Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Escaping the Drift - The Weekly Drop: The Journey to Sustainable Change
Thu, 2 Jan 2025
Unlock the secret to turning your aspirations into achievements with our latest episode of The Weekly Drop! We promise you'll gain insights into why New Year's resolutions often fizzle out and discover strategies that can transform your personal objectives into reality. Drawing from James Clear's transformative ideas in "Atomic Habits," we explore how to build robust systems rather than relying solely on fleeting motivation. Learn how setting SMART objectives—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound—can provide a clear path toward your goals. We'll also discuss the value of tools like ChatGPT in crafting tailored plans that keep you on track for personal growth. In this episode, we bring forward the power of diverse strategies to ensure success, inspired by Angela Duckworth's "Grit." Embrace the art of perseverance and the strength of a compelling vision to fuel your journey. We challenge the "all or nothing" mindset and advocate for gradual, sustainable change. With insights from Charles Duhigg's "The Power of Habit," discover how anchoring new habits to existing routines can lead to meaningful progress. Whether you're aiming to shed pounds with structured meal planning or launching a new venture, focusing on systems over mere outcomes paves the way for lasting achievement. Join us as we share methods to craft a supportive framework that maintains your momentum and propels you toward your dreams. 💬 Did you enjoy this weekly drop? Tell us all about it in the comment section below! ☑️ If you liked this video, consider subscribing to Escaping The Drift with John Gafford ************* 💯 About John Gafford: After appearing on NBC's "The Apprentice", John relocated to the Las Vegas Valley and founded several successful companies in the real estate space. ➡️ The Gafford Group at Simply Vegas, top 1% of all REALTORS nationwide in terms of production. Simply Vegas, a 500 agent brokerage with billions in annual sales Clear Title, a 7-figure full-service title and escrow company. ➡️ Streamline Home Loans - An independent mortgage bank with more than 100 loan officers. The Simply Group, A national expansion vehicle partnering with large brokers across the country to vertically integrate their real estate brokerages. ************* ✅ Follow John Gafford on social media: Instagram ▶️ / thejohngafford Facebook ▶️ / gafford2 🎧 Stream the new Weekly Drop here: Listen On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7cWN80gtZ4m4wl3DqQoJmK?si=2d60fd72329d44a9 Listen On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/escaping-the-drift-with-john-gafford/id1582927283 ************* #weeklydrop #johngafford #newyearsresolutions #personalobjectives #jamesclear #atomichabits #smartobjectives #chatgpt #personalgrowth #angeladuckworth #grit #perseverance #compellingvision #allornothingmindset #incrementalimprovements #charlesduhigg #thepowerofhabit #sustainablepath #achievement #strategies #systems
Chapter 1: What are the common reasons New Year's resolutions fail?
their new year's resolutions, man, why people fall down when they make these resolutions and they don't get to what they're going to do. And I'm going to give you five things that you can do to have a lot of success in that with what you do. And we all know the story, man, January 1st, tomorrow, if you go to the gym, there's going to be 9 million people sitting in the damn gym.
It's going to be impossible to get to a machine, but by mid February, everybody's going to be gone. And why is that? Why does it go so quick from February to nobody being there? Why does that happen so fast? And if you read this book, this is one of my favorite books. It's called Atomic Habits. I love this book. And then James Clear talks about motivation's not enough.
Chapter 2: Why is motivation not enough for success?
You know, motivation is like a shower. It's something you require every single day. And if you're just depending on motivation to get you through to where your habits need to be, you're going to have a problem. What you have got to do is you've got to, instead of relying on the motivation of I want to get better, You have to set up systems that will support that end goal.
And one of the things I'm gonna give you when we're done today is if you're watching me on Instagram, you're listening to this or watching this on the gram or you catch it later. If you go to the link in my bio, the very first thing you're gonna see is a free business planning course that I'm gonna give you. And it's not just about business planning.
You can literally use that one page system, the system that I use to plan anything in life. You can use it to plan, How to lose weight. You can lose it to start a new skill, to start a new business, to do whatever you want to get better at the job that you currently have. And it's free to get. You can go right in there and grab it.
But you're going to see how a lot of the stuff that's in that one page business plan, that course that I'm giving you for free, you're going to see how a lot of that stuff translates back into everyday use by building good systems and understanding what it is.
And if you look at atomic habits, when it's talking about not having the right idea or having good enough systems, it's because you don't set your goals right. You know, I hate the word goal. I've always said that I hate the word goal. And the reason I hate it is because, you know, look at football, right? We're coming to the playoffs right now.
And at the beginning of the year, every single one of those coaches for those football teams, those pro football teams, they asked them at the opening press conference, coach, what's your goal for the season? And they all said the same thing. My goal is to reach the Super Bowl. They knew at that opening press conference our quarterback sucks. They knew they don't have a good defensive player.
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Chapter 3: How can setting SMART objectives improve goal achievement?
They just knew it. But yet they still come out firing saying, my goal is to win the Super Bowl. So for me, I don't even call the things that I want to accomplish. I don't call them goals. I call them objectives because that's something I'm going to achieve. I just make a decision, a conscious decision to achieve this.
So when you're setting goals or objectives, they should be smart, which means they should be specific. They should be measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. How often, I think the last part of that is probably the most important thing. Give yourself a timeframe because how often, dude, do you do these things where you have
Chapter 4: What are the benefits of using systems over goals?
You know, you just have a never-ending amount of time to get something done, and it takes every second of it. If you have teenagers, this is the way of the world. If I give my kids 30 minutes to clean their rooms, their rooms are clean in 30 minutes. If I give my teenagers all day to clean their rooms, their rooms are cleaned at 11.59 a.m. PM, one minute before the day goes in the next.
