If you want a rich life, watch this before 2026

0:00 That is un Friggin' believable. That made me cry. This is Jesse Itler and he's got the craziest resume you've ever seen. He sold a private jet company to Warren Buffett, he helped build Zico Coconut Water, and he's the only guy who can say that 50 Cent was his intern. But I don't admire Jesse just because he's rich financially. I admire him because he leads such a rich life. He runs these crazy endurance races, he goes on adventures with his friends, and I've always wondered, how does one guy do so much?

0:28 As Jesse says, we don't lack time, we lack a system. So that's why I'm here, at his house today, to learn the exact system that he uses to plan his year. I feel like I could rule the world, I know I could be what I want to. I'm putting my law in it like my day song. Okay, but look. Jesse. Teach me how to play on my game. Listen, this is so exciting, man. Thanks for being here. Yeah, I mean, first of all, before we even get started, I think it's just really important to talk about why we're here. I don't take years lightly.

0:58 You know, we don't get a lot of them. And we're all so busy. And I feel like in general most people plan their life around work. And I think it's really important to plan

1:08 work around your life. In other words. We tend to play life on defense, like our calendars fill up with other people's requests for time, Zoom calls and meetings and weddings and appointments and kids stuff like before you know it, like what do we have to show for a whole year? So we're sitting right now in December. And

1:25 Do you feel like you had a great twenty twenty five. Like what were some of your Highlights of twenty twenty five. Uh so we had a few events that I thought were pretty awesome. So we d we you went to one of them. Uh in January we planned a big event and we we did it. It's called Hoop Group. So that's kinda one of my favorite parts of the year.

1:42 I feel like Because of our conversation last year. I picked. The Masogee, which we'll talk about, but like the sort of grand challenge for the year. And I did it. And I'm like really proud of myself for doing that. And I kinda know that I really would have

1:56 I wouldn't have done it this year. It would have been on my Sunday list. Right. And and then there's other things that were I kinda procrastinated or like, you know, I couldn't tell you I what happened in April? I have no idea. You know, like there were some months that just flew by. 'Cause I wasn't very intentional. So let's say I did like

2:13 Some of the things that I feel really proud of, like I started coaching, I told you, I started coaching a high school basketball team. We you know launched a new project for for our work and we really like poured ourselves into that. So there's a few things that I was pretty intentional about. But I would say

2:27 There were many months that flew by and Which is fine. Yeah, and I but I wanna be better at it. Like it showed me that You know, this is super important. Like You know, I've always thought of myself as the CEO of my company. But not the CEO of my life. Got it. Well, the way this came about, just to give a little bit of background.

2:45 is uh my life got very busy. You know, I have multiple businesses, I have four children, I'm married. I had elderly parents I was taking care of. I have friends that I want to see. I have races that I want to do. Like there was just so much that I wanted to do. I didn't have a system for it. So I would have all these ideas and I would leave like the end of the year I'd be like, Oh, I didn't do this, I feel you know, unaccomplished and like all left all the stuff on the table, and I just kept getting older and older.

3:10 And as more and more stuff came on my plate, I needed a system. I was never taught a system. No one ever said, Hey, this is how you map out your year, you know, they just kept Throwing more stuff in me. So Оверкорс о лас прав твоі є. An evolution happened. I started to figure out what why did why was this year better than

3:28 Last year and this and that. And I I have this system that I've been using and it and Just in it's not based on theory. I didn't Google it. I didn't like It's based on trial and error. Right. And I'll share it with you and I'll put I'll walk you through it. And if

3:42 You know, we'll we'll help map out your year. And if anyone here is listening, if there's a couple of here things here that have you Yeah, help you have a little bit more efficiency next year. Or Get you excited to do something that maybe you wouldn't have done. then the next twenty minutes or whatever are gonna be very well worth your time.

3:58 So um So for starters, before you even start anything, you know, here we are in at the end of the year, we're coming into a new year. The first thing that I like to do is I get as I go into the new year I and I I I call it getting light. I want it. Come into twenty twenty six.

4:14 Fired up, hitting the ground, not playing catch up like oh I have to do all these emails, I didn't clean my clock. I wanna be ready to go. No baggage. No baggage. light. And I a literally I wanna feel light. I even like the term getting light. Right. So getting light means closing out the year the you know the the proper way. So the We have a little jar here, just step one, getting light. You can see that it's empty because there's gonna be nothing in your jar.

4:39 When you're done. So Getting light starts for me at home. So the first thing that that uh getting light means getting rid of all the apps on your phone That you don't use. Getting rid of canceling all the subscriptions that you don't

4:52 Use that you're paying, you know Stuff. Go into your closet. and donating all the clothing that you don't wear. Now that might sound insignificant, it's very significant. It's a sign that like of newness. It's a sign of like I'm coming into the year.

5:06 Getting rid of stuff that I don't need anymore. It's your desk coming in and not having clutter everywhere. It's your filing cab it's your car. Is your car messy? Do you have your insurance in your car? Is there like Getting everything tight. That whole process to me could take like an hour. Right.

5:21 It's not like I'm talking about like oh I need a week it's like Your emails. I get my emails to zero. Delete, save, respond. Like right now.

5:32 Forget email. That's how many text messages unread text messages do I have. I don't even know how many hundred and fifteen. Eight hundred and fifteen. So I'm coming into the new year. With eight hundred and fifteen Obligations. Yeah. Eight hundred and fifteen guilt trips that I you know, m mistakes that I've made, basically, if I don't clear that out. So you you told me before this, you said, Hey, step one is get light. I can't do that here because I'm at your house. And so I did it and I uh couple of things that I learned right away.

6:00 First of all Just doing the simplest action gave me momentum. 'Cause I felt big and heavy. It's like, oh God, I gotta know what I want in life and it's like, dude, I haven't known that for thirty seven years. Am I su Am I sure today's the day I could do this? Versus What I did was I went to my car And like you know the cup holder area. Like I got little I got little kids.

