← Ideas That Matter Podcast by Vusi Thembekwayo
Ideas That Matter Podcast by Vusi Thembekwayo
The Cost of Take Off
00:21:07
Produced by Sound and Sounds
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Transcript6 lines
- [00:00]
Vusi Tembagwayo
Foreign.
- [00:06]
Molasisa Leibunia
I hope you're doing good. My name is Molalisa Leibunia. I am from Malawi. And right now I just finished listening to your podcast, above and Beyond. And what I really like about it is when you say that sometimes you have to be kind to yourself or the fact that as human beings, sometimes we're kinder to the world and we're unkind to ourselves. And that made me think a lot about myself and everything else around me. And I started thinking about how even sometimes, I'm able to be kind to people. I'm able to say, actually, words of affirmation to people. I'm able to motivate other people. But when it comes to me, for me to believe that, okay, to believe that I can be great, to believe that I am. I am enough to believe that I matter and stuff, it's actually hard. But when it comes to me telling other people that, oh, you matter or you're great, stuff like that, sometimes it's just hard. But when it comes to other people, it's just easy. It flows easily in me. And right now I started thinking about it, like, okay, why is it that it's hard for me to want the best for me? Like, it's hard for me to sacrifice certain habits, to sacrifice certain people, to sacrifice certain, like, traumas. Yes, I went through this. Yes, in a way, it kind of told me apart. It kind of broke me and stuff. But why is this so hard for me to let it go and focus on what's important? Because I feel like what's important is actually me telling myself that, you know what, you matter. You know that you're enough. You know what? You can be better. Like, you don't have to let your experiences, like, define you. You don't have to let people define you. You just have to work hard and become better. So after listening to your podcast, I guess that's what I'm going to be telling myself. Like, I am enough. I am going to make it. I am. I am like, I am loved. I am beautiful. I deserve it all. And I have to put in the effort to become better. Because becoming better, it means that I have to let go of certain parts of myself. I have to. And become certain habits, certain traumas, certain excuses. Yeah, I don't know. That's what I have decided right now. And I'm going to work hard to become great. To be above, not below.
- [02:57]
Mpo
Hello, family. It's time to take your seat at the table. Find out how with Vousi Tembagwayo as We discuss ideas that matter. A catalyst for bold action. Vusi. I say this every time I listen to your podcast, which is a lot because I've probably listened to all of them. So my name is mpo and I just wanted to share a story of the impact you've had in my life. I grew up in a different country and wanted to relocate back to South Africa for work. And it seemed quite impossible at the time. And everybody thought it was a bit crazy because I didn't even buy furniture for my place because I wanted to leave. So, long story short, I listen to a podcast every day to pump me up, to embrace the day and just not forget what my goal is. Eventually, I succeeded. I am now in Sandton working for one of the big corporates with a global, you know, global footprint. And, you know, the stakes are really high, which is such a big jump from where I was. So it's great that I'm here. Very grateful. However, now I'm struggling with, or rather let me say I used to struggle.
- [04:27]
Molasisa Leibunia
With.
- [04:29]
Mpo
Deserving, feeling like I deserve to be here. So I would have to stand on these big stages to present my ideas and come across as confident, but because I didn't feel like I deserve to be there and that there are other people that are better than me, it was quite a struggle. And I remember this because I was listening to your podcast about embracing your struggles. And there's one sentence that you said that has literally just formed a foundation within me, and that is do it anyway. Do it afraid, but do it anyway. And that has been my motto with dealing with all this struggles of not feeling like I'm enough or I'm good enough, and I just keep doing it anyway. I keep getting better and better. My internal dialogue keeps getting better and better. And now I feel like, you know, number one, I'm an eloquent speaker, I'm a good conversationalist, and I am smart. And with those three things alone, even before putting in the work, even before, you know, delivering it makes me deserving. And just by the element of being me, I deserve to be there. So I just wanted to share that story of impact we see. Thank you so much for all that you do. You really keep us going because again, I listen to you every morning to get me started. So big ups, vc, do keep doing what you do. It means a lot to all of us. It's time to take your seat at the table. Find out how with Vusi Tembagwayo as we discuss ideas that matter. A catalyst for bold action.
