourself a year ago. Are you stronger physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually than you were a year ago? If the answer is yes, then keep doing what you’re doing. If the answer is no, then change something in your life. Plus no one wants to really deal with B, C, and D players. People want to feel secure that they are being taken care of. An A player will do this. When I was in the Marines, if I had an A player, I could just give them a task and they would get the job done. B and C players needed nudges to get the stuff done. Then this takes away from my job, and I can’t finish what I need to finish. Yes, you want to be helpful, but if someone is not putting in the effort to develop themselves, then maybe they just need to find a different place to thrive. We can’t be the best in every single area, so find where you need to be and then strive to be ten better in that area.
    So in your journal, ask yourself, are in the right area to be ten times better? Are you the A Player in your group? Do you want to be the A player? Are you okay with what a B or C player gets? Are your ideas or plans, only marginally better? As always, this lesson requires wisdom to know where and when to be ten times better. So take in this lesson find the niche that you need to thrive in and then after a while, the riches will start coming in.
    Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my audiobook “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and you can download it right there.
    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 on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
    If you’re on iTunes, don’t forget to give me a five-star rating if you liked this episode and hit the subscribe button as well.
    The greatest compliment you can give me is to share this episode with someone else.
    Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
    *Music outro

  • To Convince A Man That He Does Wrong, Do Right

    In this episode, we discuss how it’s not much use to convince a person they are doing wrong. They need to see with their eyes what good is. 

    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. 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 are going to talk about the Henry David Thoreau quote, if you want to convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see. This quote is about setting the example and letting the other person come to realize that they are doing wrong. When people are able to internalize their actions and see that it’s not up to standard, then they can change their ways.
    Now there are three types of incentives that can cause people to change their behavior and they are financial, social, and moral ones. This quote is about affecting social and moral incentives. If you want to be a good neighbor, then act like a good neighbor and set the example. There was a study done that wanted to see what was the best way to reduce energy consumption.
    The electricity company sent out different flyers like discounts on saving money, messages about saving the environment, and one the ranked their energy consumption against other people in their neighborhood. And the one that worked the best was the flyer that compared the other person to their peers.
    Now, this was social cue to do better. So if you want a better community, do things that will create a better community. If you want a better relationship, do things that create a better relationship. And if you want to end social injustices, do something that will remove those social injustices. This is going to be work and requires effort. It’s easy to wish somebody would do better, but you have to show them what excellence looks like. The other person has to see it with their eyes.
    To nag at someone is not going to be that effective. And by setting the example, you can affect the moral and social incentives that will get people to act the right way because the other person sees with their eyes on what the right thing to do is.
    One of the reasons why I hated being in the Marines, was the hypocrisy that I saw with my superiors. They would be late, not do their work, and just be a jerk sometimes, and as someone with lower rank, you can’t really fight that person or argue with them without the fear of getting in trouble. Then their behavior made me not work to work as hard. This takes a lot of work to set the example but it’s required to make the world a better place. The worst thing we can do is be a hypocrite in the situation and expect other people to do better when you’re not willing to put the work in yourself.
    That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, to convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see. Not of things are changing with the protests because there are a lot of people out their who want to change the standard. I can’t believe the confederate flag is being removed from a lot of places like NASCAR and military bases. Those institutions are setting an example. So let’s hope more positive change happens and if you want that in your life, have high standards for yourself and do the work within your community to affect that change. Which reminds of me the Marcus Aurelius quote, don’t argue what a good man should be, be one. This is all it takes to make things better.
    So in your journal, ask yourself, What is an area of your life that needs to be improved? How can you raise your standards to get a better outcome? How can use one or three of the incentives, which are financial, social, or moral, to help you get what you want? Are you mentally strong enough to set the high standard? If not, what can you do to be stronger? There is no use trying to convince a person that they should change, they need to see it themselves, so set example and let the other people know that this is what the example should be. If we all did this, then we can make our lives, community, nation, and the world a better place.
    Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my audiobook “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and you can download it right there.
    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 friday@growwithjoe.me
    I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
    If you’re on iTunes, don’t forget to give me a five-star rating if you liked this episode and hit the subscribe button as well.
    The greatest compliment you can give me is to share this episode with someone else.
    Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
    *Music outro

  • The Three Types of People In This World

    In this episode, we discuss how we should focus on being this one type of person 80% of the time, another person 20% of the time, and how we should avoid being this one type of person. 

