Are you living the life you desire? In this episode, Jimmy shares strategies he utilizes to capture the seasons of life and helps him to recall the most important activities and moments in life.
Episode Keys:
- The power behind storytelling and why you must become a talented communicator.
- Why you should document your moments in life and what it will mean to your legacy.
- How to appropriately document entries in your journal to assist in the recall of time and location of the entry.
- When you should be looking around and soaking up all that is happening around you to experience a complete moment in life.
- How Jimmy utilizes his travel time in an efficient manner to record his journal entries and grow his mind.
Podcast Transcript
Good morning to everyone at Live a Life By Design. The last couple of weeks has been a whirlwind of activity for our family and our company, and I’ve gotta tell you, I’ve got some stories today I’m going to share with you. And I’m also gonna visit with you today and share a few things I find that happens to me during what These Dog Days of Summer will be. And I’m here flying solo today. My wonderful co-host with the most Lori Few is out on some much needed vacation time. And so hey, it’s just you and I today and I’m hoping that you are enjoying a wonderful summer vacation yourself somewhere. Take us along with you if you just want to have something to listen to that’s of a positive and powerful nature, put on that radio, plug in that phone, or Bluetooth it in and listen to an episode of Live a Life By Design.
I’m Jimmy Williams, and I will tell you this first story I’m gonna share is, as we always say, the absolute truth. And one of the things that I do is as I travel, I journal. Of course, as many of you know, I journal about everything in life. I, I like to study philosophy. I study religion, I study business, I study biographical information. I study destinations. I just enjoy documenting the phases of life in which I find myself. You know, I don’t wanna forget those memories and I don’t wanna forget who was there or what it looked like, or how the food tasted, or what did the golf course look like? How did it feel to be on the boat out in the ocean? If I’m out doing a cruise or on some kind of excursion, these are things I write about. And I use a tremendous amount of adjectives and adverbs to describe where I’m at so that I can get my senses engaged into how I recall that memory.
And of course, you know, people do videos, you take pictures on your phones, I get all that. But I like to do something in addition to those items. And that is write in the journal. I put the date of where I’m at, the time that I’m entering the entry and the location of where I am. And it just helps me recall those wonderful, wonderful times. And to be frank, sometimes I write about things that aren’t so wonderful that may have happened in life because you see, life is not always about the easy and the wonderful and the colorful and the blessings of life may not be flowing in all seasons of life. But all seasons of life contribute to make you who you are. And those experiences help you become a better person for the future. So this first story, we ended up in Colorado Springs, Colorado for some business meetings at a very wonderful location.
And I would just say to you that the golf course was exquisite. It looked as if they had trimmed the greens with a pair of hand shears, and everything was so plush and rich and it just opulent it to the nth degree. We also enjoyed, they have a lake next to this resort. We enjoyed the lake. The food was savory cooked perfectly. Now you’re gonna laugh. I’m a big fan of seafood. Some of you may not like seafood, lobster, crab, meat, shrimp oysters. I love it all. And I will tell you, I get some of the freshest seafood on inland states. Now, how does that compute? I have no idea other than they fly it in on a frequent basis. So we ordered a meal. It was pretty funny. We ordered a meal at one of their nicest restaurants for my wife and I, and we sat down and we’re admiring the, the motif.
It’s a French based restaurant. So it was themed, I should say. It was a restaurant that had this theme that if you were in Paris, you could envision yourself sitting out on one of the cafes having a cup of espresso or coffee and, and maybe just enjoying that nice cool weather if it were in a spring or fall as the people of Paris rusted about you. And I’m sitting there and the first conversation my wife and I strike up is the time we took our children to Paris. And I’ll never forget, the trip to Paris was so wonderful in terms of the sites we were seeing, the experiences of the food, the people there. I will tell you, those people in France get a bad rap of not being kind. We did not experience any of that on our entire time over there.
And my wife and I were visiting as we’re sitting in this restaurant in Colorado Springs about the Paris trip and how they had tried to emulate the experience you would have in Paris on the murals, the menu items, the decorations on the tables. The waitstaff was even dressed in really formal attire, for example, bow ties, calmer buns, vest the whole bit. And we just had the best time reminiscing about what had happened in a previous time of our life. And then I recall the weight staff come out and I practiced what little bit of French that I spoke, which is not much our, our older daughter’s very fluent in it, can speak a lot of French. And the wait staff looked at me, and his name was Michael. He looked at me and he said we may be a French based restaurant, but we don’t speak French.
