← The Everyday Millionaire and Mindset Matters Podcast
The Everyday Millionaire and Mindset Matters Podcast
Mindset Matters – Episode #191 – From Micro Adjustments to Massive Success: The Kaizen Mindset Explained
00:30:47
Loading summary
Transcript56 lines
- [00:00]
Patrick O'Neill
Foreign.
- [00:05]
Stephanie Hanlon
Welcome to this episode of the Everyday Millionaire Mindset Matters podcast where I'm joined by my wife, Olympic mental performance coach Stephanie Hanlon. Francie in these episodes, Stephanie and I have a conversation about the different aspects of what we refer to as Mindset Matters because we believe that for those who are awake, we are living in and through the most impactful time in history. Your view of the world is the filter for how you will experience the evolution and changing dynamics of it. Our intention is to provide you with ideas, nutritious food for thought, and some tools that you can use to help you in being your greatest self and living your best life. Listen in, enjoy.
- [00:51]
Francie
Hey there and welcome to Mindset Matters, where we challenge old belief systems, consider new perspectives, and help you design a life that aligns with who you are truly meant to be. Stephanie hey hon. So I titled this particular episode Small Shifts, Big Changes, and there's a few quotes that sum it up. Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out. Robert Collier said that. And so the context for this was built around Kaizen. And that whole concept of tiny changes matter more than you think. In physics, we think about a quantum is the tiniest unit of measurable change. Some would call it just a flicker of energy. But in everyday language, a quantum leap means a giant dramatic shift. So the paradox is that sometimes even the smallest shift in our perception, and we've talked about perception before, but it creates the biggest change in our perspective. And that's the whole concept of the Kaizen Way. And what we're talking about on our journey of adopting the mind Shui way, which is feng shui for the mind, looking at how we think, expanding context and looking and saying if we want change, it doesn't have to be big, dramatic changes. It's a small shift in our perspective which shifts our perception. And these little changes then shift the trajectory. Now I'll add one little component to it and then I'll get back to you, which is on a airplane. We've all been on airplanes and on a flight, we think we're going to go from wherever, Vancouver to Toronto, steer it that way. But along the way they've got a lot of technology, but they're constantly putting in little adjustments, even on that journey. And they've done it many, many times before. But all the adjustments that they need to adapt for weather conditions and other planes in the area, et cetera. So they're constantly making little subtle adjustments. The destination is there. It doesn't change. It's still Vancouver to Toronto. But how you get there isn't exactly the same because you're adjusting as things come at you in our life as we kind of look and self evaluate and think about what we're thinking about and saying, okay, well, I have this vision, I have this dream, I have this goal. I want to show up differently, I want to do things differently. On a recent, and I think it was our last show, we talked about children and how we can be, you know, how we look at and view how, how we raise our children. Doesn't have to be big dramatic shifts. It could be a shift in our language, it could be a shift in how we view whatever is happening. You know, and we've talked about it before. But often in the world of being the best version of ourself, it's not big dramatic changes. It's a commitment to doing something slightly differently and changing the trajectory of the direction that you're going. Okay, Quantum.
- [04:09]
Patrick O'Neill
As you know.
- [04:10]
Francie
Love that word. You got a business called quantum Speed?
- [04:13]
Patrick O'Neill
I do.
- [04:14]
Francie
Okay, so let's talk about that little shift because you in your world train athletes. In the world of Quantum Speed, you train skaters, slash hockey players and they want to be better skaters, but you don't necessarily blow everything they're doing up. You make subtle adjustments to their technique and what they're doing. And that has a long term impact on how they become better players and better skaters. So it over to you, your thoughts?
