If You’re Waiting For THIS, You’re Never Going to Jump
19 Jan 2023 · 6 min
Dean Graziosi delivers a motivational podcast monologue arguing against perfectionism and for taking imperfect, uncomfortable action. He uses personal parenting anecdotes and Matthew McConaughey's career choices (quitting romantic comedies, later winning an Oscar) to illustrate that waiting for perfection prevents growth and opportunity. The episode repeatedly urges embracing messy progress and evolving through action rather than waiting.
Chapters
I love that saying, jump out of the plane and grow wings on the way down. That might be a little extreme, but that's how we have to approach it more especially going into this new world is we're waiting for all this perfection and it's not coming. One of the lowest form of thinking in the world is perfection. Because really what perfectionism is, is your subconscious, that scary thing inside that's trying to protect you. It's really just masking fear. Well, I'd do it if I understood it all. I'd do it if everything was perfect. Is anything ever perfect? Raise your hand if you're a parent, right? And this is not knocking those that aren't. But did anybody have that shit figured out? When you had your first child, was anybody a perfect parent? Right now I am the parent of a 16 year old, I have a 14 year old boy and I have a two and a half year old and a baby who loves to cry at night. If you think I got that shit figured out, you are completely wrong. I am a taxicab trying to figure out teenagers while trying to support my wife when our baby cries in the middle of the night. It is something else. If you waited to have children until it was perfect, would any of us have children? No. That shit is so sloppy and the most amazing thing in the history of the world. Simultaneously. Simultaneously. There is nothing more. I enjoy nothing. I love being with you guys today. I love being Tony's partner. I love being with my team. There's nothing I love like being a dad. Nothing. And it's the hardest job I have. Who in here has ever reprimanded, scolded or yelled at your children and an hour later you go, I am such a shithead. I am such a shithead. Like that was the worst example in the history of the world. Like I took my day out. I took my dad's parenting style. I did. Something popped out of my mouth that had nothing to do with being a good child that anybody else an hour later like this on the door. Brody, you got a minute? Can I talk to you? This guy screwed up. So can we talk about what just happened? What you did wasn't cool. But the way this guy handled it was way freaking worse, right? If you waited to be perfect, to have a child, you would never have children. There is no perfection. Well, simultaneously it is God sent. It is magical, right? Isn't it the same with our businesses? Us going into a new role, a different role, Scaling, trying something new. It is messy, it is imperfect. And that Is, in a sense, the beauty of it. Our brains are saying, wait till everything's perfect. And you will never engage. You will just wait and wait and wait, because nothing is ever perfect. I love that saying, jump out of the plane and grow wings on the way down. That might be a little extreme, but that's how we have to approach it more. Especially going into this new world is we're waiting for all this perfection, and it's not coming. So what if we fell in love with this sloppy achievement? What if we just fell in love with action, not perfection? What if we fell in love with. And if, you know, I talk about it in Mastermind, right, Of just being a better version of ourselves tomorrow than we were yesterday. What if we just fell in love with again? I'm going to go Back to Matthew McConaughey because I love this. Did anybody ever see his Oscar speech? It's pretty damn good. If you haven't seen it, you should Google it. He's up giving his Oscar speech, and, you know, he said, so many people ask me who my hero is. Anybody know who he said his hero is? Dad. His dad. His dad. Seems like it was his dad. There we go. Tom Martin, winner. Ding, ding, ding. He said his hero is him in 10 years. How cool is that? How deep of a thinker is that guy? My hero is me in 10 years. As long as I take that uncomfortable action, as long as I forge forward, as long as I'm more afraid of not doing than doing, as long as I change those stories, I take uncomfortable action. I try new shit. You think about what he did. He literally, if you read his book, he was a lawyer going to school to be a lawyer. And one day, something changed. He took the uncomfortable action to call his dad and say, sorry, I want to be in film. And then he did romantic comedies. He was the most sought after in romantic comedies. Remember when he just did romantic comedy after romantic comedy? And then one day he said, man, this is not who I want to be. And he stopped. And his manager said, you say no to work in Hollywood, you'll go ice cold. You'll never come back. He's like, good, then that's what I'm doing. He made a decision. He was afraid of the not knowing what it would be like to do something different than a romantic comedy. Two years, it went dry. Two years in, his manager said, you ready to go back to romantic comedy? He said, no. Told you I wanted to do something deeper. His next role won him an Oscar. His next role won him an Oscar. It's legendary. Only one Oscar a year. Think about that. Where do we have to take uncomfortable action? Where do we have to stop thinking about perfection? Where do we have to start evolving towards more uncomfortable action? To just be a better version of ourselves, to tell ourselves a different story, to be more afraid of the unknown, of the undoing, than the doing. Sam.
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