The "Real" Journey - Discouraged? Here’s the Truth About the Path. Just Keep Going.

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, the Real Journey. Turn on Instagram, turn on any social media, and you'll see people portraying their life as near perfect, right? And the only reason why it might not be perfect is maybe they chose the wrong filter to, you know, take out all the blemishes on their face. But let's be real, right? This is not real life. The highlight reels are exactly that. They're a facade. And even if it's not, you know, the intention of making believe that everything is perfect, you're only seeing small snippets of someone's life and not the actual journey. Some people might show you the real journey. And the reason I'm here today is because I want to help. If you're feeling discouraged, if you're feeling like you've lost motivation, if you feel like you don't have the fuel, the power to go on, this one is for you. And to preface this, I just got off a call with my coach and we were discussing the results over the last six months that I had and giving myself a score as to how far I've come. And in this most recent session, I gave myself the highest scores that I had ever given myself. And the reason I did that was because I was able to look back and I was able to see all of the growth that had happened. But as I expressed my coach, when we were looking at it, the growth was nothing short of. Of trouble and hardship. Like there was discouragement. I felt down, but I did not let that get me down. And I kept growing. I never gave up once. It's kind of one of the things, maybe it's an Italian thing where, like, you're a little bit thick headed, you don't know when to stop. But it's kind of always been a character trait of mine. And what I am here, the reason why I'm here, Right now with you on this episode is because I want to let you know that wherever you are now, whatever hardship that you're going through is just a. It's a blip in time. And I know it's hard for you to realize this now, but this, this hardship, whatever it is you're going through, is actually setting you up for success in the future. It's preparing you, right? Whether you win or fail, there's always a lesson. Therefore, you are always winning. To give you a story from my own life, the move to Miami, right? This has been nothing short. I mean, it was not easy at all. One choosing to go into a new place, right? Because all of a sudden, now I'm in this new place, don't know anybody, have to build all my own, all my routines all over again. It was extremely challenging, if I'm honest with you. And the challenge, I guess if I had to look back at the challenge, if anything, I saw it as a call to action, meaning it was requiring me to do something else. Realizing that I am responsible for the results. I am responsible for my experience. Like fast forward now, I've been in Miami for four months now. Fast forward. I started to acknowledge that the growth that I've had and just how far I've come, if you would ask me, even a few days ago, I was in a different mindset, but as a result of one, having a good gratitude practice, which allowed me to see all the blessings that were in my life, but also to look at all that I've created and to just give myself credit for that which I have done. How often do you do that? How often do you give yourself credit for the progress and just for the fact that you are still standing, you're still moving forward, despite the hardship, despite the difficulty, these, despite maybe hitting a wall and having to turn around and do it all over again. How often do you acknowledge yourself for that? The experience I've had here in Miami beach has been a microcosm of my entire life. To give you one more example, like the experience of cold Roman. I've been doing cold Roman for over a decade now, right? And it has been nothing, but it has not been easy at all because there's always some sort of challenge. The challenge isn't external, then the challenge internal, Because I'm like, ah, I should be. I should be this far. I should be here, I should be there. I should be everywhere, right? And. And I was in. In essence, like, right, it's happening. All the progress I'm making is happening. How it is supposed to happen, right? Because lessons are being learned along the way. While there might be hardship by not giving up, all of a sudden the path is being laid out before me. And here, here's the, here's the ironic. The ironic thing is that the path was always there, you know, like the path, but it's just that I didn't have the eyes yet to see it. And so if you are struggling with anything, right, and if you, maybe if you see some reoccurring themes happening in your life, just open up to it and just say, what am I not seeing here? Or what is being shown to me that I am not comprehending or not getting? Sometimes you might come with the answer that may give you a new awareness, right? Because think about the question you're asking. What am I not seeing? So now you're, you're, what you're essentially doing is you're like detaching your head, right? And you're, you're saying, okay, well, what has been outside of my, my line of sight. And as a result of that, you're opening yourself up to seeing something different that you couldn't see before just by asking a different question. And maybe, maybe you don't even. You're not going to get any answer from that. Maybe you, you just have to have faith and just to keep moving forward, keep sticking it out. Trust me, you have the answers within you. You know what it is you need to do, you know what you want. And it's worth so much just to trust that internal guidance, right? One of the things that I have always done was I always did a gut check when I, when I thought about, like, giving up cold roam and I thought about doing things because I'm like, oh my God, it's just so tough in shaking my hands at the world. But I always did a gut check. I always checked