Measure, Measure, Measure - How to Improve Any Area of Your Life

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. Measure, measure, Measure. You can't improve any area of your life if you're not measuring. The reason being, because if you don't know where you are going, how do you know how you know when you get there? And that's why measurement is extremely important. So measurement comes in knowing that, well, one, what is it that I want? Secondly, how am I measured? Like, where am I now? Right, because if you don't know where you are, you're not going to know what steps you need in order to get to that. Say that 10 on that level or on that scale. And then the third and most very importantly, we have to know what we're using in terms of our instruments, how we're measuring. It is very easy to get sucked into the trap of measuring yourself with a device that's not even yours. And when I say it's not even yours, I'm meaning it's. It's part of the culturescape. It's something. It's an idea that you are given that doesn't even align with you. So it's extremely important to check in and say, okay, well, is this something like, what is success to me in this area? This is just a metaphor for your life. What is success in life? And then break it down, because once you know what success is to you, not what success is to your brother or the guy you're watching on YouTube or the girl who's posting the selfies on Instagram. What is success to you? Once you know that, then you can start to measure and use a real unit of measure. And then the only thing left after that is, you know, once you know the unit of measure again is getting clear. All right, well, what is the 10, what am I going for? Where am I now? Without judgment? And then once you know where you are, what are the steps that are going to get Me to where I want to go and just start inching that needle forward. I had a call with a coffee consultant. So to give you a little bit of a backstory I had. Over the course of my coffee career, I have changed roasting environments, meaning, like, the roaster, the actual piece of equipment, several times. And each time you change a roaster, not even just change the roaster. Every time you change a piece of equipment, now all of a sudden, the metrics all change, right? There isn't a single roaster that roasts identical to another roaster. Every roaster, as well as the roaster setup is going to give you a different result. So I had to change. Every time I changed roasting equipment, I had to change the entire way I roasted it. Sure, there were principles that were the same, but the application was very, very different. On this new roaster, I was having some issues. The coffee was coming out fine. But I know, and I expect there to be more nuance, more body, more fruit. And I just know, because when I'm cupping the coffee, I know what the latent potential is in the coffee. And then when I'm roasting it, it's kind of like I know where I am going, right? The coffee is telling me where that 10 is. And then as I'm roasting, it's like, okay, well, where do I fall on that scale? And as I was roasting, I was realizing, yeah, I like the way the coffee's coming out, but I know there's more. So how do I get to that more? Looking at the curve, I was kind of hitting my head against the wall, like, I am not really sure what's going on. I had a hypothesis, and my hypothesis was that there was something wrong with the equipment, that one of the thermometers was reading it correctly. Another. Another thing that I was doing was I was actually trying to use the methodology, use the system of the other roasters I was on on this new one, when the new one I'm on moves a shit ton more air through the roaster, which gives it a completely different readout when you're looking at what they call environment. Environment, temperature. So it's just a completely different beast. But looking at the. The thermometer, right, I knew I had this hypothesis that something was off, that the thermometer was reading cooler by, like, 7 to 10 degrees. But I. I was doubting it because I'm like, well, no way. How can it. It has to be, right, Right? My friend had just installed a new thermometer. So I was like, it has to be right, right? No, it was what was obvious to me, but at the same time I was doubting it. So I was on a call with this consultant and we're looking at the curves, and I shared with him, I said, listen, I was like, I think that, you know, like, this is the results I've been getting. And I'm feeling really frustrated because I know I can get more out of this coffee. But where these chemical reactions are happening, like the first crack and what they call the second crack, it doesn't align with where these events should be happening in terms of the temperature. So he was looking at that, he's like, well, yeah, you're right. He's like, well, here we look like we are off one of the curves. It might have been like 13 degrees. And then on another one, he's like, yeah, you're off 70 degrees here. Well, you know, that would make sense because you said that second crack on this particular coffee happened here. And so it looks like you're seven degrees off on these coffees. And I looked at it and I was like, well, you know, it makes so much sense. Like when I think about when I'm cupping in the flavor notes I was getting, it was because I was making changes to the roasting environment, anticipating this key event, we'll call it first crack. When the first crack wasn't happening for like another 10 degrees. And as a result of that delay, the last phase, what they call, quote, unquote, the development phase, this is where you start to develop or break down a lot of those higher nuances that come in the coffee, depending on where you are, like how much time you spend in this phase. And as a result, the time I was spending was skewed because I wasn't getting accurate reading. And now, now that I know how my instruments are reading now, all of a sudden, now it becomes easier. I know. And not only that, I realize that the software that I'm using, I could actually make some changes in the software. So to account for these changes, even if the temperature probe never gets fixed and it stays reading 7 degrees off, I could always change the events in this computer to give me an accurate readout in terms of the percentage of time I'm spending in each of these phases. The reason I am sharing this story is because I was measuring using a faulty instrument. Right? And you could use the faulty instrument as a way of comparing yourself to someone else. Right? You, like you're comparing yourself to the person who is on Instagram and they're. I don't know what the hell they're doing. They're. They're making, you know, they're making two minute meals, if that's even possible. Like, you know, and you're like, yeah, I don't even want to cook. You're like, but you're comparing yourself to them as, you know, as, you know, being successful. But it's not your unit. It's not your measure. So what I really want to drive home is that you need to come up with your own measure of success. You need to block out all the other influences that are around you that are saying, hey, this is what it means to be successful and just allow everyone to be on their own path. Allow everyone to have their own vision for what it means to be a success, right? For their own definition for what that is. And then once you know what that definition is for you, once you