Executive Thinking: How to Master Uncertainty In Life With Dr. Carla Fowler
In today’s fast-paced world, uncertainty is a constant. Navigating life's unknowns can be challenging, whether in personal development or leadership roles. In a recent episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Carla Fowler, MD, PhD, an executive coach and performance scientist, about how to master uncertainty in life and turn challenges into opportunities for growth.
Dr. Fowler shared deep insights from her experience in leadership, medicine, and coaching, emphasizing the importance of mindset, focus, and embracing discomfort. If you’ve ever found yourself overwhelmed by uncertainty or struggling to perform at your best, this episode offers practical strategies to help you move forward confidently.
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1. The 90-90-90 Rule: Getting Started and Staying the Course
One of the core takeaways from our conversation was Dr. Fowler’s 90-90-90 Rule, a simple yet powerful framework for overcoming obstacles and maintaining progress. She explained that 90% of people never start on their goals, and of those who do, another 90% quit too soon. For those who persevere, many plateau, failing to iterate or improve their efforts.
Dr. Fowler’s rule encourages action and persistence, focusing on continual improvement. Starting small—reading a book, having a meaningful conversation, or taking that first run—is vital. She emphasized that most of us don’t need new strategies but need to start and keep going, even through discomfort.
Takeaway: Start where you are and commit to steady progress. Don’t worry about perfection—just get started.
2. Embracing Uncertainty: Why Struggle Drives Growth
One of the most impactful themes of our conversation was embracing uncertainty. Dr. Fowler explained that growth and discomfort are inextricably linked. Just as physical fitness improves through exercise-induced stress, mental and emotional growth often requires facing challenges and navigating uncertainty.
She drew an interesting parallel between life and movies. We often enjoy the suspense when we watch a film, not knowing how the story will unfold. We resist that same uncertainty in real life, even though it’s where the most memorable and meaningful growth happens. Reflecting on your own experiences, you’ll often find that your proudest achievements stem from moments of uncertainty and challenge.
Takeaway: Don’t shy away from uncertainty—it’s where growth happens. Frame challenges as opportunities to build resilience and expand your abilities.
3. The Power of Brutal Focus: Prioritize What Really Matters
Dr. Fowler introduced the concept of brutal focus—the ability to clearly identify and pursue what truly matters while cutting out distractions. As leaders, we often feel pulled in many directions, trying to manage multiple projects and demands. However, this can dilute our efforts and lead to mediocre results.
According to Dr. Fowler, the key to high performance lies in focusing on what will have the most significant impact. She advises leaders to take time to think critically about their priorities and make deliberate decisions about where to direct their energy and resources. This clarity not only helps in executing tasks but also keeps teams motivated and aligned.
Takeaway: Focus on the few things that will move the needle, and don’t be afraid to say no to distractions.
4. Building Mental Fortitude: How Thinking Time Powers Performance
In a world that values action, it’s easy to overlook the importance of thinking time. Dr. Fowler stressed the value of setting aside regular time to think—whether it’s about strategy, goals, or personal reflection. She likened it to retirement savings: small, consistent investments compound over time and lead to big payoffs.
Blocking out time to think improves decision-making and gives you the mental space to innovate and solve complex problems. Instead of reacting to the day's demands, scheduling thinking time allows you to proactively shape your goals and actions.
Takeaway: Schedule a regular time to think. Even an hour a week can dramatically improve your focus, creativity, and long-term success.
5. Cultivating Power: Building Results and Visibility
Finally, Dr. Fowler spoke about the importance of cultivating power regarding results and how others perceive us. She referenced research showing that success often depends as much on visibility as on performance. For leaders, this means delivering excellent results and ensuring those results are seen and recognized by stakeholders.
Dr. Fowler encouraged leaders to showcase their achievements and the work of their teams. Building visibility, whether through internal presentations, client communications, or personal branding, can amplify one's impact and open doors to new opportunities.
Takeaway: Cultivate both your performance and your visibility. Ensure your efforts and results are recognized by the right people.
Conclusion: Relishing the Uncertainty
Dr. Carla Fowler’s insights on performance and uncertainty offer a roadmap for navigating life’s challenges with greater confidence and clarity. Whether you’re looking to improve your leadership, achieve personal goals, or simply feel more comfortable in uncertain situations, the strategies shared in this episode can help you take meaningful steps forward.
By starting where you are, focusing on what matters, and embracing the discomfort of uncertainty, you can master even the most unpredictable challenges life throws your way. And remember—growth happens at the edge of your comfort zone.
Connect with Dr. Carla Fowler
Website: https://www.thaxa.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carla-fowler-md-phd-54092781/
Transcript
Dr. Carla Fowler
(0:00) I have a rule that I call my 90-90-90 rule, which is about helping people get started on things. (0:06) Because again, we often don't need something new, we often just need to get started. (0:11) So the 90-90-90 just tells us, hey, what are the few very simple ways we fail when we're trying to improve our results?
(0:20) The first 90 is that 90 percent of people don't start. (0:23) Second 90 is 90 percent of people who start quit way too soon. (0:27) And the third 90 is of the people who keep going, often they hit a plateau and they just sort of keep doing the same thing over and over again.
(0:35) They don't ever iterate or change up what they're doing to practice or improve.
Julian Hayes II
(0:42) So Carla, I have a question. (0:45) I always like to go back to this is, what made you choose Brown University?
Dr. Carla Fowler
(0:49) Oh, good one. (0:50) I have not thought about that for a while. (0:52) So my dad would joke that I chose Brown University because it was the one place where the weather was sunny when we visited on the college visit.
(1:04) We went to Chicago, like University of Chicago, we went to Tufts, we went to a number of different places. (1:10) And I think the weather was like pretty bad everywhere we went. (1:13) But I think there were a couple of things that made me choose it in actuality.
(1:19) One was that they had a actual engineering school. (1:25) And for many of the sort of smaller liberal arts places, you could do engineering, you just had to major in physics or something like that, or chemistry. (1:32) And I went into university thinking I wanted to be an engineer.
(1:36) So I wanted an actual program that was like devoted to that, that had thought about the curriculum. (1:42) And I did one year of engineering before making a switch, but it still was a really potent way to get like a lot of sort of math and science learning done. (1:54) So that was one reason.
(1:55) And I think the other reason was I went there and the students seemed really happy. (2:00) Like people seemed happy with their choice, they seemed to be enjoying themselves. (2:05) And then the final reason was Brown had a rowing program that you could walk onto, like a division one rowing program that was nationally ranked, and they would take people who had never rowed before.
(2:18) And I was a runner in high school and wanted to play sports in college, probably wasn't quite fast enough. (2:24) Like I could have walked on, but I would have maybe not been quite fast enough. (2:29) And I was like, you mean I can be like row at a championship program, never having done this sport before, and they will train me how to do it?
(2:37) Like I was sold. (2:38) So that is the final reason.
