Episode 114: This Moment starts Your Long Game

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero, and I wanted you to reflect on how long the long game of life is. Everything we're thinking about, you know, we're all ambitious. We all want to achieve some certain goal, and it takes a long time. I was working out the other day, and as I was working out, saying, you know, I've been working out for years on and off. I wish only on. Would be a totally different person today. Isn't that true for most of us? And I realized that if I had worked out continuously for a long time— emphasis on long, obviously— I would look completely different today. So here I am starting from scratch again. Sounds familiar for many of you, but yet I know with consistency, with me lifting weights 3, 4 times a week, with me biking, running, walking 3, 4 times a week, and doing this for a long time, I will get the results I imagine in my mind, and much, much more, right? Because when you work out, you physically change, you chemically change, you biologically change, your hormones change, your mood changes. It's also much more than just physical aesthetics. It's the beauty of staying in shape and working out. And I reflected that what isn't in life not part of the long game. Your career ambitions, the job that you see in your mind's eye that you deserve to have, to get there, you have to play the long game. We all want to be rich quick. We all want to be successful tomorrow or 5 minutes to 5 seconds from now. I mean, kids today, there's— everything's instantaneous. But who's teaching our kids the long game? Has anybody ever taught you the long game? Have you even heard anybody talk about the long game? It's all the long game. Look at athletes. They train their entire life for a moment, for a brief moment, to compete in the Olympics, to have that one moment to potentially medal and even potentially win a gold medal. They'll train their entire lives for a moment. They're playing the long game. World champions in chess, the long game. Many CEOs, they worked really hard their entire lives. He or she played the long game and eventually they were CEO. A seed you plant in the ground, a bit— was it good? Bamboo. A bamboo, the seed they plant in the ground, it takes 5 years before that seed is, uh, immerses above ground. But for those 5 years, the roots are taking hold. But what we see is only after 5 years. Everything in life that is successful that breeds life itself. A baby, a sperm entering an egg takes 9 months. Long game, right? The seed, long game. Success in business, long game. Athletics, long game. Everything is the long game. So let me reflect this even more for you. And another story, of course. When I went for my walk this morning, as I said before, I always say hello to the people I walk by. Promised that I will do it, and I continue to do that. And as always, people are shocked when I say good morning as I walk by them, or we walk, approach each other. They find it awkward. They prefer to turn their head the other way. It's the way the culture is. And I think to myself, so many people look so lonely. Their body language is so negative. COVID has people so down. And I reflect and I go, do these people really think that when the government announces it's okay, it's over, if they ever make an announcement like that, that you go, ah, finally I could go back to greeting people and being high. I could find the person of my dreams. I'm gonna find happiness. You're not. You blew it. This past year of COVID was the time you're supposed to be digging down, fixing yourself up, investing in the long game, investing one whole year. You had a whole year to invest in you physically, mentally, spiritually, so that when we come out of this COVID, you could be who you want to be, find the person you want to find, fall in love, have the experiences you're going to have, be able to climb that mountain because you maybe weren't in shape before to do that, or You hit— this is the long game. And instead, so many people spend time saying, this sucks. Next day, this sucks. The next day, this sucks. And you haven't even started investing in you, and you haven't started playing the long game. So what is your mental place right now? In what facet of your life today are you playing the long game? What are you investing in or have been investing in that you will benefit in the long run? Life is the long game. Every single day you have to do something towards a goal. Now, that goal, you may not know what the hell it is, but you know that I'm doing the right things, I'm making the right decisions. Is you to have the right outcome. It's the long game. When you walk by somebody and you don't say hello, you don't say hi, you don't recognize them. Matter of fact, so many people walk by people they don't even know because they're so used to not saying hi. And this is from my experience, of course. I always see it as they just blew planting that seed in the ground. They just blew the long game. Because how don't— how do you not know that the person you just walked by that you just blew off because you didn't recognize them you didn't say hi to, that that person was the door opener for an entirely new chapter of your life that you didn't even know was possible. Such glorious and happiness. That's how life works. Everyone you meet, every eyes that you connect to, every interaction you have is a new chapter of amazing things that can happen in your life. But for every person, for every interaction, for every conversation, you don't give in your all. You close that door and you shut down your long game. Why aren't you playing the long game? Why are you so focused on right now and being happy right now and focus on being frustrated right now? Things take time. To put muscle on and lift weights, it takes time. Trust me. Frustrating as hell. But lifting weights is such a cool thing because you get pumped up after you lift some weights. As a guy, you know, you look, look in the mirror, ooh, I got some muscle. And then in a few hours, all the blood flow returns back to normal and it's gone. It's a wonderful reminder of this is potentially can be you and so much more. And then when the muscle disappears after a few hours and all the blood returns back to where it's supposed to be, And he goes, but you haven't earned it because you haven't played the long game. And that's why you have to lift weights 3 times a week for months and months and months so that the muscles permanently stay like that. And then you've earned it because you played the long game at work, doing all the right things, attending all the right meetings, giving, putting in that time. Reading books outside of work, how much you're investing in your knowledge and your intellect. You have to. If you're not, you're not playing the long game, and hence you will not be where you need to be. Life is a long game. I could keep going on this thing. Do you understand what I'm saying? Look at yourself. Are you just going to work? Are you just being a mother? Are you just being a father? Are you a person who's just got divorced? Or split up and you're sulking and you're just being that person, flip your entire life around and ask, am I— where am I playing the long game in my life? And if the answer is I'm not playing long game anywhere, that's okay, because now you realize and you can start the long game right now. And playing the long game is fun. It takes a long time, but it's so much fun because now that you're playing the long game, Every possibility is now possible. Anything can happen in your future, and that's fantastic. The long game is worth it. The short game leads to a continuation of the where you're at now, that frustration you have. Flip your life and play the long game. Go forth and spread beauty and light. Say hi to everyone you walk by, you look at. Have more conversations. Look at every moment as an opportunity to open a new chapter of new possibilities. Life is a long game. And I'll leave you with this one last thought. If life is a long game, and maybe this game doesn't end, then you have the opportunity to smile infinite number of times. You're going to laugh infinite number of times. You're going to get infinite number of hugs because your wonderful life will last for a long time. Isn't that beautiful? Life is a long game. And thank God it is, because I know and you know we can never get enough hugs. I love you. Take care of yourself. This is Thomas Anglero. Until next time. Thank you for listening to that episode. If you want to contact me, you can contact me on my website at anglero.com. And you can also subscribe to the newsletter, or you can find me anywhere on social media with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you very soon.