Grab the Bull by the Horns – Coffee Break

Do the Work

Devani and I love coffee and chai, and thoroughly enjoy inspiring conversations on all sorts of topics.

So our goal is to bring you one “inbetweenisode” as coined (we think) by Timothy Ferriss of the Tim Ferriss Show and Four Hour Work Week fame.

In these episodes we discuss favorite quotes and what it means to us, people who inspire us, business building for creatives, and whatever else may come up in conversation.

We’d love to have coffee with you, but until then, we hope you’ll join us virtually!

“Take the bull by the horns. The dragon by the tail. And challenge your resistance to align with your mission rather than sabotage it.” LeAura Alderson

Links:

• 90 Day Goals Journal
• The War of Art, Steve Pressfield
• Do The Work, Steve Pressfield
• 90 Day Creator’s Challenge & Mastermind

Full Episode Transcription:

LeAura [00:00:43] Hi welcome to the I create daily podcast a movement for creators serious about their art. I’m LeAura.

Devani [00:00:49] and I’m Devani and this is a coffee break episode in which we drink coffee and talk and you guys listen. So on the Coffee Break episodes, we read a quote and we find a riff on the quote and so I’ll just dive into the quote. So, today’s quote:

“Take the bull by the horns. The dragon by the tail. And challenge your resistance to align with your mission rather than sabotage it.” LeAura Alderson

LeAura [00:01:17] So what does that mean to you. We would love to hear. So please do send us your comments. You can e-mail us too at Creators@iCreateDaily.com. Meanwhile some thoughts that we have on this quote. So really it comes down to I think it was inspired perhaps originally by Steven Pressfield who is the author of a number of wonderful books including The War of Art and also Do the Work. 

LeAura [00:01:48] They are some of our guiding manuscripts the things that we listen to or read at least annually pretty much to help us stay focused on not making excuses and getting work done and bringing our art into the world. So to me that’s what it really is. It’s recognizing that there are always going to be things in our way and rather than let those sabotage our progress and derail our goals in our life that we really need to again take the bull by the horns and get it out of the way and move on.

Devani [00:02:40] And we were talking a little bit before this kind of planning our episodes out and it’s cool that we get to do this together because. LeAura is a very ‘grab the bull by the horns’ kind of person ‘attack the dragon’ kind of person like. Charge into the battlefield kind of person like she was like born ready for that type of stuff. And I’m very much a “I noticed you sharpened your horns this morning so I think I’m going to stay away” person which is that which is interesting because you get to hear both perspectives.

Devani [00:03:03] If you’re not the type of person who has been that person who just like rushes in, charges in, ready fire aim, if that’s not your vibe then it can be a challenge. And, so for me that quote really is it’s not really about like Go attack mode but it is about like own yourself. Step into who you are and who you are becoming and own it completely. Even if it’s scary even if you’re going to stumble even if you’re not going to get the first iteration right kind of like me rambling about this iteration of what I think it means. But it’s really about just being the person that you need to be to get the stuff done and to do it full on. So don’t like half ass it don’t like kind of try and do it. It’s like the Yoda quote like do or don’t. There’s no try. But it’s about looking at yourself and committing.

LeAura [00:04:08] Yeah. And in particular and we talked about this in the last coffee break but it’s such an important topic for all of us and that is don’t let things get in your way of doing the work in the world that you’re meant to do, that you want to do, that you feel in your soul is something that you want to do more of. So there’s always there are always going to be obstacles there are always going to be reasons not to do, there are always going to be things that pull against us.

LeAura [00:04:36] That is the gravity of entropy basically that is that that is what this is like. We’re designed to create and excel by pushing against that gravity because that’s what makes us stronger and that’s how the strong survive kind of being in nature. And it’s like the sprout pushing through the soil in spring it’s the strong winds pushing their head through that dirt to become a little sprout ling. You know those are the ones that grow to be stronger or the butterfly being against the cocoon that is able to escape. That is also then able to fly.

LeAura [00:05:17] It’s really about challenging. So one of the things that you know even if you’re not like what Devani said, a take the bull by the horns dragon by the tail kind of person and you’re not or charge into your day kind of thing like I tell you hit the floor running…

Devani [00:05:35] And by running she means running. So I stay up stairs and they all come downstairs and. I, You know, I like to I enjoy the process of waking up slowly. Relaxed and getting started with the day making my coffee like figuring my head out and you know getting all that sorted, very zen.

Devani [00:05:59] And this one likes waking up with the podcast, she listens to like three or four episodes of podcasts while she’s were getting ready and getting ready.

LeAura [00:06:15] And then by the time Devani comes down, you know on her commute from upstairs to our office area. It’s like I am so fired up and ready to go. That’s like I hit her with a ton of bricks.