in and said, okay, well, what do I, what am I feeling? What is my heart telling me that the right decision is here. And it has always been to persevere and to move on. And as a result of that, I've never given up. I've always pursued down the path that I know is, is in my best interest, is in alignment with what I want. It's not always easy. Sometimes I, I might get the answer and I'm like, I don't want to listen to that shit. You know? You know, I'll try to shut it off, but I will not make an. I will not make a decision counter to what my, to what my heart is saying. Just because it won't let me, right? If I check in, I. It feels like something's off. And I'm very sensitive to that. So I still don't make the decision counter to it. But I might brush it off and maybe delay it for a while and then I'll revisit and then usually something happens and it just makes sense. I'm like, okay, I'm listening. I am ready. What is your internal guidance saying? What is your internal compass saying? That is what is guiding you to the life that you are meant to live, to your one life. Don't look at hardship and shy away from it, but rather check in and note like, again, case in point. I know there's a ton of hardship in terms of, like, what I want to do with my coffee in an. But I am still willing to stay in it because I know my heart is my heart, I know my heart's there. And so as a result, I know the longer I stay in it, new awarenesses will come, new lessons will be learned, and I'll be able to apply it and then move forward. But as long as I don't give up. If you give up, it's all lost. And let's start with that saying, like, give up on the stuff that is not serving you. Give up the stuff that's no longer you, and stay with the stuff regardless of the hardship that is true to your heart that you are being called to do right, your life. You know, like, I always. I talk to people like I don't know what I want. How do you figure out? Everyone knows what they want, right? You may not have vocalized it, but you know, on a very gut level, you know, some idea of what it is that you want. The problem is that there's so many distractions out there that are preventing you from hearing your own voice. I hope that just by hearing this, by hearing my words here, maybe all of a sudden there's this little, like, things have quieted down a little bit and you begin to ask a different question. Like, well, what is it do I want for my. For my career, for my health, for my experiences, for my spiritual life, for my relationships, Whatever area you want to focus on, for my overall life, what is it that you want, that you really want? If I were to ask you a different question, imagine that you could have anything you want. Imagine you could get let go of any of the old stuff that's no longer serving. You could have exactly what you want, but the only thing you had to do was state it. Now, what Would you tell me? You got some clarity now, don't you? You do know what you want. The path to that is never straight. Anything worthwhile is going to require you breaking through some wall, overcoming some obstacle and to grow. When you understand that, when you really, really understand that. And again, I say this because I go back and forth, I will curse to high heaven and I can make the experience very miserable for myself. But when I remind myself of why I'm going in the first place and the truth that, listen, if I'm moving towards a direction, that is the vision for my life, it's stupid to think that I would go here and have it be a dredge the entire way, right? Like the growth process to who we are becoming should be enjoyable. But it just, it just starts with a different way of looking at it. Career, for example. When you look at your career and you think about the people you want to serve and the impact you're gonna have on life, that alone should be able to transform you, to give you joy and bring a different part of you to the work that you're doing. But you have to put the focus there first. If you just go into it without any kind of intention, you might as well be riding a bike down a road. Without a map, you're going to end, get up somewhere. You might even end up where you want to be, but you're not going to know because you've been stressing out the entire time because you didn't know where you were going. Know where you're going, you know, get. Get the map. The best one of my friend, my mentors, Brandon Burchard, says the best time to have the map is before you enter the woods. So we're not going to go into having the map, but I just wanted to let you know that wherever you are, if you're feeling discouraged, if you are feeling like you've given so much but you just can't give any more, relax because I've been there and you will get through this. Just keep going. Keep following what your heart knows to be true and you will eventually get there. Just keep your eyes open for the learnings, the growth and the lessons and keep applying that for your life. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Here is really, I wasn't planning on coming out here, but I had a conversation with my coach and a friend and as a result, here I am. So I hope you enjoyed this episode here, the surprise episode. If you did, please give it a thumbs up. Please share this with one or two people, maybe five people who you feel could benefit from this, hit that subscribe button. That is how I get this message out. That's how you let me know that you are enjoying the material that I'm putting out there. So hit that subscribe button. If you have any questions or comments, please send them to me via my Instagram or my website. Actually, just do my website donnyrouse.com www. O n n Y-R-A u s.com thank you guys so so much for tuning in. God bless you. I appreciate you spending your time here with me. Hopefully you you got something you could apply and you just keep going towards your dreams. 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.