Episode 116: 5 Years or 6 Weeks?

This is episode 116 of the Weekly Yes! And Podcast. 5 years or 6 weeks? And hello everyone and welcome to episode 116 of the Weekly Yes! And Podcast. I'm your host, Travis Thomas. This one is called Five Years or Six Weeks. I was also thinking about calling it Chinese Bamboo. I'm not sure which one is more compelling. So there you have it: five years or six weeks. I'll get to that more in a minute. Some of you may be saying, "Hey Travis, why don't you call it three months?" Because that's how long it's been since the week since the last Weekly Yes Am podcast. So. Yeah, I'm not sure if I can keep calling this the weekly Yes and Podcast, although if you looked at the first 2 years, they were weekly, so I was super consistent. So, uh, I apologize. So here we are. The reason I have been sort of off the grid for the last 3 months— not to make excuses, but let me go ahead and make one— is that things have been super, super busy. And so I'll get into more of that here in a second, but In a very good way that I'm super grateful for. The last 3 months have been probably the busiest 3 months for me professionally, doing a lot of traveling, doing a lot of speaking, and a lot of work. And so I'm super grateful for that. What was sacrificed during that time was the weekly Yes! And podcast. And so I hope to get back on path here as we roll into the summer. But let's jump into it. 5 years or 6 weeks? And the answer is kind of 5 years and 6 weeks. Let me explain. One of my favorite analogies that I heard years ago, but I recently saw an old Les Brown video. Many of you may know Les Brown, one of the top sort of motivational speakers in the world for years. I did not hear the Les Brown version until recently, but I can see how this is— it was probably his video that made this idea popular, but I've been sharing this for years myself. So if someone gives you some Chinese bamboo seeds and tells you to plant them and then water that soil and just take care of that soil until it grows, if you plant those seeds and start watering and nurturing that soil, after 1 year, guess what? Nothing happens. So you keep watering and nurturing the soil. 2 years, guess what? Nothing happens. 3 years, nothing happens. Year 4, right? You're watering, you're nurturing the soil, you've been so diligent, so disciplined, you're taking care of it. You're probably starting to think that you're either crazy or you were given bad seeds because 4 years, nothing happens. Then finally, year 5, you start to see some bamboo buds. break the surface of the soil. You're like, holy cow, wow, maybe I'm actually going to get something out of this. Over the next 6 weeks, the bamboo can grow as tall as 90 feet. Once that bamboo breaks the surface, it can grow as tall as 90 feet in 6 weeks. Crazy. So the question is, how long did it take the bamboo to grow 90 feet? 5 years or 6 weeks? And obviously the answer is neither. It took 5 years and 6 weeks. Because what was happening during that 5 years? Nothing? No, actually there was a ton that was happening, although we couldn't see it on the surface. Underneath the surface, in the soil, the roots of the bamboo seeds were growing deep and wide. Think about that for a second. Deep and wide. Because once the bamboo stalks start to grow, they're going to grow so quickly. We need to have a deep and wide foundation, which is going to allow for that type of fast growth. So we need to take the time developing the foundation before we start to move in the direction of our growth. Because if we If we don't, we're going to grow too quickly and our base is not going to be sustainable and we're going to topple over and we're going to flame out. I love the bamboo analogy. And so I've been sharing that with people for years, whether it's you're starting a new business, you started a new diet, you've started a new workout, a new career choice, a new relationship. Now, I never meant for the analogy to be literal, right? It's just going to take you 5 years and 6 weeks. But the reality is when I sort of took one of many leaps, but the most recent professional leap when I left IMG Academy just over 4 years ago, which is crazy, just over 4 years ago, I took a leap of faith to create Live Yes And, not having any idea of how it was going to go, where the work was going to come from, any of that. And for 4 years, The growth has been really slow. I've been grateful for the work that's come along, but it's been slow. I haven't exactly been setting the world on fire with all the speaking I've been doing, etc. But the last few months, all of a sudden, with some of these roots that have been growing deep and wide, A few of them have started to break the surface. In the last few months, really last 6 months, I've become an active member of 2 speaking teams, 2 corporate speaking teams. So I've been doing— all of a sudden I'm doing a lot of speaking, corporate training speaking. And then I started teaching a college course that came out of nowhere. And then I've gotten a few different speaking gigs that have come directly through me. Now, also, all of a sudden within the last 6 months, all these opportunities Have kind of come out of