Devani [00:06:27] She’s like I have a million ideas and like this is what we need to do with the brand today. And the idea is what can you do a landing page and I’m just like OK. Slow down. I’m still on yesterday to do list.

LeAura [00:06:42] So back to the quote and the serious side of the concept is that if we’re resisting something then that’s a clue for us to look at what it is we’re resisting and ask that question why am I resisting this. Because oftentimes and again we mentioned this quote last time to Tony from Tony Robbins and that is ‘Our growth lives on the other side of her comfort zone.’ Typically we tend to resist things because we haven’t done them before because it seems hard. We’d like to think of excuses and reasons for not doing it. But really. We just. Take pause. And ask ourselves why am I so resistant to this. Oftentimes we come up with. Perhaps a little bit closer to the truth and really it’s some of those excuses for programming or fears that have gotten in the way of are really doing nothing.

Devani [00:07:40] And as somebody who’s definitely battled with resistance and still battles with resistance. Almost daily up pretty regularly I can say that it’s definitely empowering. When you start taking charge of it it can just be a simple thing. I got one thing done today that brings me closer to whatever I’m trying to accomplish. So it could be you know I drafted a blog post today and that is one step closer to creating more content for my brand whatever it is for you. Just those small wins that help you take charge. Definitely an empowering thing to do.

LeAura [00:08:14] Yeah and I mean so OK so I’m gonna take the bull by the horns type of person. However there are things that I definitely have to push against so for instance and Devani and I tend to keep each other active by reminding each other hey you know we’ve been sitting for six hours straight and now we definitely need to go walk the dogs. We need to bike up the hill you know and get some energy going. And I could just keep working all night you know until I just couldn’t stay awake any longer and so I do sometimes need to be drug away and get going and so she pushes me to do that. And like you know getting into biking and biking up the hills is really hard. Even though I really love being healthy and fit it’s like it’s not like my favorite thing to do at the time in the moment. And so I mean I have to push through my resistance. You know I’m basically put that resistance into doing the hard thing.

Devani [00:09:06] If you’re watching the youtube video you should meet one of our personal trainers. Yes. Yes my little seven pounds a flush, Caspian is a Maltese. Yeah. And this one is amazing how if we’re sitting too long he does not let us get away with that too much you know I mean if a dog is in your budget I highly recommend it. 

LeAura [00:09:28] You know so that again like we talked about in the last coffee break it’s like associate with people who push you to do more of the work that you’re really wanting to do and one of the ways you can identify that is who is it that you admire and who is it that you would like to be in the world. Who is it that if you became more of that person you would be proud and feel good about yourself and what.

[00:09:51] If you get to the end of your life if you don’t do it we regret so there are lots of ways to look at. And you know and evaluate kind of that concept so that you know the longer we make excuses the more we become them. So we need to push through the resistance’s and in turn our back on those excuses and align with our mission and not sabotage it with excuses and taking the easier lower road essentially too slowly. Yeah. So. So that’s the main message for today and know that for anyone and any of us including anything that you’ve ever done where you push yourself even when you didn’t want to to do things that were harder or that were more important. There’s you’ve never regretted it. So we never regret accomplishing more in life. We only regret not becoming more of the person that we want to be in the world. So don’t live with regrets Live With the success of being more of who you’re really here to be. And we wish you luck with that.

LeAura [00:10:59] We’d love to hear your comments and your thoughts. Definitely share with us the things you’ve recently accomplished doesn’t matter how small or big they are. We’d love to hear what you guys are up to as well.

LeAura [00:11:11] Yeah definitely. So along those lines if you don’t know exactly when you’re going to be listening to this but if it is in saved this is December 1st of 2017 when we’re following this and we are going to be launching the next creators challenge and that is a 90 day creators goals challenge where it is that it. Who create are serious about their art have a chance to really buckle down and get your goals done in a community of others who are doing the same kind of thing. Doesn’t matter what you’re creating. Anyone who’s interested in bringing their creative endeavor into the world and doing more of it in creating daily toward building your dream your business whatever it is it’s on your goals list. We would love to have you join us and the next one starts January 1st 2018. So if you’re listening to this after that then just go to the migrate Daily Dot Com and click on the auction. The creators challenge and you can sign up for the waiting list for the next one at the current one is closed already guys have an awesome day. By.

[00:12:26] Thanks so much for joining us for that I create daily podcast these let us know what creatives you would like to interview and what topics to be interested in hearing more about. And if you enjoy this show please leave a review on iTunes. We value your feedback. We read all the reviews and it just helps us get the word out on the daily podcast. Thank you so so much.