Selects Edition: Becoming a “Champion” Goal Achiever with Dr. Jeff Spencer

This is the Selects Edition of the Eventual Millionaire, where we choose to republish the best interviews I had with millionaires. (This episode was originally published on February 3, 2020)

Dr. Jeff Spencer is a doctor, mindset guru, chiropractor, artist, olympian, and author. Over the course of Dr. Jeff’s life and career, he had a diverse set of experiences and accomplishments. As a result, he had a unique vantage point with which to become “Mission Control” for high-performing individuals. This distinction enables him to analyze circumstances and challenges from a different point of view, allowing him to see the path to achievement where others may not.

Over the last forty years, Dr. Jeff had the privilege to coach, mentor, and advise some of our generation’s greatest achievers. From Tiger Woods to U2, Bulletproof to Nike, each of his clients have benefited from the culmination of his life’s experiences. He discovered that success doesn’t come from will, talent, or tactics. The winners know something everyone else doesn’t. What they’ve discovered is that success is both a path and a process. He is now a Cornerman to leaders of the industry, world-class athletes, and iconic performers. He works behind the scenes developing these world-class achievers into superstars in their field.

“Our human nature is not what gets us to be great. It’s our champion mind that gets us there, and it’s not just positive thinking.” – Dr. Jeff Spencer

Episode Highlights:

• What is a champion’s blueprint
• In-depth explanation of Jeff’s goal achievement roadmap
• How to understand our human nature
• How long does the daily grind last
• Learn goal achievement as a leader of a team
• The difference of “belief” and “knowing”
• How to recalibrate moments to have a champion’s mind

Goal Achievement Roadmap

Website:

DrJeffSpencer.com

Connect with Jeff:

Twitter
Facebook

Transcript: Download

Video Transcription provided by GMR Transcription Services.

Jaime: 
 	Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I am Jaime Masters, and it is my good honor to have my good friend Dr. Jeff Spencer on the show. Now, I’m gonna tell you a quick little intro for him. I usually don’t do this, but I met him at an invite-only event, and he blew me away, and I actually have a little testimonial. It said, “Part” – I can’t even read my own handwriting – “Part doctor, part guru, part medicine man from Lance Armstrong.” I think that sums it up. You are an artist, sir. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. It’s an honor. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	You’re so welcome. Thank you. 
Jaime: 
 	So, again, every time I talk to you, I just have a joyous experience, so I know that the listeners will have that too. Give me a little bit of your background because you’re also an Olymp – you have so much amazing background that I couldn’t even cover it all, so tell us what you do. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	What I do, or the background, or how I got to where I am? Whatever? Well, I guess the place it really starts is when I was 7, I thought it’d be really awesome to become an Olympian. I just had that in my brain. I wanted to march in the parade on the opening day ceremonies. It wasn’t really how I was gonna do it, it wasn’t a passion about a particular sport, but then, when I was 11, I showed some very unusual talent on a bicycle, and I realized, “Okay, that’s how I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna become an Olympic cyclist, and 
that’s how I’m gonna march in the parade.” 
 
 	And, I gave myself 10 years to do that between the ages of 11 and 21, and I drew my little plan on how I was gonna do it, which was simple. I was gonna be brave, I was gonna work hard, and I was never gonna make an excuse. That was my plan. And, I was fortunate because I had amazing mentors because the last time I saw my dad, when I was 13 – and, that’s its own story, but I had angels come into my life at strategic points that taught me important things. 
 	My cycling mentor, who was a five-time national champion, three-
time Olympian, taught me how to win. He said, “This is really a skill that you learn. It’s not just trying harder. And, let me show you how to do this.” And, I had the brain and the mentality to be able to absorb that. And then, when I was 18, getting close to the 21 Olympic time that I hadn’t made yet, but was still aspiring to, I met my second life mentor, who was a Victorian, born in the late 1890s, and he was a Renaissance man. 
He was a Shakespearean actor, he was a playwright, he was a poet, he was a trained university metallurgist, he was a war correspondent in World War I, and he developed a whole new type of glass art sculpture, and he chose me to be his apprentice, and I was basically an athlete, and he chose me because he saw something in me that he felt could be that person that he needed, but he could also cultivate me. What he did when we took our breaks at lunch – he read the poets to me, he read the great philosophers, he played classical music, and he said, “I need to fill you up on this stuff.” 
 
And somehow, he saw something in me that enabled him to reach out to me, that changed my life permanently forever. With the help of those amazing people – among others, the shoulders of giants that I stood on – I did become an Olympian when I was 21. So, we checked that box off, but what was important was how I got there and what I learned from the experience, and unless you’ve been in something at that level, it’s really impossible to help take people to their greatness, and that’s kind of what I do right now. I really craft the blueprint for people’s greatness, is what I do. 
 
 The other side of this is that my university training was in sports science, so I knew how to craft a body that could push and stay in the game long enough to be able to get to a point where once you learned how life works, then you could create your longest legacy, but you were still in the game because you had a great second half to do that. 
 
What was interesting is that when I was advising athletes to become highly paid professionals and gold medalists, which I’ve done a million times, I helped businesspeople that came to me that wanted to become their own champions, so I was able to take what I learned and what I knew and apply it to individuals in sports entertainment and in business. It’s kind of nondenominational. 
 
 At this point in time, I do work in the business world with individuals, teams, and organizations, and my whole deal is that there’s only one of you – as a team, individual, or organization – in this creation, and my job is to help you craft your blueprint to your greatness, and that’s what I do. That’s how I got here. 
 
Jaime: I love it, and I didn’t even know part of that story, and I’m looking behind you, looking at that champions’ blueprint, and that’s what blew me away. I was like, “What the heck is this thing? He has it on his cards.” I’m staring at it because it’s so involved. Can you 
explain a little bit? Because that’s the how of what you’re actually doing. 
 	
