#3767: How Consequence Forces Priorities

0:00There is a private calibration process connected to this work. Most people should not look at it. It assumes responsibility, not curiosity. It assumes pressure, not interest. Details are in the description. Do whatever you want with that. Most people don't need more information. They need better execution. That's why I send a daily game email focused on the things that actually move results. This is a plan decision making, leadership, structure, execution, personal accountability. That's the kind of thinking you want in your inbox every morning. Go to workonmygame.com. That's workonmygame.com. And join for free. Most people rather doing their own volition. Okay, let's take a look at your calendar for the last six months. Have you done it? Okay, motherfucking and we need consequence. Because obviously leaving you to your own devices ain't working. Great old days. Great old days. Workon your game. Workon your game. Workon your game.

1:00This is Dre Balden. And workon your game. This is a system that turns discipline into dominance. Today's topic is consequence forces priorities. Everyone knows what our priority is, right? That is the most important thing. What is at the top of your list? What matters most to you? What is coming first when there are multiple things competing for your attention? Definition of priority is precedence in the date or position of a thing or a preferential rating or it says the something given or mariting attention before competing alternative. In other words, when you have competing items that all want your attention, they want your energy, they want your resources. Priorities are the things that come first and everything else gets pushed to the back.

2:01Today's conversation is helping you understand that consequence forces you to prioritize. One challenge that I see with a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of professionals, a lot of organizations is that there are multiple initiatives all happening at the same time. That's not necessarily a problem. But it is not clear which initiative is more important than which other initiative and if two initiatives are competing for resources, there is no clear hierarchy through which to make a decision as to where the resources go and why and where the resources don't go and why. That means there are competing priorities. There is no clear hierarchy. There is a conflict of importance happening. This happens with individuals. It also happens with organizations. Consequence forces things to be prioritized. I have made the argument. I will make it again here today.

3:03That when you structure your life, business, career, etc. in such a way that certain things are forced to happen, you guarantee them to happen. Another challenge I see with individuals and organizations is that they are things that they want to do but they don't ever get around to actually doing. The reason they don't get around to actually doing is not because the people are failures or not serious or undisciplined or don't have the talent, information, skill, etc. to do the thing. It's because nothing is forcing them to do it. Human beings by design, we are lazy. We are designed to conserve energy, mentally and physically. That's biological. So when I say humans are lazy, that's what I mean. So if a human being is not forced to do something that does not seem fun, exciting, enticing to do and most of work is not always fun, exciting or enticing, we will find it more and find a way to not do it. We will find the excuse to not do it. Consequence forces us to do it even if we don't want to do it.

4:03It will force us against our will to do things that we don't want to do but we know we need to do. If you do that often enough, eventually you start acting your way into feeling like doing it or even if you don't feel like doing it, it becomes so habitual subconscious mind takes over that you continue doing it anyway, even if you don't really enjoy it because somehow, some way, there is some way you've mentally connected this activity to a positive outcome that you do want. So you don't have to like every aspect of a process, if you write the outcome, then that will move you through the process even if you hate the process. Or you could even like the process in the outcome. Some people like that, some people are the other way. Either way, consequence is going to force you to do what needs to be done, such as prioritizing what's first, what's second, what's third because that creates clarity. Another big challenge I notice with a lot of organizations and entrepreneurs is a lack of clarity. We are not clear as to what we're doing here, why we're doing it, what comes first, what comes second, what comes third. And when human beings lack clarity, they will use the ambiguity of this rack of clarity to do nothing, to conserve energy, to conserve physical, mental energy, to add time to a situation

5:08to do nothing. Why? Because I don't quite know what to do. How many of you have an aspect of your life right now where you're not quite sure what to do, therefore you are doing nothing? I'm not saying to to condemn you. I'm saying to to point out the obvious, this is what human beings do. I have enough experience having seen this many times from many different people, different walks away, different industries, male, female, black, white, young, old that I know this is universal. Clarity causes people to add time to situations and in other words, do nothing because they don't know what to do because they are unclear. They know what needs to be done. There's several things they don't know what to do. First, second, third, fourth, fifth. Today we're going to talk about why consequence forces that situation to get resolved immediately was a good thing. People often claim that something is important, but they were neglected. How many of you have something you say is important in your life, but you are doing nothing about it. The difference between intention, IE, I want to do something and action, IE, I am doing something is usually one thing, consequence. We talked about this a few times here in the past, but we're going to talk about it again