So I just pointed and said, well, can may I have this? And here’s how I would like it cooked, and here’s the side dishes I would like with if you bring it out to the table. So my point I’m making is what may often be to you perceived to be something authentic. It may in fact not be so. And don’t we find sometimes people are that way. Now, I’m not getting on a soapbox here, and I don’t want you to take this as a negative. I’m just simply saying that all of your inner thoughts do not need to be communicated to people because they may or may not understand the context of which you have those thoughts. And I’m certain that they won’t keep them in the confidence you may need. And that’s why I’m suggesting today that you journal and write things by journals no one has seen, even my wife of 35 years has not seen my journals.
Why you need to get this outta your head though, is important. Let me give you my top three reasons. First of all, something on your mind takes up valuable energy and space in your brain that you cannot be doing other things that may be of greater value to you. So I call it a brain dump. You know, some people call it a mind sweep. Whatever the term is you wish to use, you’ve got to get those things outta your mind, put them down on paper or collect them in a system. As I use Evernote for example. The getting things done type approach that you’ve got to get these things off your mind so your mind can be clutter free and you can then be more creative, more thoughtful, more in depth in your thinking, as I like to say, you better do some thinking about your thinking.
Well, you gotta get this stuff outta your head, right? And the second thing that’s powerful about this and is, is basically your innermost thoughts are sometimes so personal that others may not understand how personal and by talking with someone else may violate your trust in a way that’s so hurtful that may not be repaired. Highly recommend that you know the people you’re talking with and, and share only those things that are necessary for the communication to have each person understand the other’s thoughts, but do not give your inner most thoughts. They do not have to be voiced. And the third thing I love about this process is, is to clear your mind of all of this information allowed me on this trip to come up with three or four, I believe it was finally great ideas for our team to implement to help serve our clients even better at Compass Capital Management.
It is those times when you’re on airplanes and you’re gonna laugh. But when I’m on an airplane, this is why I recommend you fly first class. When you fly first class, you get enough room and it’s quiet and it’s comfortable, and you can slip on those Bose Noise Reduction headphones and you can sit there in almost privacy to the degree your mate sitting by you, your friend, to whomever or someone you may not know, but you’ve got your own little space there to create, iterate. Think about those things that are most important that you’d like to get down on paper, put in your system for recall later or simply do some brainstorming. And so I use that time very productively. Now I know a lot of people like to watch the movies, listen to music, whatever. I’m the kind of guy that I take advantage of this phone Free zone. Now let me tell you what I love about Phone Free Zone. So many of us are worried about fomo or have the disease of FOMO.
I’ll be frank with you, I really don’t, and I don’t know why I don’t. I just simply don’t, I don’t feel as if I’m missing out on anything in life that’s of great importance to me. And you see where I’m going there. So those that have fomo, and I’m sorry if that happens to most of you or any of you, but that just means basically there’s something lacking in your own self-esteem that you cannot rely on your own thoughts and being and know where you are at that stage of the moment that you fear you’re missing out on something your friends may be posting on social media or whatever, but I love to sit down, write out my thoughts, create some ideas, have some brainstorming with myself to come back to my team and share those with ’em. And most of the time, not all the time, but most of the time, they are very, very shall we say, complimentary to those ideas.
They do have the right of poo poo. Let me explain what that is. In our company. Sounds like a French word. You have the right to poo poo, and I did during the team meeting if in fact you have a better idea to replace it with. Now you cannot just simply exert the right of poo poo and not have a better idea. That does not work because it’s easy to say no. It is much more challenging to say, well no, and here’s the reason why, because I have a better idea. So those are my reasons for that. Now, I wanna share with you though a couple of thoughts about summer as we close out this episode. One of the greatest things you can do now at this juncture in the year. So you had January through June, and here we are at this time, about to close out June 2023.
This week is it six months has lapsed and here you are now you set those big, hairy, audacious goals. I’m hoping you did, and you wrote them down and you had them back in January one and you felt so invigorated, so inspired, and you just knew you were gonna knock the ball out of the park. If I may use a baseball analogy, but I’m gonna bet that many of you feel a little bit of failure, but you did not fail in reaching the goal. In the time you set, you may have been focused on other matters of life. You see, life is not linear, at least mine’s not. In terms of the challenges I face on a daily or weekly basis. I sometimes have a big three set for the week and I only get one of them done. But it was the big one that moved the needle.
