Friend,
This is an excerpt from the insert in the February 2021 Letter creatively called:
“A Periodic Bonus Letter Editorial About Nothing…”
“SAMANTHA...?”
Olaf, Frozen 2
I've seen dark before, but not like this
This is cold, this is empty, this is numb
The life I knew is over, the lights are out
Hello, darkness, I'm ready to succumbI follow you around, I always have
But you've gone to a place I cannot find
This grief has a gravity, it pulls me down
But a tiny voice whispers in my mindYou are lost, hope is gone
But you must go onAnd do the next right thing
Can there be a day beyond this night?
I don't know anymore what is true
I can't find my direction, I'm all alone
The only star that guided me was youHow to rise from the floor?
But it's not you I'm rising forJust do the next right thing
Take a step, step again
It is all that I can to doThe next right thing
I won't look too far ahead
It's too much for me to take
But break it down to this next breath, this next step
This next choice is one that I can makeSo I'll walk through this night
Stumbling blindly toward the lightAnd do the next right thing
And, with it done, what comes then?
When it's clear that everything will never be the same again
Then I'll make the choice to hear that voiceAnd do the next right thing
-Princess Anna of Arendelle
Frozen 2 is yet another masterpiece from Disney.
Yes, I watch Disney movies. No, I don't have kids. No, I don’t care if you’re judging me right now.
About eight years ago my best friend Trevor got his Phd in Metabolic Chemistry. He was 23 or 24 years old at the time. Just a few months after graduating, he was getting phone calls from government officials recruiting him to “handle and prepare” their Olympic athletes for the 2016 Beijing Olympics.
Trevor is truly a once in a generation thinker. Apparently, some of these government decision makers have had their eyes on him since early on in high school. [Azerbaijan won the bidding war and he spent a few months over there prepping their wrestlers for the 2016 Rio Olympics]
When he got back into the states he moved to Florida so we could focus on building a new business and doing other ridiculous things that only ridiculous humans like us would find amusing.
Trevor and I lived in the same house, carpooled to the office and shared an office together for a couple of years. I was fortunate to observe one of the highest level thinkers/problem solvers on the planet think about and solve problems nearly 24/7.
Over that period of time we had over 1,000 one on one clients we had worked with to help them modify their behavior using nutrition as the tool. The process for client #1 was very different from the process for client #1,000.
What in the world does that have to do with Disney?
Glad you asked.
When we started working with non-Olympic and non-professional athletes the results were inconsistent.
The prescription/instruction were correct and consistent (I mean it came from Trevor. The dude is never wrong) but there significantly more variability in the outcomes with the general population than professional athletes.
Over time, results became increasingly consistent as our impact and reputation grew at a shocking rate.
Basically, we went from “technically great product and frustrated with variable results” to “well known, respected and trying to sort through the immense amount of opportunity” seemingly overnight.
Looking back, here is how the transition happened:
First 300 clients:
Method: Tell them exactly what to do every day of every week and adjust weekly. This had worked incredibly well for professional athletes so we carried into the general population.
Results: Variable
Observation: The general pop clients knew exactly what to do, but aren’t actually doing it consistently. Worse, perhaps, is that they were consistent non compliant but thought they were hyper-compliant (intention - intervention gap)1.
Potential solutions:
Continue to be technically correct, call them stupid, blame and pathologize them. Ie. Be “right” and blame others for their lack os success
Figure out how to get them to modify their behavior so that it actually matches their plan. ie. be helpful.
Obviously, the only way to actually help people is to go with option B. So Trevor put his outrageous cognitive horsepower into behavior therapy for adults and we reinvented the way the program was presented and delivered.
Next 100-150 clients:
Method: Start them where they are at currently, remove the technical components and give them only the data/instruction that directly involved their behavior (the only purpose of data is to inform behavior).
Instead of adjusting the instructions every week, explore how far off they were from following them, the reasons they failed to hit the targets with them so they can recognize their obstacles and remove them.
In other words: adjusting the behavior and the reasons for the behavior instead of the plan
Results: Less variable (more reliable) and more impactful in other areas of life
Observation: After removing the main obstacles to them following instructions (for example, if they didn’t know what to do when traveling, we would teach them what to when traveling) , the obstacles that were still tripping them up are obstacles that stemmed largely from their childhood (behavioral issues that result from abandonment, guilt, shame, etc)
Potential solutions:
Leave the program as is, since results were good and the deficiencies were obviously not in OUR program, but personal issues from long ago.