    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. 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 are going to talk about the three types of people in this world. The people who make things happen, the people who watch what happened, and the people who wondered what happen. And if you can be anyone, you want to be the person that makes things happen and the person you least want to be like is the one who wonders what happened.
    Right now, there is a lot of uncertainty with the world with covid creating a global pandemic and know you have protested over social injustices. There is a lot to focus on but I’m going to focus on what I think is going to create the greatest good. For myself, that is building up my business, with the future focus of hiring more minority financial advisors. Right now 2% of financial advisors are Latino and the other 2% are black.
    We have a long way to go, but the way I see it, if I can grow my business by focusing on the Latino Market, then I can eventually start hiring more Latino financial advisors, which will hopefully bump up that number. If I were to watch what happened, then I know this number of Latino and Black Financial Advisors will stay the same. And within these two communities, they need a lot of help with their personal finances. Financial planning and development coaching is my gift, so I’m going to do my best to spread my message.
    The worst thing I can do is wonder what happened. That just means I’m being ignorant and that’s not good. I’m too focused on my pleasure or fear, which are things that are not going to help me down the road. Now I can’t focus on everything, I can only focus my energy on a few things. I can give support, but I can do the heavy lifting in every area.
    I might not be able to do something right now because I’m still growing but I have a plan to save my slice of the world. The best way to predict the future is to create it and it might take a couple of decades to make your thing happen. You just got to follow the process and building the thing brick by brick.
    I’ve almost been in business for myself for a year now, and I know I have a while to go. I love what I do and I love who I get to help out. The world needs help in a lot of different areas and as a society, we just need to do our part to save a slice of it. And if everyone did this, then the world would be a better place. So don’t stay complacent and wondered what happened to the world.
    That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, there are three types of people in this world, the ones who make things happen, the ones who watch what happened, and the ones who wondered what happened. Try to be the one that makes things happen in the areas that you care about. There are other times you need to be the person who watches things happen because it’s outside your expertise or you’re waiting for more information to be gathered, but if you’re staying idle because of fear, that’s not good. The last person who wondered what happens is not a person you want to be because society is going to move on from that person because they are not keeping up. So have the wisdom to know who you should be as a person and then start acting like that person so you can save your slice of the world.
    So in your journal, ask yourself, what is an area that you need to start making things happen? What is an area of your life that you don’t need to be involved in and just watch things happen? What is the smallest step you can take to start making things happen? What is the smallest step you can take to remove yourself from something that you don’t need to be involved in? Is there an area where you need to do more research? The goal is just to figure out who you need to be in life and then to start acting like that person. Do this and you can have a pretty fulfilling life.
    Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my audiobook “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and you can download it right there.
    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 friday@growwithjoe.me
    I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
    If you’re on iTunes, don’t forget to give me a five-star rating if you liked this episode and hit the subscribe button as well.
    The greatest compliment you can give me is to share this episode with someone else.
    Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
    *Music outro

  • Don’t Be The Sucker In The Room

    In this episode, we discuss how we should know the deal before we accept the deal, so we don’t become the sucker in the room.

