Do you ever wonder how uber-successful people make success look so easy? Their secret is habits! In this episode, Lori and Jimmy share five habits successful people develop and maintain that changes the world for them.
Episode Keys:
- Why a daily routine that keeps your mind, body, and spirit in peak condition is vital to your success.
- How you can reap immediate benefits by implementing one new positive habit!
- When to make your bed to achieve a small victory each day. (Hint: It’s simpler than you think!)
- Heeding the advice of Eleanor Roosevelt is the key to growth and success!
- Planning your day to be deliberate in achieving your biggest goals will build a lifetime of greater successes!
Podcast Transcription
JW:
Good morning, everybody in the world,! Man, I love these summer mornings. You know, you wake up at 5, 5 30, you roll outside to let the dog out. Cause you know, he’s up as well. And I look at the east and I see that ball of fire that lights the world and warms my soul. It’s called the sun. Hey, good morning everybody. And Hey Lori Few, did you see the sun this morning?
LF:
I didn’t see it at five 30. The dog can wait.
JW:
Well now listen certain things in life. Can’t wait. And one of ’em called Jimmy’s comforter to the bed being soaked.
LF:
Well nobody wants that, so, okay. 5:30 it is then.
JW:
As they said on the YouTube ain’t nobody got time for that, Lori. So anyway… Hey, good morning. I guess you’ve had your coffee. Like you’re like ready to take on the world here on a Monday morning.
LF:
I’m ready to take on the world. I’m excited. I love summer. It’s hot. And so is my coffee. That’s all. That’s the only thing I like hot.
JW:
Yeah. Well now and my wife smoking hot wife, smoking hot wife people, but that’s just how it is. Me and Talladega Nights. We got it together here. Smoking hot wife. No, you know, on a serious note, you know, I go into summer with this excitement, Lori, don’t you like, you know, this is a chance for growth. It’s a time that I can really maybe expand on some of my reading. It’s just not the pressure of the January through may time where you’re really busy in our line of work and business is busy, busy, busy, and you have a time to reflect and think, and you’re out there outside thinking you set out and you ruin that sun and you go, you know, five minutes is enough. So then you go inside.
LF:
Five minutes.
JW:
In the air conditioner. Is that how that works?
LF:
Yes, absolutely. Especially when you have fair skin, like I do, we, the sun is not my friend, unless I am SPF 100, plus
JW:
There you go. Well, and you know, I go to the dermatologist now I recommend this for everyone, but you, you check your doctor. I’m not a doctor, of course. But one of the things I do is a habit. And we’re gonna talk about some habits today of uber successful people is Laurie. I go to my dermatologist, as you’ve heard the story, I’m not gonna regale you again with my iron man story. But yeah, I go every fall and have her do this body scan thing, you know? And I gotta tell you, it is to me very worthwhile because you know, the epidermis is the largest organ of the body, right?
LF:
Oh, we’re getting science up here this morning. Oh man,
JW:
You got that. Right. All right. So anyway, let’s let’s take just a few minutes and regale and share all of our subscribers folks. We appreciate you more than we can even expressing words for listening to this podcast, share this podcast, particularly this one today. I really believe Lori and I are gonna bring you something that if applied and that’s the key. If applied could change your life and those of your loved ones, your fellow teammates at work, wherever you congregate, they could change their lives as well. By applying these five, very simple yet powerful habits. You know, one of the greatest strengths of the uber successful people is the ability they have to create and continue good habits. Now, yes, Lori, we have some bad habits, Lori, for example, drinks like seven cups of coffee every morning. But we, we, that may not be a bad habit for her, but you know, I’m, I’m sitting here thinking about it, but you know, I don’t know Lori, if the rule’s 21 days, I don’t know if it’s 90 days.
JW:
I don’t know whatever time it is to establish a habit, but whatever it does and whatever it takes for us to get that habit ingrained so that we perform it subconsciously. That’s what we’re after here, you know, Admiral William H McRaven in his book, make your bed describes the necessary discipline and habits for ultimate performance in life. If you haven’t read that book, it’s on our Live a Life By Design website, and you’ll see it under Jimmy’s top reads. It is a fantastic small book. You can read it in just a couple hours, but this book gives you some great habits. And this Admiral of the Navy came across these habits that made him so successful in his career. And I’m gonna share with you the very first habit it’s called make your bed when you arise in the morning, Lori, believe it or not. It’s not that hard. Right?
