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The Mike Muldoon Podcast: Bite-Sized Coaching Sessions Empowering Transformation in Small Doses
Unlike those who’ve already reached their goals and now tell you how to get there, The Mike Muldoon Podcast isn’t about preaching from the finish line. We’re (yes, me too) on this journey together. I’m walking it with you—growing, learning, and striving side by side. This is about elevating our lives, building a stronger, more empowered mindset, and unlocking our full potential with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
The Mike Muldoon Podcast: Bite-Sized Coaching Sessions Empowering Transformation in Small Doses
If It Was Easy, Everyone Would Do It
What does it truly cost to chase something with your name on it? After breaking my years-long streak of never missing a podcast episode, I'm back to share why I disappeared—I've been opening a bagel shop in England, despite having zero café experience (I was actually fired from my only restaurant job as a teenager).
Those pre-dawn drives to the shop, when it's just me and the empty motorway, have become unexpected moments of clarity. We often hear "if it was easy, everyone would do it," but what does that really mean in practice? It means choosing the uncertain over the comfortable, the challenging over the familiar. Most of us construct lives of safety, convincing ourselves we're living boldly while actually avoiding friction at every turn. And that's understandable—comfort is warm, predictable, and asks nothing of you.
But here's what I've discovered: growth, risk, vision—these things don't live in comfort zones. They thrive in those quiet, cold mornings when you're working while others sleep. The path isn't glamorous. There's no applause for completing your second errand before sunrise. The anxiety doesn't disappear when you find your purpose; if anything, it gets louder because suddenly you care more deeply. As Winston Churchill said, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts." Where are you playing it safe? What comfort are you choosing over curiosity? You don't have to make dramatic changes all at once—you just have to refuse to stop moving forward. Whether this bagel shop succeeds or fails, I know I'll be better for having tried, and I hope my journey inspires you to take that step you've been avoiding.
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Hey everyone and welcome to this week's episode of the Mike Muldoon podcast. Oh gosh, I don't know. In some way I'm slightly embarrassed. I started this podcast years ago and I pride myself on never missing a day. Never missing a day, no matter how busy I got. But I guess I never realized how busy you get when you start your own business, and that's what I've been doing. We opened up our bagel shop here in England.
Speaker 1:Um, here's the interesting thing I have uh, I never even worked in a cafe. I've never made coffee for anybody. I don't think I've ever really serviced anybody. I, um, I worked in a restaurant one time when I was seven I might've been 16 at the time, I don't even know. I was fired. I was a waiter. I wasn't very good at it, I guess. When I lived in Los Angeles for a while, I did some catering, but that's not really serving people trying to understand how to run a cafe and a business and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:But if you've been following my podcast, my wife and I just decided one day to open up a bagel shop. We found the right space and we decided to do it. And, yeah, we've been doing it and, with that all being said, it's been a little bit crazy for me. I have spent a lot of time there, a lot of things going on. It's a lot when you start doing a business that you're not very familiar with, but I'm doing it.
Speaker 1:If you've been listening to my podcast for years because I've been doing this for years I talk about life's, about living. It's not about existing. So you have to take on challenges and keep pushing yourself forward, and it's been good, it's been a good endeavor for us and I'm excited about it. It's just, it's been a lot, you know, and I can't believe I missed two podcasts. But I guess what I want to talk about today is that whole that saying. You know, if it was easy, everyone would do it, you know.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about again which I've talked about numerous times on why comfort is overrated, risk is necessary and early mornings. They really do teach you everything, and that's what we're going to talk about today. So let's start with something I've never done. In three years of broadcasting, again, I have never missed an episode and I've now missed two straight episodes, and if you've been listening for a while, you know that that's not like me. I mean, the podcast has been steady companion, rain or shine, whether I was feeling inspired or not, even while I was even traveling. Numerous times I was doing it while I was traveling.
Speaker 1:But lately, like I said, life has been full and it's been not bad. In fact it's been very good, but full in that you know that wake up before sun, answer 20 messages before coffee, forget what date is kind of way. I mean, every morning at 6 am I'm on the road, just me the empty motorway. One thing I'm very lucky is the motorway is lucky Luke Warren Coffee only, because even though I'm in a bagel shop and a coffee shop, I actually stop at McDonald's every day because it's the only place open along the way just to have a hot drink.
Speaker 1:Listening to some podcasts other people's podcasts I've been listening to and sometimes it doesn't even connect with the Bluetooth properly. I got to try to fix that, but it's been crazy and it's a bit of a lonely stretch, but also a quiet one, a kind of moving meditation, a daily reminder that chasing something is worthwhile and it really feels convenient. And that brings me to the point of this piece Again. If it was easy, everyone would do it.
Speaker 1:So the thing is, most people live a life that's safe, right, they live within their comfort zones. Sometimes they'll try to sell. They'll tell themselves like, oh, I'm living a crazy existence, but they're not. They're living in within a world of safety. They choose comfort over challenge. I look, I don't fault in it, it's just what most people do, because the thing is familiarity always. You know, familiarity, always. What's the best word for this? It, uh, I guess you can say familiarity in life over friction. Right, security over movement. Um, and why wouldn't they? Why wouldn't most people want it? Because Comfort is warm, it's predictable, it asks nothing of you. You can stay there for decades. Some people stay there their whole lives and no one will ever question it. It's okay. But comfort has a shadow side to it. It can dull your edges, it makes the days blur, it trades, you know, growth, risk, vision.
