In this episode of the Shark Theory podcast, host Baylor Barbee talks about the Shinkansen train in Japan and how it uses magnetism to move forward. He suggests that we can expedite our progress by identifying the antipodes of what we want and creating habits that help us achieve our goals. Baylor emphasizes the importance of becoming a repellent to the things we don’t want to be and shares his personal experience of how he became a speaker and author. He encourages listeners to identify the opposite of where they want to go and stay diligent in avoiding those behaviors to achieve their goals faster.

Shinkansen Train [00:00:09] Baylor Barbee talks about the Shinkansen Train in Japan, a magnetic bullet train that goes 375 miles per hour.

Antipode [00:02:28] Baylor explains the importance of identifying the antipode, or direct opposite, of our progress and goals in order to create patterns and habits that will help us achieve what we want.

Magnetize Yourself [00:03:18] Baylor discusses the importance of being magnetized towards our goals and making a list of the qualities and characteristics we need to embody in order to achieve them.

Habit Formation [00:06:03] Baylor discusses the research on habit formation and how it takes approximately 66 to 68 days to start a habit. They emphasize the importance of becoming a repellent to the things that one does not want to be.

Directionless Pursuits [00:06:54] The speaker talks about how they got into speaking and writing books without it being their initial goal. They explain that by becoming a repellent to the things they did not want to be, they were able to shape their heart for people and find their direction.

Magnetizing Yourself [00:06:54] Baylor advises listeners to identify the opposite of where they want to go and become diligent about avoiding those things. They explain that by doing so, one can magnetize themselves towards their desired direction at a faster pace.

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Transcription:

(00:00:00) – You are now listening to Shark Theory. I’m your host, Baylor Barbee.

(00:00:09) – Hey, what’s up everybody? Good morning. Hope your day is off to a fantastic start. I like to research the most random topics, or let me say seemingly random topics. Like I love when, when something is just like earth shattering or just so far out of the, you know, the league of the norm, uh, or anything super innovative. And, and so I’ve been looking at this and I don’t even know if I’m pronouncing it right, but the Shinkansen train, it’s in Japan, and you, you might’ve heard about it, it’s this magnetic bullet train, so it’s, it, it kind of floats essentially. Uh, but it goes 375 miles an hour. And the reason it’s able to do so is everything’s magnetized. So on the, I guess the equivalent of where the wheels would be on the, the front side of the wheel, it has like a, um, whatever charge of the magnet pulls it forward.

(00:00:55) – So all the train track ahead of it, it’s drawn toward that. And then on the backside of the wheel, it has, you know, the, the similar type of, uh, magnetic charge, um, as the actual train track. And so it repels away from it cuz you know, if you’ve ever taken two magnets, if you take opposites, they pull to each other. But if you, if you take two magnets of the exact same charge, they literally repel each other. And so by doing this, it uses, it’s being pulled and it’s being pushed at the exact same time. And, and, and I think about how that relates to where we are in our journeys right now. We talked earlier this week about, uh, trending right in, in, in the directions we trend, but did you know that you can expedite your trend when you find the antipode of what you want?

(00:01:42) – What’s an antipode? You, you asked? Well, lemme tell you how I found it. Uh, the other day I just had a random inkling to figure out what is the polar opposite. Like if I drilled through the earth from, from Dallas, Texas, where I live, where would I come out? What is on the other side? And, and it’s, it’s a, it’s an interesting game wherever you live, you should try that cuz you know, I was thinking it’d be somewhere in Europe for some reason, but I was way off. So come to find out, the antipode of Dallas, Texas is the French Southern Territories. It’s like in the middle of the Indian ocean, like halfway between Africa and Australia, just way down there. That’s the polar opposite. The furthest you could be on this planet from Dallas, Texas is that, and, and again, it it try that just Google wherever it is the anti put of of, of where you are.

(00:02:28) – And it’s kind of interesting to see. But you know, I was thinking about that because the antipode, the, the, the word by definition literally means the direct opposite of something. And, and, and the reason that it’s important to know the antipode of, of our progress and the antipode of where we’re trying to be is sometimes it’s just easy to figure out what you don’t want to be, right? And so you have to identify the ode of what you are or where you’re trying to be, uh, as you try to create these patterns as you try to create these habits to, to, to help last, right? So like, think about it, what’s the antipode of action, action or procrastination? You know, the antipode of a, of a healthy lean diet would be, you know, gluttony the opposite or the antipode of, uh, of ethical ethics and integrity would be, you know, unethical, right?

