Don't be So Consumed With What You Want That You Forget About What You Have | FRIDAY FIELD NOTES
Episode Stats
Summary
In this episode, Ryan talks about the importance of being grateful for what you already have, and why it's important to stop chasing the things you don't have and focus on what you DO have. He also talks about how important it is to be grateful for the things we DO have, rather than focusing on what we don't.
Transcript
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart
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your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong. This is your life. This is who
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you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
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you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler,
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and I am the host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement. Welcome here.
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Guys, I'm going to be shooting off the cuff a little bit today because I'm on vacation this week. So I
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recorded this early, but I wanted to share with you some thoughts about the vacation that I'm on right
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now with my family. I'm sure we're having a great time at this point, but it got me thinking about
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some things in my life where, you know, I haven't always been able to physically or even mentally
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take a break, take a vacation because I've been so consumed with pursuing and chasing my dreams and
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my career aspirations and my financial goals that I haven't taken the appropriate time for myself and
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for my family and the people that I care about. So I wanted to talk with you about that today and
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give you some thoughts and insights into that. But also just wanted to let you know if you're new,
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this is a podcast designed and dedicated to helping you become a more capable father, husband,
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business owner, community leader. Society is lacking strong, motivated, capable, courageous,
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bold men. I'm trying to become that for myself and I'm trying to equip you with the tools to do that
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for yourself and for your communities and families. So welcome here. Welcome back. Please just leave a
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rating and review, subscribe. It's a very small price to pay to listen to this podcast if you've
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gotten any value from what we do here. And I know there's millions of you at this point who have. I
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looked at the numbers the other day. I want to say we're close to 36 million podcast downloads at this
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point, which is unreal. It's unreal to me how many men listen to this podcast, get value from this
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podcast. You guys are messaging me every day. You're telling me what's working, what isn't, how you're
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improving your lives, how you're becoming better men in a small part to what we share here. So glad
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you're with us. All right, guys, enough of that. I don't want to do any announcements today. I just want
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to talk with you about this today because I know so many men and myself included who get so consumed
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with chasing business acumen and financial goals and all of these other things that they forget to
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they forget the things that are in front of them right now. I made a post on Instagram the other
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day and I said this very simply. I posted a picture of myself and my family right before we went to
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church. This was on Sunday. And I said this, as strange as it may sound, I often need to remind
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myself not to become so consumed with pursuing what I don't have that I overlook the incredible
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abundance that I already do. And that has been one of my greatest challenges. I'm aspirational.
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I'm forward thinking. I'm ambitious. This describes probably most of you. And sometimes we tend to leave
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the wake of collateral damage in our path because we're so focused on pursuing what isn't ours already
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that we forget how many incredible blessings that we already have, namely our families and our health
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and the wonderful abundance of opportunities and possessions and the life health that we enjoy.
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So this is going to be a short one. And again, this is off the cuff guys, but I want you to just stop
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today for a minute or this weekend and just count your blessings. Be grateful for what you have.
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Think about what you have. Figure out a way to be more engaged with what you have more so than maybe
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what you want. And look, there's seasons. There's times for this. As I said earlier, I'm on a vacation
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right now with my family as of the release of this podcast. And it hasn't always been this way. It hasn't
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frankly, always been possible. There was times where I was worried about making the mortgage
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payment or the car payments or not having that check bounce. And fortunately, at this point in
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my life, I'm past and I'm beyond having that concern. But I get it. I understand. And there's
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seasons to everything, but please just let it be a season. All right. No man has ever going to look
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back as he's sitting on his deathbed and think about how much more he wish he would have worked or how
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many more arguments he would have got to online or how many speaking tours he would have done.
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What he's going to do is he's going to think about the baseball games that he missed with little
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Timmy, the dance recitals he missed with little Sally. He's going to think about the conversations
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that were left unsaid and undone between his wife and him, how he wish he could just spend a little
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more time with her, make love with her one more time. These are the things you're going to worry
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about as you're sitting on your deathbed. These are the things you're going to be concerned about.
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So we have an opportunity today where we're not sitting on our deathbed, hopefully, and we have an
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idea, uh, uh, uh, an opportunity to really think about what that might look like
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and then to alter our course of action. Now it's challenging. Look, as a man who's ambitious,
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as a man who has the, I believe, noble ambition and desire to serve his family, to make money,
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to provide income, to provide means and protect, provide, preside the things that we talk about.
