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  • [MUSIC]

  • Why don't we do what we know we want to do? Well, you know,

  • if I ask you to give me a profile of the 'you' you want to create in the future,

  • my guess, you'd give me a wonderful list of adjectives.

  • You'd describe a person who's in shape, who's a nice person...

  • Good with our family, happy, gets things done, productive,

  • rich... Why don't we become this person? Well, if you look at the statistics,

  • at least in the Western world, depression is kind of an all time high.

  • Employee engagement is near an all-time low. Many people are bitter, disaffected,

  • alienated, obese, depressed... Why don't we become the person,

  • that we want to be? Why don't we do what we know we should be doing? Well,

  • I'm going to make a little prediction. I'm the only teacher you've ever met that's

  • collected input from tens of thousands of people that have been to my classes, and

  • I measure do they do what I say and do they get better. Well, you know what?

  • I've got good news. The people that do this stuff, they get better.

  • I've got even better news. People that do nothing?

  • Well, they don't get worse. Years ago, my biggest client was Johnson & Johnson,

  • a wonderful company. I had the privilege of working with their top 2,000 leaders.

  • I helped them develop their Johnson & Johnson standards of leadership.

  • Every leader that went to our program got feedback, and I ask them all to

  • pick something important to work on, to talk to people, to follow up, and

  • we'll measure, did they do it and did they get better? Well, at the end of my class

  • about 98% of the people said, I'm going to do what Marshall just told me.

  • About 98%. A year later, about 70% had done something, and 30%

  • had done absolutely zero, not one minute. Now, I'm not ashamed of these numbers.

  • I'm proud of these numbers. 70% of 2,000 people is 1,400 people getting

  • evaluated by ten coworkers each...14,000 people have a little bit better life.

  • I'm not ashamed of that. I'm proud of that... And

  • I got to interview the people that didn't do anything. I said, Why'd you do nothing?

  • Their answer had nothing to do with ethics, values, integrity.

  • Johnson & Johnson was rated as the most ethical company in the world that year.

  • They are good people. You're good people. Answer had nothing

  • to do with intelligence. They're smart people. You're smart people. The reason

  • people did nothing had to do with a dream. Yes, this is a dream I've had for years,

  • and I'm going to make a prediction. You may have had this same dream...

  • Yes, you may have had this same dream on a recurring basis for years... And this

  • dream is going to describe why in life we all don't do what we know we should.

  • What does that dream sound like? Sounds like this...

  • You know, I'm incredibly busy right now. Given pressures of work, and home, and

  • new technology that follows me everywhere, and emails, and voicemails, and

  • global competition, I feel about as busy as I ever have.

  • Sometimes I feel over committed. I don't tell others this, but every now and

  • again my life feels just a little bit out of control. But, you know,

  • I'm working on some very unique and special challenges right now. And

  • I think the worst of this is going to be over in about four or five months. And

  • after that, I'm going to take two or

  • three weeks, and get organized and spend some time with the family.

  • And I'm going to begin my new, healthy life program. And after that,

  • everything is going to be different. And it will not be crazy anymore.

  • Have you ever had a dream that vaguely resembles this dream?

  • How many years have you been having this dream? Well, I've learned something.

  • There's not going to be any two or three weeks. Sanity is not going to kick in.

  • Why, there's an outside chance, tomorrow's going to be even crazier than today.

  • Let's imagine you're in a job where you've got to

  • make those numbers every quarter. Got to make those numbers.

  • Let's imagine you scored 20% above every target this year, 20% above all targets...

  • Why, what are the odds the big boss is going to come back next year and say,

  • Take a little break... Why, you're working too hard. Let's lower those goals for next

  • year. Is that going to be happening? No. What's going to happen to the next goal?

  • [WHISTLE SOUND] Those goals are going up, and up, and up... Well, it is always going

  • to be crazy out there, and we are always going to be under pressure.

  • The first reason that we don't do what we plan to do,

  • is that we have some dream that tomorrow is going to be different from today.

  • The second reason we don't do what we need to do is called the Planner Bias.

  • The Planner Bias...now what does that mean? The person that's doing the planning

  • is not the same as the person that's doing the executing. See, that person making

  • plans for your life is typically not sleepy, and they're sitting in a room, and

  • they're not working. And they're planning for all these doers to do these good

  • things. Well, they're planning for that doer, don't eat too much, and don't

  • drink too much. And you go work out... They're making all these good plans for

  • the doer. They're not doing the work, they're making the plans. Well,

  • the person doing the work is not the same as that person making the plan.

  • That person doing the work may be tired, hungry, bored...

  • There's a term called depleted. The person doing that work is just out of gas.

  • Well, the planner doesn't count on that,

  • because the planner's not the person doing the work.

  • The person planning the work is very, very different than that person doing the work.

  • That's called the Planner Bias, one of the reasons we don't do what we know we should

  • do. Couple of other reasons. One, it takes longer than we think.

  • We almost always underestimate how much time it takes to get anything done.

  • Two, it's harder than we think.

  • We almost always underestimate the degree of differences. And then finally,

  • this is what I call the High Probability of Low Probability Events... When

  • we make plans for our future, we never plan on a low probability event occurring.

  • You don't plan on having a car wreck, and you don't plan on somebody dying, or

  • you don't plan on somebody getting sick. Why, these are low probability events.

  • You think, Well, it's very unlikely any of those events would occur, and

  • if they do, you think, Well, what are the odds that would have happened?

  • Although the odds on any one low probability event occurring are slim,

  • the odds on some low probability event occurring are incredibly high. Why?

  • There are a million things that could happen. When I coach people,

  • I typically coach them for a year and

  • a half, and I tell them one thing... I can't tell you what crisis you're going

  • to have. I can guarantee you will have a crisis. I've never coached anyone for

  • 18 months that didn't have a crisis, and I don't mean a fake crisis.

  • I mean a real one. Somebody died, somebody got sick. The company got bought,

  • the company got sold. Something always happens. So,

  • in summary, when you're making those plans, realize a few things. One,

  • tomorrow's probably going to be just as crazy as today. And

  • when you make that plan, don't assume that tomorrow's going

  • to be this different world,

  • where everything's going to be easier than today. And number two, realize that you

  • that's making the plan, is not the same as the you that's executing the plan. And

  • realize those people doing the work--they're not living in the same world

  • you're living in right now. It's going to be harder than you think.

  • It's going to take more time than you think. And then finally,

  • realize that no matter how much you want to think about the advance... And how much

  • you think we can control the future... There's always a high probability

  • that some low probability event is going to occur.

  • [MUSIC]

[MUSIC]

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