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, I'm really pleased to have with me a powerhouse in the world of productivity and performance. Yes, yes, we're talking about Mark Struczewski. He's better known as Mr. Productivity. Mark is a Houston-based coach and host of the Mr. Productivity podcast, one of the longest running shows in the productivity space with over 1300 episodes and thousands of listeners around the world he helps busy professionals crush overwhelm reclaim focus and hit their goals using battle tested systems built from years in corporate and the discipline of his daily running habit. Mark is all about practical execution no fluff. And his high energy style has earned him 55 plus five star guest reviews. Incredible. Today, he's sharing how to build distraction proof systems in a noisy 2025, soon to be 2026, which is exciting. And the routines that actually stick through chaos, the mindset shifts that leaders need to stay consistent and how to set their goals, set the goals that scare you in the best way. Mark, i am so thrilled to be here and so thrilled to be in houston where it's sunny and sixty five unlike where you're from where you got that white stuff on the ground i i spent thirty three years up in western new york at a small teeny tiny town outside of rochester called north charlie and in 1997 i moved to houston because i said i'm done with the snow and what's really funny is they look at snow differently down here. We had four inches on January 21st and they shut the whole city down. And I had a friend of mine who was moving up North. I'm like, you know, when they get four inches up there, you still have to go to work, right? They don't shut the schools down. You know, it's a, yeah. I just want you to know when you go up North that they're, they're more battle tested with this So you, you prepped him, you prepped him to be ready for, but I don't think you had nothing could prepare somebody for that mindset. So like for that, like, no, No, you just got to live the pain, you know, like, and, you know, you almost make me want to drive down there to have a say with you about rubbing the snow in my face. But Yeah, we'll go out in the sun and we'll get a couple of cocktails and sit in the 70 degree heat in the sun and Then you're going to make me cry. Mark there's gonna be so much for us to unpack today and so many takeaways i'm excited to have you but i wanted to just start like start off with you taking us back and letting us know where did your obsession with productivity actually Actually, somebody else saw that in me. So when I got canned from my corporate job back in 2005, I decided I wanted to be this thing called an entrepreneur. I couldn't spell it. I wasn't sure what it was, but it sounded cool. And so I began my entrepreneur journey. The first thing I started was as a wedding and portrait photographer, but that's failed. And the audience needs to understand this is back in 2005. We had Facebook, we have LinkedIn, we had Twitter. We had email marketing and direct marketing. That was it. And I don't know what possessed me, but I went to one of the ladies in our Bible study class who's a professional speaker, and I said, You're a professional speaker. I would like to know how can I become a professional speaker? Now what the audience needs to know is I didn't like speaking in front of an empty room. Now here I am asking how to be on stage and long story short, cause I know your podcast isn't a Joe Rogan podcast. I began to go out and speak to promote my business, but I was talking about photography. And I didn't want to talk about photography anymore. The business had failed and I wanted to move on to my next endeavor. Yeah. Well, I couldn't figure out what my topic should be. I tried a couple of things and they didn't resonate. So I hired my first coach ever. And I normally identify as Tigger for wanting to poo, but I was having an EO EOR moment and My coach goes, well, what's going on? I'm like, well, I really love teaching and training and speaking, but I don't know what I should teach. And he goes, why don't you talk about productivity? And I remember saying to him, well, that's weird. I don't know where that came from. Why would you say that? He goes, I know a lot of productive. I know a lot of people, a lot of people, and most of them are struggling with getting things done. You need to share that gift for the world. And as they say, the rest is history. Wow, So you've you adopted your Tigger, the inner Well, Eeyore still shows up every once in a while. And look at where if you if you identify with Winnie the Pooh, please wear pants or Tigger or Piglet or Christopher Robin, you're still going to have an Eeyore moment. OK, because we You're a human being, and we're not AI, we're not robots, and so you will have those days. Hopefully, you have fewer and fewer Eeyore days and more Winnie Yeah, you're all you're, I don't know why, or you're making me think of one time I was working out, and it was a fit class. And I, I really felt my inner or, and it was lifting the weights and like, why bother? That's a pretty good impression. Oh, it was epic. I still do it sometimes. But, but I, then Um, so you, you've had this background, like, was there a moment you, you realized that you're, that you were living distracted though, and all of this, and you need change, like what, what, what, like, how did you get, like, So I have never been one that was easily distracted. And when this coach planted the seed