Dear Former Self

Hi guys. My name is Donny Rouse and you are listening to the podcast One Life. Dear Former Self, I was in New York City yesterday. I was walking around with one of my good friends Kale, and we were walking through Washington Square park and the park was packed. I think people were just happy to be outdoors. They were in groups of people. Everyone was. It was very harmonious. And then in the center of the park, I noticed that there was a giant sign. So I kind of went closer to see what exactly what it was all about. People had markers. They were penning in on this giant board. As I got closer, I read the writing on the board that was giving a prompt. It said Dear future Self. So I was like, oh, that's actually pretty cool. Everyone was, people were giving out markers, they were signing it. And I thought to myself, well, what would I put on that? The funny thing is the way I read it. So it clearly the sign said Dear Future Self. But that's in my mind. That is not what I read in my mind. In the question I was answering was Dear former self. So the former. So looking at it, rather than say, looking out to the future, Dear future self, saying, maybe it's the aspirations you want. The way I read it was Dear former self, and looking at what is the advice that I would give to my former self, right to live? Like, what course of action would I want? My former self, maybe looking back 10 years, my youthful self, I'm still youthful, but what advice would I give as they were going forward in life? So thinking about that for myself, I was, well, alright, well, if I can give advice, what are some of the things that were left undone that I feel were left undone right now? For myself, One of those things was living in Europe. I still want to live in Europe and I kind of want to just move around the world and have this nomadic lifestyle sharing my experiences on the podcast here and enriching people's lives with those experiences that I have. So that was one of the desires I have. And this is going to be a relatively short podcast because I think that we seldomly do the simple things that will allow us to open up our mind to see something different, a different possibility. I was doing a Tony Robbins event and one of the things that he says, he says, he calls it the rocking chair test. You look out, you pretend like you imagine yourself being old, sitting in a rocking chair and then giving advice to your youthful self, your younger self, and taking that advice. So you always bounce decisions off of the person sitting in the rocking chair. Because he has the wisdom or she has the wisdom. And they could pass that on to you and can kind of guide your life. It goes on the foundation that there's always a part of you that knows who knows the right answer, who knows the right action to take. And it's about connecting with that aspect of yourself and allowing you to guide the ship rather than looking in the external for things around you to guide that ship, looking to yourself. So with that in mind, I want to ask you that question. And we could even if you want, we could even revisit the future self. Because there are two kind of different things, right? If we're looking at the future self, what advice would you give to the future? We think about maybe changes we want to make. Maybe it's how we want to behave going forward. Oh, don't sweat the small things. You're good enough, whatever it may be. But if we're looking from the future, looking back at the former selves, it gives us a different picture. The picture is like, you know what? These are all the experiences that I've had, all right? And I've learned from these experiences. And as a result of learning from these experiences, I can give you the guidance. This way you can stay true to your path, you can stay true to your heart, and you could follow that, the way of least resistance to get to that place of happiness, that place of desire, the place where you feel alive, you feel aligned. Just start there. Let's just start there. What is the advice that you would give to your former self? If you could look back? Where you are right now is perfect. Where you are right now? If you can go back 5 years, what advice would you give your former self? Let's lengthen that period of time. Now, what if you were to go back 10 years? What advice would you give yourself? What lifestyle changes would you make? After you've written that down, I want you to just read through it and ask, well, what's preventing you from making those changes? Now I say we, because everybody's guilty of it. We tend to think that, oh, well, no, now it's too late. I remember hearing a story about. I think it was the woman who was in the concentration camps. I don't remember. She has a book out, a new book, and I've heard it's really good. Haven't read it. And she was saying how she. I think she went back to get a doctor in psychology and she was saying she was talking to somebody and she was, you know. Well, she was given the reasons why she Couldn't do it. She's like, well, you know, if I could go, I would do this. He said, well, why not do it now? She, well, because I'm almost 50 years old. He's like, listen, whether you pursue the degree in psychology or not, you're going to eventually hit 50, so why not just do the damn thing? And she went on to do it. She's written books now. So whatever it is that you're putting on that list, the advice you want to give to your former self, maybe it's like a different action that you would have taken, a different career path, you would have chosen a different place, you would have lived. It's not too late. There is always a way, if you were committed. So I want you, in closing, I want you to play around with this idea. Like, what if I made the decision to do whatever may be. Let's use relocation as example to, you know, to create my life. So this way I could live in Europe now, that might. Maybe you have kids, whatever it may be, and it might not seem like a possibility, but I want you to extend your disbelief and say, all right, well, what if it were possible? How would that feel? What would that look like? And start to paint a different picture in your mind. Because I'll tell you this, by extending your disbelief, you'll actually start to create that new way of seeing it. Will things be. Start to become possible? I know even in my own business, where things that I once thought were impossible, like, were, you know, with regard to my brewing process, for example, when I'm making my cold Roman espresso, there were times where I'm like, oh, this will never happen. I can't. I can't increase production because of this factor. Years later, all of a sudden, like, the. I opened up my. I expanded my mind to see something different than the limited scope, the limited belief that I had about this particular aspect of the brewing process. And within seconds, I had an answer. I'm like, wow, all right. Literally, for seven years, I've been, like, perplexing over this thing. And the answer was right there. And I got it in, like, two seconds. Why? It's not that the answer wasn't always there. It's because my mind, I had a belief system that wouldn't allow me to see it. So I want you to expand. What would it look like once you've done that? Just brainstorm if you want to. If you want to kind of entertain me. If you were to take a small, little, little itty bitty tiptoe in that direction. What would it look like? You don't have to do that. But for the sake of this exercise, what I want you to do is realize that one you have a guidance system that can guide you at any point in your life. 2. To recognize those dreams that are still maybe stirring inside of you, and three to realize that it's never too late. You're never too old. There's always time to make good on those dreams, the desires you have. That is all I've got for you guys today. I hope you enjoyed this podcast. If you did, please give it a thumbs up. You can send me a message too. If you have any stories that relates to it, you can send me a message via Instagram. D o n n Y R A U s Again D o n N Y R A U S lastly, if you enjoy great coffee, I encourage you to try Rouse Coffee Co. R a u s c o f-f e-e.com the intention behind the coffee that I create is to connect you with that moment. I know how coffee is the catalyst for those moments, those connections to yourself, that new start. Sure, you can do that with any other cup of coffee. But when you have an excellent cup of coffee, it is the catalyst for those moments. You deserve it. You deserve to live a life beyond your wildest dreams and you deserve to drink good coffee. That is it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode. God bless and I will see you again soon.