Avoid These Easy Mistakes to Manifest The Life You Want TODAY

32:08You wouldn't put any packing around it or anything. and you'd stamp on the outside, throw it around, you know, sling it this way, whatever. It's anti-fragile and it's good for it to get that. Well, that's what we need to make ourselves. We need to make ourselves anti-fragile. And that means we need to create this equilibrium in our own lives. We need to stretch. We need to do things that are kind of difficult for us. and then we become less fragile. We become better than resilient. We grow from it. Yes. We don't just get back to the way we were. We get better. We become different. We become a different person.

32:57Yeah. That's one thing about the difference between small goals and big goals. There's a lot that's been written about the small goals, you know, little bitty goals. And first of all, I'm just a massive believer in setting goals for your life. Small goals are good for to-do lists or if you're trying to develop a habit and some of those kinds of things. But small goals create small energy. They attract small resources.

33:37and they're very, very incremental. Big goals create energy. They stir you up. They make you more creative. They attract other people. People want to be part of it. And so when you set big goals, you don't just achieve more. you become more. That is true. Then what happens to a human being when they decide to let go of their dreams or give up on their dreams? Well, they diminish themselves to themselves. Read a quote. I can't remember who said this, but if you can't overcome the obstacles in your path, it's probably not your path. So how do we know when to give up on a... Yeah. How do we know, like, okay, this big thing is in my heart, and I feel like I'm supposed to go for it.

34:40I'm so excited, so I'm going to pursue it for six months or a year or five years. But when do we know to let go of the goal or the dream? That's the big question. It's a tough one, too. And there was a book that came out a couple years back called Quit. Do you read it? It's Amy Duckworth, I think. Angela Duckworth? Angela Duckworth. I didn't sound right. She wrote the book called Grit also, right? She wrote a book called Grit? No, the key thing. I think she wrote a book called Grit, or that was like her key kind of distinction. I might not even have the name right on this, didn't I? But there was a book that came out a couple years ago called Quit.

35:20And it's about this whole thing of how can you know when to quit, which is a very, very big, important question. And she tells some interesting things, and she talks about poker players, which is where she kind of got into this, this whole idea of how to quit, when to quit. And she talks about how, let's say if you're playing Texas Hold 'em poker, so you get some initial cards. You already had the ante to be in the game. There was just some table stakes. Okay. So that's out there. So you've already got some sunk costs. All right. But then you get three cards, I think it is, and Texas Hold 'em is your first dealt cards.

36:04So you look at those, and they said that the expert players, I think the statistic was only 12 % of the time they play, they stay. Stay in the game. And the more novice players, the weaker players, they will stay in longer. No, there's more. Yeah, yeah. Because of this sunk cost thing, and they don't understand the odds. There's a lot going on there in the game, of course. But it's a tough question. When do you know you should quit? What's giving up and is selling yourself out versus I gave it a fair shot. It's not a good plan for me. and I need to redirect myself, cut my losses, and so forth.

36:58How do you know? I don't know that, maybe you've got an answer on this. What would you say? Oh, man. I think for me, it would be, one, that the drive is not in your heart as much anymore. more. Like if the obstacles are so big that you're just not excited to endure the pain, like you have to be excited to endure the pain, the challenges, the setbacks, the failures, and you have to be, you have to enjoy it. I think you have to enjoy it. Maybe you don't love it, but you have to be like, I know it's part of the process. And I still have this fantasy, this dream, this love for the idea of reaching the mountaintop of the goal that I have.

37:42and I'm enjoying the process. If you're not enjoying the process, I think it's just going to be that much harder. So I think that's part of it. I think the second part is like, have I exhausted every possible avenue that I can think of? And even then, have I continued to go when I think I've exhausted everything? If so, do I still love it? Then let me keep going. If I don't, then maybe not. Maybe there's a timeframe also, Or maybe it's just like I have so many other things happening in my life that also demand my time where this is just hurting everything in my life. All my relationships are broken because of this thing.

38:22So there might be a number of factors there. But I just part of me is like I just never want to be the one that has a goal or a dream and gives up too early because it's hard. And then I regret it forever. Have you ever had a dream or goal so big that you gave up on it too early that you still regret today on giving up on it? Yeah. I got one that's such that I'm not going to talk about. Really? I won't tell you. Yeah. That you gave up on? I gave up on. Years ago? Ages ago. You won't share it? Why? Because it's too painful or because it's too, you feel like. Yeah. I mean, that's how, that's how deep it cut.

