Your First Goal For 2023 Is..??

Here is the complete transcript of the podcast

Today’s podcast is for you. If you’re struggling to set goals, welcome, or welcome back to successful Srini. Happy Sunday morning to you. I get this question, sometimes from people who listen to this podcast, and also from people who have been to my seminars, workshops, and even family get-togethers. Hey, I listen to the podcast, I am on your email. You talk about goal setting. I’m struggling with it. I understand the concept. Understand the principle I struggled with this. So in the last few days have been around, meeting a lot of friends, pre-Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, post-Thanksgiving, all that is going on. Or all that happened. Not I don’t want you to keep on happening. But it all happened. In one of the conversations, a friend of mine, a longtime friend, somebody who I look up to tells me that he’s struggling, coming up with some goals for next year. And he is a listener of this podcast, so he knows how serious I am. He wants my help. So he gives me this permission, or he commands me to set a goal for him.

So I know him I understand where he comes from. So it was easy for me to answer the question. But then thereafter, he tells me Srini, can you set a goal for my children? And hit children but not there? I’m like, okay, so you have three kids, and to set goals for all your kids. Okay. And they’re all over the place. So one is 28. One is I don’t know. So I said, Yeah, I can do that. If they listen, if they follow if they take it seriously, then I can. And as I was thinking about her children, that’s when this idea crossed my mind. Maybe I should do this for all. Everyone who is listening to this, you? I don’t know you, there is a high possibility I may not have met you. Why can’t I set a goal for you? The goal setting is easy because I did it for him and for the children. So the idea crossed my mind. And here I am comfortable Sunday morning, recording this podcast. So if I have to set a goal for you, what goals should I set? And how do I know which goal will work for you? That’s the question. That’s the answer to this podcast. Now, if you look at goals as such, that is you can wake up and set up any goal you want to set up for today. And chances are you may accomplish that goal. The question becomes says how do you set a goal that not only you achieve, but also explore yourself along the way, along the way, you explore yourself to such a level that other goals start to happen. Other things which you otherwise thought are not possible, will start to happen.

People around you start to see you differently. You internally feel good. You externally radiate energy and internally feel that you are Superman or Superwoman. You become unstoppable, you become invincible. That’s how I look at goals. So hundreds and 1000s of goals you can set, some could be done today, some could be done over the next week or the next month, or the next year. But which one should you choose? That is going to make sense and is going to bring all of them together, tie them together and make you this wonderful individual you want to become. That’s the question. Okay. So if I have to categorize all these goals, there are four or five categories. I talked about this multiple times on the podcast, you can group a bunch of your goals and call them financial goals. You can group a bunch of your goals and say these are my relationship goals. You can group a bunch of them together and say these are my personal goals. The physical goals. So you can put all these goals into different categories. That’s the point. Which category should you go after? The first and foremost category that I will go after which I’m going myself, by the way, is the physical category, your health, physical health, mental health, and physical health. Something that can be measured something that’s tangible. If you work at it, it’s going to produce results. So for my friend, I set this goal for him and I’m setting this goal for you, which is in the New Year, the Year 2023. One goal I have set for him is to go and hike to Everest base camp. Why Everest base camp? Why not anything else? Because Everest base camp is an easy trek, that can be relatively accomplished. Relatively accomplished, which means it’s relatively easy to track. That’s the point relatively easy track, easily accomplished can be done easily. I’ve done it multiple times. And each time, every time I go there, I feel like wow, okay, anybody can do this. That’s my belief. Because of that belief. It’s easy for me to be on this podcast and say that no matter who you are, or what you do, you can hike up to Everest base camp. Simple. That’s how I positioned this. But there’s also a backstory to this. This was the year 2018. This was in December 2018. And I was sorry, I take that back in October of 2018. Pretty cold, I was hiking up to Everest base camp. And I did that in six days. I just kept on going up the set for six days, all the way to Everest base camp from Lukla, the starting point to all the way up, typically takes two weeks, 10 days, but going up and down, I went up in six days takes about 13 days to go up maybe five days to come down something like that.

This was me coming back, I believe, or I was going up. This was a Tengboche A. And I was all of us, a few of us were at the at a tea house in 10 Bucha. And this is one of the small little towns got small little villages as you’re going up to hiking up the base camp. So at the city house, this was about eight o’clock in the night, and I was having a quick tea before I go up. And I overheard a bunch of people next to me, trying to figure out trying to arrange a helicopter. So turns out, the 77-year-old man needs a helicopter to go down. And the helicopter cannot come up. Because it’s already night. So he has to wait till the next morning. And he can go down. And as they were talking, I got myself a little bit dragged into the discussion. And I talk to this man. He tells me that he had surgery. About four weeks ago, I a hip surgery. I think this was a hip replacement surgery. But because he was committed to coming, he paid to come. He had to accomplish this goal anyway. And he’s 77 years old. So his health is declining. He had to do this. And he somehow came up all the way to the base camp. And while turning back, he started to feel sick, and some symptoms showed up. And he’s feeling weak. And now he’s deciding to take a helicopter and go down.

So that’s the story. So 77 years old, and had a hip replacement or something like that. And he’s going back. Pretty impressive, right? pretty inspiring. Because of this story, I’m convinced that anybody, if they put their mind to something, can do it any goal. And this is a relatively easy call to accomplish. So if you’re listening to this podcast, I’m setting this goal for you. Let’s talk about why Everest base camp, you don’t hike, you don’t run. That’s not something that you believe in. Why? Because I want you to explore yourself at the highest level. Because I want you to feel that you accomplished something that is a little bit out of your norm. Because I want you to do something that you can talk about to people around you. Of course, all that is true. But I want you to learn discipline. Everest base camp track teaches you discipline. For sure. And you can carry the discipline into other areas of life. If you’re looking for direction, in other areas of life, this track gives you direction. This track gives you the drive.

Having a goal for example, if you’re setting this goal for yourself for next year, then 2023 The best time to go up on to Basecamp is March and April of that’s the springtime. And so you have 90 days to prepare and get this goal accomplished and see easy to prepare, doesn’t matter who you are and where you want, but 90 days is a good amount of time to, I think, again, don’t quote me on this. But what I’ve seen working with people and working on myself, and it takes a good amount of time to go and get this done to the gifts, a definition gives a definition to the first 90 days of your year. And this also does other things to you, you overcome a bad diet. And this acts like a drug, literally to set you up for other things for next year. So there are so many things that happen as a result of you committing to a goal like this. But the big part of this is there are some dreams that you cannot accomplish. We as humans, cannot accomplish, we could we were going to die with some dreams within, you know, still within us. But this is something that can be done.

This is something that can be accomplished very quickly. This is the dream, when accomplished, can also make other dreams possible. This man 77 years old, had a dream when he was 22 years old to come and hike up to Everest base camp. For 50 years, he did not do anything. And suddenly woke up that year. And he’s like, Ah, I need to get this done. I’m falling apart physically, whatever. Right? I’m growing old. See, I don’t want you to think about your goals or goals of this nature this late in life. You got to get control of what’s possible now. So that’s my goal for you. Is to set a goal for yourself. Now people so my friend did ask me, What should I do after I’m done? With Everest base camp, motivating, motivating. He’s already thinking as if he’s already accomplished. Never hikes, though. Okay? It’s like, Yeah, after that, go hike up to Kilimanjaro. Maybe she Everest base camp Kilimanjaro, they look good on the resume. They look good on the resume, life resume.

