10 Things You Won’t Care About in 10 Years
… and are Wasting Your Time on Today

The 5 AM Miracle Podcast, hosted by Jeff Sanders

Episode #566: 10 Things You Won't Care About in 10 Years ... and are Wasting Your Time on Today

Jeff Sanders
So, can you hear yourself?

Yeah.

Yeah?

Alright, what I want you to say is, "Hi, my name is Rosie."

Hi, my name is Rosie.

Hi, this is Maisie.

Welcome to The 5 AM Miracle!

Who will you be in 10 years?

What about your life today will be true then?

What are you doing today that you would certainly not be doing in a decade?

This is the 5AM Miracle, episode number 566. 10 things you won't care about in 10 years and are potentially wasting your time on today.

Good morning and welcome to the 5AM Miracle.

I am Jeff Sanders and this is the podcast dedicated to dominating your day before breakfast.

My goal is to help you bounce out of bed with enthusiasm, create powerful, lifelong habits, and tackle your grandest goals with extraordinary energy.

I am a keynote speaker and corporate trainer specializing in delivering high-energy, interactive, and action-oriented presentations and workshops focused on productivity, wellness, and personal and professional growth.

If you want to learn more, head over to jeffsanders.com/speaking.

In the episode this week, I'll break down a few of the most important questions we can ask today about how to ensure a better future 10, 20, and even 50 years from now.

Let's get to it.

Now, before we get to the content this week, I will give a quick caveat that I am recording this episode this week on a snow day here in Nashville, Tennessee, and yes, my kids are home.

Normally, I record during the work week with them at school, so if you happen to hear some wild, rambunctious nonsense in the background, it's just my life playing out in front of you.

Okay, so in case you have not noticed here on this podcast, I have tended to reference LinkedIn posts a lot more than other social networks, and I have found amazing content there all the time.

And recently, I stumbled upon a guy named Colby Colchin who posted a list that really caught my attention.

And the episode this week is actually based almost entirely off of his post, and I have a link to his LinkedIn content on the show notes at jeffsanders.com/566.

Now, I chose this content this week to dig into because I found his post and the list that he provided to be really interesting, the kind of content that I think fits this show really well, and the kind of personal and professional growth content that I think that I need more in my life, and therefore I think you probably do as well.

I'll make that assumption for you.

So in terms of that, I want to get to this list, which Colby actually had seven different things in this list.

I have ten because I have customized this, I've added my own analysis, I've added a few things myself.

But at the end of the day, this is basically his content rehashed through me.

So let's get right to it.

These are ten things that you won't care about in ten years and are potentially wasting your time on today.

So let's begin, of course, with number one, which would be your age.

So imagine that ten years have gone by from where you are right now and you're ten years older.

If you're 30 right now, you might be 40.

If you're 50, you'll be 60.

A decade is going to pass.

Will you do something with that time?

Or will you just believe that you were too old to start something that's on your mind right now?

This is a really interesting concept, and actually Brian Tracy, the famous personal growth author and speaker, has often said in his content that the time is going to pass anyway, so you may as well make the most of it.

He said that being too old is really only an excuse that holds you back from trying something new.

This has been something that when I was younger, I honestly didn't think about.

It didn't even phase me.

It was just if I wanted to do something, I would do it.

If I was curious, I would dig in and learn more.

If I wanted to start a business or try to run marathons or explore any new area of life that I thought was new and interesting and fun, I would just do it.

There was no real hiccup or excuse or pause.

It was just what if.

What if I could do more?

What if I could dig in?

And that what if question would lead me to exploration and curiosity and creativity.

And then of course, that's where this podcast came from.

It's where my marathons came from.

My business I run today came from.

Almost every part of my life today, at least professionally, came from that sense of curiosity and that willingness to step in and try new things.

However, and this is the catch, I have caught myself not being that guy anymore.

As I get older, I mean, I just turned 40 this year.

As I get older, I am recognizing that I'm not the same person I was when I was 20, 25, 30, even 35.

I am different than I was at those different milestones.

And one of the key things about myself today is I'm a little more apprehensive.

I'm a little more risk averse.

I'm a little less willing to try things.

Maybe that's partly because I want to hold on to the things that I have or I'm afraid that I might lose what I've acquired.

