Pre-Celebration - Enjoy the Journey

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 could 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. You are listening to the podcast One Life Pre Celebration. Most people wait until they've acquired the thing before they start the celebration, but what they're doing is they're actually robbing themselves of the richness, the feelings that they could be having all along the way throughout the entire journey. What I'm referring to is celebrating before you get the result. So why might one do that? What's the point of celebrating something before you actually get the thing? Well, there's a couple reasons, actually, you would want to do that. The first is that by celebrating before, you're priming your system to say, all right, well, what is it that I'm going to get as a result of doing this task that I'm doing? Right? Because what it does is it gives you a reason and a purpose and a focus. So when you know the outcome, when you're acquainted with what is going to happen as a result, it gives you much more thrust, power to achieve whatever it is that you're going after. Another thing that it does, it actually primes you into that result. And I just use the word priming twice. But creation happens in two phases, right? Einstein says creation happens twice. First in your imagination, then in reality. So what you're doing as a result of this celebration, this pre celebration, is you're getting your body used to the feeling of having the thing that you're after. And as a result, it increases the likelihood of you getting that thing, you getting that result. I remember the first time. Well, actually, before I even go into that, before I go into the story, I want you to think about these questions that I'm about to give you. And then I'll go into the story, and then we'll recap. What is it that you want and what is the identity that you will obtain as a result of getting that thing? Secondly, what is the result you'll be celebrating, and then thirdly, what will happen to your life as a result of achieving the. That thing X we'll call it. In 2010, I went to a Tony Robbins seminar. It was called Unleash the Power Within. Most of the seminars now are hold are held virtually, but at the time they were in person. And at the end of that first day, I remember like it was yesterday, it was Thursday. At the end of the day there was a firewalk and sitting in the crowd, nervous because this is my first interaction with Tony Robbins and being in that personal development crowd. So there was a lot of doubt, a lot of worry in my own mind. And then when they told us that we were going to be doing the firewalk, the first thing in my mind was like, oh my God, I am going to burn to death as I walk across these hot coals. But then they laid out a process for the entire thing. So getting ready to walk across the fire, there was a, a formula on how to achieve the best result. And the formula was exactly what I'm going to explain to you here. The first thing they said, what is it that you want? Who are you going to become as a result of it? So the question, when I asked myself that, he didn't tell us those questions, but breaking it down in hindsight now I know that these were the questions. My result that I want is I didn't want to burn to death. That was kind of, that was the main result. I didn't want to get burned. But who would I become as a result of was kind of like, well, I won. I would become a fire walker. I would become someone who walked. It was like bragging rights, right? I didn't really understand what it meant to the rest of my identity until I got to the next couple questions I'm going to ask. What was the result I was going to be celebrating? Well, that was obvious too. The result celebrating was literally getting across in one piece, getting across a strip of hot coals. And then the real juice came when I got to the third question. What will happen to your life as a result of achieving X? And this is something that I wasn't really anticipating or wasn't expecting, but I found out that it happened later on. Well, as a result, again, that what they kind of primed to do was, well, listen, you think that it's impossible to walk across hot coals, right? If I asked you like, what is it? Can you walk across hot coals? You'd be like, no. Well, why wouldn't you? Because the likelihood of you getting burned is Highly likely. That's what you would expect, right? But what if you can shift that belief? What if you could change the belief to walk across that? How would that shape your identity? So that third question was, well, who would I become as a result of that? Well, I'd become unstoppable. That means by walking across these hot holes, it means that I could achieve anything other. Anything else in life because that is doable. Like, walking across hot coals wasn't in my belief system. So as a result of that, it was like, well, who can't I become? I remember when I did the hot coals, then I started questioning myself after that. I said, all right, well, what else can I do to break some of these beliefs that I have? I think, like, a couple months later, I ended up going skydiving. And prior to that, I was literally scared shitless. There's no way in hell I would have jumped out of a perfectly good plane unless I was, you know, unless it was catching fire or something like that. But I decided I was going to do skydiving to just kind of push past those fears again. And the pre celebration was the. The what made it all possible. So I know I'm kind of going off course, but let me rewind. So when we were doing this. This priming of the result that we wanted, we had it. We started visualizing the result beforehand. So Tony gave the instructions. He said, okay, I want you to imagine you're stepping up in the. The fire lane. So imagine you're right at the edge of the hot coals. He said, see yourself taking that first step. Then right at the end, I want you to. You take that first step. Then immediately you imagine yourself being. Having just completed it, jumping up and down, celebrated and screaming. So we would, you know, at first we were like, all right, this is kind of silly. But then everyone around you is joining in on it. So you're like, okay, well, at least I am acting like a fool with everybody else. So you started doing that. And