Transcript

Do It Anyway... · Wanzology

Do It Anyway Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of WANZOLOGY, I am your host, The Wanz, welcoming you to another Wednesday edition. How's it going? Did you survive Labor Day? Are your kids back in school? What the heck's going on with you, hmm? Well I had a very, very entertaining weekend and uh, part of me is glad it's over and part of me really wished it would've continued, but you know how things are, everything is temporary, everything. And that being said. Back to the grind, back to figuring out what we're supposed to do with the rest of our lives one day at a time. I have been curious. What is it that keeps us from doing what we know we need to do? No matter what it is, it always seems like we can find a myriad of reasons not to do what we need to do, you ever notice that? “I am gonna take out the garbage, but first I'm gonna finish this little part of this little time-wasting thing. I'll take out the garbage after I'm done scrolling or reading this profile, and after I'm done scrolling and after I'm opening this app and whatever…”, why not just get it over with? I don't know. I'm of the opinion that whatever it is that needs to be done, you wanna do it now, because later you wanna be doing something else, hopefully something you enjoy. So when it comes to big things, work things, I try very hard to do those first. The hard things. The big things. Do those first so that you have the smaller, easier things when you have used up a lot of energy and you don't have much left. Totally makes sense to me, but I'm not the end all be all. So if you don't wanna do something, do it anyway. Doing something you don't want to do is, how do you say, ‘challenging’. Doing something you don't want to do is also rewarding, but you have to get on the other side of it first. You don't wanna go to work, do it anyway. You don't wanna listen to this person, your friend, or significant other, tell you all the bad things that you did. Do it anyway, because once it's done, if you are wise, if you learn, you won't have to do it again. My dad always said, “Those lessons not learned in life will be repeated.” So you ever notice that there are some things that just keep happening? You ever notice, “Oh, I thought I did that before.”, “Haven't I been here before?”, “I've felt like this before. Why is this happening again?”, that's not the question. The question is, what didn't you learn the last time? Some lessons are easy. Everybody uses the same example of you don't put your hand on a hot stove anymore, which is true. I don't know anyone who's above the age of two who does that because they learned, but some of us don't see the signs. We miss things. I know I do, and I'm not alone. I am at the point where, you know, I'd really like to do more musical stuff. I'd really like to maybe release an album or a single or something. I have the music, I have the songs yet, here we are in September and I haven't released a thing all year. As I was coming home from my very fun weekend, I decided, well, I didn't decide, I questioned what is it that's keeping me from doing it? The old Nike commercials “Just do it.”! What's holding me back? Me. Why am I holding myself back? I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm quite sure it has something to do with, I'm afraid of something, but I haven't quite gotten through processing to understand what it is I'm afraid of. There are people that I should contact and ask for help. There are more than a few people who I'm pretty sure would help me, but no, I'm the big grownup. I can do it all myself. Totally forgetting that, you know, you've been doing it by yourself for a number of years now, and yet you are still pretty much in the same place. There are more than a few people who think I am better at what it is I do than I do. So why am I not putting myself in a position where more people can either see or hear me? I don't know. But this podcast episode is dedicated to me drumming up the motivation and picking my own little brain to understand why I just won't do it anyway, regardless of what the outcome is going to be, release that song, go play guitar somewhere, go sing for somebody, ask somebody to help write a song with you, Mr. Wansley. These are things that I could do. I could advertise myself as a producer. I don't know everything there is to know about producing a record, but I sure do know what sounds good. I know what I think sounds good, and I can explain why. Now if somebody else can't do that, if they can't explain why they think the way that they do that to me is at least a yellow flag. Not necessarily a red flag, but definitely a yellow flag. So what is it that's holding me back? What form of fear is keeping me from dedicating myself to a routine that moves me forward? I am still not sure. You know, there's a part of me that says, that's okay. It's okay not to be sure. I can think of times in the past where I've failed, but that was then, and this is now, right? I'm a different person than I was back then, right? Circumstances are different than they were back then, right? (Oh, sidebar: back then, just put “yesterday”, where “back then” was.) The day you have is the day you have, and the day that you have may be the only day you have. At least that's what some people say. Now, when I tell myself