Level Up - Harness the Power of Life Clarity, Vision and Inspiration

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 Level Up. It's been said that people in general don't know what they want. They may have a general idea, but when it comes down to specifics, they really don't really know what specifically they want in their life. Because of that, that is where you need tools to help you hone in on the very thing that you want. And granted, experiences are going to give you more clarity just through the practice of contrast. But the exercise I'm going to give you today is one very, very simple way of actually looking through every category of your life, seeing exactly where you are getting clarity, inspiration, and vision. This way you know exactly where you're going, exactly what you want to do. Because there's a problem. Sometimes we could be living our success but not be aware of it, or other times we may be striving for something that. That we don't even want. So say we're looking at that one through 10. We're looking at that 10. But we realize, you know what? The 7 is actually where I want to be in this particular area of my life, because I'm not willing to do what is necessary in order to get those three extra levels up. So I'm okay here. So this way I could focus on the other areas of my life. Because your energy is finite, time is finite. So you really have to pick and choose what you're going for. But a full, rich and balanced life is a life that is balanced, where there are no liabilities in the different areas of your life, every area of your life is actually contributing to something greater. Meaning there's no pain points. So to move forward in your business, your health is not a set. Is holding this knee or not holding you back because maybe you're lacking the energy, in which case your health would be a liability and something you would have to work on. But that is not where I'm going here. So what I want to do right now is I want you to pick one area of your life, one area where you want to get more clarity on where you want to create a larger vision for in your life. Pick that area. And now I want you to score it on a scale from 1 to 10. 1 being the absolute worst and 10 being the ideal spot of where you want it to be. Where do you fall right now? Where are you landing? Where are you starting from? It's important not to beat yourself up over where you are in this moment because this, again, this is just where you're starting from. Once you have that. Now we could begin with the exercise in that number right below where you wrote it. I want you to start to list out all the reasons or the way things are right now, the way it's if your number was a four in a particular area, all the reasons why it is a number four. I will share a story from my own life and then I will guide you through the entire exercise. And again, it's going to be a very, very quick process, but I will lay out the foundation. So this way you can take re listen to this podcast and then take the steps yourself. So I did this exercise for my business. I was looking at where I was, my business, what I wanted. And all this new thought is coming came about because of conversations I was having with consultants. People were suggesting I go one route, raising capital and growing the way business in a certain way. But it required me to check in because at some times I was like, well, does this really feel right? So I had to keep checking in to say, well, what felt right for me, truth was I've been doing this a long time. Sometimes I have a clear vision, but it's not always forward facing. And also sometimes I am winning the game, but I'm not keeping score. So I don't know or I don't realize I'm winning. So I'm still going forward, forward, forward, forward, forgetting to look back to see I already blew past the finish line. So when I was looking at my business and where I am in my business right now, I rated it a 4. I rated a 4 because there are certain things that I want more clarity on. Right. I know what my intention is behind my business. I know the purpose, what I want to give to my customers. I want to get them to pause. I want to get them to enjoy and appreciate and explore life. That is kind of the grand vision to really to appreciate and stop and just be present and enjoy life. But I don't always have that forward facing. Sometimes even the language around that seems kind of jumbled and it doesn't give me the clarity and the feeling that I want. So I started writing that down like, alright, well what would give me the five? Well, you know, having a little bit more, having more clarity around the purpose, mission values, the vision, going into streamlining a lot of things. So this way it's easier to fulfill orders when I'm mailing them out or delivering to stores. And I continued this process all the way up to 10. When I got to 10, 10 was where the vision started to really. Well, the vision came out, started to come out along the way. But 10 I realized it's a national company. I have a thriving business where people love and want to work for me. I inspire the world. I have cafes giving experiences to people. I am living a life of freedom. I'm living a life of inspiration. I'm spreading my gospel, so to speak of living and appreciating, taking the moment to enjoy now, not putting off the things that are important. And I'm creating amazing coffees with a thriving culture. All these, I mean you could hear in my voice. I was very excited when I started writing this down. I was writing this down. I felt really good about. Also helped that I was looking, I was looking at some travel photos while I'm doing it. But again, but that's what gets me, that's what gets me passionate. I wanted to create content around coffee as well and travel and have experiences and share those experiences with my tribe. Getting clarity but leading all the way up to that. There was just like these incremental steps as to what needed to happen and what would happen to make that next level. Things that I. What it does is it aligns your focus with exactly what you need to focus on now to get to that next step. Because there isn't any jump. You can't jump levels. Yeah, you could, I guess, right? If someone said, hey, I'm going to give you all those things that you want right now, would you like it? You're not going to turn them down. You wouldn't do that in a million years. But