How To Master Success

Listen to the FULL EPISODE of The Ed Mylett Show 2.0 with just me SOLO speaking directly to you! This week I’m answering a burning question I get asked ALL the time. “How do I MASTER a new skill?” Here’s a secret, there are NO FANCY STRATEGIES or long-winded answers. In fact, achieving MASTERY is exactly the opposite or complicated. You don’t need to be exceptionally talented, smart or anything special to become a NATURAL at anything… I’m an average guy with an average IQ and I’ve STILL been able to MASTER new skills throughout my life and in THIS EPISODE I’m sharing my exact process. I’ll make it easy so you too can keep GROWING and adding NEW EXPERIENCES and JOY to your life! In fact, if you’ve seen me learning how to RIDE A HORSE recently, you’re seeing me trying to master something new in real time. (Check out my stories!) All the candy you desire out of life is A LOT CLOSER THAN YOU THINK, and this week I’m taking you through the process of mastery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

  I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 a.m. to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 P.M. And my third day, 6:00 P.M. to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time too. And you definitely can't afford to waste it. Waiting weeks on a big bank for capital? Your best bet's to work with my friends at Cardiff. They know how to compress time for entrepreneurs. They get your business approved in minutes and funded the very same day. They're America's favorite small business lender, and for good reason.

• 0:45Ed Mylett?

  Over 20 years in business, over 12 billion deployed to small business across America. Stop letting bank delays slow down your momentum. Head to cardiff.co/ed. That's cardiff.co/ed. Cardiff.co. Real growth, fast funding. Cardiff, borrow better.

• 1:06Speaker 01

  This is the Ed Mylett Show.

• 1:10Ed Mylett?

  Welcome back, everybody. I love doing the Max Out Program 2.0. And today, I can't wait to share with you what I call the three steps of mastery. See, there's three stages that you have to go through in order to master something in life. And oftentimes, we quit in the first stage because we don't realize it's just a natural progression to getting good at something. And so, in any pursuit you have, if you want to start a new business, a new career, you want to learn to swim, like right now, I'm picked up the hobby of riding horses. And that's a unique thing to do at 50 years old. And so, I'm addicted to it. But, so it's kind of a new pursuit of mine. So whether you started a new business, or you're in the middle of a business you've got, or you've got people in your business who are newer, or you're trying something new.

• 1:52Ed Mylett?

  It's very easy to beat ourselves up or really not understand that there are three stages of mastery. And, and it's just mandatory. You're gonna go through them. You can't cheat the system. And so, in the three stages of mastery, let me tell you what they are. And then I'll break them down for you. There's the awkward stage at anything you begin to do, the awkward stage. And if you do enough repetitions, you can move to what I call the mechanical stage. And then from the mechanical stage, eventually you move to what I call the natural stage. Everybody looks at you and goes, ah, man, you're incredible. You're a natural. Like whatever you do for a living right now, if you've been doing it for a long time, the first day on your job, I guarantee you, you were awkward. I guarantee you, everything about it was awkward. Where to go, the people's names, what to call things, where to...

• 2:32Ed Mylett?

  All of it was completely awkward, wasn't it? You probably even, a lot of people, their first night at their job, they'll have a nightmare that night. I remember, my first job was, I was a busboy at the Whole Enchilada Restaurant. And I didn't know, my bang job at the Whole Enchilada was, really simple. I cleaned up your table and I brought you your chips and salsa. That's really the whole job. And for some reason, at 17 years old, it freaked me out. Cause I had to walk up to people's tables and say hello, and I'm a super introvert. And I remember going home that first night, I go, I can't do this. It's just too mu... It's too much for me. Chips and salsa? Cleaning up their table. It just overwhelmed me, which is pretty hilarious. And I had a nightmare that night, like a nightmare of the job. Like, everyone wanted new chips. We need more salsa. We need more chips. And he was like,

• 3:17Ed Mylett?

  I gotta, you gotta clean up our table. You live. And I have this horrible nightmare of this very pretty simple job that I had. And so, what I was, I was in the awkward stage of that job. And if you'd have come back about six weeks later, I'd bust a bunch of tables. Now I know where the salsa is. I know where to go in the back and get the chips. I know where they warmed them. I kinda got my little, how are you guys this evening? I'm Eddie. You know, I got my little rap down. It was mechanical. I knew the mechanics of it, but still, I was slower than most. I couldn't carry the drinks and the chips on the plate the right way, but I, you know what I mean? Like, it was mechanical. I knew the mechanics. I know where to clock in and... But he came back a year later, man. I was natural. I'm flipping chips. I'm spinning them on my head. I'm the difference.

• 4:02Ed Mylett?