in my head about, being a productivity coach, I started opening my eyes and noticed how distracted everyone was. And we're talking 2005, 2006, 2007, when we didn't have TikTok and Instagram and all these things. And people are always distracted and they're always on their phone. yeah and i have gone old school like i i journal i carry a pocket journal with me it's a it's a print journal i use a real pen i like reading print books and i just i love technology i love ai i love all the social media apps out there but there's something to be said about leaving technology behind and just taking a walk without technology, or going outside to read a book, or just in your favorite chair in your den and reading a book and leaving the phone in the other room. You don't always need to have that device within arm's reach or always in your hand. Maybe you have the book in one hand and your phone in the other, but there's something to be said about leaving technology behind periodically, and there's Yeah, well, there's some those quiet times where I've had in tremendous transformation. When I go for my walks, I have these moments of clarity and I just call it my reset walks and I reset and get balanced, get out in nature. And it's a nice distraction because we have, like you're seeing it, like what you said, we have so many distractions, the phone, the team's messages, the got a minute, you got a minute. Isn't that the classic one? And it's never a minute, by the way. No, no, it's usually 10, 15 minutes or more if you're lucky. So how do people get around that? Like, what are some, like, obviously, Mr. Mr. Productivity, what have Well, I am a huge fan of simplicity. Okay, so let's take complexity, let's put it in the box and put it over to the side, and let's focus on simplicity. Now, why do I say that? Because if you can pick up one thing during the course of my conversation on this podcast today, and you go, you know what, I could do that. That's all I want you to do. See a lot of people listen to me on podcast and they'll write down 15, 20 things. And then like, Oh my gosh, where should I start? We'll Analysis paralysis. Yeah. Yeah. Pick one thing that resonates with you and is easy to do and third that you can do right away. So like, oh, wow, that was, wow, that was pretty easy. Well, I'm going to do that again tomorrow. And all of a sudden now you start getting the momentum train going. You're like, oh, what else do you say? Oh, what else I write down? Oh, you know what? I could do this too. Now you're stacking another habit on. See, but you start with, The simple one, then you start stacking a lot of people will tell me, give me all your tips. I'm like, no, because you're not going to do a single one because I'm going to overwhelm you. So I want people, whether they get it from my end view on the show, you get it from a book, you get it from social media. When something resonates with you. I want you to commit to start doing that. Maybe track it in your journal or something because you want to get that momentum train going before you add other things onto it. So the key to being productive is Yeah, and a lot of times, like you said, we get so overwhelmed and we think, oh, there's five things I need to do. And then you start getting lost in that thought process. And I was speaking to somebody this morning and I think sometimes they don't start because there's so many things to do. So you just got to pick one and get the rhythm, the habit. Like, even if it's like what I share a lot, Getting for a walk, I often go for an hour, hour and a half, but I've often done two or three small 20 minute walks. And if you haven't started yet, start with one 10-minute walk every day, like what you're saying. And that could be the biggest thing, because you can build on that consistency, like what I hear you Yeah, that's true. I just finished rereading Atomic Habits for like the fourth time. It's an excellent book. And he talks about meditation. Well, meditate for one minute. Or do one push up or read one page because the thing is if you look at the book and like oh my gosh is that two hundred fifty pages and i'm kinda tired and outside you're going down. The wrong road you like well i'll just scroll on instagram or tiktok. Well, just start. You gotta start. And everybody's afraid to start. They're wanting to know what is the magic procedure, the magic routine. I'm like, just start. And if you get the wrong thing, if you choose the wrong thing, guess what? You try again tomorrow. But here's the thing. I can hear your audience members, I can hear them in my ear. They're saying, but wait a minute, what if I've got five things to do? What are you saying to your? You can only do one thing at a time. So look at these five things or six things or three things. What's the first thing you have to do? What's the second thing? So rank them because you can't do two things at once or three things at once or seven things at once. So what is the most important thing you can do and do that? I know you got to do all these things, but you can only do one at a time. So what most people do like oh my goodness i too much i gotta do and they don't do any of them instead of starting one they go i'm overwhelmed i'll Yeah. A lot of that's happening nowadays too. Just even, even in the last three to four years, I've seen a huge ship in it. So much distraction. And before all we used to have to worry about was TV and Facebook. Yeah. Besides all that, and I have a note here, you talk