[00:00] And so not only do you have to get clear on your direction and your vision, listen, this is long term as well as short term. This is like, Hey, where am I going with my life? But also where am I going between now and lunch? Like you need that level of clarity because when you do that, it will keep you on the path.

[00:23] Welcome to another episode of Success for the Athletic Minded Man, real talk on harnessing your athletic drive, clarity, consistency, focus in business and life. This is your host, Jim Harshaw, Jr. And today I’m bringing you a solo episode. We’re talking about the three reasons that you don’t have enough time.

[00:40] How to fix each one of those. Now I’ve worked with hundreds of guys, professionals, just like you listening, and, and I can say just like you, because I’ve worked with guys in, in pretty much every industry, in every field, every career for the most part. And, you know, they have this similar shared background.

[00:59] For the most part, those guys, most of my clients have a, a background in, in sports, maybe high school athletes. Some of them were college athletes or, or they just like to. You know, work out, run marathons, do spartan races or whatever that might be. So these are the kind of guys who I work with and I see the things that hold them back.

[01:16] These are guys who are busy. These are guys who, they have a lot going on in their lives. They have families and big jobs and community commitments and all of those kinds of things. And, and they’re busy, right? And, and so I wanna talk about the three reasons that I see. My client’s struggling, and I look, I look in the mirror with this as well and, and really understand these are the things that I have worked on and I continually work on, continually trying to get better at these.

[01:44] These are the ways to fix these, and these are the guys who I’ve helped really transform in terms of their time and getting their time back and having more time for family, having more time for workouts, having more time to invest in their business. These are the three critical reasons, the three critical problems, and I’m gonna share with you how to fix those now.

[02:03] First of all, you gotta wrap your head around this mindset of you’re not too busy, you’re just focusing on the wrong things. Like it’s conceptually thinking about, it’s not that I’m too busy, I just haven’t prioritized the right things. It’s a matter of priorities. And I remember when the head resting coach, former head resting coach named Jay Robinson, uh, at University of Minnesota, won multiple national championships.

[02:26] Uh, I became a friend once I got into coaching, and he told me one time. When I told him I was too busy for something, he said, Jim, it’s not that you’re too busy, you just haven’t prioritized it. I’m like, and I was annoyed when he said that, but it really resonated. And eventually I realized, okay, the point there is you’re just prioritizing something else.

[02:48] And sometimes you say, Hey, listen, I don’t have enough time to, I don’t know, train for a marathon. Well, maybe it’s because you’re prioritizing drinking beer on the weekends, or maybe it’s because you’re prioritizing coaching your kids’ sports team, soccer team or something. One of those is healthy. One of those is good and one of those is not.

[03:06] Right? So you’re just prioritizing something else. So sometimes it’s okay that you don’t have time for, for that thing, that whatever that thing might be, because you’re prioritizing something that’s even more important. So. We first have to understand that like it’s a matter of prioritization. And I talked to some guys who are like, Hey, I’m too busy.

[03:24] Even for coaching, for example, it’s like a be like a, a marathon runner saying, I’m too busy training to rehab for an injury. I’m too, you know, like if you get sick, it’s like, Hey, um, I’m, I’m too busy to go to the doctor. Right? You don’t, you don’t wait to go to the doctor until you’re healthy. You don’t wait until rehab an injury.

[03:41] Until you’re healed from it, right? Same thing with coaching. There’s an ROI on this, so you have to figure out what are the things that bring me an ROI in my time so that I can actually get time back. All right? So, so first conception, I want you to understand that, that it’s a matter of what you prioritize and there are certain things in your life that you can prioritize that will give you back time, and, and we’re really talking about increasing your effectiveness here.

[04:06] So, all right, three things. I’m gonna give you three things and their solutions. Number one, you’re unclear on your direction and you’re unclear on your vision, and I see this all the time. So think, think about this. To use the sports analogy, there was no point in Tom Brady’s career ever where he had ambiguity around what he was trying to accomplish.

[04:28] It was very clear. Like in sport, it’s very crystal clear trying to win the Super Bowl as an NFL player, right? Whatever sport you played, maybe your goal was to. Make the starting lineup or win the next game, or the next match or the next race advance in the postseason, et cetera. Very clear in sport. It’s just, that’s just the way it is.

