#10 The Common Denominators Of Disaster

hey guys this is Greg Denning and you are in the school of awesome sauce where I share with you Amazing Stories and strategies to help you live an extraordinary

[Music] life good morning my friends or good evening or afternoon wherever you're listening to this and wherever you are in the world thanks for being here with us hey I man I've got something I really have got to share that has been on my mind for so long and be is becoming more and more of a of a challenge and a problem in the world and it's it's what I'm calling the common denominators of disaster and well I I'll start out with the story like when I ended up out early uh on my own and I was I was living in in really poor areas and and rough neighborhoods and before me at those times was an almost constant and continual scene of domestic violence and crime and addiction um alcoholism and drug abuse and violence and and gross immorality and appropriate in inappropriate behavior and just just this this hurt and suffering in this wretchedness almost like this self-inflicted uh suffering and I and it was it was everywhere and and and as I was out you know as a young man like it even started really with the very first time um you know in my own home it was It was kind of there was some struggles you know the the contention the marriage and divorce and and and we went through periods of time with with you know a lot of poverty even you know around food stamps and and and some struggles and so when I first left actually we were living in Dallas Texas or near Dallas and and I got on a Greyhound bus and was heading to New York and we stopped this is this is the craziest we got on a Greyhound bus all the way to Upstate New York it was insane I was I think it was maybe it was 16 15 or 16 at the time and you know those Graham buses as they stop in all the major cities uh through the South and the East man they are not in the nicest of areas I can't I can't even believe this I man to think about my own kids doing a trip like that wow but I'm I'm doing that I'm I'm heading up there we stopped somewhere I think it was in Tennessee somewhere in Nashville or Memphis and we stop in the middle of the night just a bad bad area and we get out and I'm like man I gotta stretch my legs we've been on a bus for so long and and it was just filled with the smoke and nasty so I just stepped outside um I was with my older brother at the time and we we just kind of step outside for some fresh air and we wanted to just stretch our legs a little bit we turned the corner and man everybody on drugs and alcohol and this guy walks up to this big tall black dude in a full pink tuxedo and he walks up he's like want some drinks like no thanks you want some drugs no we're good you want some girls no no we don't want any girls oh you want some boys I'm like nope we we don't want any of that like we just we're good man we're good walking and and and since that time in all the places I've been I was living and surviving as a teenager and then later on you guys as I traveled all around the world um and have been in some of the some of the roughest places around the world um there's just this the suffering that happens at that level and it indeed is a tragedy and and you know there's no judgment coming from my part because I've heard the stories of a lot of people and how they end up there and why and if you have not read the book by Victor Hugo please read that book The unabridged is is 1462 pages of pure awesome sauce um read that book and learn and and and it means the Miserables and he he details the story of how people end up in those sad situations and how they suffer and what what they experience there and one of his main messages was to help people understand what life is like at that level and how much suffering there is and and a lot of hurt and so I was surrounded by that as young man and I saw it again and again and again and of course at the time you know I'm 16 17 um I I didn't I couldn't have articulated this like I'm doing it now but seeing it now for so many years I I've started to notice and then working of course as a mentor and a coach working with youth and adults and people all around the world I've seen the common denominators of disasters of these these incremental actions and choices and habits that lead to disaster that I get to because of the work I do I get to see the train wreck at the end of the tunnel and then I always as I'm coaching and mentoring and and learning and helping people I always am asking okay well what led to that what led to that how'd this happen right and I'm all I you start you start seeing this Common Thread you guys I get to see and hear things that that just break my heart and would break yours and I want to help people I want to help prevent these disasters and I saw it again and again and it kind of came along and said you know these are the things I've observed and and honestly I'm G throw this out right now some of this stuff may not be very popular right some you hear this like ah I don't like that and and it's not going to be but I have to say it I have to share the things that I'm seeing and I get you know I get pretty adamant and fired up about this stuff because I see it happening and I see where it leads and I see the at the end of the destination you know people start on a path because my friends when we choose our path we have chosen our destination let that sink in when you choose to go down the path it's going to a destination and it often ends up a destination where people don't want to be and they're like hey I don't want to come this way I don't want to be here but when we choose our path we've chosen our destination and I see through the mentoring and and the opportunities I have to help people and try to rebuild lives and this experience I've had with people all