Tune into this inspiring 400th episode to uncover the transformative lessons on patience, consistency, and self-belief that will fuel your journey toward achieving your dreams.
What is the secret of success? Find out as we celebrate the monumental 400th episode of our show and unravel the unparalleled power of consistency and self-belief. Discover how, like the Chinese bamboo tree, our endeavours may lay dormant before exploding into life, and why the most important growth often happens out of sight.
We explore the tantalising notion of an 'invisible progress bar' and how seeing our incremental gains might change our pursuit of dreams. This podcast episode is a clarion call to continue to nurture our dreams, steadfast in the belief that our efforts are building strength beneath the surface, ready to break through when the time is right.
During periods of slow progress, it's important to maintain trust and self-belief. Some things that can help with this are:
* Remembering stories, such as the Chinese bamboo tree, which illustrate the importance of persistence over long periods of time, even when progress isn't visible.
* Seeking reminders or confirmations that you're on the right track, such as messages from people who have inspired you.
* Reflecting on why you started and the importance of your goals will keep you motivated.
* Knowing that perseverance consists of many short-term efforts, not one long marathon, to make the work feel more manageable.
* Consider getting an outside perspective or advice if you're feeling stuck, to get a fresh perspective.
The key is to trust the process and stay consistent with your efforts every day, even if the results aren't immediate. Maintaining self-belief is what sees many people through to eventual success.
Keep growing, keep persevering, keep trusting, keep believing in yourself, and stand out - don't fit in!
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𝗞𝗘𝗬 𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗠𝗣𝗦
02:20 -The Power of Consistent Self-Belief
04:15 - The Metaphor of the Chinese Bamboo Tree and Invisible Progress
10:50 - The Power of Perseverance
14:01 - Lesson of Consistency and Belief
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𝗠𝗘𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗤𝗨𝗢𝗧𝗘
"Perseverance is not one long race; it is many short races, one after another."
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𝗩𝗔𝗟𝗨𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗖𝗘𝗦
Get a free copy of my book "88 Actionable Insights For Life":
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𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗬
Have you ever felt like your hard work isn't paying off fast enough? Discover how the silent, unseen forces of patience and self-belief can transform your journey to success in our milestone 400th episode.
1. Gain a deeper understanding of the critical role that patience and consistency play in achieving long-term success, and how nurturing your dreams, much like the Chinese bamboo tree, can lead to significant growth over time.
2. Receive inspiration and motivation to persevere through challenges and setbacks, with personal anecdotes and external stories that highlight the importance of maintaining self-belief and trust in your path, even when results are not immediately visible.
3. Discover the power of acknowledging and celebrating your progress, no matter how invisible it might seem, and learn to recognize and trust in the signs that you are moving in the right direction towards achieving your goals.
I am Agi Keramidas, a podcaster, knowledge broker, and mentor.
My mission is to inspire you to take action towards a purposeful and fulfilling life.
Get a free copy of my book "88 Actionable Insights For Life":
https://agikeramidas.com/88
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
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Please note that while an effort is made to provide an accurate transcription, errors and omissions may be present. No part of this transcription can be referenced or reproduced without permission.
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0:00
If someone asked you what was the biggest lesson you've learned in the last five years, what would you say? Welcome to personal development mastery Podcast, episode 400. Today I am going to share with you the biggest lesson I have learned from doing 400 episodes of personal development mastery podcast. It is like a deep introspection a personal reflection on this particular lesson. And of course, it is also a celebratory episode. And it is worth so much joy and gratitude that I realised that the podcast has 400 episodes. And so I'm going to give myself the necessary pat on the back. It's a huge milestone, a huge achievement. And as I've told you before, my goal is to get to at least 1000 episodes, so I'm going to keep going. And the reason why I decided to share this with you today on this celebratory milestone episode 400 is the reason why I wanted to share the biggest lesson I've learned from these 400 episodes. It's actually very simple and at the same time very compelling. And the answer is that I was drawn to share these message. And I also think that what I'm about to share is not uncommon that if you are listening right now, you might be able to relate to it personally. My intention in sharing this is twofold, firstly, because it gives me the opportunity to articulate my thoughts on this crucial matter. And secondly, and most importantly, the intention is that this message will be received by those who need to hear it most and serve as a reminder in the journey.
2:15
So you might have guessed what the biggest lesson have learned from 400th episode this about you might have guessed, it has something to do with consistency. And if you did, well done. It's much more than that, though it is having consistency when you are not getting the results or the outcomes that you were hoping for or aiming for or intending for. Have you ever had the feeling that something is just not happening fast enough? That is taking much longer than you thought? Or hoped it would? Show do I? And it's true, it really does. And there is a lot that could be said about perseverance and keeping going even when you feel that the progress is not there, or the result is not there. But the particular angle I would like us to look at this from is what keeps you going. What keeps someone going, even when they don't get the results they want. Or maybe they have rejections, or disappointments or setbacks, but they keep going. So what's behind that? The key word that comes to my mind when I think about what keeps on going or what keeps me going with the consistency. The key words are trust and self belief. Keeping the faith is another phrase I could use but trust and self belief are the two main ones. And I would like to share with you apart from my own experience three stories that describe exactly that.
4:15
The first story is about the Chinese bamboo tree that they have in the forest. The Chinese bamboo tree takes five years to grow. And during that time, they have to water it every day and fertilise the soil. And for the first four years, nothing shows it doesn't even break through the ground until the fifth year. But once it breaks through the ground, it grows 90 feet or 70 metres in five weeks. And the question is, does it grow 90 feet in five weeks, or does it grow in five years? I think the answer is obvious. It takes five years Because in those five years, if the person had stopped watering and fertilising the soil, the bamboo tree would have died in the ground. And the same thing can happen with our dreams, or our projects, if we stop nurturing them before we see the results breaking through the ground. This is a very powerful story, because many of us are used to this instant gratification way of living, and expect results to happen very quickly. But nurturing our dreams or working on something we love, or a project or our business may not bring instant results. And chances are, it won't happen quickly, at least as quickly as we think or hope it will. And when that happens, some people stop.
