Welcome to the Adaptive Mindset. I'm Brett Gallant, cybersecurity thought leader and founder of Adaptive Office Solutions. Here, we don't just talk tech, we unlock the strategies, stories, and mindset shifts you need to stay secure, lead boldly, and thrive in a digital world. Let's get started. Welcome back to the Adaptive Mindset. Today's episode is for anyone who's been grinding through 2025 and quietly wondering if I'm still on track. We set big goals in January. Typically we do. And some of them feel exciting and some feel necessary. Some stick and some don't. Some just feel like a version of ourselves that no longer exists. This episode is about resetting, not retreating. Because resetting isn't weak, it's a strength. It's a strength that I've been embracing for some time and I want to encourage you to embrace Resetting is a war strategy. What When you're, when you're working on your goals, you have to fight for your goals. And sometimes we lose sight of that. And for me, for some of my goals, I needed a reset. Needed to reevaluate where I was and what was true and A lot of times when we set our goals, hopefully if we're going high and setting them where we want to, we're aiming for the moon. We're going for that version of ourselves that we never even thought was possible. And right around June and sometimes maybe for some of us, second week, third week of January, those goals we set, those fitness goals, sometimes they get set aside. But I want to encourage you and remind you that this week is about resetting, revisiting those goals or reevaluating them and deciding what's true and what do you want. Are Am I moving in the right direction? Sometimes In my case, I've been hard on myself, and rightfully so I should be. I believe I'm one of the most aware person, people I know that I can call myself on my own BS. And I'm sharing this just as my own accountability to revisit, reset some of my goals. So this weekend I was revisiting my goals and I looked hard at them and I looked at the targets I set, and some of those goals still mattered. Some needed a deep overhaul, or challenged myself to go further than what I originally envisioned. And some had to die. And there was quite a few that I've already checked off. I do look at my goals daily, but it was this intentional time for me to say, hey, let's reevaluate based on who I am today. What's true? Some of those goals are no longer aligned with who I am or who I'm becoming or what I'm holding acceptable where I want to go. Sometimes we don't really think about having a mid-year reset. I've been talking about for some time having a weekly reset, and this was so appropriate for me to really step back and look at that intentionally. I was at my campsite, had a good campfire, and So I pulled out every single goal and I asked, is this goal serving Is this something I'm gonna look at 20 years from now? Is the breadth of the 20 years gonna say, hey, this And a lot of them are, but a lot of them from that new lens, Some of those goals had to die and some of them had to be reborn or tweaked. And like I said earlier, some of them had to be celebrated because I did get there. So some of the goals I'm going to share is some of them, I had a revenue target and I'm doing well, but I realized I haven't been pushing hard enough. comfortable. And some of it was fear of who I have to become to hit some of those targets. So I'm keeping it and I'm I have a goal of becoming more and more of a visionary operator, not being as tied to the business as I have been. being intentional and holding myself accountable to staying on my calendar, not getting into the weeds as much. That staying. I tweaked it even more to make sure that it's true. And I had a family vacation goal to take my children to Disneyland. Tweaked it. I almost didn't follow through with it, but I spent some time this weekend looking at booking some of that and pretty excited. I'm excited for what that can do for my children and I know it's the right thing, the right call, having that time to breathe and celebrate the wins I've been having for so long and celebrating that with my family. But others, other goals that are on that list had to go. And this brings me to something that I want to talk to you about. A lot of times we have, we have to really look and say, okay, is this what I should be doing? So I took out something, I took out a sheet of paper, like I've had before, and I created and reassessed where I am, and I made a stop doing list. And some of it, well, it's pretty powerful. Some of it's not so much a stop doing list, it's more of an iteration of embracing who's going to do this. The old instinct that I used to have, this mindset that I had, was that I had to do it. But that's not true. We all have exceptional people around us. And if we don't, we can invite other people to come into our world to do things on our behalf that may be able to do it even better than us. And they actually get energy from it. So some of the things I wrote down was for some of the stuff doing is not be in control of some of the social posting strategy. I've outlined and mapped out a social posting strategy for my EA to execute on. feels more productive. It's given me more capacity to work on more creative and visionary roles where I can be working on things strategically for my business and having more time to work with my team and develop more content. For