6:19 So that is like Nom. I don't know, there's a whole history of like life in that little cup holder. So I just cleaned out the cup holder. The simplest possible action and right away I was like Felt a little lighter, right? Like one layer off my back. And then I did it to my desk. I did it to my subscriptions. I canceled thirteen hundred dollars of monthly subscriptions of just random

6:40 Apps and software that we've been Signed up for. So I already started to get light and feel pretty amazing. I cleaned up my home gym. Yeah. Which was like I didn't have to. You know, nobody else supports out there, but I do. And like those are Places I go every day, my car, my gym. My desk.

6:55 I think it's highly significant. It's No you're describing momentum. And momentum is not to be underestimated. You know, if you start the first week you come back from the holidays and like everything's a mess and like you gotta play catch up. You're going through eight hundred and fifteen texts. Is that a good way to start the year?

7:13 Would you rather like do all that now in this little cleanup period that we're in now, you know, get it all done, and then come in like ready to, I'm in attack mode. You know, I don't want to feel like I have a a knapsack away on me. I wanna come in attack mode. So If you're listening to this. I highly encourage you to spend a little bit of time.

7:31 And get organized, get light, get rid of things and I would think about also Part of that just mentally like sub subtraction like What's heavy in your life? You know what I mean? Like what relationships are heavy.

7:45 You know, what obligations and commitments can you cut down just to get a little bit more Lighter. And um doesn't mean you have to make changes immediately, but I would I would put a little bit of thought in Into that. Let's take a quick break. We're covering a lot of information in this episode.

8:00 So the team at HubSpot did something really cool. They took my notes from talking with Jesse and they turned it into a guide on how to plan a massive 2026 in less than 60 minutes. If you want those notes, you can get them right now in the link in the description. Now back to the episode. That's the first step. You know, like I said, I go through I go through everything from my closet to my emails to my subscriptions to my car to my start. What's your closet I start in the closet and by the way, if you went up to my closet right now, maybe you guys can film it on the way out.

8:31 I have seven bags. Seven bags of donate. I have a very simple rule. If there's a jump ball fifty fifty, like should I keep this or not? Then I just say someone needs it more than me. And it's easy to part. 'Cause sometimes it's hard to part with stuff. Maybe it's sentimental.

8:45 Or I'll take a picture of it. If I don't wear it, I'll just keep it. Um, or I'll throw it in a box. It's like a sentimental box. But I don't want A zillion things hanging in my closet I never wear. Right. Uh how about this? When I walked in my closet this morning

8:58 And I had all these little hangers with nothing on it and I like Seven things to grab. I felt good. I'm not kidding. I felt good. Like I didn't feel like I was wasting clothing or space or time. I know. Sounds ridiculous. Like how does this fit into planning your year or whatever? It all fits into

9:16 How you feel. Right. You know? Yeah. Psychical it's a psychological momentum win. To start. So I love that. So that's which one? That's Jar number one. Jar number one. Step one, get light. All right, there we go.

9:28 What's uh what's number two? Closing out your year. So every good business and so after you get light, you know Uh, what is every good business? Do at the end of the year. Close the books. They think about what worked, what didn't work, et cetera.

9:42 So I like to close out my ear. So that process for me is pretty simple. The first thing that I do is I take inventory on me. So Um If you planned the best year in the world and you had the most

9:54 Unbelievable things happen. But you had several things in your life that were broken. Maybe it was your marriage or your relationship, maybe it's your finance, your health. I don't know. Even if you had this windfall of money or whatever. If a couple of the key pillars are operating at a five out of ten and a one to ten.

10:11 It's like a multiplier, you know, like it's not gonna multiply the way that it should. It's just So one what I like to do is I d I like to identify like Where are my weaknesses? Okay what are the things I have to fix Next year. So what I do is This is a life audit part. Like it's it's it's a person like a business audit. This is my little life audit.

10:31 And this is what I think to be honest with yourself without beating yourself up too much. Like what's the psychology around this, right? Because I wanna be You know, like I'll I'll tell you one right now, right? So like I w I'm actually gonna do this, but this is not like theory. So I think we should actually fill this out for me at least. So this is fitness. Let me put you through it. So I want you to just imagine you had a blender. So anyone here could do this. Imagine you had a blender. You're making a smoothie. Yeah. We're making a Sean smoothie. I want you to

10:53 All the different categories in your life. And and don't rate them, but just in general, think about what you have. So you have finances, that's a big part. It goes in your blender. Фіц, юнаць госінь на blender, friendships. Um marriage. family, et cetera. Where you live, where you work, put everything in the blender.

11:14 And then shake it all up. And now on a one to ten. With ten being The best score and one being rock bottom. Rock bottom. And you put all these in together, what do you think your overall

11:26 Happiness number is. 'Cause at the end of the day, we wanna feel good. What What would be your number? And you can be honest with me. Yeah. I think it's a eight. Okay, so the next. Yeah. So what I love about this exercise is

11:38 You put all this thing in, your brain immediately goes to a ten. And it's the two or three things that That bring it down. So what are the what are the two or three things if you don't mind sharing? The fitness one. So I had a goal with my fitness. Which was

11:53 This is it. This is gonna be the year. I'm gonna get the best shape of my life. And I was like, I'm gonna build these healthy habits to where by default I gotta. Be in the best shape of my life. That was the goal. And if I'm honest with myself, I made Some progress. But not

12:06 At the proportion of how important it is to me. It wasn't some important. It was really important, but I only got some progress, not a lot of progress. And so that was the one where. That was like go from a ten to a nine right away. Because I didn't get as far along there, not as proud of myself as I would be. Uh if I had done this

12:25 The way I Intended to. Uh, the other one is in in the work category. So I had a great year financially. But uh my goal this year was to actually find another project to pour my creative energy into. So the podcast has been this amazing thing over the last five years. But I kinda wanted to figure out my next five years what that would be.