LF:
So, so true. I am such a stickler on this one and I don’t know, maybe my parents ingrained that in me when I was a child, but it is a constant struggle when I married my husband. He is very much a I can wait. I don’t, I’m not doing that
JW:
One good thing tonight. What’s up with it. Right? I
LF:
Know it was so stressful when we first got married. I, I thought, what have I done? Have I made a mistake? Like this guy doesn’t make the bed every day. What? so I absolutely agree. That’s one of the very first things that I do. It’s, it’s one of it’s such an easy thing to do, but it just, I dunno, it kinda sets the tone, like get up. That’s one of the things that you do. I mean, it just, I don’t know.
JW:
I love that now. First of all, no, you didn’t make a mistake marrying my buddy. Okay. He, he’s a good dude. Don’t, don’t worry about that part. But you know, making your bed, according to Admiral McRaven is that small victory at the early minutes of your day that says to your brain, Hey, we got one we can check off and let’s go grab a bigger one. Right? So basically he’s saying our brain goes to work producing the hormones or endorphins and those things to really empower us to take on bigger and bigger victories for the rest of the day. So you achieve those great accomplishments. Brian, Tracy, whose life is one of the greatest success stories on the planet. This man was living in his car, Lori, he had hit the skids. If you will turned his life around. He’s one of the most successful authors speakers and owns his own entrepreneurial company across the globe.
JW:
He has been speaking on stages that range hundreds of thousands of people. And he wrote a book that I love. I’ve read it a couple times. I highly recommend it. The book is titled no excuses, the power of self discipline. The underlying theme of this book is real simple. It’s that each of us has the power to bring self-discipline in our life in many aspects. For example, then the areas of finance, physical health, marriage work, and simply peace of mind. Don’t laugh, Lord. We can have a habit to work on our peace of mind, that anxiety of the world of which we can’t control is not something we need to focus on. Let’s focus on a habit of being peaceful in our minds. So today Lori and I are gonna share our top five habits of the uber successful and how you too can adopt these habits to change your life in a powerful way.
LF:
Okay? So here we go. Five, we’re gonna count ’em down. We’re gonna start with number one. First of all, uber successful. I don’t know anymore. If, if you talk to the younger people, they think uber is a form of transportation. So this morning, the topic, you know, uber is, is just, I, I actually had to look up the definition and it’s just let’s say a quick synopsis of the word is extra or that much over the top. So our first uber successful habit that we’re gonna talk about this morning is being deliberate. And I know that sounds kind of simple, but it’s something that we struggle with as adults to be deliberate, to make a significant compound thought process. That equals a choice. You have to be deliberate in your actions, in your motivation, in your follow, through, and in your execution.
LF:
If you stay conscious of that, it takes significant matters, but it makes them situational. So prior to making a big decision, if you’re deliberate in your thought process, in the way you approach it in the way you tackle it, it always makes a habit that much more important. And if you’re deliberate in that decision, making it almost validates you in a way to say I did all of my research ahead of time. I planned out my process. I thought of everything I could think. And it’s a deliberate function and I don’t know, seven days, 21 days, I’m really gonna have to remember what it does, how long it takes to form a habit. Because being deliberate is one that I struggle with, that I have to continually work. So I’m glad we’re covering it first. Cause I feel like it’s the most difficult. And then we can move on to some of those easier ones that I don’t necessarily struggle with as much.
JW:
Well, you know, Lori, Jim RO, one of my mentors has many of his books, but his, his book about leading an inspired life has in there about the setting of the sale. And what he’s talking about is being deliberate right during your day. So not very many things get accomplished for greatness. If you just get outta bed, you don’t make it to start with, right. But anyway, you right, you go to work and you don’t have anything planned for the day. Guess what happens the day runs you, uber successful people run their day. I love that. Be deliberate,
LF:
Be deliberate. And I think it’s important and it comes in different. It comes in different form and different structure for different people and in different aspects of their life. You know, everybody’s entitled to have that day off, but even in your day off, if you have that structure being deliberate in your daily life, in your work life, in your business life or your nonprofit life, even on the weekends, it makes things a little bit easier because you’re still practicing that habit.
