106. Increase Your Capacity

My schedule is quite volatile. Weeks are not usually the same and gaps in the day to take care of business are somewhat unpredictable. Knowing as much, I tend to look forward only a day or two before making plans.

Is this a great model? Not if you ask folks like Craig Ballantyne, but it is the one that’s working at the moment. I’m aware failing to plan ahead has it’s downfalls, it’s just that for all the planning I’ve done the past few years, it seems like a necessary season of focused execution at the day to day micro level.

When I look forward more or less one day at a time, the only questions I ask myself are how can I perform at my best in every moment for this day? And what do I need to do to prepare?

Sometimes the days ahead look daunting. When they’re full of necessary appointments and tasks and leave little time for anything else. Or when I can tell that getting a full night’s sleep, a good workout and 3 solid meals is just not in the cards. Those days can be intimidating, so here’s what I do.

I prepare to increase my capacity.

When all the information about what’s to come is in front of me, I can appropriately prepare for the necessary mindset. When it looks like a busy couple day stretch and when there’s always a chance of a wildcard add on, I simply tell myself that it’s time to increase my capacity for work.

It’s like when 2025 World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto came in to close out game 7 after throwing 96 pitches the day before. He was well beyond his typical capacity for pitching, but with the championship on the line, changes were made and preconceived notions of what maximum was were thrown out the window (unlike his pitches).

Sometimes it’s necessary to increase our regular capacity in order to reach our potential.

We’re not all pitching in the World Series, but on a day like today, you might have to increase your capacity to operate at a high level on little sleep. You might have to increase your capacity to be patient with your co workers. Your capacity to endure hardship might have to keep rising today. Your capacity to smile and treat someone with respect might need to be at an all time high today.

When patience runs thin, when traffic is slow, when kids are screaming, the oven isn’t working and when it seems like you have no reason to believe in yourself. That’s when a decision has to be made.

We can either crumble, or we can rise.

Alex Hormozi has a phrase I like. It’s one I think you can use and it goes like this:

I will do what is required to execute my day at the highest level I can.

I will do what is required to put myself in a position to succeed.

I will do what is required to provide for my family, be a good friend and be a contributing member of society.

I will do what is required to believe in myself.

Sometimes it will require your capacity to handle things to increase. Sometimes your capacity for stress will need to be high. Sometimes things hurt, and your capacity for pain needs to rise in order to keep going.

And that’s the key. To keep going.

This doesn’t get easier. Ask anyone who’s lived longer and done more than you have. Nobody can ever tell you life gets easy at a certain point. What they might say though, is that you can get better.

Jim Rohn used to plea with his listeners not to wish for less problems. Instead, he’d suggest they develop more skills. Problems don’t go away, but we can get better at handling them.

The coming week might seem challenging, but luckily your capacity to handle that kind of week is higher than anyone else’s. Nobody else could do it like you do it, and that’s why you’ve got to do it. With all the experience you have, it’s no wonder you’re the one faced with the challenge ahead.

So face it, daunting as it may be.

Prepare yourself and see what happens. You may end up the World Series MVP, or better yet, the dad you always dreamed you could be. Or the entrepreneur or the award winning teacher or the philanthropist they write books about.

All I’m saying is that your capacity to do what is required to reach your goals and live your dreams is higher than you think it is.

— Cody

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See you next Thursday.

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