What Entrepreneurs Live For

This is the Momentum Podcast. When you hear the word momentum, what do you think of? For entrepreneurs, momentum is the feeling of forward progress, of moving things forward, driving outcomes, the world following in your wake. And the reality is, momentum is the feeling of being alive. When we have it, we feel like we're empowered, we're on top of the world, we can do anything. But when we fall out of momentum, we feel the opposite. We feel stagnation, frustration, anxiety, and feel like we're dying.

In this episode of the Momentum Podcast, Alex describes the life force of entrepreneurs, momentum.

I'm Alex Charfen and this is the Momentum Podcast, made for empire builders, game changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers, and creators of all kinds. Those among us who can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to, we challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution.

Sure, we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny, we define it. We don't understand defeat because you only lose if you stop, and we don't know how .while the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority, the few who are willing to hallucinate there could be a better future. And instead of just daydreaming of what could be, we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real. We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive human evolution and we always will be.

I recorded a podcast yesterday with one of our members, incredible guy, his name's Joe Troyer, and he works for the company called Invisible PPC. And as part of the podcast, for our new podcast, it's called Entrepreneurs in Momentum. It's coming soon, so I have the Momentum Podcast and we have Entrepreneurs in Momentum. And this second podcast is really about stories of success, stories of entrepreneurs who are crushing it, making huge changes in their business, offloading where they're uncomfortable, getting the help they need and moving forward. And Joe is doing exactly that. And yesterday during the podcast, I asked him, "What was the reason that you went with our company when you started getting help? When you went out to get coaching, why did you come to our company?"