[04:49] It’s, it’s amazing. But you have this very clear target in front of you and, and you can bring all of your resources and time and energy towards that very clear target. But if you don’t have that, then you’re gonna find yourself. Being too busy saying yes to all kinds of things that don’t align with where you’re trying to go.

[05:11] You will find yourself choosing the easy thing to do, to be busy, like checking email or, or doing, checking off a bunch of small tasks as opposed to getting to the most important things. They say a, a task takes the amount of time allotted. So if there’s no real definition of what my goal is, what my vision is, where my direction is, then I don’t really have a a time allotted to it.

[05:38] So I’m just gonna spend a lot of time getting there and I’m never really gonna get there. And. You’re gonna work at something for a year or five years or 10 years or your whole career and look back and think, man, I thought I’d be farther along by now. But if it’s because you’ve never really defined what you were seeking anyway, and this is foundational work, this is the work, getting clear on your direction, this is the work that precedes all the productivity hacks and time management, all that stuff that you hear about.

[06:03] And you might be sitting there going, yeah, but Jim, I set goals, but here’s the critical thing. You have to have them in front of you. If they are not. Literally in front of you, uh, mine are here, right here within arm’s reach. And if they’re not in front of you, if they’re not within arm’s reach, if you’re not reviewing them regularly.

[06:25] Then you’re going to find yourself busy saying yes to other things, you know? And I always tell people, you know, anytime you say yes to one thing, it inherently means you’re saying no to something else, to you’re saying no to something else you could do at that time and energy. And so we get busy, we drift.

[06:43] Off the path. And then we finally lift our head up and go, gosh, how did I get so far away from my goals and the path and the trajectory that I wanted to be on? And so not only do you have to get clear on your direction and your vision, listen, this is long-term I. As well as short term. This is like, Hey, where am I going with my life?

[07:01] But also where am I going between now and lunch? Like, you need that level of clarity because when you do that, it will keep you on the path. You will be working on the right thing that you have to actually do that work. And if you’re unclear on the direction and vision, uh, the long-term vision, the short term, the, the, the midterm goals, the, the short term action items, then you’re going to drift.

[07:24] You’re gonna say, I don’t have enough time. Okay. And you know, working with one of my clients recently just completed my program, and these are exact words from him, right? This is a guy who felt stuck, complacent, knew he had more potential. I mean, high performing guy. He is an attorney and went to one of the top law schools in America.

[07:46] And here’s what he said. After going through this framework, this Veia path framework that we coach, he said, I have clarity. I’m energized. I’m focused, and I’m going for things way beyond the stratosphere. Now, beyond even my 10 X goals, this is a guy who’s now running for Congress. Think about that. Think about that.

[08:06] He is so clear on his direction and his vision. He’s got this huge, exciting, compelling goal that he’s doing. All right, think about that and how that could help you. Alright, so I told you three things. Number one is you’re unclear on your direction and your vision. And listen, that’s long term and also near term, right?

[08:25] Number two is you’re lacking the leadership skills that you need, and so many people are thrust into leadership roles and they’re just not prepared. Then there are others who are very prepared, and I’m gonna give you two examples. One is a client of mine, his name’s Sean, and Sean is that guy. He’s the president of a company for any clients who are listening, you guys all know who I’m talking about here.

[08:47] He’s in our community. And these guys get to interact with Sean and other people like him all the time. But, um, Sean is that guy who always has time for you. He somehow runs a company, has four kids coaching his kids. Soccer teams and lacrosse teams and different things, and Sean always has time. And why does Sean always have time?

[09:08] Well, I’m gonna give you the three sort of sub leadership skills I’m gonna share with you that, that a guy like Sean really has in place. And there’s another one, a guy named Mike. Mike is my mentor. And uh, interestingly, it’s always fascinating to hear Mike tell me. He listens to my podcast, so he might be listening to this right now.

[09:24] I hope so. I need to tell him that I’m talking about him here. But this is a guy who. Grew up in a trailer park and, you know, went on to be a, a state champion, wrestler and college baseball player and has now gone on to build and sell four different companies. Very, very successful companies for, for large sums of money, large numbers, and just an amazing individual.

[09:49] And, and so I think of Sean. I think of Mike. These are guys who I just really admire as leaders and, and as human beings. And, and they. Are not lacking the leadership skills and
[10:00] these, these are not guys who, who constantly seem like they don’t have enough time. There are three things at least. Three things there are.