And these are pretty common fears.

But the other reality is that I have a rhythm now in my life.

A very sustainable sense of everyday is about the same as every other day and to ruffle those feathers, to mix things up, to change things around, could cause some chaos, right?

I've got a wife, I've got two kids, I've got a house, I've got a business, I've got a life.

And if I don't want to lose those things that I care about, there is a sense that I could if I take a big risk.

However, obviously, if I'm going to have new growth, if I'm going to explore something new and be willing to try and fail in that effort, that's part of the process.

That's what success is, is a culmination of trial and error.

And the error part includes risk.

And the trial part includes not knowing what might happen.

And so all that to say you find yourself in this position sometimes in life, maybe you have, maybe you have not, but I have where the risk that I used to take and the trial and error that I used to be just baked into my life now seems like something I want to be a little more cautious about.

And so my challenge to myself, and then of course, my challenge to you is to first acknowledge if that is true for you or not.

And if it is, be willing to say, yes, that's true.

And I'm willing to change.

I'm willing to admit that my age should no longer be an excuse that if I want to try something, dig into something, begin something new, that's potentially risky, potentially dangerous.

Why not?

Why not take the chance?

We only have one life to live and our clock is ticking.

So you can always try to build a business, learn a skill, take a risk, jump in, live, be a part of life.

And 10 years from now, when you look back at who you were at this moment in time, hopefully you're gonna be able to say, look at that moment, look at what I did then.

And look at the amazing results that are now true because of the choices that I made.

The best example I can give to this is that right now I am 40.

When I was 30, I was laid off from my job and I chose to go full-time as an entrepreneur.

I cannot express what a beautiful decision it was for me to not go back to get another job I didn't want and to take the absolute risk of starting a business on my own and trying to make it work.

I've been trying ever since and it's been working, but it was never a guarantee.

But it was definitely something that was baked into who I am and what I wanted at the time and what I still want today.

I took a risk 10 years ago and it has paid off.

And I want to be able to say that when I turn 50 in 10 years, the choices that I'm making right now will have the same kind of long-term impact.

So if age has been a holding back factor for you, don't let it be that.

Let it be something that actually aids in your experience, aids in your knowledge, aids in your ability to make better choices and then therefore achieve success even faster, which would be ideal.

Okay, so that was number one on our list of 10 things you won't care about in 10 years.

Number two is saying no.

When you agree to anything in life that you don't want to do simply out of a vague feeling of obligation, that doesn't serve you.

I'm the kind of person who tends to say no pretty regularly.

I'm pretty good at saying no.

That wasn't always the case, but I would say in a general sense, I know what I want and I'm able to say, this is what I'm after.

This is not going to work.

If someone pitches me a request for my time and I know it's not a good fit, I'll just tell them no.

And I'm more willing now than I was before, but I would say as a general personality quirk for me, saying no is fairly easy.

However, there are a lot of people that is not the case.

My wife is one of them and she would admit to this, that she's a yes kind of woman, a yes kind of person.

So if a request comes in, she's going to feel obligated to say yes to whatever it is.

But there are downsides and dangers to that lifestyle, which of course is that your time will be eaten up by the requests of others.

And in 10 years, when you look back at your life today, you're probably going to want to be able to say, I lived my life on my terms.

I said yes to the things that I cared about.

And if something didn't fit, if a request came in that was not in alignment with who I was trying to become, I simply passed on the opportunity.

I politely declined.

That's all we're talking about.

It's not a vigorous, angry no, it's just simply a polite decline.

And then you move forward on the path that you have set for yourself.

Saying no is a boundary.

It is a self-respect conversation because it says not only do I respect my time, I respect my goals and I respect the yeses I've already given to other people for the things I'm already doing.

And you can't say yes to everything.

We have to make choices.

We have to draw lines in the sand.

So saying no is required.

It is part of this conversation from the beginning.

I would argue that saying no more often is the most logical choice, but we're going to have to, that the stress and the overwhelm that comes from busy modern lifestyles is only just exacerbated by our unwillingness to say no as often as we need to.

And so if you find yourself in that position where you just feel like your hair is on fire, look at your calendar and your to-do list, and you just think, I can't handle this.

There's too much here.

Well there's too much here because you said yes to too many things.