- [04:45]
Patrick O'Neill
Well, I think, you know, next year will be my 25th anniversary with the company and with the process called Quantum Speed. And I remember when I first came up with it, people didn't understand like what is a quantum, like quantum leap. It's going to be this huge change. And what I was trying to get across to athletes and to the people that I was working with is that it's the smallest possible change. Quantum means the smallest possible change to get the biggest result. And it was a real kind of a mind shift when it came to working with high end athletes. And I remember the pro athletes going, well, what can I expect and what's the outcome and what's how much faster am I going to be? And I said, well, you know, let's start with the process and let's break it down to the smallest component parts and let's just work on your technique. Well, I don't want to work on my technique, I want to work on my speed. Well, what I had to teach them and what changed the culture, I believe, in the training of athletes at this point, 25 years later, is that when you change a small shift in how you move your body, for example, a small change is going to give you a big result. But then after we broke down the technique, say, of skating or think about in business, you look at things, you go into it, you break down in things, whether it's a. A business plan or whatever, into its component parts. Then you can see what's working and what's not working. And I had to change the mind of the athletes that I was working with, especially pro athletes, to slow themselves down in order to speed up. And that was a massive paradox back then. Like, what do you mean I have to slow down to speed up? Everybody should just go skate faster. And guys were out there and coaches blowing whistles and, you know, whipping these guys into shape. And I'm like, let's just slow this down for a second. Let's see what's working and what's not working and make those subtle changes. So that's what quantum means to me. And over the years, whether it was hockey players, figure skaters, athletes, golfers, think about trajectory. The smallest shift in a hip movement can actually change the trajectory of where the ball ends up. So when we understand movement and the quantum level of how important the details are, it kind of led, you know, it leads you to understanding that we are really in charge as humans, as athletes, as to where we are in control of how strong we get, how fast we get, and the results that we actually want.
- [07:05]
Francie
So there is a Japanese way of operating which is called the kaizen, Kaizen way, which is really small changes produce big results. It's a Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement. So in other words, don't get comfortable always doing it the same way, always looking and saying, making small adjustments to make change. And it isn't through these big, bold, dramatic moves. It lives in the tiny course corrections. That's the whole point of it. So you set the trajectory, you check it, you adjust it, and you repeat. And again, that's the Kaizen way. And ultimately, that's the whole philosophy of the mind Shui way, where you're making subtle adjustments in the energy flow, how you think, how you view the world, perception and perspective. And ultimately, it's not everyday success doesn't mean that you blow up your whole belief system overnight or for some really grand reinvention. It's about being thoughtful and uncovering and then decluttering or rearranging the clutter so you increase your clarity.
- [08:13]
Patrick O'Neill
Well, I think if you. If you really take a moment and break down the word kaizen, so this was fascinating to me. And then, you know, I had the privilege of working years ago with a colleague, Dan Peacock, and he had coached in Japan. And then over the years I ended up going and coaching in Japan and going to, to tournaments and competitions and world championships. And I carried that with me. And kai means change. And Zen. Kai. Zen means good. So it's change good, change good. And if you look at the caricatures in the Japanese language and you break it down, you're looking at all aspects of life and where change can be good. And I think sometimes in the North American culture, we think change is bad or change is hard. But when you fold in the kaizen, which is change good, it means that there's areas that we can make changes. When you talk about subtle corrections on the flight from Vancouver to Toronto, we're also talking about how that is in a kind of, in a Six Sigma and we haven't really talked about that. But kaizen is also grounded in what we in North America will call Six Sigma, which is excellence. Right. And kaizen quantum or quantum speed, Quantum changes, Quantum leap. When you think about all of those things, it requires change, but you're not.
- [09:33]
Francie
Necessarily blowing things up. That's the problem.
- [09:36]
Patrick O'Neill
That's the difference.
