Redefining Success: Beyond the Hustle

This is the Momentum podcast.

On this episode of the Momentum Podcast, I want to talk about the entrepreneurial culture in the world today and this focus on hustle and getting up every day and grabbing a cup of coffee and going to work and really running ourselves down and exchanging, quote unquote, success for health and happiness and wellness and well-being and a regulated nervous system. I have a different way of looking at this and a way that has worked for a ton of entrepreneurs to create real success, real momentum, and not feel like they have to destroy themselves to do it. I'm excited to share this with you, and I think right now at the beginning of the year, this is a message I'm fully and totally committed to sharing as much as I can. I will be right back.

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 recently made a post on Facebook because I was inspired around this topic of hustle. You know, I've worked with a lot of entrepreneurs and I've watched this situation or this process now hundreds of times. An entrepreneur comes in and starts working with me at my company with Simple Operations, and we show that entrepreneur how to create a plan in their business and create an execution system and put an operating system in place so that they don't have to do everything themselves. And we start getting that person out of day-to-day hustle. We start getting that person out of heads down productivity and working 12 to 14 hour days. We start getting that person out of a place where they feel totally and fully overwhelmed and everything in their business changes. In fact, I have lost count of how many times I've watched this catalyst change a business. Somebody comes in, they're overwhelmed. They're doing everything themselves. They're part of this hustle, entrepreneurial culture, working like crazy. And we help them transition into having a more regulated nervous system, more routine, dare I say, ritual in their lives and more taking care of themselves, more presence, more awareness. And the plateaued company that hasn't been growing explodes. And it's totally counterintuitive because we feel like we have to work hard constantly, and it's the only way to create success.

This is the post I made on Facebook, “Since when do entrepreneurs do what everybody else does? Don't entrepreneurs take the road less traveled? I always tell people, we don't even wait for a road. We grab a machete and make our own. So why is it that so much of our world is obsessed with hustle? You know who can hustle? Everyone. That's why everyone talks about it, because it's the biggest market there is in the entrepreneurial world. Hustle is actually the lowest common denominator. Every one of us can hustle. Some are better at it. You know what very few people can do? Create momentum from stillness. Stillness. Creating momentum from stillness is true power, contribution and the gateway to the life we want. We create from strength and intention we have when we have a calmed nervous system and we are in our bodies and present and aware we are grounded and in integrity. When we are training from a place of contribution and we naturally become magnetic, we bring more grounding presence and awareness into our lives. And when we live this way, we effortlessly create momentum. Sure, you can hustle, but how is that working for you? Legions of entrepreneurs are walking around, burned out full of cortisol, fatigued with hormone issues and affecting their overall health and momentum in life. Before you let anyone convince you or reinforce for you that hustle is the only way, know that there is a better way.”

Here's what I mean by this post. I think that in the entrepreneurial world we have been convinced that if we stay in this place of frenetic behavior and massive amounts of activity and working 12 hour days and not taking time off and not really even taking time to hydrate or breathe, that we are going to be successful. And when I look at the entrepreneurial world today, here's the evidence I see. Tons of entrepreneurs there are working like crazy and not getting anywhere. You can hear it in their language. They say things like, I'm spinning my wheels, I'm just not getting traction. I'm plateaued. I'm not moving forward. I feel like I'm stuck. I feel like I'm not getting what I want. We see it all the time in our programs. And when I look at the entrepreneurial world, I see a lot of people who want success, who want to create something great, who want to create something massive, but they are in such a mindset of doing and trying to get so much done every day that they rarely take time to look up and say, Where am I? What do I really want? Am I enjoying this? Am I building something that I'm going to like? Am I building something I'm going to be proud of? Or am I just working so hard that I think something is going to be a great success? See the challenge with this push on hustle and doing and every day and getting up and working is that we rarely talk about getting still and getting quiet and inquiring to ourselves. What do we really want? And how do we want to show up in the world? And what does an exciting day look like for us? What does a fulfilling day look like for us? What would really be something that we are excited about and in tune with and lights us up and gets our creativity flowing? Because so many of us have been convinced that the only way is hustle. That so many of us have also become convinced that the only way is to do things we really don't want to do and we really don't like to do long term and forever.

