5 Years From Now

About the Episode:

Take a good look at who you are today because this isn’t who you were 5 years ago. Be grateful for that change even if you think your life is worse right now. You’ve gained wisdom. You’ve grown. You’ve learned things that are shaping your decisions today. But who are you going to be 5 years from now? That’s what we’re diving into. I’m sharing the five critical things that are actively shaping your future right now: the books you read, the people you surround yourself with, the habits you form, the food you eat, and the conversations you have. These aren’t small factors. These are the foundations that determine everything about your future self. You can either intentionally shape who you’ll become or let circumstances mold you into something you don’t want to be. Choose wisely. Your future depends on it.

Listen to the podcast here:

What’s shakin’? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan. Today, we’re going all in. Take a look at who you are today. This is where we’re gonna start today, because who you are today is most definitely not who you were five years ago. And that’s a good thing, you know, to start off with. Be grateful for that today, because regardless of if you think that your life is worse off now, right? You’re in a better place. You’re really just in a low, and go back and listen to the episode when this one is done, and share this out too, about temporary defeats versus permanent failures, because that’s going to be your powerhouse today, as you take a look at the last five years, right? Even if you’re in a bad place today, there are a lot of things that you can be grateful for. There’s a lot of learning that you’ve had to do so you can make better decisions these days. Maybe you haven’t made good decisions as of late, good choices as of late, but that’s okay, because you have the wisdom now that you didn’t have five years ago to make those different decisions. Today, we’re going to talk about not really like your last five years, but really the person you’re going to be five years from now, and this is going to be powerful. This is going to change your life today.

 I know it’s because I’ve seen it in many people, including in my own self, and I’m going to tell you the few things that matter that are going to shape the person you are five years from now, all right, the first one. And this is, this is so important. And this, I learned this lesson late in life, right? I only learned this lesson just a few years ago, and this is why I am the person I am today. Five years ago, looking forward to who I am today. I never would have been this person without understanding that the person who I’m going to be five years from now and the person you’re going to be five years from now, the first thing it depends on, largely, is the books you read. Now, I’m saying the books you read, but this can also be the podcast that you listen to. This can also be the online content that you consume, anything that you let in your brain from those mediums, by what you’re actually looking down at your screen, reading words or putting into your ears from content, is going To determine one of the biggest things that determines, largely, who you are going to be five years from now. And this even comes down literally to the music that you listen to, right? So these are like inanimate things that I’m looking around, right? This is knowledge. This is wisdom. This is content that you’re choosing to shape your mind, shape your perspectives, shape your reality as a subsequent symptom of what you’re actually allowing to go into your heart, into your mind, into your soul. 

The person you are five years from now depends largely on number one, the books that you read now. Maybe you’re like, and this is why I was saying like, this is a lesson that I learned late in life. I’ve been talking a lot internally to my own teams in my companies about this right now to say, hey, you know what? I need you to consume content. I need you to consume some good information about where you are and where you’re going in life and what you want to do. And even as I’m explaining this to my teams on these CEO talks that I have, I’m telling them, it’s like, hey, there’s an interview question that’s on our written interview that asks you, what do you do to develop yourself? What books are you currently reading, or what podcasts are you listening to? Because I value that. I know the difference it’s made in my life, and even those who I’ve chosen to surround myself with, those who read books, you know, and I’m not saying you have to actually look down and read them, because I don’t read many books actually, like look at a piece of paper and read it, or on a Kindle or anything. I don’t actually read it. I listen to a ton of audiobooks. It’s how I best consume. 

So when I say books that you read, that’s why I’m saying consume whatever books you consume or podcasts you listen to. I’m hammering this into my team right now because that’s even a question that I wanted on our written interview for all candidates that apply to a job at any of my companies: what books are you currently reading? Currently, right now, what podcast do you listen to? I want to know that that individual is doing something right now to shape who they are going to be five years from now, right, because you can either shape that yourself. You can either mold yourself in the way that you want to with how you want to be for those five years, or you can let circumstances surrounding you mold that for you into something you don’t want to be five years from now, and that’s what brings us to number two: what determines who you are going to be five years from now is the people you surround yourself with. This I’ve done. A couple of episodes around this, like your circle now, is not your circle that it’s going to be all of that, right? But you can go back and listen to those episodes too. But I’m telling you that once you start to consume books, consume content, you’re gonna get this thought in your head, and this is almost like a natural thing that happens: you start to identify people around you that don’t actually have the same values you do. 

You thought you did, and you probably did at one point in time. But as you start to grow and they start to stay in the same place, you’ve got a couple of choices now. You can either be that fire for them too and say, Hey, this is what I’m doing. You know, share this time with me. I’m reading this good book. I just found this new awesome podcast. I think you should listen to it too. Let’s talk about it. You can bring them along with you. You could be that catalyst for them, which is an amazing, awesome privilege. I freaking love that I as being the catalyst for other people by getting excited about something that I’m consuming, and then it’s like I can actually maybe maintain some of the people that are around me, because now they want to grow with me. They are focused on the same thing. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be with specific values. It could be as generic and as broad as saying, Hey, I just want to be better than where I am right now. I just want to be a better person than who I am right now, five years from now, and that is the seed of the value of personal growth. That’s an awesome reason to keep your friend around. That’s an awesome reason to stay in the relationship when that person shares that singular value. 

