Quiet Courage The Unsung Bravery of Small Steps

You know, all of us want change in our lives. All of us want to live the best life we can possibly live. Well, there's one key ingredient that'll help us get there, and we're going to talk about it this time on White's Thoughts. It's time for a virtual campfire sit down with Terry Weiss. Will come to Weiss but studio. That's right. Welcome back to the virtual campfire, everybody. Yeah, it's another episode of Boy Slots. We don't slow down, we don't stand still, we don't take a back seat. We just keep flowing ahead. Here six, Welcome to the program. I'm so glad you despinded to spend some of your valuable time with me today. Thank you so much. I truly appreciate. And you know what, if you're enjoying the podcast, want you to do us a favorite, leave us a positive rating and review, Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your pets about Why's Loots, Grab the favorite beverage of your choice, and pull up a comfortable spot around their virtual campfire. Willya. It's our weekly refuge and let's get into today's program on Why Slots. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the program. Welcome to Wye slots. I am Terry Weiss, and I am so glad. I am actually overjoyed, if I dare say so. Sitting in Purple Pitts Studio one A today, back in the back at the main studio, I like this. The chair is more comfortable. Uh the desk care of the console is much much easier, much easier on the hands. I don't know if there is such a thing. How's your day going? Is it going pretty good? Great? How is How was your weekend? Did you do anything exciting? I got to do yard work and spend some time with the grand kids, which was nice and the missus. So that's always good. I mean, when you when you can do something like that, when you can spend a little time with the fam and it's enjoyable and uh, just making memories, that is that. That's a real good thing. It is And I thoroughly enjoyed that football seasons starting up the preseason if there are those of you that follow the National Football League here in the United States of America, from whence the program cometh, as they say, and hockey season is going to be starting in about another month. To my favorite sports. If I had to categorize hockey number one, football number two, baseball number three, and soccer men. I know, I know, I'm gonna catch hack for that now. Soccer's alright to me, though it's I don't know, It's just it's a lot of running, a lot of running, and it tires me out to watch it, it really does. But anyway, Uh, if you want to listen to more episodes of the podcast, go to Weissthoughts dot com. Just make sure you spell my name right WYC White Thoughts dot com. There you can listen to each and every episode of the podcast a comment on the show as well. If you want to send me email, It's Terry T. E. R R. Y at Weiss's Thoughts dot com. And uh, don't forget. While you're moseying around in that area and out on the world wide web, head on over to Purplepit Studios Purplepitstudios dot com. There you can listen to other podcasts that are offered and check out the website. Check out the Weiss's Life blog, which I've I've got to write a blog post here, mister producer extraordinary. Yes, I don't think I've written one in a month or two. I gotta I gotta get some more blog posts up, so you know, I know, well, we'll do that anyway. You can check out my YouTube channel, Wife's Thoughts on YouTube as well all kinds of goodies in store. So anyway, let's uh, let's head into the program today on Wye's Thoughts shall we today? You know, in our culture, courage is usually depicted as something loud, a grand declaration, as it were, a leap off the cliff, a dramatic life overhaul. But on this episode of the Weiss Thoughts podcast, as we look at the quiet embers glowing steadily before us here at their virtual campfire sit down, we're going to talk about a different kind of bravery, quiet courage, the bravery found in small, uncelebrated steps. Okay, so let's talk about the myth, the myth, the myth, oh myth, the myth of the giant leap. Who doesn't love overnight success stories? I think we all do. We love movies with cinematic montage sequences where someone turns their whole life around in like three minutes. Come on, how realistic is that? And it might even inspire some of us, you know, because of that this you know, we want to make a change, we think, hey, we have to do everything out at once. We declare a massive New year resolution, attempt extreme overhauls, and expect immediate results. Well, you know what, we burn out three days later. We assume we lack wheel power. Take a look at the virtual campfire here in your mind. Take a look at the campfire. You don't ignite a lasting fire by tossing a massive, heavy log onto a tiny spark, because it chokes the flame. A fire is built piece by