Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, boo boo. Let's go get some pickling biscuits. Hey, boo boo.
[00:00:06] Hey. Hey. Good morning. It's Thursday, and rather than go into some business tirade or some strategic something or other, I'm gonna talk mindset today.
[00:00:20] I'm gonna talk about flow. I'm gonna talk about turning the canoe around and paddling downstream. With the power of the flow of the river, part of this comes. Hey, Pepper, look at this. It's spring. I am in, like, gnome wonderland here. And I just finished my taxes. I just sent them in. I have rather complicated taxes from the US and the Netherlands. And here's my conclusion from 2023, which, if you know me a little bit, was the worst year in many ways. If you don't know me, you might think like, wow, what happened? A lot of stuff happened. A lot of stuff out of my control. Some things in my control, most things out of my control. External factors. Just terrible year, so many ways. And then I live in the Netherlands. It's been gray, it's been dark, it's been wet, it's been gloomy, it's been cold. And California boy here as optimistic and uplifting and positive and silver lining and everything that I am, it got to me.
[00:01:36] And yet, look what happens. It's April, and the world is coming back to life, and so am I. And so can you.
[00:01:51] What if we. I was having a great conversation about the canoe and paddling upstream, and here's a bit, my tax summary for you, and I know you're going to ask how to do this, and the answer is, I hate to say it, but it's both difficult and easy at the same time. Because, you know, the answer is, I've been paddling upstream. Paddling upstream hard paddle hard paddle. Left, right, left, right. Paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle. Go, go, go.
[00:02:22] As much as I can. As hard as I can. As fast as I can. Keep going. Just keep going. Get a new canoe. Get a new oar. Help. Get some help to help you. Paddle upstream. Paddle upstream. Get a. What do they call that person up in the front of the oar? The one who, like, screams, you know, like, left, right, left. I don't even know what they scream. You know, a team leader. I can have a team, I can have a company. I can get a bigger boat. I can get an engine, everything to just paddle upstream and make it go faster and work harder and spend more time and get more energy and find more strategies and learn more tactics and. Are you tired yet? I'm tired just talking about it, and I'm out here in the winter, the wonderful wonderland of spring.
[00:03:05] And I'm just trying to give you a few of my highlights here, like, just gorgeous, isn't it?
[00:03:12] Flow, paddling downstream. So how do you do it back to the canoe? Example? It's extremely easy. We're going upstream. We're paddling, paddling, paddling. Left, right, left, right, left, right. Maybe you have a kayak, maybe you upgraded to a kayak and you have the paddle on the both sides and you just go left, right, left, right, left, right. I often find a canoe not very efficient. Right, left, left. And you go too far to the right, right, right. And you go too far to the left. And you're, you know, you're like a drunken sailor.
[00:03:45] So, kayak, canoe, take your pick.
[00:03:50] And you are going to put that paddle down across the bow of the boat. It might be called the bow. I am totally not a sailor.
[00:04:00] And you are going to, you're going to use the paddle one last time to turn you around and you are going to go with the flow of the energy of the momentum of the river.
[00:04:18] Now, where does the river get its energy? The river got its energy from the ocean. Water that was evaporated into the clouds and the clouds, then rained or snowed in the mountains, and then it froze or trickled down the mountainsides into the river.
[00:04:43] And the river then takes it back out to where the ocean again.
[00:04:48] Are you seeing the circle? So where are we in this equation?
[00:04:53] We are in the river.
[00:04:57] We're just doing the river part. If you want to get fancy and get it with all the evaporation and the mountains and the snow and all that, that's great. I'm just talking about the river. And the reason I mentioned where the river got its, its power is because it's natural.
[00:05:13] It's going to happen anyway.
[00:05:17] And what we're, what we're going to use, the power we're using is gravity, basically, because the water is flowing downward and we are going to use the power of the earth's gravity to sit in our canoe, our kayak, and we're going to steer a bit every once in a while. And maybe there's a fork in the river. What did Yogi Berra say? When there's a fork in the road, take it.
[00:05:46] So when there's a fork in the river, you just adjust your paddle like a, I was going to say udder rudder.
[00:05:57] Like a rudder.
[00:05:58] And you shift your direction a little bit and you now go with the flow of that river and you then put your paddle back horizontally on your kayak or canoe, and you enjoy the scenery and you flow with the power of the river.
[00:06:20] Now, I know what you're thinking. You think, Bradley, this is beautiful and all. Thanks, right, for taking me down the river journey here, my Disney co captain.
[00:06:30] Could we get some cues, some background music, please?
[00:06:33] But how does this apply to my real life?
[00:06:36] Now, I can't see in your actual personal or business life, of course, but I just did my taxes, as I said. And I can tell you this is going to sound so counterintuitive, but if you get this, then you get this.
[00:06:54] And I get it. I understand it, oddly enough. And yet acting on that understanding is the difference. And I struggle with it all the time. Even last year? Especially last year. And here's the thing. The harder I paddle, the more energy I use, the more frustrated I become.
[00:07:16] It's going to sound weird, but actually, the less money I earn. And also, it's not just about the money. The less happiness I have, the meaning, the value.
[00:07:30] Happiness, yeah. And then I turn around and I think, oh, no, no, I need to work hard. I need to work hard. I talked about this with some american friends of mine, and we think part of it has to do with american, like, upbringing of work hard, work hard, work hard. And America's cutthroat, America's shark infested, competitive landscape. And that's good. I mean, it works great for capitalism, especially if you're on top.
[00:07:58] And it's work hard, work hard, work hard. And struggle, struggle, struggle. And I get it. I'm not saying we should not do that.
[00:08:06] But remember, this cycle of nature and gravity and evaporation, it's all going to happen anyway.
[00:08:15] Just as the clock. We can't turn around the clock and we can't turn back time.
[00:08:20] So what if we just went with the river, we flowed with the river, we used the power, we harnessed the energy of the river and we floated down with it.
[00:08:36] I know we're getting. We're not getting practical here. And I see I have a minute left. I'm saying under ten minutes here. What does that mean?
[00:08:45] Do you remember Dublin in February? Mind, heart, gut, airy. And go, this is more.
[00:08:56] This is more. Heart, this is more. Go, this is less.
[00:09:01] Martine. Martine is the mind, the intelligence, the rationale. This is probably more, Harry.
[00:09:10] And love and passion and doing what you want and doing what you love and finding a way that you can flow down that river and use the power of what's in your heart, because your heart is kind of, like, the natural cycle of the seasons, of the gravity and the evaporation. Your heart. If you love something, if you're passionate about something, the energy will just keep coming back.
[00:09:39] That's it.
[00:09:42] Turn the canoe around, put the paddle horizontal, and go with the flow. Harness the flow of the river.
[00:09:49] And that is my plan for 2024.
[00:09:53] See you next week. There's a big possible podcast on grandmother.
[00:09:57] Thanks for watching.
