What If 1 Question Could Change Your Life's Direction in the Next 90 Days? (Summer Shift Week 2)

Well, welcome back.

And hey, if you're new around here, welcome.

This is the podcast that is all about inspiring you, motivating you, hopefully empowering you to get out there and start living your best life, no matter what obstacles or challenges you might be facing.

Now, today, as I said, we're in week number two of our summer series, a series devoted to helping you make the most out of this summer, a time when a lot of us honestly check out.

We get soaked into the long dog days of summer.

And well, I'm all for that.

I'm all for a little bit of lazy summer days, but I also believe that if you're listening to this podcast, that you probably have something inside of you that wants more out of life.

You want to grow, you want to enjoy life, but you also want more out of life.

And that is what this summer series is all about.

Now, today in particular, we're taking a trip to the beach.

Now, maybe you live somewhere where you don't have access to a beach.

Well, maybe it's a day at the lake or a day at the springs, somewhere where some water is included.

And I'm just going to assume that whether it's a lake, it's a spring or the ocean, you've got access to a beach.

And so I want to start out with a simple yet powerful question.

And I want you to really think about this question when I ask it.

Have you ever taken a trip to the beach, been there all day, and yet at the end of the day, honestly wondered where did time even go?

Not necessarily because, oh my gosh, you had the time of your life, you had just been doing all these things, and time flew by.

No, actually, quite the opposite.

Because instead, in amongst all the activities, all the fun, the sunshine, you were honestly checked out.

You were too focused on scrolling your phone, looking at Facebook, or maybe worried about Monday morning, constantly thinking about tomorrow.

That is an example of a day at the beach.

But if that's not also an example of how so many of us are living our lives, I don't know what else is.

We live our lives busy, distracted, always thinking about the what-if scenario, always worried about tomorrow, never actually focusing on today.

And so today, I want to bring your attention to this reality that so many of us are living our lives where it's just passing us by.

Let's take person A, we'll call her Susie.

And we'll take person B, we'll call him Tom.

Two people, Susie and Tom, both at the beach for the day.

But here's the difference.

Susie, she sets it up, man.

Family gets to the beach, she's got the umbrella unpacked, got the blanket spread out, unpacks the cooler with the lunch, the sandwiches, the chips, the fresh fruit, all the things.

She goes out and plays frisbee with the kids, tries her hand at surfing, maybe even attempts to fly a kite.

Now, Tom, on the other hand, our other person, he spends the whole day just sitting in the van.

Yeah, he's got the door open, windows down, but he never even gets out, never even puts his feet in the sand.

And if he does, well, oh gosh, he's quickly brushing the sand off, trying to focus on his phone, because of course that's where his attention is.

He's never bothered to look around.

No, he's scrolling through the phone, checking emails, working on the schedule for the week.

At the end of the day, both Susie and Tom, they both went to the beach, but only one of them actually experienced it.

And in terms of what we're building with our lives, only one of them actually built anything.

Tom, he built nothing because he didn't choose to live life.

Susie, on the other hand, she built something.

She built memories, she built experience.

And that, my friend, is the pivotal question we all have to wrestle with is how are we living?

How do we want to live?

Not just a day at the beach, but every single day of our lives.

Are we living with intention?

Are we making the most out of every opportunity we're given?

Or are we just letting life pass us by?

When we want to get really deep and talk about developing, building, creating a meaningful life, people who live a purpose-driven life, they realize that it's not just the big things, it's the little things compound over time.

Big lives are built in small moments.

It's the normal everyday wins.

The times that you say yes to experiences that ordinarily you would say no to.

Meanwhile, they come back at the end of the day, and oh my gosh, you've just shaped that sand into something incredible.

Now, continuing on our little metaphor of the sand castle, I want you to realize that in life, we all want results.

And the quicker those results can come, well, the better we believe it to be.

And let's face it, it's how it is with everything in life.