That's it.

That's what we're talking about.

And so being able to unravel that, it can be complicated, right?

To cancel meetings, to quit jobs altogether, to walk away from agreements.

It can be a messy process, but it is a required process to unravel that mess.

It's required for you to have that sense of peace that you could have in the future.

That sense of waking up on a generic Tuesday morning and saying, my calendar is my own today.

I chose these things.

I'm excited about these things.

I get to do these things.

As opposed to, oh my gosh, look at this list.

I'm melting inside.

This is just overwhelming.

This is killing me.

I've been on both sides of that equation.

I know the emotional toll that saying yes can have on your life.

So saying no is part of this story.

So for you now, try to say no to a career that does not push you forward.

Say no to a relationship that doesn't have a future.

Say no to a lifestyle that doesn't produce the health and energy and vitality that you want.

Practice saying no.

It is a skill set.

It can be improved.

And it is so important for your future.

Number three, other people's opinions.

Hopefully 10 years from now, you're not going to look back at this season and define it through the lens of the opinion of other people.

Ultimately your life will be defined on your own terms.

I know for me, there are only a handful of people who I really take seriously, listen to intently and go to for advice.

And everyone else, it's not that I ignore them.

It's more that I take in the information, but I don't value it in the same way as I do my few trusted sources.

And this is really important when it comes to self-respect, self-awareness, defining life on your own terms, understanding who your trusted core group is and who everybody else is.

And for most people, that tends to be how life works.

You have your inner circle and then everybody else.

And the inner circle are people you trust and the opinions of strangers, the opinions of all kinds of other people who might want to have input on your life.

Most of that's just a distraction.

Most of that is just simply a conjecture that's not based on facts.

It's just random thoughts thrown at you and you get to decide what to do with that.

And for the most part, the answer should be, I'm just going to ignore it.

I'm just going to dismiss it.

I'll just let it go by and I will move forward and trust myself and trust my inner circle and make decisions for me because I don't want my life to be defined by random opinions from strangers.

That's not a way to live.

And yet social media and public personas, things like me having a podcast here, we all have a public platform to speak from.

And so we all have the opportunity to have this happen to us, which is that other people's opinions could come into our lives.

They can judge us.

They can throw things at us that could really throw us for a loop.

And we don't want to spend our time.

I don't want to spend my time overly valuing these types of thoughts and comments.

I want to look back at my life 10 years from now and say, I'm doing this my way because I, in theory, my way is the way that I want this to play out.

And so, yes, I will listen to others.

Yes, it is great to get the opinions from others you trust.

And it stops there.

It's just, it has to end there so we don't end up wasting our time on all kinds of nonsense, which is what all of this, basically social media and online commentary can become.

It's just an endless, endless amount of distraction and noise that holds you back from spending your time on the few things that matter most to you.

Now on a related topic, number four is how silly you looked.

So imagine that you want to pursue something brand new.

You want to take a risk.

You want to jump in and try something new, but you hold yourself back.

Why would you be your own worst enemy?

Why would you hold yourself back from a goal that you think you want, that you have committed to, that you said, this is my thing now?

A lot of people stop.

They stop at step one and do not pursue an idea because of fear.

Fear of the opinions of strangers, fear that somebody else will have an opinion of them that would not be perfect.

Embarrassment stops almost everyone from doing the things they really want to do.

So what?

Right?

There are so many dreams that die because people are afraid of looking silly, stupid, less than perfect.

I know a lot of people who present themselves, especially through social media and their websites and their businesses, through the lens of a perfect headshot, an absolute beautiful display.

Everything is gorgeous.

Everything is just ideal.

And you never see them living a real life.

You'll never see them without makeup.

You'll never see them in anything but a beautifully designed fashion statement.

Their life is designed to be a billboard.

But they have to wonder, are you willing to look silly?

In this example, is this person willing to be human?

Because that's what this is.

Being silly, being weird, being out in the public eye, being willing to try something and fail at it in front of others.

All of that has the potential for you to look human.

Not weird, not bad, not goofy, human.

These are normal experiences, normal people doing normal things.

And when you stop yourself from doing normal stuff because of your fear of embarrassment, you lose.

That does not add up for you.

Your dream dies because of the potential embarrassment.