JW:
So do you you know, do you deliberately drink coffee every morning?
LF:
I deliberately make sure that my route to work every day passes two different coffee places,
JW:
Folks. She doesn’t even leave the home. She knows exactly and deliberately where she’s gonna be trailing that day. I love it.
LF:
Absolutely. Absolutely.
JW:
I love it. So habit number ones be deliberate habit. Number two. Oh, this is a great one. Lori, we’ve already talked a little bit about this in our opening today. Uber successful people claim small victories daily, knowing that the accumulation of these small victories lead to exponentially winning in their life. Oh man, I get goosebumps on this. I’ll tell you, Lori, I have done something. I’m almost a little bit of ashamed of, but I do it for the mental reason of doing this small victory claiming I’ve done some things I didn’t even have on my task list for the day that were really big deals. It just, I didn’t even think are plan on, but they, they came to me mind and they came about and I got ’em done and I did something you should never do. But I did it. I then wrote it on my list of to-dos and I put a little box there and I checked it. So I know what you’re thinking. That’s backwards, Jimmy. That’s not being deliberate. You’re correct. But I love to claim small victories and Lori, let me tell you why those small steps we take today build giant leaps later. And so I love doing 4, 5, 6 wins in a day. As a matter of fact, I track them as wins. So Hey, what’d I do today? What’d I get done well. And what could I do tomorrow to build on that? And to me, those small wins are the foundation to success on a daily basis.
LF:
Small wins are great motivators too. You never really, you know, especially when you’re not expecting a small victory like that. You’re like what? I mean, sometimes it can really give you a boost in your attitude, in your mood. It can change your entire perspective. You know, something small comes outta nowhere and you’re like, yes, I crushed that. I’m gonna take that. W absolutely. I love small victories. I had a small victory recently. This is terrible on myself. So I recently was traveling and I arrived to my destination, unpacked. My car went on about my day. That evening came out to get in my car to go somewhere and immediately I get in the car and I see that my check tire light is on and I thought, oh man, I was by myself. Well, I, by myself, I had another person with me, but two women essentially.
LF:
And how are we going to tackle this problem of my check engine light being on? Because for one we’re parked on the second floor of a parking garage, cars are around not sure what to do, no security person in sight to call immediately. I thought, okay, I can call roadside assistance. And I thought, well, it might take ’em forever to get here. I don’t know what I’m gonna do. And so we put our heads together. We went to the back of my car and I had remembered that my dear sweet husband, who is always prepared for any situation in life had purchased a jumper battery pack all in one air compressor gadget for Christmas. And it had been in the back of my car. And I didn’t even, I thought I never used this. This is whatever, but it’s back there. And so the two of us put our heads together. We figured out how to unattached, whatever it was, the thingy. I don’t know that goes on your tire. This is terrible. I should know more about cars, but we figured out how to get
JW:
There. Yes.
LF:
So that thingy, we got the, the tire aired up until the light went off. We just a shortness since to the closest car dealership to get my tire fixed. And lo and behold, it was the small victory that turned out to be the biggest thing I felt so accomplished. I felt so proud of myself. I did it by myself. I didn’t have, I wasn’t a Danville in distress. I didn’t need anybody to help me. We just figured it out. And so for all of you out there that are listening, that struggle with car things there, you can do it. There are small victories.
JW:
Folks, I just want you to know that small, Victor’s not led to her applying for NASCAR as a tire changer on the NASCAR.
LF:
Oh, I, I am far from that, but I will say that small victories really can make a huge difference. I mean, it’s empowering, it’s motivating. And it solidifies even as an adult, that you are capable of accomplishing something that you absolutely did not have on your to-do list. It was a roadblock in your day, but you are still able to overcome and you too can take the thingy and put it on your tire.
JW:
Your grasp of technical car is inspiring to me.
LF:
It’s terrible. It’s terrible.
JW:
You know, they’ll wanna say this and I’m not trying to embarrass her too badly folks, but those of you listen. No, I just pick on Lori A. Little bit, cuz well, first she’s a great lady and, and excellent co-host but I will tell you if there’s anyone I could see in a jumpsuit that has all of those nice patches on it for all the different car park manufacturers and has an air gun in her hand and a helmet on that goes, that would be Lori, I think, at the NASCAR race. So
LF:
Yes, that was me in my moment in the parking garage, trying to figure out what to do
JW:
Oh my gosh.