these things, I just go, “Yeah, yeah, yeah…well, you know, you know. Well, yeah, you're right.” But does it move the needle? Does it get me farther up my path to my goal? No, it does not. Because when I'm talking to me, I already know what I'm gonna say. I already know what I feel, and that's a problem. Probably the problem with being somewhat educated and intelligent. Because once you know something, you, you really can't unknow it and if what you know is yourself, who are you actually fooling? You can't be fooling yourself. You're already yourself, you already know. So as I'm processing this out loud, I'm looking inside. I'm looking inside of my heart to figure out what I feel and what I feel is discouragement with my-self (two words). I feel like with all the capabilities, experience, and whatnot I possess, with all the evidence in my past that I've been through, it doesn't make any sense why I wouldn't be more motivated to move forward. Unless the fear of not knowing what's going to happen is greater than the desire to keep moving forward. There's only one answer, and that answer is, do it anyway. I've been told that in order to be courageous, one must first do something courageous. You can't feel courageous, then go do something courageous. I've also been told it's impossible to ‘think’ your way into a new way of living. You have to ‘live’ your way into a new way of thinking. Both of these things make complete and total sense to me, but my question for myself is, how do I execute this in a manner in which I can be number one, consistent, number two, accountable? Now I could spend 15 or 20 minutes talking about being accountable and being honest and working up a schedule and all that other good stuff, but I don't have to, I already know! One foot in front of the other. It's the easiest plan of attack ever! A couple weeks ago, I went hiking. Never been on the path before, but all I knew I needed to do was keep putting one foot in front of the other, and wherever I was going, I was gonna get there. Not much in this world is different. If you're hungry in the morning and you want breakfast, there are certain steps that you have to execute in order to get your body fed. Whether you cook, buy, or have it brought to you, whatever, doesn't matter. You still have to do some things. If you don't feel like eating, then what? Well, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so I would suggest, do it anyway. Have breakfast, even if it's just a muffin or something. A glass of juice, just something. God only knows what's gonna happen next. You may not be able to eat for hours, but you didn't see that coming and that's why you didn't have breakfast? Huh, sorry man. Doing something has to be much better than doing nothing. Unless you are quite sure that doing something would be less than good, less than optimal, not perfect, Lord knows we can't let perfect be the enemy of the good. Good is always the target. Good is always what we shoot for, and at times we excel and overperform and we get better than good. But until we actually target doing a good job, being a good person, doing a good thing. Until we set the target, it makes it very difficult to do anything I've said. “Nobody leaves the house without a destination.” You don't go outside without some sort of destination. You don't just go outside and shut the door and then turn around and go back in, do you? Not very often. You go outside, you get into your vehicle or however you transport yourself, and then you're off somewhere to do something. That's just the way it is. No one leaves the house without a destination. So the challenge that I put forth is, can you set a destination that you can execute every day? Every day, something simple, just one thingnd when you don't feel like doing it, do it anyway. I'm gonna start with making my bed. I'm going to make my bed before, before I have breakfast. Not after, not just before I go to bed, but before I have breakfast. By the time I have breakfast, I will have done my little routine, put my contacts in and brushed my teeth and taken my meds and figured out what I'm gonna wear. And when all those things are done, I'm going to make my bed and I will have done something. And it'll be onto the next. And when I do that next thing, it'll be onto the next. What about you? What about your target? What about your motivation? Do you have a target? It doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to be some big, huge thing. I mean, it could be something as simple as, “I wanna make sure that I have my keys before I leave my house or place that I stay.”, and if you do that, done! Done!! Success!! N ow take that energy and put it towards something you don't want to do. Then you'll be able to figure out whether you're just fooling yourself with this, “I'm great!”, or not. Good luck! Do it anyway!! Do it now!! Because later you wanna be doing something else. Remember, and that's all for this week, I really appreciate you tuning in. I think that maybe you would be what they call a ‘mensch’. I was called a ‘mensch’ earlier today, so I wanted to use that word inauthentic. I think that you would be such a ‘mensch’ to come back again next week. Take care of yourselves out there. Okay? We all, we got!! We all that there is, and if we don't take care of each other, Lord, help us all. Peace. I'm out.