In this episode, Ryan Hanley shares three powerful ideas to transform your life in 2025: managing your energy through better sleep and habits, sharpening your focus to eliminate distractions, and setting audacious, 10X goals that force meaningful change. Instagram: https://instagram.com/ryan_hanley Website: https://ryanhanley.com Powerful Quotes “Nothing changes in 2025 if I don’t change. There’s no external force that’s going to save me. It’s all on me.” “Why not be a complete badass? Why spend your life scrolling, doubting, or being told what to do instead of choosing what you want to do?” “High performers don’t think small. They aim so high they have no choice but to focus, act, and grow into who they’re meant to be.” “You control your destiny. Even small changes in habits and focus can create massive improvements in your life.” Actionable Advice Audit Your Energy: Use tools like the WHOOP strap to measure your sleep and recovery. Define Your Focus: Write down your primary goals and eliminate distractions that don’t align with them. Aim Higher: Set a goal so big it scares you, then map out what it takes to achieve it. Final Words Ryan closes with a challenge to listeners: Take full control of 2025. Manage your energy, lock in your focus, and set goals that stretch your limits. "Stand next to your highest potential self and be proud of how close you came. Why settle for anything less?"
Chapter 1: What are the key ideas for transforming your life in 2025?
actually on a long drive and I've been thinking a lot about 2025. I've been talking to a lot of people about their goals. I've been talking to a lot of people who either are or work with high performers about what makes those high performers special. How do they separate themselves? How do they reach their
Their goals, how do they reach the highest levels of whatever field they're in, whatever their expertise is in, whatever their practice is in? How do they get there? And so many others don't. What is that separating feature? I've also been thinking about how am I going to set up 2025 in a way that when I get done, I'm proud. 2024 was a very tough year for me personally. I flailed.
I tried a lot of different things. I spent money on different projects. I invested time, resources, energy into projects that went nowhere. I came out of 2024 with a much deeper perspective on what success looks like for me personally. And as much as I'll be honest with you, I'm ready for 2024 to be over. Nothing's going to be different in 2025 if I don't make changes. If I don't take...
the lessons, the failures, the obstacles, the challenges, the setbacks, the sunk cost into things that just did not materialize. If I don't reflect on them and make changes in 2025, 2025 will be exactly the same. There's nothing special about 2024. It's a number. It's an arbitrary period of time that we set expectations on. And while It's easy to say, hey, I'm ready to turn the page in 2024.
I'm looking forward to 2025. Nothing changes if I don't change. Nothing changes if we don't change. That's scary. Because what it means is nobody's coming to save us. No external force would be a differentiating factor in our success. It's all on us. And while that should scare the absolute shit out of you, it does out of me. It also creates...
infinite opportunity because you control your destiny just as I do. We all control our destinies in a way that is so profound, so amazing that with even small tweaks, with even small changes in habits, in routine, in focus, in energy, and what we give our time to, we can make massive, massive changes massive improvements in our life.
I think, you know, not to get too philosophical, most of you know that I'm a Christian. I believe, I've shared this story in the past with you guys. About six months ago, this was over the summer of 2024, My son, who my kids go to a Catholic school, my older son has gotten very much into the religion aspect, right? I won't say he's like ready to go be an altar boy or anything. Probably won't be.
However, he has a lot of questions and he's very into it. And I think that's wonderful. He asked me, Dad, do you think that hell is really a fiery place below the ground? And I said, no, I do not. Regardless of what hell is, here's how I visualize it. I believe that at birth, God gives us the ability to be our max potential.
He gives us a max potential, a max upside, what we're capable of and the impact that we're able to have on the world, the love, the positivity, the energy, the creativity that we're able to bring to the world. He gives us this max ability. And when we die, we are presented with that version of ourselves. And heaven... is when we're proud of how close we are.
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Chapter 2: How can managing energy improve your life?
I wanted to figure out what were the things that I was doing in my life that kept me from waking up every day with maximum energy. And the things that I found were not things that were outlandish, but were very profound. First and foremost... I can have no more than one drink in an evening or my sleep goes to shit.
