The FREAKIN' FIVE!!!

Have you ever been doing something really important, but you were distracted and didn't have the experience you had hoped?  Yeah, me too...

You’ve got the training. You’ve got the experience. You’ve got the tools, the contacts, the plan.

And yet...Some days you stall. Some days you drift. Some days you flat-out don’t execute.

Why?

Join Dave for some PRODUCTIVE talk about:

• The Freakin’ Five - The Real Productivity Killers
• How the Freakin’ Five Show Up
• Why the Freakin’ Five Are So Common
• What the Freakin’ Five Do to Your Productivity
• How O’TALKS Attack the Freakin’ Five
• 5 Ways to Reduce the Freakin’ Five's Impact on Your Day

You don’t need to become someone else...you just need to get out of your own way.

Because when the Freakin’ Five step aside: Your preparation shows up, your talent shows up, and your energy shows up.

And suddenly...You’re not just surviving the day - You’re taking its lunch money.

Giddyup!!!

Email David@Otalks.com or OWD@Otalks.com for comments, questions, or ideas for content on an upcoming O'talkin' with Dave podcast.  Otalks.com

Check out OtalksOfficial on Instagram and TikTok

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to O'Talkin with Dave. Coming to you from his fortress in Sin City. Put your hands together for the pastor of positivity whose glass is always at least half full. Here's Dave.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Hey, how y'all doing? I hope you're great. I am Top Shelf and ready to go today. I've really I thought about going back to some foundational stuff today. When you look at it, what I'm going to talk about today is really it's my pitch. It's what I do. It's when I have I'll call them clients. That's a little arrogant for me. When I go to help people, it's around this topic and it's how I present myself. Because organizations, and this can be organizationally or individually. It can be as a worker, as a parent, as a child, as a student, goodness, as a retired person. Any situation at home, work, and play, most of the time you've got the training, you've got the experience, you've got or are obtaining the expertise. You got all the tools, you got the plan. You got the contacts, you got the friends, you have everything you need. And on paper, you should be wildly successful, wildly productive. Kind of a person who walks into the day and goodness, just wrestles it to the ground and takes its launch money. Sound a little bullyy. Sorry about that. But still, you grab it by the horn and start yanking. And yet, some days you still stall. Or you're adrift. Some days you just flat out can't get it done. Or you don't get it done. Can't, hey, not with that attitude, but you don't get it done. Why? It's not your skill. It's what I call the freaking five. The freaking five have reduced more prodigies to rubble. These dynamos turned them into just average or below average. Now you can still be successful, but if you learn to master and dominate the freaking five, the degree of your success will grow exponentially. So what am I talking about? What are you talking about, Dave? The freaking five. And I say that to be provocative, but it's you can also replace a word there, and that's how much these five things are enemies. And I'm going to go to each one of them, but I'll hit them for you. Overthinking, fear of failure or judgment, lack of clear direction, emotional drag. That would be the SWDs, stress, worry, and distraction.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Woo!