Julian Hayes II
(2:41) That's a very good, like your process was a lot more interesting than mine when I think back to undergrad, right? (2:47) For me, it was really like- What was yours like? (2:49) Well, for me, it was like, am I playing basketball or not?
(2:52) And so I had junior college offers, but I was like, I'm not going to the NBA. (2:57) I'm just right at six foot, a little under, and I'm not quick enough to be a point guard. (3:02) Well, where I was playing at then, you can handle it.
(3:05) I could be a two or three because it's shorter people, but when you get to that level, everyone, I'm short. (3:12) I'm super short compared to most basketball players now.
Dr. Carla Fowler
(3:16) And so- It's really funny hearing you say that, like knowing that you're close to six foot, but yes.
Julian Hayes II
(3:22) And so the next thing was like, okay, I guess I'm going to do SEC school. (3:27) I just, something just said, in the South, it's like SEC. (3:30) And so not going to Vanderbilt.
(3:32) And so there was UT and there we go. (3:36) And I just went, it was just, I didn't really have any other choices. (3:41) I saw out-of-state tuition at Florida.
(3:43) I wanted to go to Florida. (3:44) That was another choice, but then just, it just didn't make sense with the out-of-state tuition compared to the in-state and so on. (3:50) But back to the Roe Inc.
(3:54) I wonder why they offered that for such a good program.
Dr. Carla Fowler
(3:59) Well, some of it I think is related to how scholarships work like in different places. (4:06) So I think in the division that Brown is in, they can't offer sports scholarships. (4:13) They can offer like sort of various work-study programs, but it's not the same as like, maybe like a University of Washington, right?
(4:22) Or an NCAA type program. (4:26) And so, again, I don't know all the ins and outs of this, but also they're drawing on a smaller pool of people. (4:33) So I think Brown was 5,000 undergrad.
(4:37) And so then you think like across the sports, right? (4:41) And they absolutely were recruiting rowers who rowed in high school, who were going to row in the Olympics. (4:49) I mean, we're gonna be candidates for that.
(4:51) And in fact, did. (4:52) So I actually rowed next to people who did like go on to the Olympics. (4:57) Obviously, like I was not as talented as that, but I think for me, one of the things this really represents is that I always wanted to be in really challenging arenas.
(5:08) I think that may be another piece about going to Brown was just the thought that like intellectually, I like was going to be very challenged and be not like competing with, like I didn't go into college thinking this is a competition, but when you are in a group that is going to have a higher level of performance, it forces you to bring more, right? (5:32) If you wanna keep up, if you wanna do that. (5:34) And I think for me, the idea that they were just looking for good athletes for the team.
(5:41) They're like, in fact, we can teach you how to row. (5:43) And I think some of their thoughts were probably, we'd actually prefer you have no bad habits when you arrive and just be willing to work really hard and be really fit. (5:53) We'll teach you how to row with very good form properly.
(5:58) And that if you just show up with that potential, we can do a lot with that. (6:02) And that was how they really ran their program. (6:05) I think rowing also is something that many people don't have access to.
(6:11) Like people who could be good rowers don't have access to in high school. (6:14) So more people have access to other sports like running, soccer, these kinds of things, but you need a body of water and a lot of expensive equipment to actually have a rowing team. (6:25) And so it's just not available everywhere.
(6:27) So I think that's probably the last reason.
Julian Hayes II
(6:30) Now, you mentioned just, it's almost like an incubator for high competition and it forces you to raise your game. (6:39) It sounds like you're a lifelong athlete, but also was it your background growing up in a household as something that has made you just kind of seek out, just always challenging situations and sometimes friendly competition, if you wanna call it that.
Dr. Carla Fowler
(6:56) Yeah, that's an interesting question. (6:58) I know some people grow up with like, my husband, for example, was the youngest of like a bunch of cousins. (7:04) And he will mention like, oh yeah, he was always like running to keep up, trying to compete.
(7:12) I didn't really have that situation. (7:14) I was a middle sibling. (7:18) And what I did have was an appreciation for being forced to take on a challenge and how that made me feel.
(7:27) Like how that built my confidence, how that built my sense of capability. (7:31) So my parents took us backpacking from a very young age. (7:36) So I grew up in the Seattle area and our vacation in the summertime was going into the mountains sometimes for a week or more at a time.
(7:44) So you had to carry all your stuff. (7:45) Your food, your tents, all of it. (7:49) And part of this was because it was what my dad and mom loved to do.
(7:53) They loved that adventure. (7:55) But when you're a five-year-old and you're carrying your backpack and you're hot and sweaty and you're sleeping on the ground and you don't have a choice, right? (8:05) They're not gonna carry you out.
(8:07) So you sort of learn how to like be tough. (8:10) And I think that was the family culture that I grew up with. (8:16) Not I had a very warm, welcoming family environment, but also just this understanding of like you're gonna face some things and you don't always have a choice about it.
(8:26) And it's good to know how to walk yourself out on your own two feet. (8:31) And then I think that was echoed later in my middle school years, which are still pretty early, still when you're really discovering yourself and kind of growing into yourself. (8:41) But I had a teacher who ran this alternative outdoor fitness program and she made us do all sorts of crazy physical challenges, not related to traditional sports.
(8:51) So she did make us run and we biked and that was the curriculum of the program. (8:57) But then on the weekends, she would have us do these crazy endurance challenges. (9:02) So we would go hiking and you would have to go into the mountain lake, even if it was really, really cold water.
(9:09) You had to dunk in like all the way up to your neck. (9:13) And sometimes you had to do that like five times. (9:15) But she also had us walk around Lake Washington in the Seattle area in 24 hours.
(9:21) So that was 55 miles in 24 hours with like 11 and 12 year olds. (9:27) And I don't know, she had us like stilt up major hills in the town where I grew up. (9:34) So more or less, she was just teaching us to both be physically quite fit and to have a tolerance for a certain level of discomfort.
(9:45) But I think maybe more importantly, she taught us mentally how to sort all of the stuff you got to sort in your brain when you're faced with something that's uncertain, that's challenging, that hurts, that doesn't make you feel comfortable. (10:00) How are you gonna finish it? (10:02) And it was a supportive program.
(10:04) So like it was not competitive in the sense like we were expected to encourage each other. (10:11) Everyone was expected to finish. (10:13) So again, not competitive, but very, very challenging.
(10:18) And I think those environments were helpful because they made it safe enough to try and go do the really hard thing because the social environments were quite supportive. (10:31) But also, I mean, none of us wanted to quit. (10:37) I mean, she was a fierce lady.
(10:39) So you figured out how to finish it and that you had to learn for yourself, how do you do that? (10:46) And so those particular elements were very impactful for me.
Julian Hayes II
(10:51) Yeah, and the last thing to go about your background before we kind of get more into the present thing is a lot of the things you just described there in terms of being uncomfortable, uncertainty, a little arduous is medical school, right? (11:04) And the difference between you and me is you actually finished and you didn't leave early like myself. (11:09) And I'm very fascinated.
