Take the Stairs

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Episode 49 — Take the Stairs
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00:00.842 Brandon Burton
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.
00:15.082 Brandon Burton
And now your host, his favorite Christmas movie is a Christmas story. He's my dad, Brandon Burton. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. This is episode forty-nine and I am Brandon Burton. It is my goal to help introduce you to people and ideas so you can better serve your chamber members and your community. In that introduction, this was my daughter Ella giving that little snippet about me with my favorite. Christmas movie being a Christmas story. And just as a side note to that, if you want to get a a good little chuckle around Christmas time, look up Tony Moline from the Cedar Park Chamber, his Facebook page. And through the month of December he's been doing a fun little yeah, every day he puts up a little picture and quotes from the movie Christmas Story. And I've just been loving it. But this week's episode I decided to do another book review and a couple months ago I had done a book review of Pat Flynn's new book, Superfans, and that got pretty good feedback from listeners, so I thought, well, I'll do another book review and I may do these periodically as I come across good books that I think can be applied to your chamber or to you individually to help level up your game and to Help you better serve your members and your community. So this week, the book that I'll be going over is called Take the Stairs by Rory Vaden. It's seven steps to achieving true s true success. And the overall theme, I guess, of the book is that it it's about what successful people do to be successful. And the title Being called Take the Stairs. So let me back up. I first was introduced to this book, it was probably five or six years ago, and Rory was a speaker at TCCE, and he was giving away his books as he was a speaker there at the conference. So I got a copy of the book and thought I was kind of intrigued by the title and read into the introduction, and it really started to kind of suck me in. And at the beginning of the
02:41.868 Brandon Burton
The book, the very first paragraph. I'm gonna go ahead and read that because it kind of sets the table for why the book is called Take the Stairs and kind of what he dives into. So this is the first paragraph. It says, The last time you came up to a set of stairs and an escalator, did you take the stairs? If you're like 95% of the world, then you probably didn't. Most people don't. Most of the time we look for shortcuts. We all want to be successful. And we all want to have a happy life, but we constantly look for the easy way. We look for the escalator in hopes that life will be easier. Unfortunately, in our search for making things easier, we are actually making them worse. And that goes into kind of alludes to what he calls a pain paradox, which I'll touch on in just a min in a in a moment here. But as I first picked up this book and was reading through the introduction. so I I kind of started reading it and then I put it down because I got caught up with just the busyness of life. But there was a paragraph that every time I'd see the book laying on my desk or bookshelf, I would remember this paragraph and it made me keep pulling the book out. And and I say that like it it was hard to get into. The book is very easy read and kind of entertaining. I I really did enjoy the read. But in this introduction, he says, according to one American publisher, 95% of all books that are published are never completely read. Says, and congratulations, you made it this far, because 70% of all books ever purchased are never even opened. And that just opened my eyes and I thought, okay, well, game's on. Yeah, if 95% of all books that are purchased are never completely read, I'm gonna completely read this book. Which I have now, so I'm part of that five percent, I guess. But it really is a a good book. So the I would say maybe the overall theme of the book is what Rory calls a rent axiom. He says, Success is never owned, it is rented, and the rent is due every day. So that gives you something to ponder on. But why take the stairs?
