MM180 - Challenge Yourself: Try Something New

After leaving high school or perhaps college, people develop routines. When is the last time that tried something new? It will not just happen on its own, you must challenge yourself.

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♫ 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*

And here we go again with yet another Morning Mindset podcast. Thank you once again for joining me and I hope that you have a delicious hot coffee beverage or something similar and I hope that it is a quality one because why because life is too short for Bad Coffee. Absolutely. Mmm, I just did a broadcaster faux pas and I drank coffee while the microphone was hot.

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You know why? Because there are no commercials and I can't take the time to drink my coffee at any other time. Alright, let's talk about challenging yourself. You're like "Paul come on, man. I mean, you're always giving me these assignments. Give me a break." Well, how many of you since you left school?

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Whether it's high school or graduate school or college or whatever, you know when were younger? When you're young everything is new to you. I mean almost every experience to you when you know is new. Think about you your first dance your first kiss your first, you know football game your first this your first that you know, first day of high school first day of Junior High first day of college, you have lots and lots of challenges lots of new things when you're young, and that's one of the that's one of the great things about being a young person and I believe that our youth today are being robbed of that because they are so distracted by digital nonsense that they never get the opportunity to take a moment and appreciate the newness.

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Of their world and how exciting it is and how challenging it is what you know, whatever. It happens to be the first-day kindergarten now, obviously kindergarteners are going to you know internalized but the first day of Junior High, first day of high school. The first day of high school is, think about it, do you remember your first day of high school? I do it was both exhilarating and exciting and terrifying, all at the same time.

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I mean if it's almost as if your legs are just on autopilot as you walk through the doors of a high school for the first time for the first day. Because your mind is like get me out of here. This is uncomfortable you probably when I don't know about you guys when I was going to school.

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I went to a parochial school a booth or in school that actually had k through eight in one large building and so I was very comfortable with that building and with that setting and with those people, and then I got out of eighth grade and I had to go to 9th grade. I had to go to a brand new building with brand new people and a brand new area and it's terrifying but it's exhilarating at the same time.

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It's so exciting and after your there awhile, you start doing more things, and the reason I bring this up is, that I think a lot of us, you know, after we've settled, you know, we get the job we start a family and we fall. Into a routine. and my question to you is. When is the last time that you tried something new like legitimately new something you'd never done before in your life?

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I don't care what it is. I don't care if it's you know hand gliding two people still hand Glide. I guess people in California probably still do or zip-lining in a lot of these people do these like Adventure things, but it doesn't have to be an adventure. It can be a new hobby. Whatever that happens to be, you know, maybe you've always wanted to take up blank fill in the fill in the blank there.

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You've always wanted to try this or you have always wanted to try that. I've got one for you when I was a young person several of my friends built model rockets, and they have the model rocket kits in the launch pads and the rocket engines and all that and I always wanted to do that. But I never did you know when I was a young person if I wanted something I had to save up the money.

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I had to find the money. You know, how many of you guys are about my age and you remember that when you were growing up there were two times a year that you looked forward to getting presents right or toys or gifts or whatever, Christmas and your birthday. You know when I was young if I wanted something and I told my parents I'm like, I really, really like this really want this whole huh.

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I want this thing, I want, really want it. I want it and they would say "Well Christmas is coming up. Maybe Santa Claus will bring it" or your birthday's coming up pretty soon. Maybe you'll get that for your birthday. We kids didn't just get toys and gifts and so forth. Like immediately when they wanted them when I was when I was growing up not like today but getting back to the model rocket thing.

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So model rock is I wanted one. I thought it was cool, you know friends of mine had um, and I never was able to. Well, I joined the Marine Corps many moons later, and when I was stationed on Camp Lejeune with the six Marines, we were in a cycle a down cycle. Basically, we were not deployed. We were just doing you know training locally and we had time on our hands we had weeks.

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I don't know if you months or what-have-you a couple months that we weren't going to go anywhere, which is rare for a marine infantry unit, and I went into a store a hobby store and I saw a model rocket kit the whole kit, you know, the launch pad and the engines and the basic rocket and all that stuff and I bought it and it's silly as it sounds, you know, I was in my in my early 20s, I did something that I never have done before, and that I always wanted to do, and the nice thing about being on Camp Geiger is, you know, we had these giant huge enormous Fields. Their just big fields whether Landing zones their great big fields because they were cut out so you could land helicopters lots and lots of helicopters in them.

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So they had to be wide open. No obstructions. No power lines. No nothing. So, you know, the helicopters didn't land in them very often. So my after and of course after I did it and I was like, what are you doing over there? I'm sitting there in the squad Bay building model rockets, and at first, we were like I already a child and then they're like, oh, hey man, that's kind of cool and pretty soon.

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I had a bunch of people in my Marine Corps infantry company in my platoon. Building model rockets and there we are out on the landing Zone shooting these rockets off, and it was fun. I mean, I don't do it today, you know, and of course, I deployed and actually went to war so that stuff kind of got left behind but that was something that I always wanted to do and I tried it and it was fun.

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When is the last time that you tried something new? When is the last time you challenge yourself to do something new something different something you have never done before in your life? You may be sitting out there and you're thinking well, I've always thought that I wanted to but I'm busy and this and that and the other thing it's easy to make excuses, excuses are free cost you nothing.

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They cost, you know at the time, they cost you no money. Boom. You make it excuse move on with your life. But instead of making excuses, maybe sometime this week this month sometime in the very near future. Challenge yourself do something new try something new and if you don't like it move on maybe you will who knows?

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But I know we all fall into those routines those we get up. We do our thing. We come home, we watch the TV, we go to bed. We get up, we do it again, we become drones. You weren't put on this Earth to be a drone. Challenge yourself, try something new. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, that is it for another Morning Mindset podcast. I am your host Paul Markel, and I will 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.