nowhere. And by no means do I feel like I have arrived, I've made it, people. It's just that, wow, okay, I'm starting to see some progress. I'm starting to see some really quick exponential growth where I've seen only really slow, moderate growth up until now. So super grateful for that. But all that to say, in my own life, I've been nurturing and tending to that soil day after day after day after day. And I'm starting to see a little fruit, starting to see some of that bamboo. So I'm super grateful for that. So in your own life, what have you been nurturing? What soil have you been nurturing? And if you're not seeing the results that you want to see, yes, it's always healthy to take a step back and say, okay, is what I'm doing the reason it's not happening, or do I just need to stick to the process. I'm going to talk more about the process here soon, but that's the idea of the Chinese bamboo. Once we get our foundation set and then we commit to the process, when that growth happens, we have the base, the foundation, the roots to allow for really quick growth that we can handle because we've put so much time into, um, into building that base. And you see companies all the time, you see individuals all the time, you see athletes all the time who have quick success, but they just didn't have the experience or the base to sustain that success, and they topple or things don't work out or they make a lot of mistakes. So what I love about the bamboo is it's all about that slow growth and then boom, it allows for that quick Awesome. So no coincidence, when I look back at the last 3 or 4 months, I'm like, okay, what have I done differently? And the truth is I haven't done much differently. I've been trusting my own process of building my business. So I've been trusting that process, not getting attached to specific outcomes, not getting attached to how the growth had to happen, when it had to happen, how much it has to look like. So I haven't been attached to outcomes, but I've been trusting the process of doing the things that I do to create relationships, to better my work, to better what I'm doing, and to do that consistently. And so that's sort of trusting the process. But again, the big thing in that is not getting attached to the outcome, because if we get attached to the outcome, we're constantly setting ourselves up for failure. Which is different than setting goals. We can set goals which help drive action. Goals help drive action. Whether we reach the goal or not, it's the goal that helped motivate us to drive action. But we don't need to be attached to outcomes because then all we get focused on is the outcome instead of trusting the process that leads to outcomes that we are proud or excited about. But one thing I look back, I'm like, okay, back in December, I was given the opportunity to sign up for a coaching program. I am a coach. I'm a performance coach. I coach others. But I also believe that coaches need to be coached. So Brian Johnson, who I've talked a lot about, the Optimize— his website is optimize.me. Check it out. He started his first ever coaching program, a 10-month program. I signed up in December. It started in February, and it goes until the beginning of December. The program started in February. My work uptick started end of February, March. All that to say is I committed mentally to be to bettering myself in this Brian Johnson Optimized program, and at the same time, I started to see my my work. take off a little bit. Coincidental? I'm not sure. I'm all about when you open your thought, when you open your expectation, when you open your consent to taking care of yourself or to doing more that leads to success, all of a sudden you start to get more opportunities. And so I see a total parallel between signing up for this coaching program with Bryan Johnson and then more work coming my way. And the 2 things I love about this coaching program— again, I think coaches need to be coached— Is that it has given me a daily routine to focus on myself, to be better. And part of the program is that you get a coaching buddy. And so I have another guy that I've been partnered with, we call them swim buddies, and he and I are in touch with one another, just kind of checking in and being accountable to one another. And I think that has just helped me be much more intentional about my own work. And so for you all, do you have Do you have a coaching buddy, an accountability partner, a swim buddy? Do you have someone that you're constantly checking in on who's listening— excuse me— who's listening to you, who you can sort of share your failures, share your successes, who is constantly someone you can open up to and be vulnerable? You know, I've got another friend like that that I have breakfast with once a week. Hey, Evan. Hey. And he's just a great, you You know, an unintentional coaching buddy because we're friends and each week we're constantly checking in with one another to see how we're doing. And so again, all of that, you know, I commit to that program and then March and April ends up being my 2 busiest months. 