Win Today

#196 | [WT Remix]: Glass Balls Vs. Basketballs: A Refreshed Perspective On Choices

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Are you juggling too much and unsure what truly deserves your focus? In this episode, I share the "Glass Balls vs. Basketballs" framework that helped me prioritize what really matters—like relationships, health, and purpose—without letting the rest break me. Learn how to identify your non-negotiables, build supportive systems, and protect what can't be replaced.

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Speaker 1:

This was a harder lesson for me to learn a few years ago and something I've shared on the pod. You know I've got a younger sister, kina, that I love her to death. She's three years younger than me and it's always been my duty, at least in my eyes, to always protect her, be there for her and just be what I thought was, you know, the best big brother that that I can be. And I thought that I was doing that for the longest time. And she gave me feedback. You know, when I was at a conference and they challenged us to call somebody in our lives and ask them what's their experience of us? So I called my sister hey, what's your experience of me as it relates to just being your, your big brother? And she said you know, I can always count on you to be there for me and to give me advice and especially, you know, as it relates to my career and professional growth. But you know, as it relates to my career and professional growth, but you know, sometimes when you come home, it's there's always some something else mixed in. You come home and you'll see me, but then you've got a podcast or some sort of business meeting or a mentor dinner and it doesn't always make me feel like I'm a big priority as your sister, and that hit me hard because family is a glass ball. But I felt like man, like damn, I dropped the ball and I didn't realize it.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Wednesday Podcast, a weekly resource thoughtfully crafted to help people build and refine discipline, accomplish their goals, fortify their mindsets and be of service to somebody in this world. My name is Ryan Cass and I am your host, and it is my mission and commitment to deliver amazing episodes to you every week where you will learn from myself or renowned expert in their field. We love helping people win in every aspect of their lives, and you can help us win by sharing the show with somebody that you believe will benefit from it, subscribing and leaving a rating and review. We believe that everybody in this world is meant to do something great with their lives and we're here to help play a role in that. Thank you for tuning in and let's win today. Thank you.

Speaker 1:

You might be asking which glass ball did you drop if you listen to the intro. I dropped a glass ball with my family. What exactly is a glass ball versus a basketball, which you might also be wondering by the title of this episode. What does a glass ball versus a basketball mean and how does that apply to life? That apply to life. Glass ball versus basketball is simply another analogy to help separate what's truly, what's something that isn't critical. So if you didn't do it for a day, a week, a month, there would be limited consequences, and it's often that we look at the non-critical items as critical and then drop the critical items, meaning we focus on the basketball. If you drop a basketball, nothing happens, and then we drop the glass balls and you already know what happens when you do that.

Speaker 1:

I'm bringing this episode back and tweaking it a little bit from last year, as it was a very well-received one, and I had a conversation recently with a high-performance coach and we were talking about how we're approaching the middle of the year. It's going to be here when we snap of a finger. It's going to be summer, it's going to be the middle of the year, and this is right around the time where it's going to be the middle of the year, and this is right around the time where people are either still capitalizing on their goals or quote resolutions I really don't like the word resolutions that they set at the beginning, crush the second half of 2025 because their 2025 progress died out after February. Actually, the numbers show that most people start declining the second week of the year, which is crazy to me the second week of the year. So with that one thing that a lot of people decline. One reason why a lot of people decline is because they start focusing on the non-critical items and they ignore the critical, and sometimes they're not even aware of it.

Speaker 1:

So I'm bringing back this glass balls versus basketballs analogy with the intent that it creates a useful framework in your mind as to what's really most important to you versus versus what can wait or what can be put to the side, or maybe what doesn't need to take all of your time and attention and create unnecessary stress. Wishing that you enjoy this and think through what are the glass balls in your life and what are the basketballs, and revisit this frequently, whether it's monthly, quarterly, annually. It's a great way to truly focus on what is important so that you can win today. Thank you, I would rather leave my house on a Monday with a pile of laundry unfolded on the floor scattered under my bedroom than I would leave the house knowing that a podcast episode hasn't been released. Now I know that I've definitely got the attention of at least one of you. You're thinking why the heck would you leave the house with a pile of laundry all over the place? You'd rather have a podcast episode published on Monday than pick up the laundry.

