Conquer 2024 – The Goal That Makes Everything Else Irrelevant | Elite Performance Podcast #44

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:17:04
Itamar Marani
We're naturally wired for safety, so we want to avoid anything that makes us feel uncomfortable and insecure, unsafe, whatever it may be. So we naturally gravitate towards that. But the real magic in getting results, if that's what you're after, is by recognizing I'm going to feel this way, but actually to solve the problem, not my feelings all the time.

00:00:17:04 - 00:00:34:21
Itamar Marani
Happy 2024 everybody. What we're going to be doing today is something special. I'm going to be sharing with you guys a workshop we did for our Arena Alumni on how to conquer 2024 and how to do that by figuring out what's the one key action that'll make everything else irrelevant, that if you simply did that, none of the other stuff would really matter that much.

00:00:34:23 - 00:00:45:22
Itamar Marani
And to start us off, I want to share the story of Stuart. So Stuart was in the Arena program and his goal was set a certain income level with a new venture that he was producing and the way he was going to do that was teaching more high level seminars.

00:00:45:22 - 00:00:48:07
Itamar Marani
where he would get paid 10 K a pop.

00:00:48:09 - 00:01:04:02
Itamar Marani
Now we figure out his effective mindset, which is something we do in the program. We figure out, okay, like in order to hit your goal, what do you need to start prioritizing and what are very clear and tangible rules? If you just follow this rule, it will indeed show that you prioritize this and therefore you'll hit your goal and he figured that he's too comfortable.

00:01:04:03 - 00:01:19:11
Itamar Marani
He's not being authentic to himself. That's what he said. And if we got his number one priority needs to be courage and therefore his number one rule needs to be I say no. My plans and priorities come first. I have the courage to lose certain people in my life, and it didn't fully make sense to me, didn't add up.

00:01:19:11 - 00:01:36:05
Itamar Marani
So I asked him like, How did you come to this? And he said, Well, like when I was teaching every day there were 30 hot girls that came by and they were in the gym and they asked for some help. So I help them and we do this big run together. And then afterwards, like I came back and some friends wanted to go to lunch and I thought, we eat lunch.

00:01:36:05 - 00:01:55:03
Itamar Marani
Anyway. So I did that. And then I ended up not doing the outreach that I needed to do because I didn't really prioritize myself. And it was interesting to hear him say that because I said, okay, that kind of makes sense. And it's true, and it would be more helpful to prioritize yourself. But what's more true is that you simply need to execute.

00:01:55:05 - 00:02:18:13
Itamar Marani
Like that needs to be your priority before prioritizing yourself, the actual party, to simply get the thing done. So we figure it out. Okay, if your value is to simply execute and the rule is that I don't have breakfast until I contact three gyms for seminars, then the reality is everything else is irrelevant. You can get away with hanging out with a girl is going out to lunch, doing whatever you want to do, and it's an interesting thing.

00:02:18:13 - 00:02:39:03
Itamar Marani
Sometimes we just figure out what's the one key thing that we do. We can get away with a lot of other things. Now the point of mindset work is to lead to results. And this is a big thesis that I have why the program is different. It's about leading to results, not making people feel better. And the whole thing that we have is could somebody else with your exact skill sets becoming more than you currently are?

00:02:39:05 - 00:02:58:16
Itamar Marani
It's because there's a thing called being emotion focused and problem focused. So let me break that down. So people usually focus on their feelings. They avoid rejection in stories case, or they want to feel happy or they want to feel not friend, whatever it may be. So they figure out, how can I focus on not feeling this feeling?

00:02:58:18 - 00:03:14:18
Itamar Marani
For example, if I say I prioritize myself, there's a lot less possibility for me to feel rejection, saying I'm actually going to straight up outreach to three gems instead of saying the actual problem being focused on the problem, which is to hit the certain income goal, is saying what is the most direct path to get there? So this is an important concept.

00:03:14:18 - 00:03:45:18
Itamar Marani
Understand? Like, are you being emotional focus? We're actually focusing on the problem and how to solve that. So when you're emotion focused, people usually create all that technical complexity, doing all these things that don't really add up just to avoid the emotional discomfort. It's why people take all these complicated roles from point A to point B and all these zig zagging routes instead is going the more direct path, because the more direct path probably less emotionally comfortable and people without recognizing it, are actually focused on their emotions, their emotion focus, and they want to make sure they don't feel a certain way.

00:03:45:18 - 00:04:04:07
Itamar Marani
And that's their priority before actually focusing on the actual problem and getting a result. And again, most people are simply not aware that we're doing this. Now, if you have your biggest goal and you figure out what do you want to accomplish in the next six weeks? Okay, think about that for a second. Got it. Good. Now, here's a question.

