Do you ever feel life is simply consecutive days on a hamster wheel with no satisfaction and no excitement? In this episode Jimmy and Lori share their favorite strategies to gain the most of each day and live a fulfilled life.
Episode Keys:
- Lori’s focus on times of failure to gain a positive perspective on the circumstances and outcomes of the task.
- Why it is critical that you maintain perspective in your day focusing on the important tasks that give you the most joy.
- How to gain more value from the day instead of merely getting through the day.
- When to evaluate your progress during the day and week keep traction in your life and focus on your priorities.
- Why you must train your attitude and mindset for challenging days and how you do so is critical to your success.
Podcast Transcript
JW:
Good morning, all of our friends on Live a Life By Design, man, another beautiful Monday. The world is looking just fantastic out my window. But I’ll tell you what’s even more fantastic is I get to share a few minutes this morning with one of the, my most favorite people, her name Lori Few. Good morning, Lori Few!
LF:
Good morning! And thank you for having me again and again and again and again.
JW:
I’ll tell you what, Lori’s the real to be honest with you, real star of this show folks, but I’m here to be her support staff. So I can tell you I do my best work supporting that lady’s ambitions on Live a Life By Design. So, hey, so how was your week so far? You’re off to a good start.
LF:
Off to a good start. You know it’s early though, so like, let’s, we’re gonna have good predictions for the rest of it. We’re, we’re just gonna make sure that we’re checking all the good boxes.
JW:
Let me tell you what, we’re gonna check some boxes today because you and I are gonna talk about something that I know we hold most dear, and that is living a fulfilled life Now, you know, people go, Hey, you gotta have Rich’s galore to live a fulfilled life. And they look at all these people out in California that are movie stars or whatever and and.com, you know, multimillionaires. And they think they have to have that in their life to live a fulfilled life. But Lori, I’m gonna share something with people today, and I know you will too, that you can do this on any ones budget. It doesn’t have to be multimillionaires.
LF:
So true. So true. We’re gonna give you the financially fiscally responsible on a budget version.
JW:
With a little splurging. You can splurge as well. All the coffee you want, right? Is that true?
LF:
Yes. Yes.
JW:
Well, you know, this last week, lemme tell you a couple things that happened this last week before we get started. You’re gonna laugh so you never know what’s gonna happen. Real life. I went to a local store and I won’t say the name, large large store, and I went in the evening, I’m talking like, this is like 8:00 PM right? And I just had to run in and grab one thing and I think I must have done something wrong. My wife makes me go to these stores, which I don’t like to go to if I’ve done something wrong, apparently. But she won’t tell me what I did wrong. She goes, you need to go to this store and you need this stuff. And I said you sure I have to go now? I mean, it’s eight o’clock. She goes, yes, you have to go.
JW:
Now this store stays open all all the time. So I go in this store and I tell you, this is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. And I’m a people watcher and I do not want you to think I’m making fun of these people. It just caught me off guard as to the location, the time of day, and the dress code. So, I go into this place and I swear to you that someone had their undergarments on the outside of a pair of sweatpants. And this, this young lady was making a statement, cuz on the sweatpants, you could tell there was some writing, like, you know some of the brands put their, their logo on the bottom of sweatpants. And all I could make out was a little partial part of the two layers. Now you’re gonna say, well, wait a minute. What were you doing? Looking, I’m gonna turn Uhhuh. I first walked in the door, Lori, you couldn’t have missed it. She was right there. And I came back and I told my wife, I said, I was so tempted to take a photo, but I just knew my phone would click or something and I’d really be in trouble. But this young person said to the world, I will be me. And I don’t care what you think.
LF:
Well, that’s absolutely true, and with younger generations, what I find is that they absolutely 100% live in that truth and they don’t care. Obviously I was raised that you did never wear your undergarments outside of your clothing or showed of any of them, but yeah, yeah. More, more power to that person because I don’t know that I could do it.
JW:
You’re a more astute and, and, and very refined young lady. So let me ask you, is this where we’re going to, I need to start wearing the old tidy whities on the outside of the pants when I go somewhere?