Dr. Spencer: 
 	What I discovered was that winning big is never an accident. Greatness is not an accident. People think you stumble into it, or that it’s talent and will, and you try harder, and you get there. Great idea, but that’s not true. There’s a process by which a person is cultivated – their mind, body, and soul is deliberately cultivated to learn the skill and the assets to be able to achieve, and to me, goal achievement is the life fundamental skill because if we can’t manifest, then our dreams don’t matter because they’re not gonna find their way to the surface anyhow, and I feel like there’s a lot of mythology that surrounds the whole idea of goal achievement out there. 
 
 	And, the problem with that is that people think that they’re the problem because they’re not achieving, and I’m saying I actually think a lot of this is the model. It’s appealing to our human nature, but our human nature is not what gets us to great. It’s really our champion mind that gets us there, and it’s not just positive thinking. There are certain skills that you need, and I sat down and I said, “What does this look like?” 
 
 	And, there’s two fundamental parts to being able to achieve your goals consistently, predictably, and repeatedly. You’ve gotta know how to prepare to achieve your goals. No preparation, you can’t get there. You can’t just start and make it happen. Guessing doesn’t work at a certain level. And then, I realized that in contrast to the preparation, there was the performance side, and that’s the champion’s golden rule. First, you prepare, then you perform – you do the homework, and the test is easy. So, I’ve crafted that model that makes playing big our normal rather than the occasional exception, and we can go into detail if you’d like to do that as well. 
Jaime: 
 	Oh, we are definitely going to, because what was so amazing about the model was that I looked at it, and half of it is preparation, and the other half is in the game, and I was like, “Nobody talks smart goals, all that stuff.” Nobody talks about that stuff. 
Dr. Spencer: 	Just between you and me, the secret is that rather than just smart 
goals, people want and need the right goal, which I’ve created a criteria for that I work with my clients with. I did that last night with my semiprivate coaching group. I said, “We’re gonna talk about how you know that you have the right goal.” And so, I’ve created the criteria for that, and I appreciate your sensitivity into that because again, the mythology of goal achievement is rampant, and I feel that usually, the loser, in a certain sense, is the person that’s willing to do the work. They can do the work, they deserve to win and play big, but the model has not enabled them to be able to get to where they wanna go. 
 	
Jaime: 
 	This makes us all feel better, also, just in general about it all, right? 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Yeah. 
Jaime: 
 	Because it’s a flawed model, and if it’s a flawed model, then it’s not us, and then we can achieve the goals that we really want. So, can you walk us through what the model is? What I would love to do is put a screenshot on the show notes also so everyone can take a look at it, because I absolutely adore it. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Yeah, absolutely. So, let’s get started on the preparation side. Yes, preparation is important. We have to be prepared to start. And so, there are five steps that history has revealed to me through my 45 years in the high-performance world that we must go through, and step No. 1 is clarity. We must have explicit clarity on our goal because when we have explicit clarity on our goal – meaning that we have the right goal that aligns our mind, body, and soul – then what that does is give us gocus, which is goal focus. 
 
 	Goal focus is the ability to hyper-focus and get stuff done with simultaneous total peripheral vision, and that’s a very special perspective that champions have. The anxiety is low, the confidence is high, because they have the right goal. 
Jaime: 
 	I was just gonna say – I thought it was a typo on your sheet when I was looking at it before you explained it. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Everybody does. They’re so proud of pointing out a typo. “Oh, Jeff, excuse me please, but…ahem. Typo.” They’re so proud of themselves. I say, “Well, that’s actually intentional. Do you see that little trademark next to it? That means ‘gocus’ is ‘goal focus.’” So, that’s where we always start because if we don’t have the right goal, then we worry, and when we worry, our mind starts to spin, we become apprehensive, we can’t invest in our future because we’re uncertain – that’s a no-win proposition. 
Jaime: 	What is this – and, I would love to dive – I know, we’ve got so 
much to talk about, and I wanna dive into every single piece. I don’t know if we have enough time, but I love talking to you. So, how does that nuance of knowing – because it feels like it could be a slippery slope on “Exactly perfect right goal” and “I’m worried as all heck.” 
 	
Dr. Spencer: 
 	No, we’re not chasing perfection. Again, the definition of the right goal is that it’s a goal that aligns your mind, body, and soul, and when you have the right goal and you run your proposed goal through the criteria that will challenge you to have to defend the goal that you think you wanna pursue. See, people don’t have a relationship with the goal. They’re really thinking about what am I gonna get back once I achieve this? A car, confidence, boat… They don’t really have a relationship with the goal, and if you don’t have a relationship with the goal, then you can’t do what’s necessary to support its creation, and in my experience with that… 
 
 	So, the right goal aligns your mind, body, and soul, and what does that mean to us? It means that we have taken our goal, and we have challenged it against a criteria that forces us to have to look at it in a different way, and if we can answer the key questions that are part of the right goal – is this relevant? Are there indicators that tell me this is the right goal for me? Is there enough gravity between me and it? Is the height and aspiration of this big enough for my mind, body, and soul? Is the time to completion – do I have the time to do this? Is it the right time? 
 
 	If we can – in the affirmative – answer that, then we have alignment with our mind, body, and soul, and we experience that as a confidence in the goal, an excitement to get started, and really, a belief that we can actually do this, but most people think, “Well, if I take the time to think about all this stuff, then somebody’s gonna butt in line, or I’m gonna lose the opportunity, or the universe doesn’t think I have enough confidence in this, so it’s gonna take away my idea.” That’s how human nature thinks. 
Jaime: 
 	Because we’re a little crazy sometimes, and that’s okay too. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Well, most of the time, we are. And so, we need a mechanism that’s our truth serum that gets that so that we can start to believe that we can actually do it, manifest, and live a life of passion and contribution. 
Jaime: 	I love how cut and dry you make it seem, though, too, because it 
seems so wishy-washy for people. “Is it the right goal?” You’re like, “Does it go through these criteria? Yea or nay?” And then, if they do, you can progress to the next level instead of trying to be like, “Oh, if it feels right…” And, don’t get me wrong, feeling right – 
 	
Dr. Spencer: 
 	No, you don’t wanna do that because there’s a trail of evidence that your intuition will testify to, but if you try to make it something that it’s not and you guess, that could be a very expensive mistake, and that’s the reason why this really starts with this. Here’s a classic example of that. I know somebody that paid $25,000.00 for a Mastermind, and he had this idea for this goal, and the Mastermind told him, “Well, the apprehension that you have is the problem. You need to penetrate the fear by overcoming the fear by taking action on that which you want to happen.” 
 