39:02Really? Yeah. That's how deep I cut myself, you know. Now, I don't think it was good casting for me in the first place. It wasn't the right goal. Right. Okay. But I wanted it to be, you know, kind of thing. Was it more ego-driven versus heart-driven? Yeah. So it wasn't the right goal in the first place? No, it really wasn't. I wanted it to be. You wanted it to be. Your ego wanted it. Yeah. But your heart is kind of like, let it go. Right. But is there anything that your heart really, like, fell in love with? not your ego, but your heart that you never pursued to at least see, is there a chance I could accomplish this?

39:40Maybe you're writing a novel. But you still have the opportunity to do that. I still have the opportunity to do it. You said a maybe. Is that like a big thing on your heart that you really want to do? Or is it more like, I'd be cool to do this thing? Well, I think it, yeah, yeah, there's that. Absolutely. But your heart's not screaming at you. No. You have to be a novel writer. No, I've had good success. Yeah, yeah. You know, in writing, and I enjoy it. I think it is a talent of mine. And so, but I know it's kind of a practical call, a rational, sensible. I'm talking about the irrational dream in your heart.

40:26Is there anything you regret from? I don't know if this would fit your thing. I always wanted to own a corporate jet. oh that'd be fun yeah and that that never came around okay now i never i guess went at it strategically and you never went all in no i didn't you never said okay this is what i want i'm going to do everything i can in the next three to five years yeah to map this out to be around everyone i know who's got a exactly figure out you would have you would have bought one so you would have figured that out yeah it was it was a ego nice thing it was one of those things i didn't follow my own rules exactly because it's like well i don't know how i'm gonna do it just get that out of your head quantum leap yeah you're not you're not supposed to know i know if it was incremental you'd be too easy you know you know you said something a minute ago about um i was reading this book by scott adams the guy that wrote dilbert carthens you know and And he's written a good book about how I succeeded almost everything and how I failed at almost everything and still succeeded, I think is the name of it.

41:34That's close enough. But he talks in there about this thing about passion. And is passion a good signal for your goal selection? And he said, here's what I found. I found that passion is closely tied to talent.

41:59and as long as you're really talented in some zone, it's easy to have passion for it. But he said, if you want to see passion fade, let the failure start hitting. Let's say you've got a passion to be an entrepreneur, okay? And you're into it three years, five years. And you lose all your money. And it's just not working. and what's the passion for you? You're not passionate anymore. Right. And it gets back to this quitting, you know, finding that proper spot. So do you think, in his mind or in your mind, do you think we should be following our passion or following our talent? They're probably usually connected and that your talent is probably your first signal to pursue that, to follow that thing.

42:53Yeah. He writes about he wanted to become a famous cartoonist. And this idea of setting a goal and keeping it front of mind that I've talked about in Lucky You. He said, I wasn't as good as an artist. He said, I was no good. He didn't have the talent. He didn't have the talent, but he loved the idea of being a cartoonist. And he had thought through some real good reasons for that. It didn't require a lot of infrastructure. He didn't have to hire a lot of people. Just him patting the paper. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so there was all this stuff. But anyway, how he went at it, he started writing, I think it was 15 times every day.

43:32He wrote it down. I, Scott Adams, will become a famous cartoonist. Wow. 15 times a day. Every day. Every day. 15 times. So that's clarity of gold. That's keeping the gold front of mind.

43:54That's being optimistic. And there was relentless pursuit. He started moving in that direction. He said his first stuff was terrible. You know, he talks about the mistakes he made. Yeah. And it's a fun book. You'd enjoy it. What's it called again? I think it's How I Failed at Almost Everything and Still Succeeded. Scott Adams. Yeah, Scott Adams. You have this, we're talking about luck here. your book, Lucky You. You have a number of books. One of my favorite is You Squared. And for those that didn't watch the first episode we did, I had Bob Proctor on a number of years ago before he passed. And I asked him, what are the three books that every human being should read that have helped him?

44:38And he'd read thousands of books and he mentioned your name and You Squared. And I never, I never heard about you. Maybe this was 2018 or 2017, 2019. And I was like, You Squared. And then I finally came back around to it a couple of years later and I read the book and we connected ever since then. And it's a life-changing book and you have a number of companions to it. But the most recent one is called Lucky You, a psychological strategy for multiplying luck and achieving your big ambitions. In the book, you've got a graph that talks about what contributes most to career success. And I don't know if this is towards all success in life or more just towards career.