12:44 And I wandered around for a little bit trying to is it this, is it that And I ultimately landed on this book project and I started on it, but like I didn't get

12:54 As far as I thought I would, and I if I'm honest. even now I wonder a little bit of like is that it is that the right Am I making the right decision? So there's some uncertainty there of like Am I gonna use my talents the way that I want to use them? Am I gonna put channel them towards something that's cool and interesting and matters to me that I'll be proud of you know years from now as it as it develops. So a couple of quick thoughts.

13:17 So for starters. An eighty, you know, an eight is an eighty. Eighth Mike. kid comes home with an eighty on a test, that's a B minus. Yeah. So

13:25 Good, but not you don't want to go through life as a B minus. Two You identify two things that you probably want to put more energy to in twenty twenty six. So like Most people are probably gonna have two or three things and it's gonna be usually finance or relationship or health or whatever, the main the main buckets.

13:42 Those are the things you want to put a little bit more energy into. And as themes And you're gonna wanna pick one or two 'Cause No one wants to work on their weaknesses. You know, like if you're having a bad marriage, it's not like that's hard to like

13:55 Uh the energy to repair that and this and that. But Y you know, that's something you have to put energy in. We gravitate towards what's easy and we're good at it. We get immediate feedback and momentum from it, right? Right. So part of closing out the year is just doing a little bit of self reflection. I mean, this is a a deep dive and like a little bit personal. But identifying like what are the things I got to work on going forward and what am I gonna put a little energy in. So for you, fitness.

14:19 Coming up with some newness and work, etcetera. could be something could be something that you want to focus on. We'll get to it in a minute. in twenty twenty six. So I do a little review of what worked, what didn't work. If I I have a calendar, obviously I have my big ass calendar. What I like to do is I like to go through my phone.

14:35 And I'll write down all the highlights. My calendar's my highlight wheel. Right. I like to write down all the highlights. Maybe it's my kids football game or maybe it was a concert I went to. And just make sure that I have a full recap. of the year. So I can look at it on one piece of P It's the best exercise. I can look at it on one piece of paper, see where my gaps were.

14:56 See what I accomplished'cause a lot of people forget, Oh my God, I forgot that we went I took this weekend trip or I went to this Yeah, I can't tell what I did in the watch. So so do a thorough review On one big piece of paper. Go back to your phone and then by the way. Now you have a great time capsule too of twenty twenty five. So I do a little personal audit.

15:16 I go through my entire year. Again, it takes like Twenty minutes. So like I have one from this like in November. It was uh My first Basketball practice as a coach. I had one weekend where we just went on like AI and made songs. So it was like we just basically became musicians for a weekend and we and we had a demo like on Monday where we all played our tracks for each other.

15:36 And so I put that in there. Uh, then I was like two like books that I read are an interesting thing that I read. And a a conversation I had with my buddy Trevor. um about fe about fear and the stuff he's learned in his research. And so I just try to like write those now.

15:50 So that I kinda have it. I have it, you know, more at my fingertips. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. And then um one thing that I love to do is I write handwritten letters.

16:00 I love to spend a little bit of time and write thank you letters to people that like you know what, there's eight billion people in the world. You chose me to be on your podcast. Th there's eight billion people Thank you so much for the opportunity to address your audience. Right. I love sending those out. So you you uh so I I I brought some'cause I want to actually do it this year, so when I uh I'll even do you know, a couple of them today, but but I'll do do some more uh

16:25 After we wrap up. But the thing that I was gonna ask you is like how do you Like when I sat down to do this, I was like Do I start with this? And what am I say so are you using the review to basically be like, Oh

16:37 My friend who helped teach my son how to drive, you know. Is it is that kinda how y it's all feeding one into the next? My kids' football coaches Um people that had tutors. Anyone that had an impact on me podcast that I was on

16:52 Friends that I did races with. Some it could be someone from afar, like Sean, you don't even realize this, but your podcast had a big impact on me. I'm a fan. I'm just This this this checks several boxes for me.

17:05 Selfishly, it's a great networking tool because everybody reads their mail. Not everybody reads their email or their text. But Everybody reads their mail and there's a different energy that goes into a handwritten letter. Writing it, getting a stamp, licking it, taking it to the mailbox. Someone receives that differently than da da da da send. Right. So there's a different energy. And you're not outsourcing this, you're not giving this to an assistant somewhere.

17:26 No, so part of it's selfish, I'm planting seeds as a networking tool and as just a thank you note, like You know, we built a relationship and this is Part of that process. Two, like the recipient feels great about it. Like, oh my God, this guy's

17:40 took enough time to handwrite me a letter. Like it that that makes them feel good. I've been doing this since I'm twenty one years old. I even this year I'll write twenty five letters. You know, I'll write it to the some of my partners at the Atlanta Hawks. Hey guys, great year.

17:54 Thank you guys. You know. People that have stepped in for me. Someone offered to do a speech when I was sick for me, like Just unbelievable gestures. I recognize them. I recognize I'm a goal oriented monkey. What's a number I should shoot for? Even 10 is amazing. 10 to 25.

18:09 You can do'em on the plane, you can do'em while you're watching a football game. Probably takes about three minutes per Oh that's perfect. I'll do this on my flight back. Yeah. I can either watch a shitty airplane movie Or I can just like kinda flood myself with you know being grateful and and and spreading some good karma out to the world. There's no rule to it, but I think getting twenty five out look. You do it for ten years, you send two hundred and fifty thank you notes, handwritten letters to people like How many are you doing? How many have you gotten?

18:35 How many handwritten letters did you get last year thanking you? I remember I got one from Joe. There you go. Yeah. That's it. I didn't write you one yet for Okay, it's coming.

