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Yo yo yo . Welcome back to the Further your Lifestyle

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podcast conversations on lifestyle passions

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and hustles . My name's Chris , I am your host

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and I'm super excited to be back here having

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the conversation with you Episode

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166 today , and we're

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talking about a topic which has

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really pushed me into some conviction and it's a bit of

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a personal reflection . The concept has

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come from a bit of a personal reflection because I

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was challenged

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by this when I read it myself , and the quote

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is by Jersey Gregorick and

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it says easy choices , hard

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life , hard choices , easy

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life . And the basis of this quote is

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that if we decide to do things which make

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our life seem easy in the short term , we

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will have to make some harder actions later

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in life . And if we make the hard choices in

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the short term , things can be easier

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in the long term . Now , with

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this , I need to give you a bit more context

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and I'll explain it to you right now before we really

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dive into it . But the reality is easy

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choices , hard life . Basically

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, we're talking about instant gratification . We

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choosing the easier path often involves

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seeking immediate pleasure or avoiding

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discomfort , so this might mean like procrastinating

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or unhealthy eating or

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avoiding the challenging tasks the

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consequences of this . It can

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lead to long-term difficulties with poor health

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, financial instability , lack

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of personal or professional growth , and the short-term ease

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results in compounded difficulties over time . And the short-term ease results

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in compounded difficulties over time

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. Where , on the contrary , if we look at hard

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choices , easy life is delayed

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gratification . That's what the main point

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of this whole episode is . When

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we opt into the harder path , it involves making decisions that will be uncomfortable in

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the short term but are super beneficial in the long run , and this

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includes habits like exercising or saving

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money and continuous learning . Run

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. And this includes habits like exercising or saving money and continuous learning . And

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rewards of this are these choices build resilience

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, it improves our health and it enhances our

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skills , and it leads to a more

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fulfilling life or a stable life

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, and the short-term struggle

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results in compounded benefits

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over time . Now , a good example of this is if

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I choose to just not eat junk

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food today , it might mean I

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don't have to go spend three hours in the

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gym to work that off right , whereas

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if you're consistently doing walking as

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well , and where you

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weren't doing any exercise at all , you might be creating

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heart issues . I'm not saying that's what it will do

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, but because you're just doing a small thing , you're making

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the decision . I'm just going to do this consistently over

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a long time , rather than trying to cram it and fix

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yourself up at a very last time or

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at a very last resort when you've

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already sick or something . It's not going to make much of a

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difference . So this is the topic that we're

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going to get into today . It is deep . There's

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going to be a few different ways that we're going to get into this . I

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know it all sounds easy , but hear me out

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, stick around . I think it'll be worth it for you . Let's

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roll the intro . So

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how can we apply all of this to our life ? What

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can we do ? And I know

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, as I said before , all of this can sound a little bit

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easy and what we're about to discuss is probably

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going to sound a little bit cliche and easy , but

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the reality is they're hard To

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put these things into practice , to show up daily

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, to be consistent . It's hard work , and

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that's what we're going to be talking about when

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we apply things in our daily life . Like

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, for instance , if we talk about health , we can choose

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to exercise and eat healthy , and

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this may be hard , but it leads to a longer

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, healthier life . So by doing the

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small thing today gives us the long-term

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like short-term pain for long-term gain

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. That's essentially what we're talking about here . Finances

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If we have a budget , if we learn how to spend

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properly , if we learn how to save properly , if

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we learn how to invest properly and do it on a consistent basis rather than focusing on impulses , it

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does ensure that we have the financial security . The same

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thing applies with our careers . When we take

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on a challenging project and we seek continuous

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improvement , we can advance

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our career , we can advance our personal growth , whereas

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if you delay doing that because you're too scared , you

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won't make the move in the right direction

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in terms of becoming a better version of yourself . This

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also applies with relationships . I'm just giving you some examples

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here of how we can apply it . When

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we put effort into communicating and having a conversation , even if it's a tough conversation or

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a scary conversation , it leads to a stronger and more meaningful connection

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. That's really what we're trying to talk about here

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. What are some of the other things that we can talk about here ? For

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me personally , a good example of this

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is business and

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running . Running I have to train for 21

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weeks to do a 50K ultramarathon

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and those 21 or 22

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weeks . I have to show up , I have

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to do the daily work so that in the

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long run I know that I can do

