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Sam Taggart:

Hi, this is Sam Taggart, and I am doing a podcast solo again today. Again, working on our book, the achievement blueprint, actually, so I was looking at domains and you know, achievement formula.com was already taken. So I was like, now I’m going to go by achievement blueprint.
So I’d love to hear your guys’s feedback as I’m working through this. But uh, anyway, a couple little announcements before I dive into this principle. So today is going to be all about how achievement has to have purpose. And I’ve actually really liked this map this one out as part of the introduction in the chapters. The book so if you hear if your background noise, just because I’m sitting on the top of a houseboat recording this with my phone, and and there’s like a leak. That’s not me taking a pee. It’s not a leak. It’s just the bilge pumping.
And I’m sure there’s gonna be people like talking and so just deal with it. Anyway, so we got a couple new speakers, we have Tim story. If you haven’t heard Tim story, go check out his Instagram. Tim story official, I believe, coming to door to door con, he spoke at Grant cardones TEDx con, he’s been on, you know, had my last podcast.

So if you want to learn a little bit more about Tim, how I kind of fell in love with him was through Ed, my last podcast that he did with him. And I just felt like he was really authentic. He’s real. He’s got real life background, he’s not just one of those guys. It’s like, I want to be a coach, like he was really successful and all the things that he did, and then now he’s just really a passionate person about helping and creating value for a lot of people. He goes on tours with Coach Burt, who A lot of you guys, you know, got to see last year. And so anyway, if you’re thinking about getting a ticket, I would get one sooner than later. Tickets are selling quickly. So we have you know, 500 seats available.
And you know, I just I think we’re gonna sell out probably by December. So just make sure to get your ticket DDD con. com if you do plan on coming and seeing, you know, freakin Tim story, how l rod, john Maxwell. And then we have another massive name in the docket right now. And I can’t say it until we finally signed him. But another big keynote coming out here in the next little bit. So stay tuned.
All the announcements will usually be on DVD podcast, or check out our Instagram. So anyway, let’s dive in. So the topic today is achievement has staff purpose. And I felt like a lot of times, we get into kind of achievement, focus things, but we do it just kind of like out of checking things off a box, not so much out of having some purpose behind it. And so a lot of times those that feel like they’re achieving everything, sometimes forget to, like forget that. They’re getting this fulfillment and like they should be trying to accomplish things out of satisfaction, fulfillment, purpose, impact, not just out of like, necessity, right? And what that does is it sometimes creates workaholism, workaholic ism. And this is a trap that I think a lot of sales and business leaders get in is they kind of become obsessive around achieving things.
And they forget about things like family and you know, different things in their life fitness, you know, spirituality, other equities that are really important. And so, you know, there’s a scene from Hercules, where Hercules goes in and he’s like, goes into Zeus. It’s the part where Zeus is still like a frozen statue. And he’s coming in bragging about all the things he’s done. And he’s like, something.
He says something like, you know, look like I’m ready to become a god. And Zeus looks at me He’s like, well, you haven’t proven yourself a true hero, and Hercules like But Father, I’ve been every single monster I’ve come up against I’m famous person in all grease. I’m an action figure. And then he like squeezes little thing, right? And then Zeus is like I’m afraid. being famous isn’t the same as being a true hero. Hercules replies, well, what more can I do? Zoo says it’s something you have to discover from yourself for yourself, look inside your heart, and then it freezes back up. And Hercule is like no, don’t go and be like smashes the rock, right. So they say there’s a quote by Hercules, it says a true hero isn’t measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart. And I think that this topic of what is a true hero, what’s a true man accomplishing stuff in business in life, and,you know, it has to come from the heart, it’s not about all the little things that you do, and all the little accolades, you win.

And, oh, I was first place in my sales company, I was first, I was the end the business top 50, as in the fastest Inc, 500. I was, you know, and it’s like, Yeah, but like, what did you What did you really accomplish, like your name in a magazine, your name on a numbers board, like, and I think those are, you know, byproducts of accomplishment. They’re, they’re things that are involved in accomplishing things, but they’re not, they’re not really what you should be focusing on entirely. And so, you know, naturally, I’ve been really good at accomplishing things I was number one sales rep, at Vivint, I was, you know, built one of the fastest growing solar divisions and an IT company to, you know, almost implode the company because we sold so much. But I haven’t, you know, for me, I haven’t been amazing at marriage, you know, just being honest, like, I’ve always struggled it, somehow trying to figure out how to be good at that. And, you know, as much as I’ve tried to balance things, and I’ve tried to, you know, put my energy towards it and been to counseling and been to read all the books.

