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Wayne: Today we’re going to be posing the question, what are you getting better at? Are you just stagnating, are you? Or you’re actually going to make things better? Huh, huh? Are you?

Cem: Well, I think it’s a question people don’t like to ask themselves, I think.

Wayne: I agree.

Cem: It’s like, avoid at all costs. It’s like-

Wayne: Self-betterment, who needs it?

Cem: Yeah, exactly. I’ve got bigger problems than that.

Wayne: I’m practically perfect in every way.

Cem: Yeah, I think it is one of those questions that is hard to ask yourself. It’s kind of like a meditative question to ask yourself, because if you’re always on the go … I think that is the millennial lifestyle nowadays, is constantly on … I think sometimes you forget to ask yourself, okay, well, where is this leading? Or is there any improvement? Or how am I changing?

Cem: And I think that’s what life’s all about. I think it’s too easy to get caught up in this way of just going through the day, just churning out the same shit every day. But that’s your life that you’re grinding away.

Wayne: And I agree. And actually, the more you’re talking about it, the more I’m going, yeah, actually. I genuinely believe that us doing the podcast has been one of the best things for us from a self-development perspective, because we are constantly having to ask these questions and constantly go, “Yeah, can I be better?”

Wayne: And I think that’s just a generally good question to ask yourself on a weekly basis or a monthly basis or however often. Even a yearly basis. Just, can I be better? But not in a new year, new me kind of way. But an actually, can I be better? Whether that means, can I be healthier? Can I be a nicer person? Can I listen more? Can I improve my skill set? Being better isn’t just about losing weight or eating healthier. It is just generally, it’s a lifestyle choice, I think, in many ways, just to go, do you know what? I want to be better today than I was yesterday.

Cem: And I think what people forget as well is that actually psychologically and for your mental health, improvement does so much for you. I know I’ve got a friend and we go to the gym more regularly and he’s like, “Do you know how much better I feel with myself and my mind?” Again, not just the fitness thing. But even if you do a course or you sign up or you finish reading a book, then you think, “Wow, I never finish a book, usually. These little things that are like moving forward these progressions are so good for your mental health.

Wayne: Yeah, and they compound as well, right? They really do compound, and you don’t see it at the time when you’re going down these certain paths. Using the podcast, for an example … So we were self-educating anyway through podcasts and particularly for you, books as well. And so it was kind of like, okay, well, let’s have these conversations. And these conversations started happening, and then doors started opening for us because we were having these conversations, and we’ve built our skill set up.

Wayne: I’ve improved certainly at my business skills because of the conversations we’ve had. You’ve set up a successful business, plus you’re doing all your freelancing stuff, which is as a result in many ways, and some of the successes of that in many ways, a result of the self-education that we’ve had to do to continue to produce the podcast. And so you end up in a nice cycle which actually, just generally, I think, just improves your life in so many facets.

Cem: I think it falls back to habits, massively. This is habits. Before long, even with me and different facets of my life, if I don’t do the things that progress me forward, I get alerts. It’s like my muscle memory’s there, or I don’t know, whatever. It’s some sort of nervous system in me that goes, “Actually, no. You’re not doing anything.” It is the same with the gym, it just becomes something that I have to do regularly.

Cem: If I’m not reading … I’ve got loads of books around me, so I’m like, “Cem, get up, pick up a book. Do something.” And I think it is all about consistency, and if you are going to get better every day, you have to make it a habit. And that means, like you said earlier, it doesn’t have to be a massive thing. It doesn’t have to be crazy. It could just be like, okay, one more glass of water per day, or I’ll take the stairs instead of standing to the right on the escalator. Little things like that will start, as you say, compounding. And they can have a massive change, a massive improvement on your life.

Wayne: If you can, at least once a month, just have a little moment. Grab a cup of tea, cup of coffee, bottle of water. And just sit and just think on it, and just go, “Have I stagnated this month? Is there something I could be better at?” It doesn’t have to be a big thing. It doesn’t have to be, I could earn more money. It could just be something as simple as, you know what, actually? I’m not eating enough fruit, or I’m not eating enough veg. Or, it doesn’t even have to be about losing weight. Just simply, I could do with doing more of that, or I could do with doing less of that. And just that one thing.

Wayne: Actually, one of the things that I have done recently, and it’s done so much good for me … I am a pizza fiend, right? I love freaking pizza. I would eat pizza every day for every meal if I could. I love it, because you can’t go wrong with a good pizza, right? You cannot go wrong unless you’re going to throw pineapple on it or fish on it.

Cem: I love pineapple.

Wayne: No. Not on a pizza. But it’d gotten out of control. So I have now limited myself to a singular pizza a week.

Cem: How many were you having?

Wayne: It had gotten out of control. I was having three a week at one point.

Cem: Flipping hell.

Wayne: I know. And I was like, this cannot continue. It is so unsustainable. And I’ll tell you what. I’m less bloated, I feel better. Cem commented on how good my skin looked earlier, although I am moisturizing as well. It’s another habit I’ve built. But there we go.

Wayne: And it’s all these tiny little things. It’s not a big thing to go, you know what? You can only have one pizza a week, because I’m actively thinking about it.

Cem: You’ve gotta check your greedy bastard at the door.

Wayne: Yeah, ’cause I’m actively thinking, that’s your pizza quota for the week, as opposed to being like, just eat what you want. It’s a simple habit to build, very easy to keep track of, and it’s done me a world of good.

If you want any questions answered, or if you have any ideas for anythings you’d like us to address, send us an email, Wayne@powerfulnonsense.com or Cem@powerfulnonsense.com, or you can look us up on the Twitterz @PN_Podcast, and we will take it into consideration. And also, please do leave us a nice little review on the old iTunes. It really does help get the word out there for the show. Five stars or more, greatly appreciated. And if you’ve got a friend, and you’re just like, “You know what, mate? You need to sort your life out,” if you’ve got a friend that’s like Wayne and he’s eating three pizzas a week, just passively aggressively shove this episode under their nose. But don’t say anything. Just kind of shove it under their nose. Tag them on Facebook or whatever. #SortYourLifeOut.

***Powerful Nonsense is not responsible for any negative reaction you might get for passively aggressively sending this episode to them.***