Speaker 1:These things don't live in comfort. They live in discomfort, which is something many people avoid. It lives in loneliness. They live in. It really lives in work. It lives in effort. It lives in movement. It lives in effort. It lives in movement. It lives in getting up every morning before the sun rises and driving solo before most people are awake. It isn't glamorous. There's no applause, there's no Instagram quote that really captures what it feels like to be halfway through your I don't know, maybe your second errand at that point, before the sun has even cleared the rooftops. But it's in these moments, those quiet moments, you know, slightly cold moments, I guess, slightly tired mornings I've started to realize this is what it costs. This is what chasing something with your name on it looks like. It's not big fanfare, it's not viral moments, but repeated, intentional quiet steps, and most people won't do it, not because they can't, but because it's hard and it's lonely and it's uncertain, which is exactly why it matters. Which is exactly why it matters.
Speaker 1:You know this misconception out there that once you find your thing, the fear goes away. It's not true. If anything, your fear gets magnified. If anything, the stakes just get higher. The fear gets louder. The anxiety shows up in new clothes, like what if I let everyone down? What if I fail? What if I'm in over my head? What about if it doesn't work out? What about the financials? Don't line up, whatever it is.
Speaker 1:But here's what I've learned thus far in these early mornings, especially on these drives and these long days Anxiety doesn't mean you're doing the wrong thing. It means you care. Does it mean you're doing the wrong thing? It means you care, it means you're pushing, it means you're alive. And there's this one quote that's been sitting with me a lot lately, especially during the last few weeks Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts, and that is from Winston Churchill. See, that quote reminds me, we're not here to arrive, we're here to continue, not because we have to, but because there's something deep inside us that still knows we're meant for something more than just standing still.
Speaker 1:So I guess my question to a lot of you is where are you playing it safe? Where have you chosen comfort over curiosity? Where have you stopped because it's got too hard and told yourself maybe it just wasn't for me? If it's something that came to mind while reading that, hold on to it, sit with it and maybe just even quietly, without telling anyone, take one small step towards it. Today, see, you don't have to do it all, you just have to not stop. And that's just kind of where I'm at right now. So I will do my best to be here next week, back on the mic, back in the rhythm of it all. I'll do my best, but, like I said, I'm just.
Speaker 1:I took on something you know and if you've been listening to my podcast for the last few years, you know me life's about living, you know it's just not about existing. And the more I say that, the more I hope my people understand that most people in the world, they just exist, they just go through it, they think they're living, they're breathing, they're getting up, they're doing things, they're going through the days. They're seeing their Monday to Tuesday and Wednesday to Thursday to Friday, saturday, sunday. They're seeing it, it's all going. Look at me I'm living. I'm getting older, but that's not living. So if you're listening to this, there's always time to make change. But for me I just want to say thank you. Thank you for sticking around, for showing up, listening to my podcast and for just choosing to be here. Maybe it'll give you that nudge and direction or the courage that you need. It's interesting.
Speaker 1:I was out with a friend of mine the other day. We were catching up. He stopped by the shop. He was able to knock on my back door. He said my shop's on the corner, I'm very lucky, so I have a back door into our kitchen. He knocked on the door on him and I started chatting for a bit and we got we were able to catch up later and he goes.
Speaker 1:You know, you inspired me. Look at you, you're a writer. You know your wife's a lawyer. You, you know you. Neither one of you ever really worked in a cafe or do any makeup, but here you are, you're doing it. You've inspired me and I guess what I want to say is, if I can help you out there, inspire to take a little courage to you, know to realize that, look life's short, make changes. And if you're up to chasing some things out there, you know, maybe they'll keep you up early, keep you out late, but you know what, just keep going. The thing is you're not alone. Like I said since I started this podcast, I don't come to you from a point of look at me, oh look, I'm so successful everybody. Now look at my journey. I come from a point of a guy who's been doing it Since I started this podcast.
Speaker 1:I was a guy who at one point was in the middle of a career making 200 grand a year, could have comfortably just lived there, decided to walk away from that because I wasn't happy, I wasn't living a life, I wasn't doing what I wanted to do. I took some other risks. I'm taking more risks. I'm still living my life, though I feel happy. I spend more time with my kids. I see them growing up. You know what they are. They're growing up and they grow up quickly.
Speaker 1:But I just I don't want to go to my grave someday and realize I didn't try, and that is one of the biggest things most people talk about it and the life. It's not about all the successes they had, it's all about the things they didn't do. I don't want to be that guy, you know. I just want to keep taking those chances, keep taking those risks, keep trying to build something better, better life for my family, and I hope you do too, and I hope you realize it's not that late. So listen, I apologize.
Speaker 1:Two weeks, man, it was killing me, it was absolutely killing me that I had broke two weeks promise, considering I'd been traveling it. Sometimes in the past I'd been in Italy and Croatia and England and even Montenegro, and wherever I was traveling, I always but this, this, this has been a lot taken on this business, but it's been good. It's been good and I'm happy. And who knows how it's going to end, I don't know, maybe we're successful, maybe we're not, but I know I will always be better for trying. All right, this is all I got for you today. So here's the thing. As always, it's going to be the weekend. Be safe, have fun and always remember, as you're going out there, going through your journey, I got nothing but love for you.
