60 - Your Calendar Is Exposing You | The Truth About Time, Discipline & Success

Welcome to the Impact Podcast. I'm Eddie Wilson, here to help you visualize what others cannot see, create opportunities where others have failed, and push you to build empires where once there was empty space. Let's embark on this journey together and make a difference in this world. Welcome to the Impact Podcast with Eddie Wilson. I'm Eddie Wilson. Thanks so much for joining me today. This is my favorite time of the week. I hope it's your favorite time as well. This is a time where I get to instruct, teach, coach you and your business and life. For me, one of the greatest joys is to be able to pour into other people, to educate, and to help people make advancement on the purpose and impacts of their life. Today, we're going to talk about an all important topic. It's one that I get asked to probably speak on more than anything. I get asked to speak a lot on business, a lot on investment, but the one thing that I get asked to speak on more than anything over my career has been time, time and time management. As a matter of fact, the very first book I wrote was called Time, Wealth, and Purpose. It was my thesis on life and thesis on success. Today, I'm going to talk to you about this concept of time. I want you to think about it a little bit more abstractly than normal and remind you that we have midterm elections coming up. This isn't a political podcast by any means. However, we do have that all important midterm election coming up. We often say, no matter what side of the aisle you sit on, your blue or red, you essentially say that show up and your vote counts. You vote with that ballot box, with your, you actually get to and still in America what you believe based on what you vote. I want to take it one step further, is that I believe that every minute that you invest is actually a vote throughout your day. This is the way that I think about it. I've talked a lot about this on the podcast. I've talked about how I grew up and how there's an emphasis on time and how time is our greatest asset and all the things that are consistently said. But I want you to think just a little bit differently today. The core thesis is this. You don't become what you say, you value. You become what you give your time to. Therefore, you're voting what you want your life to be by the decisions you make by the hour. Every hour is a decision about who you are becoming. Every hour is a decision about who you're becoming. Today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about maybe some of the things that I have voted for that are good and voted for that are bad. And I want you to think the same way because time is your real vote, not your intentions, not your goals, not your words. It's your calendar. Your calendar is the ballot. And so as an intro, I want to say your life is a series of votes. Most people think I want to be disciplined. I want to build something meaningful. I want to grow. We have all these thoughts, these aspirations, but then we scroll for two hours on social media. We avoid hard conversations. We delay our decisions. We consistently go opposite of what our intentions are. And so while you may say I want to be disciplined, your life is a series of votes to determine if you are and if you will be. Every hour you spend, and I want you to think this through. And if you write anything down on the podcast today, I want you to write this down. Every hour you spend is a vote for the person you're becoming. This next hour, you're sitting here listening to the podcast. It's probably another 20, 25 minutes long. And every time that you give your time to something, it's a vote for what you're becoming. So when you listen to my podcast, essentially you're saying I'm voting that I believe in these, the morals, the identity, the tactics, the practical solutions, the stories. I'm voting that I want that in my life and I'm going to become that, right? If you went to the gym this morning, you voted to become more disciplined, more fit, more healthy, right? You are voting every single hour of the day for the person that you want to become. So your stated values don't actually matter. I teach the Empire Operating System and we oftentimes speak our values. But the thing is, our values are not what we're actually saying. Our values are what we're doing. Our core values in life are often tied to how we grew up. As we interview people, I teach people to interview properly. I always say that there's really three interviews that you have to do in order to get a good candidate in your business. Number one, you have to have what we call the head interview. That's the drives. What drives the human? If you can get ahead of their drives and put them in line with it, then you never have to motivate them. The next thing is we say the heart interviews. The head interviews, drives, that's interview number one. Heart interviews, number two, that's your core values, right? Like that, those are the things that matter to you. Those are the things that your oftentimes, your subconscious, your feelings all tie into. And then lastly, your experience interview. And we say that the least important interview out of all of your interviews is the experience interview. It doesn't matter what somebody's done in the past. What matters is what they're driven to do and the values by which they will do it. That matters so much more than any experience they've had in the past. And so, you know, with that being said, our core values are the things