Working Smarter Not Harder – What It Means

Welcome to The Missing Secret Podcast. I'm Kelly Hatfield,

Hey, and I'm John Mitchell. And so our topic today is something that should appeal to everyone working smarter, not harder, and what that actually means. So I know you work smarter, Kelly, so talk about that. What is that being do you.

Well, you know, I do work smarter. But, like, we were just talking before we started recording about, like, you know, something I'd recently learned, and a light bulb moment I have that is going to help me work even smarter, right? Things that I do, you know, we talk a lot about leverage, you know. And so when I'm working smarter, I'm thinking about the things that are going to move the needle right in my business, in my life, and I am using my organizational system and making sure that then those things that move the needle are the things that get, you know, done, and that anytime you know, like, I know what my superpower is. And so anytime I'm doing anything, I'm thinking about, okay, you know, how can I utilize this conversation as an example, you know, to right, move the ball forward, or, you know, in this particular area, even though the original reason why I contacted them was for Sunday, so, like, I am on, like, alert, my reticular activating system, right for focus, because it's got a ton of clarity about what I'm looking for. And so I just find myself all the crap is getting filtered out that would keep me from working smarter. And so, yeah, this methodology, for me, was a complete like difference maker when it comes to working smarter Period, end of sentence, right,

Right. Well, you know, I thought what you shared last episode was brilliant. The idea of you went to actually a competitor of Europe, who, who? And this is how it works. People that are successful are glad to share their wisdom with other people, because most other people will not take it, yeah, with your mind blowing, but, but that's how it is. And so you go, and you see somebody that's just playing the recruiting game at a higher level than you are, and you learn, well, you know, that's a perfect example of working smarter, you know, learning from other people, you know,

Yep, absolutely, there's no need to reinvent the wheel, right?

No kid, no kidding. You know, I think back about when I was in my 30s and 40s versus 50s and and maybe this will crystallize it for some of our audience. You know, I was like everybody else, just waking up doing the best I could. Didn't really know what that meant, but, you know, it's to me, it meant getting up early, like six o'clock in the morning. But, you know, I look back now, I'm like, wow, how unenlightened I was. But you know, that was my journey. You know, that's where I was, and that's where most people are, you know, they they don't really have a way of doing life, and, and I'm always amazed at why people would embrace not having a way of doing life when there is a natural way to do life. But you know, and I think that the reason a lot of times they don't embrace it is candidly, you know, they're not that driven, you know, I mean, I don't think they go, No, I logically. I don't, I don't think I'm gonna have a way of doing life. I'd rather just wing it. And I'd rather, you know, be innately wired to be fear based and reactive. That's how I think it makes sense for me to do life. You think that's true?

Yeah, no, absolutely. I don't think that people are consciously saying, Well, no, I want to live a way harder life, right, right? You know, I think if that thing we talk about your subconscious is running your life, and you know what your subconscious is made up of. You know, are all of these experiences from, you know, throughout your life. And so I don't think you know that there's that conscious, you know, conversation that somebody's having with themselves about wanting to do things way harder, you know what I mean.

But you know, when they're talking to me, we get into that, you know, I like, I do this with my class, but, but I do this with, with people that really get into what, what I do, you know? I'll talk, I'll say, Well, you know, most people are just winging life. They don't have a way of doing life, yada yada yada, you know. And it's right there in front of, you know, I'm not saying you're winging life, but, you know, that's essentially what I'm saying without being overly aggressive with them. And so at some some level, they're hearing all that, and they're going, nah, I think I just keep all waking life, right?