about distraction-proof systems, especially in 2025 and going into 2026 where things are gonna be coming on us even more with AI, and I see digital Well, I'm guessing your audience is probably adults. So we have to practice this thing called... Or pretending. You've got to... Stop making excuses. I hate excuses. You can't say, well, AI is coming. I can't get off the phone. I'm addicted to tick tock. Okay. I'm going to be giving you some tough love right here. Grow up. Okay. Because nobody's coming to save you. And if you are not going to say, all right, I want to write a book in 2026, well, you're going to have to spend time working on that book. You're not going to get it by scrolling on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook. So what do you want to do? I mean, I don't know when this episode's coming out, but whether it's December or January, it's a good time to think about what you want to do next year. A lot of people, they're like, I don't know what I want to do next year. Well, Right now pause the episode and grab the paper and go what i want to do what i want to do this week this month this quarter this year next year most people don't have any idea and what happens they go from day to day to day and they're doing the same thing day after day after day and they get the end of the year like another year and accomplish anything cuz you're just you're living passively. And I tell people, whether you want to write a book, start a YouTube channel, you want to start a podcast, you want to whatever you got to start, you got to start, stop looking for the perfect way to start, just start. It's going to be messy. I'm telling you right now, no matter what you start, it's going to be messy Brilliant. Brilliant. So impactful because even, even literally before, before this call, Sometimes you just have to start and do have the conversation and put your offer out there. So the old version of me, I wouldn't even offered a solution to this customer. I would have waited for another meeting, but there was something inside me. No, you're going to put an offer to help them. Cause if I don't, they're going to be missing out. They're going to be wondering why I didn't show up. So I put the offer out. And I decided to start and I think there's, there's a lot of power in what you said, you have to start because you'll never know. And you, well, you'll procrastinate and then you might miss your opportunity. And I'm saying this to you right now, because right after, like, after I made that, that offer, it was verbally approved. That could have dragged on for another month. No, that's true. So you just have to take your shot. Like Wayne Gretzky says, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. So that's like what you say is so impactful. And it's so true. And I'm really hoping our audience listens to that because it's so simple, but it's so profound. And it's the fact. Hmm. So I have a good friend of mine. It was, he was a client and now he's a good friend of mine and he used to get caught up into, I'm going to do some research on the morning routine. That's going to most get me started on the right day. Cause I've heard you talk about the morning routine and I'm like, dude, Just start, okay? You're gonna waste all this time watching all these videos, reading these books. Just start, do it. Yeah, you can change it. Guess what? We're not talking about the Ten Commandments. You start, you do one day, oh, that doesn't work. You move things around, you try different things. And my morning routine is pretty solid now, but I've spent years crafting it. If you have, well, everyone has a morning routine. The problem is most people's morning routine's different every day and it's in chaos. But when you start, when you get to a point, you go, you know what? I want to have a morning routine. Okay. Then you start again. Here's that word again. You have to start and keep it simple. Don't do 35 things in the morning. And then what you could do is you can start tweaking. You can talk to other people. Hey, what is your morning routine look like now? My wife and I are empty nesters. So of course, my morning routine is going to be different. If you have four little ones at home. But that's not an excuse. Figure out how you can start your day with the maximum impact. And don't try to learn from me, but don't say, well, I have kids. Okay. I don't have kids. So that's an element you have to figure out. But there is a solution for every problem you have. If you're willing to stop being EOR and you're willing to go, you know what? I'm not going to complain about this. I'm going to figure out a solution to whatever my problem is And, and I'm here hearing what you're saying. And I have a morning routine. I have five children, four at home. I have a routine. It involves the number of different things in it. And it gives me energy. you have yours in your former Eeyore. So it's like, so we have to also be honest with ourselves, like, but really, really applying that whole mindset of just starting like execution is solution and we need to just face face it. Just out of curiosity, because if I'm thinking what thinking it, I'm sure somebody is wondering, OK, what I want to know. I need to know. It's good. It is going to shock you. So I am usually sound asleep by eight thirty at night. I am. I was never a morning person. But then I read a book by an author named Robin Sharma called the 5 a.m. club and I became a 5 a.m. or now I get up at 4 o'clock in the