Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, everybody, and welcome to today's episode of the Never Peak Project Podcast.
I'm your host, Coach Ranger, and in today's episode, I'm going to share a valuable reframe that I use during my walk across the country and that I've been using in the months afterwards.
It's a very simple phrase, something very easy to remember in the moment.
I'm very excited to share it with all of you because it was very impactful and useful for me as I was making my trek from the east to the west coast.
So go ahead, sit back, relax, and enjoy as we talk about today's phrase.
Now, everybody, today's phrase is something that I heard from another podcaster, another business owner, someone you may have heard of him.
His name is Alex Hermosy, and he owns a company called Acquisition.com.
And he is pretty big right now.
He's a co-owner of Skool, which I do have a group on the platform.
He records podcasts and content, puts out a ton of content every single week.
And I think right now he's kind of one of the gold standards in terms of content creators for a lot of people.
But there's one specific thing that he shared during, he shared it quite a few times, actually.
But it's the concept of comma and that's okay.
And he really shares it in terms of when it comes to these external roadblocks that we meet.
I feel like a lot of time people kind of can use that as an excuse or a reason as to why they should quit, why they should stop.
And essentially it's along the lines of life throws us curveballs, comma, and that's okay.
And the way that I really like to think of it is that it's just this little bit of a reframe, a rephrase that gives you a second to pause, reflect, reframe, and continue to take action and move forward.
And this really came to a head to me quite often during the walk across the country because constantly I was dealing with things like reroutes, pop tires, gear malfunctions,
host families, you know, not being able to support me or, you know, just the weather and all these different things kind of came up.
And something that people told me before even starting was how hard it was going to be and what was I going to do when all these things came up.
And I had to be kind of honest that I wasn't sure.
I didn't know what I was going to do when these things happened, comma, and that's okay.
And the reason that it's okay is I knew that I could figure it out.
I think that a lot of people feel they need to know the exact answer rather than just the the gist of the answer.
I don't know the answer, but I know how to figure it out is something that people lack or when they are flustered or worried or kind of in that lizard brain mentality that
lack or attack, they kind of fall into this.
Well, I don't know the right answer.
Therefore, I won't do anything.
And I think a lot of that is just about being more.
I think what is most important in those situations is being okay with being directionally correct as opposed to absolutely correct.
But it's not about having the perfectly correct answer, but it's about knowing which general direction you need to move forward in in order to figure out the correct answer in order to make the correct answer.
And I feel like one of those things is really just especially in terms of a direct example from the walk is creating the route to begin with.
I had a lot of people ask me what my exact route was before I started, and I had a general idea of what it was going to be just based off of Google Maps, based off of what I've read from other walkers like Andrew, Mark and Kenny.
And, you know, they kind of had their own judgments around not having a direct route that that wasn't the smartest idea that that wasn't the best.
And sure, that is correct. But I think that that being so focused on having the 100 percent correct answer prevents you from figuring out that correct answer that it hinders progress.
And I think being able to say, I don't know my exact route, comma, and that's OK, is what was able to help me get from one side to the other.
And just as now that I'm talking about it, one of the things I do want to mention is that with the comma and that's OK, there needs to be more after that.
You can't just say everything is terrible, comma, and that's OK, and continue to live your life in that terrible.
It's about knowing that you are the one that can continue the story, that you can add the next line of the sense that you can add the next part that you are the one that is in control to make the decisions to write the next section, comma.
And that's OK. Doesn't just end there.
It's very much the what is it in what is it in? Oh, in theater, comma, and yes. And like, I think that's really what it is about is being able to know that you can add to the next story, part of the story, even if it isn't 100 percent correct.
And I feel like when it comes to that aspect, it's it's also knowing that when you're in the story, when you're in the middle of it, that things aren't always going to go your way, comma.
And that's OK. Being able to reframe that saying, you know, I'm running out of money, I'm going slower than I thought I would.
Things aren't going to plan. It's also kind of reminding yourself in that comma.
And it's OK that it's unreasonable to think that things are going to plan at all times.
That it's unreasonable that life is going to just hand you what you want on a silver platter.