I you know? I know, no, this is where I'm going to push back a. Little bit, and only because of what I have learned about the human mind and how it operates, almost, you know what I mean, and that that subconscious, if you've got some issues where, you know, you've got that negative self talk going on, you've got some of this stuff happening from, you know, this baggage that you've carried along with you. I don't think a lot of this stuff is conscious. When people decide not to take action or move forward, or maybe they are like, Yeah, that sounds great. And then, you know, because that's happened a lot of times with us and clients, is where they're like, gung ho on board, and then they don't do the work, you know? And yeah. So now that I know what I know about the brain and how it's wired for fear and how it's and we are dealing with people who, you know, typically, are a little further along, and so they've been beaten up a little bit in life, and maybe they've tried to do some things to make changes, and haven't gotten results. And so, like, I think there's a lot more to it to then, then just whether you're driven or not, I really do, and learning more about, you know, psychology and how the human mind works, and I understand, I have a deeper understanding of why, you know. And then, too, John, there's something else. You asked me a question, you know, last week offline, and it brought me back to, you know, the conversation we've had an earlier podcast about, like, disc assessments and kind of understanding what makes somebody tick, you know, and I think, right, all of those things are factors I do in terms of somebody being, you know, receptive, or saying one thing, like, Yes, I'm interested, and then not doing something or saying and that's Not for me. I think there's a lot more to it than just being driven or not.

Yeah, no, I I think you're exactly right, you know, I forget about that because, you know, and this is you too. We've purified our consciousness. You know, we're like, both you and I are like, we can accomplish anything we set our mind to why wouldn't I believe that? Sure I can. And so there's no, we're not fear based, we're not reactive, we're not adverse to change. But all the things that that innately, you know, you're wired for survival around those things. None of that plays an effect in our life. And so, you know, when I look at other people, I'm like, Come on, let's go. You want what do you get here? Let's go. And you know, it's really fun. Now, I think I've enjoyed they could be it more than ever before, because I'm like, Hey, you don't get it. No problem. Smart people get this. They just there's no pulling on them, tugging on them. Smart people get it. And so my attitude is, if you don't get it, that's fine, good luck, you know. And I really do, I hope you have a good life. But, you know, I'm focused on the people that get it, not the people that don't get it. You know, one other thing I was thinking about, you know, I oftentimes have thought about in the past, how, when I was in my 50s and I was 25x in my income, what was different than in my 30s and 40s? And this is get, this gets right to the essence of working smarter. Well, first of all, I was highly organized, you know, I was on a scale of one to 10. I was a 10, and Emma 10. You know, I'm planning my day the night before. I'm time blocking my days. I'm identifying my top three priorities. So right off the bat, in my 50s, I'm highly organized. Then secondly, I'm sitting inside time to deep think two times a week. You know, I wouldn't do that in my 30s and 40s, you know. Wow. What a difference that make. And and, you know, I It's allowing me to really figure out my life and my business at a deeper level than I'd ever had before. You know, now, instead of using, you know, probably 5% of my brain, I'm I'm using virtually all of my brain. And then, then the third thing that I saw was that I was a conduit of learning, you know, where I was learning things that were strategic relative to what I wanted to accomplish. And it was happening every week, and I had a system, and the system was articulated in my visualization, so I actually did it. And then, then the fourth component was I understood how the human mind works, which I had no clue in my 30s and 40s about. And you know, when I look at it now, from that big picture standpoint, I'm like, of course, I was crushing it. Of course I, you know, 25 days my my income, you know, without being braggadocious, you know, I was on top of my game more than anybody else in the reverse mortgage business. You know, that's why we were, you know, in the top four in the country. But I see that I wasn't all those things in my 30s and 40s. But that's exactly. Exactly the idea of working smarter, not harder, is just doing those things, those four components, was the difference between working harder and working smarter. Well, you agree with all that.