that we have actually done, not what we aspire to do. Your core values are like magnets that snap you together with other people who have similar core values. My core values are honesty, integrity, passion, right? Those things are core. They're not up for negotiation. They're something that I will do naturally and I'll do automatically. You know, honesty, I want radical honesty. I want a truth that at the basis for everything I do, whether it's good or bad, whether it's positive or negative, I just want truth because every good decision in life has come after I've been faced with truth. The truth may hurt, but you still make good decisions. The doctor comes in and says, hey, you, if you keep going down this path of health, you only have five years to live. Well, now you get to make a good decision, right? If you didn't know that that was the case, then you may be prone to making bad decisions. And so, truth is everything to me. Number two, integrity. Doing the right thing when no one's looking. You know, we all make mistakes in life. Every one of us will make a mistake. Some of them are more catastrophic than others. But the thing is, is your life should be a series of intentional decisions to avoid mistakes, not to make them hide them, cover them up, right? Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking. And often times when you make a mistake, integrity is owning up to it and just facing it, going back to the truth. And then passion. I really struggle with people who need motivation to do anything in life. Find what you love and go do it. Don't fall into the trap of doing what you hate and then needing to be motivated every day. So your stated values don't matter. Your scheduled values matter because what you actually do on a daily consistent basis oftentimes are your values. You say, for instance, your family matters, but you give them the leftovers, right? That's the trap I fell into for so many years is, you know, and oftentimes I've used the podcast as therapy to talk some of this stuff out because it's like, I love my family, love them unconditionally. And I say that they matter, but if you look back over the time that I've given them, I've oftentimes prioritized work or I've prioritized the problems in my life, or I've prioritized chasing success or money or business success over time spent with them. So what really matters? I voted with my time. And guess what? I still have tomorrow that I can vote with. I just got back from an amazing trip with two of my sons up to the northeast. And that was a vote to show what mattered in my life. Now, I loved it. I enjoyed it, but I have a choice, right? Now, I can look back in my life and I can say they mattered. But the fact of the matter is I didn't vote with my time. Today, I get to vote with my time. Tomorrow, I get to vote with my time and prove that my values are that my family matters. We say health matters, but we don't train. We don't give ourselves to healthy eating or a healthy lifestyle. So you say health is more important, the most important thing in your life, but then you give zero time to it. You're not informed on the latest issues or latest things. It's like you don't give yourself the ability to actually improve your health. You say business matters. This is an interesting one because I hear oftentimes my business matters so much like I'm all in. And then I watch business owners avoid all the hard work. If your kind of like activity, daily activity is to put the hard work last, I would say that your business doesn't matter and you've shown me by your vote. If your business matters, then roll up your sleeves and do the hard work first. You don't drift into success. You vote into it and you vote with your time. So where's your time contradicting your identity today? Where is your time? If you looked at your time and how you spent it over the last 30, 60, 90 days and you say I want to be healthy, where are you contradicting? I love my business. Where are you contradicting? My family matters. Where are you contradicting it? My relationships are important to me. Where are they contradicting? Where is your time contradicting your identity? I oftentimes give you a historical figure and today's figure is one of my favorites. I would say that if I had to pick two of my favorite historical figures and you know I've got the book The Titan Doctrine so I outlined eight figures, this one did not make it in the book and I still and I the reason I didn't put it in the book is because I believe that someday I'll write a book just on him. I'm so fascinated with this character and you know you guys might you know jump into if you're a frequent podcast listener and think it's Marcus Aurelius or it's one of the you know it's one of the people in Roman history but my two favorite historical characters, one's Winston Churchill, he's in my book. He's so unique, he's such a weird eccentric man but yet he even through his eccentricity he shapes the future through World War II and he fights Hitler when no one else is willing. You know it's just it's I love Winston Churchill, he's such a unique weird character. The second person though is Benjamin Franklin. I love Benjamin Franklin, he's the one that someday I most likely will write a book on because I'm so fascinated. I've been to his grave in Philadelphia, I was just in Boston, we went to the grave site of his parents. You know Benjamin Franklin is such a unique unique character because you know Benjamin Franklin he's a Quaker so very much wanted to exhibit love and care and