On this app, you want to be 80% recovery or above to be in that kind of max energy zone. Now, if you wake up in the 90s, man, you can feel it, right? Now, obviously, the app is just reporting back to you the way you know you feel. But when that app shows 93, 95, 98% recovery, you feel like you can take on the world. You feel like you're running through a brick wall.
Even at 43 years old, you feel like you're in your 20s. You're like ready to freaking go. 80 or above, you feel good. It's all good. You're crushing your debt. But if you wake up and that app says 50, 60% recovery or less, man, you're dragging. You're dragging. You're pushing for that extra cup of coffee. You're wishing for a moment to take a little power nap.
You can't wait to check out for the day. And I'm a pretty generally day-to-day motivated dude. Most days, I'm willing to get after it. I rarely wake up and just want to be a freaking bum. But, man, I just found that certain things, like not getting enough sleep. Those of you who are sitting out there going, I can perform on six hours of sleep. No, you can't. No, you can't.
There are a very small portion of the population very small portion of the population who can operate effectively off a minimum amount of sleep. I know we all hear Jocko Willink and other guys that tend to be in the military who've trained themselves to work on that amount of sleep. I promise you they're not going off three hours of sleep every day.
Now, on days when they only get three hours of sleep, What they're willing to do because of their training and the willpower they've developed and the routines and habits that they do not negotiate with, they're able to push through three hours of sleep. But they're human beings. They're not living off three hours of sleep.
And you're not living off six hours of sleep and being the best version of yourself. You're absolutely not. Seven plus hours of sleep minimum for max recovery. Seven plus hours minimum. Inside of that recovery time, we need to make sure we're doing the right things. So as I said, if I have more than one drink of alcohol, one drink a night, I'm not recovering well.
And even with one drink, I'm not getting into the 90s. It's not going to happen. Alcohol just destroys your sleep. Now, for those of you that are pot smokers, right? You smoke pot, maybe you wind down at the end of the night. Some people are okay talking about it. Some aren't, right? I have tested using pot as a way to kind of land the ship at the end of the day.
In 2023, I was diagnosed with hyperactive bipolar. So I'm essentially switching between hypermanic and manic all day long, which is one of the reasons why I naturally have a lot of energy and motivation. Another reason why I talk so fast. So inside of that, I get to the end of some days and I'm like jacked out of my mind and it's 8.30, 9 o'clock at night and I can't calm down.
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Chapter 3: What role does focus play in achieving goals?
I think we need to have a real discussion with ourselves around, is this hobby that I have, is this thing that I do, is it really adding value to my life? Or is it an escape from the things I'm not doing in the places that I should be doing them? And look, golf's amazing. I love golf. Truth be told, last three years, I haven't really golfed that much. I was growing Rogue Risk.
Last year, I was, you know, kind of refinding my place in the world post Rogue Risk, building Finding Peak. I joined Glencora. And I don't really have plans to golf too much in 2025 because I'm going to be growing the shit out of Linkora and continuing to build my leadership in sales consulting and coursework and stuff like Master of the Clothes program, which is coming out in January of 2025.
I want to continue building that thought leadership, that IP, and continue helping people move forward with the content that I create. And those professionally are the two most important goals that I have. And anything that takes me away from them, I have to say no to. That's incredibly difficult for me. I love saying yes to shit.
I'm always interested in a new startup and our new, you know, I have 14 angel investments that I track and try to help. And those are the kind of things though that take you away from your primary goals. I think too often when things become difficult or mundane, We look for that new thing.
And every new thing that we take on, if it's not at least tangentially related to the primary goal, to our primary impact, to the primary value that we're trying to create, not only for ourselves, but for whoever it is we serve, it's a distraction. And we have to say no. So in 2025, energy management and focus. And the third idea that I want to share with you at high performers.
