If Not Now, Then When?

Hi, guys. My name is Donnie Rouse, and you are listening to the podcast One Life. If not now, then when? When will you start enjoying life? Is it going to be when you reach success? If you think that is the answer, then you're really deluding yourself. So by the title of this podcast, you might think that what I'm really saying is, you know, it. Seize the moment, carpe diem, now is the time. Go out and do it. While I do believe that in some part of my soul, that that's not what I'm going to address here in this podcast. This podcast, what I'm bringing into it is a realization from. From some journaling exercises I did, as well as what I realized from taking the time to put myself first. So in these visualization exercises that I was doing, I was kind of writing out, well, what is this dream life that I want? What is the very essence of what I want to create for myself? As I was doing all this different exercises, I was writing down the type of business I want to have, where I want to live, the travels I want to have, how I want to show up in my day. So, like, when I have all this, what is the typical day like for me? Now, as I was writing this, and I'm pretty sure I'd referenced it in a prior podcast, but I was writing this, I was looking at what this success would bring into my life. And it was things like, oh, taking time in the morning to go for walks, starting the day slow, enjoying my cup of coffee, going out for coffee with friends in the afternoon, making time for friends in the evening. Like, all these things that have nothing to do with reaching success. Nothing to do. But yet I was saying, okay, you can't do this until you've done that. I was holding myself back, saying, it's almost like the carrot and stick. I was saying, you can't get this reward until you've done this. Once you've done this, then you can have everything that you want. Then you can take the time. You could have coffee with friends. You can take those walks in the morning. You could take a break in the afternoon if you want, but only when you've been successful and you've achieved these certain things. This was a trap. A trap. And the reason I say that you. There is. There's a saying I've heard in the. In the, you know, the personal growth industry. They say if a person is. If a person is stingy now with money, once they get money, they're going to be the same way. If a person is very generous with money. When they get money, they're going to be even more generous because money is nothing. Think of money as a magnifying glass. If you take that analogy, you could apply it to the same way with everything in your life once you become successful. Do you really think that because you're successful all of a sudden, now you're going to start making time? Be honest with you. You're talking about this one percentile where they have everything so perfect, where they don't. Well, maybe it's little bit more than 1%, because you create your life and how you want it to be. But what I'm trying to get is that life is happening now. And if you don't make the plans, if you don't schedule time for yourself now, what makes you think you're going to do it at some other point in the future? That was my faulty way of thinking. I thought that if I just kept pushing forward, if I just kept doing, creating the. That eventually I was gonna be creating something. And then I would have the time, I would be worthy to take that time for myself, time to enjoy myself. I would do my travels twice a year. I would take a month off twice a year and do these big trips. But guess what happened in between that? In between those trips, I was literally working myself and not giving my time. That room to breathe, that room to enjoy. So I built up all this anticipation. And then I go away on these trips, and no surprise, I never want to come back. Because I had such an amazing time. Because I was letting myself be. I was doing the things that were important to me, the things that I never did back home. Fast forward, I was realizing, you know what? Everything starts with feeling good, right? Because our states, our emotional states are linked to everything. They're linked to how we show up in our relationships. They're linked to how we show up in our work. They're linked to how we feel about ourselves. So I was doing this. I'm like, well, you know what? I don't really. It was one day. I didn't really feel like doing any kind of work. I'm like, you know what? I am not in a good state. What do I want to do to make myself, you know, to put myself in that better state? What would. What would make me feel good right now? I ended up going for a walk. I went to a park, took a walk, and relaxed for a little bit. I think that that same day, you know, I did coffee in the morning outside. I did journaling, I did yoga. I What else did I do? I was. I read for an hour on, like, international living and traveling. It was, like, a part of international. I think it's called. International Living is the name magazine. It's for, like, retirees. But it was putting my mindset in a. You know, in the place of living abroad and getting me to daydream. And that was one of those things that put my emotional state at its peak. And so it sounds like I had a lot of things going on that. Well, what did you do in the day? If you were hiking, yoga. That's a big chunk of your day. What did you. What did you. What did you accomplish? What did you get done? And you might start to question how much of me was in that day, but the irony in all this was that I actually showed up fuller as a result of it. So there's this disease mindset that we have to constantly keep pushing and going, taking action in order to move forward. When that's not the case, it's not true. Not true at all. Because when you operate from a place of abundance, when you operate from a place of feeling good, you enter a state of flow, and things just kind of come on their own. So back to the work. On that day, I got back and I was, you know, I feel good. I feel like I'm ready