Getting After It

075: Book Review – Right Thing, Right Now by Ryan Holiday (Part 1)

• Brett Rossell • Season 3 • Episode 75

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In this episode, we dive into Ryan Holiday's "Right Thing Right Now," breaking down its core messages through the lens of timeless virtues celebrated by Stoic greats like Marcus Aurelius.

We explore how these principles can transform our modern lives by dissecting the book into three powerful sections: personal integrity ('me'), sociopolitical responsibility ('we'), and collective human effort ('all').

I’m also sharing my journey of running an ultra marathon for a friend battling cancer, showcasing the enduring power of integrity and compassion.

Let’s get real about honesty. Reflecting on my grandfather’s unshakeable commitment to his word, we uncover the value of integrity in personal relationships and professional settings.

I’ll share business experiences where transparency, even when admitting mistakes, built trust and credibility. We also look at the courageous actions of whistleblowers, inspired by the principles of truth upheld by Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Finally, we focus on taking responsibility for our goals. Drawing inspiration from F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "The Adjuster," we’ll explore the transformative journey from entitlement to maturity. I’ll share my own experiences with fitness goals and the practice of daily journaling, emphasizing the importance of leaving a legacy of lessons for future generations.

Join the conversation, share your stories, and keep pushing forward. Together, we’re building a community of shared learning and mutual motivation. Tune in next week for more insights and keep getting after it!

If you want to support the Gallup family, please checkout their GoFundMe page.

You can also shop the Nomad's For Jordan collection on American Nomad Apparel.

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Your dreams are within reach. You just have to decide to Get After It.

Speaker 1:

Marcus Aurelius reminded himself, but with kindness, with humility, without hypocrisy. The truth hurts enough by itself. You don't have to try to be hurtful. Justice it goes by many names, but we know it when we see it, and we see it too rarely these days. Moral character, decency, honorency, honor, integrity nothing is worth achieving in this life if it compromises these virtues, if it forces us to abandon honesty, kindness and fairness. Certainly, some manage to succeed without ethics, but the road to greatness is paved by goodness in selflessness and sacrifice and personal rectitude. Are these not the people we admire most, the ones who are called to do what others are too busy, too scared, too weak to do? We have to do the right thing tomorrow, no, right now, today. That is the summary of ryan holiday's book. Right thing right now. And I've fallen in love with this dude, as weird as that sounds, but I'm a big fan of him. That's maybe a better word for it. Uh, he studies the stoics, right, the stoic virtues of all the people like marcus alius, confucius, plato, marcus Regularius and a bunch of other guys out there who talk about the principles that are required to be a good person and lessons learned that are applicable to all of us still to this day, and the Stoics, if you're not familiar with them. Marcus Aurelius might be the most famous one. He wrote Meditations and was an ancient Roman emperor, but he also was arguably one of the most humble people in history, which is interesting because he was an emperor of Rome, given that Everyone knows about Rome. You ask any guy, there's a famous thing you could do or a trend on TikTok where it says you know, how often do you think of the Roman Empire? You're supposed to ask your boyfriend this, or your husband how often do you think about it? For me, because I love these lessons, it's every day. I'm a big fan of them and in this book, right Thing Right Now, it's broken up into three sections.

Speaker 1:

There's part one, which is the me, focused on personal, personal attributes and traits. Part two is the we, which is more sociopolitical, and this is about how we can all make a difference within our small groups, our small societies. And then part three is the all, or all of us are one, and that goes about just talking about how humans are in. You know, we're all in the same boat. We're all in this floating rock in space, traveling through space, which you can say is a planet and because of that, we all need to work together to make the world a better place and try our best to do so because, like ryan holiday says, these virtues are so rare nowadays, uh, and things could really change if we were implementing them ourselves, keeping ourselves in check.

Speaker 1:

And arnold schwarzenegger it's. It's written on the cover of the book, but arnold schwarzenegger says it quoted a message all of us need to know. So there you go. If it's from Arnold, you know it's got some validity behind it. Shout out to Arnold. If you ever want to be on this podcast, arnold, I'll take you.