    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. 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 are going to talk about how we shouldn’t be the sucker in the room. The world is a very complex place with a lot of different people in it, who have their own agenda and they are going to do things that will benefit themselves.
    I’m in the financial services industry and we get a lot of flack for screwing people over and I say it’s because of the industry was formed. It started off with stockbrokers, who made a commission, based on how many transactions they made. There was an incentive to sell a financial product and back in the 1950s the fees were a lot higher than today’s environment and it could cost up to $100 in brokerage fees just to execute a trade to buy or sell a stock.
    Thanks to the internet, you can find a trading fee as low as $0 on some brokerage platforms. Now there are trade-offs in terms of speed of the transaction and access to auxiliary information, but today more and more people have access to invest in the stock market.
    Now when it comes to the financial services industry this year, there are three types. Commission based, asset-based, and fee-for-service. Basically a commission-based financial planner gets paid on selling a financial product like a mutual fund, life insurance, disability insurance, or long-term care insurance.
    An asset-based financial advisor gets paid on what they manage. For example, if you give $500,000 or $100,000 to someone to manage that money, they will charge a fee of 1-2% most likely.
    A fee-for-service financial advisor charges on complexity. They charge a fee based on how much work it will take to build a plan that covers topics like estate planning, tax planning, retirement planning, cash flow planning, and investment planning.
    A financial advisor can be one of these, all of them, or any combination of the three. You just have to know the deal before you accept the deal. And I’ve seen people get inappropriate advice or bought an inappropriate product because they didn’t know what they were getting themselves into.
    So this is why if you enter into a room and you don’t know who the sucker is, then you’re the sucker. Now the sucker is the person that doesn’t know what’s going on. They don’t know the incentives behind the person in the room. Now, these incentives might not be entirely bad for both parties, but one party might not get their full benefit.
    Now a person can be taken advantage of in all three scenarios, but I feel the best model is the fee-for-service model because it allows the financial advisor to be in the best position to be a fiduciary. With the asset-based and commission model, there could be an incentive to move someone’s money to a product that this not the best for the client. If you don’t have a product to sell, then there is less conflict of interest.
    A lot of this depends on the situation, and what your goals are. But you don’t want to enter a situation where you can be taken advantage of because you didn’t do your research and making the wrong decision can have huge financial consequences, which can lead to other problems.
    This doesn’t just apply to your personal finances but in other parts of your life. This could be with a relationship, your career, and a hobby that you enjoy. If you really want to do this thing, then make sure it’s what you truly want and it’s the best for you. We’re humans and we get to decide what we put in our lives, for the most part, this is what I believe. Or we can design our lives in a way to create a perfect life. And what that perfect life entails, is up to us.
    But the key thing is, make sure you’re not being taken advantage of. I would recommend you ask questions and try to figure out what are the goals for this other person. If you believe it’s fair and just, then there shouldn’t be a problem. A lot of the things we enjoy today are based on the social norms that we believe to be true. So what is true for you might not be true for someone else, but we need to know what is the truth for ourselves.
    I’ve made mistakes where I followed this dream, and then I found out is wasn’t something that I wanted in my life. I thought I wanted to be a police officer in high school because that is the only job I thought I could get, but going into the Marines, reading books, and listening to podcasts has expanded my horizons in terms of what I could accomplish and what I want to do. Just raise your awareness and see what you need to add to your life and remove from it. This is going to take patience and action, so do what you can and start building that great life.
    That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, don’t be the sucker in the room. If you don’t know who the sucker is, then you’re the sucker. Try to understand the system, the motivations, the desires, of all the parties involved, and the tools that people are using to help them reach self-actualization. The tool might be the wrong one, or it might be the right one. We just need to increase our wisdom to know the difference. So before you enter something, just know the deal before you accept the deal. Know your upside, know your downside, know what you can control, what you can’t control, and where are the bottlenecks and inefficiencies are. Do this and you’ll decrease the likelihood of being the sucker in the room.
    So in your journal, ask yourself, are you the sucker in the room? Think about your work, with your family, your friends, a service that you’re using, a product you’re using? If you’re the sucker, how can you not be the sucker in the room? What skills or wisdom do you need to acquire to design your life with more control? What are the incentives of the other people or the system that you’re involved in? Just think about the situation and figure out a way on not to be the sucker in the room, and then start taking steps in that direction to help you live your great life.
    Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my audiobook “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and you can download it right there.
    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 friday@growwithjoe.me
    I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
    If you’re on iTunes, don’t forget to give me a five-star rating if you liked this episode and hit the subscribe button as well.
    The greatest compliment you can give me is to share this episode with someone else.
    Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
    *Music outro

  • Know Your Love Language

    In this episode, we discuss how we need to know our love language is we want to have healthier relationships that last. 

