EP 040 The Attention Apocalypse: Mindset Habits for Reclaiming Cognitive Clarity

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Your brain, I hate to tell you, has
been hijacked right now as you're

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listening to this, there are probably
about 17 different thoughts competing

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for the same space in your head.

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Your phone just buzzed.

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You're thinking about that
meeting from earlier today.

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You're thinking about the meeting
that's gonna happen tomorrow.

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You're wondering if you remember to
send that damn email and somewhere

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buried beneath all that noise is the
person you're supposed to become.

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But here's what no one
tells you about focus.

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It's about managing your time.

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It's about reclaiming your mind.

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And if you don't take it
back, someone else will.

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Keep using it for free.

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Your success, DNA podcast, your success.

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This is in your DNA.

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What is up?

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What is up?

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What the hell is up?

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My fellow success seekers, welcome back
to another episode of Your success,

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DNA, the podcast for my aspiring
entrepreneurs and nine to five escapees.

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Really, it's for everyone, but we do tend
to focus on those aspiring entrepreneurs.

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Each episode is designed to deliver
some mindset shifts and habit

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upgrades, all with a little dose of
rebellion, helping you break free

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from convention so that you can build
not just a life, but a, a business.

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Aligned with your version of success,
and if you know someone who dreams of

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ditching the grime, but still makes
time for a little self-help, a little

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sprinkle of personal development
in there, you might wanna go ahead

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and forward this episode to them.

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Okay, so today we're diving deep into the
most viable real estate you will ever own.

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It's not property, it's your mental space.

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First, I'm gonna reveal the exact moment
that I discovered that my scattered

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thinking wasn't a personality flaw.

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It was a symptom of living in someone
else's mental ecosystem, and how

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that realization changed everything
about how I approach my days.

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Second, we're gonna break down
the three invisible thieves.

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That are stealing a mental clarity right
now and why traditional focus advice

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actually makes this problem worse by
treating symptoms instead of the source.

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And third, I'm gonna give you the
precise framework that I call the

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mental real estate reclamation.

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Wow.

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A system that doesn't just help you focus
better, but actually expands your capacity

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to think, to create and to become the
person your future self wants you to be.

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Actually, they probably need you
to be, but here's what no one is

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telling you, and, and here's what
no one I think wants to admit.

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You're not distracted.

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You're colonized.

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Well, yeah.

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Let that one sink in for a minute.

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Your mind has become occupied territory.

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You have been so busy trying to
manage the chaos that you forgot

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you used to be the landlord.

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Every notification, every urgent email,
every quick question, every ping, every

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a, I have something from a coworker.

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Those aren't just interruptions.

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They are complete invasions,
and the worst part, you have

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been trained to welcome them.

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Let me, let me tell you what
about the moment that kind of

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made everything click for me.

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I was sitting in my car after another
soul crushing day in corporate America.

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It was, I don't know, it was
about quarter to 7, 6 40 or so.

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I know it wasn't a Wednesday, it
was the middle of the week, and I

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was supposed to be driving home.

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Heck, I was supposed to have been
driving home hours ago, but instead.

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I was just sitting there staring
at the cement wall of the parking

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structure in front of me, basically
staring at nothing but the glass

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on the windshield in front of me.

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My phone was, you know, buzz
going off with notification.

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My brain was cycling through today's
meeting and tomorrow's meetings and next

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week's deadlines, and that project that
was somehow both urgent and meaningless,

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I really felt like I was drowning.

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In my own thoughts, that's when
something strange happened.

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A little memory, uh, percolated
to the top of my mind.

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Back from when I was, gosh,
what was I like 12 years old.

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I was sitting by, by a creek
on the other side of town.

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We lived in this little small
town called Christoph, Germany.

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My dad's second tour over in Europe,
and I remembered how clear my

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thinking used to be, uh, not just
for when I was sitting at that creek.

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There were also this amazing set of woods.

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Uh, across the farm field by our
home and there was this meadow, I

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don't wanna say in the middle of
it, but just wasn't in the middle.

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But you know what I'm saying?

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I remember going and sitting there for
hours and how clearly I could think and

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I could just sit there four hours just.

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Thinking not about tasks, not about
deadlines, not about other people's

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priorities or political agendas,
but just immersed in thinking in

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my own thoughts, and I realized
when was the last time that I had.

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An original thought.

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When was the last time that my mind was
so quiet that I could hear my own voice?

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That's when it hit me.

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I wasn't managing my time poorly.

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Nope.

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I was renting out my mental space to
every single body else out there, and I

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had forgotten that I owned the deed to
the real estate that I was giving away.