  You know what I mean? Like the salsa, "Hey, good morning. Good to see you. Good evening. Hey, Mr. Jones, welcome back." I'd seen all the, I was natural. So you walked in there, I was like, "This guy's a natural busboy." Well, the truth is, that's true in everything. Right now, I started to learn to ride horses, right? First day out there, you don't think about these things. I'm like, "What type of horse is it?" I didn't even know the breed. I didn't even know the word. What do you call a female horse? What's a bridle? What's a halter? How do you put a saddle on them? What side do you get on the horse? The left or the right? How do you get off? The reins, are you riding Western or English? I'm like, "I have no idea. I guess Western." I was totally awkward. And people that are horse people, they're just like, it's all natural to them, right? They get on the horse, they ride, they saddle it up. How do you back it up? How do you stop it?

• 4:46Ed Mylett?

  Like, it's crazy, right? But now I've been doing it for like, I don't know, six months. I've ridden quite a bit. And now I'm kind of mechanical. I know how to put the bridle on, I know how to walk it with the halter. I know how to put the bridle on the horse. I know how to put the saddle on. I know where to get on. I know how to ride. And I'm pretty good. But if you watched me and you were really experienced in riding horses, you go, "He kind of gets it. He's mechanical." The mechanical stage is like this. You ever go to like a wedding or you're at a club or something, and the person's got the dance moves down, but they kind of dance to the lyrics and not the beat? You know what I mean? Like, you're like, "The guy's got the moves, but it's just, there's something. He's got the mechanics, but I think he's dancing to the words and not the beat." You know what I mean? That's the mechanical stage.

• 5:31Ed Mylett?

  But eventually you see somebody, they're like, "Oh, they got the rhythm and the beat." That's the natural stage. So the question is, how do you move from awkward to mechanical? You ready? Repetitions and awareness. Repetitions and awareness. So no matter what you do, you got to do more and more reps at it. More and more experience. And as you're getting that experience, being aware of the things that worked and didn't, getting coaching, getting feedback, course correcting.

• 5:59Ed Mylett?

  And improving. Success is not complicated. So no matter what it is you're doing, if you're an athlete and you're listening and you've had to switch positions, you were on the offensive side, now you're on the defensive side. It's not the play in defense isn't for you. It's that you better do a lot of reps. You better have a lot of awareness. You better watch a lot of film. You better do a course correction. So you do it through repetitions, awkward, enough reps and awareness and course corrections, you'll move to mechanical. And then from the mechanical phase, it's the same process. More and more and more repetitions, more and more course correction and awareness until you become natural. And in business, all the money's made at the natural phase. Oftentimes in business, the money is predicated upon your ability to get natural

• 6:43Ed Mylett?

  and your ability to train other people at their jobs or crafts to become natural as well. What's most incredible to me, if I can be candid with you, is there's an art and a science to being successful at anything. And most people love the art, the mindset, the thinking, the thought processes. They love the art form of it. What do I need to think? What do I need to vision? What do I need to dream? Subconscious mind, meditation, blah, blah, blah. Most people don't have a tolerance for the science part. The science part's real simple. It's math. You gotta do more reps. If you're in business, you gotta do more calls, more emails, more appointments, more meetings, more setbacks. You gotta do the reps to move out of that awkward stage.

• 7:26Ed Mylett?

  The awareness, the course correction, now you're mechanical. You want to get from mechanical, if you're in business, you want to get great at business, you want to become the best ever, more reps. More course correction, more awareness, you become natural. You pick up golf. You want to play a great golf game? You better get out on the driving range and hit a bunch of balls and you better have someone videoing you and you better get course correction and have awareness. And if you do enough reps, hit enough balls with enough correction, with enough awareness, you'll become mechanical. When you start playing golf, it's real simple. How do you hold the club? Baseball grip, overlap grip, what's the grip, right? How long should your clubs be? Where's your backswing? What's a swing plane? How do you come through the ball? What's your right hand do? Your left hand, your look? There's a lot to it. You watch someone start to play golf, it's crazy to watch. Isn't it?

• 8:10Ed Mylett?

  But if they do enough reps, they do enough learning, they learn, they get enough coaching and correction. They can become mechanical. Then you watch people play mechanical golf. They got a good golf swing, but it's. Then eventually they become natural and they play their game. If you're gonna play the game, you have to have a tolerance for the repetitions. So one of the reasons that we don't do the reps is we stop is because we don't give ourselves credit for what I call invisible progress. Invisible progress means this. There's such a thing as what I call compound pounding. Compound pounding means basically this. That as you're hitting an object over and over again, and you compound the hitting of that object over time, you break it down. Right? But what most of that progress is invisible. We don't see it.

• 8:49Ed Mylett?

