It’s typical thinking to believe that the more you do things, the faster you’ll get to your end goal, but what happens if you end up losing yourself in the process? What happens if you feel exhausted and stuck in a loop? Taking the time to reflect and see where you are at in life or in your day is so much better than constantly being in a rush trying to get things done. It is important to take a deep breath, reflect and change your perspective on the hustle and bustle mentality. So, are you ready to change your perspective and give yourself a new chance to fly high?
 
Karl Staib is the founder of the Dig to Fly Methodology and a podcaster.
 
In this episode, Karl talks about the importance of changing your perspective on hustling and, instead, taking the time to reflect on your actions or progress daily. He also shares his tips and top three questions to reflect on that can help give you a boost on how you can make progress without stressing yourself out.
 
 
What you will learn from this episode:
  • Learn the importance of perspective and how you can build that powerful habit that can change your life
  • Understand why your emotions and thoughts are far more important than those numbers
  • Find out about the power and importance of everyday reflection
 
 
“Because life is about 99% perspective, if you can find the right perspective, you can find a way to focus on the things that are important to you.”
– Karl Staib
 
 
Valuable Free Resource:
  • How to dig deeper and fly farther without the stress of breaking and pushing yourself too far: Digtofly.com
 
 
Topics Covered:
 
01:14 – Challenge is not having enough time to slow down to reflect on what’s working which greatly affects motivation and productivity
 
01:36 – One of the symptoms that limits you and makes you feel unworthy is your mindset
 
02:40 – Association worth with productivity and action: the common mistake that can make a powerful negative impact on your career
 
03:40 – One free and actionable tip you can do to change those negative thoughts to impactful actions and progress: What I put together is a process called, “the Dig to Fly” method. But what I realized is you need to start off with baby steps. So, I put a simple process routine together at the end of each day. What I want people to do is break their day. But before they do, they have to ask themselves two questions. And the questions are very simple. What are three things I did well today? What could I do better? And how could I do better?
 
05:51 – One valuable free resource to help you dig faster and fly farther in your career: Digtofly.com
 
07:24 – Q: How can you build these habits and these routines to help you process your thoughts and emotions? A: Because life’s about emotions. At the end of the day, it’s how we feel. It’s not how many things we check off our to-do list. It’s not how many promotions we’ve gotten in the past five years. It’s not any of those things!
 
 
Key Takeaways:
 
“80% of our results come from 20% of our effort. So, if we are focusing on the right things, we are going to have great results. And that so-key is slowing down, looking at what’s going on at the end of each day, and then how to process it. So, you can make the next day even more productive and easier for you. So, you’re not so stressed.” – Karl Staib
 
“You need to start off with baby steps.” – Karl Staib
 
“If you beat yourself up all the time, you let your inner bully out, you’re going to give yourself a bad rating.” – Karl Staib
 
“Because when you look at it, when you have to put a number on it, you can’t sway yourself. You have to be honest. And you got to look at the data.” – Karl Staib
 
 
Ways to Connect with Karl Staib
 
 
Ways to Connect with Sarah E. Brown
 
 
Full Episode Transcript:
 
Karl Staib 0:00
Measure how you feel about your day. What did you do? What did you accomplish? And what that does is it puts ownership back on you. You don’t let other people dictate your number. You don’t allow other things, outside influences– you decide.
 
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 0:25
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the KTS Success Factor Podcast for Women where we talk about challenges senior female leaders face in being happy and successful at work. I’m your host, Dr. Sarah E. Brown.
 
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 0:44
My guest today is Karl Staib. He is the founder and the designer of a methodology called, “Dig to Fly”, which we’re going to learn more about. And he’s also a podcast host. Welcome, Karl. I’m excited to talk about this!
 
Karl Staib 1:04
Oh, me, too! Thanks for having me.
 
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 1:06
Oh, it’s great! So, tell me what’s the biggest challenge you’re helping leaders face in business today? And what might be the symptom of that challenge?
 
Karl Staib 1:14
Whoa, let’s dig deep fast. I love it! Okay, I think the biggest challenge is they don’t have enough time to slow down and reflect on what’s working for them, what’s not working, and how to calibrate around it.
 
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 1:31
Okay, and what might be the symptoms of that? How would they see that playing out in their work?
 
Karl Staib 1:36
I think it comes from our mindset. We are on the go. We’re always trying to accomplish more and more and more. You’re probably familiar with the 80/20 rule. Tim Ferriss talks about it all the time. 80% of our results come from 20% of our effort. So, if we are focusing on the right things, we are going to have great results. And that so-key is slowing down, looking at what’s going on at the end of each day, and then how to process it. So, you can make the next day even more productive and easier for you. So, you’re not so stressed.
 
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 2:13
Okay, so the symptoms, then, are feeling stressed or not getting the results that you want. Would that be fair?
 
Karl Staib 2:19
Yeah, that’s a good way of putting it.
 
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 2:21
Okay! And so, what do you see for women who can see themselves in this- women or men, frankly- who can see themself in this picture, what would you say is the biggest mistake they make before they start working with you or get connected to your podcast, for example?
 
