Transcript

Demanding #1209 · From Chad

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What question is being asked? There's a story behind that.
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This is your daily message from Chad #12109 to upgrade your
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middle game today by telling yourself a better story.
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Because the most important story you hear is the story you tell
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yourself. This message is dedicated to
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Harry Sampa. If you haven't followed or
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subscribed or whatever way your podcast player gives you to
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connect, please do. It's an easy way to help others
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find these messages. Here's the upgrade.
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You may be waiting for life to tell you what it means, but
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upgraded thinking understands life is the one asking the
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questions and you answer with how you show up.
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Here's the story. What is the meaning of life?
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People have asked that for as long as there been people.
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Viktor Frankel turned the question around, though in the
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concentration camps he watched men give up when they stopped
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expecting anything from life. He wrote quote.
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It did not matter what we expected from life, but rather
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what life expected from us. In quote, stop asking life what
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it means and start answering what life is asking of you.
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And Frankel said how quote, our answer must consist not in talk
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and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct.
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In quote, meaning is a buried treasure.
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You don't dig it up, you answer it.
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So how does life ask for me? It asks through my roles as a
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husband, father. Every role places a demand on
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me. Every day.
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That demand is the question. Here's how I try to answer it.
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Energy first. If I'm depleted, I'm a worse
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husband and a worse dad. So sleep training and meditation
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aren't selfish. They're service number 2.
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I try to outperform the contract.
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What does that mean? Every close relationship has an
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invisible agreement. What my wife and kids have every
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right to expect from me. Most of us live at the bare
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minimum of that contract. Relationships rarely break from
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one big betrayal. They wear down from a pile of
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mediocrity. So I asked, what is one thing I
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can do today that goes beyond what's expected and #3 be
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present in the role I'm playing? Epictetus said.
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To play the role you've been given and play it well.
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Do you know the roles you've been given?
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You can't play the past you or future you.
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You can only be present in the part You have to play in the
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present. The present is the stage you're
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on right now. There's an old story of three
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men cutting stone. Someone asks what they're doing.
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The first says I'm cutting stone.
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The second says I'm building a wall.
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The third says I'm building a cathedral.
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Same work, same tool, same aching back, completely
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different meaning. Your roles are the cathedral,
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the extra 5 minutes, the specific question, the phone set
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down. Those are the stones.
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Most days they feel ordinary, but nobody else can lay them.
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No one else can play your part in your family, in your
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community, at your place of work.
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That's where the meaning is. Only you can play the part
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you've been given. The better story to tell
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yourself is life is asking the questions and how I answer is
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totally up to me. Tell me a story of outperforming
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the contract to from chadsmith@gmail.com.
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Send someone a text and ask them how are you answering the
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question life is asking you right now?
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You can get a free copy of my book, The Most Powerful Story in
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the World by going to from chad.gumroad.com.
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The transcript of this message and hundreds of others are
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always available at www.fromchad.com.