How to Easily Win at Life

0:07Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another podcast episode. Today, we're going to be talking about how to win at life. I'm going to give you a very simple tip to become successful and to essentially beat out any competition that you might have going into the future. I'm going to talk about how to quickly get ahead of everyone else. And if I'm being honest with you, it's really not that difficult. today we're going to talk about how to get light years ahead of everybody but in a very very short period of time when you look at the world where do you see it's going what do you notice one of the things that i like to is i like to look at the world i like to look at people i like to look at mindsets i like to look at actions of people and i like to see if i can pull some patterns and start to notice thing about things about people but when i look at the world I noticed a lot of things, but one thing that's becoming very, very obvious at this point in time is that humans are becoming more and more addicted to technology.

1:14They're becoming more and more addicted to their TV screens, to their computer screens, to their phone screens. And what I'm starting to notice that if you're somebody who's trying to get ahead in life, if you can do the exact opposite of everybody else, you're going to be able to get light years ahead. Like if you were to go back 50 years ago and it would be like the 1970s and you were competing against other people or competing against other business owners or competing against other people in, you know, your career, it's kind of an even playing field. But what's really interesting about right now is that it's not really an even playing field.

1:52And the reason why is because everybody is becoming more and more addicted to technology. So if you can distance yourself from that technology and stop being entertained all the time, you could get light years ahead of everybody else. And so how do you do it? Start trading your entertainment for education. Start trading all of the time that you would normally be entertaining yourself and start educating yourself in whatever it is that you want to educate yourself on, whatever it is that you want to get further ahead. Start becoming better at something. Like for instance, if I were to say, hey, you know what?

2:31I've decided I want to be one of the best guitar players in the world. And I were to say, okay, if I think the average person's on their phone all the time, they're on Netflix all the time. If the average person's doing 3.2 hours per day on Netflix and 4.1 hours per day on their phone and two hours and 25 minutes of that phone is on social media, if I just decide to distance myself from Netflix, to distance myself from social media and go, well, you know what? I'm just going to play guitar for those hours. I will be light years ahead of people within a year, way further ahead. Fast forward five years, not a fucking competition, not even close.

3:11And so you've got to start trading. If you want to get really far ahead, have everybody else around you, everybody else in this world, start trading your entertainment for educating yourself. If you're like, you know what? I want to become the best therapist in the world. Okay. Well, when most people are scrolling through Instagram, when most people are on Netflix, why don't you spend that time reading your textbooks, going through and working with your clients, trying to become better at it, taking time. And, you know, when your clients leave, instead of going, oh, you know what I'm going to do?

3:42I'm going to scroll on Instagram for a little while. You actually go back and you, if you have a recording of your time with them, you listen to it. You see how you can improve, how you can get better. If you're trying to be somebody who builds a following online. Well, you know, you could scroll through Instagram and try to find, you know, see other people who are your competition, entertain yourself. Or you could say, how can I become the best entertainer through the medium of video that I can possibly become? Maybe you take some acting classes. Maybe you take some improv classes. Maybe you take Toastmasters and some speech classes.

4:15There's many things that you can do to make yourself better. when the average person is just getting sucked into their phone and not realizing it. And they're mindlessly going into Netflix and not realizing it. If you want to dominate any industry, trade your entertainment for education. The human tension span in the past 20 years has gone down 33%. Want to become a superhuman? Trade that entertainment for education and taking action. When most people are looking at cat videos on TikTok and people trying to, you know, chug an entire sprite on TikTok, you're becoming smarter. You're becoming better.

4:58You are working on yourself. You're reading a book when other people are looking at cat videos and dog videos on Instagram and TikTok. You're taking action in your business when your competition is trying to be entertained by other people making funny videos. If you really take a step back and you look at Instagram and TikTok and all of these different platforms, let's be real. They're pretty freaking stupid, aren't they? If you want to grow your business on them, that's great. If you want to grow your following on them, that's great. But sitting there and actually mindlessly being entertained is a waste of your life.

5:42You have to take a step back and really start to see what's going on? If you look at your phone and you see that you're on your phone five hours a day, six hours a day, seven hours a day, could you figure out a way to trade that time to improve yourself? I'm seeing what people are doing and I'm trying to do the opposite. That's not saying that I don't scroll on Instagram every once in a while. Still do. But if I notice myself in the middle of a scroll and I'm like, you know what? is this helping me get closer to my goals? Like, is this getting me closer to or further from my goals? If I'm sitting there and I'm researching other people and what they're putting out and how I can make my content better, yeah, sure, that's good.

6:21But if I'm sitting there and I'm watching, you know, somebody put up videos of their dogs doing stupid stuff, as entertaining as that might be, is that helping me become better? Is that helping me distance myself from my competition? Is that helping, like, am I ever going to be on my deathbed and be like, you know what? I wish that my biggest regret is I wish I would have watched more cat videos on fucking Instagram when I was younger. There's never going to be that feeling of, I wish I would have watched more cat videos. I wish I would have spent more time looking at other people put on makeup on Instagram when I was 27 years old.