 
 	I said, “I don’t know if that’s a good idea because maybe the fear is your friend that’s telling you you’re not ready to pursue this yet. Let’s be really clear that we interpreted this side correctly.” But, everybody said, “Yeah, you can do it! Let’s go, man! You can do it! Just do it, do it, do it! Put this thing to rest! Show them who’s boss!” 
So, he went out, he wasted $25,000.00 on an idea, and the $25,000.00 that he spent for the Mastermind was more than worthless because of the harm that it did to him, his reputation, and his sense of value as a manifester having to face what just happened there, and it was really bad advice because it was misinterpreted. So, I’m not saying that emotions and passion aren’t important, I’m just saying that we need to understand what’s behind that, and sometimes we need to be talked off the cliff. 
Jaime: 
 	This is why you’re part doctor, part medicine man. That’s really amazing. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	That’s right, man. That’s where the guru side comes into it. 
Jaime: 
 	Totally. I absolutely adore that. And, it’s funny because when people get into it, sometimes there’s just too many opinions and it’s hard to see the forest for the trees, and that’s why having an actual model makes a difference. 
Dr. Spencer: 	Well, also, the creation of the model. Where’d it come from? This 
isn’t something I just made up. I’ve spent 45 years in the highperformance world as a participant myself, working with prolific achievers to see what the truth was. It was revealed to me through the process of doing it. So, rather than a marketing gizmo or something that sounds right and we hope that it’s gonna happen, we have a body of evidence that tells us that it is what it is. 
 	
Jaime: 
 	This is why I love you. Evidence! Who knew? In this online world, we need that. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Our mind is the trickster because it talks us into things that aren’t real. And so, when I was talking to my semiprivate group last night, called the Champions Club, I was telling them about this very thing. It’s like – because somebody asked me, “How do you know whether what you feel is right or wrong?” I said it’s the trail of evidence. If you look at the evidence and it’s there, then it tells you how fast to progress and step on the gas, but if it’s not there, don’t make it up that it is when it’s not. And so, there are these indicators that we need to be mindful of, and it’s kind of my job to share with people what that is. 
Jaime: 
 	An objective view. All right, let’s continue on the model because I have so many more questions that I need to ask you. I wanna finish it up, though. So, next step. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Step No. 2: We’re still in preparation – we’re not even pursuing the goal yet – and that’s called motive. Why are we actually doing this? The reason why an accountability to have the right reasons for pursuing your goal is it – when we know it’s the right thing because we’ve vetted it against our mind, body, and soul, what that does is give us drive because we’re gonna fight for it now in a different way because we know why we’re doing it. It’s an entirely different ball game. 
 
 	And then, Step No. 3 is impact. What’s the impact of our goal when it’s achieved? Nobody ever thinks about that, but when we take the time to really think about it and go through the exercises as it occurs and the playbook for the program that I’ve created for this, when you really understand this and have a close encounter with it – mind, body, and soul – then you leave with a different level of purpose. Your core conviction to pursue and achieve your goal is exponentially changed because of that. 
Jaime: 
 	What does that look like? How do you define what the impact is? You just think about it? Tell me a little bit more about what you’re doing. 
Dr. Spencer: 	You don’t think about it. You will know. You will say, “What is 
the impact of this on me and my legacy? Good or bad?” If it’s wishy-washy, then you haven’t spent time answering the question. 
Jaime: 
 	So, I just got done interviewing somebody that helps people with exits. He had a $100 million exit and all that fun stuff. And then, the impact, though, that they didn’t think about afterwards – 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Well, there you go. Why did we wait until afterwards to discover it? 
Jaime: 
 	That’s my point. They were like, “Oh, I lost my business, and now I’m in grief because it was my baby.” 
Dr. Spencer: 
 
 	Right. There you go. That is 100% predictable, and that is 100% preventable as well. That’s the conversation that has to happen before. Look, there’s no – everybody knows I work with Lance and I work with Tiger, and they both have black eyes. I get that, but part of the question was where was the person early on in their life that talked to them about the risks that they would be taking later? All of a sudden, this just shows up? 
That’s the reason why, in my opinion, anybody in business – even if you’re just getting started – first year, third year, fifth year, whatever, you’re on your way to your first million – there needs to be this level of conversation about our experience as a human going through this, and that’s what I do with my group and my advisory. It’s about you. When people say, “What do you need for your business?”, they go to their business. 
 
My deal is “What do you need as a human? Can you lead? Are you confident in what you’re doing?” These are the really important X factor sides that need to be there fundamentally for us as a human, and that’s part of my rampage, is to make sure that we don’t live our lives in illusion, with just a hope of a bigger future, but I would rather have a certainty of progression to be able to get there. 
Jaime: 
 	I love that you call it a rampage. I agree. I love your feistiness around it all. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	On a rampage. I don’t accept the fact that there’s only one of us in all creation – we’re gonna look back in 70 years and say that we squandered our life. That’s not acceptable to me. It’s not acceptable. 
Jaime: 	You’re getting everybody fired up, now, too. I know. That’s 
awesome. This is why every time I talk to you, I’m like, “Oh, I wanna go do more things!” That’s why you’re called the corner man, right? I love it. So, what’s the next impact, and what’s the next one? 
 	
Dr. Spencer: 
 	There we go. So, step No. 4 is mindset. When we talk about mindset, we’re not talking about affirmations, we’re not talking about positive thinking, we’re not talking about gratitude journals. We’re talking about do you really have what it takes to step into what has to go right to manifest this? Because if you have the champion’s mind, then you can take action despite your fear-based survival impulses that hold you back, but you have to understand what that is and how it operates because it’s the ultimate trickster. 
 