SPEAKER_01 3:14

That's a huge one. And then just negative self-talk, overthinking, fear of failure, lack of direction, emotional drag, and negative self-talk. That's the freaking five, man. Sometimes they're not loud. They definitely don't announce themselves, they just creep in. And then they quietly take over the driver's seat of your day, of your thought patterns, of your energy and enthusiasm. But you still think you're steering. So this is it. And there's don't just take my word for it. There's tons of studies out here. We've talked about the one who showed that we have over 6,000 thoughts per day and 80% of them are negative. Ouch! That's because we're wired that way. Don't blame yourself. That's just how we're wired as humans. You know, we detect danger, detect threats, detect whatever. Excuse me. Also, American Psychological Association shows that chronic stress directly reduces focus, memory, and decision-making ability. Ouch! Freaking five creates stress. And if you don't learn to deal with it productively, that stress becomes chronic. And that's just how you're wired. And you know how I feel about multitasking. People close to me, I love it when they bring it up. I don't multitask. Or they'll say, I can multitask, and I'm very productive. Yeah, all right, let's talk about it. And usually they back away. I can't believe this has become so controversial. But see, multitasking, what that does and how it amplifies the freaking five, it forces a lack of clarity. It forces distraction. It reduces productivity by 40%. I love it. I'm going to go someplace sometime and they're going to have that on a shirt or a sign because people repeat that line with me. You know what happens when you multitask? You burn the beans. Yeah. That's in my mantra from my mom. She'd burn the beans when she multitasked. I didn't care they were green beans. I didn't like them anyway. However, when you look at all of this, an analogy is you don't have a horsepower problem. You've got your parking brake on. You can get there, but it's gonna be it's gonna be more of a battle than it should be, and it's probably gonna smell up the place. Yeah. So how do the freaking five? I said they don't really announce themselves or come in with guns ablazing. So how do they show up? Let's talk about it at home, work, and play. Okay? So let's take home first. So you're physically there, but mentally somewhere else. Oh, please. I mean, it can be it can be Calgon take me away, or it could be I'm at a kid's ball game, but I'm thinking about what's due tomorrow, or I'm thinking about what's going on over here, or what's next, or my goodness, it's supposed to rain tomorrow, and I got to cut the grass, or whatever. Mentally, you're somewhere else. That's freaking five. Or you overanalyze a conversation. Now, I would never be guilty of this, and I know I know uh wives, girlfriends, they would never overanalyze something, a conversation. What did he mean by that? Huh? He said this, but I don't think that's what he means. I don't like the way he said it. It's not what he said, it's the way he said it, or the look on his face. Huh, what else is going on here? You're doing that during the conversation. It's freaking fine. Or you carry, this is all the time. Too prevalent, I'll say it's not all the time, but you bring the boardroom into the bedroom, you bring the conference room into the living room, you know, you bring a sales call to breakfast. Gets in the way. You're not present, you're not productive, and sometimes productivity is just being present. A great parent, fully capable, with all the best of intentions, is distracted, maybe short-tempered, or checked out because of some emotional SWD going on. It's tough. I wouldn't want to be judged when I'm not at my best. Definitely wouldn't want to be judged at my worst. My parenting skills, my kids are grown, about to be 36 and 33. Can you believe that? A man of my unadvanced years, having adult children, doing adult things. Yeah. I wouldn't. My parenting is not over. It's changed. But I made a lot of mistakes. So controlling the freaking five won't eliminate your mistakes, but it will make you more productive and more present, and you'll have less regret. My whole catalog talks about that. All right, so that's enough about home. Let's go to work. Let's go to work. All right, at work you'll find them slip in when you plan, but you don't execute. You plan, you prepare, you get it going. Oh, you're ready. Oh, now it's the go time. Oh, but you don't execute. What is that? It's the freaking five. Or you're ready. You're ready to go. You've thought it through. You put the time in, but you start second guessing some decisions you've made. Now it's good to recap, but most of the time it's for reassurance. But if you're second guessing all the time, something's up there. Or you avoid that one thing, that one call, that one visit, that one meeting that really matters. Oh, it's the big one. And you just push it off or you procrastinate or you avoid it altogether. You ghost them. Top-tier corporate people, whether it's salesmen, sales managers, what saleswomen, what salespeople to be politically correct, sales folks, they have the skills. I've seen top-level people fail. They miss deadlines, they miss goals. Because they hesitate just long enough to lose their momentum. Freaking five, man. Freaking five. Let's talk about play. Let's talk about me time. The freaking five meander into your