(11:11) You go from engineering, which ironically, I was an engineer for a week when I first got to college. (11:16) Oh, excellent. (11:17) Yeah, I got to be an engineer for a week and then I saw it and I was like, this is completely no bueno for me.
(11:23) And so, and medical school wasn't the next thing. (11:27) That was like number six on the list in terms of I had no idea what I was doing. (11:32) And so, but yeah, I'm curious, how do you go from engineer to a medical student?
Dr. Carla Fowler
(11:40) Yeah, so as you said, I did a full year of engineering and then over that next summer, I did well at engineering and it definitely was a better fit for me than something like English or history. (11:53) But over that summer, I remember thinking like, I wasn't that excited for the classes I had signed up for the next fall. (12:00) And I worked at a summer camp and I was the first aid person.
(12:04) And I got that job not because I was like, I wanna do medicine, but was because I was like, I just wanna work at this camp. (12:11) I'll take any job you give me. (12:13) So I got to help the nurse out all summer and just help kids with various injuries and things when they would happen or if they got sick.
(12:22) And I realized that I loved learning from the nurses, how you treat this thing, how do you take care of this? (12:28) Why do you do this? (12:28) Why do you do that?
(12:29) And I also just really liked working with people in that way. (12:33) And so by the end of the summer, I realized that where I should direct my sort of science interest was a little more human focused and that medicine would probably be a really good fit for me because again, you have to learn how to do things and how to really apply that knowledge in the real world in ways that clearly help people. (12:52) And that that just sparked kind of more motivation in me.
(12:55) It was a higher interest level than engineering. (12:58) But the good news was that when I came back in the fall and no one in my family is a doctor, so I didn't really know like, oh, all that stuff about applying and how do you do the pre-med requirements. (13:09) So I went back in to talk to an advisor about it and they looked at my sort of all the classes I had taken and he was like, wait, you took all these classes in one year?
(13:18) And I was like, yeah, that's a standard engineering schedule. (13:20) He was like, well, he's like, you're halfway through your pre-med requirements. (13:25) So that was the good news.
(13:26) I got what I got back.
Julian Hayes II
(13:28) Yeah, see, I was a marketing and international business major. (13:33) So I just had a completely different curriculum. (13:35) It was a whole different social network and everything that I decided to do the start of my fourth year.
(13:41) So I had to stay an extra year to cram it all in there. (13:44) And so it was very interesting though, to go from a class where you're just talking about advertising and things like that. (13:50) And then all of a sudden, you're now talking about physics.
(13:52) A business audience is a very different audience compared to a science audience, which I'm sure you know these days as well.
Dr. Carla Fowler
(13:58) Well, it is. (14:00) And Julien, it's really interesting you bring that up because more and more I have come to appreciate in my life. (14:06) So at Brown, they allowed me to focus and take mostly science classes and I had to take very little like English or history or business or anything else, right?
(14:15) But more and more I've come to appreciate how much having that interdisciplinary learning, like having learned something different than just the science and how important that is. (14:25) Like for example, whether you're a scientist or you're in business, like you have to sell your ideas. (14:30) And so the fact that often people can arrive in a field like medicine or science, but haven't gotten any education about some of those things that you got to learn.
(14:42) Actually, it's challenging because it's missing a body of knowledge. (14:46) And so anyways, that's something that I think about when I hear like that you actually got to study some different things, were thinking about some different things, how valuable that is actually.
Julian Hayes II
(14:57) Yeah, it is. (14:58) And I think it can translate even into like having conversations with people because there's pretty much not any, there's really no area or group per se in terms of subject matter that I can't go in and not just be at least knowing what they're talking about. (15:14) Even if I can't go as deep in it, I at least have a working idea in there.
(15:18) And so, but I can have a whole conversation on schooling and all that. (15:22) So I'm gonna avoid that. (15:24) I wanna know the pivotal moment that you decide to leave and to do what you're doing now and how that come about.
Dr. Carla Fowler
(15:32) It's a great question. (15:34) So yeah, I guess just for the audience to fill in some of the middle. (15:38) So I did go to medical school and I actually did a joint degree program.
(15:43) So I got my MD and I also got a PhD. (15:45) So it took me about nine years to finish. (15:48) One of the benefits of that program was that it was a scholarship program.
(15:53) And so I actually got my education paid for. (15:57) And so it took longer, but had a positive financial impact in that way.
Julian Hayes II
(16:03) Absolutely, I needed that.
Dr. Carla Fowler
(16:07) Yeah, and again, I am a little bit of a glutton for punishment, but I looked at that and many people were like, oh, med school is enough. (16:14) I don't need that extra years, but I was like, well, it sounds like it would be useful to understand something about the science if you're going to be treating people medically and vice versa. (16:25) And I might wanna do that anyways, but if they'll pay me for it, that's just even better.
(16:30) So I finished that program, went off to do general surgery as my residency and was doing that at Stanford and then made quite a big pivot towards the end of that year and into what I'm doing now, which is I am an executive coach and coach leaders around performance and their leadership. (16:54) And I use performance science to do that. (16:56) And so again, there was kind of a big moment of shift as I was making that change.
(17:03) And one of the realizations I think that maybe is the theme that's been coming up through our conversation is that I love challenging environments. (17:15) Certainly doing a general surgery residency program was another great example of needing to sort of face something hard and challenging. (17:24) And ultimately during that year, one of the things I had to really think about was like, you're really starting to see what is your career going to look like?
(17:33) I mean, going to medical school is still school and also even getting a PhD, I was working full-time in a lab, so I was being a scientist, but I still had a ton of autonomy over my time, how I organized things. (17:44) And really to get into residency, you get to see the people who are attending surgeons, you get to look ahead at the career path. (17:50) And I think I realized that number one, I had lost like all autonomy of my time.
(17:57) And for someone who loves athletics, who had a fiance at the time, who is now my husband, like there are just a number of things that need time, even just taking care of your health were things that there was not a lot of extra time for. (18:14) And I think the other thing I realized was that I really loved thinking about challenges and how people approach challenges, and that it was possible that was the theme or the thing I was most interested in, more so than like the specialty of medicine. (18:31) Like I could tell I was like, I could be a good surgeon.
(18:34) Like I could do it, I know how to learn things, I can tell this is something I can do, and it was going well. (18:40) But I had to look at it and say, but is that what you want to spend the next 30 years, 40 years doing? (18:47) Or is there a piece of you that's not being fully used in this environment?
(18:52) Is there an interest area that you can't fully pursue? (18:57) And I think the answer to both of those was like, well, yeah. (19:00) So it was a hard decision in the sense of, it's not a popular decision to leave medicine.
(19:06) I mean, everyone is invested a lot in being there. (19:09) And you lose a lot of network and you lose a tribe of sorts when you leave. (19:16) But I thought the decision was pretty clear.
(19:20) And certainly I knew like continuing to invest in some of the hardest part of medical training as sort of a sunk cost wouldn't be the right move at this point. (19:29) And so, yeah, so I made the decision to finish the year, but I let them know I wouldn't be coming back. (19:35) And then I left and said, all right, I think I've had enough school.