[10:07] These are the three things that I, I can see very easily and very clearly that they have mastered. So three things here. Number one is managing, okay, this is part of leadership, but it’s managing. It’s not exactly leading, but it’s managing. Okay, I’m gonna give to these couple other points here, but number one is managing, like planning, organizing, tracking, keeping track of things like you can’t lead if you can’t just manage the basics.

[10:33] Because then you’ll be scrambling, running out of time. I don’t have enough time. I didn’t get, have time to get that done and and constantly feel like you’re underwater. So number one, under this second point, so like I said, three things we’re talking about here today. Number one was you’re unclear on your direction and your vision.

[10:49] Number two, you’re lacking the key leadership skills or leadership skills. There’s three things I wanna talk about here. The first one is managing. The second one is delegating. This is another leadership skill. Letting go of control, trusting others, equipping them to execute. So if personally, for me, my, my leadership core values are care, community, equip and ownership.

[11:13] And, and those, I’m not gonna go into too much detail on those. I. Those are my core values as a leader for my business. And, you know, equipping people to execute is absolutely critical, right? Equip, equipping them to execute, whether that’s with the tools that they need or the confidence that they need, right?

[11:30] Might be something physical like the hardware they need. It might be something intangible like, uh, skills that they have to develop. And so, you know, equip, that’s where Equip comes from. Ownership is really another one about delegating and leading and managing, to be honest as well. But ownership is getting people to own their journey, own their job, own the the things that they’re responsible for.

[11:55] These are all part of delegating. So number one is managing. Number two is delegating, and the last one is actually. Leading, like inspiring others, enrolling them in your vision in a clear vision client, Dr. Mark McLaughlin, who as a matter of fact had him on the podcast ’cause he wrote an amazing book. He’s a neurosurgeon and he wrote a book called Cognitive Dominance, A Brain Surgeon’s Quest to Outthink Fear.

[12:18] And that was back in episode number 2 23. That’s 2 223. If you wanna go back and check that out, we’ll have that link in the action plan. But he talks about enrolling other people in his vision. He talks about that a lot as a client having conversations with him, he talks about enrolling people in his vision because he’s got just a huge vision for his life.

[12:37] And it’s, you know, he wrote a book and he’s, uh, founded a neurosurgery practice. He started a nonprofit. He is just this guy who has so many amazing things going on in his life, but he has to lead, he has to inspire other people. He has to enroll them in his vision, and he pays good money to multiple coaches to get really good at this.

[12:58] He invests. And so what are you investing in? So going back to Sean, Sean recently emailed me and he said, I can honestly say that I’m at a 166 to one ROI in his investment in his coaching with us. And these are, these are guys who invest. They know that they want to grow, they want to lead. They have big visions for their lives.

[13:22] And then they also, they invest in those. And if you’re looking for a podcast episode around leadership. The one I recommend the most is episode 174 of this podcast, and it is an interview with Navy Seal, Jeff Eggers, who was at the time the executive director of the McChrystal Institute, so General Stanley McChrystal.

[13:43] I. Jeff Eggers was the executive director, amazing leader, amazing student of leadership, and, and just a great interview, fun interview, interesting guys. Share some, uh, Navy Seal stories. So check that one out. We’ll have the link to that in the action plan. Go. Of course, go to jimharshawjr.com/action to get that, or that’ll be in your inbox if you’re getting my Monday morning emails.

[14:05] And so, okay. Alright, let’s get to the third one. Right? So I told you three, three reasons why guys who I come across. When I see that they don’t have enough time, that’s number one. They’re unclear on their direction and their vision. And by the way, just a quick side note on that first one. Even if you got clear on that direction and vision like three years ago and you forgot about it, you’ve gotta go back to that.

[14:26] Don’t just go back to your. 20, 25 goals and put them in front of you and your micro goals, but also put that vision, uh, literally I read mine, actually, I didn’t read it. I just stated it out loud because I have it memorized. I have my vision, uh, and I, I said it out loud today, my, before I began work. So you have to bring this stuff into your daily life, right?

[14:46] So number one, unclear on your vision and your direction. Number two is you’re lacking those key leadership skills around managing, delegating, and leading. Number three is this. You’re not in the right environment. I talked to a Marine last week who’s joining my program. He was in marsoc. If you’re not familiar, it’s the Marine Special Operations Command, special Forces.

