Excited, Not Scared

Hi, guys. My name is Donny Rouse and you are listening to the podcast One Life Excited, Not Scared. How do you know if you are sabotaging yourself? Sometimes it can be a little bit difficult, kind of understanding the feelings, the emotions that are going through your body. This is not uncommon for whenever you're ready to step outside of that boundary. But it's important not to doubt this system that you have in your body because a lot of time it's guiding you in the right direction. It wants to keep you safe, but sometimes it's keeping you safe at the cost of your long term happiness. So how do you know which one is at play? In this episode, I'll tell you a story about my upcoming trip. I'm actually getting ready to go to Turkey in the next few days and I've been trying to do this trip for about five years now. So through the story, I'll explain to you the idea or the way of breaking it down. So this way you could look at your own life. Okay. Like, when have I felt this? Yes, this is what's at play. So this way you can push forward. So my trip to Turkey, this is a trip I had been wanting to do for probably about five years now. Every time I wanted to do it, something come up. Last year it was. Or two years ago, it was Covid or a year and a half ago, whatever it was lost track of time. And then I think it was like three or four years before that I had wanted to go and I had this like this pit feeling in the bottom of my stomach. It was like something was going to go wrong. I remember getting ready for the trip and as I was getting ready for the trip, I was telling, like, my brother and friends things about, like, my coffee company, like, what to do if something happened, like, what to do with the equipment that I own. Sharing, like, all right, well, this is where my recipe is for cold Roman espresso. So if something were to happen, you know, like, just know that you can, you know, the key is here, the safe is here. And going through all this stuff. So it seems kind of funny looking back, but at the time I was really scared because I had never, never in all of my trips, in all the 40, whatever countries I visited, not once have I ever had that feeling, that gut feeling that I should not be going on a trip. And I had this, like, this stubbornness where I was like, you know what? I don't care, whatever I feel, because I don't cancel trips. It was like my identity. I don't Cancel trips. And I took on that identity because I remember when I was in Nepal, I was doing my Mount Everest base camp. I had a lot of people chiming in and they were all shedding doubt. They were all making me nervous about the trip to the point where I doubted that I could even one, complete the trip. Two, that I would be safe with the altitude sickness and all this stuff. I was worried for my life. But at the same time I was excited. Let's fast forward now to Turkey. So that, that time where I felt like something was going to happen, I was in Italy, I was in Rome, Italy that was getting ready to take off the following day. And I was getting incessant texts and calls from my father back home in the States. I was trying to go to sleep. I don't even know what time it was there. I mean, I think he was texting me at 12, so it was probably 6 in the morning. And he was just saying, don't go on this trip, don't go on this trip. You know, go somewhere else. And I remember saying, listen, I'm going on this trip. I woke up the following day, I did not go on that trip. I cancelled it. I was so freaked out that something could or might go wrong that I ended up booking a trip to Prague instead. Now there are no, there are no trips. One thing that is better than another. So Prague ended being an amazing experience because I met so many awesome people that I still keep in touch with today. So I have even more friends around the world. But going back to the feeling when I booked that trip, I won't say that I felt like had this excitement towards it. I knew I wanted to go there. I knew why I wanted to go to Turkey. I wanted to taste the coffee, I wanted to see the architecture. But I wasn't feeling this excitement at that time. The only thing I was feeling was this gut feeling that something was going to go off. And I almost ignored it. Fast forward this time. I booked this trip and I'd been wanting to book it for a while and I was alright, well, should I go in November? Because November is when I free up kind of in the winter given the seasonality of my bottled espresso. But I was like, well, why am I going to go in November? Why don't I go when it's nice out? This is where I can go to the beach, I can go see Cappadocia and I could do, do it while it is like the sun is out and it's going to be a completely different Experience as a believer that you should not put off life. You should not put off the things that matter to you. I'll repeat that again. You should not put off the things that matter to you. Because I could tell, I've spoken to. When I tell people my plans to travel, they're like, oh, why are you going to do it now? You should do this. There's always going to have something that's always going to come up. Something is always going to come up. And your priorities are going to be different than somebody else's priorities. Simply look at their life. Is that the life you want to live? Right. So people, when you tell people about the things you want to do, they're going to. Some of them will poo poo, others will cheer you on. So I was booking this upcoming trip and I noticed a different feeling. I was