Shed & Shine â Riff Episode: The 10 Disciplines: The Consistency of Inconsistency
00:00:00 - 00:00:41
Gino Wickman
Hello and welcome back. This episode I call The 10 Disciplines: The Consistency of Inconsistency. So here's where this stems from. I was asked a question recently, and the question was, which of the 10 Disciplines do you struggle with the most? And as the question was asked, my mind immediately went to a question I asked myself inside my head, and that was, which timeframe? Because it's never any one Discipline. It's not like there's this one Discipline I've always struggled with.
00:00:41 - 00:01:42
Gino Wickman
And I hope that this episode gives you a lot of freedom, because the answer is always different. It always depends on what's going on in your life, what's going on in my life. There's never going to be this perfect scenario where the 10 Disciplines remain constant and consistent throughout your entire life because they're forever changing, because the outside world is forever changing. The consistency of inconsistency, what we're talking about, is the outer world inconsistency leads to our need to do the best we can staying consistent with these 10 Disciplines, but they will adjust and evolve and morph. And I hope I can make that abundantly clear for you today. Another way of saying that is sometimes they are very strong and sometimes they're a little shaky.
00:01:42 - 00:02:20
Gino Wickman
The analogy I like to use, or the metaphor, is like the pistons in an internal combustion engine where those pistons are never all up and never all down. So they're just constantly moving. Or the spinning plates, if you remember that from the circus, where you have the guy that's spinning 10 plates on a stand and they start to wobble, and then he's got to run to the one that's wobbling. And then I have a friend that describes them as whack-a-mole, where they're never all up, they're never all down, and you're kind of whacking the one that's popping up because you've got to change something. But again, the point in all of that is they're never all up and they're never all down. Or said another way, sometimes one is strong and sometimes it is shaky.
00:02:21 - 00:02:46
Gino Wickman
And so another example is when we check in for our Mastermind, with our Mastermind group and our Mastermind clients, it's really powerful because one of the questions we ask is where are you struggling with the 10 Disciplines or the 3 Discoveries? And it's just always a different answer for everyone. Same thing in Shine meetings when we check in, it's always a different answer. And my answer is always different, again, depending on the circumstances.
00:02:46 - 00:03:31
Gino Wickman
And so here's the answer I gave the person that asked me the question after that pondering pause I took, thinking about the question. But it came very clear to me when I looked out at my 30-year history, my 30-year experience, almost 30 years with these 10 Disciplines. And the one that came to mind the most, if I look at that timeframe and the ups and the downs, was be humble. And the reason it came up for me is, again, changing circumstances, right? The inconsistency of the world. And so what I realized looking back is how hard and challenging it can be to stay humble the more successful you become.
00:03:31 - 00:04:12
Gino Wickman
And so I look at these periods of ups and downs and ebbs and flows, and I think about celebrities, and I can now see how celebrities just get swept away and caught up in their press. Or again, successful people, entrepreneurs, how they get swept away and caught up, and I'm just as guilty. Now, I don't consider myself a celebrity by any stretch, but I do get a lot of accolades. And so I have this funny thing that I share, and I think I've shared it in the past, where when I'm feeling a little too cocky or arrogant or getting a little too big, I go to my one-star reviews on Amazon, read those, and that brings me right to the ground.
00:04:12 - 00:04:39
Gino Wickman
So the point is I have friends and family that keep me on the ground as well. But it's this constant battle of not getting swept up in your own press. And the other little trick for me, for what it's worth, is gratitude. I've realized if I just focus on gratitude, it's really hard to be arrogant and cocky while practicing gratitude. Gratitude just brings me right down to the ground. So that was my answer, and it's one example for you.
00:04:39 - 00:05:25
Gino Wickman
But now what I'm about to do, let's dive in deep. Let's take a look at what might be the cause of the inconsistency for you, or the disruption in your life, or what might disrupt you living by the 10 Disciplines so that you can be better prepared, less rigid, and more free with them. Because you might be dealing with one of these situations that I'm going to share with you right now. And so we're going to take them one at a time. It's going to move kind of fast, but here are examples of how things can change in the outer world that will affect one of the Disciplines getting a little shaky for you.
00:05:25 - 00:05:54
Gino Wickman
So let's start with Discipline Number One, 10-year thinking. And so again, you're chugging along, you're thinking in 10-year timeframes. Every decision is at least a 10-year decision for you, but things can change. And so using me as an example, I'm now in my third 10-year cycle, if you will. I had my aha about 10-year thinking in my mid-30s. Here I am at 58, so I'm in my third 10-year cycle. And I can tell you, looking back, it changes.
