[00:00] What was in place then? Like what has worked? What has worked for me before when I had absolute clarity, I was consistent. I was focused. I was doing the hard things. I had clarity of action. I had peace of mind. I knew exactly what I was supposed to be doing when I was supposed to be doing it, and I was achieving at a really high level.

[00:19] Welcome to another episode of Success Through Failure, the show for successful people and those who want to become successful. The only podcast that reveals the true nature of success through conversations with world-class performers, while also sharing my own lessons. Of success through failure. This is your host, Jim Harshaw, Jr. and today I’m bringing you a solo episode.

[00:41] By the end of this episode, you will know exactly what you need to do to be at your maximum consistency and your maximum focus this year. If you enjoy these episodes, make sure to tell a friend this particular episode number is 3 87, so tell a friend to go to jimharshawjr.com/387 or just to find the success through Failure podcasts on.

[01:03] Podcasting platform. I can’t believe we’re approaching 400 freaking episodes. I talked to the podcast team this morning actually, Pauline and Michael, and we were talking about what are we gonna do for episode 400. We got some great ideas in the hopper. Great ideas brewing for you. So stay tuned. Episode 400 is coming up and we got something exciting planned.

[01:25] Gosh, I still can’t believe 400. So what we’re talking about today is how you can be consistent, how you can be focused in the template. There’s a template for you, right? It’s not the same template as it is for me, but you’re gonna learn this template. Yes, I know there are thousands and thousands of you out there listening, but I’m going to share with you the exact template for you specifically so you can be the most consistent and the most focused.

[01:52] This. Now, these might be in different areas for you. You may be really focused and consistent in your health and fitness, but not in your faith. Or maybe you’re really locked in at work, but not with your relationships at home. All right, so we’re gonna talk about all of these areas and. Really, the question that I’m gonna share with you is the lead question that has been really been the catalyst for my business and my coaching program.

[02:17] Having helped, you know, thousands and thousands of people around, you know, certainly hundreds of thousands, I guess, people through the podcast over the years, but also individually coaching hundreds of individuals. We’ve helped them improve their performance and make more money and have better marriages, and get more fit and have a balanced life.

[02:35] It all came from this. Question that I asked myself years ago. Before I share that with you, I want to share something that’s gonna be really helpful for you if you download this. I. Spent the past year really honing a tool that I just released for my clients just recently, really, a few weeks ago. And they all love it.

[02:58] I was hoping that they would like it. They all love it. It’s a brand new goal setting tool. It has a lot of things that you, if you’ve downloaded the goal setting worksheet off of my website. Which you can get access to. If you go to JimHarshawJr.com/action, that’s where you get access to the action plans.

[03:16] I send you a link. By the way, bookmark that link because every week we add the new action plans and new resources and things like that to that page. Whenever you get that link, make sure you save that. Make sure you bookmark that and come back to that anytime you want to get the new action plan for each episode.

[03:33] And my goodness, Well, there’s an action plan for every episode, so 400 plus. There’s additional tools and resources on there as well. We’re gonna add a new one here and this one is really cool. Like I said, we spent the past year working on this. Pow uh, Pauline and I have been working on it quite a bit.

[03:50] She goes by pow, I almost called her pow. That’s her. Uh, her nickname, but Powell and I have been working a lot, a lot on this and I gave it to one of my clients last year to really test drive it and he put it through the ringer and, and kind of gave some really great feedback. So this thing is gonna help you stay consistent and focused because one of the cool things that’s, we moved it from a document to a spreadsheet, and the thing that a spreadsheet allows us to do is track your goals better.

[04:16] And score them. We actually score your performance as the year goes on. You can see your performance as the year goes on. There’s a score. You’re actually gonna get a number and it’s gonna score you in two different ways. Number one, it’s gonna score you each month, like, how did I do this month overall on all of my goals?

[04:34] How did I do ’em? And the second way, it’s gonna score you. How do I do in this particular category? Maybe it’s your health and fitness goal, or maybe it’s your worker or financial goal, or maybe it’s your personal relationship goal. It’s gonna score you in each of those categories as the year goes along.