for most people you have to go through a series of steps. You have to do one thing before you can do the next because it's all compounding, it's all building. If I want to build a business, if I want to build a national business, I can't go national because, well, one, I'm not ready for the demand. I'm not ready for all this stuff. Plus, there needs to be processes put in order. So this way I could accommodate this larger growth. Your life is very much the same way. Whether it be habits around working out and food, you need to build these patterns. You need to build these habits. And by doing this step by step process, by looking at each number, if you're a 4, saying, what would a 5 be? What would a 6 be? What would a 7 be? What would an 8 be? Going all the way to 10. It helps you plan out this process to think of, well, what are the actions that need to happen next in order to meet this vision? And then you continue to grow. So let's get down. Let's do the exercise right now. And I'm going to be going through this rather quickly, but I will take a pause just for you to maybe at the very least come back and revisit it. But at the very least, maybe get a mental picture as to what it would look like. Because you can still benefit even if you did this all in the head. But you're not going to just do it in your head. You're going to do it on paper, too, right? Pinky swear. Pick an area of your life, an area that maybe in the past caused you a lot of tension or heartache or pain. Where are you in that area? Write that number down. Or take a mental note. Write down everything that is in this present moment that is making the score what it is. So if it is your health and you rated it a five, I said, well, okay, well, why is it a five? You may say, well, because I don't feel that strong. I don't have the energy that I want, the flexibility. But I am active because I put it at a five. I am getting to the gym three days a week, whatever it may be. You are eating healthy. You just maybe you don't have the strategies, then, okay, let's go to the next level. What is a six? You might look at a six and say, well, a six. Now I have a strategy. Now I'm actually working on the plan. I feel like I'm making progress. I am seeing results grow and compound. I'm putting more weight. I'm feeling stronger. Okay, now answer the next question. What is a 7? 7. I am working on my flexibility. I am, you know, again, my strength keeps increasing. I'm feeling great. More energy, more vitality. I am doing a triathlon, whatever it may be, and then go to the next number. What is an 8? Write it down in your paper. And if you feel any kind of resistance. As you're going up in these stages, if you feel any resistance, just acknowledge it. This is not. You know, this could be changed at any time. It's not concrete. Just write down whatever comes to you, whatever your heart is calling you to. What is a level nine? What would a nine look like in that area of your body, in the area of your business, in the area of your family and your relationships? And then lastly, what is a 10? When you have it all exactly the way you want it, what does that 10 look like? And as you are writing this, I want you to pay attention to the way you feel when you're writing down this 10, what emotions are stirring up in your body? How does your body feel like? When I started doing it for my business, I know initially I felt a little constricted, like there wasn't that much movement or excitement in my body. As I started going up to the rankings, I started to open up, and I started to feel more good. I was like, all right, yes. I just felt the energy flowing because now something bigger was emerging. With that growth comes bigger emotions, and that is it. As you look through your new, what I call a plan, if you make a little bit of progress, you're still making progress, right? If you move from a 4 to a 5 or 5 to a 6 in all the different areas of your life, you're making progress, you're moving forward, you're moving towards that ideal number 10 that you set on that paper. But what this does is it gives you an action plan. It gives you say, okay, well, what is the next phase? And sometimes you may not even have to do all the things to get to that very next level. Sometimes there might be an action you can take that'll let you jump a few levels, right? It's almost like being in Mario Brothers. If you've ever played the game in Nintendo Mario Brothers, you knew that there were some. You know, there were some paths or some. Some. What do they call the. Those plant pipes where if you go down the plant pipe, all of a sudden, now you have the ability to jump ahead five, 10 levels. And now you're ahead, you know, three levels, and you're right next to the boss, Bowser, and all of a sudden, you beat the game. But you didn't have to pass through all those levels in order to get there. You took the. You took the teleport to get you to the end. That is a different question as well, saying, well, all right, well, what is the most important thing that I need to do now? That'll get me towards that goal again. It's going to require you to look at what you're focusing on. If you're focusing on like the smaller steps, yes, but if your vision is progressive in nature, but you still look at that, you know, that's why having that number 10 is so great, because you still have the grand vision there. So you're going to start to think of new ways of new ways of creating the results that you want where you may not have to do some of the other stuff. So that is all I've got for you guys today. This one again, level up. Kind of inspired by the Avicii song levels. I was thinking and I was getting excited as I was thinking about coming on here and doing this podcast. So I hope you enjoyed this. I hope you take the time to just do the exercise because I know it'll reap rewards for your life in any different area. So that is all I've got for you guys today. If you like this, please give it a thumbs up. Share it with your friends, your family. Subscribe. If you have any questions or comments, you can send them to me via my website@www.donnierouse.com. and if you like amazing coffee, check out rousecoffee.com r a u s coffee.com and use discount code onelife o n e l I f e all caps to receive 10% off your first order. That is all for you guys today. Thank you so much for tuning in. God bless and I will see you again soon.