(00:03:18) – And in every situation, in anything you’re trying to pursue, there is a direct opposite of that. And, and here’s why it’s important to recognize those and identify those that’s gonna help put you on the path toward what you want to be. You know, the engineers that designed the train had to know two type type of charges. They, one they wanted to pull and the one they wanted to push because they realized both of them can be used as essentially fuel to move that train. And the same thing is true in the pursuits of what it is that we want. So what we have to do then is we have to magnetize ourself. And you know, if you ever, have you ever heard the phrase, oh, so-and-so was just so magnetic, they just, he or she just lit up the room when they walked in. It’s a real thing to be magnetized, but I’m not saying we had to be magnetic with our personality or magnetic with our charm, but we have to be magnetic in charge ourself toward the, uh, the, the goals that we pursue.

(00:04:11) – And so what I mean by that is, is you have to literally make a list. This isn’t something that you just do, like make a list in your head. I’m, I’m real big on seeing visual list, even if it’s in your phone, even better if you write it on a piece of paper. But, you know, write down first and foremost the qualities or characteristics that you would have to embody in order to, to meet the, the goals or, or uh, uh, dreams that you have for yourself, right? And, and I, and I think a lot of times we have these big goals and we don’t have any game plan of how to, how to get out, have people all the time that, you know, get into running, say, I I just wanna run a run a marathon. So that’s awesome. Cause there’s a lot of plans out there, but they don’t act on it.

(00:04:49) – Or people say, you know, I, I wanna start a business and, and it, and it just stays there. They don’t sit there and say anything else. So you have to kind of understand like, what are the habits it’s gonna take in order for me to achieve these things if I want to be a business owner? You know, there’s a lot of demand on your time. You gotta be handle, uh, a lot of different stresses. There’s, there’s a lot you gotta figure out, right? And so figure out what those are. So write those traits down. Like, let’s just say right now that your goal is everybody’s trying to get their, their summer body right. Now, let’s say you’re trying to drop 10 pounds in the next two months or whatever, and you know, you’re like, okay, I need to, I I need to step it up.

(00:05:23) – So, okay, what do you need to do? You know, you need to be disciplined in your health. You know, you need to establish a, a some sort of a workout routine. You know, you need to get solid amounts of rest. So you write those things down. Now you have to write the endo again, the opposite of of working out is being lazy, right? Write that down. The opposite of a good diet is all the bad food. Sugary starts process. We know whatever kind of diet you’re on, you gotta write that down, right? The, the, the, you know, opposite of getting the nu the proper rest is staying up late watching Netflix or whatever you, you know, whatever you do, right? You write those antipodes down because what you can start doing is when they’re conscious, when they’re on the front of your mind, it becomes easy for ’em to become habit.

(00:06:03) – Now, you know, the research says it takes approximately 66 to 68 days to, uh, start a habit. It’s not like that, you know, 21 day, uh, misnomer that some people think it is to start a habit about 66, so about two months, right? Of conscious, like, I don’t wanna be this, I don’t wanna be this and remind myself if I see myself trending this way or looking at this, I am not heading toward where I wanna be. So you gotta become a repellent toward the things that you don’t want. And so little by little, like, we don’t always in, in the beauty of what I’m getting at with this is, you know, life’s hard and, and a lot of pursuits that are worthwhile are difficult and it’s easy to get lost. So sometimes what I’ve figured out is the best way to get to where I want to go if I don’t exactly know what it is I’m after or exactly who it is I’m trying to be or what direction I’m trying to pursue, is I just try to become repellant to all the things I don’t wanna be.

(00:06:54) – I want, I don’t want to be unethical, I don’t wanna be lazy. I don’t want to be somebody that, that doesn’t do anything. So little by little, when you just start becoming a repellent to those type of situations and you magnetize yourself to repel those things little by little, you get pushed in the direction that you want to go. And you look up one day and realize, okay, you’re there. That’s how I got into speaking. It wasn’t like the goal was to get up and, and, and, and, and speak and write books, you know, it was never the goal. It just knew that I didn’t wanna be somebody that contributed to the problems of the world. I didn’t wanna be somebody that just was always complaining about things. You know, I had a, a, a heart for people. And so little by little I realize how I can shape that. And now, you know, stand on stages and write books and do these podcasts and the thing here, but a lot of that was just because of the person I didn’t want to be. So figure out how to magnetize yourself, you know, identify the antipode of, of where you’re trying to go. Stay real diligent about those and it’ll push you in the direction that you want. And a lot faster speed and a lot faster pace. Let’s trend the right way today.