around the world I see the destination and so I go back trying to trying to raise a voice of warning like hey do not come down this path and people are like what's the big deal come on it's you're making a big deal out of it don't worry about I'm like no you don't you don't know where this goes you don't you don't see the train wack at the end of this tunnel and so I want to share some of that and so I as I was as a young man out there man like it's shocking shocking how many times I was offered drugs and alcohol and and immorality and and opportunities for violence and crime I mean it it's just shockingly abundant and so easy and so destructive and many of the people that I was around uh turned to that stuff a lot and fortunately at the time as a young man like I you guys I was desperate I was I was discouraged and frustrated and hopeless like I did not want to experience life that way you know at certain times no family around no friends just lonely cold like hurting just absolutely broke doing whatever I could to get enough money to buy another package of ramen noodles or a can of pork and beans which was disgusting I would just just spoon it cold I just oh man I think I had I oats I'd buy some oats cuz they were pretty inexpensive so I'd buy some oats and I'd have oats and little brown sugar every morning every morning it was probably a couple of years that I had that's what I had every single morning and then you know often for lunch I I literally would just open up a can of pork and beans and just shovel it in um some ramen noodles in the evening or something every day day in and day out now now in my life like I I can't eat the same meal like twice in a month or I get I'm funny like that I'm like no no I like variety especially because we've eaten some of the best food all around the world through from Paris to Peru and I'm like I like I like variety I want to change things up but that's where I was at and and as I saw as I saw those situations there as a young man and I was offered all these opportunities um somehow I saw and I feel so grateful and you know personally I think I think God was just helping me see clearly I saw where that stuff leads and I would see people go even in their struggles and their trials and their hurt they would they would drink themselves uh away or or do drugs or something else to try to assuage the pain and and the hurt and the misery and and I get it I understand why they're doing this so that's why I'm like you know I don't throw the Judgment there but luckily I was able to see that the end result I was was able to say hey you know what when when they come out of that they're not better off and now they're adding addiction and vice to their problems and they might be able to drink it away for a while but when they come out of that their problem's still there and it hasn't solved it and so I've been thinking about this for so many years and writing about it and and I you know luckily as a young man I never never touched it I thought you know what no I'm my life is is hard enough as it is there's no way I'm adding uh alcohol abuse or drug abuse or violence or crime to this mess I'm I'm I'm doing whatever I can to get out of here I remember U meeting uh older gentlemen um and ladies who had been living that way their entire lives and I remember thinking as a young man I don't want to be in the same wretched situation when I'm 40 or 50 or 60 like I'm I'm getting out of here I'm I had the hunger in I had the fire to learn whatever I had to learn to do whatever I had to do to become whoever I had to become to genuinely live a happy and successful life where you know I'm best friends with my wife and raising great children and and I man I constantly thought about that how can I create a situation where I have a family one day where my children never ever have to experience what I'm experiencing and to have enough for what we need and to live a good life so I I I come I've come up with the common denominators of disaster and I want to share a story and this you guys this is powerful and fascinating I learned this several years ago and it was all about what happened during the kind of the end of the Roman Empire and in the let's see early 2 Century so the late 1 Century early 2nd Century ad there was a Roman poet we in English we call him Juvenile and he was observing what was happen happening um socially as the Roman Empire was coming to an end and as I understand the story there was some politicians who wanted to uh they wanted to to take over and they wanted to control the populace right and so think about this put your put yourself in this situation you you want to rise up and be a leader and you want you want to control the populace you want to be able to say something and control the people get them to do what you want them to do without you know without kicking back without resistance you just get them to where they just kind of go along with whatever you say right and their strategy was what in Latin um I don't know how to pronounce this correctly but I'm going to give it a shot here PanAm sensus which the translation the direct translation into English is bread and circuses and this term bread and circuses is this this phrase talking about superficial appeasement like how do we how do we appease the people how do we um lull them into this this state of kind of a thoughtless stuper where they do whatever right and and juvenile says this is what's happening um and I'm GNA I'm going to read a quote directly here from from Wikipedia because I love the way they put this says the phrase means to generate public approval not by excellence in public service or public policy but by diversion distraction or satisfying the most immediate and base requirements of the