And, you know, it’s, it’s sad to say, I’ve felt like it was easier to play a solo sport of sales. And forget the whole reason I was fighting to be successful, to provide for an amazing lifestyle and experience for my family. And so, you know, years into marriage, three kids deep. I feel like a lot of people can get so obsessed with achievement, that they’ve, they fail to try to achieve in other areas of their life. And know if you’re listening or hearing this or reading this, or whatever. I think there’s an element to where there’s just an element where people need to remember like, why they achieve and sales and business or also get lost in having a ton of success. But, you know, that doesn’t go with you anywhere past, you know, the grave are passed a lot. So anyway, I think that, you know, I sometimes struggle to open up about this kind of stuff, but hopefully, if you’re listening, this, this helps. So I kinda want to, I want to talk about workaholic ism.
And it’s like, what is what is workaholic and, you know, it means that you value work over any other activity, even when it negatively affects your health family, as well as the quality of your work. That was a quote by Morley, de Glick and, and workaholics die younger, gets sick more often, and are less productive than people with healthy work life balance. And that was john Rampton, from Entrepreneur Magazine. And they’ve done studies to show like that it’s like a true thing. A lot of people joke and I call the workaholic and it’s like, you know, it’s easier to pinpoint. A,
you know, to pinpoint a drug addict or somebody it’s an alcoholic. Like, it’s like, oh, you’re obviously drinking a or taking a substance. We’re workaholic, then what’s the substance? substance might be time thoughts, feelings, intentions, could be obsession could be OCD. Could be a lot of things.
Right. So anyway, there’s a there’s a direct correlation in success in the home and relationships, fitness, spirituality, motional security when it comes to business, and I’ve found the importance of being well rounded, is really true, that truly feel that full satisfaction. And, you know, I remember there was a time where I forgot to work out for a while, just because I was getting up at six and grind until 10. And, you know, there’s times where I’ve been out of town where I’ve, you know, been traveling and I just forget to call my family. Like it’s like you go through for days and you’re like, Oh yeah, I have kids. And just because you get so wrapped up in work. And I’ve gone weeks where I’ve admittedly forgotten to pray, read, you know, like spirituality. I’ve gotten months where it’s like, oh, yeah, God is the one that’s blessing me right now and forgetting to show gratitude to my maker. And and I think that, you know, a lot of people try to put on this face that they’re living in a way that is like, Oh, I’m so perfect at all these things, but it’s like, Man, you could be so obsessed with one thing and so obsessive, maybe even just your social presence. And that might be the workaholic ism is like, I just need to do everything so that I look really good on social media, and you spend so much energy and effort trying to do that, versus just taking a second to say, How do I balance my life and feel really satisfied instead of fake satisfied. And sometimes the way to get more balance isn’t necessarily putting more gas on the work element to push through it, you know, a lot of people are like, Man, I’m gonna push so much harder for the next three months, so that I can be with my family, or so that I’ll be, you know, have more time or more money so that we can do the experiences that I want. And the more you try to get things done, and the faster amount of time, you know, without filling the tanks of the other elements in your life, the less effective you become. And feel like, you know, it’s almost a lie or a cover up sometimes of workaholics to say, oh, for the next three months, I’m going to do this. And I’m going to stop and from my experience, it’s it’s kind of more of the obsession of what’s next.
What’s next. What’s next. And, you know, I’m not saying that I haven’t had balance. I’m not saying that, you know, I work out every day I read every day. Now I pray every day I’ve, for the last probably a minute, I’ve shifted a lot of my focus to what, what can I do daily to be balanced and still work my butt off. But not put work above some of the things that are really important.
And, you know, in stillness is the key Ryan Holiday talks about is like life without relationships. focus solely on accomplishment is empty and meaningless. In addition to being precautious and fragile life solely about work and doing is terrible out of balance. Indeed, it requires constant motion in business to keep from falling apart. And that hit me when I read that.
And, you know, there’s a part where he talks about karoshi. Death by overworked and he says Japan’s culture is so intense people in the 1970s invented a word that translates to death by overworked karoshi. I’m probably saying it wrong. But whatever, as it’s known, involves employees committing suicide, of suffering from heart failure and stroke because of long hours. And so I kind of, I kind of put like these three profiles of workaholic ism. And I feel like there’s these three different types.