LF:
No, no, Jimmy. Do not.
LF:
Ladies and gentlemen, you hear, you heard it here first, I told Jimmy not to do that. Do not wear the whitey shot is on the outside. I, I agree that we wanna keep on trend. I do. However, there are probably things that now that we are in a certain age category, we are not allowed to, it’s not socially acceptable for us to do those things. So we’re gonna have to express ourselves in a different way.
JW:
You are just exactly right. My little niece would say, there are certain things that are just wrong and that is just wrong.
LF:
That’s just wrong.
LF:
Absolutely.
JW:
So let’s talk about this fulfilled life, unlike what the young lady wore at the Walmart. But I did, don’t know why that came up, but to me, that made my journal cuz I wrote it like you in like a page and a half about, I can’t believe what I saw today at a local Yeah. Store. But, so let’s talk, let’s talk a little bit. I know we’ve got people listening this year that have set you’ll be hags starting in January. They’ve got all of these wonderful things that they’re thinking and wanting to accomplish and how they’re building their lives to be better than they were the previous year. But let’s talk today, Lori, about living a full fulfilled life. So what, to you as a person, does a full fulfilled life mean?
LF:
You know, I, it’s hard such a, a tough subject this early on a Monday morning, but to, to me, I mean, obviously we talk just about every episode about goals and to me, a fulfilled life is always moving in that next direction of creating the what’s next for our lives, for ourselves, for our families, for our businesses, for our opportunities and organizations. So, you know, we talk a lot about without dreams and goals, there’s, there’s no living, there’s only just existing. So for me, living a fulfilled life is keeping to create those goals and moving that, you know, needle in the right direction.
JW:
No, I like what you said that, so really in life, no mention of was, hey, status quo is no way to grow. We, we wanna move forward, right? But at the end of the day, some people just don’t have that function within them to, to do so, so what, what keeps you moving with goals? How do you keep moving forward?
LF:
Oh, I mean now I’m, I’m gonna be completely 110% honest. I mean, there are lots of times where I get stuck in a goal or stuck in a rut. And I may spend a month or so or three months spending my wheels until I finally decide to get fired up about something. And usually it’s when I share a goal with someone and they tell me something like, oh, are you sure? Do you really, maybe you might wanna scale that back a little bit and that will ignite me on fire. I don’t tell me no, don’t tell me I can’t do it. Because then that just reminds me, mm, okay, I’ll show you. I can do it. I can do it.
JW:
So we’re gonna come full circle. Lori, you just told me I couldn’t wear the old tidy whites on the outside. Now you’re saying, you say no. Are you giving me some kinda hidden message here?
LF:
No, listen, everything except that.
JW:
Okay.
LF:
That’s the hidden message. There is no hidden message.
JW:
It’s all out in the open. You’re not trying to give me a subliminal message. Okay.
LF:
No, no, no.
JW:
No. So, so what you’re really saying is, if you got goals in life that gives you a reason to rise in the morning, a reason to take off and enjoy the day, or as I say, take from the day, what can you gain from the day? So, you know, one of my philosophies in life is my philosophy of life. Did you catch that?
LF:
Ooh, I did.
JW:
My philosophy of life is this, that we as being with the capability to learn and adapt, which I will go on record, I do not adapt as quickly as some and probably better than others. But, you know, in life we’ve talked about how how do we grow as humans? You know, we grow by learning, right? And some people just don’t desire to learn more than what they know now. And I think that’s a shame because all of us have that capability to learn some more than others, some quicker than others. But we all have the capability to learn. And to me, a fulfilled life is that philosophy of life that I am learning more each day, but I’ve got the attitude of gratitude is my philosophy.
LF:
Yep, always.
JW:
You, have you ever ran across a person that when that little person walked into a room, they could light up the room only when they left?
LF:
Oh, yeah. You know, what’s that? There’s a Saturday Night Live character and I can’t remember exactly, you know, I, I have been a, a watcher of that show quite some time. I love comedy and I love sketch comedy that’s completely live and random and you never know if it’s gonna, you know, be a failure or a flop or if it’s gonna really, you know, tickle the funny bone. But there was a lady on the character, and I think her character’s name was Debbie Downer.