(19:40) I'm not going back to school at this point. (19:43) And I think I know what I'm interested in, which is kind of the human art of high performance and the science that informs that. (19:52) And I wanna build a different kind of practice.
(19:54) It's gonna be a practice, but it's not gonna be medical.
Julian Hayes II
(19:57) Yeah, I can fully, fully understand that and resonate with that. (20:03) Before we get into the high performance, I do have one question. (20:07) What's the meaning behind your company's name?
Dr. Carla Fowler
(20:10) Oh, so Thaxa means a task in Latin. (20:14) And I picked it because from a pretty young age, I either intuited or someone taught me that most big things or challenging things are just built from putting together the right series of tasks that might be small and very approachable. (20:32) And so I just found that thought to be very empowering that if you can just break something down enough, you can do really big, impressive things that you don't get there all in one step.
(20:45) And so I think when I was opening a coaching practice, to me, I thought that was one of the roles of a coach was to help people break down challenging goals that they have into what are the most important parts that are gonna help them get there. (20:58) So that's why I picked it.
Julian Hayes II
(21:00) I like that. (21:01) Yeah, I like that. (21:04) When we think about high performance and high performance leadership, there's a lot of angles you can go.
(21:09) There's a lot of different ways and avenues. (21:13) What do you think is, and this may be a hard question to ask because there might be so many, but what do you think is like the most essential principle of high performance leadership that you often see missing or at least not optimal in your clients?
Dr. Carla Fowler
(21:31) You know, this is an interesting question. (21:36) I think one of the fundamental points that I started from with performance, because you're right, it's a very sort of noisy field. (21:44) There's a lot of different ways to approach it.
(21:47) But I think that people come to me and they come in with different kinds of challenges and each person is unique. (21:57) And because I was building a one-on-one coaching practice, I think I understood that it was never going to be one size fits all. (22:05) And so for me, I often said, well, there's usually three different angles of approach.
(22:13) And this is grossly simplifying, but it was never that there was just one principle because I saw the principles acting in concert. (22:21) And so when I think about performance, I'm often thinking about three big areas. (22:28) And this I should specify.
(22:30) When I'm thinking about sort of thought performance versus like athletic performance, which obviously we might pick some different buckets. (22:38) But when I think about the kind of leadership challenges and performance, I think there's often three big areas to look at. (22:47) One is we have to think about strategy or focus.
(22:51) So this idea of saying, do we have clarity on what is most important that you need to lead or get done? (23:00) Often you aren't doing the doing as a leader, like you may have a team who's doing it. (23:03) But the point is, what are the most important things that we want to get done?
(23:08) And conversely, what are all the things we're not going to do because they would dilute our efforts? (23:14) But that's like a first big bucket. (23:16) And I think a second bucket that you can look at is, there are some people who are strategic geniuses, but we also need to be executing, right?
(23:26) You have to be able to execute the right ideas or the right strategies at a sufficient level of quantity and quality. (23:35) They need to be efficient enough and effective enough. (23:40) And then I think the third big bucket that comes into play is, we might know the right things to do, we might be able to execute them well, but we have to be able to sustain that effort.
(23:50) And that often takes some level of mindset or psychology to do that, like confidence to do it, the motivation of the team to do it, the ability to weather the uncertainty of whether or not the thing you're doing is going to work. (24:04) So just in backing up a step, and then we can talk a little bit about what some of the principles I think about are, but that's how I think about performance, particularly in that leadership thought realm. (24:15) If I added in a fourth category, our physiology does matter.
(24:19) And so there are some health things that of course, and I feel like this is definitely an area of your specialty as well, Julian, is like, how do those physical elements impact our leadership as well? (24:31) Because they absolutely do. (24:33) But those are sort of the big buckets that I think about.
(24:37) And I like that because it then says, hey, if someone comes in with a challenge, they're trying to improve their performance, there are at least three really good potent places that we can look and say, what would be helpful here? (24:51) Like, can we attack the problem from this angle? (24:53) And so I like that because you're never like, in the position of saying, there's only one thing we can do here to solve this.
(25:01) So that's just backing up one step. (25:03) That's often how I think about it. (25:04) But I'm happy to talk more specifically about principles within those buckets.
Julian Hayes II
(25:08) Now, is there out of those three, is there one that's more common than the other? (25:14) Do you think?
Dr. Carla Fowler
(25:16) Oh, that is a great question. (25:17) Well, I would say it depends sometimes. (25:21) So there can be trends around where someone is at in their career arc, or their leadership arc.
(25:27) So often, when we are growing as leaders, there's a point where we transition from having been really excellent as a contributor, or an executor, and we're actually moving into that level of leadership. (25:43) And one of the things I can see that happens there is because we are giving up being the person who's executing, and often we're now looking at the team, we have a much more important role around, I would say, that strategy bucket, and that the role of needing to provide clarity and direction and alignment for our team becomes really important. (26:09) So, for example, one of the principles that I think about around strategy is this idea of brutal focus.
(26:17) And because, again, often when we are coming from earlier in our careers, we are rewarded for having tons of energy. (26:27) We don't always have as much expertise, but we are rewarded for doing it all. (26:32) If you can hop and run and do a bunch of things, you are appreciated, you often get promoted.
(26:38) That's a skill set that is noted. (26:40) That being said, once you are leading a team, you have finite resources of their time, and you're trying to make as most impact as possible, then the game shifts, and the game becomes less about doing it all, and becomes much more about how much can you accomplish with the resources you have. (26:59) And based on the fact that not all things you can do are equally impactful, it then makes the argument that we should really spend some time thinking about and being highly selective about where are we going to aim our team's energy?
(27:13) How clear is the team on what the goal is? (27:17) How clear are they on what are the biggest priorities to spend their time on? (27:22) And what is kind of a distraction or extraneous that we're just gonna kinda let it be?
(27:29) And notably, again, principles don't operate in isolation, but this helping your team aim and know how to win is also really important for the team to feel motivated. (27:42) And so that actually goes into that third bucket we talked about. (27:45) How do you motivate a team?
(27:47) How do you create the sort of fertile ground for that? (27:50) And it turns out that this taking time to think about and get clarity so you can communicate clearly to your team becomes really important, being brutally focused about that. (28:02) But not just for the strategy piece of it, turns out it matters for the other buckets as well.
Julian Hayes II
(28:08) Taking time to think, that sounds so simple to just, hey, I just need you to take some time to think. (28:15) But I'm sure you've probably gotten some resistance about just like, I'm so busy, or I have all this going on, or I just don't like to just sit and just think. (28:26) It doesn't seem productive when I can go out and just go do things, right?
(28:31) So I guess how do you start to get the buy-in that, hey, you actually need time to just think and do nothing else, and that is actually doing something, even though you can't physically see it right now?
Dr. Carla Fowler
(28:43) This is such a great question. (28:45) And you're absolutely right, it can seem like a luxury, particularly when you're faced with a long to-do list of things to do. (28:54) And I would say there are a couple of things that get in the way of it, or are the objections.
