Author: Eric Deeter

If you have any ennui that’s holding you back, it’s time to get motivated and voila, you’ll be back on track to crush your goals.

Ennui – Listlessnes and dissatisfaction resulting from lack of interest; boredom

I’ve struggled with ennui in the past. How about you?

Some of you may be gritting your teeth right now.

Because you know what’s wrong with what I’ve been saying.

Intro:

This Monday Mindset is not about ennui.

At least not the definition.

Today I’m talking about being willing to be wrong.

E N N U I – is pronounced on-wee

It’s a word we stole from the French.

The other French word I used is voila.

For years I pronounced ennui wrong.

And I spelled voila wrong.

I learned how to spell voila in a college class.

It was only a few years ago that I learned how to pronounce ennui

And just this week I learned that the piccolo and flute are considered wood-wind instruments.

Our education system conditions us to fear being wrong.

Fixed mindset – I won’t even try if I might be wrong.

This conditioning leads us to believe that we are right in what we think we know. 

But “what we know” isn’t always right.

Some things we used to “know” that aren’t so.

1. The earth is the center of the universe.
2. The earth is flat.
3. The sun revolves around the earth.
4. Disease is caused by humours in the blood. The cure is to drain some blood out of your body.
5. Humans only use 10% of their brain.
6. Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis.
7. Eating carrots will improve your eyesight.
8. Women are intellectually inferior to men.

Exchange between Bing AI and journalist about the present date.

It’s creepy.

But it is a very human tendency exaggerated.

I’m right! You’re wrong!

Strong mindset — understand that what you know might not be so.

Some of what you “KNOW” is wrong.

When you KNOW you’re right, you will never consider evidence to the contrary.

Your mind blocks out everything that questions your “REALITY.”

And when REALITY crashes over you it’s a mental crisis.

The Matrix – most aren’t ready.

Not FLAT EARTH. But be willing to question what you think you know.

And be willing to be wrong.

This is the sign of a healthy mindset.

• “Winners never quit, and quitters never win.” – Vince Lombardi
• “You are never a loser until you quit trying.” – Mike Ditka
• “Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit.” – Edwin Louis Cole
• “Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
• “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
• “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi
• “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” – Newt Gingrich
• “Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.” – Charles F. Kettering.

Then there’s the story of the miner in California who gave up his claim after digging for years.

10 years later someone bought the claim and struck one of the richest veins of gold ever found after digging only 3 more feet.

Perseverance is at the heart of ultramarathon running.

And perseverance comes from mindset.

Your mind will give out long before your body.

But there are times when you know it’s time to take a DNF!

This Monday Morning Mindset is going to be different. 

I’m taking a DNF.

Not for the podcast. But as a coach.

My wife and I have had some long conversations the past few weeks.

And I’m blessed to have someone who isn’t afraid to tell me her honest opinion. 

Often it’s hard for me to hear. But she sees things in me that no one else sees, not even myself.

I started this podcast to promote and market my coaching services.

The podcast has grown, but my coaching business has not.

So we decided it’s time for me to close down my coaching business.

Over my life I have started projects and then quit too soon.

But I have changed my mindset. I’ve kept going trying to build my business.

With any DNF it’s good to do a post-race analysis.

What could I have done differently?

What can I learn from this?

There are mindset coaches out there (talking to you NLP people) who say you never fail. They say you succeed or you learn.

But I’ve learned that it damages your soul when you block out your emotions.

Failure and loss are part of life. And if you bury those emotions, you’re asking for trouble. 

What I call “the ultramarathon mindset” is the willingness to go through whatever the trail and weather throw at you as well as the pain and emotions that go along with running that far.

Closing down my coaching business is failure. 

And I feel grief and loss.

But I won’t let it stop me. 

I have a lot of life bubbling in my soul. 

I’m still going after epic stuff and am living an epic life.

And I’ll still be here on the podcast. 

Just last week I got a message from a listener who said he’s making changes to get back on track for the life he wants to have.