Your amazing new goal that could push your life forward stops on something that's so silly itself because you're afraid to look silly.

So instead of being afraid of looking silly, embrace being weird.

Embrace that.

I spent so many years doing theater in high school and college and in my acting classes and on stage and in rehearsal.

Almost the entire time, it was just a weird fest.

It was just, how goofy can we be at all costs?

And we were doing so for a few reasons.

One was just to kind of get rid of that public embarrassment nonsense.

And the other was to tap into creativity, to tap into our potential, to be willing to see what was possible, which we couldn't see if that shell of a person was the only thing we allowed to exist.

We have to break through that to find our true and better selves.

So you have to embrace being weird to find that, because you're not going to find it playing it safe.

We have to directly face it.

Face our fears, face the embarrassment, and even practice being silly, especially in public, as often as we can, to prove to ourselves that it doesn't matter.

That's what we're going for.

To prove to yourself that the embarrassment is silly itself.

The fear of the embarrassment is silly.

Not the fact that you look silly and that's bad, but you look silly and that was part of the process.

That that was actually the point, because that's what led to the result and the breakthrough you were after.

Being silly is part of the journey on purpose.

And if you're not feeling silly, if you're not embarrassed, if you're not experiencing any of that, it could be a sign, could, that you're not actually trying hard enough yet.

You haven't pushed yourself enough yet.

It's when we break through those boundaries that we actually grow.

That's where we experience the next level up.

So self-analysis time here.

Are you willing to be silly sometimes?

Are you willing to make mistakes, be goofy, be weird, and see what's possible because of those choices?

Number five on our list is your physical appearance and the judgment placed on how you look.

Now I just kind of discussed that.

This one's very related to the last couple of items here about the opinions of others and about looking silly, but the physical appearance angle deserves its own attention because this is something that we place a lot of value on.

And there is something that actually my wife Tess and I discussed many times, which is that we have come to this realization, especially as we've gotten older, that no one really cares about how you look.

You care and you caring about yourself is a great thing, but to look for the justification, the validation from others on your appearance is objectively not helpful.

It's not a good use of time and it doesn't actually add up to you being your best self.

One thing that I have done for a long time, which I think that even my wife Tessa makes fun of me for, is putting hair gel in my hair, even on days when I don't leave the house and even on days when I don't see other people.

I have a lot of days here at my house where I'm just in my office all day by myself working.

I really don't get out much.

It's kind of a problem.

But one of the things that I do is I put gel in my hair.

I kind of spike it up and make it look the way that I've looked for 20, 30 years now.

It's my look, right?

It's how I look and it's how I want to look.

If I see myself in the mirror, that's the only person I see all day, I want to look good for me.

It's a self-confidence thing.

It's a self-respect thing.

I'm going to have a clean shave.

I'm going to have gel in my hair.

I'm going to put on a shirt and pants that actually fit me correctly so I feel that sense of self-confidence so I can go and pursue the goals that I have set for myself.

As opposed to if I don't do my hair, if I don't shave, if I put on sloppy clothes, if I don't value my appearance, there is a tangible impact on my self-confidence, my self-worth, and the things I'm willing to try in that day.

There's an identity crisis that could take place here.

Our physical appearance is such a valuable component of who we are.

We are visual creatures and we want to be able to see that we exist in the world a certain way.

And that we fit the culture that we're in and the goals that we're after.

And we want to be able to see the results of that.

And so if you don't value your own appearance, if you don't care about personal hygiene or clothes that fit or hair gel, I would actually argue that it might be helpful to do so.

That valuing your physical appearance has dramatic and tangible impacts in the other areas of life of things you're pursuing.

Even if you work from home, even if you're by yourself all the time.

Do your hair.

Look good.

Why not?

Like it's a great, great thing.

And yes, it does add up to you doing bigger and better things.

So instead of caring about how others may judge you, craft a self-image that propels you towards your goals.

And that ultimately pushes you towards better health and vitality and goals that serve a grander purpose.

Because your physical appearance can play into all of those things.

Number six, being on track with life milestones.

This is a biggie for this conversation.

This matters a lot.

So once again, 10 years from now, you're 10 years older.

You look back at your life and you're going to ask a very important question.

Did the big stuff happen on a schedule?

