RHS 003 - God Will Not Have His Work Made Manifest by Cowards

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Speaker 2 Last week, I was being interviewed on a podcast and the host asked me if you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Speaker 2 And while being able to fly or run fast or walk through walls or, you know, be invisible or any of that stuff would be super cool, none of it is incredibly practical for the life that I want to live

Speaker 2 since fighting crime as a taped crusader just isn't super high on my priority list right now. But

Speaker 2 the thing that so the answer that I gave this host was, I would love, if I could do anything, to be be able to read like a hundred X faster than any human being like just incredibly read incredibly fast and also retain that information like if I could actually retain the information that I read and I could read it at a high speed that would be the superpower I would want and the reason is As I've gotten as I've kind of matured into my life and my career and really dove into some some greater works kind of taken on some some books that and kind of listen to some podcasts that engage in conversations and topics that are meaty, like real, real, real meaty stuff.

Speaker 2 Things like,

Speaker 2 you know, self-reliance, which is an essay from Ralph Waldor Emerson that I want to talk to you a little bit about today.

Speaker 2 Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life, even Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. Like,

Speaker 2 these are just like three of the last books that that I've read, but I've probably read 20 or 30 books over the last year or two, maybe three years, probably about 10 books a year, that

Speaker 2 have really focused on

Speaker 2 how do we become more confident, more secure in our thoughts and our work,

Speaker 2 how do we better understand the trials that are ahead of us if we're willing to push forward and do things that are meaningful? And how do we find meaning in our work?

Speaker 2 and how do we capture some form of happiness as a derivative of that meaning and

Speaker 2 really just

Speaker 2 be in general a more at-peace person while still focused on growth because if there's anything that I've learned about myself over the last decade

Speaker 2 it's that I become unhappy if I'm not focused if growth growing something building something creating something is not part of my life. It just is.

Speaker 2 A stagnant Ryan is an unhappy Ryan. So I

Speaker 2 can grow personally. I can take many different forms.
Physically, getting more fit.

Speaker 2 Although this desire, this little thing, whatever it is inside me, tends to be more mental. So it's, am I learning something? Am I creating something? Am I figuring something out? Am I

Speaker 2 growing a business? Like, I need a new challenge or just challenges to overcome. And if I have that thing, if I feel mentally stimulated by a challenge, then I'm very happy, at peace person.

Speaker 2 Even if there is the general background stress that comes with growing something, I'm okay with it. I'm accepting of it.

Speaker 2 And when I

Speaker 2 slow down or I give in, or I feel like growth isn't happening,

Speaker 2 or I feel like there's been an obstacle or a wall put up in front of growth, then I become very agitated, irritated, and unhappy.

Speaker 2 So in an effort to better understand how to maneuver this stuff, I read a ton, as much as I possibly can. I also listen to a ton of podcasts.

Speaker 2 And that's why I wanted to take this time, this third episode of the show, and really just kind of pump the brakes on interviews.

Speaker 2 We've had two great interviews, one with Marcus Sheridan, one with Justin Forsette. Those are the first two.

Speaker 2 I think it was a really great way to kick it off. For this third day in a row, we're launching a new episode.
That's this episode.

Speaker 2 And I, instead of interviewing someone, I just wanted it to be me and you. And I wanted us to spend a little bit of time together.

Speaker 2 And I wanted to talk about some of the things that are driving me to create this podcast. What I hope is coming down the road for you if you continue to listen.

Speaker 2 I hope that you'll find a tremendous amount of value, that you'll start to feel comfortable engaging with me. Whether that's sending me an email, you can always email me, ryan at ryanhanley.com.

Speaker 2 You can engage with me on social media. Instagram and Twitter seem to be the best places.
I'm Ryan underscore Hanley on Instagram. You can just DM me or whatever.

Speaker 2 Or hit me up on Twitter. I'm RyanHanley underscore calm on Twitter.
Just search Ryan Hanley and you'll find me.

