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 on you. Hello, everyone. My name is Rob Dube, and I am here with Gino Wickman. Gino, good to see you again.
You as well, Rob. Awesome. In our last Shed and Shine podcast episode, we shared context, high level, about these 10 disciplines. Today, we're going to be discussing discipline number one, tenure thinking, and discipline number two, take time off. Now, for the listener, in case you're wondering about the remaining eight disciplines, you're going to hear them in upcoming episodes. The first discipline, discipline number one, is tenure thinking. I'm going to share what we call the bold statement, which means if you just did this one thing, that's all you'd have to do.
Here it is. Shift your mind from short-term thinking to thinking in 10-year timeframes. Gino, back to you. Could you provide us with some and then we'll just take the conversation from there. Sure. I would love to. Where I'd like to start is I recorded a riff and shared a 10-year thinking exercise.
As I share that, I don't know if that episode is going to be released before or after this one, and there's benefit to both. If you've listened to it before, please don't assume we're duplicating the content because it's an exercise that I have you do. Please listen to that episode. If you've already listened to it, please listen to this episode because this is where we're going to go deep. Contextually, after that, I would say it's really important to understand that this is about thinking. I said this on that riff as well. This is about thinking.
This is about mindset. This is not about goal-setting and it's not about creating a 10-year vision, although goal-setting and creating a 10-year vision is very, very powerful. Please do that, but that's not what this is. That will also help you with your thinking. The idea is we're just trying to get your brain to shift from what a normal driven entrepreneur does, which is think now, now, now, now, now, making short-term decisions, feeling very hurried, feeling a lot of angst, feeling rushed, to all of a sudden shifting that mindset where all of a sudden time slows down, your peace comes over you, you start making better decisions, and you get there faster. Yeah, and when you are clear about that, an interesting thing actually starts to happen. You pause in your day, as you were saying, things slow down, and your actions begin to align with that 10-year thinking.
That's what's so beautiful about it. You shared a great story at some point, might even be in the book about if you want to have a loving relationship with somebody important to you, how you treat them today at this moment matters. Your 10-year thinking could be about that relationship. For whatever that's worth. Now, I wanted to share that as of May 2024, we had 1,598 people that had completed our true self-assessment, and 10-year thinking is the second lowest score for people. 76% do not think in 10-year timeframes. I was surprised by that, actually.
Were you surprised by that? Incredibly surprised. I actually shared that statistic on my riff as well. Totally surprised, because I would think that a driven entrepreneur, their natural instinct is to always be thinking long-term. Obviously, we've learned now that that's just not the case. Yeah. I've heard different feedback from our clients in our group coaching sessions, in our masterminds.
Some of it, we talk about love-based decisions, fear-based decisions, thoughts, emotions, and feelings. For some, it creates a sense of fear for them. As you listen to the first parts, our early podcast, we talk about love and fear-based decisions, thoughts, feelings, emotions. Think about this as you think about thinking in 10-year timeframes. Is 10 years the most, is that the exact number we should be thinking in?
How did we even come up with 10 years? I just lovingly like to say, frankly, 10-year thinking is us just trying to trick you into realizing there is no time. I'm going to say something that's a mouthful, but it starts with that driven entrepreneur, that's a short-term thinker, now, now, now, just getting them to think beyond this week, this month, this quarter, maybe even this year, so we extend that out. Sometimes, they can't get to 10 years, and so we just try and get them to three years, and then five, and then ultimately 10. Well, the truth is, like I said, we're just tricking you to get to 10, because you could also be thinking in 20 years, 50 years, 100 years, but again, at some point, you realize there is no time. In that exercise I shared in that 10-year thinking exercise riff, I talk about how at the conclusion of the exercise, you see your life in that 10-year timeframe. You know the short-term actions that get you there.
All of a sudden, two powerful things happen when the neurons rewire. One is, you realize how you can probably have most of that now, so another way of saying there is no time, but also, if you could think out 10 years and do that exercise, why wouldn't and couldn't you think further out? I always talk about when I created EOS, I created it to last 100 years, and so all of my thinking every day of creating that and putting the finishing touches was, how can I get this to last 100 years? It's a completely different way of thinking about things. Now, whether it lasts 100 years, we're going to find out, but it has lasted 23 years, and what I know is it's going to last longer than it would have if I was short-term thinking, and again, we can just apply that to every aspect of our life, and then the other thing to just add something to this topic, because I want to create this kind of awareness context for you and I as we do a deep dive into each and every discipline, is I really want to challenge you and I to be thinking about at least one outer world mastery benefit of the discipline and at least one inner world mastery benefit of the discipline, because again, these disciplines, I ask all of you out there as and I take you through this deep dive in each discipline, please be a student, please be ready to write and think and do the work, and again, our job for you as a student is just to show you the amazing power of how this foundation, this system, this platform, this framework you're putting in your life is going to help you maximize and master both the outer and the inner world, and we hope to a couple of weeks ago, and there was a discussion of a great depression in or around 2030, and how was the company planning for that possibility, and it reminded me of the story you shared from your mentor, Sam Kump, who taught you about 10-year timeframes, and in business, just being prepared that every 10 years or so, there's going to be two very, very challenging years, two great years, and six pretty darn good years, and so be prepared, but I've also come to notice in doing this work with our clients and the group coaching and in the mastermind that it seems to apply in many ways to our non-work life, our personal life as well. Now, I have no science around that. It's just something I'm noticing.