- [09:37]
Francie
That's the difference. So, you know, we use, often use the term clarity equals velocity. But to get to that clarity takes a lot of work and a lot of adjustments. You have to really be mindful, but you can't do it all in one fell swoop. It is a way of being, it's a way of thinking, it's a way of looking at the world. Kaizen is a practice. It's a way of viewing the world. It's a way of viewing how you're doing things. The mind shui way is that it is a way of being. It's a thought process that says I'm looking at things and I'm going to be looking through filters and questioning some of the things that I'm bumping up against. So I'll give you a quick example. You know, the. Some things that showed up for me. So I'm an early morning riser and I love my mornings and I do all that thing, you know. So what's the difference between me getting up at 5am and 5:30? I like my mornings because I want that time for myself. Now I can get up at 5 or I can get up at 5:30. If I, if I say, okay, well, if I've been getting up at 5:30 in the morning and I say 5 or it doesn't matter if you're, if you're used to sleeping until 6:30 and, but you wake up at 6, you know, so let's just take that 30 minute block of time. 30 minutes extrapolated over 365 days translated into hours, literally gives you, I don't know, somewhere short of 2000 hours a year additional time to do something, I don't know, work on yourself, read, write, self exam, go for a walk, whatever it might be that looks after you. For example, saying okay, I spend two hours on my phone scrolling, I don't know, whatever the time, I'm just throwing numbers out there. So take and say I'm going to do that for 10, 15, 20 minutes a day less that reshifts the trajectory and gives your brain an extra 20 minutes or 10 minutes a day where you are being more present or our thought process of the negative self talk we have. What if we actually start to say I'm going to pay attention to my negative self talk. I'm a loser, I'm not smart enough, I can never pull that off. He's so much better than me, whatever that critical self talk is. And you say no, my commitment is, I'm going to recognize it and I'm going to stop it. It's a lot of hours.
- [11:57]
Patrick O'Neill
Think about that for a second. Is that, you know, I don't think, you know, people, they've done studies on their deathbed, you know, they don't sit there and go, geez, I wish I would have worked more, you know, but they do say I wish I would have had more time with my family or with myself or in nature or something. And you look about that half an hour, I'm, I'm really guilty of it. I wake up, you know, around 6:30 when you kind of are starting your workout and stuff. I wake up, I do my meditation. By the time the dogs jump on the bed, it's seven. By the time I roll out of bed for my first coffee at 7:15, you know, I'm wondering if I, you know, it's true, like is that just a habit? Is that just a way of being that is limiting even what I could potentially create in a day, a hundred percent.
- [12:42]
Francie
Well it is. And, and then you have to look at it and go, if I'm not where I want to be in my life, okay, it doesn't mean my whole life sucks. It just means if I'm not there and I have this perspective of why I'm not there, okay, then you have to say, okay, well if I change my perspective around something, that will shift my perception. And again, 30 minutes turns into a couple thousand hours a year. Well, that's an interesting perspective, isn't it? Like, what could you do with 1800 hours a year of time to work on yourself, to go to the gym, to whatever the case may be. You know, the point of it is, is that, you know, even in my thought process, when we talk about mind shui, it actually reminds us that any shift that we have in perspective actually changes the perception of our reality. So when you bring mind shui together with kaizen, you know, it's not about forcing something. It's not about changing everything all at once. It's about shifting the trajectory consistently and having the awareness, even awareness. By the way, just saying, I'm going to intentionally bring my awareness to my thought process, my negative self talk, uncovering some of my hidden belief systems. That is what creates clarity. And that one small shift can totally shift the trajectory of where you're going. Makes sense.
- [14:17]
Patrick O'Neill
It does. It's so true. And I think about whether it's the athletes or the business people that we've had the privilege of working with is that to bring their awareness to the one small shift, the one small mind shift, the one small shift in perception. You know, when you think about Kaizen, there's so many layers when it comes to business or personal or whatever. And you think about just how easy it is to take a small change and to implement something, you know, and I've done that on the last little while, is that I do something, one or two things differently a day. And even changing how a route that you drive to go somewhere and not being in the rote or in the routine of something can also activate the kaizen or the ability to perceive things differently. And I think that's something really important that we could dig into, you know, going forward. Really kind of loving this conversation.
