Episode 49 - Reclaiming Freedom: Cultivate a Burning Passion

In Episode 49, Michael and Preston revisit how passion enables reclaiming freedom; reframing the challenging circumstances in the present as fuel for the burning desire that we can cultivate to drive us toward a compelling future.

Transcript

Michael: 0:00

Dude, how's it going?

Preston: 0:01

It's good, man. It is what the heck? Oh, there we go. Hold on one second. Well, welcome to whatever episode 49 there, Michael. Yes, sir. Episode 49. Welcome to

Michael: 0:16

the Uncanny

Preston: 0:16

Man podcast. Tonight you got me, Preston Radomski, Southern Canuck and Michael Z Mastermind. Is that what we're calling it these days? The

Michael: 0:26

the man who started it all. Oh, it's kind of like, yeah, Dimash to Big Lebowski, you know, he's an artist. He passed mind. I really, it's like, oh,

Preston: 0:37

we

Michael: 0:38

believe in nothing. Yeah.

Preston: 0:40

Michael, we are talking about passion tonight. Is that the, topic du jour for us to,

Michael: 0:49

Yeah, we're on reclaiming freedom and thinking about. What are some of the keys to that and what have I've been reading lately that has been inspiring me in the arena of passion and just being focused on things that you truly are passionate about and how important that is in the context of leadership and achieving our goals. And so just wanted to touch a little bit about that and. I guess share a couple of different, there's a few different passages, things that I've been reading lately that I'm hoping to share in this, which we haven't done as much in recent episodes. So hopefully I won't overdo it, but there's a couple of short little excerpts that I want to read and chat through with you, Preston, and get your thoughts on them. But I mentioned some of it in polo over the past week or so. Yeah, we can dive right in if you want. Yeah. Let's do it. Yeah. So last year we did, some readings from John Maxwell. And so I'm going to share one of those Maxwell's, February 3rd reading ratchet up your passion. Starts off with this question. What makes it possible for people who might seem ordinary to achieve great things? The answer is passion. Nothing can take the place of passion in a leader's life. Take a look at four truths about passion and what it can do for you as a leader. One. Passion is the first step to achievement. Your desire determines your destiny. Anyone who lives beyond an ordinary life has great desire. It's true in any field. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire creates little heat. The stronger your fire, the greater the desire, and the greater the potential. Number two, passion increases your willpower. There's no substitute for passion. It is fuel for the will. If you want anything badly enough, you can find the willpower to achieve it. The only way to have that kind of desire is to develop passion. Three, passion changes you. If you follow your passion instead of others perceptions, you can't help become a more dedicated, productive person. That increases your ability to impact others. In the end, your passion will have more influence than your personality. Four, passion makes the impossible possible. Human beings are so made that whenever anything fires this hole, impossibilities vanish. A fire in the heart lifts everything in your life. That's why passionate leaders are so effective. A leader with great passion and few skills always outperforms a leader with great skills and no passion. And that is the, The reading, and it, I think just triggered a bunch of really good thoughts around, this year for me and how to make sure that I'm focusing in on my passions, in parallel to some of the things that I'm less passionate about, in order to get through it. So I wondered if it was similar for you, Preston, where, you're doing the music stuff and, we want that to be the main thing. Since you're passionate, you're real passionate about it. And then, you also are in the still same boat as me where it's we're grinding along still, it feels like in our, our day to day jobs, the sort of money making, put the bread on the table sort of situation. So just curious how that little, reading from John Maxwell might impact you.