(29:02) One is just the like, I don't have time. (29:04) But I think the second thing is, we actually are pretty good at making time for the things that we believe matters. (29:12) So I think that's sort of the second piece of this, is being able to understand how that time that you spend thinking actually contributes to your success, because it is not as concrete or tangible as, oh, but if I go do this other thing and check it off my to-do list, I see the impact of that immediately.
(29:32) I think the third challenge is what you brought up about like, I don't like just sitting and sitting, is can we have a good process for thinking where we feel like we know what we're going to do versus just stare at a computer screen when we actually arrive at that time. (29:51) So here's one of the ways that I talk with people about this. (29:56) When we are like, things are moving fast, the world is changing fast, there are a number of things that are uncertain.
(30:04) And certainly, we have to react to many of those, and there are a number of urgent things that will always take our focus. (30:12) And that will pretty much always be the case. (30:15) And, but one of the things I think about is like, well, work's job is to just continue to fill our time.
(30:23) And so the only way we actually get some time to do anything different than that, or to change things, or to navigate, even as things are uncertain, if we only get that, if we actually choose to block or protect some time so that we can think. (30:41) And one of the ways I look at this is saying, yeah, in the moment, it's hard to make that decision. (30:45) So one of the things we can do is take the decision out of that moment, and like automate it.
(30:51) So often a technique I recommend to people is saying, hey, find a time on your calendar. (30:56) It should probably be a time that isn't a really popular meeting time. (31:00) Make sure it's a time that you could somewhat consistently be available.
(31:05) And block it as a recurring meeting with yourself, like weekly, say, maybe you take an hour and you do this. (31:12) And one of the points of doing that is to actually start to protect some time. (31:17) Because for many people, if they look at this week, they don't have the time.
(31:20) But if we proactively block it, that makes it better. (31:24) And the way, the comparison I make for this is the comparison to our retirement savings. (31:31) So anyone who's out there who ever was onboarded into a new role, and often you get a sheet from HR or something where you have to say like, hey, do I want to automatically subtract a certain amount of my salary to put it into the retirement or the 401k plan?
(31:49) And the common best practice advice that finance professionals give is you should always check that box. (31:58) That even if the plan is like, no, I'll just have the money come into my account and then I'll do it manually, that we can always find things to spend that money on. (32:07) And that the success of people who check the box to have it automatically deducted.
(32:11) So you're like, I don't have that money available to spend on things for right now. (32:16) That is money to spend later. (32:18) This is my example.
(32:20) And the thing about thinking time that is similar to that retirement savings is as you know, by putting it into some kind of plan, you not only get the money you put in, but assuming the things continue to sort of rise and grow, you also get the benefit of compound interest on that money. (32:41) And I think of thinking time as a little like your investment in your future self. (32:46) It's like your gift to your future self.
(32:49) And like the retirement savings, it's not just like a savings account. (32:53) I think that when we practice and do the deep thinking, whether it's about where we want to direct our career, what our team needs to be focused on next year, right? (33:04) What are the goals for next year?
(33:06) Even time spent thinking about what the implications of growing technology might be on our business or what we do. (33:13) These kinds of bigger questions that don't get solved in the moment need investment, but they also train our brain for the future even when we have to be reacting in the future to have more to draw upon, more wisdom to draw upon, more self-knowledge to draw upon. (33:32) And so I think that it compounds and there is some magic there when we invest in it in a consistent way.
(33:39) So, but that's how I think about both automating that thinking time, but also the rationale for why we should do it. (33:46) And theoretically, one hour a week, that's probably, I don't know, somewhere between one and what, maybe 3% of someone's week, depending on how many hours a week they work. (34:01) When we think about how much of our salary we should be saving for retirement, it's actually quite a bit less than that, but it doesn't seem like so much.
(34:11) And then we sort of force ourselves to work around that. (34:14) Certainly, sometimes you have to move the time. (34:16) The point is not to be rigid, but to understand why is it an investment in yourself and to have a good mechanism to make sure that there is time blocked.
(34:26) And then sometimes you have to move it, but try to move it, not cancel it. (34:30) So that's how I often think about it.
Julian Hayes II
(34:32) That's a great point there, especially with the retirement connection and just how very small decisions can actually add up over time to become something very large, and why we can't overlook that. (34:45) But I heard on a past interview of yours that you mentioned that struggle, why struggle drives, why does struggle drive growth? (34:55) And I found that very interesting, so I would love to expand on that.
Dr. Carla Fowler
(35:00) Yeah, happy to. (35:03) This goes back to the broader theme of uncertainty, I think, and how challenging it is for us as human beings to face uncertainty. (35:12) And as human beings, our brains were actually built to kind of send up a flag when something felt hard or uncertain.
(35:22) And part of that is because it helped us survive. (35:25) And so it was selected for as a piece of evolution. (35:29) But I think one of the important things about uncertainty that we forget is that being able to be challenged, to feel some stress, to need to sort the challenge, is that not unlike exercise, it is something that helps us realize that we have more abilities than we thought we did.
(35:55) Or to say, well, I now have been exposed to something that I wasn't exposed to before. (36:02) And so the next time I have to face something like that, I will have more tools or ideas or strategies for how to go about it. (36:12) I think one of the interesting things about uncertainty and struggle is that we don't know how the story's going to turn out.
(36:21) And I often think about this like, you know, in one context in our life, that feels really challenging. (36:30) Like when it's us, when we're living it, we're in the middle of it, the stressful thing, the challenging thing, the struggle, it feels like not good. (36:39) But in another context in our life, for example, when you go to a movie, it's something we delight in.
(36:46) That as we're watching the story unfold and maybe the hero or the heroine hits the, you know, the dark night of the soul portion of the storyline. (36:58) At that moment, we don't want someone to come tell us how it turns out. (37:03) Like that's a total spoiler alert that there is something in us that appreciates being in suspense, like not knowing how it's going to turn out.
(37:14) And I think that there is something about that that is true in our lives as well. (37:18) Because again, like I have, I am very fortunate, I have no doubt about whether or not I'm going to eat lunch today. (37:25) But also eating lunch today is not going to be a thing I remember next year.
(37:31) Like I probably won't even remember what I had for lunch like next week. (37:36) It's the things that have uncertainty in them that often are the most memorable. (37:42) Like they imprint ourselves on our brain because they are so important.
(37:47) And so I often, to paint this example for people, I often ask them to reflect back on what is something you are most proud of? (37:56) Something that you really saw yourself grow or that marked a great achievement for yourself. (38:04) And then say, okay, look like six months or a year before that.
(38:08) And what was it like at that point? (38:10) Because we often forget that leading up to things we felt the best about were actually moments of struggle or moments of a lot of uncertainty. (38:20) And so this is one of the ways that I think about this and also how I try to articulate it.