JW:
Yes, she was.
LF:
When you, when you talk about can light up a room when they leave, that makes me think of Debbie Downer immediately. Yeah, we all know, and we’ve all witnessed and had those types of people in our circle at one point or another. We try to keep those to a minimum. And, and really how you react to that type of attitude and, and energy. Sometimes it’s hard.
JW:
I’ll tell you, part of my philosophy is every day I live it with positivity. Now, I know that’s not a shock to you, Lori, or anyone that’s listening on the 58 countries, although we have this podcast. I will tell you though, my optimism is so deep. Let me tell you how optimistic I am. I’ve got one for you. I hope you got your you got your helmet on. You ready to hang on?
LF:
I’m ready.
JW:
I am so optimistic. I would go after Moby Dick in a rowboat and I’d take the tartar sauce with me. I tell you, that’s how strong I believe that I can do anything in life. I really do.
LF:
Tartar sauce or cocktail sauce?
JW:
No. I do the tartar sauce.
LF:
Okay.
JW:
I like the tartar sauce. Now, if I’m doing shrimp, I like the cocktail sauce.
LF:
Ok. Alright. It’s all about preference.
JW:
So what’s your underlying emotional thought to a philosophy of life? Would it be one of your words you think would help our audience maybe find themselves in better standing?
LF:
Oh, you know, I shouldn’t tell this on myself. A friend of mine not too long ago gave me a sticker that said, apparently I’m overdramatic, or I’m, yeah, apparently I’m over overly dramatic, let’s just put it that way. And so I stuck a sticker in my bag. I didn’t pay much attention to it, I thought at the time, oh, that’s funny. Hahaha that’s cute. I’ll put it down. And later a month or so later, I was digging around in my bag looking for something and I pulled it out and I looked at it again and I thought, huh, I wonder if that’s how people really perceived me. I like to think of myself as if I had a word. I mean, I’d like to think of myself as passionate. I am 110% when I am passionate about something lookout, because I will do everything in my power to learn everything I need to know to the greatest extent of, of my being.
LF:
If it’s something that I’m truly passionate about. And I think that we can all tend to be a little overdramatic or be perceived that way. And it’s not that. It’s, it’s passion. I, so I took that sticker and I thought, you know, I’m gonna use this. And so I, I stuck it up where I could see it, and it’s on something that I carry with me every day, which is my laptop. And over the last year, I don’t know why, but I guess people have figured out my personality. And so now I’ve been gifted all these different stickers, which are now carrying along on my laptop for with me, and they’re conversation pieces. But I always go back to that first one and think I’m not overly dramatic. I’m passionate. And why not explain to other people why you’re passionate about something? I mean, I think that’s the most fulfilling thing you can do in your life, is to share your passions with people.
JW:
You said that you were a, a sticker that said you were overly dramatic. I’ve handed dramatic. I’ve handed out stickers to people that I thought were overly traumatic causing problems. I’ve, I’ve never handed a sticker have to said that. You know, I I will say this is that you are one lady that I do know definitely is not dramatic. But anyway…
LF:
I have, I have other stickers too.
JW:
Oh, you do? Oh, what?
LF:
No, my, my most recent sticker was gifted to me by what a fellow person in my office. I actually was gone for a while and I came back to work and it was laying on my desk and I didn’t know who gave it to me. It was just laying on my desk and it’s a sticker of a coffee cup. And the coffee cup says, coffee is the boss of me.
JW:
That’s now that one I buy for you. I did buy that. Addictions have their foundings, and that founding is to use the coffee grounds, right, the coffee beans.
LF:
And now it’s front and center amongst all my stickers.
JW:
That’s pretty funny. That is funny. Well, so, you know, we’ve talked about goals being a big one as a philosophy of life and to live a fulfilled life. We think philosophy and having that optimistic outlook is another means. What’s another one of yours you might use as a characteristic of fulfilling your life?
