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The Mind Body Project
The Mind Body Project
Lost in the Game: A Transformational Paris Encounter
Have you ever been so engrossed in something that you couldn't see the bigger picture?
That's exactly what happened to me on a trip to Paris where I fell for a street game scam, losing not just money but also a dose of my self-perception. This lesson wasn't just about losing money to a scam but a life-altering realization about how easy it is for anyone to be fooled when not vigilant.
Get ready to join me as I take you through this eye-opening experience. Listen as I recount the suspenseful unfolding of this street game and share the invaluable lessons gleaned from it. I hope my story serves as a reminder about the importance of awareness, mindfulness, and attentiveness in every situation life throws at you. No matter how smart we think we are, we can all be fooled. Yet, by taking time to observe and study our circumstances, we can steer clear of such pitfalls and navigate life’s maze more confidently. Let's journey through this tale together, and learn to always seek truth and make informed decisions.
Welcome to the Mind Body Project podcast. After over a decade in the health and wellness industry, erin realized that our bodies change only short-term unless our mindset changes. For long-term success, both our mind and body are forever linked. We are continually building up new ideas and tearing down old ones in our construction zone we call our mind. After this podcast is over, make sure you give it a like and a share and please subscribe and review this podcast. I would now like to introduce you to your host, the man connecting your mind and body to create a limitless life, erin Zegler.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Mind Body Project. Thanks for taking a long time to join me today. A few years ago my wife Kim she worked for a company and she earned an incentive trip. She had met all the requirements and earned an incentive trip to Switzerland. It was four or five days, I don't really remember how many days it was, but it's going to be this great, great trip. So we decided you know what, hey, if we're going to, you know they were covering airfare and hotel there and all that there in Switzerland. So we thought why not if they're already covering the airfare? It didn't matter. You know, if we went early, stayed longer, you know the airfare is the same.
Speaker 2:So we went ahead and went a few days early so we could see Paris and Germany and Italy, a few of those other places. Since we're already there, it's all pretty close by train, car it's, you know, in the great state of Texas it can take forever to cross the state. There we, you know, we're different places and just a few hour train ride or car ride. So it was pretty neat. We were able to get to see a lot. But the first place we went we flew into Paris. We'd always dreamed of seeing the Eiffel Tower and how magnificent it was. And it was just, you know it has a big hour, you know big time difference, and so I think I don't even remember how long the flight was 10, 11 hours, I don't really even remember but I just remember that the time difference, I mean by the we went all day and it was exhausting. By the end of the day, I mean like we're, I think we'd been up 24 hours, maybe longer. I don't really remember all the details, but we're there in Paris and seeing all the sights and walking around and it's just a just a neat place to see him.
Speaker 2:And we've been seeing these different street games. I don't really know what else they're called, but one was you know where you have a ball and then you have three cups and they switch it around and you try to guess, and so we watched it for the longest time and watch us. Oh, you know, I would watch somebody play. You know they'd give money, you know, and if they won they'd give money back. So I watched for a while. I said, oh, you know, yeah, well, they got that wrong. It's under this, this cup. Oh, no, they got that wrong. And you know they won a couple of times. They'd give them money and see, that's right. So I thought, you know what? Hey, I'm going to, I'm going to give that a try. And so I played and and I was watching really careful the guy was, he was moving it all around.
Speaker 2:And he was moving around. I thought and I don't even remember how many, how much it costs to play. I'm using euros, but I don't really remember what the cost was. But all I can do, that'll be fun, easy, I can make a few bucks. So he switches them around. I know where it's at. It's not there, like, oh, come on, and you know, crowds going, there's some people that have gotten gotten gotten around the game and oh, oh, oh, you can get it this time. And so I play again and it moves it around kind of slow. I'm like, oh, I got it this time. So I point to it and it lifts up the cup no ball, okay. Now I'm thinking, okay, I know this. And so I give him some more money and Kim at this point say, no, hey, let's just go, let's go. No, no, I got this, I got this. And so I give him some more money and and you know I'm thinking, okay, I know where it's at, I don't know, watch closer. So they do it again and and pull up the cup no ball thing. Okay.
Speaker 2:And by this time Kim saying, hey, let's go, let's just go. No, no, I got this. And some of the people in the crowd go oh, you can get it one more time, one more time. And she says, no, let's go. I said okay, and they you know the crowd and the guy that was doing it said, oh, come on one more time. And so so Kim still tell me, no, no, we need to go, we need to go, don't do that again. I don't pay any attention, give him some money.
Speaker 2:And I want to say by this time it's probably I'm probably $75, maybe $100 in in American dollars. And so Does it again I'm watching real close and pulls up that cup no ball. And I just can't figure out what was going on. And Kim said we need to go, that's too much to waste on that street game. And I said, yeah, I feel like such a goofball and there's some lessons I learned from that and what I'm was that sometimes the smartest of people. I consider myself smart enough to know that I can follow a ball and three cups and figure it out. It wasn't moving fast, it's just. I thought I'm smart enough to figure that out. One of the lessons was that I learned that smart people can be fooled and I'm thinking so how are they fooling me? So we walk away from the game. We're still watching the game, think something's got to be going on.