Speaker 2 I hope that you'd be very comfortable engaging with me, asking questions about the show or just sharing thoughts, things you enjoyed, things that you disagreed with or didn't like or areas of the show where you think that could be improved you know as you

Speaker 2 if you choose to be part of this audience then you are as much this podcast is as much yours as it is mine and i want you to know that i respect my responsibility to you to provide value on a consistent basis and while you know the the human ego side of me wants to grow this podcast to be as big as it can possibly be, I would love to touch as many many people as possible.

Speaker 2 I know that's going to take time. And I'm never,

Speaker 2 my promise to you, my commitment to you as someone who's willing to listen to this show is that I will never,

Speaker 2 I,

Speaker 2 I will never

Speaker 2 be disrespectful in assuming that you will accept shallow content in exchange

Speaker 2 in the form of activity versus silence in exchange for value, if that makes sense. I'm never just gonna pump something down the alley because

Speaker 2 I need activity on the show versus something I think that it's gonna add real value to your life. And sometimes, you know, you throw up a stinker.
I mean, that's always gonna happen.

Speaker 2 Sometimes you think a conversation is gonna go one way and it doesn't go that way.

Speaker 2 I mean, this, I did almost 300 interviews for Content Warfare, my first podcast, and I did close to 150 episodes, not all of them were interviews, for Agency Nation Radio, my second podcast.

Speaker 2 And now I'm on my third iteration of my third show in the podcasting world, starting from scratch again, which is like my thing, I guess.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I've learned during that time that sometimes you have a plan for what a conversation is going to be with someone or what an episode is going to be when you start out, and it just doesn't end up getting to where you want it to be.

Speaker 2 so uh hopefully you'll give me the occasional flop um in exchange for my commitment to you that every time i hit record on this podcast it's going to you know my goal is going to be to add value to you in some way shape or form and i think a lot of the interviews that i've already recorded there's uh i'm trying to get out ahead of it a little bit um because i do also run metabolic um

Speaker 2 yeah i think that the conversations that i've had so far all have some really good pieces to them.

Speaker 2 I'm not going to say that everyone will blow your mind, but I think they all have some really tremendous takeaways. Some are very, very, very good, I think.

Speaker 2 Actually, tomorrow's episode with Brian Fanza is one I would absolutely positively listen to.

Speaker 2 If you're listening to this in the future, if you're on like episode 10 or 100 or sometime in the future, and you just kind of caught this one, listen to episode 4. This is episode 3.

Speaker 2 Tomorrow's episode with Brian Fanza was tremendous, especially the second half of it really dives into a topic that's incredibly important to me,

Speaker 2 which is

Speaker 2 acceptance of the fact that there are entities in our societies, specifically American society, that

Speaker 2 profit off of us disliking each other and how we can engage both online and offline in a way that allows us to be different but still accepting of each other.

Speaker 2 I think that these are the types of conversations we need to be having more, especially with the 2020 election coming up, regardless of where you stand on Trump or Democrats versus Republicans or whatever it has to do with politics.

Speaker 2 There are a lot of media entities who are going to profit heavily off of

Speaker 2 you versus them kind of mentality. They're wrong, you're right, you're wrong, they're right, you know, just positioning people on the edges against each other

Speaker 2 and creating these battle lines.

Speaker 2 I think very few of us actually want that,

Speaker 2 but yet

Speaker 2 we are put into these boxes because it's easier to sell ads to us if we are. And as long as we have that in our head,

Speaker 2 I think we can, as long as we're aware of that, I think we can then maneuver through it and maybe create less hate in the world. I wrote an article on my website that you can check out.

Speaker 2 It's called Before You Hate That Stranger Online. You can go check that out or and listen to the episode tomorrow, Brian Fanzo.

Speaker 2 So my point to you guys is like, I just, I guess I just felt obligated to come on and just say like, thank you for being here. This is a conversation.

Speaker 2 It's if you choose to be part of this audience, this podcast is as much yours as it is mine.

Speaker 2 This is meant to be something where we interact.

Speaker 2 I'm going to do everything I can to bring on interesting and dynamic people who want to share and have conversations that make us think a little deeper about our everyday life.