 
 	But, if you understand our human nature, and how it talks to us and talks us into doing things – have you ever said anything to somebody that you regret saying, but yet, it seemed so good when you said it? Well, that’s a typical example of our human mindset because it’s not about excellence, it’s about survival. 
That has to be transcended by the champion’s mind that can take action despite our survival impulses because it can hold that space to make that happen, and when you can do that, then you have the rarest of all human attributes, which is courage – taking action despite your fear-based survival impulses. Not being reckless and trying to show it who’s boss, but having evidence of what has to go right when, and stepping into that execution when it counts. 
Jaime: 
 	I have so many questions on this, too. How do you know if you do or if you don’t? Beforehand, you were telling the example of the guy who had fear. It’s like, “Ooh, was that just a fight-or-flight response? Is that something he should get over?” That’s kind of what you were just saying beforehand. How do you know the difference between those? 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Well, we have to understand our human nature. I have a whole chapter devoted to that and a whole video devoted to that, and that’s usually what I will present when I’m onstage because it’s that vital to me, and unless we understand that, that there are two parts to us that are at war with each other 24 hours a day – you have your human primal instincts that are fear-based that only care about survival. They only care about survival. They don’t care about your excellence. 
 	And then, the other champion’s mind on the other side that doesn’t 
get first dibs at every moment, but it does have the final say, and our champion’s mind is the composite of us – it’s part of our intellect, our intellectual library mixed with our intuition – and we know how that presents, and we know what decisions it makes in critical situations, and therefore, when that’s applied, then it overcomes our human mindset, and it pushes it into the background because you can’t shut that off. 
 	
 
 	Some of the mythology here – “I can’t take action right now because I’m afraid.” What do you mean you can’t? You have to know what to do and execute it despite the fact that you’re afraid. Or, “I’ve gotta be perfect, therefore I can’t win.” Well, I helped a guy win a gold medal because I told him, “You’re believing that unless you’re perfect, you can’t win, and your whole team is thinking like that. You ought to fire your whole team and just do the one or two things that count.” 
 
 	I said, “It’s not about trying your best, it’s about finding a way.” So, we have to recognize our human nature that’s incredibly predictable. It is so predictable. Given a set of circumstances, you can bet 99% of people are gonna do a predicted thing, but it usually is going the wrong way. 
Jaime: 
 	How do you know, though… So, because it is so potent – and, like you said, comes up first – 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	It should actually be “lethal” – yeah, exactly. 
Jaime: 
 	That’s my point. What if you start working with someone and you’re like, “You ain’t got it. You don’t have the champion mindset”? 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	I already know that in advance. If I’m working with them, then I discover that I haven’t done my job. I know in five minutes whether a person – 
Jaime: 
 	How do you know in five minutes? Tell me. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	I don’t know. I just have this filter inside me. I hear the words – well, I think also, being older, it takes a while… Okay, I’m 68, I’ve got a 21-year-old daughter, I don’t know what 68 looks like, or feels like, or is supposed to be, but with a lifetime of experience, you start to see things that just are because they are, and if you see this, you know that this is gonna happen. You may not think it’s gonna happen. That’s why we make all these mistakes that are only in our light because we think the way that we see it is what it is. 
And then, once we get beat up, by the time we’re 30, maybe the 
white flag goes up a little bit, and we realize that maybe our way isn’t the way that it – maybe we should get some counsel on interpreting what we’re experiencing, rather than learning it the hard way. And so, that’s the reason why a mentor is absolutely critical. Unless there is an influence in your life that can point out to you what the reality of it is to shortcut your learning, it may take you 20 years to get someplace that you could get to in two if you had the right advisor. 
 
That’s the whole reason why I created my program. That’s the whole reason why I do my advisory one on one. That’s the whole reason why I have my Champions Club, so Uncle Jeff can show up and point out “What this means is this,” and our human nature would – naturally, we would expect it to do this, so when it shows up, we’re gonna avoid it, and we’re gonna do this instead because history tells us that this will take us to where we wanna go. 
 	
Jaime: 
 	It’s amazing. If Dr. Jeff lets you into his programs, then at least you know you have enough grit to be able to at least complete part of the circle, right? Because it matters. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	We wanna get unscathed. We wanna limit the scar tissue – the unnecessary scar tissue, yeah. 
Jaime: 
 	That’s really funny. Yes, I completely agree, and it’s amazing that that is such a core piece, and I just love that you actually verify that beforehand because a lot of people will take on coaching clients or whatever and be like, “Oh, I don’t think they can get it, but I’m gonna try and take their money and help them.” 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	You know what? That’s the biggest abuse of the greatest honor. The greatest honor is to have somebody entrust you with their legacy. I can’t think of a bigger honor. It’s gotta be held really sacred in a sacred vessel to usher it through life’s minefield, in my opinion. 
Jaime: 
 	That’s why I was honored to have you here. You are so wise, it’s insane, just so we’re clear. I know you – 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	[Inaudible] [00:24:58] 
Jaime: 
 	Right? This is why I like you. So, what’s the next step after mindset? 
Dr. Spencer: 	Okay, the last preparation step is resources, meaning time, energy, 
materials, supplies, team, plan, knowledge, skills. We’ve gotta make sure that that’s there. That’s like going into the supermarket, making sure the stock is there that we need to get started correctly. You don’t need to have everything to achieve your goal, but you need enough there to be confident, and so, when you’ve gone through these five steps and you’ve achieved the outcome for each of the steps, then you’re left with one thing. You trust your preparation, and you’re ready to start. And, at that point, then you push the go button, but you don’t push the go button before you get there. 
 	
Jaime: 
 	Most people start at resources. “What do we have? What are we working with? Let’s make something up as a goal, and let’s go.” 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	I think that’s generous. “Why don’t we just get started, and let the process fill itself in?” There is a certain amount of reading terrain through intuition, yes, but I really feel like I’ve never seen anybody just guess at starting, because here’s what I do know: Starting is the first step to performance. When you do start, you do not wanna stumble out of the gate, and a lot of people do because they think, “I’m prepared, therefore I can just start.” Really? Are you just gonna do that with a launch? “Okay, I’ve done everything, so let’s just start.” 
 