45:16And it's a graph that is a generalized synthesis drawn from research in behavioral economics, psychology, and sociology. It's a reasonable estimate, not a precise formula. But in this graph, it talks about luck being the number one factor that contributes towards career success, 30 to 50 % range of luck. Then you have effort and work ethic that is 30 to 40 % range. Then you have social capital slash opportunity as 10 to 20%. Then you have talent or IQ, which is 10 to 20%. And in the same book by Nassam Tlaib, he says, luck is most frequently the reason for extreme success. And I remember interviewing a friend of mine, Scooter Braun, who is a big music artist, a music talent manager, who kind of discovered Justin Bieber and managed Ariana Grande and kind of all the biggest pop stars of our generation.

46:22And I was like, what's the key to your success? And he was like, it's luck. You know, and obviously it's hard work. I mean, he grinded for years and he did all the right things and he was willing to put more time and energy into anything else than most people. But it was like, you know, finding Justin Bieber at the right time and then taking the actions to really mold and, you know, shepherd him in his career and building that. And then that created another opportunity with other artists and then bigger talent came in and then it snowballed the momentum. But maybe it would have taken him decades if he didn't have that right timing, that opportunity, that synchronicity that created that relationship.

47:00Who knows? Or maybe none of this would ever happen for him. But why is luck such a big thing towards success in life? if we talked about the biggest success story in your life or my life or anybody else's it would be that moment of conception okay let's look at this being bold i wrote a blog about this yeah your biggest your greatest success story ever so you had two parents you have a mother and a father. Well, the mother, the maximum number of egg follicles that she will have in her life is supposedly between six and eight million eggs. Okay. You were one of those gametes, one out of six to eight million.

47:53Okay. The amount of sperm your father has. The sperm is quad trillions. Trillions. Quad trillions. Trillions. Quad trillions. Quad trillions. So you're that gamete, gamete number two, we'll call this first gamete the wonder egg. And then we'll call this gamete number two, the super sperm. Yeah. One out of quad trillions. Okay. Those odds are just absurd to begin with. But then the connection at that perfect timing. I mean, you will never again be that lucky on anything. I was having lunch. I guess the first time that this whole idea of luck even came into my notion, really, was I was having lunch at Cafe Pacific in Dallas with a real good friend of mine.

48:47He was the chief economist at the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank. And his wife is from Ecuador and charming couple, lovely people. And we were sitting, just having a nice lunch, Patty and I and that couple. And just in the course of conversation, she turned to me and she said, Bryce, what would you say is the number one thing that accounts for your success? You've had a successful career, you know what? And it just came out of nowhere. I said, look. And both of them just looked at me like, what? And I said, well, stop. And then I started to just kind of reason through where that came from. I said, okay, look, first of all, I was born in America.

49:35That's a real advantage. Secondly, I had good parents. Third, I didn't have any major disabilities or anything. Brain functions well enough. And you just go on and on and on. and you look at these things and anybody that's alive is unbelievably good fortune. But there are things that we can do to engineer luck into our life. It does not have to be, we shouldn't allow it to be just a random event. It's a random thing, but it's too important to ignore. And so... Because people just say, oh, they got lucky. They had this opportunity. But you're saying that there is a strategic or scientific way that we can influence more luck in our lives.

50:31Is that right? Absolutely. So how do we create more luck? First of all, we tell luck what we want. We tell luck what we want. Yeah. That's that big goal. I mean, tell luck what you're shooting for. When you set that goal and that clarity, get it out of your head and down on paper, all of a sudden, you may be surrounded by luck. So that's one thing you can do. Tell luck what you want. The next thing, luck plays favorites. Luck has a bias. Luck prefers the optimists. Mm-hmm. Why? Because first of all, they see luck's opportunities when he lays them in front of him. And secondly, the optimist will take the chances.

51:29That's true. Well, luck gets... That's the best we'll all be like, ah, I don't believe that's a good... I'm not going to take that. Or that person, what do they really want from me? They're trying to bring this opportunity. Luck gets pissed off when you refuse its chances. Mm-hmm. And if your heart's not in it, back to that goal thing, luck doesn't get very interested either. It goes looking for someone who's fevered up, man. Excited. Yeah, someone that is cranked in there. And luck wants to see you working. If you're not doing anything, luck gets disinterested and goes to try to find somebody that's going to put some energy into this.