6:57Like there will never be that moment. It'll only be, man, there was this limited finite amount of time that I had to grow myself and to become the best version of myself. whatever even if I lived to 100 years I only had this finite amount of time these 100 years to become the best version of myself to grow to expand to experience as many things as possible and I wasted years of my life just trying to entertain myself trying to be entertained now mind you I do want to take a step back and I'll say this being entertained is not a problem there's nothing wrong with it there's nothing wrong with any of this stuff but if you're trying to get ahead in life if you're trying to get yourself out of a rut if you're trying to grow a business, if you're trying to make yourself better, if you're trying to get out of your anxiety, then spending time on these platforms is not helping you get better.

7:45It's really not. You can still spend time on them, but give yourself a limited amount of time. 30 minutes a day? Yeah, you can do whatever you want. Maybe you just go, you know what, the only time I can scroll on Instagram is when I'm pooping. Maybe that's what you do. I don't really know what it is. Maybe you just go, hey, bathroom time, that's your Instagram time. When you're pooping, when you're peeing, you do as much Instagramming as you want. But when you leave that bathroom, now you can actually work on yourself. Think about that for a second. Because when I look at the world and I look at where everyone else is going, I'm going, man, I'm starting to see this pattern.

8:17Everyone's becoming more and more and more and more addicted to their phone. So if I want to set myself apart, what I do is I do the exact opposite of everybody else is doing. I never want to follow the pack because I don't know about you guys, the pack just seems so, If you follow like a sheep, you just follow all the sheep. You're just one of the other sheep that follows other sheep. Where do sheep usually go to? Sheep usually go to the slaughterhouse. I'm trying to distance myself from all of that. I see what people are doing. I'm trying to do the opposite as much as possible. Now, I'm not saying that you should turn in your cell phone and use a landline.

8:52Use all of them. But just start being more intentional as to what you're using it for and how often you're actually using it. So instead of letting yourself fall into your phone, because we all know those things are extremely addicting, and falling into TV and realizing that you've been watching Netflix for the past four hours or fall into the metaverse, like you're never going, you're honestly never going to see me buy a way to get into virtual reality. Not because I don't think virtual reality is great, but because I actually just don't care enough to go into it. You know, like virtual reality can become whatever it's going to be.

9:26I've played some virtual reality games. They're fun. They're awesome. They're kind of nuts how amazing that they are. But when I look at what I want my life to be, this is just me, not judging anybody. Going into virtual reality and playing video games does not line up with my ultimate life purpose. Am I saying video games aren't fun? No, of course I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is buying a video game console is not gonna help me become a better version of myself is the way that I see it. I've decided to stop being so much of a consumer and try to be more of a creator. So when I'm using those platforms, when I'm using a platform, I'm trying to think to myself, am I just consuming, consuming, consuming, consuming, consuming, or am I creating?

10:06Right? So like I listen to podcasts. I put up, I watch YouTube videos. I scroll on Instagram. I do all those things. But on all of those platforms, I'm also creating all the time. I'm also creating podcasts all the time. Also creating YouTube videos all the time. I'm creating reels and I'm creating content for social media. I'm creating content for Instagram and TikTok and everything that's out there. I'm creating all this content. So I take a step back and I say, am I just being a constant consumer or am I being a creator? And with all the things that I'm doing, I know that if I go and I get sucked into any of them, they're making me more distracted and less focused, more distracted and less focused, more distracted and less focused.

10:47So when you look at, like I said, the average attention span has gone down by 33 % in the past 20 years since the invention of smartphones, do we think it's only going to get, do we think it's going to get better? Do we think that other people are going to get better? Probably not. Because most people don't take a step back and actually look at what's going on. You know, I've noticed that when I look at my phone, it makes me more anxious throughout the day. There's actually a whole lot of studies that are now being linked right now to the rise in people's ADD and ADHD being linked to how much they're using their phones.

11:18And so it's not like something that they were just born with, but people are actually starting to, neurobiologists are actually starting to look at this, starting to notice that people are actually starting to make themselves, giving themselves ADD and ADHD by how much they use their phones. So I'm trying to constantly remove myself from these things. I'm trying to consciously go, you know what, is this making me better? Now, this isn't going to say like, I don't enjoy watching Netflix. I do, but it's just how much time am I giving myself on it? Like I love watching Succession. I love watching Ted Lasso.

