5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Speaker 2:Take a breath, let's die then. Someone that I highly respect once said we're all unpaid actors living out scripts that we didn't write, and it's so profound. So today we're going to discuss where are we at in our goals that we set out for the New Year's, being that we're entering the second quarter of the year it is now the month of March have we stayed the course when it came to our New Year's resolutions? Are we on track or are we falling behind? Are we stagnant? Regardless of where you are, there's still a year left to be completed.
Speaker 2:This journey isn't over, and maybe this will be your year that you get to check things off of that list that you wrote and you can have some sense of accountability and know that Valentine's Day happened. Maybe your goal was to lose 20 pounds and for some reason, you gained five, and that's okay. Remain motivated, stay the course, be vigilant and know that you're human and you make mistakes. And, with that said, let's get into today's episode. Thank you for joining the Magnificent Ones podcast. On tonight's episode, we're going to discuss New Year's resolutions, and where are we with our goals? Tonight, I have another guest by the name of Daniel that we just have a two for now. Back to back Daniels on the Magnificent Ones podcast. Daniel, why don't you introduce yourself and who you are essentially, and maybe some of your interests and likes, and let's dive into New Year's resolutions and where we are with them and also, do you have them or believe in them?
Speaker 1:Hello Daniel, don't think I'm too much of an interesting fellow. Usually the work come home, do things stay alive, shower, eat, sleep, repeat it all Not necessarily a stressful situation. I have some free time to myself, which I currently been using to reevaluate my hobbies and also reevaluate or just continue to explore what I want out of life. So New Year's resolutions correct.
Speaker 2:What are one of your hobbies?
Speaker 1:One of my hobbies. Okay, so the various aspects of programming usually more catered towards game design, but it can also be it's programming right. You can branch out to software engineering or using it as a means to automate everyday things You're so inclined, or just problem solving in general, which is something I really tried to refine as a muscle I've let weaken over time.
Speaker 2:So for you personally, like what? Obviously we'll go into New Year's resolutions and goals and stuff, but what got you into video games or programming?
Speaker 1:The video games for you. The video games was just because I grew up with them. I think a lot of people like that. They got a console young, as a child as many as many do. But I think what probably got me into programming is when I came across my first out of bounds glitch, and it's like the curtains were pulled back. Okay, suddenly I'm no longer looking at a stage in a set. There's something else going on here. Why is this floating and avoid? What's making all of this happen? Start to wonder why all these glitches happen in games and there's an underlying logic to all of it. So you get curious and you look it up and you find out that programming is a very programming game, is a monumental task of making sure a lot of systems align with one another, and that it's not easy, nor is it ever going to be a perfect end result.
Speaker 2:They just have to be happy with what the results are.
Speaker 1:Not just happy with what the results are, but how well they're hidden can really affect final results.
Speaker 2:So for you I believe I asked you this earlier how does a conceptualization process work for you when you're looking at data and you're turning this data into a world, essentially a visual world? You're turning zeros and ones and this is an oversimplification into images that do nothing.
Speaker 1:Zeroes and ones is not really an oversimplification. It is programming in its simplest form.
Speaker 2:That was the facetious.
Speaker 1:Okay, I missed that part apparently. For me it's about understanding what I'm trying to achieve with programming. Early programming is about problem solving, and so you have a problem. And it doesn't necessarily have to be a problem like, oh, I'm going to be late on this payment, not that kind of problem. More like I have text in this document and I want to move it to this document, but I want the program to do it. For me that's not really a problem of dire importance, but it's a problem or a riddle to solve. So for me it's about understanding every underlying process that's going to go into solving that problem. It's very similar to thinking about having a vision for a piece of art and executing, finishing that piece of art that you envisioned. You don't just think that you're going to draw the Mona Lisa and then it just happens there's so much you have to practice and reinforce in between. Programming is the same way. So I would just say it's understanding every little step in between. I'm repeating myself now.
Speaker 2:But you're not, you're doing just fine.
Speaker 1:It's really to me one step at a time, as verbose as possible, to get to the end goal that you want.
Speaker 2:That falls in line with something that I was explaining to someone earlier, and that it doesn't matter where you are at this current juncture of reaching your goals for the year. Anyone can have a bunch of accomplishments. Anyone can fall behind where they need to be. Life happens. But what's important is what are you currently doing and are you enjoying the process of what you're doing? Because if you're enjoying something or taking the thing, that should be hard and telling yourself that it's fun mentally can also make the process easier and less grueling and taxing on the mind. So do you ever go through moments when you're programming and you're like, wow, this is tedious and this is difficult, but you somehow miraculously made it fun and you were able to then overcome that obstacle?
Speaker 1:To me, the fun part comes when I finally finish what I'm doing, because it's usually a headache. In between, you're researching not only the aspects of what you're trying to solve, but also your troubleshooting, your own written logical errors and missteps, and where you've even mixed match the logic.
