My Month in Personal Growth – February 2018

by | Mar 2, 2018 | Brainwash Yourself, Company Culture, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Gary Vee, Goal Setting, Inky Johnson, Investing, Jim Kwik, Monthly Growth Updates, Morning Routines, Ray Dalio, Robin Sharma, Tim Ferris, Vishen Lakhiani

Yaaaaaaaaaaay!

I made it to my second monthly personal growth post!

A year from now, these posts will be a great resource.  Again, I’m all about brainwashing myself.  Repetition helps.  So I will use this this partially as a record of all of my favorite talks.  Last month, I embedded 12 of my favorites.  This month, I will add to it.

Not sure how many yet; let’s find out together.

Here’s my month in personal growth.

1.  Gary Vee

I know I started off the last one with Gary Vee.

I’m sorry that I’m not sorry.  I will have to give him his own place sooner or later and I thought I might as well do it now.

After all, I did watch one of the best talks I’ve ever seen from him this month.

But first, I need to post this one:

I watch this one a lot.  It helps me beat back those “money is the root of all evil” limiting beliefs.  I try to let it bring me to tears if I can.  I am grateful to have Gary Vee as a role model.  And I cannot wait to take on projects like these.

Now that I have this one saved, let’s move on to that talk.

It was basically a run down of Gary’s story and his usual spiel.  I thought it was especially succinct and practical.  I also appreciated him pushing people toward Facebook, Amazon, and eCommerce arbitrage.  He really cares about helping people.  Then, the Q & A session was straight up 🔥🔥🔥.  I listen to most of Gary’s keynotes because we are both digital marketers.  This is one is definitely unique.

Check:

The first half is the talk.  The second half is the Q & A.

Rewatching it, I took a lot of notes.  They are mostly for me, but I’d thought I’d share them for thee of little attention span who only wants to hear the hot takes.

These are some good ones anyway.

The questions for the Q & A were uncharacteristically specific.  And Gary went deep with them all.  One of the best Q & As I’ve seen after one of his talks.

It starts here.  I gave his answers their own names, for my future convenience.

Without context, these clips might not mean anything to you.  But I will definitely be coming back to them later.

Aside from this talk, I’ve also watched through other clips from his teams and others a few times this month.

Again, great brainwashing.

Message from the Author:

Hi! Thanks for reading. 😊

Some of the content from this section has moved.

Namely, some of my favorite Gary Vee videos were originally posted here.

Straight from my YouTube history to yours.

Moving on.

2.  Ray Dalio

I think it’s about time I introduced myself to this guy.

Ray Dalio is basically the greatest hedge fund investor of all time.  His company, Bridgewater Associates, LP “manages about $150 billion dollars in global investments for approximately 350 of the largest and most sophisticated institutional clients”, according to their website’s meta description.  He also wrote Principles, a #1 New York Times Best Seller and Amazon Business Book of the Year.

He is highly respected by some of the business and personal growth leaders I look up to most.

After watching a few of his talks and interviews, I see why.

But first, I’d like to recommend a video by him.  It explains some things about the economy, they should have taught you in school.  It is relevant to investors and everyday people.  After all, everyone is affected by market cycles.

This may actually help you better navigate the next recession:

Next, his TED Talk was great.

Then, we have two interviews.

Both of these interviewers tend to dominate all conversations.  And it seems like both of them put Ray a little off balance.  Still, it’s hard not extract gold nuggets from the guy.  Plus, they are always full of such nuggets themselves.

First, the GOAT, Tony Robbins.

Then my boy Gary, with a guest appearance by one of my other favorite people.

Then this one, I haven’t yet watched.  But I am bookmarking it here, for me.

I always like to learn what I can from guys like this.  Hopefully, I can manage to get in the same room with him one day.

I’m sure it would be great for my head.

My next one though, is great for my heart.

3.  The Inky Johnson Story

I won’t ruin these with any sort of spoilers.

Just frickin’ listen:

I keep this version of the same speech in my compilations playlist.  I think the background music adds a ‘lil bit to it.

As good as that speech is, this one may be even better:

The first one provides a better intro to his story.  But the second has some additional themes and some added context.  In my opinion, hearing the first one makes the second one more powerful.

I highly recommend Inky Johnson to any middle, high school, or college athlete.  I also recommend him to parents of aspiring athletes.  No one embodies the champion’s mindset quite like Inky Johnson.

He has some useful catchphrases, like “empty the bucket” and “process over product” that are great mental programs to install.  He also understands how motivating it can be to put other people first.  I sometimes have trouble explaining this concept to people.  Inky gets the point across with emotion.

Here is another example from 8 hours ago that I just found on his twitter:  2 minutes that might make you a better parent.  I cannot wait to book him to speak!

But I’ll stop talking about him.  Go watch those talks.

4.  “Beginner’s” Mastermind

Next, I just have to get some things recorded.

I have a weekly mastermind at my house where I basically create personal growth lessons for my friends.  The only person who comes really consistently is Austin, my assistant.  I actually make him come.  Yes, brainwashing.  And yes, he is my guinea pig.

Anyway, I had a few new “initiates” last month.  And I realized that I need to record my intro lesson a little bit better.

I actually left out some crucial parts for both of them.  We’ve since made those misses up.  But I don’t want to miss them again.

So:

We will probably throw in a few others eventually.

For now, these videos serve to help me show people the zipper on their sheep suits.  This is the first step to taking it off and realizing that you are a wolf.  Wolves are much better at setting goals—and achieving them.  And believe it or not, a wolf cares about its pack a lot more than any sheep cares about its flock.

Analogies are fun, but back to practicality.

5. Morning Routines

We spent a whole mastermind on morning routines.

I thought I might record all of the videos we watched so that I won’t have to find them again.  Eventually, I’ll probably put them in their own post so that I can find and add to them even more easily.

If you’re trying to optimize your routine, there is a lot of science in these…

I have since moved these videos to my Morning Routines page.

You’ll also find more that I’ve learned since then.

…So that’s that.  Just a record.  I am still working to hammer down my own routine so I don’t have much to add on the topic.  Just recording the knowledge for myself and sharing it with others.

Winning the mornings helps me win my days.

Many elite performers agree.

Brainwashing accepted.

Two posts down, and it feels good.

But I’ve made it this far before:

On the old ZachBradshaw.co (before the .com became available), I dropped two “how to work from home” posts in consecutive weeks with plans to release more on a weekly basis.  I failed.  So next month, the third post in this series will be a bit of a milestone.

I anticipate heavy Philosopher’s Notes TV consumption next this month.  So don’t be surprised if you see another 20+ video post.

Until then, thanks for reading.

:)