6:09in the future. We're going to talk about it right now. Today, what does this mean? Point number one. Today's topic, once again, is consequences force priorities. Number one, consequences create priority. What is consequence? Consequence is the negative thing that you want to avoid for not doing a certain thing. Therefore, you do what needs to be done. Consequence by definition, Marion Webster says, a conclusion derived through logic. That's one way of talking to consequence, but the way we normally use the word consequence is a negative thing that happens if you don't do what you're supposed to do. Second definition is something produced by a cause or necessarily following from a set of conditions, IE, the parents say, I don't know how most parents do it today, but let's say back in the day, those you are over 40, your parents said, watch the dishes and if you didn't watch the dishes, you got your ask it. All right, getting your ask it is the consequence. And since you wanted to avoid the consequence and get your ask it, what did you do?

7:10You watched the dishes, even though you were tired, even though you were going to go outside and play, even though you rather watch TV, even though you rather play video games, even though you're annoyed with your parents right now, even though you don't really like washing dishes, you hate washing dishes, you wanted to avoid getting your ask it more than you wanted to get to the other things that you actually like. So to avoid the consequence, you did the thing that you need even really want to do. Consequence forced your hand. Is everybody understand now? Consequences, consequences, force your hand. If you're late for work one day and you run to a red light, most of you, most of the time, will probably stop at the red light. Even though you would love to get all green lights, you can get to work sooner and shave a few minutes off of your commute because you're already late. You're probably going to stop the red light anyway, not because you want to be more late for work than you already are. You stop at the red light because you understand the consequence you're running at red light is you might get a traffic citation for running at red light if a police officer sees

8:15you. Also, opposing traffic may be coming and you may cause an accident, which could cause a loss of life to you or other people in your car or people on the other car. Also damage and destruction of your car, which now how you going to get to work with no car and is your fault. So because of those possible consequences, you deal with the thing you don't want to deal with with to stop into that red light because you're already late. That's what consequence is. It's also defined as importance with respect to power to produce an effect. In other words, if you know your parents have the power to kick your ass, you will give importance to what they want, even though you don't want to do what they want you to do, because you understand that they have the power to produce a result i.e. kicking your ass. So you watch this. Consequences create priority. You get it? So if I want to play video games, then I want to talk to one of my friends and I'm going to play outside. Those are my top priorities right now, but then the consequence comes, hey, watch the watches. And I know what the consequence is of not watching the dishes. I got to move my priorities around. All right. So I'll watch this. This is first. Then I'll go play video games.

9:16People make their car payments every month. Those you have vehicles or you pay for where you're paying. Actually, if you got a vehicle, you're making something that I've paid me every month. You're paying for the gas or you're paying for the insurance or you're paying a car note or you're paying a lease. If you have a car, you're paying something every month for that car. You make the payments to use and operate and have that car. Same thing with your housing. You're either paying rent or you're paying mortgage or you're paying property taxes. You're paying something. The reason you pay those things is not because you love paying them. It's not because you have an over a bunch of money that you just want to give away to the car companies and the housing authorities, companies, government, et cetera. That's not why you pay it. Why do you pay? Because if you don't pay it as an immediate consequence, you don't pay for your car. You don't have a car. You don't pay for your house. You don't have a house. So you got to pay it. The consequence forces you to pay those things. Not your diligence or your discipline or you being a good person who wants to help the community so you pay the property taxes. Yeah, that sounds good. That's not the reason you pay it.

10:18You pay a lot less if it was just about that and you could choose your number. You wouldn't pay them out that you paid. Now, would you? Property tax payers? Would you? Okay. Urgency comes from knowing something will happen if action is not taken. That's what consequence means. If you don't do this, something's going to happen. Then you really don't want to avoid that. So let me just deal with this one because I don't want to deal with the other. I don't want to deal with the alternative to this. So let me just do this. That's what consequence is, folks. And the thing about consequence is a lot of people try to avoid situations where this could even occur. And that is the very thing hurting what you consider to be your back of discipline. This is something we've addressed here. If you haven't heard me say it, discipline is not a personality trait. It's not a personal attribute. It's no such thing as your discipline. Those things that discipline person on undisciplined person, your behavior is not disciplined. And the reason why any of you has a lack of behavioral discipline, any aspect of your life is because there is no consequence existing in that aspect that is forcing your hand. You want consequence forcing your hand because that guarantees that you do what needs to