Speaker 2:So we're going to switch gears for a brief moment and I originally asked what are your thoughts on goal setting, whether they be long term, short term or year? Is resolution? I know that there's so many people that maybe they fell off in two weeks and whatnot, and in the introduction I made a joke that the times they happened and so a lot of people probably ate cake and chocolate and all in drank and so they fell off their health kick or they wanted to make X amount of money or lose X amount of weight and those things didn't happen. How would you describe yourself as far as goals are concerned and what do you think of New Year's resolutions in the first place?
Speaker 1:Wandering aimlessly, trying to find concrete goals that I can take achievable steps towards, which I think is what is the most reasonable approach. For a lot of people is maybe not the wandering aimlessly part, but the beginning to set achievable goals that you can make steps towards, and that it doesn't have to be I'm of the community, doesn't have to be a New Year's resolution as a goal. Goal can be set at any point in time. You can set it for however long you want it to be, but maybe not necessarily. The sooner you can achieve it the better, but the closer it is to completion, the more tangible you may find it and more attainable.
Speaker 2:You know, I've never thought of myself, of having New Year's resolutions, and I think I've touched that point. Like with you, I just have goals in general and with a lot of my friends that have New Year's resolution, what I want for them is know something, and this is like the inner monologue that I have every time they tell me I'm like SLL.
Speaker 1:Is it? Why do you have that?
Speaker 2:resolution yeah, I wish I had a resolution.
Speaker 1:No, I'm saying, is that the kind of monologue or the inner monologue you've had?
Speaker 2:So my inner monologue is this this is what I want to say but, I, never really say this.
Speaker 2:If you think to yourself, it's too late, there's too late. If you think you can't do it, then you can't do it. You're putting yourself off the failure. Exactly If you think that you can do something, then you will, or you will make strides to achieving those things. And so I always say that, before you embark on any endeavor, you have to see mentally where you are. What's your mental headspace? What is that landscape like? And do you truly believe that you can set out, perhaps 100%? Those are things that you have to do. People make decisions, but they're making decisions without any form of preparation, and that goes into why they'll fail. And the second thing is accountability. Well, who holds you accountable for not achieving your goals If you know that there's no repercussions for something, there's no incentive for getting it wrong or getting it right? So what do you think of that?
Speaker 1:I know we briefly touched on this earlier, talking off mic, but what you just said that people don't have anyone to hold them accountable for when they fail I'm saying as far as their goals, their own personal goals.
Speaker 1:Right, I was thinking about it in the sense of like holding yourself accountable for people being able to hold you accountable for accomplishing those things, but I guess it's also different. People can hold you accountable for either succeeding or not achieving them. I think one thing I wanted to say earlier was that I think that people can't hold themselves accountable for their own goals, but I guess it would be more so if they can accomplish their own goals Because you can't hold yourself accountable. You could hold yourself accountable for it's whether or not people want to and how effective it is. I don't think it's as effective to hold yourself accountable for failing as it is to have other people hold you accountable for, of course.
Speaker 2:I mean, most people like to live in denial about certain things and they like to place the blame on someone else, and that's just, that's natural, it's kind of nature, Absolutely. It's this innate thing, ability to live in denial. As they say, ignorance is bliss, so I go. No one knew that I set these goals up for myself and no one can judge me for it, you know.
Speaker 1:But do you need anybody to hold you accountable for what you want to achieve?
Speaker 2:It depends on what it is that you're trying to achieve. I think there are certain things that you need someone to hold you accountable. I'm not a person that's into basketball or a lot of athletics. I love watching you know the UFC. It's something that I love absolutely, and I love watching college wrestling and things of that nature. I know that Michael Jordan is an amazing basketball player. I know that LeBron James is amazing basketball player and Steph Curry is amazing basketball player. I know that Jordan borrows an amazing wrestler.
Speaker 2:And no matter how great any of these people are even my homes great quarterback, but there's only one Tom Brady. Sorry, all of these people had a cup. They couldn't do it on their own. They have a team, but they have a coach that ultimately says this is the expectation You're going to execute. You're going to do this.
Speaker 2:When we look at a lot of these individuals, we see them as just the individuals and not that there's a person that makes them run drills, not that there's a person that makes them throw that ball over and over and over and over and over again and says to them that was a crappy throw, or if you're playing golf, that's a horrible swing, don't do that. We just see the success and we see them being in action, but we don't see the background groundwork that was put into place, and that's something that we don't realize. That they're accountable to someone and they're also accountable for someone and whether it be their families or their significant others, what have you? But they are someone. They are guiding their hand so that they can perform the way that they do.
Speaker 1:Do you think we can half achieve our goals, or do you think achieving goals is binary resolution?
