[Transcript starts at 1:55]
Hello friends, Maestro here, and welcome to episode number 350. Like what? I remember just starting this podcast and well, clearly I like to talk a lot, but here we are 350 episodes later. And I am just so grateful that you continue to support it. You leave ratings, you. Post things on Instagram, you share it, just Dude, we're at 350.
There's no end in sight as well, but Yeah, just wanted to say thank you. So today there's nothing special for this episode, maybe for episode 400 Which we will hit before the end of the year, but maybe for episode 400, but for 350, we're just gonna say thank you Shout out to Lex Lancaster as well. Shout out to Courtney as well.
Both of them helping me out with the podcast. Shout out to anyone and everyone who's been a guest on here. And again, shout out to all of you for supporting this thing and giving me feedback, giving me props, sharing things, just all of the things. I think last time I checked, there was like 215 little, you know, reviews.
Uh, I don't know when you click the stars. We are at 4. 9 out of 5. Listen, you can't please them all. So I'm okay with that. I don't need a perfect score. 4. 9 out of 5, I'll take it. But yeah, just wanted to say thank you. Uh, today, I don't know if this is even meta at all. I don't think it's meta, but uh, today we're going to talk about accepting and focusing on the present.
I could tie it into the fact that this episode is 350, but I don't really know if I need to. One of the things that made me think of this is there's always like a meme That goes around, that is something along the lines of, you know, being an adult is telling yourself that it's going to slow down next week or that you're going to get rest next week.
And we all laugh. And part of the reason that we all laugh is because it's, it's true. We all, we all experience it, right? I feel like I was reading Will Smith's book. I think it was in his book. And he was talking about, you know, how a joke is made and like part of it is that it has to be true and that we have to like have kind of universally experienced it.
Which, clearly, many of us have because that meme, I think it's like a tweet, you know, it circulates every single year. And so, I have nothing against it. But I was sitting here thinking today, and the reality is we spend a lot of time in denial, myself included. Every now and again, I need to just remind myself that this is how it is.
Like I'm kind of waiting for my mornings to change or like waiting for my Wednesdays to change. I don't pull up a random day there, but that's because that, that day changes with volleyball. I, you know, I get, I do my workouts and I usually don't finish till like 11, sometimes noon. If it's a Tuesday, Thursday, I'm starting to see clients at 10, but Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I'm working out and I've been working out for years and I know how long it takes me to work out.
I know how long I like staying at the gym. Back when I was going to CrossFit, I would stay there for hours. Now that I have a gym in my garage, I go down there and work out for hours. Even if the hour isn't, excuse me, even if the workout isn't intended to take that long, I just really like. Doing that and being there.
That in mind, there's like a part of me that like I need to every now and then remind myself like this is how you are. This is your life. This is not changing. And you know, I've been working for myself doing this entrepreneurial thing for quite some time now and I still gotta like take a step back and And remind myself, like, this is actually life.
This is the real thing. I'm working on a post. I'm going to share the concept now, but I'm working on a post, something about social media, because people love to speak about the bad side of it and act like they wouldn't be upset if social media was to die tomorrow. And, you know, I think there's maybe a handful of people that maybe wouldn't care, but the reality is we are a social species.
As such, there's a lot of S's there, we are a social species. I can't even say it. As such, things that allow us to be social and allow us to connect, we do value them. So, yes, while there can be times perhaps that, you know, comparisonitis maybe strikes or sets in and people go on social media and they have a tough time separating things, For the most part when people are to work for the most part when people are able to work through that and they start showing Up authentically and they start they start attracting people with shared values because they're leading with their values, right?
We attract what we are not what we want They start to meet incredible people and from that they get that connection the reality is like the world is big And yeah, we can travel and do things, but living where you live, you may be, you know, geographically separated or limited from meeting other people who have the same interests as you, the same values as you.
Ideally, you live in a place where people have some shared values and some shared interests. But depending on what that thing is, depending on what your certain, your circumstances, maybe you're trying to move, but you can't yet. The internet, social media is a phenomenal way to find those people. As such, like, the internet is real.
Working on the internet, working in social media, connecting via social media. It is real. It does bother me when people are like, social media isn't real life. Actually, it is real life. It's not in person and let's not confuse the two. Let's not try to have one replace the other. They are absolutely different and they will never replace each other.
Absolutely not. In person is invaluable. Social media, it is absolutely real life. And to me, the people who say that, I start to feel like they are not showing their real life. They're really curating things or they're just giving the highlight reel. Or they're telling themselves that as a way to make themselves feel better for the things that they're seeing from other people.