52:06Yes. So, tell luck what you want. believe in it be positive you know when luck comes before you do something with it uh third thing most of your lucky lucky breaks in life will come for via people you know somehow maybe someone you just met or someone you hardly know in fact a lot of times that happens the weak ties. Yeah, the weak ties. Why is it more the weak ties where luck comes from versus the strong ties? Well, if it's their strong ties, you've already checked those out. You've known them for a long time. Well, yeah. If they've had an opportunity for you, it's already been explored. You need to be in circulation socially because luck doesn't come looking for you.

53:01It wants to see you out in the world it's kind of like don't go fishing in your bathtub you know you're not you know if you're trying to become a famous artist but you won't you'll put a few of your paintings up on the walls of your garage and leave the door open yeah you know not enough no and so you need to be out there and you need to you need to be a new fresh different experiences and those things are big then you need to give your mind time to speak to you your deep mind you could call this giving yourself a meditative period every day taking a long slow walk not trying to work on a problem just letting your mind but in our coaching and training stuff around U squared and upon a leap strategy we talk about the quantum leap ritual.

54:05And it's just setting aside a chunk of time every day, probably at the same time of day, sit down, clear your mind, let the prefrontal cortex go offline and let the theta and alpha waves start to play. And this is where the deep mind, it kind of opens the door and it lets things seep up from your unconscious. Yes. And it's probably the closest to magic in terms of creating luck for yourself. There are several others that we talk about in the book, but one last one I could mention. Bring luck to other people. That's so good. We live in a world of reciprocity. You can call it karma. You can call it what goes around comes around.

54:56but what emerson talked about you know in his essay compensation he talks about we will be compensated for how we compensate others how we compensate others his exigler says you know if you want to achieve any goal help everyone else achieve their goals yeah something like that too you know and the interesting thing is it's um it's uplifting to you just the act of giving service giving it will it it brings all of these positive chemicals alive in your body the dopamine the serotonin oxytocin and you know all this kind of stuff and and that makes you more willing to accept risks it makes you more optimistic those chemicals are working at good things and so when you're giving to others you're giving to yourself yeah what is one way of thinking or one habit that creates bad luck for ourselves feeling that we're a victim feeling sorry for ourselves um feeling helpless i am a huge huge believer in personal accountability if something goes wrong how much of that do i own probably 95 or 100 of it usually and anyway if something does go wrong in my world the world is typically not inclined to bring me to fix that for me no people aren't going to come rescue you yeah they got their own problems that's right I know.

56:35When we give luck to another, what are we saying to God or to the world when we're constantly generating luck in others? And how do we make sure we're not only a giver to people who are takers? Yeah. And not thinking, how can I also return the favor in the future? Yeah, or giving it to get something back in return. Don't think in terms of getting something back in return. Don't count on, don't even talk about it. Don't expect to get praise for being a generous person. Do some things anonymously. And I think, and there's one other thing, and it's kind of akin to what you're asking, I think, and it's this whole thing of gratitude.

57:22Be grateful that you can give, that you're in a position to give, and everybody is in a position to give. I don't care if it's a compliment. I don't think it's, I mean, I don't care if it's just giving someone a pat on the back, asking someone opinion and saying, you know a lot about this. Let me ask your opinion. Well, that's kind of, you know, that makes the other person feel good. But be grateful for all this stuff. Gratitude is a huge thing. And you talk about getting the negativity out of your head, reducing the negative thinking. Gratitude is just every day. Stop. When in a situation, you're bummed out about a situation, you're frustrated, you're feeling sorry for yourself, think, what have I got to be grateful for here today around me in my world?

58:11Yes. It's a beautiful antidote. Yeah. You've got, again, we've talked about lucky you. You've got U squared and the quantum leap strategy. What is the quantum leap framework that you talk about? Well, a lot of people, one of the reasons they're unsuccessful with their goals is they don't really have a strategy. Or they try too many things. They're flailing about. Now, usually if you want to go into a new area and it looks overwhelming, what do I need to learn? What do I need to do? Usually there's a very small handful of things that have the big leverage. And we have these. First, you need a super clear, huge, important, lovable aiming point.

