Jeff Corrigan: welcome to Habit Masters. I'm Jeff. I'm Sheldon, and today is part two of our summer quote athon, it's more like a sprint. It's more like a sprint, right? It's more like a sprint. We are loving the summer, but it's also brought with it a lot of changes to routine because kids are outta school. Vacations are happening. Yes, so you guys get it.
But we do wanna share with you some of our favorite quotes. If you loved last week's episode I think you're gonna love today's. So Sheldon and I are going to keep sharing cuz we had so much fun last time.
Our favorite quotes and what they mean to us and how they've impacted us in our lives. Sheldon, do you wanna kick us off today? Okay.
Sheldon Mills: This is by Jeff Bezos. If you never wanna be criticized for goodness sake, don't do anything new.
Jeff Corrigan: That in itself is a good takeaway, right? I heard something the other day that was kind of similar from Ben Hardy. Talking about feedback and how important feedback is in creating content and taking your work to the next level and making sure that you have a feedback loop.
He's like, there's no risk with feedback if you. Don't have to be. Right. Yeah. It's like when you stop having to be right, there's no risk in sending out your stuff for feedback. And I think that's kind of the same thing. It's like when you realize doing something new is going to be hard, it might, you might, it might fail miserably.
You might look foolish and you're okay with that. That's a beautiful place to be.
Sheldon Mills: I mean, most of us, how often do we not do things cuz we know we're not gonna be good at it. I think as children it's like ingrained. It's just they're not good at anything that's part of life. It's like the part of life.
It's like you have to try and practice at everything. So they're not afraid of failure, they're not afraid of trying new things cuz that's just, existence for them. But as we get older. We don't like to not look competent or heaven forbid, stupid. You know what I mean? Yeah. We don't like to not be good at stuff, and so we, no, I'm not even gonna try that.
Like, I'm not even gonna.
Jeff Corrigan: Well, it's funny you should say that because we have, so at our store, in our hiring process, we ask kind of a funny question that's just meant to see like people's approach to problem solving, right? Yeah. It's meant to be a difficult question on purpose, just to see how they approach it.
Are they even willing to try it? What do they do? Ooh, ask me the question, Jeff. So the question is on an analog clock, what? Is the difference in degrees between the hour hand and the minute hand at three 15. By the way, it's not a trick question. I will start with that. Right?
So what is the difference in degrees between the minute hand and the hour hand at 3 15 90 degrees? It's not 90 degrees because three 15 is in essence they would be oh three 15. Yes. Three
Sheldon Mills: 15. Oh, cuz it's the three and the 15.
Jeff Corrigan: Got it. But some minutes have passed. So a lot of people guess zero because they're like, oh, it's three 15.
So that same spot. But the hour hand has moved. Right? It's true. Yeah. So you I'll least do on that. But that's the question we ask. And the point of the, what I get sometimes is people just be like, I don't know. That's a clear sign to me that we shouldn't hire you.
It's like, yeah, well, we're not gonna hire you then, because if you're not even willing to try and fail, then of course I'm not gonna hire you because the whole job is learning something new that you haven't done before. It
Sheldon Mills: is, so I think it's one fourth of 30
Jeff Corrigan: degrees. Yes, you're exactly right.
Sheldon Mills: Which would be, I don't know, how is that 8.25? I'm not sure. Seven and
Jeff Corrigan: a half degrees, seven and a half degrees. I only know because I've done it a million times. Yeah. Yes. Right? Because most people don't think in like geometry and Right. Unless you've done a lot of math in your life. So anyways, but it's a fun question to ask and people approach it all different ways, right?
They're like, start out like counting the hours and like, and how did you figure it out, Sheldon? Well, it's
Sheldon Mills: funny cuz I was thinking, I thought you were saying the difference between three and three 15 actually. Yeah, no, that's fine. But the three o'clock in the end hour, yeah. All of a sudden I just took the 90 degrees, which would be the three hours and it's like, a third of that, which would be 30 degrees is like the difference between one hour to the next hour.
Yes. And 15 minutes is one fourth of that time slot. So yeah, one fourth of the
Jeff Corrigan: 30 degrees. Exactly. So half of a half, right? So you have 15 degrees, half of 15, seven and a half. Anyway, so it's oh. Yeah. But most it is, most people guess around like eight or something when they're getting there like you just did, right?
It's like, that's a very common answer. It's like, is it like eight or seven and something? And it's like, yeah, it's close. But it is a, an interesting question cuz a lot of people don't think about that kind of stuff, so it takes 'em off guard cause they don't expect it in an interview. They're like, what am I applying for Google?
