Episode 172: Optimize Your Now

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero, and I want to share with you a story that I hope will humble you and get you excited about what you're not and what you are. Let me tell you a story. Yesterday, I got my Christmas present late, and that was fine. Because I finally got to prove to myself whether or not I am born to be a professional race car driver. Yesterday, the family, we went over to go-kart racing, and this is the first time I've ever been go-kart racing. If you've gone go-kart racing yourself, good for you. I hope you have your Formula One sponsorship all lined up just like I had in my head as we went to this place. We arrived, we put on our suits, found the right size helmet. I was good to go. I saw my go-kart, I was like, this is it, this is my moment. I looked up on the wall, I saw the record time for the lap in that place. I said, that thing is easy, it's done, this is mine. We get in, the whole family's lined up in a single row. I'm talking crap to everybody saying I'm going to destroy them. The guy starts our go-karts and he says go, and we take off. And everyone's in front of me and I'm like, why are they going so slow? This is it. On the third turn— now realize this, we're gonna ride for 9 minutes. There are 3 sessions of 9 minutes each and many, many turns. And before you do one lap, on the third turn of the first lap I started getting nauseous. I was like, what's going on? I'm like, this is my moment. I've been thinking about this my whole life. I was born to be a race car driver. I just need to have a chance to prove it to someone. I need a chance to prove to myself. And I said, I'm sure there's somebody watching up there behind the windows who's trying to enjoy the hot dog, who's going, oh my God, that guy is legendary, let me sign him for a contract. All these things are going through my head. I finished the first lap and I'm sweating like a pig. After the first 9 minutes, everyone climbed out of the cart running to the TV set to see who had the fastest time. Notice I said everyone but me. I crawled out from the go-kart. I was so nauseous. I was so sick. I was holding on to anything that was stable. I could not care about my time, but of course my kids made sure I knew that I was the slowest person not only in the family but the slowest person on the track that day. Humbled like you can't believe. We had a little gap time And then of course round 2 came for another 9 minutes and I said, "Suck it up, I can do this. It can't be that bad. I cannot be this horrible, this not born to do what I've dreamt of." Went out there and literally halfway through the first lap of the next 9 minutes, I pulled over. I was done. I told the guy, "I gotta go in." He pointed me in the shortcut way. I got out. And I was done for the day. I was grabbing on. I took the clothes off. I was so sick. The point of my story is this, other than the fact that I hope you're laughing at my stupidity and my realization. But this is the key, and that's the key word: realization. In your head now, you have always thought that if you had the chance, if you had the moment, if you had the opportunity, or if someone saw you or something to do something that you love. In your mind, you see yourself being the best in the world at it. But you said, I just needed a chance. Oh, well, shit, if I could just could have learned how to play the piano, or if I just could have got on the soccer field, or if I just could have been born into a rich family, or if I just could have, or I just could have. What happens when you get that chance in that moment that you've been daydreaming about, fantasizing about your entire life? Oh, I just need to meet the right man. Oh, I just need to meet the right woman. Oh, I just need to meet the right person. And what happens when you actually do? This realization, when that moment comes, will you stand up? Will you sit down? Or will you crawl out from the car looking for the safety of something made of concrete that does not move, because you're spinning. The realization of you weren't meant to be that person. You weren't meant to do what you're doing. You weren't meant, maybe, to be with that person. We fantasize and we put all these things in our head, but what would happen? What happens to you If in that moment you don't stand up, if you don't score that winning goal, that winning basket, if when you make that— meet that amazing person, you get shy, you don't know what to say, you forget to smile, and they walk by you and the moment's over. What happens if you're not that guy, that girl, that person in that moment. What happens to me? My realization was, okay, I wasn't meant to be a professional race car driver, so I better optimize the now. Your choice in life is to optimize the now. If you were meant to be that superstar football player, basketball player, pianist, rock star, YouTuber, influencer— if you were meant to be that, the universe and life and God, or whatever you want to put it, would have put you in line for that to happen. But because you haven't been put with that as your destiny. And I'm not saying you can't achieve it, but until something happens that puts you on that track, until you say, I'm going all in, until you say, I'm going to make it happen, I'm going to actually get into a race car and I'm actually going to drive this thing to see whether or not it happens. It is a fantasy. And as long as it's a fantasy, you better optimize the now. You better optimize who you are now. You better optimize every little facet of what you're doing now, because that fantasy and that obsession you have of who you think you are is just a fantasy. So