morning. So I mean, anybody can be converted. So I'm usually up between 415 and 445 within 90 seconds. I'm from my warm bed into a cold shower. Now, granted, My cold showers are not as cold as Canada or the upper northeast of United States. But still, when you go from a nice, warm, comfy bed and you step in the shower and you get under the shower head and you turn it all the way to cold and turn it on, the water under the house is really cold. Doesn't matter how warm it is outside, it's cold. I stay in there for about 60 to 90 seconds. I dry off. get dressed in the mornings, it's kind of cold, not your cold, but it's cold. Like in the lower forties, I get dressed to my head, to my ankles. I go outside my backyard and I do two things. I squat while grounding with my bare feet for four minutes. The squatting is because I read a book called built to move a couple of years ago. And the books that says a lot of people, as they get older, their hip flexors get shot. And if you ever looked at a young child, When he squats, his butt almost hits the ground. Well, my butt almost hits the ground. I'm 60 years young because I squat every day. Now, we had a snowstorm again, not a northern snowstorm. We had four inches on January 21st of 2025. And I actually shoveled a six foot by six foot area so I could do it outside. See, there's no excuses for me. Now, when I get done with that, I come in, put my socks on, I wore my feet up. And then I do what people think is the strangest thing. I do a 30 minute reading walk up and down my hallway with a physical book. So I literally walk up and down my hallway, reading a physical book for 30 minutes. That's how I start my day. I haven't even had breakfast yet. Because what happens is, as we age, we move less. And this is why you have Alzheimer's, this is why you have hip flexors that are shot, because we're not taking care of ourselves. And so, people look at me and they're like, I'm like, how old do you think I am? Like, oh, 42. I'm like, no, I'm 60. Like what? Because I'm, I'm making it very intentional to take care of myself. I know people who look like they're four who are 40 look like they're 140 because they've got all the wrinkles. They got, they don't, they never move. They're always behind their desk. They're never go for a walk. They never get on their treadmill. They're always like sitting. and they have a whole bunch of metabolic issues in the food they eat, and I'm like, you have a choice. I want to live as long as I possibly can, and I'm not going to, you know, as a Christian, people say, well, you know, if it's God's will, yeah, but God wants you to do some work, okay? Don't eat at McDonald's and Domino's and Jack in the Box and other restaurants and say, I'm eating a bunch of rubbish, but Incredible, incredible. I can relate to that. I won't say I have a similar routine, but I do have one. Ever since I started implementing it, my health has skyrocketed. I was 349 pounds, Mark. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Today, I'm That's incredible. Way to go. I know the power of a morning routine, but I also know the power of just starting. And I want to give people a If you have an iPhone or a Mac, I use an app called streaks, but you can get any habit tracker on your app store. And I have 14 streaks right now, and I'll bring it up on my computer. You won't see it. So I have a cold shower. I squat for four minutes grounding. I write my goals in my journal every day by hand. Yes, I have them memorized, but I write them down. I take my blood pressure every day. I run at least one mile every day. I pray with my wife every day. I do weightlifting every other day. I'm trying to set my speaking schedule for 2026, so I'm doing speaking outreach every day. I walk 15,000 steps every day. At night I do a gratitude journal. So I write down three things I'm really grateful for and that, and I'm also doing the keto diet. So I'm not strict keto. So a lot of people who would listen to this podcast are going to be offended, but I'm saying I do apologize in advance. So every 21 days I go to a restaurant and I eat whatever I want to eat. Ice cream doesn't matter. I just come off the rails. But I go back on the rails for 20, or back on the wagon. And then right now what I'm trying to do, because my blood pressure's a little high, I'm giving up Diet Coke, my beloved Diet Coke, for 21 days. I want to see if that is the cause of my elevated blood pressure. Because people say when you try to figure out how to cure something, you only mess with one variable at once. So I tried other things and sadly I'm, down to the Diet Coke. So I'm no Diet Coke for me for 21 days. And if it doesn't change, I'm going back to Diet Coke. I just want the only one. But, but, but you have the discipline and And you're going to, but see, here's the thing when you have to have a tracker, When I look at my Habit Tracker and I see I have run 3,025 days in a row, do you think I'm gonna take a day off and start over at one? No way. So if I'm not feeling it, I run a slow mile. But I always do a mile. Because this app, this Habit Tracker app, is self-motivating. Because when you don't feel like lifting weights, you're like, oh. Do I really wanna start over at one? And you're like, that's why the number, when it gets a certain height, or a certain number, it's gonna be different for every habit and every person. But that number's gonna get to a point, obviously three, four, you're like, I'll start over at one, who cares? But when it