11:19be done. The reason most people accept what I just said, but they still reject consequences because they don't want to feel the pressure of consequence hanging over them, which forces their hand. Most people don't want their hand to be forced, even though they say they want the outcome that they can't move themselves to doing their own volition. Well, Mofo, you only got two choices. Either you can move yourself to doing it on your own volition or you can have your hand force, which one do you want? Most people rather doing it on their own volition. Okay, let's take a look at your calendar for the last six months. Have you done it? Okay, motherfucking, and we need consequence because obviously leaving you to your own devices ain't working. Does everybody understand us? Of course you understand it. Point number two. Today's topic, once again, is consequence forces priority. Number two, identity creates internal consequences. Now there's another way to create consequence because some of you may look at that and say, well, damn, you're making it sound so harsh. You're cursing at me. Does it really have to be that way? Is there any other way to get this done? Yes, there is. What was you like to know about it? Okay, I'll tell you upfront before I tell you this. I'm going to tell you the bad news up front.

12:20Bad news is this has always been available to you for the entirety of your life. And you may not have used it yet. If this is new to you, what I'm about to explain to you, then you haven't used it yet, even though it's been available to you. The good news is it's available to you. Calls nothing. You need no extra specialized education. You don't need any books or courses or programs for this. You can start using this right now as soon as I explain to you what it is. I'll make it real simple. This is identity consequence. There's an identity level consequence. Okay, so there's a tangible consequence, i.e., you're going to get a traffic citation, you get a car accident. That's tangible level. We're going to kick you out of your house and take your house when you can't pay your taxes or we're going to evict you because you didn't pay your rent or we're going to take you when a repossess your car because you didn't pay the lease. Those are tangible consequences. Now, on this point, I'm going to talk about identity level consequences. These are intangible and they are internal, most importantly, more than being intangible. They're internal. Strongest standards do not require external enforcement. The strongest standards do not require external enforcement.

13:25Internal enforcement would be something like, I'll use myself here. I went to the gym this morning and trained. If I had not gone to the gym today, nobody would know. I mean, there are people at the gym who would notice that I had not been there because I made a fixture there. So I made a regular. So had I not been there, they would have noticed that I wasn't there. They probably would have forgot about it by the end of the day. I don't publish or post that I was there every time that I'm there. So nobody would be looking out for the social media post. So they wouldn't know if you're not a person who's actually at my gym, you wouldn't know. Nobody at the gym would really care. Nobody would be calling me and say, hey, Dre, where are you at? Nobody at home would know because by the time I go to the gym and come back, everybody is still asleep. So nobody would know that I didn't even go. Only person who would know that I didn't go was me. So then the question is, well, you did go. So the question becomes, on the days when I don't feel like going, because there are days when I don't feel like going, yet I go anyway. Is moving me to go anyway? What is it? Because as I told you, there are days when I don't feel like going to the gym.

14:27There are days when I'm tired. I may have some type of physical ailments, not injury, but some issue that I could take a day off today. I could go for a day off. Maybe I need to get a lot of sleep in previous nights. Maybe it's raining outside. Maybe it's cold outside. Maybe it's too hot outside. Maybe I'm just not excited about whatever I'm planning to do in the gym. Yet I'm still scheduled to go to the gym. Why do it? Nobody's making me do it. I'll get fired if I don't go. There's no big reward if I do go. It really doesn't matter if I show up or not. Today it did not matter if I showed up at the gym or not, but I showed up at the gym. Again, why do it? Can anyone answer this question? Why did I go? Anybody know the answer? Now remember what I just told you before I got into that scenario. I'll give you an answer in a moment. The strongest standards do not require external enforcement. Key words here. Two key words in essence. Can you point them out? Standards and enforcement. Those are the two words. What is a standard? Standard is an expectation that is set forth that suffers no exceptions.