    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. 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 are going to talk about the need to know your love language. There is a book out there called the five love languages by Gary Chapman. I haven’t read the book yet but I have taken the quiz that tells you how you want to receive love and how you give love. So there are five love languages and they are physical touch, gifts, compliments, acts of service, and quality time.
    So people who like quality time, need you to be around them. People who like acts of service like to have things done for themselves, compliments are giving verbal cues to show that you care, gifts are buying something and it could be small like a cookie, and then you have physical touch, which involves touching.
    For myself, my order of love language is physical touch, acts of service, quality time, compliments, and gifts. So if I’m going to get into a relationship, I need to make sure that the person knows my priorities for love and I also need to make sure that I understand my future partner’s love languages too. If my first love language is physical touch and I’m not receiving that from my partner, then I’m going to be miserable because my cup is not being filled up.
    I’m also busy as a business owner and if my partner’s love language is quality time, I can’t give them what they need at this moment, so either I need to set up the expectation that I can’t give quality time at this moment and I probably need nudges to schedule time for quality time. I also know that gift-giving is not my favorite and when I receive a gift, I know I have to show more gratitude.
    The key thing is that I’m building up my awareness of how I want my life to be lived and the people in my life. I know I sound like a robot at times, but I think it’s important to study human nature so you know how to navigate the world faster. I’ve gone on a couple of dates and as an activity, we did the five love language quiz together. I want to know what I’m getting myself into and make sure that I’m not wasting my time. I wouldn’t do this on the first date, but rather when things get serious.
    Once I found out how I like to have my relationship, it gave me a lot of clarity on how my life should be like. As a business owner that is just starting out and doing an online MBA, I don’t have that much time. So I feel guilty about not spending time with folks, but for me, it’s required that I work on all these things because this path will give me the life that I ultimately want. It’s like the quote, work a few years of your life like most people won’t, so you can live the rest of your life like most people can’t. I’m not in a serious relationship now, but I did date a girl here in Colombia and her first love language was quality time. I don’t like talking on the phone for three hours but with her, that’s what she wanted. I liked her so I compromised but doing what she wanted. Things didn’t work out but at least I know what went right and didn’t go right.
    You can also use this in a business setting a well. If you’re the boss, some employees don’t want a ceremony, they just want the reward. Some employees rather have a ceremony or some type of public recognition instead of financial compensation. Some employees want compliments in private. The same thing could be said about your boss. You got to know what motivates people and then figure out a way to scratch their itch.
    I love taking quizzes like the five love languages because they help me understand who I am and who I am interacting with. When you understand these two things better when operating in the world is going to go a lot smoother. If you had a bad employer or went on a bad date, then you can chalk it up to it wasn’t a good fit. I know that I’m not a good fit for everyone that I’m interacting with. I’m very logical and don’t like to be too emotional in my decisions. Plus I’m mostly an introvert. So I know which roles I strive in and which roles I shouldn’t take.
    And if you can avoid the stuff that doesn’t fit within your life, this can bring you more joy and clarity within your life. I’ve spent a lot of time on my self-development and I know who I exactly need to be and who I should let in my life. This is going to be important for me in the future with the partner that I choose and the business that I develop. Building the wrong life in either of those two areas is a dreadful future that I don’t want. So take a personality quiz, read books on human nature and behavior, and take the five love languages. I’ll have resources for what I enjoyed taking in the show notes at growwithjoe.me/episode279. We all are going to be interacting with people, so we might as well make sure we do it with the least mistakes. And as always, if you need professional help, please go seek out a professional.
    That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, know your love language. This makes your life a million times better. If your love language is physical touch and you don’t get that, then life is not going to be as joyful. The five love language book by Gary Chapman is on my list to read and I’ll get to it eventually. As people, we should understand our wants, needs, values, and principles, and taking quizzes and reading books about human nature is going to give us more clarity about what we should do with our lives. Now I know when I go into my next relationship, I know what I should be looking for and what I should do to make the relationship stronger. The younger you can understand these lessons, the more your life is going to be filled with the stuff you enjoy. I’m a big believer that in life there are the things we know, the things we don’t know, and the things we don’t know that we don’t know, and it’s in the area of what we don’t know that we don’t know, is where the most joy and satisfaction can be found. It might take a while to find out about this information, but once you do, your life is never going to be the same.
    So in your journal, ask yourself, do you have clarity on your relationships should be? Do you have clarity on what you want out of life? After taking the five love language quiz, what did you find out about yourself? What do you need to change in your life after taking the quiz? What are the things you need to add more? A link to the quiz can be found on the show notes for this episode or you can just google five love language quiz and you should be able to find it that way as well. Take the time to learn about yourself and people, and you should be better off than the person that doesn’t.
    Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my audiobook “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and you can download it right there.
    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 friday@growwithjoe.me
    I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
    If you’re on iTunes, don’t forget to give me a five-star rating if you liked this episode and hit the subscribe button as well.
    The greatest compliment you can give me is to share this episode with someone else.
    Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
    *Music outro

    Resources

    https://www.5lovelanguages.com/quizzes/

    The Law of Human Nature

  • If The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side Its Probably Fake

    In this episode, we discuss that we should know what we are chasing in life because if we don’t, we might find out the thing we were chasing wasn’t worth it. 

