Life Is NOT A Journey… It’s A…
The Amplified Impact Podcast
June 27th, 2023
In this episode, I’m thrilled to share a recent revelation that has completely shifted my perspective on life.
As a storyteller and lover of analogies, I’ve always believed in the power of metaphors. And this particular analogy has had an immense impact on me.
Before I dive into it…I want to give credit to the person who popularized this idea, Alan Watts, a brilliant Zen philosopher. I highly recommend exploring his work.
For the longest time, I saw life as a journey…a constant climb towards a destination.
But this perspective created a gap between where I was and where I thought I should be, leading to unnecessary suffering.
However, I invite you to consider a different analogy…life as a song or a dance.
In a song, it’s not about rushing to the end; it’s about embracing the performance, playing each note with passion.
Every note, no matter how small, holds significance in the context of the entire composition.
So, here’s the challenge…show up each day, in every moment, and play your part beautifully.
Treat each day as a note in the grand song of your life. Ask yourself, “How can I play this note with excellence?” Then go and do it.
Remember, this analogy isn’t original to me, but it has deeply resonated. I encourage you to explore Alan Watts’ teachings.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“Each decision is equally important, that we treat every decision, no matter how big or small, as important.”- Anthony Vicino
LEAVE A REVIEW if you liked this episode!!
Let’s Connect On Social Media!
instagram.com/theanthonyvicino
Join an exclusive community of peak performers at Beyond the Apex University learning how to build a business, invest in real estate, and develop hyperfocus.
Learn More About Investing With Anthony
Invictus Capital: www.invictusmultifamily.com
Multifamily Investing Made Simple Podcast
Passive Investing Made Simple Book: www.thepassiveinvestingbook.com
Episode Transcript:
Anthony Vicino [00:00:00]:
What’s up, everybody? Welcome back to the podcast. Today I’m really, really excited to share with you a reframe that I’ve recently had in how I think about my life. I’m all about metaphors. I’m all about analogies. You guys know this about me is that I’m a storyteller in a past life. As a science fiction fantasy author, I think about things in analogy. It’s how I understand things. And I think if I have a gift at all in this world, it’s the ability to take one thing and then create an analogy to another.
Anthony Vicino [00:00:32]:
I think that for whatever reason, that’s a gift that I have. And this might be the most important reframe or analogy that I’ve thought of recently. And after I thought of it and I shared it on Twitter and LinkedIn, somebody pointed out that I wasn’t the first to have this thought. And I’ll share who actually popularized this thought before I did. And I didn’t realize it, but I’m actually a big fan of this person. And so I’m going to encourage you to go check out their content as soon as you’re done listening to this because I think it’ll bring a lot of value to your life. So the analogy I want to share with you, well, before I share it with you, I need to share with you the analogy it’s replacing because for me, so much of my suffering in life has been the result of thinking of my life as a journey, thinking of my life through the analogy of a journey. And I’ve realized that that’s not the correct way to think about things.
Anthony Vicino [00:01:39]:
That inherently, when you think about life through the lens of a journey, it implies there’s a destination, there’s a mountain to be climbed, there’s something to be done, a place to go where currently you are not. And as soon as you start fixate, as soon as you start looking through the lens of the journey of the place to go that you currently are not, a gap appears. And it’s a gap between where we are and where we need to go. It’s between who we are and who we could be. And I talk a lot about this idea of inner greatness and pursuing your best self, but recognizing you’re never going to catch that person. We use the plus one framework of decision making as a way of conceptualizing that. And if you’re new here, I want you to think about standing in the middle of a road and in front of you at equal distances. All the signs, they say, plus one, plus one, plus one, and they go off into the horizon.
Anthony Vicino [00:02:44]:
And then when you turn around, all the signs behind you say, negative one, negative one, negative one. And each sign represents a singular decision, the opportunity to either make the plus one decision that moves you forward in life or the negative one decision that moves you back. And your ideal perfect self would always make the right decision that moves you forward. But because we’re not perfect, we make a lot of wrong decisions and we go back. And that doesn’t just move us back one, but it also denies us the opportunity to move forward one. And so we’re constantly falling behind this idea of our best self. And I think there’s a lot of value in this framework. The biggest value for me in that framework is that each decision is equally important, that we treat every decision, no matter how big or small, as important.
