459: STOP LISTENING TO ME! Your Next Breakthrough Isn’t Coming From Another Podcast (Summer Shift Finale)

Kevin Lowe: So instead, open up Apple Music, put on some music to listen to.

Kevin Lowe: Or maybe I decide to go old school and actually just turn on the television, turn on the news, and have the news playing in the background while I make the morning cup of coffee.

Kevin Lowe: There's always something playing, always something going. But this morning, a matter of fact, here lately, I found myself doing something different.

Kevin Lowe: As yes, I default to the typical, press play, turn it on, hear the noise, Here lately, I've been turning it off. I've been hitting pause on the podcast.

Kevin Lowe: And my friend, today is the 12th and final episode in our Summer Shift series.

Kevin Lowe: We have been on a journey this summer. And if you're kind of like me, I'm still kind of thinking, where the heck did this summer go?

Kevin Lowe: I mean, the whole point of this Summer Shift series was to get us intentional about making improvements in ourselves.

Kevin Lowe: I mean, my friend, if you've been here since the beginning of this Summer Shift series, you know we've done a lot.

Kevin Lowe: But my gosh, it seems like it's flown by.

Kevin Lowe: And now everything is getting back to usual.

Kevin Lowe: Kids are going back to school. Life is returning to that quote unquote normalcy.

Kevin Lowe: And it's kind of unbelievable.

Kevin Lowe: But here we are, week 12 of the Summer Shift series.

Kevin Lowe: And what I had planned, kind of like I've done on some of the past weeks, it no longer felt like the thing that I wanted to end the series with.

Kevin Lowe: Instead, I brought it back to what I was experiencing in my own life.

Kevin Lowe: The shift that I've been making, and that's the same shift that I'm encouraging you to make.

Kevin Lowe: And quite possibly, it's the most meaningful shift of all.

Kevin Lowe: My friend, I am your host, Kevin Lowe. This is episode 459 of Grace and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: And as I said, it is our 12th and final week in our Summer Shift series.

Kevin Lowe: Now, if you want the shortcut for today's episode...

Kevin Lowe: Stop. Hit pause. Turn off this podcast. Stop listening to me.

Kevin Lowe: That is what I'm telling you.

Kevin Lowe: That is the shift I want you to make.

Kevin Lowe: Or if you decide, okay, that's a little weird.

Kevin Lowe: Well, keep listening because I'm going to explain. But I promise this is a short episode because if I drag it out, it kind of defeats the whole purpose of what I'm telling you.

Kevin Lowe: Because today, the most meaningful shift of all is I'm going to encourage you to think about hitting pause on the noise.

Kevin Lowe: So many times we feel the need to fill the void.

Kevin Lowe: We just press play by default, like me in the morning.

Kevin Lowe: Why can't I just sit with my own thoughts? Why can't I just hear nothing?

Kevin Lowe: Why can't I just listen to the sound of the coffee maker? Why do I have to have a podcast playing for me to listen to?

Kevin Lowe: Why do I have to have music going, the news going, constantly noise?

Kevin Lowe: And as I said here lately, I've been paying attention to that, to the reality that I don't always need something playing.

Kevin Lowe: Now, I think it goes a little bit deeper than that, because if you're like me, a lot of especially when it comes to podcasts, I go to podcasts typically when I'm wanting to learn something.

Kevin Lowe: I'm wanting to get inspiration, get some motivation, some insights.

Kevin Lowe: But one thing I've learned is that honestly, the more we consume, whether it's podcasts or books that we read, honestly, what do we really gain from any of it?

Kevin Lowe: I mean, yeah. I mean, again, I hope that this podcast brings you entertainment.

Kevin Lowe: I hope it inspires you and motivates you and has you thinking about things differently.

Kevin Lowe: But if I'm honest, is there anything that I ever say that truly makes a meaningful shift in your life that you couldn't have thought of yourself?

Kevin Lowe: Maybe it inspires you to get thinking, but ultimately, before you take action, it's probably you making that decision for yourself.

Kevin Lowe: And so, my friend, what I want us to think about is maybe the answer is already inside of us.

Kevin Lowe: We tend to think that there's always somebody else out there who knows the answer for us with whatever we're struggling with.

Kevin Lowe: We think that somebody else has that silver bullet. They have the shortcut.

Kevin Lowe: They have the cheat code.

Kevin Lowe: And we go and we consume and we consume and we consume all this material, all these things from all these people.

Kevin Lowe: And yet, chances are, when we try to implement it in our life, in our situation, it doesn't work quite the way we thought.