 	Maybe not a good idea. Maybe we need to have a deliberate process by which we are able to gain initial momentum that will confirm to us our leadership and inspire the team that all our time, effort, and preparation was actually done for the right reason and is actually paying off. 
Jaime: 
 	Now, everybody – after listening to this – is like, “Oh crap, no, I’m definitely not gonna do that,” but what you’re doing is you’re solving problems before you have them within the rest of the actual goal. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Well, duh. See, here’s the deal. This goes back to mindset. The entry point to all of this is mindset. No, it’s not. I take that back. It’s champion’s mind – a living, breathing, thinking organism that can read terrain as it really is and knows what to do based upon the current context. And so, the reason why people usually don’t prepare is that they’re afraid if they don’t start, then somebody’s gonna butt in line or they’re gonna get left behind. That is not a reason to start. It’s not a reason to start. It’s more likely – 
Jaime: 	What do you say to those people that have that as a – go ahead. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	“Once you’ve tried it your way, come back and let me know, and then we’ll figure it out.” Certain people just think that since they think it, it’s what it is, but it’s not really the way that it really is. So, that’s our first step, when we’re actually now pursuing the goal. 
 
 	But, the second step is that – not the second step; this is the seventh step in the process. But, when we’re pursuing the goal and we’ve achieved that lift-up, that initial success that confirms to us that we’re now actually pursuing the goal, that’s what I call the honeymoon phase, and the honeymoon – this is where everybody’s all excited. “Oh my God, I got my first raise, I sold my first product, this is gonna happen seamlessly, so I’m gonna go out and start buying all sorts of stuff because the money’s coming in.” 
 
 	This is where startups always screw it up. They make an assumption based upon evaluation that’s a projection of a projected income, where nothing’s real. You look at the account, and there’s a goose egg in there. There’s a presumption, and that can cause us to elapse into honeymoon euphoria, where we overspend, we don’t pay attention to our schedule, we start to get slack on policy, and then everything starts to disintegrate and unravel, which is predictable, and we just need to know that that’s coming, and we should celebrate euphoria, but we need to keep our eye on the ball, and we need to make some initial adjustments to make sure that our trajectory is sound. 
Jaime: 
 	Do you pull back on the honeymoon effect? Do you give them a certain…? 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	No, you need to celebrate it for sure, but it’s like, “Hey, everybody, we’re gonna celebrate this. Here’s bonuses. We’re gonna have this big party.” But, let’s just remember one thing here: We’ve gotta stay vigilant to our momentum, we’ve gotta protect our schedules and be sacred to deliver on what we promise, we’re not gonna get slack on policy because that’s when everything starts to rot from the inside out. There’s gotta be this leadership covenant with team about what this really means. Otherwise, potential disaster. 
Jaime: 
 	I love that. Solving problems beforehand. All right, you’re like, “Celebrate, but ask all these questions beforehand to make sure that we don’t celebrate too much.” 
Dr. Spencer: 	Well, you set the context up. Here’s the reality of this. When you 
have your initial success, if your preparation is sound, that is a cause for celebration, and so, we celebrate. Okay, great, we have a reality check against the honeymoon euphoria, and so, we think, “Well, now that we’ve achieved our first success here, we have evidence, and now that we’ve adjusted our course a little bit, everything is awesome. This will take us home.” 
 	
 
 	Hold on a second. The hard work’s really beginning because there is this step called daily grind. You know what that’s like. It’s like, “Hey, everybody, I’m putting all this time and effort into this, and I’m not getting anything close to what I think I deserve. I’m thinking about quitting, actually, because I don’t know how much longer I can take this. I’ve got grumbling employees, I’m grumbling myself, my grats factor is in the red zone, I can’t barely stand myself – I don’t know how much longer I can take this.” 
 
 	Well, let me tell you this: If you cannot handle the daily grind, then don’t plan on creating goals of distinction because that’s part of everything. And so, who said it shouldn’t be there? Look, everybody wants to start and make it easy. They wanna have a breakout and they wanna succeed. They wanna bypass every step, and they wanna just jump into the winner’s circle. It doesn’t work like that. 
 
 	So, honeymoon step No. 8: This is where you’re gonna wanna quit, and unless you know how to prevent that, unless you know how to keep team together, unless you know how to structure things and what to pay attention to, then you run a high risk of quitting or bailing, or having a mutiny at that point in time. But – 
Jaime: 
 	See, I’ve asked you this question – oh, go ahead. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	But, if you know what to do, then you’re gonna wake up one day and believe you can do it because you’ve hit critical mass. 
Jaime: 
 	Before you get to critical mass, though, I wanna ask this question because this came up before – I’ve already asked you this question, but I think it’s really important for people to hear it, too. How long does the daily grind last? I feel like a lot of people listening are going, “I’m so in the daily grind right now. I didn’t do a great job beforehand at setting up the goals, so now my daily grind could potentially last a really long time also.” So, how length of time – how do we deal with it? How do we know how long it might be? 
Dr. Spencer: 	Well, the first thing that I wanna say is that goal-setting is not goal 
achievement. So, you can do all the goal-setting courses that you want, but if you don’t know how to achieve a goal, then you may not get to where you wanna go, so I wanna be really clear about this. Somehow, we think that we just set a goal, and somehow, it all backfills because we can envision the castle on the hill. That’s a great idea, and it’s important to do, but I just wanna be really clear from my perspective is that setting the goal… 
 
 	Again, it goes back to the right goal. If you have the right goal and you prepare well, then you don’t even need to think about it. Well, it depends. When I had aspirations of becoming an Olympian, my daily grind was nine years, but was it worth it? Yeah, of course it is. And, the factors that influence the time of the daily grind are all about your preparation, it’s about how well are you actually reading the context of your business moment by moment, because the amount if illusion or assumption you have that isn’t real will extend the daily grind. 
 
