Resilience - Stick With It and Win

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 Resilience. If you stick with it long enough, you are more likely to win. There is a quote that had said, by having resilience, by having longevity, you're more likely to see success. And why is that? And the reason that is so is because the longer you stay in the game, the more likely you are to one, overcome obstacles and two, to see the opportunities in there. Because when you are sticking with it, what you see is that the obstacles that you are facing are really the guiding path to go in the direction of what it is that you want. And I will give you the example of something that happened in my own life as it relates to my business. And this is something that I have been working on for literally over 15 years now to give you. Just kind of like the magnitude of its role in my life and how much time and energy that I've been putting into it. But more than anything, I want you to come away with a few lessons. One is that when you stick in the game long enough, you're more likely to have a chance at obtaining whatever it is that you're going after. Secondly, know when it is your true desire, not just going after something just because you. It's, you know, you set your mind to it and you're like, this is what I want. Nothing is going to tear me for that. Knowing when it's serving you and when it's not serving you is half the battle. And then two is just having faith. Once you realize that you're going to stick it out long term, you need to have the element of faith, because otherwise it's going to get rocky, it's going to get bumpy. But when you have faith, when you trust that the process is happening for you now, all of a sudden, instead of fighting it, instead of always being feeling like you're hitting your head against the wall, now you could actually go with the process and start to enjoy it. Said differently, you can start to appreciate the process. So to give you the story of what exactly happened. So if you know me, if you've been listening to my podcast for a while, you know that I created a coffee drink called Cold Roman Espresso. This happened while I was making a coffee dessert item for a friend. I was making an espresso granita. When the granita didn't freeze, her husband said, hey, listen, we. We'll put it over ice. We'll have as a dice espresso. Voila. So we did that. They added a little bit of cream, and everyone went crazy for it. After that, I developed the. I couldn't figure out what I did, so I figured out the recipe and I brought it to a farmer's market and it was an instant hit. Fast forward many years, I'd been trying to figure out, like, well, how do I move forward? Like, what is the path forward? One of the biggest challenges was making sure that I always maintained the quality because the taste is why people were coming back to this beverage over and over again. So there are many different paths. You want to grow a product, there are many different paths. You can grow it by doing it yourself, although you're not going to get very far. You can kind of expand your plant and equipment or you can go to a co packer. It took me years of fighting with myself to say, okay, you know what? I'm going to produce it myself. Deep down in my heart, I knew that that was the path I wanted to take because I wanted to make sure that the quality was always going to be there because it was what I felt that I can stand behind. Like, if I knew that all the quality that went into it and that I was controlling it, and you gave you the hint right there that I was trying to control everything. But if I knew that I. That I had the integrity with the product, then I would be. I would be willing to stay with it and, and sell the. And. And move forward in selling the product. I gave you the hint. What. You know, what was wrong with that right from the beginning? So consultants were saying, listen, you do not want to go this way, do it this way, because this makes more sense. It's gonna be more cost effective. I was like, no, no, no, no, you don't know. I know I want to do it this way, right? Because I was. I'm always. I've been, I guess, a. A rebel from the start, from the time I was young. And despite what they had said, I was, you know, I'm gonna try going this way and going down that path, right? I didn't know how. I didn't know how I was gonna do it. I didn't know how I was gonna get the ingredients I needed in order to brew the coffee the way I currently do it. And then one day I was in Miami beach, and I was skateboarding after a personal development event. And as I was skateboarding, this lightning bolt struck in my mind about an ingredient manufacturer. I was like, I've got to call them. So I literally took my phone out and I sent them an email right then and there, and they sent me samples. Now, granted, this, I'd been doing it. The last time I had reached out to them was more than 10 years ago when I wasn't yet. Well, one. My knowledge of my product wasn't. I made the product, but I didn't have the knowledge of what I was making. As a result of going through this entire process, I knew. Now I know all the details surrounding it. So now I was able to take advantage and really, really test the ingredient in the way that it should be. And for. To my surprise, because I did a blind tasting, it worked. Now all of a sudden, I needed to get these certain tests done for regulations. And I realized that there was no way for me to possibly do that, because when you're doing it on a small scale and then you have to scale up, there's a lot of changes that happen in the process. And so if you submit results, doing it in the small scale, you can't replicate it on, because the whole process can change, specifically things like total dissolved solids. So with that, it completely invalidates. It would invalidate the test that I needed to run. So then I was like, oh, my God. So this is recently. So I'm like, well, what do I do now? This was the path I was going to go down. What do I do? It causes a lot of stress and anxiety in my life because I didn't know what path I should be taking. Now. This was what I was, like, banking everything on. And all of a sudden, now that was literally torn up in shreds. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever felt like you were going towards something, but all of a sudden you realize that the one way that you thought you were supposed to go all of a sudden turned out not to be the way at all? So realizing what I needed to think about a different way, I needed to come up with a different way. And then it. Then it hit me Was like well you know what, maybe I am supposed to go into the co packer route. Maybe that this was the way I was supposed to do it all along. Maybe I'm supposed to do an RTD rather than a multi server. And I started just what I was doing. It's not to say that that's the way I'm going to go forward, but what was happening was I was questioning the assumptions that I had made years ago. When I started doing the beverage I started questioning the assumptions like well the belief that I will not have quality and I won't feel that there's integrity behind the product. If I go to a co packer like that's kind of, that's a bullshit story I'm always telling myself. The truth is, is that they can light well one who is in control of that final product, hands up right here. I am, right? I get the sign off on whether or not the product meets my specifications. So I as a result of questioning the beliefs and the assumptions I made, all of a sudden now it was like