EP 18_ GINO_S RIFF - THE 10-YEAR THINKING EXERCISE_AUDIO
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[00:00:00] Gino Wickman: Welcome to the Shed and Shine Podcast. I am Gino Wickman. This is where Rob Dube and I help driven entrepreneurs shed their shit, free their True Selves, unlock true entrepreneurial freedom and shine. We truly appreciate you taking the time to spend with us, and we hope to make a huge impact.
I call this riff, the 10-Year Thinking Exercise. The reality is that most driven entrepreneurs struggle with 10-Year Thinking. And I'll be frank. I was actually surprised to learn this. And now it's been proven after about a couple thousand True Self Assessments that we've received, Rob was looking at the data and discovered that 76 percent of the driven entrepreneurs that take our True Self Assessment are not thinking in 10-Year timeframes.
So that caught me by surprise, but there's the reality. And on that note, just a quick shout out about the True Self Assessment. Please go to the website, the10disciplines.com, and take that at least once a quarter to see how you're progressing in freeing your True Self. But on this one, we're going to do a deep dive into question number one, which is about 10-Year Thinking.
And so I want to start with a little context because again, 10-Year Thinking is about thinking. It's about mindset. It's not goal setting. It's not about creating a vision. Although setting goals in a 10-Year timeframe and creating a 10-Year vision is fine and quite powerful. It's about shifting your thinking from thinking to thinking in 10-Year timeframes.
And when you do, as we've shared with you, time will slow down for you. There will be a peace that comes over you. You will make better decisions, and you will get there faster. So I want to take you through an exercise, and it's almost like we're going to go into the gym for 10 minutes, and we're going to build your 10-Year Thinking muscle in the hopes to greatly improve that statistic that 76 percent of you don't think in 10-Year timeframes. So to start, and this is not the exercise, I want you to write the date 10 years from now. And so just play along, whatever month it is, whatever day it is, whatever year it is, go exactly 10 years from now and write that date or think of that date.
In addition to doing that, please write or think of your age at that exact time. And now what I want you to do is just literally take 15, 30 seconds. And I'm going to pause for you to do this, but I just want you to picture you on that date at that age. And I want you to just think about what you want your life to look like.
So again, just a few seconds. Give that some thought right now.
And so come on back. And as we're about to start the exercise, I want to start with a metaphor that's going to help the thinking around this exercise. I was in Scotland a couple of weeks ago with my family. And we saw lots of stone castles that were built hundreds and hundreds of years ago, hundreds of years old.
And those castles, when they were built, would take at least 10 years. And so using the castle analogy, let's pretend it took a hundred thousand stones to build that castle over a 10 year period. So now if we break that down, that would mean quick math would say that 10,000 stones needed to be laid per year.
And then again, using fast rough math, that would roughly mean that about a thousand stones needed to be laid every month. And then if we break that all the way down to the day, again, roughly that means about 30 stones would need to be laid per day. And so using that metaphor, for instance, if 10 years from now you want to be happily married or have a $20 million net worth, or a thriving business that's much larger than what it is now, you know, there's that castle 10 years from now. And when you think about laying those stones, the thinking is what stones do you need to be laying today to make that a reality? And with this clarity, you will make better decisions today that will get you there faster and with a lot less angst.
And so here's the exercise. And again, like I said, we're going into the gym for 10 minutes. What we're doing is we're working on your brain. We're building that muscle and we're actually helping to rewire your neurons and again, strengthen this ability. And so what we're going to do is I'm going to take you through a few different aspects of your life, and we're going to do a little bit of work around 10-Year Thinking.
And so the first thing I would like you to do, and the first aspect of your life I'd like you to think about, is I want you to think about your business. Okay? And so again, using that date that you wrote down and your age, I want you to shoot forward to that date, that age. And I want you to write down or think about the most important thing that needs to occur or be in place on that date regarding your business, regarding your work life, regarding your vocation.
Okay, I'm going to give you a little time to write and think here, but you might write down selling your business. You might write down a certain size of your business. You might write down the greatness of your business. It's all fair game. You might write down what it is you're doing on that day, living and operating in your sweet spot.
And so I'm just going to give you each time, just five seconds. You can hit pause on the recording if you need more time, but I just want to see what comes up for you. Quickly jot it down or think of it. And once you're there and you have it again on that day, at that time, I want you to picture it fully accomplished.
I want you to feel it in your bones. And so picture it fully accomplished. And now I want you to think about what thoughts, what feelings, what emotions come up around that, and then I want you to anchor those, really let them sink in. Then what I want you to do is think about what action you can take this week, today, to get you closer to what you're seeing.