We don't go online, go on YouTube, and research how to get in shape in 10 years.

We never look for the exercise that tells us that we can have six-pack abs in six months.

No.

What do we do?

We want a 10-minute exercise that we can do three times a week and have six-pack abs in six weeks.

That's what we're looking for.

We're looking for big results in a short amount of time.

We want less work, less effort, bigger results.

That's just how we live our lives.

But the fact is true is that there really is truly no such thing as an overnight success.

Meaningful things, the things that mean something to us, to have a life that truly is purposeful, it takes time.

It's designed with intention.

It's every day working towards that.

And maybe right now, here in the summer months, is your opportunity to begin designing it, creating it, working towards it.

It's having experiences.

Maybe you think to yourself, though, that, well, my dream is to own my own business.

So how in the world does having fun this summer move the needle forward with that?

Well, my friend, you never know what opportunities are out there.

You never know what the next relationship that you form can do.

Yeah, maybe it just becomes a good friendship.

Maybe it becomes the business partner.

You never know what the person parked next to you at the park or at the beach does.

Maybe they help people like you get investment opportunities in a business.

Maybe there's somebody who's an entrepreneur themselves.

They've already been there.

They've done what you're trying to do.

But if you never get out of the house, if you never step out of the car and actually enjoy the day at the beach, then my friend, you're never gonna open the door for any of those opportunities to happen.

And let's face it, no matter what our goals are, whether it's to get in shape, whether it's to start a business, to make meaningful income, my friend, right now it's summer.

It's a beautiful season of longer days, beautiful weather.

Get out there and enjoy it.

Because I've learned that dreams are amazing.

I believe honestly, big dreams, big goals, I believe they're pivotal for us to get through life.

But that doesn't mean that we're supposed to stop enjoying life today in pursuit of tomorrow.

No, I believe we can pursue our dreams, go after our goals while still enjoying today.

And that is what I want for you in particular, is I want you to be building something, creating something, designing something, but I also want you to focus on enjoying right now, this moment.

So if you want to make the most out of this summer, if you want to take advantage of the longer days, the beautiful nights, the days where you spend all day at the beach and you come home with a sunburn and sand in your hair and memories that will last forever.

Well, this is your opportunity to start living, to start enjoying this time of year.

And all the while focusing on what you're building, what you're creating.

And honestly, my friend, maybe the most important thing that you can focus on right now is building memories, creating experiences, putting yourself into position to make something out of your life.

Now, especially if you're a parent, a grandparent, you've got you, but you've also got your kids, your grandkids to think about.

Start thinking of ways in which you can have them experiencing life, experiencing the world.

A day at the lake, a day at the beach, it doesn't cost a whole lot of money.

It's something that we can all do, we can afford.

And honestly, those are the kind of experiences that stay with you, that means something.

So uh if you get nothing else out of today's episode, if you're still thinking to yourself, this episode was useless because I'm not building anything, I encourage you to think twice because I believe we're all building something with our lives memories, experiences, ourselves.

In addition to pursuing dreams, creating a business, making something out of nothing.

We all have that opportunity, and it's right here, waiting on us to take hold of it.

My friend, this was week number two of the summer shift, a series devoted to helping you shift out of merely surviving life and into thriving within it.

I hope you'll come back next week for week three of the Summer Shift series.

Until then, my friend, if you have not already begun following the podcast on your favorite app, whether that's maybe Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any of the other dozen podcast apps out there, please be sure that you have gone up and hit that little follow button to be sure that you get notified every Tuesday morning when a new episode is released.

And also, it does help the podcast itself to just kind of let these directories know, to let Apple Podcasts know that hey, people actually care about this podcast, and therefore they can start showing it to more people.

So, my friend, enjoy the day.

I hope you enjoy the podcast, and I really hope you enjoy the rest of our amazing series that I have for you each week in this summer season.

Until next time, I'm your host, Kevin Little.

Get out there and enjoy this beautiful summer.