People go through challenging times, and it comes in waves in a way, and so it's worth keeping that in mind as well with 10-year thinking. When you're thinking in 10-year timeframes, you know when you're going through a challenging time, you're going to make it through because you know you're thinking in 10-year timeframes. Yeah, you know, and that prompts two thoughts because, and you said half of the first thought, which is not only is that understanding of that 10-year business cycle important, that when you're in those two years of hell to know that you will get out, and you'll make better decisions with this 10-year thinking, but also in the really good two years, you have to stay humble enough, sharp enough to realize this ain't gonna last. Totally. You're going to get your ass kicked within the next nine years, and so it keeps you sharp because sometimes we get a little cocky, a little lazy, a little arrogant in the good times, and then in the personal life, I love that you brought that into it, and I have no data on this either, but my wife, always jokingly say, after being together almost 40 years, we talk about how we barely survived each decade, and so each decade it got really tough and really rocky, but we figured it out, we worked it out, and so relationally in my marriage, that 10-year cycle has happened, so I believe you're right that it's both in your personal life and in your business life, and that could happen with friendships and whatever that is, family members, friends, all that wonderful stuff, so it's real, and then I want to make sure at least I'm going to rack my brain and share two thoughts from an inner and outer world standpoint with 10-year thinking, and I'd love it for you to do the same if something comes to mind for you, but when I think about an inner world benefit, because when we say inner world and inner world mastery, what we're talking about is how to help you shed and gain inner peace. Remember, outer world is helping you make more impact, inner world is helping you gain more inner peace, the inner peace part is that when you shift from that now, now, now urgency thinking to 10-year thinking, that calm that comes over you, you all of a sudden become more peaceful, you're less amped up, the tectonic plates are shifting less, your central nervous system is amped up, your blood pressure drops, and so there's so many inner world benefits of this shift, and then the outer world is obvious, you will get to where you want to go, you will make a bigger impact, you will achieve what you want to achieve faster, ironically, with 10-year thinking, and so your outer world and the impact you're going to make is going to be even better and faster. So for what that's worth, I want to throw two good examples.
And that's how you manage and maximize that energy with that kind of thinking. Gino, what else is coming to mind for you, if anything, on 10-year thinking? Let's see, I'm looking at my notes and anything that was prompted, and Rob, I believe we've said it all. We've said it all for discipline number one, 10-year thinking. So with that in mind, let's move to discipline number two, which is take time off. And as always, I'm going to start with that bold statement, or take time off, it is take at least 130 days off per year and don't think about the entire day. So again, back to you, we'll start with context. Yeah, yeah.
And so, you know, I think the best context here is all about just simply unplugging, the power of unplugging. And so again, as driven entrepreneurs, we just go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Even when we pretend like we're taking time off, you know, we're still tinkering, we're still peeking at emails, we're still doing some work, we're still thinking. And when you don't turn it off, and you're pretending like that, you are burning out, you know. So now let's jump to inner and outer world benefits. Let's look at what's going on in the inner world and the tectonic plates in the central nervous system. If you are just amped and going 24-7, again, even when you're being creative, for you to look at things with a fresh set of eyes. And so by taking time off, by taking those recommended 130 days off at a minimum, I take 150 days off, and turning the world off for that 24-hour period, you will be better, sharper, faster, calmer, more peaceful, and better for anyone in your life.
And you'll make much. better decisions and just be much more creative, which the outer world benefits, I think that's obvious. You will get more shit done, which is shocking to think, wow, if I take more time off, I get more done. When I take the month of August off every year, I know I'm further ahead. I've done that now for almost 25 years, and I know I'm further ahead by taking a whole freaking month off. When you sit there, it's counterintuitive and think, man, if I would have just worked those 30 days, 31 days, imagine what I could have accomplished. It doesn't work like that.
It just doesn't work. Yeah, oh, there's so much coming to mind. The first thing I want to say, though, so I don't forget, and then I'll come back to this other thought, is people kind of sit back in their chair a lot of times when they hear me say 130 days. So you taught this so well and taught it to me so well. Don't forget, 52 weekends, that's 140 days. Did I do my math right there?
104 days, sorry. That's three weeks of vacation and all US holidays. You're darn near 130 right there. So if you think of it in that way, it may not seem so overwhelming. So keep that all in mind. Now, the other thing is hustle. That comes to my mind.