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the long run Building my business . At the moment I'm

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looking at this from a

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seven-year perspective . I'm not going to be

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successful overnight , but I do need to do daily

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things . I need to show up every day , I need to work and

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get the experience . I need to figure out how

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do we make better profitability

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, how do we grow the business ? How do

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I take on staff ? How do I learn

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to leverage money better

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? How do I learn to benefit

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from cashflow ? How do I learn about payment

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terms ? All these different things . They only come

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from doing these small decisions on a daily

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basis and keeping in system

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, because then things start to snowball

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. In the longer run , things will just work

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better because I've got the experience , we've figured

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it out and we now have

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all that knowledge , power , understanding

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, experience under our belts . It makes

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it a lot easier . So

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, health and fitness I already touched on this a little

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bit . For me , originally

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, before I started losing weight , I

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was doing running , but then the

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running didn't cut it . It was eating all the naughty foods

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, cutting out that junk food on a regular basis

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rather than eating the junk food on a regular

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basis meant I didn't have to do as much in the gym . It

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made it a lot easier . So you'll

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want to find the quick win . I think

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back in the day I remember when they released

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Krispy Kremes . Now , if you're here in Australia , the

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MCG in Melbourne , victoria , is our

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Melbourne cricket ground . It's huge , massive , I think

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they said when

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the first Krispy Kremes opened in Victoria

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. They said to burn

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off the calories of one of those , you would

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have to basically run from where

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that Krispy Kreme shop was to

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the MCG , which was about

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45 kilometers . That's

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how far you had to run to burn off the

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calorie of one donut . Now 45K

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is basically a half marathon . Of

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one donut Now 45K is basically a half marathon . Last time I ran 45 kilometers

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it probably took me five to five and a half hours . Yep , so

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you eat one Krispy Kreme in 30 seconds and

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it's going to take you five and a half hours to burn

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it off . You see my point here Making

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decisions . I'm not saying don't have Krispy Kremes , I'm

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just saying don't have 10 Krispy Kremes , right

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, because if you do , you're going to have to be doing a lot

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of exercise to offset it . And

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it's not about being skinny , it's not about jazz , it's

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just seriously about just keeping yourself healthy

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and fit . Another

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example in career development we pursue further

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education , or when we take on challenging projects

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, or when we take on a new role or

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when we get a promotion . All these things help us

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grow . It's not going to be easy at the start

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. It's going to be rough . It's going to be tough . We're

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going to have to get uncomfortable , we're

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going to have to learn new things . We might have to be humble and maybe we make

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some mistakes and we get a bit embarrassed , but that's part of the career developing progress

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or the process , right ? Is we

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do all these things now , like if you're having to learn how

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to bake , if you're having to learn how to cook , like

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it takes a lot of work to figure it out

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because it's not easy , you don't , you've never done it before

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. But once you've done it 10 times , it's

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like yeah , whatever , it's simple , right , it's

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the same thing . This all same applies

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for financial decisions , relationships . Mental

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resilience is a big one . How do we build

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that mental toughness ? Making the hard decisions

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today , setting

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in the boundaries to remove the things that really do trigger us off , but also

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like the balance of instant and delayed gratification

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. Do we really want this gratification just

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today , or are we wanting a long-term

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gratification over a long period of time , for that

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longer-term happiness ? Looking at

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this , we can think about daily habits . How

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do we apply things in a small means

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per day to keep things consistent

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over a longer period of time ? Which compound which

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will give us better benefits ? Right , it's

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like back in the day they used to say I don't

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know who says it , I don't know if it's proven Do 10,000

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steps a day or do a 30 minute walk . It

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just helps in the long run to keep

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yourself healthy , your heart moving and your

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blood pumping . We need to be thinking

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about our long-term vision . What is your long-term

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vision ? Where do you want to be in 10 years

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? What is that going to look like ? Are you wanting to

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be ? What do you want to be doing with your budget

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? What about your health ? What about your relationships

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? What are you doing today and every

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day for the next 10 years to ensure

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that those things , consistently , will

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be where you want them to be ? There's

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things that we can control and there's things that we can't until

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we get opportunity , until situations

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occur . I know people that have said oh , I want

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to have a business and I want to be a business owner in a couple of

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years . It's okay . What's your business now ? Oh , I

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don't have one . How can you be a business

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owner if you haven't ? How can you have a successful business