[04:50] So really cool tool, super easy to use. Maybe once you plug your goals in, it’s just a matter of once a month going in there and updating and it’s really easy and it’s a really great tool. It’s something that I use. It’s something. Our Pathfinder coaches are now using with their clients through the Haw group, and uh, I think you’re gonna really enjoyed it too.

[05:08] That’s gonna be in the action plan. So make sure you grab your copy of the action plan. Again, go to jimharshawjr.com/action. I’m actually gonna include a little video. There’s a short video that will, it’s five minutes long. You can watch it on two time speed. It’s two and a half minutes if you wanna double it up, and it will explain how to use this.

[05:27] Again, really easy. You may not even need the video, but it’ll be a little bit of an explainer video. Again, I’ve only shared this with my Inner circle clients so far, so you can get, uh, you know, kind of first-time access to this, uh, outside of that group. Quick interruption. If you like what you’re hearing here and you want to learn how you can implement this into your life, just go to jimharshawjr.com/apply to see how you can get a free one-on-one coaching session with me.

[05:55] That’s jimharshawjr.com/apply. Now back to the show. Now. Everything I’m sharing with you here today is based off of one. And it’s only three words. This three-word question has led to incredible clarity for me, and it’s led to all of the results that my clients have gotten. Everything that we’ve built our business on was based on this one question.

[06:20] When I was at a low point in my life, I had a failed business, a struggling marriage. I was in the worst physical shape of my life. We had dead up to our eyeballs. I was a mess. And I asked this one question and it changed everyth. What has. What has worked? What has worked in the past for me and for me when I answered that question, I look back at my life when I was performing at an elite level as a college athlete, as NCAA division I, all America, and I was ranked eighth on the Olympic ladder.

[06:50] And I look back at that time, I said, what was in place then? Like what has worked? What has worked for me before, when I had absolute clarity, I was consistent, I was focused, I was doing the hard things. Uh, I had clarity of action, I had peace of mind. I knew exactly what I was supposed to be doing when I was supposed to be doing.

[07:06] And I was achieving at a really high level what has worked. So I want you to ask this question. What has worked for you? I’m actually gonna give you the answer. I’m gonna tell you what has worked for you. All right? So here’s the first thing that’s worked for you. You had a coach or a mentor. When I look back on my life, I could have run my own wrestling practices in college.

[07:28] I had wrestled for, you know, uh, what, 12 years to that point in my life, I’d wrestled since I was in first grade, and could I run my own practices? Sure, I’d been through thousands of practices in my life. Could I run the practice myself? Absolutely. But guess what? I had a. I had people there pushing me, helping me see my blind spots, making me go harder than I would have otherwise.

[07:53] Having a structure for me, having a plan, helping me get the most outta myself, I could have done it myself. But I got so much more. I was a very good wrestler, but I became an excellent wrestler. I reached the top, the pinnacle of what I did in the country. I was one of the best in the country of what I did because I had a coach.

[08:11] Tom Brady has coaches, right? He has, he has a quarterbacks coach, pretty sure Tom Brady knows how to throw football. He has, uh, strength and conditioning coaches. I’m pretty sure Tom Brady knows his way around a weight room by now. He has health and nutrition coaches. I’m pretty sure Tom Brady knows what to eat.

[08:26] But guess what? If you wanna be elite, you have to have those people in your life. I have a business coach. I actually had a business, uh, a call with her just the other day. and I had action items, things that I had to get done before that call. And guess what, if I didn’t have that call scheduled with her, those things would’ve not gotten done.

[08:44] But it was less than 24 hours before that call. I’m like, oh man, I gotta get this done. Like I’m on the hook for this. I gotta get this done. There was accountability there for me. Guess what? I got it done. And you know what that has led to? I’m, I’m speaking in front of about a hundred CEOs in a couple of.