Speaker 2 And that's my commitment to you. And I hope you want to be part of it.

Speaker 2 And I hope that you subscribe in whatever medium makes the most sense to you so you can get these episodes wherever you listen to them.

Speaker 2 But if you just catch them randomly when you see them come through Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn or whatever, that's cool too. It's all good in the hood.

Speaker 2 I wanted to throw

Speaker 2 a little meat at you. So that's kind of the fluffy intro to the podcast.

Speaker 2 If you're listening, you want to give a shout out again, hit me up on Twitter, hit me up on Instagram.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 I started reading this essay from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Speaker 2 I read it about a year ago. It's self-reliant.
Some of you have probably heard of it.

Speaker 2 It's a really interesting essay. To be honest with you, I had never read a lot of the transcendentalists, which is, I guess, one of the ways that you could classify Emerson.

Speaker 2 What's really interesting is that, so this is the third time that I'm reading this thing. It's it's all marked up.

Speaker 2 I'm not doing any video right now, but if I showed you, it's like underlined and starred, and I have comments all over this, like printed out 8x11s.

Speaker 2 That, and I've had this for like a year, and like I said, this is the third time I'm reading it. And then I interviewed John Janch.
He's coming up in like a week or two, his episode.

Speaker 2 And he just wrote a book called The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur. So it's cool to kind of talk through at a high level some of the ideas of self-reliance and transcendentalism,

Speaker 2 having spent so much time with this particular essay. But I wanted to share this with you on its own because there are some concepts in here that I think are so incredibly important to

Speaker 2 our own person, to finding meaning in our lives. So I am a,

Speaker 2 I guess I would consider Jordan Peterson a modern day philosopher. He's a clinical psychologist.

Speaker 2 I'm an enormous fan of his and believer in his thought process and methodology

Speaker 2 for a couple reasons. I'll talk briefly about Jordan Peterson.
I did a live stream on his book, 12 Rules for Life, which is by far the most meaningful piece of work I've ever read

Speaker 2 in my entire life. I read it about a year and a half ago.
I then gave my marked up copy to someone that I worked with, and then I fired that person, and they didn't give me the book back.

Speaker 2 So I am an a-hole.

Speaker 2 But because I, I, I brutalize my books. I underline, I, I just terrorize them.
They're, they're, they're textbooks to me. That's, that's what they are.

Speaker 2 Like the books that I really love become textbooks for my life that I like to go back and reference.

Speaker 2 And, and I had this wonderful copy of just beaten up and marked up copy of Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life, and now it's it's gone. But I'll get another copy.

Speaker 2 I'll probably mark it all up again and learn a whole ton more because he's got another book coming and I want to make sure I read 12 Reals for Life again before his new book comes out.

Speaker 2 But either way, I did this live stream on YouTube where I talked all about his book. You can go to my YouTube channel.
I think it's youtube.com/slash Ryan M, Mezz and Michael Hanley.

Speaker 2 You can find it there. Just Google my name, but

Speaker 2 or just read the book. It's tremendous.
So I was reading that book and there's this idea.

Speaker 2 Well, first, the thing I like about Jordan Peterson and his methodology is that he is willing to change his mind.

Speaker 2 And if you think about that for a second, like how many of us are actually willing to change our mind?

Speaker 2 If you take a position and you're...

Speaker 2 you're having

Speaker 2 an intellectual conversation of some sort about any topic, even if it's sports, right? You take a position on a thing and you make your case for that thing.

Speaker 2 How willing are you then to change your mind if

Speaker 2 more accurate information or information is brought to you from a different angle that helps you better understand a problem? Like how willing are you to actually change your mind?

Speaker 2 And how much time do you spend speaking through or thinking through or working through or writing through a problem in which you actually give your mind a chance to counter adjust a course correct off of whatever your initial impression is.