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My mind is real estate.

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Your mind is real estate, and right now
you're letting squatters live there.

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Rent free.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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Here's how I took back.

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What's yours?

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Let's call this the mind method, MIND.

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And it's designed to work even
if you are still trapped in

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the corporate chaos right now.

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M, map out your mental territory.

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First, you need to see what's
actually happening inside your head.

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I know sometimes, for some of
you, it's gonna be kind of scary

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to open up the doors and peek
inside for the next three days.

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I want you to do something kind of
radical every time your attention gets

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pulled away from what you are doing.

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I want you to write down what hijacked it.

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Don't judge it.

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Don't edit it, just.

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Track it.

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In doing this, you're gonna
discover some patterns.

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Maybe it's Slack notifications between
two and 4:00 PM Maybe it's your

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brain spinning outta control on the
weekend plans come Thursday afternoon.

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Maybe it's that coworker who just had a
quick question, but they had that quick

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question 17 times every single day.

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This isn't about fixing anything yet.

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This is just about becoming aware
of who's living in your mental

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space without your permission.

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Okay, now I is install mental boundaries.

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So once you know the patterns, you
can begin to create some boundaries.

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You know, gonna set up some
white picket fences, as it were.

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But here's where most people are
gonna get this completely wrong.

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They're gonna try to block
out everything, right?

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How about that?

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Quiet?

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Yeah.

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Sometimes it's a little uncomfortable.

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You're not trying to stop a flood.

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Was a paper towel.

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You just can't do it.

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It just won't, it won't work.

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Not even the tougher picker uppers.

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Okay?

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Instead, you're gonna start
creating designated spaces.

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Think of this, of like, like zoning
laws for your brain zone one.

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Is your deep thinking territory.

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This my friend, is gonna
be your sacred space.

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For me, it's like the first hour of
my day and the last hour before bed.

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No phones, no inputs,
just me and my thoughts.

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This is where I have my best ideas.

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This is where your best
ideas are gonna live for me.

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Another thing is this time I'm having
right now, Sundays right about three

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to four hours, I hop on the microphone
here and I. Empty my brain to you.

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Hopefully you get some value out of it.

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That's my deep thinking territory zone
number two, reactive response area.

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This is where you're gonna handle the
emails and the messages and the other

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people's priorities, but you control
when this zone is open for business.

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You set the the business
hours you could say, and zone

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three is the processing plaza.

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This is where you sort through
the day's inputs and you decide

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what deserves space in your head.

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Here's the key inside this.

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You're not managing distractions.

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You are architecting attention.

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Okay, now that moves us to N. You're
gonna nurture your mental silence.

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And here's what changed everything for me.

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I stopped trying to fill in.

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Every quiet moment, most people
are completely terrified of mental

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silence because that's where they
might actually hear what they

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really think about their life.

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Yeah, it scares them.

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They don't wanna hear that voice.

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Start with five minutes
a day of what I call.

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Productive boredom.

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Yeah.

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Really it's not really boring, but
given what you're probably experiencing

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right now, it might feel boring.

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No phone, no music.

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Not even podcasts.

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Yeah, not even this one.

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Just you in whatever thoughts
bubble to the surface.

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This isn't meditation, this
isn't trying to clear your mind.

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This is just letting it
wander and see where it goes.

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Starting with five minutes.

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And you will be amazed what emerges when
you stop pumping shit into your brain.

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Stop feeding your brain with other
people's content and you start

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listening to your own signal.

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Yeah.

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Very important.

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I guess that's to D, defend
your cognitive sovereignty.

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This is gonna be the hardest part
because it requires saying no to

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people who are used to having unlimited
access to your mental bandwidth.

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Yeah.

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Put up a big hard stop sign.

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You're gonna start treating
interruptions like what?

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They really are requests for
your most valuable resource, your

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time right, and your thoughts,
your mind, your real estate.

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And just like you won't let someone walk
into your house and steal your furniture.

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You don't have to let them walk
into your mind and steal your focus.

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Practice this phrase, I'm
in deep work mode right now.

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Can we schedule time to
discuss this at a proper time?

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You're giving them a reason why you
need to schedule a different time.

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Nothing wrong with that.

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Okay?

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Most people will respect your boundaries
once you've made it clear that they exist.

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What most people don't do is,
one, they don't put up a boundary,

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and two, they don't make it
clear that that boundary exists.

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Okay?

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And speaking of mental clarity and
building habits that support your

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transformation, if you're serious about
claiming not just your focus, but your

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entire approach to personal development,
you need to join the community of

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people who are already doing this.

