meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Daily Boost — Motivation and Coaching

Focused or Lying to Yourself

Daily Boost — Motivation and Coaching

Scott Smith

Self-improvement, Education, Health & Fitness, Business

3.91.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2026

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Are you focused — or just telling yourself a good story? There's a difference, and most people never stop long enough to notice it. I've been there too. I built an app last week when I had a completely different project sitting right in front of me. Classic move. The real problem isn't that you can't focus. You can focus just fine. The problem is you're focused on the wrong thing — and you've got a pretty convincing story to justify it. In this episode, we dig into what honest focus actually looks like and why getting there changes everything. Featured Story I was sitting at my computer around three o'clock on a Thursday afternoon when a friend mentioned how he'd built an app. I said, I can do that. Ninety minutes later, I had my daily awareness diary online. I was pumped. Got up the next morning at four o'clock — couldn't wait to keep going. Spent hours tidying it up. Loved every minute of it. But here's what I had to admit: it wasn't the project I needed to be working on that week. My wife walked by, gave me the look, and kept moving. She knew. And honestly? So did I. That's burying the lead — and I catch myself doing it more than I'd like. Important Points You're not stuck or blocked or broken — you're just focused on the wrong thing, and that's completely fixable. Burying the lead in your own life means talking around what you actually want instead of just saying the thing. The moment you stop decorating the story and name the real thing out loud, your life can shift in a matter of hours. Memorable Quotes You're not distracted — you're focused on something you think you want to be focused on. Those are two different things. Stop decorating the story. Say exactly what you want, turn face-first into it, get your butt busy, and just do it. Honest focus means saying the real thing out loud — not the comfortable version that sounds good inside your head. Scott's Three-Step Approach Get honest and name the real thing — not the comfortable version of it, but the actual thing that needs doing. Drop the story you've been telling yourself and put your full, honest focus on that one specific thing right now. Turn face-first into it, get your butt moving, and watch how fast everything around you starts to shift for real. Chapters 0:02 - Spring break chaos and losing the thread 1:14 - Why you're not stuck — you're misfocused 3:30 - Burying the lead: a lesson from the newsroom 5:45 - The client who was avoiding the real thing 8:49 - Making calls vs. telling yourself stories 10:10 - Honest focus and what it actually takes Connect With Me Search for the Daily Boost on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify If you enjoy the Daily Boost, you might like Notes From Scott. A few mornings each week, I send a short note with something I've been thinking about or noticing lately. Sometimes those ideas turn into podcast episodes later. You can sign up at https://notesfromscott.com. Email: support@motivationtomove.com Main Website: https://motivationtomove.com YouTube: https://youtube.com/dailyboostpodcast Instagram: https://instagram.com/heyscottsmith Facebook Page: https://facebook.com/motivationtomove Facebook Group: https://dailyboostpodcast.com/facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

How are you? Happy, happy, happy, whatever it is. Come on in here. Spring break is coming to it in.

0:06.0

It's beaches have been crazy here in Florida, and there were like 20,000 flights canceled.

0:10.1

I hope you got home. And if not, I hope you're okay. Oh, I've lost my focus entirely. Wait a second.

0:16.1

That's what we're talking about today.

0:17.5

I need a boost. I need a daily boost. I need a boost. I need a daily boost.

0:24.1

I need a daily boost.

0:27.2

It is the daily boost.

0:28.6

How are you?

0:29.7

Let's do this thing.

0:31.0

Talk about some focus.

0:32.2

Every single day, going to give you a boost.

0:34.6

Goal.

0:38.3

It's because I believe the thing we all need beyond motivation, because motivation is kind of automatic.

0:44.1

You get things right.

0:44.8

Motivation happens.

0:46.7

What happens is clarity of mind, awareness, understanding what's really going on.

0:50.1

That's maybe the hardest part.

0:51.3

But then momentum.

0:53.7

If you get in the big mo, as people are so fun as saying, you get whatever you want. It's kind of easy to do that. You know, lots of people say lots of coaches, the coachy coachy coach kinds out there. And I don't do life coaching stuff. I mean, I somewhat fall into that category. I've kind of moved into kind of a category of my own over the past 15 years. But I don't really do the coachy coach thing.

1:12.0

But if I were to use coachy coach languaging, they'd be saying things like, hmm, well, wait a second, you're stalled. You're not in, uh, yeah, well, they might say you're not in momentum. They might say that. Maybe I did use a word, okay. Might say you're misaligned. They might say you're in neutral. you're stuck, you're broken, you're blocked.

1:28.9

They might say all that stuff.

1:30.4

I don't believe it. I think that sometimes maybe that might be the case.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Scott Smith, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Scott Smith and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.