I think nowadays people feel like, well, if I'm off, if I'm sleeping, the competition is taking me over because they're hustling and I'm not. I believe, and I believe that you've taught me, and I see it in the clients and the group coaching, that when you are clear and you're thinking better, it's about making better love-based decisions, heart-based decisions, and that will fuel your business to greater success. You will surpass the competition in so many ways. If that's what you desire to do, by the way, you don't have to do that.
So any thoughts on that, Gino? Yeah, no, not any thoughts because I think it just kind of reinforces and just, again, it's a perfect, both in what you shared there, it's an inner world benefit and an outer world benefit. But what it did prompt is something different but in the same vein. And so I'm reminded of, we're starting to do these Shine meetings. And what a Shine meeting is where we bring together eight to 12 people that have read Shine and had these amazing conversations. And we see that really growing and evolving. But if you remember in the previous one, the two big topics were tenure thinking and taking time off.
And if you remember, there were two really powerful nuggets that came out of there, pieces of advice for the people that were struggling with this. And I don't do this, but one was, preparing the night before. So I don't prepare the night before my days off because I don't need to. I'm not looking to be productive on my day off, but that was a big aha because the person that gave that advice, that's what they do. And it makes for a much better, productive, energizing time off and enables them to not get distracted. And then the other great nugget was the idea of make a list of all the things you love to do on your time off and either review that the night before or when you wake up that morning that you have the day off, read your list. And again, as driven entrepreneurs, we're drawn to whatever the project at hand is. And if it's going for a bright bike ride because that's a passion or opening your laptop and looking at your emails, by doing that, it's gonna draw you in to obviously go for that bike ride and really take time off.
So I thought those were two really powerful nuggets for those of you out there that just, so all of a sudden you did it, you took the day off and then you're standing there twiddling your thumbs and in that boredom, you got sucked back into work, two great ways to maybe help you. Yeah, I mean, people say to be during the coaching sessions, I don't even know what I would do. And I look at that for you, the listener, as such, if you feel that way, that's such a great opportunity to just start by making a list of what would I do? And I mean, this will sound obvious and I mean it respectfully, but there's a whole world out there other than business and it's pretty darn amazing. And so go check it out and try some different things. Maybe some you'll like, and maybe some you'll find you don't like and that'll help you kind of get on your way. But I really encourage that because this is really, as you mentioned, you must rest and reset your energy and it's your clarity levels, so important.
Now, this one, I love this one because I get it all the time. People will say to me, Rob, I do this on my day off. Does that count as work? So for example, reading a business book or reading a quote unquote self-help book, does that count as work? And I have an answer to it, but I wanna ask you first cause I'm kind of curious what you think. Yeah, I mean, my opinion is self-help, I believe is different in a different realm. And I read lots of self-help books on my time off, but I very rarely, you know, if I look back at 150 days off in the last 20 years, what's the math on that?
3000 days up, have I read a business book? Probably, yes, but it's so fricking rare, you know? So if it was 10 days out of 3000, that's probably the max number, but again, I'm guessing. So reading a business book, I would beg you to not, self-improvement book, you know, I think that that's fine, just my humble two cents. Yeah, that's good. I mean, I always like to recommend to just check yourself and be totally honest. So just pause and just say, is this work to me?
And you have the answer inside of you at the end of the day, if you're checking work email and you say, that's not work to me, now you're just tricking yourself, you know? So, but it isn't that complicated, so don't overthink it. The other thing that I have personally found valuable when I take time off is it gives me some time to do inner work, and I think that's very important. You know, I've gone on some different retreats over the years, usually a couple of year to do inner work. And, you know, I'm curious, you know, have you found that to be the case as well, Gino? Oh, very much so. And I, you know, what that prompts for me is I would suggest to you out there at a minimum, you know, so assuming you're gonna take time off and commit to that 24 hours of non-work, if you're not practicing stillness on your work days, because you, again, feel too busy, you gotta get up and start running and all that stuff, at a minimum, be practicing stillness on your time off.
And so again, as always, whether that's meditation, contemplation, prayer, journaling, whatever your form of stillness is, what a beautiful opportunity to start that day off with stillness. It will make for a much better day, and that will start the cycle of, you know, doing inner work during time off. Absolutely. Good stuff. Gino, any other thoughts coming to mind for you? Yeah, there's one other thing I would say. And so after everything Rob and I just said to you out there, if you're still not motivated and you still are not ready for this, I would just say this, you owe it to your family, to your friends, and most importantly, to yourself, to turn it off, recharge your batteries.
And so if you won't do it for you, then do it for them and start there. So for what that impassioned plea is worth, I've said everything I wanted to say. Beautiful way to end it.
Thank you, Gino. I appreciate you. Right back at you. 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.
