The Science Of Following Through On Your Goals With Anthony Sarandrea

Anthony Sarandrea (@anthonysarandrea) is an entrepreneur, speaker, philanthropist and the CEO of Pocket Your Dollars. And wow, what an episode... get ready to be inspired! Anthony joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about how to set and achieve your goals, how he got started as an entrepreneur, his morning routine, what he has learned working with people like Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk and Les Brown, how he changed his mindset, the books he recommends the most and more!

We hear a lot of people say ‘Follow your passion.’ But I am curious, when did you find out that you are good at what you do?

“Well I started going door to door and selling solar hot water systems. I wasn’t great at that, I think it’s because I didn’t really believe in the product. Then I started working at Nike on the floor, there was no commission but I was a rockstar sales guy because I loved the product and what I was doing. That was the first time that it clicked for me. I then went on to interview for a W2 job, and the guy said ‘I have never done this before but I would like to hire you on the spot.’ Then I went to the training and mid way through the guy was asking me to answer the questions. At that point I am thinking maybe I should do this on my own.”

That’s a difficult bridge to cross. A lot of people listening will be too scared to dive into it.

“There is the concept of don’t quit your day job, and I get that. Some people are like ‘I have a family and 4 kids, but I’m going to quit my job because I have this Linkedin and Tinder hybrid idea…’ Hold on, that’s a lot of artificial pressure to that by creating the financial strains. I did pursue the W2 job but found periods of my day where there were gaps. Whether it was watching TV less, getting up earlier or working on Sundays, I found an extra 5 hours a week on top of my 40 hour a week job. From doing that, I was getting some traction and some success, and I was making enough to turn it into 10 hours a week, which would pay my bills. I can break even with this side hustle, so now I can go into it. This was an easy path to entrepreneurship, I got so busy that I hired my brother and my friends until I got to where I am today.”

The biggest excuse we hear is ‘I don’t have the time for this.’ But very few people actually do a time audit on their days. Do you mean writing down what your day consisted of?

“Exactly. At one point it got so dramatic that I had a notebook next to me and I would write down my day every 15 minutes. But I think time is the greatest resource we all have and a great equalizer, we all have the same time in the day. The excuse we tell ourselves is often not true. If you have kids, you have more humans to provide for, that is a bigger fuel. I have me and my girlfriend, that’s it. If you make it a negative, I can make it into an extreme positive.”

Also you will find that people will do the same thing as they did yesterday, which is the same thing as they did the day before and the week before.

“I couldn’t agree more. It’s patterns, repetitions and habits. When I heard it takes 21 days to build a habit, I loved that. If I don’t like something, it only takes 21 days to fix it.”

The 2 most important words in the English language are “I am” because it states what you are after that.

“Yeah and a lot of it is formed of our subconscious. I start to think about what I am and am not and figure out why I am that way. When you break it down to where it came from, you can start to change that and it can be easily changed.”

When you are starting out with something new, what does that look like for you?

“The most important thing is to get leverage. Let’s say on January 1st I want to lose weight. Life happens though and I can get caught out and dragged back into normal life. But getting the leverage on that goal and realizing what it looks like. For me, I said that I wanted to headline a major music festival by 2025, and I have never played an instrument. Then I started to look at the leverage and how much it would affect me and my family if I didn’t achieve this goal. My brother who is 21 will think he is limited and will get dramatic about it, and I will get into that space on purpose. Things like my kids will suffer if I don’t achieve this, fear sells and if I can instil there are consequences, that is when we can really see the results.”

People say that if you win the morning then you win the day. What does your morning routine look like?

“I take an ice bath every day because I want to do the hardest thing first. What email or call is going to be more challenging than that? But you can have a cold shower instead of the ice bath. I also think of 3 things that I am grateful for and think of 3 goals and how I will get to the other side of those goals.”

A lot of people hear about visualization, and this can be applied to anyone.

“How do we build confidence? We have reference points. If it’s something like ehadlinign a festival and you don’t have any reference points, how do we get them? It is through visualization. Spend time visualizing, because your brain doesn’t know what is real and what is not. The brain can create these worst case scenarios and will cause anxiety, but 99% of the time that won’t happen. If you have a speech and you think how bad it will be, why not think how great it will be? That will likely create a change in your confidence and your responses. It’s like when it’s the final kick of the game, you can see the kicker’s body language and be like ‘Yeah he is not kicking this!’ But on the other hand, you can see when they will.”

What books are you reading right now?

“I am reading Life Force by Tony Robbins, it’s a great book. It’s all focused on health and vitality, I am obsessed with the idea of exponential growth in healthcare. Another book I am revisiting is Psycho-Cybernetics, which talks about a plastic surgeon who would perform facial reconstructions. Some people’s lives changed for the better and some did not, and it’s all about how much the appearance made an effect.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for right now?

“The time that we are alive and born, my health and my support system.”

Featured image: Disrupt magazine