Build you life one day at a time (Remove overwhelm) #602

In this episode, Lachlan discusses the importance of building your life one day at a time and living intentionally. He shares his personal journey of growth and the lessons he has learned along the way. Lachlan provides practical steps for backward planning, segmentation, nightly planning, feedback and progress tracking, and flexibility. He emphasises the need to have a clear vision, involve family in the process, and adapt to change. Lachlan concludes by encouraging listeners to start today and take the first step towards building a better life.

• Building your life one day at a time and living intentionally is key to fulfillment and success.
• Having a clear vision and backward planning can help prioritize goals and actions.
• Segmenting your day into personal development, relationships, and professional tasks can create balance and fulfillment.
• Regular feedback and progress tracking, as well as involving family, are important for maintaining balance and addressing concerns.
• Flexibility and adaptability are crucial in navigating change and achieving goals.
• Start today by planning your ideal day, setting priorities, and making time for what truly matters.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Building Life Day by Day
• 8:15 Life Design Blueprint for Success
• 21:05 Live Design Blueprint Enrollment Announcement

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:39

Welcome back to the man that Can Project podcast. I'm your host, lachlan Stewart. Today I want to read you last week's newsletter Build your Life One Day at a Time. It's important to me because over the years I've spoken about so many different topics and I've always tried to understand it to the best of my ability, based on where I was at at that certain point in my life and when you're first learning things you don't necessarily seek to understand or I didn't personally. I was more excited by the fact that I had a new perspective and I ran with it for a while. I ran with it, I implemented it, I gained feedback. That feedback then helped me make better decisions and, I guess, understand what worked well for me and what didn't.

Speaker 1: 2:27

And over the years I've read so many books. I've interviewed hundreds of people and, much like yourself, I've spoken to many people and I've had plenty of failures and plenty of success. And what that has taught me and one huge lesson that it has taught me, sorry is the importance of building your life one day at a time and really seeking to understand how you've managed to achieve the things that you have, or even things that you're curious about, the beliefs that you have the opinions that you share, the people that you surround yourself with, and so I'm going to dive into all of that in this newsletter. But let me just go through reading it, and I'm going to read it. As you guys have probably recognized the last couple of episodes, the solo episodes I am reading the newsletter, but I'm also elaborating on certain things, so forgive me why I'm really trying to get better at reading from the newsletter on the website there, and if you get bored with my voice, go read it yourself over at themanthatcanprojectcom, because I do think a lot about this. I spend a whole week writing it and I try to do it from multiple different perspectives and really answer questions that past Lockie had and also questions that future Lockie would have, and I hope that I do a good job in answering questions that maybe you guys have as well, because I do believe that I am not alone with this. So how do you eat an elephant? We've heard that before, but it's one bite at a time, so I always struggle with this word. Similarly, oh, fuck it, I'm struggle with this word.

Speaker 1: 4:06

Similarly, living a great life is achieved one day at a time. We all face moments where we stand at the base of the mountain, looking up and wondering how do I get up there? Can I get up there? Is that really where I want to go? These questions can lead us down two paths one of growth, optimism and resilience, and one of fear, overwhelm and hesitation. I've personally walked both paths right. Focusing on growth and optimism led to fulfillment, while succumbing to the fear and hesitation left me feeling lost and defeated.

Speaker 1: 4:46

From ages 28 to 35, I have experienced some of the most significant changes in my life, as I believe most people do. This period feels like a true coming of age, where the pressures of being a man, husband, business owner and friend really intensify. It's the age when many of us start families, establish our family life and strive for financial security. The growth and adjustment can feel overwhelming, like starting at the base of a mountain every single day, just looking up going. How am I going to climb this? Do I want to climb this?

Speaker 1: 5:22

Life dangles that carrot, prompting questions like how do I earn more money? How do I be happier? What is truly important to me? And these questions drive our search for intentional living. Yet why are so many men unhappy despite having successful businesses, a loving family and a seemingly perfect life. There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but what I've been experimenting with being more intentional sorry, I've been experimenting with being more intentional with my time over the past couple of years and it has led to the happiest periods of my life.