LF:
Which that story is a perfect segue into our habit. Number three. And so gratitude, gratitude is a habit that all uber successful people practice on a daily basis. And I think just by telling that story, first of all, I just told off on myself, I’m sorry to my husband who, you know, prepared me and equipped me. And he didn’t, you know, here I am saying, I’ll never use that or whatever, but I am super grateful that he looks out for me and I have much gratitude for that. I think we all need that person in our lives. That’s looking out for our next step and our best interest in helping us to know things about ourselves that we don’t even think that we need to know, but you know, we manage to find out. So gratitude is something that we talk a lot about on this podcast.
LF:
I love talking about it. Every time I get a chance to express gratitude or appreciation for something or someone, it just reminds me of being able to control the environment that I’m in. We are so lucky to have so many, not, not just freedoms and possibilities and opportunities, but every single day, we get an opportunity to choose, to be grateful and to express that gratitude to other people. I’ve learned a lot from Jimmy just by being around him and learning from him and listening to him talk. And I love the fact that he journaled. So yes, I too have picked up journaling. I am not anywhere near as good as Jimmy. I don’t do it every night. I’m getting there. It’s, it’s getting better. But I have taken up the sticky note route. I love my, my new thing now is to write on a sticky note.
LF:
I appreciate you. Thank you. Have a great day, you know, thanks for picking up my coffee. Thanks for making my coffee. I, it, it’s just, and it’s random and it’s seems silly at times, but I love seeing somebody smile when they walk by and see a sticky note. I don’t typically sign them like I, but I think people have kind of figured out that it’s me. It’s but it’s kinda like a calling card. I found that that’s a great way to express gratitude to people because a lot of times people can’t accept compliments. We struggle with that as adults and as women and as men, you know, we don’t say it enough and we don’t accept compliments enough. And it’s really hard sometimes to listen to someone, pay you a compliment or express how grateful they are for something that you’ve done or something that you’ve contributed to something, even if it’s small or even if it’s large. So little ways to express your gratitude. I highly recommend the anonymous sticky note. I call it stick and run. I just stick it to something and run away.
JW:
I’m gonna stick it to you. And I’m outta here, buddy. Okay.
LF:
Exactly.
JW:
Well, you, I gotta tell you that’s a similar type thing though. I didn’t have post-it notes when I was a lot younger and I got it outta college and I wanted to get in some habits of personal hygiene things such as flossing don’t know about you, but I was not the consistent flosser. I should have been as I got outta undergrad school. So I pinned this. I pined, I taped this note to my mirror and, and I’m serious. And it said Flos now. And so every time, as soon as I get up, I go into shave, oh, I gotta floss after I brush. So I, I, I had it there and I noticed after about a month, seriously, about 30 days of doing this, I just, it automatically subconsciously went out and I just started brushing my teeth and I’d floss after I shaved. And, and it came to be such a habit.
JW:
Now I don’t even think about it. You know? I mean, I’m just one of those things, but these little notes of gratitude that you’re talking about to me, that is the largest muscle of the emotions that can build and move worlds. In my opinion, if you’re not grateful for what you have now, what do you think about gaining more? Just to me does not make sense that you would be entitled to more if we’re not grateful for what we have now and you’re gonna laugh. So I’ve actually been grateful for things that happened that just didn’t seem positive. You know, I’m grateful that I had the relationship with my sister at the age of 35, that died of leukemia. I’m grateful. You see, I didn’t focus on the negative. I’m grateful I had that relationship I had with her. I didn’t like the fact she left so soon, but I’m grateful. So that’s my point. We can exercise that muscle daily, almost hourly, if not by the minute, by doing something, Lori said, you know, showing gratitude toward others to me is that exercise of gratitude that pays big, big dividends. I mean, it’s big
LF:
Love that it is big.