(38:26) Because yeah, in the moment of uncertainty, I'm not saying that you have to love it. (38:32) Very few of us do. (38:34) And yet it represents something very meaningful in terms of our brains needing to figure out how we get through that.
(38:42) Having to learn something new, having to stretch, be at our edge of comfort.
Julian Hayes II
(38:47) Absolutely. (38:48) And I just realized that's two of the core processes when I was looking, when I was just studying you.
Dr. Carla Fowler
(38:54) Relishing uncertainty. (38:55) So we have real focus and trying to like, you don't have to get comfortable with the uncertainty. (39:02) That's why I didn't call it that.
(39:03) But knowing that that uncertainty can represent a big opportunity for you. (39:09) And the more we look at it that way and have a mindset around like, what in this could be working for me? (39:16) Even if it doesn't turn out well, one of the interesting things is there can still be a lot of learning and growth even when we don't get the outcome we want.
(39:25) And I think that is a very nice process-based way to deal with uncertainty as it's happening. (39:34) To relish it and say, I don't know what's gonna happen. (39:39) I hope it turns out well.
(39:40) But how do I play and win even if I lose? (39:46) How do I gain as much learning from this as possible?
Julian Hayes II
(39:49) Yeah. (39:50) And I'm gonna come back to the third one in this process real quick. (39:53) But I was thinking some of the darker sides of success as I sometimes call things.
(39:58) And you have these things when you're pursuing big challenges. (40:01) So pressure, overwhelm, and isolation. (40:04) And I almost think you wonder how...
(40:07) I think that goes along with uncertainty, right? (40:09) In terms of how am I gonna get through this? (40:11) How am I gonna handle that?
(40:13) And a lot of leaders probably have this, I would assume, right? (40:16) And that you talk to, right? (40:18) Because the higher up the operation you go, usually the more responsibilities that you're gonna have.
(40:24) And that can have a lot of pressure attached to it. (40:28) So in this situation, is it still the same process, right? (40:33) Of kind of seeing, relishing that uncertainty, relishing this turbulent moment?
Dr. Carla Fowler
(40:39) Yeah, I think, and some of this goes back to the idea of saying, all right, what are mindsets that are going to help me in this? (40:50) Like often we can't control what the overall situation is. (40:54) And there's a great book on this topic, actually.
(40:57) So I would recommend it. (40:59) It's Kelly McGonigal's book, The Upside of Stress. (41:03) And so you mentioned pressure.
(41:05) And I just think she talks through a lot of great techniques for how we can approach stress, which often comes with the uncertainty or the leadership, right, the pressure. (41:18) How we can actually use that to help us go through it in ways that are fundamentally growth-producing, helpful, and also more connecting versus isolating. (41:33) So for example, often I think of when someone is under pressure and is feeling stressed, one thing to think about is, oh, what is my mindset on this?
(41:45) Like am I looking at this and saying, this is so bad for me? (41:49) And for example, Kelly McGonigal in her book, (41:52) there is good research around how our mindset about stress (41:55) actually has an impact on what is the impact of stress (42:00) on our bodies, so that we have lots of different (42:03) hormonal channels that can be activated (42:06) when our bodies rev up to help us do what we need to do, (42:10) and that some of those help us grow new brain cells, (42:14) like new neurons, and some of those help us (42:17) better connect with other people, like with our team, (42:19) as we are going through that stressful time. (42:22) So again, relish uncertainty, I like this just a way to say, hey, there is something in this that is good for me, and much like exercise, which is uncomfortable when you're doing it, but is good for you.
(42:35) That that can be true about the work pressure as well, but also it can be an opportunity to reach out and connect with other people, so checking in with your team, like versus isolating, and it can also be a moment to say, hey, can I look at this in terms of what I'm learning, versus just being overly focused on the outcome.
Julian Hayes II
(42:57) And the last one of the core processes is cultivate power, and so what do we mean by that?
Dr. Carla Fowler
(43:03) Oh, and this is a great one, and there's two different forms of like, or pieces of performance, and having that power around your performance. (43:16) So the first is, of course, part of performance is like what are the results we're actually producing, and can we increase like the results we're producing over time of the things that we are wanting to do. (43:29) So the first part of this principle is really about your, is focused on yourself, so when you need to be improving at something or learning something entirely new, I think we often overcomplicate it.
(43:47) We often are like, there must be a shortcut to like improve this or do this, and I just need to like, read another book or listen to another podcast or something, and I'll find that magic trick. (43:57) Often I find what we're doing is we wanna like, we feel like there's something we need to know that's new versus actually using a good tool that we already have. (44:08) And so for example, I have a rule that I call my 90-90-90 rule, which is about helping people get started on things, because again, we often don't need something new, we often just need to get started.
(44:21) And so the 90-90-90 just tells us, hey, what are the ways, the few very simple ways we fail when we're trying to improve our results? (44:30) And the first 90 is that 90% of people don't start, second 90 is 90% of the people who start quit way too soon, and the third 90 is of the people who keep going, often they hit a plateau and they just sort of keep doing the same thing over and over again. (44:45) They don't ever iterate or change up what they're doing to practice or improve.
(44:49) And I like this as a model because it is very instructive of what we need to do. (44:55) And so again, often if we're trying to improve, we just need to get started and we need a zero to one. (45:02) So maybe that's, we should read one book on the topic.
(45:06) If you're trying to get better at sales as a leader, for example, read one book, or listen to one hour of podcasts on the topic, or go have lunch with one person who is really good at that thing and figure out, help kind of map out like what's most important to know about it, right? (45:25) That starting does not have to be complex. (45:28) You know, in the athletic realm, it's like, put on your running shoes and like go outside and run.
Julian Hayes II
(45:34) Just go run.
Dr. Carla Fowler
(45:35) For three minutes or one minute, however long you can do it, like that is the start. (45:40) And it doesn't have to be something complicated, it just has to get you started. (45:46) And then again, in terms of keeping going, one of the things I often recommend is like we, that second 90 is really about learning the habit of working on something over time.
(45:58) You don't have to have a perfect process. (46:00) It's actually about learning to make time for it, to devote some time for it over time and to do that consistently. (46:07) And often, if we try to like jump to the third 90 too quickly, then sometimes we just stop in the second 90 because we're trying to like perfect everything and we're like, well, my process isn't that great.
(46:17) I don't have the right running shoes, whatever it is. (46:21) We get a little bit distracted. (46:24) But I feel like getting that zero to one and then getting that like one to 100, that's like first and second 90s, just like get yourself into the process.
(46:34) And then the third process is often like, once you feel really stable and like I'm committed to this over time, maybe that's the point in time when you're like, how did I learn and create the process I'm using now? (46:44) What else could I add? (46:46) Should I read another couple books?
(46:48) Should I talk to some more people? (46:51) And so then you can start to iterate or try some new things. (46:55) But that's, so cultivating power, it takes time, right?
(46:59) When we think about cultivating or growing something, right? (47:02) Like you plant a seed, you have to water it, you have to take care of it. (47:06) That's what it looks like to cultivate that power and that improvement of results for yourself.