Does that mean I failed on the other two? No. It simply means that I remind myself the next week that now that number two and number three, become my number one and two on my big three, unless something else has arisen that’s caught my attention, that’s more important. But where I’m going is I want you to look at where are you now in 2023, you still have another six months to accomplish great things in your life to make progress on your growth in all areas of life. This has no means of you being at halftime saying the game’s over the game is in fact never over at halftime. If you’ll notice they put another two quarters on the basketball goal or the football football score board, they have two more quarters on there. You are simply at halftime. Now, I will admit to you that there are some years, particularly during the last few, where I may have gotten to the halfway mark and realized, Hmm, I’m not at the halfway mark on all of my goals.
So I may have to pick up one or two of my goals not completed by the first six months and add ’em to the next quarter and double down and work on them if they are still relevant. And if it’s been important and vital that I have those goals met, I want you to think about what you could do differently in the next 30 days than you did in the previous 30 days as working toward those important goals. I’m not gonna give you the answers because I don’t know what your situation is, and we all face things differently in life at different times. But at my stage in life, I am enjoying a lot of different things than I thought I would. At the area age of nearly 60, I feel like a 25 year old, I do feel wonderful. I’m getting an opportunity to meet some fantastic people.
Just while in Colorado Springs, I met up with someone that has been from Colorado native there gentleman, about 84 years old I believe he said. And he looked like and dressed and acted as if he were one of the old 49ers, for example, the old gold prospectors. And that was a character I’m sure he was playing. But at the end of the day, I thought he did a wonderful job of explaining how they go in and pan for gold. And the excitement of finding just a small nugget or something would send the entire town into a frenzy that the gold has been found. And these are just fantastic times. If in fact you turn off the phone, take your head up and look outward on the horizon, or even better yet, look up and take a good look at what’s around you so you don’t get tunnel vision on what you’re seeing in front of you.
I like to go to a perfect place of rest when I am away from my home, my away from my office. And even if I’m working, I try to find some space where I can literally rest all of my being physically, spiritually, mentally. Just rest. And when you do that, you’ll find that your mind becomes to almost a state of creativity and you’re seeing things now in your mind’s eye that you never saw before. And what does that do for you? That is the beginning, the embryonic seed, if you will, to help you get that next new idea that could transform your life, turn your family’s dreams in, into reality, build your company to a bigger, more resilient state of finance. One of the great things I love about my life is I try to always look for at least three things that are great in that day.
I call it my gratitude journal for the day in my journal. I write three things at the end of each day that I’m thankful for, and they may not be things that you’re thankful for. That’s okay. We’re all individuals, we’re different. But I will say this, the gratitude you find can only create more positivity in your life. There are people that don’t realize how wonderfully they have it in life because they don’t give thanks for the good things they have. So this week, as you go into another new week, as we start off finishing this last week of June, my goal and challenge for you is to look at where you’ve come from January one to today, and find a way to make some progress on those goals that were most important to you in January if they’re still relevant, and move forward in a very productive manner so you can have that bigger, better, and bolder life.
You deserve it. You deserve to live a life full of happiness in all aspects. It is also incredibly important that you share this happiness with those you love around you. I know that sounds a little mushy, as the ladies would say, but my point is I enjoy sharing those times of my life that have been most enjoyable with my family, with my friends, and they in turn are hopefully blessed by that as well. It’s not in a braggadocio manner, it is just simply thanking them for being a part of my life during this stage of where I find myself. And that’s just it. Each of us are on a stage, and it’s called the stage of life. You have a part to play and you must show up for the performance every day your best self. You should have your lines studied. You should have your, if you will, costume or dress in perfect look.
You must have your speech non profane. You just have great vocabulary. Grow your words, grow your ability to use great sentences and grow your ability to tell stories. These stories are the foundation for what you will establish as new friendships. And people will look at you and go, I can’t tell you why, but man, I had the greatest experience with that person because of the stories he shares. So this week, do look and see where you are on that wonderful 2023 outstanding goal list that you set in January. If they were important, then most likely they’re important now, and I mean this, when I say this to you, I only ask if you can be anything in life. Be kind.