Like, ah, well, it's not their real life anyway. Like, listen, I get it. Comparisonitis can hit hard with social media. Mute it. Block it. Don't be on it if that's, if it really gets you that much. But, but I get it. Curate your experience. Do not follow people that make you feel bad about yourself, that you compare yourself to, that you're hate following.
We all know what hate following is, right? When you're like, Oh, great. They had time to make another course. Must be nice. Get rid of all of that and curate your experience and use it to be social. Use it to connect. I know I'm getting super fired up about this, but I just. Uh, you know, to me, it's all about connection, right?
In the intro song to this thing, it's an intro song. The intro, I don't know if you folks even listen to it at this point. We're going to fit the episodes in, but maybe if you're new, you listen to it. And I'm very proud of that intro. But you talk about in that, uh, Jimmy says movement unites us all, right? I am all, I firmly believe in this.
It's the whole shtick, the whole thing is about connectivity and any way that we can have connection to the outside world, to the world, to nature, to ourselves, to other people. Social media does that in a way that other things can't. So yeah, I do get a little bit up in arms and feel some kind of way when I hear people bashing it and just focusing on the negative.
It's like, dude, if it bothers you that much, like, you know, don't be on it. But circling back to what I was talking about with this episode specifically, that we, you know, need to accept that like, this is real life. This is, this is happening, like accepting and focusing on the present. As it relates to my own life, largely that's like on my, with my schedule and how I am with working out and how long it's going to take.
Like it's been like this for years. And sometimes I'm like, maybe I'll be done earlier. Like, no, I'm not. I'm not gonna be done earlier, so I need to accept this. The, the kind of, I don't wanna say action items from this, but the thing to think about and the value of accepting that this is, that this is actually happening, this is the now, this is the present, right?
Accepting what the present your present is like, is that it will actually allow you to change. Moving forward and to change your future, right? You can't change something that doesn't exist. So if we're spending all of our time Pretending trying to pretend trying to wish something away and being like, oh, it's I'll be better next week or like, you know This isn't really what it's like, dude People have been saying that line of like I just need you know, next week.
It's gonna slow down We've been saying that since like 1999 like It's not slowing down. This is your life. This is the present. And so it's super important, you know, that in mind to actually accept it if you actually want to change it, right? I think that there's kind of a two fold there maybe back and forth where people maybe don't actually want to change it So they kind of like don't Make it tangible don't make it really solid of a thing.
So they're like it's kind of this nebulous thing And then they also cannot change it because it is this intangible nebulous thing. Like, you need to be like, this is The future. I mean, excuse me, the future. This is the now. This is the present. This is what's going on. And then from there, we can assess what it's like, what we want to change.
We can come up with a plan, right? Plan the work and then work from there. The plan and we can actually look to change things, but that cannot happen if we're just focused on the future I had a question today in one of my facebook groups and i've heard this before and it's I want to commend people. I love that people are trying to build their futures.
They're they're looking forward with things That's awesome. But we have to understand that our future goals are determined or like the what should I say? the likelihood of achieving those goals Is determined by our actions today. So it's awesome to have a five year plan, but if you're like, just focused on that, but not actually paying attention to right now and assessing right now and accepting how things are right now so that you can actually do something about them, you're never going to get to that goal because you're just looking forward and you will likely just keep pushing that goal back.
So had someone asking, you know, saying that they wanted to have an online business, that's the kind of the end goal in five years, but they have a brick and mortar business right now that they need to focus on. And I was like, You know what? That's awesome. But realistically, it's going to take five years for your online business to take off.
That means you need to start right now. But if you have this brick and mortar business that you need to be focusing on, that needs to be your focus. Because if you try to kind of look at the future and kind of plan for the online business, you're going to neglect the in person business, which is going to cause all kinds of problems.
Who knows if that leads to, you know, Let's say financial issues. And then you're like, can't even worry about that future thing or doing anything online. Cause you're just like, I gotta just put out fires right here. We have to focus on, accept what is going on right now, right in front of us and address that first.
You know, the same thing we think about PT school, I get a lot of students. I used to get a lot of students, not as many, uh, but I used to get a lot of students kind of asking like, what should I do? What should I focus on when I'm in school? And I was like. Graduating, you should focus on getting good grades and learning the things.
And I get it if we tie this into the social media discussion, you know, we have people like the prehab guys and like they've started, they started their account during school and you know, that's great for them. There's also three of them, folks who are listening to this, any students that are like comparing themselves.
There's three of them, not just one. There's three, that is already increases the likelihood of success because you're distributing the load here, but they were able to start something during school and that's amazing. But the, in my opinion, the, the path, the actions that are going to set you up for success is going to be focusing on what is directly in front of you.
Like that is all that I focused on when I was in school. I had zero desire to start any kind of Instagram. It wasn't even really a thing. I don't think that it wasn't really as big. So yes, I get that that's different now, but you are not going to be behind If you focus on what's in front of you, right?
