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Most people spend their entire lives dressed without ever giving a single thought as to what it is they really want and what's important. I used to live the way to come up with them, and I hate it. As a result, I am my own coffee company. I'm just not a little bit. But it starts within a few months, and it starts within this. One line. Hi guys, Donnie Rouse here, and uh this one I'm titling 2020. So 2020, if you've heard that term before, likely it's going to remind you of your vision. And the point of this episode here, or this rant I'm about to go on, is to for you to acknowledge how far you've come in going to attain your goals. It's very easy to fall in the habit of focusing too much on the outcome while not enjoying the journey. If I'm honest with you, um, this has been kind of a challenge for me in the last uh like few months, maybe even longer than that, because I've been so focused on making some shifts in my life. And that I feel like I've been forcing not enjoying the entire process of it. So let's look at your life. Like, where what is a goal that you have been aiming towards? Where you feel like sometimes like you know, that that torch is lit, but all of a sudden the torch is dimmed or has gone out. And maybe you feel like you're lost, like you're not really sure which way forward. Like, think of that goal. And then next, like, let's look back at everything that's happened over the past one month, three months, six months, year, three years plus. What actions have you taken and where have you made progress? And the last part is just highlighting, so we acknowledging where exactly you have made the progress. Because it's it's when you're in the thick of it, it's very difficult to see any progress being made. But when you actually take a step back and look at it and say, okay, well, you know, where I am today, like how has this shaped where I'm going? And and maybe it's very much it could the possibility that maybe you've been going down the wrong path, in which case it is very still very good to look back and say, okay, well, what can I learn from this what's happened? The reason for this post today is I had some of that reflection on my own life. Because over you know, the last few months have felt like a whirlwind because there's a lot of major change happening in my life. And part of that is my own doing because I used to say, like, I may not be able to do everything, but at least I can try. And I'm slowly realizing that the power of focus is, you know, not just focus on what it is that you want, but focus on three things max, because otherwise you start to water down your efforts. I I've tried to resist this one for a very long time. But as a result, I felt like I wasn't making any progress. I felt like I was stuck. But when I did this process of looking back over even just the last like couple months of my life, I realized that I was actually making some major strides. And while I I keep looking and I want the the end result to be here, I was taking steps in that and I was holding that vision. I'll give you the examples of it. So the first thing was uh my my coffee business. My roasted coffee, it is it had been a goal of mine to let go of the roasting process. Now, this had been extremely difficult for me because I'm like, well, who is gonna do it the way I want to do it? Right. I I mean, every roast, I mean, there's just so many variables to control. And I wasn't willing to give up control, I should say, or the process, because I'm like, well, no one's gonna do it, no one's gonna pay that attention that I do to it. When I move roasteries, I move to a roaster now that has the capability to uh to profile and literally read recipes meaning. I create a recipe curve or I manually roast, it records the process that I'm doing, and then it will replicate that. But the problem was that when I was doing this, none of the replicated roast ever came out like the first roast, like the manual roast. And as a result, it left me like, I'm just like, what I I couldn't, I was racking my head because I wasn't like I while I was happy enough to put the product out there because I know it was good enough, but I know I have very, very high standards in terms of what I put out, and I wanted to match so bad that that that first roast, but often it would never match that first roast. And if I'm honest with you, I was also very reluctant to relinquish control to the computer. So for instance, I had this computer and it would be running this recipe profile that I created. But then towards like the end of the roast, I would manually like press the button, I would manually jump in and manipulate the last part of the roast. Again, as you would imagine, like that if I'm constantly manipulating, if I'm constantly going in and manually doing it, there's no way I could automate it. And then there was a shift. So I learned a piece of the software I was using. I learned, I got a new computer so this way I could learn and practice with the software and creating the rest of the the recipes that my coffee follows. And then this past uh this past week, I roasted all the coffees, the first time