05:04.364 Brandon Burton
He talks about America being sick. People look for the short term easy, like taking the elevator or escalator, rather than the short term difficult, which would be taking the stairs. And this is a very simple example, but it's very effective. And believe it or not, for the last, you know, five or six years, ever since I got my hands on this book, whenever I'm faced with an e an elevator or a set of stairs, I always take the stairs because of Kind of the principles that he's laid out in this book. maybe the exception is if I have luggage or something and I need to take an elevator for that. But there's a few quotes from the book that really stood out to me. So I'll share a few of these quotes and maybe share some thoughts along with them. But Rory talks a lot about the importance of self-discipline. And he states, we have no accountability because we allow each other to get away with debt. indulgence and procrastination. And he goes on to say that successful people have the self-discipline to do things they don't want to do. And I thought that was pretty eye-opening that we don't have accountability because we let each other get away with debt, indulgence and procrastination. Those are three things that really diminish accountability and self discipline. So in order to be successful, we have to get out of our comfort zone, we need to do things that we don't necessarily want to do. And I I wouldn't say not want to do, but it may be a a discomfort. And really our natural tendencies are to avoid discomfort. So just human nature is to to go the easy way and to try to stay as comfortable as possible. But you don't find success by being comfortable. So another quote that stood out to me He says, as it turns out, distraction is a dangerously deceptive saboteur of our goals. And I think that that word distraction really stands out to me. And I I like to think of words and their meanings, but if you look at the word distraction, that means it's taking you off track. Dis distraction is taking you off track. So
07:30.112 Brandon Burton
What are you what is your traction? What are you on track for? And today we have so many distractions from our cell phone to social media to emails to your computer, your phone ringing, the constant buzzing and beeping and lights and everything that we're surrounded with, let alone when you do sit down to watch Netflix or something, it's so easy to just get sucked in and then it automatically plays the next episode. So very easy to become distracted. But when you think about it, if we don't know what our traction is, we don't know what our what track we're on, we don't really have any right to say that we're being distracted by social media or distracted by that phone call if we don't know what track we're on. So we need to be very definitive about our day, about our schedule, and be able to stay on track and be able to avoid those distractions. So I had mentioned earlier that Rory mentions a pain paradox. So the short-term easy sets us up for long-term difficult. And then the opposite is true. The short-term difficult sets us up for long-term easy. And the example that he gives for this was really a good visual. He said he grew up in Colorado. And for those of you listening that are in Colorado, you may know this principle already, but He said in the part of Colorado he lived in, they had both buffalo and cattle. And whenever a a big thunderstorm would come in, might have hail and you know just a nasty storm, that the cows would tend to run away from the storm. They would try to outrun it. And the buffalo would run towards a storm. So the difference is as the buffalo would run towards a storm, the storm would pass over them. And their time being exposed to that inclement weather and the hailstones and everything was minimal because they're charging towards it. And so the storm's passing them as they're running towards it, where the cows that are trying to outrun the storm, they it's that short-term easy. They're trying to procrastinate that storm, and they end up being underneath the storm and getting pelted with the hailstones for a lot longer because they're going along with the
09:54.712 Brandon Burton
the direction and speed of the storm. So that that just resonated really well with me. That pain paradox again. Yes, short term easy sets us up for long term difficult. And short term difficult sets us up for long term easy. One of the next principles that Rory talks about is integrity and the importance of doing what we say we will do. So our words we should Be using our words to help build people up and to not tear them down and to see people as they can become, or one of my favorite words, to see their potential. So if in regards to integrity, he talked about if if we just always assume that the mic is on, we see some of these things in the news or especially the politicians where they get caught, you know, saying something while the mic is on. if we just assume that the mic is always on and everyone will hear what we say, then that'll keep us in check as to to having integrity. And a good example of this is there's a another podcast that I listen to, the guy named Dave Melter, and he has a camera on him at all times. So he has a crew that follows him around, and oftentimes his podcast episode will just be taking audio from whatever he says on camera. But because he has this camera crew with him all the time, he really does always have the mic on. And he's mentioned how that really keeps him on track with the schedule. It keeps him having an integrity in doing what he says he's going to do because he's accountable and anybody who's watching can see what he's doing. Now that's really extreme, but if you can visualize that and kind of pretend that you have a a little camera floating around with you or a microphone that and really i may be listening right with Alexa and and Siri and all that hey we may have the microphones actually listening to us. But live our days with intention, study our calendar and make sure that we're filling in that white space of our calendar with good actionable items that will keep us on track and and avoid distraction.