Speaker 1:

But let's jump into this thing. I broke it down. I want to talk about the me section first, and really there's a lot in this book, but the first three chapters is what we're going to be talking about today, and the first is being keep your word. Second is telling the truth and third is take responsibility. I know it sounds like it could be a short podcast, but there's a lot to talk about on each of those, and keeping your word is the first place that we're going to be starting today. So what does it mean? To keep your word, and exactly that you do what you say you're going to do. You don't shy away from the fact that you know you said you're going to do something and then something comes up and, man, maybe I'll do it tomorrow. The point of keeping your word is that you see it through till the end.

Speaker 1:

And if you listen to my last podcast, I talked about my experience running my ultra marathon for, for Jordan, jordan Gallop, who, um, he unfortunately passed away from stage four colon cancer this week and before that I, I I told him and I told so many other people around me that I was running this race for him and ran. I've run for cancer my entire running career, you can call it, but Team Tim is what got me into it and I ran for Tim Murphy and kept running for Tim Murphy and I still will. Team Tim is a yearly occurrence, but on this race specifically, I wanted to run for Jordan and try and raise awareness for him and his family and again, I'll link his GoFundMe to the show notes, just in case you feel inclined to do so and go, donate and support them. But I really wanted to try and see what I could do to raise awareness for them and make an impact on their lives, at least with just getting the message of cancer sucks. And if you're going through hell, I want to go through it with you. And if that means I'm running an ultra marathon in the middle of the desert, then I will do it, the middle of the desert, and then I will do it.

Speaker 1:

And during the whole race excuse me, during the whole race I struggled. I talked about how I would throw up every quarter mile, how my light kept on dying and I was running in pitch black darkness, how my body ached more than it ever has in any other race before, because I wasn't used to those types of miles. That mileage was insane. And there was a point where I got halfway through the race, where I went to the medical tent. I sat down and I contemplated if I was going to stop or not. I was like, hey, you know what, maybe it's not smart for me to do this, maybe I need to actually take a break and call it quits.

Speaker 1:

I think about five people up to that point had dropped out of the race because one it was either too hard or two they were experiencing symptoms of heat stroke or other issues like that and safety reasons. I was like, well, you know, maybe I'm okay to not run this and people would understand. You know, I told myself this whole story and the medical staff they took all my vitals and once they did and they got all the results back, they were like okay, you seem good, everything seems to be in shape and if you feel strong enough to finish the race, you're medically cleared to do so. I also mentioned how my mom, my brothers, even Allie to some degree, they all said you can drop out and we would still be so proud of the work that you've done.

Speaker 1:

And I had to really think for a minute. I was like well, I have these two choices to keep going and push through this pain and keep my word to Jordan, or I could drop out. But I told myself I was going to finish, even if that meant I was walking across the finish line. If I walked the rest of the race, I still wanted to finish. I had until 5.30 am and I think at that point it was around 11.30. Yeah, probably 11.30 or so. So I was like, even if I walked, I'd still be able to finish for Jordan. And so I ran it and, luckily enough, I was able to feel strong enough to finish it in under five hours.

Speaker 1:

But the point of that is, I kept my word. As hard as it was, it was definitely difficult and there's no way to get around that. As hard as it was, it was definitely difficult and there's no way to get around that. And that's the first thing that Ryan Holiday talks about in chapter one of the book is what does it mean to keep your word? And he tells an example. He tells a story which is pretty wild about Marcus Regulus. Wow, I can't even say that, but let me tell you this. Regulus Wow, I can't even say that, but let me tell you this.

Speaker 1:

Marcus had the Carthaginians on the ropes in 256 BC, but it was not to be. His enemies, boosted by the help of the Spartans, defeated the Romans in a surprise reversal at the Battle of Tunis. Just a few months after lording impossible surrender terms over his opponents, aeolus was now a prisoner of war. He would languish in Carthage for five years, almost a thousand miles from Rome, away from his family, reduced to slavery, dressed in rags, hopeless and helpless. Now Marcus is an emperor Keep that in mind but now he's in poverty. He's a slave. All seemed lost until again, after yet another reversal on the battlefield. Carthage wanted peace and sent him back to Rome to negotiate a prisoner swap and an end to the hostilities. Free of Carthage, the sea wind on his face, regulus headed home, the war hero back after so many years away, back from the dead, back with his family, far from the clutches of the enemy.