Anthony Vicino [00:03:30]:
Because our life and the results that we achieve really are the manifestation of all the tiny decisions that we make leading up to the big result. Sometimes we put too much pressure on ourselves to make the big right decision and not enough pressure on ourselves to make the small meaningless decision or meaningless with air quotes. And what I find is that if you can be trusted to make the small decisions, then you will be better prepared to make the good big decisions. So that’s the plus one framework of decision making. And I love that framework, but again, it implies the idea of a destination. And so I want to suggest to you that maybe there’s another way to think about this, that maybe we don’t just discard the idea of life as a journey entirely, but that we layer into it other concepts, other analogies that can serve us. And the one that I want to present to you guys today is not to think of life as a journey, but to think of it as a song or a dance. And the point of a song isn’t to get to the end, right? Like we’re not just rushing to conclude the song.
Anthony Vicino [00:04:38]:
The point of the song is in the performance. It’s in losing yourself in the music, it’s in playing each note as well as you can. And sure, in the journey of a song, let’s call it, there are some notes that we are going to remember more so than others. But that doesn’t mean that there’s any one note that’s more important. Because what makes a note memorable is its juxtaposition or its context against all the notes that came before it, even the subtle, quiet ones that didn’t seem all that important in the moment. It’s without those that the big note doesn’t matter. And you have to look no further to understand this and accept this than to say that one meaningful, crashing, beautiful, crescendo note, if you were just to hear it on the street, would probably just startle you without context, without everything, the package of the song around it and all the other the notes that came before it. That note loses all its value.
Anthony Vicino [00:05:44]:
It’s all of its meaning. And I think that’s a really interesting way of thinking about our life is as a song in this moment, this day, this thing that I’m doing right now, and presenting, doing this podcast. This might not be the most important note in my life, most important might not be the most memorable note in the song of my life. And yet it is equally important, because without it, then whatever that note is that is going to capture attention later on, it’s not going to have the impact. And so my goal, the challenge to myself, is to show up each and every single day in every single moment and play whatever note that I’m playing, whatever part of the song that I’m in, to play it as well as I possibly can play it. And so this is the meditation I want you to sit with, is to not think about today as another step on some arbitrary journey of life. I want you to think about today as another note in the song of your life. And then I want you to ask yourself, what would it look like to play today this note beautifully? And then go do that.
Anthony Vicino [00:07:02]:
So that’s the reframe. That’s the analogy I want to share with you. I want you to sit with it. It’s had a profound impact on me as I’ve been kind of unpacking it over the last couple of days. Now, this is, it turns out, not a unique analogy that there’s another great thinker. I’m not a great thinker. There is a great thinker out there who spoke about this very eloquently. His name is Alan Watts.
Anthony Vicino [00:07:28]:
He’s a I would call him a Zen philosopher from, I believe, like the he’s no longer with us. I’ve read one of his books called The Tao, the Tao of Zen, and I’ve listened to a number of his speeches over the years. But I don’t know if I’d ever heard this particular concept or maybe I had. And just for whatever reason, at this moment, the season of my life, the seed finally took root. It grew to germinate and dominate my mind. It’s entirely possible that this idea actually had its birth with hearing his content. So I’m not claiming any kind of originality here whatsoever. So please don’t take it that way.
Anthony Vicino [00:08:12]:
I want to share this framework with you because I think it’s a really beautiful one. So I encourage you, go listen to Alan Watts. He’s a beautiful mind, beautiful thinker who’s helped me in my perspectives throughout life multiple times. And this reframe of life as a song and not as a journey is just another one of those tools in our toolbox that can hopefully help us along as we navigate this orchestral arrangement that is our life. So hope this brought you a little bit of value. If it did, let me know. Shoot me a comment. Find me at Instagram the Anthony Vasino or on Twitter.
Anthony Vicino [00:08:52]:
Just Anthony Vasino there. I try to respond to all my DMs and all my comments, so go engage with me. Love to have a conversation with you guys, but as always, I’ll see you back here tomorrow. But until then, stay hyper focused, my friend.
This Week On YouTube
These 3 Daily Habits Made Me A Millionaire in 3 Years
Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:
1. Unleash your hyperfocused mind to dominate life, business, and everything in between? Here’s how:
→ The Hyperfocused Masterclass: the exact system I used to overcome ADHD, write 12 books, build 4 businesses, and acquire $70M of real estate.
There are a handful of spaces left in The Hyperfocus Masterclass for those who want to snag the early bird preorder special discount of $49.
Email anthony@anthonyvicino.com to let me know you want on the waitlist.
2. Learn to passively invest in commercial real estate with better returns, less risk, and zeo hassle.
→ Invictus Capital: my real estate private equity firm.
→ Multifamily Investing Made Simple: Top Apple Podcast.
→ Passive Investing Made Simple: Amazon Best Selling Book with 100 5 star reviews.
3. Want more like this? Check out these 3 popular articles from the vault:
