Before The Finish Line: 3 Tips To Persevere In Your Dreams

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, and you are listening to the podcast One Life. Good morning, guys. Donny Rouse here. And today I want to talk about perseverance. Going that extra mile, because I feel like if I know, I mean, when I say I feel, I say from my own experience, I know that when I'm going towards something, sometimes I make the journey there so difficult, like I'm pushing a giant boulder uphill. But it doesn't always have to be that way. And we also have to know, like, when we are being realistic with our expectations towards whatever it is we want it, we want in our life. And I'm going to go over these three things about perseverance, and I'm just going to go right into the story and explain it. So this way you can see the reflection in my life and apply it to your own. So the first of these, if you want to persevere, you have to know what it is you are going for, right? What is it that you want? Do you know and do you know with clarity? So when you understand and you know with clarity, that is the pull, that is the magnet that pulls you forward. Think of a time when you were going after something, but you had a very, very vague understanding. How much did you feel that magnetic pull? How real did the result feel on your journey there? And I guess the last question is, did you complete it with that vagueness of what you wanted? Did you finish the objective, what you were going towards? Now, there is a possibility that in the process, and I'm not going to knock this, in the process of actually pursuing something, we get clarity in the process. So long as we're setting the intention to get more clarity on the way, that's just kind of one of the things that happens with life now. But let's contrast that with knowing what exactly it is you want. When you know exactly what it is you want and you're constantly fixed on it. Now, all of a sudden, when times get tough, and they will get tough, right? Any goal that requires you to stretch is going to get tough. You want something that you don't have, it's going to get tough. You need to know what it is you want with clarity, because with that clarity, with that image in your mind comes emotion, and it really is the emotion that is going to pull you through. When I think about my. In my own life, I mean, most recently was a. The desire to create an espresso blend, right? I've. I've created blends of us for espresso, but they were never what I would say, Italian espresso, Right. Because there's a whole different methodology when you're talking about espresso. There's like the blend how the roasting style, like the. How dark you take it, as well as how you're developing the coffee at different stages of the roasting process. So, you know, and then I never. I always had this dream, but for a while, it almost seemed out of reach because I'm like, well, if I'm going to learn, I have to go to Italy to do this, because who better to learn than the Italians? And I'd spoken to enough people here, and the methodology just didn't make sense to me. But I knew what I wanted. I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted to create my own espresso blend to rival the best of the Italian espressos. And also I wanted it to be fresh. That's one of the reasons why I was doing it, because you can't get a fresh Italian espresso here. It's all. By the time you get it, it's like half a year old and it's lost all the. Its precious gas. So the crema perseverance sucks. But I knew what I wanted, and this has been one of the goals since I started in coffee over, well, I mean, my own business for 15 years now. Just to give you an idea as never giving up, never letting that. That dream, Wayne. And now I am closer to that result, right? I've done the. I've done taking big action, and I've created my blend. And I'm at a place where the blend I made is actually quite good. It's not there yet. So it's again, keeping that vision in mind of what it is that I want for that espresso and moving forward. Which brings me to step number two, action. Are you taking action towards what it is that you want? Now, if you're not taking action and you're not fixed, your sights on what it is you want, you're not gonna go very far. So in order to do anything, it's important to get in motion. So this way you could start to create momentum. When I decided, like when I really decided that I was gonna create my espresso blend, for example, like I had been, you know, I had been hemming and hauling, I've been trying to figure it out my own. And there, there's a couple ways of doing this right with anything in life. You could figure it out on your own, right? It's, I guess, less expensive, so to speak up front, but it takes longer. And I will willing to say that it takes, it costs a lot more too, because you have to pay your dues in learning. Or you could pay someone professional to help you out, do it for you and cut that time in half. I had been doing this for quite a while at it, and I was, you know what? I know if I were to just stick with it, I could eventually figure it out. I don't doubt that for a second. But I wasn't willing to wait. It got to a point where I was like, all right, well, this is stupid. Like I can keep going and, you know, eventually figure it out. Maybe five, ten years from now, am I really gonna wait that long to