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Habits and Hustle

Episode 231: Ozan Varol: How to Stop Overthinking and Start Quitting

Habits and Hustle

Jen Cohen

Entrepreneurship, Education, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Business

4.5818 Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2023

⏱️ 69 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How much do you get done when you’re multi-tasking? In this episode of Habits and Hustle, I chat with Ozan Varol about the importance of staying focused on only one thing at a time to maximize productivity, how to stop overthinking, and why we need to learn how to quit. He also shares the importance of taking some time to do nothing, such as staring out a window. Oftentimes, sitting with your thoughts is more productive than answering emails. Ozan Varol is a rocket scientist turned award-winning professor, #1 bestselling author, and internationally acclaimed speaker. He is one of the world’s foremost experts in creativity, innovation, and critical thinking. He helps industry-leading organizations reimagine the status quo with moonshot thinking. What we discuss: 02:03: What does it mean to escape conformity? 04:10: Why should we unlearn the habits we have picked up? 08:44: Why should you stop multi-tasking? 11:43: What’s the tinfoil-wrapped chocolate theory? 15:18: What is Ozan’s villain story? 17:22: What made Ozan want to write a book about nonconformity? 21:26: Can quitting be the solution? 24:54: Is persistence always the answer? 25:21: Where can you find the courage to quit? 28:51: Why are you still doing things the same way? 34:12: What are the adverse reactions to meditations? 39:01: What about Ozan doesn’t fit into the bucket of being a rocket scientist? 43:18: How can we stop overthinking? 46:26: How can we become more resilient? 52:26: What’s the worst piece of advice that Ozan has received? 55:26: What is a brain attic? 01:01:22: Why you should stop calling your office “the office”? Key Takeaways: Experimenting beats overthinking every single time. Oftentimes, we spend a lot of time thinking about the plan for a new project we want to work on. The problem with that is we often get stuck in this stage, as it gives us the illusion we’re making progress when in reality, we’ve made no progress at all. That’s why it’s important that you skip the overthinking and overplanning stage and instead, experiment. By taking action, you learn quickly enough the things you’ve been trying to find out by “thinking” and can adapt quicker.  Knowing when to quit is just as important as knowing when you need to keep pushing. Sometimes, the job you have isn’t cutting it anymore, and quitting it is what will bring you to your next level. In other cases, your business may feel impossible to break even but you need to keep pushing. Whatever it is you are doing or want to accomplish, it’s important you know how to quit and put your foot on the pedal. Most of the habits we have picked up were habits created by other people who ingrained them into us. They thought for us, and we simply take on what they pass on without questioning it. However, that’s no way to live through life as a life of conformity is in no way a fruitful one. You are meant to use your thinking skills to ideate a life you want for yourself and put it into play. Thank you to our sponsors: This episode is sponsored by Hostinger. Visit Hostinger.com/HABITS and use promo code HABITS for an extra 10% off. Go to organifi.com/hustle and use code HUSTLE for 20% off your entire order. To learn more about Ozan: Website: https://ozanvarol.com/ Book: https://ozanvarol.com/awaken/ My links: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it.

0:10.4

Today on the podcast, we have Ozan Verrol. He initially wrote Think Like a Rocket Scientist,

0:16.3

and he's actually been on the podcast before, but he was such a wonderful guest that he's back on

0:21.7

with his new book called, Awaken Your Genius, Escape Conformity, Ignite Creativity, and Become Extraordinary.

0:28.7

And you are extraordinary, so I'm so happy to have you on the podcast.

0:32.7

Thank you. So glad to be back and to meet you in person.

0:34.9

I know. The first time, like, we were doing this virtually,

0:38.3

and I had computer problems back then, too, or social media problems. And I always am like,

0:44.6

you're a rocket scientist. You can figure this out. So excuse me, because now I have the same situation.

0:49.6

So I'm now using my computer here for my questions. But for those of you who don't know Ozan, like I said, he did write that book called Think Like a Rocket Scientist, but he is pretty remarkable. He is a rocket scientist. He's a lawyer. He's a law professor, a speaker, basically an author, obviously. And are you writing these books yourself? Yes. You are. I'm writing them myself. Yeah. I love, and I want to say this, and I said this

1:14.2

before we even started rolling, was I really enjoyed this. I've enjoyed both of your books.

1:20.1

That's why, of course, you're back here. But I really love this one because, you know,

1:23.9

given the fact that you are a rocket scientist, you would think that sometimes people

1:28.5

like that would write above, you know, kind of like so, so complex that it's like hard to kind of

1:34.7

really understand the nuggets that they're trying to, you know, to distill. And I found the book

1:41.3

so enjoyable. I loved the way, I love how your brain works, and I love, like, the messages, and I really thought you did a great job. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. No, and I'm serious. I, like I said, I really, really enjoyed it. So let's start with the beginning. When you say escape conformity, ignite creativity, what is like, what is, how would you describe

2:01.9

what, what you're, what you write about?

2:03.7

I know that you, like, what category would you say that this would fall under?

2:09.8

Is it kind of, because you're not, you're very much about like escaping the status quo, right?

2:15.8

Yeah, exactly.

2:16.5

So escaping conformity is a big part of it. And I'll

2:20.0

actually begin with the title, which is Awakeninger Genius. And the title was a real struggle to get it

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