me time. That's good, that's a good, that'd be a good title for a memoir, meandering into my me time. But you'll find that you can't relax. Oh man, I've been looking for this for a long time. You're on the beach, but numbers going through your head. You're on the golf course and you can't get something out of your mind. You just can't relax. And then you overthink it. You overthink your performance. No matter what. Now I'm not talking about performance anxiety, but it could be. I love doing this. This has been a source of relaxation for me, or a source of release, or a source of oh, just contentment. And now, oh, I'm having to think about my backswing. I'm overthinking this next shot. Ah, there's those clouds on the horizon gonna rain on my vacation. You're overthinking it. You can't enjoy it. And that turns enjoyment of your me time into evaluation. And that's not what me time is for. A book by the pool and no clock? Woo! I love it. If I can't enjoy it, all right, it's the freaking five, man. Like a scratch golfer who can't find the fairway. Not because his skill is gone, but because they're thinking through every swing or their mind is on something else. Yeah. So, you've already got what you need. It's there. To go back, to repeat myself. You've got everything you need through the course of your life. It's just a matter of recall and application. You don't need another seminar. You don't need more sales training, although I can provide it. You don't need another book. You don't need another TED talk. You don't need another system. You don't need, you don't need a lot of things that you're going to seek for the answer. You just need more interference removal. You need some clarity. That white noise. All these voices in your head. And ha ha, trust me, I have them. You gotta you gotta find a way for some clarity and remove the background noise. Noise canceling headphones on a plane are fantastic. So much is going on, so much crazy stuff. Sometimes I just want to relax. Sometimes I need to work on something for when I land. You need some freaking five noise canceling headphones. F F N C H. That's what you need. I should, yeah. Because the freaking five, it doesn't mean you're broken. Everybody has it to some degree at different times. It just means you're, hey, you're real. You're living, man. Don't beat yourself up. You're gonna have it. You always have a degree of it. You just want it to be a light case. Because sometimes it helps you. But we're gonna talk about why why is it so common? Why does everybody have it? Why is it normal? We're wired for survival, not success. That's why 80% of our thoughts are negative. Your brain is built to spot problems, not celebrate progress. The caveman in the cave. All right, they need fire. Oh, fire burns. Fire burns up wood. We need more wood. We can't let the fire go out. Fire also draws animals. Oh. It scares some animals. Animals eat people. Animals eat pets. Animals eat children. Oh, goodness. I gotta watch out for the animals. What kind of animals? It's just constant. I gotta have food. I gotta go kill the animal now. I don't only have to save myself, I have to kill the animal to feed the family. Because we can't live off celery. God knows that's the truth. Okay. We're wired that way. And as we get older, it's the same thing now. Bills, traffic, gas mileage, gas prices, the news, social media. Ah. So that's the way we're wired for survival, not success. That is a gateway for the freaking five. Also, we don't train the mind like we train skills. I've got a lot on this. You can tell your mind where to go. What you think about is directing the mind. We'll practice the presentation, but we don't practice our thinking. I got that PowerPoint down. But my mind wanders during the PowerPoint. Oh, I've got to focus on training my thinking. Hey, the mind follows. Keep it busy. We also carry the past into the present. The weeds. I know a guy wrote a book on weeds. We carry that into yesterday and to today. Unresolved issues, they don't disappear. They relocate. Ah, there you go. You move to every town and ah, your problems followed you. You know why? Because you're there. We bring that into today. Bring our past into our present. They're weeds. They'll always be there. Just catch them before they start damaging the plant. Also, we overcommit. We just overload ourselves. We do. Too many priorities. Means you have no priorities. If your to-do list is just a repetition of yesterday, ah, my to-do list. List of things to do today. Yes. Huh. Looks like the same list from yesterday. I didn't get to it. Why not? Because we say yes too much. We overload. We need a to-done list. And then we normalize distraction. Yes, especially now. Me, I do, we all do it. Constant input has become the default. I got to have something going. Oh my goodness. Look at any screen on a news or sports channel. You've got what they're saying, and you've got at the bottom the topic, and then you've got a scroll going across the bottom of all the scores going on or updated highlights of goodness, a cricket game in Bali. And then across the top, you've got forecast. On the side, you've got a mock fantasy football pick. And on the left side, I don't even what is going on? And then while we're looking at all of that, we're scrolling, and oh, the input. We gotta have it going on. Music going in the background. Oh, I hate that song. Oh, play yacht rock. And then my constant battle with Ursula