Whole New World - Life Beyond Your Comfort Zone

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, A Whole New World. Do you ever feel like life is just like gnawing at you to make some changes? Do the emotions in your day feel like it's a drag? Like every day is just a repetitive mirror of itself? If it is, then that is a very good indication that you are living inside of this box called your comfort zone. And what I want to tell you here is that life happens outside of that comfort zone. Life happens when you take a step beyond the day to day habitual thinking that you experience and to start saying yes to different opportunities, different things that arise in your life. It could be something as simple as a friend inviting you to a concert. Maybe you don't even like that song, but you're like, you know what, I'm just gonna say yes because I made the decision to accept new things into my life. Or maybe it's meeting somebody, going out on the limb to say, you know what, maybe things could be work, maybe things could be differently. So you decide to go on a date or go into a singles speed dating thing, like something I just recently did. And then you meet somebody and all of a sudden, now your world is transformed because now all these new experiences start to flood into your life. But before we can get there, I want you to get acquainted with where exactly you are. What are your day to day feelings, emotions? Where do you live day to day? What kind of effect is that having on the quality of your life? Sometimes it's so easy to experience these repetitive emotions without ever making a change. And as a result, every day just literally flows into the next. And all of a sudden, now 5, 10, 15, 20 years later, you realize that you really didn't take a step forward. You really didn't follow through with anything that you wanted, anything that you, you know, the things that make you passionate. And then lastly, what would it look like, if you just started saying yes, what possibilities would flow to your life? Because everything that happens in our life is first the result of our interior thinking, the things that are going on in our mind. Because it's what's going on in our mind that lets us observe the outside world. I want to tell you a story about my friend Zim, who is going to be a guest on my podcast. When I had met Zim, Zim was very, very hard working, loved his cars, would literally dump tons of money into his cars. If he was getting a new car, he would fly over to Germany to. To pick up his BMW and do all these custom things to it. But then he would come back and it was literally work 24 7. He was a slave to his job. One day he had said, hey, Donnie, you're traveling all around the world. I want to take a trip with you. Very reluctant. I never let anybody travel with me, but I was like, you know what, I like him. I feel like I could probably travel with him. So what the hell, why not? So the trip was Thailand. I said, all right, well, you know, I'm going to do this. I'm going to go at this time. Let's talk, let's book this trip. Every time I would see him, it was, you know, I can't. A job came up. Something would always come up. How true is that of life? Whenever we want something, there's always something that's going to get in the way of what it is that we want. And a lot of time it's your mind trying to make an excuse. Ah, yeah, I want to do this, but I got so many emails I got to do. Yeah, I got to do this, but, you know, my desk needs cleaning. I can't concentrate with my desk being this messy, Right? There's always going to be something that's going to try to pull you away from the things that you need and want to do, and that is yourself distracting you from the very thing. Because maybe you're just unconsciously, you're not even aware that you're afraid of taking that next step because you're afraid of what may come of it. And most of the time, it's something very good. Years had gone by, years had gone by. And then all of a sudden, I run into him and he shared with me I knew he had met a girl when he was in Albania. And literally, without going too much into the story, because I want him to explain his story when he's on the podcast. He was telling me how his perspective shifted around Life. All of a sudden now the experiencing of life became priority. And it's not to say that he put his, he made his business seconds. Now he's asked a different question. He's like, okay, well how can I experience and live the life I want to live while still doing my work and all that stuff? So now then he hired a project manager. The point I'm trying to make here is that he his perspective shift as a result of getting outside of his day to day as a result of seeing a different perspective on how other people live. When you hear in the States, and I'm sure everyone is guilty of this, you kind of keep up with the Joneses. And it's especially true probably if you live in a place somewhere like Fairfield county where I am broadcasting this without even becoming aware of it. There is this comparison mode that you can fall into that is very, very dangerous because that comparison mode causes you to forget the very things that are dear to you. When I was talking with Zim, all of a sudden this passion stirred in inside of me. I remembered some of those desires I had forgotten about, like desire to live abroad. Not that I ever forgot it. Like there's no way I could possibly forget it. But emotionally I felt detached from it. As I was speaking to him and he was sharing his experiences, all of a sudden these emotions started to swell inside of me and I got really, really excited. The first thing I did was I called one of my friends, my friend Ryan, and I was sharing like this passion, this desire that I had. This excitement brings up another lesson. Who do you surround yourself with, right? The people you surround yourself is who you become, right? So if you want something that you don't currently have, you have to put yourself around people who have that or at the very least want that same thing because it's this feeding of energy. Like you guys share the passion and as a result, the rising tide lifts all boats and you all lift up. You're all because of being in that close association with your tribe. Now all of a sudden you're all working for the same thing. You may not get there right away fast, but there's always going to be these steps to try to try something different versus saying, oh, you know, yeah, it's not going. I guess this is just how life is. And then, you know, every week or every night you find yourself