"You are only as old as you think you are, but if you're going to sit on the couch, if you're going to live with fear, if you're gonna live with tension, if you're going to live a life in which you're just kicking the can down the road, trying to run out the clock, trying just to play 'prevent defense' in the hope that you live long enough to maybe at some point in the future, enjoy life...then you are going to get what you deserve." — Curt Mercadante
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In today’s episode, Curt Mercadante issues a call to action to those so afraid to disrupt their comfort zones that they simply “run out the clock” on their lives; spending their lives waiting instead of truly living.
FULL RAW TRANSCRIPT OF THIS EPISODE:
[00:00:00] Curt Mercadante: This is the freedom media network. I'm your host, Curt Mercadante. And I am so very grateful. You are here, whether you're watching this on video or listening to the audio version of this on our podcast. Thanks for joining us today. If you are a first time listener or viewer, welcome. If you are returned viewer or listener.
[00:00:21] Welcome back now, this is the freedom media network and surprise, surprise. We talk about freedom here a lot, and I'm curious what freedom means to you because, and we ask that all a lot of our guests, you know, you go over to LinkedIn and you would think that freedom solely means your finances solely means about building recurring revenue.
[00:00:43] And yet there are so many people. I was one of them. I had millions, I had that recurring revenue and I was miserable. You know, if you are miserable now without money, you're going to be miserable with money. If you're unfulfilled without money, there's a good chance. You're going to be unfulfilled when you have.
[00:00:58] I like to compare money [00:01:00] to the super soldier serum in captain America, right? It exacerbates who you are. The red skull became even more evil than he already was when he took it. Of course, Steve Rogers became even more good of a person. It exacerbates monies like that. Money is not good. It's not evil.
[00:01:15] Money is a tool, but money can create a life of fulfillment or it can create more dissatisfied. So freedom, isn't solely finances, freedom. Isn't solely money. That's a component. And we talk about that on this show. You know, being healthy is an important component of freedom, but it's not freedom in and of itself.
[00:01:36] You know, being healthy is very important. If you, through your lifestyle choices have turned yourself into a prisoner of bad health, then you're not going to be truly free if you listen or watch this, uh, network on a regular basis. You know, I think that much of what we're taught and program within our society from a health basis is absolute bullshit.
[00:01:56] Eat more whole grains, eat more carbs. Look, the obesity [00:02:00] rates. Are through the roof. People are dying and we can't even talk about it for fear of offending someone. We can't even talk about certain health issues because we're shaming people. And because of that mentality, people die. So health certainly is important, not just physical health, mental health, spiritual health.
[00:02:20] So freedom really is holistic. And a lot of people like to focus on specific instances of it, and then they wonder why they don't feel truly fulfilled. You know, I really believe. Is within freedom is within, it's not just those external factors. As much as the motivational gurus, our YouTube videos are personal development books.
[00:02:41] Just want to focus on the, without the actions you take. If we don't change what's within, we'll never truly. Be free. I know people who are very healthy, have a lot of money. They travel the world, and yet they're not truly free. Their slaves of suffering have this sense of constant, [00:03:00] consistent, dissatisfaction about worrying about the future.
[00:03:03] What comes next? I have all this money now and I got to defend it. How I'm gonna save it. What's coming down the pike. So they're not paying. They are a prisoner. They are a victim of the future of dissatisfaction. The Buddha talks about this kind of suffering, not just the Buddha hell across all spiritual traditions, this kind of suffering come from the sense of dissatisfaction.
[00:03:22] When we solely live on the physical plane, it creates that anxiety in that stress. Sometimes we marinate in the past. Sometimes we, uh, are just so anxious about what comes next in the future that we fail to be truly. Now, the reason I bring all of this up is next week, I turned 47 years old. Now I don't bring that up to get happy birthdays from.
[00:03:46] And I'm not the type of person who around my birthday gets all hot and bothered and sad and anxious about the fact that I'm getting older. I, I really don't, but I was in the gym the other day, thinking about the fact that whether we like it or [00:04:00] not, our earthly bodies, our physical bodies have expiration dates on them.
[00:04:05] Right. Our physical bodies are going to die. I don't pretend to know what happens after. But our physical bodies have an expiration date. Now I do what I can in terms of health. I'm in better shape now at almost 47 than I was in my twenties. Maybe even my teens. Right. I work on my spiritual health, my physical health, uh, my financial health, all of that.
[00:04:29] But whether I like it or not, My body has an expiration date. And I was just thinking I've done a lot of things over the last four years. For those of you who don't know, little over four years ago, I had a seven figure PR and ad agency. And at peak revenue, I shut it down and I fired all my clients because I wasn't free.
