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What Are You Going to Win With? · The Daily Writer

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, welcome to The Daily Writer, where we help writers become authors of their own lives.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a little something you might not know about me.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was actually quite a good guitar player back in my 20s and 30s.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: During those decades, I was a church worship pastor and also the director of a college music program.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: And even though I was pretty successful in those roles, I realized early on in my journey that in spite of my decent skill level, I was never going to go to the quote unquote top of being a guitar player.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, I knew that I was never going to be good enough to be a successful recording artist or a touring musician, and I didn't really want to do either one of those things.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: The reality is that there's lots and lots and lots of extremely skilled guitar players out there.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you just get on YouTube or really any social media platform, all you have to do is search up great guitar players or some other similar phrase, and you're going to see that there's thousands upon thousands of extremely talented guitar players out there.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew years ago, in fact, way before the time of social media, that if I wanted to compete in that arena, if I wanted to become a world-class guitar player, I would have to devote all my time and energy to doing that.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: So about 10 years ago, when I decided that I wanted to transition to writing full-time, basically I stopped putting time and energy into my guitar skills.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I still play guitar today, but I don't actively work on those skills.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's really just a fun hobby, more or less.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason is pretty simple.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Even though I love music and I love playing guitar, it's no longer really a good investment of my time and creative energy.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not saying that hobbies are pointless or useless.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying that for my personal goals in life and for my business goals, it doesn't make sense for me to put a lot of time and energy into increasing my skills as a guitarist because I'm never going to go to the top in that field.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: The thing is, I want to set myself up for the biggest wins possible in my life.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that that's not going to come through guitar.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I've known that actually for a really long time.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've known that it was instead going to come through writing and teaching and similar kinds of things where I could really sink my teeth into something and can really be competitive and I could really win on a first class level over time.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: The point here is that there's a brutal reality that we all have to face at some point in our careers, which is if you want to set yourself up for success, it's going to take sacrifice.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that means you've got to give up some things that you enjoy, perhaps even some things that you love, in order to focus on the things that are going to give you the greatest return.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Just like the old saying goes, he who chases two rabbits catches neither.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm a firm believer that you can do almost anything that you want to in life, but you cannot do everything.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because the further that you want to go, the more focused you're going to have to be.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: For example, and this is another example in addition to the guitar example, it's why I've never focused on public speaking as a big part of my business.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Public speaking is simply not my main gift or my main desire, to be honest with you.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: I could take all the training in the world, I could go to all the conferences, I could take all the courses, but at best, I will only ever be probably a seven, maybe a seven and a half at best in the field of public speaking.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So instead, I've chosen to focus on the areas where I can really win, which is basically writing and teaching.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm going to win with in my career in my business.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: So my question for you is what about you?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: What do you feel like you're going to win with?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think this really comes down to knowing your strengths, your temperament, your skills, and your desires in life.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, there is a lot of freedom and peace in knowing yourself and the best ways that you can contribute to the world.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because the bottom line is that you can't do everything, but you can do far more than you ever thought possible when you just focus on one main thing.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, as always, thanks for listening.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Keep writing, keep showing up, and I'll see you tomorrow.