Mastering the Mindset
Mastering the Mindset
The Unseen Journey to Lasting Achievement
What is your definition of success? What if I told you that you might have it wrong? Success isn't just about hitting a specific milestone; it's about the journey and what it means to you personally. For many, success used to be synonymous with wealth and status, but as we evolve, our definition shifts. It's about freedom, happiness, and inner peace. However, achieving success isn't instantaneous—it's a journey filled with challenges, setbacks, and growth. Let's talk about it
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All right and welcome back to another episode. I am so glad y'all are here. Thank you for being here yet again, and if you're listening on a podcast platform, go ahead and rate me and leave a review. Now I'm not telling you to give me five stars, but if you feel so inclined to do so, I won't be mad at you. And if you're watching on YouTube, please like and subscribe, like and subscribe, like and subscribe. Ok, let's get to it.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about success, more specifically, the time it takes, how long it takes to be quote unquote successful. But first let me talk about what it means to be successful. So what is your definition of being successful? Well, I can speak for myself and say that what I used to think success was back when I was younger. I used to think success meant making a lot of money, that the more money you make, it means the more successful you are. And while, yeah, there are some correlations behind that, but I would say my definition of success now is how free somebody is, how happy they are, how much joy and peace they have in their life and what they do with what they do. Because, you better believe it, there are those millionaires out there, billionaires that are lonely or stressed or miserable. And then you have those people who can just barely be getting by living, check to check, bill to bill, and be the most happy, joyful and full of the most peace kind of people. Now, one could say that the millionaires are more successful because of the amount of money they have, but the person who is living a life they love, I think that's priceless and a more truly fulfilling success to have.
Speaker 1:So what does success mean to you? That's the first thing. The second thing I want to leave you with is that success isn't this destination, this landing spot, this mark you have to hit. Success is a journey. It's something you work on, you work at, and I just learned about this plant and this analogy about this plant. But it's so powerful and so true and the analogy is success is like the Chinese bamboo and if you know anything about the Chinese bamboo then you know it doesn't grow like other plants. And it's so true about life and success. So you plant this bamboo tree, bamboo seed, and you water it and you nurture it, and a year goes by and nothing. And then you water it and you nurture it. Second year goes by nothing. You keep watering you keep giving the sun nothing. Third year, fourth year, fifth year nothing. And then that sixth year, the sixth year is when things happen and it's truly amazing. It grows up to 80 feet in six weeks. 80 feet in six weeks, which is crazy.
Speaker 1:And we've all heard the term of overnight success. Right, such and such was an overnight success. And we see these celebrities just pop up out of nowhere like wow, they were this overnight success. Like wow, they were this overnight success. And that's what we see. But what we don't see are the years and years of hard work and dedication that person put in and practice and discipline and patience, all the things and sacrifices it took for them to get to this quote unquote, overnight success. You don't see all the years there was barely getting by, barely making it right.
Speaker 1:We live in this world of instant gratification. Everything happened so fast. I was just on amazon prime doing a little shopping, bought some workout pants and a phone holder for my car. It'll be here tomorrow. I done bought things from amazon and it got to me in the same day, same day.
Speaker 1:Remember how it used to be when the movie came out that we wanted to see? You would have to go, get in your car, go to blockbuster, hope blockbuster had your movie. Sometimes you got there, somebody already rented the one you wanted, so you had to wait a few days for it to get returned and then you could watch that movie. Now you could, damn damn, watch anything you want, anytime you want to. You could pull out your phone right now or your laptop or your ipad and watch anything you want to, and technology and the way the world is evolving it has trained us to expect the things we want immediately.
Speaker 1:But life and success and happiness and joy all the things great in this world take time. For example, you know you can't go to college and go to one class and then you have your master's degree. You know that's not possible. You know it takes way more time, way more work and dedication. You know you can't go to the gym one time and come home with a six pack. You know you can't eat one salad and lose the weight you want to lose. You can't save one twenty dollar bill and wake up the next day and be financially free. You can't work 10 hours and wake up an entrepreneur. We know this, but we still can have this feeling of why am I not there yet. I deserve to be there. I should be there. I've been working so hard at this business for five months. Nothing is happening. It's because great things take time. Great things take time. One class won't get your master's degree, but if you go to class every day and put in the time for years, years, then eventually you will get your master's. You won't get the body you want after one workout, but if you worked out several times a week for three years, your body is going to look way different. You know you won't drop weight after one salad, right. But if you change your lifestyle and the way you eat and the things you eat and you stay in a caloric deficit for three years, do you think you'll lose weight? Great things take time.