Preston: 3:55

You read that to us about a week ago, and that wasn't quite a week ago, and I didn't remember it word for word from the year before, but I remember that one really hitting me as far as just, as far as diving in. It's so weird. Like I delivered to this Guy today. I was on a route that I just I do all the routes in our station and like on this morning I was listening to this podcast that I listened to called Nashville for nobodies Which is this these two guys in Nashville that are Nashville musicians Broadway players and our buddy Brad Dawson was their guest this week So this all morning, like I'm listening to Brad tell his story and, them talk about Broadway and he brought me up a little bit, I got this buddy press and it's like working to try and get down here too And then a couple hours later, I delivered to this business and the guy opens the door and I'm like, I know that guy, I'm like, I know you, what is your name? And I don't remember his name, but he's a guy that ran sound at this July 4th event I was at last year with my family. And he was like the drummer for his brother's band, but also running front of house sound for them as well. A family affair. And him and I were talking and when he remembered me today, he's Hey, aren't you supposed to, weren't you going to be going down and working on Broadway? And I'm just in my head, Yes, and I'm delivering FedEx packages to you right now. You're so right. And I was thinking about that passion thing where I've got three Broadway gigs lined up in the next four weeks, a wedding in May, and we booked like a 4th of July show. There's some, there's definitely much more on the books. And in the next couple of weeks, I need to just start going downtown. Like on a Friday and hanging out with bands while they're playing and I'm starting to meet people in this little gig finder group. And it's just that element of what are you doing? Like sitting on the bench, dude.

Michael: 5:55

I had that feeling this afternoon. I was. Send in a text message to Jen and I was just like, this is not what I want to be doing. I want to be trading. I have so much more passion for playing music and trading. And so I was just going to share like on the passion side, I haven't talked as much about it lately, but to your points, like you've been lining up those shows, which is Kudos to you because it's, you're taking those steps and you're starting to build those relationships that once you have that foundation, it gives you the platform to really take the step. And I think you could really, get radical and quit your job and put yourself in this high pressure situation where you are jumping off the cliff. And you're, taking the leap. But I think sometimes there has to be some place to land and the practicality of it. You're like, okay, I've still got a I'm in the same boat where she was like, look, I've got bills to pay. I know I could take a risk and start trying to trade full time, play music full time, but I feel very strongly compelled that the data doesn't suggest that I should do that yet, and same for you, you're getting these shows, but the cadence of those shows, it's oh, you still need to get to the point where. There's the level of, opportunity, and, part of the reason Scott's not on the show, I feel like the past week or two is because he's been really driving his opportunity funnel in a way that has, to your point, filled his plate beyond full and he's. Been able to execute, on some pretty cool things that, are a result of him creating that opportunity, which is what you and I are trying to do. But, yeah, I had that same sort of just realization today when I was, staring at my computer screens in front of me and seeing 140 emails and was looking at this list of projects that all had pretty firm deliverables this week. So I'm like, oh my gosh, I have to. I'm going to have to execute on a lot this week and I know I'll be able to do it. And, at the same time, I was like, this isn't what I want to be doing. And it's going to extend into the time that I want to be doing other things like playing music and trading. And so I was just like that trade off. It either has to end relatively soon, or I find a, another, path forward, but, yeah, it just made me want to talk a little bit about why I'm, passionate about trading versus. The nine to five world and a lot of it is also, I think just the commonality that you and I have with playing music and I want to be able to play music all the time, but not necessarily rely on it for money. And that's just like a personal philosophy more than anything. But I just don't want to have it from a time perspective. That's ultimately what it becomes. There's a lot more until you get to a certain level, which very few do. I absolutely believe in what you're working towards. I think it's a really cool and, like a really great idea with what you're trying to do with build a legacy on Broadway. But, that's one of my end goals too, just to be able to play music. Every week live music with good musicians, for me, I want to do it in the context of at a church, which of course doesn't really pay that well. So that's not really what it's about for me. I just want to be able to play music and do worship and gospel and, that kind of music that I really love. That's the thing that I think, I haven't necessarily talked as much about on the show, so I just wanted to share that with, our audience and then thinking about. What are the, what's the burning desire that I have and it's to be able to spend the time, doing the things that I want with the people that I want to do it with and spend more time with my family and those types of like high level goals of loving my family. It means I have to be taking a step away from corporate America, the empire of nothing, so to speak in the near future. And I think it's the same way with you and FedEx, right?