Speaker 1:

Now let me tell you where we're going. One of those items is a glass ball. One of those items is a basketball, and this analogy will help address, or may help address, some overarching questions that I often receive or talk to people about, people that I'm working with as coaching clients or people that I've coached in the past, people that I have a lot of development conversations with, people that I mentor, and one of the questions is how do I know what to focus on or how can I stay more focused? Why am I not making progress on certain things in my life? How do I know what to truly make important versus not important? Is it possible to focus on all the things at once? And the quick answer to that, from experience and strong belief in research, is no. So this episode probably won't cover that, but the other questions it may help paint a better picture for you around how do I really, again, again, stay focused on what's truly important to me, or how do I identify what it is that is truly important to me?

Speaker 1:

And this brings up the glass ball and basketball analogy. Now, if you drop a glass ball, what happens? It shatters. You can't pick it back up as one and put it back together. It's gone, it's tarnished, it's irreplaceable for the most part. Now a basketball, you can drop it, it bounces back. You can leave it on the ground, pick it up later, pick it up tomorrow, pick it up next week, but theoretically it's always going to be there for you, assuming that it doesn't get deflated. But even then you can inflate it and it's there. So the basketball is always there. You can drop it with virtually no consequences. The glass ball, you cannot.

Speaker 1:

I first got this analogy when I was about to embark on my freshman year at the Citadel, and for those unfamiliar with the Citadel, it's my alma mater. It's a small military college here in Charleston, south Carolina, and what's unique about the Citadel is, regardless of if you're going into the service or not, all cadets are required to participate in ROTC, wake up early, wear a uniform, have leadership responsibilities. So even if you're not going in the military which I was one of those that did not go still got to wake up early every day, have a clean, prepared uniform room, clean, prepared uniform room, was responsible for others every single day, no matter what, and so the responsibilities were far beyond academic. They were academic, military and physical fitness. We also had physical fitness requirements and before I went there, someone gave me this analogy that you have your don't drop your glass balls, being your academics, and recognize that you have your basketballs.

Speaker 1:

So what makes the Citadel unique is that, again, regardless of which path you're going, military or not everyone still has the same expectations. So a typical day would look like you wake up, you most mornings go to physical fitness training at 5.30 as a unit, and then you come back, everyone gets ready for breakfast, formation, and then those in leadership roles are responsible for a certain amount of cadets and you get to make sure that everyone is meeting their grooming standards, their inspection standards. So your shoes had to be shined, belt buckle, uniform, neatly ironed, all these things. And if you didn't do that, or if you didn't pass an inspection, especially as a freshman, then there were consequences lots of additional physical fitness training most of the time, aka lots of pushups and sweat sessions, and you really didn't want to go through a ton of these because they took up a ton of time. And then you're even more tired and the expectation still remains that you're doing all of your homework, your classwork, and you're performing academically as well. So there was a list of responsibilities day to day, that your uniform had to be ready, perfect, and that took a lot of time.

Speaker 1:

You've got your exams, you're studying, you've got your people that you're responsible for, or group or squad that you're in, and it quickly became known that your glass ball in this case are your academics, meaning that if you spend all of your time in the world shining your shoes and making your uniform perfect which was important and spent no time on academics, well, the workforce later on that's going to be looking to potentially hire you, or even the military, isn't going to ask you how shiny were your shoes, how clean was your room? Every single day they're usually going to look at all right, what was your GPA? How did you perform academically? Still true to this day, especially in the corporate world, that your GPA or your academic performance is typically one of those first gates that you need to get through in order for them even to continue looking at you Now, knowing what I know now. Do I believe that GPA is the indicator of success? No, but that's a discussion for another time but at the time, and still again, in bits and pieces to this day that is one of the first gates, because it does show in some degree, if you do have a strong GPA or academic performance, that, hey, you take initiative and you get stuff done.

