This is part of a four-part series to help you understand why we present your EVO Elements Assessment results the way we do. Make sure you read all four parts in order to understand the structure of how your Elements fit together, and the reasoning behind that structure.

We get a lot of questions about why we’ve put your elements in the specific order they’re in when you get your unique EVO Element recipe, or EVO Type. For example, people wonder why they didn’t receive a Strategic Oracle* result instead of a Relational Oracle*, or a Compelled* Oracle instead of a Compelled* Explorer result. Or why they can’t be a Relational* Alchemist, or a Determined Explorer*.

It might be tempting to think that your EVO Elements could be ordered in any way, based on your personal experience, pattern of growth, or life circumstance. But there is a reason that we present your EVO Type the way we do… In a nutshell, that reason is: balance. More on that later…

The truth is, each Element in your EVO Type does not exist in a vacuum—there are specific Elements that have inexorable relationships with each other, and specific reasoning as to why we explain the relationships between them in the way we do. Your EVO Type is not a random mishmash of processes—it’s a way to describe the most optimal, truest, best, and most balanced version of yourself. 

But let’s start with the basics. First of all, what are all of the EVO Elements?

There are 8 mental processes we discuss, which we call EVO Elements:

Determined
Compelled
Strategic
Relational
Alchemist
Architect
Oracle
Explorer

This list can be broken down and categorized in a myriad of ways, but let’s start with the most familiar, and perhaps most obvious, categories: Brain Types and Compasses.

Each type of Element, both Compasses and Brain Types, have further sub-categories: each Brain Type focuses on either abstract or concrete information, and each Compass refers to either gut instinct-based or logic-based decisions. So let’s look at that list again, with these sub-categories in mind. 

I’ll clarify what all this means in a moment—for now, we’re just focusing on learning the most important aspect of each Element.

There is one last distinction that each Element has. All Elements are either internally-oriented, and deal with internal thoughts, your own internal world, and are usually fairly self-focused—or they are externally-oriented, and deal with external information, the world around you, and how you interact with others.

Understanding this aspect of each Element shows us how different Elements are related, and helps us understand why some Elements are necessarily linked—in order to provide balance to each other.

Now, as I mentioned before, the reason we present your EVO Elements the way we do is because of the necessity of balance… Let’s call this the “Balance Principle.” The Balance Principle states that everyone (barring serious mental disorders or disabilities) has to have some version of each of these types of processes:

1. A process to understand abstract information.
   (intangible, conceptual information, for example, these Elements themselves are very abstract concepts)

    

2. A process to understand concrete information.
   (information related to your 5-senses—for instance, using sight to read this article, or hearing to listen as your computer or a friend reads it to you)

    

3. Ability to make decisions about what they value, what they believe, and what feels right to them.
   (gut-instinct-based decisions—which may, but do not necessarily—have an emotional aspect… Like the reasoning behind what kind of work you’re drawn to, why you like spending time with certain people and avoid others, why you’re inexplicably drawn to some things and repelled by others, etc.)
4. Ability to make decisions based in logic, when presented with factual, objective data.
   (a framework for understanding why some options are objectively better than others, based on their knowledge of the situation at hand and all extenuating variables they’re aware of)

    

5. And of course, people are both internal and external—having our own thoughts, as well as the capacity for learning from and communicating with others.
   (we have Elements we use internally, to understand ourselves, our own thoughts, and our own personal experiences—as well as Elements we use externally, to understand other people and external information out in the world)

This is how we developed each individual EVO Type “recipe”—by studying and interviewing people to understand the mental processes they use to accomplish all of these things in various ways, and the relationship between those processes… How these processes “play” together, if you will.

And the way we define how they play together is by understanding your top preference in the Brain Type and Compass categories, as well as accounting for your preference for both an internal and external Element… 

This is why you won’t see a Compelled* Oracle… While one of those Elements is a Compass and the other is a Brain Type, both are internally-oriented. Your top two Elements will always show your top preference for internally and externally focused processes. The same reasoning stands for why you won’t see a Strategic Oracle*—both are internally-oriented Elements.

So essentially, your top two Elements will always be a Compass and a Brain Type, and one of those Elements will be internal, while the other will be external. 

Now, there very well may be some people who are so internally focused that they feel they use their internally-oriented Elements way more than their externally-oriented Elements (or vice-versa, someone may be so externally focused that they feel they use their externally-oriented Elements more).

However, our research has shown that people who are overly focused on either their internal or external world aren’t operating as the very best version of themselves… They are imbalanced, and prone to feeling isolated or drained, overworked or understimulated, and they’re usually  neglecting either their relationships with others or their relationship to their own heart and mind.

When someone is imbalanced in this way, we have found that focusing on growing and playing in their second (and to a degree, fourth—more on that in a later post) Element can help them overcome loneliness, fatigue, burnout, and help improve their relationships with themselves and those around them. 

This is the beauty of EVO Elements… By understanding the inherent relationship between each set of Elements, and how your own Elements play together and provide balance to each other, you can build a roadmap for your own personal growth and development.

