4122: Stop And Ask Yourself by Greg Audino on Self-Awareness

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[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_01] This is Optimal Living Daily. Stop and Ask Yourself by Greg Audino of GregAudino.com. And I'm your narrator Justin Malik reading you blogs every single day of the year, including holidays. Without further ado, let's get right to it as we optimize your life. Stop and Ask Yourself by Greg Audino of GregAudino.com.

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_01] You might meet a lot of people that unhappily describe themselves as being on autopilot. They feel as though their lives are run by the same routine without much vigor or variation. There's dissatisfaction, boredom, and obligation. Yet in spite of this, time flies even though they're not having fun. Or perhaps this is you. Life is moving right on along, and though you've answered the bell and you're doing all the things you should be doing, so working, paying your bills on time, only cheating on your taxes a little bit,

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_01] there's still the dissatisfaction. There's still a sense of incompletion or time not well spent. And time is important. We all know how important time is. Though we tend to not treat it as such, we're all very much aware that time is our most valuable currency, never to be replenished. That said, our measurements of life and life's worth can't be separated from time. We know we're on a clock of some sort, and if that clock didn't exist, and we had as much time as we wanted to do whatever we want with our lives,

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_01] surely a lot of our pressures and negative commentary about how we're spending our time would cease to exist. With that in mind, it's crucial to understand that the source of many judgments about what we're doing with our lives are relative to time. Maybe not if you're out killing people for a living, that's probably a moral dilemma, but for most of us who live a more ordinary type of lifestyle. So getting to the core of a dissatisfying life usually requires us to ask ourselves what we're doing with our time.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_01] What are we doing with this fleeting opportunity? What are we doing with each present moment, which are the only snippets of life we'll ever truly live in as they vanish to the past in an instant, and the future is anyone's guess? Time is running out. It's an undeniable truth, and although you already know it, hearing it again might give you a twitch of awareness or aliveness that what you're seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching in front of you is all that you really have. So, what now?

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_01] For at least a moment, we're hyper-present and aware of our limited time on this earth dwindling by the millisecond, and here you are listening to this podcast. Well, what can I tell you? How can we get through this thing together? All I can offer you at this moment, and any moment, is the opportunity to ask yourself one question, a question that is sure to optimize your time on this earth. And that question is, am I doing what I want to be doing? Groundbreaking, I know. It might also be rephrased as,

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_01] am I doing something that makes me happy? Or am I enjoying myself right now? Or even, am I doing the best possible thing at this moment? And if the answer is yes, and you've considered the likely consequences, then that's f***ing great. You've got it figured out. Keep on keeping on. There is an extra level, however, because a lot of the time we're not doing what we'd most want to be doing, and unless there's some colony of people out there who spend all day, every day, running naked in a field while eating ice cream, I'm betting that we all have at least small bouts of time

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_01] where we'd rather be doing something else. And why is that? That's because that thing I said before about the aliveness that comes with acknowledging that this moment in front of you is all you'll ever have goes away. For 99.9% of us, it doesn't last. That would be madness if all our brains can keep up with is the present moment like that. We're constantly working around stimuli to sort out the best scenario given what we want for the future and how that can be attained based on the experiences we've had in the past.

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_01] With that in mind, with our current mode of operating in mind, there's a follow-up question you can ask yourself if your answer to the first question of am I doing what I want to be doing was no. Question 1A is, is what I'm doing at least an investment in the future? So is this current action at least purposeful in building something I want down the road? From here, it can get trickier. Thoughts about balancing present happiness with future planning may come into play. Thoughts about efficiency and pursuing future goals

[00:05:23] [SPEAKER_01] given your limited amount of time might come into play. Thoughts about the true value of that future goal may come into play. Questions like that are viable and can and should be addressed separately, perhaps with a coach. But what most people don't realize is the simple act of asking these questions has the power to buy yourself more time. Why is that? Because in giving an honest assessment of how purposeful and dense each of your actions are, you give yourself a clear view of how much time you're wasting

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_01] on the things that are neither fulfilling you or helping to fulfill you in the future. You're given the chance to buy back that time that you'd otherwise be wasting on things that are not serving you in the least. But you have to be honest with yourself. Some people might say that TV is a huge time waster and a great example of something that isn't fulfilling nor is an investment in the future. But TV is something that, you know, purposefully relaxes you. And if you're cognizant of its effects, then you may have good reason in watching it each day. Some people might hate their job

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_01] and it's not what they want to be doing, but the money that comes with it is an investment in the future. That's when questions of efficiency and value that I mentioned before might come into play. Some people may be thrilled and certainly enjoying themselves by telling their boss to f*** off in this moment, but in reality, they like their job. They're riled up for no reason. And while it's fun telling the boss to f*** off, this is not ultimately a good decision down the road. We're humans and have the ability to weigh consequences. We don't have to live in dog brain all the time.

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_01] We can make decisions based on the least amount of regret. So there's variation between situations and people, of course, but being mindful enough to check in and ask yourself, am I doing what I want to be doing? And or is what I'm doing at least an investment in the future is a massive launching point in the awareness of time spent, therefore offering you a clear perspective into what does and doesn't need to take up your very precious time.

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_01] You just listened to the post titled Stop and Ask Yourself by Greg Audino of gregaudino.com And I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_00] Ultra running shoes are all about space. The space to go further, to feel better, to do something you never thought possible. And this space starts with ultra fit. Unlike traditional running shoes, ultra fit gives toes more room to move naturally. So every step is strong, balanced and comfortable. Whatever you're lacing up for, stay out there with ultra. Shop now at ultra running.com. That's A-L-T-R-A running.com.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_01] Back to school starts now. Get long lasting battery life on the Dell XPS laptop powered by Series 3 Intel Core so you can work from anywhere. Now starting at $699 with exclusive student pricing starting at $599. Complete your setup with savings on select monitors and must have electronics and accessories. Limited time deals and free shipping on PCs and more await you at dell.com slash deals.

[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_01] That's dell.com slash deals. Thank you to Greg. For more from him, you can check out Optimal Relationships Daily. He's the host of that show which reads articles to you just like this one. But covering all things relationships. You can find all of our shows by searching for Optimal Living Daily wherever you're hearing this. This article, especially when he was talking about time, reminded me of a chart that went viral years ago

[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_01] showing our life in weeks I think it was. So basically each row was like a year. And there's somewhere around 100 rows. And it's pretty mind-blowing to see, first of all, how many rows we've already gone through if you were to fill them in. But also where other people passed away. Famous deaths like Mozart, for instance, who died at only 35 years old. Pretty crazy. But it's not just that. It's how much time we have left.

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_01] How much of that is spent sleeping, working, and doing other things sort of outside of our control. When it comes down to it, as much as it feels like time can go slowly sometimes, there really isn't as much as we think. If you want to see these charts that I'm talking about, you can Google, wait but why time with parents, or wait but why life calendar. Both are pretty interesting. It could definitely spark some inspiration and motivation for the day. But in either case,

[00:09:53] [SPEAKER_01] hopefully this article helped with that as well. But that should do it for today. Thank you for being here. And I'll catch you tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.