59:03Okay. Something that is going to stretch you and it's important to you. So pick a very ambitious aiming point. Second, practice relentless pursuit. Be the crawler. Stay at it. Stay at it. Take the failures as a coaching lesson. Where's the lesson here? Okay, adapt. Go on. don't take yourself to the bench and set set the rest of your life out wishing you'd done something aiming point relentless pursuit and then the mind work and the mind work is um do the necessary mind work what is that well that is disciplining your thinking like you would discipline your body or discipline your child or whatever you know you follow discipline the way you drive for peace sake you stay between the lines you know you don't run stop signs okay well put a stop sign in your mind when the negative stuff comes in no you know i'm not going to entertain that i'm not going to stay there um so part of it is pushing yourself with real discipline and mindfulness to be optimistic it's huge it is really really huge the other part of the mind work is the ritual then that daily opening your mind first of all you read through your goal because that keeps goal front of mind and if it goes out of your mind luck quits thinking about it too okay and during that kind of a ritual like i said that's when your intuition can is free to kind of surface bubble up through your head um so we got the aiming point relentless pursuit do the necessary mind work and the fourth one which sounds so simplistic and nobody does it.

1:01:09And it's the tracking. Tracking. Track your results. Track your results and measure progress. When I go to the gym that evening, I'm marking my calendar. I get to put a square around that, around that day. And if you're not tracking, you're hiding from the truth. because tracking is like a truth serum. It says whether you're following the quantum leap ritual, whether you're following this whole U-squared method of aiming point, pursuit, mind work, and tracking. Now, are there other things? There's a zillion other little tactics that one can do. But we're talking about not just 80-20 in terms of your you're trying to achieve greater levels of success, we're saying 95-5.

1:02:0695 % of the stuff is noise. It's helpful maybe, maybe even unhelpful. But 5 % is mission critical. That's the mission critical. If you will stay with that, trust the method. Trust the method. Just do that. People overcomplicate this. Yes. And I keep saying that all the time. Trust the method. You've been in psychology and high-performance learning and teaching and training for six decades now, right? Basically five. Five decades. Well, no, about six, I guess. Six decades since studying in school to working with individuals one-on-one to then working with corporations and businesses and high-profile individuals.

1:02:55so in six decades if you could give yourself three pieces of advice of all the information you've learned from all the books you've written all the books you've read all the research all the science that was out back then the science that's out now if you're like i can only give myself three pieces of advice to use to create an incredible life for myself what would that be for you? Take more risk. Believe in myself more. Be willing to fail. Why believe in self more? There is a saying that the SEALs, the Navy SEALs have.

1:03:38I think it's, I may be a little bit off on this list, but I think it's 40 % rule. It says most people, when they get to 40 % and it gets harder, they quit. They think, I'm through, I'm finished.

1:03:57And that much is left in terms of true capability. Potential. Yeah, yeah. 60 % left. They haven't tapped into it. Yeah. We don't test ourselves. um if you don't take yourself to failure you don't even know and it's not just failure this first time it's you know you keep on and you know in working out you know if you're lifting weights what's saying is the last few reps are the ones that count it's not the ones that come easy on the front end the first say let's say you got x amount of weight you're doing dumbbell curls x amount of weight okay let's say you're saying i'm going to do 10 reps take myself to failure the last few reps are the ones that count yes and it's not when it gets hard it's not when it starts to be uncomfortable the first one was probably uncomfortable yeah you know um so living with failure if you've pushed failure out of your life you've made a big mistake.

1:05:07People need stretch in their life. They need friction. Hypothetical scenario. Again, you've learned so much in these last six decades. What do you think is going to be the biggest psychological breakthrough in the next six decades for human potential, for human advancement, with all the changes that have happened in the world and society from AI and tech now really emerging over the last 20 years to wherever it's going to be in the next six decades, what do you see as the greatest potential for unlocking human potential in the future? Well, it'll be something to do with brain processes, our thinking, in my opinion.

1:05:55Because we're learning so much more about the brain, how it functions. were coming to the point of helping people do more with themselves, I think. It's kind of funny. Back in the Ph.D. program when I was going for my doctor's degree. Was that early 60s? What was that? It was late 60s. Late 60s. And early 70s internship and so forth. But like I said, the things that are in my writings, like Lucky You, Quantum Leap Strategy, and U Squared, that wasn't in any of the textbooks. No. Okay. And those books, such as mine, were basically ridiculed, certainly discounted, not worth it. And I was struck by the fact that, well, those books have some really good advice that I can do with me.