Speaker 2:In truth, no one accomplishes their goals on their own. But that's not my question Do I think that anyone can have achieved their goal? Yes, no, because the goal is what? The definition? You can change the definition of your goals. If you change the definition, then you can fully achieve your goal. Not how to achieve it, but even in that endeavor you didn't do it on your own Because I was thinking for a brief moment and I'm in line with that idea.
Speaker 1:you can get part of a way to achieving a goal. That does not mean you achieve the goal but by ourselves. If we're setting particularly lofty goals, I think we can get the majority of the way there, that you don't need someone else or do you accountable or to lift you up in some manner to get you all the way. But it definitely helps to have someone else.
Speaker 2:Yes, and again, it's also the title of goals as well. Not all goals require help from others. Some goals are just simply you getting off your butt and doing something.
Speaker 1:I want to clean the bathroom today. Exactly, I want to clean out the fridge today, which I didn't do, by the way.
Speaker 2:My goal Go to the grocery store today. It's within reason. Within reason, there are certain individuals that can't just go to the grocery store, but there's also many individuals who can choose to go to the grocery store and not order DoorDash because they can cook a meal and they have the ability to do so. They're like, oh my gosh, my cholesterol is so high. They've cooked a meal that wouldn't contribute to you having high cholesterol. You'd be good.
Speaker 1:But you think people rely too much on excuses as a crutch.
Speaker 2:Yes, one million percent.
Speaker 1:All line, a little bit too much with the mentality of trying to achieve a goal.
Speaker 2:I think most people don't have goals, so they don't need to achieve a goal or even try to accomplish a goal In the first place. Most people aren't goal-oriented individuals that set meaningful things to achieve, wandering aimlessly. It's not just wandering aimlessly, it's that they want things. They just don't have a goal for those things. For example, if I just said to you I want to be rich and famous, that is a goal essentially, but usually there's no outline to it. There's no outline yes, too broad. Exactly what are you what be rich and famous with what? Are you going to go into broadcasting, or are you going to go into journalism in a traditional sense? Are you going to be a famous therapist? You know, like Break it down into its components, exactly.
Speaker 2:Every little step, but they don't know how to do that because most people aren't taught how to think or think critically, and so, within thinking critically, it means that you can be critical to yourselves. People can be critical in ways that hold them back when it comes to themselves let's say self-deprecation, right but they're not critical to themselves when it comes to lifting them up, lifting themselves up.
Speaker 1:Yes, they don't give themselves enough crates. Exactly, they undermine how much they actually know, not just about themselves, but whatever they're-.
Speaker 2:Exactly. You know, I always use this quote whenever I get into the mindset that something is difficult, I say to myself I have to believe in the enormity of my endless potential. You know, you have to believe in your own hype. You have to be your own biggest fan. You're not always going to be at 100%. You're not always going to tell yourself man, I'm going to get out of bed today, I'm definitely going to do laundry, I'm going to hold it. You know what else I'm going to do. I'm going to clean the car. I'm going to fully detail it.
Speaker 2:Of course, those things are simple in nature, but think about how many of us that's like it's hard for us to do. We'll go to work, and we work in environments where we are the kings and queens of organizing. We go into jobs where, when it comes to analytics, we're like AI on steroids and yet when it comes to ourselves, man, I can't organize this laundry. Hell, we countable the job not at home. Exactly, and I think that's one of the primary reasons why we can't accomplish things is because we don't have anyone to hold us accountable to accomplish those things. There's no repercaution. There isn't. Sometimes you have to give yourself those repercussions that if I don't do this, then I won't do it.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it has to be that way, not just repercussions, but at your job, assuming you are working a stable job, right, you probably have some sort of schedule you're following at your job, some kind of process you follow, and it's consistency.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at home we're far more distracted, we're far more relaxed and I would venture to say most people are less likely to fall into any sort of pattern or consistency towards what they want to work for as a goal.
Speaker 1:And well, maybe it's wrong to say people won't, but it's important to recognize consistency is key in whatever it is you're trying to achieve. Even if there are some days on programming projects, I've just completely spent my brain on it, all the energy I have, and I can't bat them to look at it. But I know personally that if I stop working on something for a certain undefinable period of time because it varies with project to project I will probably never pick that up again, or I won't pick it up for months. And so even just opening it up, looking at the project, maybe fixing a typo in just a string I type, or renaming a variable or something, or just something small, to have the project present in my subconscious, just because I looked at it for two minutes today and I didn't even do anything. The fact that I'm still engaging with the goal is the key here.
Speaker 2:Exactly the goal. The goal is understanding and I think, where too many people, they have this all or nothing mentality and they're like if I don't do, if I don't cut out all the sugar out of my diet, I'm never going to lose weight. And so, as opposed to taking having an incremental approach, an approach that is measured, an approach that says it's okay to mess up some time, I am going to stumble towards my goal, and maybe it's not a sprint all the way to the finish line, maybe it's a walk to the finish line. Some of us are going to be the tortoise and some of us are going to be the cheetah. The important thing is that we get there, or we attempt to get there, and if it doesn't work out the way that we think, then we just need to reassess and reevaluate why things did not play out how we expected them to.
