Finding Joy in the Journey: The Power of Purpose and Pauses

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. What's going on, everybody? Donnie Rouse here, and I have a question for you. How are you enjoying the journey? The journey I am referring to is the journey of life. As you go through your day, as you do the activities, are you doing things just to get it done? Said differently, are you doing things where there's this sense of friction? Because maybe at some point you might have even found joy in whatever it was you were doing. But now it's just about getting through because there's so many demands on you that you feel like you don't have a second to take the time to even think about the mere fact of enjoying it. You just got to do, do, do if you were there. I am going to try to give you a different perspective on this because I go back and forth, I kind of oscillate back and forth between this and most recently, I just got back from a trip from Asia, and most recently, I was confronted with this realization of how I had been approaching my business as all of my trips for the last decade, literally. But I want to plant this seed in your head. What if you could impact, not just change the way you feel in the day, which is probably the most important impact you could have, because as you change the way you feel in your day, you change the way you show up to your work, you change the way you treat other people in your life. But what if just by doing that, the domino effect of it was that the people you interacted actually it changed them because you were showing up as a better person. It changed your business because now people are connecting with you in the work that you're doing. There's three things you want to have this kind of impact. If you want to feel better about your day, there are three things, three lessons that you must learn. The first is to take breaks instead of just doing, doing Doing sometimes without taking a pause, it could steal, or I should say, rob you from the joy of whatever that activity was. You may have found pleasure in it before, but all of a sudden, as a result of feeling like you don't even have time to stop, it literally robs you the joy. You forget why you're doing it. Which brings me to lesson number two. Infusing whatever it is you're doing with the purpose. When you know your purpose in doing something, all of a sudden, now it brings a different part of you. If you void the purpose now, it's just an activity. And then number three, celebrate your wins. You have two options, right? You can celebrate your wins or you can count your losses. I'll tell you, there's one thing that happens by default, and that is counting your losses. I just got back from a trip. As I had mentioned, I was in Asia, traveling around, like, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia. And while I was there, I was like, man, I feel so great. But that wasn't the story before I got there. Let me rewind. Prior to my trip, I was broken down. I felt exhausted. And in many ways, the big trips that I take almost feel like just like, not a running away, but just like, literally throw everything in the closet. And I don't care what happens next. I am just going because I can't take anymore. And I say that because when I was home, I wouldn't let myself stop to take breaks. There was always so many demands coming at me and that I felt like, oh, well, I can't pause here. I have to fill these orders. I have to do this, I have to do that. And as a result, I would end up literally just burning myself out, burning the candle at both ends. And then it wouldn't be until the end of the season where I would take that long trip to recharge. But then I was. While I was on this trip, I came across a video or a song called. I think it's called Birds Flock Together. Or I'm probably butchering the name, but it's by Billie Eilish. Birds of a Feather. That is the song. So it's called Birds of a Feather. And in that song, I became obsessed with it. And good reason, because it was like, one of the top songs in the world. And her, I think by far her most famous or most popular song that she's ever produced. And I was watching one of the interviews, and the interviewee, the interviewer was asking her, hey, you're. You're about to go on tour. And I Noticed that you took some breaks in between that tour. Like, how do you take a break in between a tour? Doesn't that throw you off? And her answer was one that I found super profound. And it just clicked on me and it made more sense. She told the interviewer. She goes, well, when I take the breaks, it allows me to recharge. Otherwise, by just going, going, going, it kills all the joy. Like, I love going on tour, but if I'm constantly. If I'm just going on tour and going from show to show to show, it really takes away the enjoyment. All of a sudden, now it becomes work. When I heard this, I was like, holy crap. Like, what? I've been. I've been doing this all wrong. I need more trips throughout the year. And I. Actually, that is exactly what I said to myself. But the, the trips I was meaning was just these breaks rather than doing these month, month long stints. Because sometimes I'd go away for a month and I would come back and, like, what business was I in? Like, what am I doing? I would even forget, like, some of, like, my recipes for, like, my. The beverages I create. So I realized, all right, well, maybe it's too long of a period of time, but also, how can I get the satisfaction of. Of going away, of recharging while still being, like, close to my business? And it was. The idea was more trips in more