JW:
Love that one habit. Number four, uber successful people. Oh, I love this work. Cause it reminds me of Laurie when she’s on the groove, man, when she’s at that, when she’s at that employment during the day and she is managing and running, thousands of kids lives and hundreds of teachers and all this stuff, she’s in the administration building and she is the AB the habit of fearless. Oh, she is fearless in her pursuit of her goals. I love that. So nothing and no one can keep an uber successful person. That’s fearless from achieving the goals in their life. If they were properly set based on their own morals and beliefs, you know, this tenacity that these people exhibit and being fearless to me, it’s the key of, to continuing growth as a person and to be successful in life, you must be fearless. Sometimes you have to do what Eleanor Roosevelt instructed this great lady that actually achieved much more greatness after she left the white house. Of course we know the president had deceased during his term, right. Starve, his fourth term, but she left the white house and she said something I love this Lord resonates to me today. She said, each day, do something that scares you. Isn’t that cool.
LF:
And it’s so it’s so absolutely true. That is such a, a true statement. Even now. I feel like, you know, we’ve talked a lot about the, the world post COVID. We did so many things each and every day during that time that we’re scary. And, and look, here we are, we’re still here. We’re still growing and succeeding and, and being fearless. But absolutely. I, I definitely think that super uber successful people do things all the time. That could be scary and they’re still fearless and they still continue forward trudging on regardless of the situation or the circumstances.
JW:
Have you ever zip lined Lori?
LF:
No, I’m I’m, I’m too scared.
JW:
Okay. Folks, I weigh two 40 pounds and I get on this zip line and it’s I’m not exaggerating. We’re probably, I don’t know, 60 feet up in the air. And this gentleman says, there’s nothing you need to do. Mr. Williams, you just need to sit here. You got these leather gloves on, you know, and you got this cable. So your life is holding above the floor of the forest, 60 feet on one cable. And they’ve hooked you into this. It’s called a diaper apparatus. We used it when we’re repelling and stuff. Boy scout thing, nothing to worry about Lori. But not, not a real diaper. So what it does is it hooks around you through your waist and your legs so that you can’t fall out right now. You can, and I proved it. You can go upside down unintentionally because you’re screaming as you’re going down this line. Now I don’t wanna get too scientific, Lori. You know, I started out with a little sciencey stuff, so here’s a little bit more, did you know, the heavier and object is the faster it’s speed will gain on a downhill incline. And the reason I knew that is cause the young man that was about half my size, supposed to stop me at the other tree is yelling, pull the break, hand break.
JW:
No, Lori, I was fearless. I hit that kid, knocked him right off the tree. I did my job. Okay. I took that tree as if I were commandeering a take in world war II from an enemy buddy. So anyway, that’s a true story. I loved it. So that first one, I didn’t, you know, I was a little nervous about, I wasn’t screaming like a girl. I was screaming in a real date, deep voice, but anyway. This young man, he didn’t get knocked off. He actually kind of jumped outta the way cause I was coming in, as they say on the deck of these aircraft carriers, I was coming in hot Lori.
LF:
Well, first of all, you’re way more of a risk taker than I am. My feet need to be on the floor. I there’s no way I would be terrified to do anything. That’s dangerous like that. I consider that dangerous. I, I’m not a rollercoaster person. I’m not a get on a boat type of person.
JW:
So folks, you’re the first ones to hear it here. I am gonna mark this as a day of challenge for Lori. She and I are gonna take our respective spouses and we’re gonna hit like some of the roller coasters and stuff. Next time we’re anywhere near you know, a Disney world or we’re anywhere near universal or wherever we’re gonna ride some rides. And Laurie’s gonna come out of this. What I consider a cocoon of comfort. We gotta get outta that and get your wings spread and get you some of this fearlessness.
LF:
Okay. Challenge accepted. I’ve called I don’t like I can’t be called out challenge accepted. Yes, it’s be. It’ll be well documented. I’m sure.
JW:
And you know, at the end of the day, you’ll be a braver person to then look at the next hill and go, I can climb that hill.
LF:
I can do it, checking it off the list. Well, habit number five leads to knowledge, which I feel like now I’ve just been know I’ve been schooled and given some knowledge about what my future holds. It’s kind of scary now that I’ve accepted the Jimmy Williams, get out of your comfort zone challenge, stay tuned for future podcast about that. But knowledge is the key to power for uber successful people you’ll find that most powerful, successful people read books and take courses to grow their intellect and use that power in ways that help their company, their team, and their community to be better. You know, in the words of my husband, he is constantly learning. He sometimes drives me crazy. He wants to learn if it sparks his interest, he will do his complete 100% due diligence to learn everything he can. I, and I learned from him through osmosis.