at the bar with friends and I promise you that's not the way to a fulfilling life. So the first thing I, you know, I did, I started sharing it with my friends and it ignited the passion. It stirred their desires inside of me that I knew I wanted, but I was missing the emotional connection to it. Back to Zim. So Zim was telling me how, as result is, he realized just one, how amazing this world was and how he valued experiences more than physical things. Now he was so grateful that he had met his girlfriend because he said, literally, she's the best thing that ever happened in my life. So other things were like, you know, he's this kind of, like sidestepping. But he talked about food, how he was in Italy, one of his favorite countries, and he was saying how like, you know, he could eat. Eat pasta, all this other stuff, and he would actually lose weight here in the States. He said he's the same thing, and all of a sudden he puts on weight. So there's something messed up going on with our food system here. And I mean, that's a completely different topic altogether. But what I want to acquaint you with here is to just to create some awareness. How are you living day to day? Are you living in this repetitive emotion where every day blends into the next? It feels like a drag and you don't feel inspired. There's no stirring of the passion in your life. Second thing is, who do you surround yourself with? Right? What are your. The friends you hang out with? What are their goals? If it's, oh, you know, let's go to the bar, let's go get drunk, or, you know, let's go here, let's go see if we can find someone to hook up, whatever it may be. Like, what are their goals and do those align with you? Right. Sometimes just by being around certain group of people, we started to kind of default to what it is. And we started to pick up mannerisms, habits, beliefs that they have that we may not have associated with. But all of a sudden, as a result of being in such close proximity, all of a sudden, now they become our own. It's important that you become very aware of this because it's stealing the lifeblood of your life, right? It's stealing the emotions that you have. I say this because I speak with experience. There had been times where I would hang out with people. All of a sudden, I started using the same words and behaving the same way, and it wasn't congruent with who I am and who I want to be. As a result, I had to consciously take a step away from that and say, well, is this me? Is this who I want to become? And then make a change. And then lastly, what are those dreams? What are those desires that you've forgotten? The things that, when you thought about it, would literally fill you up with a sense of excitement. I want you to start to bring those things to mind and just to start to play with the idea. Imagine if this were to happen. How would you feel? Sometimes things seem like there's such a large gap between what we want and where we are that we just kind of give up, right? Because we're like, well, it's never going to happen. It doesn't feel like it's going to happen because it feels so far away. But by simply saying, well, imagine if. What if this thing were to happen? How would it make me feel? What else would be possible? How would I want to live? You know, you start to play around with the idea of possibility, and all of a sudden that little crack in the door starts to open up. And now all of a sudden you start to feel the emotions that are associated with this very thing that you want. And the emotions are what allow you to take a new action. I'm going to do another post here. It's going to be called, like, Based around Action. Like, what is it? Does action create the inspiration or does the inspiration create the action? It's like the chicken before the egg. Guys, I want you more than anything, if you're listening to this, I want you to realize that you deserve to have a life that you love, to live a life that you love and you are passionate about. I don't believe that life is meant to be mundane. I think that life is meant to be filled with passion and excitement. Granted, it's not every single day that that happens, right? Because that's not true of life, right? Life isn't this. This buffet of, like, cookies and pastries and peaches and cream? It's everything, right? And it's being okay, knowing that it's everything, but also keeping your eye on the prize and remembering what it is that you're going after while also remembering that there is only this time, you only have now. And to take it in, to appreciate, to take the time to enjoy it, whether it be a little cup of coffee with friends, going out on the sand, going to the beach and just putting your feet in the sand or even on the grass, right? Being an active participant in life. Because if you can't enjoy the moment now, what makes you think that you're going to enjoy it at some point in the future? We have to live the way we want to live now. We have to embody that now. So this way, when we get there in the future, we are there. We are able to participate. We were able to enjoy it. Because what makes you think that if you were to not stop the busyness that you would achieve your result and get there and still not have that busyness? Live the way you want to live now and watch what unfolds. I hope you enjoyed this podcast. This is very much kind of like it was an inspirational rant I wanted to go on. And there's going to be a lot more interviews coming up in this podcast with people sharing their stories. What were the major life shifts in shifts in their life. And a lot of it is going to pertain to travel, just because travel is one of the biggest parts of my life and one of the things that I want to share with you. But more than anything, you could relate travel to anything. It really is about taking the time to do the things that bring you joy. It's about taking the time to look within and say, well, what is it that I really want? Because life is happening now. So hope you enjoyed this. If you want to subscribe, you can do so by visiting www.donnyrouse.com d o n n y r a u s.com there you can ask a question or leave a comment. And please consider sharing this podcast with someone dear to you. Someone who needs that little nudge to maybe follow their passion. Because you know, there's so much more to them. There's so much more available that they're not taking advantage of just because they're caught in that humdrum feeling of life. Remember, guys, you get one life. Just one. Live it. God bless. Thank you so much for listening and I will see you again soon.