Karl Staib 2:40
I’m working with a woman right now, and we come back to her worthiness. And this has been a theme through a lot of my clients is feeling worthy, feeling like they deserve what they have, and they deserve even better. And it’s so hard! I think, women especially, I think, you know, they’re raised a certain way. But boys too! I think, in men, it’s just- we think like, you know, especially if something good happened to us, what’s the first thought we think? “Uh-oh, here comes something bad around the corner.” And, and it hurts us. And it hurts us, it stops us. And we don’t take action on those things that are really going to make a powerful impact in our careers because we’re afraid.
 
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 3:27
Okay, well, I can resonate with that worthiness thing. I see that a lot in my practice as well. So, what is the number one free and actionable tip you can give our listeners today to help them deal with this challenge now?
 
Karl Staib 3:40
So, what I have- what I put together is a process called, “the Dig to Fly” method. But what I realized is you need to start off with baby steps. So, I put a simple process routine together at the end of each day. What I want people to do is rate their day. But before they do, they have to ask themselves two questions. And the questions are very simple. What are three things I did well today? What could I do better? And how could I do better? Right? So, you have to, and this comes back to Edward Deci’s principles- is what you need to do is you need to set yourself up, right? If you beat yourself up all the time, you let your inner bully out, you’re going to give yourself a bad rating. So, what you have to do is you have to prime yourself– three things, three positive things you did well, and then what could you do better. Then, you give yourself a rating. And that rating’s on a scale of 1 to 10. And because, as you know, Drucker always says, you know, the management specialist from, I think, the 50s and 60s, still revered today, “If you can’t measure it, you’re not going to improve it.” So, measure how you feel about your day. What did you do? What did you accomplish? And what that does is it puts ownership back on you. You don’t let other people dictate your number. You don’t allow other things, outside influences, you decide. Because life is about 99% perspective. And if you can find the right perspective, you can find a way to focus on the things that are important to you.
 
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 5:23
I love it! So, one of the key premises in my program is taking 100% responsibility. And that’s just what you were talking about. And you gave a couple of really good ways to do that– three things you did well, what could you improve, and how do you measure it? How do you feel about your day? That actually customizes that makes it unique to you. That’s great! So, what’s a valuable free resource you can share, predominantly with the women that are listening today, to help them understand this challenge better?
 
Karl Staib 5:51
So, if they go to my website, digtofly.com, I have a one-sheet that breaks it down. It’s like a mini-guide. It shows them how to make this routine a regular thing that you do. Because, you know, as we talked about before we started recording, the people listening are super busy. They’re, you know, trying to juggle so many things. And it’s even just taking five minutes to do this simple routine sometimes seems like too much. What I found with my clients is just taking that five minutes can make a huge impact. So, if they want, they can download the one-sheet, and they can fill it out. And what I suggest is try to do it for seven days, and then start to see that number. Because I had a client who was like, “I did a five, a six, and a five.” And I was like, “Well, how do you feel about that number?” And she’s like- you know because it’s about little over five and a half. And she’s like, “Oh, that was pretty good. A pretty decent day.” I was like, “So, you’re happy with about a five and a half?” And she’s like, “No.” And she realized she needed to make some changes. Because when you look at it, when you have to put a number on it, you can’t sway yourself. You have to be honest. And you got to look at the data.
 
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 7:05
I get it! Okay, well, that’s where I’m going as soon as we finish this. And just to reiterate it, Digtofly.com. It’s right there on your homepage?
 
Karl Staib 7:13
Yep.
 
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 7:13
Okay, cool! So, Karl, what’s one question I should have asked you that will help our audience take action to address this challenge? And then would you answer the question?
 
Karl Staib 7:24
Yeah, I think one of the things to ask is, how can you build these habits and these routines to help you process your thoughts and emotions? Because life’s about emotions. At the end of the day, it’s how we feel. It’s not how many things did we checked off our to-do list. It’s not how many promotions we’ve gotten in the past five years. It’s not any of those things! It’s not how much money we got in a bank. You know, you might have a million dollars in stock in your portfolio, but you are an evil twisted, son of a gun that beat yourself up at the end of every day. That’s not healthy! You’re not going to live as long. You’re not going to be a good family member- as good of a family member as you could be. So how do you take in time to process those thoughts and emotions? I suggest, you know, people should see a therapist. People should hire coaches and consultants, so they have that outside perspective. But like you, like what we talked about is coaching themselves. How are they taking that time to coach themselves, and really process everything going on, get it out so they can go to bed with a clear mind and have a good night’s rest and wake up with more energy?
 
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 8:41
What a great idea! Well, as I said, that’s where I’m going as soon as we finish. Karl, thanks so much for being with us today.
 
Karl Staib 8:50
Oh, thank you. I had a blast!
 
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 8:52
Thanks for listening to the KTS Success Factor Podcast for Women. If you like what you’re hearing, please go to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave a review. And if you would like more information on how we can help women in your organization to thrive, then go to www.sarahebrown.com. You can sign up for our newsletter, read show notes and learn more about our podcast guests, read my blog, browse through the books or contact us for a chat. Goodbye for now!
Sarah E. Brown
Sarah E. Brown

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