LF:
Oh, probably failure. And I know that’s negative. That, I mean, the, there’s so much power in the word failure, and I don’t, don’t think people really take it for, for truly what it means. Failure to me is, and it, it’s a truth. It’s a journey, it’s an experience. It’s a reminder that just because you tried something and you failed doesn’t mean that you can’t try again and again and again and again. I mean, think about all the great innovators of, of the world that gave us so many of, of, I mean electricity the telephone, the computer, all those people that failed over and over and over, but yet wound up with such impactful devices and life saving. You know, think about doctors in medicine and all the things that you fail a thousand times it’s been on that 1001 time, there’s a success there.
LF:
So I, I, I think failure is probably, I mean, look at all the fulfillment that those people have had. I mean, Steve Jobs for one. I mean, what, what a testament. Alexander Graham Bell Benjamin Franklin, I mean all these people who probably were just living a normal life with a thought in their mind to, to try something different and to keep trying every time they failed. I think that that’s so important. And you know, that the people that really, to me, accept failure in a different light, again, this is showing our age for the generation, but young people, they look at failure. That sounds failure. I tried. It’s, it’s fascinating to watch and to see how they, you know, digest a failure or an attempt to, you know, do something to better themselves. It’s, it’s fascinating to me. I love it. And so I, that’s why I would say the word failure. I know it sounds negative, but it, it’s really not. When you really dissect it and deep, you know, dive down deep to the root of it.
JW:
You know, I think that’s an optimistic term. And you’re gonna laugh though. You’re gonna say, well, how’s failure optimistic? Well, I think it is because I, one of my mantras is, is I fail often and early. And what I’m saying by that is, is I don’t really fail so much as what I learned from the actions that I took that didn’t work as planned. So, for example, the man that’s worked for a company called 3m and he developed this little sticker, this adhesive, and they all said to him, nobody’s gonna wanna buy something that won’t stay stuck to why you bought, you know, you put it there. And so they just said, no, no thanks. And they didn’t want to go out and produce this product at 3M or the previous company’s with, I’m sorry. Cuz 3M is the one that produces it now. Well anyway, guess what? We have the post-it note today that we use. How many people, I mean all these different sizes from giant boards love it all the way down to little bitty stickers you put in your your, your books or whatever. And at the end of the day you think, well, they thought that was a failure cuz it wouldn’t stay put. But the original intent may not been what they met, but look at the alternatives that came out of it. Wow. I use these things all the time.
LF:
All the time. They’re, I mean, they are like paperclips. They multiply. You find them everywhere.
JW:
And you can get through security at the airport with these, I mean, you don’t have paper clip problems. You can’t do that, right? So that’s correct. You know, one thing I want you to think about, and Lori made a good point here, is that failing though is not really a negative per se. Everybody perceives it that way. But at the end of the day, it’s a motivating factor. And that’s my last of the fulfilling life factors for me. I love motivation. I call motivation my force for change. Because until you’re motivated to do something, you don’t really give your best effort. So a couple of case and points, I did something once that’s really not very bright for my age group. So I was challenged by a couple of 20 year olds. I’ve told you this in the past about our workouts and stuff. And I decided that I would do something that these 20 year olds could do and I bet I could do it better, you know, cause I’m older, stronger probably, and all that stuff. That’s what your brain’s telling you.
LF:
That’s what your brain’s telling you.
JW:
Your body’s going, oh no, man, don’t, no, don’t do that. So anyway, one of the things I did was this, this race and, and basically it’s a race where you have to run a mile, you come back to a hundred pushups, a hundred sit-ups, you do a hundred air squats, and then you run another mile. Now these young men are in better shape. Now I can do the running of the mile, but now here is the issue. Nobody told me there was a time limit. So I was walking, running, walking, running this mile when I was a little heavier on my feet. So anyway, I get back from this mile and I realize these young men have already done their hundred pushups. So I get after it, man, I start after it. So I did 10 pushups, 10 air squats, and you know, 10 sit ups.