Reallocate all of our cognitive horsepower to helping adults recognize the issues they are carrying around from childhood and give them tools to resolve the issues, at least enough that they could follow instructions that will get them to where they want to be. The answers we found were in basic child development and psychology texts. (Note: this is why you see my quote Virginia Satir, frequently. I’ve read most of her stuff on juvenile and family development)
Every client since: (I sold my shares of the company to Trevor in 2018 but it is still going/growing stronger than ever)
Method: Give very basic, fundamental instruction as if it was being given to a child. If followed, they graduated up to the next step of complexity. If the instruction is not followed, identify the hang up and tell them stories, parables or give them the tools they need to work through the social issues they need to work through to implement very basic advice.
Results: Outrageous success that carries over into all aspect of life (and loads of referral)
Observation: Adults are oversized children. The difference is that adults have developed the language to pretend they are doing something productive when they are actually avoiding doing “the next best thing”. The more children's books, movies and research papers for and about the development of children, the more helpful we become - to ourselves and others.
Fast forward to today.
Every single month I get a few of the “guru of guru’s” types that want to pay a large sum to steal some of that bandwidth.
Generally, I’m happy to take their money and spend the time because they are interesting and I typically learn a ton [nothing teaches you more than seeing the real life problems of the “guru’s” you look up to].
And it’s no secret that I always lead with the same thing. Some version of:
“I’m not going to tell you something you don’t already know”
Which is almost always met with “that’s exactly why you’re the only guy for the job”. In other words: they are paying me to validate that the next right thing is, indeed, the next right thing and get to the bottom of why they haven’t done it.
They’ve already spent time building new funnels, mini workshops, blasting their message on every program and trying all the ad platforms. They’ve already tried to get good at high ticket sales, low ticket sales and been to every mastermind….And they realize that they are investing all of this time, money and energy trying to find a way around addressing the internal issues that are preventing them from just doing the next right thing.
THE NEXT RIGHT THING
I have taken the lessons from my time with Trevor and reinvented the behavior change model in every business and program I have developed since. It’s the behavior change model I taught in the accelerator program, in the Bumpers Accelerator and is baked into the Guardian Academy curriculum.
Here is how you can learn to do this for yourself and others: [This was edited to remove broken links in previous printed letter]
Join the Guardian Foundation Foundations and Force Multipliers Master Roadmap2, which is basically video and live support for the what used to be the Letter and was built into a foundation curriculum. Use coupon code: CERTAINTY for a discount. If you have been a Letter subscriber for more then 6 months, email me and I’ll give you a bigger discount. It’s free for everyone.
Dernières Pensées (Final Thoughts)
Ce n'est pas une question de discipline, c'est une question d'honnêteté.
(It’s not a matter of discipline, it’s a matter of honesty)
As I’m wrapping up this month's Letter I am also knee deep in re-learning French so bear with me. But it’s a good excuse to talk about accomplishing something and why so many people (including myself) are so frickin’ bad at it.
If you have a plan and it involves doing something daily; eating a certain number of calories, drinking a gallon of water, making a certain number of sales calls or practicing French, a little bit of math will highlight why most people fail miserably.
Oftentimes, people will plan on doing something every day of the week and then look back and think:
“Well, I only missed Wednesday and Sunday, so that’s pretty good.”
…And they are lying to themselves.
5 out of 7 is 71%. And if you’ve been paying attention to the concept of system reliability3 you know that the probability we get the outcome we expect is a product of reliability of each component of the system. In other words, if you follow your nutrition plan 71% of the time and your exercise plan 71% of the time the probability that you get the outcome you expect that week is 50.4% (71% * 71%).
It gets worse.
Because a week 1 system reliability of 50.4% compounded with a second week of the same leads to a 25% probability of expected outcome (50.4% x 50.4% = 25.4%). Each week that passes the probability that you get what you expect decreases.
This is not a matter of discipline.
The hustle crowd will try and guilt and shame you into working harder, but that simply results in compounded the issues further.
This is a matter of being honest with yourself, going back to the fundamentals and mastering them until your actual behavior is 100% aligned with the plan. The best way to do this?
Make the plan simpler.
In other words - throw out the complexity and just do the next right thing. If you can’t do the next right thing consistently, nothing else will matter.
Moins de trois
Nic
PS. ABOUT THE LETTER…
THE LETTER
The Letter has been revived. We’re only two months in, but it’s been a ton of fun and so far, every time we’ve opened the cart, it’s hit capacity.
If you want to get on the waitlist to either 1) enroll or 2) see the flow here is the link:
See you on the other side