916: The ONE Question That Will Make Your Future Easier.

Today, I am rocking out of Shane Parrish's Book, "Clear Thinking." (We all need clearer thinking :) He made a statement that set the course for this episode, "There's ALWAYS something you can do TODAY to make your future easier."

What can you do? Click play to learn how. Let's get it! 

Transcript

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All right. 3, 2, 1. Let's do this. Welcome to another episode of What's Your Problem, the podcast. I'm your host, Marsh Buice if you've been here a time or 10, welcome back. If this is your first time here, I hope it leaves a good enough impression, so that way you'll come back to us and join us in the future. These episodes are not here to, uh, be long and drawn out. We're here to get you in, get you out, and get you on with your life. So these episodes are normally about 15, 20 minutes. And I just share something of daily insight. I'm not here to give you any sort of advice. This just kind of sets the sale for me and in hopes of me sharing something with you, I just leave it behind. I just happen to record it. Uh, so that way as an affirmation, I can go back and listen to it, uh, in the future sometimes when I'm a little bit out of sorts outta kilter. Uh, then I can go back and listen to these episodes. So that's why I leave them behind, not only for me, but also I'll leave them behind because I feel like if I'm going through something, then someone else out there is going through something too. Um, we've been doing this since 2017. It started off as the sales life, and I do believe that selling is a life skill. Um, but I rebranded it to what's your problem and what's your problem? The podcast centers on the three universal problems we all face. Adversity, uncertainty, and complacency. That's the three things that are never going to go away, and it doesn't matter how much money you got in the bank, it doesn't matter how fit you are. It doesn't matter how rocking of a relationship that you have. There's three things, man, that are gonna always come at you, and that's adversity, uncertainty and complacency. And so that's the premise. That's the core. Even though I may not talk about per se. Today we're gonna talk about adversity. Today we're gonna talk about uncertainty. Today we're gonna talk about complacency, but it's the core message within all of these kind of different things. And this one would probably. Center on all three of 'em. Adversity, uncertainty, and complacency. And I got this motivation from this inspiration, I should say, uh, from today's episode from Shane Parrish's book, clear Thinking. And it's a book that I've read, uh, a couple of times I've shared in previous episodes, different snippets, but it was something that really resonated with me. And I just, I wanna share with you in hopes of. Hopefully that you can get an easier future. I mean, that's, that's the, that's the clickbait. Do you want an easier future? Of course you do. Well, there's one question that can put you and me in a position for an easier future. He writes, there's always something that you can do today. To make the future easier. Let me repeat that. It's so simple, but it's profound. There is always something, you're not out of sorts. You haven't lost. You may be losing, but you haven't lost. There's always something you can do today to make your future easier. And the problem is we want today easier and we want the future easier, and it just doesn't work that way. The moment that you stop complaining. Is the moment that you start trying to find the answer. I mean, if you think about you just replay your day, day in and day out. Think about how many things that you actually complain about. Think about how many things that you just say, it's not my fault. You don't understand my situation. I mean, we, we, we do this. We're all guilty of these things. So you're in great company here, but when you take ownership by asking one simple question. You can begin to put yourself in a position to make your future easier. The simple and effective question is, will this action? So in other words, you're about to, you're about to do something. Will this action make the future easier or harder? For me, it's that simple. But think about that. If you replayed different scenarios, you go back six months, you go back a year, you go back a decade in your life and think about when you got to these different crossroads in your life. You just simply ask yourself, Hey, if I'm gonna do this, if I'm gonna take this action, if I'm gonna make this decision, am I setting myself for, for a harder future or an easier one? If the answer's harder, you stay away from it. If it's easier, you go ahead and go with it. Whatever situation that you find yourself in today, and again, we're all in great company. Your money may be funny. You may feel like that you just kind of got stagnant at work, or people are starting to lap you. They're starting to pass you by. You don't feel as productive as you once did. Maybe that your weight's crept up on you. I mean, maybe your relationship is just kind of soured. There's always something you can do today to make your future easier. And so whatever situation that you find yourself in today, it wasn't all of a sudden it was a culmination of these little slights here and there, these tiny decisions. Had we paused, took a mental knee and said, if I'm, if I take this action, is this gonna make things easier or harder for me in the future? In other words, if I don't have this conversation, I gotta confront this situation. If I don't have this tough conversation right now, if avoiding it. Is it gonna be easier for me in the future? Or is it gonna be harder if I go ahead and swipe this credit card because I want a new pair of