Reaching the Next Level in Your Life: From Martin Rooney the Master of Self Discipline

0:00It's a fine line between mediocrity and mastery. And that fine line is that awareness of what it takes to get there. Martin Rooney, from being not only a master of jiu-jitsu, the training stuff this guy does, this man has it all. I just didn't stop where everybody else gave up. His stuff on leveling up, phenomenal. If you did those, you would reach a higher level. Great line is, my culture will never be held hostage by someone that uses either the wrong behaviors or just because of time served for production. How do you define success? Like what is success to you? Success is holistic. I think to be successful, you've got to be successful in every one of those areas.

0:44And the areas that I kind of define for myself would be whether you call it career versus calling. There's got to be this career or calling success. You've got to have success in the health arena. You've got to have success in the areas of relationship success. there's got to be some kind of legacy. Like what did you do that impacted someone else? And those would be my cornerstones or those were the areas that I defined in a holistic approach. What is the Martin Rooney formula for success? Like how does success happen? How do you believe it happens? It's just four letters. It's an equation and it's acts like so A, C, T equals S.

1:26So A times C times T equals S. What does that stand for? Actions multiplied by consistency, multiplied over time equals success. What's the real, I guess, definition of that? It's habits. It's, you know, so what are your habits are going to either determine whether you're successful or not. At the end of those, say, 10 or 20 or 30 years, they either call you world expert, world champ, world best. And that has been what I have aspired to be in multiple industries and had some really cool success there over the last period of time, just from that simple, simple equation. How does one actually find that the actions they're taking are the right actions?

2:09The breadcrumbs are already there. Find the person who is doing what you want to be doing and find whether you call it the actions or the strategies that they are employing, learn them, and then reproduce them. What is the fundamentals in your mind of being consistent and doing that consistently? And I guess add that to time, staying consistent for a long period. Man, it's these simple little actions repeated over time. If you were to boil me down and say what might be the most critical word for success, I would probably say consistency. Over the last 30 years, I just, whether it's my sleep, nutrition, reading, studying, growing, personal development, I just didn't stop where everybody else gave up.

3:01team and team culture. How does a team create a winning culture? So the answer for everyone that I will give that will make it very simple is that first, you have to understand what you stand for, what that team stands for. I like to call those the beliefs. Then you've got to figure out what behaviors you allow and what behaviors you don't and which ones you want to foster. And then culturally, your beliefs in actions carried out through the behaviors of all your people. And at the top of that is leadership. Leadership from a culture, it starts at the top. I call it a trickle down. So the person who has to embody the values the most is the person at the top, right?

3:45And often that's not how it goes, right? So we can't be an empty leader. Those values, I've got to embody them stronger than anyone else, and then hold everyone accountable to them. So the minute I see somebody not doing what meshes with our culture, as a strong leader, I've got to be all over that. Great line is my culture will never be held hostage by someone that uses either the wrong behaviors or just because of time served or production. And these are powerful, powerful concepts that, again, I'm spitting them out like they're easy, but man, they took me 30 years of suffering to learn. Let's talk about the health and the fitness side of things.

4:26How do we succeed at health and fitness? How do we make sure that that's a big passion or a big part of our life? I say that you've got to make your health non-negotiable instead of expendable. And what do I mean by that? Eight hours of sleep, eat the right foods, which, by the way, you already know what they are. Don't act like you don't. And then get some regular exercise. And holy cow, not only will you live longer, you'll be there to enjoy your time with everybody else longer, too. What is your theory on how people level up, going from good to great? I say leveling up is simply becoming aware of things that you weren't doing at a higher level, that if you did those, you would reach a higher level.

5:09So we talked about actions today. So for instance, with money, for certain people, I call them like level zero, right? A level zero is they have a job, they make money and they spend all their money and they're absolutely broke. That person, it might not be their fault because they may not understand, wait a minute, if I saved, that would raise me to another level. How do I do that? And then watch this, Now I'm at the saving level. Now, if I invested, if I invested, wow, I wasn't even aware you could do that. Now I see how to do that. I can reach another level. And then it might be building businesses, getting in real estate.

5:40There are all these levels, but the level all becomes about awareness that there are actions that I could take. And then I take those actions. So that is my definition of what leveling up means. It's I became aware of strategies I didn't know that could raise me up to where I want to be. And now I have to do those, if that makes sense. And the line I use a lot, you're like, this one is, man, it's a fine line between mediocrity and mastery, right? And that fine line are just is that awareness of what it takes to get there. What's the difference between someone who sets a goal then of being okay versus someone who sets that goal to be the best in the world?

6:26What's your thoughts? Many athletes are born to be there. If you're not 6 '5 and 250 pounds and don't run a certain speed, you can't be certain positions in the NFL. It just doesn't work like that. So many of those athletes were born to be there, but maybe they didn't personally choose how great they were going to be. And what I think is interesting is even when they've reached the highest level in the world, they often smash into the ceiling of their own level of incompetence that they haven't even decided to be the best of all time. Like you said, so there are some fighters, they just say, man, I'd love to someday maybe fight in the UFC.

6:58And if that's their highest goal, even if it happens, they're probably not going to be there long. Right. And then we've had other fighters that said, I don't want to just go there. I want to be the best there ever was like a Jim Miller who wasn't uber talented, who doesn't have mega physical gifts, but he had this mindset. And just by setting that goal, do you see how his levels, when he levels up, he's going to keep finding strategies that are beyond the guy that just wishes he could be there. Right. And so ultimately what I'm telling everybody, you can't be successful until I guess you've set some goals or you have some standards.

7:31The goal you set will set everything in motion. You're going to move past all those people that had lower goals. And even though they reached it, you're going to be considered way more successful. And that's the Big Success Podcast for today. Hopefully you took a lot of notes, learned a whole bunch. And if you need to go re-listen to it, we dropped a lot of information right there today. Big success is what it's all about. And by the way, if you haven't subscribed, hit that subscribe button so you're here with us every single week on the Big Success Podcast. I'm Brad Sugars. That's BS. Big success is what we're shooting for.

8:03Check the show notes for all the links. Make sure you follow through. Keep learning. Keep coming back. Oh, and by the way, share this with any of your friends who you know are up for success. I'll see you next week on the Big Success Podcast. You've been listening to the Big Success Podcast with the number one business coach in the world, Brad Sugars. To learn more about how to achieve business and personal success, as well as how to level up or listen to past episodes, visit www.bradsugars.com.