  So as we're in the awkward stage and we're doing the reps, we're making progress, but it's usually not visible to us. Or if we're in the mechanical stage, we're doing the reps, the compound pounding of doing it over and over again is happening. But we can't see the progress. So what most people do is they quit before they get natural at anything. Because there doesn't appear to be physical, visible progress. Most of us wanna see progress to believe it's happening. But the truth is in life, in most things, even in a loving relationship. A lot of the progress is happening invisibly. Certainly true in business. So let me give you the best example of it. I wrote about this in my first book, but. Long time ago, I was at a, I got invited to a birthday party for a young person.

• 9:32Ed Mylett?

  And I didn't really wanna go to it because they were so young and my kids were grown. But I went to the birthday party because it was a friend of mine and they had a pinata for the birthday boy. And so if you all know what a pinata is, it's very interesting, but like basically kids hitting the pinata with a bat, right? And it reminded me of business so much because you get there. What do they do? They blindfold this poor little kid and then spin him around and hand him a bat like a weapon, right? So the kid spun around, he has no idea where he's going, he's just kinda flailing away, can't even find the pinata. That's how most people that start out in business feel, by the way. They're just flailing away, they don't even know where the target is, they're just swinging, right? Just like this little guy and I'm watching him going, there's an analogy here for sure. So finally, there's a course correction.

• 10:13Ed Mylett?

  And an awareness and the dad points the little guy at the pinata even though the blindfold still on so he still can't see it but now he's at least pointed the right direction that's what that awkward phase is like and now he's whaling on the pinata hitting it and hit it and then hitting it and he's getting more and more tired this pinata is not breaking right so finally he goes nah I quit why there was no visible progress so then what they do they take the blindfold off him he goes and plays on the swing set they grab the next little kid it was a little girl same thing they blindfold her she's like a new person in business she's flailing away not even hitting the pinata she doesn't even know where the target is right finally she gets course correction makes an adjustment some awareness and she's whaling on this pinata no candy comes out

• 10:57Ed Mylett?

  there's no progress so she quits you could picture it you've seen this before next little guy gets up he hits it five six ten times he quits next person gets up she quits after about seven kids have hidden this pinata the only person left is the little young little four-year-old little boy and everyone's quit because there was no progress but what was happening was all the reps were happening even though there was no visible progress so all the reps were happening so this little four-year-old gets up they put the blindfold on him spin him around and he takes one swing bam hits the pinata all the candy comes out and all the kids come running from the swing set back and everyone's celebrating

• 11:39Ed Mylett?

  and getting all the candy let me ask you a question who broke the pinata was it the final blow by the four-year-old the one shot or was it the cumulative blows that everybody took hitting the pinata along the way that ended up eventually breaking it down we all know the answer it was the cumulative blows to that pinata the cumulative repetitions that were breaking it down over and over even though you couldn't visibly see the progress and see in life most people will quit in their pursuit of their dream before the candy comes out Because they don't see visible progress. Even though the whole time, compound pounding is happening as you're moving from the awkward

• 12:23Ed Mylett?

  stage, you're doing the reps, you're course correcting, you're aware, now you're in the mechanical stage and you're course correcting and you're aware and you keep hitting the pinata and doing the reps of your life, of your dream. And then the natural stage, most people will quit on their dream before the candy comes out, even though progress is being made. Most people quit one blow away from getting all the candy in life. My recommendation to you is, life is a lot like that pinata. You're making more progress than you think you are. Keep hitting the pinata of your life and know that as you do this, you're moving from stage to stage to stage. And if you do it long enough, the metaphorical candy of whatever that candy is for you, the

• 13:05Ed Mylett?

  money, the success, the award, the recognition, the acknowledgement, the emotion, the relationship, the candy eventually comes out. The question is, will you keep hitting the pinata of your life, doing the reps until the candy's there and will you be there to collect the candy and celebrate? From now on, whatever you're doing, go, this is okay. It's where I'm supposed to be. I've only done 10 of these. Of course, I'm still awkward or I've only done 45 of these. Hey Ed, how many does it matter? How many does it take? It's different for different people. The question is, do you have the determination, the relentlessness, the resiliency to stay long enough to move through all three stages until you get paid? So the question just becomes this, are you determined enough to do the reps? Are you determined enough to do the course correction and have the awareness to move through the different stages?

• 13:49Ed Mylett?

  And my wish for you is that you become natural as soon as possible. The sooner you do the reps, the sooner you do the course corrections, the sooner you have the self-awareness, the sooner you become natural and we're off to the races and having blissful success in our life. So I hope this helped you today. This is the Max Out 2.0. Please share this episode with anybody that you think it would be valuable for. If you need help with any of the stuff that I'm teaching, go to growthday.com/Ed. There's a great app there. My friend Brendan Burchard has, which I think could definitely help you in your life. It's just a recommendation from me. Just want to say God bless you. Please subscribe and share the show. Take care.