There’s the busy bee, the competitor, and the obsessed or OCD. And, you know, I look at certain people I’ve worked with and business owners that I coach and you know, different managers I’ve coached and I just noticed profiles, just like others profiles, like the disc profile, you have people that are high, or you have like the Strengths Finder, some people are like really good at, and competitive. And some people are really empathetic. And some people are really thoughtful and compassionate. Some people are really like, Ida eaters, and everybody has a different profile, right? And so I was like, Well, what if there’s profiles for workaholics, and I said, there’s the busy bee, they naturally have to be always getting something done, whether it’s work related, home related or whatever. And the busy bee, and I was with the coaching in a call, and there’s a girl in my mastermind group, the elite that she said, she runs a pest control company named Connie. And she was like, man, I struggle with this.
And I was like, Yeah, I mean, tell me about it. And so she’s like, well, I, if I’m not working, she’ll work a full day running her pest control company. She gets home and then she schedules five hair clients, and she does hair until the wee hours the night and then probably finishes up emails and then does that over again every day. And I was like, geez, and she’s like, man, I saw myself just getting so sucked into just doing so much. And then she’s like, you know what, my therapy is weeding. And I was like weeding. She’s like, yeah, I found that I you know, slows my mind. down a lot, and it really, like, helps me process my thoughts.
And I’m like, but you’re still busying yourself, you know, like, you’re still getting things done that, you know, you need to get done, which is, man, I can’t let my guard and go to crap. So I’m gonna go pull weeds and she’s like, well, there’s something satisfying about, you know, filling that getting the whole room in that sound it makes the crackling and I was, you know, in my head I was like, Oh, that makes sense. I mean you are slowing down and you are kind of doing something that doesn’t take much mind power, but in my head, I’m like, you’re still like trying to accomplish things and, and I I feel like that as the the death of the workaholic right there is the busy bee it’s no matter what I got to be doing something and I man, I can relate so much to this because I feel like sitting and watching a movie is like so counter to it’s so counterproductive.
And I feel like sometimes the side of me is just like, Okay, what, what’s next? What’s next? So am I reading to finish my chapters did I check, check, check. I’m always trying to get stuff done. And it kills relationships because you, they can’t catch a busy bee. If you think about it, you can’t catch a bee. And you know, the second you’re trying to like get close up busy bees gonna jump over to the next thing or the next flower, right. And so, in a relationship, it’s tough to catch a busy bee. The next one is the competitor.
They have this anxiety that the person down the street next door, their kind of company that sells rep that’s like right behind them is working when they’re not. And it’s almost like they’re always looking over their shoulder. And they’re just like, man, somebody else is going to beat me if I slow down. And so it creates this natural anxiety to work harder and harder and harder. And if they lose, it’s going to be like the death of them. And a lot of this comes from even like sports and parenting and you look at like, parents putting a lot of pressure on their kids.
As a young, you know, young lad. They’re over here like, Hey, you got to be the best athlete, you’ve got to win your state championship. I was a state championship winner, I was the Hall of Famer, I played college basketball, like whatever that is. And this competitiveness, it stems from a young lad, it comes into your sales and business where it’s like, man, if I’m not winning, and if I’m not beating whoever it is, then I don’t have worth. And you got to check yourself in that. Because think about it. Like what, who cares?

Like, at the end of the day, if you came in third, and you weren’t the number one company in your city or your weren’t the best sales rep like, okay,
it’s important, and hopefully it drives you and I want you to be the best. I’m not saying don’t be the best. But I’m saying Don’t be the best and sacrifice of everything in life. And this is a great line. And I’m you know, I coach against, you know, laziness and I coach against, you know, I coach people to be the best. Like, literally, I’m a business consultant that trains people to be the best. And I’ve gotten some of the best results in the industry. And I’m saying this in the sense of the gray line is can you be the best and have a happy fulfilled life in other equities. It’s not the or, and I think that some people substitute the and for or, and you got to be really careful with that. And then the third profile is be obsessed, or OCD that the person that’s so perfectionist that they become so obsessed, that they can’t sleep, they can’t leave their phone with a notification longer than an hour or a minute. They can’t have things that are out of this, this are in disarray, or are not fitting everything in our business. It’s like, oh, man, this person doesn’t have the perfect job description. So I need to make sure that I spend till two o’clock in the morning making sure that that’s done by tomorrow, because my business is going to fall apart if it doesn’t. And they’re always trying to polish things.