1:06:57I don't have to have a therapist or a counselor or, you know, some psychologist or whatever to work on me and make me better, make me more successful. There are things I can do for myself. I want to know that. Okay. And during the past 25 years, there have been an amazing number of really good books out of the professional community. I mean, the highly pedigreed psychologists, you know, they've really come into getting that stuff out more to the public. The findings of research and self-sufficiency and personal accountability and those kinds of things. And I think that trend will continue. Do you think people will learn to believe in themselves more with the more tools and research and accessibility they have to technology in the future?

1:07:56Or they'll believe in themselves less? I don't know. I think we're all so intellectually arrogant. We think we've got so much figured out and there's so little we know about everything. Yeah. I really do. But that's getting into kind of metaphysical stuff, you know. For me, it's interesting because you said the three things over the last six decades, if you could give yourself these three pieces of advice, the second one is to believe in yourself more. And I wrote a whole book called The Greatest Mindset, which is about overcoming self-doubt. I think self-doubt is the killer of dreams. I think when you have a big goal or big dream and you doubt yourself, you limit yourself from taking the action, building the energy, allowing for luck to come into your life.

1:08:42You, you're just more insecure. You're less willing to take the risk when you doubt yourself. You're more, you know, on eggshells. And I think learning to believe in yourself is one of the greatest tools that you can have. And you don't need to be smart to develop that, which for me, I never felt like I was smart because of my school grades, but I learned how to believe in myself. And I felt like that's what allowed me to accelerate the results of my life was belief was, Hey, I think I can do this. Let me go try. Oh, I actually was able to do this thing. All right. Maybe I can go do this other thing.

1:09:20And now there's another thing. And I was able to stack evidence by having more belief in myself. Yeah. And almost being ignorant to a lot of the world and being like, I don't have the answers, but I believe I can figure out a way to make it happen. And that belief gave me courage, gave me confidence, gave me the ability to develop more skills. And those things I think created the luck for me, created more opportunities for me to succeed in what I was dreaming and thinking about. And I've truly believe self-doubt is going to be the killer of dreams for people, no matter if they have all the best wearable tech that gives them the data and the information, if they read all the right books, whatever it might be, if we don't learn the skill of believing in self, we're not going to take more risks and we're not going to be willing to fail.

1:10:06So I think that is a massive thing that most people never learn how to do. So how do you think we learn how to believe in ourselves more based on everything you've learned? Well, I think we got to put ourselves out there and find the edge of our capacities. Yes. Yes. And learn that failure is an advantage. Which brings, you know, failure is just, it's not a bug in the system. It is the system. It's a feature. You know, use it, man. Exactly. R.D. Lang is a psychiatrist, psychologist from back when. He said, if I don't know I can, it's a twisted kind of very cryptic statement. and I always want to remember this thing and I'll go back and study it and then I can't remember it because it's kind of tricky.

1:11:03It's like if I don't know I can, I think I can't kind of, you know. If I don't know how to do something, I think, well, anyway, we read more into it than is there. We don't test our limits.

1:11:25and so we never discover what's inside. Yeah. Do you feel like you've tested your limits? Somewhat, but not greatly. Really? Yeah. You've got, you know, six decades of work in this. You've got 15 million books you've sold. You're impacting huge companies. Yeah, but we don't compare. We compare ourselves to the people that are better. I know. We always look at their best side. You're like, oh, I haven't missed that. And look at our worst side. Yeah, why is that? I don't know. But if you compare yourself to you 40 years ago, and if you would have said when you were, you know, 43 or 42 or whatever it was, and you said, one day I'm going to sell 15 million copies of my books.

1:12:03And I'm going to help, you know, multi-billion dollar companies acquire and merge and build. And I'm going to coach some of the biggest names in the world. And like, what would you have thought when you were 40 of that type of dream and accomplishing it? When are you being like, wow, that's amazing? I would have thought, yeah, that's bull. Yeah. You know, I would have thought that would be wonderful. But it's kind of interesting. Some people just have a higher need for achievement than others, too. It's kind of in the DNA. I don't understand some of that. Some people, we just have different cravings, you know.

1:12:43And I think everybody has a lot more within if they're perfectly, I mean, dazzlingly happy with that, that I'm happy for them. Yes. And I don't want them to feel bad about not wanting to push for more. But... How much of your potential do you feel like you've tapped at this season of life? Don't know. So I guess a better question, what is the big goal or dream that you have over the next 20 plus years? I want to be healthy. I want to be happy. I would like to continue to figure out what I believe, what I think, and get it down on paper. Just to kind of document that because I think somebody else might get some mileage out of it.