That’s why it’s important that we have somebody in our corner being able to look at the challenges associated with the daily grind and what should be anticipated so team is informed about it, where there are no surprises. But, that doesn’t mean that you’re not gonna have to buckle down and dig deep to get through it. But again, that question… How come nobody’s discussed that? 
 
 	So, again, it depends. Mine was nine years. I knew it was gonna be nine years. It was nine years of pain because cycling is really painful. You’re putting yourself at your limit. It’s really painful, but yet, that’s kind of the cost if you wanna create excellence. If you don’t like – 
Jaime: 
 	How do you do that as a leader, though? Especially for – so, a single person pushing themselves makes sense. How do you do that with a team that signed up for goal achievement, but maybe didn’t understand – I know what you’re gonna say to this one already. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	There you go. It needs to be explained. “Okay, the tough part is coming. You think it’s over because we’ve had a reality check, we’ve made some corrections, and now everything’s gonna be awesome.” But, history tells us that this is what we’re now gonna be facing. 
Jaime: 	I love how cut and dry it is. I’m like, “Darn it, I know what he’s 
gonna say already in advance.” 
 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	That’s a revelation. That’s fantastic. 
Jaime: 
 	I love it. Let’s continue because I have so many other questions. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	I just have two steps left. Step No. 9 is breakout. This is where you go from believing you can do it to knowing you can do it. We just need to set a target for ourself that’s not the goal, but it’s the equivalent of a goal that when it’s achieved, that tells everybody else that we’re now beyond the daily grind and we can actually do this. So, when I declared to myself that my breakout to become an Olympian was to beat an Olympian or a national champion in the national championships for cycling, I knew I could do it, and so, I beat the existing national champion, which told me I could become an Olympian. That didn’t make me an Olympian, but it told me I could become one. 
 
 	So, when I was working with Dave Asprey – I was an advisor to Dave, a very close advisor as his personal “him” advisor, as his corner man – with Bulletproof, our breakout was we need to make sure there’s enough in inventory to meet the demand, and we need certain people placed at certain higher levels in the structure, and to do that, it would take this much money, so our breakout – we knew that Bulletproof was going to be big because we had the evidence that that was gonna happen. 
 
 	But, we needed to confirm that, and we needed to raise a certain amount of money to get the inventory and the brainpower to achieve a certain breakout that would confirm to everybody in the world and investors and everybody else that this was for real, that this was going to go big, which now it’s a couple hundred million dollars or whatever, but the point is that that was deliberate. That was not an accident. It was a very important milestone that was important for the team to see to believe that they could actually punch this through to the finish line. 
 	So, once we know we can do it, then we just need to finish the job 
by completing and manifesting the goal as we have described it and committed to creating, and there may be some adjustments to get there, and we wanna make sure that we don’t trip before we get to the finish line by doing something – an unforced mental error – because we’re intoxicated by the goal itself because if you don’t cross the finish line, you don’t win, and I see this a lot, that you gotta make sure that you know how to finish the job and finish three steps beyond. 
There you have it. First, you prepare, then you perform. Five steps in each. You follow this, you know where you are, you know what’s coming, you know what’s behind, you are ready to avoid preventable problems, you know what you need to do to seize potential opportunities, you show the team this, you point to it – “This is where we are, this is what this means” – you show great leadership, people love you for that, they’ll follow you to the ends of the earth, and that’s what the model is all about. 
 	
Jaime: 
 	Okay. So, you are so logical it’s insane, but also, I feel like you use the term “manifest,” “intuition,” and all these things, too. The difference between “belief” and “knowing” – people will be like, “Oh, that’s just a decision in your mind,” and you’re like, “No, there’s so much…” 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	That’s not true. 
Jaime: 
 	Right. So, tell me more about that and how you can straddle both worlds. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Well, belief is you believe you can do it, but there’s still an amount of apprehension and uncertainty. It’s like faith – I can do it because there’s enough evidence. Trust me, the daily grind – that’s the promise. If you know how to stay in the game and you don’t talk yourself out of it and prematurely quit, you will eventually get to a place – if you’re doing the right thing that’s been vetted because you have good advice – that you will wake up and believe that you can do it. There’s still an element of doubt in it, but there’s something in you that tells you you can do it. 
 
 	Knowing is “I am confident and certain that this is gonna happen because I have a different body of evidence that tells me I can do it because I produced the equivalent.” Beating a national champion is the equivalent of winning the Olympic trials, which I did. It’s an equivalent, but it’s not the same thing. It’s an equivalent that told me I could do it because now I have the evidence that I knew I could do it. It’s the same thing in business. 
That’s why, as a businessperson, we have to select our targets carefully, because those targets will say a lot to the team. If you underestimate, they’re gonna say, “You don’t understand the business because that was really low. Why was this so low?” Or, if it was too aggressive, and you don’t get there, and it puts a lot of stress on the team, they’re gonna think, “Well, that was too big. Why did you do that?” And, they’re not gonna trust that. And, that’s why this skill of creating breakthroughs is really important, and it takes a while to learn that skill. 
 	
Jaime: 
 	I bet. I can only imagine – 45 years at least. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Eventually, you get there. You’ve gotta be at least 60 to understand how all this works. Technical details are okay earlier, but the art of this – it can be learned, but the nuances of it experientially embedded into the fabric of our advisory – it takes a while, generally up to about 60. 
Jaime: 
 	Noted. I will write that down for when I turn 60. I appreciate you. 
What about moon shot goals? You were talking about this before. People are like, “Shoot for the moon! You’ll land among the stars, and that’s gonna be good enough.” But, there’s a line there, is what it sounds like. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Well, I was talking with one of our Champion Club members last night about this very thing. I said part of the challenge here is that you’ve been creating all these moon shots, but you know that this is too big for you right now. It’s not possible to do this, so you don’t have confidence, and you’ve been locked up, and you haven’t taken a step forward because it’s too big for you right now. 
You haven’t even learned the skill yet. 
 
