Do you wish you could have more self-discipline? Here’s how you can, and have everything you ever dreamed of.
Episode Transcription
Den Lennie (2s):
G’day guys! Den here, I hope you had a nice Christmas. I know I said I wasn’t going to do a Shorty in between Christmas, New Year. But I realized if I didn’t do one, It would be the only one I really missed this year. And it didn’t want to build the bad habit. So Milca my assistant was like, Hey, you still got a shorty to do so we managed to push another one out just before we crack off the end of this year. So, I was reflecting on what I wanted to share and this kind of mid period between Christmas and new year at a time when we usually go in too much and I are going to be enjoyed too many wines.
Den Lennie (45s):
But I see what I think is really good about taking time off at Christmas new year. Is there an opportunity to reflect on your, your year and your life in your business and where you are at and are you where you want to be? And, you know, I would say that the, the biggest impact that I’ve seen on any one technique and my business has been discipline. And I think as creatives lacking discipline can be our downfall. And if you’ve known me for a few days at the time, or are you listen to this for a while, you know, a big fan of Jocko Willink, extreme ownership was a book that really changed my approach in 2016 to how I do everything.
Den Lennie (1m 29s):
And for those of you who don’t know Jocko, he’s a retired as a United States Navy seal who received a silver star and Bronstein for his actions. And at the Iraq war, he was a commander of a seal team, threes task unit bruiser during the 2006 battle of Ramadi, they were willing to retired tired of the Navy and in 2010 and from the company, as well as actual on the front, which offers practical experience-based solutions to complex problems based on their own lessons, learned it through and married a really out of the climate leadership challenges. And I had the opportunity to, to meet Jack or, and listen to him to speak in 2016 and Queenstown in New Zealand. And it was really inspired how terrifying he has as a human being, but actually it, how so many of his lessons are based on life and death situations.
Den Lennie (2m 16s):
And, and the truth is, you know, in Video businesses, we, we don’t really face life and death situation to be just make videos, you know, and if you haven’t done, I recommend you this news Podcast. And if not certainly reading this book, and, but if you ever, if you were reflecting on this year and you’re asking yourself, you know, it just didn’t get as much done this year. And because of COVID it because of the site in the next thing, or if you ever find yourself saying, I don’t have enough time, then you know, that shouldn’t be the case this year. But, but if you ever find yourself in a position where you don’t feel you’ve got enough time, then one of the easiest things to do is to get up earlier. That sounds so simple. And here’s what Jocko has to say about getting up early.
Den Lennie (2m 57s):
He says, the moment the alarm goes off as first test, it sets the tone for the rest of the day. Now the test is not a complex one. When the alarm goes off, do you get up and out of bed or do you lie there and comfort and fall back to sleep. If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you, when you pass the test, if you’re a mentally weak for that moment and you let that weakness keep in your bed or keep you in your bed, you fail. And though it seems small that weakness translates into a more significant decisions. But if you exercise discipline that to translate to more substantial elements of your life working, apparently it was the first example I noticed in the seal teams in which discipline was really the difference between being good and being exceptional.
Den Lennie (3m 49s):
He says his discipline is paramount to ultimate success and a victory for any leader and any team. He observed that the way a top tier of seals were always awake before everyone else, and that they never broke this habit, even when they decided to not fuck it. I’m not back. If you drink the night before, he used to use the extra time to work on their gear, two study tactics, which paid off in combat. Now the level of discipline that jock who teaches is still relevant to him today. And it’s what he passes on to the corporations. He walked me through each line front. Then he says, the temptation is to take the easy or hard is always there. It is an easy to stay in band in the morning and sleep in, or will it grow well in the comments, but discipline is paramount to ultimate success and the victory for any leader or in any team.
Den Lennie (4m 39s):
So as you reflect on 2020, you know, I, I think it was everything you’d hope for. And where are you able to turn the negatives into a positive or, or, or do you find yourself feeling sorry for yourself that there was some hire an external force? So it was preventing you from achieving everything you wanted. You know, we can all employ more discipline me and me, especially, and I still bleed. I was still a human. I’m still a vulnerable just like you, but I am focused on building a more disciplined in my life and especially at work. And that enabled me to scale it up and maintain a healthy work and non-work balance.
