Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons that you can reflect on in your journal so you can grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and have a better career, better relationships, and better personal finances while you enjoy your morning cup of coffee.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
At the end of today’s podcast episode, I’m going to give you a prompt question to reflect on in your journal. The idea is to take one to five minutes to reflect on today’s lesson and write a minimum of one paragraph on how you can apply the lesson in your life. You can use an actual journal, a word document like on Google Drive, or your note-taking app like Evernote. The idea is that you’re actually thinking about how to process the information to help you improve your life.
In today’s episode, we’re are going to talk about how opportunities are like a bus stop, if you miss one, then another one will come in 15 minutes. This is a quote from Richard Branson who is the serial entrepreneur from Virgin. Everywhere you look, there are opportunities to make a better life. A better life might not happen right away, but there are opportunities. Especially with the internet, there are so many opportunities where you can get that better life. Some opportunities might require to take a step back through.
When I was in the military, I saw a lot of senior folks taking aid jobs where they are basically planning everything for a Colonel or General. I personally wouldn’t want the job but it puts you in a position where you’re around the person that is going to promote you to the next rank. So if you can be close to opportunities, then they will find you. The person in an aid position might not get the assignment they desire, but they might get that next one because there will be something that pops up later. The idea is that when you’re in an area with opportunities, if you miss one, don’t stop working hard, keep going and if you keep going another thing will pop up.
Don’t ever treat life like it’s an all or nothing ordeal. There are things that I missed out on like the college experience since I went into the Marine Corps, but it offered me so many more opportunities in life. I lived in Hawaii, I was able to go to school for free, and I gained a lot of leadership skills.
With some buses, they come by really fast and you need to have the ability to hop on that fast-moving bus. Like you have to sprint next to the bus and then hop on the bus with that last leap. These buses are filled with amazing opportunities but you need to be able to get on the bus. And the thing with opportunities, it’s not something that you can milk for the rest of your life. Eventually, the bus will reach the end of its destination and you have to get off. So don’t get lazy when you get off the busy because you’ll need to get on the next one.
If you’re not strong enough to get on the fast-moving bus with a lot of opportunities, then there are other buses you can get one that moves slower but have fewer reward on board. If this is what is possible for you right now, then take the bus and just get a little bit stronger for the next bus. Do this routine enough times and you’ll eventually be able to get that next bus with more rewards on it.
The worst thing you can do is just not try and say it’s impossible to on a moving bus. You just sit at the bus stop, waiting for you. There might even be a bus that stops right in front of you but you don’t get on because it’s not at the right destination. You prefer someplace else but that requires you to be on a bus that moves fast. Well if it’s not possible now, you can make it possible in the future. You just need to have the right mindset and not let your ego get in the way of your future success. If you stay too long at the bus stop, then you’ll eventually become helpless. Don’t let this happen to you.
We have to constantly be training ourselves for that next opportunity because it might be the thing that will forever change our life for the better. I’m so glad that I joined the Marines, moved to DC, and moved to Latin America because it just gave me so many more buses to get on. Even if you’re in your small town or a big city, there are tons of opportunities that you can take advantage of. Reading books and listening to podcasts has changed my mindset and removed the self-limiting beliefs I had about life. I was a lot of work to change my situation but I’m so glad I did a lot of the work in my 20s. When you’re younger the opportunities are going to require sweat equity that is going to challenge yourself to get better. You can do a lot of hard work but it doesn’t really challenge yourself to be better. You’re just a mule in this case. My dad worked really hard as a bunch of other immigrants, but he didn’t work to challenge body, mind, and spirit. I don’t blame my dad for this because he grew up in a much different time under many different circumstances. He did what he needed to survive. My dad said he wishes he would of went to school but didn’t take it seriously because he was learning simple words. And sometimes, the opportunity that is front of us might seem silly, but it will be the fundamentals that will get us to the next level. Also, my dad should have talked to the teacher for more advanced work. That could have been an opportunity.
This is why I read so much, so I can see the alternatives out there and get on that next bus that will come in 15 minutes. The opportunities are there, you just need to hop on them when they arrive if you can.
That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, opportunities are like a bus stop, one appears every 15 minutes. When it comes to opportunities, you need to have a growth mindset and not a fixed mindset. This will help you start upgrading your skills so that you can get on that fast-moving bus with a lot of rewards on it. If you can run, then learn how to use a bike or get on a slower moving bus so that you can start getting stronger for bigger opportunities in the future. No matter where you are in life, there are opportunities to get better, you make this happen. The reward might be small but if you do enough work over enough time, you will get to the place you want to be in life and that’s what we want right?
So in your journal, ask yourself, what are some opportunities in your life that you’re not taking advantage of? Is someone in your office or a client asking for something but is not getting the result they desire? Could you provide that result with some extra training? One exercise I like to do is write down ten new ideas a day which I got from James Altucher. When you write down your ten new ideas, this is a perfect time to look for opportunities for yourself. I’ve come up with a lot of amazing ideas that provided me with more opportunities in my life. Sometimes that opportunity of a lifetime is right in front of us, we just need to open our eyes. Doing a brainstorming session will help you open your eyes.
Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and just pay for shipping and handling.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
I’m also trying to do a feedback Friday episode, so if you have a question that you would like to have my answer on the air, just e-mail me at [email protected]
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Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