Speaker 1:And it's not ever failure, because you've learned something from even if you don't accomplish what you're going for. You have learned something from the process. You've gained something.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I say this to my team all the time Failure isn't final. No one truly fails unless they just completely abandon the thing that they set out to do. That is failure. Failure isn't real. Lose a loss isn't a loss if you've learned something because you just gained something. There were times where I were investing in the stock market and I lost a lot and I looked and said to myself well, why did I lose? Did I lose because I was too comfortable? Did I diversify enough? Did I just think that this high horse would never end?
Speaker 1:Or did you just get unlucky?
Speaker 2:In terms of the things that I can control. Notice, what I said in the beginning is what I am re-evaluating and reassessing what I could have done differently and knowing that on the journey we're gonna have moments where we say the peaks in the valleys right, the feast in the fountains.
Speaker 2:The roller coaster of life, exactly. If I'm on the roller coaster and I'm about to Be at the high point, I have to know that there's gonna be a little. So during my high points after, prepare for my low points, because my low points are coming. Winter is coming, it is coming, and when the winter is here you don't have a bound to full harvest. You have to read until spring, and that's always. Those are little analogies that I use when I see things are really going well and I'm revalidating and reassessing, I'm how to progress. I think about that East bad and winter spring.
Speaker 1:You've even got me thinking of another good analogy I'm kind of just coming up with on the spot go for it is that I Say you're out hiking in a national park, maybe Outwest or up north, where there's actually mountains, not down here in the flat Florida.
Speaker 2:There's Claremont and we are the highest point in Florida, don't forget sure Not a whole lot to look at comparatively.
Speaker 1:But if you're out hiking and you looked out, you might see a mountain range right and you might see the peaks in the valleys, the ups and the downs, the mountain range. You might think I want to climb up that peak, up to that peak. But you do have to make a lot of work to get to the peak but you also have to come back down.
Speaker 2:Can I get a make a build off of your analogy?
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:When you're at the mountain, admire the valley. When you're at the valley, admire the peak. There's a beauty in that process of your high times and there's a beauty in the process of Understanding your low points as well. They're always going to be moments where Reflection and understanding.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, and there's also moments in which the thing that you're looking at as a tragedy is Really just a comedy. You know, sometimes it's a laugh at your own times. It's a pretty dark comedy. It's a dark comedy Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Life can be a dark comedy and sometimes it's just the outlook, you know, and just remaining unfazed in certain situations and having an appreciation for that hard times because when the good times come, you're gonna be so much more equipped dealing with Other goals because you took the time to do it the right way. You, you learned that when I was accomplishing this golf, there were peaks and valleys. Logical conclusion in other endeavors there will also be peaks and valleys. Let me prepare myself Mentally in the ways I didn't prepare myself in the last endeavor that I pursue. The goal is to be advancing. As you know, we progress in life and that may not always come in the form of monetary gains or social standing. Sometimes it comes in the form of me just learning to follow my laundry correctly and Having a cleaner house and a happier wife and the kids that Don't make as big a big a mess. You know the my goals are very simple. I.
Speaker 1:Mean, simple goals are Good to have a boring guy hey, so my, but the simple, achievable goals. It's like building a tolerance to the ability To Using simple. Using and achieving simple goals is like building muscle the more you do it, think of the muscle gets and the easier it becomes tackle the bigger goals.
Speaker 1:What's the lofty is gold you've ever pursued Honestly, really take, really think about it as someone who's never really been goal oriented that it's actually very hard question. I'm actively trying to be more goal oriented. As I've mentioned, I've had a lot of free time To reevaluate what I want out of life, things I want to pursue when I want to be job wise.
Speaker 2:Dum, dum, dum dum.
Speaker 1:I, I would say Biggest goal and it's broad. Right, it's not. It's not specific in any form or fashion, but you just Be able. We're asking if I've achieved or just didn't go. I've said set, set, okay, yeah, um, it would be to Make enough to live comfortably, to do Whatever I want with regards to whatever interest has my attention at that at any given time. Interests usually involve Angible things. Well, no, it's a broad goal. Right, it's a broad life goal. I don't want a whole lot out of life, just to be comfortable, maybe, and be able to pursue whatever information in my poppies interest me.
Speaker 2:Achieving simple is the most complete.
Speaker 1:I Strip um simple can be a lot of things which makes it complex and Complex as easy, because you could always find problems. Hey, complex is more problem solving. You know it's kind of like.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like in a relationship where, as a would go, it's complicated. Then you know it's really simple.
Speaker 1:Yeah, two sides of the same coin, exactly that, aren't? Things aren't as simple as we always make enough to be in there. No, it's complex.