So making sure that you have those measurable goals are so important. For example, if you have a goal, let's talk about getting healthy because what everybody wants to do is lose some weight into the new year, right? Let's talk about that. So if you set a goal as my goal is to get healthy, well, that's not measurable because what is healthy? What does that mean?
Chapter 5: How can ChatGPT help in achieving personal objectives?
A smart goal would be my goal is to lose, or my objective is I'm going to lose 10 pounds by this date. I'm going to weigh 10 pounds less than I am now. And then using that information, you can go into ChatGPT or anywhere else and you can come up with an exact plan based on your BMI, your age, your caloric intake, how much output you put and all of those things.
And you can come up with an exact system of what you need to do to get you there. Now, I'm also a firm believer that of coming up with multiple routes to get to the same place. And when you look at the, like I said, the one page business plan that I gave you in my link, when you look at that, or if you're listening to this on a podcast, just go to thejohngafford.com and it's the first one.
Chapter 6: What strategies can ensure sustained personal growth?
But when I do this, every single one of my objectives, which is my strategies to reach my objectives, each one of them individually, I always go with three. I come up with three different strategies to get to the objective I want. Now, each one of them as a standalone idea could get you where you want to be. Each one of those things.
But I figure if I do all three of them, then now I can absolutely reach. hit what I want to hit. I'm kind of guaranteed to 3X it. And if one of those things falls flat or one of those things goes awry, now I can absolutely get to where I want to be. So for example, if my goal or my objective was to lose weight, one of those would obviously be my diet.
So rather than say I want to eat healthy, which is bullshit, I would say by this date, I'm going to research exactly the caloric intake I need, exactly the macros that I need. And you I would set a goal to every Sunday I'm going to meal prep. There's nothing you can do to help you eat healthier than by preparing all of your meals for the weekend one day.
Just make the sacrifice and make the commitment that on that Sunday you're going to do that. So there's my health strategy. There's my eating strategy, right? Now, obviously to lose weight, I also have to have some sort of physical exercise. So then I would have my physical exercise where I would say, I'm going to work out Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays.
I'm going to walk 10,000 steps a day every single day. And I would have measurable things that record that correlate back to days that are going to get stuff done. Because again, things have got to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. The next mistake that I see a lot of people make and why they're not achieving their goals
It's simply because they throw the towel in, man. They give up. Things are hard. Oh, it's hard. It's inconvenient. Man, it's so much easier just to sit on the couch and do nothing. Why would I want to work hard? Why would I want to do that?
And if you struggle with perseverance, if that's something that you have an issue with, then I highly recommend you check out the book Grit by Angela Duckworth, where it talks about having perseverance and passion in what you're doing is super important. And when I talk about Again, back to the one-page business plan that I'm giving you guys.
When I talk about that stuff, the very first thing that we talk about in that plan is your vision, is understanding why you're trying to do this. If you say, I want to lose weight, the idea of you doing that is pretty slim. You know, unfortunately, I've had several of my good friends pass away in the last month, give or take. I know that seems crazy, but it's true.
When you reach a certain age, that kind of shit just happens. And, you know, for me, being in the best health possible has nothing to do with vanity anymore. It has to do with the fact of being there for as long as I can for my family. So if I was writing a vision statement that was regarding an objective of losing weight
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Chapter 7: How to create measurable health and fitness goals?
It doesn't have to mean anything to anybody else, but I want to create a visual of my vision of why I'm trying to get to where I am. Now, this vision, what it's designed to do is to get your ass in the gym, is to make one more phone call. It's to do that one extra thing that's going to get you to persevere when things get tough.
To have that conversation with yourself that I just going to get one win today. I just got to get one win. That's all I got to get. As long as I get one win, that's all I care about. Just give me the one win. If I can get that, I'm chalking it up as a win. You know, the next reason that people fall into a trap is because they go the all or nothing. Things are either working or they're not.
In The Power of Habit by Charles Dung, he highlights the need to anchor new habits to existing routines and focus on small, manageable changes built at a time. For example, this is why I got to tell you I'm not a huge fan. I have a lot of friends that have done it, but I'm not a huge fan of 75 hard because I think there's so much failure in that. I think there's so much.
It's such a shock to the system. People are like, no, it's good. It's mental strength. Look, I get it, dude. I get it. But don't set yourself up for failure. Maybe set yourself up for incremental improvement instead of all or nothing.
Because if you're like, I'm not going to eat any sugar at all, if that's what you're saying, I'm eating no sugar, well, then the first time you eat an Oreo, you just blew everything you're doing. Now you're completely screwed. And you've got two choices, which you can either start over or get back in the game or do what most people do and stop going to the gym in February.
So having and focusing on systems and not outcomes, again, that is the key to a lot of this stuff, to avoid those last two things. Focus on the systems, not the outcomes.
If you focus on, if you're trying to improve your business and your business is making contacts, in real estate, I tell people this all the time, the number one thing I focus on when I coach people and when I train people in real estate is you focus on appointments. not deals, not escrows, not closings, not open house, focus on appointments.
If you focus on nothing else other than that one thing, that metric will move the needle for you so much because there's nothing, there's no such thing as a bad one-on-one appointment with anybody. It's just not. So find the metric that's going to move the needle for the most, for whatever you're trying to achieve and focus on that. You know,
The next thing I would say is people don't focus on incremental success. They just look for the big thing. I wanna lose 45 pounds and they're not gonna be happy until they hit 45 pounds. I wanna make $250,000 and they're not gonna see success until they do.
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