#83 Pursuing Your Potential

Rachel Denning (00:01.326)
Hey my friends, Greg Denning here and I am so excited. January 5th is the beginning of our first 20 day challenge. And man, you can feel the energy and the excitement. Bunch of people signed up, they're getting in the challenge and I can feel it and my wife can feel it and my kids are getting on board. It's just exciting. And it's a great opportunity to especially...

Go after the things that you've been struggling doing. So maybe if you're like me, you've talked about, thought about, or dreamt about something that you wanted to do, but just never have gotten around to actually doing it. And that's what a 20 day challenge can step in and literally create a transformation. So for me, the one I'm choosing, the really going after is violin. I love the violin. I love the violin. And I wanted to play for years.

I finally took some lessons and practiced a little bit, but I've not been consistent enough to make a difference. And when I have, when I've, you know, I'm, I'm constantly working for you guys and creating things and reading. And when, and when I have downtime, I turn to a book or I'm working out hard, I'm hitting these other things, but all to the neglect of violin. And so I'm like, you know what? This has to happen. And so I'm going to create the challenge and that's it's going on. It's on a challenge. And so I practiced twice today. I love it.

And you know, we bought this beautiful old expensive kind of restored violin while we were in Prague walking. It was on my wife's birthday. We were going to this unbelievable restaurant called the Blue Duckling. We're walking through this little alleyway and there was this old shop and you know, with some instruments in the window. I was like, what is this? And it felt like there's this old movie called the Touch of the Master's Hand where this old violin maker would...

you know, repair this, this old kind of beat up violin and just make it sound beautiful and went in there. And this is what that guy did. He had all these old, old violins. We got one that was built handmade in Germany in like 1837 or something. And he had restored it and he just picked it up and played it. And I was like, so we bought it and, and I'm going to make that thing sing. It's going to take me. It's, you know, obviously violence challenging, but I'm, I'm in.

Rachel Denning (02:24.11)
I'm in. So anyways, sorry, side note, like I'm stoked. I'm super excited. And I want you to take the challenge. If you guys take the challenge, it's not for everybody, but if you're ready to level up, don't underestimate what you can transform in your life in 28 days. I think sometimes we sell ourselves short, you guys, because we say things like, well, I've tried, I've tried to make changes, or I've been trying to lose weight for years, or I've been trying to reach that new goal for years. I've been trying to increase my income for years. I've been doing all this stuff.

But we've kind of gone about it halfway. We haven't really committed with integrity on the line. We haven't committed with coaching, with community, with accountability, with a challenge, with a deadline and a goal and a timeline and, and really getting things done and with a tracking system. So if we haven't done all of those things, that's, that's the recipe for success. If we haven't done those things, then we've never, we haven't really ever committed.

And so we say to ourselves, we tell ourselves the story of like, I tried, I've tried, I've tried. Well, the truth is if we're super honest with ourselves, we haven't really tried until we've done all those things. You haven't tried until you've gotten the coaching. You haven't tried until you've had an accountability partner who's holding you to it and you've got some skin in the game. There's something online for you. You haven't really tried until you've done that. You haven't tried until you have a community that's super supportive and they're there to.

hold you accountable and cheer you on. You haven't tried until you've done that. And you haven't tried until you've given yourself a big challenge with a timeline and a deadline and a tracking system. Then you tried. And when we do that, you guys, it's like, it's like turning on the jet propulsion. Like things happen. And the people who do the 20 day challenge, it like, it would transform their life. I literally remember times when we, whenever we do the 20 day challenge,

We get so much feedback and responses of, of lives being transformed of personal lives, of people having what I call the awakening. And they realize, my goodness. I got so caught up in the rat race. I I've been existing. I haven't even been really living. I stopped dreaming years ago and I've just been reacting to life and they have this awakening and there are times.

Rachel Denning (04:50.702)
during these challenges where I'm just sitting there and Rachel in tears reading these responses of how people change their marriages and change their parenting and change the projection of her life and already bringing in the tide and making these transformations their lives. And then months, months later, people will come to us or I'll get on a call or coaching session. They're like, you have no idea how much that first 20 day challenge changed the way I do life and how I'm a new person. Like.