Speaker 2:Exactly. You know, it's like the the beginning and the end are the same things. Every end is a beginning and every beginning is an end, and sometimes, on this journey of life, we come to the realization that, in order to be the new, you have to shed the old you. I should go on a shirt In order to be the new, you have to shed the old you.
Speaker 1:And then a shirt that you could just rip off all the time exactly roll off in a crowd.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna start creating taglines for shirts from now on? I don't think.
Speaker 1:I mean, yes, you do have to shed the old you, but it's important to never give up. It's important to never lose focus and Shed yourself in such a fashion that you lose focus where you came from, or it's in pieces that are you at your core, things you can't shed.
Speaker 2:You think you can't you are always your poor during that process Because looks like I, like a crab. A crab goes out old out of a shell shell, yeah, true, no, we're a snake still the same snake, just a new skit. You know, had to shed the old to do to be the new. Growth in life is like that as well. A lot of people they want to be the new, but they drag so much of all the baggage and all of the things that make them not accomplish their goals, such as the words of other people that's put them down. And, of course, trauma. It's hard to overcome and that's understandable. I mean, what's trauma for everyone is also relative, and that's something that other people have to understand as well.
Speaker 1:They haven't, or necessarily haven't, thought about the things that they don't need, that they Might like currently they don't need to be carrying on with, haven't Come to realization or acceptance. These things habit, bad habits, things that are just not good for you. Well, I guess I mean, I mean, form a habit out of anything. That's a really broad one, but maybe you have bad eating habits, or maybe you are really lethargic, or or Maybe you're not the problem. Everyone else is the problem, which means you're the problem. Yeah, you know, it's those, those things.
Speaker 2:All right here's question. Oh, that's great Doing this podcast and I Completely blindside you with the podcast doing it today.
Speaker 1:Well, I kind of expected it was coming at some point. Yeah, yes, you hit me earlier than I was expected.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Now that you've gone through the process of doing a podcast like, what are your, what are your thoughts like so far on Going, through it.
Speaker 1:I Went in not having any idea how we were going to talk, what we're gonna talk about. You kind of told me you know it's an all-encompassing thing, it's whatever it is, yeah and okay. That makes some sense Much better when I can speak broadly anyway, as opposed to really focused on the topic. My mind lets to jump and wander sometimes, but also I'm. I was still a little like I'm not entirely sure what I'm gonna talk about. I'm just gonna kind of wing it when we get here, and it's more a case if I just need my Social gears lubricated, I suppose, and to be put in a position where it's more active and less passive listening exactly and you know, right there there's.
Speaker 1:There's a point of improvement for me. Part of part of the old me to shed is that I shouldn't be as passive in conversation. I Know why I'm like that.
Speaker 2:Why are you like that?
Speaker 1:Because most of the time I'm just Not willing to put forth the effort to engage in conversation. Why not fully paying attention? We're in an environment that's great for me fully paying attention.
Speaker 2:It's quite what makes it. But let's go back to the let's talk about everything concept. Yeah, you or the gear, so you did not want to put forth the effort to conversation, like, why was that a thing that is?
Speaker 1:where does that stem from? That's old, learned habits, from being called teachers, pets. We're just being the one to answer every single question and being like thinking you know, maybe I should let others have a chance. Or when I do speak up, people still typically ignore me Until you know it's already done. It's like I don't want to be the guy to say I told you so, but Even if it's not fully, I told you so. It's like I had a point. It's it After a point. It's not just not willing to put in the effort, but it's also that it was a learned response that you know Not everyone cares. It's now so I might control it. I can't make everybody care.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I think that's where most of the Not willing to put in the effort comes from.
Speaker 2:We'll take something If thoughts matter. You might, of course, and we only get to do this game of life once. I think that there's a not you know this thing that I heard once. It's like oh, you can either operate in love or fear, and you know they've been. They give the different branches of all the things that fell under the love column and fear column and, at the end of the day, the only thing that ever really matters is that you're being true to you and that I told you so is never really needed, because the fact that the other person was wrong was the I told you so, and I've learned that, you know, in my growth is that I never do the I told you so. I take the approach now of when I'm ignored or I'm not listened to. I simply just say this one phrase how can I help? And that keeps me grounded, because usually in an I told you so situation, there are consequences that I'm like why am I even a part of this Like? Why am I helping to clean up?
Speaker 2:this mess right now, when I told you so and that used to make me angry, but now it's. How can I help? Because the people you love are going to make mistakes, because they're human and a lot of times, you know, we as people think that ah man, if only the world was a better place. It doesn't matter if the world is a better place or not. What matters is that you're doing your part in being a good person. Bad things are always going to happen in life. People are always going to disappoint us in life, people are going to fall short in life, and the ideal does not exist, and what exists is what we create to be our ideal. There is no true greater ideal and we can't achieve that greater ideal. The individual impacts the whole, and so all you can say is we're here to help.
