Do you have an obstacle or challenge in your life that seems like you just can’t handle it? Do you ever think that some goals or dreams are simply beyond your reach. Too often we forget that so much can be accomplished by steady and persistent action. It’s not what we do in one special moment that matters. What really shapes our destiny is the effort and action that we bring on a daily basis. Today, I am exploring an insight from the great Roman philosopher Lucretius who reminds us that we can actually do much more than we think. If you’re ready to face your own challenges then this episode will help.
Grab a free copy of my book Bridging the Gap here:
https://go.jonathandoyle.co/btg-pdf
Enquire about booking Jonathan to speak:
https://go.jonathandoyle.co/jd-speak-opt-in
See the Youtube version here:
Find out about coaching with Jonathan here:
https://go.jonathandoyle.co/coaching
Transcript
Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:Once again, welcome back to the daily podcast.
Speaker:The daily message.
Speaker:Really excited to be with you again today.
Speaker:You can hear it in my voice.
Speaker:I've had a good strong start to the day.
Speaker:I know you might be listening to this somewhere in the world
Speaker:later in the evening, but, um,
Speaker:Good start to the day for me, I'm back training for my next ultra marathon.
Speaker:So I, uh, got up super early around 4:00 AM and headed out.
Speaker:And it was a minus eight Celsius, eight degrees below, zero Celsius.
Speaker:And, uh, it was pretty crazy.
Speaker:But, uh, I had all the gear on and listen to some good stuff and, you know, just got
Speaker:out there and got it done this morning.
Speaker:Got the training done.
Speaker:And then you get this window.
Speaker:You come back, you have a hot shower, you have another good coffee and
Speaker:jump into the studio and ready to go.
Speaker:So I don't know how good I'm going to be in a.
Speaker:Oh, I don't know, later in the day, but right now I'm feeling pretty good.
Speaker:I'm feeling really inspired of if you've been listening to the last
Speaker:two days of episodes, I do hope you'll go back and check them out.
Speaker:I've been, uh,
Speaker:Unpacking the work of cam Hanes in his new book in Jua and.
Speaker:Really has had a big impact on me.
Speaker:He's just an amazing guy.
Speaker:Who's.
Speaker:You know, out there doing similar sorts of stuff to me, probably even more
Speaker:so in terms of training, And running and, uh, his obsessions in life.
Speaker:So if you haven't checked those episodes, go and check them.
Speaker:Out because, uh, it is just amazing what the, uh, what we're capable of.
Speaker:The things that we can actually do when we move out of our comfort zones.
Speaker:When we a challenge of fears, Fears and vulnerabilities.
Speaker:It's, it's really amazing what we're actually capable.
Speaker:Of accomplishing in life.
Speaker:It's a gosh, the older I get, the more I sort of talk about
Speaker:these topics, I just get so.
Speaker:Interested.
Speaker:In what all of us are capable of doing and the, and the things that
Speaker:hold us back, the things that stop.
Speaker:Stop us contributing and experiencing all that we could have be, or do in this life.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:This humble podcast, this daily content is just about each day.
Speaker:Giving us some idea, some concept, some story, some moment of inspiration
Speaker:that helps all of us to move forward.
Speaker:And part of when I was on the run this morning, I was listening to.
Speaker:A fascinating interview by a guy that's written a book called
Speaker:4,000 weeks and it's about a.
Speaker:About productivity and, you know, he's actually.
Speaker:Deconstruct.
Speaker:this relentless drive for productivity, this kind of post.
Speaker:Postmodern idea that the meaning of life.
Speaker:Is to be more and more efficient and to do more and more.
Speaker:And it's quite interesting.
Speaker:Trusting because he sort of made the point that all his study and learning
Speaker:and writing and communicating about.
Speaker:About peak, performance and productivity.
Speaker:Eventually led him to the realization that.
Speaker:You know, many ways we need to accept that.
Speaker:We can't do everything at that.
Speaker:They're not everything's possible that just because we have an idea or
Speaker:write a goal down doesn't necessarily.
Speaker:I mean that we're going to achieve it or that we should achieve it.
Speaker:It's kind of interesting.
Speaker:It's a real paradox.