[15:09] These guys are total bad asses, by the way. I mean, you don’t even hear you say marsoc and nobody even knows what that is. You say Navy Seal and people know what that is. These Marsoc dudes are the real freaking deal. Um, and, and he wanted to be around men who have similar values as his and his are faith, family and fitness.

[15:26] And he wants to be around guys like that. So he, that’s why he’s signing on with us. But who do you wanna be around, right? Like this guy has. Huge goals and he has the capacity to achieve them, but he knows that he needs to be in the right environment. And you know, for example, when I was training at the Olympic Training Center, I was in an environment where the level of everybody’s performance was a, was very high.

[15:49] And so I drifted upwards, right? And I saw what was necessary in terms of how you train and how you eat at the dining hall and how you carry yourself around town. I. And the bar for these people is really high. And, and for me, it just raised the bar in terms of what I saw as possible. And I realized they’re just regular people.

[16:10] Right. Their crap stinks too. And I thought, gosh, well, I can perform at that level. Like when you’re on a sports team, you have that, or you’re in marsoc, you have that. And I don’t, I’ll be honest, like. Any sports team, think about, you know, uh, the, the, the five year olds playing soccer out there and it’s like magnet ball, right?

[16:30] It’s just a bunch of five year olds following the soccer ball around. Like it’s the same thing, right? They’re like puffing and puffing and breathing and red in the face, and they’re only doing it because everybody else is doing it around them. Like, what’s everybody else around you doing? It’s interesting.

[16:42] One of my clients, Andrew, shared a, um, shared an article that he, he had read. It was in Scientific American. As a matter of fact, I’ll, I’ll go ahead and put the link. The action plan. So make sure you go to the action plan. I go to jimharshawjr.com/action. If you’re already on my email list, you got this in your inbox on Monday, and I posted, basically read the article and summarized it and posted it over into my community.

[17:07] But the idea here is the title of the article is Brainwaves Synchronize. When People Interact. The Minds of Social Species are Strikingly Resonant, and I’ll break that down like what the heck does that mean? It means. When you get around other people, your brainwaves literally synchronize with them. Your brainwaves are literally synchronizing with the people you surround yourself with, and.

[17:34] This can be people in your job or in your community or in your neighborhood. Like when my clients get together for a annual retreat, they’re synchronizing with each other. It’s freaking amazing. Like who do you wanna be synchronizing with? They talk about in this article, like the oscillation rate. I’ll be honest, I don’t know know a whole lot about what that means, but I want my oscillation rate the same as.

[17:53] Really high performing people. We, we know that, you know, our, our parents told us, you know, when we’re kids, like, who are you hanging around? Who are you spending time around? Like, you don’t rise to your goals. You, you fall to the, the standards of your environment and the people you hang around. Like who are you surrounded by?

[18:09] What’s being role modeled for you? Your environment? Who’s in your corner coaching you? Who are the, who’s the community of people around you? Like, who’s calling you out? You, you wanna be around people who normalize high performance. Listen in your business, in your career, also in your health and fitness. I, you hang out with F three guys, did a, I did a Murf this morning, ran a mile with another dude, did a murf together with him, and then ran another half mile.

[18:38] Cool. Down with these guys, like these are just the people that I get to hang around, I choose to hang around with and I guess my oscillation rate is there same as theirs. You know, it, it is great. We all challenge each other and push each other and. Darn it. If there wasn’t a guy who took off in the mile runs and set the pace for the rest of us, and we were just playing catch up the whole time, it’s awesome.

[19:00] And that’s who you wanna be around. All right, so I told you I would share with you three things, three reasons why you don’t have enough time and how to fix each one. Number one, you’re unclear on your direction in your vision. Number two, you’re lacking the key leadership skills, and number three, you’re not in the right environment.

[19:18] Those are the three reasons, and I talked around each one of those on how to fix those. But listen, you have to take action. Just scrolling into the next episode or being busy is, is not the kind of action that you need. If you want to take action, you’ve got to make this happen and, you know, get around the right people.

[19:38] Matter of fact, uh, I just saw it posted in my community the other day and we had one guy join named Eric. Another guy commented on his Eric’s first post. He said, Eric, you may not know it yet, but you hit the lottery because he knows he’s gonna be around amazing people. Go make a decision today about around being around amazing people, whether it’s signing up for the free clarity call with me, or signing up for some
[20:00] other program or meeting with the pastor of your church or hiring a personal trainer, whatever that is for you.

[20:06] All right, take action on this stuff. Good luck.

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