Speaker 1:You know, a lot of people need to help too.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I don't mean not necessarily large amounts of help, a little guiding hand, a little positive reinforcement.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mean, I told you about, you know, the story of this transient gentleman that I met. You know transient homeless or what have you that I met and this guy was a genius. At first I thought that he was crazy, because he's comes to me and he says, oh yeah, this, oh, I mean, you know and tell me all these things, and I was genuinely interested in all that he had to say.
Speaker 1:Everything sounded like it made sense, but at the same time, Exactly.
Speaker 2:I'm looking at him but not I'm not paying attention to his words. And it got to the point where it was, like I said to you, I didn't believe 80% of what you said and then 20% of what you said. I'm like this is plausible, or I'm like this really, really could be true.
Speaker 1:The aura, so to speak. He gave off was crazy, but when you pay attention to who he was.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and so they go to a bar later that night. I'm speaking to these two gentlemen and you know we're talking about AI together and they were discussing, you know, some problems they were having with you know, with AI and what have you Mind, you, both of these gentlemen? They're like see you, the CEO of a Canadian company that deals with AI and things of that nature, and I was just. I regurgitated what this homeless man said to me as a joke and when I did, they were like that makes sense. That's the answer right there, and I don't even remember what I regurgitated. Again, it was slightly inebriated.
Speaker 1:I'm regurgitating for a good story. I've repeated what a homeless man said to me, to some CEOs, and now they're making more money.
Speaker 2:And then they, literally, as a thank you, they were like all right, let's keep the tab open, you know, and you can order whatever you want. I'm like, oh, thank you, this is perfect and one of my goals, and you'll see in my 10-year goal that I have hung up. One of the things was to form deeper connections with people, and I can't achieve that unless I take the time to humble myself, be willing to listen to the words of people who I may think that their words are crazy, and if I listen, truly actively listen, as you stated earlier, then the words that are coming out of their mouth aren't actually crazy, because my biases are putting blinders over my eyes and then they're putting earplugs in my ears, so I can't fully grasp the gravity of a situation.
Speaker 1:You are not responsible for the first thought that comes to your mind, but you are responsible for the second thing that comes out of your mind when it comes to having an opinion on something, of course, and your first thought is always a trained response, of course, absolutely Like the other. Second is what you think.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Honest. I mean, it's the onion concept. You have to peel back the layers, you have to, and you know, going through the journey. And then this gentleman said to me. He said Some of us are homeless, we don't need money from anyone. You know, it would nice to know that we're still people and that people would take the time to just say hello and not treat us like we don't exist. But I was like mind blown, mind blown.
Speaker 1:But it's so simple.
Speaker 2:It is so simple, but it's complicated, you know, and I'm learning to be better man. You know I am, I'm learning to be better, and I'm far from being perfect, and my goal is not to be perfect.
Speaker 1:It's not easy to be better compared to yourself. Yeah, Compared to others it can be quite easy, but compared to yourself, you can. It's definitely too easy to be hard on yourself, too hard on yourself.
Speaker 2:That's your mentally so it is, and some of us will find a way to be extremely hard on ourselves and can't even find reasons to forgive ourselves. That also comes very easy to a lot of people and they're done that. The internal, you know voice that says, hey, you can't do it.
Speaker 1:You know, it's not the voice that makes the excuses for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah that, oh, you're just going to leave like everybody else and it's like you're creating that self fulfilling. You know prophecy. You're letting that first thought win Exactly, instead of looking at the fact that, oh, this person cares, this person is there for me, this person listens, this person generally wants what's best for me.
Speaker 1:It is unfortunately human nature to focus on the negative more than the positives. It's it's a reflex to say that we need to work more to counteract.
Speaker 2:You know, and a space that is absent of negativity is a space that can cure that. I've had moments where, like I was in a dark place and the things that got me out wasn't my ironclad confidence, and I do have a supreme confidence in things that I believe in. I don't think that I can be stopped in a lot of things that I believe in, because I know how much work I put into something.
Speaker 2:I understand that I will fail in some areas, but I know that the failure is not final and I'm okay with that because I'm not dead, I'm alive. But when you're in that dark place and you don't have anyone that believes in you and people only see the results of all the other things that you've done, but they don't even want to even listen to the thing that you're trying to do, and even though you've like, it's more frustrating when you have the Ws to back up the things that you want to do but other people don't want. They fight against it, and so you're having to fight against your own self, to fight against the fact that people are pushing you back, against you, and you're still trying to like, just be positive. You're still trying to accomplish that goal and that's it's lofty endeavor, because you feel like no matter where you turn, it's an L. You feel like the world's against you Absolutely and your and your world is actually against you, because that is your world. You're in that world, that space, that environment, that environment of hostility or toxicity or what have you, and you have to still get that thing done that you're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 2:That's tough and you know, whenever I've ever gone through that. The thing that's kept me going truly is knowing that you know what. It's just another day at the office, and that reference makes you know as my fools are. It's just another day at the office, it's just a part of life to encounter BS. There will never be a situation in life where anything is perfect. There's always going to be pickups, hurls, potholes.