[00:04:48] I had built it in a way that made me a prisoner of my own business. My health suffered my relationship suffered. I wasn't mentally or physically present with myself or those around me. And so I shut it down because I realized that was [00:05:00] so important. I realized that money alone didn't equal freedom.
[00:05:03] Certainly my health suck, but I needed to build it holistically. And it is. I don't think I'm there yet. It is a journey. And part of that journey is living in the present every day. It is a challenge that I face every day to do that. And I was thinking the other day about being present in that. And I started thinking about my expiration date, which again is making me a prisoner of, of worrying about the future.
[00:05:27] And it just dawned on me that I just refuse. To live every day as if I'm waiting for something, waiting to have more money in my bank account, waiting to travel, waiting to be free, waiting to enjoy. For those of you who have read my book, you know, I talk about the people who are on the 65 year plan. They spend their lives waiting till they're 65, when they reach 65 and they retire from a job that is unfulfilling, or they just don't like, then they'll enjoy life.
[00:05:56] Then they'll travel. Then they'll enjoy the relationships. [00:06:00] Then all that work-life balance will come through. But here's the deal. There's no guarantee. That you or I are going to be here one hour from now later today, next week, 5, 10, 15 years from now. And yet some people live as if that's guaranteed every moment they fail to be present.
[00:06:18] And they're miserable now in an unfulfilling job and unfulfilling life overall. And they hope that somewhere down the line, that we'll find that happiness. And then on their death bed, how many people do we hear of on their death bed? Have that regret. There wasn't enough time to do everything we want.
[00:06:34] Well, that's bullshit. The reason there wasn't enough time it's because you were always worrying about the future dissatisfied about the past instead of living in the present. And so I've been on this journey, but the other day, as I thought about it, I just reiterated to myself that I refuse to just run out the clock on my life.
[00:06:49] I refuse to run out the clock, and yet I know there are so many of you and the reason I know this is I can see your comments on social media. Some of you come to me and tell me this, that you're just running [00:07:00] out the clock. For those of you who follow football, it's playing prevent defense. We're just trying to play defense defense and run out the clock without too much pain that I can get through life.
[00:07:11] Hopefully retire, maybe enjoy it and then die. Is that really how you want to go through life? Now? This may sound harsh, but I know so many of you out there. In fact, I had someone, I did a post on this on LinkedIn and men who. He's in his thirties, he's already playing prebend defense in his thirties. How long is that going to last?
[00:07:29] Even if he's lives till 65 to that magic date, when he hopes he can like build a life of freedom is even gonna live that long. That how much is that anxiety and stress killing him softly or quickly or slowly or quickly. Are you satisfied with just w just like running out the clock, playing defense only, and not enjoying your life, not being fully present somewhere in the future.
[00:07:54] You'll have that sense of freedom. If that is you you're causing your own suffering, you are in the victim [00:08:00] mentality that so many people are in. You know, thousands of years ago, we had real stressors, right? The environment animals chasing us. We had a run for our lives sometimes and yes we were. Yeah. We were less stressed than we are today.
[00:08:13] What are we stressed about today? What someone posted on Facebook, that incoming email. And then we sit on our couch and we get slothful and more unhealthy and more anxious and more stressed. And then we put a bandage over it by taking more prescription drugs. And then we wonder why we're not fulfilled and free because we are completely numb to everything about us because we're on 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 prescription drugs that numb us.
[00:08:38] And so we can't fully be present. Cause we don't even know what's going on. We're not all. And the more people like me talk about this, the more people say nuts is just a conspiracy theory. We have an absolutely wonderful medical system. That's keeping us alive. Why ask you this? Is it worth living longer?
[00:08:55] If we're living a longer life, but a more miserable one, we might be [00:09:00] increasing our longevity, but we're living longer with disease longer. With anxiety longer with stress. So, yeah, we have expiration dates and some people are pushing that off just to ensure that they're going to live an extra five or 10 years of an unfulfilling life.
[00:09:16] I don't bring this up to make you feel bad. I bring it up because some of you need to be completely grabbed by the shoulders and shaken to realize there is absolutely another way. There's three planes. And if we only live on the physical and mental, then we're going to be more anxious and stress because we're going to watch those YouTube videos, the motivational read the motivational books, whatever it is who says, take action, take this action.
[00:09:38] We focus on our actions without going in and fixing and shifting our underlying beliefs that are fucking us, that we've learned since we were born from our parents, our teachers, our bosses. And when we want to think about. It's just too difficult to think about because we have become addicted. I really think over the last 50 or a hundred years, humans have mutated to just become addicted, to certainty, [00:10:00] addicted, to comfort, staring at the screen.