know, okay, well, this is it for me. A 10 in my health is this. I'm able to run, jump, sprint, run a marathon. I am flexible doing yoga. Once, you know, then you go, okay, well, where am I right now? And you're like, all right, well, I spend a lot of time sitting. My butt hurts because I spend a little bit too much time in a chair without getting up to move. I know I need to move more, but I don't. And so it's just giving you a realistic view of where you are, as well as some of the changes you can make in order to get and start to move that ball forward. So where are you? Pick an area of your life, any area of your life. Where are you right now? Like, what is. What do you. It may even help to break out, like, what is a success in that area? What is the culture saying that success is in that area? Maybe you want to choose your finances, right? Maybe you feel like everyone's saying, well, you got to go big. You got to do a million dollars here or whatever. But you're like, you know what? I'm comfortable where I am. I do work that I love. I make a good living. I'm able to travel. I'm able to take care of my family. I'm really happy here. In which case you say, all right, well, this is my 10. In which case you might be a 9, you might be very close, or you're at a 10 if you are awesome. Or maybe you realize, you know what, you're not really doing a worthy, fulfilled buy and you find some fulfillment. You like the people you work with, but you feel like you're a four. And then you ask the question, well, how can I change this forward? Maybe it's changing some habits around your work. Maybe it's bringing more a better part of yourself to your work, or maybe it's changing jobs altogether. I'm not really sure. But that's not the point of this conversation here. The point of this conversation here is simply just to make you aware of what the success is for you, what the. The end result is, which is always going to be changing, right. As you advance your life, as you grow, you're going to have a new level. And then next. Why is that important? We'll just. We'll use the example I just used, right? The person who's, you know, who's making a great living, they're traveling, they're doing all things they want, and they're in work they love. Why is it important? And you may say things like, well, because, you know, I spend most of my day at work, so it's extremely important that I love what I do. Or you may, because I want to spend time with my family. And, you know, the work I'm doing right now and the schedule, it just allows me to do that. And I value that more than anything. Right. Whatever it is for you. And the why, just to give you an example, the why is the most important aspect of this entire thing. Because the why is where the emotion is, right. You can look and say, oh, well, the vision is important, right? Because the vision tells us where we want to go. Sure. We could look at the belief system, right? Because we act in accordance to our beliefs. So the beliefs are important because they get you to take the action. Okay, the strategy is important. The strategy is what gets you there. The strategy, you know, if you don't have the right strategy, then you're not gonna be able to reach result. Okay, we say that, but the beliefs. The beliefs are the emotional reasons as to what is gonna pull you forward. I gave an example of, you know, someone saying, well, who's someone important in your life? And if you were to ask me, I'd be like, well, my father and you, well, why is he important in your life? And I look back and I'm like, well, you know, I look, when I had Lyme disease. I had Lyme disease for a good part of my high school career and even into college. And how. My father was always there. He was with me every, you know, every doctor's appointment, which seemed to be like there was multiple a week, and he was always there, afraid, you know, and taking care of me, you know, the Support. He gives me in my business, the skills I learned. You know, what I'm trying to get here is that as you start listing off these whys now, it's the emotional reasons that are coming through right now. It gives color to the picture versus the vision. Being black and white, your why, your purpose, that is the color. That's what adds vibrancy. And when you have a strong enough why, then all of a sudden all the other things, you can find the belief systems as to why you need to move forward. You can find the strategies. But the why is extremely important. So, again, let's look back at your life, look at the different areas. Pick an area, right? Let's say pick a card. Pick an area. It could be your emotional life, could be your health, could be your just sense of excitement and adventure. Pick one area. What is success in that area? What is a 10 for you? And just some questions I can give you in order to guide that is like, well, what do you want to experience in your adventure? Your experiences in life? What do you want to experience? What do you want to have? Who do you want to be? These questions give you a vision of what it is. Then you say, well, what is important about that? What I'm saying is, why is that important? But what is important about that? You may say, well, one of the examples I always use, and I love it, go to Italy to experience Neapolitan pizza. Like, well, why is that important? Well, because I love pizza. And they're just being in Naples would make me feel so alive because I've seen in pictures and, you know, I want to branch out. I want to see different parts of the world because I know there's so much more to life than what is here in my day, in my room, right? What is the why? That's, that's gonna, that was gonna pull you forward. And then we, you know, all the other stuff will fall on later. But just on this, on this episode here, I just wanted to reacquaint you with the purpose and the why. With the why being what is going to give you that trajectory, that pull forward. So I hope you enjoyed this podcast. If you did, if you got some value out of it, please hit that subscribe button. Share it with somebody who can benefit from hearing this. And really, all of us have an area of your life where we might not have a clear enough vision. Or if we do have a clear vision, we're not measuring ourselves and we're not being honest to where we are. And if you're listening to this. You are a one lifer. You're listening to this because you want more from life. You want more. You're willing to learn more. You're willing to spend your time here to help yourself just kind of think differently than what is being fed to you by the world around you. So I want you to applaud yourself for making it to the end of this episode here. And I encourage you to just challenge yourself just to get some clarity right? A lot of success is not that difficult, but it requires you to overcome some of the habits and patterns you have. So just sit down with a pen and paper and again, what is your vision? Why do you want it? And just see if you can stir that emotion inside you by making a big enough why I hope you enjoyed this podcast again. If you did, please subscribe share it to someone who can benefit from this. If you have any questions or would like to comment, you can send it to me via my website@www.donnierouse.com www.d o n n y r a u s com. I hope you enjoyed this podcast guys. Thank you so much for tuning in. God bless and remember you only get one life. Live it. God bless and I will see you again next week.