 
 	It’s like somehow, if we have the moon shot, then everything backfills. Is that how it’s supposed to work? Well, I’ve never seen that. It takes deliberate intention that’s well-structured to develop the assets to manifest those things that have to go right to inch towards the bigger vision, and as a matter of fact, I was outside of Boston last year, presenting to 4,000 of the country’s brightest high school students, and I asked one girl, “How old are you?” She said, “I’m 14.” I said, “What grade are you in?” “Oh, I’m a junior in college.” 
So, she skipped, like, six grades, and she said to me, “Jeff, I’ve gotta ask you a question. Everybody’s telling me how smart I am, and what are my goals, and all that stuff, and I’ve told everybody what my goals are, but I don’t know how to achieve them. I’m getting all As in everything, I skipped 20 grades, but I don’t know how to achieve my goals. I’m feeling like I’m at a place here. 
What do you think about that?” Well, welcome to the club. 
 	So, I just think No. 1, let’s learn the skill of goal achievement first 
so you develop confidence in your ability to do it, and then you can 
engage loftier goals with greater confidence and certainty, and as we develop that, then we’re going at our own pace, we have less anxiety – look, I know everybody gets up at night at 2:00 a.m. and walks around like, “What did I do? Why am I doing this? What is the next thing that I do here? I’m breaking out into sweat.” I get that. 
 	
 
 	So, I just think first thing, let’s learn the skill of goal achievement, and how do we prepare, and how do we perform. Let’s follow the champion’s golden rule, and then let’s go for more aspirational goals. And, as I tell people, keep your day job so that you can develop the craft and the skill of developing the ability without being pressured to perform at the level necessary to achieve your goals consistently, and predictably, and repeatedly. 
Jaime: 
 	Every brand-new entrepreneur needs to be listening to this, as well as every very experienced, wise entrepreneur because I’ve never heard it put in that quite way, and I think what’s interesting – especially on the moon shot thing – do you think that they should do a tiny, tiny goal to build confidence, or just push to their limits? 
Where is that line on that? 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	It depends. You have to be very honest with yourself. 
Jaime: 
 	Sometimes, that’s hard. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Well, yes, because I know we’re supposed to have as many big, audacious goals as possible, and if we don’t do that, then we’re not a card-carrying member of the club. I know how it goes. And so, I feel that – learn this skill first because if you can do it small… My daughter learned the model by baking a cake. She learned the model by baking a cake. And so, again, do we know and understand the steps of the model? 
 
 	I feel that at a certain point in time, yes, you go for a goal that’s slightly outside your reach because it really generally means that you can achieve it, you just haven’t tried it yet, but it has to be consistent. And so, I do feel like we need advisory and counsel about what’s the right reach for us at any point in time, and that’s sometimes hard to do when you’re around a cheerleading session where everybody’s all stirred up, and you’re like the girl – “Hey, how do I actually do this?” 
Jaime: 	Right, ashamed to even ask the question. 
 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Yeah. “I’ve got all these awards, but I have no idea how to do this.” So, that’s kind of what I think. That’s a matter of timing and aspiration, but I think it’s better to be progressive in our skill development. Let’s reduce our anxiety. Keeping your day job is a badge of honor. It’s not a compensation, it’s not a capitulation, it’s not a downgrade. It’s not. It’s a sign of respect for your future. That’s what it really is. 
Jaime: 
 	That’s really important. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	You’re saying, “I need to learn this better first.” That’s a badge of honor. It’s seriously a badge of honor. 
Jaime: 
 	Yeah, and unfortunately, people feel ashamed that they haven’t quit yet, or that they can’t do it, and all that head junk makes it even harder for them to actually – 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Well, is that the human nature, or is that the champion’s mind? Which one is it? And, of course, we know it’s human nature. The human mindset gets first dibs at every moment. That’s not a champion-mind decision, no matter how – 
Jaime: 
 	In those moments, though, how do you slow yourself down enough to know that that was human nature, and then to recalibrate in those moments to have your champion’s mind? 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Well, you have to have an awareness of what you’re thinking and what your impulse is because if you watch the impulse, then as the conscious being, you can intervene and stop the chain reaction, and we have to be mindful of that, and that’s something that I work very carefully with with my one-on-one clients and my Champions Club, et cetera, so that we learn to understand our language of sabotage that’s there. “There I am sabotaging myself again.” Forget it. Let’s look at this as human nature. 
 
 	You wanna know the real truth on this? Human nature is the impostor us, but what we do – we identify with the impostor us because it becomes so natural. That’s correct. My deal is that I don’t wanna live a natural life – sniveling, whining, complaining – I’m so allergic to whining. I’m so over it. 
To me, I wanna be supernatural, superhuman, to transcend those impulses that can’t take us anywhere, and it requires a lot of restraint. It requires a lot of fellowship. It requires a lot of personal substance to understand how our fear interfaces with us that’s not us, and the worse thing ever is that when people say, “Well, that’s just me.” 
 
Garbage. That’s your human nature that got put into you to survive you, to help you survive in moments of imminent peril. That’s not the path that we take to create excellence. We have to be around this level of conversation to start to realize that a lot of the things that we’ve been told or that we believe have been mythology passed down. We need to know who we really are – the champion mind. That’s who we really are. We do aspire to value and contribution, but then we’ve got the other side that we didn’t ask for. Every human’s got that – the battle, 24 hours a day. 
 	
Jaime: 
 	And, we can get better and better. I love that you said “fellowship,” though, too. What role does that really play? 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	A hundred percent, because we need a truth serum that helps protect us from ourselves and believing the mythology, because if we’re around the mythology – a perfect example was that if you don’t have a moon shot, then you’re not welcomed into the club. That may be the case, it may not be, but I’m just – hypothetical example here that we’re almost afraid to admit that smaller may be better for us at this time, where for me, that’s a badge of courage. 
It’s like you’re looking at it for what it really is. 
 
