Ep. #288: Motivation Monday: Are You a Fox or a Hedgehog?

This episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I’m not big on promoting stuff that I don’t personally use and believe in. So instead I’m going to just quickly tell you about something of mine. Specifically my fitness book for men. Bigger, leaner, stronger. Now this book has sold over 350, 000 copies in the last several years and helped thousands and thousands of guys build their best bodies ever, which is why it currently has over 3, 100 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average.

So if you want to know the biggest lies and myths that are keeping you from achieving the lean, muscular, strong, and healthy body that you truly desire, And if you want to learn the simple science of building the ultimate male body, then you want to read bigger, leaner, stronger, which you can find on all major online retailers like Amazon, Audible, iTunes, Kobo, and Google play.

Now, speaking of audible, I should also mention that you can get the audio book, 100 percent free. When you sign up for an Audible account, which I highly recommend that you do if you’re not currently listening to audiobooks. I love them myself because they let me make the time that I spend doing stuff like commuting, prepping food, walking my dog, and so forth, so much more valuable and productive.

So if you want to take Audible up on this offer, And get my book for free. Then simply go to www.bitlybitly.com/free BBLs, and that will take you to Audible and then you just click the sign up today and save button, create your account, and voila, you get to listen to Bigger, leaner, stronger for free. All righty, that is enough shameless plugging for now at least.

Let’s get to the show. Good morning. My fitness friends, Mike Matthews here with another motivation Monday podcast. Let’s start with a quote as usual. And this one comes from the Bible. It comes from Proverbs chapter 22 verse 29. And it goes like this. Seest thou a man diligent in his calling, he shall stand before kings.

So get good at your work and work hard. That’s the message, right? And that is going to be the theme for today’s episode, which starts with a question. Would you consider yourself a Fox or a hedgehog? What’s the difference? What am I talking about? Jim Collins wrote about this in his bestselling book, good to great, which I highly recommend if you are an entrepreneur and you have not read it yet.

And the metaphor is based on the famous essay, The Hedgehog and the Fox, written by Isaiah Berlin. In it, he divided the world into hedgehogs and foxes, based upon an ancient Greek parable. The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. The fox is crafty and resourceful. When he wants to go hunting for the hedgehog, he tries to think of many different plans.

Dig into the burrow, lie in ambush, and attack when the hedgehog comes out, and so forth. But he can’t focus on one strategy. He is scattered, and he chases many trails at once. The hedgehog, however, knows one thing and can do it very well. When the fox comes to eat him, he rolls up in a tight, spiky ball, and all the fox gets is a bloody nose.

Yet, the fox tries again and again, hatching new, unusual methods of attack he just doesn’t learn. So the Fox is the person who starts the trendy diet or exercise program, only to quit after three weeks in favor of some new better plan or fad in business. The Fox is so busy trying to juggle all of his ideas and all of his excitement to start something new and promising that he just has no time to really understand what he’s doing and get down to the hard, uncomfortable work that most people don’t want to do.

In short, the fox simply treads water, and the foxes of the world rarely succeed. The lion’s share of success and wealth belong to the hedgehogs, the people who focused on one thing and became a true specialist at it. They do one thing and they do it very well. It’s their hedgehog concept as Collins calls it.

Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, Please do tell them about it.

It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say, thank you. You can find me on Instagram at muscle for life fitness, Twitter at muscle for life and Facebook at muscle for life fitness. For example, for quite some time, my hedgehog concept has been writing between muscle for life and Legion athletics.

And my books and other various writing projects, I’ve written millions of words, well over 2 million words by now, probably closer to 3 million words. I’ve read scores of books on writing ranging from technical instruction to storytelling to copywriting and advertising. And I’ve used these skills to sell a lot of stuff, a lot of books, a lot of supplements, a lot of coaching, a lot of many different things.

And to also build my businesses, build my websites and build my career. I’ve also made a number of mistakes straying from my hedgehog concept, and I’ve spent a lot of time and money on things that ranged from shiny object distractions, like my workout app stacked, which was an interesting project, but unnecessary in the scheme of things and not worth the amount of.

Time money and aggravation it entailed to getting bogged down in administrative work in my businesses stuff that really should have been delegated earlier and which I have since delegated, but I really should have done it earlier to speculative marketing and advertising stuff, which is just part of the game, but which looking back on it again, just took too much of my time away from.

The more valuable things that I could have been doing the things that are most in alignment with my hedgehog concept. So let’s break this hedgehog concept down a bit. So here’s how Collins explains it. He says that it’s based on three circles, all the same size and equally important. So we have a Venn diagram here and they intersect and that combined middle is where the magic happens.

That’s the sweet spot, right? So circle one involves. What you can be best at. It’s not a goal or a strategy or plan. And it’s not just a core competency. It’s the place where you can really shine and it’s determined by your personality, your interests, and your purposes. It has to be something that you are very interested in that you are naturally.