to start my day and start doing some of the work. As a result of putting myself in that state of mind first, everything else began to flow. Now I was like, you know, I went in, I was doing, like, this tax work that I hadn't done. All these things that were literally piling on my desk, like renewing trademarks, and all this stuff was piling on my desk for months that I just couldn't even bear to look at it. And all of a sudden I did, and I knocked it all out. Stuff that I thought was gonna take so much time, I ended up getting it all done with within few hours all the things I need to do. So it was a very, very successful day in terms of both what I got done, quantity wise, but also in how I felt and going back to the origin, the starting point. It all started with how I felt. And that was like the big, like, the mind, like, the top of my head blowing off, because I couldn't realize. I couldn't. It was hard. Like, really, wow. I put this first. And as a result of doing that, this happened. Similar thing happened yesterday, actually. I woke up and I was in a state of mind, a very chaotic state of mind. Like, it could have been the Coffee. I'm not gonna lie. I had like five shots of espresso in the morning. And then I think three o' clock. I did a few things. I had to bring my car to the mechanic. And three o' clock in the afternoon, I think I might have done the same thing. I'm not 100% sure. I don't really remember, but I remember. I know how I get when I have too much caffeine. If you're hearing this and you don't know anything about me, I have a coffee company, Rouse Coffee Company. I make the best espresso you will ever try in your life. Cold Roman. My little plug. But I love coffee. And I had a lot. And I could feel it pulsing in my body. And knowing that I had an agenda, the things I wanted to accomplish for that day, I was like, oh my God, I got to start working on this. But I can't bring myself to do it. There's just this wall of resistance. And I said, well, what can I do to feel better? Could I just go out? Should I go for a walk? But I was walk earlier that day and it didn't do anything. Then I, you know what, let me just take a nap. Let me lay down for 10 minutes, give my mind a rest. 10 minutes end up turning into at least a half an hour. Maybe it was more than half an hour. When I woke from that nap, I felt, I still felt a little bit of that, like that, that kind of chaotic state. But then all of a sudden something happened. Like in an instant it's like there was like something snapped. And all of a sudden I just got in. And then I started in the, got in that flow state and I started knocking out all this stuff, like going through this program. I was program stuff. I was creating, putting an invoice, like all these things that I would have put off. I just started flowing through it. And the rest of the day went by pretty easily. I was, you know, I had a coaching session and I ended up, you know, I was, oh, I'm gonna have. And then it was my sister in law's birthday. So I was great. I have the coach session immediately after that 9 o', clock, I have to go up to Westport. See my wish. Happy birthday to my sister in law. And like all these things I was like, well, I need to work out. But somehow I managed to make it all fit. Even though the workout wasn't for an hour that I like, I managed to get it in half an hour and have it be very effective. Everything just Flowed after that. So if I want to leave you with one thing, I mean, yes, one of the things is to, you know, to get in state to feel good first, but also to think about what is it that's going to make you feel good about your day? If you had it like this is just a different approach looking at it. If you were extremely successful and you had everything you wanted right now, there's no excuses for you not to live the way you want to live, not to take the time in your day to do the things you want. Because even if you have your kids, you could fix your day to at least go to a better mental state. Right? If we don't take conscious control and responsibility for that, then we're lost. That is the one thing that each of us has control over what we focus on in our mental state, because we get to choose what we feel that might trigger you in a way, but we do. So imagine yourself being in the state of success, having everything you want. How are you going to spend your day? Are you going to wake up? Are you going to journal? Are you going to get up? Are you going to have a cup of coffee and just sit outside and watch birds chirp and fly by? Are you gonna exercise? Are you gonna take breaks like I do and take breaks during the middle of the day and just go for a walk to free your mind? Are you gonna read a novel or a love, like a, like a love novel or something like that? Because that's what you like. What are you gonna do for yourself? And I highly encourage you, whatever is coming to your mind right now, to start to incorporate those into your day, because there's no time to wait. You don't have to, you don't have to do, be, achieve anything in order to feel good now. And I promise you, by doing it now, you'll feel good about the rest of your day. And it's going to transform all those other aspects of your day. The things that might have stressed you out before might not seem that bad, but now, because you're coming from a different mental space. So that is it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this podcast. If you enjoyed it, please, I invite you to share with friends, family, if you're listening on your iPhone or your Android, whatever it is, take a screenshot of it, share it to your social media, invite people to listen to the podcast. Invite people to the One Life with Donny Rouse Facebook group where I do a lot of intimate, smaller posts and just do something for yourself. Realize that you are everything you need to be. You are where you are meant to be, and you're worthy. Guys, have a beautiful rest of your day. I hope you enjoyed this session. God bless, and I'll see you next week.