They’re always tweaking, they’re always kind of the mechanic on their business tinkering on the underbelly of the beast. And I think that a lot of times we we watch ourselves lose sleep over things out of place. I remember I teased the girl that had OCD in high school. And I feel bad because this dog and I feel bad because she had OCD. And if I’d write if I’d write on a piece of paper, then she would just have to scratch her whole notes because I just put like one little line and she’d rip up her paper and she’d rewrite the whole thing, because she wanted her notes in class to be that perfect. And I think back to like, Man, that’s It was it was crazy.
And I called her crazy. And then I’m like, man, after consulting so many business owners, it’s not that crazy. I mean, there are business owners that not to that extent, or you put one line on a piece of paper, and they rip it all up, but you look at like how much they care and how much they stress over some of the stupidest little things to the point where it’s an impediment in their life. Because they can’t ever have a perfect life. And they can’t accept that. And so the four ways to really combat workaholic ism would be one, slow down to boundaries, three effective versus ineffective time management, and like things that you’re doing, and for sponsors, and so I’m going to kind of walk through those real quick and, and then we’ll wrap this up.
And so business leaders need to like, really slow down. And, you know, they, they think things are time sensitive when they’re not. And I’ve managed hundreds of salespeople all over the country and tend to forget, they tend to forget you have a life. So if you’re a sales manager, and you’re listening to this, it’s like you’re getting calls at 10 o’clock, 11 o’clock at night, and you’re sitting there in bed with your wife, and you’re oh my gosh, one of my reps calling, I got it, I got to take this. And a lot of times, you don’t really have to take that. They think it’s an emergency, you think it’s an emergency. But the reality is, if you took the phone call in the morning, or you had them email you their thoughts, and you responded, tomorrow, life would probably go on and you’d actually be teaching them and helping them by being a better leader.
By teaching them boundaries, instead of exhausting yourself and teaching them that they can’t have boundaries, and you can’t have boundaries, therefore, this is good living. And the reality is it’s it’s backfiring on you. And so I try, I started to train my team on just not calling me after six or seven. And, you know, unless their car was on fire, and they’re getting shot by some axe murderer. So it’s, you know, this has made a huge difference in my sanity, you know, things like this, just knowing that my emails can wait, I can go three days without response, a text message can sit there in my inbox for a day. Like that’s, that’s okay. You know, there’s just time and place that you got to realize people know that you’re busy. And I found that the less accessible you get the actual more influence you have, or a lot of people like, the more accessible I make myself, the more influence I’ll have. And sometimes that actually backfires on you.
The other one is boundaries, you got to learn how to train your team to have boundaries. So you know, whether that’s put your phone on airplane mode, from eight to eight to nine, lock it in a drawer at dinner, learn how to wake up earlier did not start working, start reading, praying, spending time with your kids, and then go to work, you know, don’t miss the gym, I felt I feel like I’ll go to work out and all end up working out. At work out. If that makes sense. I’m like checking my phone and emails in between sets, my mind is focused on who do I get a text who I had a call and so my mind is focused on getting a good workout.
And then I can go get a good work day in after my workout. You know. And so I think that a lot of people on your team are gonna see how you operate. And, you know, if you’re a business owner, and you’re teaching these bad practices, what the culture is gonna say in your company is, man, I’m not I’m not worth anything if I’m not, like obsessed, if I’m not, like going at all cylinders all the time, and it actually hurts your overall company culture. Effective versus ineffective.
So I catch myself, you know, in this addictive personality that I probably have, and some of you guys could probably relate to this addictive personality. You know, I sit at a desk, knowing I need to work, the workaholic comes in. And I’ll just start tinkering on like, mindless things at work in work, like, but I’m working. I’m doing emails, and I’m cleaning out my junk mail. And I’m, you know, trying to figure out like, who I could call for like an hour. It’s like, super ineffective, you know, I mean, so I lost an hour of my day. And I found that sometimes like finding the most productive times of your day, so like, I get a ton of my creative juices in the morning. And I know that I can get if I get up early, even though I’m not a morning person and I can create my PowerPoints and business plans and my content. I can, you know, instead of going into the late hours of the night, my brain starts to kind of mush down and then I frickin Try to like power through power through and I’m getting distracted, and I’ve got more add, and I’ve got more, you know, I start to get things done a lot slower and I don’t think I don’t start knocking things out with deadline, like I, I’m actually pretty ineffective but I’m still spending more and more time, you know, working but it’s not really effective.