compassion for humanity. He oftentimes was on the opposite side of John Adams at the same time where John was a little bit more aggressive and felt like there was some action that needs to be taken. You know Benjamin Franklin during the Continental Congress was kind of the one that was a little more passive. Let's talk to England, let's reason with them but one of the things that I love about Benjamin Franklin is how he spent his time and I think that you know in in the making someday will be a book that I write specific to the time that he gave himself to because he was a Renaissance man in that he knew so many things. He was great at so many things from and it being an inventor to a scientist to a poet to a writer to a philosopher to a politician like the guy was just like he's a Renaissance man which I love because I feel like to deprive yourself of things that create a well-roundedness oftentimes creates a short-sighted or shallow experience for us in life and you know it's like one of the things that I love is I feel like every young boy should be taught how to fight. I think that they should not defend themselves, have the ability to defend others that they love. I feel like every young man or young boy should learn music. I think that there should be some creativity stoked in every man. I think that I think that every young man should read. I feel like they should be growing in their knowledge. I feel like every young man should have to explore their faith. They should be pushed into at least exploring their faith and it's like I feel like that is what Benjamin Franklin was. Let's use an example of all of these things right? Maybe minus the fighting thing right like he was a Quaker but what I loved about him was how he appropriated his time and then he looked back on his life and you would say how did you do so many things in a lifetime and that's one of the greatest compliments somebody could give me is they could say how have you done so many things? I'm in my 40s and sold lots of businesses and built lots of businesses and I love that because what that shows is I've been intentional with my time to the point where people feel like I've accomplished more than what the average person accomplishes. Well that should be our pursuit. We should be pursuing accomplishing more than the average person in this lifetime. So Benjamin Franklin, one of the most productive men in history and I think that if I were to write a book about Benjamin Franklin it'd be about his productivity. He was a founder. He was an inventor. He was a diplomat. I mean he spent time in France as a diplomat but what made him different was he tracked his days with two very simple questions. He started his day with intent and he said to himself and he wrote them down on the morning as he sat by his bedside and he'd ask himself the question what good shall I do this day and he would say today I'm going to not only do the things that are prudent you know I've got a have to accomplish certain things in the day but he asked himself what good shall I do this day. I think in your life today you're voting to be a better business person to making more money maybe spending more time with family but what about increasing the value of humanity by doing something good or sowing something good into humanity today. Do you do something of good of benefit to humanity every single day and that's what Benjamin Franklin did that's what set him apart and then at the end of the day as he laid his head to rest he would ask himself this question and this was his consistent habitual patterns what good have I done this day what good shall I do this day what good have I done this day. He structured his day throughout the day number one he focused on times for deep work he focused on times for deep work he had four categories that he broke his day down into one was deep work and this is where he would do his research this is where he would do his writing this is where he would do his thinking and he would build philosophy number two he would give his day to learning there was a period of time that he gave to every single day where he would learn something or he would absorb some new information typically through books and information number three he would reflect he would think back on past successes he would analyze those successes and he would put them into practice for tomorrow so reflection and then number four which I think is one that we constantly miss is intentional rest intentional rest um there is a uh there is a modern pandemic that's happening in American business culture and that is this we work we work we work we fail and instead of reflection or time off we then move from failure into creation again I will tell you that the distance between failure and new creation that distance that gap will ultimately and almost always determine the level of success you have in your new creation one thing that Benjamin Franklin did was he consistently and intentionally rested he gave himself rest time every single day why because the resetting of the human brain and the human body allows us to create with new vigor and new passion new fervor and that's what he did and we have fallen into that trap I have personally fallen into this trap I right now I'm have been and and you know coming out of a season where I've been struggling with health and I'll say that that health issue is directly related to the drive and the push that I've put into the last four or five years most people don't know that I went from building companies and you know I