populace oh isn't that good right to generate public approval by diversion which means you know entertainment fund distraction which we live in the age of distraction and satisfying the most immediate and base requirements of populace food and entertainment right by offering a pallative for example food and entertainment in other words bread and circuses right and juvenile was decrying the selfishness of of the common people and their neglect of wider concerns right and the phrase implies that the populace is the population's erosion or ignorance of civic duty as a priority in other words their lives were totally out of whack and out of priority they weren't prioritized they weren't focusing on the things that actually really matter they were spending their Liv lives seeking entertainment and food whoa and you know some some historians talking about you know well this is kind of one of the things that brought that Ro that great Roman Empire would LED it to an end was just this constant need for cheap food and cheap entertainment and if we stop is is is this hitting any of you or you're like whoa that's our day and age right because as long as people have food and not even very good food but they got cheap food and they've got plenty of entertainment what happens to their drive and their ambition and their motivation and inspiration and their quest for greatness and excellence and their commitment to doing good things that just gets all kind of washed away and we end up you know with that Blank Stare and you know can you can you picture that in your mind the open mouth blank stare you can watch somebody playing a video game or watching the TV and just it's almost like you just get so sucked into it you're not even there like the lights are on but nobody's home you know what I'm saying and so we get sucked into this and honestly guys I'm going to say it right now like and and it may not be very popular bread and circuses is one of the biggest and most prominent common denominators of disaster and in so many situations it's the bread and circuses that led to destroyed lives it's just constantly seeking entertainment and and especially to the neglect of habits and actions and choices and attitudes that lead to happiness and success but it's just constantly being replaced or consumed um by bread and circuses by entertainment think about this think how much how much entertainment is controlling people's lives and and initially we're like well no I'm just you know we're g we're going to watch some shows we're going play some games but it's this constant insatiable desire for more entertainment where um if you if you read the statistics my friends they just blow you way of how how often the TV is on in the average American home it's many hours every day and how much screen time uh people are getting and and now especially it wasn't even like this you know 10 or 20 years ago but from little children now little children are on screens from the get-go and they're getting hours and hours and hours and so for some people it literally seems like this unending stream of visual trash

W and it's almost like that's kind of become the the dream right that's the dream life to to have this unending stream of visual trash and and in my work with with many people that was the that was the Catalyst it was unfiltered unlimited uncontrolled access to the steady stream of visual trash which led to screen addictions video game addictions entertainment addictions and then as I've worked with many people that often leads to substance addictions and pornography addictions um and then the train wreck that I talk about it's almost it's so heart-wrenching where it turns into a deep depression and often attempted suicides and you know and you guys can you see this can you see where I'm going though like I know like I'm like I tell people like get R of your TV like just get it out of your life like and I'm I'm All About hey let's have fun let's watch some great shows let's I love being I love entertainment too you guys I really do I love I love having a good time I don't think anyone will ever accuse me of not having a good time having fun but I'm never ever going to compromise my standards or allow myself or my family my children to let let bread and circuses be the focus of Life the goal of Life The Objective or even a major portion not no way right like if we're going to have fun we're going to have fun while we're working while we're doing something productive and beneficial because that stuff just sucks you in it really does it it just grabs your mind and your emotions and and like notice it I'm going invite you to notice it next time you watch a show or something especially the the TV series they do oh man they they are so strategic about playing to human psychology and human emotions and sucking you into it and and dragging you along one one after another and then introducing these these wretched ideas and so I I want to encourage all of us to raise our filters big time on what we allow what we consume because you guys always input determines output it always has and it always will input determines output what we put in is what we get out so if we're feeding our minds with trash it's going to come out in our life don't please don't ever lie to yourself and think that it doesn't affect you it does from the news to the silly shows to whatever you're listening to even to this right even this stuff like everything we consume it it has an effect on our lives and so we've got to really be tenacious and ruthless about having a high filter on what we consume from all media sources music included and limit how much that is and and I W so here's here's my invitation for you kind of little coaching session here you guys here's my invitation is like carefully evaluate how much time you're spending in entertainment and track it track it for this week like literally do it get a little calendar and just track it and just write down how