A Life Unlived - The Cost of Tomorrow

Most people spend their entire life stressed without ever giving a single thought as to what it is they really want or what's important to them. See, I'm here to cut through all that noise, connecting you to yourself and the life that you were meant to live. I used to slave away at a corporate job that I hated, but I broke through the social norms and pursued my passion. As a result, I own my own coffee company, I'm espresso sommelier, and I get to travel the world. You too can live a life that you love, but it starts with getting clear about what you want. It starts with a new decision. I'm your host, Donnie Rouse. You are listening to the podcast One Life, A Life Unlived. There's a quote that I really, really like. It says, don't put off tomorrow at the cost of today, but don't put off today at the cost of tomorrow. Yesterday I was meeting with a friend and what I think he was going with, this was a business opportunity. I think it was kind of like this multi level business marketing thing he was trying to share with me. But in that meeting he went on to say something about saving for, you know, making yourself financially secure for that time when you're retired. This way you could live and spend whatever you want, live the life you want without restrictions. He was checking it to me to see if this was something that resonated with me and asking, well, what is it that you want? What is the future that you want? I said, well, of course I want financial freedom. Of course I want to have the resources, be able to give to my family, to my friends, to be able to take off in a moment's notice, to go somewhere and know that all my finances are taken care of and to have like the that weightless feeling of not needing to worry about money. I don't even like using that term about it because it implies there's resistance right away. So when he was sharing this with me, I told him, I said, well, I actually disagree with that. And he's, well, why? I was because I don't think that life should be lived at some future point in time. I like to say that I live life as I'm building. And I went into my reasons for that just because not a single day is guaranteed. You wake up in the morning, you don't know what's going to happen the moment you step outside that door. So why put something off that's going to give you the feelings, the passion for life for some later point when you could be living it now, now, there are exceptions to this, right? I'm not saying that there are things that need to be planned. There are things that you have to build towards. I'm not saying that at all. Like, whether it be travel, whatever it may be. I'm just saying do the things that are going to speak to your soul, that are going to speak to your heart, and don't put those off, because those are the lifeblood of your life. So some questions for you. What are you putting off today until you have more time or resources for this? Could be like that trip that you were seeing. I'll do this when I have more time to take a month off, whatever it may be. Write that down. Secondly, what is the downside to putting this off? Everything in life, there's cost benefit to every single thing. One of the downsides could be, well, maybe you don't make it until 15, 20 years out, right? Then what? And it sounds kind of morbid, but it's the truth. How can you start living this now? How can you start being active in that experience? Meaning maybe it's taking a week trip instead of waiting and thinking that you have to lump it all into a month. Maybe it's saying, all right, I'm going to go to Italy for a week. I know it's not optimal, but I'm going to do that. Or maybe you paint. Maybe it's like, you know what? Yeah, I really want, you know, yeah, I could paint for 10 minutes and just to kind of get the juices flowing, because I know it's going to feel good when I pick up that brush, whatever it may be. And then just lastly, how would it impact your life? I know how it would change your life because I know how it changes mine. But it's so easy to fall in the habit of putting this all or nothing when it's not the case. Nothing in life is all or nothing. You don't have to be so rigid with life. So back to the example. So I was telling him, I said, I disagree with that completely. He's like, well, what do you mean? I said, not a single day is guaranteed, right? I don't know. I could say, yes, I want to build. Like, I want to build this financial cash machine where all my needs are taken care of and I'm living off interest or doing whatever it is or a business to do that. But am I willing to put all my eggs in one basket, so to speak, with the hopes of one day being able to do the things that I want to do? I told them I was not. Here's the truth of the matter. Savings right now, the stock market is down. I don't even know how many percent. 30%, 40%. Some people I know, people who are like, I just literally lost 40% of my portfolio. I'm going to retire soon. Now I don't know what to do. Things happen, life happens. So to put it off for some other time, expecting you'll have the resources. Nothing is guaranteed. I was watching a YouTube video on Madeira I just came back from. To give you kind of like a backstory. I just came back from Portugal. I spent some time in Lisbon, sometime in Porto. And I went to Madeira for another few days, like three, three and three. A quick trip. But it literally proves my point that you don't put it off. You do the things that you want to do. So I was watching these videos prior to my trip, and there was one. There was one video I remember in particular. It's something like five years to live. And when I heard the video, I was assuming it was five years to live. It sounds like, you know, how to cram, like if you were living the next five years, how to cram all that life into those five years. When I clicked the video, I found it was something very, very different. The video was about a husband and a wife who would literally save their entire lives. So this way that they could there, they could live, retire in Europe somewhere and start traveling all around, do all the things that they said they wanted to do when they were younger. So they saved and saved and saved. And he said that what fueled this discipline was when he and his wife spoke about all the adventures they were going to have, all the good times. Fast forward, they're at retirement, they're now retired in Madeira. And he's going on about his experience. And he's saying this in a very positive light. He's putting a positive spin on it. He said, well, you know, I am. You know, I wake up in the morning, I walk my dog, but I can't move as much as I used to. And going into all these things, the only thing that literally the big light that went off in my mind was like, wow, why you should not put it off. They had all these big aspirations and how they were going to spend their final years. They were talking about their first full five years of retirement and how those were the years where those are going to be the best years and things decline after that. Already. There's a fault in the belief system. There's a fault in the way of thinking because if that's what you believe, your beliefs control everything in your life. I believe that I'm going to live until