18:44 Well I have a separate list for people that don't write me three. This is what I'm saying. Like it the the you know, like You don't have to be a genius or a bazillionaire to write a handwritten letter. And and and That's an inks in your brain to probably never forget it. You know, so ink stain in the brain, I like that. Yeah.

19:03 So that that's another strategy of closing out the year, part of my process. So I I already have one. I have one for Hailey. Haley, uh shout out to Hailey. Hailey is what I call uh my food girlfriend. She's my nutritionist who will call me she calls me every morning. Eight AM. And she says, you know. What's the plan for today? How'd you do yesterday? And we she's like a food therapist, basically, talking through more of the psychology versus a meal plan.

19:26 And um you know the thank you to I already know for her is like, thank you for sticking with me. Like I know I pay you for this, but like Sometimes I flake out on the calls for two days in a row. I go dark for three days. Sometimes I say I'm gonna do something that I don't. But I feel like she always shows up with like full faith, not just like doing an obligation. And I really like I appreciate that. You know, like it takes a lot like She's she believes in me. And I think that's one of the best gifts you can give someone. She gave me that. So I'll I'll use that as my hailey note.

19:52 You know, step one. I'm gonna I'm trying to get light coming into the year with energy. Step two, I'm closing out the air. And by the way, you can use Your own strategy. If you don't want to write a handwritten letter, I'm just telling you what I do. Right. I wanna get light. Whatever the

20:06 That looks like for you. I wanna close out my year. This is how I do it, but however you want to do it. Again, summarizing your year. Closing the book on it, memorializing it, reviewing it like you would as you as CEO of your business. Really important and super fun.

20:22 That might be like, oh my God, I didn't do shit this year. Well okay, good. We got a whole new to attack you know, so It's just an honest assessment and identifying with the blender. What it is I really need to spend a little bit of time on. That doesn't mean that's my goal for next year. That does it's just like

20:38 Being aware of the pain points. Right. Because you're not gonna be uh nine point nine. If you have three pain points that are gonna suck you down, no matter how much energy you put into the air, you gotta fix the pain points. So this is cool because it's m kinda like a measure twice, cut once type of deal. Where

20:55 We haven't even got to The thing I'm gonna do next year, right? Like I think that's how I would typically have done this was resolutions. Yeah. The end of the year.

21:04 What's resolution? Uh this and it's a It's a sho do. It's not I'm gonna do. I don't put a date on it. I don't really use the momentum. From getting light and reviewing my year and and taking account of what's going on to make that plan, I just kinda jump into it. So I like this. Can I just jump in for one second?

21:22 I think that anybody Can have a good year. Like things are gonna happen. I'm gonna get an invitation to something. There's gonna be a highlight. Like to have an okay year. You can do it.

21:33 Who the fuck wants to have an okay year? You don't get a lot of years. Right. You're hoping for a great year. I can have a good year. May s a couple of people invite me on a great trip. I get someone says, Oh, we go to the Super Bowl, that's amazing. Or I can sit down and say

21:50 What's gonna light me up? Да амсойдеба тиші да лайк А Вейка. And I have no pressure. I know. That if I execute this and it

22:01 This isn't saying I'm not working. This is not I'm just planning me. Before my work, work's always gonna be there. I'm gonna have a I'm gonna work a lot more hours than I'm gonna do this.

22:13 But that's different. I'm talking about the stuff that like At the end of the day. Your six year old kid, you're young you know, your kids are gonna like you you you're gonna have a photo book like that. There's no Zoom call in my book.

22:26 There's no picture of me on Zoom on in that book. That's stuff that I did that like immediately made me smile. That's what this is. I'm gonna show you how to do it right now. Our goal. is to get you excited about this, right? It's not the plan

22:40 a perfect year or whatever, it's to make sure that twenty twenty six doesn't fall through your fingertips. Right, and we have a lot to show for it. So At the end and this is exciting to me. There's a lot of days in here. To you don't have to do do everything every day. We got a lot of time.

22:56 to accomplish the things that you want to accomplish, right? It's a big long runway that we have. So I do three things every year as the backbone of my planning and this is where I start. Now again the key is to plan my life.

23:10 First, so my work comes around it. Not What most people do, which is their work fills up and then whatever gaps they try to fill in We flip that script upside down, we're gonna play aggressive. We're gonna plan aggressive.

23:23 We're gonna think about the things that we love to do that we wanna put our energy into. We only have a limited amount of energy. We want to put our energy into the things that excite us or move the needle. In the buckets that matter. So To ensure that for me, I do three very simple things. Two of them are planning and one of them is more habit.

23:41 You talked about resolutions, but I I like something that I do better than resolutions. So there's an old Japanese ritual called the Masogi, you know the term. And the notion around a Masogee is you do one big year defining thing every year. This is really important. At the end of the year you want to have something

24:01 To show for it. Last year for you, it might have been like, Man, I launched this insane three day basketball camp with billionaires. I launched that in twenty twenty five. Maybe it was I you know, wrote I'm watching a book c whatever it is. You want to have a podcast whatever. one big, really big year defining thing that you have.

24:22 To the point that if I were to say to you right now What'd you do in twenty tw if you ask me. What'd you do in twenty twenty fifteen? I wrote Living with the CL. Twenty seventeen, I launched twenty nine or twenty nine, a business that I had. Twenty twenty one I did a race called Ultraman. Twenty twenty three I rode my bike across America. Twenty twenty four I did rim to rim to rim. Twenty twenty five I Every year you should be able to

24:42 You know, and if you can do that. How old are you? I'm thirty seven. So if you can do that from f if you started now. And you had one big year defining goal and you live to be eighty seven. You'd have

24:54 Fifty. Monumental things that you've accomplished in your life. That's a heck of a ride. Heck of a ride. The first thing I encourage people to do is think about

25:04 In twenty twenty six at the in at the end of the year in December, by the way If you didn't even do anything else. But you just did this. You're gonna What's the what's the one thing you want to look back on and be like

25:19 You know. I did this this year. And you might not know what that is now. But when it is. Put that down on the damn calendar.