I love this stuff so you can see why I'm so excited. I love it. But I wanted to just share a quick message, my friends, and I did a full episode on the moral obligation to become our best self. I think it was episode number 18. I wanna remind all of us, myself included, and you.

of that obligation we have and not even necessary. I mean, obligation is just one part of it. It's actually a gigantic privilege. It's an honor. It's an opportunity. It's a huge blessing to be able to pursue, even chase down our potential. Here's a way to look at it. See your best self.

that ideal man or that ideal woman, like at your very best, that's in you already. It's not exterior to you. It's not some foreign thing. It's you. It's in you. You just have to carve it out. You have to, like Michelangelo, right? You just carve, let the angel come out of the stone. It's in you already. But perhaps we could see it as something that we're pursuing. We're chasing it down.

So when the moment comes, some people like to think of it as the moment when we die and we go into heaven or we go into the next life. And in this imaginary moment when you get to meet the person you could have been.

Rachel Denning (06:56.622)
that when you get there, it's like you're looking in the mirror and or you're identical and you're like, I did it. I did it. I chased you down. I was out. I was hunting for my best and I was pursuing you and I got it. And it would be, it would be miserable hell to get there and to be so far below what you could have become. That would be just, that would be miserable. And none of us would be pleased with that. It would be filled with so much remorse.

So on one side, there's this moral obligation, and on the other side, and this responsibility. And the other side, it's just this gigantic blessing and privilege, and it's exciting and fulfilling and meaningful, and it just fires me up. And of course, I didn't always think like this. In fact, I had never been, I grew up in a place where, like we didn't talk about personal development or human performance or self -improvement, like what was self -help, what's that? Right, I grew up in a.

in a poorer area and then when I moved out on my own, I was super poor in like in bad neighborhoods and around people who just all they were doing was trying to drown their sorrows and assuage their pains with drugs and alcohol and immorality and violence and crime. It was just constant. It was the constant pursuit of entertainment and numbing and avoidance. So it wasn't anybody, I wasn't surrounded with anyone like, hey, you should be improving yourself. You should change your life.

It was just reactive mode. We were just surviving.

And so I wasn't always like this, but what happened is when I got, I got tired, like the loneliness, the loneliness was the most painful for me. And so that one stung, like I hated being alone, but I was timid and shy. And so I'm like, well, you know, I'm always going to be alone unless I learn how to talk to people, how to have a conversation, how to build relationships. I'm going to do that. And I had this, this aha moment where I realized,

Rachel Denning (08:55.214)
that if things were going to improve in my life, I had to improve. And so I started working on it and I was strategically making self -improvement. And then all of a sudden, of course, I got better results and I became addicted, so to speak, to personal growth. Wow. I work on myself. I get better results. That's awesome. I work on myself some more. I get better results. This is amazing. And I've gotten on this path and now...

I live for it every day. I'm constantly trying to learn new things and grow and improve. And like, and I know that anything, the only thing standing between where I am and where I want to go is some knowledge and a set of skills. That's it. So every day you'll find me working on knowledge and skills because I want to go, I'm chasing it down in every aspect of my life. I'm going after it. And so personal growth, making the most of ourselves,

is this huge privilege and advantage and a blessing and it gives us so much reward. There's immediate gratification that we get from like, we're actually hardwired for you guys. Like our body releases like feel good chemicals. Our brain releases those into our body when we learn something new, when we practice something hard and when we achieve things.

Like we get an immediate reward. And then of course there's mental and spiritual and emotional and social satisfaction of making changes. And so I want to invite you, I want to challenge you. In fact, take the challenge. If you're ready, get in the 20 day challenge with us. Even if you're listening to this a couple of days afterward, jump in, like whatever, if you missed a couple of days, get in on the action. Get a copy of the extraordinary life planner.

That thing is unbelievable and will map out a vision and a concrete plan for becoming the kind of person you want to be and living the life you want to live. But get in the challenge. And if you don't do either of those, okay, but like we've set it all up. We know the formula. We know it works. So we've done all the hard work for you. But if you want to do it on your own, go for it. But do it and just get, get tenacious, get committed.