    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. 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 are going to talk about how if the grass is always greener on the other side, it’s probably fake. In today’s media landscape, it’s real easy to take a photo in front of a fancy car or jet and associate yourself with that success, without having that success.
    I recently watched a video on Youtube, where they were going over the show MTV Cribs and how people like 50 Cent, Bow Wow, and JoJo, didn’t own all the stuff that was shown at their crib. JoJo didn’t even own the home that she was at, while 50 Cent and Bow Wow didn’t own any of the vehicles. They were rented to show the illusion of success.
    As a financial planner, when you get to see someone’s budget, assets, and liabilities, you can get a pretty good picture of who is trying to maintain fake grass and who is not. I used to work at the Pentagon and White House and before those experiences, I thought they would be extra special than what they were. Yeah, you can get to experience some cool stuff, but you don’t see all the other work that goes into running these two buildings.
    No one has a perfect life and there are issues that people are dealing with. Someone that has a lot of assets, might have trouble with their family and don’t maintain a strong bond. Of course, there are certain problems you want to have over others, but don’t assume that everything is good.
    Debt is something that could be causing fake grass as well. I used to live in DC and would wonder how people maintain their lifestyles, and I could run a budget and see how they were living in my head, and I could see that their paycheck is not keeping up with their lifestyle. It reminds of the saying we spend money that we don’t have to impress people that we don’t even like. Or it could be the case that we’re trying to keep up with people who have more resources than us. Both are fatal.
    Right now, I’m living as a digital nomad, and not everything is perfect. You have to deal with loneliness at times because you’re in a new country and don’t understand the language completely. You might choose the wrong Airbnb. I accumulating business debt from my last business that I’m still trying to pay off. So it helps to live in a country like Colombia because it’s so cheap to live here and I can focus on school and my business. I hope no one thinks my journey is easy and completely stress-free because they are things in my life that give me stress and worries that I need to deal with.
    There are a lot of things in the world where you think it would be nice to have their life but you really don’t. To be a celebrity that can’t go to the local coffee shop without being hassled probably has a lot of cool things in their life but that doesn’t mean they are completely miserable in other parts of their lives. I remember hearing a story of an actress winning the Oscar, and after the show, she just showed up to empty home with this huge reward. So winning huge rewards might not give you the satisfaction in life either because you have other empty things in your life.
    There are plenty of ways to design a good life or a fake life, it will be better for your sanity if you can design the good life and that might mean some trade-offs. Just now what is important to you and what’s not important, and start designing a life that removes the unimportant stuff and adds more of the important stuff to your life.
    That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it if the grass is always greener on the other side, it’s probably fake. I look at the bosses that I had in the past, and I can say I didn’t want to there on life. I had one boss that traveled so much from office to office that he said one time he fell at the wheel. I don’t care how much money, I’m getting paid, I don’t want to die in a car because I was working too hard. Luckily he was alright and nothing happened, but that experience served as a reminder to me to be careful of what I chase. And if you chase the fake grass, it’s going to cause you to harm sooner or later.
    So in your journal, ask yourself, what is about a certain lifestyle that you crave? Does it seem like their life is problem-free? Do you think all your problems will go away if you obtain this thing? What are all the good things and bad things about this thing you desire? Could somebody be faking the results for you? Just ask questions about the situation that you desire and see if it fits within your values and principles. We only have one life to live, so let’s make sure we use our time correctly by chasing things that will truly make us happy.
    Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my audiobook “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and you can download it right there.
    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 friday@growwithjoe.me
    I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
    If you’re on iTunes, don’t forget to give me a five-star rating if you liked this episode and hit the subscribe button as well.
    The greatest compliment you can give me is to share this episode with someone else.
    Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
    *Music outro

  • In Charge But Not In Control

    In this episode, we discuss how in life, there are a lot of things that we’re not in control of, but we can be in charge of the general direction things go in.