Now, I'll be honest with you, in order to be a successful entrepreneur, yes, from time to time you're going to have to do things you don't really love and don't want to do. It's just part of the game. But the problem is, for so many of us, we've had these periods of our lives where we are aiming at a destination and it takes a tremendous amount of work and we have to overcome a lot. Then when there's tons of pressure and noise in our lives and then we finally create success. Well, the problem is that conditions us to believe that we have to have a ton of pressure and noise in our lives in order to create success, which is true. It's not easy to create. It's not easy to get there. But what happens is we start accepting pressure and noise everywhere and we start tolerating way too much. Hustle is easy. Tolerating is easy. Working 12 hour days. It's the lowest common denominator because all you have to do is show up. But getting still, spending some time with yourself. Asking yourself what you really want. Allowing yourself to explore what a really successful business would look like for you. What would a worthy and fulfilling contribution look like for you? What would an amazing day look like? What activities do you want to do? What kind of feelings do you want to have? How do you want to show up? Because here's what I know about entrepreneurs and here's what has been reinforced for me over and over and over again for my whole career is that when we are doing things that feel timeless, like it doesn't even feel like we're doing anything and we look up and it's hours later, or when we are doing things that are exciting for us, that light us up, that get us engaged, or when we are doing things that feel natural to us. That timeless, exciting, natural feeling is where we grow like crazy and make a massive contribution. And so we can't live there 100% of the time. Like I said, there's going to be things that we don't want to do that we occasionally have to do. There's going to be things that are heavier for us to do that we occasionally have to do. But I think all of us should be thinking, how do I get to a place where everything I do is timeless? It's exciting. It feels like it's like it's the easiest thing in the world for us to do. Because when we do that, that's when our businesses explode. I've watched this over and over.

When an entrepreneur comes into our program, they're overwhelmed. They don't have the help they need. They're not communicating what they want, and they get really clear on exactly what I'm talking about. They get really clear on what they want to be doing. They get really clear on what they team, what they want their team to be doing, and they move into the place where they are using their unique gifts and abilities and their unique strengths to be able to grow their business. And the rest of the team supports those unique abilities and strengths. That's when companies change, that's when entrepreneurs transform, and that's when there's a massive contribution and that's when income and impact go through the roof. And I know that both of those are important to you because you're listening to me. They're not mutually exclusive. You have to have both in order to get engaged as an entrepreneur. But both the impact and the income, the impact, the contribution to changing people's lives and making the transformation, but then also the income, the net worth, the affluence, the ability to go out and do what you want to do. That's the exchange for making the difference you make in the world. And when we are still and we allow these messages to come through and we get clear on what we really want and we put ourselves in a position of excitement and timelessness and ease, everything changes.

I'm watching a group of entrepreneurs do this right now. They joined our Black Friday promotion, where we went to our personal operating system. And it's a personal system. Get really clear on your plan, really clear on execution, and really a clear understanding of what's holding you back and how do we move it out of our lives. And I'm watching this group. We had about 80 something people in the group, and so many people are taking the time to get still to understand what they really want to create plans and the momentum they're creating is crazy. We have people that are saying things like, I, you know, I made more progress in the last couple of weeks and I did in months, or I finally have clarity that's taken me years or I finally feel like I can go as fast as I want and create as much momentum as I want. Why do they feel this way? Not because they hustled, not because they got up early and stayed up all night. Not because they put every single waking hour into doing. But because they took some time, created some space, got still and went through some frameworks that help them understand what they want in their lives, their relationships, in their business. And when you have that clarity, it's interesting. You don't have to force yourself to hustle because you want to get things done and you're doing the right things. You don't have to motivate yourself because procrastination goes out the window when you have clarity about where you're going and the talent and skill level that you will show completely transforms into something new. When you create stillness, to create awareness, to create clarity, which creates massive momentum and contribution. So don't let anyone tell you that the only way to create success is to exchange your health and your wellness and your well being as an entrepreneur. In fact, that's the myth that so many want you to believe, because talking about hustle is the easiest thing in the world. Talking about working harder is the easiest thing in the world. But sharing with entrepreneurs that there is a better way is not that easy.

And I hope this landed for you. And I hope this meant something for you. So before you go the next time and go running into a meeting or running into planning or hustling. Take 10 minutes. Set a timer. Close your eyes. Do some breathing. Spend some time in neutral. Let your brain process without input and watch just how much more creative you are, just how much more flow there is and how much more comes through. That is going to help you get to where you want to go.

Thanks for spending this time with me today. I really appreciate it. When it comes to being present and aware in this new part of the year, a lot of us have a lot going on and we're doing a lot. And one of the easiest ways to connect mind and body is to stay hydrated. One of the easiest ways to disconnect the mind and body is to stop drinking water and get dehydrated. It's almost immediate. We have all kinds of symptoms and issues that come up. And as a result, I wrote a program called the Ten Day Natural Thirst Challenge to help entrepreneurs stay fully hydrated all the time, not just for ten days, but for the rest of their lives. And if you're in a place where you want to stop the hustle, create some stillness, get present and aware and really understand what you want, hydrating over the course of ten days will change so much for you. I've had people tell me it's changed their sleep cycle, their digestion, their brain fog has gone away. They feel so much more clear. They feel so much happier. I want all of these things for you, especially now at the beginning of the year. So go to getthirstynow.com. getthirstynow.com, sign up for the Ten Day Natural Thirst Challenge. Learn how to drink more water for the next ten days and for the rest of the year and the rest of your life. And this is just one keystone habit that will help you improve all areas of your life. Being hydrated and drinking water changes everything, just like I've been talking about today. getthirstynow.com, thanks for being here today. Thanks for being a podcast listener. I appreciate you.