- [15:17]
Francie
So there's something that I've, you know, so certainly I listen to and I'm forced, not forced. I'm driven to unpack what's going on economically. And I look at a very global macro picture then nationally and as it relates to real estate and business. But let me give you, I was speaking not that long ago at an event and you know, right now parts of Canada are still in a little bit of a boom cycle. We'll speak specifically to Calgary and Edmonton. Now what's interesting about this is in a boom cycle, everybody is a real estate genius. My point of that conversation is that it's emotionally driven. Even if we're like, going, no, I'm not going to be in the motion of it. I'm going to look at the data. Everybody wants to get into real estate when we're in a boom cycle. But here's the thing. Boom cycles don't last forever. We then go into a slump cycle. And the slump can be varying degrees. It doesn't mean it's blowing up, but it is actually the slump cycle. Where the best opportunities in real estate, and in some regards, business are, is in those slump cycles. It's where the best deals are had. It's where you have room to breathe in terms of getting deals done. You can create opportunities in the world of real estate, you can help people because they got challenges, they got shit blown up in their life. You can be the solution. In a boom cycle, everybody's got the best property and everybody's got the highest price, and you're getting more rent than you can imagine, and cash flow is awesome. And everybody thinks that boom cycle is going to last forever. JG and I talked about that on a recent show, on a recent podcast where everybody thinks the boom cycle is going to last forever, and everybody thinks the slump cycle is going to. And you're wrong about both. But the point of it is that where do the greatest opportunities live? And in a boom cycle, everybody's a genius and there's lots of energy and everybody's making money and blah, blah, blah. In a slump cycle, all you're hearing is the stories and the bad news of the mistakes that were made in the boom cycle, right? So then everybody curls up in the fetal position, hides in their basement waiting for this economy to change and the housing market to blow up. And the most savvy investors are actually. They're all in. So what's the point of all this? Is that in that talk, so many people went, wow, you know, that's. You don't think about that. You think the boom cycle is going to last forever. The sump cycle is going to last forever. That's. They're both wrong. They're not. Neither of them are going to last forever. Where do the greatest opportunities live? But emotionally, psychologically, in a slump cycle, it's scary. It takes courage. It takes planning. It takes preparation.
- [18:22]
Patrick O'Neill
It takes.
- [18:23]
Francie
That's the shift of perspective. The most successful real estate investors I know understand that these cycles, and they plan for the cycle. They still buy in a boom cycle, but they buy differently. They have a different strategy. And then in a slump cycle, they actually look forward to it because it gives them the opportunity to get deals done. So that's a shift in perspective and perception. So where was I going with that? Small changes of shift of our perspective will help us to grow and to be better for it. And real estate just happens to be, that's the shift of perspective is just one example.
- [19:05]
Patrick O'Neill
If you try and plant your garden in the middle of winter, that's not really smart. So like real estate or gardening or athletics, you know, there's a, in, in the world of Olympics, the four year cycle, you're not winning Olympics in year one of a quadrennial. Like you're planting seeds, you're, you're developing, you're learning, you're working on your resilience, you're working on your mindset. And as you get closer to the result, or to the boom, for example, or to the Games, then you're ready to do that. And I think that's really part of the, the mind shui way is that at being responsible and aware of what's the mindset you need to be in when you're entering each stage of the process of the season. I remember, you know, thinking about, you know, in real estate, the most powerful time to invest in real estate is, you know, 10 years ago. But the next power, most powerful time is like today, but based on today's current conditions. Same thing with sports, same thing with business. Like, where are you at today? And bring it down to the smallest possible component. And that's the quantumness of it. Right?
- [20:15]
Francie
So there's, you know, so the point of that example is that, you know, it even comes back to the fundamental what can we control? What can't we control? You know, the universe unfolds the way the universe unfolds. What can we control? We can only control how we respond to whatever conditions are laid out in front of us. So right now, as we look at what's going on economically, as we're speaking right now, Iran and Israel are going at it and the US is probably going to jump in. The next thing you know, we're into arguably a World War three. That's going to change the dynamics of a lot of things. Now we can't control any of that. Is it unnerving? 100%. But our job is to say, how do we respond to it? And it doesn't mean that we have to blow up our life. It means that we have to pay attention and look through a different lens. So in other words, change our perspective so that we can say, shift the Perception of what is happening so that we can, in these kind of cycles, there's always opportunities. And part of that opportunity is to manage our energy around it so that we aren't living in the world of anxiety or being shut down. We are actually looking at this particular cycle, this season, if you will, and saying, what seeds can we be planting? What could we be doing? That's a shift of perspective and then perception. And that's the point of really what I'm trying to get across here is that these small correction doesn't mean you have to do anything dramatic. Dramatic. I mean, there were some people who did some pretty dramatic things through Covid. They left the country. They, you know, they bought, you know, property in Costa Rica and they moved there because they just wanted out. Those are big, bold moves. Now, I'm not saying that's right or wrong. What I'm saying is, is that those are big, bold moves, but they don't have to be that dramatic. You and I made a number of decisions over the past four or five years that we looked at. They were just small decisions, but they had a long term effect because it shifted the trajectory of what it is that we're doing and how we're doing it. Even this podcast, it was, I, you know, that is in June. So is it three years ago or four years ago? What episode? I've lost track. I think this might be our fourth.