Again, this is the 30 stones that need to be laid today to build the 100,000 stone castle. And again, it doesn't need to be 30 things today. It could simply be one thing today. But what is the one action you can take today to get you closer to that reality? And I'm just going to pause. And again, in this case, I'll pause about five seconds, hit pause if you need more time.
And now I'm going to move you to number two. The second thing I want you to think about in the second aspect of your life is I want you to think about your relationships. And specifically with relationships, I want you to think about family relationships. And as you're thinking about your family, I want you to think about the number one most important relationship or who is at the top of that list.
Okay, so I want you to think about, it could be your significant other, It could be one of your children, it could be your parents, brothers, sisters. So think about your family. Who's the number one person that comes to mind that again, on that date, at that age, 10 years from now, what do you want that relationship to look like?
And then I want you to picture it happening. Picture it being accomplished. Take as much time as you need to sit with that. And then again, what thoughts, what feelings, what emotions come up for you around that? And then anchor them. And again, what action can you take today to lead you closer to that reality?
What stones need to be laid today to build that castle?
I now take you to the third aspect of your life, again, under the umbrella of relationships. Now I want you to think of your friends. I want you to think about the friends you currently have or the friends you plan to have. So let's shoot out in time 10 years from now on that date, at that age, and I want you to think about the most important friendship.
I just want you to pick one, pick one of the most important friendships, and I want you to picture it accomplished exactly the way you hope it to be accomplished. Maybe you're having coffee together or a beer once a week, having great conversations, helping each other out, hanging out together.
Whatever that looks like for you, picture that accomplished on that date, at that time. I think you're on to me now in terms of the process here. And so, with that, what are the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that come up for you when you see that friendship exactly the way you want it and anchor that? And then again, what action can you take today to lay a stone toward building that castle?
I now take you to the fourth aspect of your life, and that is money. And so 10 years from now, how much money do you want to have? Pick a number, set a number, and then picture it accomplished. You have that net worth.
You have that much money. Sit with that. Picture it accomplished 10 years from now. What are your thoughts, feelings, and emotions that come up around that being accomplished?
And then anchor them. And then what action can you take today to lay a stone toward achieving that goal? And it might be as simple as just setting a number to sock away every month, that 10-Years from now you'll achieve that number.
I now take you to the fifth aspect of your life, and that is health. So again, shoot forward 10 years from now, on that date, at that age. How do you want the state of your health to be? It might be a certain weight that you want to weigh on that date. It might have to do with strength and vitality. It might have to do with certain health vital numbers like your blood pressure.
Whatever it is, just picture the most important thing about your health on that date, day. Picture it accomplished. And again, what thoughts, feelings, and emotions come up around that and then anchor them. And then again, what action can you take today, this week, to lay some stones toward building that reality.
On to number six: inner peace. I want you to shoot forward in time, on that date, at that age, and what does inner peace look like for you? My hopes for you are that you see yourself having shed all the layers it's so possible ten years from now. That your inner story has been shared and you've shed that.
That all the roots of the issues are gone and you are peaceful. You might be meditating. You might have a practice in your life, a morning routine, whatever that is, just take a minute and think about what that looks like when it's accomplished. Whatever that means for you, and what thoughts, feelings, and emotions come up around that, and then anchor them.
What action can you take today, this week, to lay a few stones?
And the final aspect, number seven, I'll take you through and you can keep going by the way, there are probably 20 aspects of your life, but we're all different, but number seven, I just want to talk about fun. So how about some fun, whatever that means for you.
It might be travel, sports that you like to play, activities that you like to do, hobbies, but 10 years from now, on that date, at that age, what are the fun things you're going to be doing that you enjoy, that fills you up? And picture those things happening, and what thoughts, feelings, and emotions come up for you, and then anchor them.
And what action can you take today to lay a stone or two toward that?
So there's the exercise. I now bring you into the home stretch by repeating again when you have this clarity in your 10-Year Thinking. When you are practicing 10-Year Thinking, time will slow down, there is a peace that will come over you, you will make better decisions, and you will get there faster. And the beauty is with that clarity, you will know exactly what to say no to, and it will frankly, with this clarity, simply displace everything in your life that you shouldn't be doing to make room for what you should be doing. I hope that helps. And I hope that greatly improves the 76 percent of you out there that are not thinking in 10-Year timeframes.
Thank you for listening in today. We truly appreciate you taking the time to spend with us. And please tune in for the next episode. Until then, if you'd like to see where you are on your True Self journey, go to shedandshinepodcast.com to take the True Self Assessment and receive personalized guidance.
If you're all ready to begin your inner world journey with Rob and myself, please join us for the next round of the 10 Disciplines Group Coaching Program. We wish you all the best in freeing your True Self, stay focused and much love.