gets to like 50, you're like, ooh, 50 days in a row? Like my podcast, I've been doing a podcast since July 7th, 2017. I've got over 1,350 episodes, which is absolutely insane. I never thought I would be that long of a podcaster back then, but I just kept showing up. And half the magic, whether we're talking productivity, your health, whatever, is showing up. That's half the battle A lot of entrepreneurs and people I've talked to, they struggle with that. They I just read, I forget where I read, but they were talking about the comedian Chris Rock. And people watch his specials on Netflix or whatever. They're like, oh, he's so amazing. But what they don't see is as he's writing the jokes, he goes to these really small comedy clubs in his area to try out all these jokes. And then that's how he gets his act. He just doesn't show up on stage. He goes to all these small town clubs and practices and practices. So we see the finished project on Netflix, but we don't see all the work that goes behind that They put the reps in. It's like the story of the bamboo tree. We see this bamboo tree sprout up overnight, but no one has ever seen the roots sprouting for the last number of years underneath. all the hard work is done in the back end. And then we see it and we think, oh yeah, that's easy, but you got to put the reps in like, like, like for you, the consistency of getting out and walking, even when it sucks and running and all that, you, you just make it happen. I, to me, I'm hearing like this, this common thread in your life. of a non-negotiables, like there's these non-negotiable promises you keep to Everybody needs to have these. So like I read for at least an hour every day. It's not always in one, uh, one hour chunk, but I want to be better today than I was yesterday. And what I learned today will make me better tomorrow than I am today. And we all need to have these non-negotiables. Now, I challenge anyone. What are your non-negotiables? Can you tell people what are your non-negotiables? And when I ask people this question, they go, huh, never thought about that. That's a red flag. You should know what your non-negotiables are. Obviously, you want to love your family and provide for them. But I mean, beyond that, for you personally, let's make it very personal. I want people to think about what are their non-negotiables and I don't want to think about it. I want you to go write it in a journal because when you write it down, it becomes real. Don't use an app on your phone, write It's just like what you said and I'm going to be honest and truthful with you. I have five non-negotiables, but I was also doing something that I've gotten away from. I was doing it consistently, but you've really inspired me to adopt it again. I was writing Well, you and I bet you at least five of the people who are listening to this needed that because I know the power of writing my goals and I got away from it too. I, that's why I put it on my habit tracker to write my goals down every day because there's something powerful when you take your pen and you write your goals down. It's different than when Mark, actually, when I was in San Antonio, no, it was Phoenix, I did a presentation a couple of years ago. I was talking about mindset. And a week before, I found my goals that I had written down in 2007. And I read the goals, and I brought the book with me, my journal. Goal number four, by April 1st, 2010, I will own my own successful IT company. I wrote that down in 2007. April Sometimes you have to reset them. Like, let's be real here, you know, Yeah i think i think by you writing your goals down everyday you're telling your brain i'm serious your brain goes yup they did what most people won't do. they wrote them down. And that is so important because people go, yeah, I, I, I typed it into my phone or I thought about it or I said it out loud. Those are all great things. But when you write it down, that's where the power, it's almost like your brain's going, okay, they're serious. Now Yeah. Yeah. Like I look at my goals two or three times a day, but adding the writing. Oh So important. Um, Hey, uh, I Some questions I want to ask you this, uh, the, the, your framework, the distraction detox, we talked a little bit about it where we touched on it, but Can you walk us through what our audience could do for distraction detox? It's going to terrify them, but you got to do it. Face the monster. So what you do is you get yourself a piece of paper and most people can't go an hour, try to go for an hour. Most people can't. What I want you to do, all I want you to do, the exercise is really simple. Every time you're distracted, I want you to write it down. Amazon goes by your house. Helicopter, dog barking, cat meowing, faucet dripping, someone talking outside. Write down every time you're distracted. Most people can't go more than 10 or 12 minutes, because they're like, they look at the list like, holy cow! Because you don't realize it, because your brain is tuning these things out, but it still knows it's there. And you cannot begin to mitigate these distractions until you write them down. we're not typing them into our phone we're not thinking about them we're actually writing them down it could be a scrap of paper it could be the back of an old envelope just write them down most like i said most people can't go more than 10 or 12 minutes because they're horrified like i had no idea that i was just distracted some are major some are minor Once you know what is