Speaker 1:

After Regulus dutifully delivered Carthage's message, he had advice of his own to add. The offer must be rejected. Carthage was weak, he said, or they wouldn't have sent me as leverage. Fight on the war is winnable, grateful. The Romans followed his advice and Regulus packed his bags, not to rejoin the army but to return to Carthage as a prisoner. His friends were stunned You're safe now. Why would you return? I have sworn to them to return. Regulus explained of the honor system he had been paroled on. I will not transgress my oaths, not even when they have been given to enemies. He had given his word and that was it.

Speaker 1:

Now think about that for a second, this dude. This is back 256 BC and he's a thousand miles from Rome. But he was captured as a prisoner of war and he was reduced to slavery. This emperor was reduced to slavery, and so he had this lavish lifestyle. But then, boom, everything changed and he was there for five years.

Speaker 1:

Eventually, carthage was like hey, you know, we want to end this hostility, we're going to send you back and negotiate. And so he goes back and pretty much says, hey, they're weak right now. You can still go and attack them. You need to fight this fight. You need to fight this war, fight this battle. And I'm going to go back to Carthage as a prisoner because I told them I would. That's insane to me If I was by some reason captured by China as a prisoner of war and I was treated terribly for five years. I was a slave, I worked in prison camps which actually happens over there and and they're like, hey, you know what, we're going to send you back to the US, but you need to come back and just tell us what happens and see if you guys are willing to negotiate this. So we'll send you back to the US. And then I go up and I'm like, hey, this is kind of what they said, but they're weak, I'm going to go back to China. You guys fight them. And that's insane to me. He went back to the same thing he knew he was going to face, which was rags, hopelessness and helplessness. And he's an emperor, he has every right to do whatever he wants.

Speaker 1:

But Ryan Holiday talks about in this chapter. He says yeah, it's true, keeping your word can cost you, but it's not without cost to break your word either. Nor is your reputation usually the only one at stake, not only because we all represent other people, but because each time we deceive or break faith, we undermine the public trust. We make it hard for people to trust each other. Now, I love that too. It's super important to keep your word, because if you don't, other people will notice that and then maybe they'll start to slack off. And so what Ryan Holiday is trying to say is, the more that we do it, the more influence we can have on other people to do the same, to be examples of these virtues. And each time we keep our word, we make a deposit, we add a strand to the rope that binds the world together.

Speaker 1:

It's kind of his message there, but I love this piece that he says we keep our words to ourselves. That's discipline. We keep our words to others because it's justice, and you know how much I love discipline. I always talk about it on this podcast, but I never really considered the fact that when we keep our words to other people. It is justice. Like that, justice is served. When we keep our word, we're living words to other people. It is justice. Justice is served when we keep our word. We're living up to what other people expect of us and we're doing what we should.

Speaker 1:

Now he keeps on going. He talks about the importance of doing so, like keeping your word and staying true to what you say you're going to do. But here's this last. This is kind of how he ends out the chapter. He says it's natural to experience doubt. It's going to do. But here's this last. This is kind of how he ends out the chapter. He says it's natural to experience doubt, it's natural to hope it resolves itself, or even to ask for grace or latitude, to want an exemption or a pass. But in the end there should be no escaping.

Speaker 1:

A word freely given and taken, a contract signed in good faith. A word freely given and taken, a contract signed in good faith. You said it, they're counting on you. Do it, even if it doesn't seem like a big deal, even if it's going to be difficult or painful. We will regret many things in this life, but we'll never regret being the kind of person who keeps their word.

Speaker 1:

And it makes me think of the summary where he says are these not the people we admire the most? So I want you, for one second, to think about someone who you admire. Most likely there's someone who keeps their word. Most likely there's someone who stands behind the beliefs that they tell you, and they are the people that make a difference in society. Because whenever I think about someone who I look up to, I think of my grandpa. And why do I look up to my grandpa? Well, he's a hard worker. The dude was a farmer. He grew watermelon, he grew cotton, he grew, I think, he grew corn, mom fact, check me on that. I know you're listening to this Shout out to Dina.