Kevin Lowe: And I have to believe it's because we're all different. We're all on our own journey.

Kevin Lowe: If you ask 10 different people, 10 different entrepreneurs, how they made it, I guarantee you, you're going to get 10 different answers.

Kevin Lowe: If you go to 10 different couples who've been married for 50 years and ask them, how have you been married this long?

Kevin Lowe: You're going to get 10 different stories.

Kevin Lowe: If you go find 10 different people who you think have a truly happy life and ask them, what is the secret?

Kevin Lowe: You're going to get 10 different stories of how they've achieved it.

Kevin Lowe: The reason is because everybody's on their own path in life.

Kevin Lowe: Nobody knows what you're going through, just like nobody knows what I'm going through.

Kevin Lowe: You've been on your own journey. And that's why to move forward, you can't rely on using the same playbook that somebody else did.

Kevin Lowe: Now, yeah, does it give us ideas to try? Of course.

Kevin Lowe: Does it give us inspiration and motivation to keep going?

Kevin Lowe: Absolutely. That's why I do this podcast in hopes of being that for you.

Kevin Lowe: But when we really boil it down and we really want to make a meaningful shift in our life, I have to believe it comes by us getting quiet, by turning off the noise and just asking ourselves those big questions.

Kevin Lowe: What do I do now?

Kevin Lowe: What is the next right step?

Kevin Lowe: And instead of turning on something, listening to somebody else coming through the speaker of our phone, why don't we instead just sit in the silence?

Kevin Lowe: Because I don't know about you, but when I've had breakthroughs in my life, when I've had some big things happen, they've never come when listening to a podcast.

Kevin Lowe: They've never come when watching a movie, a TV show.

Kevin Lowe: No, they've come when I'm in the shower.

Kevin Lowe: Boom, greatest idea ever. They've come in just the quiet parts when you're laying in bed at night and you can't sleep and you haven't turned over and turned on anything to listen to.

Kevin Lowe: And instead, you're just laying there. It's in those moments of quiet when we actually give ourselves time to just be, to just listen, to just be still.

Kevin Lowe: That's a lot of times when the biggest breakthroughs come.

Kevin Lowe: So my friend, as life is getting ready and quite honestly, is already back into the chaos of life, we're heading into the end of the year and life's going to get noisy. It's getting crazy.

Kevin Lowe: My friend, just try to do your part in hitting pause.

Kevin Lowe: To just pause for a moment. When you're filling the void with noise, think about just stopping it and thinking to yourself, hmm, maybe this is an opportunity for me to just be still, for me to not be listening to something.

Kevin Lowe: When you go out for your walk, don't put in your earbuds.

Kevin Lowe: When you go to do the dishes, don't put on music.

Kevin Lowe: When you go sit outside, maybe just don't take anything.

Kevin Lowe: Don't turn on the radio. Don't take your phone with you.

Kevin Lowe: Just go sit outside with a cup of coffee and just listen to the birds.

Kevin Lowe: Watch that beautiful sunrise.

Kevin Lowe: Just be...

Kevin Lowe: And my friend, I have to think that's this entire Summer Shift series boiled down into a single short episode.

Kevin Lowe: The most meaningful shift that we can make is to just be, to just be still, to just be quiet, to just listen to us.

Kevin Lowe: Because again, nobody knows you like you know you.

Kevin Lowe: So stop looking for answers. turn off the podcast, and my friend, just start enjoying a little bit of peace and quiet.

Kevin Lowe: And in that quiet, quite honestly, you'll probably find what you've been looking for all along.

Kevin Lowe: I'm your host, Kevin Lowe. My friend, it's been an honor being with you throughout this entire summer in our Summer Shift series.

Kevin Lowe: If there's ever anything I can do for you, please reach out to me.

Kevin Lowe: My contact info is inside of every episode's show notes.

Kevin Lowe: You can also head on over to the website, gritgraceinspiration.com.

Kevin Lowe: Easy ways to connect with me there.

Kevin Lowe: So my friend, reach out anytime. Would love to hear from you.

Kevin Lowe: And until next week, my friend, get out there. Enjoy this beautiful day.

Kevin Lowe: And again, let this be the last thing you listen to today on your phone.

Kevin Lowe: Just turn it off, hit pause, and enjoy the silence.

K-Lowe Music (Summer's Our Song): From the springs to the shore You know the heat don't quit. Summer's our song,

K-Lowe Music: and we're still singing it.