Drawn toward that you find more interesting than all the other things you could be doing with your time, both at and outside of work. And it has to be something that you are willing to work very hard at over the long term. If you don’t really find it that interesting, if you don’t feel really that drawn.

Toward it, and if you’re not really willing to suffer through all the slings and arrows that it is going to entail, that achieving some level of mastery is going to entail, then it is not circle one. Okay. Circle two is the economic part of the equation. All very successful people. I know we’re very smart.

With choosing endeavors that can provide a lot of cashflow and a lot of very unsuccessful people that I know chose things that simply were not economically viable. Nobody was ever going to pay them a lot of money for what it is. They were pouring all of their time into bad choice. That’d be a bad circle to good circle to is something that is established commercially that you can make a lot of money with.

Circle three is what ignites your passion. This is similar to circle one, but circle one is more the logical side of things looking at yourself and what you know about yourself. What could you be very good at? And circle three is more the emotional side of things. What makes you really feel something?

Now, many people would say you have to find what makes you passionate. I don’t entirely agree with that. I think you need to find something that you are curious about and then cultivate passion by applying yourself because let’s face it, nobody’s passionate about something that they’re not good at, which of course in the beginning of anything, you are not good at it and you don’t know much about it.

It’s hard to be passionate about it, but in time, if you take something you are curious about, you are drawn toward and you pour a lot of your time and effort into it to develop skill and develop knowledge. That can turn into passion. And ultimately that’s what you want in your work. You want to choose a job that you love.

So you’ll never have to work a day in your life, right? That’s the famous Confucius saying, and that isn’t necessarily easy to find. And it doesn’t hit you right away. Sometimes again, you really have to work at it. Some people do just stumble into something and they love it so much. And that’s that, or they’ve had a calling since they were four years old and they went with it and have felt like they’ve never worked a day in their lives, but.

For most people, it just starts with a curiosity and develops into a passion. But if it never does, if it just remains a curiosity and not something you ever really want to apply yourself to, then you’re probably never going to get passionate about it. So your hedgehog concept lies in the intersection of these three circles.

If you can live your life in the middle of them, then you have it made. You’ll be doing something that you truly can excel in, that you are passionate about, and that can make you great money. It’s no good just having two you want all three if you’re passionate about your work, but you don’t make any money with it You’re going to be a very frustrated person if you are very good at what you do and you make a lot of money But you really don’t like going to work every day You’ll eventually wind up miserable and listless and if there’s money to be made and you’re passionate about it But you’re no good at it and probably never will be for some immutable reason You That’s no good either.

So ultimately you want to work toward figuring out your hedgehog concept and don’t expect it to be easy. It’s going to take time. It’s going to take effort. There are going to be setbacks. You’re going to doubt yourself along the way. I experienced it. Everybody experiences it. That’s just part of the process.

But so long as you’re moving in the right direction, that will give you enough. Spirit and motivation to just keep going and eventually you will get there. You will hit it. You will know when you hit it and don’t settle for anything less because that’s where real happiness and success lies. Now, if you want to learn more about this general topic, then I recommend two books.

One is deep work by Cal Newport and the other is mastery by Robert Green. Two of my favorite work related books that talk a lot about this type of thing. Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and don’t mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you’re listening from.

This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility. And thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won’t miss out on any of the new goodies.

Lastly, if you didn’t like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at Mike at muscle for life. com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I’m always looking for constructive feedback. So please do reach out. All right, that’s it. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you.

And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I’m not big on promoting stuff that I don’t personally use and believe in. So instead, I’m going to just quickly tell you about something of mine. Specifically, my fitness book for men. Bigger, leaner, stronger. Now this book has sold over 350, 000 copies in the last several years and helped thousands and thousands of guys build their best bodies ever, which is why it currently has over 3, 100 reviews on Amazon with a.

Four and a half star average. So if you want to know the biggest lies and myths that are keeping you from achieving the lean, muscular, strong, and healthy body that you truly desire. And if you want to learn the simple science of building the ultimate male body, then you want to read bigger, leaner, stronger, which you can find on all major online retailers like Amazon, Audible, iTunes, Kobo, and Google.

Play. Now, speaking of audible, I should also mention that you can get the audio book 100 percent free when you sign up for an audible account, which I highly recommend that you do. If you’re not currently listening to audio books, I love them myself because they let me make the time that I spend doing stuff like commuting, prepping food, walking my dog and so forth.

So much more valuable and productive. So if you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my book for free, then simply go to www.bitlybitly.com/free BBLs, and that will take you to Audible and then you just click the sign up today and Save button, create your account. And voila, you get to listen to Bigger, leaner, stronger for Free.