Speaker 2 So I am firmly aware that I was not blessed with tremendous instincts. I just don't have tremendous instincts.
It's just part of who I am. Actually, my wife gives me a hard time about it

Speaker 2 in a joking way, but she's just like, you know, you should take whatever your instinct is and know that that's wrong and just assume the answer is in some other, some other direction.

Speaker 2 And it actually is kind of funny because my first instinct just tends to to be wrong i've just learned that about myself so i've had to develop a process of talking through things that's how i talking or writing through things um i you know if you if you read any like the short essays that i do on instagram or on my on my website like those are really me talking through things that i don't necessarily have clear in my head and i've had people come up to me and they're like man you know you're you're these those little micro articles that you write they're kind of all over the place and and there's a reason for that it's because i'm you most of the time i'm working through something and i just don't have it clear in my head.

Speaker 2 So I'll write something on the topic or around the idea and I'll publish it and I'll let that marinate. And the publishing part kind of like stamps it in my brain.

Speaker 2 And then the next day I'll show up and I'll be still thinking about that topic and I'll work through it in a different angle. And sometimes that, like from one day to the next to the next,

Speaker 2 it'll, you know, I might course correct a couple times, but through that effort, I start to really wrap my head around what I actually believe is the right direction on a particular topic.

Speaker 2 So what I like about Jordan Peterson and what really enamored me to him and his work isn't just that I believe the things that he says. It fits some of my core belief structures as to who I am.

Speaker 2 Not everything he says, but a lot of it, or at least his thought process.

Speaker 2 What really enamored to me to what really enamored me to him as a person was his willingness to change his mind.

Speaker 2 So if you listen to his podcast or interviews that he's done, obviously there's certain things that he's already spent enough time on and it is kind of what he believes.

Speaker 2 But then there are other things that you can tell he's still working through. And if you listen from one episode to the next, you'll hear him, his, his,

Speaker 2 you'll listen to him working it out as he talks.

Speaker 2 So if you were to take, say, a sound bite from even, if he talks for an hour and a half, for the, if you take a sound bite from the first half hour on a topic and a sound bite from the last half hour, they might sound slightly different.

Speaker 2 And you're like, wait a minute, like he said this an hour ago and now he's saying this other thing.

Speaker 2 And the idea is that he is working through the process and that he, he, he got the idea out of his face and verbalized it. It doesn't mean that that's absolutely positively what he believes.

Speaker 2 And I just thought that was a tremendous way to

Speaker 2 to operate as a human. Like just that's a great way to operate in my opinion.
Like I'm willing to change my mind.

Speaker 2 Maybe not on everything,

Speaker 2 but I certainly do not have so much hubris as to believe that I just know what the right answer is.

Speaker 2 And I've already said that I don't trust my first instinct on most things and have a process for working through.

Speaker 2 And I know that if I work through the process, I end up getting to a place where I'm secure or at least fairly secure in what I believe. But I think we always need to be open to new ideas.
And

Speaker 2 I think one of the key key parts of that is this idea of self-reliance and what that means. And that,

Speaker 2 you know, if we,

Speaker 2 I have been able to develop this process in which I eventually get to a place where I am secure and confident in my belief structure because I'm, I, I've, because my process, I, I, I'm confident in that process.

Speaker 2 I'm not confident in my first instinct. I'm not even really confident in,

Speaker 2 you know, my second or third, but I know as as an iterative process, I get to that place. And when I get to that place, I'm okay with people disagreeing with me.

Speaker 2 And because I'm okay with people disagreeing with me, I'm willing to listen to their viewpoint.

Speaker 2 And because I'm willing to listen to their viewpoint, if their viewpoint has merit and it's worth course correcting again, I will.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 that's something that I don't think is unique to me, but it's something that I'm very, if I'm being honest with you, I'm very proud of that I've gotten to that place because it isn't the way that I always was.

Speaker 2 And I think that

Speaker 2 it's something I'm very proud of in my own maturation as both a leader, now a CEO of a company, a growing startup company with very, very big goals and a very big and important mission.