Speaker 1:

But anyways, granddad is a hard worker and he's an honest man and he keeps his word when he says hey or when I ask him hey, granddad, I need to move something at 6 am from my storage shed to the house. Can you meet me there at 6 am, from my storage shed to the house? Can you meet me there at 6? He's there at 5 55 am because he kept his word and he's. He's a loyal man and he's an honest man and I respect him highly for that, and it's only because he lives up to what he says. If granddad was like, yeah, no, I'll help you, and then he shows up at seven, he's like like, oh, I thought you said seven, my bad, the alarm didn't go off, then I probably wouldn't respect him, but I do, and it's because he lives up to what he says he's going to do and he lives up to the person that he tries to be and that's why I respect granddad.

Speaker 1:

So think about someone like that in your life. It could be your husband, could be your wife, could be a mentor that you have at work, could be your parents, I don't know, but my guess is that they are someone who keeps their word. Which brings us to the next chapter tell the truth. And this is difficult. I'm not going to lie.

Speaker 1:

Telling the truth sometimes is hard and I want to give a real life example on this for my own life Business meetings all the time. Telling the truth can sometimes be an intimidating thing and when you're sitting in a meeting and you have to present kind of your performance or whatever is going on in your realm, it's better to tell the truth, because if you're making up lies or trying to tell things that aren't necessarily the way that they are. If you're trying to bypass the fact that you haven't met the expectations that were asked of you, people are going to notice eventually. You might get away with it once or twice If it keeps happening and you're like, oh man, we missed our forecast again this month. But here's what's going on in the economy which I think highly affects it, which sometimes is true. But a lot of times you need to ask yourself am I working hard enough? And I recently got into a new role.

Speaker 1:

I'm the business development manager for our fulfillment team at Pattern and the first couple of months have been difficult. We had higher forecasts of how many opportunities we were going to be able to create because of me moving into this role, and I have had to tell Bryce, who's the VP of business development, and my mentor, john, who I actually had, create this entire presentation and report and send it over to them and say, hey, we created seven opportunities this month. Two of them have progressed down the funnel to where we're actually having conversations about doing their fulfillment, but we're definitely missing where we need to be and not necessarily sure where we need to change things, but let you know. That's where we're at. And the thing is is I know my work that's gone into it has not been for nothing. I've actually worked hard and I told them that. I said, you know I've I've developed a lot of new um, outreach strategies and different things to try and get people interested in our product, and I had to tell them that honestly.

Speaker 1:

And you know what happened. I was expecting the worst. I was expecting them to say, well, you better shape it up or your job's gone. But they said, okay, yeah, like that's expected, totally understand. Thanks for sharing this. This is good insights. And that was it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. But if I was like, hey, I don't know what's going on, I'm working super hard, people just aren't interested in this thing, if I was not telling the truth, then I can almost guarantee you they would say, okay, well, that's fine, but figure it out. But since I had all the data behind it, I had all the information of what I was doing. They knew that I was telling the truth and that, yes, it is difficult to pitch a new product to people and try and get them to change a business strategy, but telling the truth in every day is just as important. As you know, an important business meeting like I was just talking about and in this chapter he talks a little bit about whistleblowers and what that means. But pretty much he's saying whistleblowers are people who tell the truth, which is interesting. I never necessarily thought of it like that Sorry, taking a drink but he says this the simple act of an ordinary brave man is not to participate in lies, not to support false actions.

Speaker 1:

The Soviet dissident Alexander Saul's Saul's hand, steen, would explain his rule. Let that come into the world, let it even reign supreme, only not through me. So what is he saying there? He's saying don't participate in lies, don't gossip, don't tell things to other people if you don't know that it's true and it's going to happen in the world. But you shouldn't participate in it because you can make a difference if you're not going to listen. That's a good example.

Speaker 1:

Is gossip? You can be the person that stops a rumor if you don't know it's true. Don't tell it to someone else. If you don't believe that someone has the best interest of that person. You shouldn't go off and preach it to the world, because that person who the rumors about is a human being. They have the same feelings, emotions and, potentially, problems that you do, and it's not right to go and talk shit about someone behind their back if you don't know it's true. That's bad, that's spreading falsehoods, and you shouldn't be doing that Because, as Ryan Holiday talks about in this book he talks about how it's hard to hear the truth.