Okay, I want to stop here. And I hope you take this seriously. And really work on this. And if you’re a listener of this podcast, and you do listen to this, and I don’t know if this podcast is going to continue starting the first of January, because I set a goal for myself to do this only for 365 days nonstop, and I’m pushing myself and continuing myself. But once I’m done, or once you are done. If I’m done then I may not be communicating with you. But once you are done with your goal, do let me know. Tell me that Srini I listened to your podcast I got motivated. I did set a goal for myself and I did accomplish it. There are two windows for you to do this to do it in March, ideally, or April or May. Those are the 90 days right there or go there in September, October, November, or maybe in December also. So you could literally go up anytime you want to go up there isn’t you know, Everest base camp is easy. Okay. I’m gonna stop here. Have a wonderful day. And before you know it, I’ll be here with you tomorrow. And we’re going to talk something about 2023 planning furnish only three want to continue this discussion. Okay. So that’s all for now. You take care of yourself, bye now.

Why Podcast When It Doesn’t Make Money?

Here is the complete transcript of the podcast

On the podcast today, we are talking about podcasts. Specifically, we’re talking about this podcast. And I’m answering a question that a friend of mine asked me just a few days ago. And he was asking me about some numbers on this podcast. He was assessing my success in a good way and in a private conversation. But I thought I’m going to talk about it here. Because if he’s asking, he’s a listener of the podcast, and he’s asking me this question. Chances are that as a listener of this podcast, you might be also having this question, or maybe you’re considering starting your podcast. If that is the case, then for sure this is going to be of help. And let’s say you are a completely, totally new listener to this podcast, and you happen to be stumped, stumbling upon today’s podcast episode. In that case, also, I think you’ll find some value. There is a message in this welcome, or welcome back to successfully Srini Happy Saturday morning to you. It’s a Saturday, I keep Saturday podcast, podcast episodes. Very light. So I want to keep this light. So the question was this. So my friend is asking me Srini, how much money are you making from your podcast? He listens to this podcast every day? That’s the question.

I said I don’t make any money. He says, Oh, you’re doing this for a year. And how many people listened to a podcast? I said I do not know I started this. I think we’re close to 20,000 downloads now. I said I started this podcast, starting the first of January, kind of daily podcast, on an average about 3000 2000 to 3000. downloads a month, do is a good number to go with initially did not have that kind of downloads at the beginning of January, February, March, and April. And tilapia May, it’s May is when it started really taking off. And then this month in November. As of now, we crossed 3200 downloads for this podcast. So clearly, nothing big about this, nothing to talk about nothing to celebrate any of those things. There are some rankings, independent websites, and different rating organizations. They all rate podcasts, there are some ratings, but I’m not worried about that.

So the question, which I did not answer, but I’m doing now is why would somebody do a podcast, if it is not making money, I never said My goal is not to make money with this. If I have to make money with this, I need to run ads, I need to have guests who pay me money, for me to interview them, and things like that. There are different ways to monetize a podcast. But the point is, you don’t need to. And I never felt a need for thinking about making money. Because this act of podcasting and recording does not work for me. I do this in my sleep. It’s actually a state of meditation for me. I can wake up anytime in the day. And I can record for 1015 20 minutes. And it doesn’t. I’m not worried about how I speak or what I say. I’m worried about what I say, but not the way I say it. I’m not worried about oh, I need to have a clean recording, I need to have a great sounding podcast, I’m not worried about the cosmetics, I’m worried about the content. I’m worried about the way I express myself, which I don’t need to work a lot on. But still, I have to work. So internally, I’m trying to develop myself. And I’m constantly trying to improve everything. But then I’m not worried about it. I don’t use lack of excellence to become becoming a hindrance to what I’m trying to do. So this is my happiness game. Because this is my happiness given not worried about money.