Preston: 10:11

Yeah. Like my last stop of the day today is this. Business out and I don't know if it's like Tullahoma, Manchester. And they're just a small nightmare of a place to go to because they have this like bulk pickup that's made like five pallets of stuff to pick up today. And they have, they do a ton of international shipments, which with international shipments, when you, it's like a driver, when you pick them up, you have to pull like commercial invoices and these like thermal copies of stuff. That have to then get collected and imaged to customs by a team of people back at the station. Now it's 2024, and all that can be done digitally? So none of that has to be pulled, but for whatever reason, this company they ship third party or something. And there are sales rep can't fucking figure that out for the fuck knows. And so this stop that ships out a ton of packages and then like, they do this thing where it's it'll be five boxes going to the same place, but there'll be like a multiple piece shipment. So there'll be like a master and four. Slaves, you call them like in a sense, like other ones that are tied to it. And in order to scan them all, that way you're like only making one address label for, you're not having to like to make five. Anyway, but in order to scan them, they have to all be scanned together. But when they stack them for me on palettes, or for the regular guy, I'm just the fill in guy, but they like, it's like they intentionally mix them all up. So you have to like, you have to take all these palettes. It's just a fucking Shit show of a nightmare and like my bot we've tried talking to them and they're just like basically they tell us like we employ fucking stupid people that cannot figure this out and if it's always a different person and it's just like at the end of the day it's just like god damn like what the fuck are we doing here? And it's like my whole day is fine and then I get to this place and I just I'll breathe 10 times I'm like just it's gonna be good and then today it's five more pallets like it's usually two pallets of stuff and today it was five and I'm sitting there after this day of listening to my buddy on his music podcast and then running into the sound guy and I'm like. Yeah, but like we gotta fast track this a bit more because you're gonna have a nervous breakdown over nothing, cause it's just like this. Like I'm not making any, I mean I'm getting paid by the hour quite well, but it's like I'm not making any money off of these boxes being picked up and like I have no connection to this company or to this business. Yeah.

Michael: 12:45

And it doesn't scale and it's you're not passionate about it.

Preston: 12:48

I'm questioning like am I really that passionate about music and doing this? If I'm not going to just do it, you know?

Michael: 12:54

Yeah. And the other thing I think I wanted to mention about passion is that it isn't something that is finite or at one fixed level. That was the Napoleon Hill quote that I was thinking about. Really. Was, there's one quality, which one must possess to win. And that is definite as a purpose, the knowledge of what one wants and a burning desire to possess it like that burning desire piece. I feel like. It might start as like a dream, but over time, the more that you put energy into it, you're cultivating it becomes like a stronger desire. The more you have experiences like you just had, today, or I had today. It, it helps you refocus your energy and it also in, in that regard makes me think, and maybe this is different than most, but I think like with my job currently, I'm like I just want to absolutely crush this. So when I do leave, like I'm on the, I'm on the ramp, right? Like I'm moving up, I'm doing good things. I'm having a positive impact on the organization and leaving it in a light. Much better place than I found it, so to speak, you're just saying, oh, why is this process this way? I think it's that kind of thing that, we can use that as fuel for burning, right? Like just, yeah, it I think ignites In many cases, it reignites the passion and, it makes me feel like more definiteness of purpose to, to borrow from Napoleon Hill. And, I was playing music before the podcast and I just riffing on some stuff that, I needed to play this weekend. And every once in a while I have to remind myself, which is, this is a lot of times I'm trying to play things like note for note, exactly what the part is like 100 percent to prescription dynamically the same way. The right phrasing and the right feel of it. There's just so many little nuances depending on the type of music. And, I was just like remembering this is why I'm so passionate about music because I can hear what they're doing. And then I can play something that. Is Close enough and feel, but it's impossible for me to screw up because it's just me playing it and I can create within the context of the structure that they've built, and I'm very passionate about that, like creating something. Within a well defined system and structure, and that I think applies to a lot of other areas in my life and career. So that's the stuff I wanted to get off my chest when it comes to passion and just share that it can be cultivated. We can take things that seem to be like a negative experience in our life and use that as fuel to, to feed our passions and. Drive us towards our goals as opposed to getting sucked into the negative side of it and being like, okay, this is brutal. You're about to destroy these boxes that, some moron shoved all this paper into it's like possible to sort through. It's you're going to lose it. And it's you could, or you could be like, yeah, this is. Now motivation for me to work even harder to book that next gig, I'm going to use this as motivation for, I don't want to be doing this forever. And because I'm just going

Preston: 16:16

to come back and be a bad karma thing. And it's just that's not good. I was thinking too, I thought about this. Recently, like the first gosh, probably five, six, seven years when I was working at FedEx, I didn't have podcasts or anything like that because they weren't really around. And I think back to that time. And I used to just.