you spend your time do it in you know 15 15 to 30 minute increments and just track your track your usage of time I think many of you will be shocked how much time it just adds up quickly that you you end up spinning on social media or whatever else and then I want you to also jot down what it is you're consuming and do a test here do do like a a media fast where you don't watch any TV or movies uh for a bit or or change the filter and watch how you feel I was coaching one client fantastic client but he just had this the stress going on he just always felt stressed uh he felt fearful and tense right always just kind of like oh there was there was this this tense feeling in his life all the time and and as I got into I'm like oh man he has the news going all the time he's like I have the news on I want some background noise I want to kind of be aware of what's going on I said you know what try something cut out the news just just literally remove the news from your life completely cuz the vast majority of is negativity and they actually it's that they're also playing to human psychology and any kind of fear and negativity releases cortisol into our bodies um and that cortisol we become actually ironically we become addicted to it and we get these hits and it releases this fear it's kind of the fear drug the body releases and this and and it creates so much um this just feeling of unrest and uneasiness and fear and worry and nervousness right and and so I had to remove that stuff and he removed it completely whoa like Total Transformation like he he told me he felt so much better and he just was more focused and and felt happier more joyful and was removed from the negativity and so like we got to remove this stuff from our life so let's remove remove the breed and circuses if you if you want to have fun you want to have do some Recreation like write down a list of really good things that that are bonding and connecting so instead of just going and watching some lame movie that you regret having watched afterwards and you didn't really connect with the people you're with go do some activity go do a service project go do something crazy fun and exciting but that's actually using your bodies and using your minds and connecting socially instead of just sitting there consuming whatever whatever it is they're sending out and cut out cut out some of the common denominators um and again going back to these common denominators of disaster you guys I see it happening there is this unlimited unfiltered bread and circuses and so for those of you like and it all needs to self-regulate so those of you who are are single or um you're young like regulate yourself set up your own systems delete some apps from your phone if you have to like put strict limits on how much you can consume and when you can consume it like when I'm when I'm coaching and mentoring say Hey you know you hit your priorities for first you do the number one thing first like if if reading is important to you you read for a certain amount of time and after you've done your reading and after you've done your workout and after you've you know done something to improve your skills and set yourself up for Success then then you may have a limited time of good entertainment right and and this is this is something you set up for yourself and if your parents teach your children this principle and help them you know set set it up as a family like hey we have alerts and alarms and controls and we may have a limited amount of positive uplifting good entertainment but only after we've done our first things first and man I promise it will make a gigantic difference as I coach and Mentor people we run people through um our monthly coaching program which is the school of awesome sauce we have these trackers in there we have this 28- day challenge and we have daily trackers and AM and PM routines and rituals and we're we're going along we're helping hold this accountability and we're we're sharing inspiration and ideas in our in our private Facebook group and and what we're doing is we're making this shift into this place where you guys where we feel alive we feel productive we feel excited we're getting things done and we're removing the toxicity the negativity and what juvenile called right the distraction and the diversion and the appeasement of you know the base needs the lowest level stuff that's just like it's pulling the plug on our life so let's get back in the game you guys get back in the game make sure we're using our days to improve our lives to become our very best selves we're we're making the most most of our time and our energy and our efforts and emotion we're inspiring people around us and and we're getting in a space where man we are doing things and getting it done and really feeling truly alive get out make it happen remember awesome is always an option reach

upward hey everybody thanks so much for listening to this episode I hope you got a lot of value out of it and found some things that you can apply to your life right away hey I'm I'm being totally sincere when I say I I live to help you live your extraordinary life so I hope you'll reach out to me if you have any questions or let me know how I can help you in any important area of your life and in fact you know this this podcast is brought to you by the school of awesome sauce monthly coaching program take advantage of that get in there if it's the best way to get a breakthrough to the next level so you can level up your health your spirituality your emotions your mind your relationships your finances business every part of your life just get in there where you have a a coach and a mentor you have a supportive Community to make things happen so so jump in there take advantage of this try it out get in there with us and level up your life see you on the inside reach upward [Music]