or Alexa or whatever her name is, she just starts talking for no reason. That's normal. No wonder the freaking five is taking root in our heads. And what does that do to your product productivity? Let's see, that's my game. Your decision making is slower because you don't have all the information and you got too many choices. So many choices. It almost forces multitasking. And multitasking, I'm not gonna preach. It kills focus. And sometimes you need to focus on the task at hand at home, work, and play. And then what you find is your energy is drained before you even get started. Oh my goodness. It's constant. Even driving in the car, you've got all these options, you got all these things going on. And no, you say you're focused, but it's everything from this, your ears and your eyes and your coffee and your nose. Man, what was that? I'm oh, I think I'll get some in and out. Then you go through, and then uh, it's crazy. And by the time you get to where you're going, oh, I'm exhausted. I can't be here for my customer. I can't be here for my boss. I'm distracted with my kids. How can I swing a golf club right now? Oh, my goodness. I may give up and just start playing pickleball. No, it's not that bad. So you're drained before you start. And it causes you to avoid or procrastinate on high impact decisions or high impact actions that will get you there because you're tired, you're distracted, you're unsure. Yeah. The freaking five man, they'll keep you busy and it feels like it's productive, but you're not as effective. You can still win, don't get me wrong, but the degree of success is tempered. And then you'll end the day exhausted with a lot of meaningful things that didn't move forward. And then tomorrow you get up and look at your to-do list, and it's you're defeated because you didn't get to it yesterday. How in the world am I going to get to it today? Freaking five, man. So my whole O talk thing, I'm not going to make this about me, but I was paralyzed by the freaking five to the point where I was sick. I was I was, I guess by the world standards, I was successful, but no. Migraines, ulcers, mound of work to do, two small children. And then I figured it out. It's about reducing stress, worry, and distraction. The SWDs. It's about getting to a good place mentally today. Tomorrow's tomorrow. Get there today. And then teaching that recall and application. That's it. Because it's there. You can't do it with a crazy mind. You have to be able to stop and listen for the recall and then focus for the application. Because your once your mind is clear, the ability shows up. All that training, all those seminars, all those books, all the wise words from my grandparents, all the things you know shows up. And it is glorious. It's glorious. So let's talk about five ways to reduce the freaking fives of impact. Starting today. Now first of all, you gotta simplify your day. What's three priorities? What's one priority? Pick three. Any more than three, that's too many. Everything else is noise. Those three can be home, work, and play. All work. Mix it up any way you want. Pick three. Everything else is noise. Noise. Number two, don't wait. Immediate action. Movement. Movement reduces or eliminates worry. It also reduces or eliminates overthinking. Which is one of the freaking five. You know what? Start before you're ready. How about that? Ooh, uncomfortable, Dave. Alert, alert, alert. No. Get going. Start before you're ready. If you're 80% sure, that's great. If you're 50% sure, hey, you'll find right or left turn. So many times. I'll start a trip or start driving somewhere. And on the way, don't hound me. On the way, I'll just poke in the address. I always do that because traffic patterns and everything else. Yeah, I know how to get there, but I'm going to look at this. A lot of times I'm on the way to the edge of the subdivision, and I haven't thought about where I'm going to turn, but as I'm going, I'll plug it in, and it may take me left or right depending on traffic patterns. I'm already on the way. I'm going to go, and when I get there, I'll seek the guidance. Sometimes that's what you need to do because you need to leave. If I have to map everything out before I leave, I may be on my phone at the getting a cup of coffee and scrolling to look at the different things before I get out there and then somebody comes up or I get a phone call. No, go. Sometimes go before you're ready, before you're 100% confident, before you're comfortable. If you wait till you're ready all the time, you're going to hurt productivity. And you might not go. And what does that lead to? Stagnation. Okay? Simplify your day. One to three things. Take immediate action. Go. Move. Number three, clear your mental clutter. Woo! So much mental clutter. That's easy to say, Dave. Clear your mental clutter. Yeah. Part of it is what's worked for me. Write it down. Now your penmanship matters at this point. Type it out. Whatever. Write it down. Get it out of your head and onto paper. That's why I have a written to-do list. If today's important, I'm going to write down the important things. I've got one for today. When I leave here, I got four places to go and specific things to do at those four places. Yeah. My son's coming to town. I got to get ready. I've got a list of things to do before he gets here. I can't wait. But I got to get this stuff done. If I just sit around and get all excited, oh, that's going to be great.