that I had ever done it completely automated. And I was talking with uh Andrew, a friend of mine, who was who was operating the machine. And I was, you know what, this is actually a quite a big shift. He's like, Well, you know, why? I was like, because I'd been, if you understand, like I'd been fighting this for the longest time, and I'd been so critical about like every single aspect of the roast that I was, you know, the fact that I'm here and I'm relinquishing control and just trusting the in the process is is huge. And he said, Well, and then he he continued to question me further. And I said, Well, you know, I I guess I looked at it this way. I looked at it as like a not a zero-sum game. That's not the right terminology I want to use, but I was thinking, well, I said, what the hell do I have to lose? Like, if I know that this is my old, like this is the vision I'm looking for. In this case, my vision was to have my roast completely automated, where I can just tweak a recipe, send it, upload it, have my coffee roasted, bagged, and shipped. That was the goal. And the step I needed to do was to automate my, you know, to test out all these new recipes that I created and to automate it. So when I when I thought of it, I was like, listen, well, this is where I want to go. The only way I'm gonna get there is to actually run the process. And I was like, you know what? If the roasts come, if they were to come out horrible, like worst case scenario, I would literally dump all that coffee. All that coffee would have been uh somewhere the equivalent of like maybe a thousand dollars or something like that. But whatever, right? And if I look back at every major advancement that I had I had made in my business, you know, with uh with my beverage and which is still an ongoing, ongoing project, and the coffee, there's always been a cost, and I had to be willing to accept that cost for the sake of advancement, for the sake of learning. Thankfully, the coffee came really, really, really good. And um as a result of just taking that step, I the biggest satisfaction that I got out of this week was not even the fact that the coffee gave good, but was the fact that I let go of control and I took the next step. Now, prior to this episode here, uh prior, you know, this recording right now, I wasn't acknowledging the path that I had taken. I wasn't acknowledging the journey. But when I look back, now I'm like, man, all of this stuff was like happened for a reason. Even just the all the tests I had done, like it was literally building a knowledge base for me. Um, give you one more example. So, in moving to Miami, so this November, I am gonna be moving to Miami. If you're afraid of not getting your coffee, don't worry, you'll have it. Um, I am gonna be coming back, I'll have someone filling my orders for my roasted coffee as well as for my Cold Roman. And I'll be coming back once a month to uh make coffee purchases, to do some brewing for the Cold Roman. But this decision to do it came at a time where I was uh felt very like I like I was on unstable footing. Like the this next step would require me to make a big jump. I had been in Connecticut my entire life. And there was a desire for me not just to try living in another place, but to have the ability to live in multiple places, meaning like if I want to live in Asia, if I want to go different places, like have the ability to spend blocks of time in different areas. And the first, so what I saw in my mind of the next step was was moving to Miami close enough where I could still manage and get everything kind of in order with regard to my business. But also it was the it was just kind of like it was safe enough to to step over and say, okay, well, let me see how this feels. Get away. I'm like two and a half hours away from home. I could always fly back if something is needed. But let's see how it feels. And then from there, then you know, going forward, I could start doing moving in other places. So it was just another step. And again, as a result of reflection, I was looking back because, well, this is in a way, this is me building the foundation for that castle in the sky. Right? The the castle is any goal you have. And in order to get that or in it and achieve that goal, you got to build the structure underneath that will support it. That's all the work. That's like putting in your time. So I realize that this step, while I'm like, well, man, I still don't have, you know, I'm still not living in the in the places I want to, like, I still not, I still don't get the opportunity to, I'm not living in Turkey for three months or Italy, because I have these very, very uh strong desires to live multiple places in the world. But it but it's not my reality currently. But realizing that this is a step in that direction actually made me acknowledge the just the courageous action that I've had to take to get to this point. So I and then looking combine that with the you know, with the coffee roasting. These are all steps to building the foundation for my castle. And I'll go back to that castle analogy because I think it's one of the most powerful metaphors that I've heard in, I don't know, probably