Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.
Once again, welcome back.
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My friends, we are going to talk.
About a quote from one of my, uh, Someone that's influenced me a great deal.
I got to say.
Uh, in this space because I produce a lot of content.
And I don't know if people think maybe.
That I'm some kind of source for this stuff.
And, you know, I think it was a.
I think it was Isaac Newton.
Who said, who said, if I have seen further, it is because I have
stood upon the shoulders of giants.
So, so much of what I get to share with you guys has been through years
of listening and reading some of the great men and women that have
forged a path of growth, personal development, mental toughness,
resilience, stoicism, all the kinds of things that get me up in the morning.
I want to share with you today, a great quote from David Goggins.
I'm a massive fan.
If you're not familiar with David Goggins, he's a former us Navy seal.
Uh, African-American guy, who's just got this incredible history of, you know,
coming from trauma and difficulty and abandonment and just operating at the
very highest levels of his capacity.
Both as in the military and then afterwards as an ultra
marathon runner, author, speaker.
And all around.
Amazing.
Human.
Like, you know, if you know much of your stuff, you've read his books or.
Is it kind of guy that when he dies, there will be not being much left in the tank.
So I want to give you a quote from yesterday that really jumped out
at me because I think what I like about him is, is he walks the talk.
He really does.
He's somebody who lives, the messages that he shares.
So let me give you this quote today.
Let's unpack it together a little bit.
He says this.
Most of us are not defeated in one decisive battle.
We are defeated one tiny insignificant surrender at a time that chips
away at who we should really be.
Most of us are not defeated in one decisive battle.
We are defeated one tiny insignificant surrender at a time.
That chips away at who we really should be.
There's a lot to this.
I want to start at the end, actually, this concept of who we really
should be, this human potentiality.
All of us are born with remarkable human potential.
We are human.
Becomings not human beings as such.
We can always become an actualized more of this remarkable potential for
years, I've been saying to people in conversation and speaking on stage.
You know, a lot of my postgraduate formation was in Aristotelian sort of,
um, I guess, philosophical anthropology.
Right?
So it's kind of how Aristotle and, and classical Greek thought.
Discussed and articulated what it meant to be human.
You know, why would they bother?
Right.
Well, before that time, before the Greeks, really most of human
civilization up to that point,
Was about nothing more than survival.
It was really about nothing more than food and not getting killed
by other people and reproduction.
Right.
So there's basic human things, food survival reproduction.
And it's really in classical Greece that we begin to see the first societies
as such the had enough stability.
And safety that a certain group of people had time to actually think to really think
about the nature of existence itself.
Because before that it was just like, You know, you can imagine the tribe,
but when guys like, Hey, I don't, I don't, I don't want to fight.
I just want to think about the nature of existence and they're like,
sorry, that's not going to happen.
I pick up this spear.
Hurry up.
So Aristotle of course in the Greeks had this first.
There was.
Philosophy before them, but they're really around.
I guess around 500 BC.
A bit earlier.
We get the first philosophical schools and the Greeks had this
idea of what they called eudemonia.
They believed that each of us carried inside of ourselves,
something called a Damon.
Oh, I said, peoples on a demon and Damon and a Damon was kind of like source
code was like software code inside us.
That was kind of like the blueprint of what we could achieve now.
It'd be different for all of us.
Right.
So all of us had different.
Abilities and capacities and goddess credit all this differently,
but this code was kind of like.
That if we fully lived, if we really lived up to our potential, then
that code would be fully actualized and made manifest in the world.
So they began to realize that the way we do that is through our
conscious choices and our actions.
Right.
So the classic of course, for Aristotle was when they asked him.
Be, you know, was the courageous person born courageous or how
did they become courageous?
Because the Greeks were interested in where the people just born
with an innate abilities.
Whether they sort of changed over time and in a strange
way, it's kind of both, right?
Because Aristotle will say, well, the capacity is always there,
but the way that it comes out,
Is by doing particular things by acting in congruence with
those capacities inside us.
So what you get, and that's why I started the end of this quote, where Goggins David
Goggins says it's about, you know, Chip chipping away who we really should be.