Speaker 2 I feel like this is a strong suit that I have in that role and that even five years ago, I didn't have this characteristic and I wouldn't be able to add as much value to metabolic as

Speaker 2 an executive as I can today

Speaker 2 because of this. So this idea of self-reliance and being secure in my belief, but

Speaker 2 in being secure, and part of being secure

Speaker 2 is that I'm okay with people disagreeing with me and understanding that this path to to to

Speaker 2 to having a clear vision for what you want and where you want to to be and what you believe, that that's hard. And that kind of takes us full circle.
That was an interesting contextual diatribe. But

Speaker 2 that takes us full circle to what I actually wanted to talk about, which is this 20-something page

Speaker 2 8x11 printout stapled copy of Ralph Waldo Emerson's self-reliance that I have been carrying around in

Speaker 2 my bag for like a year and a half now.

Speaker 2 so there's so many quotes in here and I just wanted to share a few of them with you because I think it'll give you just a little bit of context for

Speaker 2 what I hope this show is and what I hope it brings to you and some of the ideas that some of the things I hope you get out of it and the first is probably

Speaker 2 if I were to ever get a tattoo which I don't have one I kind of want one like badly I kind of want a bolt a bunch. I'm always trying to get my wife to get an arm sleeve tattoo.
I don't know why.

Speaker 2 She'll hate me for having said that, but I just think I like it. But

Speaker 2 the very first quote that I underlined and starred, the very first time I read this essay,

Speaker 2 comes in,

Speaker 2 I guess, in this format, the second paragraph, although the paragraphs are very big.

Speaker 2 He writes,

Speaker 2 This is Emerson now. He writes, God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.

Speaker 2 And for some reason,

Speaker 2 in my

Speaker 2 weird scribbled shorthand, that deserved an underline with then a square and then two stars at both ends.

Speaker 2 And the reason is that I think it wraps up

Speaker 2 really,

Speaker 2 it's the crux.

Speaker 2 It's the crux of what we deal with every single day in the work of personal, professional,

Speaker 2 psychological growth. Like as we move forward,

Speaker 2 if improvement in some capacity or

Speaker 2 in some

Speaker 2 framework

Speaker 2 is what we're seeking,

Speaker 2 then cowardice is the antithesis of what's necessary, right? Like

Speaker 2 God,

Speaker 2 in whatever form you want that to be, whether you believe in that it's a white guy on a cross or an ethereal body or whatever that word means to you.

Speaker 2 I like to think of it from a creative standpoint as the muse, right? Because

Speaker 2 I struggle to believe that even if God exists,

Speaker 2 that he or she or it would

Speaker 2 spend a tremendous amount of

Speaker 2 time

Speaker 2 on creativity and just bigger problems to solve. So I'm assuming that there's some sort of senior vice president of creativity and I like to call her the muse.

Speaker 2 Either way,

Speaker 2 God is unwilling. The muse is unwilling.

Speaker 2 To let your work

Speaker 2 have impact

Speaker 2 if that work has not been earned, earned if you haven't pushed through something that was more difficult than you would have expected, if it didn't take blood and sweat and tears and time and resources, and if it didn't frustrate you, and if you didn't find things that you didn't like or didn't work, if people didn't criticize you, or if you didn't have moments of vulnerability, of insecurity, of self-doubt, if those things didn't happen, then

Speaker 2 Why would if you didn't work through that, then what good is the thing that came out the other side? It can't be good because you didn't struggle to to

Speaker 2 understand which edges to sand and which to leave

Speaker 2 and I think I think that's an incredible important idea.

Speaker 2 I think that this podcast in my mind is

Speaker 2 is a rough edge and the beauty is not just by polishing the whole thing, but by understanding the nuances of which which angles to keep and which to save which to which to allow which to give prominence to which to highlight and the only way to get there is to occasionally sand off the wrong ones and to and to and to work through that process and to ask questions and and dive into topics that that maybe you don't always understand where you're going.

Speaker 2 I think that's my favorite part about podcasting is that oftentimes I find someone who feels interesting in some capacity, and then I just start asking them questions and I rarely ever have a path in mind.

