SHOWNOTES
All about Programming Your Life...
Have you ever felt like you needed to shake things up or try something new? After being at home for weeks on end, I was looking for some inspiration.
What I found helped me see a consistent pattern. There really can be “order” in the chaos.
You’ll hear about programs I have chosen to change my life and business. Even more importantly I hope you’ll see how using a program, following in the steps of someone who has already figured things out, can be a huge benefit.
Not just in business (though there are plenty of great programs) but in life.
I explain which programs I used to help me:
Stop smoking
Run a 10K
Stop drinking
Change my eating habits
Change my eating habits again (COVID-19 is to blame)
Let’s keep the conversation going on Instagram.
What program have you found helpful? I’d love to know what has worked for you.
You’re also invited to join the Front Row Classroom. I’d love to connect with you there too.
RESOURCES
Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking
TRANSCRIPT
(00:03): Hey guys, it's Gary Vaynerchuk and you're listening to the Front Row Entrepreneur Podcast with our girl, Jen.
(00:14): When COVID first hit and the lockdown started happening right about the same time I got this email from Ryan Holiday, who's the author of the book "The Obstacle is the Way". And every day you got like a little challenge that was based on the teachings of the Stoics for these 13 days or 16 days. I don't remember how long it was, but not important. Anyway, one day one of the challenges said, sign up for a new diet or health program or fitness program. He said it doesn't matter what it is, just sign up. And before you send me a bunch of messages about how bad diets are and yo yo dieting and all that. I want to rewind the tape a little bit and go back in time with you. So I was 29 years old and it was January the sixth. And I decided that I was going to quit smoking.
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(01:02): I didn't just decide on January the sixth, actually I had known whatever. Let's say maybe I had planned it starting three weeks prior. And I started, I wanted to set myself up to be successful. I had never tried to quit before, and I didn't want to be one of those people that went around saying, Oh, I tried to quit and failed. And I've tried 20 times. I didn't want to do that. I just wanted to quit one time and be done with it. So I got this book and it was called Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking. And he, the whole book was really so powerful, but he, he had a couple of nuggets in there that really spoke to me. One was don't think about what you're giving up, but what you're gaining. So you're not, you're not, you didn't give up smoking.
(01:49): You you're gaining health. Also your identity, you don't identify yourself as an ex-smoker. You're becoming fill in the blank. So for me, I decided I wasn't an ex-smoker. I was an athlete or I was someone who cared. I was a health nut. Okay. So I signed up again in advance before. So this was all like set up. So that on day one, I could be successful. I signed up for this running clinic, for the Cooper river bridge run in Charleston, South Carolina. It was a 10 K run. And the very first evening the trainings were in the evening. We showed up at a high school track and there were a whole bunch of people there. And I went and found the coach and I said, Hey, I just want to let you know, like I'm in really terrible shape. I'm a smoker.
(02:39): I just quit today. And now I'm going to want to become a runner. And, you know, I did that very deliberately because I knew that I was going to need the support of this coach, the extra support of this coach. I needed someone to understand that this was, this was going to be tough for me. And so the very first thing that we were to do was to run around the track for our, as far as you could get for five minutes, run for five minutes, a run I'm putting in quotation marks. 'Cause there was no running about it for me. But as I started running very quickly, I wasn't much into it. And an 80 year old man lapped me, I didn't know he was 80 at the time. I later got to know him, but yeah, he was, he was 80 and he, he just wooshed past me.
(03:24): And part of the journey of this 10K clinic, this program was that we had to run a 5K. We had to sign up for a five K race on the way to our 10K race at the halfway point. And so I did, so I signed up for this 5k and that 5k completing that 5k was even more important that the 10K I ultimately finished and any subsequent half marathon or marathon that I ever ran. So you could say, and it would be very true that Allen Carr's Smoking Cessation Program. It was a book, but it was very much a program. It changed my life. And then my coach of this clinic, he had a program this 10K running program. It changed my identity. I saw myself in a whole new light. I was someone who could run 10K and beyond.