And again, I've talked to, you know, I've had these people, a lot of these people on the podcast. I had Steve D'Agostino a few episodes ago on the podcast. He coaches some of the highest performing basketball players that have ever come out of the greater Albany area. There's multiple pros.
We have multiple dozens of division one athletes and all of them have come through his, his basketball coaching program. He coaches for the national junior U.S. basketball team. He coaches incredibly high-performing basketball players. I've had, just recently... Adrian Kaler, he works with some of the most successful leaders in the entire country.
Fortune 100, Fortune 500, entrepreneurial endeavors, high, high performers, alphas, up into the right Ds, right? Ds are people who drive, who drive results. If you just go back in the podcast, you'll hear over and over and over again, high performers think big. If you've set a goal for yourself, Is it a big goal or a small goal?
Are you setting a goal that's reachable so you can feel good about yourself at the end of the year? Are you setting a goal so fucking big and audacious that there's no freaking chance you're going to hit it? There's no chance. I think we honestly have to ask ourselves that. We set all these goals. Oh, I'd love to have this happen this year. What do you mean love to have?
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Chapter 5: Why is self-reflection important for success?
with individuals that either work with or are high performers, there's been a few things, a few key items, a few factors that have been consistent. This has just been burning a hole in my head and it's probably not the best audio quality. I don't care. I had to get this message out to you. These factors are simple, straightforward, and they're 100% in your control.
If you want 2025 to be more productive, more impactful, a year filled with more energy, more excitement, more intrigue than 2024, than you ever, than you thought was possible, right? We always want to make the next year the best year we've ever had. And we should, we should always want that. There's a few things. The first is the cultivation of our own energy.
And what I mean by that is, how I frame that idea is like this. For the last six months, I've been wearing a whoop strap. A whoop strap is a bio-tracking device. I wear it as a, like it's like a wristband. And it tracks your sleep, your recovery. You can track your activity, your strain, et cetera on that. What I really wanted to track was sleep and recovery.
I wanted to figure out what were the things that I was doing in my life that kept me from waking up every day with maximum energy. And the things that I found were not things that were outlandish, but were very profound. First and foremost... I can have no more than one drink in an evening or my sleep goes to shit.
On this app, you want to be 80% recovery or above to be in that kind of max energy zone. Now, if you wake up in the 90s, man, you can feel it, right? Now, obviously, the app is just reporting back to you the way you know you feel. But when that app shows 93, 95, 98% recovery, you feel like you can take on the world. You feel like you're running through a brick wall.
Even at 43 years old, you feel like you're in your 20s. You're like ready to freaking go. 80 or above, you feel good. It's all good. You're crushing your debt. But if you wake up and that app says 50, 60% recovery or less, man, you're dragging. You're dragging. You're pushing for that extra cup of coffee. You're wishing for a moment to take a little power nap.
You can't wait to check out for the day. And I'm a pretty generally day-to-day motivated dude. Most days, I'm willing to get after it. I rarely wake up and just want to be a freaking bum. But, man, I just found that certain things, like not getting enough sleep. Those of you who are sitting out there going, I can perform on six hours of sleep. No, you can't. No, you can't.
There are a very small portion of the population very small portion of the population who can operate effectively off a minimum amount of sleep. I know we all hear Jocko Willink and other guys that tend to be in the military who've trained themselves to work on that amount of sleep. I promise you they're not going off three hours of sleep every day.
Now, on days when they only get three hours of sleep, What they're willing to do because of their training and the willpower they've developed and the routines and habits that they do not negotiate with, they're able to push through three hours of sleep. But they're human beings. They're not living off three hours of sleep.
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Chapter 6: What are practical steps to enhance your energy levels?
It doesn't just mean popping an Adderall pill so that you can bang out a bunch of tasks at work. That is a very shallow way of breaking down focus. Focus means what are you willing to sacrifice to achieve the things to become highly proficient, to create impact in the areas of your life that are the most meaningful to you. And this has been a big problem for me because I consider myself...
a bit of a, I'm going to use this term, it sounds really douchey, I don't mean it to, a renaissance man. I'm interested in so many different things. I love sales. I love leadership. I love marketing. I'm super interested in product design. I love politics. I find it infinitely engaging and interesting the way these maniacs operate and how politics works. I love economics.