Now let’s talk about money for a second why do people talk about money? See there is an underlying belief that money makes or brings happiness. And there is some truth to it. But beyond the point, it doesn’t see if you’re making 234 100 $500,000 a year, maybe a million dollars will buy you some more happiness. So you are working towards making a million. But let’s say you’re already making three or $5 million a year and you want to go to $20 million. Let’s say you think by making $15 million $15 million more. I can’t get the math right. So you make five you’re trying to make 15 more you think that that’s going to completely drastically change your happiness. It gives you the feeling of okay, I have done it, I now make 20 million a year. But, that feeling doesn’t necessarily translate into anything on the ground. So beyond a point, it’s nothing beyond a point you will continue to stand happy, you will continue to stay depressed will continue to stay disconnected and disjointed and aloof. And all that and all problems, all worries that that otherwise is that you are trying to avoid, may persist even after you’re making a lot of money. So the point is, and it clear proof of that is it’s already there, all rich people live, if all rich people, you know, all these people can make more money, okay, because money brings in money. So if money brings in money any rich man or woman makes can make a lot of money. And if they do make a lot of money, if that is the case, if that’s the truth, why is that? There is so much unhappiness. There’s so much of you know, I don’t know, all kinds of issues. Why rich people aren’t happy if that’s the case? So if you want to raise the happiness game, right? That means you have to become altruistic. That’s the only way you can when you can, you can really, you know, stay happy. That means you commit yourself to the service of others. That means you will help others there is no other way out of this. So why are people who make a lot of money? And why is that I was just speaking about this recently, at a fundraiser, I said why people give them money. Rich people are giving away money. Because they know that true happiness comes. That is one of happiness, real happiness is when they start practicing altruism. That’s it. That’s the truth. So again, I’m not saying this, but I’m not looking to make money with the podcast, it’s good. It’s good to make money, any activity, if it makes money, great. But that’s, that’s not the primary driver. And not only that, to make money, it takes time. Everything takes time. Everything takes effort. So this is not something that you step out and say, Well, okay, I started a podcast six weeks ago, I’m gonna make money, it doesn’t work.

Now, I also want to, you know, emphasize, we’re talking about money. See, money doesn’t give a sense of purpose. So if you have a sense of purpose, and you don’t have money, you still will be happy, you will achieve your will, and you will work towards that purpose, in whatever way you can. And money along the way can accelerate that outcome, and money will help you. But it’s not an absolute requirement. And that is why you see people, who really don’t have much for themselves, but they’re able to create great organizations that are able to achieve big things and impact the world at a whole different level altogether. And they don’t have that anything for them. Really, I mean, they, they don’t have anything going for themselves, but they have this big thing going for themselves, or for everybody else. So that means they’re driven by a purpose. So money helps, but not a necessity. Now, here’s the other side of the argument. A life without a purpose is futile. It’s a waste, you wake up in the morning, you’ll lead your life your day, like a dead body, and then you just go to sleep as if without anything, and then you wake up the next morning, with the same story. You don’t know what to do with the time you don’t know what to do with your ideas you don’t know what to do with anything practical.

So a purpose is necessary if you want to have a compelling life a purpose is necessary. I think the bottom line is this unless there is a purpose unless it’s compelling enough It’s futile to think about becoming happy. And Witten these words purpose compelling life happiness there is no mention of money anywhere. See money is a byproduct money is secondary, it comes great doesn’t it doesn’t come it’s okay it has a life of its own. Money has a life of its own. Some people are obnoxiously wealthy do not know Rich do not know why some people work all their life they can never get there we do not know because these dynamics are unknown to mankind. I will tell you a lot of people tell you if I can do it, you can do it. You know if I can get this you know if I can make this work then you can anybody can make this work. People make statements, but every mind is different. Every brain is wired differently. So why something’s wrong But to some, some things do not happen some nobody knows. But the key is to set a life that is driven by a purpose or multiple purposes. And then you see the game happen. And then you are never unhappy, then you’re always attracting wealth. Leonardo. No more he said an incredible thing he said The miracle is that the more you give, the more you have. Incredible quote right there. Leo Nimoy was Captain spark in the old Star Trek series. The miracle is, the more you give, the more you have. Hey, you don’t have money? What will you give? Give your time. Give your ideas. Give your intent. Do you know? Okay, I promise I’ll keep it light. I’ll leave it. I’ll close it here. Have a wonderful weekend. A great Saturday, November is coming to an end and we are soon within a few days, we are stepping into the month of December last month of this year.

