11 Steps to Win the Day Every Day

“Each day, if you do not make the decision to win, you have automatically made the decision to lose.”

James Whittaker

Welcome back to Win the Day and this is the final episode of 2021!

Whether it’s been a fun year or a tough year for you, remember that the best way to enter the new year is with an idea of what you want to achieve and a bulletproof plan to make it happen.

And that’s what we’re going to give you in this episode — 11 things to think about so you can win the day every day.

For those who have registered for The Day Won Mastermind, we have some very exciting things in store for you — these are things that I’ve never done before that are designed to give you even bigger results faster.

There’s TWO spots left for the Mastermind so, if you’re a business owner and want my help to take your income, influence, and impact to the next level in 2022, click here to learn more.

The quote for this episode is one I put up at every speech that I do:

“Each day, if you do not make the decision to win, you have automatically made the decision to lose.”

I’m so passionate about that quote and how that dictates your daily routine. And our episode today is going to include some of the most powerful moments from the Win the Day show this year. These are the things that have stood out for me and I know will be enormously beneficial for you too.

But, as we go through our 11 lessons, I want you to think about what you’re going to do to put them into action — because that’s the most important thing.

Before we begin, the right bit of inspiration can completely change the trajectory of someone’s life, so if there’s a friend or loved one who needs to hear this episode or could use some help to Win the Day, share it with them right now.

Alright, let’s go through the best moments of the year and give you 11 steps to win the day EVERY day!

1. Understand the science of purpose.

Goal-setting is such an important component of success. Yet, most people have no idea how to properly set goals.

In Episode 61, elite performance psychologist Dr Michael Gervais mentioned the science of purpose and its relationship to goal-setting:

“Let me explain the thing about goals. I'm much more interested in purpose. It's a higher order principle. When purpose is really crisp and clear, goals just become markers on the path.

If you follow the science of purpose, it's not necessarily attainable. It is the groove of which you move through life with, because it's what matters most to you.

Let me just be more clear, the science of purpose has three arms to it. One, nobody can give you purpose, it has to matter to you, and it has to have personal meaning. Second, it needs to be bigger than you. So it's not something that you can accomplish on your own. Third, it's down the road. It's in the future. It's like it's out there.

Those are the mechanisms of purpose. And when you get your purpose, it is far more powerful than goals.”

Make sure you understand the science of purpose and recognize its connection to goal achievement.

2. Be an original voice rather than an annoying echo.

One downside of all the content in the world is that it’s easy for people to duplicate what has been done rather than provide original insights.

And if you’re serious about being recognized as an authority in your industry, you need to become a thought leader rather than a thought follower. There’s a very big difference.

In Episode 52, personal development icon Simon T. Bailey shared the biggest turning point in his life:

“One day I woke up and I decided to be myself. I realized that I had listened to Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Mark Victor Hanson, and Les Brown and all of the greats. And there was a piece of them in me, but you never got to me.

So, one day I had the epiphany, and I said, "You know what, I'm just going to be me. I'm going to be my authentic self and I'm going to show up and tell my story and be in that moment." That's when everything totally shifted.

John Mason, who wrote the book An Enemy Called Average, says, "Most people are born originals, but they die copies." And I was tired of being a copy, or as I said at the National Speakers Association almost 15 years ago when I was blessed with the opportunity to be the opening keynote speaker, I said, "There comes a time when you no longer want to be an annoying echo, but you want to be an original voice."

That was my wake up call to really begin to understand how to be my authentic self.”

So if you’re ready to be a success, be an original voice, and watch how the demand for your expertise increases.

3. See the full journey before you take the first step.

Two avenues have taught me more about life than anything else: first, was making the decision to start my own business; and second, was becoming a parent.

With parenting, I had spent a lot of time around my nephews and nieces so had a pretty good idea of what to expect. But with starting my own business, it was really a trial by fire. And I wish I had been able to see the full journey before making the first step.

Now, that wouldn’t have stopped me from making that step, but it would’ve helped me prepare and put the right boundaries in place so the business could thrive and I could thrive at the same time. Unfortunately I didn’t have those things in place and it deeply affected my mental health.

And I think it’s really important for me to share that with you because, as you learn from some of the guests who come on the show, the stress from starting and managing your own business can lead to significant mental health challenges, trauma, and suicide (¹, ²).

A good way to alleviate that is to understand the real journey of what it’s going to take. Not to get the cheat sheet on how to be a success, but to explore all of the elements: the sacrifices you’ll need to make, the plan to protect your mental health, and how these things will change who you are.