I'm super interested in what's going on in the universe and you know, just astrophysics stuff. I just love reading about that stuff. I love reading about mindset and personal development.
I'm so interested in all these different areas, which is wonderful for me, except for the fact that when I allow myself to be distracted by things that I'm interested in versus the things that I can drive true value and impact in my life, I'm less than I could possibly be. It's fun to get into things like conspiracy theories. Another area that I waste way too much frigging time on.
I just find conspiracy theories to be so engaging and fun. And, you know, I get a lot of shit from people because I'm so interested in conspiracy theories. But, you know... A lot of conspiracy theories over the last three years have been true. But what does that do for my life?
How does that keep me from creating for Finding Peak or developing new product designs and helping build new business development relationships and driving growth in Linkora? Linkora is the company that I'm the chief marketing officer of. And I love the company.
I love Linkora because I feel like the industry that I'm born in, that I work in, the insurance industry, I feel like I get to be part of delivering this technology, artificial intelligence, to an industry that has given me everything that I have in a way that I believe is going to be useful and secure for that industry that's going to do it in a way that's not going to be a bait and switch.
I'm not just selling them a product to make some money and bounce out of the industry. I love the insurance industry. I love the people in the insurance industry. I understand the value of the insurance industry. And while I may coach people and I may do keynote presentations and performances outside of the insurance industry around leadership and personal development and topics like that,
My home is the insurance industry. And if I can be one of the individuals as part of one of the companies, Linkora, who is helping provide and usher in artificial intelligence into that industry in a way that is useful and pragmatic there for the long term, that to me is a major, major value creation, not just for the people who end up using our product, but for me personally.
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Chapter 7: How can small changes lead to massive improvements?
What's the biggest, baddest thing that you could possibly do this year?
Go freaking get it. Go get it. Go get that thing.
And in talking through the podcast to all these amazing thought leaders, all these amazing high performers, all these amazing high performance coaches, you don't think small. High performers don't think small. One of my core issues in life is I tend to think small. It's the way I was raised. I was raised by two parents. One was a union guy. One was a receptionist for a large company.
What they taught me was go get the big safe job. Go work for the company. No risk. Don't have big downside. Don't take chances. Because that's what they knew. That's how they survived. And I love my parents for living that life and getting us through that. But I don't believe that's what God intended me for.
Yet, I'm constantly battling that voice in the back of my head that says, there's no one there for you. If you fail, you're going to fall on your face. Everyone's going to laugh at you. You're not going to have any money. You're going to lose your house. That voice is constantly in my head. So if you have that voice, don't think you're alone. You're not. Everyone has that voice.
You know what the difference is between the high performers and those of us who continue to wallow in a place that we don't love? They don't let that voice keep them from setting enormous goals and then doing the things necessary to reach them. It doesn't mean you're ever going to get there. But you got no shot if you don't shoot up. Jordan Peterson said this. Aim high. Aim high.
I watched an entire keynote that he did on aiming high. It's the only chance we have. It's the only chance we have. And in every moment of my career where I have achieved incredible performances. It has been in the moments where I gave myself permission to aim high. I didn't give into the fear. I didn't give into the naysayers. I didn't give into the people that told me it wouldn't happen.
I didn't give into the people who said, you shouldn't do that. Who are you? Why would you think that you're ever capable of that? I didn't give into them. And I pushed through it. Why? What are we doing here? If we're just getting by, what are we doing here? What are we doing here if we're just getting by? What fun is that?
If you don't believe me, read the book by Dr. Benjamin Hardy, 10X is Easier than 2X. In that book, he outlines the case for what I have just made in which he says 10X goals are easier than 2X goals. And the reason is because if you set a 2X goal, say your goal was to write $100,000 in business in 2025. That's your goal. Well, there's a thousand ways to do that.
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