You know exactly what you should be doing — so why aren’t you doing it?

Jonathan Doyle shares the uncomfortable truth he gives the executives he coaches: if you’re not acting, it’s because it doesn’t matter enough to you yet. Drawing on a coaching conversation from this week, a friend’s heroic witness, Thoreau’s “quiet desperation,” and the one question that cuts through everything: what would you genuinely sacrifice for?

“What will happen to you if this never changes?”

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Transcript
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Well, hey there, my friend.

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Jonathan Doyle with you.

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I'm so pleased you've joined me for another episode of the Daily podcast.

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Have you noticed that when you begin to change things in your life, they

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don't always necessarily change as quickly as you'd like them to?

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Have you noticed that in your life you'll sometimes sabotage

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and undermine your own progress?

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Well, the good news is you've come to the right place, 'cause I've been

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doing this for many years, and I wanna share with you some insights

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about why this may be the case.

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I had the pleasure during the week of coaching a young lady in a high-powered

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sales position, and we're talking about this challenge that she kept

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having, which she was saying, "I get up every day, the alarm goes off, and

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I have all these things that I really wanna do, but I'm not doing them.

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Why am I not doing them?

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I know what I should do, but I'm not doing it." Here is the uncomfortable

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truth, and maybe this is applicable to your life at some level too.

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If you're not doing the things that you say that you need to be doing

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to move yourself forward in some significant area of life, well, this

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is the great uncomfortable truth.

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It's simply because at this stage it doesn't matter enough to you.

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Now, that's a hard truth because we think we're rational beings, right?

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We're kinda like, "Well, I know what I want, and why would I

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undermine myself?" If you really want something and it's genuinely

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important to you, you will find a way.

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Many years ago, I had a dear friend who was suffering from a very serious kidney

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disease, and they required dialysis and I think from memory, I think it was twice

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a day, definitely once a day, and they had to go into the clinic all the time

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to have this done, and they were heroic.

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This person just h- was an absolute saint and still managed to work and,

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and, uh, contribute to people, and it was just an incredible witness.

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But I remember them sorta saying to me that you don't get a choice with dialysis.

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It's like, it's just, it's a non-negotiable.

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It's if you don't go, then the consequences are dramatic and,

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of course, very, very serious.

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And that stuck with me for many years, and I often used to say to people that

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you don't get a choice in that, right?

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It's an absolute non-negotiable.

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Now, I don't wanna make light of that situation, but if you want transformation

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You have to some degree, at to some degree, get yourself into that position

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where the change that you say you want, you, you have to make it important enough

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to actually do the difficult things.

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The weird thing about personal development growth is that the principles,

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the meta principles are so simple.

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They're so simple that anybody can understand them, but it raises the obvious

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point that the vast majority of people don't do something magnificent with this

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one precious life they've been given.

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And I think it's because they're just not in touch with what's important for them,

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and I don't want you to make that mistake.

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And in this message today, I'm really committed to discussing with

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you the question of how in touch are you with what you truly say is

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most important to you, and are you living in congruence with that?

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Sometimes you just need a reminder, sometimes you just need a message like

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this one today to remind you, hey, look, you can say whatever you want.

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Talk is kinda cheap, right?

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It's easy to write a goal.

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It's easy to write something down or to tell people you're gonna change

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But what really matters is the action.

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We can articulate to ourselves all sorts of stories, but what actually matters

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is the action, and what will compel the action is a reason strong enough

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to get you to change your behavior.

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See, if you're hitting that snooze button day after day, it's because

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you have attached a greater value to comfort and pleasure than you

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have to the hard, difficult grind of doing what needs to be done.

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Is that a hard truth?

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Like, it may not be the snooze button, it may be diet, it may be financial,

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it may be compulsive shopping, it may be doom scrolling and wasting time.

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If you want a behavioral change, you've gotta get leverage on yourself.

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Now, I remember one speaker years ago saying, asking the question, "What will

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happen to you if this doesn't change?"

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See, sometimes changing can seem so big and hard and difficult, people get lost.

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They're like, "Well, I don't know what to do. Where do I start? And what…" A

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better question sometimes is, what will happen to you if this never changes?

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Is there an aspect of your life that is holding you back?