this light had opened up. And thank God I did not invest in the property plan equipment because that was supposed to happen a while ago. Like before I got this answer and realized that this test would not suffice for what I needed. I was ready to start going in there and paying. I mean the test alone was tens of thousands of dollars to give you an idea, right? And I was ready to jump right into it. Thank God I didn't. Now the path is clear. Not only is it clear, but now knowing what I know now I'm more equipped or better equipped I should say, to take the necessary steps. Because one, because I don't have to invest a ton in capital, plants and equipment just in the production of a first run, which I can do now and it will happen much faster. Rather than waiting a year to, you know, in getting the certifications, all that stuff, which could take more than a year, who knows. It puts me in a better place. And I want to go back to one of the points I made that if I wasn't open to seeing this, if I wasn't open asking a different question, then I would have been dead in my tracks. If you are so hard set on a path and now that path, literally the road is blown up in front of you, you have two options, right? One, you could look for a different path or two, you could sit there, cross your legs and be like oh shit. Well I guess I can't go any further. Whatever obstacle is in your way, it is in your way for a reason. And if you are determined, if you have the discipline to just keep going forward and the resilience to continue, no matter what happens, you'll find that that obstacle that was placed in front of you was actually a gift. And then the last piece is just trusting in that there's faith involved, that whatever's happening to you is happening because it is divinely guided. But in order for that faith to work, you have to look for that faith, right? You have to believe it's there and you have to seek it out. When I got the news that, that, that the path I wanted to go in self production wasn't going to be it, at first I was bummed, to be honest with you. I was like, oh shit man, what am I going to do? You know? You know, it was going. I was literally spinning around in my head for a good couple, at least a couple of weeks, if not, maybe even longer than that because I was so stressed out. I was so stressed out because I couldn't see this was the way that I decided. And now that that way was no longer the path, I didn't know what to do and I didn't know what it meant for my path forward, for my life, for my financial security. Right. Notice how when like one little thing happens, all of a sudden you start to make it snowball and it builds into something even bigger. Don't do that. But then when I looked at things to be appreciative for and how I was being guided, that's when I saw the light. So I want you to examine, look at your life. What is going on that literally maybe is spinning you in a whirlwind, maybe pertains to your own business. And then I want you to just realize, well, what would happen if the problem was actually an opportunity? What would happen if you believe that this, whatever you were experiencing right in this moment was just a step in the journey to where you wanted to go? What if you trusted that it was happening for you? How might that change the way you look at this problem? How might that change the way you show up for your day? How might that change the resistance that you are feeling towards whatever it is that you chose just now? See, we self confirm whatever is going on in our lives. You think someone's cheating, even if they aren't, then that's your belief. You're going to literally pull things out of the environment that align with that belief. So if you believe that you are being guided, you will look at these guidances and you will look for the synchronicities and how they line up to move you around that obstacle. So that is it. I hope you again take a mental note. Think of one of the goals that you are going after. Maybe that goal is your health, right? You want, you want to achieve health, you want six pack abs and you want to feel amazing. But that path, in order to get to those, that six pack abs and to wear the banana hammock, right? It's, you're going to have to. It's not something that happens overnight. You have habits. Maybe you go out a night with friends, you drink too much and you're like, oh my God, I just literally ruined the entire week working out. That's fine, get back on the wagon and keep going. So I hope this, my intention behind coming on here was for you to share this. Just to realize that when you stick with something long enough that doors are going to close, then a window is going to be left open. But when you stay with it, what you're really allowing yourself to do is challenge some of these deep held assumptions and beliefs that you had. And sometimes you're going to be forced to go in a certain direction where you didn't want to go before, but now all of a sudden because you can't go in the other direction, you're like, well, you know what, that way looks pretty good. Stick with it. If it's worthwhile for you, if it's meaning it's a meaningful. Excuse me, if it is a meaningful goal, stick with it. I promise you that you will not be upset that you did or you'll be happy that you did, I should say, because it is the path. If something is stirring your desire, if there's something that you decided upon, there was a reason that you decided upon that because it meant something to you. There's a reason because you, maybe you believed something about yourself and what was possible for the future. But sometimes, you know, like the, the lens got a little bit murky because challenge came up. You had some things that kind of threw you off course and prevented you from making the progress that you say you wanted or you thought you were supposed to have. Instead of just trusting the journey and realizing that this was the path that you were meant to go on. I hope by realizing this you will step forward on the path, that you will do it joyfully. And in those moments where you want to run away, quit and everything else, you still hold on and you remember that you are being guided. So that is all I have for this episode here. I haven't been doing them as frequent as I'd like, but I'm going to try to make it on here more. Not try. I hate the word try. I will make it on here more frequently. It's just that when I have a bunch of different things going on, certain priorities that I want to have. But when I have a lesson, something that I feel can be very beneficial to you, the listener, and something I feel could help you just align you on the right path, the path that you know you want, but sometimes the world leads you to think that you want something else. When I come across those lessons, I want to come on here and I want to share them with you. Because you were meant to live your one life. You were meant to love your life. So in closing, if you have any questions, comments, or would like to hit that subscribe button, please hit that subscribe button. Because that is the only way this message people will hear about the podcast is if you do that. So share with somebody whom you feel needs that little pat on the back or kick in the butt to just stick with it because you know it's what they want and you believe in them. So that is all I've got for you guys today. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Remember, you only get one life. Live fully, live passionately, and most of all, live now. God bless you guys and I will see you again soon.