JW:
And then I turn around and do another 10. And I did a series of 10 like that, trying to get these things knocked out. Well, what you don’t know is, is you look at it and you go, huh, well this isn’t gonna work. These kids are really ahead of me. And when I say kids are like in their twenties again, late twenties, and my point I’m making this is I didn’t get accomplished what I thought I could do. So that failure taught me something. There was a different way to skin this cat. Instead of trying to compete with these 20 year olds, why didn’t I get something that they could have a tougher time doing? So I came back after they whipped me on that challenge, my pride’s gone. I get in my car and I just think, well, I gotta learn from this. And I did.
JW:
So I took them on in something that they had difficulty doing. And so you’re, you’re gonna laugh. I took ’em on a brain teaser on a vocabulary type test. Now, these 28 year olds had a decent vocabulary for their age, but they didn’t have one as in depth as your old buddy Jimmy. Cuz I studied the word of the day every day. And I use it with a sentence. And I think the, the world accepts you as a more intellectual, the more you can speak and conduct yourself in an appropriate manner in public. And so it’s funny. So the next time I saw these gentlemen, I got a print. I said, Hey, I got a question for you. Give me the definition of these five words. And I just picked some five words that I knew weren’t their vocabulary. And they’re like, oh, they’re stunned.
JW:
I mean, just stunned. And I said, so what you’re telling me is your bodies may be good, but your brains aren’t working. So let me ask you this, I gave them five simple trigonometry type problems. They go, we haven’t done this since high school. I said, well, can you work these? They said, no. I said, all right, your body’s still good. Your brain’s not working. I said, last test, if you don’t get this right, then you have to run five miles while I’m gonna sit here and work out. And I said, are you up for it? And they said, well, sure, sure, we’re up for it. We can do it. I know it’s gotta be something simple. You try this with English. You tried us with math. So guess what? I throwed five history facts on them and told ’em to identify the one person that all five of these had in common.
JW:
They couldn’t do it. Oh, and don’t, don’t laugh. Let me tell you who I picked of that person in history. President Reagan, they should have known they were at the age, they should have known at least who the guy was, right? And they didn’t get it. So they’re out running, they come back and they said, and I’ll never forget this, they said, old man. Oh, that’s what they called me. They were a little bit peeped. We get what you did just there. And I said, well, you guys picked the last challenge. And it was tough when my body, my brain was willing. So I want to pick something that is easy for your body, but your brain wasn’t as easy for, right? And they said it takes both aspects to have a fulfilled life. That’s my point of this story. Don’t just do what is easy, do what is challenging, and then it becomes easy.
LF:
Well, there’s nothing easy about that because when you were saying that you were walking, running, walking, running, the only thing that I could think of my head was Lori would be walking, crying, walking, crying…
JW:
There’s no crying in baseball or in sports, right?
LF:
Listen, yeah, we all know this. We all know the story of when Lori tried to take up jogging during COVID. Like, no, it was, it was not pretty.
JW:
Boy, I thought you did well. You did well. So Lori, these are the things about fulfilling life. Let’s talk about ’em one more time. The goals that we set for ourselves, they need to be something that makes us better tomorrow than we are today. We have to grow in that goal. The second one was our philosophy of life. Are we gonna be a positive and optimistic about it? Are we gonna learn each day? Or are we gonna grow as a person, as we said on our goals, the motivations. But you picked that one. I love, that’s motivating. And you talked about failure. Go ahead and finish this out for this episode.
LF:
Well, which brings me to a point you know, since earlier I was talking about comedy, it, it just reminded me, there’s another show that I really ha have tend to enjoy for, for multiple reasons. But for those of you out there in listening land that Love the Office, this episode reminded me of a quote from one of my favorite characters, Mr. Dwight. And his quote says he, he says it in one of the episodes and he says, I’m ready to face any challenges that might be foolish enough to face me. So this week, go out, be Dwight Shrute, face all your challenges, whether or not they’re foolish enough to face you and have a great positive and fulfilled week.
JW:
And we’ll see you next week here on Live a Life By Design!