Read Part II here, where we will do a deep dive on understanding our Compass Elements, and why both it’s important to be able to make decisions based on both logic and gut-instincts.

Happy August! This month’s ritual theme is: Sharing Discoveries

Every month, everyone here at Team EVO participates in what we call our Monthly Rituals. Each Ritual has a theme designed to help us learn something, grow, or become the best version of ourselves.

Let’s talk about this “Sharing Discoveries” thing… This also happens to be a key part of what Alchemists need to thrive. But even if you’re not an Alchemist, sharing your discoveries is an important part of life…

First, let’s take a minute to understand what I mean by “discoveries”… This is an intentionally broad term that we  use to describe the information that we, as humans (especially Alchemists!) collect. Whether it’s a new fact you learned, a wikipedia hole you fell into, a new person you’re getting to know, a movie you saw, an article you read, a photograph, or just some kind of insight you gained… Discovering—or collecting or learning—new information is an important part of what sets us humans apart from other mammals.

When you discover something new, there’s a high chance that that information will spark something in you… An idea, a concept, or perhaps an epiphany… But how often do we take that spark and actually do something with it?

You could call that “doing” process many things—output, creation, convincing your imagination to put out… But we’ve chosen to call it “sharing discoveries.” 

(Side note: If you’ve been a part of our online community, the Project EVO Collective, for a while, it’s likely you helped us come up with this phrase, so thank you!)

When the process of seeking out and discovering leads to the process of sharing and creation, that starts a really good cycle of intake and output of information. It’s a similar concept to taking in nutrition and eliminating the stuff our bodies don’t use. 

“But why is sharing our discoveries so important, Iris?” you ask. Well, if all we do is take in more and more information without doing anything with it, we can start to feel *ahem* creatively… constipated. 

And before you argue that you aren’t creative, consider this: all humans are creative by our very nature. Take a quick glance around you, and I can guarantee that most of what you’ll be looking at was created in some form or fashion by humans. We love to build, experiment, and craft things to help make our lives easier, yes, but also, we often create just for the sheer joy of the creative process itself. 

Whether you’re inspired to invent a board game, write a poem, form a snazzy new outfit, put together a hilarious meme, or come up with a brilliant new slogan for a client—you are a creative being. Whether or not you consider yourself “artistic” has nothing to do with it. 

(I’ve heard so many people deny that they are creative simply because they don’t see themselves as an artist, so I feel this is an important distinction!)

I believe many people feel dissatisfied with their life because they aren’t sharing their discoveries with the world. It’s completely understandable why we don’t do anything with our spark of inspiration… Taking in information is a passive process. By reading this article right now, you’re doing it. It requires very little effort… And with the invention of the internet, there is more information for us to consume, and easier ways to consume it, than ever before.

In fact, if you could have all your practical needs met automatically, you could probably just spend your entire life in a room with just a computer that has internet access, discovering things. Consuming new information. You’d never run out of things to learn.

It’d be fun for a while, sure. Especially if you have tons of responsibilities on your plate and not much free time to spend discovering right now. But eventually—whether it took a day, a month, or a couple of years (for the severely introverted and spare-time-deprived among us 😉 )—you would reach a point where you would feel an overwhelming compulsion to do something with all that knowledge (even if all you did was talk to a friend about your experience 😉 ). It’s practically built into our DNA.

(Why do you think social media is so popular? It’s essentially a fast track built to share our discoveries with one tap of the screen!)

So this month, use this ritual as a reminder to pay special attention to that spark of inspiration in you. Don’t just daydream about “one day” being able to “find the time” to share your discoveries—write that idea down, schedule time on your calendar this week, and make it happen!

If you can make this month’s ritual into a habit… If you could actually work on at least one idea every week—imagine how much happier and fulfilled you could be!

And the good news is, you already have the power to do it. 🙂

Do you have any questions, or suggestions for future blog posts? Email them to me at hello@bta.projectevo.org, or hit me up on Instagram!

Every month on Team EVO we have a new theme of the month that guides our progress and personal development. This month we’re all about that self-awareness.

We’re looking at our physical, mental, and emotional states multiple times every single day to take stock of how we’re doing and make any changes we feel we need.

When you’re in a funk, it can negatively affect you, your work, and any progress you’ve been making toward your goals. But you don’t have to let it! 

Learn why it’s important to combat a bad state (and how to get started!) based on your Brain Type…

Alchemist​

In a bad state: as an Alchemist, your focus diffuses and you hop from one thing to another without really making progress on anything. 

Your superpower is that you generate amazing ideas when you’re getting inspiration from multiple sources regularly. But if you’re in a bad headspace, you’ll find yourself unable to take away anything meaningful from the information you’re consuming, and you’ll find it even more difficult to make progress on what you’re working on because you’ll have a tougher time staying on task. This means that not only will your flow stall out, you may lose that spark of inspiration that makes you, you.

To overcome it: catch your bad states early and put your energy into improving that feeling immediately.​ Completely disconnect from whatever you were doing as soon as you can, and think of what is causing this state and how you can improve it. List out everything that happened to bring you to this point and think of a solution for each little thing that has built up to this bad state. 