was building companies building my nonprofit and then moved into you know sold an exit to company and moved right into 2013 building more companies 2013 I intentionally and personally build close to 80 some companies both passively and actively and exit that in 2019 2019 you know during that time period the exiting is happening so I'm moving away from some companies starting some new companies COVID happens in 2020 and most people think that that was a period of for me I took about a two-week time period off in March and April during COVID and realized that so many people still needed help my businesses the things that I had left still needed help and the nonprofits I had globally needed help so I immediately engaged and got involved and there was rarely a week during COVID that I didn't travel I typically was on planes with four or five people but I was traveling consistently and and pushing and I probably pushed just as hard during COVID as I ever had coming out of COVID that's the famous story of Andrew Cordell walking in and pitching me on this idea but during COVID I'm building the coffee brands I'm building a studio brand called Prospace Studios Think Realty the American Association of Private Lenders Go Media Impact Others I also have a an international Christian broadcasting brand and and so you know I'm building all these things during COVID Andrew walks in my office and pitches me on this idea and we end up then now building the Aspire Tour we built Collective Influence we built you know a check make tax services we've built all these things 20 plus businesses during this time period I've had exits of Think Realty we bought and exited from FitCon a large fitness convention we have literally done a ton of stuff and while doing that I also have been expanding and building my nonprofit Impact Others we've added we've added I think seven new countries in the last two years we've built five more orphanages in the last two years we've dug 72 wells in the last two years you just you it's like I have been pushing and pushing and pushing but I've been pushing what most people don't understand is I've been pushing for close to 14 years straight 80 90 hours a week traveling non-stop pushing and it finally caught up to me this year I got malaria in Africa a few years ago and it finally caught back up with me and that's my fault because I did not intentionally rest the reality of it is in the lesson I'm learning is that if I had intentional periods of rest I may have gone faster and I may have gone farther I sacrificed all the things I wanted because I didn't intentionally rest so Benjamin Franklin deep work learning reflection intentional rest those are his four things daily asking himself in the morning what good shall I do this day at the end of the day what good have I done Franklin didn't just manage time he directed his life through it he directed and voted what was important in his life through how he spent his time he didn't hope to become great he was on a pathway of greatness and his time dictated and mandated greatness he voted for greatness daily greatness isn't built in years it's built in days that are used correctly I want you to hear that so clearly today that greatness isn't built in years it's built in days that are used correctly so what are you facing today right so how do you go from Benjamin Franklin the 1700s who maybe doesn't have as many distractions as we do we do today he didn't have a computer he didn't have a phone he didn't have he didn't have as much but he did have a lot going on right I mean he is one of the pens of the of the declaration of independence he is a diplomat he is an inventory had a lot going on but today most people are voting against their future for a few different reasons number one they're voting against it because they've been told a lie that immediate comfort wins easy over meaningful is always detrimental now over later always plays against you your comfort today oftentimes is an exact opposition of the direction of the desire you have for tomorrow fighting through the discomfort of today will oftentimes provide comfort for tomorrow choosing comfort for today will give discomfort tomorrow number two a lack of clarity if you don't know what matters then everything feels equal you know today you are going to vote with your time and the way that you've given your time to people for instance the people that are running into your office with a fire the god a minute meetings the frustrations that you're dealing with the gossip that's at your work the stuff that you allow and you put up with you know all the things right is that you are essentially voting to continue down that path if you choose to not give time to it to avoid it to push away from it to set a wall against it then it provides clarity for what you actually want in life and number three emotional emotional avoidance hard tasks get delayed growth gets postponed we avoid things because the emotional task or the emotional emotional taxing that is there based on whatever hardship we're facing here's the one discovery that i've had is that oftentimes we look at unsuccessful people and we say well maybe they're just lazy they didn't do the hard thing but the fact of the matter is is i don't think most people are actually lazy i think they're undirected look at the people in your business and ask the question do they want success okay well a majority of the people in your business whether they're employees or leaders they want success they have a desire for success the question