Playing The Long Game: My #1 Advice on "Making It"
This motivational episode will help you strengthen your mindset for long-term success. You will learn what separates those who do from those who don't. You will take away a key mantra to help you keep pursuing your dreams when things get tough. I hope this empowers your path forward!
GIFT FOR YOU
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Music Credit: Nova by River Roots - https://www.youtube.com/riverroots
Podcast Transcript
Welcome to another episode of the Art and Business of Meditation podcast. I am your host, Lou Redmond. And what I do here, what I attempt to do here, is to share my experience, my interests, my musings around how do we make our soul work? How do we bring the thing that we love to put our energy towards? How do we bring that to fruition? How do we make a living from that? How do we thrive so that we can continue to expand our impact, so that we have the resources to move our finances into the places that we, we care about that are in our hearts? And I'm coming at this from almost nine years, or more than nine years actually, of doing, attempting to do this work. It didn't always work out. And today's solo episode is going to be a bit about my philosophy when it comes to how do we make it? What is making it mean? Before I get into sharing about the content, I also want to share a meta example of this episode. And this theme is actually something that is also living as a newsletter that I sent out. And it's going to feel a lot different. It's going to be a lot different on this podcast because I'm also going to riff and rant and ramble. When I'm writing a newsletter, I get really tight and make sure I just kind of get, you know, writing points. But for podcasts, I'm going to be a little different because I can add in a little bit more flair here. And I say that not to say, well, Lou, you're just lazy and you don't want to create new content for the podcast. No, it's to say and encourage you when you have your content, to think about the other places that it could live and how would it live in the other places. So this is also probably going to be something that I share and create for insight Timer. I'll probably rerecord it and do it in a way that's more intentional for that audience. But at the end of the day, it's one piece of content that I am using in different areas that different people are going to engage with. And that even if you are on my newsletter already and you're hearing this for a second time, this is how we learn, is to continue to get reinforcement of ideas and to hear it in a different way sometimes. So if you're not on my newsletter, please go, go, go, go do that because that's where I love sharing@louredmond.com and for today's topic. So when I started, this idea was actually I had just run a half marathon in Washington D.C. and I was staying down with some family that live in the area for the next couple days. And so I got out to a coffee shop, which I love. My favorite thing in the world is waking up early and going to a coffee shop and having my coffee journaling and just having this quiet time to write and work on a creative project. It makes me so deeply fulfilled and connected and there's just so much good creative energy in that. And I love exploring new coffee shop. So depending on the city I've been to, I likely know where the best coffee shops are. And so I went to one that I had been to before eight years ago. If you listen to this podcast, you hear an episode where I share my story of the ways that I was able to make money while I was pursuing this work. And I was down in Virginia on one of these trips, was able to stay with family and I would go to the coffee shop and at the time I was still doing my revisions with my book editor and we were going back and forth and here I am about eight years later at the same coffee shop and this real moment of wow, I'm doing what I wanted to do. I quote unquote made it. And I asked myself, well, what's the reward for making it? And it's really more of this. More moments, spending time engaging in something with my heart, tapping into creativity, tapping into flow. That's the reward that we get. The money helps us to continue, right? It's I have more time to do this because you don't have to worry about how do I pay my bills, which will take you away from having the time to do this, right? So the reward is really getting more opportunity to do this work. And of course I have goals. I want to make more money, I want to grow, I want to have a best selling book. I want to do all these things that authors and creators want to do. All of this is going to be nice, but it is the effect, not the cause. Say that again. It is the effect, not the cause. Meaning I'm not doing this work because I want to get somewhere later that I think I will be more fulfilled or happy. It's I am doing work that is making me fulfilled and happy. Thus the effect is going to be the success. The effect is going to be the good things that come from it. And in that the journey is fulfilling in itself. When you do things for their own sake. The outer successes are simply mile markers that show you how far you've come in that half marathon that I mentioned, running has been a fun thing that has opened up for me in the last year. I've always been a runner, but I've never really done races and trained for things. And so it's been a little different energy around it. And I had a goal that I wanted to run this half marathon in 8 minute miles and I surpassed it by like 40 seconds. Something about the adrenaline of the race must have kicked me up and what felt really good about it. And now what? Now I get to do it again. And you have a different goal, right? But it's never about getting to the goal. Who cares how fast you go? No one cares. Literally no one cares besides me. And that's okay because I'm doing it for me. And it's the process of training that is the reward. And so the work that you're doing, why you're listening to this podcast, whatever that reason is, be willing to do it for the long game. Be willing to do it for the long game. You might have to try a lot of things, you might have to pivot. You might think it's one thing, but then learn that your path takes you in another thing. But you had to start walking it. And so holding things lightly, you might start out thinking that you're just, I'm going to do one on one coaching. Then all of a sudden this other opportunity and you're creating reels for some company, freelance or something, and actually you love this thing. I'm not saying that that's going to happen, but we got to take those first steps. Be willing to pivot, be willing to change. And if it's something that you want to do 20 or 30 or 40 years down the road, then taking 5 and 10 of doing work that actually you care about, figuring it out, having a lot of failures, having a lot of experience. If it didn't take me four years to figure it out and have a lot of failures and experience, there's no way I would have wanted to do this podcast. I wouldn't care that much about this if I just had easy success. And so we don't know why it's taking so long. We don't understand that we have our own timing. Which is why my number one advice to anyone attempting to make a living doing what they love is stay in the game. That's it. Stay in the game. It's so simple. So simple. Another way to say it is don't give up. Just, just, just keep going. And I laugh and I, I'm sorry if it Comes off arrogant or whatever. But if this is something you want to do for your life, five, ten years of figuring it out is not that long. We go to college