A lot of people lie to the mirror about things.

They look in the mirror and think, “I don’t have time to exercise. My weight is fine.”

I know, I stood in front of that mirror.

Around the time I entered adolescence, my father started a business of re-selling books, and my family finally had a place to live and money to buy food.

I became very plumpy.

All that bread …

I remember one day, shortly after seeing my class photo where–with a pink face and pink shirt–I looked like an animal which is often depicted as pink and served as breakfast sausages.

I decided I would lose the extra weight.

I needed results, not excuses.

I went on a strict diet and lost weight before entering my teenage years.

And kept it off.

Now I have a threshold over which I do not allow myself to go. If I see I am edging close to it, I cut calories significantly and brutally.

A lot of people lie to the mirror about their goals, about their ambitions, and about how hard they work.

When someone claims they have a particular ambition, all I need is to observe how much they are studying about it, how much they are sacrificing in the pursuit of it, and how do they react when they face obstacles.

During coaching programs, I observe if clients show up on time for results clinics and 1:1s. Do they diligently work through the training materials? Do they implement what we agreed between results clinics and 1:1s?

Michael and I are 100% committed to helping clients make each program a transformative program for them. Yet, we can only do this with the client’s full commitment to the process.

Most people are very casual about their business.

I am sure you have observed it in your colleagues. I observed it a lot with coaching when I am on the student side. As many of you know, I spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on coaching, training, and masterminds. I do this because I want to maintain my “escape velocity” (see yesterday’s email if you missed it) and be in the best position to help clients reach and maintain theirs.

The coaches I hire, usually representing top companies in their respective fields, often come into coaching calls so casually. Their knowledge base is shockingly bad. They are half there, half planning what they will eat for dinner. They benefit from talking to me, making a lot of notes when I share with them my insights. And they seem completely unaware, or unbothered, that they can’t bring much to the table.

When I have a coaching call with one of our clients, I actually don’t plan another coaching call right after if I can help it, because it takes so much out of me. I can plan an interview or some meeting, but not another coaching call, whenever possible.

When I come across people who are casual about their business, I know a lot about that person. I know I don’t want ever to hire them. People become this way because they permit themself things they should not permit. They edge closer and closer toward the line of casualness.

Casualness breeds mediocrity. And no one in the FC community was born to be mediocre.

Casualness explains why so many accomplish so little. 

The opposite and near opposite of casualness are attentiveness, regard, awareness, and curiosity.

Breaking out of your orbit requires self-discipline, focus, determination, intent for outsize success, and congruency of behavior with your claimed goals.

No skill helped me break out of my orbit more than what we are sharing in Speak Without Limits (aka Executive Presence and Communication coaching program).

Jump into the last compartment of the Speak Without Limits (aka Executive Presence and Communication) training and coaching program train. Learning how to communicate (with yourself and the world) is the most important skill you will need to reach and maintain “escape velocity.”

We had 2 hours, 36 minutes introductory results clinic, but the deep training starts this Saturday. So you can STILL jump in, catch a replay of the onboarding call, and roll over your sleeves to join us and a group of impressive like-minded leaders in the climb up.

Learn more about the program here.

Apply here: (VIP or Elite).

Take care,

Kris