4 cross-country trips, you know, 1 to Vancouver, 2 to Seattle, 1 to LA. I can take a little flight break for now because that also included a couple of trips to New Jersey, a trip to St. Louis, a trip to New Orleans. A couple, you know, local trips. But all in all, for March and April, I had over 12 speaking engagements, plus I was teaching the college class for the Watson Institute every Wednesday night, and I didn't miss a single class. I was able to work all that work around those classes. And so, so just super excited about that. And then June— May's been a nice little quiet get your rest because June June will be my busiest month yet. I'll have 12, about 12 or more speaking events in 12, in 12, in June all by itself. And so just really, really grateful for all of that going on, grateful how everything has fallen into place. One of my biggest learnings from the last few months is I talked about trusting the process, right? Trusting the process and not getting caught up on the outcome. But trusting the process. The second thing that the last few months has really taught me is because I've been doing so much travel and jumping through so many hoops and trying to, you know, fly back from New Jersey just in time to jump in a car to get to the college class, to teach the college class, getting up the next morning and flying out for a 6 AM flight to go across the country, you know. So all of these logistical things, connecting flights, Um, weather, all of these things that have been out of my control. And, um, that's the great thing about travel is it's so much— so many things are out of your control. So I've been having to do so much surrendering over these last few months. I can't control when we take off. I can't control whether I'm going to make my connection. I can't control the weather. I can't control where I'm going to sit most of the time. I can't control who's going to sit next to me. I can't control the turbulence. And so all of this, you know, you do the best you can, you prepare the best you can for a trip, you take care of all your details, but then you just have to let go. You've got to take a step back and say, you know, give it to God, give it to love, give it to your higher power, surrender, and just say, I can only do what I can do. So stressing or creating anxiety about it doesn't do me any good. I can just literally, literally enjoy the ride. So my big 2 learnings— excuse me— trusting the process and surrendering control. Trust the process, surrendering control. And the last one, no surprise, gratitude. I'm constantly taking a step back and expressing gratitude for, wow, isn't this great? great, these opportunities that have come along? And every one, isn't it great? And not, oh, what, I wish there were more, I wish there were better. Like, isn't this great, all these opportunities? And the ones that don't work out, isn't it great that that almost worked out? Or isn't it great that it didn't work out? Who knows? And when I was teaching the Watson class this spring, you know, I met with these 12 amazing students, 10 of them international. Every week we met for a 3-hour class, and I would start off every class with, what are you grateful for this week? And they all kind of looked at me at first like, okay, gratitude, yeah, yeah, yeah, why is this guy asking us about gratitude? And by the end of the semester, you know, 14, 15-week semester, I was like, all right guys, what am I going to ask you? What are we grateful for? And they started to be prepared. They were thinking about what they're grateful for. They were coming up with some deep, deep gratitude based on what was happening in their lives. And, you know, these are kids, like I said, 10 of them international, haven't been home for months, new culture, new language, so many things. But at the same time, all of them blessed for where they are and what they're doing. And so just the power of gratitude to open ourselves up to more goodness to flow our way. And so that is what I've been up to for the last 3 months. That is, and that's kind of the space that I'm sitting in right now is as we roll into a busy summer, hoping to get a couple more podcasts rolling here. And so for those of you who haven't heard from me in a while, if you want to hear from me, you know, 4 or 5 days a week, go to my Live Yes And on Instagram and Facebook. I do a A Yes Daily, a Your Excellent Self Daily video about 3 or 4 minutes long. Those are all archived on my Instagram TV @liveyesand. So that is what is going on. And of course, any of you guys listening who haven't read my book, 3 Words for Getting Unstuck: Live Yes And, and you can get that on Amazon. And lastly, That's about it. If you want to do a daily meditation on Instagram, check out my friend Darnell McDonald. And Darnell gets on every afternoon and does a live meditation, which is a lot of fun. I love it when I can get on and do the live meditation with Darnell. And if you jump on one of his meditations, tell him that Travis sent you. There you have it. So there you go, guys. Chinese bamboo. 5 years or 6 weeks? And 5 years and 6 weeks. What does your daily process look like? Surrender, surrender, gratitude, surrender. That's your weekly Yes, Ham podcast, episode 116. Have a wonderful day, everyone. Love you, Juju.