In Episode 59, podcasting legend Ronsley Vaz, who’s overcome some huge entrepreneurial struggles, came on the show and spoke about that in the context of people who want to monetize their passion:

“For someone who wants to monetize your passion for the first time, I want to say, first, that it's possible.

Second, you might have an illusion of how that journey is going to go, and it's not necessarily about bringing you down to earth or any of that stuff. It's about actually looking at what the REAL journey looks like — looking at that journey in the face and going, "Yes, I want to do this." Not, "I want the easy route. Show me the 10 steps to become an entrepreneur."”

When you understand the journey and what’s required, and you say “Yes” to it (rather than blindly going in), you’ll have much more success in your business and you’ll have much more balance and happiness in your personal life, too.

4. Appreciate the gift of beginner’s mind.

A lot of people never make the leap to doing something they want to do because of two reasons: first, they feel like they don’t have the expertise or authority to do it; and, second, they’re worried about what other people are going to say.

But when they concede to those feelings, they’re forgetting a core tenet of success: the most important opinion is how you feel about yourself.

And a consistent theme on the Win the Day podcast is that beginner’s mind leads to creative thinking, so you can create a product or service that’s far more valuable than what others are doing — because you haven’t been corrupted by the industry standard of doing the same thing over and over again.

In Episode 63, Caulipower founder Gail Becker shared her mindset prior to starting her very first business:

“It would have been really easy for someone to talk me out of it. For someone to say, "Are you nuts? You're entering the most competitive part of the grocery store in the most competitive door of the freezer aisle." And if they had, to be honest with you, I probably wouldn't have done it.

Everybody has to do it their way. But for me, I didn't tell anyone what I was doing, I just did it. I didn't tell my friends. And there were maybe five people in my life, my close family, maybe one friend who knew.

And the reason I didn't do that is because I didn't want people to tell me that I couldn't do it. I didn't want people to say how crazy it is. And I love how you articulated it because it really was crazy. Now people say, "Oh my gosh, that was so smart." It was probably the stupidest thing I could've ever done. And thank God I did!

I mean, it was I think in some respects, a little bit of ignorance and a little bit of shelter from all the naysayers in the world. It's not such a bad thing.”

You can hear in Gail’s voice how important that self-belief and beginner’s mind has been in her journey to creating what is now a $100 million business.

Now, of course it’s extremely important to do your due diligence in anything you want to pursue, but if you have a strong belief in the solution you want to create and your ability to deliver that solution, you simply need to focus on action.

Prove through your actions how badly you want it and use the doubts and criticisms from others as fuel to achieve all you want.

5. Only help people who are committed to change.

If you’re interested in making the world a better place — and if you’re listening to the Win the Day podcast, you probably are — there’s a good chance you’ve been excited at the prospect of helping someone who was struggling.

But a big lesson for me over the last 10 years is that sometimes when you try to pull people up, they can end up pulling you down.

In Episode 51, top business coach Yuri Elkaim shared what had been a big lightbulb moment for him:

“That was one of my biggest crises as a health expert was that I wanted to help everyone. It took me a long time to swallow the pill that the people who need it the most very often want it the least. And I was like, "That sucks." But it's the reality.”

Despite the best of intentions, you need to make sure that when you’re interested in helping others, you allocate that time exclusively to those who want change and are committed to the journey. Otherwise you’ll end up frustrated and on the brink of burnout, and they’ll never appreciate the effort you’ve made.

6. Build a subscription model for your business.

From a business perspective, one of the best conversations I’ve ever had was in Episode 58 with Greg Conolly, founder of Trifecta Nutrition.

Within six years, Greg and his sister, Elizabeth, had turned Trifecta into the largest organic meal delivery service in the United States, with more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue.

The foundation to their success was building a scalable business model that brought in consistent revenue for the business and helped their audience get the best result.

This is how Greg explains it:

“We knew the subscription model is how you build a scalable business, because if you don't have a subscription model, you're starting every month from scratch, which sucks. We start every month knowing that we've got more than $10 million worth of revenue coming into the business, so that puts us in a position of stability.

That allows us to hire a huge number of employees, put money into facilities, systems, data, all of the different areas that we invest as a business. And of course, improving the quality of the food, the packaging, all of that type of stuff. We knew right out of the gate, it had to be a subscriber model.

Candidly, that's what's more effective for people as well, they don't want to have to worry about reordering food every week. They just want the box to keep showing up so they can stay consistent on their diet, long-term.”