1:13:34That's not some big goal. that's like, I want to be happy, I want to be healthy, and I want to get my thoughts down and help others. No, I don't think... It's not some new money or dream or... Yeah, I think it's kind of interesting. Risk-taking peaks for... Well, it peaks a couple of years earlier for girls than boys. Risk-taking girls peaks at about age 16. Really? Yeah. You mean, did they stop taking risks around 16 or did they start? No, it peaks. That's at its highest point in their life, probably will peak at that age. For boys, it peaks at about 19, 18, 19, 20. That's when it peaks. So this is risk-taking.

1:14:18And then it gradually. Now, risk-taking lasts longer for boys into the 30s than for women. But in general, it's a life. Then you start to preserve what you've created or you start to like. Yeah. Be more comfortable with what you've risked. Well, think about this. Yeah. Because early in life, we are accumulating, accumulating. We're accumulating knowledge, friends, contacts, experiences, and money, skills, all of this kind of stuff. Okay? So, and that continues, it seems to me, until about somewhere in the maybe mid-50s. And then there's this funny turn. You want to get rid of stuff. And it starts like this.

1:15:04And people start, well, first of all, kids start leaving home. And your friend-making, for most people, starts to diminish. Then they scale down their house. They have all these possessions that they bought and everything. And, God, you know, here, they start handing that off to kids and things like that. And risk-taking really drops. And dopamine levels drop. and which affects risk-taking. And part of it is just people look down the road and say, it's a shorter runway. Yeah, or less energy or they just don't care as much. Yeah, and I mean, what am I going to do, make a 30-year plan? You know?

1:15:47And so there's a practical side to this, and there's a physical capacity side to it because people's... Yeah, so much energy, so much time you have, yeah. I mean, listen, it's even more like, you know, someone might have heart problems and they can't get out and exercise or do things, you know, or all kinds of, you know, that's why I'm a big believer in health, fitness and so forth. Because it is such a big factor in having a good, happy, full life. So you're focused more on staying healthy, staying happy, making sure you keep sharing your ideas and thoughts. Yeah, I think so. And I don't know.

1:16:25Now, I know that people need goals. I don't care your age. And the fact they found from studies like in nursing homes, they found if you will just give someone in an assisted living place, give them a plant. This is your plant. Take care of this plant. Their mood goes up. It's just a and they do better. We need purpose. We need a sense of direction, goals, something. I think goals are magnetic. In fact, that's another thing that Alfred Adler said, the psychologist, he said that goals are teleological. They pull us toward them. And he says, I think it's George Land that said, your future does every bit as much or more to shape you than your past.

1:17:15That is fascinating. What do you mean by your future does everything to shape you as much as your past does? Well, if you set a goal that means something to you, you really have your heart's invested in that thing, then it starts shaping your life. Now, we know that we've been shaped by our parents, our teachers, experiences in life, all of that kind of stuff. There's huge shaping. But what you're pursuing shapes you, too. Mm-hmm. And big goals, like I said, you don't just achieve more, you become more. That's true. Mm. So the smaller the goal we have, the less likely we're going to become our greatest self, is what I'm hearing you say.

1:18:02Oh, yeah. I think that's a very safe conclusion. Interesting. Hmm. What else am I missing here? Anything else around luck that we haven't talked about? Well, I think that we need to take it more seriously and realize that we've got a lot more influence over it than perhaps people would think. And if luck accounts more for career success than any of these other factors. And talent and all this stuff, yeah. Yeah. Then we should be courting luck. Yeah. And make love to luck. Yeah. You know, make love to luck. You talk about in the book, page 27, your brain's first impulse is to scan for danger and unpleasant side effects.

1:18:59You automatically focus on the trouble or setback, the setback or failure causes. It's a brain pattern rooted deep in our survival instincts. We're just wired that way as human beings. As playwright John Dryden put it, self-defense is nature's eldest law. But if we're looking and scanning for danger or unpleasant side effects, it sounds like constantly failing and having people make fun of us is the greatest psychological threat. Is people making fun of us or criticizing us or judging us or talking badly about us behind our backs or not wanting to be around us. Isn't that a great psychological side effect or threat, that failure and making mistakes and putting out the big goal you're going to go after in the world when people...