put on, like to create my espresso blend? Or I could find a professional, someone to help me so this way they can close that gap and I could actually, I could have the thing I want sooner. That's when I desire to hire. I decided to hire one of the, if not the best espresso consultant in the world. Which brings me to point number three. You're be realistic with what you expect, with your expectations, right? What does that mean, be realistic with it? Let's look at the opposite of what being realistic means, right? So me wanted the espresso blend and I want it by next week, right. Is that real realistic for me to say that I wanted one week, one month from now maybe, right? Nothing's impossible. But without taking the steps right, how could I possibly create that espresso blend? It's going to cost me a shit ton, right? Because the amount of coffee I would have to burn through just trying to figure out certain concepts. And being realistic was one with. Is being realistic with the time, like how long is it going to take? Another example in my own life is creating a freedom lifestyle where I want to inspire people to live more presently in their moment with their coffee, but also to go after the dreams that they have and to savor life once the moment one is life. And so in order for me to set that up, it requires me to learn a lot of different skills. And, you know, and I wanted. I wanted it yesterday, to be honest with you. But nevertheless, I don't put off living. I'm still taking trips. But the point I'm trying to make in telling you that is that it is not something that's going to happen overnight. I really, really need to develop my skill set in order to get there. Going back to the coffee. So there's one is being realistic with the amount of time it's gonna take, right? I could do the coffee, you know, and for that freedom lifestyle, it may take five years, may take 10 years, it could take longer than that, right? I'm getting ready to step out with my beverage. That's gonna definitely gonna keep me here for a while. So it's be stupid to just get mad at myself and to beat myself up because I am not there yet, right? It would be unrealistic. Now, let's talk about what the other things that you can't control, such as people. With regard to the espresso. When I decided that I was going to make my espresso, that this was going to be the year that I stepped out with my Italian espresso, I was like, who can I call? I took a massive action. I emailed all of my. A bunch of contacts that I had in Italy, and they were like this, you know, they gave me like, you got to speak with this person. He's the number one. And so I. I contacted that person and they were like, no, no, no, it's not possible. There's. There's no. He doesn't have any room in his schedule. I was like, well, I'm willing to wait, right? Like, this was. I had to be almost a year out, and I'm like, I'm willing to wait. And so I kept emailing, emailing, and I was getting so angry at their lack of response. I'm like, what kind of business are you running where you don't even respond? It takes you weeks to respond to an email. And, you know, like, I'm trying to pay you, and I'm willing to pay a premium, right? And this person normally works with like the biggest of the Italian espresso companies. And here I am, you know, small guy. But that is not the point. The point is, like, I'm still paying the premium, the same dollar amount that these giant companies would. And actually, I think I might have paid Even more. But the point I was trying to make is that I kept following up and following up and following up and yeah, I got friggin pissed, man. I was pissed. I got my change, had to change my tone and some of those emails because I'm like, dude, this is not a way to run your business. But then I realized that being Italian and having dealt with the some people in the industry, that it's kind of a theme that happens there, right? It's not going to happen when I want to happen, it's when they're good and ready. It's happened with this person, it's happened with the equipment I've purchased. So I learned that I had to accept that. But I tried to push as much as I can and then there's an opening that came up. He had to be, this consultant had to be in Italy because his visa expired. So rather he's normally consulting all around the world, right? Very difficult to nail them down in one place. That's probably why it took so long. But now he had to be in his hometown. And so they emailed me, said, listen, all right, we have two weeks in April. I was like, done, done. All right, two weeks in April. I will move my schedule, I'll do everything I can to make that work. And as a result, I went there, I learned some very, very key distinctions that will help me in my espresso, came back home, roasted espresso, several of them. And am I where I want to be? I'm close, I'm pretty close. But there are some, some, some learnings that I need to apply and I want to test out. And it's kind of been the whole process since I started roasting coffee was testing, testing, testing, testing, testing to see what works and develop my own style and then, then stick with it. So now that I'm back, right, I worked with this consultant, I'm back here, I'm making my espresso and I'm like, well, I should have this by now. Like, why am I not, why is it not here in its perfect form? That's gonna take time. Again, being