Speaker 1:

Now there was a decision point every single day Am I going to make sure my academics are squared away or am I going to make sure, let's just say, my uniform is squared away? Now, the expectation was that both were squared away. Now, the expectation was that both were squared away. But in some instances let's say that there was a big exam coming up, or it's finals, it's midterms it's more important that you come down the next day ready for that exam that is going to have far more impact on your future than with the most perfect shoes in the world and you go bomb your exam. So the basketball was military duties in the sense that, all right, maybe today I don't have the most perfect pair of shoes, but I'm ready for this exam. I may suffer some consequences for not having the perfect pair of shoes, but it's a basketball. I can re-shine those shoes at any point in time. I can shine three pairs of shoes over the weekend so that I don't have to spend as much time on that during the week. But I can suffer what may be a short-term consequence or inconvenience, knowing that the thing that's going to prepare me more for my future the exam is going to be taken care of.

Speaker 1:

I'm not going to drop that glass ball and I took that with me beyond just that freshman year and now use it when I'm working with people or in conversation and this came up recently in conversation with my girlfriend and I remember the analogy. I said man, I haven't shared this with you before, so I also haven't shared this on the podcast. So when we think about glass balls in life, what are the things that you're not willing to drop? If we look at it like that, that may help you prioritize what's more important or what you're really going to direct your time and attention to. So at the time of the recording this episode and I don't know exactly when it's going to be released, but the podcast most recently surpassed 100 weeks in a row of being published every single Monday. Now, that is extremely meaningful to me because it's linked to my purpose, and more so because it's a commitment that I've made to you improve your mindset that will help you shift your relationship with adversity and ultimately learn from the most disciplined, heartwarming and inspiring people on the globe. That is a glass ball to me. That ball will not be dropped Monday here in, here out. This might be 102 weeks in a row, 103, 104, somewhere in the mix, but every Monday. So I would rather know that on Monday there's a tool available for you to benefit from.

Speaker 1:

Then, all my laundry is put away, and I skipped putting out an episode until Tuesday. Laundry and some other household chores, while they're still important, are a basketball to me, and sometimes we get so caught up in this mix. Man, I've got to, I got to do my laundry and all this stuff around the house, and then and then we get mad because we're like, oh gosh, darn it. Well. Well, now you know I held off on editing my resume, or I held off on filming new content, I held off on on getting this podcast episode out, and I've been telling people for weeks that they're going to have this tool and I keep getting held up by laundry. The laundry is always going to be there. It's not going to grow legs and run away or, in many cases, we wish that it would just grow legs and fold itself, but it's always going to be there for you. Wish that it would just grow legs and fold itself, but it's always going to be there for you.

Speaker 1:

So what are the glass balls that you have in your life, beyond the podcast, glass ball for me fitness, my relationship, giving back and serving my family. Now, each of those have deep reasons why they are glass balls, and my glass balls may look very different than your glass balls. Only you can determine what is truly a glass ball and what's a basketball. Here's some examples of basketballs. In my life, we'll go with laundry and household chores. As much as it's important for me to be clean and organized, it's more important that I'm in great shape, have a strong relationship with my family and continuing to be the rock and example and model for my family, be a great servant to my girlfriend, the best partner that I can be, that I'm invested in the community. It means a hell of a lot more to me than if the dishwasher is emptied or if the laundry is folded. It means a hell of a lot more to me to do those things than it does to go out on a weekend. There's another basketball going out and social activities, social media, working 24-7. Now, that doesn't abdicate the responsibility of working hard, but I've been in those shoes early in my career where it was work, work, work, work, work, no matter what. No days off, no vacation for three years. That's not something I'm proud of of.

Speaker 1:

Discipline is a key component of this podcast and a key thing that we preach. We view discipline as the fuel to help you create the life that you ultimately desire, and discipline being the fuel that gets your habits and systems in check so that you can actually accomplish your goals. If you're looking to level up in 2025, I am happy to be a part of that and encourage you to join the Unshakable Discipline Mastermind Group. This has been my baby for a couple years and we're finally launching it here in 2025. The group consists of a self-paced course that teaches you how to form core habits and mindset that will allow you to accomplish your goals, a daily accountability channel to keep you on track, motivated and in alignment with our members, and weekly mastermind sessions where you're going to learn from either myself or a suite of renowned guests many who have been on the podcast that are going to share pieces of their winning playbooks directly with you. I've learned that being a part of groups over the years has helped propel me to so many new levels in life.