So let's start from there.
Let's start from this truth that.
Within you is this remarkable capacity of all that you can be of
all of who you are and it's there.
And then he goes, he starts by saying the most of us are not
defeated in one decisive battle.
That's true.
Right?
Like we all have setbacks.
We all have difficult times.
We all have.
Seasons where things are just hard and bleak and it's like, you
know, This is a really hard time.
But nobody in life tends to be.
It's pretty rare that people are truly utterly, completely crushed.
Bye.
One single event.
You know, I've known people that have been through the most awful
tragic events, the loss of children.
You know, and their life is forever changed.
But, you know, I definitely know people who've been through things as severe
as that and have still found a way.
To come back in life to still find joy, to still have relationships,
to still find meaning.
Now it doesn't mean that their life isn't changed because it is.
But do you see what I mean?
That even with those terrible losses, no one is it's rare that people
are utterly wiped out for life.
So what Goggins is saying here is that what actually happens is that
our defeat in life comes from.
A whole bunch of almost incremental, insignificant surrenders.
And, and then he says these insignificant syringes chip
away at who we really should be.
So, I guess this comes down.
Uh, questions around character and virtue and decision-making right.
That we are actually shaping our futures, shaping our destiny,
shaping our outcomes, not.
It really in one great moment.
But in a whole bunch of smaller ones.
So for better or worse, we're either growing or going backwards
based on these tiny little moments.
I mean, I can remember the first time I did.
A live event with 10,000 people.
Right.
It's really cool.
And it was just a mega event.
But that step moment yeah.
Changed me and it was memorable, but my entire life wasn't
shaped by that one experience.
There's been so many other experiences and daily experiences
that are no doubt shaping me more.
So, what I want you to start thinking about is.
Where are the surrender points in your life at the moment?
Where are the seemingly insignificant surrender points?
That may be really shaping your long-term future and who you could become.
And the obvious examples could be something like how we eat, right?
Like,
It's not one single cookie.
That destroys your health and wellbeing.
It's not.
It's the daily or hourly cookies, right?
It's.
It's the, it's the insignificant surrender.
It's like, I just have this one, one little cookie.
It's a, it's a little surrender, but it's not a big one.
And Jonathan won't even know.
Some of you are probably sitting there.
Driving somewhere eating a cookie right now.
I go, oh gosh, why did he have to bring that up?
But you see what I mean?
It's like, Getting great physical health is about.
Doing these little things, when we don't feel like doing them, not
giving into the surrender points.
I feel that a lot because.
You know, most days at the moment I get up at 4:00 AM.
And I worked for a couple of hours and I trained for a couple of hours and
then I've got school runs and into the office in the studio and working all day.
And there are many invitations to what Goggins would call here.
Insignificant surrenders.
Like the number of times my brain is like, ah, I don't train today
or you don't need to do this.
Or why do you keep doing this?
It's too cold.
It's too hot.
It's too loud.
It's too quiet.
Just, just.
It's this weird thing because our brain is always trying to keep us safe.
It is always trying to keep us safe or what it thinks is safe.
Right.
Always trying to take us backwards.
So.
I want you to get sensitized to these insignificant surrenders.
I want you to get clear that it's never one moment positive or negative
that changes your life per se.
It's the decision points the small ones that are going to shape who you really
could be so as you go through this next day i want you to start looking for them
And i want you to start thinking about your potential I need to keep being
reminded of myself i'm turning 50 this year And as i said in the recent episode
for the first time i'm like man 55.
what is that how did that happen So i'm aware that my time to pursue
my potential is not indefinite it's the first time i love i've
really gone out hang on You're not.
It's not in kansas anymore Dorothy, you know 20.
It's like better straighten up You.
You better get on with what it is you're trying to do here So Let us not waste
time huh let's not waste time Let's be switched onto these decision points
Please make sure you've subscribed It does subscribe button my friends share this
with people go check out those links book me to speak book me for coaching It is
all there my name's jonathan doyle this has been the daily podcast And Cast and
you and i are going to talk again tomorrow