Small Things, Big Impact

Hi guys, my name is Donny Rouse and you are listening to the podcast One Life. Small Things, Big Impact. You probably heard the quote that says something along the lines of it's the smallest of things that have the biggest impact in your life. But if you're like me, maybe you looked over that quote and didn't really put much thought into it. I'm reading the book Personality Isn't Permanent by Benjamin Hardy and one of the concepts he introduces in this book is the idea of keystone goals. So what is a keystone goal? A keystone goal is this goal that you have your sight set on and by achieving it, it'll force you to grow in many different areas and it'll transform the different areas of your life. The example he gave in the book was his decision to become a six figure authority. In order to be a six figure author, he had to develop many different aspects of his life, such as being a public speaker, being able to present to people, being comfortable on doing videos, how to build an email list, and the list goes on. A lot of the time we set goals without ever thinking, well what is this pursuit, the pursuit of this goal, what else is it going to bring into my life? I was doing this today actually and I like many people we tend to over goal, we tend to spread out so many goals and as a result of having all these goals we kind of take, instead of taking 20 steps in one direction, we might take one step. So the idea of keystone goals was very appealing to me because now going for one goal, I could satisfy many other aspects of my life. And one of the, in order to kind of like really understand the concept and to like to bring it into my body, I looked at one of my old goals of just traveling whenever I never thought I was going to be a world traveler. When I set out and traveling, I had done a tour in Europe where I went to I think like 11 countries in three weeks. Pretty quick tour. And that was kind of, that wet my palate with regard to travel. But I did a three month trip in Rome, Italy and the objective of that trip was not to go spend in Italy. Well, I mean it was to spend time in Italy. But primarily I wanted to just go there and drink a ton of espresso and learn about espresso. That was probably one of the main drivers of bringing me to Italy. So it had nothing to do with becoming a world traveler. But by taking that one action, by booking that three months, I did a solo trip. All of a sudden it trickled down to all the different aspects of my life. One of those results was being a world traveler. Now, I've been to 49 different countries so far, and the list is probably going to double within the next decade. What are the other things that that brought into my life? It brought in this resilience to be able to be on my own in any country, to be independent. It brought me the ability to be able to make friends with anybody, to be charismatic, to be outgoing. I'm pretty outgoing as it is, but even more so as a result of having that experience. It also brought an understanding and an appreciation for different cultures, different religious beliefs, different backgrounds. Probably something that I wouldn't have had had I just stayed in my hometown of Stanford. And so the reason I bring this up is because sometimes, I mean, that was something that I didn't intend. I knew I wanted to travel. I knew there were things I wanted to see, but I didn't intend all these other things to happen. Coincidentally or not, these are all aspects of my personality that I would have wanted to develop in the first place. The goal of traveling was the perfect goal because it gave me all the things I wanted. And that was an accident. That was not me consciously creating that goal. So with the understanding that we can create the goals to encompass and give us all these other aspects that can build our personality, that's a very powerful thing. So what is it for you? What is a goal that you can set that would allow you to transform your life, that allow you to build up other areas of your life, say, your health, your relationships, your spirituality? I'll give you another example of my own life. I've been doing coffee for the last 10 years, and the goal with the coffee company is, okay, I want to build up. I want to have my coffee in as many houses as possible. And there was give back aspect to it as well, dealing with the whole coffee ritual and how do I interact with every person that I meet? But it didn't have the same energy as me wanting to build the platform for my podcast. The reason I'm on this podcast is because I wanted to give parts of my own life to share with you, to ignite that passion within you, to not just to live life, not just to go after the things you know that are going to bring you so much joy, but also give you that sense of peace to know that you know what, everything is all right. Everything is great the way it is right now. I don't need anything to be happy. And part of that is just kind of doing all the inner work which is what I bring into this podcast and sharing my real life experiences, setting a goal around the growth of that podcast. If it's like a million downloads, I'm picking a number out of the air. But let's say my goal is a million downloads. What does that require me to become, grow, to grow into in order to achieve that goal? So in order to achieve that goal, I have to fine tune my content, I have to deliver more, I have to engage with people. That means I'm going to be building better relationships. That means I am going to be a little bit more, I'm going to be more business savvy because there's other skills I have to learn in order to, not just to build the podcast, but to create courses and things that people are going to value. It's going to make me feel even more confident on camera, on microphone. It's going to make me want to worry, like not worry, bad word, reframe the word. It's going to make me want to put focus on my health, my body, because people are going to be judging me based on my physical appearance. I mean, I am very active as it is anyways. I built that habit, thankfully. But you know what I mean, as a result of having that now it shifts all these other things in my life and as a result of taking the action repeatedly creates a new identity around it. So what is it for you? Think of the goals you have and exactly what they're going to bring into your life, what they're going to give you as a result of the achievement forum, if you're chasing something because you just want to, I mean, I think any big growth goal is going to grow you in different ways, but you just get to be conscious of it now you get to decide, all right, well this is who I want to become, what goals are going to bring me down that path versus having the goal and then taking whatever it brings, whatever it gives you. So what's a goal that you have and as a result of achieving this goal, how is it going to affect your personal life, your health, your emotional health, the relationships with your friends and family, your intimate relationship, your connection with God or a higher being, your ability to contribute to others? And then looking at this goal, what are the identities, what are the roles you want to become in each, each of those areas as a result of this goal? And see whether or not setting this goal is going to have that trickle down effect. By setting this goal, if it's going to give you these other distinguishment, these other areas of growth when you see that, it's going to be like a light switch looked on and you're like, oh, my gosh. And it's going to make that drive towards that goal even stronger. Because now you're not just you're aligning all your things, everything you want, you're aligning behind one cause. And now instead of taking one step in or 20 steps in 20 different directions, you're taking 20 in one. And it's gonna magnify the results you get as a result of it. That is it, guys. I hope you enjoyed. This was another one of those podcasts that wasn't really planned. I just had the inspiration to do it. I wanted to share something with you because I was excited about it. And hopefully you'll sense my excitement and you'll really take to heart what I'm saying here and kind of put a microscope or a magnifying glass over your own life and see those goals that transform your life and see what goals you can set in the future that'll bring you even further. That is it. I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Have an awesome rest of your week. God bless you. I will see you soon. If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing it on your social media. Invite your friends to check out the One Life podcast with Donnie Rouse and that is it. God bless, guys, and I will see you soon.