me to be actually posting some of the content I have is not the best use of my time. So now what I'm doing is I'm intentionally releasing more videos relying on my content creation team and getting out of so much of the day-to-day that I did before. So I'm taking content like this here podcast I'm sharing with you. And instead of me selecting the times where I feel like there was something brilliant or creative and wonderful I said, I give that over to my content creation team and they clip it. Then I pass it over to my EA, and we create social captions to post that, with the goal of making an impact and inspiring other people to take action. So there's less noise on my head, more depth, and that's a strategic move. It's really going to war and being more effective with my time. Other thing of my stop doing is I stopped trying to serve everyone. I'm a people pleaser. Don't get me wrong. I love serving, but I can't serve everyone all the time in every way that I really would like to. And there's sometimes where you just have to say, no, I'll let someone else handle that. Looking back at the evolution of my business, I had to stop serving certain clients, certain types of like we, we used to do residential and we used to do subcontract work for, um, debit machines. Those are things that I had to say, no, no more stop doing. Was it hard for me? Absolutely. Was it necessary for me to stop? Yes. Because in all of that, it gave me more. It gave my team more oxygen, more ability to serve the clients we have. And it also gave opportunities to other businesses in the community to pick up serving those clients that we once served. I really am thankful for that. I'm also more thankful for me to recognize that creating that stop doing list was one of the best moves I've made in the last few years. And I want to encourage you to do that. I'll have to keep remembering to do that and reevaluate. Okay, based on where I am today, it's July 2025. What am I doing right now that Brett has to stop doing? Reflect on that for a minute and just ask yourself, what am I doing right now that I have that I don't need to do or someone else in my team or someone I could hire could start doing so would free me up to do more of the things I love to do and I get energy from. So if I realize by doing all this, I can't become more of that visionary leader if I'm holding onto the old habits of instinctively staying true to the things that Brett has to do and I have to do it. So it's really important that recognizing that stop doing list was so vital, so vital in the next steps of where I'm going. So what am I doing now? Well, with my team right now, I'm coaching them more and more on giving them clear, definite outcomes, the definition of done and tying it to what I talk about a lot, what I learned from leadership is with being a scout leader that I've learned is train them, trust them, let them lead and give them clear definition of done so they can thrive and execute and give them the option and the ability That is, that they have the time to fail and learn. That's That's where we can scale. Reality And I was still the bottleneck. But not anymore. Am I perfect? No. Do I get knocked down? Yes. Do I need to reset and reevaluate everything I've just talked to you about? Absolutely. Am I going to be perfect? No. but I'm going to keep working on executing that and making that possible, not only for the betterment of my company, betterment of me, but betterment for the people that work with me and overall to serve our clients even more effectively than what we already do. So I even looked at my goal for my transformation. I had a goal for to be at 195 pounds by I know I am a little disappointed that I didn't hit it. Not going to Am I going to reset that goal? Absolutely. Am I going to hit it this time? You bet it. I'm going to get there. but it's really important to reevaluate those goals and make sure you hit them and keep yourself accountable. And part of recording this podcast is keeping myself accountable by sharing it with you. So I've reframed that goal, 205 pounds or less, 20% body fat and hiking 60 kilometers a week, minimum five times in the gym. and I'll let the abs be a byproduct. That's not the point. It's who I'm going to become by keeping holding those standards on who I'm going to become. Well, I already am amplified, amplified in When I hit that goal, I There's some community causes that I was emotionally attached to that I really am passionate about. I can still champion them. I can still encourage other people in the community to get behind them. I won't share what those are right now, but there are some things that really mean a lot to me for our community. And I'm a silent supporter, champion of those goals, but I can't own it all. I can't serve everything at 110% like I would like to. So that's another version of who can do this on my behalf. I can support in other ways, but I'll let other people It's not because I don't care. It's just more being relined and reset what I know is the best thing for me. So I had the oxygen to serve in all the other facets of my life. I still care and I'll still support it, but I won't be as involved. So that was another version of my stop doing list. Is there something that you have that, you know, deep down that you have to stop doing? I want to encourage you to take some time. Take some time tonight or this weekend