(04:14): And there were so many programs before and after that. I know I did body for life in my thirties. And then I did fly lady when my kids were little and my house was chaos. If you don't know who fly lady is, she's still around. It's fly lady.net. It's not like it's not like a, what's her face, Marie Kondo. It's a program just to help you keep control of your house. So you can always be neat and tidy without getting, you know, without it turning into chaos and you losing complete control. But I decided to start my business. I, of course, wanted to find a program. So I signed up for programs one at a time, of course, and I worked through them beginning to end. And you know, some of them were better than others, but boy did I learn a lot and did I come away with a lot?
(05:04): And we'll get back to that in a minute. I read a book also called the "Naked Mind, which I later learned is actually a complete plagiarism of another book by Allen Carr. The guy who wrote my smoking book, he wrote one called Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Drinking. When I picked up the book, the naked mind, I didn't know that that was going to be a program. I didn't know. I wasn't planning on quitting drinking. I was curious about the title, but however, after I read it, and then I read Allen Carr's book about quitting drinking, I just decided to follow the program and I quit drinking. And that was about four years ago. And again, it was a program around the same time, decided to try whole 30. And which is, it's a 30 day program where you eat whole foods only pretty restrictive.
(05:49): I ended up staying on that for several years, but then the lockdown started and I started eating junk and I gained weight. And I just felt gross, and that brings us back to our stoicism challenge where we began. And when he said it doesn't matter, which program, just that you pick one, like just pick one. And I was like, you know, that makes so much sense to me. And that is the way I have lived my life. I have jumped from program to program. I'm not whole 30 anymore. Actually, I just started a new program and I've been plant based now during this whole quarantine. And so I'm on a new, I'm on a new program, but I love it because here's the thing, whether it's business or personal, whether it's, you know, about you healthier, your family, whatever it is, there are programs out there that were designed by people who have done all the work for you, and they've laid it out for you.
(06:47): So this is where I want to talk about our business. And as it relates to programming your life and your business, there are seemingly infinite number of courses out there. And many of these courses and programs promise you to get you to a million dollars and guess what they will, they will, it's up to you, right? It doesn't matter which one you pick, pick one. I guarantee you that they all make a good case. And most of them probably have some sort of solid guidance and a foundation in there that is you follow the steps. You're going to get to that million dollar goal or six figure goal, whatever it is that, that what they're promising. But that's a big if right, if you follow the steps, which is the same for any program, any program can be the magic solution to any problem, but you've got to work through the steps and make it so.
(07:48): It's pretty simple. You already know this, but I just want to remind you that you don't need to reinvent the wheel. You don't need to make things harder than they are. The program is there for you, whatever it is, that thing is that you need, you got my, of do a little bit of research. You may start one and this just decide this isn't for me for whatever reason. But nine times out of 10, there's a program out there and in the program is good enough. I'm doing a program right now. I'm back to couch two 10K, because any runner will knows that if you stop running for a few months, or my case has really been like a year, you stop running. When you start over, it's like, you're, you're starting from ground zero. I am that out of shape that God, my lungs are much better, but I'm still that I'm out of shape person on the track so many years ago, starting all over again, but that's okay because I'm armed and equipped with a program.
(08:48): It was just as simple as a conversation with a friend. She's like, Oh, I'm doing a couch to 10K. I said, Oh, which, which program? And she sent me a link to a PDF and it's just a one pager PDF. And it shows me exactly how much to run week one, week two and every day of the week. How far do I run? How, how long do I walk? How many times do I do that? How many rotations of that? How many repeats of that? And I've got it taped up in the kitchen wall and I just love it because it's a program. I can check things off. And at the end of it, I know if I do my work at the end of this program, I am going to see results. So all I gotta do is what the program tells me to do and commit to that and be consistent.
(09:35): It's just so simple. What are some of your favorite programs with relation to your business? Any personal programs that you've joined that you love? Maybe it's, Weight Watchers maybe it's P90X, maybe it's Alcoholics Anonymous or I don't know. There's just so many programs. Maybe it's B school, but I would love to know what have been some of the programs that you have successfully completed that have made a real difference in your life in business. I'm really dying to know. So let's take this conversation over to Instagram. So just comment on my last Instagram post or you'll find this episode actually over on Instagram. And my Instagram handle is @jen_ lehner. And Hey, if you aren't a member of my free online classroom, The Front Row, make sure and join it's front row, classroom.com. And I can't wait to see you there. Thanks for listening. And I'll see you next week.