for four years to get this degree so that we can go do something. Think of it like another college education and then a graduate degree. If it takes 10 years and you have so much more experience, if that is the case, there's so much that you can draw upon. If it doesn't work out for 10 years, man, like, that's amazing. Would be amazing. The problem is people don't have that patience. They want their work, their new work, their soul's work to replace their corporate salary in the first year. And it's just unreasonable. And it's antithetical to the whole point of doing fulfilling work, which is to do fulfilling work. You're getting out of the thing that you don't want to do, to do the thing that you do want to do. Give it some time. Now I get some of you listening, maybe are thinking about leaving corporate salaries and you might have more than just you to think about. So I am aware that when I quit my corporate job, I didn't have a kid, I didn't have a family. It was a lot easier to navigate that. So very aware. I'm not saying that you need to quit your corporate job necessarily. You can start working on this in the side. And I recognize some of you maybe have higher paying corporate jobs than I did. I was lucky, so lucky that I quit a $40,000 a year corporate job. I didn't quit a $140,000 a year corporate job. And that has helped keep my financial ceiling pretty low to begin with. And so I've kind of took that and just continued to grow. So I haven't had the experience of now I'm making 140 to now I'm making 40 and having to flex that different lifestyle. So I hear you. I'm empathetic to that being the case. And money is not the only currency, meaning the value. If you can shift that lifestyle, at least in the beginning, the thing is, you're shifting it in the beginning. And then once you have leverage, you can not only make 140, but 240, 340. There's no ceiling in corporate. There's a ceiling, right? You have to kind of work the ladder. But when you have your own business, when you start to create leverage in different ways, when you start to keep having these values, when you have the income that can be made passively, the ceiling is opened up. So there's also understanding that. And it's going to take some time to build the foundation to water the seed so that something can grow to that level. And so if you don't see yourself in it for that long game, then you're not going to make it. I know that sounds harsh, but if a bamboo tree seed thinks it's going to grow in the first month or three months, it's not going to. It's just not going to happen because there's a specific universal timing to when that thing actually grows and spurts out of the ground. And so you, you know, to, to, to combat this, nothing you need to combat it. I don't even know what you're combating. But to work with this, you have to love the process. You really have to love it. And I hope you do, because that's the way you're listening to this. Because if you don't love it, it's going to be so easy to just give up. Just, this is tough. This is hard. You have to really face a lot of emotional ups and downs. And that's part, that's part and parcel for this journey. And so I really just want to encourage you that this, the main intention of this message is to encourage you to stay in it. Wherever you are, just stay in it. Just keep going. Just don't give up. Just stay in the game. Remember this mantra. When things get tough, stay in the game. Now, the other intention with sharing this message is that for me, this work wouldn't have come out if I wasn't around. Other people that were also thinking like I was, were also seeing the possibilities, believing in themselves that they could create a business, that they could create a life that was truly meaningful and aligned. That being around those people, especially in the early age, was so important. And I was lucky that I had this group. But I ended up leaving this group because I had moved away. And from about 2017 to only just recently, I didn't have that same sort of support. And I wish I had a group of meditation teachers and spiritual entrepreneurs that I could connect with and be with on a regular basis. And I just think it would have been the thing that really I needed at the time. Because this is a solo journey. This is a solo journey. And especially before COVID when you work alone at home, man, that could feel really isolating. And so having some kind of community, having some place where you can learn from others is something I wish I had at, at this specific juncture. It was so powerful for me in the beginning. I Wish I had it. And so you know what? I created it. I created it with my peers and I'm creating it with up and coming meditation teachers and wellness coaches, spiritual guides, practitioners, therapists. If you have in the healing or wellness or just creative realms, if you consider yourself a spiritual creator, if you consider yourself someone who has gifts to share with the world, probably are, because you wouldn't be listening to a podcast on the art and business of meditation, at least this far into this ramble, then I want to invite you to the Meraki Mastermind. Meraki is a Greek word that stands for doing something with passion, love and soul. Putting an essence of who you are into what you do. And man, this has been the most incredible offering that I've had. I look forward to every week with these people. It is so fulfilling. It is so fun to have this space with 12 other people talking about their work, talking about business ideas. I bring in some guest experts on to share their wisdom and for people to ask questions. We have accountability challenges, we have creativity challenges, we hold each other up and that's really the power of a mastermind group. And so if you're looking for a community of like hearted spiritual entrepreneurs, I think you'll really love this group. The next cohort will begin in May and it's a small group and luckily most nearly everyone who's already in the group is staying in the group. So it's kind of, it's weird because it's cohort based, but members can continue their membership if they like. And luckily mostly everyone is continuing their membership, which means there's not a lot of space left. If you want to be someone who joins this group and if it calls to you, please send me an email, send me a message through my website, or you can just shoot me@louredmond.com and I want to hear from you and what calls to you about potentially being in this group. It would be an honor to have you. If it calls to you, we can share more about what it looks like and the details and I think that is it. Friends, thanks for listening. Stay in the game. I appreciate you. I look forward to chatting with you again very soon. Take care. Oh, and before you take off, if you're interested in a free meditation script writing course, you can click the link below on this podcast episode. It'll take you to this course called Meditation Script Mastery and it's really to help you give you ideas for new meditations, creative meditations, meditations that people are going to love and it's going to set you apart from every other meditation teacher who's doing meditation. So it's totally free. I'd love for you to sign up. If you haven't, check that out. And alas, if you like this podcast, please leave a review. It helps juice the algorithm a little bit, gives it one more note of notoriety, helps other people be like, okay, this thing is legit and I want to listen to it. So if you get any value out of it, I deeply appreciate if you take the time to write that review. Thanks so much and I'll see you next time.