If it helps you, talk it through with a friend, co-worker, or even just out loud to yourself. Look up other people’s experiences online to see how other people have overcome these things successfully before and see if that gives you any ideas to apply to your situation. Then, try as many solutions as you need to in order to get back to your equilibrium. 

Even if it takes 30 minutes away from whatever you were doing at the time, you could end up actually saving hours of procrastination and frustration later on, which will happen if you leave a bad state unchecked. You’ll be back to your old, knowledge hungry, idea-generating self in no time.

Architect

In a bad state: ​​​as an Architect, you feel out of control and your stress levels skyrocket. 

Your superpower is that you are a person who keeps everything running smoothly when you’re able to keep things in order. But if you’re in a bad headspace, you’ll feel more overwhelmed by normal tasks, and it will start to feel like you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders with no end in sight, which will make you feel chaotic and like you have no control over how things are going in your life.

To overcome it: catch your bad states before they snowball​​ into a meltdown. As hard as it may be, in this state what you really need to do is stop trying to work on whatever it was you were doing, sit down, and take a few minutes to think through the steps you can take to get back to equilibrium. 

As hard as it may be to take a break when you’re feeling overwhelmed, the only way to stop the overwhelm is to break the pattern causing it. Go do something completely unrelated, take yourself out of the situation, and do something completely immersive that has historically made you feel good. Continue to try other enjoyable activities until you actually do feel better. 

This isn’t a waste of time… If you give in to the bad state and continue whatever you were doing, you’re only going to feel more and more out of control and it’s going to become harder to lift yourself back up. But when you make time for self-care, you’ll gain a better, fresher perspective, feel calmer, and be able to return to your tasks with refreshed motivation.

Explorer

In a bad state: as an Explorer​​​, you start catastrophizing and can’t imagine how your life will ever improve. This is because whatever is happening currently is your reality. 

Normally this is your superpower because it allows you to live in and make the most out of the present moment, enjoying all the best that life has to offer. But unfortunately this can also mean that when your present reality is terrible, you feel like your entire life ​is terrible, has probably always been terrible, and might never get any better. Whatever is happening currently is your reality.

To overcome it: start by recognizing that you’re in a bad state and find out what’s off. Take a moment to think about what might have contributed to you getting here… It’s probably not because your life is actually terrible—more likely, it’s due to a set of circumstances that will eventually pass or change, one way or another.  ​​

It’s helpful for you to talk to people who know you really well (like a friend or family member) to identify the pain point(s), and understand the history of events that led up to your current reality. Keeping an audio, video, or written journal can be helpful for this, too—if you’re already doing so, go ahead and look back through the past few entries to see what was happening in the last few days, weeks or months to understand what may have contributed to this current issue. 

You want to spot any patterns to determine why you’re in this state, and how you have overcome similar things in the past. Not only will this help you improve your state, it will also give you the reminder you need to spark hope and remember that life isn’t always bad, it can actually be really fun! And before you know it, you’ll probably find yourself in a much nicer reality.

Oracle

In a bad state: as an Oracle, you start a downward spiral toward complete despair where the only outcome you can see is probably something akin to your worst nightmare. 

Your superpower is being able to narrow your focus to predict how a certain situation can play out far into the future. However, when you’re in a bad state, this ability can become tainted because all you see are bad things on the horizon: i.e. one little neck pain might end up meaning you have some rare brain tumor that’s growing into your spine and the next minute you start picturing your funeral and worrying that you haven’t set your family up with the proper life insurance policy to help them make it through when you’re gone. 

One little pain in the neck, and the next thing you know it, you’re panicking about how your family is going to survive your untimely demise!

To overcome it: you’ll need to do something to ground yourself. Whether that means doing deep breathing exercises, meditation, or just going outside, taking off your shoes and letting your toes connect with the earth—that’s up to you. Whatever works to get you back into the present. Then, remind yourself that you have control and influence in your present circumstances.

Take one concrete action that could change the terrible outcome you imagined. If you have a pain in your neck that worries you, make a doctor’s appointment to get it checked out. Changing or doing even one small thing has the potential to completely change the outcome of a situation.

And once you’ve done that, put your energy toward something else, especially something you really enjoy, and ideally something completely immersive. If and when that negative spiral starts again, do whatever you need to do to ground yourself and remember that you won’t actually know the outcome of the scenario until you have taken the next step. And the step after that. If you can just keep focusing on the next step, you’ll feel much more in control of the outcome. 

Did this post help you overcome a bad state? Do you have any questions, or suggestions for future blog posts? Email them to me at hello@bta.projectevo.org, or hit me up on Instagram!

This interview transcript has been formatted and edited for clarity.

Chad

Welcome everybody, welcome. This is an exciting day today, EVO Collective, because we have an exciting guest, who is really a friend (I would even say family member at this point) and I’m really excited to have him on today.

We have a major area of focus each month, which for May is getting into Focus. We ask the important questions like: How do we actually focus?

I want to introduce the most impressive expert on focus and productivity and flow that I know of. So Mr. Les Hewitt, welcome, welcome, welcome!