Speaker 1:

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, then go together, and it's my wish that the Unshakeable Crew is a choice that makes sense for you in 2025. We are growing up to 100 members this year and have limited time founding member pricing for 12 more folks before we permanently increase pricing to $97 a month. You can get in now for $67 a month, locked in for life, and be a part of the adventure that we're creating with our members. If you're somebody that craves discipline, seeks it or wants it this year. If you're somebody that craves discipline, seeks it or wants it this year, and you're really committed to making lasting changes in your life and being around others that are committed to winning and serving the world and sharing what they learn with others so that we make this world a better place, then join the Unshakeable crew. Go to unshakabledisciplinecom and you can sign up. It is also in the show notes Unshakeable shake, as in milkshake, unshakabledisciplinecom, and we're excited to have you in 2025. Let's go 2025. Let's go Now.

Speaker 1:

That's a basketball, because work is always going to be there. Five years ago, going on six years ago, I got hit by a car on a run, and getting hit by a car was a real life reminder that this life is temporary and we can be easily replaced. So God forbid on that day in January of 2019, that perhaps that was my last day on this world. Then, shortly thereafter, somebody else would have been in my role in my corporate job, and life would have continued on, and therefore, that's why work is a basketball. Not that it's not important, but it is not my entire world, and that just so happened to be something, an event that put it into perspective, and that's another thing.

Speaker 1:

When you're thinking about, well, what are my glass balls or what are my basketballs, you can go back and think about life events, things that have taken place that are meaningful or, at the time, perhaps even traumatic to you, but they influence who you are and what you do today. That could be something that helps you really determine. Okay, which one does this fall under? Is it glass or is it a basketball? So getting hit by that car made me realize, hey, work again very important, but in the grand scheme of things, not the most important thing in the world transitioned from being a glass ball to a basketball.

Speaker 1:

Now it's still a glass ball, in that I don't say, all right, yeah, I don't really feel like going in today and I would rather be recording a podcast or whatever the case may be, so I can just the work's still going to be there. Yes, in theory. There's some consequences that'll likely be associated with that, and I'm not a full-time entrepreneur yet. Therefore, I have a responsibility, as do many of you listening that are in the same boat. Maybe you do want to go into full-time entrepreneurship, but you're not there yet. So don't misconstrue what I'm saying completely.

Speaker 1:

Now a couple of questions that may come up and to clarify a few things Only you can determine what is your glass ball and what is your basketball, or what are your glass balls and basketballs. So because I'm telling you some of mine and fitness, relationship, et cetera, family, it doesn't mean that those need to be your glass balls. One of them or some of them might be a basketball to you and that's a-okay, but you determine those. Now here's the question is can you juggle both after you determine them? Can you juggle both your glass balls and your basketballs? Yes, I'm not saying there's two big things. I'm not saying here. I'm not saying that you always disregard your basketballs and that the basketballs aren't important things. Your basketballs can still be important.

Speaker 1:

I had a perfect uniform because I was responsible, you know, at one point for up to 20% of the entire Corps of Cadets, about 500 cadets. That was important. Was it more important than getting great grades so that I was attractive to my future employer? No, now, what I did in this instance, you know, and here's how you can juggle them is you build a system this is something I talk about all the time Build a system around both your glass balls and your basketballs. So what I would do back to the college example is on Sundays, I would always, always, especially as a freshman, get back to school very early on Sunday afternoons and I would iron all my uniforms to the week and shine all my shoes. Now, did I want to stay out later on Sundays and watch Sunday night football with everybody, and could I have done that and then come back to campus later and then been a little behind on the uniforms and gone straight to studying. Yes, in this instance, what I found worked to make sure that both were addressed is get back super early Sunday and spend a few hours getting the uniforms ready for the week so that during the week the focus is purely on leadership and academics Said differently in this day and age that I'm living in now, meal prep, nutrition.

Speaker 1:

Meal prep nutrition very important thing. Could I buy meals at my place of work during the week? Yes, does that happen on rare occasion? Yes, but to make it easier, because I'm not going to prioritize cooking a meal over filming a podcast or a few other things that are very important to me then I do my meal prep on Sunday. So that is how I'm addressing one of my basketballs on Sunday is making meals a few days in advance so that it then creates space for the glass balls during the week. So, yes, you can juggle both. And here's another thing Because you've determined something to be a glass ball today or for this year or for this season of life that you're in, it doesn't mean that it's fixed, meaning that as life evolves, what's important to you evolves your way of being your thinking.

