In this episode, we discuss how we should strive to have flexibility and control over our lives, so we don’t become stuck in life.
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 the need to have flexibility and control over your life. A majority of my day is dedicated to giving me flexibility and control over my life so that I don’t become stuck in my situation. I’ve been in many situations where I felt that I was compromising myself because I want certainty over my situation.
I joined the Marines back in 2004 right out of high school and a big reason why I joined the Marines was that I wanted my school to be paid for and I wanted to be part of the best branch out there. I figured that if I was a Marine and I had a college education, this would set me up for a lot of success. This was very stressful and caused me to have a bad back and shoulder, but I also learned a lot of valuable skills and life lessons.
But now I’m in Costa Rica enjoying my life with little responsibilities because my GI Bill is paying for my tuition and giving me a basic allowance for housing which goes a lot farther in Latin America. I have the flexibility of choosing my day and where I live because I don’t rely on someone else to pay me my entire salary. I have many different clients paying me. Since this is the case for me, I don’t have one client having complete control over me because if they leave then it won’t make a big impact on my life. This gives me a lot of flexibility to choose my day and how I work within my day.
I’m also accumulating my financial, human, and social assets to give me even more flexibility and control over my life because I don’t want to be entirely dependent on one thing in my life. When I was in the Marines, a federal employee, and at other jobs, I hated the feeling that I had to do something just because they were paying me.
It caused me a lot of stress because I felt I was going against the person I was and I just didn’t like working in a group setting where I was dependent on other people to do their work. Then when they didn’t do their work, I had to bug them. I’m a very ambitious person and once I found that I could work for myself, then I fell in love with this work. I like it when a client gives me a task like how to help them better understand their finances so that can live comfortably in retirement. And if a client is looking to improve their professional career, I’m able to give them tips on how to reach the next level. I just like solving problems for others, not working with others to solve problems.
When you strive for flexibility and control over your life though, there are plenty of ways to do so. There is no one path. You don’t have to take my path but you need to understand what type of life you want to have and what are all the trade-offs by choosing that lifestyle. You can live a very simple life and just work you’re nine-to-five and be fine but also make sure you’re prepared for whatever future that may come your way.
Overall, you don’t want to be stuck with a life that you don’t want because the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation. Why be miserable like everyone else by playing it safe. I went through a lot of ups and downs where relationships didn’t work out, money was tight, and I was dealing with people that were driving me crazy. These all gave me a great perspective on life but I don’t want to go back to those things. They don’t fit me anymore. So to prevent that I have to do the things today to give me the life I want, which is one that is filled with options that provide me flexibility and control over my life.
That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, have flexibility and control over your life because you don’t want to live a life of quiet desperation. You live a life of quiet desperation when you don’t have flexibility and control over your life and are just stuck with your situation. But this doesn’t have to last forever, it can change if you work on your inner circle and when you do this, you’ll start to have the outer circle success. Then you can live life on your own terms. The greater the terms though, the more options you need to have to maintain that lifestyle though. If that’s fine with you and you’re willing to do the work, then go for it, but make sure you’re doing for yourself and not someone else. If you want to see how you can have more control over your life, then schedule a meeting with me at growwithjoe.me/schedule.
So in your journal, ask yourself, do you have control and flexibility and control over your life? If the answer is no, why is that the case? If the answer is yes, how can you keep that situation? Just remember when you assume problems are yours, then you have control over those problems and you can decide how to fix them. The problems might not be fixed overnight but is the beginning of the process to help you get the life you want to have in life.
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]
I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
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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.
*Music outro