Speaker:Isn't it.
Speaker:To be listening to me as a quasi.
Speaker:The motivational speaker telling us that, um, we need to also accept our
Speaker:limitations and be okay with that.
Speaker:Be okay with the fact that we can't do everything.
Speaker:That.
Speaker:That the purpose of our life isn't to do more and more, the
Speaker:purpose of our life is to do.
Speaker:Do the things.
Speaker:That we're here to do.
Speaker:And to move away from those things.
Speaker:That hold us back.
Speaker:And so we can contribute.
Speaker:So, this really is a podcast.
Speaker:The longer I do this, the more think about it.
Speaker:The more, I think that, uh, what I'm trying to share with you is.
Speaker:Is.
Speaker:Just the great thinking of great men and women throughout history.
Speaker:Just good ideas about how to be more fully human, how to control.
Speaker:Tribute more how to unleash that incredible potential that's within you.
Speaker:So this is not a podcast about becoming the richest person in the graveyard.
Speaker:As I often say.
Speaker:You know, those things can be an important part of a full life, but.
Speaker:Really, what we want to do is just keep growing.
Speaker:And today we're going to do that.
Speaker:And just before we jump into today's particular focus as always pleased.
Speaker:Please my friend, make sure you have subscribed just wherever you're listening,
Speaker:whatever podcast podcast app you're on.
Speaker:Just.
Speaker:Just hit that subscribe button and I would love it.
Speaker:If you could leave a comment.
Speaker:Leave a review.
Speaker:It does make a big difference.
Speaker:And, um, and of course, just, uh, go down into the show notes because I've all.
Speaker:Links to there.
Speaker:If you want to get free access to my book, bridging the gap.
Speaker:If you want to book me to come and speak.
Speaker:If you would like to a.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Check out the YouTube version.
Speaker:It was the link here in the show notes to the YouTube version, because I filmed
Speaker:a video today at my phone at minus eight degrees in a forest in the dark.
Speaker:So if you want to go into see, so you have proof that I actually do what I say.
Speaker:Uh, just jump across to YouTube or do a search on YouTube
Speaker:for Jonathan Doyle speaks.
Speaker:Jonathan door's speaks and you can check out that little video today.
Speaker:My friend.
Speaker:We're going back.
Speaker:We're going way back to around 55 BC.
Speaker:Uh, when Lucretia's the great.
Speaker:Great Epicurean stoic philosopher died in 55 BC Lucretius.
Speaker:His full name was Titus Lucretia's Carlos.
Speaker:Uh, those Romans had some pretty.
Speaker:Cool names.
Speaker:I'm teaching my daughter.
Speaker:Uh, my daughter and I together at doing.
Speaker:Uh, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar at the moment where I'm going through it.
Speaker:Together on teaching her.
Speaker:That is part of her.
Speaker:Education.
Speaker:And, uh, it's great to see some of these great names, Cassius Brutus, Marcus, and.
Speaker:Tonia God bless those Romans.
Speaker:Then you had to put, then you had to put how to put a name together.
Speaker:So Lucretia's my friend was a great Epicurean philosophy.
Speaker:Philosopher.
Speaker:He was the author of Serum Natura and which was sort of on the
Speaker:natural way or the natural life.
Speaker:And so here's the quote that I want to share with you today.
Speaker:He says this no matter, no matter how difficult a task may look.
Speaker:Persistence and steady action will get you through one more time.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Matter how difficult a task may look.
Speaker:Persistence and steady action will get you through.
Speaker:So let's begin.
Speaker:Let's realize that right now in your life, you're probably
Speaker:facing some form of challenge.
Speaker:Unless you're on a holiday somewhere, sipping a cocktail on the beach.
Speaker:I have no doubt that there will be difficulties and tasks and
Speaker:challenges in your life that could be parenting based careers based.
Speaker:It could just be the complex stuff of daily life.
Speaker:All of us listening today are in different stages of life, but all of us have
Speaker:difficulties and challenges and tasks.
Speaker:All of us face things that at times can look overwhelming and daunting.
Speaker:It could be fixing a marriage.
Speaker:That's gone off the rails.
Speaker:It could be parenting a child that's just become really difficult.