So for all of you who do listen, thank you! I appreciate being able to share here with you each week. And it means a lot to me to hear when it helps make a difference in your life.

What we discussed:

Mandy played all the sports she could in high school.

She gained weight in college so she went on what she describes as an “ultra” diet and lost 60 pounds in 11 weeks.

She started running after she lost weight.

Marathons became her sport of choice.

She got burned out and switched to Iron Man triathlons.

She lost interest in triathlons and signed up for Marathon de Sables, spending 7 days running in the Sahara.

She found she likes the challenge of planning and strategizing for stage racing.

Her mindset strategy is to stay in the moment and not think about the distance remaining.

Her first 100 mile finish was the Yukon 100, a self-supported trek in January.

The temps got to -50 Fahrenheit.

An added challenge was that her water froze and the only hydration she got was to eat snow.

Facebook: Mandy Miller

Books: States of Grace

Friday Night in the Glades

“Knowledge is power.“

You’ve probably heard this quote before – attributed to Sir Francis Bacon in 1597.

The idea is that the more you know the better off you’ll be.

(Conspiracy in education & information services to keep you buying what they sell.)

It is true that education system is focused on teaching you what’s “important” for you to know.

They encourage you to go to college – know more things.

We’ve been conditioned to believe that knowledge is the key to success so much that our first thought for doing something new – take a class.

But I have news for you . . . knowledge is not power!

In fact, too much knowledge might even rob you of power!

I love to learn. Since as long as I can remember.

I was good at reading when I was young.

8yo – 3’ stack of Reader’s Digest magazines over summer.

I still love to read. Discover new ideas and facts.

But several years ago I realized that my desire to get more knowledge was actually keeping me from success.

There are certain settings when it’s true that knowledge is power.

There is a reason the government labels information TOP SECRET.

But for you and me, knowledge alone doesn’t give you power.

You only get power when you APPLY the knowledge you have.

Back in the Real Estate Bubble, I was investing in real estate.

I joined a real estate investor group. —>>> networking, “free training seminars.”

Real Estate Guru – tell their story . . . how they made millions . . . give a few free “how-to” bits . . . “Buy my course!” (Knowledge is power.)

“First 5 people get 30% discount.”

Average price: $1500 to $3000

Most gave good information. 

But having the information didn’t do you any good if you never bought any real estate.

There was a couple who were first in line at every sales pitch. They would run to the front.

They spent thousands of dollars to get all the information and knowledge they could.

But they never bought any real estate! Not a single house!

Now you see my point.

Knowledge isn’t power!

It’s the application of your knowledge that gives you the power!

Flip side: They didn’t lose money when the housing market crashed in 2008 like the rest of us did.

But what I want to help you see is that you can be on a quest for knowledge and enjoy the process. But that knowledge won’t do you much good if you don’t act on it.

The person who take action will always have more success, even if they don’t know as much!

Don’t get me wrong! You do need to know a little bit about what you want to do.

If you want to skydive or base jump, you probably should take some lessons first.

But I see too many people get caught in the trap of “learning about how to get what they want” and then never do anything to get there.

3 steps to success:

• Decide
• Start
• Don’t Stop

The most important of these is START!

When I decided to start a second podcast, I knew this fact.

The time between decision and my first episode – 10 days.

If you want an epic life . . . best version of yourself.

Learn as much as you can about how to do it.

But START using what you learn right away.

If you get stuck, find a coach.

Look for a coach that will help you become independent.

If you’ve been with the same coach for years, you might still be stuck.

Mindset for adventure

Sandi Nypaver is an ultramarathon runner, running coach, and adventurer. She did sports in school. But it wasn’t until she went on a youth expedition with Impossible to Possible that she got a taste of the mindset to test her limits. (Ep. 129 is where Ray Zahab talks about starting the organization of Impossible to Possible.)

Sandi decided to do an ultramarathon after spending time with the youth expedition. She met seasoned ultra runners who were 100 mile veterans. So her first ultramarathon was a 100 mile race. She ended up winning.