[09:01] Because I followed through on one of the action items, which was re reaching out to some people and just making a connection. And because they did that, you never know what’s gonna happen in certain, certain scenarios like this. And this was just sort of, sort of some networking outreaches I wanted to make and connections.

[09:15] And this one in particular led to me having the opportunity to speak in front of a hundred, a hundred CEOs. Huge opportunity for me, all because I had a coach. All because I paid somebody. To hold me accountable to do something that I could have easily done without her, but I wouldn’t have done without her.

[09:35] I have clients who I work with, we, I should say we myself and, and the other coaches, Theia Path Coaching Program. Under the Haw group, we have guys in men and women who are working with a personal trainer. Several of them were Division one college athlete. Do you think they know how to work out? Of course they do.

[09:58] Why would you pay a personal trainer if you know how to work out? Because what? Because the personal trainer gets you to do the thing, the hard thing, and gets you to hold you accountable to doing it. When you have money on the line, you show up and you pay somebody, they help you get it done, and they’re gonna help you get it done even better than you would have other.

[10:20] Because you have the coach or that mentor, that person outside of you. Here’s the other thing about having a coach or a mentor, and this is just the first one. I’m gonna give you several, several things that have worked for you before because you’ve, you’ve, if you’ve participated in any sport or any activity, you had a coach.

[10:36] You’ve probably had mentors in your life that has worked. Here’s another example. Ruben Gonzalez, who I interviewed Ruben back in episode 165, four-time Olympian in Luge Ruben’s coming on again. This very next episode. So next week, if you’re listening to this, the week I publish this the next week, uh, the next episode 388 is with Ruben Gonzalez, or if you’re listening to this sometime in the future, it’s the episode right after this one.

[11:01] He published a book called The Shortcut, and the shortcut essentially is about his shortcut from going from a. Below average athlete, he was a college athlete. He was actually on, on the soccer team in college, but he was like, he was like, I was pretty much a water boy. You know, he, he walked on and he, he wasn’t really on the team, wasn’t good enough to be on the team, and he’ll tell you that he’s a freaking four-time Olympian.

[11:26] But he had a shortcut. And there, there’s so much more to it, so much more nuance than this. But the shortcut was having a coach and really listening to what the coach shared. And, and Ruben really breaks this down for us in, uh, in the next episode. I think you’re gonna really enjoy that. He’s got some great stories too.

[11:41] But you also had coaches, you also had mentors. You had people who poured into you when you found success in your life. So replicate it. What has worked that? , and it’s gonna work for you in other areas of your life too. Maybe you’re crushing it at work and you’re making tons of money, but you’re like, man, I really gotta, I can’t get my health and fitness lined, strained out, or I need to really dial things in in my relationship, pay more attention to my spouse or my kids, or whatever it is.

[12:06] You can replicate this in other areas of your life. Of course, if you wanna have that conversation, give me a ring. You can grab time on my calendar. Just go to jimharshawjr.com/apply. You can apply for a free coaching call with me. All right, let’s move on past the first one second. Here’s what’s worked for you, for you to be consistent, for you to be focused, for you to be locked in, for you to execute at your highest level.

[12:27] Here’s what’s worked for you. Deadlines. You ever had a project at work? Of course you have. You have a deadline, you get it done. You ever, I had a project due or a test coming up in school. Yeah. You had deadlines and you got it done because you had the deadline. You ever signed up for a 5K race marathon? I got trained.

[12:47] I did, I signed up for a marathon a few years ago and I was like, well, damn, I guess now I better start increasing my running. And the deadline came and I ran the freaking marathon because I had a deadline. You ever plan a vacation and, and think about like the week before vacation, especially the day before vacation.

[13:06] You’re 2, 3, 4, 5 times as productive. You’re consistent. You’re locked in, you’re focused because you have to go on vacation. You have to get things set up so that you can leave. The office or leave work for a week. So you get focused, you get consistent because you had the deadline. Can you create a deadline?