what you need to do is make it a reality. You need to call your own bull. You need to say, hey, contact that football team, hockey team, I don't know, pick up, start learning to play the piano and find out whether or not this is meant for you. In a really weird way, my humbleness of turning— forget about the color green, I turned a different color. I was so nauseous, I was so sick. That moment, that realization, and even today I'm still sick as hell. I just mean, I'm really not meant to drive a race car. I'm done. That realization, in a way, I feel free because I still love cars. I love driving in cars. I love the feeling of being a car power, everything like that. But I'm never gonna be a race car driver. But I realized that all the time I spent in my mind as a child and as an adult fantasizing about me winning car races and beating Lewis Hamilton and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's fun. It's a wonderful, wonderful part of life. And it wasn't a wasted moment, but I'm never going to be it, so I better optimize it now. I better go double deep into what I'm doing now. It was a relief. It was like a break. It was like this, this, this weight was lifted off my shoulders because I always thought I was— am I wasting my time? Are you wasting your time on what you're doing now? You should be doing this other thing. So many people say, oh, you just go all in, follow your passion. Well, what about income and all those things? You got to have this realization. The realization is this, and this is my advice and what I'm getting to. I'm sorry it took me a long time. Do what you're doing now, optimize it now, but that, that dream, that passion you have, go do it. If you're meant to be a dancer, go dance. If you're meant to play a professional hockey player, Go join a hockey club. I don't care if you don't know how to skate on ice. Take some damn lessons. If it's not meant to be and you can't skate, then drop the whole hockey thing. You have to, you must invest in you and find out if your destiny is that thing, that dream. And if it's not, don't be devastated. I am not devastated that I'm not gonna kick Lewis Hamilton's butt in the next Formula One race. I'm not devastated. I'm actually going to enjoy the fact when he wins another damn race. I feel relieved that I didn't spend the last years of my life not doing what I was meant to do because I wasn't meant to drive a car. So what I've been doing has been a good use of my time, and what you've been doing has been a great use of your time. But you don't know that unless you call your own bull and you say, I am supposed to be an astronaut. What is it do I have to do from this moment now to that moment in the future that I am astronaut? What is the steps? Do it in reverse order and forget about age. Forget about your financial situation. If it's meant to be and you really want it, you're going to make it happen. But let me tell you, don't drop what you're doing now. I don't believe in that. But invest like me. I can't go straight to Formula One. Nobody goes straight to Formula One. The very first thing these, these Formula One drivers do when they were 6 years old, some start at 5. They started in go-karts, which I drove for the first time yesterday. So I actually did what a professional race car driver did or did when they were 5. I did it yesterday, a couple of decades later. I didn't waste my time. I had no hope. I'm hopeless. Optimize your now. Go forth and spread beauty and light in everything you do. And what you're doing now and what you dream about tomorrow, you invest in it. You invest in yourself. You find a teacher, you find a club, you find an online class. There are so many online classes on everything. I mean, really, you'll find it. And most of them are free. And start with the free ones. And if you think the free ones aren't very good, then spend some money on an instructor and find out that the free ones were pretty damn good for free. No excuses. No excuses for you to find out who you are and who you were meant to be. And when you realize that you weren't meant to be this, this, and that, that, that who you are now is phenomenal, is great. You didn't do anything wrong. And if you realize that you had this amazing talent that you never invested in, it's time for you to change what you're doing now and optimize the now towards what that dream is and towards that talent. Water that talent. Feed that talent. Tell everybody about your talent because you've been— you, you don't have the time to go around and be humble. So for the few of you out there, for you, the great one who has that dream and has never tried, and you try and you have an incredible talent, God bless you. I bless you. I am your new biggest fan. I'm the new president of your fan club. And I want you to go forth and spread your light like no one has ever done before. Bring the world happiness and joy. Bring the world you. And for the rest of us mere mortals, are you optimizing your now? Are you going all into what you're doing now? Because it might be who you're meant to be. But to make it the most beautiful way and the most beautiful thing, you have to be you in that moment, in every moment of your life. I'm Thomas Anglero, humble and still a shade of green, but I'm so happy that this fantasy I've had my whole life is still a fantasy I'm going to enjoy. Because why not? Why should I grow up? Why should I not stop fantasizing? It's the beauty of life. It puts a smile on my face. I don't have to be the world's best car driver in reality. I could just be the world's best car driver in my mind, in my dreams. I love you. 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.