Les

Well, thank you for that lovely introduction. That’s way over the top, but I’ll take it, I’ll take it.

Chad

Well, I think you should. So just a little bit about Les: Yes he has written a book, number one New York Times bestseller, called Power of Focus, which a lot of you have probably heard of, and if you haven’t, please go and read it.

But he also has something that a lot of people don’t have, which is experience. We were talking about this just the other day, in fact. He has over 30 years of experience. You’ve done incredible things in your career, Les. I’m kind of curious how you started on this path to focus and helping people really concentrate on the right things. When did this start for you—becoming an expert in focus?

Les

Well, I was originally from Belfast and Northern Ireland… Still got a little o’ that accent, I suppose. But when I left school, Chad, I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do. I really didn’t. And my dad said we couldn’t afford university or college education. So, he told me “you gotta go get a job.”

I did nothing for a few weeks. Then he came in one day and said, “I’ve got an interview for you at the hospital where I work, the Belfast City Hospital.” I went in and I did the interview, and basically ended up starting my career as a medical lab technologist specializing in hematology, which is all about blood.

And basically it was the worst decision I had made in my life, probably at that time. And a big one! To take a job like that, because my worst subjects in high school were math and science, and that’s what that job was all about. I struggle there, I did the exams.

I finally qualified, and actually stayed there eight years. And then I got a big opportunity with that job to move to Calgary, in Canada, where I actually ran the hematology department in the biggest hospital in Calgary! I was so out of my depth it was ridiculous.

What happened after that, was I met a man called Jim Rohn, who many people will know is one of the greatest personal development and professional development trainers in the world. Sadly, he passed away several years ago.

But he became a mentor for me, and I actually started my own training company, called Achievers Canada. I brought Jim Rohn in every year because he was the master. I just got super excited about learning everything I could, and sort of modeling him in any sort of way that I could. Although you know, I’ve never gotten close to his expertise. But then it went on from there. I’ve had several businesses over the years, and they’re all in the training industry.

Chad

Got it. I guess you’ve decided to go really, really deep on this. That’s one thing about the luxury of having you on—the luxury of being able to have you within EVO as an ambassador. It’s like we’re coming back to what is actually, really important.

I think you talked a lot about this topic of “awareness” a lot, right? Like, before you can really do anything to focus, there has to be some type of awareness of what you’re actually doing.

So, how do you actually define “awareness”? Like, in the context of being successful in your life—from business, to how you feel?

Les

Well, I can just give you a good example of a lack of awareness.

That was my situation when I left school. But I think “awareness” is really a combination of knowledge and experience, which helps you make good decisions in any area of your life.

And you can’t just have that all at once, obviously. Every year we get (hopefully) more knowledge and experience, and we make better choices… But we’ll also make bad choices.

And the more aware you become, the more you should be making better choices, and things should be getting better for you.

Another way to look at this in a more basic way, if you’re looking in the context of business, for example… The very simple question you should ask yourself regularly is: “what’s working and what isn’t working?” And really reflect on on those answers.

I find, Chad, that in the busy world of business, particularly entrepreneurs and young company owners, they’re usually going 100 miles an hour. They really don’t plan or schedule any time to think.

One of the strategies I get to right away with my own coaching clients (I coach a small number of business owners)… What I say to them is this: “create a reflective hour every week.” You put this in your calendar as a meeting, “I’m having a meeting on Friday afternoon, from two o’clock to three o’clock, who’s the meeting for? Nobody, it’s for myself!”

The only purpose of that meeting is to think. And that’s tough for people who are going 100 miles an hour all the time. But if you do that regularly—get into the habit of scheduling an hour to think and reflect and ask yourself a few questions. And get a simple notepad—you don’t need technology—just sit down.

I would say, ask yourself three questions at the end of the week. You know, “what’s worked well this week? What do I need to pay more attention to? Who can help me the most moving forward?” I mean, whatever questions come up for you.

But if you do that on a regular basis, your awareness and clarity are going to go way up. And if you read about people like Bill Gates and Branson, they think a lot. They’re not running 100 miles an hour all the time. Other people do that for them.

As business owners and entrepreneurs, I think that’s one of the simplest, most valuable things you can do to heighten your awareness.

Chad

I love that. So it’s like, make it a ritual and schedule it in there where it doesn’t move because, obviously, life comes up… And it’s really easy to not do these things.

What you’re saying is, this is the most important piece of your life: getting this awareness?

Les

Well, it’s a big part. And you know, you need to make it a priority on your calendar. That’s why you put it on the calendar, you know? It’s a special meeting, and it’s a priority.

So don’t just shift it at the slightest little thing that comes along. It needs to stay on the calendar. And as I say, “focus, follow through, and finish,” whatever it is that you’re supposed to be doing.

Chad

Yeah, I love that. I guess if somebody you know goes ahead and says they miss it, they’re probably like—I know I’ve done this in the past—if you miss it, just make sure you do it as soon as you possibly can.

