 I just hosted one of my virtual work retreats, where my group members get together and all we do is everybody is working on their own project. I'm there the whole time because I'm working on my own project. If they have any quick questions, they can ask me, but by and large, nobody asked me anything. Everyone was just benefiting from the power of the group and like, you know, it's so strange. You could work on your own for eight hours versus work in a group for eight hours and it's completely different experience, completely different experience. People consistently say, I don't know what happened. I got so much more done than I would on my own. It's like magic. And it's like, even though they're not talking to anybody, like everyone's just on camera working on their own thing. Obviously we have a lot of breaks and the eight hours we had at least two hours of breaks and during those eight hours, plus a bunch of five minute breaks, well, five minute breaks in the middle of each hour and the end of each hour. So lots of breaks and I'm not doing the teaching. Everyone is doing their own work. I'm doing my own and it's magical. And it just made me realize and I have two hour work retreats for my members as well. So if anyone interested, you can join one of my membership programs and you get access to these work retreats that I do multiple times a month. And it just makes me realize every single time I host these how most people watching this video are not putting enough focused time on their business. And let me say that again, not putting, like if you were to put enough focused time on your business projects, your business would probably be double or triple. And when I say this, I mean the time that you actually do have in your week, we have more time in our week than we realized. Most people who do the, well, everyone I know who does a time logging practice for a week, time logging is kind of like food logging where you kept the food journal. It's like everything that goes into your mouth. You're like, right now I eat that today or I just ate that, whatever, right? If you did that with your time, you would make like, you would have realized, oh my God, I have so much time. Like, or rather, all my time goes to there, really? Like, I didn't, if I were planning my ideal life and ideal, you know, including before you retired, you're working, if I were planning my ideal week and I'm working, probably wouldn't spend that much time doing that kind of thing or this kind of thing. So we all have way more wasted time than we realize. Okay, wasted, whatever that means for you. So if you were to transform some of that wasted time into focused time on your business, I believe you'll be doubling or tripling your business in the coming year, but not just because I believe it, because I see it with the people who come to my work retreats and they work on their business or like, oh my gosh, this project's been laying there for months languishing or I finally was able to clear this thing out or I finally was able to launch this thing or I'm like, you just need it to focus time? That's it? That's it? Yeah, it's like, and some part of the focus time obviously is, you know, break self-regulation and practicing, all right? And that's part of the reminders I give throughout the whole work retreats, like step by step, you know, joyful productivity, just breathe through it, everything can be done, step by step, no perfection, I give some reminders, but it's like, it's just them showing up. And so I just have to say, like my stupid secret to success, if I could call myself successful, I think when I compare notes with other solopreneurs, I, my business is way more profitable, you know, than most, it's like the secret to my success is very dumb. It's just I work more focused hours than most people. And my focus is not even that great to be honest with you. Like whenever I, whenever I do an exercise with those bunch of you here live and bunch of you watch who have been part of my courses, when I do an exercise with you, where like we both time ourselves, like, all right, let's see what can write in 10 minutes. I am consistently more impressed by what you can write in 10 minutes than by what I can write in 10 minutes. It's true, I'm being serious. So like I genuinely believe that most of my audience, maybe all of my audience, I don't know, is smarter than me. I'm not that smart. I just work more than most people. I would just work more focused. And how do I work more focused hours? Well, I use focus mate. Most of you who have been following my videos, have heard me talk about that for, you know, too many years. I use focus mate throughout the day. And when I'm not on focus mate, I'm in a meeting like this. If I'm not in a meeting like this, I am in a facilitating a work retreat where I'm focusing. Obviously I take four naps a day. So I take so many. The other thing is the other secret to my success is I take more breaks than most of you. Why is this important? Because this is why I'm still here. 14 years later, after I start my business when most of my peers are gone, gone, sorry, I don't mean they're still alive, I think, but they're no longer doing their business. Why? Why do so many people burn out? Why do so many people not, are they not able to sustain solopreneurship for 40 years? I'm only 14 years in, but I'm planning to do this for 40 years. Actually 25 more years. So yeah, just about 40 years I'm gonna do this. And you can look at me when I'm, you know, in my 70s and go, wow, still going, still going. How? Because I take more breaks than most of you do. Probably than all of you do. I'm as disciplined in showing up for my focused work as I am disciplined in taking breaks. Like no non-negotiable, I'm taking breaks all the time. And it's like, I don't care about momentum. I don't care about flow. Let me say that again. I don't care about flow, momentum. I'm in it right now. I might