frequency, meaning every quarter, take a trip to recharge my batteries. Because I notice when I do that, it brings a completely different side of me. If anyone's ever witnessed me after I've gone back from a trip, I am ecstatic. I'm glowing. After working a full season and coming to the slow season, which is winter for me, all of a sudden I'm like, frazzled and I need to get away. So this is to solve that. So it brings me to step number two. As I was watching this interview, she was going on about how grateful she was to her fans for allowing her to do what she loves, which is perform and sing. And I thought about just the purpose, right? Looking at the purpose that you infuse into everything, it's so easy to void a purpose in the work you're doing. And you may be saying this, well, listen, you don't know what kind of work I'm doing. I'm a cash clerk at a supermarket, right? You have no idea how I can find purpose in that. And at that, I want to tell you that you create the purpose. You get to decide what the purpose is. And isn't it True. Haven't you ever, if that is the case, like, say you're a cashier or a server at a restaurant, haven't you ever had such excellent service that it literally changed your day? Or one interaction all of a sudden changed your day and you're like, wow, that was such a pleasant conversation. That person's smile changed my day. I feel great now. That is the effect. But it comes with putting intention into the work you're doing, because there is no small jobs, right? There's only small intentions, small purpose. But when you remind yourself of that purpose now, all of a sudden it brings a different part of you. And I will relate this back to my coffee business, even the podcast here. I had taken a break from doing these podcasts because it started to feel like work. I felt like, oh, my God, I got. It's another week. I got to get this podcast out. I wasn't putting the focus on why I was doing it in the first place. The reason I am doing this, because I want people to live their max potential. I want them to live their one life and whatever that means, right? It's so easy to get caught into the day and day to do, you know, doing all the demands that all of a sudden now 10 years has passed by and shit, you're like, I, I now I have kids, I have this house of all this responsibility. How am I supposed to. I can go away. I can do this trip. I can't. There's always options, right? And as your season of life changes, different things will. You'll have different opportunities. You're always changing. But the point I'm trying to make here, though, is that I wanted to remind people of what was important in their life. I wanted to give them a different perspective on life rather than what the chaos and the confusion that the media is sowing, because it is at the cost of you living your one life. And let's go to point number three, Celebration, as I mentioned in the beginning, is that you can celebrate your wins or you could ponder your failures or your lacking or whatever it is. There's one thing that will come. Let me turn that phone up. There's one thing that you will do by default, and that is counting your failures or count all the things that didn't go right. Let me ask you a question. If you are counting your failures, are you counting the things that didn't go your way, how is that going to make you feel about your day? How is that going to make you feel about life? How is that going to make you Feel about your ability to change the direction, to make positive change in your life. If you guessed it probably won't and you'll get into a deeper hole than you may be right now, then that is correct. But there is a way out and that way out is by celebrating your wins. So looking at my life, right, let's bring it all back to this scene that I had from Billie Eilish. Thank you, Billie. But as I was watching this interview and seeing her be so grateful, it just made me think of my own journey because this was the top song she's ever produced and she's been out for quite a while. She's been a sensation. And then because of the song, I'm now listening to her and like I'm able to relate to my, my teenage, my teenage niece. I'm like, oh yeah, Billie, Eilish is awesome. But it got me thinking about the journey that I've been on. Looking over, I did a reflection over this past year and I was like, what the hell did I do? What did I do? And I looked over and then I see. Let me just start writing down. What are some of the, some of the celebrations that I can make? What are the steps forward that I made this year? And at first it was really difficult. I was challenged, I got, I'm like, I moved to Florida. I did, I was writing things down, it wasn't flowing. But then as I started to give myself a little more credit, I started to look at the projection in terms of where my life was going and what steps I had taken with my coffee business, right? Like, because I wasn't putting the focus there so I wasn't paying attention. And as a result of not celebrating my wins, I would beat myself up and I would feel shitty. It's like the stock market. When you look at the day, a trading day, right? Like you may own the S&P 500, you're like, Holy friggin shit, it's up, it's down, like I'm gonna lose all my money. But when you lengthen that span of time that you're looking at when you pull it out one year, when you pull it out two years, when you pull it out 10 years, all of a sudden now there's a smoothing that happens. Now all that jagged edges of the ups and downs look like a smooth line. This is the same with your life. The day to day ups and downs really don't mean