Now, you may just do this intuitively or subconsciously, but we are all in some way evaluating our lives.

We're looking at, are we doing things on time?

Are we on track with these kinds of big life milestones that others tend to follow?

As an example, you could have a goal to be married by age 30, to own a home by age 35, to have kids by age 40, et cetera, et cetera.

The list could go on of these major life milestones you want to hit.

But these numbers are an invention.

They are societal norms that shift over time and they may indicate a track for some people, but not others.

And ultimately your choices in these areas are your own and your life journey is just that it's your life journey, not someone else's.

So being willing to kind of buck the system because it fits you will actually likely serve you more than any formula that was designed by someone else for someone else.

Now as those examples I just listed, the married by 30, house by 35, kids by 40, I actually hit those numbers and those are the ones that were listed in this LinkedIn post, but I didn't do so on purpose.

I didn't plan for those things.

They just kind of happened, which is also really interesting.

Most of the big life milestones that may take place are not preplanned.

They're not well thought out.

They're just things that tend to happen when it feels natural to do so.

Now there's a story that I've told in this podcast a million times, I think fits this conversation really well, which is the story of the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook.

He went to Duke university for his MBA and 25 years after he graduated, he was invited back to the university to discuss his 25 year career plan.

And he was asked to do so because in his MBA program, he was required to complete a 25 year career plan and they wanted to know 25 years later, did that plan work out for you?

And the funny thing about Tim Cook as the CEO of Apple, when the biggest companies in the world was that Tim said, my 25 year plan was only sort of accurate for 12 to 18 months.

And everything after that was totally useless.

This is someone who in theory has achieved the biggest business success in the world.

He's on the top of the top in terms of success and that monetary career trajectory.

And yet he had no idea that was going to happen.

He didn't plan for it.

It wasn't on his 25 year plan.

So if you're young right now and you're, and you're mapping your life out, you're trying to figure out where am I going to be in 20, 30, 40 years, you don't know.

And you're not going to know, it's not going to happen because you planned for it to happen in a very specific way.

Big life moments just kind of happen.

Sure.

Some of them are preplanned.

Some of them you can work hard for, for a few years in advance, but really life is about responding in the moment to the things that make sense with where you are now.

Yes, we can focus on big societal norms.

We can focus on these big kind of on track moments, but the reality is, is that life is messy and it's unpredictable.

There is so much we do not know and cannot know until that time shows up.

So our mission each and every day is to make the best choices that we can with what we know is true now and everything else, everything else is just conjecture.

It's just intelligent guessing each and every day.

And that's it.

There are no guarantees.

There is no life map.

None of that is true.

Everything is invented, which is a terrible answer.

When you want certainty, it's a terrible answer when you really need that guarantee.

Cause the problem is, is that none of that is ever going to be true.

There is no certainty.

There are no guarantees.

Being on track is a personal subjective decision, but this does give you the power of choice each and every day to make the kinds of choices that could add up to the things you want to be true as opposed to kind of throwing your hands in the air and saying, it's not up to me.

I don't know what this is actually can be.

I have power here.

I have the power of choice each and every day.

I can forge a new adventure.

I can choose something meaningful to me and pursue it with gusto.

I can decide for myself what timelines make sense for me and then forget the norms.

Just don't worry about them.

Be your own person.

Make your own choices.

Number seven on our list this week is a big one.

Instant gratification.

You know, in 10 years, it is extremely likely that you're not going to care about the extra scoop of ice cream or the Netflix show that you rewatched again and again, or the 10,000 extra times you checked your phone for no reason, right?

We live in the moment, but our impulses really don't serve us longterm.

We can't trust ourselves.

We can't trust our impulses because so much of what those are, are just based in this idea or baked into the concept of entertainment in the moment, of instant gratification, of "I'm bored.

Let me go look online and try to find a distraction," of "I don't know what to do next, so I'm going to do what I've always done, which is probably not productive, probably not helpful, but makes me feel better right now."

Those kinds of thoughts simply add up to you feeling good right now, but they don't do much for you tomorrow or longterm with your goals and your big life plans that we just talked about.

If we want those big milestones to take place and we want these goals to be achieved, our day-to-day decisions have to add up to those goals.

I just saw a quote, I'm probably going to butcher it now, talking about athletes and those who train.