You will not be behind if you focus on what is in front of you. Similarly, you will not get left behind by focusing on what is in front of you. We tend to think about that and we're like looking everywhere else in comparison I and things like that. Listen folks, as it relates to true success. And I know you've heard me say this before, right?
Let them call you obsessed, get obsessed with it. I don't think balance exists, it's balancing. It's a verb, right? We're kind of going in this direction and then we lean in this direction and then we lean in this direction. Sometimes you have to do like massive. You know, uh, it's not redirection, but massive actions to bring ourselves back to center.
Sometimes it's small micro adjustments, that's the word. Sometimes it's small adjustments, sometimes it's major adjustments to try and bring ourselves back to center. But, that is life. When we're trying to do all the things, we would typically fall down, right? So, when it comes to having that success, focusing on one thing, Is a superpower, right?
When you chase all the rabbits, you go home hungry. So tying this up back in, bringing it back to the main topic, accepting and focusing on the present. I am all about having goals for the future. I am all about setting things in motion, having a plan. That plan needs to start from a foundation. You need to know where you're at so that you know what steps you need to put in place so that you can get.
Where you want to go. So I also just want to take a moment to clarify, and I've said this in a past episode, but there's a difference between accepting and contentment and, or acceptance and contentment and resignation, right? I don't want you to listen to this and think, uh, you know, equate, equate.
Acceptance and resignation, like, ah, this is just my life. No! It's simply saying, this is where I'm at now, and if I want to get to whatever place, whatever, I need to do these steps and put these things in place in order to bridge that gap. Right, so there is a difference between the two. I, I feel that people It can often waste energy by just living in denial.
That meme is a perfect example. We can pretend like this isn't the reality, this isn't our existence and like, Oh, next week it'll slow down. Next week it'll slow down. We all know next week it's not going to slow down. So this time that we're telling ourselves, trying to like self soothe here, self soothe here by saying it's going to get better next week, that's time that we could actually be using.
If we decided we really wanted that change, it's time we could be using to sit and be like dude, what does my schedule look like right now? What do I want it to look like? What do I need to do to change that? I get it, you have to actually put some time and place to actually do that. Take time out rather to do that.
The great pause as caused by Rona was phenomenal for that, you know, was phenomenal for that, for people, but I do see a lot of, you know, sliding back into old ways, old ways. And I think that ties into what we're talking about today of accepting and focusing on the present. We can keep looking backwards and trying to, because it's familiar, right?
What's in the rear view mirror is safe because it's familiar. We've been there, even if it was shitty. Shittiness is still safer, familiar shittiness is still safer than future unpredictable anything. We're like, I don't know what it might be, but I know what's behind me and we can kind of talk ourselves out of it and be like, Oh, it wasn't that bad, but actually it was quite terrible.
So the thing to be doing. Is simply looking at where we are right now, accepting this. If we want to talk about that new normal, I don't know, is that a phrase anymore? Are we still saying that, right? Accept that this is the new normal, this right here. This is life. What are you going to do to change it, to get to where you want to go?
Are you just going to wait? Maybe, I don't know. This is just not, I'm not saying that in a negative way, truly asking you. Cause like I said before, we need to accept where we're at, focus on where we're at, we need to assess from there. And then after that, plan the work. And then after that, work the plan, right?
We implement. But that all starts with planning. Acceptance. All right. I do believe that is it. I'm going to keep this episode short. I'm going to keep it actionable. This is a week where you have the long episode as well. We had Emily Reed on, on Monday. She is seasonal intentions. I believe there's an underscore at the end of that.
Uh, Courtney, if you could drop her handle in the show notes, that'd be helpful as well. Uh, we had her on for Monday and that episode, that interview, let's call it was That was fucking dope. Just all the yes. I referenced Avatar. I was just had my hands up at one point we're talking about Capricorns. It was just It was, it was good stuff and a little bit of a different direction, perhaps, uh, than, definitely a different direction than I first started.
Uh, but, I'll let you listen to it if you haven't listened to it already and you can decide if it was in fact a different direction. For those of you that are already tuned in, thank you. Alright, looking at the board here, looking at the time, I do believe that's it. Once again, thank you for three hundred and fifty for listening.
That is, that's a, that's a huge number of folks and you helped me get there. So pat yourself on the back, go ahead and treat yourself, give yourself a little celebration. Whatever you want to do, because this is, this is awesome. And I'm super, super stoked and super grateful to be sharing this occasion, this achievement, this accomplishment with all of you.
As always, endlessly, endlessly appreciative. Until next time, friends, Maestro out.
MOTM #349: Living Along with the Seasons with Emilie Reed
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