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It's challenging to want to step away. These are what we call noble obstacles and noble obstacles
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are things that we know we should be doing. And there's a truth and validity to the things
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that we should be doing. And yet it's an obstacle to our own path of fulfillment
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and leading and caring about the ones that we love.
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So what I would say to you guys is think about how you really want to spend your time.
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You know, everybody's going to tell you that you need to chase business. You need to chase money.
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You need to chase all these external sources and you should, but I'll tell you what, when my wife and
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I went through our separation about 12 years ago, I remember she looked at me with tears in her eyes
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and she said, you know, I would have lived in a cardboard box if it meant being with you.
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And I forgot that. And instead of turning to her, I turned to making money, gaining notoriety,
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gaining influence, traction, business and financial acumen. And I did it at her expense.
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And not only was it at her expense, it was at my expense because I realized that wasn't actually
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what I wanted. I wanted those things, but the reason I wanted financial success, the reason I
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wanted business acumen is so that I could be more present for my wife and my children, that I can
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engage in the hobbies and the interests and the activities that were enjoyable and significant
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and meaningful to me, that it wasn't the money itself. It was what the money, what the income,
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what the business would produce for me. And fortunately I had some dark and desperate
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times in my life where I realized that what I hate to see is I hate to see when men
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wait till they hit rock bottom to correct themselves. So the message I want to share with
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you today is now before it's too late, before you hit rock bottom or you have something catastrophic
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or you have some life altering set of circumstances is don't get so consumed with chasing this other
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life that you completely forget to live the life that you currently have. And isn't that the path
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to satisfaction? Isn't that the path to fulfillment? Look, I'll tell you when I feel worse throughout
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the day is when I jump on social media and I see everybody else doing everything that I think I want
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to do. Well, I want to go on that vacation. I want to talk to that individual. I want to go on this
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trip. I want to drive that car. Do I, do I really want to do that? Or is that what I'm supposed to
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want to do? Because really, if I think about it, what I want to do is I want to spend time with my
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family. I want to build the canoe and work on that with my son. I want to have deep and meaningful
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conversations with my wife. I want to play Barbies and Lego with my daughter and my boys. And I want to
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just be present with them. Now that's hard to do as we're running a business and we're running a life
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and we're trying to provide income. But I would say a couple of things. Number one, plan ahead.
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You know, I wrote down this morning because I don't want to miss a podcast even while I'm gone.
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I wrote down nine podcasts that need to be done while I'm away. And I want to be fully present with
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my family while we're on vacation. And so I need to do these podcasts ahead of time so that I don't have
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to do them while I'm on vacation. So there's nine podcasts right here that I need to do
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in order to make sure that I'm fully present with my family. So number one, you have to plan ahead,
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guys. Right? If you're not going to plan ahead and you're not going to think about what needs to be
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done, then it's going to be very difficult for you to be present at the moment with your family when
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you're doing the things that you should be doing. Whether that's an extended vacation or whether
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that's a weekend or just being at the baseball game. You know, are you at the baseball game or are you on
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your phone? Physically, you may be at the game, but emotionally, mentally, you're on your phone,
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you're distracted, you're somewhere else. You got to plan ahead, plan for these things, act
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accordingly. Also take an inventory that I guess this would be number two, take an inventory of your
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life. Are you doing the things that you need to be doing? Now I can't answer that for you. I don't
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know what your heart desires. I don't know what your ambitions are. I know what mine are. And I know
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that they, my actions and my ambitions weren't always in integrity. They weren't always in
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alignment. And so I worked really hard to make sure that those things were in alignment and people now
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say, well, wouldn't it be nice? You know, it must be nice that you have this, this opportunity to go
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on this vacation. It must be nice. You have this opportunity to speak with these people. It must be
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nice. You make X amount of income. It is nice. It's very nice, but that doesn't mean I didn't work for
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it. That doesn't mean I didn't plan for it. That doesn't mean that there weren't sleepless nights
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trying to figure out how to make this thing work and how to grow this business and how to do something
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that was meaningful and significant, but also have time for my family and the things that are
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important. I did all of that. And I'm still doing that today. How can I continue to grow this business
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and my influence and my opportunity to serve you as men and also take care of the other things that
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are important to me? And that's what we need to realize. We're multidimensional.
