I think we sometimes say tomorrow me will be so productive.

And I would just say like, well, what is, what about today you? And I think about that sometimes. Another way I say it is like, I want to hook up future me. I'm constantly trying to think about how do I hook up future me? And future me can be tomorrow me. So that can mean I do these three projects today and not put them off to tomorrow because I don't want to screw tomorrow me.

It can mean I go to bed on time because morning me is going to be screwed.

Like we've all had that experience where you wake up and you're like, stupid evening me got so cocky and stayed up to 1 a.m.

And like, oh, screwed my morning.

And it's like, hey, sorry.

So like, it can mean, you know, saving for your retirement. Like, I want 60 me to be like, man, I'm so glad that when you were 47, you did these things. Like, thanks for doing sucky stuff you didn't want to do financially at 47, even though it wasn't fun, even though. So I think that's something I'd say too, is like, what would it look like for you to hook up next week you?

Or next year you, or next month you?

Because I think if you think about it that way,

it changes how you approach today and makes you go,

no, I'm going to make tomorrow really easy for me.

I'm going to love me enough to do the hard work today,

because tomorrow is going to be grateful.

Today we have John Akef with us. John is a nine times New York Times bestselling author. He's an expert in leadership, an expert in personal growth. We're going to talk about goal setting

today. We're going to talk about overcoming limiting beliefs, priorities, and a whole lot more. John, welcome the show. Thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to it. Well, good. Well, I know you have a new book out that's all about setting goals and the importance of goals. But one thing I saw you recently speak on is overcoming limiting beliefs. I know you talked about five things specifically. What are some things that we all need to do to overcome limiting beliefs? And then how do we identify those? Well, the easiest way to identify them actually have something people can do in 30 seconds. It's very simple. All you have to do is write down a goal. It could be any goal. I want to start a podcast. I want to lose 10 pounds. I want to know my spouse better. I want to get my diploma. Write down a goal and then listen to your reaction. Listen to your internal reaction to the goal because every reaction is an education. Your first thoughts are telling you what you really believe about yourself, about your abilities. So if your first thoughts are, who are you to do that? You could never do that. Somebody smarter has already done that. The last 10 diets failed. Why would this one work? They're negative. Or they're positive. You should do this. It's time to do this. You've got to go for it. So that's a really simple way to discover if you have what I call broken soundtracks. Soundtracks is just a phrase I use for a repetitive thought. But if you want to

start the first part of the process, all you have to do is write down a goal and then listen to your first thoughts. I love it. It's so good. That's a different way that I've heard I think anybody frame limiting beliefs. But it's important. It's, hey, you set a goal. You're going to start listing off the reasons you can't do it or all the reasons why, yeah, we're going to hit that or

solutions to hit it faster. So good. Oh, thanks, man. Why should somebody write a book, in your opinion? Well, I mean, I think you, number one, you benefit because it encourages you to grow, to kind of formulate an idea and go, oh, I do believe this or let me test this. The way I write books is I find a problem I have. And then I go, can I figure out a solution for this? And then I work and I work and I test it. I test it. I test it. I always tell people, unless you test, it's a guess. So when somebody says, I want to run 100 miles, I'll go, well, based on what? And if you haven't tested it and gone, I ran for a month, here's what I found.

Ooh, now I can increase it. Now I can. Most of our goals are guesses. And then guesses fail so easily. So I think one, you learn about yourself. Number two, you're able to serve other people. Like if you really say, if you really want to know something, teach it. and so like when you kind of, it forces you to simplify

the idea, to boil the idea down. And so like for me, I could tell you a thousand words about fear or I could say fear gets a voice, not a vote. Like I've had to boil that down. What do I mean by that? I mean, I'm going to listen to it. I don't ignore it because you don't get to be self-aware if you ignore your fears. I process them. It has a voice, but it doesn't get a vote. It doesn't get to sit at the head of my table and go, you don't get to do this, John. Here's what you're doing. I don't give fear the gavel to say, this is what my life's like. So that phrase, though, I can boil that down because I've written on it, because I've talked about it. So it simplifies your thinking in a really beautiful way.

It takes you places you don't think you'll go. I can boil that down because I've written on it, because I've talked about it. So it simplifies

your thinking in a really beautiful way. It takes you places you don't think you'll go. Every book ever written didn't start out exactly that way. Like you grew during the process. And so you start out with a concept and then by the time you get to the end of it, you're different. The concept is different. And then it's brave. And I think it's good to practice doing brave things.

I think it's, you know, because then when you're different. The concept is different. And then it's brave. And I think it's good to practice

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