designer shoes. Am I making my future harder or easier? Because what's gonna happen is, is you're gonna mortgage your future, you're taking from your future, so that way you can pacify your emotions. Now, if I go ahead and smash this seafood platter, am I gonna make things harder for me in the future or easier? Obviously it's an obvious answer and sometimes, bro, that's just not, that's just not the question that we want to ask. We wanna live in the moment, right? But living in the moment sometimes is what sets things up for harder times later. See, you can play now, pay later, or you could pay now, play later. But the choice is yours. But the choice that you make and the decisions that you start to take are not as, as are not as hard as you actually think. You just have to win decisions and not give any of your results back, and you just hold the line on that. And every time you come to something that you begin to kind of negotiate with yourself, you sit here and say. If I'm gonna do this, is this gonna be harder or easier for me? If I, if I wanna buy another round of drinks, is it gonna be easier for me to wake up in the morning or harder? And then it just dominoes you. You drink too much, you eat too much, you wake up late, you behind the eight ball. It happens. We've all been there. But I just wanna bring this awareness to you that if you will just ask this simple question now. You will set yourself up for an easier future. Now, I'm not sitting here saying that your future is going to be straight roads. I'm not saying that all the dots are gonna be connected, that all the questions are gonna be answered, that you know with certainty. I'm not saying that at all. It's not gonna all be rainbow blow pops and unicorns not that way at all. But what happens is, is you can free yourself mentally and physically of extra baggage. That what we do is because we want the comfort now, and we'll just deal with that later if you will. Begin to ask this question and stray away from the harder things mortgaging your future. I wanna make things hard now so I can put myself in position for an easier future. When things come, the uncertainty comes in the future. Think about this with me, when things come to you in the future. It may be challenging, it may be hard, but because I'm not carrying on excess baggage of bullshit decisions that I made in the past because I just had to have it right then and there, then I'm able to, I'm lighter. I'm clearer, I'm quicker, and I'm not having to work out of a deficit from 10 days, 10 years, 10 weeks ago. I'm not having to work out of that. Because I'm lighter, because I've, I, I've made the hard decisions right then and there. I've resisted because I wanna set myself up for an easier future when challenges come in the future, instead of me complaining about it, which is what everybody does, 'cause they got all this excess baggage. I can pivot, I can make the necessary adjustments and I can just adjust for the way. Life is simple. We just, it's not easy, but we just make things super complicated. We make things hard, and I get it. You've had a long day.. It is been a, a tough month, It's been a tough life. all kind of situations. We always want these parades, but sometimes man, these parades and these pats that we have on the back. They're too long. Asking yourself these questions. Am I mortgaging my future? Am I stealing from my future because I want it now? I mean, go in your closet and look at all the things you had to have back then. They ain't worth it now. You're gonna drop 'em off the goodwill. As a matter of fact, right behind this chair, you can see a hanger sticking out. Those of you who are watching on YouTube, these are suits, custom made suits that I, that I had made. I don't even wear 'em anymore. They're outdated, and I just had to have 'em. And guess what? I put 'em all on a credit card and I made things so hard for me that I had to work out of it. You never wanna have to work out of anything. You just make the decision. And then you move on and lemme tell you something. Discipline is a muscle, discipline is a practice. It's a bad word sometimes.'cause people are like, bro, I'm just not that disciplined it's not as hard as we think it is. It's just that we don't ask that simple question. If you want to be better at anything in life, your faith. Your family, your fitness, your finances, your fulfillment., just pause and ask this simple question today. Is this action gonna make my future easier or harder? Based on the answer, go with it. Before I get outta here, I just want to thank you for listening to today's episode. If this resonated with you, please share it with someone else. I. And I hope that you will subscribe and come back to us in the future. All right? As we always say, my daughter said the other day, she was telling her friend, she's like, dad, what's that? You always say, keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough. That's the mantra that I live by every single day. Keep it simple. Don't, don't make things over. Oversimplify your life. Keep it moving when you slip up. Learn from it. Keep going. Never settle , never arrive, always be learning. Always be climbing and stay tough. Tough situations are gonna come, but put yourself in position where when tough situations come, bro, you don't have all that excess baggage you gotta deal with. Just begin to shed those things. It's not an overnight situation. It is over time. But don't make things harder on yourself. You can cauterize it right now. Boom. No more I'm gonna ask myself today, moving forward, when I get in these cross airs, when I try to negotiate with myself, am I making things harder or simpler for me? As always, keep it simple, keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough, peace.