The Secret to Making Your Life Better with Alex Sanfilippo

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE: HTTPS://PODMATCH.COM/EP/158

Do you ever feel like no matter how hard you try to make your life and work better, you never seem to be able to move the needle? You’re not alone in feeling this way; this was me for a long time. Year after year, I had little to no progress. But I figured out the secret to making your life better. In this final part of the 4 part solo episode series we’re in, I’m going to explain what finally led me to experience breakthroughs in my life at a more rapid rate than ever before. Additionally, I have a significant announcement that I will be making in this episode. Get ready to wrap up this 4 part series of solo episodes by discovering the key to making your life better.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE: HTTPS://PODMATCH.COM/EP/158

Transcript

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Do you ever feel like that no matter how hard you try to make your life and work better, you never seem to be able to do anything that moves the needle? You're not alone in feeling this way. In fact, this was me for a long time. Year after year, I had little to no progress. But one day I figured out the secret to making your life better. In this final part of the series we're in, part four, I'm going to explain what finally led me to experience breakthrough my life in a more rapid rate than ever before. Additionally, I have a very important announcement for this podcast that I will be making. For links to resources that will be mentioned during this episode, please visit creatingabrand.com slash 158. And now get ready to wrap up part four of the series by tying it all together and discovering the key to making your life better. We'll be right back. But don't worry, the first 158 episodes of this podcast are still going to be available in the same feed. You'll always be able to hear them. I'm not going to change the intro or outro, like nothing about them will be any different. So you can always go back and reference and listen to those. And if you haven't heard all of them, I encourage you to start from episode one and work your way through because there's some super, super impactful episodes. At this point, you're probably asking one of two things or both maybe. Number one, what does it have to do with the title of the episode? What's the secret to making your life better? And number two, why are you changing this podcast? I'm going to answer both these questions for you throughout this episode because they're both very connected. Before I get into that, I'm going to just quickly mention that this is just, again, so bittersweet. When I was getting my notes ready for this episode and mentally preparing for it, it almost brought a tear to my eye because this has just been such a great experience. I'll share more about that at the end, but it's just a really, like I said, bittersweet moment for me to do this. I'm going to go ahead and jump into exactly what this episode is about, the secret to making your life better, and why we're shifting the podcast now. Something I've noticed repeatedly in the world of entrepreneurship and in people's personal lives as well, and almost anyone I've had the opportunity to meet, I've seen this just consistently happen in their lives. They always seem to get busier and busier and have more and more to do, but it's never the change that they want. Things aren't happening the way they want them to. They have these dreams, their visions, and the things they want, but they're not making progress in them. And I'm seeing everybody work even more and more and sleep even less and less while not feeling that their life is heading in the direction they really want. And maybe I'm speaking to you by saying that, that you just kind of feel a little bit stagnant, that just year over year, like I'm saying, you look at New Year's resolutions, you set goals, but it just doesn't seem to really go anywhere. And I'll share that this was me for a long time. My marriage suffered because of this at times, my relationship with God, I'd suffered as well. And same with other people in my life. And I couldn't just figure out how to manage all the responsibilities I had going on. It just seemed like so much change seemed like I could only change when I was forced to. And when I was, it usually wasn't positive. I just had more responsibility, more stuff to do. And I think, again, many of us feel that we're in that same space. But thankfully, one day I experienced a breakthrough. Something changed. And I'm going to share that with you real quick here. It was a few years ago. I was actually captain of a soccer team in a league here in my town, Jackson and I loved it, but it was a lot of work on top of my already busy schedule, and it wasn't necessarily leading me closer to what I wanted to do, but I did want to play soccer. I can remember some days I'd drive straight to practice from work. I'd literally change out of my suit into cleats right there on the side of the field, and it was fun. I loved it, but I just realized at one point when my work started to change, I could not do it anymore. I had to stop, and it was really tough to let the team go that I worked hard to build, But at this point, I just knew I had no choice. I physically couldn't do it anymore. And I was suffering, and so was the team as a result. So I finally made the decision to let it go. I passed the leadership off to somebody else on the team. And it was sad, but then I realized something. What I really wanted to do and initially why I started playing was I wanted to play soccer. Let go. Let go of the responsibilities that you've taken on yourself that you don't need to have. Now, obviously, if you have kids, you have a pet, if you have other commitments and things you're responsible for, hold on to those. But what have you just signed up for to do? Or what are you doing that you don't necessarily need to do? Here's another way to say that. What have you