right now. It's like one of the most powerful metaphors I've ever heard because I is just it's on top of mind. And the top of mind is build your castles in the sky, meaning dream big. Like go after, you know, not the small goal, which you know that you could attain, but go after that, like that 10x goal, the one that is gonna light you up. And when you have that castle, you know, hold it in the sky. And the only work you have to do right now is to build the foundation to support it. And that is all the work you have to do today. So, in the example of my coffee business and being able to travel the world, live in different places in the world while, you know, do my, you know, my one life blueprint and run my coffee business. What is required of that? Right? Those are the steps that are being taken right now. Like the shipping of my coffee, the roasting of it, that's complete. Well, pretty much completed. There are a couple of things on the technologies that I got to figure out and set up, but that's done. That's a step. Taking that move to Miami to start to feel what it feels like is a step. And so I am, you know, I'm on this journey building this foundation to the life that I want to live. But isn't so true? So often we forget about those castles here, and then we we bring it back to down to reality, and you you plant your castle back on Earth because it just seems maybe it's too big. Or maybe you're looking at the past and all the reasons why it didn't work. And you're like, oh, you know what, it just it just it's if it didn't work in the past, it's not gonna work now. If this is where you are, I want to encourage you to put it back in the sky, to see that vision of yourself that's living the life that you want to live. Three years out, if that's too soon, go ten years out. Whatever time period or whatever amount of time that is gonna expand and stretch your mind to be able to see something as being possible. And when you're there, just envelop yourself in the feelings of it and then bring it back to current day and say, well, what do I have to do now? What are the requirements I'm gonna have to, what are the sacrifices I'm gonna have to make? And start taking these small steps in order to do and go after the very thing that you want. You know, life is um life is precious, life is beautiful, life is a blessing. It's all of these things. And when uh when you're reminded uh just how finite your time is, you realize that it's not really about the destination, anyways, but who were you becoming? I'll give you one last story. I met up with a friend yesterday, and she gave me this calendar, and this calendar is literally it's like a page of dots, and the dots represent 88 years. So for or of uh 88 years in weeks, meaning so after every week that passes, you you color in a dot. So essentially it's like you're you know, you're by from where you are until you're dead. I'm like, well, I don't I don't like the idea of coloring that because well, one, because psychologically, when you're looking at that and it's like 88 years, I don't like the idea of maybe even planting that seed. Well, 88 is over, right? Because you're literally watching time elapse until like the end of this calendar. But I also see the benefit of it because it is a constant reminder that not a single day is guaranteed and that every single one of us, all of our time, will come to an end at some point. And to just make sure you're doing things that make you feel good, make sure that you are doing things that bring enjoyment, make sure you are acting in alignment with your values and the things you want. That is all I've got today. Um, I hope this in some way just helps you look back at your own path and realize that you know what, while you may not be making the progress that you want in the time that you want, but just trusting that you are on the path and where you are right now is where you were meant to be. And while it may suck, right? Maybe you're in the thick of it and you're like, fuck, I don't even I can't even I don't see how I could take that next step. Just trust and have faith. Because you are being sculpted into who you need to become. The trials that you are encountering right now are what is setting you up for the person you are meant to become, right? Because you have to abolish these old paradigms, these belief systems, these ways of thinking in order to move forward. So just allow the process to happen. Again, this is me speaking from my life because as you know, like the journey never stops, right? We are always on a journey, different level, different devil, right? No one's ever made it because there's always another level. So I hope that lets you uh brings you some comfort, but also the the realization that you are on your own journey. Hope you enjoyed this podcast. If you did, just please give it a like, share it with someone who needs to hear it. If you have any questions, feel free to send them to me via my website at www.donnyrouse.com, d-o-n-n-y-r-a-us.com. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Remember, you only get one life. Live fully, live passionately, and most of all, live now. God bless, and I will see you again soon.