    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. 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 are going to talk about how in life we are in charge but not in control of the situation. Right now, there is a lot of uncertainty in the world with covid-19 and the racial tensions that are happening in the US now. I’m recording this podcast from Colombia and it’s a weird feeling to think Im safer here in Colombia than in the United States.
    I never would have thought that this would be the case. I’m still trying to run a business and I’m trying to figure out how can I be sensitive to the situation but also figure out a way that I can grow myself out of this situation that also helps out others.
    I don’t know how to save the entire world but I do know what I can do to save my slice of the world. That is what I can be in charge of. I can’t be control of every aspect of what’s going on in my life but I can do things to influence others to make better choices and hopefully be a better person because that should be our main job in life.
    The definition of that is going to depend on what you what out of the world so I guess the first thing you got to ask yourself, what do you want to do this world. For myself, I want to build up my financial planning and development coaching business to help more Latinos take control of their money.
    And there are a lot of things that I can’t control as I work towards this goal. Right now, I’m in Medellin, Colombia and I’ve had setbacks in what I wanted to accomplish. At my last two Airbnbs, there was a lot of construction going on and it was hard to record videos during the day. Some days, the internet was terrible and I couldn’t do my Facebook Lives, then all of a sudden Zoom wants to be difficult and not do Facebook Lives anymore. I keep getting this 403 error and I’ve been waiting almost three weeks on an answer from zoom on how to fix this. All this was happening while covid-19 was happening and now there are riots and protests going on in the US and I’m wondering how much I should focus on what I do.
    There are a lot of things I can’t control right now but I’m in charge of the success of my life. I’ve spent time writing in my journal, I’ve read books, I did my MBA school work, I worked on my podcast, and been working with my clients to ensure they are on track for their goals. I’m trying to take charge of my development and the development of my clients.
    There are going to be obstacles but we need to take charge of the situation and focus on what we can control. l. I can’t control the government, the economy, and other people, but I can do things when I’m in charge of my success and the success of my clients. One of the things I did to take control of the situation was to offer pro-bono work to people who have questions about financial planning. This might be an investment question, a budget question, an insurance question, an inheritance question, and tons of other questions that I can answer and bring some type of peace of mind to their lives.
    This helps me save my slice of the world and also helps me get better as a financial advisor.
    There are plenty of things we can do to get ourselves out of this current hole but the first step we need to take charge and come with a game plan to make things better. We can’t pass the buck on this one because things rarely get better for ourselves when we take a passive approach. There might be somethings that need to go on the back burner because they are not as important as other things.
    So focus on what is important and just try to save your slice of the world in this moment.
    That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, we’re in charge but not in control of most things in this world. So we need to develop a game plan to help us get the outcome we want that is probably going to need many different strategies to help you accomplish your goals. We can’t control the externals stuff completely like the economy, people, and governments, but we can take control of how to react to those external things and this will put us in charge. Remember, casualness leads to casualties. So figure how you need to take control of the situation and start getting to work.
    So in your journal, ask yourself, what is something that needs to be accomplished in life and how can you be in charge of the situation? What do you need to do to take extreme ownership of the situation? Do you need to have an uncomfortable conversation with someone? Do you need to coordinate resources to ensure things will work smoothly? Do you need to ask for assistance? Do you need to delegate some tasks so you have more free time to work on the important things? When it comes to obstacles in life, we can’t go around them, we must go through them and we can do that by taking charge of our success.
    Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my audiobook “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and you can download it right there.
    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 friday@growwithjoe.me
    I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
    If you’re on iTunes, don’t forget to give me a five-star rating if you liked this episode and to hit the subscribe button as well.
    The greatest compliment you can give me is to share this episode with someone else.
    Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
    *Music outro

  • Big Things Start Small

    In this episode, we discuss how to need to be patient with our goals because big things start small and require a lot of attention to grow. 