piece, twig by twig, ember by ember, and quiet courage is choosing to add one small piece of wood every single day, even when no one is clapping for you. So I know a lot of you are sitting out there, or driving out there, walking or running out there, and you're wondering, well, hey, Terry, that's that sounds swell, buddy. But how do we practice for I courage in our daily lives. Well, let's talk about. Here's what you're going to do. First, lower the bar to consistency. Okay, If writing let's say, for an hour, feels impossible, well break it down. Write for five minutes. If walking five miles feels overwhelming, just step outside for five minutes. You know, I have an almost daily walking routine. And when I started, what I did is I would set my fitness watch. I have an Apple Watch. I would set it for ten minutes and this head outside and walk for ten minutes and then come back in. That's how I started many years ago. Then gradually I increased that. You know, the next week, I increased it by five minutes, and then two weeks after that, I increased it another ten minutes. Until now I don't even set a time anymore. I just put my little app on there that says I'm going for an outdoor walk, and I'll tell you, folks, I'm up to, you know, between two and a half to four five miles a day walking, and it's a great thing. It clears your head. But I didn't just get up one day, throw on my walking shoes and said, okay, I'm walking five miles today again, small little steps. The goal isn't intensity, it's identity. Small actions prove your brain that hey, you are someone who shows up. Just little increments. The second thing, celebrate the invisible wins. Yeah, bravery isn't just taking action. Sometimes it's restrict ain't it's choosing not to respond in anger. That's something I've worked on for years and I still work on. I maintain it because sometimes I can jump the gun a little bit, you know, I can feel that intensity building up because I'm a creative, intensive person. But it's something I've been working on for the last decade and it takes work. It's choosing to go to bed on time, not staying up all our hours of the night scrolling on your phone or your iPad or the laptop or binge watching, you know, fourteen seasons of something. I mean, that's okay once in a while, but try to have a decent bedtime and get proper rest. It'll go a long way for your health. Trust me, It's benefited mind in so many ways. It's closing your laptop when work is done. Setting those boundaries. You do not no matter what your job. Unless you're a doctor or you know, a leader of a country, you don't have to be on call twenty four to seven folks for your job. Set some boundaries for your peace of mind and your own mental and physical well being, and make sure you honor those unseen victories because you want to. It's very important to do that. Hey was waste lots of listeners. Are you looking for a simple way to level up your focus and energy? Well, you know, on this podcast, I talk a lot about health and vitality. That's why I'm excited to share some information about empower Plus. It's a functional super food green powder from in Dear Life. It features powerful ingredients like lions main for cognition and broccoli microgreens for anti inflammatory support, and it's all in one scoop. Want to try it out? Well, right now, you can get fifteen percent off your entire order. That's right, fifteen percent off your whole order at a Dearer Life. Just visit a dear life dot com. That's E D E r R A l y fe dot com. Use my special code Weiss Save. That's w yce e s a ve e. At the checkout that's Weiss save for fifteen percent off at a Dearer life dot com. Fuel your thoughts and save today. He refused to just say no. Then they handed him a microphone. You're listening to thoughts at your own risk. Hey, everybody, welcome back, Welcome back to White's thoughts on Terry Weiss. I'm so glad you joined us today for this episode of the podcast, we're talking about quiet courage, the unsung bravery of small steps and how can change your life. I tell you, I'm just in a real, real good mood today. Before the break, we were talking about some things you can do to practice quiet courage in our daily lives. And the first thing we were talking about was lowering the bar to consistency. We were talking about that, which is very important. The goal is an intensity, it's identity, you know, small little actions to prove to your brain that hey, you're someone who shows up right. The second thing we were talking about is celebrating the invisible winds. Okay, those little winds. It can be taking action or restraint, you know, honor. You want to honor your unseen victories. We talked about like for myself, just to give you some examples. You know, I'm I could get angry real quick when I was younger, and I've been working on that and I still work on