So if you’re serious about long-term business success, make sure a significant portion of your business revenue comes from subscriptions.

7. Be a leader before you get the title.

The world has become a little entitled, that’s no secret, and people who adopt that mindset complain about why they haven’t been given a leadership position, yet they haven’t demonstrated through their actions that they would excel in a leadership position.

One of the big things I work on with clients is helping redirect the energy that we use to complain about our circumstances and instead focus on what we can do to create the circumstances we want.

Simple mindset shift, exact same amount of energy, and an enormous difference in the results.

In Episode 53, confidence coach Nada Lena shared a ton of incredible stuff with us about confidence, leadership, and personal growth. Here is one of my favorite parts of that conversation:

“I talk about this a lot: personal leadership. You don't need a title to be a leader. Every leadership title I've ever gotten was because I was a leader before I got the title.

When I became an executive, I didn't start as an executive. I walked into that corporation and I was just a normal team member, but I thought like a leader.

I would walk into meetings and raise my hand and say, "Have we ever thought about this? What about this strategy?" Two months later, I was promoted to an executive. Two months. And so it's not about the title, it's just about you making an impact, so how can you make an impact?

Every single person can make that impact even when they're in a big company, you just have to start by raising your hand, and also by understanding your values.

One of my values has always been just to contribute and add value. So even if I was a new team member, that was my value. So in a meeting if I wanted to say something, I would raise my hand and say, "Can I ask you a question? Can we talk about this?" And that initially it makes you a leader. It's all about the mindset.”

So if you want to climb up the ladder quickly in your career, consistently do more than what you’re paid for. Be a leader before you get the title.

8. Develop as much resilience as you can.

If you’ve been listening to the show for a while, you’ll recall how I talk about two specific attributes for long-term success: resourcefulness and resilience. Resourcefulness allows you to get everything you need, and resilience keeps you moving forward when you take hit after hit in pursuit of your bigger goal.

In Episode 57, Byron Dempsey mentioned that the biggest thing young people lack, in his experience, is resilience. The standards of living we enjoy today make it so easy for people to get whatever they want almost instantly: food, communication, entertainment, packages in the mail, even access to money. But that all comes with a cost to our mental health and our future happiness.

To be very clear here, how you respond to adversity when it inevitably strikes is one of the most important things we need to remember.

And the best way to respond appropriately is to build resilience. So how do we build resilience? We make a habit of getting out of comfort zone:

“When you step out of your comfort zone, you've got two choices — you can either push through it or you can step back into it. And most people in life step back into it.”

When you get out of your comfort zone regularly, and you’ve adopted a growth mindset — which means you see the benefit in EVERYTHING that happens to you — you will have developed resilience. And that enables you to, first, stay in the game, and second, modify your approach based on what you’ve learned so you can be even more effective in your career and your relationships.

9. Fill your mind with positive, practical, and powerful content.

You’re listening to this podcast, or watching it on YouTube, so that’s a great start!

One of the most important things you can do if you’re serious about your future is read. There isn’t a single problem you could be faced with that hasn’t been faced by someone else in the history of humanity, and it’s a near certainty that the solution you’re after is readily available for you in a book right now.

You have everything you need to be a success, but the question I want you to ask yourself is “Am I really tapping into all the resources at my disposal?”

Literally every book I’ve read has changed my life, if not through the content than through the ideas that are spawned from the content. So make sure you’re reading books, or listening to audiobooks, on a consistent basis. There’s no excuse to avoid that.

In Episode 54, Jeff Brown shared this:

“When these books were presented to me, as you said before, "when the student is ready, the master will appear", it was just all the stars and planets aligned and I was like, "Gosh, this stuff has been out there all this time and I've not been taking advantage of this!?" As I began diving into these books, I chose books based on where I wanted to be in my career (versus where I was), and skills I wanted to cultivate that I knew would help me in my career, like public speaking.

And I realized, James, that just by doing those things, I was practicing something consistently that most of my colleagues did not. That one habit alone — reading on a regular basis — separated me from most of my peers and got me noticed. The things that I began to implement and try in my job, the things that failed, nobody remembered. But the things that did work, people noticed and that presented to me new opportunities, new experiences, and chances to do things other people weren't getting the chance to do.

I attribute that upward trajectory in the last seven or eight years to the consistent and intentional reading I do. It's singularly responsible for a large part of my success.”

So if you’re serious about getting to the next level in your life, business, and relationships, fill your mind with positive, practical, and powerful content by reading books for at least 20 minutes every day and listening to podcasts like this one.