is is have you actually directed them in the activities that will give them success do they have a clear path of success in your business we call an empire these wins weekly important numbers do does your staff have a win do they know what the weekly important numbers are do they know if i do this activity in my business in my life i will be a success if you consistently put those metrics and activities in front of them hey in order if you be successful you have to do this in order if you be successful you have to do this beat that drum every single day and the irony is all of a sudden the people you thought were lazy would become successful the problem is is that it starts with you you don't know what your weekly important number is you don't know what you should be giving your time to so therefore you can't direct others to be a good leader you have to lead meaning you have to step out in front if you want people to actually live a life of productivity you yourself must live a life of productivity this is hard talk but the fact of the matter is this is true and if the people around you are unproductive it is almost the greatest mirror i could put in front of you to say that is because you lack productivity so here's the reframe start voting intentionally you don't need a new life you need new daily votes does this move me forward you should be asking these questions does this move me forward does this align with who i say i am and is this building something or is this distracting something if you look at your activity on daily base and say is this building or is this distracting it becomes an easy decision the problem is you're going through your business your life your relationships without intentionality audit your last seven days i know that i i get some feedback that a lot of times you guys don't like the homework i give you uh and you don't have to do it but if you want to change you have to do the work audit your last seven days that's not your schedule that's your identity in motion when you think about it i want you to go back sure your schedule is the place we're going to look where the audit's going to happen but what i want you to do is see the schedule through the lens of this is my identity if you spent all your time putting out fires that's your identity if you spent all your time daydreaming that's your identity if you spent all your time at the gym it's your identity you spent all your time with uh family it's your identity right like your identity your vote was cast in the last seven days and that is who you are not only is it who you are it's who you're becoming because every day that you vote it creates a habit it creates a habitual process that then turns you into that tomorrow if you want to get in shape vote today get out go go walk go run go work out go do the things go eat healthy avoid avoid the cheeseburger today right like avoid the things that are going to take away your health today vote if you care if you want to be somebody who's building relationships vote put some time in your calendar block it out one of the activities that i have that i have had for a long time is i have what's called my hot list my hot list is a list of people i want to stay in connection with in that list i have a scheduled times that i go and i send texts i make phone calls and i try to stay in contact with the people that i want to have a relationship with you don't need more time you need to vote better with the time you already have benjamin franklin started the university pennsylvania he built the very first volunteer fire department which now gives us all of our volunteer fire departments around the nation he built the very first public library built the very first public library benjamin franklin invented the lightning rod he wrote poor richards almanac which was probably the most red piece of literature during his time he was a diplomat he was the writer of the deco it was one of the writers of the declaration of independence he represented our country in france especially during tumultuous times he sat on the continental congress he gave time to his family he gave time to rest he gave time to writing and reading and creating and in the end what i love about benjamin franklin was he voted for greatness with every day of his life with every moment of his life you don't need more time you need to vote better with the time you already have your future isn't decided in big moments and this is something that i've had to learn i look at those big moments you know the big you know i've i'm exiting this company or the moment where you buy a company or the moment where you start a company or the moment that you have an accolade or the most amount of money you've ever made in a year or the the big stage that you finally are are ushered on to to to give a speech the award that's given right we think that that is what our life is decided on but the fact of the matter is is your future isn't decided in these big moments those big moments reflect the little moments and how you voted before it's decided your future isn't decided in big moments it's decided in small hours that no one sees and by the way the very next hour past the moment of listening this is a vote start now and frequently audit your time have a great day guys thanks so much for joining the impact podcast today thanks so much for being a part of the podcast and for listening today love to connect with you further and you can connect with me on social media at eddie wilson official on any of the social media channels