Michael: 16:45

Listen to music or

Preston: 16:46

what? No, I would just be in my head all day, like plotting out ways to do stuff for at the time I wasn't in a, I lived in California. I was like in an original band, but I've come up with song ideas and like just all day, just plotting, things to do for shows and flyers and would come home and, go to band practice. And we did all kinds of cool stuff back then. We're like, I almost sometimes feel like as much information and as interesting as podcasts can be, it's like, are they a detriment to me sometimes? Because they just. Are able to numb this job that I don't really like, but to where it's like, ah, I can just listen to some really cool stuff and tolerate this job where instead of like heavily being focused on getting out of the job, I don't know if that makes any sense or if you can relate to that in any way. But

Michael: 17:34

yeah, I think so. I think it's just, it's probably finding a way to reframe that. So Cool. You can use those podcasts to again, feed into some of those passions and listen to things that you really care about, whether it's listening to music that you know you're going to have to do and spending time to learn the music, like you've got the time or, listening to YouTube tutorials of some particular part that's hard to get. There's other ways that you can fill in those gaps and say okay, I'm going to use that time and I'll. Pick one hour a day to listen to these songs that I don't normally listen to, but I know I should listen to learn better just by like structurally understanding them because every song it's like, yeah, you can have charts up and things like that. If you don't listen to the songs. It's quite a bit. Anyways, I think it's for most people anyways, it's hard to get the overall feel of it. You're still able to gain some valuable wisdom or knowledge while you're doing this job and you're getting paid to learn. I think that's one of the other things when you. When I think about the past year and what we've been doing with this podcast, one of the biggest passions that we all clearly have is learning and continuing to learn. And so it's a way where when I look at my current job, I'm learning so much in doing those types of things that I think are beneficial skills to help me gain more discipline and gain more expertise in, in areas that I know will better me in the future. So it's like a lot of it's just reframing things and it's not like always. Possible to find the silver lining, especially in the case of those boxes. That's just pure anger, not going to get out of that. And the same thing for me when I get certain requests that I'm just like, this is so far below me, but I'm going to do it because. That's the type of person I am. So I don't know, that's probably all I've got to say on the subject, to be honest with you. I think it's, something I could talk more about specific passions, but as far as the context of reclaiming our freedom, it's just, I think, important to look at. And do some analysis of what are we doing on a day to day basis to really cultivate those passions and how are we making sure that we have the time for those, because they're more important than the nine to five grind, if that's what we're doing, or however you want to call it. Yeah,

Preston: 20:00

I agree. I think I said about all I need to say. I think I cussed more than this episode than any of that before.

Michael: 20:09

I thought it was funny because it's like that's the true. I think that's the true motivator in many cases. It's like you get to this point and What, society is telling us is Oh, this is, you and I, we allegedly have 25 more, 30 more years to work, to retire. And it's just, that's insane to think about. And I know you would be like, there's no way you'd be doing that 25 years from now. No, that'd be

Preston: 20:37

like, that'd be like a 55 or 56 year career at FedEx.

Michael: 20:41

Nah, yeah, there's

Preston: 20:42

a guy at our station. I think he's at 40, 42

Michael: 20:47

or 43 years that he maxed out on PTO

Preston: 20:53

We only get a maximum of five weeks a year that yeah, that's maxed out like we're I know UPS I think they can bank stuff and roll it over what we don't we can't roll anything over we have to use it In the years, which is

Michael: 21:06

yeah, Tony Robbins talks about a guy who worked at FedEx and invested into FedEx with all of his he saved a ridiculous amount of money, but he became a millionaire working at FedEx because he was investing in FedEx, like from the beginning of his career there, which was a long time previous, Pretty interesting. Yes, sir. Thanks for listening to episode 49

Preston: 21:32

of the Reclaiming Man podcast, podcast, podcast. We'll see you guys next week for episode 50.

Michael: 21:42

Yeah, we better. Yeah, 5

Preston: 21:44

0. Shoot. All right. Have a good one. Happy Monday or Friday or Wednesday, whenever y'all listen to this.