- [22:21]
Patrick O'Neill
I think it's our fourth year because we're coming up. Cheryl said that I think in early August we're going to hit 200 episodes.
- [22:27]
Francie
Well, do the math on that. Yeah, that's four years. Four years of doing this podcast. Now that little shift, that decision to expand on the Everyday Millionaire for us, you and I, to do what we love to do and talk and try and figure shit out. And we're on. And none of this is about any of our audience. This is all about us trying to.
- [22:52]
Patrick O'Neill
Figure our own stuff out.
- [22:55]
Francie
So that's just the way it is. But look what that turned into. That now has turned into, you know, a book over the course of the next year. It's turned into some program. Two books, yes. It's turned into the Mind Shui Way and some programs that we're launching. I'm about to launch the Lyft newsletter, a weekly newsletter that is coming to you vis a vis the Everyday Millionaire. And ultimately it is a shift in what we wanted and the journey we want to go on in this particular phase of our life, which is supporting people in their own self discovery of Getting out of their own way of being the best versions of themselves to make these kind of small adjustments to clear the clutter of their mind. The feng shui for the mind. That's really what we kind of came up with and came to. And so I'm excited about this part of it. But those are little, small changes that are all of a sudden turning out to be far bigger.
- [23:53]
Patrick O'Neill
Well, that's how it happens. Right. Like you, we. We think that we have to make these big, grandiose gestures and movements. And what happens sometimes is that we can't follow up or we just can't figure out how to maintain it or. Or keep it going. But when you make small adjustments and then you see what, you know, what we have to do to correct that course correction. Oh, that gave me feedback. This isn't going to work. It's harder sometimes to do it this way because there's no ego involved. You actually have to take responsibility for the small adjustment and then take a look at the result and then make an adjustment based on that result. And for me, those are the course corrections, whether it's sailing or flying or business or skating. When I think about the journey that I've taken hockey players on or figure skaters or golfers, and knowing that when they look back at their career, if it wasn't that small change at one point, they wouldn't have been there. And you always say something really cool, and I think we talked about it last time, is that there's really no accident. Like, where we are is where we are, and we didn't screw up so bad.
- [24:58]
Francie
The proof of that is, is that we're here.
- [25:00]
Patrick O'Neill
Yeah.
- [25:02]
Francie
It is just the way it is. Right.
- [25:04]
Patrick O'Neill
You think about as a high performer, that's a. That's a tough one, too, because there's. I call that the champions paradox, is that, yes, you can have gigantic, enormous, big, hairy, audacious goals, but at the same time, these small shifts and moment, whether it's from nutrition to sleep, to health, to mindset, to relational equity, to taking care of yourself, like, all those small things add up, and I think that's. I don't ever want to step over that. And I think about, you know, the. The impact that we can have and the impact that we're having, and we don't even know. It's like the Brian Pullis event. Brian and Nellie and Kyle and Brittany Pullis. Like, we had no idea 10, 15, 20 years ago that we were going to be invited to an event where they were going to be announcing the Fact that they just hit a billion dollars of assets under management and that 20 years ago we had an impact.
- [25:54]
Francie
Yeah, yeah. 1.3 billion, by the way. So it is. And it's, you know, it's no different. It's. When I launched the Mindset Matters podcast eight years ago, soon to be nine.
- [26:03]
Patrick O'Neill
Years ago, Everyday Millionaire.
- [26:05]
Francie
What did I say?
- [26:06]
Patrick O'Neill
Mindset Matters. This one's only four years old.