lose it. Don't care about, that's just fear of missing out. That's fear of loss. I understand. Human beings work highly averse to losing momentum or whatever, we're highly fearful of it. But because I say to hell with that, okay, brain, body, spirit, you will work when I tell you to work and you will rest when I tell you to rest, okay? Because of my strong will. I say, do I need momentum right now? I'm gonna build momentum right now. Right now I'm anxious. I don't know what I'm gonna write. It's a blank screen. I don't know how this is gonna go well. I don't know how this project is gonna start. I don't know anything, but I'm gonna sit my ass down here. I'm gonna focus, my focus mate buddy's right next to me and I'm just gonna flail around for an hour, taking five breaks during that hour. Like I said, I take more breaks. I take five breaks an hour. Yeah, how? They're 20 seconds each. I do my energy reboot five times an hour. I do my energy reboot. I'm like, security, total loss. You can do this Joe, I'm comforting myself way more than you comfort yourself, okay? I'm comforting myself all damn day because I'm as anxious as you. I'm as fearful of rejection and as lost as you are. I'm just comforting myself 10 times more than you do throughout the day. I'm re-parenting myself way more than you do. You are still hearing the voice of your mom or your dad or your whoever harsh authoritarian person in your life. I have an authoritarian mom. Like, you're lucky you're not married to me, you know? I'm like, I tell my wife, you get along way better with my in-laws than I get along with your in-laws. No, yeah, you get along way better with your in-laws than I get along with your in-laws. Like my family man, good thing you're not married to me, like I come from some harsh family circumstances. I gotta re-parent myself five times an hour, I gotta do it. So that's it, that's my secret of success. I'm not smarter than you. I really, really, really, really am not. I'm just more confident than you because I've been re-parenting myself five times an hour for 10 years. That's it, that's my secret of success. I re-parent myself five times an hour. I am therefore more confident. But part of my confidence is also ignorance. Like I said, I'm not smarter than you, you're smarter than me. That's why you're not as confident because you're not an over-thinker. You've probably think properly, you're not an over-thinker. It's just everyone else doesn't think enough, okay? You are thinking a proper amount. You just don't re-parent yourself enough. That's my, again, my naive, ignorant opinion. That's what makes me confident. Confidence is where money comes from, okay? And also, so I've just given you all my secrets of success. I'm naive and therefore I'm confident, but I re-parent myself as often as I possibly can with my energy reboot, and I have tons of focused work time. Now that's one point where I do have to say, those of you who are parents right now, you have children, you can't work as many hours as I do. I understand. Those of you taking care of the elderly, I understand. Those of you taking care of your spouse who's incapacitated, I understand. I'm sorry you can't work as often as I do, but I bet you have wasted hours during your week, probably hours and hours wasted during your week that you could show up on a focus-made session or a work retreat, or you come up with a work retreat with your buddy. You don't have to come to my work retreat. Talk to your buddy, whoever friend, colleague, supportive person in your life and say, can we do a work retreat? You and me. Maybe we have three buddies or just you and me. Let's set aside Saturday and let's do a eight hour work retreat like George does and where I'll tell you what, the fact that you watched this video all the way to the end, I'm gonna give you my work retreat format. How's that? So you have no excuse anymore. You could do this on your own. Work retreat, I'm just pulling the Google document up and I will share it with you in the link below. And so you could do it on your own. And by the way, I have eight hour work retreats that I facilitate and I have two hour work retreats I facilitate. These are member-only things. It was joining one of my member programs, you get access to it. But my two hour work retreats are simply the first two hours of my eight hour work retreat. So you could do that with your buddies too. Just do a two hour work retreat. There's still a nice break, a couple of nice breaks. And so if you take as many breaks as I do, you will realize that you are able to build momentum on demand, build creative flow, on demand, the biggest lie of creativity that most of us grew up with is some people are just more creative. Some people, they're just able to get into flow. Oh, oh my God, flow is here. Oh my God, flow is here. I better work the rest of this damn day because when am I gonna get that back? That is the biggest lie. It's like, no, you're a freaking victim to the winds of your untrained mind. You're just a, you're being a victim to your untrained mind. Your monkey mind is controlling your life. No, I tell my monkey mind, you're adorable monkey. I love you. Here's the cage when you need to and you can get, let out when you need to. I am the owner of my, by the way, it's not a good idea to own monkeys or like kill you. But with your monkey mind, some of you have been killed already by your monkey mind. You can control your monkey mind by taking damn breaks and so I don't care if I'm in flow right now. I trust that when I come back from my break, I will get back into flow. Yes, it might take 15 minutes of gnashing of teeth, you know, flailing around, but I will get back into flow. I promise you, it's okay to take a break. Don't keep working. Take a break now, all right? And you need a damn break after this video too, right? So I hope this is helpful and may this help you reach your style of joyful productivity.