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or be operating , have a cafe

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or something , if you don't even have a plan to get

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there ? Figure out what are the steps you've got to do

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and work towards it , and it might mean

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learning , reading , taking

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crash courses , getting help , getting a mentor

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, doing all these little things to get

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us to where we want to be . I've got a list of questions that we

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can ask ourselves . I'm just going to chuck out a few here

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. I'm not going to answer them , it's really just a playback

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to yourself , but if there's something that

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tickles my fancy , I might dive

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into it a bit more . Just going to have a sip of

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coffee , but questions

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we can be asking ourselves . What are some of the easy choices

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we tend to make ? For me it's donuts , man

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, donut , I'm down to have a donut . So those

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little things is what we're talking about . What are some

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of the long-term consequences of these easy choices

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. It's not doing me any benefits , is it ? What

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are some hard choices we've made in the past

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and how have they benefited us ? I think

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learning how to save early and managing my

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money at a younger age has been really beneficial

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for me , but that's an example right . In

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what areas of my life can I start making harder

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choices for better outcomes ? Look , I could

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probably list out 10

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things that I can do better . It's

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hard to do it . I get it . So I think my

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challenge to you is can we find one thing and

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focus on that one thing , get that in

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control and then we move on to that ? How do we

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handle discomfort when faced with hard choices

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? What are some of the strategies we

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can use to make hard choices easy

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to follow through on ? Yeah

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, you've got to think about that as well . It's easy to say , okay

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, I'm not going to do this , but how are you going to handle

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it ? Have a plan . Who are some

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of the people that you can look up

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to or leverage in terms

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of who has gone through this and consistently

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made the hard choices , and what can we

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learn from them ? How can we stay motivated to

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make the hard choices when the easy path is so tempting

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, a hundred percent . You've got to figure this out . You've got

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to have a game plan . What role

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do habits play in making these hard decisions

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for you ? You want to make these things easy for you , right

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? If they can become a habit , just a back

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of your hand nature kind of style . You

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need to figure out that as well . I think this

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is an important one . How can I support others in making

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hard choices for a better life ? Maybe

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it's accountability , maybe it's reaching out with a friend

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. Maybe it's doing what I'm doing here

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and sharing with other peoples and challenging people , keeping

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people honest . I do have a couple of tips that

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I will share with you . I think number one is we

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do need to start small . We can't expect to be going

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in and just changing our lives with all these hard choices

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. When I wanted to lose weight I'm

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talking about 10 years ago

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I went cold turkey . I cut out

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all sugar and I made a really hard decision

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and it was hard . But

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maybe we just need to make some small ones and be consistent

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with it . We do need to set clear goals , right

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? We need to define what are we trying to achieve

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here in the long run and make sure

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we align our choices with those goals

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and also align our values as well . Find

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some accountability I just discussed about that . Find

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someone that can keep you honest or that you

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can keep honest , that can help you get

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through those hard choices , because they're not easy . We

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also need to reflect regularly , like on

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a regular basis , with this , because if

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we're just making like , just trying to

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move forward and we're not actually coming back

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and just regrouping and reflecting and seeing how

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the outcomes have occurred from our choices , we

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might miss opportunities to adjust . So

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do reflect on a regular basis . I

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think the most important one is celebrate

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the successes or the small wins . As

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you do make the progress , as you do get the hard choice

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win , make sure you do have a positive

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outcome from it . Celebrate the positive outcome , reinforce

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it with positivity . Make sure you get

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that gratification from the sense of okay

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, I've done this hard thing . No

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, I don't get to have that other thing that I would like , but

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I am going to celebrate it and I'm going to do this

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to make sure it reinforces my head . Yes

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, I want to do more of this . That is the secret

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here . That will just build

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that momentum very quickly . That's

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what I've got today . Folks , if this resonated with

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you , please do share it with someone . If you've got any questions

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or you want to continue the conversation , you can jump over

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to the socials . You can jump over to the YouTube and

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leave a comment . Let's continue the conversation . I'd

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love to hear from you what are some of the things you're

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doing or how do you handle

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this kind of conversation . It's not

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easy , right ? I

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know we want to be making easy choices , but it creates a hard life . But if

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we can make the hard choices , I guarantee you we will have the easy life . That's it today . Really do appreciate

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you being here . You have a wonderful day . Cheers .