I agree with that wholeheartedly. I think those are all of the key pieces for me that really made a huge difference, and obviously having the clarity. Because here's the thing, John, in relation to what we're talking about, there's a common theme, you know, with anybody who connects with this so myself, you the different clients that we've had over the years, which is, you are at a pivotal point in your life where you recognize and you're ready for this, whether it's like a specific time period, like, for you, 50, you know, for me, same thing. Mine was related to time as well. Mine also was related to impact. Like, man, you know, I thought I would have a bigger impact in kind of footprint, you know, in this world. So I think too, there is a characteristic in a lot of people who do well implementing this, which is, you know, it's kind of meeting, it's, they're finding it in time in their life where they're, you know, reflective, and where they're ready to, you know, to make that kind of change. They're seeking, you know, there maybe there's something missing, and they're like, man, and I think, you know, we've connected on this in so many other ways, as far as, like, for example, working smart and just that idea you have to be, you know, we've talked about this a million times. There are so many people who are just anesthetized. They are not thinking about their life at all. So when you talk to them about that, like, you have to recognize that they're you're not happy with the trajectory of your life, or where you're at, and make a decision to to change that, you know. So I would ask the people who are listening to ask yourselves, you know, some key questions, like, are you, you know, Am I satisfied, you know, with, you know, if my life, if this were it, if today was would I be satisfied with, you know, where, with how I left things in my relationships, you know, in my career, would I be satisfied with my, you know, health, those kinds of things like, I would be asking myself those questions and and then sometimes, too, when you get yourself to think a little bit more deeply, then you can kind of uncover that pain that can help you then, you know, move forward, because most people make change to move away from pain, right? And so, but if you're not plugged in enough, and you're just anestizing yourself with social media, with, you know, like things, and you're not thinking about these things, and you don't even know you're not satisfied or happy with where your life is because you're on rinse and repeat and on, you know, just kind of again, that straight up autopilot, running on that treadmill and not going anywhere,

Right? You know, I'd tell you, it's interesting the arch of life. We're seeing this with our kids who are 30s. You know, candidly, people in their 30s don't know a freaking thing. I'm serious, you know, I mean, I didn't break and think so I'm not throwing them under the bus Totally, yeah, but, but here's where. And, you know, I What's interesting is I have seen this, not only in my own family, but in working with the head coaches here at the University of Texas and teaching crystal Connie, the athletic director, who, you know, well, I remember when we had to fire our last football coach, and he was in his in his 30s, and I remember CDC telling me, says, well, he's never had any failure in his life. And I'm like, Well, you know, it looks like he may have some failure on our watch, you know? Well, you know, we weren't going to fix it and you know, so he hires Steve Sarkisian, who's was 10 years older, Yale late. We just hired a new basketball coach. Again, I do he wasn't going to hire somebody in their his 30s, because people in their 30s have not had failure in their life. So they've never gone through those come to Jesus moments of, Oh, I gotta get my act together. And, you know, getting your act together means, hey, you got a man up moving up and and up your game. And yes, that may mean, you know, actually carving out the time to think two times a week. It may mean you know, having the wisdom of experts flowing into your head with the system, you know. But when you talk to 30 year olds about that type of stuff, not that interested, because they know everything you know. I mean, that's my experience.

I think, yeah, am I? Am I wrong? No, I don't think you're wrong. I think that, you know, when you're in your 30s too, you're still, they're trying to figure out kind of who you are, depending on how you've designed your life. You've got maybe young kids, you've got, you know, you're still trying to figure out the marriage relationship thing with that framework. Yeah, you know, there are so much happening. Yeah. And I think that, you know, the older you get, like, we've talked about this before, you can connect, then the dots you can see, oh, you know, like, even that experience I recently had with going to, you know, in mentor slash competitor's office, and seeing that I'm like, oh, you know, there's more, you know, here for me to to learn, and I don't know in all so I think people are running that's such a weird decade for people. And I think I just remember, you know, still being in that mode of, kind of like trying to feel like, trying to figure out myself, you know what I mean, let alone. And it wasn't until I was in my 40s, and now 50s, where, you know, I can really connect the dots and go, Oh, okay, you know that happened, right? Yeah. And the other thing that we've talked a lot about, too, that I think we're just beginning to see this, John, this was not a part of our world at all, which is the effect that the cultural change. And when I say that, I mean technology and all of the has to play in people's attention span, in their mental health, and, you know, their psychology, like the culture, whether we, you know, good, bad or otherwise. And I think it's bad in many different cases when it comes to our brains. And there's tons of research behind this, it hasn't done these generations that are behind us any favors, you know, like it is actually re, you know, wiring their brains to think differently than ours do. And so they've got a little bit more of a hurdle to come against, you know, because thinking deeply, you know, what's that they're thinking in five second to 32nd bursts of, you know, like we're totally playing into and creating this culture of add and, you know, where anybody trying to focus on anything. And so I think, you know, that's a challenge that makes it hard when we're talking about thinking deeply. I remember when I first started, you know, working together, that was hard for me. It was one of the hardest things that there was to do for me was to think deeply about things and be like, What do you mean? You just want me to write what's in my head, and because I hadn't right done that before. Well now you know, you've got this generation who, on a whole other, these generations behind us, who on a whole other level, are like, what think deeply I haven't sat with myself and thought about my life in any context. So I think that the challenge that also we're up against when we're talking about some of this is that our perspective back to your point. For us, it's like, oh yeah, you know, we're, you know, like we buy into this. We're enlightened, we work smart, you know, we're, we fair base, so we were, you know, so much more in such a different place. And so I think to talk about meeting people where they're at, and I think having some of that context to that it is a different ball game, you know, they they do have more that is happening to them that we didn't have to deal with so well.

And I buy that, but I also don't buy it in a way, in that, you know, I was still in my class the other day, I said, you know, look at the amazing things that are going on with AI and the outside world and the advances in in medical science. And, I mean, it's just unbelievable what's happening in the in the outer world, but with our inner world, we're regressing. Not only we're not progressing, we are regressing, you know, because of just what you said that had attention span. And I'm like this methodology is how you gain control of your inner world so that you can enjoy the outer world Absolutely. Yep, and I'll tell you something, you'll find this, I think you'll find this fascinating. So I've been looking into quantum computers. Are you tuned into this at all?

I'm not. I remember you mentioned it. You know, I think it was last year. Maybe it even was last year at some time you touched on it briefly, but no, I'm not

Well you know, here's what's interesting. So the head of IBM just came out last week and says that they are going to have a usable quantum computer by 2029 so four years from now, and they are radically different, and this will blow your way, they are literally a trillion times more powerful. Have you ever heard that? No, a trillion times. That's not an exaggeration. And so, so here's what's interesting to me. Of course, I'm, I'm involved in the mind. Well, Einstein and other people in that field have projected that there's other dimensions. You know, there's four dimensions today, you know, height, width and depth and time. So those are the four dimensions. Dimensions that we have today, that we know about, but Einstein theorizes that there's other dimensions. Well, how that fits into to the world is that they know that ESP is real and exists. We just don't know how it works. Well, it's clearly associated with one of those other dimensions, and when quantum physics and quantum computers becomes mainstream, which is right around the corner, they're going to be able to figure this out again. They're a trillion times more advanced than current computers. They're is going to change radically when we understand the different dimensions and and the power of thought. You know, what's interesting today is subatomic particles will behave differently when they are observed than when they are unobserved. Well, what's what is that? Well, it's the power of thought influencing subconscious, some atomic particle. I find all this fascinating

Fascinating. Absolutely!

So, and you know, as we wrap up today, well, one other little quick life hack that I've been thinking about that I've been doing this for literally 30 years in my house, I play, you know, instrumental music sort of in the background, and it creates such a, you know, mind thrives on order, and hearing, you know, instrumental music in the background is so soothing. And I would suggest to anybody, we play it all the time. It's just, you know, background to us. But there's power, because the mind thrives on order. When you feed, you know, beautiful music to yourself, at a subconscious level, you're chill, you know. And so it's pretty cool. And the final thing I wanted to say today is so we're going to do our 2% mastermind this Friday, and we're going to do it actually at noon on Friday, central time. And if you want to be a part of it, send me an email at John, at think it be it.com and what the purpose of it really is to help people tweak up their live GPS template for the new quarter. You know, talk about how you change your goals and and maybe a variety of other things. But just want to put that on everybody's radar. And so I'll be sending out the the links. And of course, this episode will drop on Thursday, and so the next day is the 2% mastermind. But if you want to participate, just send me an email and I'll get you the link. So Well, unless you have anything else, it's a wrap.

I think it's a wrap.

Okay, okay, well, we'll see you next week.