No Way, but Forward

Hi, guys. My name is Donny Rouse, and you are listening to the podcast One Life, no Way but Forward. Where do you go when you know that you can't turn back? It's kind of a trick question, because hearing it, you would think that the only way to proceed is forward. How does that relate to the job that you're in, the career path you chose, or perhaps the relationship you're in? One thing we must always remember is that we always have a choice. And the goal of. And the intention of this podcast here is to help you understand what those choices are. What is it that you have that choice in? But then secondly, to identify, what is it that's controlling you? Are you being driven by fear, or is it by your heart? I was reading a story about. I believe it was a colonial. Colonial blanket on his name, Chamberlain, from the battle of Gettysburg. And in the story it was telling about the. The Republic army, they were fighting the Confederates, and they were nearly out of ammo. So standing on top of this hill, the Confederate army was starting to charge up the hill with no ammo left. The Chamberlains came up with two options. One option, they could turn back, in which they would be goners. The second option is they could stand up for what they're fighting for, and they could charge forward. He then proceeded to order his. His army or his people to attach their bayonets. And then on his command, when he yelled, charge, they charged the Confederate Army. And guess what happened? The Confederate army backed down. They ran away, and they ended up winning that battle, which was a giant turning point in the Civil War. How does it relate to life? To give you a lesson out of my own life, it was with my coffee company for many years. I was kind of going back and forth, one step forward, two steps back. One step forward, two steps back. Because I didn't know what was the controlling force. All I know is that there was a struggle trying to move forward. And then when I was confronted that, well, what are the decisions? Right? I could turn away. I could run away and give up all. Everything that I've done and. And more. From an emotional standpoint, it's asking the question, all right, am I willing to walk away from the business? Yes or no? When I thought about that, I was like, well, no. First of all, I've come way too far in what I've done. Secondly, I am not done. This game is not even called. So then what are the options? The only option is forward. The only option is to proceed. See, where we get tricked up, we get Tricked up because we don't know who's running the show. Is it fear that's running the show, or is what our heart desire that is calling us? One thing I don't want you to take out away from this podcast is that when you look back, if you're in a place where you're uncomfortable, if you're in a place where you're unhappy, forget about uncomfort, because discomfort is going to come with every growth initiative that you take on. But if you are in a place where you're unhappy, say it is a relationship that's no longer serving you. And you know you should have left years ago and you're like, well, do I turn back? Well, you know what? I already gave in six years and it'd be silly for me to try to find a new relationship because I invested all this time. I'll stay with it. No, that's not what I'm saying at all. I said relationship. But you could interchange that with. With career. The place where you live, you could swap out anything for that space there. So when you're unhappy, that is your heart saying, hey, listen here. Hello, you remember me? We need to change something. And then that's when you make the change again. That's also moving forward. But you don't want to stay in a place where you're unhappy just out of the. Because you're comfortable there or because you've invested so much time that you feel like you have to move forward because otherwise it would have been a waste. Right? Take that decision now. Fast forward 30 years now. You've just wasted more of your time. I had this habit of when I would plan my week rather than saying, okay, well, where is it that I'm going? Right? I would look at all the demands that were being made on me, like on me in that week, and then I would start to outline the objectives based on the demands that were coming at me. Not a very smart way to organize your time, let alone your life. But with that decision and say, okay, where am I right now? What are my options? Do I turn back? No, I don't think so. Well, then that places you in the future. You say, okay, well, if I can't turn back, then my destination is somewhere out there and you have to come up with that destination. So this way you can move forward. Now, all of a sudden, everything starts to line up. Now all of a sudden your objectives come into focus. So let's bring it back to your life. What is. I'm going to ask you a few Questions and you are the one who's going to decide. Answer from your heart. Where in your life are you? Stuck in a place? Maybe it's the decision to take a new job or leave careers or leave the industries altogether. Maybe it's relationship. Where have you been? Battling a decision. Write that down. Next, I want you to say, if you look back, would you, Would you go back? Right? If you were to say, okay, I could turn away from what I'm doing and I can go back the other way, would you be willing to do that? Yes or no? And if you would be willing to do that, what is controlling that decision? And when I say go back, go back and be like, okay, you're in a career that you don't like. And you're like, you know what? This is not serving me. I'm not going to move forward with this. But going back would mean changing careers altogether, maybe going back to school. Would you be willing to do that? Right then, look, going out say, okay, well, am I willing to take 5 years, 10 years, 20 years of this? If you're in that horrible state where you feel discomfort, then no. I would encourage you to say, no, you can do anything you want, but I encourage you to follow that path that your heart is calling you to do. Don't stay somewhere just because it's comfortable. And if it was, as in the case where it was with me, where fear was the thing that was holding you back, would you move forward? I know, I just kind of threw like two different examples at you, giving the flip side of both of those. So I'll say it one more time. What is the thing in question? What is the experience, the opportunity, the dilemma that you're looking at? Could you. And the question number two was, can you go back? Can you retreat? Retreat would mean maybe changing fields altogether, right? Changing your work, going into a new relationship, would you retreat? Hearing this, you might say, well, yes, I've had a hard time with my significant other, but I know deep down that I love her and I'm not willing to turn back. So the only way to proceed is to move forward. Maybe it's getting counseling or, you know, whatever. And then lastly, more importantly, what is that you're aiming for? What is that objective? What is that final goal? Because we all need, in order for us to move towards something, we need that final destination. We need to know where our aim is. And as a result of having that aim, you can rest assured that you're. As long as you're focused on that end goal every time you deviate, you're always course correcting. I think the initial title of this podcast was going to be Course Correct and maybe I'll do one, I'll do one tomorrow and I'll base it off of this one here. Or I'll just end this one and start another one. That's probably what I'll do. But once you have that destination now you can start to plot the next steps. Guys, I hope you enjoyed this podcast. If you did, please give it a thumbs up. I hope in some way it helped you figure out what the next step is to move forward in your life. If you liked it, please give it a thumbs up. Give it a Share Tell your family, tell your friends, tell the entire world how awesome the One Life Podcast is with Donnie Rouse. If you have any questions, if you want to share your feedback or if you would like my opinion or not my opinion, I won't give you my opinion, but a little for me to kind of poke around and prod and get you to think differently about your situation, you could feel free to email me via instagram@donny-o n n y rouse r a u s.com and then if you like awesome coffee, check out Rous Coffee Company, our a U.S. coffee company where the emphasis is on your day. The emphasis is taking that moment to enjoy now realizing this is the only moment we have. So follow your heart, pursue your dreams. That is all I've got for you guys today. God bless and I will see you again tomorrow.