it and keep myself in check because sometimes you know, you stop your toe or you know, oh my gosh, I gotta wait five minutes at the light for it to change. You know, just zen man is being zen. And the other thing we talked about is you know that. I took an example from my personal life, is my walking routine. It is just opened up a whole world of It helps my thought process, it helps my overall health, It relaxes me, it helps me to focus, and Doug got it. It's good for you. So let's talk about the third thing, all right, about practicing quiet courage in our daily lives, and that's to trust the compound effect of embers. Now, what I mean by this is a single ember doesn't look like much, right, you know, you see a number in a little campfire. Eh, But stack together embers produce steady, long lasting heat that survives the cold night. Your tiny daily habits, Okay, here's why we transfer this over. Your tiny daily habits are building a fire that will sustain you for years. Right, yeah, I mean think about it. The little things you do will add up. You know. Again, I talk a lot about physical fitness and things like that on the program, and a lot of you seem to appreciate that, because, let's face it, who doesn't want to be healthier. I've never encountered someone who said, oh no, I don't want to be healthier. I'd rather just you know, feel like garbage. All the time. I've never in my life encountered anyone like that. We all have that aspiration, you know, it's just some of us lack motivation, or some of us feel that adds too much work. You know, it'll take me too long to get into shape. I've always been twenty five fifty one hundred pounds overweight. Eh, it is what it is. Well again, that's why we're talking about today on the White Thoughts podcast, the unsung bravery of small steps, quiet courage. I mean, you know, if you want to announce the Lord, hey I'm gonna lose fifty pounds or I'm gonna lose twenty pounds or whatever. Great, that's fine, okay. Or you can just choose to keep it to yourself. There's a lot of things that I've changed in my life. I didn't even tell my spouse about. I just chose to keep it to myself and hold myself accountable. Now. I know, you know you're out there saying, all right, Terry, that yeah, that's great, that's all well and good bud. But sometimes you need that accountability coach, that accountability person, and hey, if that's you, by all means, do it. You know you do you as they say, I get it. I understand because that can happen. Some people need that little extra push, you know, kick in the rear end as they say, or you know, hand on their shoulder for support. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with asking for help, nothing at all. But again, you may feel that there's some things that you want to keep to yourself. You know, you may want to save more money. Maybe you're a compulsive spender, okay, and you might want to save your save. Say you know what, I gotta get off Amazon. I gotta stop going to Amazon. I love Amazon. Don't get me wrong, Amazon, Jeff Bezos Okay, don't get me wrong. I love Amazon. It's great. Think about Think about this for a moment. Amazon started as a book company. Now when you say Amazon, do you think of books? Per se? Maybe kindle books, but do you really think of books when somebody says Amazon? What do you think of? The first thing you think of when someone says, oh, I got to get something off Amazon. What I'm telling you, I'll tell you the phrase that pops into my head. One stop shopping. I mean you can get food now they're doing your prescriptions. If you if you take prescriptions. They've got clothes, I mean, shoes, electronics, toys, games, home thing, you know, tools for the house. If I haven't mentioned that already, you name it, they got it. It's like the World's Superstore. It is. It's the World's Superstore. It is. I'm telling you it is. And there are some great deals to be had on there. I don't want to make this a plug for Amazon, but if they want to sponsor the program anyhow, But you can go down that rabbit hole of compulsive shopping. I've I've slipped into that that void many a time. My friends and my wife, ayone, what are you doing? You spent three hundred dollars this month, four hundred dollars on Amazon. Insane. Oh sorry, dear, But you're like, oh, that's ten percent of Oh my gosh, it's twenty dollars off. And I'm always of the opinion, and I've said this to my spouse, the best time to get something is when there is an actual good deal. Okay, I'll just give you a for example, we have a side by side refrigerator at the homestead here at Chateau de Weiss, and it takes those water filters because it has ice water. Now, those filters have gotten considerably more expensive over the years. Well one filter can cost you upwards of forty to fifty dollars for one. However, just the other day I saw on