Speaker 2:Exactly Mountains in your way, obstacles that people place there, it's going to be there, and to expect anything else is why we fail at accomplishing our goals, because we expect the journey to be easy and without any. You know mistakes.
Speaker 1:We all live in our own little worlds. We just need to learn to create our own worlds with respect to others.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and you know, the saying is that, you know, every villain is the hero of their own story. What you know, maybe you need to be the hero of your villain's story and then you'll learn to be good. You know, I'm quite happy. My communications teacher once told me to never use the word um when speaking to her. Um, it's just a filler word, sorry, I know, I've done that quite a few times. No, I that's, but that's what I mean, though. It's a filler word, but it's a way of processing. It's a pause as well. Yeah, that's what I would say to her. It's a pause, that's what you said. It's pause and uh, this is a perfect example of being able to accomplish your goal, because someone that is there to hold you accountable and what have you, and speaking with people, I have a great level of respect for my former professor, you know, professor Tan, who uh was, was uh mind blowing, because you ever, if you judge a book by its cover, sometimes, like you, can be so wrong.
Speaker 2:So, my, my, my professor, communications professor, uh, miss Tan, um, she, she, she spoke, um, she kind of sounds like a female version of myself and the, the, the, in terms of, like our speech patterns. It's a nation.
Speaker 1:Yes, and the the flow of the conversation, the thoughts.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Minus the fact that she's a communications professor and she has like a gazillion little years of experience that I I could not ever expect to have. Uh, she, we're having a conversation and we're talking about food and you know, and she's telling me about all these, these, uh, jamaican meals and things of that nature and I was like, oh my gosh, like I thought that she was from Singapore and you know what, not like the, her, her knowledge of Jamaican gastronomy is so vast that I was just mind blowing. I'm like their husband's making them Like oh, that's right, she's not married and she's never been married, so that's like whatever. And it turns out that her, uh, I guess like she was a part of an exchange program a long time ago and that the people who did it.
Speaker 2:there was a Jamaican family that adopted her, so sometimes yeah. So you know, that is like one of those things that are like oh, wow like she had Jamaican parents and make sense.
Speaker 2:You know, and uh, it's, it's. It's good to find ways and things in which you have a common ground with other individuals and use that as a segue to accomplishing your goals. When people feel that you are similar to them or they can see themselves in you and you can see yourself in them and you're able to make them out to be a person that you can utilize to hold yourself accountable or hold them accountable, it becomes easier to attain your goals. And you have to find that person that you know that's always going to be honest with you and say that, hey, that speech that is low tier.
Speaker 2:I was like well, I'll do better next time, because now, now, you do better right now in this conversation. Don't use um in this conversation like you did in the speech. Do better right now. You have the ability to do so. Do it. And having someone call me out like that, you know, I was like, oh, oh, my gosh, she knew and uh, it, just it overall made me, made me better and I'm grateful for that. And now, whenever I'm speaking, I I think about certain things, even though I do the bad actions, though.
Speaker 1:I was. Uh, obviously I haven't spoken at length in a while, in a while in a this wouldn't really be a professional setting, more in a more formal setting Uh, so I was taught to not use on eventually, and what I did end up leaning on is long periods of silence, but little longer. Yeah, Uh, for two, this pauses and maybe extending the final syllable of something, as it's a kind of slowly ease into the pause. That's, those are the things I landed on, and it takes a lot of mental effort for me to not use Um. It's kind of become a part of my daily speech. I'm thinking about things. It's not necessarily bad thing. I don't think certain teachers might argue otherwise, but I suppose you could say that we have just created a goal for me to, to, to regain that ground of not relying on um or I don't know what else would people use, like, like, yeah, that's, that's a good one. I remember a friend of mine. Uh, way back in little school we used to always end off things with, you know.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. But those are filler thoughts. You know filler words and so whenever in terms of like in a formal setting, if you want to know if I like someone or not, you will know, because my vocabulary is not relaxed at all, it is stiff and and and and the void of life is extremely formal, is robotic. There is no robustest in there. It's just me just being a dictionary to you. In terms of me, I would never use the word like, such as.
Speaker 1:Well, now you're. Now you're using a synonym. It's not really a synonym, but a synonym a similar phrase to life, instead of saying absolutely.
Speaker 2:It's such as, so it takes on a different meaning. Exactly that is what I mean, I, when I use like, it makes me more approachable, it's more normal, it's more socially normal, and if I go such as, it's saying back off, I'm going to throw this dictionary at. You know, figuratively speaking, um, and I like that concept of oh, my goodness, I can use words to either pull people in or push people away, without being malicious or in their face about it, exactly. And so I've learned to embrace the idea of asking for help when I need it to accomplish my goals. I've learned to talk about my, my feelings, and to see where, where I am mentally.