And, typically for me, I do this on Sundays, because it’s my best time to reflect and to plan. And to really get that baked into EVO. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

I guess along those lines, you know, of awareness… I feel like a lot of people—I’m sure you see this too—a lot of people right now are super uncertain.

You know, obviously, we’ve got… Everything that’s going on in the world. Now, that stuff doesn’t stop, we have no control over that.

But in general, in talking to my 22-year-old brother, and talking to a friend that’s 55—talking to all different age groups… It seems like the common theme is uncertainty, and this inability to make decisions and create what they want.

So, how do you talk to somebody that is uncertain and unclear about their future—where they’re going? Instead of just being passive, like, oh, here’s another day gone away… Which a lot of people, unfortunately, are doing right now.

How do you stop them and say, “No, there’s a better path”?

Les

Yeah, well, there is. And that’s an excellent question. It’s a big question. I agree totally with you.

I see a lot of people, all ages, that are very uncertain and anxious about the future, because they really don’t know what direction to take. I look at life as if it’s a movie. I love movies.

When you go to a movie, you’re watching a story unfold. And it could be a big drama with lots of action. Or it could be a comedy with lots of laughs, and you walk out feeling great. Or it could be something more somber and it could bring a tear to your eye. But every movie is a story.

And your life really is a story. It doesn’t matter what age you are, if you’re 20, you’ve got 20 years worth of story. If you’re 90, you’ve got—wow—you’ve got a fantastically long story. The way I look at it is you are the director of this movie called your life. So you’re not only the director, which is a very important role, obviously.

But you’re also the screenwriter. You get to write the script about a lot of the way your life can turn out, or not.

And the other big part, which can be a lot of fun, is you’re also the leading actor in this movie called your life.

And what I’ve done, you know Andrew is my son, well years ago, we brainstorm this idea. And we come up with an actual life strategy.

So this is the very first thing I do when I have a new coaching client. I’ll take a client, who’s a business owner, and I work with them for a year.

The very first thing we do before we do anything else—no strategies about improving the business and everything else—is creating this thing called Your Life Movie. Basically, it’s a simple slideshow.

Actually, about two hours ago, I just had a look at mine. Mine’s eight minutes long at the moment. What I’ve done is split it up in the different life categories. I keep it simple. I’ve got three life categories:

One’s called “For Benefit Business;” that’s my business. And the second one is Personal— there are lots of layers like health, and different things about relationships under there. And the last one is Prosperity—which includes contribution, and lots of other things.

So I’ve just got three categories, but you could put as many as you want in there. And then you pick these very powerful statements about what you want to see happen in the next three or five years. Those are the two windows you can do—a 3-year one or a 5-year one.

And when you’ve got your statements together… I don’t have time to go into all the details here. But when you’ve done that, then you go and search for pictures that are totally in alignment with your statements. And when you look at those pictures, they will actually inspire you.

Maybe you want to travel, for example. It’s not hard to get pictures of where I want to go—say Paris. You put that up there, along with a statement that that indicates that you want to go there. When you’ve done all that, then you add one more thing. Which I think is far better than the old, traditional goal setting—you add music on top of it. You select music that really energizes you really inspires you.

My movie, as I call it, this slideshow, is eight minutes long at the moment. I put the headset on to watch it, because I think when you’ve got the music coming through the headset, it’s far more impactful.

I stand up and I have this playing on my laptop… I stand up by three or four feet back, and I turn up the volume, as loud as I can get it, into my headset. And I just watch that and I rock with the music and I really embrace everything that’s on that screen.

Now, you know a lot about visualization, and you know, every athlete in the world at a good level, they’re visualizing what they want. This is helpful for really getting clear about what you want in life, as well as what you don’t want in life. I wish I had more time to go into detail…

The stories I could tell you about people who put their movies together, and how their life absolutely transforms… They get totally energized. You get excited about it. And every time that you check something off, like a goal and you say, “oh, I’ve done that! I’ve done that!”

Like Andrew and I went to England last year, they have a big sporting week, every year. We love soccer. Well, we went to some of the big games there and had a fantastic time. Great experience—now a checkmark against that.

Then you fill it with something new… You know, you can keep it there for a little while, enjoy it, and then you replace it with something else. By doing this, you could actually continue to run and edit this movie your entire life if you wanted to.

It’s a really powerful way to get clear and to get energized and excited about the future.

Chad

Wow, yeah, I absolutely love that. That’s incredible. I know how important that is to do ,so if you’re listening to this, make sure you do some version of this, because it’ll radically shift your life.

So now we have clarity. Now I know what I want, but how do I get what I want? Am I just sitting there, you know, visualizing it?

Obviously we want to make sure we’re focusing during a specific focus time. But how much time is that? You know, how much time do I set towards manifesting or creating my dreams from this movie board?

How does that work?

Les

Well, obviously, don’t just sit in, fold your arms, and wait for your movie and everything to drop out of the sky. It doesn’t work like that. My approach with my clients is to first get their movie done, and we don’t do anything until it’s done. Watch it for, say, 30 days in a row.