distracting you, now you can start figuring out what one of two categories is the distraction. Is it things you can control or things you can't? If your neighbor's getting their roof replaced or the neighbor's dog's barking, not too much you can do about that. What if your own dogs barking or your faucet is dripping or your kids are being too loud will you can do something about that but first you got to realize. Just how distracted you are and i think because people are not writing these things down the Yeah. Yeah. You get a baseline, you know what to do. So what do you do with that after you do it? Like you just, you, you identify what the distraction is and you become intentional and, and deal with control the controllables, I guess is a better way. So like put the So the list of things you come up with that you can't control, let them go. Yeah. I mean, maybe you get noise cancellation, headphones. Uh, if your city is going to be doing some road work, maybe you don't do podcast interviews that that week, whatever, but you can't control that. But the stuff in your house, you can't control. See a lot of people get stressed. Oh, my neighbor's getting their roof replaced. Oh, my neighbor's dog's barking. Oh, there's a, there's a helicopter. My head over my head. you're getting all stressed out, you're tying yourself, you can't control this stuff, so just let it go, and deal with it the best you can, and then focus on the things you can control, because Yeah, I've heard Dan Martell say this, the world will show you where you're not free. And when something like that is triggering you, it's usually a sign, it's something on the inside of you that you have to work on. And I've been so much more aware of that over the last 18 months to two years. And things that used to bother me, and not a lot of things would bother me before Mark, but I've really have looked at it. I can't control that, but I control how I react to it, how I perceive that. And I can decide to And that's what I'm, what my intention is every day, making the decision to control the controllables show up and, and do my best, you know? So that's the magic. So Yeah, let's be real here. Anybody who has not anybody who says I've never had a chaotic day is known as a liar. Yeah, it's part of life. I mean, Your power go out, the internet can go out. I mean, you get a bad snowstorm. Uh, someone, you know, passed away. I remember when my father passed away a couple of years ago, it was not my schedule. Uh, back in 2017, my wife fell at home and broke her arm. That was not my schedule. So, and I'm not really good at this. I'm trying to get better at this, but you just have to number one, remain calm because if you get, angry, frustrated, overwhelmed, then you're not gonna be able to think clearly. So I know it's difficult if it's a very serious situation, but if you are the calm one, then everyone's gonna start calming down. And I remember when I used to be an emergency medical technician for an ambulance back up in Rochester, New York years ago, they always taught us, If you're calm, your patients are calm. If you're freaking out, your patients are freaking out. So maybe you're the only one that's the calm person in the situation. You're the steady rock, the steady hand. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But if they see you being calm, they're like, oh, oh, okay. I guess it's not that bad. I mean, it could be utter chaos, but they're looking at you and like, oh, well, this guy's calm. Okay well maybe maybe i'll just calm down too and then another person gets calm and another person gets caught and all of a sudden everybody starts calming down that's why it's it's important to check yourself like the kids used to say check yourself before you wreck yourself you need to before you react think yourself How is the best way i should react here not that first need your reaction but maybe like. You know it's not really that important or i don't need to make a big deal of it but i think so many people could buy human nature they jump right in and they do the first react that comes to them which is usually anger. to a chaotic situation when maybe they're like, okay, the kid spilled milk on my report I have to hand in in an hour. Well, it's not ideal, but I don't think the kid actually picked up the glass of milk and dumped it. It was an accident. Accidents happen. Let's go forward. But like I said, I am working on this myself. I am by no means do No, no. That's interesting you say that. It's just recognizing it and making a decision in how you're gonna react. Those routines that you have on a good day, sometimes something happens and there's nothing you can do. And the kids will start fighting. I had that happen in my house. But you got like, but the moment I react and I become amplified and say, if I, I'm just making a situation worse. So if you, if you stay calm, cool, and just realize, Hey, this is another thing I couldn't really control, but I Yeah. So. What is it for a second mindset you talked a lot in the past you know my set of productivity versus the mechanics where do people get stuck sometimes in. Be productive and the biggest issue i see when people want to be productive. Is go look in the mirror and the reflection you see coming back at you is your biggest problem. Yes, I'm talking about you, if you haven't figured it out. We are our biggest problem in most areas of our life. You have a marriage that's struggling, it's probably your fault. Your business isn't