Speaker 1:And this reminds me of me and my journey, and I remember when I kind of first started off my acting career and I knew I had talent. I felt it. I was getting cast in some great, amazing roles, getting gigs in some of the best theaters in town, and my ultimate goal was to get into the Guthrie Theater. And for those of y'all who are not in Minnesota, guthrie Theater is one of the theaters that everybody wants to get in. And for those of y'all who are not in Minnesota, guthrie Theater is one of the theaters that everybody wants to get in. They pay the best, their budget is the best, they have some of the best, some of the best budgets in the country for the production Right, the theater is beautiful and it's really hard to get into that building, hard to break that ceiling.
Speaker 1:And I remember before I joined the Actors Union it's called Actors Equity for short, equity for short, and before I was equity back then, which I don't know if they still do it like this but the only way you can get seen for an audition is you had to attend their general auditions. If you weren't equity, you had to attend general auditions and they held and they held those once a year on one day and a scheduled audition. You had to call in to this number and this is how many people were trying to get seen for an audition. You had to call in to this number and this is how many people were trying to get seen for an audition. I called that number on my lunch break and it was busy and I called back to back to back to back to back for my full 30 minute lunch break and never got through. I snuck away from my desk to call several times, still didn't get through. I tried the whole day and then, once I joined equity, once I did become, once I did join the union, it took me a good four or five years of consistently working, consistently being casted and having other great roles.
Speaker 1:Right, I was just having a talk with my good friend of mine and he was like yo Dodge, you worked at every major theater in the Twin Cities. And I thought about it. I'm like huh, yeah, I have every theater that's in the Twin Cities that cast locally and the ones that we all as theater community work at. I've been on all their stages and it took me years of working, building up that type of resume before the Guthrie even noticed me and starting, invited me to auditions there. And another three years of auditioning and not getting anything. I mean anything.
Speaker 1:And what they would do is they would bring in out of town actors, usually from new york, because they tend to bring in actors with broadway credits on their resume and the guthrie is considered an extension of broadway. So they bring in actors from new york almost every show. And here I am just trying and trying my hardest and I would walk out of some of those auditions knowing I killed it and still nothing. And then going to see that show that I auditioned for and watching this New York actor suck and I know that might sound arrogant, but I know I was a better actor than a lot of those actors, and not just me. Other actors in town that fit that role could have done a better job than those New York actors. And this went on for years until finally, finally, I got my foot in the door. They hired me as an understudy and that was in 2022 and since then, starting tomorrow, I'm recording this on a Saturday and uploading it. Uploading it for Monday.
Speaker 1:This will be my fourth production with them two understudy roles and two roles that I actually performed in and the one I start tomorrow is literally going to be the peak of my acting career so far. It's an amazing play, an amazing role, a lead role and a play that everyone will come see. I got family coming from Louisiana, texas, georgia. It's going to be big and look at how fast all that happened. I went from just getting my foot in the door as an understudy in 2022 to having a lead role in my fourth production with them.
Speaker 1:But it took years to get here. It took me filling up my resume with every theater in town. It took me auditioning for years. It took me having to be an understudy first and then having to prove myself as an understudy because I ended up going on for that actor. I understudied for it took me having the smallest role in the first play. I actually got casted in and I'm here.
Speaker 1:But would I ever have made it here if I let me not getting through on the phone stop me, if I let that busy signal stop me from wanting to be an actor from from perfecting my craft? Well, not perfecting, because I most definitely ain't perfect. But if you just don't stop, you can't fail at anything because eventually you will figure it out. But most people don't give themselves along the runway, they just don't. They try things for a while, for a few months, maybe four, five, six. Then they say, well, that didn't work. Then they pick up another thing. They try that for a little bit and they say, well, that didn't work. Then they pick up another thing. They try that for a little bit and they say, well, that didn't work. Then they do something else and they keep jumping from one thing to one thing, from one thing to the other, without truly figuring out how to master it.
Speaker 1:True mastery takes time. What is that one thing you want that you're truly passionate about, that thing that you could be dedicated to for the next three, four years and even longer? If you decide that you ain't going to stop, you can't lose. If you decide that you won't quit, you can't fail. It might take you longer than the next person, but eventually you're going to get there. Keep going in the right direction. Keep taking the actions. Sometimes you're going to have to crawl, but crawl in the right direction. Sometimes you're going to have to walk, but crawl in the right direction. Sometimes you're going to have to walk. Keep walking in the right direction. Sometimes you will be running. Make sure it's in the right direction. If you stop, you will never. Never get there. You will never find that success, whatever that looks like to you.
Speaker 1:All right, so that's what I got for you today. Thank you all again for being here. No new music today. If you haven't heard the last three episodes, I did give y'all some sneak peeks with some new music that I've been working on that I'll be releasing soon. So go back and listen to those episodes for that and, like I said before, you all will always get anything I'm working on first. Y'all will hear about it first, because I truly value you all for being a part of my little community. So thank you so much. Also, please like and subscribe on youtube and please make a donation. Donations are really helpful for me. It helps me keep this thing going for you. Every donation, no matter what the dollar amount or cent amount. No-transcript.