Or what's going on? But it's been, it is really interesting to see how people approach it and when people say like, oh, I don't know, it's like, well of course you don't know. That's why I'm asking you the question to try and solve it. Like how well would you, how would you approach the problem? So, it's actually one that came down from our founder, so it's like the same question we've been asking for years.
But it's not really to see how smart they are at math. It's really to see how they approach a problem and whether they are like, willing to try. And I think that's a great part. Well, people just
Sheldon Mills: saw by incorrect answers multiple times on error. So,
Jeff Corrigan: hey, I thought, but you were willing to try and fail, right?
And and get and I like that you stuck it out until you got to the end. That was good. But I like this goes right along with that. Here's the next quote. Yeah. From Epic, Titus Ancient philosopher. Yes. Now, who then is invincible? The one who cannot be upset by anything that is outside his reasoned choice?
I think it goes in the similar line, like when you're willing to fail and look silly and you know that anything external outside of you is outside your control. There's so much freedom in that, and that's something, a lesson that I've been learning over the last two years is when I stop focusing on things I can't control, my life is much more peaceful.
I focus only on what I can choose and what I can do. This is thousands of years ago, right? , yeah. Who then is invincible. It really makes you invincible. Focusing only on what you can control and what you choose.
Sheldon Mills: What's the quote that we, this is a habit Masters quote about what other people think about you.
Jeff Corrigan: Oh yes. We just came up with this today, guys, so it's brilliant, right? But it goes right along with this. It says, others will see you as they see you, not as you really are.
Sheldon Mills: We see the world as we are, not as it is. And the exact same is true. Other people will see us. More how they are and how they see us, not how we really are.
Right? Yeah. And nobody really sees us of how we really are. And so why do we try and control it so much,
Jeff Corrigan: I don't know. But it, when you finally free yourself from that, it is a burden lifted you didn't know was there. It's beautiful. So one lesson you can take away from today is you can't control what anybody else thinks about you.
And once you accept that and make peace with it, you become invincible.
Sheldon Mills: Okay. This quote goes along perfectly with that one. This is by a David, a Bednar. He says, as sons and daughters of God, we have been blessed with the gift of agency, the capacity for independent action and choice and endowed with agency, meaning the ability to act. We primarily are to act and not just be acted upon to believe that someone or something can make us feel offended, angry, hurt, or bitter. Diminishes our agency and transforms us into objects to be acted upon as agents.
However, you and I have the power to act, to choose how we will respond to an offensive or hurtful situation. It's beautiful. I just trying to teach this, trying to learn it myself, but also teach it to my children. He did this, she did that, right? It's like I made me said this, and I'm like no. It's never goes over well, I don't know how to this well yet.
Right. You were choosing to be offended. You're choosing. To get angry about what he said. You know what I mean? I know he's irritating,
but do you really want to hand him your emotions? Here you go. You have full control over how I feel and what I do. You know what I mean? It's like, no, you're
Jeff Corrigan: exactly right. Well, and it's funny because I don't know that it has to go over well. Funny, some of the time, and I'll say this is like I've been trying to teach my kids certain lessons that I've been learning and things that I'm trying to change about the way I think and just the words I use because words are so powerful, right?
The way we speak actually represents in so many ways the way that we're thinking and the way that we're thinking is in large part controlling our life. But I don't think it has to be perfect cuz initially it's just repetitiveness.
It's like repeating to them over and over again. Here's the thing that, hey that's a poor mindset, it's not actually helping you. It's in fact captivating you and holding you hostage to what other people want, essentially. And So just by reminding them of that over and over again later down the road, they'll be like, oh yeah, my dad always used to be like, oh, is she making you feel angry or are you just deciding to feel angry?
And I think about my parents even when they, things that they would say to me when I was younger and I wish I could remember a lot of them. I know I love people who are, like my mom always used to say, and they'll bust out some comment and you're like, wow, that's impressive that you can remember that.
But I probably remember the lessons and live them, right, like they impacted me in a way where now I live or think differently because of the things they kept saying or teaching me. So, absolutely. There is another one in here that I love. And I think it doesn't go along with what we've just been talking about, kind of changing gears just a little bit.
