While, Not When

Hi guys. My name is Donny Rouse and you are listening to the podcast One Life. While not when so many people put off their dreams of travel, of experiencing life, until when I'm going to argue something different, I'm going to say do it while you build that life. Do it while you raise those kids. Do it while you build that business. And the reason for this is that otherwise things might slip through the cracks. And there's things that you're going to enjoy now that you probably wouldn't enjoy five years from now, 10 years from now, or 20 years from now. And not to mention things change at the drop of a dime. Your financial position could change, your family can change. You could end up figuring out that instead of the one child that you wanted, all of a sudden, now you have Quince. And you do not know. There's no way for you to predict what the future is going to hold. And as a result of that, you have to seize the moment. You got to do those things that you know are going to bring you the joy in life and do them now. And I'm not saying to do them carelessly and irresponsibly at the cost of your, you know, of your savings and at the cost of your job. No, I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that you have to be flexible. You have to make it work within the confines or the structure of your life. But it is possible. I'm in coaching programs and I've attended other coaching programs and read books and they all tell you about this thing. Well, worry about this now and then at some later point, once you've built that nest, then you can go do it. But shit changes. You don't know if you're even going to have the health to do that. I mean, think of it. If you're, are you. Unless you're active, which I think, you know, some people have the habit, but a lot of people don't. They sit at their desk all day and as a result of having lousy habits, their health starts to deteriorate. So maybe getting outside of that comfort zone, outside of that day to day work will open up your eyes and give you some perspective as you know what, I want to experience a lot more in life. I want to walk around, hike, do these things. But I wouldn't have realized that if I didn't take the time now to partake in those activities or to travel, whatever it may be. It reminds me of the story of Home Alone. I think it was Home Alone 2 when they were in New York City and Kevin, the protagonist of the movie, is talking to the pigeon lady. He was giving the story about his pair of rollerblades. He said, I had this pair of roller blades that sat new in the box. I was afraid to wear them because I didn't want to scratch them. And then what he figured out afterward was that years went by and because he was trying to keep them new, he couldn't even use them because he had outgrown them. Isn't that true of life? Right? Isn't it true that if you put off some things, you outgrow them? Maybe you had you wanted to hike to the top of Mount Everest, but now all of a sudden your age, not to say it's not possible, but your preferences change. Well, you know what? Yeah, that's something I want to do. It would have been an amazing experience, but I'm feeling a little bit differently now. Or maybe you wanted to hike the five towns of Cinque Terre in Italy, but now all of a sudden, you know what? The idea of walking doesn't really thrill you. Although I will tell you, I've done it and it is an amazing experience. So let's go back to the idea of cost, because I think when most people complain or they give a reason as to why they can't travel, it comes down to cost. And I will argue with anyone to break that fallacy that it has to be expensive to travel. Notice what I said? That it has to be, right? Because it doesn't have to be. It all depends on your recent travel. So if your outcome, if your intention is to travel the world and see many places, then depending on what your pocket is, right? Like depending how much disposable income you have, you are going to have to be flexible. I'll tell you, I've traveled for months at a time with less money than I've spent two days traveling in Miami with my siblings. So in two days in Miami, I mean, a three day trip with my siblings, we've gone out between hotel, airfare and everything, we've spent like $3,000. I've traveled to places in the world, and not these far off indigenous places, but even in Europe where I've spent $1,000 a month. But it requires you to be smart about how you spend it. And you have to be flexible. If I were, I've been to 40 countries now, maybe even more. If it were, if I had the belief system that, all right, I'm going to travel these countries and I have to stay at a Five star hotel. How many countries do you think I would have visited over the last 10 years? Maybe two. Maybe two, right? Because my intention is not to stay at the five star hotel. My intention is to experience the place, experience the culture, experience the food, to have these once in a lifetime experiences, to meet people, to make friends. That is my intention. It's not to stay at this, some five star hotel where I'm going to be pampered. I know when I go on these trips that it's not about being pampered. I know it's about the experience. And there's this simplicity. Simplicity is power. There's the idea of when you're only traveling with things on your back, that your worries just float away because you don't have to worry about the computer, you don't have to worry about anything because you have a few shirts maybe that you kind of cycle through. And most of the time I overpack, to be honest with you. I will wear, say I'll bring eight shirts, I might wear three of them and keep cycling through those in the same pair of pants. But it doesn't matter because my intention is to again experience a culture, to have an experience, converse with people, to meet new people. That is the experience I am concerned with. Those authentic