The Danger of Leaving Well Alone
Is there a danger in leaving well enough alone? What’s the downside to maintaining the status quo? George G shares his perspective on the importance of thinking big!
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About the Episode
Is there a danger in leaving well enough alone? What’s the downside to maintaining the status quo? Are you leaving something on the table? George G shares his perspective on the importance of thinking big!
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Episode Transcript
All right, let’s go. Today’s letter comes from little Mario, little Mario writes Dear George, gee, would you rather Let’s go? Let’s go. I love playing. Would you rather? Would you rather have too much or not enough? I feel like the obvious answer is I’d rather have too much. But it of course, depends. It of course, depends on what it is that we are talking about. I’d rather have too much money versus not enough money. I’d rather have too much time versus not enough time, I’d rather have too much energy versus not enough energy. It’s not true. My children. I wonder, just in small bites, I’d rather have them say right around bedtime have not enough energy. But obviously, I want them to have a lot of energy and to be energetic and to do all those things. So that’s a great question. It’s good thought exercise, little Mario would rather have too much or not enough. Have you ever heard the saying, shoot for the moon, and you’ll land among the stars? What about shoot for four houses down? And you’ll end up right where you are. I don’t know if that’s a correct dichotomy or if that’s the right term or not, but certainly the idea being that you might as well have great big goals. Because even if you don’t hit your great big goal, you’re going to end up in a pretty good place. Versus if you’re, if the goal you’re shooting for is pretty, pretty low. Then what’s the point? So you’re not going to when you do come up a little bit short? You’re gonna end up right back where you were. Okay, so still workshopping that one a little bit later. If you shoot for four houses down and up in your driveway, labor, we’re getting close to with that feel like you understand what I’m trying to say, shoot for the moon, land among the stars, sir Jermaine a little more than to what you’re talking about. Would you rather have too much or too little? And I guess, fundamentally, there is a danger. There’s a danger to small unlimited thinking. Which, you know, you know, but just because you know, doesn’t mean you’re not doing it. And, you know, I know that. It’s because I have been guilty of this. Certainly many times thinking small, limited thinking, small thinking, selling myself short, not giving myself enough credit. I could probably go on like this for a little while. Where do you think you’re playing small? Where do you think your thinking is limited? Where have you sold yourself out? rationalized away, why the things you want are not what you have, and you stopped going after them. That’s sucks. That’s not a happy place to be. And I hope that you’re not there. I hope that there’s nothing in your life. There’s not a single area in your life, where you’re playing small, where you’ve resigned yourself, to keeping things to where they are. And it’s easy to do. It’s understandable even, it’s easily understandable or it’s understandably easy. Why it is that we do that. That’s what I want to talk about today. So you Aim small, you get small. This shows up in every aspect of life, it shows up in how much money you earn shows up in how much money you save, it can show up and how much money you invest can then show up and how much money you give. It could show up in the work that you do your vocation, your career, your job, starting a business, you think small and it keeps you from doing that. So fundamentally, when we think small, it is wrecking our ultimate potential. And that is just not acceptable. Think about how many Americans are unhappy with their work. They’re not engaged in their work and a pretty large percentage is actually disengaged in their work. And what a massive bummer that is. So we are stuck. We stay stuck in a dead end job. Why? Because the security because just what we do, because we got bills to pay are sort of trapped. Woof. I get it. I get it. I understand. So but then it shows up just sort of limited thinking box thinking. I don’t know what the right term is. I think a great metaphor for it is the way that we used to buy cars. We used to buy cars, at least I did. Because you go to the car lot, right? You go to the dealership and you end up walking out 500 hours later with something that they had on the lot As crazy as that, that’s as limited as it gets. You’re buying a house in Kankakee or you’re buying a car in Kankakee, Illinois. And you go to the Toyota dealership in Kankakee, Kankakee Toyota, I think it’s called and ended up with a, you know, 2022. Three s that’s, you know, silver? Because that’s what they had. Did you know what you wanted going in? I wonder what interesting psychology that is. But that’s just the very essence of extremely limited instead of looking at the entire universe of vehicles, which we can do now, through all these wonderful companies that have sort of, not sort of, they’ve really revolutionized the way we buy vehicles. It’s just preposterous that you would think the only thing I have access to is what is on this acre lot in the town that I live in. So not the case anymore. Anyway. So it’s a fascinating thing. It’s preposterous. It’s all around us. limited thinking is all around us. And it’s not a surprise, we’ve got so much going on. We’ve got so much to manage. And I think we’ve got a big problem. And that big