 People say that you become the average of the five people you hang out with the most. You may have heard this as a common success tip. Well, I think these days, well, because so many of us don't hang out with people as much anymore and we consume so much social media, whether we're watching videos like this on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or we're reading social media posts or whatever, emails. What I think is happening is that we become the average, or at least I should say, our ambitions and our values, become the average of the five creators we watch the most. So I invite you, if you wish to comment below, who are the five creators you watch or read the most? You can go to your Instagram, your YouTube feed and just notice, oh yes, I watch that person often, I watch that person often and feel free if you wanna comment below and share with us. But I also want you to notice what values and ambition are they influencing you towards? So for example, let's say I was watching somebody, like people in my industry of business and marketing, some people are like, they look like they're always on vacation or they show glamorous lifestyles or they're always just on the beach or somewhere, like, oh, I'm so successful, I just push a button and I have money coming in and I'm always renting out some amazing Airbnb or something like that. It suggests that that is the definition of success, is to be barely working and yet be able to travel all the time and have wonderful experiences. Now, if you're a travel agent, of course, you need to show those kinds of experiences, but most of us are not travel agents, most of us are doing work from our home office. And so those values suggest that, number one, you should be traveling a lot more. Number two, you should be working as little as possible and spending money having glamorous experiences. Those are not the values that I'd like to influence you towards because I am probably one of the influencers you watch. I don't know, one of the top five, but I'm one of them. And I have become very aware over the years of how I am being influenced by the creators I watch and I invite you to starting today. And I also, therefore, am aware of how I am influencing my audience, the imagery of everything that I do, all the creators you watch, the backgrounds of their videos, the lifestyle that they describe to you, all that influences you into what your ambitions should be or are. And so know this, what I do. I have very boring video backgrounds, the same one all the time, because sure, I could show you around my beautiful city of San Francisco and make you yearn for living in a beautiful place like this, but not all of us can. Not all of us have easy access to nature and gorgeous sights and everything. No, so that's why I prefer to be boring in my videos. I'm not saying that's right or wrong, but I'm very consciously kind of going against the grain of what most Instagrammers or YouTubers do, is to say, no, I want you, here's what I want to influence you towards, ready? I'm about to reveal to you my hidden ulterior motive and how I'm trying to manipulate you. Okay, here it is. I want you to be deeply happy with where you are in your life right now, to not ever feel like you have to do so much more to be a success, to be fulfilled in your work. What I hope to influence people into is to love work. Yeah, I've said it because everyone else, not everyone else, but so many other Instagrammers and YouTubers are influencing you to hate work. Just like somehow devalue work and say work is for suckers or it's like to be successful means you push a button or you have a team that does all the work and you're just sipping margaritas or whatever. That doesn't help us grow as people, as you know. It doesn't help us serve and innovate and add even more value to the world. Because if you're sipping margaritas, you're not being, I mean, Ben. Okay, let me tell you what the first work should be. The most important first work I think everyone needs to be attend to is rest. Yeah, the first and most important work is the discipline of rest. I need to say it because so many of us are taken up by watching social media too often. The fact that you're watching this video means that there's a danger of you going down rabbit holes watching video after video after video and you need to be set boundaries with yourself. So that's really the first work is boundaries with ourselves, not going into rabbit holes and resting enough so that we are renewed and refreshed to be able to work. So that's the first work is discipline of rest, resting before you need to because by the time you need to, it's already too late. So the first work is discipline of rest. Second work is to then show up to your work, whether you're creating or doing some administrative work or doing some kind of solving some kind of tech challenge in your business. When you show up to work, then the second work, first work is discipline of rest. The second most important work is to attend to the values that are possible in this moment. Meaning, if I'm solving some tech challenge in my business, I could just be getting things done and just be like, let me get rid of this problem as fast as I can. And that's practicing impatience and that's practicing disconnecting my soul's calling from this very moment because I'm just trying to solve this problem so that I can then do my soulful work. Now, all of it can be soulful work, whether you're doing bookkeeping, boring administrative work, solving a tech challenge or creating content or it's being with your clients. All of it can be soulful work if you're willing to attend to what is the possible value in this moment. Is it practicing patience? Is it practicing playfulness and curiosity? Is it practicing gracefulness, courage, love and compassion, kindness towards self, gracefulness and sort of like joyfulness in what you do. So that's all I wanted to say is I hope to influence you towards the love of work, not that you have to work more hours but the love of bringing your values into the moment so that you can be happy now and not have to chase results. And by being happy and fulfilled now, you'll show up more often, you'll practice more often, you'll grow your skills and naturally the results come as a result. So I hope this is beneficial for you and may you become aware of how you're being influenced on social media and become aware of your values and embodying that in every moment of your work. Thanks for watching.