doing as well as it should, you are probably not making calls. So you need to take care of you, and guess what? Here's the good news and the bad news. Nobody can take care of you better than you can. So get out of your way, Fix your issues and move on. Yeah, you're not gonna be perfect, you're gonna keep making mistakes, you're gonna keep on stumbling and bumbling, but don't sit there and dwell, don't be an Eeyore, just keep moving forward because you are And I love that Mark, because it goes back to what the common thing we've been talking about the whole time, just start execution is the solution. You know, you just got to execute and do it. You can get stuck in your head and wait for the perfect time, the perfect business card. There's some, I talked to a business owner before when I started my company, he had the tools of the kingdom. He was waiting for the right business card. No, and I respect that man. Man, he was awesome. But he was waiting for the perfect business card. True story. But all he had to do was start. We wait for the perfect mousetrap, the perfect contract, Just get out of our own way and start. Yeah. Yeah. I want to ask this one because we're getting close to the end and this has been great. That last bit was so important for everyone to hear. And I hope people share this episode because there's been so many great takeaways from And remember what I said at the beginning, pick one thing that resonates with you that you can do quickly and easily and do it. So yes, I gave you a lot to think about, but pick one, the power of one. Yeah. And so piggybacking on that, because you can pick one thing, but if there was one daily habit that you believe every listener should adopt, and you may have said it, but I want to give you a chance to clarify or to say it I encourage people to go outside and not be on their tech. Yes, I know in certain parts of the world, it gets really cold in the winter time. They make these things called jackets and hats and gloves and boots. Go outside and just be quiet. Don't think about anything. Just be present. I'm not saying go out there and for 20, 30 minutes, a few minutes, away from your technology, it allows your brain to go. And you'd be amazed. I call these micro breaks. You'd be amazed by just two or three or four minutes away, just. being quiet. I mean, when I'm done with this interview, I'm grabbing my print book and I'm going outside for five, 10, 15 minutes. I'm just going to read. So my brain can relax because I'm sitting behind this computer for like the last 45, 50 minutes. And it's important. So if it's raining, you still go outside, they've got these things called umbrellas. I don't know if they have them up in Canada or not. Yeah, there's there's, there's there's things you can do. So don't make excuses, spend time outside away from technology, and you'll feel And I can attest to that from And Really hit home to me last night. When I like, and I believe in the walks as well. I live it. So what I did is I use one of those magical things called a jacket and a Bella clava and a hat, but I also took a headlamp. And I went to my favorite nature trail at about 10 after five, already dark. So there was no reason why I can't go out. But the old version of me and these lies we tell ourselves, you don't get the oxygen. And even if it's two minutes, yeah, we were built to this earth So, Hey, um, want to do something fun with you? Uh, and I know, uh, we know some of the answers, but I'm going to, I'm going to ask them to you again, rapid fire questions. You answer first thing that comes to your head. Okay. Ready? Uh, Mark, you're a morning person or night off. I'm now a morning person. It used to be a night off coffee or tea. Neither. Cool, I'm sorry, but TikTok. Gotcha, Oh, my Brooks Adrenaline's. What's one app you can't live without? Oh my goodness, I'd have to say right now, oh my gosh, this is, I would have to say, I love my chronometer. I use chronometer to track all my food and micronutrients. So I'd have to say What's the weirdest thing that boosts your productivity? Being goofy. One non-negotiable every day for you. Again, What's one goal that scares you the most right now, if One goal that scares me right now is I want to have a 12-month emergency fund. A lot of the financial experts recommend three to six. I want to be bold and double One piece of advice your future self would give you today, that Don't stop. Love it. Mark, this was incredible. How do people connect One place, mrproductivity.com. You do have to spell out the word, mr, M I S T E R mrproductivity.com. You go there at the very top of my page is a free 10 question productivity scorecard. Go ahead and take it. Be a hundred percent honest. I will send you your results. I've had productivity people take it and no one has got 50 out of 50 and there's no harm in that. you know what the problem is how you start solving the problem so mr productivity dot com you can find out the bottom my home page everywhere my social media where you can hear my podcast it's all at mr productivity dot And everyone listening, please, please connect with Mark. Share this episode. Let's help some people. There's one or two people that you know that will be impacted by what Mark has shared today. Mark brought the fire today, even Eeyore and Tigger, which was great to have those special guests with us. Thank you so much, Mark. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to 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 secure,