And the quote basically said that "athletes do not diet and exercise.

They fuel and they train."

They're not thinking about the sacrifice and the pain of being on a diet and having to work out.

Instead, they are focused on this big adventure, and the food that they eat is fuel for the training that they do for the big event.

Now at the end of the day, it's the same thing.

It's identical.

Diet and exercise, fueling and training are just different words for the same thing.

But the semantics matter here.

The verbiage matters.

How you view your life will change your choices.

How you think about your life will change the actions you take and the habits you adopt.

So if you value your time, you're not going to value distraction.

If you value your goals, you're not going to value bland entertainment.

These things don't coexist very often.

Now, yes, we are human and real life includes entertainment and includes these things.

But at a much smaller scale.

So instead of thinking and acting about what we want right now, we can make choices on who we want to become in the future to ensure a better tomorrow and to really thrive in the moment in a way that guarantees that we become the kinds of people we respect 10 years from now.

And I can tell you looking back at my life in the last 10 years that I have made some phenomenal choices and I have made some terrible ones.

And both are true.

Both will always be true.

The real goal is to shift that pendulum more towards the better choices more often.

To say no to distraction more than you said yes.

And as that moves in that direction, you will see better results and you will live a life that aligns to who you want to become a lot faster than any previous path.

Along those same lines, number eight is how many likes you got.

So 10 years from now, and you look back at your, let's say interaction online, especially social media, you may have this realization like I've had recently, which is that it doesn't matter.

It's just, it's so silly.

Social media isn't real.

Yeah.

I used to live in the real world and then I live in the digital world and I can tell you there's a massive difference here, right?

10 years ago, I actually really did care about likes and comments, but today it's just not part of my existence.

It's really not part of what I do.

Digital relationships and the endorphins that you get from strangers who are on their phones tapping the like button, it just doesn't add up.

It's just a bunch of noise.

And if you really care right now today about likes, in 10 years, you probably won't because it probably won't have added up to anything of significance or value.

It won't have actually led to a goal being achieved.

There are some very rare exceptions in the world of business where you maybe you're building your entire enterprise online and it matters in that sense, but I can almost guarantee you that this focus on social, this focus on the likes and the digital existence won't actually bring with it the tangibility that you want of the fulfillment factor.

It won't actually produce the life you are striving for.

It will fall into that trap of digital distraction and it will stop there.

It will rob you of your time and it's just not going to add up for you.

So instead of caring about likes, care about real world experiences, care about prioritizing in-person interaction, care about scheduling time to explore and see what the world really looks like outside of a screen.

Okay, shifting gears just a bit.

Number nine is petty anger towards others.

This is one that has been a big part of my life.

I don't like admitting that, but it's true.

You know, when I look back at my life in the past and I compare that to my life today, I know without question that I used to spend a lot of time, especially online, speaking of that on social media, definitely where I would spend time arguing with strangers, literally yelling at people I didn't know about things I was really passionate about for probably no reason.

I had then kind of this existential angst, let's call it that, that I would just kind of force into the world and generally towards people on social media and it just wasted a lot of time.

Well then I got intelligent about that, realized there was a problem, cut it off, which worked really well.

However, I then found myself having these similar types of angry conversations with people that I was working with, with my contractors, my vendors, people in my business.

I would find myself getting into arguments with those people.

I'm like, wait a minute, I need those people.

I can't be mad at them.

And so then I caught myself basically in these anger traps over the years and realized that's not who I want to be.

That's not the person I want to respect.

You know, I look back at my life from 10 years in the future.

I don't want to see an angry Jeff Sanders.

I don't want to see a petty vindictive guy who's trying to make other people live a certain way.

And it's one of my personality quirks that I have that tendency to go that direction, mostly because I want the world to exist in the way that I want it to.

I'm a control freak.

Like that is the end of the day story is I'm trying to force others to do things my way.

And it has been a lifelong journey to unlearn that, to walk away from that and to try my best not to really push my emotion onto somebody else as opposed to the objectivity that I could exude as opposed to the healthier personal growth choices of taking a big step back.

If you are the kind of person who spends, let's just say a decent amount of time kind of exuding negative energy and being in confrontation more often than you'd like to really ask the question, is that who you want to be?