- [06:29]
Vusi Tembagwayo
Hello, family. Hello, family, and welcome to this another VT podcast. And here we talk about ideas that matter today. Family. I thought having sent the episode through that we did last week on goal setting and hoping that you found it useful, I, I wanted to say a few things. First, please remember to send through your voice notes. 2781-505-7665. The team will put the details on the video. It really helps me a lot. We get a lot and a ton of information from it. But it's also great to know that we're impacting the world that you guys value from this. So today I want to talk about the cost of takeoff. Listen, growth in any form is not going to be easy. It's growth. That's the nature of it. You're going from something that you know into something you don't know, something familiar, to something unfamiliar, something comfortable, into something uncomfortable, into something new. And therefore it means there has to be a cost. When we look at something like the animal kingdom, for example. So there are a group of animals that animal scientists call this particular specie arachnids. So these are your spiders, your scorpions, etc. What's interesting about these creatures is they do this thing called molting. Molting effectively is the shedding of their outer covering. In other words, they're what we call the exoskeleton. The seed for their growth is that they have to lose their old self. If you look at that process of moulting, there's a period of vulnerability in the process. They have to expose themselves beneath the skin as well as the moment where they push through the old covering to make way for the new. I'm telling you, family, this is what our own journey of growth is. It comes with you having to embrace the cost of what I call the cost of takeoff. And at the end of the day, this is what I want to discuss today. Understanding what it truly takes to initiate your path towards self improvement. Everybody wants to be the new version, but they don't want to lose the old self. You want new results, but you want to keep old habits. You want a new life, but you want to live the old way. And I want to discuss these three things with you that are going to be fundamental in you understanding what it takes to go through takeoff, the true cost of takeoff. Number one, it's the mental and emotional requirements. Let's start here because if you don't get that right, then you're finished. Number two is going to be dealing with fear and doubt. And then third, is going to be the significance of the first step. That's the initial step you need to take as you go from who you are today to who you want to be tomorrow. Is it finished? The teleprompter? Just check. Ah, there we go. Part one, the mental. Okay, it's just a big space there. Let's go. Yeah, just leave it there. Push it down a little bit and then I will get started when you're ready. Thank you, sir. So, number one, let's talk about mindset. Let's talk about psychology. Let's talk about the mental and emotional requirements of what it takes to push through the pain of leaving the old and becoming new. And I want to. I want to unpack here. I want to unpack the mental and emotional requirements. These are the things that are needed for you to embark on the journey. It's not ifs or musts. It's not ifs, it's like they must. You must do these things. Much like preparing for a flight, right. The takeoff phase requires a considerable amount of energy. As I stumble over those words, a considerable amount of energy, an unbelievable amount of focus and an unrelenting commitment. Now, what I found throughout my own years of mentoring other people, in particular business owners and entrepreneurs, is that even in my own personal journey on growth, here's what I found is we often underestimate the mental and emotional requirements for growth. We underestimate these. We love the outcome, but we ignore. Listen to this. The conditions under which those outcomes come into fruition. That's so powerful, I want you to pause and replay that. So here's what you need to do. The first thing I want you to do for me is to self reflect. So I want you to take some time and assess. Where do you currently stand in your personal development? I want you to identify the strengths and the weaknesses. I want you to understand what areas of your life require more focus. Self awareness is everything. Then I want you to be clear. So we need to set clear intentions. I want you to define what your goal is and for that goal, what your objectives are. I want you to be as specific as you can about what you want to achieve. And here's the kicker. Why? Why does it matter that you get it? This clarity I'm telling you when the days are dark is going to help you push through. It's going to help you maintain your motivation. We spoke about it extensively in last week's episode and if you haven't listened to it, I encourage you to go and do it. Go and listen to that. Episode. If you don't have clarity over where you're going, getting there becomes that much more difficult because even you don't know why. Third, I want you to cultivate a growth mindset. I've spoken about this. One of my most viral videos is about me speaking on growth mindset. If you could hit the link here, you can watch it. The growth mindset is about recognizing that challenges are opportunities for learning. It's about reminding yourself that the journey may be tough, but each and every single one of those obstacles is a stepping stone to your success. So the obstacles are necessary. Create a space, a safe space for your emotions. Just allow yourself the full spectrum of emotions, especially emotions that come with growth. Listen, at periods when I'm going through growth, there's fear, there's excitement, there's frustration, and sometimes joy. What I found is that journaling for me is such a powerful way of processing those feelings. Sometimes I'll go back and read it and I'm fascinated by what I find