00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on episode 603 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Joe Shum from soul patch, hippo success coaching. I want to serve your journey to be the next version of you, to be inspired to become the most authentic. You. Listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast by my friend Scott Mader every day can help you keep the focus that you need. People will have a quick and easy win and turn that into a story of how now all they have to do is repeat that over and over again and everything will come up roses and they don't think about the downside.
00:00:46 They don't think about the difficulties, they don't think about the challenges, so they set it up in a way that it works perfectly as long as everything keeps working, but the minute things don't welcome, and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling and the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others,
00:01:18 and develop your influence so that you can impact the world. In today's episode about investing in others by stewarding your time, I talk with you about looking for excuses and loopholes, why the key is to actually do the work and why. Even if you do find a loophole or a shortcut, it's likely not going to stick. As we talk about stewarding your time, wouldn't it be great if you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long? It turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon
00:02:02 when you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission will come back to support the show.
00:02:07 Just that quick. If you enjoy the show when you are ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon so one of the things that I'm a big proponent of is the idea of working smarter instead of working harder of developing habits and routines and structure that allow you to do things in the most efficient way possible.
00:02:36 But today I want to talk a little bit about one of the dangers that happens sometimes when we think about always striving for efficiency,
00:02:43 always trying to do things the best way possible, and that's the idea of instead of just looking for efficiency,
00:02:53 we began looking for the loophole. We began making excuses how we have to wait until we can get this perfect or make sure that we can do it in the best way possible before we ever even get started or we begin to look for the shortcut.
00:03:12 We begin to look for the loophole the quick way, you know, instead of saving money and investing money and growing wealth slowly and steadily,
00:03:20 we're going to look for the quick big win. Instead of building a business and developing it over time,
00:03:28 we're going to look for the quick and easy way, the magic pill. Instead of spending time and investing to build relationships and connection to other people and find ways to help other people and allow that to develop into a deeper relationship.
00:03:46 We're going to look for the quick and easy way to sort of almost shortcut that or buy our way into that.
00:03:54 You know, there's a big difference in, in growth between being efficient and looking for ways to smooth things out and making excuses and looking for the loophole.
00:04:05 Looking for the shortcut, looking for the quick and easy win, and the truth is in pretty much anything you do,
00:04:13 you can't make it more efficient until you've actually spent some time doing it the hard way. It's hard to streamline something that you've never actually done.
00:04:24 It's hard to figure out the ways to work smarter if you haven't done the work in the initial way,
00:04:30 in the hard way. You know, that's kind of this idea of looking for a loophole, looking for a shortcut,
00:04:37 and the key is to actually begin and do the work even if it's harder, even if it takes more time,
00:04:43 even if it's going to stretch you or make it difficult. And then as you invest more time and energy into it,
00:04:51 begin to look for the ways to streamline it. Maybe outsource part of the work or maybe you begin to find ways to be quicker in the work or you find ways to change your mindset or your behavior or your attitudes or your habits or your systems or your routines so that things happen in an easier and easier way.
00:05:10 It's very different to work smarter and to look for the shortcut, the quick and easy way. Now,
00:05:18 don't get me wrong, are there things that you can do to make things happen faster? Absolutely. There are things you can do,
00:05:25 but they still involve work. It's one of the reasons I'm a proponent of masterminds and coaching. When you're in a mastermind or you're doing coaching,
00:05:34 you actually have to put in the time and effort. You have to do the work yourself. It's not enough to just sit back and attend and listen.
00:05:42 You actually have to put forward effort, but sometimes you know, if we want to just make someone else do it for us or buy a business out of a box,
00:05:52 you, you hear these people that sell the idea of the magic path. All you have to do is buy my quick and easy system and you'll be a millionaire and nothing flat.
00:06:05 Now has that ever worked for someone? Hmm, maybe, but does it work for most people without actually putting in the work?
00:06:15 Absolutely not. And you have. The truth is even if you did have something happen to you where it was a quick and easy path,
00:06:22 it usually doesn't stick. Think about the number of people that you hear about that win the lottery or get rich and famous,
00:06:31 but they don't actually put in the time and effort to change their mindset and their behavior and identify their priorities and their values and do the hard work and then they end up bankrupt or broke in a few short years because the change didn't stick because they hadn't done the work.
00:06:52 The same thing happens. People will buy a business that's up and running and then run it into the ground because they don't actually understand the work that it takes to keep it up and running.
00:07:02 People will have a quick and easy win and turn that into a story of how now all they have to do is repeat that over and over again and everything will come up roses and they don't think about the downside.
00:07:15 They don't think about the difficulties, they don't think about the challenges, so they set it up in a way that it works perfectly as long as everything keeps working,
00:07:24 but the minute things don't, suddenly it exposes the reality. This is what happens to us all the time and right now with the coven 19 I'm seeing this happen for some folks there.
00:07:37 They're getting their fundamental philosophy exposed and the weaknesses of that are bubbling up. That's where some of this frustration and fear that you see out and about comes from because people are suddenly recognizing that their priorities and their values are out of alignment with their time and their money,
00:07:55 that they haven't done the hard work to set up a system where they're actually protected from the downside as well as the upside,
00:08:03 where they don't have to have a fear of success or a fear of failure. But things work either way.
00:08:10 And without doing that hard work, the real changes that we need to make don't stick. They don't stay around,
00:08:18 they don't continue and they don't last. So I ask you, are you making excuses and looking for the shortcut?
00:08:26 The loophole are, are you doing the hard work? And then over time, spending the time and effort to make that work more effective,
00:08:35 more efficient? Are you spending the time to work with other people, to not do it for you,
00:08:43 but to help you develop the systems and the processes that work for you and make things easier? Thanks for listening.
00:08:58 Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen,
00:09:08 but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of time,
00:09:17 be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting for four two,
00:09:31 two, two time tips and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time. Until next time,
00:09:42 invest your time, your talent, and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.