First thing in the morning is a great time to watch it so you won’t forget later. Do this 30 days in a row. And when you’ve done that, you’re going to be so conscious, so aware of what you want.

The next thing, of course, is, “how do I make it happen?” And that’s where the plan comes in. You need an action plan. You need a strategy that will take the most important things in that movie, and turn them into reality.

And that’s why we say three years or five years, you pick the window. Those are reasonable timelines to plan. You can do a one year movie if you want. But you’ve got to put a strategy together and say, “all right, how am I going to make this happen? What do I need to happen in my business? What do I need financially? What are the types of people I need to connect with?” And on and on and on.

The next thing I do with my clients is that we create that strategy. And then you’ve got to be accountable for executing, and of course, there’s nothing magic about that. You just gotta roll your sleeves up and get to work. But if you’re energized and excited about the future that you’re watching, you’re far more likely to make that happen.

Chad

Yeah, that makes sense. That energy carries you, because you’re excited about it. You have a vision, and you have clarity. So now you just have to follow through.

Les

Yes, and you also get some momentum. You know, once you start checking things off, it creates confidence—an inner confidence that maybe you didn’t have before. And it also creates momentum.

And momentum is really important when you want to see results. But once you start, you get into a flow after a while, and it’s just really exciting and energizing.

Chad

Beautiful, beautiful. So for the person that’s listening to this, saying, “I have ADD, I don’t know how to focus.” What would you say to somebody who really has all this stuff going on? Even though they know their path, it’s really hard for them to make a dent into something. How does this person focus? What would you recommend?

Les

Well, that’s a lot of self-discipline and awareness. I mean, if you allow yourself to be distracted and ADD is a factor, that that’s a bigger challenge.

Chad

Right.

Les

But, you know, what awareness and clarity, absolutely, that’s the preamp to this.

When you actually get into doing the work—and that’s a whole other session we could get into just by talking about focus strategies.

But basically, it’s taking a look at: what do I do every day? What do I do every week? And what are my strengths?

And you’ve really got to simplify things to avoid distractions, avoid interruptions, and become self aware. And if you’ve got people around you, you get them to help you with that.

You know, again, it’s a big topic, Chad, I think we could probably do another recording on that. There are so many strategies around focus, but you know, the most basic one is to stop trying to do too much, and be aware of how easily you get distracted.

And really, it requires focus time, where you start your week by designing your week… I wrote a little article about that for you guys the other day. And if you read that, it gives you some real detail in there.

But that comes right back to awareness. Again, be aware that you’re being distracted at a certain point, and be able to shut that off as fast as possible. Really it’s getting into the habit of saying, “I’m going to do one thing at a time. I’m going to spend 20 minutes doing this, and I’m not going to do anything else.”

And these rituals that start to happen, they become habits. They become ingrained, and it takes work. It takes self-discipline, it takes awareness, takes clarity, but you can do it.

I work with a lot of very fast-paced entrepreneurs. They’re always going, and one of the biggest issues is just what you’re talking about, “how do I stop?” Another thing is to remember to take a break.

I’m very big on taking breaks regularly so that you get time to re-energize, go have some fun, don’t let the business become a slave, or you a slave to it. We need some of that balance, you know, at least one full day off a week.

I tell all my clients, again, they’re in control of their business, because they run the business. And if you’re not taking six weeks off a year, you’re doing yourself a disservice. And by the way, you make far more money when you take regular breaks, because you can come back, refreshed, re-energized, and ready to go again.

And if anybody says different, sorry, you’re wrong.

Chad

[Laughing] I love it. Yeah, one thing that I’ve learned just from being around you is just that. It’s incredible how, no matter what, you have to create that time. And you have to actually focus on that one thing.

I know every time we talk, you’re like, “Hey, what is this? What is the one thing?” You find out exactly what’s going on, and then you cut through all the noise, and we find out what is the one thing that I actually need to make progress on to move everything forward. It’s amazing how, when you’re like, “Hey, have you gone on a vacation? Have you slowed down? Have you taken a break?” Like, you don’t have to work this hard, or do all these things…

Because what I’ve learned is if you actually just file down to only the things you have to do, like 80% of the stuff that you’ve been doing, or are caught up in… It all actually goes away. So by cutting out all those things, not only do you have more time, but you’re actually a lot more effective in moving forward.

Les

Yeah, let me just add one thing that was in the article as well.

When I say “design your week,” stop doing those to-do lists that everybody has. They never get them finished every day, and then they roll what’s left over, usually their priorities, into the next day. And that rolls over and rolls over all week long.

And then sadly, people are taking a ton of work home on the weekends, and they screw up their family time. That causes all sorts of repercussions in your relationships, especially if you’re married and have a family.

But the other thing that’s really exciting about focus, Chad, is that I suggest that you take blocks of real focus time, and you only need about four or five of those blocks a week… You can’t sustain doing five or six blocks of focus time every single day. It’s not possible.

And when I say focus time, it means 100% focused on one thing, whether that’s five minutes, two hours, or half a day. You can train yourself to get up to that level. And you know, if you’ve got a major really big project, you’re probably better getting out of the office and spending a day away, where you can just absolutely concentrate.