11:48I loved watching all these different series that I've gone through, Game of Thrones, all of that. But it's like, do I want to spend four hours a day going and watching episode one and two and three and four of Game of Thrones? No. Could you give yourself one episode? Sure. Earn the episode. Is it a possibility where maybe you can go, you know what? I'm going to treat myself like if you really love a show, that's fine to love a show. It's fine to be entertained, but not watching four of them in a row, probably, right? Mind you, I'm speaking to myself as much as I'm speaking to you because I've noticed myself do this as well, where it's like, okay, if I get my things done that I want today, if I get my number one most important thing done that I needed to focus on today, I'm going to reward myself with one episode of whatever it is that you love watching.

12:35But if I spend 4.1 hours a day on my phone and I'm 37 years old and I hope to live to 90, you know, that's 53 more years. But if I spend 4.1, like the average person spends 4.1 hours a day on their phone, like this is what's crazy. You ready? If I spend four hours a day on my phone, like the average person does, I'm 37 now, let's say I live to 90, that's 54, 53 more years. that is 9.2 years of my life on my phone what the hell that's nine years of my life scrolling and looking at other people's shit looking at videos on tiktok people putting up posters and photos of them traveling with their family and people bitching on one side to another side.

13:27It's like, you're never going to get to the end of your life and go, you know what? I spent nine years of my life on my phone. I wish it would have been more. You're probably going to sit there and think, you know what? I wish I would have spent so much time on my phone. I wish I would have been more present with my kids. I wish I would have worked harder. I wish I would have traveled more. I wish I would have gone on more hikes. I wish I would have experienced more things. I wish I would have had more hobbies that I created. Maybe I wanted to learn how to play an instrument. Maybe I wanted to become a pilot and learn how to fly a plane.

13:55What a waste. Nine years of, if I am just average at the age that I am right now, if I live to 90 and I'm the average person that spends four hours a day on their phone, that will be nine years of my life spent on my phone, staring at a screen. That's wild. What I've recently been trying to do is trying to leave my phone in the kitchen drawer, like leave it away from me, not even put it next to me, leave it further away from me. Because when it's not around, I don't think about as much. but when it's within arm's reach, I feel my attention being pulled towards it. And then I check my phone when I need to.

14:31I go into the kitchen, I check my phone, I put it right back down. That's how I've been distancing myself. I've been trying to watch my screen time go down. If you have an iPhone, there's an app, you know, widget called Screen Time where it actually shows you how much time you're spending on your screen every single day. And I take that widget, I actually put it on the home screen. So it's the very first thing that I see when I open up my phone and I try to make the number go lower and lower and lower and lower and lower. And so, you know, I've gotten my phone time down to around two hours on average per day.

14:58And I run my entire business on my phone. You know, huge amount of people in my company don't live in Austin. Most people in my company don't live in Austin. So my phone is needed. But how can you start to look at it and say, okay, I'm going to trade my entertainment for education. I'm going to trade watching these videos to becoming better, to learning that instrument, to getting better at a hobby, to spending more time with my children, spending more time with my spouse, or taking more time to meditate or work out or whatever it is that you want to do, is what I'm doing right now getting closer to or further from my goals.

15:34How can you take action that moves the needle in your life instead of just trying to be entertained? Trade your entertainment for education. I'm not saying never be entertained. I'm just saying try to lower it a little bit, right? Try to become a little bit better with each day? You know, would you rather watch cat videos or would you rather work hard and watch a sunset in Greece because you took action in the past and created an amazing life? Cat videos or Greek sunsets? Which one do you want? Can you distance yourself and become more like a superhuman over the coming years? Because people don't think to get more and more and more and more addicted to their phones.

16:10The more that you could pull yourself back from it, the more that you are going to be like a superhuman. People are going to be going into the metaverse, I guess, is what people are talking about. Personally, just to be honest with you, I'm not taking part of it. I like the universe I live in. It's pretty damn awesome. I'd rather traveling to amazing places than sit on my couch and, you know, pretend I'm in an amazing place. I'd rather eat pasta in Italy than virtually play tennis with somebody that's in a different city than me. The way the world is going is towards that, it looks like. I'm planning ahead and I'm making plans saying, And that's not really what I want to do.

16:42I'm not resisting it. I'm just saying, oh, that's just not what I want to do. It's not really, everybody can do whatever it is they want. But I'm just telling you my point of view of where I see it going and where I see myself going. You know, I'm just watching it. The future will become whatever it's going to become. But I'm planning on how I can get myself ahead so that when I look at myself compared to everybody else, years down the road, I'm going, you know what? It goes back to one of my phrases in my very first minute. I used to always say, I will do today what other people will not. so that when you fast forward into the future, I can do what other people can't.

17:13I will do today with other people or will not so that I can do later on in the future what other people can't. That's really what it comes down to. Can you trade your entertainment for education and get yourself light years ahead of everybody else? So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, share it on your Instagram stories so that more people out there can hear this who are on Instagram and maybe we can pull them out of that entertainment to start helping them get better as well. And with that, I'm gonna leave it the same way. I leave you every single episode, make it your mission to make somebody else's day better.

17:44I appreciate you. And I hope that you have an amazing day.