00:04:04:07 - 00:04:23:22
Itamar Marani
How do you go from being emotion focused, actually problem, focus and getting a really great result? If you were advising somebody else, somebody else, not you, somebody else, what would be the most direct and probably the most uncomfortable way for them to get there, to get from where you are right now, to point A to point B, which is your goal for the next six weeks.

00:04:24:00 - 00:04:40:12
Itamar Marani
Now, the reason this is such a powerful question is because we're less concerned with other people's emotions than we are about our own. So when we hear this question, we say, this is their problem. That's what we're trying to achieve. Logically, it makes sense. They should just do X. We don't think about, well, what are they going to feel and how do we solve that?

00:04:40:14 - 00:05:01:11
Itamar Marani
But when we think about ourselves and ask ourselves, what should I be doing, we sometimes naturally and subconsciously start being emotion focused instead of problem focused. So this is why it's usually more direct and uncomfortable. So for example, if somebody needs more leads, emotion, focus them would say, I need to do certain lead magnets, I need to refine my logo.

00:05:01:13 - 00:05:19:17
Itamar Marani
But just saying I'm going to do a certain amount of daily outreach that's much more impactful, that's going to solve actual problem. If they have an underperforming employee and they want to solve actual problem instead of their emotions, having the tough and direct conversation will be more impactful than emailing about the culture and hoping they read it and so on and so on.

00:05:19:19 - 00:05:38:13
Itamar Marani
Or if someone's worried about their health and the goal is to get healthier, whatever that may be to them, it's probably going to be more impactful to solve that actual problem by paying a trainer for ten sessions instead of setting an intention to do more, whatever it may be. Right now, there's usually one key action that makes everything else irrelevant.

00:05:38:15 - 00:06:05:05
Itamar Marani
Okay? For example, for us in our business that even if we did No more podcast this year or short form content or any content, we didn't email our list, but we only did 40 joint ventures this year or do webinars for other people's audiences. We'd crush our 2024 revenue targets. Now, obviously reaching out for joint ventures from people in my network for contacts, whatever it may be, that is less emotionally comfortable than just sending another email to our list or creating another podcast.

00:06:05:11 - 00:06:22:15
Itamar Marani
But that is the most impactful thing. Or to solve the problem of us not being as a revenue target that we hit that we want to hit for this year. And that's the important thing to ask yourself what would actually solve the problem of me not being where I want to be as far as my goals, not what's going to make me feel the most comfortable, be the most comfortable path to get there.

00:06:22:17 - 00:06:26:16
Itamar Marani
So what's the one key action that make everything else irrelevant?

00:06:26:16 - 00:06:44:07
Itamar Marani
In order to do that, I want to help you guys for a simple visualization exercise. Okay, So imagine a situation in six weeks for now, six weeks into the future. Okay? Somebody else who's a drunk is unorganized, has a terrible mindset, is a degenerate, all the bad things.

00:06:44:09 - 00:07:05:19
Itamar Marani
But they took your business further than you did these past six weeks. They hit that goal. Okay? Despite having all this going against them, they still had the goal that you perhaps might not have. What would have been the one or two big things that they did, the one two big things that allowed them to get away with such bad behavior because they simply did these things

00:07:05:19 - 00:07:10:22
Itamar Marani
things that were so impactful that allowed them to get away with all the unproductive stuff.

00:07:11:00 - 00:07:19:12
Itamar Marani
That's probably the thing that's so impactful but emotionally uncomfortable that somebody who's more disciplined would avoid by trying to do all these other things that aren't as impactful

00:07:20:11 - 00:07:36:08
Itamar Marani
The reality is you probably already know what that one thing would be like for us to JV's, that's a simple thing, but you've been avoiding it for some reason, and that's important to recognize, to acknowledge, like you've been avoiding it because something to stop you from executing on it.

00:07:36:10 - 00:07:57:03
Itamar Marani
It's probably been some fear or concern or an issue that you told yourself gets in the way or a prior commitment that you feel obligated to or against other priorities, obligations and so on and so on. And the reality is all those things that's you being emotion focused instead of problem focused. And you've probably avoided all these things because you've been focused on primarily,

00:07:57:03 - 00:08:06:03
Itamar Marani
and perhaps unknowingly solving the question of how do I not feel instead of how do I solve a problem, which are two very, very different questions.

00:08:06:05 - 00:08:10:18
Itamar Marani
And again, if you've been doing this, there's nothing wrong. It's natural. Everybody does that.