I know I talk about reasons to get out of relationships, but that’s a really, really good one to stay in a relationship when you share that singular value that you both want to be better people, better humans, better use five years from now than who you are today. That’s an awesome value, and this is why the people that you surround yourself with largely determine the person who you will be five years from now, and those people will actually shape number three here, because if you’re around the right people, you’re going to develop great habits. If you’re around the wrong people, you’re going to develop pretty shitty habits. Because if it’s like always going out, this is number three that largely defines who you’re going to be is the habits that you adopt, the habits that you form. And if you’re around the wrong circles of people, they will begin to say, hey, why don’t you just come out tonight? You’re like, Man, I gotta finish my book, not maybe even reading one, but maybe writing one. Or maybe you’re like, I’m searching for a new job, because I know that I can level up right now. But they’re like, I’ll come out to the bar tonight, you know, let’s go out to the club. You know, let’s go to the game. You know what? Let’s sit our asses down on the couch on Sunday and watch football until we’re numb. Football season is coming, right? I understand that. I love sports. 

I played sports for so many years, but if that’s how you decide to spend your time, and that’s it, because you just want to escape from the world, and it’s something you want to do just because you don’t have to worry about anything else. And that’s what defines your life, that habit of sitting your ass on a couch and watching sports or watching TV or watching movies, and that’s all you do. You don’t do any of these other things. You are missing out on the life you’re supposed to live. So those habits that you form right now, if you’re having conversations, which I do, like I was at a Cubs game at an event A few months ago, and I’m talking to people about business and growing and all this stuff at the same time, we’re watching the game, different scenario. But if you’re just going there to immerse yourself in it, and you do it week after week after week after week, you’re watching football, you’re watching baseball, you’re watching soccer, you’re watching, MMA, whatever it is, and that’s all that you freaking do, because you’re around these people like, Let’s get together fucking get drunk and watch the game. Come on, bro. 

Let’s do it. Stupid, fucking stupid. Sports are a great American pastime. I’m all for it, but it’s to get around people that are the same as you. So if you find yourself wasting away week after week after week, no matter what it is, whether it’s watching sports, whether it’s going to the club, whether it’s going to the bar, whether it’s just going out to eat and getting fat, because you’re around these people that that’s all they care about, is just going to work, paying bills and dying, that’s all life is to them. You’re around the wrong people, because now you have formed the wrong habits. The habits that you adopt are going to most definitely shape who you are five years from now. And I talked about this a little bit right now, because those habits, like I’m saying, getting around those people, they’re like, let’s pound on the beers. Let’s go to Buffalo Wild Wings. I love Buffalo Wild Wings. Got a great client in Buffalo Wild Wings, but if you’re eating the same fried shit every fucking week, that’s bad, because the Number four thing that largely determines who you’re going to be five years from now is the food that you eat. Food is so important. Nutrition is so important in your life because it builds everything. The living cells within you, to be able to think, to be able to feel, to be able to move, to be able to run, to be able to jump, to be able to lift, to be able to live life, to be able to solve problems, to be able to achieve amazing things because you’re taking in the right nutrients to power your brain. 

Nutrition and food largely determine who you’re going to be five years from now. And you know what? In order to have the right nutrients and the building blocks, you have to surround yourself with the right people who value the same thing, value being healthy. So if you’re thinking, Man, I’m dropping 100 pounds, I’m dropping 50 pounds, I’m dropping just 10 pounds, those are things that you want to do Awesome, get around people that value the same thing, because now all of a sudden you’re going to develop better habits. Because now, instead of going to McDonald’s, you’re going to end up going to a farm-to-table restaurant that has healthy foods, or you end up doing more food prep at home. Rather than going out all of a sudden, you’re having people over to your home and cooking awesome, nutritious meals together, rather than going to have this fried crap every single week or these burgers that have nothing but sodium in them—they’re salt burgers every single week. Because now that you’re all in this scenario to where you’re eating nutritiously, you’re feeding your brain. 

The fifth thing that is largely going to determine who you are five years from now is the conversations that you have. You get around these people, the right people, you eat the right foods, and you have the right habits. Whether you’re at the gym, your conversations are going to be so much different. You’re going to start to talk about things not going on in Hollywood, not just the latest influencers on Instagram or TikTok. You’re going to start talking about investments. You’re going to start talking about leveling up your career. You’re going to start talking about being an executive one day. You’re going to start talking about building a healthy family. You’re going to start talking about having a good relationship, not the stupid bullshit that consumes most of our country right now, because we become numb because of all of these four things are not happening the right way before this, so they cannot possibly create that environment for you to have the right conversations to advance yourself in life and get you what you want. These are all choices of yours. They are all cohesive, and I’m going to tell you today, choose wisely.