Latest / The Daily Writer / Run Your Own Race

Transcript

Run Your Own Race · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think we can probably all agree that social media has made things both harder and easier for us as writers.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, on the one hand, it's much easier than it was years ago because we can connect with almost anybody on the planet who has an internet connection.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: We can share content and we can be inspired by what other people are posting on social media.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, on the other hand, social media has made it harder in some ways.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because social media, by definition, only showcases people's success.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: We end up comparing our whole lives, including our failures and our frustrations, to a partial view of other people's lives because they only post their wins.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I'm not blaming other people.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: We do the same thing as well.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when's the last time you posted all your failures and mistakes on social media?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Probably very rarely, if ever.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: If even that.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So if that describes you, don't feel guilty about not getting as much work done as, let's say, the single guy who probably has a lot fewer commitments, a lot more free time, and seems to be accomplishing more.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's another example.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you are that single person who is just getting started, and you feel guilty because you're not accomplishing as much as that business writer with several kids who seems to travel all over the world and they have it all.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: They have a New York Times bestseller and email list of 100,000 people, and they have what seems to be a perfect life.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe what you don't realize is that her marriage is crumbling and she's secretly miserable because she has to run herself ragged and keep up with all the demands of our freshly grown business.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now she's got all these team members to support and things to do and commitments and media to connect with and all these things, and the pressure is just way too much, but she feels like she just has to keep it up because once you get to that place, it's really hard to not keep up with it.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: So here's my point.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: You never know people's real situations and what their lives are like on the inside.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So don't assume that what you're seeing on social media is the whole picture.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, don't get me wrong, this is certainly no judgment on anybody's personal situation because we all have different lives.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is no judgment on the mom of three kids or the single guy or the successful entrepreneur who travels all over the place.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have any judgment toward anybody because I don't know their real situation.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And even if I did, what right do I have to judge anybody?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, now I'm a person of faith.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: You probably know that if you've been listening to this podcast a while.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think one of the most interesting things, this is just a little side trail here, is that, you know, Jesus told us, don't judge lest you be judged.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yet it seems like as human beings, one of the things that we really like to do is judge other people.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: We, for whatever reason, it makes us feel better to find everybody else's faults and put ourselves up on a pedestal above them, at least in our own minds.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I have no judgment toward anybody in their situation, honestly.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Our lives are constantly in flux.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I just kind of assume, in fact, I was talking to my wife Melanie about this the other day.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of assume that all of us are just one or two bad decisions away from a complete train wreck in our lives.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I really believe that.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've known too many people over the years who their lives seem to be going great, they seem to be very successful, and then one or two things happen and their life becomes a complete dumpster fire.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't say that with judgment, I mean they're really in a crisis and things are not going well, and they've gone what seems like very suddenly from this very successful position to this really desperate position.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: And all of us can wind up there.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a uh statement of judgment at all.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, my goodness, I really believe all of us are just one or two bad decisions away from a complete disaster.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: So so whenever you see people's wins on social media and they're the success that you perceive that they have, and by the way, it doesn't mean that they're not successful, it just means that there's always factors in people's lives that you don't see, and there are things that you're not privy to.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody has struggled.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Even the most wealthy Hollywood celebrities who seem to have it all and they're on all the TV shows and they have these big successful careers.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, those people have a lot of struggles too.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in many ways, well, I don't I don't say just in many ways, but I know for a fact that there are burdens that successful people have, like that highly wealthy successful people have, there are burdens that they have that are unique to their situation.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, in fact, one of the things that I learned from writing the Faith of Elvis book with uh my good friend Billy Stanley last year and learning a lot about Elvis' life, one of the things that that I learned was that Elvis had a lot of pressure.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, once you become kind of a superstar, you have this whole entourage of people that you have to support, you've got payroll to keep up with, you've got all these expectations that people have, and there's a lot of pressure when you become highly successful in your life and when the money starts rolling in.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, before you kind of wish that you were one of those, you know, celebrity types, just think twice because there's a lot of pressure that comes with that that uh that most of us will never experience in our lives.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm saying all this just to make the point of we've got to run our own race.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: We have to focus on our life and what we need to be doing rather than trying to tear people other down or judge judge them or wish that we were in somebody else's shoes.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: So don't worry about anybody else.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Just focus on your own race and learn what you can from other people and then apply those lessons to your situation.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And perhaps in our current culture of craziness, in uh at least in the US, I think probably in the whole world, in our current culture of so much conflict and division, maybe it would be a good thing for us to extend a little bit more grace to people because you never really know what's going on in their lives.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the cool thing is that if we stay on our own path and we do our own thing and we focus on what we're adding value with to people, pretty soon people start to compare themselves to you.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you do that, you become more successful over time, and then you don't necessarily become the person who's jealous of everybody else.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Some people become a little jealous of you because now you're having success in your life.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, you can help to be a mentor and a coach and a teacher to them, just like others have done for you.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So this episode's gone on a little bit too long, probably.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you guys are used to these short episodes most of the time.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for indulging my rambling here.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I hope this is helpful to you.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm really sincere about what I'm saying here is we've gotta really rope in this jealousy, this uh idea that we see all these wins on social media and we feel bad about ourselves and all this kind of garbage.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to get away from that, people.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: We just have to get away from it because it doesn't help you and it doesn't really help anybody else.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: You're only seeing a tiny sliver of people's lives.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're not seeing the whole picture, I promise you.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's challenge.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to ask yourself, do you have a hard time avoiding the comparison game?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to be really honest with yourself.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Are you having a hard time right now not comparing yourself?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if so, maybe go back and re listen to this episode and take what I said to heart.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: All right, my friend, thanks for listening to this extra long bonus length episode, I guess is what you'd call it.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: As always, I so much appreciate you, and I will see you next time.