Amazon the filters we get were two for forty seven dollars for two of them, and they're good six months once you put them in there. Typically they last about six to seven months. And I'm like, okay, that's like twenty five dollars apiece. It's almost half off. Okay, now we already have two backups under the sink in the kitchen for it. But I'm like, you know, the time to get it is when the time and to get it. But anyway, let me spend a circle back to what I was talking about. You know, if you're a compulsive shopper and then take little steps to say, you know what, I'm going to set a budget for Amazon, I am not going to spend over one hundred dollars this month or what have you. You know, cut your budget in half. Stuff like that. It's celebrating the little invisible wins. You don't have to announce that to the world. You don't have to go out and say, hey, I only spent two hundred and fifty dollars this month on Amazon instead of five hundred. No, or maybe you're looking for a new job. You know, take the best time to look for a job is when you have one, or if you don't have one and you want to start getting back in the workforce, or change your if you're in a job now, I want to change your career, what have you. You don't have to announce it to the world. Sometimes, if you are employed, it's better not to announce it to the world that hey, I'm going to get out of here. But celebrate those small wins with yourself and trust the compound effect of members just doing the small things, even if it's you know, if you decide, like in the example earlier when we started the podcast here when we started this week's episode Voice Thoughts, Let's say you want to write the great American novel, or if you want to learn an instrument, or you know, write a song. You don't have to sit down and do it all in one sitting. Baby steps, as they say, just little steps, and I'll tell you what you will take great satisfaction. I don't know anyone who wouldn't take great satisfaction. I was saying, oh, yeah, okay, I did that. I wrote, you know, half a chapter today in the novel I want to write because of this idea. Or I wrote a first verse of a song. Or I decided I wanted to play the bass guitar, and I you know, I have one and it's been sitting in my closet since God forever. And I picked it up today and I learned how to make sure it's in tune. And I learned a G scale G major scale on It took me a half hour. Whatever, baby steps. Do you think anyone out there that is a virtuoso in music? You know your favorite guitar player, bass player, drummer, keyboardist, singer, whatever, they just didn't you know, pop out and hey, wow, they're They're Jimmy Hendrix, one of the greatest guitar players in the history of music, rock music, years of playing and playing hours upon hours upon hours a day and years. You know, Billy Gibbons, zz top Yingvey Melstein. I believe that's how you pronounce his name. You know, Steve I you know, your your favorite blues guitar players like Stevie ray Vaughan when he was alive, God rest his soul. Things like that, he just didn't pop out. Now watch their biographies, Tom Petty, you know they just didn't. They played and played, and it took years and years. It just it's very, very very and dare I say extremely rare that someone just looks at an instrument, like say, stares at a piano for the first time, and then just starts playing Bach or Beethoven. It's steps, okay, steps. So take this away from the podcast to anyone who feels that their progress is too slow or that their efforts are too small to matter. I have two words for you. Keep going. Remember courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying you know what, good job, and we'll continue doing more tomorrow. Thanks so much for pulling up a seat with me around our virtual campfire today on White's Thoughts. If this message brought you comfort, hope, encouragement, pass it along to a friend who is fighting a quiet battle today. Until next time, My friends, the value of small steps, Value them, celebrate them, stay patient, and keep your fire burning bright. Hey, thanks for listening to the program today. I truly appreciate each and every one of you out there, and remember to see a change in the world, you have to be the change in the world you want to see. It all starts with you, the person looking back at you in the mirror every morning. Remember to be kind to yourself, be kind to others. If you want to tweet at me on Twitter, it's at Terry Weiss. Stop by the website Wis's Thoughts dot com just to make sure you spell my name right. Wysee Wiss Thoughts dot com, and hey, leave us a positive rating and review on your favorite podcast provider. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your pets about White's Thoughts, and I look forward to gathering yet again around the virtual campfire with you real soon. Take care