So whatever goals you have, and you’re struggling to even decide what your purpose is, use this time, the next four weeks to define a purpose for yourself so that you can set your life on the path to achieving that next year, or going forward for how much amount of time it will take. Okay, that’s all you enjoy your weekend, your Saturday. And before you know it, I’ll be with you as early as tomorrow. Thank you.

Why We Go Crazy? The Truth About Black Friday Shopping

Here is the complete transcript of the podcast

Happy Black Friday morning to you, as I’m recording the podcast today, chances are you are now driving, and you’re starting your Black Friday shopping. Or maybe you were awake all night, celebrated an incredible Thanksgiving, and had a great dinner with friends and family. And then you spent all night shopping. And chances are you may be listening to this podcast while driving back home. Maybe don’t know, or maybe you’re listening to this, but you know has nothing to do with Black Friday, you’re listening to this at your own leisure on a different day doesn’t matter. Black Friday is an incredible day, it kind of sets the tone for a lot of things. It’s not about getting a good deal. And, all that which is true. To a large extent, that’s true. It’s all about, you know getting value for your money, and all that. But it also sets the tone for what’s happening with the economy going forward. And all that.

So that kind of becomes a predictor, it’s an indicator of what’s going to happen going forward. So 2021 was very interesting, over 155 million Americans shopped during the Black Friday of 2020 155 million people. This number is a little bit better than 2020 2019 or 2020. For that matter, I don’t think this is any bigger than 2019 2019 was big, that really big and 2020 COVID happened. So 2019 was huge. Now here’s an interesting fact, on average, every individual spent about $300 On an average. So, if you are shopping right now, or you saw already you are going to the store right now, that means you are going to spend on average about $300 today. So 300, is the bare minimum you will be spending maybe more. But 300 is where the numbers are $272 billion of sales are expected to happen. Today, I’m not buying anything, because I have already bought whatever I have to because most of my purchases are online, and most of my stuff has to do with software. And so the sale started over like seven, eight days ago. It’s happening. So it’s not like somebody’s opening the shopping cart, like exactly midnight, of Black Friday or anything like that. So So sales are happening, and a majority of the sales have already happened.

So I’m here comfortable is, you know, situated, and not going out. And not looking for any deals because all my deals are done. And all good. So but I’m eagerly waiting to see what the number saw these $272 billion worth of sales happening today. That number I want to see whether we can better that number. I want to see how different institutions who do analysis on all the data, all the consumer data will come back maybe in a week or two when they do come back in a week or two or three. And they want to report on all these numbers. I want to see what the reports are going to be and what their analysis is going to show. Because based on this, I’m going to see I’m going to measure or at least I’m going to study they mature the depth of the health of the economy, and using this I plan on doing a few things in the year 2023. Now I have a question for you. If everything is available online and everything has started, the sale factually started five or 10 days prior to Thanksgiving and prior to Black Friday. And you had the option to buy stuff online. And I’m assuming that you are buying stuff online, everybody buys online. So my question to you is why are you now going to the store? If you went to the store, or if you’re going to the store, why did you go to the store? Why did you go on Black Friday into a store to buy stuff? It’s not that COVID has completely gone away. still around. There is a weird flu season going on here. So there are some health risks involved or going into crowded places. That’s part of why you are going there. You went there and you bought stuff. years ago, many many years ago, I read an article on Black Friday sales very interesting article. It’s not about getting deals. Because if some good buyers, like somebody who has done their research somebody who has prepared themselves, they can find great deals anywhere. It has nothing to do with the Black Friday sale. So if it has nothing to do with the Black Friday sale, then why people will go crazy about this? Well, there are apparently some secondary motives for going to a Black Friday shopping or engaging in Black Friday shopping. And that has to do with stories. So you go, you buy, and you have an experience with your friends and family.