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With us, sign up for the Unleash
Your Success DNA newsletter.

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It's specifically designed for you
listeners right now, folks just like you.

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If you're listening this
far in, it's for you.

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Each week we dive deeper into mindset
shifts and habit upgrades, and we keep

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throwing at you those doses of rebellion
to help you break free from the convention

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and the mind numbness that's out there so
that you can build a business and a life.

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Aligned with your version of success.

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Doesn't have to be my version, right?

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It's your version.

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And this is not just another
generic self-help newsletter.

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This is your weekly reminder
that you weren't born to rent

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out the space in your mind.

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And you can find the link down in the
show notes, or go ahead and go to your

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success DNA and sign up right there.

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Okay?

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But let's, let's zoom
out for a minute for Ken.

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Why does this matter in the first
place and why does it matter

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beyond feeling less scattered?

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Well.

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You could say we're living through, let's
call it a, uh, an attention apocalypse.

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Maybe it's a little extreme, but
you get what I'm going for here.

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Every app, every platform, every piece
of technology is literally designed

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by teams of neuroscience and behavior
economists whose job is to capture and

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monetize your mental real estate period.

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Hard stop right there.

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That's how they get you.

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And this isn't an accident.

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Your distraction is literally
their business model.

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But here's the bigger paradigm shift.

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The people who learn to protect and
direct their mental energy will become.

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The new elite, not because you're smarter,
but because you'll be the only ones who

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can still think clearly enough to see the
opportunities that others are missing.

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Yeah, because you have regained control
of your own damn attention, it's yours.

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Stop parsing it out.

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While people everywhere are drowning
in digital noise, you'll be one of

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the few people that can sit quietly.

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Here the signal.

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You'll be the one who can
think three moves ahead, four

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moves ahead, five moves ahead.

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Because your mind isn't so consistently
reacting to every single notification,

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every single scroll, every single
TikTok video, whatever it is.

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This is about more than productivity.

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Ladies and gentlemen, this is
literally about cognitive sovereignty.

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This is about becoming
ungovernable in your own head.

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So that said, here's your
Whiskered wisdom for this week.

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Your attention is your autobiography.

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Whatever you consistently focus
on is literally writing the story

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for who you're about to become.

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If your attention is scattered across 17
different priorities that are not yours,

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you're letting other people write your
success story, write your life story, or

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write your failure story, whatever it is.

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But when you.

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Pause and reclaim your mental real estate.

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Something truly profound begins to happen.

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You don't just get more done.

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You become more of yourself.

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You start having thoughts that
are actually your thoughts.

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You're like, wow, I didn't even
know I could think of that.

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You can, you have, you just
haven't been able to hear it.

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You start seeing opportunities
that were always there, but

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they were hidden by the noise.

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They were hidden beneath the noise.

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So here's your specific action for today.

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Go ahead and set that timer for
five minutes right after this

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episode ends, and sit there.

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Quiet, put your phone in and another
room and just think for five minutes.

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Let just let your brain wander.

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We're not talking about
meditating, like I said earlier.

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Don't try to solve anything.

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Don't try to be productive.

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Just notice what thoughts
bubble to the surface when you

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give them the space to do it.

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This isn't meditation.

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This isn't even mindfulness.

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I'm a big fan of mindfulness.

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This is mental real estate reconnaissance.

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Okay?

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That's my military.

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Coming out, you're surveying your
own territory to see what's actually

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there when the squatters leave.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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Are there weeds everywhere?

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Did they trample all of your flowers?

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I guarantee you they did.

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Listen, you've been conditioned
to believe that a busy mind is a

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productive mind, and that my friends
is corporate programming designed to

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keep you reactive instead of creative.

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The truth is your best ideas, your
clearest insights and your most

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authentic self can only emerge
in the space between thoughts.

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You don't need more focus techniques.

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No, no, and I can give you more.

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But that's not what you need.

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You need to remember that
your mind belongs to you, and

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once you start to reclaim it,
everything else becomes possible.

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The world doesn't need another
person who's good at responding

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to other people's priorities.

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That seems to be everyone else's job.

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It needs you thinking your own
thoughts, seeing your own vision.

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And building your own path.

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Your mental real estate is the foundation
of everything you will ever create.

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Whether you wanna create it today
or you wanna create it tomorrow, and

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it's time to evict all those damn
squatters and remember what it feels

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like to be at home in your own head.

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And with that, I'm gonna leave
you as I always do, think

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successfully and take action.

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Kick out those squatters.