In this video, we delve into the concept of settling for mediocrity and whether being average is good enough. Join us as we uncover the truth about settling for average with the wisdom of David Goggins. Whether you’re an ambitious high-achiever or someone who’s struggling to find direction, this video is for you.
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Transcript
Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:Once again.
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Speaker:Welcome back.
Speaker:If you've been listening to the last couple of episodes,
Speaker:we are doing pretty much.
Speaker:David Goggins week.
Speaker:Uh, my kids joke that David Goggins is of course my only
Speaker:living hero former us Navy seal.
Speaker:Ultra marathon runner, great author, love his books, audio
Speaker:book versions, or even better.
Speaker:And because I'm the kind of guy that does ultra marathons and
Speaker:all sorts of other silliness.
Speaker:I really have resonated with this guy.
Speaker:He came from enormous suffering and difficulty abuse trauma.
Speaker:And just has gone hard at life and I'd resonates with me.
Speaker:I just kind of, I've spent a similar kind of person in a way that a.
Speaker:You know, It had some challenges.
Speaker:In life as a, as a younger person.
Speaker:And decided to get even.
Speaker:And I just really like his stuff.
Speaker:So this is kind of, we're coming to the end of David Goggins week here.
Speaker:I want to give you one more quote of his, another one that I really liked.
Speaker:You ready here?
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:He says this, the only thing worse.
Speaker:Than being average.
Speaker:Is settling for it.
Speaker:The only thing worse than being average is settling for it.
Speaker:Now, before anybody thinks to themselves, Well, that's not
Speaker:a very nice quote, Jonathan.
Speaker:I listen to you each day because most of your stuff is nice.
Speaker:Well, firstly, that's disappointing.
Speaker:My job isn't to be nice.
Speaker:My job is to be helpful.
Speaker:My job is to be inspirational.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I think what he's saying here, isn't critical per se.
Speaker:I think this idea that.
Speaker:That being average is okay.
Speaker:We're going to, let's just deconstruct that a little bit.
Speaker:If you think back to that famous speech.
Speaker:That, um, Nelson Mandela used from the author, Marianne Williamson,
Speaker:where he talks about, you know,
Speaker:You're playing average does not serve anyone you were born to
Speaker:make manifest the glory of God.
Speaker:That is within you.
Speaker:I think another way we could talk about this was to say, well, let's
Speaker:just say everybody in the world settle for average, what would it be like?
Speaker:Or the will be like, if.
Speaker:You know, everybody was just average and contrast.
Speaker:That was what would the world be like if everybody was just hectic
Speaker:living their absolute potential.
Speaker:I mean, it's a no brainer, right?
Speaker:It don't know it's a binary question, but.
Speaker:If everybody was living their potential, the world would be
Speaker:remarkably different place.
Speaker:And I don't think God is looking up, looking at us, thinking,
Speaker:you know what my hope for.
Speaker:Humanities that everybody stays.
Speaker:Everage.
Speaker:I think one of the ways you can think about how God thinks about us is to
Speaker:think about if you're a parent, think about it from the parenting perspective.
Speaker:Have you ever looked at your, one of your children and said, you know what?
Speaker:I love that kid so much.
Speaker:I just hope that the grub to be really, really average.
Speaker:Don't say that right.
Speaker:When you see your kid excelling and growing, it's awesome.
Speaker:It's like you see a kid trying new things and having great experiences
Speaker:and positive relationships.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:Unleashing their potential.
Speaker:Like, you know, one of my, my, my oldest daughter is just a, an amazing student.
Speaker:Like she's just such a sharp, intelligent kid, and she can just
Speaker:study and study and learn and learn.
Speaker:And seeing her at the moment now she's not a young and she's just this week
Speaker:finished reading Plato's Republic.
Speaker:At an older she's like 15 or something and just loving it.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And she's 15 and just started her own business.
Speaker:And I'm like, Uh, seeing her per shoe, this potential it's in her is amazing.
Speaker:My son, you.
Speaker:It was just a lot of these incredible musician.
Speaker:And my other, my younger daughter, and just seeing her talents grow as a parent.
Speaker:You want them to Excel?
Speaker:Not because you want it so much for yourself.
Speaker:You want it for them.
Speaker:So I say that because I really believe that God's looking at
Speaker:all of us cheering us on, right.
Speaker:Really cheering us on going.
Speaker:Those skills and capacities and talents you have.
Speaker:I gave them to you for a reason.
Speaker:I gave them to you for a reason.
Speaker:So I think those things are incredibly powerful to think about.
Speaker:And let's just remind ourselves of this quiet.
Speaker:The only thing worse than being average is settling for it.
Speaker:You know, settling for it is, is a score kind of death.
Speaker:Isn't it.
Speaker:I used to listen to this preacher.
Speaker:And I remember a few times you told this story about a farm
Speaker:that he used to drive past.
Speaker:And I think from memory, this farm had a lot of thistles.
Speaker:I drove past the two, and this is a true story because I remember seeing the sign.
Speaker:And they had named their farm thistle, Dew.
Speaker:This'll do.
Speaker:So I kind of think it was a play on words, obviously it was like, You
Speaker:know, this'll do, this is enough.
Speaker:This is a nice farm, right?
Speaker:This'll do.
Speaker:And this preacher used to say that some of us in life, I like that
Speaker:we get to a point like this'll do.