Speaker 1: 6:04

My marriage is the best it's ever been. I'm getting to see the world and I genuinely love every day, all because I've learned to live intentionally, building your life one day at a time. And living intentionally is like eating an elephant one bite at a time. The key lays in taking one day at a time, taking one action at a time, having one meaningful conversation at a time, and you can probably throw in there earning $1 at a time. Actually, $1 at a time doesn't sound as good as earning $10 at a time, does it? But this approach allows us to build anything, embracing change, feedback and the ability to pivot right. We all know how important it is to learn to pivot, but don't mistake me for living in the moment either. I am clear on the direction that I want my life to go, while being open to allowing life to guide me. There's a great saying life happens for us, not to us. So I believe that any challenge or friction is there to teach me something, and one of the, I guess, best lessons I've learned over the years is to really lean into that.

Speaker 1: 7:18

I went from being in the victim mindset where I thought that life was happening to me, not for me, and when you think it's happening to you, it's very easy to go. Why is this continuing to happen to me? Why is nothing going right? Why does that person not like me? Why can't I get ahead? And when you're coming from that mindset, you're missing out on so many opportunities. I know the network that I had 10 years ago and there were plenty of opportunities there. I just wasn't the person and I also wasn't looking through the right lens to be able to act on that and to really add value to those things to help my life get ahead. Because once again, it was happening to me, not for me, when I was able to shift from a victim mindset. I haven't been dealt a great hand here, however. What can I do? Or I know that I can do something. Let's get to work.

Speaker 1: 8:15

The moment that that approach started happening, I started creating a better life for myself, and that was one day at a time. I look back over the last 10 years of my life. It's now, at the time of recording this, the 15th of August here in America, and, being the 15th of August here, it's 10 years since when I first started, I guess, this journey of building a better life and, as I said at the beginning of this, I've taken so many twists and turns and my ideas around things and beliefs around things have shifted and changed. But this is my journey, this is my experience, and I have an idea of what I'm trying to create, as I'm sure you do. As you're sitting here listening to this, there is a reason why you choose to listen to a personal development podcast right this moment as opposed to other ones you could be listening to, like Theo Vaughan, or comedy or music, even because I believe that you do want to build a better life, and you may be clear on what that looks like for you, or you may be just scratching the surface on what could that look like. What are the steps that I need to take? And, regardless of where you are, I've been there and there are pros and cons to both.

Speaker 1: 9:31

When you're starting the journey, the less you know, I guess, the more oblivious you are to what it really takes, and you can almost fall into this sense of I don't know what the word would be, but I just remember when I first started growing and developing, I was like I'm going to make a million bucks really quickly. And as I've gotten further into business now there's a lot more perceived limitations like oh, before I do that, I have to put a system in place so that I could scale it, or I have to make sure that I don't damage that part of my reputation over here, or I can't neglect this. So I think there are pros and cons, because the more you learn about making money, the more you consider when you're trying to make money, and vice versa, the less you know about making money. If you believe you want to make some, you don't have all the limitations around the things that get in your way like rules and regulations etc. Obviously you want to do things ethically and above board, but, like I said, in the beginning I was just like I'm going to make a million bucks, here's how let's go, whereas now I'm like really strategic, which pros and cons, pros and cons.

Speaker 1: 10:37

So to go back on topic of where we're at with the newsletter, the idea is that I think the older we get and the more responsibility that we carry, the more we need to be intentional with our time. This is why having a vision can be a great way to pull us in the right direction. It's the exact reason why we're launching the Life Design Blueprint, because a lot of people, when they join the Academy and the Academy is our program, where men from all walks of life come to make progress we help you build a clear plan and implement that. But what I would love more people to have an idea of before joining, that is really what they want from their life. And I'm going through an interesting period now where I'm starting to think, hey, I love having a vision for my life, but does that also slow me down and hold me back? Because I'm trying to gain too much clarity.