[00:10:02] While we sit on our couch, get fatter more unhealthy, and then wonder when something happens in the world. Why people are dying well, let's go take more drugs. And so it becomes the cycle of addiction of unhealthy behaviors, mental, physical behaviors. We ignore the spirit. Now you may say Kurt, I'm spiritual.
[00:10:20] I abstained from meat before Easter. I went to Easter mass. Now let me ask you, did you do all those things? Did you follow all the rules? Did you adhere to the dogma? And yet the day after Easter, you woke up miserable because you have to go to a job. You hate, you have to live a life that's fulfilling.
[00:10:38] You're not mentally and physical present with the people around you because you're living a life. That's not congruent with the life you want. Is all that adherence to Dom actually helping you. You're creating a hell on earth. So this may offend some of them. And a lot of what I do is that the risk of offending, some of you, but I hope [00:11:00] even one of you listening today wakes up and realizes you don't have to live a life of struggle.
[00:11:04] You don't have to live a life. That's unfulfilling. You don't have to live a life in which you feel. You're a victim of external events. You can start making a change. Now it doesn't have to be a big transformation in which you suddenly lose a hundred pounds and quit your job. You can start with small steps.
[00:11:21] But you got to live on three planes, the mental, the physical and the spiritual. I'm not talking about religion. I'm talking about true spirit that comes from within. When you start knowing what you want manifesting wants. You want living a life of relaxation instead of a life of struggle and tension and anxiety and stress and hoping you can just run out the clock that someday, maybe you have some happiness before you die.
[00:11:44] Maybe playing kick the can with. Now I don't plan these freedom Friday episodes. I just speak from the heart, but I got to tell you, I refuse. I refuse. I'm turning [00:12:00] 47 next week. I'm healthier than I've ever been. I talked to a client last year. He was the same age as me. And he said, I'm old, I'm too old to do this or that.
[00:12:09] Fucking bullshit. I want to tell you this, you are only as old as you think you are, but if you're going to sit on the couch, if you're going to live with fear, if you're gonna live with tension, if you're going to live a life in which you're just kicking the can down the road, trying to run out the clock, try and just to pay, prevent defense in the hope that you live long enough to maybe at some point in the future, enjoy life.
[00:12:27] Then you are going to get what you deserve. I don't care if you're 20, 30, 40, or 50, you can make a change right now. My very first client was 62 years. And she came to me and she said, Kurt, is it too late for me? And I asked her, I said, do you have a breath left in your body? She said, yes. I said, then why would you want to spend one millisecond more with having true fulfillment and freedom in your life?
[00:12:50] And three years later, she made a fundamental change in her life. She was 62 years old. So what's your excuse. [00:13:00] Am I being direct today? You bet, because there are some of you who need to be shaken out of the doldrums, shaken and become shaken out of your sleep so that you can at least start to be aware. No, there's an old saying that the first step from escaping from prison is actually realizing you're in one.
[00:13:16] So realize that that life, that, that life in which you're in a comfort zone and misery is not normal. It is not healthy. A life of tension and stress and anxiety is. The norm. And if that sounds like you don't feel bad about it, just make a decision to make a change. It starts from within, it starts with shifting your beliefs away.
[00:13:37] It's not about reading more books. It's not about feeding your addiction to personal development. Never making a change action is important, but if you don't change the beliefs, the actions aren't going to matter because you're going to continue to self-sabotage and end up back on the proverbial couch, living a life you don't.
[00:13:56] So I turned 47 next week and I will be damned if I [00:14:00] spend one more day ever, just running out the clock. And my challenge to you is to decide right now, not next week, not five years from now to start living a life in congruence with the life you actually want to start building true holistic freedom in your life, whether you want to believe it or not, the choice is up to you.
[00:14:19] And actually realizing that it's a choice is the first step to breaking free from that state of victimization that makes you believe falsely, that you are solely a victim of external circumstances. It starts with your beliefs that fuel your thoughts, align those with what you want, and you'll start getting the outcomes you want, but it starts from within not just from, with.
[00:14:45] I want you to have a great rest of your Friday. If you're not listening or watching this on a Friday, have a wonderful day. Be present to day, stop living for some point in the future at what you hope you'll be happy. Be present to day that's where prosperity [00:15:00] starts. That's where abundance starts. That's where fulfillment starts.
[00:15:02] That's where joy and freedom start being present. My name is Curt Mercadante. This is the freedom media network. Thank you so much for doing.