Speaker 1:

All that is evolving. Therefore, there may be things that are basketballs now that become glass balls later, and the other way around. There may be things that are glass balls now that become basketballs later. As people have families and their relationships become more serious, they develop, maybe it becomes a marriage, and there's certain things that now there's two parties at play, and maybe something that was really important to you before perhaps your weekly golf night is or was a glass ball, and now life evolves that can be pushed over to the side. It's a basketball. So don't I'm also not saying that once you determine what's what, not saying that once you determine what's what, that that's what remains in those two buckets.

Speaker 1:

In order to keep this analogy fresh, it's important to reflect on it frequently, and perhaps not every day, but this is something that I like to look at on a monthly, but more so on a quarterly, basis, when I'm reflecting. Where is most of my time going? What is being addressed, what is not being addressed? Are my lacking in the areas that are truly most important to me? Because life happens.

Speaker 1:

It's very, very easy, especially in this world, to get distracted and completely lose sight of the fact that you are that you may be dropping glass balls. You know, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they they fall quietly and there's a lot of other noise playing in the background. You don't realize that an ornament dropped. Think about dropping a, a Christmas ornament. Sometimes, when there's a bunch of Christmas music playing in the background, you might not even notice it until you look back and you're like holy smokes. I have not been paying attention to that. So this is something to reflect on at the cadence that occurs as most useful to you.

Speaker 1:

I like to look at it monthly and quarterly and then also engage people in conversations. Am I doing my best to serve you right now? Am I being as engaged and present as I possibly can be, as engaged and present as I possibly can be? And this was a harder lesson for me to learn a few years ago and something I've shared on the pod.

Speaker 1:

You know I've got a younger sister, kina, that I love her to death. She's three years younger than me and it's always been my duty, at least in my eyes, to always protect her, be there for her and just be what I thought was the best big brother that I can be, and I thought that I was doing that for the longest time. For the longest time. And she gave me feedback when I was at a conference and they challenged us to call somebody in our lives and ask them what's their experience of us. So I called my sister hey, what's your experience of me as it relates to just being your big brother? And she said I can always count on you to be there for me and to give me advice, and especially as it relates to my career and professional growth.

Speaker 1:

But sometimes when you come home there's always something else mixed in. You come home and you'll see me, but then you've got a podcast or some sort of business meeting or a mentor dinner and it doesn't always make me feel like I'm a big priority as your sister and that hit me hard because family is a glass ball, but I'd felt like man, like I damn, I dropped the ball and I didn't realize it. And so to put this at the forefront, you know, last year I made it a goal this was very intentional to be more intentional about connection time with my sister and when I'd go home back to the Charlotte area that my time was strictly on family, not partly family, and then business meetings and things for the podcast and meeting with people that are going to help fuel my growth. You know I still do that when I go up there, but sometimes and I'll communicate in advance like, hey, this is going to be a trip where it's mixed in, or I do have some business related things, but that is something that and that's why it's important to audit yourself and ask other people what your, their experience is, and they're not the most fun conversations to have, but these are the ones that will help you, or your, you and your significant other, you and whoever's important to you or organization whatever. These are the ones that will help you grow the most, because sometimes, in our eyes, we're never dropping the ball. We're always balancing everything, and that may not be the case.

Speaker 1:

So I'm wishing that this is a useful framework for you all and that you can picture things in your life as glass balls and basketballs, or you can help. This may help you categorize what's really the most important thing versus what is something that you may deem is very important. But you know, hey, it can be picked up. It's okay if it's dropped. It's okay if the laundry not folded, it's kind of like it's one of those it's okay but it's not okay things. Again, I'm not encouraging you like, yeah, just go become a slob now, don't do that. But look at and evaluate frequently, folks, your glass balls and your basketballs, and that's going to help you making. It's going to help you making. It's going to help you make more informed decisions as to where your time, effort, attention, energy goes, and it's going to help you stay on the path, serve yourself and serve others better. And it's going to help you win today. Thanks for tuning in you.

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