been holding on to for years that you don't have to hold on to anymore? What can you let go of? What is it time to let go of? I understand this is really hard for people to grasp, so I'm actually going to break this down into three points. But in addition, I want to encourage you to go back and listen to episode number one 140 of this podcast. It was a solo episode where I was talking about how to systematically make these changes in your life. It's a practice that I now do every single quarter, and it's been one of those powerful things I've implemented in my life. So again, creatingabrand.com slash 140 will get you that episode of me talking about how you can systematically do what we're going to talk about here today. Here's the three points for how to make your life better. Number one, what got you here won't get you there. It's a Marshall Goldsmith quote. And what brought you to where you are in your life today is not going to be what takes you into your next season of greatness in your life. You have to be willing to change. You have to be willing to do something different. So just because something got you where you're on, you're like, oh man, I owe it to this, or this is what got me here. You have to let go of that and make room for something else. Because again, what got you here won't get you there. Number two is to learn to identify necessary endings, then take action. Dr. Henry Cloud is actually the author of the book titled Necessary Endings. And he says that a necessary ending is something that you know it's time to let go of. It's something that it's time to put down. It's something that you have to say, this is not really serving my life anymore. It could be a friendship. It could be a commitment like I had to the soccer team. It could be a job. For me, at one point, I was actually playing video games. When I started creating a brand, I was still playing a Star Wars game on the computer. And I had to let go of it. I knew it was that time for me to do that. Was it hard to do? Yes, it was. But was it serving me on my journey of where I was at that point, even though it was a good thing in my life? Absolutely not. It needed to go. I had been playing it for like 20 years. And yeah, it wasn't easy to do, but it was extra baggage that I no longer needed at that time. And I identified it as a necessary ending. Now, that one might be kind of visual if you're like, oh, I don't play video games. That sounds silly, Alex. Sometimes it's something a little bit more specific. Like an example would be this podcast. This podcast is a necessary ending. I'm going to get back into that in a minute. But identifying these necessary endings in your life and taking action is so important. So I encourage you, sit down and think about all the things that you do in your life and then take action to make some movement. It might be time to let go of some things that you've held onto for a long time. Again, it could be friendships. It could be a job. It could be some other form of commitment that you have. But really sit down and get intentional and then be willing to take action afterwards. And for the third and final point, learn to live a life that is proactive instead of reactive. Learn to live a life that is proactive instead of reactive. So many of us, we wait for change to force us to take action. And this is when people don't like change is because they've been comfortable where they are. And they don't want to, but they're gonna have to react to the change. No one likes that. But if you're proactive, you can create the life that you want. You can identify those necessary endings now. You can look at things that got you where you are today and say, this is not going to be what gets me to where I want to go tomorrow. And you can say, I'm going to live proactively and make the change that needs to happen now. Don't let comfort that you're in today be what keeps you at bay. Don't let that be what just keeps you in a mediocre life. If you want to pursue greatness for your life, you have to be proactive and look at the things that are in the future that you want and bring them to you by removing things in your life. The thing I've been sharing here is so many of us, we just expect our capacity to continue to expand and we'll just have more and more room, more and more capacity, more and more ability. That's not how it works. It's finite. We have to be willing to let things go to make room for the better. I call it making room for the sake of the potential great. So take a calculated risk. Remove the the potential great that could happen as a replacement in your life. Now, you might be saying at this point, Alex, I'm not really sure how to identify these things. I'm not sure what to do. Again, go back and listen to episode 140, creatingabrand.com slash 140. It's very practical on the same topic. But you want to make sure that you just sit down and start thinking, what does my most ideal life look like? What are the things that are holding me back? I'm telling you, this is a practice you can do that doesn't take long. Go get pen and paper. Get away from the computer. Get away from the screens. Get away from this podcast. You can finish the episode first, of course. But go do those things and start challenging the status quo in your life. And see what happens for you. See what doors open as you close the ones in your life that have just been open for too long. I'm telling you, new opportunities will open and they'll be so much better in your life. Think about what's holding you back from greatness in your life. What have you been holding on to that it's time to let go of? Now, as I mentioned, I was going to tie the questions that you probably have around this episode together. The other thing that people were wondering is like, why is this my last episode of the Creating a Brand podcast? This podcast has brought me to where I am today. But it's not going to get me where I want to go tomorrow. And I say that because I've launched software companies specifically for podcasters. And I'm realizing