relationships are what I, that I bring in. So what is it for you? What is it that you want to bring into your life? What is it the thing that you've been saying, you know what? I'm gonna do this when. Because we don't have the money now, we don't have the time and we don't have the freedom. If there's one thing I've learned, I think three years ago I was in Rome, Italy. I went there for a trip of three days. I went to see Ennio Morricone in his farewell concert. If you don't know Ennio Morricone, he wrote, I think it's called the Mission with Robert De Niro. He did the soundtrack for that. And he's also done all the spaghetti westerns. So he's. Well, he was, he passed. But he was 92 years old and this was his farewell concert. So I was the middle of all my market seasons, like doing all the farmers markets, doing all my coffee, my brewing, everything. The busiest time for me. But when I saw the opportunity to attend his farewell concert, I was not going to let it pass. Not to mention it was in the Roman bath. So imagine this backdrop of the most beautiful artifact or like the architecture for from the Roman times. When would I see that ever again. So I ended up going there, experiencing things. So granted, I only had three days. I literally flew in that evening. The following day was the concert. And then the following day after that I went down to Naples for like a day before coming back and flying out. I used to have the belief that, you know what, I need at least two weeks before I could let go and before I could fully immerse myself in that trip. That paradigm crumbled on this trip because what I kind of realized was that it wasn't so much the two week period, but rather the realizing that the trip was going to end soon. That made me just kind of let loose and let everything go and just fully immerse myself in that experience. So I ended up going to Naples, meeting a bunch of people, having just great times, awesome memories, eating, literally walking down the street with a ball of mozzarella di buffalo, if you've ever tried it. In Naples, in the Campagna region, that's where they're known for it. And literally like an apple, this giant softball sized mozzarella, eating it like an apple. And it was so fresh and juicy inside, like where I bit it and like the buffalo milk would pour out. It was amazing. But all these experiences I had in one day and when I came back, people were like, are you serious? You went for literally three days. Isn't that a waste of time? I was like, well, not at all. I had an amazing time. And actually the ability, like I unwound in those three days and I've let go of any kind of stressor that I had more so than I did where I was away for months at a time. So the idea that a trip has to be, you know, a week, two weeks, a month in order for you to let go is bullshit. And I called myself on that because of this experience. So again, what is that experience that you want to have? Look at that experience and what are you waiting for? What have you been putting it off for again? Is it money? Is it kids? Is it the freedom, like not having the time? Next ask, what is the cost of delaying? What is the cost of delaying it? A year, five years? 10 years? Said differently. What can possibly get in the way of this thing coming to fruition, of this thing coming true? If you start to put your thought that you realize there's a lot more than you're even expecting or you can even think of, right? Just plant that seed and watch it bloom. It's going to be an entire forest before you know it. And then say, what is the benefit of doing it now, of planning it within the next year, of having that experience. And then the last question is, what will having this experience bring into my life? What other opportunities, what other possibilities will it bring into my life? Because I promise you, I promise you that when you do the thing, if you take that trip, that the possibilities, it's going to literally, it's going to start a snowball, a chain reaction. I don't travel because I always have these ideas of where I want to go next. I meet people and they inspire me to take these new trips. I might go to a place where I was never even considering because someone started talking about it before. It wasn't on my radar. And now all of a sudden, it's on my radar and it's the number one on my list. It's kind of with everything in our awareness. If you don't know, you don't know. So by doing that, it opens up your eyes to seeing more of the world, more possibility. So again, if this resonates with you at all, if you're tired of putting off life for some disappointment in the future, if you're tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses, because you know what? They have the two kids and dog, and you don't even have one kid, but you do have the dog and you do have the nice car in the house that you can't pay because the mortgage is too big. If you realize that you don't want to put off life anymore and you want to start making good on those promises to yourself and those dreams, I encourage you to send me a message or send me an email through donnyrous.com or a message via Instagram onny d o n N Y R A U S and we can come up with a plan on how to make those dreams, bring them to fruition and make them reality. And lastly, guys, if you enjoy great coffee, try Rascoffee R a u s coffee.com, use the discount code onelife. Because it really is about centering yourself in that moment to realize that this is all you have, right? And I don't see that in a grim way, but in a beautiful way to realize you're blessed right now. You're alive. Life is a blessing. The fact that you're here listening to me is a blessing, right? Because maybe this encouraged you to take some action, to start making good on those things you want for yourself. Life is beautiful. Drink Rouse coffee, guys. I hope you enjoy this podcast. God bless and I will see you again. Next week.