Speaker 1:

It really is, and I love this. He says not that they're a jerk about it there is a distinction between telling the truth and attacking people. Think about that too. You can tell the truth in an honest manner and not attack the person. Anyways, between saying what you think and giving people your unsolicited opinions about how they should live or look or speak the truth as you see it, boom Don't. You don't need to add to someone else's pain, because that doesn't do you any good and it doesn't do that person any good. It probably makes them feel worse.

Speaker 1:

And I want you to think was there a time in your life where you had to go and tell the truth and you knew that you were wrong, and you knew that the consequences were going to be difficult and you had to get it done? You might have experienced a little bit of pain when you told that truth. This could be little you could be an example from when you were a kid or something like that but there must have been a time when you knew that the truth hurt more than what you actually did. Right, you knew you were going against other people. So think about that and think about it. When you experience someone telling a rumor, or when you realize someone's wrong and you need to tell them, and the truth hurts. You realize someone's wrong and you need to tell them, and the truth hurts Sometimes.

Speaker 1:

Shout out to Allie for this. But sometimes I'll like put on a shirt and be like, hey, does this look good? And she's like, no, you kind of look goofy. And I'm like, okay, you know I'm not going to wear this, that kind of hurt. But hey, at least I'm not going to go out in the world and look goofy. And I'm glad that you told me, because if someone else, if I was at work, and I was like, hey, what do you think of my shirt? And they're like, oh yeah, it looks really good. But they were just lying to stoke my ego, then I'd probably wear that shirt more and keep making myself look like a fool, right, but the fact that Ali's like, hey, no, you probably shouldn't wear that. You look goofy, I'm not going to wear that shirt and I highly respect Allie for that. And that's the thing about telling the truth is that people will respect you. Yes, the consequences might be hard to hear, they might be hard to experience, but, yes, people will trust you more, they will respect you.

Speaker 1:

Even when that truth is hard to say, even when it's hard to come by, it's important that you tell the truth. It's important that you keep your word, and a lot of keeping your word is telling the truth. Like if I, going back to running for Jordan, I dropped out of the race, I would have to genuinely tell myself I dropped out because I was not strong enough, because I was cleared by the medical staff to keep going and the only thing that was going to stop me was my mind at that point and I didn't want to have to live up to that. So I kept my word. But if I didn't, I would have to tell myself the hard truth and, like Marcus Aurelius said, it's hard to hear. The truth is hard enough to hear. You don't need to make it worse for the other person.

Speaker 1:

Now, taking responsibility is the last thing that we're going to be talking about today, just in this chapter from this book, but it's super interesting. Taking responsibility is a very important topic for me to understand because I've shared on this podcast a few times that I didn't necessarily take responsibility of my life until I read Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink, and when I did that's when I started to realize that you know what? Everything that I do in life is a direct reflection of myself and I have to be the one that pushes through difficulty ultimately make the life that I want. It's taking extreme ownership. If you haven't read that book, I highly recommend it because, one, it's a dope war story book. He always talks about his experiences from being a Navy SEAL. And then, two, he takes that principle or that lesson that he learned from that experience and makes it a principle that we can all apply to our lives. And then he takes it a step further and shows how, after he learned that principle, he applied to business. And anyways, super interesting. Take ownership, take responsibility and take responsibility for things that you don't necessarily think that you have to right or um.

Speaker 1:

Going into this book, ryan Holiday shares this from Admiral Rick Rover. He says the phrase I am not responsible has become a standard response in our society to complaints of a job poorly done. Think about that for a second. I guarantee you can think of that too. Like I'm not responsible for this, you don't have to look too far other than politics. It's like they blame the other side for everything. Right, and it's so annoying, like I'm so burnt out of politics I don't want to freaking listen to it, but I need to because the voting is coming up and anyways, they just try and say oh no, that wasn't my doing, that was the other person and they're the reason. America sucks right, but no one's taking responsibility. Scary thing. And listen to this part from Admiral Rick Rover. He said this response is a semantic error. Generally, what a person means is I cannot be held legally liable.

Speaker 1:

Yet from a moral or ethical point of view, the person who declaims that responsibility is correct by taking this way out. He is truly not responsible. He is irresponsible. What is he saying there? He's saying that when you say, oh, I'm not responsible for that, you're right because you're an irresponsible person, because you could actually take some responsibility of the situation and try and change it to make the world a better place and the fact that people say, oh yeah, that's not my responsibility, is it?

