The Mind Body Project
The Mind Body Project
The Unseen Road to Success: Discipline and Growth Mindset
Ever wondered why some people achieve their goals while others don't, even though we all have the same 24 hours?
It isn't about having more time; it's about making the most of it.
In this illuminating episode, we challenge the conventional thought that time is a barrier and reveal that discipline is the real game-changer. Discover how discipline, even when motivation dips, can turn dreams into reality. We share heartening personal stories and compelling examples to underline how discipline and hard work in our everyday lives can transform aspirations into achievements.
Our conversation doesn't stop at discipline; we also dive into the realms of self-talk, growth mindset, and actionable steps. Connecting with Aaron on social media post-show is like the cherry on top, promising more enriching content. So, if you're ready to rewire your understanding of success and learn to harness the power of discipline, this episode is your roadmap. Buckle up for a deep dive into the mechanisms of motivation, discipline, and success, and let's demystify the path from dreams to reality together.
Welcome to the Mind Body Project podcast. After over a decade in the health and wellness industry, erin realized that our bodies change only short-term, unless our mindset changes for long-term success.
Speaker 1:Both our mind and body are forever linked. We are continually building up new ideas and tearing down old ones in our construction zone. We call our mind. After this podcast is over, make sure you give it a like and a share, and please subscribe and review this podcast. I would now like to introduce you to your host, the man connecting your mind and body to create a limitless life Erin Zegler.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Mind Body Project. Thanks for taking the time to join me today. How many hours do we have in a day? Do we all have the same hours in a day? Your answer would be 24 hours. There's 24 hours in a day. We all have 24 hours in a day. So if we all have 24 hours in a day, why is it that some people are successful? Some people are not so successful? And we can give successful success all types of different definitions, whatever it may be. Whatever our definition of success is in family relationships, in work, in charity, whatever it is we can give those that term success different definitions. But we all some are successful, some are not, and again it goes back to what we perceive to be success. But we want to talk about the 24 hours. We all have the same amount and we talk about success not being successful.
Speaker 2:Those that aren't might say I don't have enough time. There's not enough time in the day. I'm so busy doing these other things, I don't have time for this or that, so that's part of the things holding me back. So that is what sometimes we might say. I always like to say we start things with motivation, here's motivation, and at the other end of the spectrum is success. So does motivation carry us to success? Because whenever anybody starts anything, typically aren't they motivated. They're motivated to start a new diet because they want to feel better, they want to lose weight. They're motivated to start a new exercise program because they want to get stronger. They're motivated to start a new job because they think it's going to be better than their last job. Maybe it's going to make more money, maybe it's going to be better coworkers, better benefits. Whatever, they're motivated to start that Start a new relationship. Motivated to start that relationship because it's different than the last one.
Speaker 2:But what happens in between motivation and success? Because we aren't always motivated the entire time. We're not motivated 100% of the time to go to the gym, to eat right. We're not motivated 100% of the time to get along with our spouse, to get along with our friends. We have disagreements, we have arguments, so we're not always motivated to be in agreement with our coworkers to go to work. We're not always motivated. So what gets us from the moment we start with motivation to when we become successful? There's something that bridges that gap and it's called discipline. Discipline happens when we begin to lose that motivation, but yet we still want to be successful. Discipline is doing those things we know we should be doing, even though we don't want to do them. So that's how over 24 hours look different. How have we stop when we lose the motivation? So we never get to that success point? Some of us, when motivation stops, discipline kicks in and carries us to success, and that discipline often happens in what is called in the unseen hours.
Speaker 2:When I first I had a, I started running to lose weight. I had, you know, told my story numerous times on different episodes, but I started my journey to lose 100 pounds, going to Weight Watchers, losing it. I said, you know what? I'm not going to do any cardio until my weight is kind of plateaus. Never ran, didn't like to run, didn't like to do cardio vascular exercise I love to lift weights but not do any cardio vascular exercise, weight plateaued. I said, okay, now I need to start doing some cardio. I'm going to try a little bit of running. Ran my first quarter mile without stopping Okay, that's good.
Speaker 2:Went on to half at the age of 32, 33. I ran my first mile ever in my entire life and that started giving me confidence. Then I, you know, I kept on adding a quarter, a half, three quarters in a mile, two miles, three miles and it came to the point where I thought you know what I want to do? A half marathon. I want to train for half marathon. I think that'd be a great accomplishment to finish 13.1 miles of running.
Speaker 2:At the time I'm, you know, going to school, you know going back to college, I have a family, I'm working full time and so there's a lot going on when I make that decision. So that decision to say I want to run a half marathon, it involves a lot of training. You know, four or five times a week of training and my schedule didn't really allow for a lot of time to get that training in. But I wanted to hit that goal. So I didn't have a. My treadmill was at my training studio but I didn't really want to use the treadmill. I wanted to get outside running. So I'd get used to running outside for the half marathon.
Speaker 2:And so I decided to go to a local park and do my running there. And what that meant is I started clients at five o'clock in the morning. I need to get home, I need to get showered, I need to be at the gym by five o'clock, so that meant that I had to be at the park ready to run on some mornings by 2.30, 2.40 in the morning, pitch black, nobody else is out there. Lights are on at the park, you know, so I could see the course, the track, but some mornings it was, you know, I was training for a race. That was right before Christmas and so I was running through the cold part of the season, and so that would mean that some mornings I'd be out and it would be 25 degrees, 27 degrees, 20 degrees had all my cold gear on.
Speaker 2:And when I you know that's how I trained through the fall, through the winter, to get ready for that first half marathon. That was right before Christmas, and you know I finished it. It was great. Other people are like, oh, I want to do that's so cool. Because they saw the pictures. They saw me smiling. It was a great accomplishment.
Speaker 2:Until I tell them what I did and when I think of unseen hours, that is what those are the moments I think about that I'm running laps over and over around the park. I'm running five miles, six miles, seven miles, Getting those training runs in that nobody ever sees. I showed up, I showed up at work to train clients at five o'clock and if they didn't know, if I didn't say hey, I ran this morning, they'd never know it. I didn't look any different, but I was putting the work in in those unseen hours. Those unseen hours is where the discipline came in, of showing up when I really didn't want to get out of bed. It was cold, I might have been windy, might have been a little drizzly, but the work had to be done, the training run had to be done. So in those unseen hours I dragged myself out of bed, put on my layers of cold gear and shorts and all the stuff you have to put on with when it's cold out, so your ears don't get too cold, your hands don't get too cold. You wear warm enough clothes, but not too many clothes. It's a whole thing. But I didn't realize that that was going to happen when I was motivated to start. Oh, it's going to be cool to run a half marathon. But that motivation started to wane when it started getting colder and I had started getting up earlier, had started getting it done.
Speaker 2:The discipline came in and the unseen hours came in and I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half. People would ask me all the time well, how did you do it? Well, you know what did you do? Because they're looking for the magic pill. The magic pill that says I just took this pill, I just did this. Within weeks I was, you know, dropping weight and within two months I lost 100 pounds.
Speaker 2:That wasn't the story I was telling them. The story I was telling them is you may see me now 100 pounds lighter, but is what you don't see is the times that I was hungry and I had the discipline not to eat the junk food. So it was times I went out to eat and others around me ate higher calorie foods, higher fatty foods, and I chose the leaner options, the better options, when all the whole time I was looking over at their plate, thinking, man, I wish I could have that. It's those times I went to the gym, got my workout in. It's those times I went out and ran. It's those times that I put myself on a treadmill in front of a mirror, shirtless, to give myself motivation. Those are the times that I told them about.
Speaker 2:Those were the unseen hours that nobody ever saw. Nobody ever saw what was going on in my mind as I made those choices to eat better, to not make the bad choices, to go to the gym, to get the run in, to go in the 20 degree weather. They didn't see all that. All they saw was the end result. So as I started to unfold what I did in the unseen hours, they became less interested.
Speaker 2:Because in the unseen hours is a lot of times where the hard work happens. We might see a great marriage. I think, man, I'd love to have a marriage like that. That is man. They just don't on each other, they don't argue. But oftentimes what we might not see happen in the unseen hours the work when nobody was watching that they put into their relationship. They put into after being married for 10, 12, 15, 20 years. I still went out on dates. Within the first five years they had kids. They still put themselves first over the kids to make sure they're still dating each other, to make sure they're still loving each other, to make sure they're still doing those things for each other. In the unseen hours is when they had a big argument and they worked it out and they worked through it and they became clear in understanding each other from both sides, both point of views. They didn't see one putting the other person first. They didn't see one giving 90% when one could only give 10. And they didn't see the next time when that person gave 90, another one gave 10. They didn't see all that, they just saw the oh, that's a great marriage.
Speaker 2:The unseen hours is where the work's put in and oftentimes nobody will see that. Nobody will see the effort, the time, the energy, the discipline, because all of those things are discipline and it's hard. Discipline is hard. Motivation is easy. We can listen to some music, we can listen to a speaker, we can read a quote and be all pumped up. How long does that last? Ten minutes, an hour a day, if we're real lucky a week.
Speaker 2:What happens after that? What happens when we have to put in the work and nobody else is around, nobody's cheering us on. There's no pump-up music, there's none of that. It's just us dragging ourselves out of bed at 2.30 in the morning, at 5 o'clock in the morning, to go get the work done, to go put in a little time that, if we need to get an extra project done at work, to put us a little head, to get us that promotion we want, get us up a little bit early to pray for our marriage to spend time writing a note to our spouse, writing a note to a friend. We spend a little extra time. Man, that's a great friend.
Speaker 2:And see the stuff we did in the unseen hours Maybe getting things for our friend, just checking in on them, just giving them a phone call text hey, how you doing. You need anything. They don't even speak the need and we're there for them Filling that need that we know they need. That is the unseen hours. That is when you know what's character, character is what you do when nobody's watching. The results you want will often happen in the unseen hours when nobody's watching. There's nobody in the grandstands, there's nobody clapping and cheering you on. There's you in the dark, in 20 degree weather with all your cold gear on. Going, keep going, keep going. That goal is big and you are strong and you are disciplined, for these are the unseen hours that will reach your goal. We all have 24 hours in a day, but those that are successful take advantage of those unseen hours and create their own success. And as the time of my wife, ever night before I go to bed, it's Bob in the Night, aa out.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If you would like to connect with Aaron, you can do so by going to errandeglercom or find him on social media as errandegler on Instagram, facebook and YouTube. Once again, we greatly appreciate you tuning in. If you've enjoyed the show, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. We greatly appreciate that effort and we'll catch you in the next episode of the Mind Body Project podcast.