Speaker 1: 11:31

And, if I'm being completely honest, I have an idea of where I would love my life to be, and it's not as detailed now as it once was or I once made it out to be. And the reason why is I've started to recognize that life happens for me. So, regardless of how great a plan I have, things are going to change. Things are going to pivot and I need to be malleable. I need to be able to roll with the punches, or ride the wave, so to speak. And because of that, now, the way that I look at it and I've mentioned this a number of times on the show that I have the idea of a few values that need to be met and how they are met can change through different seasons of my life, but that is what drives me and that is what fulfills me at this point in time. So, having the direction to know that I want to be hanging around people like this, who make me feel this way and who I can give back to Connection, meaning people who are communicating well, tell me what's really going on and I feel I can do the same.

Speaker 1: 12:31

Health I love health. I ran two marathons over the last two days, which is a first for me, and I'll probably talk about that more later, when I launch the 58 to 58. And then there's travel and adventure and wealth. So I have an idea of all of that and what I do daily, building my life one day at a time, is moving me closer to that, but also accepting that change is inevitable and I will need to pivot and I will need to ride the wave. As it happens what I would love to give you now and once again, if you would like to see these steps written down, head over to themanthatcanprojectcom, go to the newsletter, and this will be under build your life one day at a time, but the detailed steps of the vision and moving you in the right direction are as this, and I want to keep it very simple, because I believe the more simple things appear to be and are, the more likely that you believe and you will take the required action to achieve that. So step number one is backward planning. So keep it simple. Start with the long-term vision and let's say whether it's three, five or 10 years, right, and break it down into smaller, more manageable steps for the three years, two years, one year, quarters, months, weeks and daily tasks. If you find that overwhelming, just go. Hey, in five years time, I'd love to be earning $100,000 a year online. I'd love to have two kids and be able to spend my days how I choose to be. Then you can work backwards from that. In 12 months time, I need to get to this milestone. Now. You just focus on that 12-month or 12-week block to move forward, and what we do within the academy is we help you get clear on that. But we then just focus on the 12-week block at hand. That's just that 12-week block is all you need to prioritize in that moment.

Speaker 1: 14:27

Step two segmentation. So me them work is how I like to break it down, and I'm going to explain that now. But you may also listen to this and go, hey, I've got an idea of something that works better for you. If that's the case, do that. That's fine. This is just what works well for me. But the segmenting my day is as simple as this. I essentially just allocate time for personal development, or me time, ultimately things for fulfilling me, whether it's learning, guitar training, anything like that. Then I do time for relationships, so the them time with my wife, with people outside of me, and then professional tasks, which is work. If I put it in those three baskets, it's very easy for me to feel more balanced and more fulfilled because I'm giving time to the things that are most important to me. And, as I said, if that doesn't work well for you, try and find something that allows you to give time to important areas of your life every single day. That's essentially all I'm trying to do.

Speaker 1: 15:28

Number three is nightly planning and setting priorities. So plan ahead right. Planning ahead is just giving yourself direction, whether it's for the next day, the next week, the next month right. When you have direction, you feel like you have purpose and more certainty and it's a lot easier to take action. So allocate sorry, prioritize and set realistic goals for the next day. Each night, it'll literally take you maximum 10 minutes. You're going to have meetings and things that are already in there, but then you could say I want to train tomorrow, or I want to go for a walk or I want to do a date night. Put those things in there, but focus on the priorities. Ask yourself what has to happen today to make it a successful day. Ensure that daily priorities align with your weekly, monthly and quarterly goals. That's the best way to prioritize things that I've found. Once again, if you have something better, implement that.

Speaker 1: 16:26

Number four is regular feedback and progress tracking. So involve your family. If you've got a family, include your family in the feedback process to ensure balance and address any concerns. Now you may think that you're crushing it because you're working 16-hour days and you're seeing the dollar values increase in your bank account, but if you don't talk to your family about it, they might say, hey, dad or Lockie or whatever, we haven't seen you at all. We feel disconnected. Our family is falling apart. I don't care how many zeros we have in the bank account, we want time back right. So get the buy-in, because when you're having to do a sprint at work or you're allowing yourself to slow down, you can get your family involved and your success becomes their success, which becomes family success. So track progress as well. So regularly review and adjust goals in key areas like relationships, health, finances and lifestyle.