Speaker 1:

Is it truly not your responsibility if there's a kid acting out in public and you know is alone by himself, they're with their friends and they're at Walmart and they're recording people and making fun of them or something like that? Is it your responsibility to not do anything about it because they're not your kids? Probably not. Imagine if you were the other person. Let's go to TikTok, because I see this all the time on TikTok. People will go up in stores and tickle people with a feather behind their ear and then like, pretend like nothing happened. Or I'm sure you go in there and find, like Walmart shenanigans Most of the time it's. It makes the other person that they're doing it to feel pretty bad. Right, is it your responsibility to stay quiet? Could you go up to them and say, hey, I don't know if you should be doing that to that old lady, like you probably shouldn't be. Maybe they won't change their behavior, but at least you said something. At least you tried to take some responsibility at this situation.

Speaker 1:

And I love this story. It's it's a little bit long, long, but I want to read it to you, and just because I I think it's pretty important anyways. So there is a short story called the Adjuster from Maxwell Perkins, and Perkins edited it in the mid-1920s. But the story centers around a woman named Luella Hempel, a wealthy young wife who has more or less skated through life, gated through life. She is bored and entitled, indifferent to her new baby, overwhelmed when the servants leave to her even the simplest task. She fantasizes about getting divorced so she can go off and go back to having fun. But then suddenly, a series of tragedies, a series of responsibilities and realities spinning from all of it. She's helped by a mysterious doctor who tells her she must step up and be an adult.

Speaker 1:

We make an agreement with children that they can sit in the audience without helping to make the play. The doctor tells her as they sit on her couch but if they sit still in the audience after they are grown, somebody has got to work double time for them so that they can enjoy the light and glitter of the world. So what he's saying is there comes a time in your life where you have to step up, be the person that helped you when you were younger. And Luella says but I want the light and glitter. That's all there is in life. There can't be anything wrong in wanting to have warm things. Things will still be warm. The doctor reassures her how Luella says Things will warm themselves from you.

Speaker 1:

And then the doctor delivers to his stunned patient a definition of justice that rick rover would have approved of, one that we must aspire to if our lives are to be aimed at it. It's your turn to be the center, he said, to give others what was given to you for so long. You've got to give security to young people and peace to your husband and a sort of charity to the old. You've got to let the people who work for you depend on you. You've got to cover up a few more troubles than you show and be a little more patient than the average person and do a little more instead of a little less than your share. The light and glitter of the world is in your hands. It's your turn, he tells her, to make the fire.

Speaker 1:

We think it would be wonderful if we didn't have to do this, if we could simply break free of the things that try to pull us under, if we could go on staying in the audience or being a child, if we could say I'm not responsible. But this is not possible. It's a lie. We are responsible, we are burdened, but also privileged now, because from this responsibility comes meaning and purpose, comes intense life-giving warmth, which is why we must swear never to refuse it. And I think that's critical for us to all understand Is that if we want the life that we say we do, it comes from taking responsibility, because things are not just going to come to you and I talk about running a lot in this and in a sense I have taken responsibility for my running and my fitness goals.

Speaker 1:

And what does that look like? It means I've taken responsibility with my health. I've struggled with health issues in the past and I've had to change a lot about my diet, my training regimen, my sleep schedule, and a lot of it was hard for me to do. I have this stupid fear of getting fat, but I also never feel good when I'm not eating enough. And, as silly as it sounds, I had to take responsibility to eat more and to force myself to do so, because mentally it was tough for me and it's just a struggle I've had and I know it's interesting to hear. But once I started taking responsibility, I was able to achieve my fitness goals.

Speaker 1:

Fitness goals and another part point of like bringing up running is taking responsibility means I'd have to stretch and foam, roll and do all these things that I hate doing on a regular basis but that I know are the thing that will make me feel better and feel stronger. And without doing that, then, who knows, maybe I would, you know, be injury prone or have difficulties come up or not reach the goals that I'd want to, like running for Jordan or achieving sub three. In February and in November, my goal is to hit a 250 marathon, 250 marathon time with my brother, drew. Shout out to Drew, it's going to be a party, my friend. But the point is, none of this came to me. No stretching was going to happen on its own unless I took responsibility and actually did the action. No marathon time of under three hours was going to happen to me unless I was the one putting the work in and taking responsibility for my training. Yes, I have a coach. Yes, she holds me accountable, but that work is on me.