25:28 ASAP. Because that is it's a it's a really important and I don't think it should be something like It's gotta be hard and big. Truly year defining. Not like oh I took a trip to Italy. That's a trip to Italy. Today's episode is brought to you by HubSpot. Did you know that most businesses only use 20% of their data? That's like reading a book but then tearing out four fifths of the pages.

25:48 Point is you miss a lot. And unless you're using HubSpot, the customer platform that gives you access to the data you need to grow your business, the insights that are trapped in emails, call logs, transcripts, all that unstructured data makes all the difference because when you know more, you grow more. And so if you want to read the whole book instead of just reading part of it, visit hubspot.com. So we put down the big masogee, that's one step. The second thing that I do is Every other month. I put something on my calendar that I normally wouldn't have done. I named this Kevin Kevin's rule after my friend Kevin.

26:20 Kinda taught me about this. But every other month I do something I w so I instead of watching the Georgia football game, I might take my kids Fishing. We might go to a concert. I might go visit my I have a little mini adventure. Because it's the same multiplier. If every other month

26:35 You just one thing you normally wouldn't have done. This is critical, mission critical. If you can't do that, you're really out of balance. Like you can't take one day out of every six weeks. To do something for yourself, like what are we doing? So if you do plan like six little mini adventures, whatever they are, you put'em on on your calendar and You know, I could show you mine in a second.

26:56 Well same thing. If you're thirty seven And you live to be Eighty seven. See that. Fifty, I just learned how to play the piano moments. You're defining things.

27:05 But now you'd have Three hundred Mini adventures on top like just think about that, man. 50 year defining things and 300 mini adventures you went to have had. That is

27:18 Who's doing that? You know and I'm not talking, Oh, I need a lot of money, I don't own my own it's easy for you to say no. Anybody can go to the polar plunge that's free. Anybody can go to

27:30 Mount Washington that costs eighteen dollars to park and hike. Anybody can do a central park run, you know, enjoy the New York Roadrunners Club or You know, there's just so much that this country offers. If you prioritize it. So the way you prioritize piano.

27:45 So I do those two things. So that already is You know, filling up my calendar with some adventure. And then I do what you do. I think about what are the other big things, what are the other rocks that are important to me. Maybe they're my kids' football games or maybe they're

27:59 a college visit or I'm gonna take my kids learning how to drive. I'm gonna carve out these days. Yeah, one of the Big memories I wanna have and moments. They go on my calendar first. Again. The goal is to schedule your life so work fills in around it.

28:13 first work and your life feels around it. There's a very fundamentally different Approaches. And so those big rocks. Go on the calendar first. I mean I might just be kind of

28:25 bad at this, but I guess for me I almost feel like going in, I feel like I'm limited by time. And then as soon as I say, No, no, I'm gonna make time for this, then I realize I'm limited by my own imagination. It's like I don't even really know what. What would I do? Cause I'm just not practiced at Having these unscripted data, having these Mistogas, it's it's almost hard like to think of them. So I guess like is it hard for you two? And also like how do you get better at that?

28:49 Well, f first of all, just being aware. That I want to put stuff on my calendar that's meaningful to me. gives you a different awareness into what other people do. So instead of approaching things like, Oh, I could never do that. You know, which is like what I thought before I saw you play the piano. By looking at what other people are doing, that should be inspiration.

29:08 You know, so you're you're just looking at the world differently, like Oh, Taylor did this race. That would be interesting. I never thought about that. What would it look like? Sarah just said to me she wants to join the Disney half marathon. We've been married for 20 years. Almost. I've never seen her run once in my life. You want to run the Disney half marathon? She just told me now she wants to learn the dance from th what? You get inspiration from other people and and you so

29:30 You know, it's a process. No one's ever taught anyone to think or look at the world like that. We look at the world that like, Oh, I have a Zoom call and like Think about how much energy You put into scheduling your work.

29:42 Mm. All staff meetings, Zoom calls, reviews. Board meetings, investor meetings, looking at pitch deck. You know, like Conference calls, travel, like

29:52 We spend so imagine if you took that same energy. Into planning the most important thing your life. You look at the world differently. You start to like fill up stuff with like you know what I do want to go to the Georgia football game. I do want to go, you know, jump in the water or whatever.

30:07 You I'd I've never been in a sauna. Let me go to one of these sauna places and see what everybody's what is this thing that's going on. You know, you'd start to like And it becomes Contagious. Infectious.

30:18 You know, um Addictive? when you start to have this kind of enthusiasm and excitement so You know, we don't get taught that in school. We don't get ta taught that by our By anybody.

30:29 You know, you get taught it by being inspired to say, you know what, I don't want to be an e. I don't want to be an eight. I wanna be a nine, you know? Take it in your own hands and say like I want this year to be my highlight reel.

30:43 Іно а надер степ да ви ще бенір зид. To have the o Man. Just to be Are your parents alive? Yeah.

30:51 Are your kids healthy now, Come? Yeah. You're thirty seven years old. Both your parents are alive. All your kids are healthy. How does life get better than that? Like no seriously.

31:01 Like just being excited about like Jesus, man. I'm in this position where I can go visit my parents while they're healthy. I can take my kids to something. Don't blow that opportunity. Don't blow that opportunity.

31:15 You know, so Um this isn't about planning the most perfect year. At all. It's about planning something that you're Um excited about

31:24 that you feel good about at the end of the year. And you're not just like If it moves the needle this much for a listener. Like that. I wanna be really intentional on how doing more things that are important to me, learning something, spending more time with my family.