(47:12) But the second piece about cultivating power is the other piece about performance. (47:17) So performance by its nature is performative. (47:21) And that means that other people have to see your results.
(47:24) It's not just about whether or not you're producing them. (47:28) There are very few areas where results are so easy to measure that it doesn't matter if people like know a lot about them or not, they're just very notable. (47:40) But in most areas of life, our success is related both to the results we're producing, but also the network's perception of us producing what we're producing.
(47:50) So raising visibility for ourselves is the second piece of cultivating power. (47:57) And there's actually a great book on this as well. (48:00) It's called The Formula and it's by an author, Mlasim Barabasi.
(48:06) And he is a social scientist who wrote about success and was the one who identified that like, yeah, there are very few things where the results are enough, but in most things, the person who was the most successful also cultivated a bunch of visibility for what they were doing. (48:23) And so this is the second thing I think about. (48:26) Sometimes I call it the fourth 90, which is, all right, you started working on it, you've continued, now you're iterating, so your results are improving and improving.
(48:35) The fourth 90 is most people don't think about how might I showcase this to someone? (48:42) Or how could I let someone else know about this, make it more public? (48:50) And so that's the last piece.
(48:52) And as a leader, that can look like a number of different things. (48:55) Sometimes that's like showcasing what your team is doing. (48:58) Sometimes that is needing to raise visibility with your customers, right?
(49:05) Or other stakeholders. (49:07) So it's something we forget about in performance because often it's like, oh, but I gotta produce the results that's the most important thing. (49:15) But actually they're both important pieces.
(49:18) So that's how I often think about that.
Julian Hayes II
(49:21) You mentioned patience a few moments ago and how that's a very key thing when we're striving to get results. (49:30) And this got me thinking about like balancing joy and actually enjoying the moment when you're constantly aiming for higher levels. (49:37) So how do we go about that?
(49:39) Because sometimes we end up moving the goalposts and sometimes we see, and I did like how you mentioned earlier that if you actually go back six months and even 12 months and see and compare it to where you are, but a lot of times you see, I see this destination, at least I think this is the next thing on the list and I'm right here. (50:01) And it's hard for me to just appreciate here when I can clearly see the next thing over here and that's all I can fixate on. (50:07) So how do we go about handling that?
Dr. Carla Fowler
(50:11) Such a good question, Julian. (50:13) And this is, yeah, for high achieving people, this can be common. (50:17) I am definitely guilty of it myself, the moving goalpost phenomenon.
(50:23) One of the pieces of when we think, when we spend some time thinking that I do recommend is sometimes it's very useful to reflect on your progress. (50:33) This is another reason also why it's helpful to have clarity about what your goal was. (50:39) So that, because if we never sort of set a goal, then it's very hard to recognize when we have hit it.
(50:44) But the other thing I like to think about in terms of being an ambitious person, maybe always setting the next goalpost, is this idea, it's sort of a hidden third piece of performance. (51:00) So I love math and science, so please forgive me, I'm gonna be a math nerd for one moment. (51:05) If you think about investment of energy and time into your performance, and this has a lot of parallels to athletics, right?
(51:14) So for example, if you wanna become a very good runner, one of the things you need to do is consistently spend a lot of time running. (51:23) And let's say some kind of endurance runner of some kind, you need to spend time doing it on consecutive days. (51:31) And so you could think of that as like the x-axis, right?
(51:35) How many days did you run? (51:37) Then if you think about the y-axis, that could measure like, well, how intense were those hours, right? (51:47) So if x was like how many hours you put in, and y was like, well, how fast were you running?
(51:53) That's another element of how you can sort of improve your fitness, is both how many hours, but also how intense were those hours. (52:02) And you can start to build like an area under the curve. (52:06) So, and one might say, well, if you wanna get to your highest performance, then what you should really do is max the number of hours and max the intensity, right?
(52:15) And that'll get you there. (52:16) But you and I both know that that can be a dangerous recipe for training, because people burn out, you get injured. (52:25) There's like a lot of different things, maybe other things in your life suffer because you're spending like so much time and energy in that place.
(52:32) And so I like to think about the third axis. (52:35) So this is the z-axis. (52:37) So you've got your x and your y, okay.
(52:39) And now coming right out of the screen, you have a third axis, which is the z-axis. (52:44) And I think of this as your enjoyment of the process. (52:49) And so when people are worried about burnout or are always moving the goalposts, one of the things that I like to talk about is how could we help you enjoy the process more of what you're working towards?
(53:04) And that can be as simple as, you know, like I have to go do this thing that I really don't wanna do at work, but I'm gonna get myself a great coffee before I go do that. (53:15) I mean, it can be as simple as that, but it could also be like, I'm gonna make sure I take a five minute break in between all the leadership meetings that I'm running, because I've learned that even five minutes just outside where I'm not working, I'm not answering emails, just makes me enjoy my day more. (53:32) Again, there can be very surprising things that end up helping you enjoy the process.
(53:39) And I find that that is a piece that matters a lot (53:45) when you're a person who's gonna set multiple goals (53:48) over time and continue to pursue them with vigor, (53:51) that even if we have to back off our intensity a bit, (53:55) if that increases the amount of time (53:57) we're willing to spend doing it (53:58) or the number of days consecutively (54:01) that we will commit to it, (54:04) and if it helps us avoid injury, (54:07) and, you know, so to speak, injury and burnout, (54:10) that ultimately it helps increase our total area (54:16) under the curve in a much better way.
(54:18) So again, that's a question I ask, how could I enjoy this more? (54:24) And again, if you keep moving goalposts, another easy thing you can do is to force a pause and say, I can move on to the next thing, but I have to have at least one day where I like sit and say, good job. (54:38) So that's a simple thing you can do as well.
Julian Hayes II
(54:40) I like that one. (54:41) What does success mean to you?
Dr. Carla Fowler
(54:44) Ooh, that's a tough question. (54:48) Not unlike my life, I have sort of a multi-channel answer to that. (54:54) I think that part of success to me is having clear external sort of measures of like what I'm doing, that it matters, that it is impactful and needed.
(55:07) So certainly when I started my practice 11 years ago, I really wanted to build a successful business. (55:14) I wanted to support myself, have it be financially successful and have some of those concrete outward measures. (55:21) But I think another piece of success to me was I wanted to feel like I was pushing myself and using my full potential over the course of my lifetime.
(55:30) So of course that changes, right? (55:32) Like challenges that used to be challenges aren't hard anymore. (55:36) And so you have to keep saying, where's my next edge of knowledge?
(55:39) How am I growing or changing? (55:42) And am I like making the impact and using my full potential? (55:46) So I think that's another element of success.
(55:51) And then a third piece of success to me was to, and this is actually going back to a little bit of that Z axis that we just talked about. (55:59) I wanted to do those things and to do them in a way that I enjoyed them. (56:03) And I'm not saying that I'm a person who's happy every day or that nothing is tough or uncomfortable, but I wanted the overall arc to be something where I wasn't just gritting it out every day, that I could find moments most days that there was something enjoyable.