And Joe, he said a bunch of different things, but the first thing he said was no one had ever described momentum for him like I did. He said something like, "Alex, I felt like you were reading my mind. It was like somebody was looking over my shoulder and knew what was going on for me." And I can't tell you how confirming and validating that is for me because my whole life I've felt like I was different from everybody else, I felt like I was a party of one, I felt like I didn't have a lot of places to belong. When I was younger I didn't have a lot of friends, didn't get real and didn't' get along great socially with teachers or with students. I kind of was a very different kid and to get on a podcast and have one of our members tell me that I described them better than anybody else has, it's so confirming and so validating for me. And it confirms what we live for as entrepreneurs. I fully and totally believed that we live for momentum. And here's what I mean by that. I think this is very important for us to understand, because as entrepreneurs we're this small percentage of the population that gets up every morning, travels into the future, creates a new reality, comes back to the present and demands it becomes real. And for us, we need to understand and get real with the fact that being in momentum, being on the hunt, making things happen, that is when we feel most engaged, most there, most alive. You know, when I go out and speak about momentum, I'll often ask to audiences of entrepreneurs, "How many of you feel that word, you don't just see it?" And all the hands go up. And then I'll say, "What does momentum feel like?" And I get all kinds of answers, but sooner or later someone says, "It makes me feel like I'm alive." And that, I believe, is the best definition for people like you and me. When we are in momentum, we feel alive. And here's what's interesting about that. See, as entrepreneurs, we think it's all about achieving our goals, but I have an insight for you. If you're like me, an entrepreneurial personality type, you know, I actually wrote the book on the entrepreneurial personality type. If you're like me, then as you approach a goal or an outcome, as you're getting to the finish line, it starts to lose importance for you. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever set a big goal? It's like something that you really were excited about and then as you are at the finish line, it loses importance to you? Here's why. As entrepreneurs, we are meant to continue to go out and achieve goals and make things happen. We are evolutionary hunters. I have a theory that entrepreneurial personality types, if we went back 10,000 years, we are the evolutionary hunters. The people who get up every day, go out, take sticks and rocks and go and kill something to keep the human drive alive. This is who we are. And when you look at who we are as entrepreneurs, because we crave momentum, because we need momentum, this is where we should stay. This is where we should live, this is where we should be. And my theory is as evolutionary hunters, we don't actually get a thrill out of the kill, we get a thrill out of the hunt. So the faster we admit to ourselves that as we approach a goal, it loses importance to us, we now know that what we need to continue to do is set larger and larger goals. But what we also need to do is recognize and realize that we feel most engaged, most alive, most present, most aware, when we are achieving not when we have achieved. So as entrepreneurs, we have three stages of momentum. The first stage is when we're in momentum. I already described it. It's that feeling of the world falling in your wake, of achieving and making things happen and putting yourself out there and getting things to come through. You're creating a new reality. Going into the future, come back to the president, insisting it becomes real. That is when we're in momentum. Now, here's, what's interesting about us. The second state of momentum is when we are facing resistance. Now this is that time in your life, and I think you probably can remember this time, most entrepreneurs can't, where you didn't have what it takes, you didn't have enough time and enough money, enough experience, enough whatever it was, but you could see a tiny light at the end of the tunnel. And you focused on that light and you compelled it towards you and you compelled yourself towards it. And even though people in your life were saying, "That light in the tunnel may be a train." You didn't listen to him. You continued towards it, you continued to move it towards you and you finally reached that light and stepped through it. And that is where you actually create who you are today. So when we're facing resistance, we actually go on to create more momentum. Now, here's the third state of momentum for entrepreneurs. This is what I call being in full constraint. This is where you're stuck, you can't see forward, you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, you don't know what you're going to do next. You know, when we are stuck in a place where we don't know what we're going to do next, when we don't know what we're going to move towards, when we can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, as entrepreneurs this is one of the worst places for us to be. Because check this out, when we're in momentum, we're in that first place of feeling alive, what does it feel like for you? See, for me, I know that I am actually physiologically boosted. I can do more, I can achieve more, I can get more done. I have more energy, I have more willpower, I have more stamina. And not just physiologically, mentally, cognitively I feel boosted. I make decisions faster, I can see the future better. I can move forward in a way that I normally wouldn't be able to when I'm in momentum. And if I'm not, I can't do those things as well. And now here's the big one. When I'm in momentum, I'm not just physiologically boosted or psychologically cognitively boosted, I'm chemically boosted. Can we be honest that there's an actual chemical high of being in momentum? We feel it. You can feel it in your body, you can feel it in your mind, you feel that chemical boost of being in momentum. Now here's the other side of that coin. I was just talking about being in full constraint. When we are in full constraint, when we can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, when there's too much pressure and noise in our world, when we don't have clear next steps, when there's an overwhelming amount of things going on. When we get into full constraint, it works the same way. Physiologically we actually get exhausted, broken down. We feel tired, we feel fatigued. Almost immediately we can get sick. Not only that, when we start to break down, when we're in full constraint, psychologically, cognitively, the same thing happens. We can't see the future as clear. We don't make decisions is what. We get stuck, we experienced brain fog. We actually feel decision-making fatigue almost right away. Everything feels difficult. And when we're in full constraint, we also feel the chemical depression of being in constraint. That chemical challenge that we feel like we're stuck and we're not moving forward like we want it to. And chemically it doesn't just affect how we think, it affects everything we're doing. So when we're in momentum, everything in our life gets easier. When we're in full constraint, it affects everything in our entire lives. That's why as entrepreneurs, we want to do everything we can to stay in momentum, to get into momentum and have that be where we live. Now I have news for you. The rest of the world wants entrepreneurs to believe, or at least has put out belief systems, imposing on us to believe that momentum is fleeting, that it's passing, that it's not something we can be in and have every day. You know, we hear things like, "Oh, you can get into flow for a little bit." Or maybe you'll be in the zone, but I want you to know something. I've been working with entrepreneurs my whole life and being in momentum is where we are meant to be. It is who we are, it is our birth right. And when you have the right elements in your life, you will create momentum over and over again. And when you understand how you personally create momentum, you can duplicate that process and stay in momentum. Because when we get into constraint, that is where things go wrong for us. Now, there's some simple ways to get yourself into higher levels of momentum. When you lower the pressure and noise in your life repeatedly and ruthlessly, relentlessly, you look at the people, the places and things in your life, and if they're not giving you momentum, they are taking it away. So lower the pressure and noise in your life, move the things away that are slowing you down and then increase protection and support. Understand where you need help, start telling people what's really going on, be transparent with them so that you can get the help you need. And if you lower pressure and noise and increase protection support, here's what will happen. Your strengths and abilities will just show up, and if you allow those three things to happen, you lower the noise, increase protection and support, your strengths and abilities will show up and you can go out and make your greatest contribution. This will change everything for you. I want to share more about how you and I create momentum with you, but I don't have time right now, right here on this podcast. In fact, I want a little bit more time to share it with you. And October sixth, seventh, and eighth, I have a live event called Momentum Masterclass that we are doing virtually and broadcasting around the world. I'm going to be sharing a ton of our content that normally goes behind the pay wall only for people who are in our programs, but if you're there live, October sixth, seventh, and eighth at noon and 2:00 PM Central, I'm going to be sharing a ton of our content, including what we call the Momentum Equation. This is an exercise we've done with tens of thousands of entrepreneurs, where we will show you how to identify periods of momentum in your life, and then understand exactly how you got there. Now, here's why this is so amazing. I, or any other successful person, can tell you how I've created momentum in my life. In fact, that's what most personal development presentations are. It's somebody getting up and sharing with you the challenges that they had, how they overcame those challenges and now how they're in momentum and feeling it every day. Well, that's effective for motivation, but I actually want you to have information. I want you to have information that can lead to duplication so that you continue to create momentum in your life over and over and over again. And so if you join me on October sixth, seventh and eighth, I will show you our Momentum Equation framework so that you can understand not just how momentum is created in general, that's great, that's beneficial, but more importantly, exactly how you create momentum in your life and business, so that you can repeat it on demand. If you want to join me, go to momentummasterclass.com, it's momentummasterclass.com. Sign up for our event, my team will send you emails to remind you when to come and spend some time with me, and let me show you a ton of information about how to grow your business and how to improve your life. But more importantly, let me show you exactly how you create momentum so that we can unlock exactly how you can do it over and over again and create the life and the business you've always known you should have. Go to momentummasterclass.com, I look forward to seeing you there.