[13:26] Can you make some kind of commitment? Can you find a way to put a deadline on the calendar? I mean, to be honest, the story I shared about the coach and me getting the small action items done leading up to my coaching call, there was a deadline there too, right? So some of these overlap. I had a. And the second one here is, is deadlines.

[13:45] Do you have deadlines? Find ways to implement deadlines. Put them on your calendar. Have other people hold you accountable, make a commitment, and create deadlines. Right? So that’s the second one. The third one. Is social accountability. Social accountability. This is about you. It’s about status, about being part of a group.

[14:04] It’s about who you are. Like I’m part of this F three workout group. I’ve talked about F3 before I interviewed the founder of F three back in episode 275, Dave Redding goes by Dredd. That’s his nickname in F3. All of us in F3 get nicknames. I dunno if I’ve ever shared it on the podcast before, but mine is Grappler.

[14:23] That’s my nickname. They weren’t very creative that morning. Uh, I was a college wrestler and they didn’t have their creative hats on. So it’s kind of good because you never know what you’re gonna get when it comes to naming time. But I’m part of this F three workout group and there’s just a social accountability.

[14:37] I’m not paying any money, anything like that. I just. There’s this group of guys who expects me to be there, and I expect them to be there. And there’s a social accountability, so I’m more likely to show up. I’m more likely to do it. Another one is just being on a team, like being on a sports team. Like when I was on a sports team, there was social accountability like.

[14:58] If I wanna be more consistent, more focused, and you know, I’m on a college wrestling team and you know, I’ve got my teammates who are all locked in, dialed in, they’re, they’re focused, they’re consistent, they’re working towards the same goals. And if they’re doing it, guess what? I’m gonna be doing it too.

[15:14] Like get around those people. This is part of what we call the environment of excellence. This is a specific part of our coaching program. We actually work on this, the environment of. When I was wrestling at the University of Virginia, I had an environment of excellence. There was social accountability. I was around not only my wrestling teammates, but all these other amazing athletes, University of Virginia athletic department’s, one of the top-ranked athletic departments year in, year out.

[15:38] It’s consistently in the top 10. It’s been in the top five. And when they rank rank overall the all of the sports performance, it’s one of the best. And I was around all these athletes, these great players from all these different sports. There was social account. And you know, church is another one, right?

[15:54] There’s just, when you go to church, you make friends, you make connections, and I feel like, gosh, if we don’t go, like my pastor’s not gonna see me there and these friends that I have made there, they’re not gonna see me there. There’s this kind of the social accountability at work and at play as well. So how can you use this to your advantage?

[16:12] What has worked, this has worked for you? Social accountability has worked for you, replicate that. Replicate that in every area of your life. I don’t care if you’re a high performer, you’re like, man, I’m doing pretty good. I don’t have any social accountability. I don’t have a coach. I don’t have a mentor.

[16:28] There’s no deadlines, but I’m kind of performing pretty well there. Guess what? You’re leaving too much on the table. There’s more in the tank. There’s another gear to drive around with the park and brake on. You can get to a higher level. Implement these things I’m talking about here. All right, so that’s the third one.

[16:42] The next one, put freaking money on the line. Put money on the. That’ll make you consistent. That’ll make you focused. You show up to work every day, don’t you? Why? Because there’s money on the line. You don’t show up to work. You do it enough times, you get fired, you don’t get the paycheck. There’s money on the line.

[16:59] I talk about paying for a personal trainer. Not only is there the deadline that’s there, not only is there the coach who’s gonna push you through that workout, the personal trainer, but there’s also money on the. Like, you pay money, you’re gonna show up. I’ve got clients who we work with, they pay us money because they know they’re just gonna get stuff done and they’re not gonna, they don’t wanna waste their money.

[17:22] They don’t wanna just say, ah, Jim, you know, I know I paid for the call, but, um, you know, I’m paying for the coach coaching, but you know, I’m just gonna skip the call. That doesn’t happen. People know the value of this. They put money on the line and it happens. They become more consistent. They become more focused.

