MM158 - Don't Tell Me, Show Me | MM Book Study Pt. 16

Why is Missouri the “Show Me” State and how does that apply to our journey to be positive and productive people? Are we spending all of our time talking about what we are going to do or actually doing it?

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Welcome to Morning Mindset. A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel. Each episode will focus on positive and productive ways to strengthen your mindset and help you improve your relationships, career goals, and overall well-being. Please welcome your host; Paul G. Markel.

*Professor Paul*

Hello and welcome back to Morning Mindset podcast. I am your host Paul Markel, and as soon as I get situated in my chair here we can begin. Did you know that I needed to get situated in my chair? Could you have lived without that? I'm sure you probably could have lived without it, but sometimes I just feel like sharing with you, so, you're welcome.

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Alright, I really enjoy relating the story from my youth. When I was a young man, probably, I think I was in fifth grade, but I might have been fourth grade or I don't remember how old I was exactly. I was in elementary school, I know it was before my sixth grade year, because it happened when I was attending Eastland Elementary School in Roseville, Michigan, and for those of you who live in Michigan and the suburbs of Detroit, you're like I know where that is that place still exists. Well, the building that I went to school in is gone. They tore it down and they rebuilt a new one on that property. I don't even know if they call it Eastland elementary school anymore.

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They might call it something else. They probably call it Barack Obama Elementary or something stupid. I'm kidding, but when I was in school and Elementary School we had to do State reports that is we had to get up in front of the class and we had to give a five minute report on a state. Now when you're a kid when you're you know, 10-11 years old, you want to do what's easy.

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You want to do, Florida, you want to do Texas, because there's lots of stuff to talk about Texas right? Lone Star State and cowboys and Alamo and all that, right? You want to talk about Florida, because it’s Disney World and oranges and all that. We weren't allowed to do Michigan because we were in Michigan. So we were forbidden to do Michigan, we had to do a different state and of course, you know kids are all going to pick their favorite state.

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So rather than allow us to pick, we were assigned States. I think maybe our teacher took the names of the states, wrote them on a little tiny white piece of paper put them in a bucket or a hat or something. But either way I was given the state I by luck or fate or kismet, I ended up with Missouri. So here I am a little kid in, Michigan in the late 1970’s and I have to do a report on the state of Missouri.

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I could not go to the Internet and look up Missouri facts, I couldn't go to Wikipedia. What I had to do instead was I had to go to the library, the actual library, has this room that was filled with books that contain knowledge and I had to read fun facts about the state of Missouri, and that is when I learned that Missouri was called the Show-Me State, and when I was 10 or 11 years old that meant, well nothing to me.

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I thought “Show me? What are what are they trying to tell me to show them. What what does Missouri want me to show them? Why is it the show me state?” So I posited this question to one of my teachers to a teacher and they said “Well the reason that it's called the ‘Show-Me State’ is because rather than tell you, tell me something, don't tell me show me. Show me through your Works. Show me through your actions prove me wrong or prove it to me.” The way it was explained to me and these you might be in Missouri or like that's not at all. I don't it doesn't matter.

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I'm telling you the way it was explained to me when I was in elementary school was explained to me that show me meant they weren't just going to take your word for it. You are going to have to prove the facts of your case. You're going to demonstrate to them. That's what it meant by show me like, okay.

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So I took that little nugget of knowledge and I tucked away in my brain housing group, and kept it with me for years and I became an instructor as an adult and I used to say to my pupils to my students. I would say things like I'm from Missouri show me and I'm not from Missouri. I never lived in Missouri, but it doesn't matter.

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I was making a point, of course in our modern Millennial world. Teenagers or young adults don't know that Missouri is the show me state and they have no idea what that means. But how does this apply to us as positive and productive individuals? Well, I can tell you how many people in your life. How many people in your life are have the habit of spending inordinate amounts of time telling you all about what they're going to do they're going to do this and they're going to do that and they have a plan and they're going to do this and this and this and it's going to be all great and wait and see listen to what my wonderful plan is.

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Listen to what I'm going to do. Okay, and then at some point in time you learn or you realize through experience that this person or the person you're listening to spends way more time talking about what they're going to do then they actually do accomplishing that thing. I'm sure that many of you are probably acquainted with people, whether they're in your family or whether they're at your workplace or in a social setting or what have you, that will spend all of their time telling you about their grand plans and their grand schemes and all the these things that they they have great ideas and they never ever seem to put these ideas into practice.

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So eventually you become very jaded with this person and you stopped listening to them or you listen and politely nod the whole time and I'm pletely nodding to the microphone even though you can't see it but the whole time thinking whatever I know you're never going to do this because you never follow through with anything. All you do is talk about it.

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When we decided that we were going to move here to Wyoming, to Saratoga, Wyoming where I currently am sitting right now recording, we did it and I didn't really do it in secrecy so much as I just put everything into motion and did it. We didn't spend a lot of time telling people we told our relatives obviously our mothers and fathers and so forth and we told people that were blood related to what we were going to do and our close friends what we're going to do, but I didn't tell my audience.

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I didn't spend a lot of time talking to my audience selling them what I was going to do. Because where I live is very beautiful in the summertime when the weather is nice there are mountains and trees and streams and creeks and it's just beautiful now when it's not summer time when the fall arrives and the snow flies in the wind is blowing and then winter arrives and the ice and snow and wind are present.

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It's not so fun, and people all the time come here for vacation and they say how beautiful it is and how much they loved it and oh, we're going it would something we're thinking about moving here. It's just so beautiful. We want to move here, but they don't because it's easier to talk about and it's nicer to talk about the hard reality is is difficult to live here and to move here. So rather than talk about it or spend a lot of time talking about it.

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We just did it and then when it was over with when I was a fait accompli, when we'd accomplished our mission, then we said we told people oh, yeah, by the way, this is what we did. I applied deliberately the show me don't tell me and when it comes to being a productive individual, and working with other people you need to ask yourself. Am I spending more time talking about achieving my goals or am I spending more time actually working toward those goals.

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Do I know people in my associated with people that spend all of their time telling me what they do they're going to do and not enough time showing me what they're going to do. So it one hint that I would have for you if you want to live a positive and productive life if you want to move forward in your career, whatever it is that you're doing be like someone from Missouri show me don't tell me. I'm your host Paul Markel, and I'll talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Thank you for spending time with us today. To get show notes, submit a topic request, for more from your host Paul G. Markel, visit MorningMindsetPodcast.com. That’s MorningMindsetPodcast.com. Please leave a review of this podcast on your favorite podcast player, we appreciate your time & effort, and we look forward to reading your honest feedback.