actually excited about booking the trip. Some of the experience I was thinking about, like going in the hot air balloon, Cappadocia, taking the ferry from East Istanbul over to west, having a black tea, eating these little pastry things, looking at the water and the city and the background. Now I have this stack of experiences, one I didn't have last time if I were to go. My only intention last time was drink Turkish coffee, learn how to make it. But now I have all these different experiences I want to have. And what else? Now I'm feeling excited. As the days are counting down and I'm getting ready to go, I start to feel a little scared as well. Well, you're probably asking, well, scared. You traveled all these places. Why are you scared? It's actually funny because every trip, nearly every trip I do, especially since there's been a gap. I mean, this past, this past winter I went to Miami and then I went to Puerto Rico, which I hadn't been to Puerto Rico, I don't believe, but it was, you know, it was different. Kind of felt like in the States. But every time I take this kind of, this gap, I usually will feel kind of like this, like angst when I have to book the next trip because a year or more has gone by and now that pattern, that feeling that I know so well has kind of like blurred out and faded into the background. And as it always happens, once I end up taking that trip, I'm stoked and I cannot wait to book the next trip. But the fear creeps in right before it. So I'm getting ready to do this trip and I do remember, I remember the feelings I had when I was going to go four years ago. The story I just told you, but then just as much, I feel the sense of excitement to you. So how does that relate to your life? How does that relate to what's going on in your life? Maybe you have this business you want to start where you're excited about it. At the same time, it scares the living crap out of you, right? Because there's all these potential things that can go wrong and you're worried. Or maybe you want to book the trip. Maybe you want to book that first trip outside of the country and people around you are kind of giving you negative energy. Maybe they're saying it's not a safe world, which. It's a different world. It will say that. But you're no more safe than being in your own city, your own town. And life is not about staying in one place. I don't believe that. There's one of my favorite quotes is a ship was made. A ship was made in. No ship was made in the harbor. I don't remember. Like, ships are safe in the harbor, but that's not what they were made for. That's the quote. A ship was made. I already forgot it. It's one of my favorite quotes, too. So, yeah, the ships are safe in the harbor, but that's not what they were made for. You were made to live your life. You were made to take risks. Calculated risks, right? Not stupid risk. Calculated risk. So how do you know when it's the. You know, when you should listen to that fear or you should, you know, or you should go for it and it kind of already gave you the answer. It's that excitement. I mean, do you feel like this passion for it, but at the same time it scares you? There's another quote I like. It says, you know, if it excites you and scares you, then it's probably something that you should do. So that's one of the ways, you know, the mind, if you listen here, the mind is always going to try to freak you up. And the mind is very loud. When your mind is loud, it tends to kind of stir things up. And you don't know which way is up or down, but there's another place you can look to. So I'll give you again two things. One, if you feel excitement and fear at the same time, it's probably something you should do. Secondly, when you quiet the mind, when you don't pay attention to that, but you tune into the heart, your heart whispers, it speaks very quiet. It knows what you should do. It knows what you want. And if you tune into it you can hear. May not, like, speak to you, but like, you'll get a feeling as to what the right direction is, what the right choice is. And I'm a firm believer that whenever you follow that intuition, whenever you follow that feeling in your heart, it will never leave you wrong. Never lead you wrong. So what is the decision you've been facing? What is something you want to do? Where it excites you but at the same time it scares you? That was a trick question. If it excites you and scares you, just go do it. But what is it? And ask yourself, like, what is the. What's like the pit in your stomach? Say, right, Listen, like, if it helps, put your hands on your heart. Breathe. Imagine the breath going into your heart. That'll slow the mind down. And then ask the question and feel with your heart. Should I do blank and wait for the answer? Guys. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a share. Please give a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, whatever one you listen on. It would be greatly appreciated. And if you want to talk something like this, if you want to be coached on one of those big decisions, you can reach out to me. Reach out to me via Instagram at Donny D O N N Y R A U S I don't take on many coaching clients, but depending on what the topic is, I would be willing. That is all I've got for you guys. This was like. This is. It's nighttime now. I wasn't intending on coming on here, but I felt like it was something I want to share and it's really relevant to my life right now, so I wanted to share that with you. Hope you enjoyed this. God bless and I will see you again tomorrow.