15:31That's what a standard is. Merriam Webster defines a standard as something established by authority, custom, or general consent as a model or example. Established. A standard is established by authority. What is authority? Someone saying this is what it is and it being accepted. And it is set as a model or example. In other words, this is how it goes. That's what a standard is. That you set something as this is how it goes and the authority of whomever set that standard. Their authority is respected. So whatever they say is how it goes, that's how it goes. That's what a standard is. A strong standard does not require external enforcement because if something is an internal standard, then it doesn't matter if anybody on the outside even knows that it's happening or not happening because the internal standard is stronger than the external attention, the external feedback, the external ridicule, the external applause, whatever you want to call

16:32it, positive or negative, whatever happens on the outside has nothing to do with the standard on the inside. And if standard on the inside is stronger than any effect from the outside, then the outside is irrelevant. The reason I went to the gym today is because my internal standards brought me to the gym. The reason I go to the gym every day is because my internal standards bring me to training to working out. Not because of what is going to happen on the outside. I wake up early in the morning and I go to do my workouts whether at the gym or anywhere else, first thing in the morning. And usually there are no people who can tell you that they saw me do my workout. I remember I was walking around in Birkho a couple of years ago and I saw this guy who I knew his face because we had the neighbors previously at a building that neither of us lived in anymore. And we started talking for a minute. We had never spoken before. I've seen him before but I never really had a conversation with him. And one of the things that he said to me was I would see you around a building and I saw that you were in shape but I never saw you in the gym. And the reason why he never saw me in the gym is because I wake up early in the morning

17:32and I work out before most people are even awake. I'm not telling you that to impress you but to impress upon you that my workouts are not based on public attention. That he still noticed that I was in shape because I'm still awake during the day once everybody else wakes up. Once all the normal people wake up, I'm still awake too. Point being, my internal standards about bringing me to the gym, not any type of external validation I will get from going. If I wanted external validation from going to the gym, I wouldn't go first thing in the morning. I wait until prime time when I knew, quote unquote, everybody was going to be there and I go then there would be a social experience for me. But I'm going to the gym for the social experience. But if I wanted to, I know exactly what time to go. It's external enforcement. These are sometimes people go and take not everybody does this but there are people who go to gyms to take the classes. The gym that I go to offers a lot of classes. They got like a hundred classes a week. Some people go to the gym to take the classes because the class is a social experience for them. They like seeing their friends at the class. They like the trainer. They like the collective energy.

18:32They can borrow energy from other people in the class so that they can make it through the workout. They otherwise might not work out. They had just had to do it bottom-tills. When I go to the gym in the mornings, early in the morning, the other people who are here, the other ten people in the gym, these are all people who are similar to me internally. I don't know for sure. I'm never spoken to these people. I'm not friends with them. I don't go to the gym to engage with people. But I would bet that they have their own internal standards to bring them to the gym because if it was a social thing, then what the hell are you doing at the gym at five in the morning? Because it's nothing social happening at five in the morning. They should wait till about seven to eight o'clock. That's when some of the normal people start showing up. The first class usually about seven o'clock. Crossfit maybe six o'clock. The whole point here is internal standards render external enforcement enrollment. So this is the second way that you can force consequence upon yourself. The way you force consequence upon yourself using the second point, everyone, is that your internal identity and the standards that are a result of that internal identity force you to do things, even when you don't feel like doing them.

19:35Mike going to the gym, you don't feel like going to the gym because your identity and the standards from that identity will not accept, it will not tolerate an exception. This requires you looking at a mirror and seeing a certain type of person who holds yourself to a standard that again does not tolerate exception. That's the identity level consequence. In my experience, every human being has identity level standards in some aspect of their life. You may not have them in the same aspects as the person next to you, but there are some aspect of your life as I think about, think about people that I know. Everyone has some internal standards in certain aspects of their lives that they will not tolerate exception from. Some people, their house has to be impeccably clean at all times. Some people, they have to be really, really on point down to the penny with how they manage their money.

