Becoming

Hi guys. My name is Donnie Rouse and you're listening to the podcast One Life Becoming. It's silly to compare ourselves to other people. Doing so actually shatters our self confidence and brings us down. It does the exact opposite of that aim that we're going towards. So what is the journey? The journey is being take. Going from being self critical to self deceptance and acting in faith. And the lesson I want you to come away from this podcast here is the understanding that one, we all start at different places. We all have a different starting point. So when you're comparing yourself to someone else who's further along in the process, it's stupid. By the end, you'll get in your mind that it's silly to compare because each of you are on a different journey. Secondly, that the very fact that you're observing someone who has the thing you want shows you that it is possible. So what is the result? Right? The result is that you'll feel more confident, you, you'll feel more optimistic, and you'll start to feel joy in the process. When I started my podcast, it started out as kind of like something I thought would be fun to do because it was something that came natural to me. I went to the podcasting room at the Westport Library. They had this beautiful, beautiful podcasting studio. And with a friend, I got on the microphone and I just started kind of joking around. At first I said, hi, this is Donnie Rouse and you are listening to Blah Blah Blah. I don't even remember what I said on there, but the person who is the, who managed the audio room was like, oh my God, you have a great recording voice. You should consider doing a podcast. Prior to that, I hadn't really put any thought into the idea of doing a podcast. But then the more I thought about it, I was like, well, you know, it could be fun. He thought about the content. I was like, well, what kind of content would I want to put out? And if you've listened to my podcast, you know, it's something that has impact, something that lets people kind of like unleash to live their fullest lives to benefit them. That was the intention behind it. So I started the podcast and I was going, you know, doing one episode a week, and I thought it was going pretty good. When I heard friends of mine who were also doing podcasts that their episodes had a different count, I started to compare myself. Fast forward months later, about six months in, I had 10,000 downloads on my podcast. And at that point I decided that I was going to switch Platforms. As a result of switching platforms, my count or my viewership actually dropped. The number of downloads went down. So I started to get kind of a little bit nervous about this. Well, what is the current drop? I mean maybe there was some kind of connection between the platforms and maybe it disappeared from the list and from people subscribe. I'm not really sure what happened, but I know what happened internally. Internally I went to comparison mode and then I started looking out at other people who what other people were doing and then comparing their results to my results. I attended a workshop of a girl, I think her name was Sarah something, I can't remember but it was on podcasting. And she went on to say how her podcast within like the first week or something like that went to number one and it was on like the some top list for new podcast. And I looked at that and I started to compare to where I was now. I wasn't anywhere near the numbers that she was doing. So I was being very, very critical of myself. I was starting, I was comparing myself to her not knowing what her background was in or where she started. Or maybe she had a coach, maybe she had something that helped her find fine tune and get the result that she did. I had no idea as to what her process was or what her personal journey was. The only thing I was doing was comparing where I was now to where she is expecting that result to happen within a matter of months, days, a year at most. Which is illogical. But when I took a step back and I started to look at the facts as well as my reasons for doing it, it gave me a different picture. 12% of all the podcasts out right now do one single episode. 5% of all the podcasts do two episodes. Half of the podcast have 14 episodes. The top 100 have 283 episodes. Average in the top 1000 have 191 episodes. So what does that tell you? What is it? What did it tell me about what it meant, what success was and how I was judging myself first of all. Well, of course, yeah, there are some of those anomalies where people who launch a podcast in the first week they hit the top charts and they have like a million downloads. Whatever it is, there are those anomalies. Oh, I forgot to mention that a lot of those top podcasts were heavily, heavily marketed and produced. So there's money going behind those podcasts. I'm starting from nothing. So what does this tell you? Again, it was a long game that viewership actually happened as a result of having More podcasts, being more committed and sticking with the action, staying with the action. Of course, that's oversimplifying it because you have to be able to turn out quality. You have to be able to turn out material that people want to listen to. It reframed everything in my mind. It also got me acquainted with why I'm doing it. I'm not doing it just for the sake of getting a million downloads an episode. That's not it at all. My purpose for doing this is that you can take these lessons. You could apply them to your own life and start to live life more joyfully, more aligned with who you are and what you want. So this. Hopefully, just by hearing this story, you realize how stupid it is to start comparing yourself. Because the only thing you know for certain is where you're starting and where you're going. Hopefully you know where you're going. That is the first thing you have to figure out is where you're going. Because without an aim, we can't develop a map, we can't develop a guide to get there. One of the things that I, you know, sometimes I have that aim. Other times I kind of scatter sometimes, to be completely honest with you. But if you don't have that end goal, if you don't know what the end result is, how can you get there? Notes from the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. So how can we take this now? How can we bring it down to, like, a little pretty box? This way you can, after listening to this, you can apply it into your own life. And you could also see why it's stupid for you to compare yourself to others. Let's do that with a few questions first. Where do you compare yourself? Where do you like? Maybe it's you're on social media and you're looking at profiles, and all of a sudden you're starting to compare yourself where other people are and where you are. Maybe you're not even comparing yourself to where you are, you're just comparing yourself because you see pictures of other people. Write that down. Where do you compare yourself next? What is your outcome? What is it that you want? You see, sometimes, just from seeing other people doing something. We play the Keeping up with the Joneses game, and we might be going towards something that we don't even want, but we have to become conscious of that, because sometimes, just by seeing it by repetition, we start to take it on as our own and when it was never ours to begin with. So what is it that you want? And are you comparing yourself to Something that you want next. Where are you starting from? Realize that everyone is on their own journey. We all have a different starting point. Some people start maybe five inches from the finish line. Some people start five miles. And then there are those who don't even start at all. In which case these are not you. Because you're listening to this. And by choosing to listen this, I know that you're looking to better your life. You're looking to develop that mindset and just that confidence to take the next step. Next question is why is it stupid to compare right? Why is it stupid to compare yourself to that person you are comparing yourself with? Write down all the reasons because this is what's going to give you that mindset shift. This is what's going to make you see while and recognize that you're on your own journey and the journey is only yours. As well as to look back and to take note of the progress you've already made towards that. And then lastly, what is the next step for you? If life is a journey, if your goal is a journey, then it's just a matter of putting one foot in front of the next and taking it step by step. And if you do that, eventually you will arrive at your end destination. You will arrive at your outcome. That is all I've got for you guys today. I hope you enjoy this episode called becoming. Because each and every one of us are becoming something. The question is whether or not we're choosing to do it consciously. We're choosing consciously what we're becoming. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave your comments. If you have any questions, please leave your comments. You can leave a review on Apple podcasts that would be greatly appreciated actually. And if you enjoyed this, please share it with your friends, family, social media, anyone you think that would get value from listening to this again? Questions? You could message me via Instagram onnydon Y R A U S I'd love to hear your own personal journeys. And if you like amazing coffee, please check out Rous coffee company. One of the reasons why I do what I do is because I want to get people to take that moment in their day to say, okay, well what really matters to me, if tomorrow was all there was, how would I live today? And to live from that place? And I just so happen to make awesome coffee. So the two go in together, right? Enjoying life. Enjoying coffee. And you can use the discount code onelife to get a discount on your first order. And life would be amazing after that, guys. God bless. Thank you so so much for tuning in and I will see you again next week.