Ep. 329 - Motivational Mondays: Habits vs. Thinking

Start your week off right! 

Tune into today's Motivational Monday episode, where Rob shares a passage from one of his favorite devotionals titled, The Rudder of the Day.  "Be very careful how you start your morning. You are planting the seeds for what the day will hold."   With that said...we not only start our day off right...but we use the day as a springboard for the entire week!  

• What activities are you doing today that are more a result of habits than well-thought out thinking?

That's a deep question to answer - but I challenge you to do so in the group chat!

Share the episode on social media and join the community!

~ 

Connect on social media!  

• Telegram Group Chat - https://t.me/allaroundgrowth 
• MeWe Group - https://mewe.com/join/theallaroundgrowthcommunity  
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/allaroundgrowth 
• Flote - https://flote.app/allaroundgrowth 
• Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/allaroundgrowth 
• Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/allaroundgrowth 

~

• Follow this link to ALL EPISODES   

~ 

• How To Leave a Rating & Review in Apple Podcast App
  • This really *does* affect the algorithm...
  • ...as of recording in April 2022 - I would invite you to do this!
  • The podcast game is changing - help us with a rating and review!

~

Have a Question or any feedback for Rob?

Send me an email at allaroundgrowth@gmail.com

~

Discussion Links:

The Rudder of the Day

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

15 Minute Beginner Stretch Flexibility Routine!

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Well, hi there, and welcome back to another episode of the All Around Growth Podcast. Today is Monday, April 18th, 2022. And since it is a Monday, we are going to start off the week right with a motivational Monday show. The title of today's show is But I Thought the Paint Was Wet. And this comes from a book titled The Rudder of the Day by Dan Miller, author of 48 Days to the Work You Love. And without further ado, we are going to read straight from this book, page 52, and I will link to this in the show notes for your reference. Are you doing things because they make sense? Or have habits taken over conscious thinking? Now there is a story about Russia in the days of the Tsars. In the Park of St. Petersburg Winter Palace, there was a beautiful lawn. On that lawn bench, and yet next to that bench, ah, excuse me, on that lawn, a bench, and next to that bench, two guards. Every three hours the guards were changed. Yet no one could explain why these guards were guarding the bench. One day, an ambitious young youth lieutenant was put in charge of the palace guard. He started wondering and asking questions. Finally, he found a little old man, the palace historian. Yes, the old man said, I remember. During the reign of Peter the Great, 200 years ago, the bench got a fresh coat of paint. The Tsar was afraid to let the ladies in waiting. The Tsar was afraid that the ladies in waiting might get paint on their dresses. So he ordered one guard to watch the bench while the paint dried. The order was never rescinded. Then in 1908, all the guards of the palace were doubled for fear of a revolution. So the bench has had two guards ever since. And that comes from Polly Tan, from the encyclopedia of 7,700 illustrations. I will also link to that in the show notes as well. Quote: If you want to know your past, look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future, look into your present actions. Every once in a while it's wise to ask, why am I doing this? If your dad always bought Fords, is that enough reason for you to only do that today? If you're still using a typewriter, either you love that little clicking sound or you have missed the development of some easier ways to write. Perhaps you loved the challenge of your new job 20 years ago, but today you're a different person. Is it time to move on? I recently saw a 44-year-old client who said, I'm tired of living my life based on decisions that were made by an 18-year-old. Most people evaluate their lives in retrospect. They simply look back from 70 and wonder how they got there. You can put yourself in the driver's seat instantly by really taking a fresh look at the why of those things you are doing today. The modern definition of insanity is to continue doing what you have been doing and yet expect different results. Are you ignoring years of experience and knowledge only to continue doing what you have always done? If you want different results, you will have to do something different. If the paint dried years ago, move on. Don't get caught in habits that are no longer productive or reasonable. And before we ask a question for today, we're going to look at a quote from the Bible. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he has a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. And the direction for today is what activities are you doing today that are more a result of habits than of well-thought out thinking? That's a really good question, guys. I'm gonna repeat that. Get out here on the road. That question is what activities are you doing today that are more a result of habits than of well thought out thinking? Alright, I'd like to share with you my habits of the day. Like what am I doing today? It's still early for me. It still may be early for you, depending on how this show is part of your routine. But for me, it is 6 43 a.m. at the time of this recording. And at this point in time, today, I've engaged in several activities. Sprung out of bed after a chilly night's sleep, got my stretch on. I've been following the Bodyweight Warriors stretching routine, a 15-minute whole body stretching routine. Again, I will link to that in the show notes. I have let Guyam and some other subscriptions lapse in an effort to regain control of my finances. I'm reducing extraneous spending. But today, jumped out of bed, got my stretch on, washed my face, got up, took the dog for a walk, and these are more a result of habits and well-thought-out thinking. Not habits than well-thought-out thinking. I have put a lot of time, effort, and energy into the development and creation of new habits, and this is one of them. Now at this point, when I wake up and don't do this, when I wake up and do not spend 15 minutes or so engaging in my normal morning stretching routine or some kind of mobility routine just to get the blood flowing a little bit, I feel worse than I do if I hadn't done this. So I think that we can look at this question of what activities are you doing today that are more a result of habits than of well-thought-out thinking. We can look at that in a positive way, we can look at that in a negative way. Because there are positive and negative aspects of both. Okay. But thinking of our daily habits or our activities that are a result of habits is a good practice, it's a good idea because we want to include more activities that are a result of well-thought-out thinking instead of simply acting by habit. Now it's understood, at least it is to me, that Homo sapiens, sapiens, otherwise known as Homo sapiens variety Domesticus Fergillus, a twenty-first century modern human, is a basically just a soft animal. I understand that. We can change that. We can create new habits. We are conscious beings. I'm not going to sit here and be so bold and presume that humans are the only conscious beings. I don't know. But I do know that we can change and create new habits. I do know that if we do what we've always done, we're gonna get what we've always got. I think it is wise to every once in a while ask, why am I doing this? You know, there's this old story, right? Much like the story of the czar guarding the pa the the park bench because of the wet paint. You know, my my story, my analogy to this is the story about uh the man's wife who was cooking a roast, and he asked her why she cut the end off the roast, and she answered that it was that's how she learned it because that's the way her mother did it. So they were curious as to why this practice was taking place in the first place. So during the holidays they asked her mother. And and and it turned out that she didn't know. So they traced it back and went back to to grandma, who luckily was still alive. And Grandma told everybody that the only reason um she did it is because it was tradition, because her mother had to cut the end off the roast because if she didn't cut the end off the roast, it was too big to fit in the oven, the small box oven in her great, I guess it would have been great-great-grandmother's wood stove. Alright? So all this time we've been under the impression that cutting off the end of the roast was a necessary method to cutting or cooking the roast, when in reality all we've been doing is wasting some meat. Right? So always, always question why we're doing what we're doing. You know, there was something that we read in here today that you know struck me because I too am 44. I'll be 45 this year in tw uh will I be? I suppose so, yes. I will be 45 in 2022. Now you may be in your early mid-40s, you may be in your mid to late 40s, you may be in your 30s or your 20s or your 50s. But nevertheless, this may resonate with you as it resonated with me. Alright, so I'm going to read this again because I feel like this is important. Every once in a while it's wise to ask, why am I doing this? If your dad always bought Fords, is that enough reason for you to only do that today? If you're still using a typewriter, either you love that little clicking sound, or you have missed the development of some easier ways to write. Perhaps you loved the challenge of your new job 20 years ago, but today you're a different person. Is it time to move on? I recently saw a 44-year-old client who said, I'm tired of living my life based on decisions that were made by an 18-year-old. Most people evaluate their lives in retrospect. They simply look back from 70 and wonder how they got there. Guys, do you want to look back at 70 or any point in life and wonder how you got there, or do you want to put yourself in the driver's seat and take a look at why we're doing the things that we're doing today? You want to take a look at the question, the hard question or the statement? Perhaps you loved the challenge of your new job 20 years ago, but today you're a different person. Are you still working the same job that you did 20 years ago? Are you still working in the same industry that you did 20 years ago? Are you still the same person that you were 20 years ago? I mean, in a way, I am. Sure feels like that sometimes as I pull in and look at the yard and see all the trees. It's the same trees I've seen last year and the year before, and the year before, and the year before, and the year before. This is my eighth season here. I've been in this industry now in various ways, shapes, and forms for over 20 years. And sometimes, I often ask myself that same question. Why am I doing this? So, guys, think about that. Most people evaluate their lives in retrospect. Let's live our life otherwise. Check us out in the chat, t.me slash all around growth, and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. This is Rob Kaiser, and thank you.