31:38 You you know, like It's gonna be worth it. So I do those two things. I put my Masogis rule down, I put my Kevin's rule stuff as they come. And I get inspiration here ideas. I'm gonna go visit a college friend. I'm gonna go see my parents. I'm gonna take a family trip.

31:53 Амине так фром ску. And take them to lunch one day and surprise them. It doesn't have to be. But you just want to start lighting shit up. And then you put all your other rocks. So you have your Kevin's rule. Here the Soggy and then these big rocks, these other moments.

32:08 Whatever these moments are. And then the third thing that I do after all that stuff is on on my calendar. is I don't believe in resolutions. They've never worked for me. Most resolutions fail. Right. But what does work for me

32:21 It's not a planning thing. But it's a really good strategy as we go into the next year. Is to Create

32:29 one winning habit a quarter. We're all a product of winning habits. Winning routines and a winning mindset. If you get your habits right. your mind right and your routines right. You're gonna be in a great spot.

32:41 So you want to do things that that towards that. So for me Adding one new win winning habit a quarter, that could be like I don't drink enough water, I'm gonna drink a hundred ounces a day. I'm gonna learn a ten a ten minute at a ten minute day meditation practice. I'll never be late for another meeting, but if you start layering in

32:59 winning habits again cumulatively for this year Now you have eight next year, twelve the year after, like You just keep layering it in. And adding this stuff, and do everything the same. You're gonna have a great year, better year, just by definition.

33:14 If you add, you learn how to play the piano, you go on these trips, you have some winning habits, you're gonna have a better year. And it's gonna jump start. Агол неупросис фі. Two other things I want to talk about. I think balance Is something that you hear a lot of.

33:29 And I think that Um Balance. Із інстапен. It's something that you should look at over the course of a year.

33:39 You know what I mean? Because you're gonna be in and out. We talked about seasons when you first got here. When you're learning how to play the piano or maybe you have a big pitch meeting or whatever, you're out of balance. Like, sweetie, I'm not gonna be around working late, whatever. But then you go into a season of recovery or You know, action or whatever. So

33:58 The balance over the course of the year is gonna gonna come into play where it could level out. But there's gonna be times where it's Day to day way out of whack. So you can't look at that on a day to day level. I would look at it more

34:11 Over the course of the year. The second thing that I would say is А на далі базис, орівно вікли базис. I think it's important to think about Where do you want to put your energy?

34:22 What are the things that you want to put your energy into? Usually to me it's the stuff that's on my calendar. And what do you want to what don't you want to put your energy towards? Because we only have a limited amount of energy. So think about your themes for twenty twenty six. You know, like for you it might be fitness.

34:38 It might be, you know, trying something new at work or new launching a new project or whatever. You know, that would be a good clue of like where you want to Put your energy into. А спешли на дали базис. So for me, I like to look at my weeks on a Sunday night.

34:53 And look through what's going on on a week at a glance basis. To see if like I don't really need to do this now. That's not super important I have more important things to do right now. Than than that. And even on a daily basis.

35:06 I like to write out the night before. What my day looks like. People talk about morning routines, but I'm a much bigger believer in evening routines. Because I feel like you can't just wake up and wing it. Oh am I gonna do today? Like It's

35:19 The competition's too good. The night before, lay out your thing. Seven o'clock, I'm gonna work out, eight o'clock, I'm taking my kids to school. Nine to two, I have this, two, one, four, I shut down. Like And follow the script. You know, just to create some more more efficiencies. So that's sort of how I plan my year.

35:36 Mistogee. Then I put my Kevin's rule down, then I put all my little rocks down, the things that I wanna do. I think about where I want to put my energy. I look at my balance more on like the year versus day to day. I don't beat myself up that oh my God, I'm I'm not home today, you know?

35:53 And then on a day to day level, starting the night before. Yeah. What do you think most people get wrong when they do this process? Like they m they mean well, they're trying, but they fall into like a a common trap. What's a common trap? A common trap is having too many goals. More isn't better, better's better. So like you had one specific goal, I'm gonna learn how to play the piano. This year this song.

36:13 You know That's a really great goal and you Friggin' nailed it. versus I'm learning the piano, I'm gonna run a marathon and then like now you're like all over the place and like you're missing lessons and Now your four month journey became a one year journey and

36:27 Everything suffers. So I think a lot of people Say I'm gonna lose weight, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna t like change my whole life. Every area of everything I think is too much. Like that. Do you already have your Masogi for next year? Or not yet.

36:39 Yes. What is it? I am going so I like to do physical things. I'm gonna do a twenty n twenty an ev I'm calling it the Everesting triathlon. So I'm gonna swim twenty nine thousand twenty nine feet, which is five point five miles.

36:53 Then bike twenty nine thousand, twenty nine feet, the equivalent of the Everest. in elevation gain on a bike, which is really, really hard. And then I'm going to do a twenty nine out of twenty nine event, which is you climb the equivalent amount Everest. All in A triathlon format.

37:09 So like back to back to back. Back to back to back to back. I'll sleep'cause we'll do it like stages, but back to back to back to back. It's me too pride. Like the bike alone will take Will probably take me like Thirty hours.

37:21 five hours and the c the hike will take Thirty hours. That's seventy hours. Roughly. Cheese. I can't wait.

37:33 All right, let's take a quick break because I gotta tell you a story. Let me tell you about the first time I tried to run payroll for my team. I was using a traditional bank and you know the type. It's got a janky interface. It's built like a two thousand and two tax form. And it was open only during business hours. And I hit send. And it froze. They flagged the transaction, they locked my account, they put me on hold for forty five minutes. And then they told me I gotta visit my local branch.

