Navigating Life with Laughter and Accountability: A Path to Self-Improvement

David Lowe: 0:00

You know, grace, I want to laugh more. I laugh a lot and I want to laugh more. It's part of my pursuit of being better today than yesterday. Why do I want to laugh more? Stay tuned to this episode.

David Lowe: 0:22

Hi guys. I'm Lupoi and and I'm here with David Lowe, the automotive sales coach, and you said that you want to— and you can't stop laughing, can you? No, I can't stop laughing, I can't stop laughing. So we always say to salespeople if you're laughing, you're doing it right, right, and if your customer's laughing, they're buying. So this is true, right, that's very true. So it're talking about laughter, right, the power of laughter in our life. So, really, what we're talking about is better today than yesterday.

David Lowe: 0:48

So I was telling my team that I've adopted this thing, where I have these things. I want to be better. In my life there's things I want to do better and, by the way, it's funny, I've been working on the same things for many years. Things for many years. There's things I value, who I am, how I behave, how I think, how I act. That I value really, like patience, I value, and I struggle with it. So I'm constantly battling my nature. I want to be better. I'm not going to give into it. I'm going to become better by seeking to become better, right? And so how do you and I got this list and how do you work on yourself with such? It's so overwhelming when you look at that list.

David Lowe: 1:35

So why not do what Ben Franklin did and Ogbendino did in Greatest Salesman in the World, right? Why not focus on one area of your life that you want to improve Really, focus on it for a period of time and then move to the next? Does that make sense? It does so. You know, whenever we do training, I tell I've got heroes, not perfect people. King David, who I'm named after, not a perfect person, but boy. I could learn a lot from him. Solomon, which we talk a lot about in training, his books of wisdom not a perfect person, but boy, I could learn a lot from him.

David Lowe: 2:05

Solomon, which we talk a lot about in training, in his books of wisdom not a perfect person, but wow. And we have Ben Franklin. I talk about him a lot. Abe Lincoln, there's people John Wooden, there's people that we talk about, vince Lombardi.

David Lowe: 2:17

There's people that have really impacted me in my life, and Ben Franklin really probably was one of the biggest impacts because of his. He was so smart, right, he had all these patents, developed all this technology, if you will, in a day, was so rich, so powerful. I mean, there's so many things he did for this country. If you don't know who Ben Franklin is, start reading up here. Truly inspiring to read. But anyway, I started using a Franklin planner years and years ago. Before computers, right, we had a day planner we carried around right, and before the cell phone, before the smartphone, and so I did some studying and that's how I got really deep into Ben Franklin.

David Lowe: 3:01

And the thing that inspired me about Ben Franklin is, smart and rich as he was. He woke up every day and said what will I learn today and what good can I do today? Right, that's awesome. He was a student and I thought, if the smartest man around should be doing that, I should quit telling people what I know and start finding out what I don't. Now, by the way, think and grow rich. We've talked about before. That's what it said.

David Lowe: 3:25

The best of the best know what they know. They're always trying to figure out what they don't know, and I think in our society today, people are kind of protecting themselves with this ego. You know, you can't tell me anything. I already know everything. You know. Anytime. Any point of teaching, training or correction is seen as a personal insult. It's such garbage. When did you become perfect? Right, right, right. So our ability, I think we said in one of the episodes we were talking about my journey, I think it was my humility. When I say humility, I mean I knew I sucked and I wanted to be better. That's what I think humility is. I know I could be better than I am and I think that humility is a key fashion and success, and it's missing in America, anyway.

David Lowe: 4:11

So, ben Franklin, I studied him. What will I learn today? What will I do today? Well, he also had this other thing. He had 13 virtues he wanted in his life Silence, temperance, humility. These are things that he wanted.

David Lowe: 4:27

So what he did was he listed them on a side of a paper and then he put the days of the week across the top and for one week, let's say, he worked on silence. For one week he focused on developing that in his life. Right, try to listen more, speak less. Praise. When I feel like praising, say it. When I feel like criticizing, hold my you know silence the power of silence. And so he'd work on it a week and then he'd move on to the next one Temperance, right. He didn't want to eat to dullness or drink to elevation right. So he wanted to manage and, by the way, he struggled with that his whole life. You could read about that. So these aren't things that he possessed, necessarily, things that he possessed a certain percentage of that he wanted more of in his life.