LF:
I feel like he several years ago decided that he wanted to take up beekeeping. And so here we are seven years later and I learned and know more about beekeeping than I ever could have possibly imagined. Knowledge is powerful and it turns into success because once we know better, we do better. We feel better. We act better. And it spills over into the people and the communities and the businesses and the organizations that we work with. It’s, it’s just, it’s almost infectious in a way, knowledge is something that is compound it’s resolute, it’s concrete. It’s something that we strive for. We yearn for it. We want it. We want to know everything we can possibly know about something. And, and uber successful people take knowledge. And I think they turn that into so much of a positivity of sharing it with other people. That’s what helps them build on their success. Knowledge is something that you, once you have it, you can’t take it away from someone. And how lucky are we that we are able to have open and honest conversations about different aspects and different things that we might not ever share with anyone else, but a commonality in a conversation or at a meeting or at a function or a gathering leads to some of the most interesting conversations about things that you might otherwise not ever learn about.
JW:
And, and, you know, knowledge, Lori could be applied on a serious basis. For example, you know, at work or helping your community solve a, a, a real challenge that they’re having, but it also be used in more recreational or fun basis. So for example, one of my favorite games, and I’m very serious about this title, Lori, I I’m telling you, this is what it says on the box. And I’m very good at this game. And I love to play challenging games where it’s like, I partnered me against another couple or something. I love this, but the name of this game is called fact or crap. Now I, oh, yes. You heard me correct. Okay. So I’m, this is where I’m talking about knowledge being uber successful. People’s best weapon. I really win that game. Most of the time I play with anybody, because guess what?
JW:
They’re not reading the books and understanding history and talking about what they learned on biographies. And, and guess what they tell you, you know, like, they’ll tell you make up stories about Abraham Lincoln. And I go, oh man, I got this one. You can tell me anything and I’ll know if it’s a factor or not. Right. And so encourage you to build that knowledge base because you can never learn all there is to know, and you can never lose all that you learn. So to me, it’s not true. It to me, it’s just a powerful, powerful tool, not a weapon, but a tool it’s only a weapon. If you’re playing factor crap, that, and let me tell you, I will that weapon big time. You don’t even wanna play me on factor crap. Lori, I’m telling you right now. I show no holes. Barred, no mercy. No quarter. I mean, I play a game. Yes. I’m I’m serious
LF:
Competitiveness. Listen to that. He serious ladies and gentlemen this morning. Woo.
JW:
It’s called.
LF:
Don’t ask to play craps unless you really gonna bring your game. Like,
JW:
Wow. I don’t want you to think I’m competitive out there folks. But lemme tell you when I play monopoly with my kids and they land on one of my hotels, I tell you what I can foreclose on them. No, and no, just a heartbeat. It doesn’t take many time at all. I’ll take everything they got in the bank.
LF:
Words from an uber successful person this morning. So just to kinda give everybody a recap, let’s talk five habits of uber. Successful people say uber five fast. I don’t even know. I can’t. I can’t one time, let alone multiples creating a habit of being deliberate. That’s the first habit. The second habit, small victories. Third of course my favorite gratitude fourth being Jimmy’s probably fourth. The fourth one is probably Jimmy’s favorite of being fearless and five knowledge. What an amazing top five habits to have of uber successful people. And we expect everyone out there that are listening this morning, that you two can have success under these five habits. You can do it, put your mind to it and be a champion of yourself and your mindset and your circle around you, of the people that you influence and, and are with on a constant daily basis.
JW:
Oh man, Lori, what a great way to end this segment. Hey, listen, folks. The challenge from Lori and me this week is simply this, take just one of these habits. So here’s the other thing. Don’t try to make too many new habits at once. Take one of these five that really stands out to you. That seems like it’s something that would really empower you to be a bigger, better and bolder you, and work on that habit this week initiated in your daily routine, whatever it takes. If it’s a post-it note on the mirror, whatever it takes to put this thing in action and continue this daily process until you perform this habit, subconsciously go ahead, improve your life in all aspects and show others how you did it. That is truly success by your own definition. That is the ultimate goal of successful people. And it’s the ultimate goal that Lori and I espouse today to you and encourage each of you to go out and make the world a better place and live your life. And Live Your Life By Design.