Speaker 2 I usually have a couple questions that I'm interested in asking them that I'll write down and I keep a little notepad

Speaker 2 that I'll take notes on as I'm going along.

Speaker 2 Sometimes I'll hear someone say something and I know it's the hook.

Speaker 2 It's the title or whatever. It's the hook of the episode and I'll write that down.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 I rarely ever go into the interviews with a path. So as you're listening to these shows, if I'm 20 some odd minutes into this episode, if you haven't unsubscribed,

Speaker 2 I just want you to know that like, I'm oftentimes kind of surfing the same wave that you are.

Speaker 2 Like I just, I am, I'm, we do the calls via Zoom so I can see the person and watch their reaction and try to have at least some feel for them in terms of their facial expression and how engaged they are.

Speaker 2 and i'm trying to get them to light up and and give me something that's what i'm trying to get them i want them to give me something that they didn't they didn't know that they would give before they came on the show and

Speaker 2 i think i've done that a couple times just in these first few episodes that i've recorded um

Speaker 2 you know even yesterday's episode with justin forcet right like the first the first bit was you know pretty standard there were some things i wanted to talk to him about and hear his hear his story and share his origin story such an an interesting guy.

Speaker 2 So passionate, so driven. I think people like that are

Speaker 2 just interesting in general. Obviously, he's had

Speaker 2 a life worth noting, there's no doubt. To work his way at 5'8 to be a NFL Pro Bowl running back, incredibly

Speaker 2 just a great feat, just something worthy, a worthy feat for sure. But then to transition that into an entrepreneurial life, it's interesting to me.
But when I saw him, he lit up

Speaker 2 and his face lights up. And if you watch the episode on YouTube,

Speaker 2 you'll see it. Like towards the end, I'm like, I said something about something being his superpower.
I can't exactly remember, but I said something about something being his superpower.

Speaker 2 And I could tell that he had thought that before, like, or something around it.

Speaker 2 Maybe he didn't think like it's a superpower, but he had thought like, it's like this, I have a special quality that is this thing.

Speaker 2 And just in some sort of self-reflection, I don't mean that like in a, like in an like in a ego well, but in an ego way, but like he had had that thought.

Speaker 2 And then, man, he had a limited time frame, so we couldn't go too much deeper.

Speaker 2 Like those last like seven, eight minutes, like he kind of like, you could really start to, you could see him, he leans forward, his face lights up, like he's moving around more.

Speaker 2 Like he really started to go.

Speaker 2 And that was, that was in, that made the whole show worthwhile was like having voiced that for him. and I had no plan on saying that.
I wasn't, that wasn't pre,

Speaker 2 um, I hadn't even thought about that. I just was trying to figure this dude out.
Like, obviously, he'd been interviewed a ton.

Speaker 2 Um, he'd, you know, we had talked a couple times in some business deals, but like, I just, um, you know, it's not like we really knew each other that well. So, he was a little guarded.

Speaker 2 And, and just to watch him light up a little bit at the end and really start to dive into who he is and some of the things that, that he had self-reflected on that I thought you guys could get some value out of.

Speaker 2 Man, that's what this is all about.

Speaker 2 That was special. And I think we got some of that out of Marcus, but Marcus is always so willing.

Speaker 2 I think tomorrow's episode with Fanzo, we get some of that out of Fanzo. And even, so

Speaker 2 the episode after Fanzo, episode five, the last episode in this launch sequence, the first five episodes of the show are five days in a row. So we started two days ago and we'll end two days from now.

Speaker 2 Just a launch sequence. And then we kind of go into one to two two episodes a week after that.
But

Speaker 2 even with Matt Phelps, my partner, like at the beginning, he's kind of telling his origin story. And it's really interesting stuff.

Speaker 2 But then towards the end, when we really start to get into leadership and managing people and

Speaker 2 kind of

Speaker 2 what all that means, what it means to him,

Speaker 2 he really,

Speaker 2 I think we take it into fifth gear. And those are those special moments.
And I hope you guys feel them too. If you do, again, hit me with feedback.
Like, I'd love to know, like, like, where do you,

Speaker 2 I would love to know in each show

Speaker 2 if you want, if you're so inclined. I would love for you to give me some feedback on where you see that thing kick into the next gear, where you see that person light up.