David Lowe: 5:15

So he listed these virtues or values and he said I want these in my life, and to get them in my life, I have to be intentional. Right, I got to have a plan. Nothing good ever just happens, it just doesn't. You got to make it happen. You don't just learn to play the piano, you don't learn a second language just by wanting to. You got to have a plan. You got to take action. Right. So he had this plan and, of course, from that the Franklin Planner was born, from these things that he did. And in fact, when the Franklin Planner started, there was a big discussion about what Ben Franklin did and how he did it and how taking some time every day and self-reflection could be really powerful in your life. And so it's been powerful in my life for over three decades, obviously still totally imperfect and right.

David Lowe: 6:06

I still struggle, but I'm focused on being better today than yesterday, and that pursuit of my best self gives me a healthy pride. It's not the attainment of all these virtues, it's the pursuit that creates healthy. None of us are going to be perfect until so. Let's talk about laughter. Okay, so that's one of my 13,. Let's say I want to have laughter in my life and so I'm going to focus on it and I'm going to make May the month of laughter. Right, that's my month for laughter, and I'm going to really say I want to laugh more.

David Lowe: 6:41

Now, before I begin this journey, the question is, why do I want to laugh more? I mean, right, yeah, now you know I'm a big Seinfeld freak. I love Seinfeld. In fact, I reference the episodes here all the time. All the time I love laughing. The King of Cries. There's so many comedies that I watch because I like what they do to me. I like in the car Sometimes I'm having a you know, you ever wake up and you're kind of just off. So on my drive I'll put the comedians from the dry bar comedy on and I'll listen to that on my way to work.

David Lowe: 7:19

Laughter has a way of producing the chemicals in your brain that change you from negative to positive, from fear to peace, right From anxiety to joy. I mean, it just really does. Laughter is so powerful in our life, and so I love to laugh, and it's easy in your pursuit of personal excellence and for our company to do what we want to do, to impact a number of people we want to impact. We get so caught up in the grind we forget to laugh. It's so easy and I don't feel good. When I don't do that right. I wake up and say you can have everything and be miserable. Why do it right? So laughter does it matter? It really matters to me. Does it improve my personal life? Absolutely? Does it improve my professional life? Absolutely? So I should cultivate this habit of laughter, right? Okay, so I know what I want and I know why I want it. The question is how do I get it now Right? So I do. I've already have some things in mind, but I'll tell you one thing that's really powerful.

David Lowe: 8:22

If you guys haven't read it yet, I don't get an endorsement from this. I don't get a fee every time you buy a book. I used to carry a trunk full of them to hand out. But when I started with half a car in the 90s, while we were waiting for the interview, there was no smartphones. I had a bag phone with roaming charges. There was no internet. They handed us this during a two-day interview to read, and it's changed my life. I've carried it ever since and in this book, the Greatest Salesman in the World, ogmandino, tells a fictional story and at the end, this fictional story about this great salesman contains these 10 scrolls.

David Lowe: 8:58

These scrolls are the key to success, is what this book says. I will tell you. They are. They're undisputed. All of them are biblical. They're 3,000 years old.

David Lowe: 9:07

Aguilandino put them in a really usable format, right. But so these scrolls go through and I'm not going to take you through them. I'd encourage you to get the book and read it. You won't regret it. I don't know, it's eight bucks or something like that. Maybe not even that much. Huh, maybe not even that much. Yeah, you're going to use it, right? It's like one of the number one published books in print. Anyway, the scrolls at the end.

David Lowe: 9:30

I only read the story once, but the scrolls at the end I read all the time. You know, scroll number one I'll form good habits and become their slave. Scroll number two I'll live this day as if it's my life. Powerful principles, right? Scroll number nine I'll act now so you can see how the principles that drive success are contained. Anyway, I'm just going to skip the scroll number seven.

David Lowe: 9:55

Guess what it's marked I will laugh at the world. Here's what Agamondino says no living creature can laugh except man, right? So this is a big thing, and he makes some great points in here. I will smile and my digestion will improve. In this book, in these scrolls, he's doing these affirmations of I will laugh at the world. And why do I want to do that? Because man is most comical when he takes himself too seriously. I love that line in here. That's a great one. So part of my routine is going to be to feed my laugh factory from Seinfeld.

David Lowe: 10:30

I like to watch a comedy before bed every night. I like to watch comedies when I prepare, when I'm exercising. I like to listen. Comedies when I prepare, when I'm exercising. I like to listen to comedy. I just like comedians, and it's things that make me laugh and really make fun of us as people. I mean, who are we anyway? We're hurtling through space and we're making all these mistakes and yet we end up taking ourselves. It's almost comical how and anyway. But I'm also going to get back to reading this. So I'm reading this now every single day.