 	And, we need to give each other – well, I think, for myself, my advisory to individuals, teams, et cetera is we go at the pace that represents our ability to execute what has to go right to get us there and learn the process for next, and so, we have to understand that in certain situations, we do put ourself in places of vulnerability, where we may feel out of step, we may feel a bit insecure, but that doesn’t mean that that’s the right thing that we should be experiencing. 
 
 	So, with this idea of sobriety, of reading context, it’s really essential, and that’s why this idea of community that has a likeminded temperament and personality and inclination – we need to be around that, and we know we’re in the right place when we show up and we feel calm and confidence, and it feels like it’s a place that we need to be that nourishes and enriches our soul. If we feel like we’re being challenged or intimidated to go for more and there’s a resistance in it, then that may not be the right conversation at the right time. 
Jaime: 	How do you get so sensitive to those emotions or those feelings 
that you have? It seems like you’re amazing at it, and I know when other people are listening, they’re like, “Oh, I don’t even know if I feel the resistance.” I’m like, “Yeah, I guess I’m supposed to do this thing.” How are you so sensitive to what you’re feeling? 
 	
Dr. Spencer: 
 
 	I’ve always been like this. I just have a heightened sense of selfawareness, but I’ve been able to articulate it, and understand it, and help other people understand the language of themselves and what their actions and responses to life are, and what they mean, so that they can start to develop a relationship with self and proactively avoid circumstances that are triggers that cause us to react in certain ways that are a disservice to us and our progress forward, and it doesn’t mean that we can’t eventually gain the skill to transcend it, it just means right now, why put ourself in a situation? 
Because every time we react, it reinforces the reaction and just embeds it deeper, and it creates a more difficult for us to find an exit route out of it. 
Jaime: 
 	Yes, preach! Seriously. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	I’m just channeling the observation as I see it. 
Jaime: 
 	Everything is perception, so it’s really cool to be able to hear how you view the world because it makes so much more logical sense to this crazy world that we’re bumping around in anyway, and if we can really get that shift that you’re talking about, especially with the goal achievement and the roadmap, so that way, we don’t feel so crazy along the way, or at least if something bumps along the road, we know why it bumped instead of trying to go, “Ahh, that came out of nowhere!” 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Well, it doesn’t come out of nowhere. A lot of these things should be anticipated, but it takes about 50 years to get through one lap of life to start to understand the patterns, and eventually, “Oh, I did this before and it didn’t work, so I’m gonna avoid it this time.” 
If we can shortcut that to streamline our path forward and increase our confidence and our ability to read context to know when to turn right and when to turn left – I just can’t say enough about the value of what that is and the importance of having an environment that we can immerse ourself in that helps us understand that, to conserve our energy, to conserve our resources, to build our confidence and our certainty. 
 
Jaime: 
 	I know the value is huge, hence the reason why I’m so honored to have you on this show. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Thank you. 
Jaime: 
 	Now, I know we’re gonna put the goal achievement roadmap in a picture, so that way, you can actually see it on the show notes, so everyone can take a look at actually what goes into it. I know I have to start wrapping up, but I know I’m gonna have you back on the show again because it’s a joy. What is one action listeners can take this week to help move them forward towards their goal of $1 million? 
Dr. Spencer: 
 
 	I would say the first thing that you wanna do is you wanna ask the question and answer the question “How are you gonna show up every day?” Are you gonna show up from your highest self, or are you gonna show up frazzled? 
Make a decision, because how we show up will determine the outcomes of our actions and the accuracy of our decisions, and it will speak to other people, and in today’s world, evidence of people that can gracefully show up, and come from a place of conviction, and be an example of being a thoughtful, considerate, living, breathing human being is one of the most important things that we can do, and it’s our job as humans not to pile on top of each other and add further apprehension and anxiety, but to relieve each other of that by showing up as someone that is very clear about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. 
 
But, most importantly, to show up and be of service to humanity, and also create a life of personal value. Most important thing you can do: How am I gonna show up today? Most important thing you can think of. There you have it. 
Jaime: 
 	You are such a light in this world. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Where can we find more about you? I know you had a bit of an offer. Everybody should check out his website, definitely – drjeffspencer.com. Are you on social media? Tell us a little bit more about how we can get in touch with you. 
Dr. Spencer: 	First off, of course, I do Facebook Lives every morning at 6:00 
a.m. Pacific standard time, and I’m spewing everything that I know. Again, that would be drjeffspencer1. That’s my Facebook location. And, 6:00 a.m. Pacific standard time every morning, I purge on something, and that’s a valuable resource. Also, Instagram – drjeffspencer. Check it out. Also, a couple things here – my website, as you mentioned. If you’re interested in having a conversation about some level of engagement of some sort, you can go to drjeffspencer.com/cornerman, and that’ll take you to a location. 
 	
 
 	The other thing that I’m gonna suggest here – if you do nothing else, please go to this website. It’s Black Belt Goal Achievers, and it will take you to a site where there’s a 42-minute video talking about the goal achievement roadmap that we’ve been discussing here, the dynamics, some of the unique characteristics of it, et cetera, and if this is something that you’re interested in, then you’re certainly welcome to avail yourself of that, but that’s the best thing that I can suggest to you at this time. 
Jaime: 
 	And, share with your friends. We’ll definitely put all of the links in the show notes so that way, you can actually click on the links and it’ll be nice and easy. Thank you again, like I said. I so appreciate you in taking the time to talk to us today. 
Dr. Spencer: 
 	Well, back at you. Just one thing I’ll say is there’s only one of you in all creation. Please be mindful of that. You count in the biggest way possible, and every time you show up, how you show up, what you say, what you think can change the world, so just please be mindful of that. Seven billion people on this planet, and there’s only one of you, which uniquely qualifies you to do some extraordinary things. Thanks again for the privilege, Jaime. I immensely appreciate it. Thank you. 
Jaime: 
 	Thank you, thank you, thank you, and have an amazing day. 
Dr. Spencer: 	See you next time, everybody.

Categories: All, Business, Millionaire Interviews

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