Speaker 2:And we talked to another guy and he said well, you know that game's rigged. The people that are winning are part of the game. Hmm, so if you're just walking up and you see some people winning, they're guessing oh, I can do that, so you put some money down. Little do you know, because you just walked up, that those people are part of the game. Then the people that are saying, oh, come on, you're almost there, play again, play again Again, they're part of the game. So it's, if you don't know that and you're just walking up and researching the game later and I can't remember what game had a name, and you know, kim Googled it and, sure enough, that was one of those things that they get tourist to get into and that's how they take their money, because the people winning as you walk up they're part of the game. People that are telling you to keep playing are part of the game.
Speaker 2:The other thing I learned was that sometimes we are so focused on the untruth that we don't hear the outside noise. I was so focused on I can get it next time. I'm just I mean, I know where that ball is going. I don't know how they're switching it, but I know, because I couldn't see everything and Kim was telling me, come on, let's go, let's go. I was like I kind of heard her, but yet I was like no, no, I can get this. It's one more game, one more time I can get this. I mean, I'm watching close, I step back, I'm watching that person is winning because they're guessing it and that's where I. But when I'd stop and the next person would play and win, I go. That's because they're part of the game. But I was so focused on that that I didn't look to see what was going on. I didn't hear that outside noise. I didn't hear Kim telling me come on, then bothered to google it before and I felt like such a goofball that I didn't get it, that I didn't listen to Kim on saying, hey, come on, let's go, that's enough. And I thought because again I was being fooled and I considered myself smart, intelligent, but they were fooling me and it made me feel taken advantage of. So I kept trying, I kept trying, but I never did win.
Speaker 2:That's the purpose of the game is for you to lose your money but yet be right on the edge of winning, to keep coming back to play again when there's no chance you're going to win.
Speaker 2:The game is set up with all the different players involved, all the different people involved that you're not going to win because they don't make any money. If you win the money, the people that are winning are part of the game. Somebody's going right back into the people that are running the game. How many times does that happen to us in a daily life, when we see things and we know it's probably an untruth, but we're so focused on that I think it is true, I think this next time will work. And we have other outside influences telling us, that outside noise saying no, don't do that, get out of that environment, change friends, change jobs, change this, change that. But we're so focused on that untreat that we think I'm almost there, it's almost going to be true that we just tune out that outside noise. That outside noise is often times there to help us, to keep us from making a mistake.
Speaker 2:Kim was being vocal and being very vocal and grabbing my arm and saying let's go. No, I looked at it. No, I can get this, I got to figure it out. She's grabbing me, saying let's go, I'm not going. Those outside voices, those outside noises, those outside people telling you that's not the thing you should be doing. She can be pulling you, can be talking to you and can be very strong, but we're so focused on that untruth that it doesn't matter what they say or do, we don't listen. We go back to that untruth. We go back to that focus because we can't break that focus, because there's just something about that. Oh, we're so close, we're just about to make the breakthrough with a friend and a relationship and a job and something we're doing with just about there. We can't. We can't look away, we can't get away.
Speaker 2:And then also learned, as I mentioned before, that oftentimes there's more than one person in on the game. There's maybe just not that person. If it was just that street before, I don't even know if you call my street before street con artists, more like it, but you know if it was just that person doing the ball with the three cups. I probably there's been chances that I won, because I could have. I could have looked. Maybe his hands didn't move as fast, you know, I could have maybe had a chance, but there was the guy doing the ball on the in the cups. There was a couple people in the in the crowd that were winning, so it wasn't the same person waiting all time. There's a couple people. Then there was also a person that was away from the game as a lookout because it was illegal, you know, they weren't allowed to do that, but they're doing it, so that there was a person looking out to make sure that nobody was coming. They wouldn't get in trouble, they'd move the game. So we're done, we're moved on.
Speaker 2:So as we, we looked, we saw that after we, after Kim, and googled it and saw what was really going on. And then that brings me to another point is, sometimes we have to be able to step back, regroup and be able to see what really is going on. After Kim got me out of that environment that you know and sometimes we just get caught up in the, the excitement and oh, we're almost there, we're when we can almost get it, and we just get caught up in that when there's really no chance of that working out, there's no hope of that working out, but we can't see it because we're in it and sometimes, when we're in it, we can't see everything around us. But when, when she finally got my attention, finally pulled me away and googled it and say, hey, this is what's going on, we step back and then we watched the game for a little while to see what was going on, to see that there was one or two people outside of the game looking, being maybe spotters I don't know what you would call them to see if, if anybody's coming that they need to move the game. Then when we started watching people in the game, we started realizing who was winning. The people just walking up weren't winning. They're playing, but they weren't winning. The people that were staying there were the ones winning. They were part of the game.