when I'm 106 at least, if I take care of my body and I do the things properly, the things I need to do now to ensure that. So he was putting this limit, saying, all right, well, five years after those five years of retirement, they go downhill. And he was kind of going through all the things that were occurring in his life. And this is his. I'm projecting, right? I'm looking at from an outside. I have no idea what this guy was going through. But I do know that our habits define who we are, right? Define what we become. And if he was standing his entire life sitting behind a desk, not moving very much, that's going to affect his body differently. Where the point where he couldn't. He could barely move. His mobility was limited. What he was able to do was limited. He attributed to age. I attributed to bad habits. Now, that might be triggering for some people, but it's the truth. We are all born the same, right? We may have some differences. I feel like I'm going off on a different tangent, but I'm going to go there. There are some differences to, you know, like maybe our abilities, but for the most part, what defines us is our habits, one person to the next. The only difference is the habits that make them right. We're spiritual beings. We are literally blank slates. From the moment we are born. We have these habits that are being imprinted on us, habits that we pick up, and those define where we go. The benefit to this is that by changing those habits, you could literally change your entire life. Adapt habits of someone you want to replicate or resemble or be like, that is what you're going to become. So I digress. What I was trying to say is that don't put off tomorrow at the cost of today. Don't plan for this future when you could start living that right now. And it does not just have to do with travel. It has to do with everything, right? Anything that's going to bring you pleasure. It could be going outside and having a coffee today and just taking five minutes to say, wow, I'm going to take this. It's so nice. Look at the leaves. It's so nice how the leaves are rustling. Oh, my God. A little squirrel chipmunk going by and just appreciating it, letting. If that's what you. Whatever you want to do, or maybe you like watching anime, something I like to do. But allowing yourself without judgment to do the things that bring you joy and the things that, you know, don't put off later to say, well, when that day comes, then I will do that. Enjoy it now. Your life is worth it. You are worth it. And in closing, I want to ask you those questions again. What is something that you've been putting off for some future point in time, for the time when you have the time or when you have the resources. Second, what is the cost of putting that off? There is a cost to everything. I literally, I'm learning. I was kind of an all or nothing guy. I still am in many regards. Right. Where it's like all travel or. And it would also always come at a cost of like my work. Granted, I'm blessed to have my own business. I am blessed to have the freedom and the flexibility to travel. But there are a lot of, if I'm honest with you, there are a lot of areas in my career, my work, my company, like with Ross Coffee, that I am not satisfied with. And I know that I have to build, but that's okay. When I look at what I've experienced, what I've done, I am happy with it. It's when I start to judge myself, compare myself to others that it kind of rustles something deep within, within me. Of course I have different. I have aspirations. I want to build this bigger company. I want to have a bigger impact. But I don't believe in doing that at the sacrifice of living my life and living passionately. Because that is what's really contagious. That's what people gravitate towards. When I am my fullest, people gravitate towards me. Like, when you're your fullest, people feel it. They want to feel you. And the best way to show up is by taking care of yourself, taking care of your needs first. Third question. What's the benefit? I don't even know if I'm asking these out of order, but how can you start to. No, the third question was how can you start to experience it today? Like going back to the painting example. I'm using this because my friend Lynn, who's a beautiful soul and great artist, great creative, she likes to paint. She just finished redoing her studio, but she still does her jam business. Not to say on the side, but she's just starting to go back into this artistic, creative being that she is. But it doesn't need to be like the one day full out doing painting for eight hours. Although I'm sure she would love that. What if you just did 10 minutes? What if you took just a few moments to, you know, feed yourself with the thing that makes you feel alive. Lastly, how would that impact your life? Just taking the small step again, that small step could be if you have that dream to spend a month in Italy to go see Florence and all these things. Maybe it's just taking a trip to, you know, test the waters. You know, you might go to Florence and, or Venice and be like, wow, this sucks because it's dirty, it's flooded everywhere, and it smells. I don't know if it really smells. It wasn't when I went there, but you know what I mean? So sometimes we have these, these expectations for things and they don't always live up. But one of the things I like to do is that I like to taste different things in the sense of like. Perfect example, my most recent trip, I had desire to go to Portugal. And when I was there, I realized that I loved the place. And I would go back there many times over. One of the few places that I could say it wasn't because of food, because I didn't think the food didn't blow me away, but the culture, the people, the coffee, the different rituals they have around drinks and the beautiful landscapes are what got me. I loved European lifestyle too. But if I waited for this giant trip, who knows? I mean, who knows if it ever would happen? But I said, look, you know what? I only have, I have 10 days. When you take away the first day I arrive and last day I leave, I have like eight days. All right, not enough time, but I'm going to do it anyways. I am so grateful that I did because the people I met, the experience I had, you could have sent me there for three days. If you would have given me just the people I met, it would have been worth, would have been worth it. It would have left that impact. It would have just fed me, fed my soul. So it doesn't have to be the all or nothing, you can take a nibble. So that is all I've got for you guys. I hope you took the time to ponder those questions I gave you, because I promise you, when you give the time to just feed yourself and nurture your soul by doing the things you want to do and not put them off for some later point, it'll make you feel alive and you are worth it. Your life is worth it. So thank you so much for tuning into this. I hope it enriched your day and your outlook on your life in some small way. Maybe it's a seed that was planted. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider subscribing. You can go to www.donnyrouse.com d o n n y r a u s.com you can ask leave a comment. I would love to hear from you. Thank you so much for tuning in. Remember, you get one life. Live it. God bless you.