00:05:54 - 00:06:24
Gino Wickman
Each one of those decades was a bit different. And so if you subscribe to creating a 10-year vision, which is one of the things we help you do in Shine, just as a way of breaking loose the barrier in your brain, because I also want you to remember, 10-year thinking is about long-range thinking. We're urging you to think 20, 30, 40, 50 years ahead. But nonetheless, if you have a 10-year vision, obviously 10 years from now you're going to have to revise it. Point is, things can change.
00:06:24 - 00:07:05
Gino Wickman
But in that long-range thinking, cycles change, the seasons of life change. And so when I think back to my 30s and my obsession and focus was 10,000 companies running on EOS, it was a very different kind of 10-year thinking than now. I'm in this third 10-year cycle. I've achieved those goals, and now I'm looking out to the future. And I've shared in previous episodes that there's this 70 million number. It hasn't fully come clear exactly what it is, but that part is clear. And so it's just a different tone, a different kind of 10-year thinking going on for me. So the point is, it changes depending on what's going on in your life and the seasons of your life.
00:07:06 - 00:07:20
Gino Wickman
So on to Discipline Number Two, take time off. And so there you are, you figured out your formula. You're taking off at least 130 days a year and you are recharging your batteries and it's working. And then all of a sudden something changes.
00:07:21 - 00:08:03
Gino Wickman
So again, as I look back in these three cycles, in my 30s I had young kids, so it's a very different vibe taking time off with young kids to where now in my 50s I have elderly parents and grandkids. It's a totally different vibe. As my parents got older and I started taking care of them, whole different vibe. So where taking time off was intended to recharge my batteries, a lot of that time off was consumed with caring for elderly parents, which can be very stressful. So sometimes it felt better getting back to work than dealing with the stress of time off. So it rocked my world for a little while.
00:08:03 - 00:08:29
Gino Wickman
Things will change. You may have a crisis at work that suddenly requires you to pour in more time than you planned, and it's eating into all that time off for you. It's okay to live out of balance in life as long as you know for how long and why. So remember that rule of thumb, but nonetheless, you might be in the middle of a crisis where it's affecting time off. And that would be the point where you would say, well, right now, that's the one I'm struggling with the most.
00:08:30 - 00:08:44
Gino Wickman
Discipline Number Three, know thyself. And so you may have gone through a period where you have been being your True Self 100% of the time, worst case, 95% of the time. And then all of a sudden, something changes.
00:08:44 - 00:09:39
Gino Wickman
Because remember, we go through different phases as we truly get to know ourselves so we can be ourselves. It's a series of learning our skills and abilities and understanding our strengths and weaknesses and learning our traits and characteristics. And so these are all parts of the journey, and they get clear. Then we start shedding some stuff. And so you're somewhere in there in that journey. In there, you may hit a wall. There might be a point where you just feel stuck. You get stuck, you get a little bit lost in this soul searching, and that is very normal. You may experience a dark night of the soul where your ego is truly relaxing and shedding and you don't know who the hell you are for a while. That is all normal. And so that's a period where you're just not going to know thyself. Perfect example of where things change and that one might get a little shaky.
00:09:40 - 00:10:20
Gino Wickman
Discipline Number Four, be still. So you may have dialed it in. You may be sitting in silence 30 minutes every single morning. You may have figured out the perfect stillness practice, you nailed it. It's been three great years. And then all of a sudden something changed. You might decide it's time to change your stillness practice, or you may go through a period where it's just kind of a dud. It's like the last three months, there's nothing happening. And when it was fireworks the previous three years, all of a sudden something changed. And with that change, the Discipline gets a little shaky.
00:10:21 - 00:10:38
Gino Wickman
On to Discipline Number Five, know your 100%. And so again, you may have figured out the perfect hours per week, the perfect number of weeks per year, and it is clicking, high energy, kicking ass. And then all of a sudden, a crisis comes.
00:10:38 - 00:11:18
Gino Wickman
What we talked about earlier, remember the 10-year business cycle? Two great years, six good years, and then two terrible years that can put you out of business. The two terrible years are coming, and when they come, that's a crisis that could potentially disrupt this perfect formula, your 100%, your work container. You may be going through a business sale. When I sold EOS Worldwide, leading up to that closing, those three months leading up to that closing, I was so involved in the process, it took every minute of every day. I was burning the candle at both ends. I knew for how long and why, but nonetheless, this Discipline got thrown out the window for three months at that point.
00:11:19 - 00:11:49
Gino Wickman
It also might be after a sale. You may have sold your business and all of a sudden your life has completely changed. You may work less, you may work more, so something may change with that formula. And you may be a visionary who finally hired an integrator, and all of a sudden you now get to write your own ticket. What is the perfect number of hours per week and weeks per year? That may greatly diminish and might be a new perfect formula for you.