There are so many quotes and just things that come up so often in literature and in storytelling.
And it's and it's really become this cliche that things that are worth it aren't going to be easy and things that are easy aren't going to be worth it.
And I think that that is one of those constant reminders that people need to have.
One of the other things that I try to live by constantly is people need to be reminded more than they need to be taught.
And in another episode, I'm going to talk a little bit about my 2025 vision board, that it's a little bit.
It's not quite it's not quite about the specific thing.
It's about the idea of it, the metaphor, the reminder of why it's important.
But I'll get more into that in another episode.
And I think that really the whole idea behind this part of the comma and that's OK concept.
Is when things don't go your way, comma, it's OK, period, because you can do X, Y and Z.
I think it's just always reminding yourself that with the comma that the story continues, that that isn't the end.
Right. That that isn't the the stopping point.
It's not hard stop. That's the end. Goodbye.
That no matter what life throws at you, you can make the decision as long as you're still breathing and still fighting to continue to make choices to move forward.
I think that's really what I want to hit on with this portion of this conversation.
And the last little bit I want to talk about is very briefly touching on an aspect that I like to call absolute accountability.
And really what that is about is you are responsible for everything that happens to you.
Let me explain. When it comes to, for example, the walk across the country.
I talked to a few people in the past about what it was like walking on the side of highways for a couple thousand miles.
And I told them that at the end of the day, if I got hit, it would be 100 percent my fault.
I've had them argue with me on that point that, well, what if the tractor?
Well, what if the driver was distracted? What if they were drunk?
What if they hit you on purpose? Isn't it their death?
Their fault then? Isn't it their fault then?
And I had to say, no, it would be completely my fault if I were to be hit by a car.
Now, here's why. The reason for that is because mentally it reminds me constantly that that is something within my control,
that I can take measures to prevent that from happening, that I can be cognizant,
that I can pay attention enough to prevent myself from being in that situation.
And something a little bit more morbid that I like to say on that end is they're right.
If I were to be hit by a car, it would be the other person's fault.
But if I take responsibility for that, if I were to say that it's my responsibility, my fault if I were to be hit,
I think that I would rather be right than dead, that I would rather take that extra step.
I'd rather be extra cognizant because it's not just if somebody gets an offender bender with me.
It's not just if they total my car, but I'm fine.
It really is. If I get hit, my little flush vehicle isn't going to last very long compared to a two ton vehicle.
So I think that how this applies to life and business is people constantly point externally to reasons as to why their life isn't the way they want it to be.
That there are these issues in place, there's these systems in place that prevent them from moving towards the life they want to live,
that there are external factors that are out of their control.
And they kind of just accept that as facts and that prevents them from moving forward or creating what they want to create.
And I'm here to tell you that wherever you point the finger of blame, the power follows.
And that's another thing I got from Alex Yomozi. Wherever you point blame, you point the power to.
And rather than pointing it to an external factor, I do think that we should be pointing it inward,
that we should be pointing it towards ourselves so that we can take the actions necessary to move towards a life that we want to create.
No one is going to come and save you. No one is going to come and hand you the life that you want on a silver platter.
And if they do, it's probably not really what it is that you want to actually see and create in your life.
So I'm here to tell you that at the end of the day, life is going to be hard.
Challenges are going to come up. They are going to feel like there are external factors keeping you from going where you want to go.
Comma. And that's OK. Period.
Because you have the capability, the power, the resourcefulness and the knowledge in order to make it happen.
There's another quote from Alex that I like to quote from time to time.
And I have a PG-13 version I have, I guess the PG version.
And the PG version is you only need three things for life.
The guts to start, the brain to learn and the heart to never give up.
And the more PG-13 version is you only need three things.
The balls to start, the brain to learn and the heart to never give up.
I think I like the first one a little bit more because it applies to so many more people, but I thought that it was just a cheeky little way to kind of remember that.
So if you could just walk away with one thing from this episode, it's that you have everything you need within you to make it from where you are now to where you want to go.
And I just want to give you another reminder that the best is yet to come as long as you're willing to make the decision every single day to never settle, never quit and never peak.
I'll see you guys in the next episode.