Speaker:It could be.
Speaker:Going out for promotion that seems beyond your finishing a doctorate
Speaker:or running an ultra marathon.
Speaker:You know, it doesn't really matter what the task or the challenge is.
Speaker:Then it often doesn't really matter about the scale or the sizes.
Speaker:We all have them.
Speaker:Don't we, we all have something in our life that is difficult.
Speaker:And challenging and seams.
Speaker:Sometimes beyond us.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So what is it in your life at the moment that is your difficult task.
Speaker:What is it in your life at the moment?
Speaker:That is.
Speaker:A challenging difficult thing.
Speaker:I've got a couple of friends at the moment.
Speaker:Uh, going through really difficult relationship challenges,
Speaker:really significant stuff.
Speaker:And, uh, you know, as they go through that journey, it's a daunting task.
Speaker:You know, to fight for the relationship to try and or if the relationship ends to
Speaker:try and find a way forward through that.
Speaker:And I think it can truly seem overwhelming at times.
Speaker:Doesn't it?
Speaker:But that's why this quite so important.
Speaker:He says, no matter how difficult a task may look persistence.
Speaker:And steady action will get you through.
Speaker:So what I want to say to you today is that.
Speaker:As I often say we live in this culture of immediacy, right?
Speaker:We live in a culture where everything seems to be available.
Speaker:At any given moment, 24 7, we can access just about everything.
Speaker:And in a culture like that, that sort of presents the cult of the mediacy
Speaker:that everything can be actioned or taken care of through different
Speaker:forms of technological efficiency.
Speaker:What do we do when we are confronted with things that will not yield to immediacy?
Speaker:What do we do when we are confronted with things that will not yield
Speaker:to a system or a strategy?
Speaker:Well, there is a strategy here and according to Lacretia's in, uh, in
Speaker:the first century, BC, the strategy is persistence and steady action.
Speaker:Persistence and steady action.
Speaker:This stoic commitment to no matter how hard this is, I will walk the path.
Speaker:I will keep going.
Speaker:I will do one more day.
Speaker:I will get through this day.
Speaker:I will turn up again tomorrow.
Speaker:I will keep going through, of course, some of your listing or so are you
Speaker:saying we should just stick it?
Speaker:Everything in life.
Speaker:Absolutely not.
Speaker:Uh, the filter that I've always used is if you are pursuing something that
Speaker:is causing genuine harm to yourself or others, and I mean, genuine
Speaker:harm, I don't mean like today I ran.
Speaker:You know, training for the ultra marathon.
Speaker:I ran.
Speaker:You know, for a couple of hours this morning and it hurts.
Speaker:It's freezing your lungs hurt.
Speaker:It's harder to breathe properly and your feet start to hurt and your
Speaker:shoulders hurt and it's painful.
Speaker:So, but that doesn't mean I should quit.
Speaker:So yes, there are some things that are difficult and hard, but we do need to
Speaker:persist and there are some things that are toxic and dangerous that we need to stop.
Speaker:But, you know, you you're wise enough to know what I'm talking about today.
Speaker:Persistence and steady action, persistence and steady action.
Speaker:And I was thinking about how I could, you know, give you a,
Speaker:uh, an image to think about.
Speaker:A little bit of research and I St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Speaker:You know, the great mother church of the Roman church.
Speaker:Took 144 years to build.
Speaker:It was first started in the fourth century by the imprint constant team.
Speaker:144 years to build.
Speaker:The Taj Mahal you'd be familiar with, of course, which was a, like
Speaker:a, it's basically a mausoleum.
Speaker:Uh, funeral site of burial site for the wife of a great Indian leader.
Speaker:So the Taj Mahal took 20,000 workers.
Speaker:21 years to complete.
Speaker:20,000 workers, 21 years to complete.
Speaker:Now let me land this penalty where I'm going with this.
Speaker:And the other example is your comin star, which is the.
Speaker:Cathedral in the British city of York.
Speaker:Uh, which I got to visit many years ago.
Speaker:And it's up there with, you would probably say shot cathedral in
Speaker:France and York minster or the greatest of the Gothic cathedrals.
Speaker:Arguably.
