Greg :
You know, you really think about it so many times. The goals that we set for ourselves are goals that we believe society will look at and say, wow, Greg Tod's successful. Wow, Jenna's successful. Wow, Justin's successful. So I think we have to be really, really mindful of when we are creating our goals. Okay.
Greg :
I'm your host, Greg Tod. Thank you, as always, for being here and for giving me your attention. I greatly appreciate it, you guys. We're going into 2024, and I want to use today's podcast to talk about your resolutions, your goals, what you are aiming for as we go into 2024. That kind of rhymes, doesn't it? Okay, so I want to tell you, I look back at this time last year, I actually made a decision, the beginning of the year, January 1, 2023, to start 75 hard. People say, new year's resolutions, they don't work. Look, man, anything works if you want it to work. So on January 1, 2023, I said, I'm going to do day 175 hard.
Greg :
I failed. Yeah, I failed on day one, and then I started it again. January 2, day 1, January 2, 2023, was my next day. One of 75 hard. And for the next 75 days, I did it 75 days in a row. I did all the components of 75 hard. Now, I'm not going to go through all that on today's podcast, but here's my point. My point is that I used the beginning of the year to go after whatever goal it is that I set for myself.
Greg :
And 2023 was a crazy year, but it was a very successful year in Greg Tod's eyes. And that's really what I want to talk about today. You can decide any day whether it's today, whether it's tomorrow, whether it's a week from now, whether it's a year from now. You can decide any day that this is the day that I want to set my goals and I want to set my standards. And so I'm hoping that after this podcast, you decide that, you know what, today or tomorrow is the day. And what I want to do is I want to help you with going after your goals. And I'm not going to tell you, oh, you should go after this, or you should ten x this, or you should do this. You should do that.
Greg :
I'm going to take a little bit of a different angle with today's podcast. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to read a few excerpts out of a book that I've been reading, and it's called the Gap in. Okay. And it is the achievers high achievers guide to happiness, confidence and success. It's from Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan. So if you want the book, here you go. This is the book. Okay.
Greg :
So I'm going to read a few things in the book, and I think that this is extremely important to understand why so many of us don't make goals and why we are so fearful of creating new goals going into 2024. So let me read this and then we can chat about it. Is that cool? All right, so here we go. This chapter is titled be self determined. So it says, in any domain or situation, success is always measured against a particular reference point. Being fixated on outside reference points puts you in the gap. Being directed by your own internal reference points strengthens being in the gain. So the gap is where you always feel like you're not enough, that you're not doing enough.
Greg :
The gain is that you have achieved based on where you were at before. Basically, you should be in the gain and spend less of your time in the gap. All right, let's continue. Children are trained to measure themselves against external reference points. These reference points are not generally chosen by the child themselves, but by society and the education system. As these children grow up, they're not taught how to determine their own reference point or measure of success. Instead, they adopt the reference point that society deems as success. Money, fame, social media likes, et cetera.
Greg :
Because all of these reference points are external and become increasingly based on unreachable ideals, people's lives become the desperate and failing race to measure up to external and changing ideals. Hence the hedonic treadmill so many spend their lives on trying to measure up and be happy. Every one of us has reference points we use to measure ourselves. And now it gives us this exercise, and I think we should do this together. It says, pull out your journal and answer these questions. What are the reference points you measure yourself against? Why did you choose those particular reference points, and how do you define and measure success for yourself? When I think about it, think about going back to middle school or even elementary school. We would do these standardized tests, and these standardized tests that we do every single year would put us in a percentile. Like, how did it decide what percentile it was always comparing us against other children, right? Whatever it is that we do, whether it's likes on social media, it's comments, it's shares, we're always comparing ourselves to someone else.
Greg :
So unfortunately, success and goals are always based on what society wants for us. Like most people, when you ask them about, hey, where do you want your business to be? Oh, man, I want my business to do seven figures. Why seven figures? Because seven figures is successful. Okay, well, who said that was successful? Seven figures of profit? Seven figures of revenue? No, just seven figures. Why? Because you can say you can do seven figures, you really think about it so many times. The goals that we set for ourselves are goals that we believe society will look at and say, wow, Greg Tod's successful. Wow, Jenna's successful. Wow, Justin's successful.