    Full Transcritp

    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. 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 are going to talk about how big things start small. I was recently watching a Frontline special about Jeff Bezos and he said this line when he was talking about Space Travel.
    He thinks it’s necessary to do space travel because the world has a finite amount of resources but a growing population. This is his main motivation for growing Amazon into a bigger and bigger company so he can fund his space travel passion.
    If you look on online, or in the show notes at growwithjoe.me/episode 275, you can see a photo of Jeff Bezos back in the 90s working at his desk. His desk a door that is placed on two workhorses and on the wall is a poster board with amazon.com in blue spray paint.
    If you were to ask people 25 years ago where Amazon would be in 2020, no one would have predicted it’s position in the world except for Jeff Bezos. He would tell you it was a lot of hard work with a lot of experiments that didn’t work out. But this is what is required to turn small things into big things.
    This is the way I see my life. I feel like I came from a humble background, but I’ve constantly been experimenting with my life and working hard on developing myself and my resources. I had to lose a lot of weight as a kid, I worked hard on getting good grades, I went into the Marines and did night school, I did a study abroad in Mexico, I moved to Washington to DC, and eventually I started my own company that does financial planning and development coaching.
    While I was working at a financial planner at my last firm, I had to learn a lot of a person and how to make a business successful. I had to learn sales, I had to learn marketing, I had to learn to be confident when I interacted with my clients, I had to learn how to do business taxes, and I had to learn a lot of other things.
    Then eventually I saw that I wanted to see a difference in the financial services industry that catered more Latinos. And in order to do this, I needed to start my own company. I’m about a year into my new business and I’m started to see my company grow. I see the next moves I need to make to help me reach my ultimate goal of hiring more Latino Financial Advisors.
    As I’m recording this podcast episode, I’m five and half years in the profession as a financial advisor and I’ve doing self-development work for about 8 and I’m super proud of where I am today and where I am going because I’m being true to myself, I’m not compromising who I want to me in life and I’m progressing in the right direction.
    I definitely want to do big things for myself and others because it’s going to make the world a better place, but we have to remember that big things start off small. And it’s going to take time and energy to grow something small into something big. So be patient and just follow the process.
    I have a list of things that I have to do every day in order to turn my small thing into something larger. Some days are better than others but I’ve been consistent and you also have to overcome the obstacles that come your way. Things are simple to do but they are not easy like I said in yesterday’s podcast episode.
    It can be hard to be patient but when I think about what I’m working towards, it gives me the motivation to keep going. Plus in my journal every day, I write down the ten goals want I want to accomplish in life and what is it going to take to make the goals a reality. Then when I time blocks my day, I make sure I’m doing activities that will help me reach my goals. If I don’t do the activities that will progress me forward, then I’m really just wasting my time and we have to understand that we won’t get more time in the future, so make sure you’re using your time wisely and this should live to a fulfilling life.
    That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, big things start small. Whatever your goal is, that goal might be big to you and you just have to realize that you will start off with something small and you will work your way towards that big thing. On a daily basis, you have to know what small thing you’re trying to turn into a big thing. Where ever you direct your time and energy at, is what is going to grow and get better at. So make sure you’re doing those activities that will turn your small thing into a big thing. And also make sure that is what you really want in life. It’s also important to know if there is a better way. One reason why I left my company is that they were slow on adopting new technology and business methods. I saw a better way of doing business and now I’m doing it. This is taking time but it’s what I want to do for the rest of my life and since I have this passion, I can endure turning my small thing into something larger. Can you say the same about yourself?
    So in your journal, ask yourself, what is a small thing that you want to turn into a big thing. The size of the big thing doesn’t have to be gigantic, it just has to be bigger than how it started. Then ask yourself, what is necessary to do today, to help start building this small thing into a big thing? What is it important to turn this small thing into a big thing? Are there better ways to turn this small thing into a bigger thing that people are not aware of? Just figure out what you need to do and start doing it.
    Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my audiobook “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and you can download it right there.
    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 friday@growwithjoe.me
    I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
    If you’re on iTunes, don’t forget to give me a five-star rating if you liked this episode and to hit the subscribe button as well.
    The greatest compliment you can give me is to share this episode with someone else.
    Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
    *Music outro

  • It’s Hard To See The Label When Your Inside The Jar

    In this episode, we discuss how we can be fool by our environment where we think that everything is okay and how to over this.

    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. 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 are going to talk about how it’s hard to see the label when you’re inside the jar. Now, this quote is about how you need to expose yourself to different experiences and ideas so you don’t get stuck in your way of thinking.

    And it’s easy to get stuck in your way of thinking when your environment is agreeing with you. I feel that I’m blessed as a person because I have many different experiences. I grew up in a small town in Oregon with about 5,000 people. Sometimes I would travel to my friend’s house on a bike on these windy back roads with cars going 45 mph. It also wasn’t very diverse.

    I went into the Marines and I lived in Hawaii, I went to boot camp with a lot of different folks from across the United States, I went to Iraq.

    I lived in Washington, DC and I used to tutor a kid at Anacostia High School and he needed a lot of help. I was also a federal employee, a white house intern, and that’s where I started my own business.

    I’m also half white and half Mexican. I’m 6’3”. I’ve also been one of the tallest in my group of folks but I was also overweight as a kid, where I was picked on for being overweight. Now I’m fit and will take care of the body. I was in a nine-year marriage. Now I’m living as a digital nomad in Latin America. I also read over 250 books from a bunch of different backgrounds.

    I have a vast amount of experience to help me see the label outside of the jar. And this is important because if you don’t see the label outside of the jar, then you can be making decisions that are harmful to yourself and society.

    Right now as I’m writing this podcast episode, there is a lot of tension within the United States that revolving around race. I see people spreading messages about things that they probably don’t understand. It’s easy just to use your environment and background as a basis for what other people should do, but people don’t have the same background.

    I’m blessed that my parents made sure I went to a good school. I was able to go to school without worrying about my safety and get a pretty good education overall. When I was tutoring this high school student from Anacostia in Washington, DC, he was a senior in high school and didn’t understand general math principles. We had to do a lot of work over the year we worked together and hopefully I helped him out.

    There are a lot of things wrong with our school systems and people don’t start out on the same level. I know the world is never going to be fair, and we can do things to escape a low socio-economic status but we should show empathy and not dismiss people’s feelings. But we shouldn’t make people victims either and if we can help people grow, then we can make the world a better place.

    We could be irrational in our opinions of a situation or a person because we don’t see the label because we’re nice and safe in a our jar. But this is not going to make the world a better place. We need to get outside of our comfort zone and experience different things.