and write in a journal, some things that you're doing that maybe don't serve you anymore, or they don't serve you in the capacity where you are in your life right now. I've been leveraging. AI And what I've been doing with AI is really novel. If you haven't been using it, I want to encourage you to consider it. I have an AI board of directors. If any of you want to learn about that, DM me, AI board, and I'll share with you how I do that. David Goggins to my board of directors to help keep me accountable on some of my fitness goals and being a little bit harder and being more real with where I really am, where I'm showing up. And the first thing when I asked that iteration, that version of David Goggins, I said, hey, David, I want your viewpoint on this, where I am with my fitness. He said, reset That version of, that facsimile of David said, reset isn't soft. Reset is stepping back so So in some ways I've stepped back, let go of some things, stopped doing less. But I know, and this is my commitment to myself that I'm going to punch harder. I'm going after it more. That's the mindset I have. That new champion, that new way of going after it. Channeling David. So when I first looked at those goals, I first had to admit, I was doing some of them for external validation, not internal alignment for what really fuels me, what really gives me energy. So I drifted, but I wasn't in performance, not in performance, but in purpose. So when I really looked at that, and I asked that question with my AI board, and I had David there, he said, you're not tired. You're under trained. You're not stuck. You're undisciplined. Reset, rebuild, and reload. I challenged him a little bit because I believe I'm very disciplined. But at the same time, there were some areas that I wasn't staying disciplined enough. And sometimes you really have to look at yourself in the mirror and have somebody say to you and keep you accountable and say, hey, But that's where the strength is, where you really, really take personal accountability and say, yeah, this is the truth. I'm owning it. I'm not going to let myself get down, but I'm going to go champion, go hard, go after it. So most people were clinging to our goals just because we're bold enough to say them out loud in January. That's not real leadership. Sometimes we have to really take ownership and look at ourselves when we get to July and have a self-correction and say, okay, was that goal realistic or was I disciplined enough? That version of me set some of those goals with good intentions. The version of me, because we're all on this journey, we're all evolving. This version of me today says that some of those goals were not set high enough. that I didn't hold the standard long enough or to the right way. So this version of me, who I am today, which is a great thing about life, isn't it? We're always evolving. If we're always challenging ourselves to grow, this version says, Hey, reset, go higher, drop some of those goals and re do them. And at the same time, reward yourself, or recognize the wins. There were so many wins so far, being in July. So many goals that were hit. I had one goal to go out on a few adventures, canoe a few rivers that I did. I am so happy I did that. Get out on a wonderful canoeing expedition like I did with the Scouting Group, where I had so much time for reflection, that mental reset, where I paddled close to 100 kilometers with the scouting group and other adult leaders, no cell phone, just clarity and time to reflect. And I had a lot of time to learn, a lot of time to experience immense gratitude. So I'm saying right now, I'm able to say reset without shame because I know some ways, some people might say I was being hard on myself. No, I'm not being hard on myself. I'm being This episode this week is to encourage you to do that reset. If you haven't really looked at where you are, Take some time this week, write down your goals. Take three minutes and just write down the goals that are on your heart. I actually have with me right now, goals I wrote down in 2007. Power of goals I still remember this. In 2007, I wrote down 10 goals. And goal number four was by April 1st, 2010, I will own my own successful IT company. I found that journal at that time. And it was so amazing to look at that and realize that, hey, I wrote that down three years before I started my company. So if you don't have any goals, I want to encourage you to write them down. Have that mindset to hold yourself to that standard, standard of the goals that perhaps you set in January that you know you didn't accomplish. This is your time. This is the time for you to do that reset and go after those goals this week. And with that, if this has helped you in any ways, and I know I have, this episode was Not just for you, it was for me, but perhaps it's for someone else. If this really hit with you and you know somebody in your life that could benefit from hearing this, please share it with them. And if there's anything in here that really connected with you, reach out to me. I'd love to hear that. Love to hear how it's impacted your day and your week. And if I can help you in any way, I'd love to be able to help you. Have an incredible rest of your week. Thanks for tuning into the Adaptive Mindset. If you found value in today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who's ready to thrive in the digital age. Stay