[17:41] If you don’t have this in your life, how can you welcome it into your life? Right? Again, whether it’s coaching, whether it’s, you know, paying to sign up for the marathon or paying the gym membership, you’re more likely to take action. What has worked? This has worked for you. It’s helped you be consistent.

[17:58] It’s helped you be focused before. Why not replicate it in your. Here’s the last one, identity. You do things because it’s your identity. You’re consistent and you’re focused because that’s who you are personally. You know, I look back on my wrestling career. I almost quit wrestling in my third year in college.

[18:16] So I, I was in college for five years. I got a master’s degree my fifth year, and I redshirted my first year. You’re not familiar with what that means. You get five years to do. Four years of competition. So you can redshirt one of those years where you, you’re still training, you’re still on the team and practicing with the team every day, but maybe you’re not gonna be the starter that year.

[18:33] So, or, or maybe you’re injured or something like that. Um, you take that year off in terms of competing, actually starting and playing in competitions. And so that’s what I did. I redshirted my freshman year, my first year, but my third year in college, I almost quit because I had health. I had severe asthma.

[18:50] It got really bad. It was a combination of different things in the environment, in, in my, I think in my living environment, we were like basically living in squalor. It was like nine guys living in a, in a house in college and we were a bunch of knuckleheads and nobody cleaned because, you know, parents weren’t there to make us do it, right.

[19:05] We didn’t have that accountability and uh, it was disgusting and that was probably a big part of it. And there was just, I think, other factors as well. So I had these really bad health issues with my asthma. It got really severe. I was on all this medicine. And this medicine makes your heart bump faster.

[19:20] And it’s like, you know, you’re pushing yourself as hard as you possibly can. Every practice, every single day. And there’s some real health concerns there. And when actually my dad proposed it to me, he said, Hey, maybe, maybe you need to step away from the sport. And I cried. I cried and I cried because I cared so much.

[19:38] Like this is who I was. I was the guy on the wrestling. I was consistent. I was focused because that’s who I was. Now most, every single other person at the University of Virginia was not a wrestler. Right. , when you, when you think about if I quit, I would’ve been normal, would’ve been just like every other student.

[19:57] Right? But that wasn’t my identity. That wasn’t normal for me. My identity was as a wrestler and you can say that’s good. You can say that’s bad, but there’s a lot of positives that came with that. That kind of stuff can become a negative once you’re done, let’s say with a sport and you lose your identity and you kinda go off the rails in your life.

[20:13] And I certainly know people who have done that, but that was my identity at the time and therefore I stayed consistent. I stayed focused. I was around that environment of excellence. I was around the other guys and I had coaches in my life and there was money, scholarship money on the line. You know, there’s so many things.

[20:28] Around that they helped me be consistent, helped me be focused and maximize my potential. Now, had I not had some of these things, yeah, I would’ve been pretty good wrestler. People have been like, yeah, he was pretty good wrestler, but he would’ve never gotten on the podium at the national championships.

[20:43] How about you? This works for you too. How do you leverage this or how do you make yourself or help yourself grow in, in your identity in some area of your life, right? You’re like, man, Jim, I’m not really dialed in. I’m not really consistent and focused in this area, and I really, you know, I feel like I should be mentally sort of performing at a mediocre level, but, you know, I, I think that’s who I am.

[21:05] My identity is at this mediocre level and I can’t, you know, get to that my next level, whatever that next level is for you, if you feel stalled. You’ve got to work on this identity piece and actually, actually talk more, more broadly about this sort of in the environment of excellence episode back in episode 355, 355.

[21:23] If you wanna grab that next, that’d be a great one to listen to. Next is episode 3 55 about the environment of excellence, but the identity can be impacted through things like your. Right mantras, things that you say, you have to be on top of this. You have to be aware of this. You have to do the mindset work to really craft and create and leverage this identity piece.