6:03
And there is an analogy I want to share with you. I'm sure you have seen it somewhere a progress bar, maybe when a page is loading on the internet. So there is a progress bar that fills up from left to right, and shows the number as a percentage of progress. So imagine if we actually had a progress bar? Or if we could see our progress bar, how much difference would that make to you? Would you stick with your dream and not get discouraged? If you knew that, despite the lack of results, you were at 90%, for example, and that a few months ago, you were at 70%, you will know for sure that you were not only progressing, you are getting very close, let's say the last 10%. The problem is that we don't have that with the things we do, we have no way of knowing if we are at 90 or 80 or 10%. At least not accurately anyway. And that is the the trust that I mentioned earlier the self belief because you know, we can only control our effort in something, we cannot control the outcome. The outcome may or may not happen the way we expect it to happen. We're not in control of it. But we can control our effort. And when we put in the effort, and we don't see the result, at least not the kind of result we would expect. That's when doubt comes especially self doubt. And for me personally, one thing that I've noticed is that when I've gone into self doubt mode during the, you know, challenges of the journey. One thing that I've noticed is that I get some nudges, some confirmations in my life or some circumstances or events that happen that reminds me that I am on the right path. And I'm talking about simple things like like getting a message online from someone who has been inspired and helped by what you're doing or you know, working outside in seeing a big white feather in front of you or, you know, it's different for everyone. But I think you can understand what I mean by getting some kind of confirmations or signs that you are on the right path.
8:56
The second story I'm going to tell you is the story of the water lily, maybe you have heard it before. So there is a water lily in a pond. And the water really doubles in size every day until it eventually fills the whole bond in a period of one month 30 days. So think of this with me here. If on the 30th day it has covered the whole bond. Then on the 29th day it had covered 50% of the bond. And on the day before that it had covered half of that so 25% So a flag continue this calculation on day 24 The water leaf has only covered 1%. So it worked and worked and doubled and doubled more and more as the days went on and on and it's 24 days into a month and it is still at 1% of where it wants to be. And then on the following last few days, because of the exponential growth, it reaches 100%. Of course, this exponential growth doesn't necessarily happen in other cases. But this story shows in an exaggerated way, of course, but very nicely, it shows how disproportionate the amount of time and effort that something takes, how disproportionate it can be to those final actions are those final days when it flips over to the other side. And you can actually see the bamboo tree coming out of the ground after four years of not showing anything. They author Walter Elliott said that perseverance is not one long race. It is many short races, one after another. I will repeat that again, because I really want it to sink in. Perseverance is not one long race. It is many short races one after another.
11:23
There is one last story, I want to tell you today that is very relevant to the topic. And it is a story that Napoleon Hill tells in his book, Think and Grow Rich. And he talks about this person back in the days of the Gold Rush, who went out to dig for gold. And after weeks and months of digging and drilling, there was no success and finally decided to quit. And he sold all the machinery to someone else who carried on. But that other person carried on after he had called in a mining engineer and did some calculations. And this second person found the vein of gold, just three feet from where the other guy was drilling. And the point he makes in the book from the story is that the second one did it because he knew enough to get expert advice before he gave up.
12:21
So I invite you, if you are on your journey, and you're feeling self doubt, maybe even disappointment that you haven't found that vein of gold, or that your water lily hasn't covered the pond, not even half of it. Or after all these years of water in your bamboo tree, there is still nothing to see above the ground. I invite you to think of all these stories, and realise that things are taking longer than we want them to take. It's not something unique to you. It is not something unique to me, I'm going through exactly the same thing. And that's why I felt compelled to talk about this today. But you're not there is another analogy that came to mind, I bet you have played Snakes and Ladders. And sometimes I think that life resembles that board game snakes and ladders in a way where sometimes you seem to be way ahead and then all of a sudden you land on a snake and you slide all the way down. And vice versa, of course. So what I want to say as I start to wrap up this episode is carry on. That's what I'm going to say carry on with trust and self belief. Be mindful and watch for the little affirmations that may come your way and seek expert advice or help for whatever it is that you feel is not progressing enough or fast enough.
14:02
In conclusion, I felt compelled to share with you today this very important lesson I have learned from doing 400 podcast episodes for me was about the immense consistency. It took interviewing guests writing scripts, recording, editing, releasing on a regular schedule for years. Also dealing with rejections, setbacks, etc. So now that you really sent and if this message resonates with you, and something that has been that it does, think of some action that you can take to reinforce your trust and self belief or remember some confirmation that you had. And make sure to connect again with your why. What is your motivation for doing what you're doing? and that will end today's celebratory episode 400 by thanking you. Firstly, for listening for finding value and actionable wisdom. This podcast grows by word of mouth and I personally read every single message and review you sent me. So if there is something in this particular episode that was important to you that you connected with or resonated with, let me know. And if there is someone you know who you think would benefit from hearing this, share it with them.
15:44
So keep going. Keep going. Keep on watering and fertilising the sowing of your bamboo tree and keep on believing that even though you can't see a progress bar, the progress bar is still there, and it counts and it grows. I'm going to set out next anniversary for episode 500 sometime next year. And I am going to set the intention to do that as a live episode. And you can join in if you want. Keep growing. keep persevering. keep trusting. Keep believing in yourself and stand out - don't fit in!