David Lowe: 10:58

When I started with this, I read every scroll for 30 days, three times a day. Hard to do, not really hard to do, hard to commit to. I probably missed two days out of 10 months. I carry it with me everywhere. It's hilarious. Read it in the morning, read it at lunch. That really impacted my life.

David Lowe: 11:15

Really programming yourself with who you want to be. We're getting programmed anyway. Why not do that? So in May I want to laugh more. I know why I want to laugh more and now I've got to make a plan to do it. Now I've got to track myself. Ben Franklin tracked himself. So on my calendar every day, I've got it right, did it right? At the end of the day, my plan is self-reflection.

David Lowe: 11:40

How did I do today? What areas did I blow it? In other words, I should have laughed and made the mistake. Or the hill? I made it smaller, really brought it to the right size. Maybe I should have laughed at an insult instead of responding. Right, somebody says an insult. You say well, that's not true. You can say right, and you know you could turn. It's a lot better that way, right? So I would self-examine at the end of the day and say I did really well today in these areas.

David Lowe: 12:13

Here's the areas of opportunity. And if I do that, I believe, every day for 30 days, I will strengthen Something's already a strength in my life, but I want more of it. Does that make sense? It does. So what do you want, grace? Have you thought about what are my 13 things? What do you want and why do you want it? And what will you do to put it in your life? And how are you going to hold yourself accountable? Isn't that four steps? Right, there, it is. What do you want? Why do you want it? In other words, what's the benefit if you do? What's the loss if you don't? Right? Right Three, what's the action plan? What are you going to do? And number four how are you going to hold yourself accountable?

David Lowe: 13:00

This is an easy format that you can use to improve your life today. It doesn't matter what area Now. Maybe it's physical fitness, right? Maybe I've got a lot of them. Silence is a good one, right. How about this one? Maybe asking questions instead of making statements. That's another one. Right, you're from the Dale Carnegie School, being more curious and ask good follow-up questions, right? Maybe there's things you want to focus on in your personal life, maybe there's things in your professional life.

David Lowe: 13:32

We had a guy come in here and say my wife and I decided to kiss for six seconds at a time I'm not going to mention Mike Price's name, but he did it and what a powerful thing. So they made a decision what do we want in our life and why? Right. And then what are we going to do to make sure it happens? And now they're looking at these results.

David Lowe: 13:52

What's my accountability? I like the checklist and I like the self-examination for accountability. I got to keep myself in track and I think so many people go wrong races because, like, if I'm not 100%, I failed. That's garbage. You ride, you fall, you get back on your bike and you ride again. Then you fall less. You're still going to fall, but you fall less frequently the better you get.

David Lowe: 14:17

So I think, as we develop the sense of better today than yesterday, we say what do I really want and what should I work on right now? Now you can do the Ben Franklin for a week, or you can do them for a month. I'm happily right now doing for a month. I'm happily right now doing for a month. I've done many things at once. I've done them for a week and I've done them for a month and I've found since I've been working on these areas in my life in different ways, I'm mindful of them, and now I just want to really deep dive.

David Lowe: 14:51

And so the laughter part is what's coming on? Make sense. I love it. Yeah, so we talk to salespeople every day. You're in dealerships. You think there's areas of their lives they want to improve. I think so.

David Lowe: 15:02

I know so, yeah, so could this formula be used by anyone? What do you want? Why do you want it? In other words, what's the benefit of doing it? What's the pain of action or the pain of regret? What are you going to do? What are you going to do and what is the plan? You've got to have a plan. And finally, of course, how are you going to keep yourself? What's the accountability in there? We all need accountability, a checklist, self-examination. What are you going to do to do it All right? So today's episode was really focused on. I want to laugh more, was really kind of the table we used for it. But really, what it's about is being better today than yesterday and coming up with a plan to do it.

David Lowe: 15:42

I wanted to demonstrate that we practice what we preach right. These aren't theories. So many people want to tell you their theory. We're not interested in theories. I'm interested in replicatable science, things that I can observe and replicate right, and this is something I've observed and can replicate as much as I want. It's a science. Developing yourself is a science, right? So any last words about this, grace, I don't think so. Okay, so let's encourage our team. If you're out there, make your list. Start with that. Make your list. What do I want to improve? And then guess what. Pick one thing and either focus on for the week or for the month, but make sure you do your four-step plan. What do I want, why do I want it, what am I going to do to get it and how am I going to keep myself accountable? All right, till next time. Good selling.