37:54 And that was the day I started looking for a new banking solution. Uh, after asking a few founders what they were using, I found out about Mercury. And so now my payroll is two clicks. I can wire money, I can pay invoices, I can reimburse the team. All from one clean dashboard. That's why I use it for

38:07 all of my companies. And so do two hundred thousand other startup founders. And so if you're looking to level up your banking, head to Mercury.com and apply in minutes. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided through Choice Financial Group, call them NA, and Evolve Bank and Trust members, FDIC. And I'm sure you get a lot of like

38:25 Easy for you to say. You're rich, you're free, you have all the time you want, you have all the money you want, you can do whatever you want. And then people will self limit. Because they say, Well that's not me, so I guess I can't. Yeah.

38:36 And so like What say you? When I was twenty two years old, I was sleeping on my friend's couch. In New York City. I was bouncing couch to couch to couch. And

38:47 I had a friend that was w one of the guys that I was staying with was working and making A ton of money. Like quarter million dollars, but you know, at the time was that's all that's all the money. It does make like eight hundred dollars a year, you know? But At the end of the year.

39:01 I did the polar plea. Polar plunge in Coney Island. I ran the New York City Marathon. I did the Staten Island biathlon. I went to multiple conferences. I went on a two week trip, like Ma I've been doing this

39:14 Since I had zero. I just didn't formalized it. I didn't even understand it. But what happened is when I got into my forties and fifties and I was like, God, this guy wrote a book. This guy sold the business. This guy ran an Iron Man. This guy did a marathon. This guy goes in saunas. This guy did blah blah blah blah like what's going on? I'm like, I don't know. I've just been like It adds up. I've just been doing all these things.

39:35 And then I realized this is what I've been doing. I just do it on a bigger platform now. So It doesn't mean like I said, you don't have to climb Mount Everest to have a great year. You have to do things that make you feel good.

39:48 And they don't just happen. You n a system. If you wait. Your calendar's gonna fill up. And other people are gonna determine where your energy goes.

39:58 If you choose Where you wanna put your energy like you just did. Then You're gonna have an amazing year. It's a decision.

40:09 I really wholeheartedly believe that. It's a system. So the last thing I want to say real quick is Another thing that I do and again, like I'm just talking about things that have been really helpful for me, trying to just share as much as I can and and not everything needs to resonate, right? We just want to inspire people. to have a program and a plan that makes them have an efficient year.

40:29 We'll take you through your year. is I call it the uh Eight boxes. Okay. And

40:37 This is something that I uh has really been helpful for me. I take a piece of paper and I make eight boxes. And I pick the categories and maybe yours is six, some might be four. For me it was eight. I think about what are the buckets that are the most important buckets in my life. the things that I do want to put the energy into.

40:55 And for me It was it's adventure. А лов гон адвенчус, травил, трипс. Marriage obviously is is super important. Health and fitness.

41:06 My children, kids. My business. My personal goals and stuff like this, my family. And my personal finance. And uh we talked about this off camera.

41:17 I love the way you s you you meant you talked about it. Um But What I do is I put down all the th this is like a running Life to do list almost checklist. Now some of this stuff is for this year.

41:32 Some of and I might even put a little dot, but some of it's long term. For example An adventure. I I put everything I want to do in those buckets in here. So I This is a snapshot of where I'm going. From now till the end of the journey. Some of the stuff will get chicked off, for example.

41:47 I wanted to do a sonatour of Finland. Always wanted to do it. I did it last year. Check it off. But now I have a new thing. I wanna do this race call the three this I had it. So it's like a running list.

41:58 And what I love about this is It's like it's out of my head. And it it lives. It doesn't live It lives on a on a piece of paper right that I can refer to and it gives me a bluepring.

42:12 So like if you don't know what you want to do, if you don't have a vision, if you don't have Uh a dream. You know, like one of these things is write a book. It doesn't mean I'm gonna do it right now. But I have a specific book I wanna write. It goes on this sheet. And I refer to this all the time. На сам встреч.

42:30 Are going on my calendar for twenty twenty six. Some of them are going on my calendar for twenty six some of them are just long term and it's a work in progress. So you you basically are collecting throughout the years Intr interesting ideas of what a great life might look like. What are some of the things I wanna do before

42:47 You know, the clock strikes zero and this whole thing's over. And then on a given year, you might pull one, two things and put it on the calendar. That's exactly. And then you see the momentum in the checklist. And this is the you I think you call it the life resume, right? Like You know, you have a work resume. I put some examples of it up here, but yeah. So like for example Sarah just we were just talking to my wife and she's like I wanna learn the thriller dance. Okay. Well that's gonna go in my personal bucket. We're gonna learn the thr thriller dance. Now

43:13 Does that mean it has to happen this we no. But I'm now It's like It's exciting. I have

43:20 Like you were saying, where to get the ideas from? Well when you get an idea Put it down. Right. You know, let it bring it to life. Don't let it just Marinate like

43:29 Put it down. So en and ma'am, it feels good when I check these off, and every year. I have like you know five or six things that I've done and I've added new stuff. Have you ever heard of the idea of a reticular activating system that's part of your brain? No. So there's like this phenomenon, if you ever go car shopping. And you start looking ah, maybe I'm gonna buy a BMW. All of a sudden.

43:49 When you're out on the road, you'll be seeing BMW, BMW, oh that's the three C that's the one he was saying it comes in blue. Yes. Did all those just appear? No, they've been there the whole time, but your brain, you told your brain, you said, Hey, brain, and the brain's normally filtering out 99% of things. The RAS, the reticular activating system. So once you switch that on. You've basically told your brain, hey, start to pay attention for this. So like you know, you could do it for for BMWs when you're car shopping, but you could do the same thing for life. So you know, once you realize oh I've got a like a life bucket list here to to fill out, this sort of menu of things I wanna I wanna do in my life. It's kinda like turns on the brain to start looking for possibilities. What might be in that. Like

44:28 I don't know. No, you You told me about the three you know, the polar plunge or the three hundred club. If I you know, now that I'm looking to fill mine up, I'll start to b think to myself, Hey, would that be one? Would that be one? Is that the one I want? Is that the one I want? And now it'll become easier for me, I think. Yeah, and that's what I was saying about like coming up with Missogis and Kevin's rule. It's in your RAS now. You know, like you're thinking about.