    I feel like a lot of people get captured by confirmation bias, where we seek information that we already agree with. So to prevent this, I’ve read a bunch of different books from different perspectives so I can see what makes sense in the world and move closer to the truth. The worst thing we can do is live a lie or lie to ourselves that things are good when they are not because eventually things will go wrong and we’re going to have a mess to clean up.

    That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, it’s hard to see the label when you’re inside the jar. So make sure you’re exposing yourself to different ideas and experiences so you make irrational and bad decisions because you don’t know all the facts about the situation. If you’re ignoring the label, then eventually that tension is going to build up and your jar might be shattered. So the idea is just to know what is out in the world and make decisions that take in all the factors, not just the ones that make you feel comfortable. If we can do this as a society, then we can live a better life.

    So in your journal, ask yourself, do you know enough about the outside world? Do you only get your information from a few select sources? If you get in a confrontation with someone, do you know their background? Is there an uncomfortable conversation you need to have with someone? In life we have two choices, we can choose to be an important person, or we can choose to do important things. Focus on the second part and society will be better for it.

    Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my audiobook “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and you can download it right there.

    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 friday@growwithjoe.me

    I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe

    If you’re on iTunes, don’t forget to give me a five-star rating if you liked this episode and to hit the subscribe button as well.

    The greatest compliment you can give me is to share this episode with someone else.

    Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.

    *Music outro

  • Simple But Not Easy To Do

    In this episode, we discuss how success really just requires us not to complicate things and just follow the process that is simple but not easy to do. 

    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. 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 are going to talk about how in life there are many things that are simple but not easy to do to become successful. This is especially true in business. If you’re trying to sell something, the best way to do it is just to ask a bunch of different people if they want to buy what you’re offering.
    I used to be a telemarketer back in high school selling home security systems. I only last like two months but it provided a really good experience later on in life, which is just a smile and dial. The more phone numbers you can dial and the more energy that you can bring, the more likely you will sell a home security system.
    I didn’t do very well at selling and it was a grind to be at that job, but it was a simple job. You just dialed phone numbers and read the script. If someone said yes, you would then pass the phone to someone to close on the deal. You just have to have the endurance to win in that type of job.
    The same thing applies to working out and staying on a diet. For the most part, staying healthy just requires you to work out and watch what you eat. This is simple but it is not easy because there are so many distractions. It’s easy to hit the snooze button in the morning instead of working out. It’s easy to skip that after-work workout to go to happy hour with your friends or watch television. It’s easy to indulge in that extra slice of pizza and beer at home or at a party.
    Life is not really that complex in terms of being successful, but that doesn’t mean it’s not easy. I know what I have to do at times, which are simple tasks but there is hesitation in doing the activity because I’m comfortable or doing that simple thing will make me uncomfortable.
    This is why you need to have your goals written down and have clear visions of what you want in the future. I know I have to work out because I have bulging disks in my lower back and I know I need to have kept my strength up to prevent worse problems down the road. I want to watch what I eat because I want to keep my waistline down and still be active in the future. I work on my business because I want to have control over my life.
    There are simple things I have to do on a daily basis but I need to be reminded of my way on a daily basis. In my journal, I write down my ten goals and what is necessary to accomplish those goals. This helps me stay motivated to work on my simple tasks. And if you do these simple tasks for long enough, you’ll get the life that you desire but just make sure it’s a life you truly want. Otherwise, you’ll work towards something that won’t give you much joy and that’s not a future I want.
    That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, to be successful in life, it just requires you to do tasks that are simple but not easy to do because they are uncomfortable to do. So instead of saying this workout is going to cause me pain, say this workout is going to make me stronger. If you need to make phone calls, say that every tenth phone call I make, I’m going to make $100. Focus on the reward instead of the pain. Life doesn’t require you to come up with a crazy workout routine to stay fit, you just need your body and mind. Same thing with business. Don’t over complicate things and just have the stamina to keep going and this should eventually lead you to the success you desire.
    So in your journal, ask yourself, what is a goal that you want to accomplish? Are you over complicating things to reach your goal? What is the smallest thing you can do to get started? How can you reward or remind yourself to do those simple but not easy tasks? Look at your situation and see what is necessary and then start doing it. Remember that the distance between your dreams and reality is called action. So start taking some to you can get that life you desire.
    Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my audiobook “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and you can download it right there.
    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 friday@growwithjoe.me
    I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
    If you’re on iTunes, don’t forget to give me a five-star rating if you liked this episode and hit the subscribe button as well.
    The greatest compliment you can give me is to share this episode with someone else.
    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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