20:37Some people, their car has to be perfectly clean every day. They wash the car every other day because they can't have a speck of dirt on their car. Some people that had to eat in a perfectly clean way, they read every label, they don't eat anything but more than five ingredients. They don't take in any processed foods and it's just who they are. It doesn't matter where they are. They will find a way to eat the way they want to eat. Other people, they got to be a gym all the time. Some people have more than one. It doesn't mean you can only have one thing, but everybody I know has a least one. Every one of you is listening, you have a least one. Now you have to ask yourself, from where did you get that standard, that internal standard, that identity level idea that you do not tolerate exception from and how can you take the same principles from that and apply it in an aspect in which aspect of your life from which you're coming up short. When action violates yourself, the consequence is psychological and immediate. When that internal consequence, psychologically, you're strong enough, you won't allow deviation

21:37or you will immediately fix deviation. So that said, this can't be just something that you say because it sounds good and it feels good right now. This has to be real. Has to be a real internal standard that you set for yourself. Internal self-image that you set for yourself. If you listen to this show enough, you heard me say, I haven't played a professional sport in over a decade, but I pride myself on being in pro-athlete shape that if I told some random stranger on the street that I'm a pro-athlete right now, they will believe me and they don't believe me because they can Google me and they know who I am. They believe me because they look at my physique and say, well, yeah, you look the part. So I think you're telling me the truth. But I can't look the part if I'm not going to the gym system. That is part of my internal standards. I will not tolerate a deviation from that standard, which is why I don't miss a workout. Because that's for me. I'm not saying you need to be that way. You have at least one aspect of your life in which you could use that same frame and just swap in your stuff. Question is, how can you apply that to any other aspect of your life where you're not getting what you want?

22:38Psychological immediate correction for any deviations. Psychological means this has to be something as hard wired into you. It has to be something that you really truly believe at your core and even if nobody else knew about it, it still matters. That's the key part here. And if no one else knew about it, it still matters. And you cannot go to sleep knowing that you are out there. Power, presence, calibration exists. It is not training. It is not coaching. It is for people already operating under consequence. And that's not you. Ignore this. Information is in the episode description. Point number three. Today's topic. Once again, it's consequence forces priorities. Number three. Important is revealed through enforcement. Everyone knows what's important to somebody. Watch what they enforce. Watch what they tolerate. Watch what they're okay with. Watch what they do not allow exceptions to. That's when you know what somebody really cares about. This is how they operate. There is no consequence from neglecting something you graduate with a priority. Simple as that.

23:41Anything that is neglected and it's accepted, everybody notices that, including you. You notice it when you do it with yourself. Oh, you didn't uphold that rule that you said you had for yourself. You're subconscious mind noted that you didn't uphold a rule that just two days ago you said it was a rule. Okay. That's not a priority. Remember everybody, what gets enforced gets respected. What is not enforced is not respected. Any rule, unenforce is treated as a suggestion because that's what it is. You set rules for yourself that you do not enforce them. They become suggestions and eventually you forget that you even said the rule. You set rules on other people. They violate you do nothing. Then they learn that that rule doesn't mean anything. Eventually they learn the source of the rule. Whatever that person says means nothing. And it goes on and on. This is the law of inertia. I'm taking motion. It remains a motion. I'm taking non-emotion stage, non-emotion. Until or unless acted upon by an outside force, the outside force, everybody, is the consequence. That is the outside force.

24:44So when you're trying to avoid consequence, you're avoiding the outside force that can break the inertia of you're doing nothingness or you're doing something that is hurting you. Recap in today's class which is consequence forces priorities. Number one, people prioritize what carries a cost. Sometimes a cost people will prioritize it. The electric bill gets paid because if you don't pay it, they turn the lights off. And you probably can't operate without lights. Number two, self-respect can be a stronger enforcer than punishment if it is hardwired into your identity, what type of person you are and for which you will accept no exceptions. Number three, standards only matter when they're backed by consequences. Again, a rule that is not enforced is a suggestion. If you say something that's a standard that means you have to uphold it, you got to uphold it consistently, not just when it's convenient. Final thought. Stop asking yourself whether something is important because if it's important, you already know it's important. There's no question. Ask what happens if you ignore something. If I don't do this, how do I feel? If I don't do this, what's going to happen? I don't do this as their penalty. The answer is no. And you're already questioning it. You're probably not going to do it. You need to rethink how that thing is structured.

25:45If it's something that you want to be consistent in your life, that answer tells you everything. Work on your game. Dre, all dead. Execution is not about effort. It's about reliability. Your results don't match your ability. Your execution is inconsistent. We measure that. Execution reliability index. Get your score at work on your game.com slash E R I.