Speaker:Amongst the most splendid magnificent buildings on the
Speaker:planet and in human history.
Speaker:Your commenced to took 252 years to complete.
Speaker:It began in 1220 and finished in 1472.
Speaker:So, what we have is here's my point.
Speaker:These extraordinary, extraordinarily magnificent buildings.
Speaker:Took relentless persistence and steady action and this relentless persistence
Speaker:and steady action over an extended timeframe constructed something.
Speaker:Remarkable.
Speaker:You know, I've been married almost 22 years and you know, the, the
Speaker:longer I've been married, the more I've been thinking about.
Speaker:Just how awesome it will be to be really old together.
Speaker:Like, you know, just this journey that Karen and I have been on all
Speaker:the adventures in the places we've been around the world and the people
Speaker:we've met and the adventures we've had and the children we've raised.
Speaker:You know, it's like this persistence and steady action.
Speaker:You.
Speaker:Because in marriage, you have all these challenges and difficult
Speaker:seasons and times when it's hard.
Speaker:But it's phenomenal just to keep walking forward with
Speaker:persistence and steady action.
Speaker:So my point here is that.
Speaker:You know, anything in life that is really significant and worthwhile
Speaker:anything in life that's really magnificent and spectacular.
Speaker:Is the process of persistence in steady action.
Speaker:And, uh, it's really a case of what we do daily.
Speaker:It's, it's genuinely a case of what we do daily.
Speaker:We don't.
Speaker:You know, you didn't build York minster or the Taj Mahal in a day
Speaker:or a week or a month or a year.
Speaker:It was the daily turning up.
Speaker:It was the brick upon brick.
Speaker:It was the, you know, the shovel load upon shovel load that slowly
Speaker:created this extraordinary outcome.
Speaker:So I want to impress upon you today.
Speaker:The significance of daily persistent action.
Speaker:I recommend if you haven't seen it, go and watch the film.
Speaker:Rudy, R U D Y Rudy.
Speaker:One of my favorite films.
Speaker:It stars.
Speaker:Um, Um, the actor, Sam Aston, who I think, uh, played, uh, Sam
Speaker:game G in the Lord of the rings.
Speaker:You want to go check that film out?
Speaker:It's a great story.
Speaker:It's about a guy who had this one ambition to play American football
Speaker:at the university Notradame and the fact that he wasn't particularly
Speaker:good enough or big enough.
Speaker:Uh, but he ended up.
Speaker:You know, chasing his dream with this relentless persistence.
Speaker:And as Lacretia's tells us, no matter how difficult that task may look.
Speaker:Persistence and steady action will get you through, you know, for many
Speaker:years I thought it was about talent.
Speaker:I thought it was about, you know, some people just born with these remarkable
Speaker:skills, but the more that I read, the more that I studied them all to
Speaker:observe life and think, and watch.
Speaker:It does seem to be the talent will get you into the game.
Speaker:But as Lucretia's tells us persistence and steady action are going to get us through.
Speaker:So I just wanna encourage you today.
Speaker:Whatever is your big task, whatever seems daunting to you,
Speaker:whatever seems really difficult, challenging, and impossible right now.
Speaker:Hang in there because your persistence and your steady daily
Speaker:action are going to get you through.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Friends, that coffee starting to wear off.
Speaker:So I'm going to wrap up now, I'm going to go and film the video version.
Speaker:So if you want to come across to YouTube, Jonathan Doyle speaks and check out.
Speaker:Um, the video version of this, that'd be great, but please make sure
Speaker:you've subscribed to the podcast.
Speaker:Leave a review.
Speaker:Go check out all those links to get a free access to my book, bridging the gap.
Speaker:And if you want to book me to speak I'm back on the circuit.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Please just start, go check out.
Speaker:Hey, you can book me to speak.
Speaker:I'd love to do that.
Speaker:Um, but that's it for now.
Speaker:So get out there, get persistent, take some action.
Speaker:What you do daily is what matters.
Speaker:My name's Jonathan Doyle, and this is the daily podcast which I do daily.
Speaker:Every single day with persistence and steady action.
Speaker:And I hope it's been a blessing to you today, my friend, and I'm going to