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And, and what is that going to cost you in the future if it never changes?

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A year from now, five years from now, 10 years from now, if your health is the

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same way, if your career is the same way, if your core relationships are the same

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way, are you going to be okay with that?

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And maybe you are, and maybe this is the wrong podcast to listen to, because

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there's something in many of us that listen to this content that wants

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perpetual, continual growth, change, so we can contribute and live more fully.

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But we have to get really clear about what honestly drives us.

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And are the things that you say are important to you, are

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they important enough for you to do the things that change?

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And I have said this on pretty much every podcast for the last decade,

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and my wife said this to me during the week 'cause she's making some

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incredible changes in her life at the moment which are just awesome.

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And she said to me, you know, "You've been saying this to me for years." I said,

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"Which part?" She said, "The part that you'll never feel like it." Like, if I

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just could give you that gift today, that if you're ever in the personal development

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journey wondering why it's hard, well, the answer to that, it's because it's hard.

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You see, if it wasn't hard, I know this sounds like a cliche,

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but everybody would do it, right?

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So when you look around you and you notice that most people, as the famous

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metaphysical writer Henry David Thoreau said, "The great mass of people lead lives

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of quiet desperation." Quiet desperation, this sort of, sort of suppressed sense

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of, "Oh, this life is just too stressful.

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It's not what I wanted.

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I didn't think I'd end up here." But they just accept it, and

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you don't have to do that.

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And I think I heard something else during the week which was really interesting,

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was that, you know, if, if you want to know what is most important to you or if

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you want to know what you should want, ask yourself what you would genuinely be

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prepared to sacrifice for What would you genuinely be prepared to sacrifice for?

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Because there are certain things that you will sacrifice for.

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Maybe your family, your children, your, your spouse, or a boyfriend or a

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girlfriend, but there's, there's been times in your life when you have done

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something difficult because there was something that was important to you

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or someone that was important to you.

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So the life that I live and the training and, you know, the, the work and, is

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because I, I've accepted that to live an uncommon life and to serve more people and

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to grow, it's just this is the sacrifice.

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Like, you know, this is the way that I live, is to constantly do difficult

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things in the pursuit of opportunities to serve more people and to mirror and

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to be, have integrity in what I teach, that I've actually lived it myself.

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And so I sacrifice for that, and I do it every single day without

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fail, like, just constantly.

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If you followed me around for a day, you'd see that, and I want that for you, okay?

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So let me sum this up for you.

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Let's keep it really clear.

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If there is some area of your life, it could be your health and fitness, your…

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It's usually in the big three, right?

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Which is health and fitness, finance and career, or relationships.

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You know, all of us as humans usually want to improve one of those.

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Even world-level athletes with the most amazing physiques are always

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trying to improve, and even, you know, business people who make a

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lot of money don't tend to stop.

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They're always like, "How can I grow this? How can I do more?" And when

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you have great relationships, have you ever said to yourself, "Well,

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I wanna back this off a bit. I want this relationship to be worse"?

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No, we're, we're designed for abundance and for growth and connection.

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So in one of those three areas of your life, if you're not where you

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want to be, then you kinda gotta sit with yourself for a while and have

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a really honest conversation with yourself and say, "Maybe, maybe I don't.

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Maybe this isn't that important to me.

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Maybe I'm living someone else's dream.

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Maybe this thing, my life's changed a bit.

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Maybe this doesn't matter." But what does matter to you?

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What would you sacrifice for?

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What would be strong enough for you that you would never

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hit that snooze button again?

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Not saying there aren't times when we should rest, it's not what I mean.

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But what would be powerful enough to keep you going when it's difficult?

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And until you can answer that question, you're going to keep getting the same

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results, and I don't want that for you.

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Okay.

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Follow me on Instagram, jdoylespeaks, YouTube, jdoylespeaks, the

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website, jonathandoyle.co.

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If you like the podcast, please subscribe.

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Share this with some family and friends.

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I'm posting every single day on Instagram and on YouTube.

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Hope you can follow.

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There'll be links in the show notes.

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But God bless you, my friend.

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This is The Daily Podcast.

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My name's Jonathan Doyle.

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You and I are gonna talk again tomorrow

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