Speaker 2:You know what, what is my state of being? You know, um, is the mind frame that I'm taking on the right one? It doesn't matter if I think I'm right or if I think I'm wrong about something, it's that I have the ability to ask for help. And so sometimes you know you need a little guidance, and that's okay to need a little guidance. You all need it, and I just take this as an opportunity to just embrace the fact that I'm human in that, such as life, man.
Speaker 1:Here's a really good catch up from all the way, when we first started recording to this point right now. Are you familiar with rubber duck debugging?
Speaker 2:I am not.
Speaker 1:Okay, I couldn't tell you when. Probably in the seventies or nineties, I don't remember the time period exactly. But the point being was, programmers would sit in their little cubicle staring at their computer screen. They'd get tripped up over their own code. And this is before Google didn't really? You couldn't just Google stack exchange, whatever your problem is, or just Google broadly for it to get an answer?
Speaker 2:That's what Yachtle is for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you would have to consult your peers in your direct vicinity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so before you do that, some people found it easier to speak to an inanimate object about the problem, instead of letting the issue be run over and over and over inside of the brain, despite them explaining it to themselves and their mind over and over and over.
Speaker 1:Some people had a little yellow and orange rubber ducky sit on their desk and they would look at the rubber ducky and they would say here's my problem, here is how the code works. They would speak to this inanimate object and vocalizing the problem, these steps, the understanding of it all, is enough to change their own perspective to solving their own problem. And we don't necessarily. Obviously, yes, having someone to speak with helps, because it's like having someone to have your ideas bounce off of, get another opinion of, but you can also get a different opinion for yourself by simply externalizing your thoughts, speaking to yourself in the shout, or maybe modeling to yourself before you go to bed to clear your mind, the sister, or kick back and relax and stare out the window with a nice cup of tea or coffee or whatever your favorite snack, and just vocalize your thoughts to yourself, as opposed to letting them sit and stew marinated in your mind.
Speaker 2:You know, that's Satan's deep heart. We can always, you know, wallow in our own suffering, or what have you like, such as I was making fun of my college professor there just now.
Speaker 1:It's important we get outside of our own minds, not just our own comfort zones.
Speaker 2:Of course, you know, one of the things that have always held me back as a human being was the fact that sometimes I would get caught up in my own head.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I would stay there and I wouldn't want to like work through anything else. I just would stay in that realm of my head and if I stayed there for two months, then that's just where I stay. And the truth is, this taught me that I can't have certain people or certain things that I have no control over occupy my mental real estate anymore. I have so many good people who rely on me and they mean the best version of me, not a version that I allow people who don't even matter to occupy me, people that lift you up and let them be the ones that hold you accountable for reaching your goals.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and that's what makes me a boring guy. You know. I really do appreciate you taking the time to do the podcast with me and I'm extremely grateful. I look forward to the next time you decide to come on to the Magnificent Ones podcast.
Speaker 1:It's been a joy. I always do enjoy sitting in a room listening to people who are far more intelligent than I am.
Speaker 2:I think that if you play back this podcast, you'll see that you're the intelligent one in this country. I'm not saying I'm not the intelligent one. I'm saying that you are the guy. This is your world and I'm just occupying it somewhat, and you're not just occupying a part of it. Now, exactly, you know, what's valuable about having platforms is you choose who's on your platform, and I think that everyone brings something to the table, and I love the fact that.
Speaker 2:I love how people's brains work I do and having the time to just sit down, talk to someone and see what their passions are and or learn what their passions are. It allows you to also reflect and look inward in ways that let you know that, oh my goodness, I'm not the only one that thinks this way. Other people are going through the same things that I'm going through. Other people have it worse than I do, and I love. The thing that I heard on Instagram a long time ago is that you know you're worried about getting a bigger house. When someone just wants to live in a house, you're worried about the fact that you can't get, you know, caramel in your coffee when someone just wished they could have something to eat. And the realities of life. Sometimes they don't truly reflect a person's.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to make it, you know, easily to more palpable. Sometimes the reality of like someone's life doesn't reflect the greater reality of others, because they're so engulfed and consumed by themselves that they don't take the time to see that others around them have it worse, and that's something that I had to help we could all do to be open with each other much more than we already are. Exactly.
Speaker 1:More together, exactly.
Speaker 2:Well, let's do more together. Raise each other up, yeah, and with that you know I'm going to listen to some amazing music and looking forward to that, isn't there's a? I want to listen to some classical music, just to go back to a mental head space that I was at when I was younger that I knew came from two things working out and classical music.
Speaker 1:You did the two hand in hand.
Speaker 2:I did the two hand in hand Again, dude. Thank you, I really appreciate this.
Speaker 1:You're welcome.
Speaker 2:It was a pleasure. If you enjoyed today's content, please like and subscribe for more.