Speaker 2 You know, what, when they, when they,

Speaker 2 when they say something that they weren't expecting to say or dive into a topic that maybe they hadn't planned on going into, but are happy they did.

Speaker 2 Like, if that moment happens, I would love to hear when you hear it or if you enjoyed it or if you didn't think that I got there with somebody.

Speaker 2 That's cool too.

Speaker 2 Because

Speaker 2 God will not have his work made manifest by cowards, which means there's only one way to go and it's forward.

Speaker 2 And I think that

Speaker 2 for me, this podcast,

Speaker 2 this is my effort into

Speaker 2 into making some work manifest that maybe I wouldn't otherwise thought was possible. And I'm so, so glad that you're here for this journey.
So,

Speaker 2 you know,

Speaker 2 I read that from Emerson, and then I read it again in Jordan Peterson's book. He says, hard is the point.
To believe that life will allow for anything else is willful ignorance.

Speaker 2 And that line just moves me because what it means is it's no one else's fault that hard is the point.

Speaker 2 Life is supposed to be hard. Life involves pain, but it's overcoming that pain that gives you meaning.
Meaning,

Speaker 2 meaning brings happiness. Happiness is a derivative of finding meaning in your life.
It's not comfort and ease or money.

Speaker 2 It's finding meaning. It's having purpose.
That could be your kids. It could be the relationship with your spouse.

Speaker 2 It could be climbing a mountain. It could be successfully completing a project at work.

Speaker 2 And there's all different levels of meaning and all different types of things could potentially bring meaning to your life.

Speaker 2 And each one of those things has a different level of happiness that is its derivative. And that core idea, that core idea has become so key to my life.

Speaker 2 And the understanding that if If I don't embrace the idea that life is meant to be hard and that overcoming that hardship is the point, then to not believe that is to be willfully ignorant, which means it's ultimately my fault and I cannot blame that anyone else because,

Speaker 2 and this is just another aspect of who I am, I'm a natural excuse maker. I've had to fight very hard, very, very hard, with a lot of help from my wife.

Speaker 2 She holds me very accountable to this, and at first I didn't appreciate it, but I've come to, as we've matured in our own relationship, that excuses are the opposite of everything that I want to be as a person.

Speaker 2 So I try to embrace every day how hard it is to get the things done that we want to get done and

Speaker 2 to appreciate when we overcome something that was worth surmounting. So guys, I don't know if this is interesting to you, fun, or whatever.
I just wanted to take some time with you one-on-one.

Speaker 2 So if you're, if you've followed my journey for a while, maybe you kind of are aware of some of the things that I've said and who I am.

Speaker 2 If we've never met before and this is the first time and you think this is cool, well then you're in the right place.

Speaker 2 If you don't think it's cool and this was boring as hell, then

Speaker 2 I get that too. It's all good.
But hopefully you'll give me one more shot and listen to that

Speaker 2 fanzo interview tomorrow and then my interview with my founder and partner, Matt Phelps. Those are two really good ones.
And then we get into some even more interesting stuff as we go.

Speaker 2 So with all that and with the idea that we've been talking for a while now, I want to leave you this one final quote from Emerson that I think it's just really powerful and I hope you hold it in your mind for just a few seconds, a few minutes.

Speaker 2 Just think on it. Hold it in your mind and see if anything happens.

Speaker 2 It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion. It is easy in solitude to live after our own.

Speaker 2 But the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Speaker 2 I hope that that helps. I hope that this work helps.
And I'm very, very, very

Speaker 2 happy that you're here. I love you for being here.
I'm out.

Speaker 5 Peace.

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Speaker 9 Hey, it's Parker Posey. How did I get here? I love improvisation when it comes to acting, but when it comes to a real-life plan, I stick to a script.

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