12:18.284 Brandon Burton
So Rory talks about perspective. And this example that he gave really helped me visualize. I mean, we all have bad days, right? And it's often, I mean, it's easy to look at a bad day and think, man, this this can ruin my week, my month. Some people will really blow it out of proportion. It can ruin their year. You know, this year was so bad because of whatever. And whatever they list out, really, when you take it down. was just a couple of days maybe in that year, but they write off the whole year as being bad because of those couple of days. So when Rory talks about perspective, he's he says to picture a measuring tape that's eighty feet long. And each foot represents about a year of your life. So say on average, people live about eighty years, each each foot is a year. So each foot has twelve inches, which you could say represent a month. And so each month and a year. So then one day in a month would be one thirtieth of an inch. So when you consider when you have a bad day and looking at it in perspective of your life, or you know, just of the year even, that one thirtieth of an inch is really nothing. It's not a big deal. And if we can keep that big picture and keep that perspective, then we can move on through that. Now, as people set out to go after goals and to reach their reach towards their potential, Rory lists a few different reasons for inaction, why they hesitate and and don't go for for whatever their potential is or that goal. And he says these reasons for inaction are fear, entitlement, and perfectionism. And he says it can often take more energy to decide to go do something than to do the actual thing. And you think about that going to the gym. Some people will sit there and decide, you know, am I gonna go? Am I not gonna go? Am I gonna go? Am I not gonna go? And that mental energy they're spending really is taking a lot of energy where if they would just get up and go, then they could have the thing done already. So
14:44.902 Brandon Burton
This quote really r stood out to me. He says, It is more comfortable and convenient to let our dreams disappear than to muster the discipline and work ethic to turn them into reality. And you might want to back that up and listen to that again, but that is it's more comfortable and convenient to let our dreams disappear. And that kind of stabs you to the heart. So if you know if you have dreams. you don't want to give in to comfort and convenience. You wanna work through them, get out of your comfort zone and reach that potential. So he gave an example of this, a reason for inaction of being fear. And he talked about when he was a a kid growing up, he and his brother, they would they were into sports and they had this it was a football. It was actually a Garfield football. So it had Garfield character with the big eyeballs and everything on this football. But they were playing catch with this football outside and their neighbor, they were in a trailer park, and their neighbor in this trailer park was this was the scary house. You know, everybody has that scary house in their neighborhood that you make up ideas and and kind of a background story to this person is a a crazy person or whatever. You know, as a kid you come up with these crazy stories. But he and his brother had this story made up about this neighbor that was just scary. And one day as they're playing catch with this football, it goes over the fence into the the neighbor's yard. And before this happened, he and his brother would dare each other to just go knock on the neighbor's door. And they were both so afraid to go into their their yard that neither one of them would ever go knock on their door. But once that football went over the fence, they had no choice. It i I guess they did. They could just not have a football anymore and then they they were just out of luck. Or they could muster up the courage to go on the other side of the fence and get the football. So they were committed. Once the ball was over the fence, they were committed to get it back and they had to overcome that fear. And I think I came across something similar to that as I was deciding to start the pod this podcast.
17:09.965 Brandon Burton
for Chamber Chat Podcast. I had thought of the idea of doing it probably, I don't know, five or six months before I actually launched it. And there's some setup and things to to get things in order before launching the podcast, but I could have been putting it off indefinitely. And my kind of throwing the football over the fence, if you will, was I created a list of the top ten people that I wanted to reach out to to have on the podcast as guests as I first started. And a lot of these were people that I knew from the industry and people that I knew would be friendly and and would accept a invitation to be my guest on the podcast. And I threw that football over the fence by sending out an invitation to each one of them and saying I'm doing this. I'm creating this podcast. It's a podcast for chamber professionals to be able to learn from others, get ideas from each other, and be able to implement those ideas back at their chamber. Will you be one of my first guests? I don't have any listeners yet, but I need a guest. And once I sent out those first few invitations, I was scared. I didn't know what kind of response I would get. but That was me throwing the football over the fence. And luckily I got great response back. very willing candidates to to come on the show. I had Page Michel and and Becky Womble and Tony Falker, those are some of the the first ones I had on. And very appreciative to them for I guess letting me get that football back and and helping things not be so scary. But Rory says, says it's okay to be scared, just do it scared. So one of these next items that that Rory talks about is commitment. And I think commitment is such a big deal. He talks about the there's a decision point where as you're deciding whether or not to do something, there's a certain point where you're all in.