realistic with it, right? I went from his machinery that I was roasting on to new machinery now that I'm roasting on. There's no freaking way I could possibly replicate them because they're two different machines, two completely different setups. Right there is if you know coffee roasting, it's very intricate, like the stack run, everything matters and every variable changes the roast. So I had to learn that. I'm learning this New machine. But it didn't stop me from taking action. As a result of that, I started just testing out. And I'm at a point now where I wouldn't sell the coffee if I didn't think it was good or if it wasn't happy with it, but I wasn't happy with it, I would have dumped it. I don't care how much coffee I would have wasted, how much it would have cost. I would have dumped it. But I put a product out there. I applied what I learned. I put a product out there, and it was good enough for me to be proud. But I'm still working on improving that. Right. And again, going back to the realism is that it could. I could develop that. And next week, when I go to roast, like, when I test out this new. This new methodology that I'm tweaking, it could happen next week, or it could take months or years from now, but I'm sticking with it. And I'll leave you with this last thing, because if you looked at my life and you said, well, he seems to have discipline, and he just keeps on going, like, how does he do it? I'll tell you. There's this one story that one of my coaches told me that stuck with me from the moment he told me that. It literally stuck in my mind. And it was a story about a person who. And I'm gonna paraphrase this. I'm going to butcher it to who had. I guess, who had a farm. And he left his farm to look for diamonds. So he sold the farm, went out there, searched the person who bought his farm, ended up finding diamonds on the farm. So the guy went out there, and he was searching, searching, searching, only to realize that he had the diamonds right there, right in front of his nose. He had been digging on his property, but apparently he didn't dig far enough. So it's similar with your life. And I always made the. I always thought about it. Well, you know, you could be so close. They said, like, 2 millimeters from your success. Right. It only takes a little bit to get above and beyond, like, the. Let me say it differently. You know, the results you want. You want extraordinary results. It's only, like, about a pinch more than what someone who is getting very good results is doing. Right. Exemplary is literally only that little bit. And so it's the idea of not quitting right before the finish line because you don't know when the finish line is right. It could be right in front of you. You could be right at that, about to step the toe over and all of a sudden you quit and then you lost it when you were right there. So that was one of the things that has always stuck in my mind and as a result of that, even when it friggin sucks and it's hard, which it is most of the time, if I'm honest with you, I remember that and it keeps me moving forward. So think of something in your life, think of something maybe you're having extreme difficulty with now and just honor it, right? It's not meant to be easy. You want something you don't have, it's not going to be easy, but just honor it and push forward anyways. Touch upon things, make sure you have, you know that you're. You're being. You have a clear vision, make sure that you're moving forward towards it and with some kind of action, doesn't matter how big or small and then make sure you are being realistic with your expectations. So this way you don't stress yourself out before you even you know and quit before you even start. So that is all I've got for you guys that I hope this helps you in all of your dreams because it applies to everything, right? It applies. You want to become a world traveler, you want to start your own business, you want to start your own family, but you're not even dating anyone yet. It applies to everything. So I hope this helps you just keep heart to keep on going. And I hope that one day you will eventually get to whatever it is that you desire so long as you are willing to work for it. And lastly, just to remember that life is happening now, to make sure that you savor that moment. Get your cup of coffee in hand, I'm here with the cup in hand. And just remember that life is a gift. Life is beautiful. And not to let the day go by because you're so busy in the pursuit that you're letting the beauty around you pass you by. So connect with that moment, do something that makes you truly happy, that brings a smile to your face and push forward. Hope you enjoyed this episode here. If you did, please leave a comment, hit that subscribe button, share it with someone whom you feel is maybe beating themselves up because they're not there yet. And give this to them. Say, you know what, just relax a little bit. Listen to this guy, he's been with it for a while, he knows what he's talking about and hopefully this will help them overcome whatever mental obstacle that they are facing. So that is all I've got for you guys today. Hope you enjoyed this episode here. If you did, please hit that subscribe button again. And remember, you only get one life. Live fully, live passionately, and most of all, live now. God bless you guys and I will see you again soon.