So the next one is create sprints, you know, create these sprints where you can push hard through something where it’s like, okay, for the next two hours, three hours, four hours, 30 minutes, 10 minutes, spend 100% focus time, not multitasking, just getting something done. So like, you might create a family sprint from seven to nine, where it’s like, Okay, I’m 100% focused on them, you know, or gym time, it’s like, Okay, I’m 100% focused from nine to 10, or eight to nine, or whatever time
Where it’s just like, you, you, you put a sprint in place where there’s zero opportunity for add, and you put boundaries around where you feel like add could creep in and other ideas. So like, I do a lot of creative work where I’m making content, and I’m planning events, and I’m, you know, building business plans. And sometimes I’m like, we, I get in the weeds, and I have to have a spotter or a sponsor, which leads me to the next thing where they hold me accountable to staying on track. And so the last principle is a sponsor where, you know, just like an alcoholic ism, or, or alcoholism and other addictions, you get a sponsor, right. So, yeah, it sounds weird for workaholic, but it’s kind of like, it’s the same advice. It’s somebody that’s got your back, that’s in recovery themselves, that’s found themselves not like that’s helping, it’s helping them but by being a mentor, and you being accountable to given them your calendar, telling them your balance, you know, plan, showing them your your boundaries, and saying, Hey, hold me accountable to this. You know, if I say family time, from seven to nine, text me at nine and say, hey, how’s your family time? And maybe do that? Maybe do it in return? Find, you know, I found in business partnership, a lot of times, I have to ask business relations to say, hey, I want to hold you accountable to having a good life. And I hope you have me accountable to have in this good life.
So if I catch you working at the office at midnight, can I can I text you and just say hey, do you go home, like, and we do the same for me. Because sometimes you get sucked in the super long day, you know what I mean? And so it could be within your business, it could be with outside your business, but don’t make it your wife don’t make it somebody that’s like, they’re, they’re the ones that you’re trying to do it for. So don’t make this like a girlfriend or a wife, make this somebody that’s like outside that world, and can come in as a sponsor. And then the other thing is just explain. Explain kind of even how you want them to coach you. So that you’re, you know, like, for example, like, hey, forced me to go on three cool vacations this year. And if I don’t have those planned by end of January, then will you sit down and like make sure I plan those. So like you’re coaching them how to coach you. And so, you know, the points of this chapter or This podcast is to really ask yourself, like, what’s the point of these accomplishments, and make sure that I know why I’m trying to achieve? And if I understand and challenge like, Okay, what, what is this achievement? And am I not ruining other things in my life by achieving this? Or achieving it by this time? Or XYZ? I don’t, I don’t think you have to necessarily have this perfect balance. And my lead in a podcast that I did with him. He talked about seasons. And I think that there’s a season for harvest, and our brains were built this way God built us to be farmers, right? And a farmer, if he said, Well, I can’t go harvest my crops right now. He might lose all of his crops, because he’s trying to be in balance. But then there’s times where he gets to be a little bit more chill, always waiting for the crops to grow. But then there’s times where he’s got to see it, and he’s got, like, you know, till the ground. And I think that God built us that way. He didn’t build us to be perfectly balanced. And he built the women to understand when it’s harvest time or hunting season like we need to, we need to go hunt. And I think that it’s super good advice, having these seasons and knowing and understanding seasons and communicating this season. But make sure that there’s seasons for everything. And that would be kind of what I’ll leave you with today. And hopefully you got something out of this. Share this, hopefully this was, you know, maybe you know, somebody that’s needing this, make sure to tag them or pass this along to them.
And we also really appreciate reviews. You know, if you’re, if you’ve gotten something out of the podcast, you know, if you leave a comment or review on Apple podcasts, or Spotify or whatever you you’re listening on, we’d really appreciate that. And then yeah, stay tuned, keep keep, keep listening. And we’ve got DDD con coming up. We have a recruiting summit coming up October 8 through the 10th. So I think we have a couple of tickets left for that, too. So, you know, come check out one of our events. I think that’s kind of where you get a lot of value. And a lot of people kind of dabble with the podcast, it’s free. But I think really where you start to get some big, big change in life is when you start to come to some of our events and that’s what we’ve seen in our clients. So Love you guys. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you!