This is from President Eisenhower. Dwight d Eisenhower says, I have two kinds of problems. The urgent and the important, the urgent aren't important and the important are never urgent. I love that quote. Cuz I think we focus so much on problems and I think this kind of goes back, Sheldon and I have been talking a lot about the, our lives being controlled by 80% of the things that we really don't want. And that we focus most of our time on doing things that we don't re necessarily want to do, and
we'll have another episode about this because I can't go into it today, but is right back to the approach and avoid. It's like most of the things we're doing in life are to avoid some negative outcome, but if we shift our focus to approaching things we want. If we can change and put the majority of our time into things that we want to do, like wow, it creates so much freedom and peace in our lives.
And I like, I think this kind of fits that. It's like I have two kinds of problems. The urgent and the important. The urgent aren't important and the important are never urgent. And it's like, That's seems awfully true and why we can get caught up so much in avoiding things and in the defense of life and in the busy work of life because it all seems urgent.
Unfortunately, very few of those things are important, so it's not moving us forward like we would want it to.
Sheldon Mills: Yeah. Jeff and I had talked about this for like an hour and a half. Too many thoughts to share right now, my friends?
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. Yes.
Sheldon Mills: Last one. Okay. Tell me sufficiently why I think should be done and I will move heaven and Earth to do it.
Again, it's going, it's like convincing hearts and minds. You know what I mean? You have to paint a better picture of possibilities of what it could be, not just argue why I'm right and you're wrong. Right.
Jeff Corrigan: Well, and I think that goes right along with the previous one where it's like approach and avoid.
, when you tell me sufficiently why I should approach something, And we used an example a little bit earlier, and I won't go too much in depth, but what clarified approach and avoid for me so much was this idea that, imagine you're digging a hole, whether you're digging that hole to fix a leak, the under, like in a pipe, right?
That's like, ah, crap, I'm avoiding the flood that could ensue in my house. Or am I digging this hole because I know there's a very treasure there. It's like that is, oh, great. Like the energy and focus, it changes completely from one to the other, the same task digging the hole. Maybe it's the same depth in everything, but like you just said, right.
Well, you'll move heaven and earth to get to that buried treasure if you know it's there. And maybe to avoid the flood, but one is much more peaceful and freeing than the other. Right.
Sheldon Mills: True. And from the outside, this is kind of, I think, a subtle, profound thing from the outside. You can't really tell all the time cause it's just somebody digging, right?
So you cannot always judge others by the actions. But the motivation behind it is the difference between night and day.
Jeff Corrigan: This is a great one. Great one to finish it off. It's by Francis Chan he says. Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter. Yikes. So maybe the, maybe the theme of today is how can you spend more time on the things that really do matter, that are important and that aren't urgent?
Sheldon Mills: It's Peter Druckers. There's nothing so, so pointless Is doing something efficiently that shouldn't have been done at all? Say it one more time, Jeff. I don't think I'd heard it, that version of it
Jeff Corrigan: before. Sure. It again, our greatest fear should not be a failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.
It's climbing
Sheldon Mills: to the top of the ladder to realize it's leaning against the wrong wall. Your relationships, the things that really matter in life. You haven't spent the time cultivating that, but other things.
Jeff Corrigan: Okay, now I'll do one more because that stood out to me. The, to leave you on a real positive note here is this is Albert Einstein. He says, try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. He is considered successful in our day, who gets more out of life than he puts in.
But a man of value will give more than he receives
words to live by friends. Dunno why I did that Accent, but Words to Live by. And Shelton and I were actually talking about that earlier too. It's like not doing it with the intent of getting something, but doing it with the intent of adding value and giving more than we've received. And we've all received a lot, especially we listened to this podcast.
You wanna finish us off today, Sheldon?
Sheldon Mills: I hope a few of these quotes were useful to you. Please share your quotes, your favorite quotes with us so that we can then pass them along as well.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah, we didn't get a guest quote from our last episode yet.
I mean, it's only been a few days, so we don't don't anticipate people responding immediately, but if you hear this and you have a great quote you wanna share with us, we will share it on a future episode throughout the summer. Not
Sheldon Mills: all summer, but we'll probably do this once or twice more.
Yeah.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. All So no. Yeah. We won't do the quota athon. We'll just be like adding a quote here or there. Throughout. Yeah. Yes, exactly. From a guest. Also, guys, we have a newsletter. If you haven't checked it out yet, it's called Match Monday. It's gonna come with some golden nuggets every week to kick off your week with some inspiration, check it out.
It's only a two minute read free of course. And we won't spam you so,
Sheldon Mills: All right. Have a wonderful week. We love you.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. It's time to start living your best life.