more and more that these podcasters are asking me questions. They need the education. They're newer. They could use some extra help. And for me, I don't have a resource to push them to. So in my head initially, as we've been talking about here, I thought, oh, I'll start another podcast. So I'll have creating a brand and I'll have one for the podcaster specifically. That spreads me too thin. Like I said, our capacity is finite. So for me, I had to remove something from my life. And I just know that when I look at the future that I want, when I think ahead, I want to serve podcasters more and more. Not that I want to stop serving entrepreneurs, but I just know that that's where my calling is taking me. So for me, I realized that this show got me where I am today. It's not going to get me where I want to go tomorrow. And it's become a necessary ending in my life. And instead of just living a reactive lifestyle and trying to launch both shows and just try to keep up with the workflow, it's time for me to live proactive and say, you know what, I'm going to make the choice myself to stop this show. It's change on my own terms. So that's why I'm actually bringing this show to a close, which again is so bittersweet. And I already mentioned it, but the first 158 episodes ending with this one will always be available. They're always going to be on the same feed. So it'll have a different show name. It'll appear differently wherever you listen to podcasts, but just know that the first 158 episodes are devoted to entrepreneurs and helping them go further faster. And moving forward, it's going to be about serving the Pod Pros organization, which is my software company that now has more multiple softwares, and now the educational element for it as well. I personally know that my time of serving early stage entrepreneurs is up for now. I might find other ways to do it in the future, but it's time to go all in on podcasting. It's the potential great that I know that I'm after. And like I said, this is bittersweet for me. In the last two months, I've not only made this decision, but I also sold my first blog ever created, dailyps.com. I was the podcast host there as well. It had up to, I think it was 141 authors on it and a great team that I was leading there as well. But it was time to move on from that. I sold that. And I can't tell you how much I've learned from this experience. I started Daily PS over nine years ago and I started creating a brand about three years ago at this point. And both these things, again, they've brought me to where I am today. But in order to get where I want to go tomorrow, I know I need to make the extra space and room for the sake of potential great that I am looking for. What got me here won't get me there. And it's there that I really know I want and need to be. This is like the most bittersweet episode of our done. It's sweet because I know it's the right move, but it's bitter because it's like so sad. So much of my life was devoted to so many of you. And I thought about how to end this episode and I never really figured out what to say. I just, I didn't write anything down. I couldn't find a quote. Like I just didn't know. So I just decided I'm gonna say what I'm feeling in the moment. So first off, I just want to say this has been an incredible experience. So many of you have reached out to me and helped me along the way in this journey. And I am so thankful for so many of you. Like, honestly, I mean, I just love so Many of you guys have helped me just make this podcast something great that's really served people. And many of you helped me found this professional path. When I started creating a brand, I was still in a nine-to-five job. Some of you helped me actually remove myself from that, step into full-time entrepreneurship, which brought me to where I am today. And I wouldn't be here without so many of you. So thank you again. It's been an honor. It's been a blessing to do this. So I'll end this episode, again, not really sure what to do here. So I'm just going to say whatever's on my heart at the moment. And all I can think of right now is the words that are on my email signature, and they've been there for the last 10 years. Looking forward. Looking forward. So I want to say thank you again for everyone for listening. It's truly been an honor to serve you, and I'm looking forward to what the future holds for us all. Thank you again. Thank you. In this series, we talked about morning routines, evening routines, daily habits, and lastly, letting go being the secret to making your life better. When you do these four things together, I'm telling you your life will be more meaningful than you ever thought possible. I encourage you to re-listen to the series, implement, tweak, and improve the habits that you form until you create what is an ideal set of routines that will drive you forward into the life that you want. For links to resources that were mentioned during this episode, please visit creatingabrand.com slash 158. Although this is the end of the Creating a Brand podcast, these episodes will always be available on this same feed. Although the show name will change, you can always go back to any previous episode. So that's number one through 158. Or you can visit creatingabrand.com to find those show notes or even chat with me. And I encourage you to go back to episode and start over as so many of these episodes have been very, very impactful for people. So at the end of this podcast here, I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you so much for listening to me for over the last three years. Thank you for this opportunity to speak into your life and thank you for trusting me with your time. And of course, thank you for the continued support along the way. As I end and wrap up this podcast, I leave you with this quote, what we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others echoes into eternity. I encourage you, get out there and make an impact as I pray I did with this podcast. Again, thank you so much, everybody. Love you all.