Speaker 1: 17:23

Now finally, fifth and final, flexibility. Embrace change. As I said to you, it's moving from that victim mindset it's happening to me, not for me to an abundant mindset. It's happening for me. Understand that plans will change and trust me, this challenged me to an abundant mindset. It's happening for me. Understand that plans will change and trust me, this challenged me more than most people. I'm one of the most structured and routine-driven individuals that I know, but I really had to lean into that in order to improve my life. Adapt and use the changes to create momentum towards your goals. Right, it's like riding a wave for anyone who's ever surfed. When you drop in it and if you see it's bottoming out or barreling out. You can either change, jump off the back or just hit the sand all your choices, finally zoom out with that flexibility piece. So look at the big picture when things don't go to plan and then zoom back in to make more informed decisions, and it's really a powerful reframe on how you can view your life.

Speaker 1: 18:21

You may be struggling in the moment. Actually, let's use the marathons as the example. So I ran two marathons over two consecutive days because it is a great way for me to train for the 58 to 58. Because it is a great way for me to train for the 58 to 58. The reason I was doing two back-to-back was not to, I guess, prove to myself that I could do the two. I believed I could do the two.

Speaker 1: 18:43

I was very interested to see how I would recover, because an area that I'm struggling with, or don't have enough information around, is how I would recover from big endurance events like that. So I did it, not to break any records with times or anything, but to say, hey, how's my body going to pull up in the morning? What foods are going to work well for me? How many calories do I need to eat? And in the moment I found myself yesterday looking at the time going oh, now I want to go 545 minute kilometer averages. And I started really focusing in on that and it started getting in my head and what I had to do was zoom out again and go Lockie, the reason why you're doing this is not for times, times don't matter. You need to zoom out. What's the thing that we're trying to learn here? And I was able to sort of get my head back in the right spot. Then I could zoom back in and just focus on one step at a time and really was able to drop the time beside me. So powerful tool learning to zoom in and zoom out with your goals and ambitions.

Speaker 1: 19:42

Now I can guarantee your life is different to mine, which is bloody awesome, but I know you can implement a few of these steps and see the improvements in your life. It's up to you to choose how you do it. I use Apple Notes, apple Calendars and Reminders, which keeps things simple for me. I've used Microsoft Teams, google Professional Suites, etc. But for me, I carry my iPhone everywhere. My business isn't too complex with how things run, so it can run off my phone.

Speaker 1: 20:11

For you, the situations may be different, but if you think about. You have a note-taking area, you have a calendar to schedule things and you have reminders to remind you of tasks that you should be doing regularly just keeps it simple and allows you to remind yourself of what's important. Okay, so remember, living intentionally is about taking it one day at a time. Start today by planning your ideal day, setting your priorities and making time for what truly matters. You'll be amazed at the difference it can make. Take the first bite of your elephant. Today is how I summarize that. If you got value from that, please leave a rating and review or reach out to me via Instagram if you have any, I guess, challenges that you're experiencing in your life and a couple of things to remind yourself of.

Speaker 1: 21:03

We do have the Focus sorry, it's not Focus Success System anymore.

Speaker 1: 21:06

We do have the live design blueprint intake starting in 21 days. Now, if you would like to be part of that, I'm running that live, so not only will you get the information and you'll get access to the group and all of those things. I'll be there live to answer your question. So, if you really want a limited experience because I am running it live for the first couple of times, because I want to gain feedback around it and I want to really engage with you guys and make it the best possible course. If you want the live action for a fraction of the cost of what it's like to work with me, definitely enroll in this intake. You can do that over at my website, themanthatcanprojectcom, and go to the life design blueprint there on the homepage. Under courses, everyone, or the first 10 people who enroll, will get a one-to-one coaching session with me, valued at $500. My name is Lachlan Stewart. Thank you, guys for tuning in. As always, do something today to be better for tomorrow and I look forward to seeing you next week.