Because how you spend your time defines who you are.

And if you repeatedly find yourself in these types of conversations and arguments and confrontations, that is who you are.

And if you don't want to be that person anymore, you're going to have to make some personal changes.

So that's no longer true.

And for the most part, that's what I've done.

And now for me, these types of conversations are much more rare.

They still happen.

I'm still in that boat sometimes, but it's way less often than before.

So the important part of this conversation is a self-analysis on who you are as a person, how you view yourself to yourself, but then also how others experience you.

Do they like being around you?

Do they want to work with you?

Are you the kind of person others look to and say, yeah, I recommend that guy because he's fantastic?

Or do they say, eh, I would walk away from him.

He is a hot mess.

And I'm trying my best to make that shift.

And I hope you would as well.

So instead of focusing on things that you're mad at in life, let's think about ways we can decrease the tension and make plans to avoid confrontation.

And this is a biggie for me, to learn how to breathe and let go.

Breathe and let go.

When you've got that tension, when you've got that anger, when you are resentful, regret, you're regretting past choices, you feel guilt, you feel shame, you feel some kind of just negative energy towards past experiences, all of that could hold you back from a better future.

Learning to breathe and let that go, it's a big deal.

Now number 10.

Number 10 is the theme of this podcast.

Without discussing it directly, this is always true.

Number 10 is how many long hours you have worked and how much sacrifice you have put into your job, especially the sacrifice of sleep and relationships.

I say that because most of the work that I do and have done for the last 10 years tends to discuss productivity and personal growth, but through the angle of goal achievement.

And when people think about goals in the professional sense, like at your job, building your business, making things happen, and commercially, people tend to go in the direction of stress and overwhelm.

They tend to say, because I have these big goals, because I want to grow, because I want these amazing ambitious things to be true, the only way forward is stress and overwhelm and chaos.

Without knowing that consciously, this is what ends up happening.

And so you have to look at your life through the lens of the sustainability factor, right?

Not just who you are as a person, but how your time is spent, how much time is spent in certain areas.

So if you have a big ambitious goal, there is going to be a sacrifice of sorts to spend time in that area.

But boundaries matter for a reason.

And if you can't rein yourself in, or if you catch yourself kind of overexerting in a certain area, especially working at the office, there's going to be a sacrifice that's going to be unable to be reined back in.

The time will pass and you will have lost it, right?

Time is the one thing that we do not get back.

And so if you want the next 10 years to be more valuable than the last 10, you're going to have to shift the equation to align to a sustainable, healthy rhythm.

And if you're stressed and overwhelmed all the time, that's not sustainable.

That's not a good rhythm.

That's not going to add up to who you want to be, I would assume.

And so instead of that, let's fill our days by working smarter in shorter, more focused blocks of time.

Going to bed earlier and waking up earlier.

That's a wonderful idea here on the 5am Miracle Podcast for you to literally bounce out of bed with enthusiasm, to be excited about your day.

Stressed out people are not excited at 5am.

I can tell you that.

They don't like it.

They don't want to do it because they're burned out.

The kinds of people who love 5am have the discipline to go to bed on time, sure, but they also tend to have days that are sustainable and healthy and energizing.

They're the kinds of people who have structured and crafted lives that they love and they want to do again and again, day after day.

So decide ahead of time what an ideal day would look like and then seek to repeat that day over and over again.

There it is.

There's your top 10 list of things that you will likely not care about in 10 years and are possibly wasting your time on today, but I would like to know what's on your list.

I would love to hear how you prioritize your time today to ensure a better tomorrow.

Email me, Jeff@JeffSanders.com.

And for that action step this week, make your own list of things to stop caring about.

What do you care about today that you likely will not care about in the future?

What changes can you make today to become the person you'll respect and admire in the future?

Our daily habits define us, and that includes all the things we give our attention to, for better or for worse.

So make your list and see what positive changes you can make today for a better tomorrow.

Of course, subscribe to this podcast in your favorite podcast app or become a VIP member of the 5amMiracle community by getting the premium ad-free version with exclusive bonus episodes at 5amMiraclePremium.com.

That's all I've got for you here on the 5amMiracle Podcast this week.

Until next time, you have the power to change your life, and all that fun begins bright and early.

Bye!

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