Connect with Sandi

Linktree

Instagram

YouTube

Website

Speaking notes:

There are things you know that you don’t know that you know.

You might have experienced this before.

When you’re looking for the right word.

When you see a familiar face and try to remember the name.

You have a sudden memory from your past.

Psychologists believe that you and I are only aware of 5 – 10% of our own thoughts.

The rest is what they call the subconscious.

And your subconscious remembers tons of information you don’t know that you know.

I had an experience a few days ago that reminded me of how powerful the subconscious mind is.

It came when a lion with a man’s face appeared in my dream.

Intro:

Some experts think that your dreams are reflections of your subconscious mind.

I think it is possible that dreams are even more than that.

But dreams do often bridge the gap between your conscious and unconscious mind.

I tend to have a lot of dreams I don’t remember. I’m awake enough to feel the emotions, but the dream isn’t vivid enough for me to see.

But sometimes my dreams are like a first-person video game. I see it like a movie and interact with the characters and move around in the setting.

My dream about the lion with a man’s face was like this.

I’m not going to tell you the whole dream nor my interpretation of what it means. (Yes, I look for meaning when I remember a dream.)

What surprised me is that later in my dream I told someone that I had seen “the Manticore.”

I was talking about the lion with the face of a man.

I was puzzled when I woke up. I wasn’t sure where I came up with the name “Manticore.” 

If you had shown me a drawing of a Manticore and asked me what it is called, I couldn’t have come up with that name.

But I did a search for the word, and it describes a lion with the face of a man.

Now I’m sure this wasn’t some sort of divine revelation.

I’m sure I’ve encountered a description of a Manticore some time in my life.

What I’m getting at is that my conscious mind didn’t remember.

I didn’t wake up and say, “Oh, I remember what a Manticore is.”

Now you may be asking, “So what? You dreamed about a Manticore. What does that have to do with mindset?”

I’m glad you asked!

If you’re like me, you were trained to use your conscious mind to “solve problems.”

Our society worships logic and rational thought.

But that is only 5 – 10% of our mind.

Your subconscious mind captures and retains way more information than your conscious mind.

The relationship between your conscious mind and subconscious is like a rider on a horse.

The rider directs the horse. But the horse has all the power.

When the horse decides to go its own way, the rider can only hang on for dear life.

Also, as they go, the horse is aware of what is happening around them far more than the rider.

Can hear better, see better, smell better than the rider can.

What does this mean for you?

If you are looking to be your best, you need to know how to partner w/ your subconscious like a rider does w/ a horse.

It’s not hard to learn.

It takes time, attention, and a little bit of learning.

And if you’re going to live an epic life . . . be the best version of yourself, you need your subconscious mind working for you . . . not against you.

Create a race you’d like to run.

What we discussed:

Gary – Story Hawk – Henry is one of the founding members of the Trail Hawks running group in Lawrence, KS. 

Since Lawrence Kansas is home to the University of Kansas Jayhawks, the Hawk theme for the group was obvious.

Other trail-running groups give “trail names” to their members. But it is a casual and imprecise process.

The Trail Hawks have a three-step process for achieving your “Hawk Name” as part of the group.

A member’s Hawk Name requires the presence of several Hawk members and either alcohol and conversation or a trail run in which the secret words are uttered to tattoo the name to the member’s soul.

Gary started the Hawk 100 race after crewing a friend in Western States 100.

He wanted to run Western States but decided that it would be just as fun to run a 100 mile trail race closer to home.

He reasoned that a good part of a 100-mile race is run in the dark. And in the light of a headlamp, a trail in California looks just like a trail in Kansas.

He organized the race but then asked a friend to manage it on race day so he could run the race himself.

His friend took on the role of Race Director for the following years.

Gary got the idea of a race that incorporated a mix of trails and created The Snake.

He remained Race Director until 2023 when Eric Deeter (yours truly) took over as RD.

Connect with Gary:

https://www.facebook.com/gary.henry.5477