- [26:09]
Francie
Yeah, four years old. But eight years ago, I did the Everyday Millionaire and like, literally millions of downloads now. And so it's crazy. And so who'd have thought it? And that wasn't a big change. I mean, you know where the big change was? The stick to itness. As I've done a lot of research on podcasts over the years, you start to realize that for the Everyday Millionaire now in the top 10% in North America, top 10, top 100 in the U.S. top 10 at times in Canada, but often top 20 podcasts. Yeah, I know, it's crazy. And so it was the stick to itness. Because what I learned is that there's like 5 million podcasts out there, and like, most of them only last six months, and then a bunch of them last a year, and then they go away after 18 months. I just kept talking and kept interviewing.
- [27:03]
Patrick O'Neill
I know, right? Because we're not smart enough to give up.
- [27:06]
Francie
My inbox, and I'm not kidding about this, is that my inbox is. There isn't a day goes by that there isn't a publicist or a publisher or somebody reaching out going, hey, I've got this really cool guest for you. And you know what's. And it's really broken into the U.S. 95% of my guests are American. And that's where the podcast is really big gone crazy, is in the US.
- [27:33]
Stephanie Hanlon
In a really cool way.
- [27:34]
Francie
And I've met some amazing people. And if we ever decide that we're going to travel the world, we got lots of places to go and lots of people places to stay. What am I going on about? My point is, let's go back to what the topic of this conversation is. These little changes have a big impact because you change the trajectory. You don't need to blow shit up, get out of bed 20 minutes earlier, half an hour earlier, or whatever the story is, or quit scrolling or what is the. Even in how you treat yourself in your inner dialogue makes a difference. Being mindful about how you communicate with your significant other, which some days I feel like I'm not being mindful at all with you. You're Very patient with me. So thank you for that. But even with our kids we talked about in the last podcast is what is the impact we're having on our children? And a lot of that comes from stories that we tell ourselves that we then just recycle. And the next thing you know, they just take on exactly the same traits that we have, which may not be good traits. You know, we maybe need to put in some corrections, some small corrections, change the trajectory. That's the point of that conversation.
- [28:45]
Patrick O'Neill
Yeah. And bring. And bring the awareness and the. And the gentleness and the kindness and the empathy to. Huh. Maybe I didn't do that. Right? Can I have that sentence back? Can I redo that sentence? You know, and have some humor and have. You know, for me, I just know that when you realize that you just. Everybody's just doing the best that they can, whether it's parents or teachers or coaches. And the shift that I made back in the day, when I heard that, I realized that people are just doing the best they know how. I don't think they're doing the best they can. And what. I'm.
- [29:20]
Francie
Brilliant. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I love that. So. So I think I've heard you say that before. They're doing the best they know how. They're not doing the best that they can.
- [29:30]
Patrick O'Neill
Exactly. And that's where I shifted out of my.
- [29:33]
Francie
Good quote. That's a good quote. Is that your quote? I think you should own that. That's brilliant. Because I was actually. I was actually having that thought, and then you spit that out, but you said it better than I was thinking it, so good for you. You're reading my mind.
- [29:47]
Patrick O'Neill
Good job.
- [29:48]
Francie
Okay, here's the question of the day. We all think we're doing the best that we can. We're not. We're doing the best we know how. We're definitely.
- [29:58]
Patrick O'Neill
This is a limiting belief.
- [30:01]
Stephanie Hanlon
Yes.
- [30:01]
Francie
We're not doing the best that we can. I think we're gonna leave it on that. Good job.
- [30:07]
Patrick O'Neill
Thanks, babe. That was fun.
- [30:10]
Stephanie Hanlon
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening. If you found value in the podcast.
- [30:15]
Francie
Please take the time to rate and review and share with others.
- [30:19]
Stephanie Hanlon
Share with your friends, as it is.
- [30:21]
Francie
My goal to always improve and to.
- [30:23]
Stephanie Hanlon
Provide the highest value for you, the listener. If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions you'd like answered, please email me@ceoraincanada.com that's C E O R E I-nc.com.
- [30:40]
Francie
I look forward to hearing from you.
- [30:41]
Stephanie Hanlon
And until next time, Patrick O.