10. Be yourself every day.

We need to be less focused on what we see on social media (which is simply someone else’s perfect snapshot from an imperfect day), and more focused on who we are and how we show up each day.

In Episode 56, a good mate of mine, Sebastian Terry, shared his incredible journey from tragedy to meaning. The philosophy that he created has helped people all over the world, and given Seb a platform to speak with individuals, associations, and companies about the importance of being your authentic self every day:

“I dare say the secret to actual happiness is just finding out who you are and being that every single day, no matter what the situation — if you're by yourself, if you're with your partner or loved one, friend, social, if you're on a stage.

If you're just yourself, that's happiness. Not whether you've jumped out of a plane naked, or climbed Everest, or done any number of other things, which are all great and needed for the process, but that's not it. Who cares if I've done 100 things!?

Like this sounds weird, but I think about like this. So I'm on stages speaking, and I always think as I look out at the crowd, "They pay you money to speak about a list of..." If an alien came down from wherever he is, and he stands at the back of the room, or floats, and he says to the person next to him, "What's he talking about? Why are all these people listening to him?" And the person goes, "Oh, he's doing the things that he wants."

The alien would go, "What, are you not!? It's not everyone doing that?" It's ridiculous. So we should all just be doing the things, because ultimately it brings us slightly closer to who we are.”

I love that and Seb is spot on. So make sure you’re being authentic in your attitude and actions every day.

11. Recognize the potential in yourself and others.

This one is for the parents. One of the most popular episodes of the Win the Day podcast was Episode 55 with Dr Nicole Beurkens.

As the world’s leading holistic child psychologist, Nicole has a research-based approach to getting the most out of your children’s development — and it’s directly applicable to our own lives, too.

Rather than condemn someone based on what we believe is a big weakness for them, or immediately mask it with a bunch of drugs, let’s dig deeper and uncover what’s really going on:

“Overall, our goal should be understanding the unique strengths and challenges of each child and helping to put together a plan that's going to improve their quality of life, support the family, and move them towards their best potential.

To me, that should be the goal for kids and adults in the realm of what we do in mental health. Not, well, get on a list, wait and have some testing and evaluation done, then get your diagnosis, then wade through a whole list of things that you could go and try to do.

No, we should be getting to know who is this kid really? What is this kid really about? And as much a focus on their strengths and the goodness that they bring to the table, as we focus on the challenges and the symptoms they're exhibiting, and helping parents and kids to really understand that.

I always say to parents, when I do give a label or a diagnosis, before I even do that, I say, it's really important that you know that regardless of what I'm about to tell you and the label and the diagnosis we're going to talk about, your child is still the same amazing, wonderful, beautiful, talented human being they were when you walked into my office today. Giving you a label or a diagnosis, doesn't change any of that.”

If you’re a parent and you haven’t listened to Episode 55 yet, do it right now — it’s an absolute game changer (all links are below).

That’s all for this episode! Leave a comment on the YouTube version of this episode with your favorite takeaway so I know what resonated with you the most. It will take you less than 60 seconds and will help another person win their day.

This brings us to the end ... our final episode of the show for 2021!

As we finish, I just wanted to say a BIG thank you to you for your ongoing support throughout the year. It means the world to me that you’re here, and I hope you’ve gotten a lot of value out of the podcast.

I know it’s been another wild year but, despite all the craziness, it’s important to stay focused on what you can control so you can keep moving forward. Hopefully the Win the Day podcast has helped you do that throughout the year, and it certainly will in 2022 — we’ve got some big episodes lined up.

If you’re enjoying the show, hit the ‘Follow’ button so you can get access to episodes like this one as soon as they’re released. And if there’s a friend or loved one out there who could benefit from this episode, or could use some help to Win the Day, share it with them right now.

Have an amazing Christmas and happy holidays to you and your loved ones.

We’ll see you in a few weeks.

Until then…

Onwards and upwards always,
James Whittaker

Resources / links mentioned:

🍿 YouTube version of this episode.

🎬 Subscribe to exclusive Win the Day videos on our YouTube channel.

🗝️ Apply now for The Day Won Mastermind (strictly limited to 12 people).

🌱 Episode 51 ‘Your Health and Wealth Blueprint with Yuri Elkaim’.

🗺️ Episode 52 ‘How to Find Your Purpose with Simon T. Bailey’.

🧨 Episode 53 ‘How to Unlock Your FULL Potential (and Confidence) with Nada Lena’.

💡 Episode 54 ‘The #1 Habit to Boost Your Intelligence with Jeff Brown’.