The other thing too, you may know of is Baroque music is a very big help in concentration. That’s classical music at 60 beats a minute. There’s lots of it, there is lots of other music that can help you concentrate as well. It’s all free. I use that all the time.

When I’m writing a book, I always have Baroque music or concentration music in the background. It makes a big, big difference.

Chad

I love that. Okay, move with the music, make sure that the vibration is good. It’s basically like, the better you can get actually training yourself, getting habitual way to focus on the right things, it seems like everything else moves in the right direction.

So it is actually one of the most important things to master.

Les

Absolutely. And the music… You don’t even notice the music after a while.

I’ve been working with some refugee kids from Africa, teaching them these life skills. These are kids that come over from awful circumstances and they’re mad keen to learn. They had never heard of relaxation music, and I give them a test at the end of this curriculum I created for them. I said to them, “after the one-hour long test, how many of you, kept listening to the music?” and they said they never heard it!  It was just in the background lightly going, but they there wasn’t a murmur out of those kids in that hour.

They were so focused. Nobody was distracted. Nobody was asking questions. They just got on with the task. And this effect of music scientifically researched. It really works.

“Easy to do, easy not to do” as my old friend Jim Rohn used to say.

Chad

I love it. This is amazing. I know we have only a few more minutes… So we’ll probably end up doing this again, because this has been really, really beneficial. I’m writing down some of these things and taking notes.

So, on the level of distractions, Les, what would you say it would be—if you had to choose? I know, we have so many distractions these days. I think I know where you’re going to go with this. But, what would you say to somebody lis the number one distraction that has been an epidemic?

And then how do people actually cut that out of their lives? Because I am a believer that you should focus on the number one thing that either gives you energy, or the things that take away energy. I looked at distractions that are taking away energy completely, because that’s taken away the life that I actually want to create.

It’s important to look at it from a meta standpoint, more than it is to get caught in all the details. So what do you say is the number one distraction, and how do you actually cut that out?

Les

Well, in this era of technology, it has to be the screens. I mean, everything from email to texting, browsing the internet, Brenton—who you had on a little video there, that was an excellent video—he talked a lot about that… But, you know, stop the browsing, basically.

We all know, you dip into the internet, and you just want to find one piece of information, right? But there’s all those ads and all those distractions just pulling at us. I’m guilty of it.

I’m a big soccer fan and if I go to a soccer webpage about something, and I’m checking results or whatever… And then there’s an interesting article, and there’s another interesting article, and there’s a little video… And then you spend hours… So I think that is the biggest thing today.

We’ve also got email—we stop everything we’re doing as soon as we hear a little ding and there’s the email or the text. It’s not addiction, you know… The texting, the screen life is not classified medically as an addiction.

If you research that you’ll find horror stories about people are ending up in hospitals because they can’t stop pushing the buttons. Even these kids I was telling you about, they’re all into the video games. I said to someone, “You look tired. Why are you so tired?” He said, “Well, I didn’t get the sleep ‘til’ two o’clock in the morning.” “Well, what were you doing?” “I was at level six on the video game and I couldn’t stop.”

And then he gets three hours sleep, and he goes to school and he’s half asleep all day long.

But again, it goes back to awareness, Chad, you know, be aware of the time, energy, and expense that you waste by being distracted so many times during the day.

There’s a lot of research, about how long it takes when you’re distracted by one thing, no matter what it is, even a phone call, and you’re working on a project you need to focus on. It can take anywhere from 7 to 15 minutes to get your head back in that focused space.

Imagine how many times you could be interrupted during a day. Your discipline has to be so correct.

That’s why I’m saying that five blocks of focus time are not a lot for a whole week, but you can get an awful lot done if you’ll just train yourself to do the one thing. Be very aware, when you’re being disruptive, interrupted, or you’re distracting yourself.

Don’t let other people cut down your focus time. I had an old friend years ago, Danny Cox, in California, and he ran a big real estate company. He used to have an open door policy you know, “I’ll talk to you anytime!” And then he finds 70 realtors in the office… He never got anything done.

So when he was doing something really important, he went out he bought this big green plastic frog. And when he was on a focus time project, he put the green frog on his desk, and people would open his door and walk in. And Danny would look up and look down at the green frog, not say a word. And then he looked up at the intruder, and he just stares at him and the guy would get it, oh, the green frogs on the desk and not supposed to be in here. And that worked.

But he finds he couldn’t really leave the office as much as he would like to. He said in the next month, there were green frogs showing up in about 80% of the offices, and the productivity in their office went up 40%!

Chad

I love that. I love that.

Les

So do what you need to do to remind yourself that there are certain times that are off limits for everything else. Focus on one thing, and you will be so pleased what happens and you can increase your level of concentration.

You know, we can start even with five minutes.