Rachel Denning (11:19.15)
get the discipline and the determination and the mindset and the identity of look, look, I'm the person here's, here's the identity I want to invite you to take on. Like I get up every day and I'm happy. I'm joyful. I'm celebrating where I've come from, but I am chasing down my best self. Like, and again, I,

We got to see this in a healthy way because you already are it's in you You're just bringing it into fruition. You're creating it. We're working on ourselves So we're not out trying to find ourselves. We're trying to make ourselves Right. And so we're doing the work because that work is required like I know there's some people out there like no just just be just accept it as it is you don't have to work hard on your things just just be and I you know, I've

I don't I don't agree with that in in that everything in life that's really valuable takes work. And it doesn't have to be it doesn't have to be stressful or strenuous necessarily. Or, you know, in this unhealthy negative way, it doesn't have to be turmoil.

or misery.

But the beautiful things in life, they take work. And let's commit. Let's be all in, my friends. Let's go all in and start taking advantage of all of these possibilities that are all around us. If we'll just grab hold of that bar, that higher bar, and we'll pull our thing, we're reaching upward, right?

Rachel Denning (13:14.126)
Reaching up to that higher bar, we'll pull ourselves up there and we'll get up and then all of these opportunities and possibilities are right in front of us for the taking. So many of us are living far below our privileges. So this is my invitation tonight that we have a privilege, a blessing, an opportunity and a responsibility and even a moral obligation to become our very best selves. And...

It's exciting. It's fun. I'm excited for you and your possibilities and the magic and the awesome sauce that can come into your life and in your family. The things you can create achieve. Rachel and I and our family have been able to do things that we couldn't have dreamt up in our wildest dreams. But because we're constantly chasing improvement, we've actually been able to attain achievement.

and experience and do and become in ways that we never would have thought possible. Again, I came from that space I was telling you about a little bit ago, just no, no idea. I literally didn't even know it existed, that this whole idea of personal development, improvement, and writing your own ticket and creating life on your terms. I didn't even know that existed. And now it's, it's a part of who I am.

and it's how I do life and it's made all the difference and it's exciting and it's literally why I do everything I do from from the 28 day challenge to the extraordinary life planner to the extraordinary family life formula to this podcast to one on one coaching everything I do is to help I'm continuing to grow and become my best self and so it's to help me do that but it's also to help others.

because it has made such an unbelievable difference in my life, I have a moral obligation to share what I've learned with others, what's worked for me. Right? And man, it's just so fun and so exciting and so exhilarating. And it makes life so enjoyable. It's just fun to be crushing it, you guys. Life is better when you're winning. That's awesome. So let's win. And we just got to get in the game.

Rachel Denning (15:42.158)
and invest in yourself, invest in your education, invest in your improvement, take on the challenge, be willing to get uncomfortable and put some skin in the game and to level up because the rewards are unbelievable. You guys, will you join me in this quest for greatness and in the quest to spread it, to get this in front of more people? I wanna enlist you like.

Rachel and I have this vision of just creating this, this tribe, this army of, of people who are seeking to be their best selves and live their best lives. And when we're creating extraordinary family lives and we're spreading it, we're radiating light and warmth and love and goodness and excitement and improvement all around the world. Will you join me? Will you become a part of this movement with me? This chance?

to change the world literally. And you can do that. Share this, like take a screenshot of this podcast and tag me and put it on social media and recommend this episode or other episodes to friends or family. Share the challenge, share the planner. Like let's spread this all over the place and let's light some fires because there are wonderful people all around us.

who are back where I was, they don't even know that personal development and self -improvement and creating life on their terms, they don't even know it exists. They're just in reactive mode and they've never been taught, have never been exposed to it or had very little exposure and they don't realize that they can live a much better life than the one they're living. I'm not bagging their lives, right? They might be content, happy, whatever, but the greatest tragedy to me is when any human being is living below their own potential.

Whatever that is and every potential looks unique and different. We all have a different path. And so we're not comparing potentials. But on an individual level, we should be comparing our current status to our own potential. And let's share that. man, let's be a part of this movement with me. Join this tribe, get in this community. You're already here. I love you. Thanks for being here. But like, let's take action to spread this.

Rachel Denning (18:11.118)
and really make a difference and share what we, you and I, we've been given and help others chase down and be and bring to fruition and create and manifest their best selves because life is so good when we're living like that. I love it. I love it.

Remember my friends, every day you and I, we're training for greatness. We're training for greatness. And awesome is always an option. Reach upward.