1:19:50Yeah, I'm sure that's true, but I think that for many of us, I think we're our own worst critic. Yes, man, that's true. We probably defeat ourselves more than anyone else does. Yeah, yeah. Most people aren't paying that much attention to your life. Right. Don't take yourself that seriously. Yeah, it's true. You know, they're not. They got their own life. Yeah. You can get up, start making a speech, and you do something. Maybe you spilled some water or just maybe you hit the mic accidentally and it screeches or something like that, and you feel like a fool, you know, and embarrassed, and you don't want to do any more speeches.

1:20:32And the crowd, you're not that important. They weren't that big a deal. They didn't care. You know, yeah. They were oblivious more or less, you know. That's why I think going back to what you talked about in the beginning, it's so important to manage our mind when we're thinking negatively or self-critical. Yeah. Because being self-critical is not the same thing as being a self-coach. And when you're coaching yourself and you're saying, okay, I'm going to analyze what I did right or wrong today and how I can improve, you're giving yourself more empowering feedback based on your failures. based on your setbacks or the mistakes you made towards your goal.

1:21:10Whereas the critic is just making you feel bad, the self-critic. So I think try to become more of a self-coach rather than a self-critic in the pursuit of your dreams. Yeah. Be careful how you talk to yourself. Yes. You talk to yourself more than anybody else in the world. It's true. And manage that dialogue going on in your head up there. Mm-hmm. That's powerful. I love this. I want people to get the book, Lucky You, A Psychological Strategy for Multiplying Luck and Achieving Your Big Ambitions by Price Pritchett. They can go to your website and get this book, pritchettu2.com. And it'll have this, the book on here, it'll have your accelerator coaching program, which is a new coaching program that you have that can help people kind of go through your processes, your training, to optimize their life.

1:22:03Right. Can you share more about the coaching program? It's an eight-week program, and what we've done is we've distilled these key principles from the U Squared Handbook, Quantum Leap Strategy, Lucky U, and in other writings that I've done, like a book I wrote called Hard Optimism and so on. um it's an eight-week program and i think it is is powerful um but it's very minimal effective dose again it's what are those five percent you know that separates signal from noise if 95 percent of all this stuff out there that's it's good or maybe it's even junky in the world of how to manage your life and become more successful.

1:22:57What are the, you know, what are those things though that are just the real guideposts that give you the high leverage? And that's what it's based on. Gotcha. Eight week program that can go through it. Can you sign up anytime and go through it or is it once every quarter or once a month or how is it? Well, this is a fun thing. We just, we're just launching this thing. Oh, okay. Yeah. And our first launch session is in September. Okay. Mid-September. We have another one that we're putting on the calendar in October. Nice. And we'll be booking on out. Okay. Very cool. This baby is new. Brand new.

1:23:37The U2 Accelerator Coaching Program. Make sure you guys check it out. PritchettU2.com. And it'll take you to that link. Once you get there, you'll see it there. A couple of final questions for you. I think I asked you this the last time, and I'm curious of your three truths. If you had to distill all of your work into three lessons, what would those three truths be for you? And maybe you already said it, but I'm curious if you have. I would stick with the same thing I said last time, I think. And those three truths are, first of all, you're the most powerful person in your life. it's not your daddy it's not your boss it's not your mother it's not your best friend you are the most powerful person in your life and you have been for a long time secondly you have an amazing capacity for change truly amazing capacity to change and third you are the solution to your future yeah own it Yeah, that's beautiful.

1:24:46And what's your definition of greatness? Last question. Well, that's going to depend on the individuals. What would my definition of greatness be? I guess it would be being able to look back at your life. I don't care if you're 35, 45, 65, whatever, and say, I put myself out there. I put myself out there. I didn't play it too safe. I think we have to do that to be able to say I came anywhere within eyesight of greatness. Yeah, no one's getting out there. And probably you're going to have to look back and say, you want to see the huge screw-ups? And the countless little ones. Yes, yes. No one's getting out of this place alive.

1:25:43He might as well go all in. Or error-free. Yeah, exactly. And it's kind of like we tell clients on the very front end of a merger, there's no such thing as a perfect merger. Right. And going slow trying to get it perfect is the biggest mistake you can make. Wow. Yeah. Price, thanks so much for being here. Appreciate you, sir. Such a pleasure. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

1:26:24Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.