Speaker 1:

And think about some goals that you have. Are you taking responsibility for them? Are you putting in the work that you know you need to achieve or that you know you need to do to achieve that certain goal. Another goal that I have is I like to journal every single day, and I want to journal every single day. That's one of my goals, and the reason being is I want my kids to be able to look at the experiences that I've had in my life and learn from them and learn from the mistakes I've made, learn lessons that I've learned that have helped me progress to where I'm at today. And the only way that that's going to happen is if I actually sit down on a regular basis, on a daily basis, and just write down some thoughts. And there's days when I don't want to do it, but I know taking responsibility is going to provide fruit for the future and specifically for my kids, and so taking responsibility is important. It happens with everything in life, but specifically with the goals that you have, ask yourself honestly, tell your tell. Am I putting in the work that I need to? And then keep your word Like. These three principles tie into each other, which is why I'm talking about them in this one podcast episode. It's going to be part one, because I think there's a lot that I can talk about from this book that we need to hear and that we need to apply to our lives.

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Life is not meant to be skated through Like Luella wanted that, that story where you know she's like, she lives this. She's a wealthy wife and she kind of just has servants doing all the work. She has a kid that she doesn't necessarily take responsibility for, because I assume she has a nanny or something like that, and she's just kind of skating through life and things are coming to her. She has a very comfortable life. She has servants and anytime she has the smallest task given to her she kind of freaks out a little bit, but that doctor kind of snaps her out of it and says hey, listen, you've sat in the audience long enough. You need to take it, because all of this that's happened to you in your life and all this greatness has been given to you and you need to find out how you can give that to other people and create that life for them.

Speaker 1:

Take responsibility, and one thing that I I've talked about on this podcast a few times is this podcast, in a sense, is lessons that I wish I would have learned when I was younger and because of that I'm taking responsibility to try to teach them to other people. Specifically like really for my kids, I want them to be able to hear this and hear dad talk about lessons and experiences that he's gone through that could help them. But I'm taking that responsibility to try and teach someone else and I'm not saying that I've taught anyone. I might not have this whole podcast, might be a sham, but at least I'm learning something from it and at least I'm taking some kind of responsibility and think about where you can improve on that aspect in your own life. Where can you be more responsible? Do you need to study more for school? Do you need to put in longer hours at work to meet the needs and ultimately provide for your family? Do you need to take responsibility and reach out to that family member that you know you've been thinking about, that you know is struggling, but haven't to, haven't reached out because someone else is going to do it? Let that sink in. There's little things that you can be doing in your life to take responsibility and to change the world. Because, as this book progresses, it goes a lot and talks about our societal issues and how our individual actions can ultimately change society, because we become examples to other people. So be an example, be the person you wish you could have looked up to as a kid and you wish would have changed the life or change your life. I love the quote that goes your younger self believed in you and your older self depends on you. So make the decisions today to make your younger self proud and your older self comfortable.

Speaker 1:

And I appreciate everyone for listening to this podcast. I love doing these book reviews. Again, I mentioned last episode that I'm now doing. I'm structuring it a little bit differently, so this is going to be a book review, but I think it's it's just going to be helpful for you to navigate the certain topics that you like. Next up, I might do a principle to talk about or, um, something in that sense. I might study a historical figure and talk about them. Marcus Aurelius has been on my mind a lot, so he's he's actually I'm working on a podcast episode for him, but there's a lot to that guy, so we'll see that could be a multi-part series as well.

Speaker 1:

Anyways, I appreciate everyone for listening. If, if by any means, this has helped you at all, please share it with someone else and let me know what you've learned. Either comment on this podcast or or send me a DM. I love hearing people share stories with me about you know either things that I've said that have brought ideas to their mind, or anything like that but I love interacting with you guys and sharing messages with you. Appreciate you guys for listening. Tune in for next week and until that point, you know what to do get after it, baby. Thanks, guys.