00:11:50 - 00:12:50
Gino Wickman
Discipline Number Six, say no often. Again, you may be saying no to everything that doesn't fit in the first five Disciplines. You've mastered it, you're on a roll, but then all of a sudden your run comes to an end because out of nowhere, this next 30 days, a significant other, and a client, and one of your children, and a dear friend, and whatever else asks you something that you should say no to, but you love and care about them so much. This is one of those times you say yes for all the right reasons, but they all hit at the same time. And so you spend the next 30 days thinking, why in the hell am I doing this? And you know exactly why you're doing it. And so again, that's where say no often can get shaky on you after a good run for a while. Or that's when that piston, back to the engine analogy, might be low, or you might be whacking that mole, for lack of a better term.
00:12:50 - 00:13:35
Gino Wickman
On to Discipline Number Seven, don't do $25 an hour work. And so again, let's pretend it's working great. You're not doing any $25 an hour work. But let's remember, this is also low energy work as well as low dollar an hour work. So you might be in a place where yes, you're not doing $25 an hour work. You're at a point where you're only doing $100 an hour work or more. And now all of a sudden you're about to make another huge shift where you're shifting to delegating all $100 an hour work to go to $250 an hour. And all of a sudden that is a heavy load. That's going to take some work.
00:13:35 - 00:13:58
Gino Wickman
And so for the next one, two, three, four months, you might be training people, delegating things, hiring people, getting rid of all of that $100 an hour work. And it might be stressful, overwhelming, shaky. Again, that piston drops there. And so that might be the thing that takes you to the next level. But right now, you just got to go through a shaky period until you get all the right things in the right place.
00:13:59 - 00:14:36
Gino Wickman
On to Discipline Number Eight, prepare every night. Same thing with this one. You may have been going well, preparing every night, and then all of a sudden you've been on a good run and you got a little lazy, or things got a little chaotic, or you got a little cocky. Like, it's going so good, you're like, "Do I really need to prepare every night? Everything is going so well," because you just kind of lost sight of the value, or lost sight of the fact that that's why things are going so well. And so the wheels come off for a little bit. I am guilty of that, by the way. And so with that, you just got to get back on track. And that's where that one sometimes can be a little shaky.
00:14:38 - 00:15:14
Gino Wickman
Discipline Number Nine, put everything in one place. Same thing. Pretend you're doing it all well, but maybe technology changed or you're deciding to go from using a journal to using a reMarkable. And so you've got a training and learning and education period. So it's going to be a little bumpy there for a while. Or same thing as the previous one. You may have gotten a little lazy, cocky, things got chaotic. You don't see the value. You forgot that's the reason things are going well. And all of a sudden you start to break promises, forget things, chaos starts to creep back into your life, and you just got to get back on track.
00:15:16 - 00:15:48
Gino Wickman
And last but not least, Discipline Number Ten, be humble. So again, you may view yourself as an equal to everyone on the planet. And I already shared how it got shaky for me over time looking back. You may suffer from the same things. You may sell your business. Now you're sitting on millions of dollars and that may start to go to your head. Or you're just getting off a three-month run of lots of accolades and recognition, and that's going to your head.
00:15:48 - 00:16:37
Gino Wickman
You might have gotten some great press. You might have just been nominated for 40 Under 40. You might have been nominated, your company is one of the best places to work. You might have gotten an employee of the month parking spot. I don't know, you might have picked a great stock that tripled in the last three months and you're starting to get a little cocky. You might have run a marathon and beat your time. You might have simply stopped your gratitude practice and you realize the last three months you've not been practicing gratitude. And that unfortunately is allowing a little arrogance to creep in. Whatever it is, you may notice that you're starting to get a little cocky and it's time to bring yourself back. And remember, gratitude is a great antidote for that.
00:16:37 - 00:17:07
Gino Wickman
So there they are. And so what's the point? The point is it's okay. Shit happens. And when these things happen, just go back to the basics. Going back to the basics is sometimes as simple as seeing, oh, this Discipline's getting shaky, go back and read those five pages in Shine and it will bring you right back. But just know it's okay. Give yourself permission. And again, go back to the basics.
00:17:07 - 00:17:51
Gino Wickman
That's why we do a check-in in the Mastermind. That's why we do a check-in in the Shine meetings. That's why we check in. That's why we urge you to fill out the True Self assessment every 90 days. Go to the website, fill it out, and you're going to find the shaky one. Don't beat yourself up, just get back to the basics. That's why they're called Disciplines. And you just simply say to yourself, ah, that's the one that needs the most attention right now. And just like any routine, brushing your teeth, taking a shower, eating right, exercising, you also need to do your 10 Disciplines. And when one gets shaky, just give it a little bit of attention.
00:17:52 - 00:18:05
Gino Wickman
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, we wish you all the best in freeing your True Self. Stay focused and much love.
