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- [šU] ... but fear the Reaper more than the tax man
[šU] ... but fear the Reaper more than the tax man
Think about the last time you had ZERO choice ⦠you had to act.
Not one of those āIāll do it tomorrowā or even āIāll spend some time over the weekendā
Iām talking drop EVERYTHING, nothing else matters, act right now
That urgency changes everything.
Excuses that seem to plague our time & keep us in our comfort zone ⦠they disappear.
Reasons take control & get you moving
We think thereās not enough time in the day ⦠or skills ⦠or discipline ⦠or motivation.
NOPE!
Truth is ⦠your goals are running your life, whether you admit it or not.
Your goals decide what you notice, ignore, & sacrifice.
Theyāre not random targets you hope to hit
& yes, it helps to have Goldilocks goals
But theyāre not just something you write in a notebook.
Goals are psychological & strategic tools for filtering what matters (& doesnāt)
The problem?
We have a really bad habit of letting small, unworthy goals filter out opportunities.
We secretly strive for convenience & comfort
āIf we didnāt have ambition - some big goal weāre after - how would we know what little things, what distractions, to say not to?ā
But the second life throws a crisis at you, all those fake filters disintegrate.
When your backās up against the wall, what matters most becomes crystal clear
When Crisis Forces Clarity ā¦
You get a call at work. Thereās been an accident & your partner / parent / child is in the ER
What do you do?
Do you keep working or do you go to the hospital?
Iām going to assume youāre going to drop everything & goā¦
What if on the way there, you get stuck in traffic or construction?
Do you throw your hands up in the air & say, āoh well, I tried ⦠I guess I go back to workā ⦠or āmy drivingās not good enough to get me thereā?
⦠or āoh look, thereās a tire sale. Iām going to go buy a set of winter tires ⦠that will help me get there fasterā
Iām going to assume you find those excuses absolutely ridiculous
& that instead of looking for excuses & distractions, you DO look for ANY way around to get to the ER as fast as possible.
But those seemingly silly excuses are more realistic than youād think.
When my mom made her last trip to the hospital, pretty much everyone knew within a few hours ⦠Bad news travels fast.
I had a cousin who was āmonitoringā by asking others how my mom was doing.
She said she ācouldnāt come ⦠she was busyā
My mom passed the morning she was āplanningā on visiting.
First thing she said to me was, āI would have come if I knewā¦ā
so ⦠she could have & chose not to
Thatās not me being bitter ⦠itās just a too-common reality.
The Lie We Tell Ourselves:
āThereās Still Timeā
We always assume thereās time.
We always think the schedule will clear up on its own.
We also have a nasty habit of not always prioritizing things well
& donāt often learn from that first mistake.
4 days later, she did the same thing with my uncle.
Seriously not kidding.
I bluntly asked her if she wanted history to repeat itself.
I didnāt mince words
She dropped everything & went.
My uncle passed a few hours later
& she thanked me for calling her out

my uncleās youngest secretly snapped a few photos that Iām forever grateful for.
Crisis has a way of silencing the distracting noise.
But clarity doesnāt always have to come from pain.
You may think you have time.
& maybe you actually do.
But what are you doing with it?
Are you wasting it on busy excuses that keep you in your āI may not like this but I know itā zone?
Or do you have a reason to drop everything, roll up your sleeves, & get uncomfortable now for what you want?
Why You Fear the Tax Man MORE than Regret ā¦
You can dedicate time to doing taxes on time. You have no problem communicating that need to your friends & family.
So whatās stopping you from doing that for your business ⦠your goals ⦠your future?
Whatās the worst thing that could happen if you miss a filing deadline?
You have to pay a bit more.
Iām pretty sure the tax man isnāt going to complain about giving them more money.
Whatās the worst thing that could happen if your business doesnāt get the same focus & commitment as a tax deadline?
You pay for it with a lifetime of being stuck, wondering āwhat ifā, & never realizing your dream.
That dream you have not just for yourself, but for your family.
Donāt they deserve it?
So why are you sabotaging their future?
If this all sounds intense, good ⦠it should.
Because waiting for a crisis to figure out your priorities is a lousy strategy.
Itās 1 that may work when you run out of time on your taxes, but not when you run out of time for your freedom & flexibility
Moments of urgency strip away the noise from all the distractions & excuses surrounding us.