a damn thing because along the way you're learning. And who are you to judge your journey every single One of us is on a different journey. Who are you to judge yourself? Trust that it is your journey in that you are. Everything is there to serve you. So as I was looking over these celebrations, I started to feel really good about my year. I was like, man, well, I moved there. I always wanted to move somewhere new. I did that. I made some friends in a couple months, where it takes most people a half a year of living in a new place. I realized how much I love skateboarding, being by the beach. But then I also made some big advancements in my business. Some. Some mindset shifts that need to happen that wasn't happening while I was here, but they did when I was there. And as a result of that, there. There has been a progression. Like the curve has actually curved upward now, and I got momentum now again, if I choose to count the failures, if I choose to focus on this day, it's easy. I could be like, oh, man, I feel like it's not happening fast enough. I tried calling this person. They're not responding to me, this consultant here, but they're not getting back to me. I could feel like I'm losing, but with the faith of knowing that things are going to work out in the belief in myself, but also just celebrating all the actions that I'm taking, realizing that it's part of the journey and I can only take the actions I can take. I can't control other people, but I can control my reactions both internally and externally. And by celebrating that, I am slowly allowing myself to grow into who I want to be. Right? It's kind of like evoking a different person. Like, I could beat myself up and think that, man, I didn't. I didn't accomplish anything. Or I could look at all the celebrations that I've had over the last day, week, months, years, and realize that it's a journey and then I'm doing good. So I always. I tell you this because I want you to give yourself a little more slack. I want you to have more enjoyment in your day. So with that, get your papers out. I want you to just. I'm going to ask you a few questions. How do you show up to your. To your work? Do you keep going, going, going, or do you actually take breaks to stop and smell the roses? Metaphorically speaking? If not, what kind of effect is that having on your work? What kind of effect is that having on the interactions you have with the people around you? 2. Looking at your. The work that you do, how often do you set intentions? How often do you Infuse that work with purpose. How does that affect how you approach your work? For better or for worse? I want you to write it down because I really, really want you to see just how taking a small step can change how you feel about whatever activity you're doing. And then lastly, number three, how often do you take to celebrate the progress that you've made? As I said before, you can count your, your, your celebrated. You can celebrate your progress or you can celebrate the, the negative, the things you haven't done. One is going to happen by default. We have to consciously choose to celebrate and look for the wins within our day. And then let's drag that out. How? By not celebrating, I'm assuming that you haven't, right? Because I don't do it all the time. And therefore if you're not doing it consistently, that means you're not doing it at all. Right? How often do you do it and how does it make you feel? Now, let's suppose that you were celebrating, you were counting your wins. What kind of effect do you think that would have on your life? Fast forward that out one day, one week, one year. How would that affect your interactions? The most beautiful thing about this entire experience of watching Billie Eilish and having these revelations was that it made me. It gave me. I gave myself more credit. It made me see that I was progressing and I wasn't, you know, I wasn't stagnant, like I was saying, telling myself that I was stagnant, but I was actually progressing and that I was judging my journey and not to do that anymore. So I want you to take those lessons that I learned to give yourself more credit, to put more purpose in your work, to carve out more time. Not just vacations, quarterly, like I said, but daily. Do some kind of daily task or action that brings you joy and just breaks up the day and allows you to recharge. And then lastly, just celebrate it, right? Celebrate the mere. If you have nothing to celebrate, celebrate the fact that you are alive and you made it through another day. That alone is a celebration. There are millions of people who would give anything to be where you are right now. So I hope this will kind of shift your perception in the coming year, both on how you approach your day, but as well as how you approach life. When you're zooming in on the day, you're really taking life out of context. When you pan out, you realize that everything's pretty good, right? You're making progress, you're doing good, you're healthy, Keep going. I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Thank you so so much for tuning in. If you did, please share this with five people. The only way this podcast is ever going to grow I don't do any advertising, but is for people to share with the people that they feel will get value from this. So hopefully you got some value from this. If you have any questions or comments would like to subscribe, you could visit my website@www.donnyrouse.com again d o n n y r a u s.com that is all I've got for you guys today. Thank you so much for tuning in. God bless you. 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.