[21:47] Otherwise, it’s just something like a good idea. You heard on a podcast sometime, people talk to people like Michael Chandler, who you know is one of the best UFC fighters in the world who I’ve out on the podcast a couple of times now. He talks about this like he does the work, he does the work. He always talks about it.

[22:01] He’s like, I was a small kid from a STA small town who was taught to think. But he does and has done and does currently the mindset work every day. Part of that is your speech mantras, right? Part of that is the people you’re around, right? The MA being part of a mastermind group. My clients, they get more outta life because they’re around other people with similar goals.

[22:24] They’re high performers and they wanna perform even higher. So they’re part of these groups and they get more out of themselves, right? And they be take on the identity of the others in the. The other part of this is you have to feel it like you want that identity of being that next level of performer for yourself.

[22:41] I don’t care what level you’re at, you want that identity you wanna feel and become that next level of performer. You have to feel it now. People call this the law of attraction in sports. It’s visualization, right? People call it manifesting. Fake it till you make it. Whatever. Whatever you wanna call it.

[22:58] Be that person. Now, feel that person now. Act as if you are that person now. All right, so I’ve shared with you several things here. Five different. Hiring a coach or a mentor, having deadlines, social accountability, putting money on the line, identity. And you may think to yourself, yeah, but I should just be able to do this on my own.

[23:23] Jim, I don’t need these things. Why do I need these things? That’s I’m not good enough because if I need those things, bull crap. Sure. You know, you listen to some guru on another podcast or you read their book and they wake up every morning and work out, and they have an amazing relationship with their spouse and they’re making tons of money.

[23:39] But you have to realize that they have these things in place too. This is how it works. Hugh Jackman, you know the, the movie star, Hugh Jackman, he’s not just jacked because he has like self-discipline. He has a trainer. J.K Rolling, author of the Harry Potter books, and Steven Pressfield, who I’ve had on here a couple of times now, three times now, is an amazing author.

[24:00] They failed over and over, but their identity was, I am an author. This is who I am. This stuff works. These world-class performers have these things in their lives. Why not you, Tom Brady? He’s not just the goat because he’s co. He has coaches. Do you have a coach? I do. And my coach leads me to breakthroughs and holds me accountable, and there’s deadlines and I have money on the line.

[24:23] My coach was a huge factor in me being able to stand right here talking to you because I was able to quit my, my dream job making six figures and my, you know, Great job. I loved what I did. I was a major gift fundraiser flying all over the place and, you know, shaking hands and kissing babies and raising, you know, millions of dollars for the University of Virginia Athletic Department.

[24:43] I was flying on the university private jet and, you know, on the charter flights with the football team and the charter flights with the basketball team and getting behind-the-scenes access and going to the final four and doing all kinds of fun stuff, being down on the football field for kickoff.

[24:57] Like great job, but guess what? This is my. Doing what I’m doing right now, standing here talking to you. But it wouldn’t have happened. It would not have happened without a coach. How about you? Do you have these things in place? Make sure you download this action plan. It has the link to that spreadsheet in there where you can download that, put your goals in and start tracking your goals, and then also your micro goals.

[25:24] We call those. The monthly goals are called the micro goals, and then you’re gonna start getting scores on those and track yourself, okay? That’s gonna help you be more consistent, more focused. Don’t just let this go in one ear out the other. Take action. Good luck. Thanks for listening. If you want to apply these principles into your life, let’s talk.

[25:44] You can see the limited spaces that are open on my calendar at jimharshawjr.com/apply, where you can sign up for a free one-time coaching call directly with me. And don’t forget to grab your action plan. Just go to jimharshawjr.com/action. And lastly, iTunes tends to suggest podcasts with more ratings and reviews more.

[26:06] You would totally make my day if you give me a rating and review. Those go a long way in helping me grow the podcast audience. Just open up your podcast app. If you have an iPhone, do a search for success through failure, select it, and then scroll the whole way to the bottom where you can leave the podcast a rating and review.

[26:24] Now, I hope this isn’t just another podcast episode for you. I hope you take action on what you learned here today. Good luck and thanks forl listening.

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