But why wait for a crisis to get clarity?
Silence the noise before itās too late.
Urgency Without a Deadline
āBreakthroughs are not born from certainty. Theyāre born from unreasonable goals, urgent timelines, and emotionally compelling reasons why.ā
The Moment a Client FINALLY Decides ā¦
Iāve done a lot of coaching & mentoring over the past several years ⦠over 500 calls in 2024 & 2025 is on track to be busier.
Iāve worked with hundreds of people in different industries ⦠from Grammy-winning musicians to folks with a writing passion, wanting vacation money.
Some of them flourish ⦠others flail.
Some āhit the ground runningā ⦠others need time to āwarm up to get startedā
Iād been working with someone almost a year.
She wanted help getting out of a job so she could be her own boss & have a career in something sheās passionate about ⦠writing.
Weād been talking about all the same things.
Honestly sometimes I thought I could just play a recording from a previous call & sheād never notice.
Then 1 day, sheās shows up on the call & there was a noticeable shift in her posture ⦠her facial expression was intense ā¦
Everything about her was different.
& the first thing she said was ⦠āso I decidedā¦ā
She fully committed, focused, & was accountable (to herself more than me)
that next week ⦠results
The following week ⦠MORE results
That storyās repeated itself more than once with my clients.
1 person had to give up because he waited too long & his health took away his choice
Another client just stopped showing up for calls & didnāt respond to messages. I assumed she was giving up & didnāt want to deal with the discomfort in telling me she quit.
I found out much later that she died.
Choice is Still Yours ⦠Until it Isnāt
Youāre here ⦠you still can make a choice.
Make it something youāre proud of
So, what do you actually do with all this urgency?
You scale ⦠simply!
Simple Scales: The Noise-Filtering Framework
From now on, starting today, commit to making things simple.
Simple scales.
Dr. Benjamin Hardyās new book, The Science of Scaling, breaks it all down in a way Iāve never seen before. The frameworkās made me realize how complicated Iāve made things.
Heās so committed to helping as many people as possible by making the audiobook free.
& if you donāt like the idea of sitting on a website, heās uploaded the book as a YouTube video with chapter bookmarks
⦠or you can listen on Apple podcasts, Amazon Music, & Spotify
Did I mention the audio is free to listen?
You have 0 excuses & every reason TO start scaling.
Set audacious but time-bound goals ā so you can focus your energy & eliminate noisy distractions
Use the future as your āNorth Starā ā so it guides your decisions instead of being held back by past limitations
Iāve got a plan to make things simple, then scale.
āThereās a reason the windshield is bigger than the rear view mirror ā¦
Because where youāre going is more important than where youāve been.ā
Remember that your past doesnāt define you unless you let it.
So donāt.
Look, I realize itās not like a light switch ⦠changing your mindset
Stop spending time in the past.
You canāt change it.
You know what you can do?
Create your future.
Do you know how you can do that?
Focus on doing something today ⦠right now.
This business youāre wanting ⦠you have what you need to get started.
That freedom & flexibility you want ⦠you get it with simple, laser focus on a āseemingly impossible goalā & donāt allow things to fall below your floor.
You donāt start by winning the Oscar, Grammy, Super Bowl, Olympic Gold Medal.
You work at it.
You focus.
You earn it.
& if you falter ⦠itās not because youāre not worthy ⦠or you donāt know enough ⦠itās because youāre not giving your business the same commitment & focus as you give the tax man.
Regret Weighs More than Failure
The longer you wait, the louder the excuses get.
& your dream slowly dies, forever trapped in a notebook
Regret in not trying is a much heavier burden to bear than failure.
Iāve seen it. Iāve felt it.
& once you truly taste it, itās not easily forgotten
Progress may never be perfect, but itās the only antidote I know for regret.
Youāre lucky ⦠your question today isnāt if you have time ⦠because you DO
Your Choice. Your Time.
The question is: what are you going to do with it?
You have a choice ⦠but the clockās ticking
& time isnāt a renewable resource.
So make it a good one ⦠one that doesnāt have you waiting for the reaper or the tax man ⦠make it a choice youāre proud of.
Make it a great ā ā week!
EG
PS:
& now that Iāve made you take a Polar Plunge into reality ā¦

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