5 Life & Business Lessons from Steven Bartlett's Live Event Last Monday in London.

I was in London on Monday.

Besides reconnecting with old friends and meeting some clients, the main reason was to attend ​Steven Bartlett​'s "The Business and Life Speaking Tour".

I discovered Steven Bartlett quite recently, in September last year.

But since then, I have been hooked. The Diary of a CEO is the best podcast I have ever heard.

His YouTube channel is another gem, and it's my go-to for most evenings after I put the kids to bed.

That is why, on Monday morning, I caught an early flight from Malpensa to London.

The alarm went off at 4 am, my taxi picked me up at 4.45, and at 7, I was boarding a red-eye flight to London Gatwick.

As always, I came home with pages full of notes, which I'm unpacking for you today in five learnings I'm taking home with me.

Let's go!

1. The Subconscious Library

To change your life, you have to change your beliefs.

The picture in the background was a big pile of books - he called 'the subconscious library'.

All the experiences, good and bad, pile up in our subconscious and define who we are and, most importantly, what we believe. What we believe defines our actions.

If we want to change our lives significantly, we must unpile that library and change our beliefs.

That is the only way for me to make substantial changes.

2. Brick by Brick

Steven showed ​an old video of a young Will Smith​ talking about when his father made him and his brother build a wall in front of his shop.

They spent one year and a half building that wall; every day after school, they would go and mix concrete and build.

The wall was almost finished. Only one brick was missing. Will & his brother laid down the last brick and finally finished the wall. His father looked at them and said, "Don't ever tell me you can't do something".

Steven used this video to discuss the power of doing "the thing".

The resistance we get as humans is always starting, but when you start, the way it appears. And it always starts with one brick.

3. Pain The Back of The Fence

Steven played one of my favourite ​DOAC episodes.​

Walter Isaacson followed Steve Jobs in the last years of his life, writing his biography and living with him at his house for a few months.

In one of his chats, Steve drove with Walter by the house where he grew up and showed the fence.

He mentioned that his father once asked the young Steve to paint the fence.

So he started painting the front.

But his dad walked in and said, you have to paint the back and make it as beautiful as the front.

He said everything he has done at Apple, the beautiful and crafted products, and the attention to detail was sparked that day and with that fence.

The attention to detail to make things beautiful inside and outside has been his mantra for his whole life.

4. The Small Promises

Steven talked about the power of not breaking our small promises to ourselves.

To progress towards our goals and be consistent, we have to stick to our small promises to ourselves.

Before committing to others, we have to commit to ourselves.

If we say we are going to the gym, we must stick to the promises.

Breaking these tiny promises will impact our confidence and more significant commitments.

5. The Time You Have (in JellyBeans)

As we all know, time is our scarcest resource. Steven played this ​video​.

The time we have is in jelly beans in this incredible representation.

We all think we have plenty of time, but most of it is taken up by sleep, work, eating, worrying, etc.

The goal of our lives should be prioritising the time left. We should spend it most meaningfully, doing the things we love.

Even if we think we have many years and lots of time, most of them have already been taken.

What if you just had one more day?

Summary

If you follow me and my newsletter, you know that my trips are part of what I call "soul trips".

It's already the second one this year (after Sahil Bloom and Ali Abdaal's live event again in London - read​ my takeaways here​).

I love it.

I hope you enjoyed this as I enjoyed writing.

Email me if you have a fantastic event or somewhere I should go to get inspired, and I will add it to my soul trips list.

See you next Saturday.