19:32.49 Brandon Burton
And until you you're at that all in stage, you you can always be asking yourself, should I or shouldn't I? Should I or shouldn't I? And at some point, once you're all in, then you're 100% and there's no going back. So anytime that you're not 100%, then you're always asking should. And if we can get away from asking should I, and instead ask how How can I, then that changes from a should I to a commitment, to a hundred percent commitment. And he has a a quote of it says, one brilliant aspect of the human mind is that once we start asking the question, how our creativity engages. And I think that is so important that we need to be asking how. And a lot of times just in life, Take the the example of growing up and your parents may say, We can't. We don't have the money for this. We can't do this. We can't do that. And maybe instead of saying you can't, you say, How can you? And find a solution that engages your creativity. It gets your mind to start thinking of answers rather than shutting down. And then he talks about not putting conditions on your commitment. And I'd never never really thought about this. aspect of of commitment before. But the example that he gives is you know, when people get married and not trying to to rock any boats here. I know everybody has different situation different marital situations, but I thought the the example he gave was was pretty strong. So he he says For example, in marriage we say I do until death do us part, but in all too many cases what we're really saying is I do until you get fat, you make less money, you cheat on me, you till the kids are grown, till one of us meets someone else, or what we might be saying is I do until or
21:56.384 Brandon Burton
I do as long as we have money or we have great sex or we're happy or it's convenient. And really, those are just outs that they're ways to get out and they're conditions upon a commitment. And when we make commitments, we need to be all in. We need to have that 100% commitment in how do we get through this rather than should I get through this? And Rory brings up the example of the difference between two hundred and eleven and two hundred and twelve degrees. That one degree is what creates turns water into steam and that steam can power a locomotive, and that one degree is what gives us one hundred percent commitment. So we need to find that that focal point where it turns from a should I into a how and that power that comes with commitment. He also talks about how focus is power in an example of magnifying glass at the focal point and the the power that comes through that magnifying glass to start a fire by having that that sharp focus. Talks about Mr. or Mr. Mediocrity. And Mr. Mediocrity is the voice in your head that keeps you from going after your potential. He says, silence Mr. with positive self thoughts. And he says to to use those positive self thoughts because no two thoughts can occupy the same space. And when I read that, there's a guy named Dr. Daniel Eamon. And he talks about what he calls ants, with A N T S for automatic negative thoughts. And you can do a search for him, Dr. Daniel Eymon. I'll put a link to him in the show notes as well, but he has some some neat thoughts about how to overcome these automatic negative thoughts and to be able to have those positive self-thoughts with you at all times. And then the final principle that I'll touch on from Take the Stairs is Rory talks about visioneering, which is a word that he made up. So visioneering is a combination of vision and
24:21.874 Brandon Burton
and engineering. So you need to have a clear vision of what it is that you want and then engineer the life to fit that vision. So create systems and the power of writing your vision down and your plan will really help you to be able to execute. And he gave a great example of him writing down what he wanted his future to look like. And I forget the amount of time like within a year or two years or something after writing down that plan, he was living the plan that he had written down. I mean, and I've I've heard other stories of of people doing the same thing. So if you doubt it, try it. And this is one of those things where the downside is not too big. I mean it takes a few minutes to write down a plan and then create your life around it and see how it works for you. But thank you for tuning in today. I hope you got something out of this book review of mine for Take the Stairs by Rory Vaden. I'll have a link to the book in the show notes page, which can be found at Chamberchatpodcast.com slash episode forty-nine. And if you like this, I will I'll plan on doing some other book reviews in the future. Thanks a lot. If you are a chamber professional Please subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify. When you subscribe to Chamberchat Podcast, new episodes will show up in your podcast app each week as they are released. If you're finding value in this podcast, please leave us a rating and a review in iTunes. But most importantly, please share Chamberchat Podcast with your colleagues that are in the industry.
26:18.678 Brandon Burton
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