(56:24) And sometimes obviously like long stretches of time that are enjoyable. (56:29) So I think that was really like the third piece of that success.
Julian Hayes II
(56:34) I like that one. (56:35) And so the next question here is, how do you take care of your health and wellbeing? (56:40) What are some things that you're doing these days in terms of just a few habits that you do?
Dr. Carla Fowler
(56:46) Yeah, great question. (56:48) So perhaps not surprisingly, I love physical activity and particularly I like doing it outside. (56:56) So every morning I get up pretty early being in Tucson, Arizona, because it's very hot right now.
(57:01) And I try to make sure one of the first things I do is I go outside. (57:05) So sometimes that's walking, running, biking, can be weightlifting, but I try to make sure that I spend some time moving. (57:16) And that's like definitely a fundamental habit I've got.
(57:20) I think another thing I do is I sleep. (57:23) I sleep a lot compared to average. (57:26) And a piece of that is because I can tell that it like resets my brain and my creativity and ability to really be present with clients that I'm working with and gives me good space to deal with challenges that arise and good perspective.
(57:44) So sleep is definitely another one of those things. (57:50) And let's see, I also, I do have like a thinking practice. (57:55) So it doesn't always happen at the same time, but I do make some space to kind of set my perspective at some point during the day.
(58:03) Sometimes I think about topics around performance and just reflect on things or observations. (58:09) But I try to practice the thinking because again, it works. (58:14) And also I know if you're trying to get other people to do something, it's much better if you actually are experiencing it yourself, because it also reveals like, oh yeah, what's the challenge to doing that?
(58:25) And so it helps me work with people so they can overcome that challenge as well. (58:31) And then the last thing, which is newer for me, but is I am trying to build a practice of meditation. (58:37) Again, it's not a particular form of meditation.
(58:40) It's just kind of focusing on breathing for 10 minutes, 15 minutes. (58:48) And of course I have a noisy brain. (58:51) So I just like come back to breathing, focusing on my breath, like sort of just feeling what my body feels like and being present in that moment.
(58:59) So that's the last thing.
Julian Hayes II
(59:02) Yeah, I think we all have that noisy brain, especially those of us in this world that are constantly inundated with so many different ideas and creative and things going through our head. (59:12) And so the last question here is, someone comes up to you at a cafe and they asked you, what are one or three things that I can start doing now to make the rest of this year the best that it can possibly be? (59:28) What would you tell them?
Dr. Carla Fowler
(59:30) Oh, this is good. (59:33) So the first thing that I would tell them is to like go sit down with their calendar and like look ahead at it. (59:48) And I would have them put like, I would have them block an hour.
(59:55) Ideally, if they're up for it, I would say, put a recurring date with yourself one hour a week for the rest of the year. (1:00:02) And then what I would actually have them do is like during that first hour, like their topic is to say, what do I want to accomplish by the end of the year? (1:00:17) And this is the brutal focus exercise.
(1:00:19) It's actually asking yourself, well, what's most important to me? (1:00:23) Like for example, maybe for them, they have some kind of physical health or fitness goals that they might wanna do. (1:00:31) Maybe they have a work goal, right?
(1:00:34) But it's important to actually articulate that clearly. (1:00:38) And we need time to do that. (1:00:40) We need time to think about it.
(1:00:41) And so having some time to say, well, what is a thing? (1:00:46) And we have what, maybe four months left-ish before the end of the year. (1:00:53) And so that's about like, that's about 12 weeks.
(1:01:00) And so, you know, looking at that time and saying, well, like how many days is that? (1:01:05) And one of the things you can even think about is like, well, is there something I might wanna do daily? (1:01:09) How much time could I invest in that thing before the end of the year?
(1:01:14) Like what would that stack up to if I did that five days a week, that thing? (1:01:19) But also sometimes it's not an element like that. (1:01:22) Sometimes it's something that's more of a project.
(1:01:24) Like maybe there's a goal at work that you want to accomplish. (1:01:28) And then I recommend during that first hour, again, you like think about what that goal looks like. (1:01:35) I also recommend asking yourself like, well, what would actually be most impactful towards that?
(1:01:40) Like I can make a list of all the things I could do towards that, but then I always recommend like go through that list, be brutally focused and say, well, what's actually would really move the needle on that and get it started? (1:01:52) So that's the first thing is like, you gotta block some time for yourself and actually think how you wanna direct your time. (1:02:00) Because to really accomplish something before the end of the year, you don't wanna be spreading that over a bunch of different things where you sort of get at the end of the year and you're like, well, these are all okay, but nothing feels really impactful.
(1:02:12) You can move the needle. (1:02:14) And then the second thing then that I would recommend that they do is to take whatever they identified and really map out like what are the first steps on that? (1:02:23) How do I go zero to one on that?
(1:02:25) And then also like what might one to 100 look like? (1:02:30) And because I think it helps us execute when we can actually articulate what are those next steps? (1:02:35) What are those first steps?
(1:02:36) And this is how we sort of link up a little bit of that thinking time and that brutal focus to like, how do you 90, 90, 90 that? (1:02:44) What would that look like through the end of the year? (1:02:46) And you can be realistic about it.
(1:02:48) I think it is much more empowering to hit a goal that you set intentionally than to set something that sounds really inspirational. (1:02:56) And when you tell everyone about it, they're like, oh, that's so great. (1:02:59) And then have it be totally unrealistic.
(1:03:01) So you wanna create something that you can work towards realistically. (1:03:07) And then plan time to get started on it. (1:03:10) Like block that time in your calendar.
(1:03:12) So it's sort of a combo of thinking, planning, and then really setting yourself up to get started on it. (1:03:18) So those would be my recommendations.
Julian Hayes II
(1:03:20) I like that. (1:03:21) It's a perfect way to wrap this awesome, awesome, awesome conversation up. (1:03:25) Thank you so much for joining me.
(1:03:27) Where can listeners keep up with you at or connect with you or even learn more about you?
Dr. Carla Fowler
(1:03:34) So LinkedIn is a great spot to connect, follow along. (1:03:38) I'm always posting just different ideas up there as well as interviews that I do. (1:03:43) And I'm at Carla-Fowler.
(1:03:45) And then for people who are interested in learning more about coaching or just about THAXA, my website's a great resource. (1:03:53) It has a good FAQ, but it also has a media page that has a number of interviews that I've done. (1:03:58) And so if you just wanna listen in, that's a great resource too.
(1:04:02) And that is thaxa.com, T-H-A-X-A.
Julian Hayes II
(1:04:06) Awesome to hear. (1:04:07) And I will have that in the show notes in case people are driving, running, rowing, biking, or any other sort of activity right now. (1:04:14) So you don't have to stop what you're doing.
(1:04:17) And until next time, listeners out there, stay awesome, be limitless. (1:04:20) And as always, go be the CEO of your health and your life. (1:04:23) Peace.