we did it over and over, faster and faster. So as a result of going through this process, pre celebrating, our bodies got used to the idea, one, that, like, we had already walked across these hot coals. And two, we were acquainted with the high, the feelings, the adrenaline, the happiness, the joy of having already walked across these coals. And we hadn't done anything prior to that. So let's fast forward now. So we were doing all this pre planning, pre celebrating, and now it came time to step up into the line. I am at the foot of the firewalk. And I take a deep breath and remember what the celebration was. And I was chanting something called cool moss. Cool moss. Cool moss. And the idea was that was taking your focus off of the hot coals that you were literally walking on and walking entirely across. And as we got to across, everyone started celebrating on the other side. And as a result, you started celebrating. So what happened, right? If we look at that, if we break it down a little bit more, what happened? You know, if I were to focus on those hot coals, I would have been burned in an instant. It happened to a couple people. They panicked, and they got burned. But there's something that happens. I don't know what it is that happens, but something happens where you divert your energy. You're not looking there, and you're focused on the results. It's almost like it created an invisible, like, shield on the bottom of my feet where I can walk across and not get burned. Although I did catch a little bit of, like, a little cold in between my pinky toes. So I got a little bit of a burn. But I could have been really. It could have been a lot worse, right? My feet should have been blistered. And I remember when I was stepping up, they had just put, like, new coals on the line. So I was like, oh, my God. Like, really? They're. They're gonna add new hot coals right as I'm up. So the point I'm trying to make is that all this was possible by doing this pre. Celebration, this pre. Getting acquainted with the feelings before I actually did the firewalk, my mind. I think it was my mind, literally, it's almost like nothing. I didn't feel anything else. The only thing I was focused on was getting that result in the feelings I would feel afterward. So let's bring this back into your own life. What is it that you're afraid of doing? What is it that A goal that you want, but maybe you're fearful of it, and the fearful. You may kind of be doubting yourself because you're like, you know, what? Well, I don't really know. Is this what I want? No, it's not what I want. And your mind just might start screwing you because you're hitting a. You're at, like, a threshold. You're at, like, the border of your comfort zone and everything. All that good stuff is right on the other side. But we get tricked sometimes into thinking that it's not right for us when it's just our fears pushing back, trying to keep us safe. So what Is it that you want? What is the result you're after? And who will you become as a result of having this? Think what is the result you're going to be celebrating? So like I did in the firewalk, the result celebrating was getting to that other side of the line and seeing everyone else cheering me on as I came across. And then thirdly, what will happen to your life as a result of achieving X of that thing? Again, to quote the example I just gave you, the result was that, well, if I could conquer this, then I could conquer anything. And that's one example. Maybe it's the result of the celebration of dropping whatever amount of weight that you need or whatever it may be, whatever the result is that you're going after, maybe the result is being able to play with your kids without feeling gassed and like you're grasping for air. Whatever it is, get acquainted. What is that celebration? How is it going to feel afterward? Maybe you're imagining yourself jumping up and down again, celebrating as everyone around you celebrating at this feat you just conquered. How does it feel now? If I were doing this with you in a workshop or at a live event, I would actually have you literally start jumping up and pretending like you're feeling, like feeling the emotion of it, because that's what kind of ingrains it into your body. So if you want, you could go back, you could rewind this, listen to it, and as I read through these questions, feel what it is and celebrate the way you would be celebrating if it had actually happened now. So that is all I've got for you guys today. I hope this gave you a little bit of a lesson and I hope you actually will try this out, because I promise you, I. I promise you, without a doubt, without failure, it will make you feel better, it will make you more acquainted with those goals, and it'll push you further than you thought were ever possible. Because your focus is on the outcome and the feelings that you're going to feel afterward, not on all the difficulties you're going to feel trying to get the thing which is where your mind will go by default. I do this habitually now, before it took me some time to say, okay, well, all right, now I got to think about the celebration. Pre celebration. It was almost like my mind was fighting against the, like, the visualization aspect of it after doing it for a while also now, like, that's the first place my mind goes and that's where I want you to get to because by doing so, you're gonna again, it's aligning to your true north. It's pointing you in the direction you want to go and giving you all the emotional resources to get you there. So I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe so this way you don't miss a single episode. I want to thank you for tuning in. I realize that you could literally be doing a million other things, but you're here listening to me, hoping that. I hope that the intention is to better your life in some way and that this is empowering you to go after and reach for those dreams that you have. So I thank you for tuning in and I thank you for allowing me to be a part of your life. If you have any questions, if you'd like to sign up for a workshop, or if you'd like to purchase any of my awesome coffee, you can do so by visiting www.donnie d o n n y rouse r a u s com. That is all I've got for you guys today. Hope you enjoyed this episode. God bless and I will see you again soon.