Speaker:This is enough.
Speaker:I'm not going to grow anymore.
Speaker:I'm going to get comfortable.
Speaker:It's like, I was just thinking of a line from the Simpsons, which I just can't
Speaker:use on this podcast because it'll offend somebody, but it's reminding me of.
Speaker:You know, Settling being loud, making ourselves comfortable.
Speaker:There's an episode where Homer made himself way too
Speaker:comfortable in someone's house.
Speaker:Let's move on.
Speaker:Try and try.
Speaker:And unthink what, I'm what I just said.
Speaker:So we've got this experience of.
Speaker:Many of us can end up settling.
Speaker:We stay in the same career or we stay at the same level.
Speaker:Our marriage is our relationships, our finances, our bodies, our parenting,
Speaker:our friendships stay the same.
Speaker:Stay the same.
Speaker:Stay the same.
Speaker:And we settled.
Speaker:And I think if we settled something slowly dies.
Speaker:Something slowly disappears.
Speaker:I mean, think about you.
Speaker:How do we start out in life, right.
Speaker:When you're in your teens and your twenties is a season where you're
Speaker:just like, anything's possible, right?
Speaker:Like the world opens up.
Speaker:I can remember being in Africa when I was 21.
Speaker:And I'm like, just like just traveling and.
Speaker:And flying around the world and doing stuff.
Speaker:And it's like, you know, you have that.
Speaker:Capacity to believe that life can just keep growing and being different and
Speaker:engaging, and you can do anything.
Speaker:Why do we lose that?
Speaker:Um, do we have to lose that?
Speaker:And I remember reading this book years ago from a rabbi, a Jewish rabbi who.
Speaker:Was it.
Speaker:He made a comment about a lot of members of the.
Speaker:Jewish community, at least in his area in New York.
Speaker:Like they would never retire.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:They would.
Speaker:Even if they didn't work in the particular business on a daily basis,
Speaker:they would still get dressed and come in and be around the business
Speaker:and, and keep talking to customers and being around and having a laugh.
Speaker:And he.
Speaker:He said that it was crucial and they lived, they tended to live a long time
Speaker:because they still had a sense of.
Speaker:Belonging and development and contributing.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:We don't want to settle.
Speaker:So if you're listening to this today, come and join me on the journey because
Speaker:you know, I feel this pretty deeply.
Speaker:I don't want to settle.
Speaker:I don't want to settle.
Speaker:I was talking to someone recently, you know, cause I'm, I'm turning 50 this year.
Speaker:Not that I keep mentioning it.
Speaker:Not that it's messing with my head.
Speaker:But I mentioned United the other day that I am sort of.
Speaker:You know, the, the training load that I've been doing for years is getting harder.
Speaker:And it's like the guys that I race against and train with getting younger.
Speaker:And they said, oh, you know, when are you going to stop?
Speaker:You can't pursue this forever.
Speaker:And it's a good question.
Speaker:It's a fair question.
Speaker:Cause I was like, it is a good question actually.
Speaker:And I thought, I don't really know the answer to that.
Speaker:I'm just going to keep going.
Speaker:I'm just going to keep going.
Speaker:I'm just going to answer it by saying I'm going to keep going.
Speaker:And then if somehow I'm compelled to stop at some point, then
Speaker:I'll pivot to something else.
Speaker:There's a guy called Percy Cerruti.
Speaker:I wrote a great book called why die?
Speaker:And he's a real interesting story because it, his fifties, he
Speaker:had a massive mental breakdown.
Speaker:He was working as a telephone line repairman.
Speaker:Suffered massively with depression.
Speaker:And he had a mental breakdown and he stayed in bed for about a year.
Speaker:And one day he got up and walked around his block.
Speaker:A year later and then the next day walked around twice and then he ended up.
Speaker:Becoming this fitness fanatic and training fanatic.
Speaker:And he went on to coach a bunch of Olympian runners, her belly.
Speaker:It was one of his students.
Speaker:He married the Australian runner.
Speaker:And when I read that book, it was just a guy who'd kind of.
Speaker:He'd collapsed into average and into complete implosion.
Speaker:But something within him was strong enough to suddenly pull
Speaker:him out of it and propel him.
Speaker:Into this incredible capacity for massive change.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:It's remarkable to see that.
Speaker:Some people can really get to that point.
Speaker:And then finally press through.
Speaker:So I want to encourage you today.
Speaker:If anything's feeling average or stuck or stale.
Speaker:Worse than your situation is the risk that you might stay there.
Speaker:So I want to shake you up.
Speaker:I want to tell you to go forward today, to try something, to join something, to.
Speaker:I order something to do, take one concrete action today that will move you forward
Speaker:from average and start to unleash.
Speaker:That's incredible potential that is within you.
Speaker:It is time to move my friend it is time to move the only thing worse
Speaker:than being average is settling for it you are not a settler.
Speaker:if you are listening to this kind of content it's because you are not a
Speaker:settler You are not going to settle you are going to press forward a little bit
Speaker:more to unleash that potential and bless the world with it all right Please make
Speaker:sure you've subscribed great check out those links book me for coaching book
Speaker:me to speak at events make sure you've subscribed my name's jonathan doyle
Speaker:this has been the daily podcast and you and i are going to talk again tomorrow