I have a good friend, her name’s Joy. And she was actually doing a little talk to these kids I was talking about, and she’s a very, very successful entrepreneur. And somebody said to her, “How do you stop procrastinating?” And she said,

“Well, it’s very simple. Here’s a little thing I’m going to tell you when you are hesitating to start. It could be starting your focus time…. Here’s what you do… With a big light voice, and lots of energy, and lots of passion. You say, ‘54231 go!’ And you do it for five minutes. You just do it for five minutes.” She said, “if you can handle five minutes, you’ll realize that it’ll go on for 20 minutes or half an hour, and then you get into the rhythm of it.”

It’s so simple, and kids love that, by the way, they thought that was great.

Anyway, those are a few things I know that work. I hope they’re helpful.

Chad

Yeah, that was great. I guess the compounding effect of that over time really dictates the kind of life you live, because those little moments we let flit away really do make a big difference.

So Les, this has been absolutely incredible and very informative. Where do people find you?

Les

They can go to the website, https://www.leshewitt.com/, really simple. And you can get me directly on email. It’s les.h@thepoweroffocus.ca.

Chad

Beautiful. Well, it’s been such a pleasure. Thank you so much. I’m sure everyone got a tremendous amount of value and I will talk to you soon, my friend.

Les

Yeah, thanks a lot. It’s been a pleasure.

WHAT IS FOCUS?

Focus is the ability to concentrate on completing your most important goals, despite distractions, setbacks and interruptions.

This is especially valuable for achieving the goals that allow you to enjoy an exceptional quality of life. The number one reason that stops people from getting what they value most in life, is a LACK of focus! People who develop the habit of focus, prosper. Those who don’t tend to struggle. They miss out on many opportunities, including creating financial freedom, having lots of time off and focusing on work that is energizing and fulfilling. 

WHY IS FOCUS IMPORTANT?

When you are 100% focused on completing an important task, project or goal, your creativity, energy and effectiveness all expand. You feel a sense of flow and time becomes irrelevant, especially when using your natural strengths. When you complete what you started on time and exceed the outcome desired, you feel a great sense of satisfaction. Have you experienced this before?

That’s why it’s called the POWER of focus. You feel more powerful and when this becomes an ingrained habit you will have tremendous confidence about what is possible. 

The opposite is true. How do you feel when you are constantly battling interruptions, allowing yourself to be distracted and experiencing the pressure of not getting the job done on time?

Overwhelmed, stressed, and mentally beating yourself up for procrastinating are likely consequences. And then there’s the peer pressure that comes from above, or with people on your team, right? 

A wise man once told me, “Winners focus, losers spray!” 

Choose to become laser focused. The good news is, it’s a learned skill, one that will transform your life. 

HOW DO YOU HARNESS THE MAGIC OF FOCUS?

First, start by designing your week instead of making those endless, daily To-Do lists. In my experience, most people never finish their list and so they roll it into the next day. The problem is, they already have a list in their heads for tomorrow. They play this rollover game all week and end up taking work home at night. 

Or, even worse, they sabotage their personal or family plans for the weekend, which causes all sorts of repercussions. My friend, Ed Foreman, told me a story of a five year-old little girl who wasn’t getting much time to play with her Dad, especially during weekends. So, she asked her Mum why. The response?

“Daddy is really busy at work these days and sometimes he has to bring his work home.” The little girl replied, “Why don’t they just put him in a slower group!”

Take 25 minutes first thing on Monday mornings, BEFORE you do anything else, to design your week. That means no emails, no phone calls, nothing! Designing your week is first, above everything else. Then make a list of the most important activities you want to complete by the end of the week. These need to be aligned with your most important monthly or quarterly business goals. Consider these activities to be the stepping stones that bring you closer to achieving those goals. Also, include a few personal goals to create some balance. 

Next, highlight your Top 3 Business Priorities. Immediately go to your calendar and figure out the amount of time it will take to complete each of these activities. Then choose blocks of Focus Time to ensure these are completed by the end of the week. 

Here’s the really important part: Focus Time means you only concentrate on one activity during that time. No meetings, multi-tasking, daydreaming, distractions or interruptions!!! And make sure you inform the people around you that you are not available during Focus Time. Be ruthless with your Focus Time or you’ll never enjoy the numerous benefits and rewards it will give you.  

This could be 15 minutes, an hour, or half a day. With major projects, it might require getting away from the office for a couple of days so you can focus on getting real work done. Sometimes hack-a-thons are ideal for this, where several small groups with specific expertise collaborate to create a new product, or system, that takes the business to another level. 

In case you are wondering, you don’t need to create multiple blocks of Focus Time every day.  This is not sustainable anyway. As you practice this, you’ll learn that four or five blocks a week is likely all that’s required to complete those Top 3 Priorities. Naturally you will have other activities to work on as well, however these don’t require the same level of focus and intensity as your Top 3.

Do this for five weeks and you will be amazed at the difference this will make. One more thing; leave some white space on your calendar every week. In the real world, stuff happens and often it’s unexpected. When every minute is not accounted for in your day, this will protect your Focus Time and give you a measure of flexibility.

Now it’s time to raise your Focus game. To kill any thoughts of procrastination, use this simple technique to start your Focus Time. In a loud voice and with passion, say 5…4…3…2…1… Go!!!

Have fun and stay focused!