Speaker 2:So when you just step up, you don't know where these people came from. You're in Paris and yet by the Eiffel Tower and doing. You know so. You're looking every. You're not paying attention to these games. You're not paying, paying attention to the people coming, going, so many people coming and going. But when you step back and you can kind of see the big picture. Ah, now I see what's going on. Now I can see what odds are against that player. And we can do that same thing for ourselves. When we get out of that situation, when we get out of that laser focus thing that's not good for us, whatever that thing is we can step back. Maybe we need help.
Speaker 2:Maybe in this case, it was Kim that was able to point out and say look over there, look at that, look what's going on in the game. And then I was able to go. Yeah, you're right, you're right. I should have listened the first time instead of. But I just can't explain that.
Speaker 2:That focus was so intense for me that her grabbing me and telling me come on, wasn't doing, it wasn't getting me out of the game. It wasn't until I lost some money that I was like man, I'm not winning. I was smart enough to say I'm done and walked away. And even walking away, they said, oh, come on, you're so close, you know, but I just had to turn my back and walk away. And sometimes that's what we have to do when we have that laser focus and it's not something that's good for us and we're focused on that untruth, we just have to turn around, walk away and ignore what's going on behind us, what's going on in the game. We have to turn away from that.
Speaker 2:And so, you know, I thought that was some interesting lessons and as I reflected, preparing for today's show, and reflected about that experience in Paris, and I thought, you know, in that game, I mean that whole scenario maybe took five minutes. I mean it happened very fast. And so, as I reflected on that, getting ready for the show, I thought about the different lessons that that game taught me and I walked away, quite honestly, I walked away feeling like I had just been taken advantage of that. I've just like, what was I thinking? I mean, I just like it took me a day or two to get over it, to think that I'd been kind of shystered, been conned in for a hundred bucks, I'd been conned out of that, and I thought, how did I let that happen? And again, reflecting on it, I realized that it's just because it's sometimes, when you're so involved in something, you just can't look beyond it. And that was the problem I couldn't look beyond it. And it really did take me, and I don't even know if Kim and I have really mentioned that to anybody but just because we felt like man, we've been conned.
Speaker 2:And as I'm sharing it now, a few years later, it's probably been four years, I think maybe four years. It's been a while and really the first time I've shared it, but it was a lesson I wanted to share about just a simple game in Paris that the lessons learned from it really affects my life, really affects each of our lives, because those lessons, we've all been fooled when we think, man, I should know better than that. We've all focused on some untruths when people are trying to tell us don't do that, don't take that job, don't get in that relationship, don't get in that friendship, don't take on this task, don't do that, that's not gonna, you know, that's not in your best interest. We've all faced those, been focused on those untruths and not listened to the outside noise. We've all, after we step back and we look at the big picture and we look what's going on, we regroup, realize man, there's more than one person in this game. There's one more than one person, one more than one thing going on here, but we can't see it when we're in the game, and so those are powerful lessons that we can take and apply to our situations, and I think it's really a challenge to us, a challenge to and all those things probably could have been avoided if I'd step back and watched it first, instead of just jumping in. Maybe, you know, and watch it a little closer and from afar, instead of just watching just for a second go, I can do that and jump in.
Speaker 2:Maybe I need to be a little slower in that case to take action, and I think sometimes that's okay to be a little slower to take action, but so we can just kind of see what's going on. Maybe it's something we need to watch for a little while. Maybe it's more than something we need to watch for more than a day. Maybe it's when you see how somebody interacts with other people, a variety of people, not just one individual. Maybe it's a job we need, you know, to check out several different things about it. Maybe talk to people who have worked there, been there. You know we take our time and we look at these things and really study them and how can they help us, and without us jumping in and being laser focused on some untrue.
Speaker 2:So hope my lessons I learned in Paris around the Eiffel Tower help you and then you can see how you can apply those to your everyday life and some of those decisions and some of those maybe untruths that you're focused on, that maybe you didn't realize you were focused on those untruths until today's podcast, that maybe you've realized that, oh man, those people are speaking loud, grabbing me and I'm not listening.
Speaker 2:Let me step back and see what they're saying and see what's really going on. So hope these lessons have you can take them implied your life and I'd love to take the opportunity to help you in any way I can, whether it's one-on-one coaching, whether it's personal training, whether it is in my free texting community, in my weekly email, variety of ways. You can just go to my website, erendeglercom. We can connect there and I can, we can get together and I can help you in those areas of your life that that you want to start getting away from some of those untruths, become unfocused and maybe start focusing on the truths in your life. So hope you have a great day. Thank you for stopping by and visiting with me today and I tell my wife came every night before I go to bed. It's bomb of the night, double a out.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If you would like to connect with Aaron, you can do so by going to erendeglercom or find him on social media as Aaron Degler on Instagram, facebook and YouTube. Once again, we greatly appreciate you tuning in. If you've enjoyed the show, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. We greatly appreciate that effort and we'll catch you in the next episode of the mind body project podcast.