Den Lennie (5m 21s):
And, and you know what, this is a choice because I love what I do. I love helping filmmakers succeed. I love walking with my, the clients and the VBA, and they’re phenomenal people. There are people that I would have over for a barbecue. You know, I, I love sharing the journey. I love helping them as supporting them to do better, but I also understand the importance of investing in other areas of my life. You know, so I took up yoga this year and I’ve been to 22 yoga sessions if I didn’t miss a beat for For for however many weeks. So it was, I went to three times a week and I have to just 20 sessions. I was doing a, which blew my mind on getting out of my mountain bike at least once a week.
Den Lennie (6m 2s):
And I’m, I’m trying to work for hours a day now, as we are still growing the business, that is not quite working out of her as a hooker But, but I’m probably doing six hours a day and we’re building a host by the beach. How do we move into that next year? And I want to enjoy my life. I’m 15 next year. I want to really, you know, appreciate what I’ve got. And so I guess what I want to share with you is that I’m the opportunities are there for taking it. You can design the life you want. It’s entirely within your hands. It’s nobody else’s fault. It’s nobody else’s problem.
Den Lennie (6m 44s):
Like either you are someone who is really focused on what is you want and that you are, and how are you going to get it? Or you’re someone who has just kind of stuff Funches around and hopes for the best. And now, you know, a few of those jobs will come in and I mean, that’s okay, but, but, but if you want to grow and scale your business and not be at the mercy of someone else, you’ve got to take control of your discipline. And this is a great book written in 1927 by a guy called Napoleon Hill. It was called think and grow rich. And he was a great depression era author and former advisor to president Franklin D Roosevelt.
Den Lennie (7m 25s):
And he interviewed more than 500 of the most successful men in his country. And there are known to figure out the key to the good fortune. He wrote a 200 page book called think and grow rich, which has one of the old time bests business books ever written. But despite him interviewing some of the most iconic businessmen of this day, none of his findings involved and in particularly hard to attain skills, his entire premise is helping people overcome the psychological barriers that keep them from wealth. He says, all the brakes he needs in the life wait with in your imagination. Imagination is as there is a workshop of your mind, capable of turning energy into an accomplishment and wealth.
Den Lennie (8m 9s):
And he also goes on to say, wishing will not bring riches. You can’t think yourself into success, but desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches and backing those plans with persistence, which does not recognize failure, they will bring riches. So I want to have you leave that in your mind. And there’s one passage where he sums up six steps to turning a desire for wealth into its financial equivalent. I want to leave here with us. So first fix new your mind at the exact amount of money that you desire.
Den Lennie (8m 49s):
It is not sufficient merely to say, I want plenty of money, but be definite as to the amount that is a psychological reason for the definiteness, which will be described in subsequent chapters of the big thinking grow rich, second determined exactly what you intend to give in return for their money. You desire that far is that there is no such thing in reality is something for nothing. So what value have you had to give and return third, establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire. So put a deadline on when you want that to happen. Fourth, create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you’re ready or not to put this plan into action, fifth, write out a clear, concise statements of the amount of money you intend to acquire name the table in it for its acquisition state, what you intend to give in return for the money and describe clearly the product plan through which you intend to accumulate it.
Den Lennie (9m 50s):
And six read your written statement aloud twice daily, once just before retiring at night. And once after a rising in the morning, as you read, see, and feel and believe yourself already in possession of the money. So what are you saying here is the mind is what’s holding you back from achieving everything you want. And, and often times people are scared to write down what they want to achieve financially when they want to achieve it by it and how they’re going to achieve it. So as you spend time with your family’s and, and, and, and off, away from the office over Christmas, New Year, think about that. Think about how are you going to achieve everything you’ve ever wanted next year.
Den Lennie (10m 32s):
I’ll talk to you soon. Guys. You’ve been listening to the How to Scale a Video business podcast with each of your hosts, Den Lennie. If you are a video of a business owner hits a ceiling would benefit from mentorship, support and coaching and check out how you can work with me over at denlennie.com. Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the short over on iTunes. I mean, we really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave a review, and don’t forget to share if you feel you’ve gotten value from this episode that you think it would be useful for other filmmakers, you know, and please do me a massive favor and share it on social media and in groups that you might be in. So thanks for listening. See you in the next episode.
