Blank Check

Hi guys. My name is Donny Rouse and you are listening to the podcast One Life Blank Check. What if you were given a blank check? How would you spend it? Who would you spend it with? Where would you live? Would you stay in your current city or town? Would you move to a new one? Or perhaps you move to a completely different country altogether? What experiences would you want to have? What would you do for work where you would do it just for the sheer joy and love of doing it? See, I'm here to tell you that each of us has been given a blank check, and the currency of that check is our time. Time is the one thing that we've all been given equally. But perhaps you've spent it foolishly or worse off, perhaps you've let someone else spend your currency of time. My desire for you is to live the most passionate expression of your life. And in order to do that, you must first become aware of where you're spending the time. And then next you have to get clear about what it is that you want. A few weeks back, I was in Miami and I was sitting on the stoop of my hostel and I met a girl named Jasmine. Jasmine was originally from the Tri State area and she was living in New York City, working as a computer programmer in her former life. She was telling Marie her story and she was saying how she would go into work and she would spend 16 hours a day programming. That's a lot of time. Although it didn't seem like a lot of time because she enjoyed what she was doing. Actually, she said she could spend more time if she needed to. I don't know how she had time to eat and sleep, I mean, let alone do anything else. One day she was working on a project and she had finished a project ahead of schedule, having gotten out of work early. She was holding this check, having just completed. She was holding this giant check in her hands. She was telling me that this check was the most money she'd ever seen. Just holding this lump sum, excited, looking at it, and she's like, oh my gosh, what do I do with this? This feeling of excitement changed to a feeling of sadness looking at this check. She didn't know how to spend it and it wasn't like she didn't know because there were so many things she forgotten what she liked to do. She didn't have any hobbies, she didn't have any interest. Her work had enveloped her entire life. Worse than that, she wanted to call and share the news with people, but she couldn't without feeling Awkward. She had neglected her friendships. Realizing that something needed to change, she made a big change. She left her job. She flew somewhere in the Pacific. I wasn't sure if it was the Philippines or Australia. And she ended up becoming a diving master. Scuba diving. She had done many other things after that. But the story is still very powerful. It all comes down to, how do you want to spend your time? What is success to you? So often people go about success in this roundabout way. They go for one thing, thinking that's going to give them something else, rather than just going for the thing that they desire. It's like, all right, well, when I get the house, then I'll be good enough, because I'll have the pitcher perk. Family. Oh, no, I have to get Fido. I need to get a dog. Everyone else in the neighborhood has a dog. Once I get the dog, then life will be perfect. Rather than just saying, well, what is that you're really after? Peace. Maybe. Maybe it's just the simple thing of just having time. Time with your family, your loved ones, your friends. These are all things that you can do right now. But maybe you're choosing to spend your time somewhere else because you think you need to do it before you allow yourself to. To enjoy the time with friends, the time spent in pursuing a new hobby or learning something new. During the same trip, my friend and I, my friend Parag, we were walking down Collins Avenue, and if you've ever been to south beach, you know that at any given moment, there's like, five Lamborghinis, 10 Lotuses and like, 20 Ferraris driving down the street. Actually, it's more like 20 Lamborghinis and, like, five Ferraris. But walking down this. This one apartment building, there was a yellow Lamborghini in the parking lot. And I'm looking at it with my friend, I'm like, my God, that is one sexy car. But looking at it, I'm like, you know what? As beautiful as this car is, that that's not success to me. Like, I wouldn't spend the money on that. And looking at me, he's like, yeah, I totally agree. There's so many other things that I would rather spend the money on, like, trips. And we started going on to, like, where we would spend the money. And I tell you this because we were clear about what it is that we wanted. For me, success to me is having the time to pursue the things I want, having the time to enjoy my mornings, to do the things that bring me passion, that bring passion and joy into my life. As well as to see the world and to have unique experiences, things that people just dream of. I made the decision to create that in my life, but it had to be a conscious decision. I could have fallen into the same. I'll use the word trap, and I use the word trap with respect because it was a vision of success that my family had for me, that society had for me. I had felt that at that time, I felt pressured to conform to that. But I have this very sensitive, I'm very sensitive to things like that. If I'm not happy, I get the hell out. And I want to turn up your acuity, your sensitivity monitor to that. Where are you spending the time where it's not serving you and where do you want to spend that time? So let me ask you those questions. Where do you want to spend that time? All right? What are the experiences you want to have? What do you want to do for fun? Where do you want to, you know, how do you want to construct your days? And then where do you spend that time where it doesn't serve you? Because everything, everything is a plus or minus. It's a cost. In order to get something else, you have to get something, you have to give something else up. If I were to give you back that time, where would you spend it? Or how would you spend it? Where you got the greatest return on your investment. If you want to live a passionate and full, rich life, it starts with getting clear about what it is you want, removing the obstacles that are preventing you from having the thing, and then taking decisive action in the direction of your dreams, the desires you have. While it's not the road most traveled, it is the only road to get you to a life that you love, a life that you're passionate about. Guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please give it a like, give it a thumbs up. Share it with your friends. Have them subscribe to the One Life Podcast with Donnie Rouse. Again, One Life Podcast with Donnie Rouse. If this inspired you in any way, I encourage you to check out my website, www.d-o n n y r a u s.com again, www. Dash o n n y r a u s dot com and join one of my workshops. The workshop is called Live youe One Life. And the purpose of this workshop is to get clarity on what it is that you want to create in this year and in your life, to understand where are you getting hung up? What are those things that are preventing you so this way you can get unstuck. And then lastly, taking decisive action in the direction of those dreams. That is the formula for success, and that is the formula to living a life that you are proud of and love. That is it, guys. God bless. Thank you so much for tuning in, and I will see you again next week.