44:49 I'm also really lucky. I live With I have a friend group. That also. is driven and things like this. So when we get together, it's like any good ideas you guys heard any races or what do you guys think about this year? Anything cool you think we should be doing and Yeah, that's how ideas.

45:05 We listen. Because of that, we rode our bike across the country. The same group did Rim to Rim to rim. Uh the same group went to Finland. The same group, you know, this year is doing the three hundred club at the South Pole.

45:17 the same group, you know, is continues to do these things. So Um That's not easy to find. a group of people that would do that. In fact, I didn't even find that until I was in my fifties. I didn't have that in my twenties, thirties and forties.

45:30 You found them by doing these or you found them. By doing'em by putting myself out and saying, Hey, I'd love to do that with you, you know, sharing it, social media's help. Right. Bring us together. Um But of the ten guys that I've done these adventures with over the last Seven years. I only probably knew one of them ten years ago.

45:48 There's still a lot of it. That's pretty inspiring. Because I s I saw you had that group. I've watched some of your videos. And when you see it and you see how close you guys are to do these adventures, you sort of just assume I guess these were just his college buddies that like I guess I missed it. But you're saying I did the fifth I'm not even fifty, so like what's my excuse to start, you know, now like I it's not too late. You know, in a way you've done it. You've brought together this group through the basketball tournament that you host. And I'm pretty sure you could call Hayes or any of the guys that we've met and say, Hey

46:14 I got an idea. I wanna go take a survival class in Montana in the winter. Everyone's gonna put their hand up. You sort of have it. Right. You just have to now take action into like beyond basketball. Right. And that that's sort of what we what I did. That might be one of my things I put on here is like Build a crew.

46:33 to do these things with. And you know, those those things for you could also be learning experiences like for you You know, maybe it's not like you said, you don't want to go scale a mountain in Antarctica, but You might want to take an intense You know, um

46:48 m memory course with the w a guy that never forgets a name. Right. You could take a four day thing and and a big one for me is creative projects. So I've created like a creative bucket list. So it's like oh man, I in my lifetime I wanna I wanna make a song that's just a catchy just banger that just, you know, it it it gets out there in the world and other people or you know, bop into the song in a car. I wanna have like a board game that I make. I want and so I just made a list of things I'd like to make in my life. Did you just gave see that? Yeah. Just gave me one. And so I'm I have this like creative bucket list. So for me, one of my probably where you have adventure. For me would be

47:22 you know, creative projects that I want to go do in my lifetime. Like I wanna make a movie. Why not? I have a song that I wrote. Fifteen years ago that I still think is a hit that I wanna put out. Just been marinating?

47:36 I don't feel pressure to like You know. For projects. That process, that creative process, like It c it comes in waves, you know, and even if it takes fifteen years

47:48 It comes in waves. Um and the same thing with this book. How do you balance the like I wanna do so much without You don't give off. I feel rushed energy. It's like I it was very rare for me to find somebody who's got both of those, right? There's some people who just

48:03 wanna stay in place, they're content. They don't feel that rushed. Most people I know who are the achiever type that Have more ideas than they have time. I have they have this almost like nervous energy. And it's almost like oh, they're they're almost not enjoying it'cause they just always feel like I should be doing more. I have I have both genes. I have the like ready fire aim. And then I have

48:23 I've learned that like if you're gonna put out a product like a book, or a song or something that's gonna live out in the world. And it's in its form that can't be altered. Right. Like we can always improve on our products, but like a book, once it's written, it kinda can't be altered. You want to

48:40 You want My people probably push back on this, but for me I found that I want to make the best version that I can make, right? Then I wanna wait a second and then I wanna try to make it ten percent better. When I think it's b done. Like when I did Living with the Steel, I handed the book in.

48:55 I read it six hundred times. Six. Six. Hundred times I read that five hour book. Maybe not. Six hundred.

49:06 That's a big difference. But let's say I read sixty, which I probably did. Cover to cover. Do I like it? Edit it writing notes or whatever. I finally hand the book in. I have a deadline. They like we gotta get this out. The public the the Amazon needs it, all this. I hand it in.

49:21 They're like great, this is the best, we love it, thank you, blah blah blah. I go home, I read it sixty one. The sixty first time. I call my publisher the next day and I'm like, I need Two more weeks.

49:31 She's like, what? I'm like I I can make this ten percent better. This is the only book. I wanted this to be the best ver like and I handed in the best book that I could write. I couldn't dot Write a better

49:44 That was it. That was the The аpsлют бес. version of that book that I could write. And we know what that meant?

49:53 No matter what happened, I felt good about it. If it got one star reviews and sold eighteen copies, I don't care. That's the best book I could write. But if I wrote a half ass version of that book I would have beaten myself up for ever. So that's how I feel about

50:08 Those kind of one way door projects. Yeah. That's awesome. Jesse, thank you so much for doing this. Oh, thank you. I loved it. I feel like I can rule the world, I know I can be what I want to I'll put my law in it like my days off. On the road, less travel, never looking back. Alright, everyone, if you're listening to MFM, you probably want to make more money. Well, I want to tell you about a podcast you might want to check out. It's called The Sales Evangelist, and it's hosted by Donald Kelly. Each week, Donald interviews the world's best sales experts who share their strategies to succeed in sales. They share actionable insights and stories that will encourage, challenge, and motivate you to hustle your way to the top. If you're someone looking to raise your income level, check out the sales evangelist. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts.

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