problem is the problem with well enough. The problem with well enough the problem with leaving well enough, alone, I bet you’ve got so much going on. I bet low Mario is so much going on. I know. I have so much going on. We are inundated with just life. We’re drowning in information. We’ve got so many masters to serve. I’ve got personal needs that must be met. I’ve got family obligations and family desires and community obligations and desires and wants. I’ve got to make it to the gym somehow today. I’m supposed to be meditating right now. Got fucking email coming out of my ears. I’ve got deadlines. Got my kids game. I’ve got this thing. I’m hungry. I’m horny. I’m tired. I’m burned out. I just I just can’t right now. Oh, and war in the Middle East and Ukraine. Did you hear what Trump said? Do you see Biden fall off that bike? Holy shit. I’m just gonna leave well enough alone. Just gonna leave it alone. things the way they are. It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s gonna get to the next day. So it’s easy to happen. Then you rationalize your life way. But I’ll make sense. Because of everything I just laid out. I’m here because of all that stuff. We’re here because of all that stuff. What do you expect from me? Some level, it’s a diffusion of responsibility. And it’s a failure of prioritization. When nothing is the most important thing. Well, nothing, then is the most important thing. We’re numb. That numbness is causing us to lose sight of what matters of what truly matters. But fret not. Dear listener, I have good news. I’m here to tell you what truly matters. Personal safety matters. The rule of law matters. Safe parks and schools matter. Clean Water matters. Financial security matters. When we’re broken in debt, not much else matters. Our health matters. When you’re sick, you really only want one other thing. Let’s not be sick anymore. And you’re obese, you don’t want to be obese anymore. Those are the things that matter. strip everything else away, hit delete on everything. We’ll send it back to you if it’s super important. That’s the stuff that matters. I was listening to up and coming political star Vivek Ramaswamy. And Vivek is obviously a very successful businessman, successful individual, successful human being. I find them to be really interesting and energetic and fascinating. Really, he’s a smart guy. And you have to like him or not to appreciate that. He’s an intelligent individual who has risen to prominence and achieved, levels of financial success that very, very few human beings have are well, and now is very much active on the political stage. He might even be, who knows? Who knows what’s important about this is I listen to listen to an interview with him. And he was talking about how he believes that it takes as much effort to do something small as it does to do something big. So I thought, well, that’s really interesting. So why not do something big? It takes same amount of energy to do something small as just the big why not do something big? Why not have really really big goals? Why not Expand your horizon
I gotta give Grant Cardone credit. You know, Grant Cardone is the 10x guy, as much as I dislike him and do find them to be irritating. He’s certainly having a positive impact on lots of people. And by he’s doing it by expanding the horizon by telling them, stop playing small, play big, whatever your goals are 10x them. So that’s not a bit of positive thing. I think that that’s awesome. Shoot for the moon, you land among the stars kind of thing. So there’s a lot going on here. But here’s a bottom line. Figure out matters, figure out what matters. start treating that thing like it matters. Determine what the most important thing is, and treat it as the most important thing. The main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing you ever heard that the main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing. Don’t let other crap creep in. Figure out what matters what is most important. Make sure that you are doing everything that you need to in service of what matters. We need to I need to stop majoring in minor things. Stop giving your attention and your energy, your time to stuff that doesn’t matter. There’s so much bullshit out there. So many bullshit artists, we’re interested in extracting your most valuable resources, we can’t do that. So keep the main thing, the main thing, stop major and minor things. Those are all the niceties or sayings that I have. Once you know what the most important things are, go all in on those things. Think bigger. Take bigger, massive action in service of getting those things and embrace the grind. Top of mind, keep top of mind how you’ll feel when you have what you want. Financial security, how is financial security going to make you feel once you have it? Once you’re out of debt. You’ve got cash, you’re saving and investing for your future. How’s that gonna feel? Pretty great. It’s gonna feel awesome. How is that going to impact the people that you care for? Big time. Then get to work. Almost finally, I think you should take Oscar Wilde’s advice. We are all in the gutter. Some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde, what a thoughtful, profound human being he was. And his words live on today. We’re all in the gutter. But some of us are looking at the stars. It’s true. We’re all going through a lot of BS. And certainly from perspective building perspective. What we have here in the United States, in most places is way better than most people have across the world. So keep that in perspective. Finally, friendly reminder. Never going to be anybody more interested in your financial success than you are. So act accordingly.
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