unknown 24:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

There's going to be nothing in the refrigerator. The place is going to be a mess. And I'm just floating around on vibes. I'll reduce the productivity of our time together, which one of the main things we're going to do together is have a good time. Have some good food. Have some good drink. And get stuff done. But you've got to plan ahead to do that. Remove the mental clutter. Write it down. What's important? Control your inputs. Limit negativity, please. You know who they are. Limit distractions and unnecessary noise. That negativity, a lot of times, and we'll get to it, it's coming from you. Limit that. Garbage in. You put it in there, it's going to stay. You are what you think. If you're thinking negative, if you're miserable, it's because you're thinking about miserable things. You're focusing on the bad. You can control that. Control those inputs. Protect your focus like it is the most precious thing you have because your focus leads you to the most precious thing you have and the most precious thing you want to have. Focus. Control your inputs. Too much. I turn my phone off now. I'll just turn it off. I'm a little concerned because what if somebody or my kids or somebody needs me? That's tough. But I've learned. And they know this about me. So they know it'll be a little off. But that's the only thing I can turn my phone off now. I've limited my social media to a little bit in the morning and maybe a check every now and then, a little bit at night. Control your inputs. And then talk to yourself like a coach. I talk to myself all the time. When I pray, oh my goodness. I know I'm not going to get too religious here, but Jesus is just shaking his head. Like, who do they think he thinks he is? But talk to yourself. Like a coach. I can't, not with that attitude. I won't. Of course you won't. Whether you think you're wrong or think you're right. You're right. What's the next move? Okay. What do I do now? And think about what you do now. Huh, that happened. Huh. What's next? Because there is a next. Focus. Direct your thinking instead of reacting to your thoughts. You own it. That's huge. All of these things. Address the freaking five and reduce their impact on today. It's so important. It's so important. Let me go back and hit them. And here's how you reduce them. The freaking five. Drives me crazy. Overthinking. Do you do that? Sometimes. When? Where? On certain occasions I know I overthink. Okay. Alright. You know that, so let's focus on it. Fear of failure and judgment. Failure at what? What are you afraid to fail? Who's gonna judge you? It's good to know that stuff. Because it affects you. It affects your productivity, affects your enjoyment. Lack of clear direction. You're going so many different ways. What are you doing today? Overall, yeah, but where are you going today? What's important today? Stress, worry, and distraction, that's all in one, but it's talking about your emotional drag. What I'm stressed about, what am I worried about? What am I distracted about? It can be good stuff. My goodness, a week before I'm going on vacation or going somewhere with the kids, I am a shambles. I know that. And then negative self-talk. These are the freaking five. Oh, it reduces people to that are prepared for just to rubble. It does. And everybody has it. So it's how do we address it? And I'll go back over those again. Simplify your day. Simplify it. What's important? Everything else is noise. Take immediate action. Get going. Don't overthink it. Just go. And things will happen while you go. That mental clutter, clear it. Write things down. Draw you a map, is what that is, and then follow it. Control your inputs. Too much. We over, overdo it. Limit that negativity or distractions or just unnecessary noise. Being quiet and just listening will bring back things. Recall. And then you can decide how to apply it. And then, hey, coach yourself. You can do it, man. You've done this before. You're ready. Let's focus and get it done. We all have the freaking five. But honestly, I believe slight adjustments make all the difference in the world. You're closer than you think to controlling them rather than them controlling you. You don't need to become somebody else. You don't need to, you don't need another seminar. You don't need all these things, these self-improvement things. Some of them may be good. I don't know, but you got what you need. You just need to get out of your own way. Because when the freaking five steps aside, your preparation shows up. Your planning shows up. Your talent shows up. Your energy, your confidence, and it's glorious. And suddenly, you're not just surviving the day. You're taking its lunch money. You are there. And it is fantastic. And I love it, I get to see it pretty often. And I love it. So let me know what you think. Hopefully, this helps. You know you. And really, most of the time, you're in your own way. Tell me what you think. Hit me up. David at Otalks.com, David OTalks.com, or just go to Otalks.com. There's stuff on this. This is an accumulation of probably 50 O Talks because they all get at us. And how do we deal with it? And the emotions of life, of love, of friendship. It's all in there. Yeah. Use it. Use it. Don't let it use you. All right. Thanks for hanging out. Thanks for hanging on. But most of all, thanks for O talking with Dave. Giddy up.