next. Develop a daily routine. A daily routine through which you establish the habits that are going to help you on your journey for growth. Now, it's really important to say this. You have to have resilience and consistency. Being inconsistent is worse than not even attempting it at all, because then even you don't believe you the next time you say you're going to try. When you decide to grow, you aren't just making a choice. You're like investing in your mental and emotional resources. So this means you're going to be processing an awful lot of emotions, especially emotions around uncertainty. And that's completely normal. You're changing. You don't know what's coming, and you know that you don't want to be where you were. Now, if you're feeling apprehensive about this first step, trust me, I get it. I've been where you are. In fact, I'm often where you would be. And I completely understand how it can be overwhelming and how you can feel like you're not ready yet, which is the second thing I want to talk to you about today. So if you're feeling like you're not ready yet or you're feeling apprehensive, that fear, that anxiety, that doubt, what do you do with it? So let's talk about dealing with. With fear and doubt. So let's just take a moment and talk about fear. I find fear a fascinating subject of study. There are many people who have different fears. There's like a fear of failure, There's a fear of the Unknown. And the thing about fear is that even the fear of success exists and it can paralyze you. And it's essential to understand that these are completely natural responses, because it signals that you are stepping outside of your comfort zone. Often we talk about fear and we completely overlook the fear of success. I want you to ask yourself the following. What am I truly afraid of? And write it down. When you take your fears and you verbalize them and you bring them into light, you'd be fascinated how much power they lose and how far less daunting those fears are. So when it comes to dealing with fears and dealing with those feelings, those feelings of doubt and of anxiety, you just have to recognise that growth is fundamentally about becoming. It's a verb, It's a version of yourself that you need to embrace, and it's on the other side of your doubt. And the only way there is to take a walk. And a lot of people try to silence their inner critic. I try this technique often, and it's crucial to silence that inner critic. And one of the ways I do it is I don't pretend the inner critic isn't there. I debate the inner critic. And when the inner critic tells me I can't do something, I give the inner critic all the evidence of all the things I have done over my life that proves that I can do this. And because the inner critic is lying to you. And so building up a residue of successes and remembering the successes I've had has been a fundamental part of how I silence my inner critic and how I dominate that voice of negativity that tries to play itself over in my head. And then the third and final part here, it's that significance of the first step. Notice key words, significance, first step. Let's talk about the significance of the first step. It's just, you know, if you're far, it looks like a simple act. It's just like a simple act where you're committing to something and you're taking the action and it's going to spur you on, and it opens doors and new experiences and new opportunities and you gain new insights. You're all over the place, right? And there's like a new condition comes on just by taking that first step. Now, here's the thing. They say a journey begins with a single step, and that's crucial. You've got to take the initial decision. All of that stuff is true. But listen, here's the thing about the importance of that first step. The importance of that first step is it disproves the lie in your own head that you can't be the thing you want to become. So I want to challenge you this year to be brave. You're watching this video, and you've thought about moving towns or moving cities or moving countries. You've thought about changing careers. You've thought about launching a podcast. You've thought about launching a blog. You've thought about building a personal branding website, and you're stuck. And here's what I've learned about why people get stuck. When people don't want to take the first step, they make the first step planning. I want you to have the courage to take the first step. And first step is not planning. First step is doing. It may seem daunting, but just remember this. At a point, every person you know to be an expert was once a beginner. And if you embrace that uncertainty as part of the process, if you view those challenges as stepping stones rather than walls, when you take that first leap, you're not just moving forward. You're sending a powerful message to the universe and to yourself. Message that says, I am capable. I deserve happiness. I deserve wealth. I'm worth it. I can change. I can do it. Here's the last thing I want to leave with you, family. These simple three statements. I am capable. I can change. I'm worth it. And anytime you find yourself in your own head, doubting yourself, questioning yourself, regurgitate those statements, say them over and over again, remind you who you are. I'll share with you a quick little personal story. And tip just as we close this. When I say those words, I don't say them silently. I say them out loud. Sometimes I'll walk into the garage, close the doors, and scream them. So that as those words bounce off the walls of my garage and echo into my brain, I remember. So have the courage to take the first step. Shoo. What a podcast, eh? What a podcast. All right, family, I look forward to seeing you at the next podcast. Please remember to send through your voice notes +27815 oh 57665. And until we meet again, Sayonar. This podcast was proudly brought to you by my growth fund in partnership with Sound and Sounds.