Greg :
So I think we have to be really mindful of when we are creating our goals. Okay, now with that said, the next chapter talks about being self determined. So I want to throw a few things at you, and then let's kind of chat about the goals for this year. According to self determination theory, a crucial aspect of motivation and thriving is autonomy. The more independence and ownership you take for yourself, your circumstances, and your life, the more selfdetermined you will be. Being self determined means that you've made yourself the reference point rather than measuring yourself against something external. Being selfdetermined means you're intrinsically not extrinsically motivated. This doesn't mean you don't use externals as measurables, but you yourself choose those goals for yourself.
Greg :
Being self determined means that you've decided what success means to you. You don't need anyone else's permission for what you want for yourself. You don't need to apologize for what you want. It means you're clear on why you want what you want. It means you're no longer competing with anyone else. Being in the game leads to self determination. So let's talk about your goals. What is it that you want and why do you want it? I can tell you guys, for 2024, I know what I want.
Greg :
For 2024, I want to help a lot of people. I do. But you know what else I want? I want to be able to have profitable businesses. I want to have businesses to where they are making more money than I'm spending on the business, so that I can use the money to be able to grow the business, and I can use the money to be able to buy back my time. I also realize that I want to have businesses to where the businesses are not controlling me and that at any point, I can fire my customers if I so choose. I want to have freedom. That's what I want. I want to have freedom.
Greg :
I want to be in a position at any time that if I want to change and restructure parts of the business so that I can serve the clients that I serve better and I can also serve myself and the people that are closest to me better as well. That I can do that at any time. I don't necessarily want to put a number on it. I don't know how many clients I'm going to try to go after this year, but I just know that I want the right people, want the right people that are going to come into my world. I want people that are going to be willing to change and adapt. I don't want tire kickers, I don't want people that are just playing games. I want people that are desperate, they're desperate for change and they're willing to do whatever it takes to change. That's what I want.
Greg :
And it's not comparing me to any other business. This is what I want and every single thing that I do and the type of work that I do and the way that I present myself, I want to be able to attract those people now. That's what I want. As for my client base and that's something that I know that I can achieve, whether that's one client or that's 1000 clients. I also know that I want to be able to serve anyone that is wanting help. And they might be a tie kicker this that, but I want to be able to serve them with content and with things that can help better their lives. Right. And I want to be able to do that in 2024, like, for sure, I want that.
Greg :
Right. And so I just think it's so important that we create goals that we have full control over and that we look at where we started the year versus where we are. Five days, ten days, 1535 days, 45 days. And we can look at, well, from where we started to where we're at now, are we moving towards those goals? Not, oh my gosh, I said I was going to have 65 new clients in January, but I only got 50. And I'm going to be upset with myself and say I'm a loser, that I fell 15 short of the goal. No, I started the year with 50 less and now I'm at 50, like I'm doing the thing. And so this is not to bring down our standards, this is just for us to understand that we can use the goals to help us create a trajectory of where we want to go. But what we have to be careful of is not using the goals to say this is the standard and anything less than that standard, I need to have shame for like no, we're not going to do that.
Greg :
And so that's how I'm trying to attack my goals as I go into the year. For me, it's all about giving full effort, having full intention, executing at the best that I possibly can, being able to pivot and adapt given situations, to be able to live life. And while I'm working, I'm working smart, I'm working diligent, I'm working hard, but I'm also enjoying other aspects of my life. And so that's how I'm looking at. I want to have self determining goals. I don't want to have external goals based on society, and I'm highly advising you to do the same. So as we go into 2024, I just want to wish you a happy new year. And I hope this year brings you things that give you internal satisfaction.
Greg :
And I hope you create self determining goals instead of extrinsic goals. And if you need help with creating goals for yourself, then here's what I want you to do. Somewhere around this video, I'm sure there's going to be some type of link for you to talk to my team or myself on how we can help you with getting to your goals. All right, much love, guys. Till next time.