Now that experience is unique that can only happen once during this time of the year. And you want to share your experience with a bunch of people around. So on a Friday, well, Friday evening, when everything is done and dusted. You call a friend or a family member and ask them hey, how much did you spend on your Black Friday shopping? And they’ll say, Oh, I bought a TV, and I bought this. I bought that I spent like $5,000 Wow, okay, you did that much. Ah, I spent about $1,000 Oh, wow, what did you get? $4,000. Like, what did you buy? Well, I bought, you know, some stuff from the office, you know, whatever, right for my car, whatever. Right? And you start comparing the exchange notes of your activities. Where did you go? Well, I went to Macy’s. Oh, I went to Kohls. Wow, no, I did not go anywhere I just bought online, you start extending notes. Now that gives enough amount of data for a conversation. Good conversation. And you’re measuring also you’re measuring your flight, Black Friday, and shopping status. Some people say Oh, I drove all the waste 35 miles outside of the city to the outlet store. Yeah. That’s the story. I’ve heard so many stories about Black Friday, Black Friday, shopping, and all that good stories, I heard some really terrible stories also heard a friend of mine who almost lost his entire family. Because whoever was driving the car kind of fell asleep.
On the wheels are all kinds of stories. But here is something that I want you to think through seriously. At the moment, any purchase gives a tremendous amount of happiness, you get a good deal, you feel good, and you feel great. And you shouldn’t be buying stuff on credit cards. You shouldn’t be in debt, buying stuff. You shouldn’t be borrowing money from your future, to buy things that will make you happy in the present. This is a message that I have been trying to convey. And I have conveyed multiple times on this podcast. For months together, I’ve been talking about this. Be careful how you manage your money, because we do not know how this is going to shape up. This economy is going to shape up in the next 567 months do not know exactly five weeks from now, when the year 2023 comes in or starts. Do not know how the first two weeks are going to be maybe there’s gonna be some excitement anyway. But then what happens in the middle of January? When everything comes back to its pre-existing engagement. Then what happens? Who knows how this economy is going to look? Some people are saying it’s going to be a bad year. I do not know this. I have no idea. But for you to prepare yourself to be good in a bad year. You need to take control of your finances. You need to take control of your expenses you need to take control of everything, whatever.

So taking the Black Friday excuse I’m conveying this message to you that please Don’t drive yourself bankrupt buying stuff that does not need the second day onwards, filling up your closets filling up your car your houses with stuff that you really don’t value or the stuff has no shelf value has no forget about any tangible value but has no intangible value either. no value at all forget about tangibles intangibles all that no value at all. Why buy stuff? Why do you want to associate your identity with stuff? What is this stuff going to do to you ask these questions, and do some introspection on this? I was recently at a party just a few days ago. And I was talking to a few people. And each one of them said, interestingly, each one of them almost is one of them, like six, seven people I met. They’re like, they’re complaining about the interest rates, and what the credit card companies are doing to them to the balances, and how they’ve taken money on the credit cards and put that money somewhere. And one individual told me that bought crypto using credit cards. It’s a weird thing.

You know, we are in this complex where we want to achieve everything in our lives. Everything. Unfortunately, the rule of life is you cannot get to the second step. Unless you are firmly situated on the first step. You cannot get to the third step unless you are firmly situated on the second step. It’s a step by step by step game. You can’t fly, you can’t jump to the peak doesn’t work that way. That’s all though. That’s the message I wanted to convey. I still, you know, I’m happy to enjoy your Black Friday, you know, shopping. There is, of course, you know, if you’ve been out with your friends and family and had a good time, great.

Now, those are good memories that you’re creating. Awesome, good. But then we can be aware and be prepared. That’s all for now. Wherever you are, be safe, and I’ll catch up with you as early as tomorrow. Thank you.