00:08:10:18 - 00:08:27:17
Itamar Marani
We're naturally wired for safety, so we want to avoid anything that makes us feel uncomfortable and insecure, unsafe, whatever it may be. So we naturally gravitate towards that. But the real magic in getting results, if that's what you're after, is by recognizing I'm going to feel this way, but actually to solve the problem, not my feelings all the time.

00:08:28:09 - 00:08:43:16
Itamar Marani
Now what you have to ask yourself is why have you been avoiding it? And do you accept the price where some people it's going to be perhaps a level of discomfort, perhaps accepting certain levels of rejection? That's going to be a game. I'm going to get rejected a lot. It's fine. I'm going to have some no's, more nos and yeses.

00:08:43:18 - 00:08:59:07
Itamar Marani
Why have you been avoiding it? And do you accept the price that emotionality of not solving for your emotional actually doing the thing that you're going to have to walk with an emotion debt to be okay, feeling a certain feeling and not just hoping to overcome the feeling, but to say, okay, I'm going to have this feeling it's going to be with me.

00:08:59:10 - 00:09:03:07
Itamar Marani
I'm mature enough and strong enough to handle feeling a feeling while I'm doing the thing.

00:09:03:07 - 00:09:13:09
Itamar Marani
because if you can do that, it makes you so much more powerful, more effective than a version of yourself that's focused on their emotions. How do I just solve for their emotions? There's a bit of a Segway.

00:09:13:09 - 00:09:27:20
Itamar Marani
The people that I see succeeding the most that come into the program are the ones that say, I want to get something done. I want to achieve a certain result, my income, whatever it may be, The ones that get less results are the ones saying, I want to figure out why I'm holding myself back. Because the reality is the ones that say to says how much?

00:09:27:20 - 00:09:50:18
Itamar Marani
Why am I holding myself back and try to figure that, but trying to figure out an emotion, They're not trying to actually solve a problem. So first of all, they figure out that this emotion and then they solve a problem. But just that lag equates unnecessary waste. And if you can for yourself, just accept that you're going to feel a certain feeling when you're outside of your comfort zone and it's going to feel uncomfortable and that's what it's supposed to be and walk through that, that is extremely powerful.

00:09:50:20 - 00:10:12:01
Itamar Marani
Now what you're going to say is, Yes, but that's hard and it's true, and that's what we do in the arena. It actually makes you less hard. But the reality is it is 2024 and top into some news motivation. Well, I'm not a fan of people going into motivational things. There is a time and place for that and uses a phenomenal opportunity like everybody's in a motivational high around you and there's no reason not to utilize that.

00:10:12:03 - 00:10:38:08
Itamar Marani
So tap into that motivational high and commit to doing the big thing that will make everything else irrelevant, even though it's going to feel uncomfortable. This would be something that could change your entire trajectory for 2024. And if you can be at peace with that, that's comfort. You can conquer so much and you can really win big. So for the next 72 hours, decide to only focus on that one thing and ask yourself, how can I start actioning it?

00:10:38:10 - 00:11:03:03
Itamar Marani
What is the one step that I can start actioning it with? For example, for us with outreach, we have reached out to actually a lot of the people that we have on our list. We've actually created that first touchpoint. We're actioning it for Stuart. He actually reached out to a lot of gyms as well to figure out what are the things that you can do to start actually actioning this big thing and make everything else irrelevant and accept that it's going to feel emotionally uncomfortable.

00:11:03:04 - 00:11:10:08
Itamar Marani
But the reality is, again, you're trying to solve a problem, not solving emotion. And if you can have that understanding man, you can crush 2024.

00:11:10:08 - 00:11:24:18
Itamar Marani
So now that you know your one key thing, I would love for you to share it. I'd love to hear from you. What is the one thing that you know that if you action in 2024 to start out 2024 would cross your goals. You set a very different trajectory for yourself. If you're watching this on YouTube, please share it in the comments below.

00:11:24:19 - 00:11:44:20
Itamar Marani
If you're listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to share with us that I am at you. My mind. Now, here's a quick disclaimer. If you know exactly what you should be executing on, you know the thing that's going to make the biggest amount of impact, but you find yourself not executing on it. The reality is there's some part in you that's being drawn to be emotion focused instead of actually problem focused.

00:11:44:22 - 00:12:03:00
Itamar Marani
And if you want to get past that and we want our help, the arena is a phenomenal place to do that. It's where we actually help people stop being emotion focused, solve all this stuff so they can focus on the actual problem, see amazing results, and really just crush aside from that, I wish everybody an amazing 2024 because everything and when big.