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You know, I know guys who kick ass at business and yet they've been divorced three times. Their kids
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hate them. They're probably on their fourth divorce at this point. Well, cool. Congratulations. You can
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make a shit ton of money, but you can't maintain a relationship with somebody who cares about you to
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save your life. Is that winning? Is that success? Hell no, that's not success. That's not success by
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anybody's metric. And I just told you, I don't know what your heart desires, but I know that that
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is not success by any metric, by anybody's measurement. Because again, go to their deathbed.
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Not, I wish I could have put an extra zero on that bank account statement. No.
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It's what I wish I could have hit the game. I wish I could have spent time with my family. I wish we
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could have went on that vacation. I wish I would have done that thing. I wish I would have said yes to
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those opportunities and those experiences. I've got personal friends who are like, you know, I'd love
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to go do that, that thing and go on that adventure, spend time with my family, but I've got work.
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That ain't it guys. I'm telling you right now that ain't it. And again, there's seasons. You got to do
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what you got to do in the season, but seasons end, they come and go. And some of you guys, some of you
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older gentlemen who listen to this podcast, maybe you're 50, 60, 70, 80 years old, listen to this
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podcast, know exactly what I'm talking about. I wish you'd turn around and smack some of us in the
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face who are 20, 30, 40 years old and say, guys, wake up. I've talked with plenty of you
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older gentlemen who are wise because you've got the time. And then you have these young guys who
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are arrogant and think they'll never get old. We're all going to get old. I just hit 40 this year.
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That's not old, but man, it feels like it. I never thought I would hit 40. Never. And yet here I am.
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So guys, my message to you today, again, as I'm on vacation, spending time with family and
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creating these opportunities and really going to work, making sure that I can do it and doing the
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podcast and get everything else in line so I can be fully present with my family. My message to you
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is this. Don't get so consumed with chasing things and pursuing things that you don't have that you
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forget to live your life today. I want you to be fulfilled. I want you to be satisfied. I want you
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to be happy. Part of that is chasing our dreams. But the other part of it, a large part of it that
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most of us overlook is being content and happy and fulfilled and satisfied with what we have today.
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And that starts with gratitude. Be grateful. We spend so much time focusing on what we don't have
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because we spend so much time comparing ourselves to other people on these devices. Stop it. Knock it
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off. Think about what you have today. Be grateful for what you have today. Be fully present with what you
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have today. And I guarantee your life will get better. And I don't actually think it's a coincidence,
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but if you show gratitude and you believe you have abundance, I believe more of that will come
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into your life. This isn't some woo woo fairy tale fluffy bullshit, but your attitude is going to
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change. Like if you're satisfied and happy and fulfilled with what you have, your attitude's going
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to change. You're going to pick up new clients. You're going to think of new ideas. You're going to be
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more creative. You're going to offer value and add value to people's lives and you're going to be
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compensated. And so if you can be grateful, you're going to have more abundance coming to your life.
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To me, that's a natural principle. Not just to me, it's a principle. It applies broadly.
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The more you give, the more you are, the more you'll receive, the more you'll be in return.
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All right, guys, I'm going to sign out for today. I know it's a short one. Again, a little bit off the
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cuff. I didn't go into the five details that you need to do in order to create more abundance in
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your life. I just want you to stop and reflect and think about what you have. Not what you want.
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Not what you want this weekend. There's plenty of time for that. And I've talked about that.
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And that's not bad, by the way. It's not bad to think about what you want out of your life. You
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should be doing that. But this weekend, I want you to think about what you have. I want you to wake
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up early before the wife and the kids this weekend, Saturday, Sunday, and just start
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listing out some things that you have. Grateful for my health. I'm grateful for my wife. I'm
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grateful for my kids. I'm grateful for the sunrise. I'm grateful for this cup of coffee. I don't know
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what it is. But just start documenting and writing these things out. And just inventory. See how that
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changes your day and changes your perception. And see if new opportunities and a new perception on life
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comes your way. And build this into your routine. Don't be so consumed with what you don't have
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that you forget about what you do. All right, guys. Make it a great day. Make it a great weekend.
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We'll be back next week for another great interview, the AMA, and another Friday Field Notes. Until then,
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go out there, take action, and become the man you are meant to be.
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Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast. If you're ready to take charge of your life
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and be more of the man you were meant to be, we invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.