Building Dreams Amidst Life's Uncertainty

What if you could transform the chaos of life's unpredictability into a canvas for your dreams? Join me, Michael Kane, as I reflect on a recent personal loss that has become a profound wake-up call, urging introspection on our life's priorities. Through this heartfelt discussion, we explore the urgency of distinguishing between what we desire and what we truly need to act upon. Picture life as Silly Putty in your hands, ready to be shaped with intention and purpose amidst its unpredictability. Together, we delve into the necessity of planning, not just for wealth, but for a life enriched with love, family, and meaningful experiences.

As we journey through this episode, I'll share insights from my book "Slaying Your Dragons," emphasizing daily commitment as the cornerstone of success. We'll discuss how collaborating with loved ones can help realize shared dreams while maintaining financial stability in a fluctuating job market. The conversation will inspire you to start from where you are, adapt to changes, and pursue a future filled with hope and fulfillment. Don't miss out on the opportunity to align your reality with the life you envision, and perhaps subscribe to my newsletter, Catalyst, for more inspiration along the way.

Chapters

• 0:01 Live Your Success 24-7
• 16:14 Planning for Life's Success
• 22:17 Achieving Success Through Daily Commitment

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hello there, my friends, this is Michael Caine, with you, know who and know what living your success 24, when, how long? 7, 24, 7. So let's get right into it. After I do my pleasantries, how are y'all doing? Y'all doing, y'all doing good, doing well, that's good.

Speaker 1: 0:28

So what's on Michael Caine's mind? Well, recently a colleague, a friend I would say friend uh passed away, died. You know, just still in shock, still in wonder, and just confused, that wonder, and just confused that, um, just totally unexpected. And it's not the first time it happened in my life with family and friends. But when it does happen, doesn't it like give you a wake-up call? Yeah, it kind of rattles you, shakes you, like someone's shaking you. And so it happens, unfortunately, the opposite of life is death. One could argue, yes, not to get into any religious diatribes here but one could argue well, it's not the end, it's another beginning. Okay, thing about it is you're out of this reality. And so what does this have to do with living your success 24-7? Well, it's, in my show's name, living To be alive, to go forth, to do stuff, to accomplish, to achieve. And so when you have a death, especially an unexpected one of someone that's Relatively young, it's a wake up call To a sense of Urgency that we should not panic. Not saying that, not panic and doing stupid I'm not saying that Not doing unprepared and just foolish stuff, I'm not saying that Not doing unprepared and just foolish stuff, I'm not saying that but a sense of urgency where you plan, you test, you research, you do your homework.

Speaker 1: 3:01

And so my show today I want to talk about what is it that you got to do in life? What do you got to do? You know there's a pure distinction between got to do and just want to do. If I do it, so what I'm thinking? What do you got to do in this thing called life? Because let me tell you Not to be a preacher here, but it does. It does Demonstrate that we don't have forever. So, with whatever goals we have, whatever achievements, accompl achievements, accomplishments we have written down or in our head that we're working on, what do you got to do? What goes into the? What are your top 10 things you got to do before you die? And my message to you today, my friends, is start doing them.

Speaker 1: 4:06

You may think, oh, I'm only 20 years old, I'm only 30 years old, I'm only 50 years old, 60, whatever it is, I could do it next year, I could do it next month, I could do it. Maybe you can, maybe you can't, because I don't know anyone that's a noser damas to life and death like oh you, you, you only got nine months left. You got three and a half years, so take more of your time. We don't know, and a whole nother episode could be. If you couldn't know, would you really want to right? That's the baby? We'll talk about that in another show. If you knew exactly the day you was going to die and how you going to do it, what day, all that would you really want to know. And so that's another show.

Speaker 1: 4:59

But today's show is do what you got to do. Excuse my English, I got to do this, michael Caine, I got to do that. I said I wanted to go to Scotland one day, so I better go buy that plane ticket and go. Yeah, why you still can? I'm not saying to liquidate all your bank accounts and investment accounts and you know, live like a fool. I didn't say that and do foolish things that you're going to regret. I didn't say that either, but I do know is we should shape our lives Like we were in Silly Putty Remember Silly Putty or Clay or whatever you get to mold it Into whatever you want it to be. What are you going to mold with your Silly Putty or Clay? What are you going to do? How are you going to shape it? What does that look like? What does the end result look like? So I'm talking about a sense of urgency, to the point of not panic and despair and chaos, but a sense of urgency that the things I got to do are going to go on the top of my list, but not to be divisive in the family.

Speaker 1: 6:22

Now I'm all about family and family unity, but in fact my argument is before you even get that family, what do you got to do? What do you got to do? What do you want to do before? It's more complicated. You got a bunch of kids, you got a spouse and that's great, I have all the things. But it gets a little harder, more difficult, because now you're in the middle of your career, middle of a perhaps a marriage and middle raising kids kind of hard to go and just and get up and leave.

Speaker 1: 7:01

Okay, and I'm not recommending that either, because I am into family cohesions, cohesion, family, togetherness, family. But another episode, another show is as long as you got the right one, okay. Okay, what does that mean? You know what I mean. But we'll go. That'll be another podcast being with the right one, maybe uh, matchcom or or those other ones, not to call them out, uh, who knows, who knows, you know.

Speaker 1: 7:39

So, getting back to the story and to the message, so I was like, okay, here's another wake-up call, unexpected death here. And okay, these three things that I gotta do just got pushed up some more, because how long do we have to be able to plan and act and do it's? You know it's rhetorical, you can't answer that question because you don't know, and so you know you don't want to push or you don't want to kick that proverbial can down the road until there's no more road left, meaning it's the end of your road. Everybody's end of the road is different some people at 110 years old, some at three years old, or infant or unborn human baby in the womb. Yes, it's a real baby in the womb. Yeah, that's how we all became humans. We're human, we grew out of a womb and we're here we are.

Speaker 1: 8:45

So going on a little tirade for a moment. So what is? What do you got to do to have a fulfilling life. To say you're successful, to be proud of, saying you know I'm successful. Of course we don't go around saying that that's not. You got to be humble, right, you know. It's like you're going around saying I'm so great, can't do that. Now other people can tell you you're great, but you can't tell yourself that. But you still have confidence, but not arrogance. Big difference confidence, not arrogant. Humble, but not too wishy-washy, where your little jello thing and you don't get anything out of life because you just what's? What's more excessive than the word humble I don't know what that is but just wibbly, wobbly, where you just don't matter, so that that's not good either.

Speaker 1: 9:35

And so you want a healthy, balanced life, is my message. But include those things. You gotta do that G-O-T-T-A. Gotta do, mike, I gotta do these things. And so that's why it's very important when we're at the elementary and high and high school age that we start forming our life plan. Not everything, because what 10, 15-year-old is going to say, oh, I'm going to do this and that and that it does happen. But as far as to start thinking of the possibilities of your future life when you become an adult, it'd be nice if they taught that in school, along with finance, personal finance, coming wealthy, being a good citizen, good person, all of that. It'd be nice that they go through all of this before you're thrown in the middle of being an adult and you're not sure what to do.

Speaker 1: 10:42

And so I have to say, mentally went around my head looking at what am I going to do, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? And so it's unfortunate that people prematurely die. It really is. Well, I guess you prematurely die at any age, right? Because even if you're 100, you may want to be 105, right, when you're 105, you want to be 106. And that's what you're planning for, right? So, even though you know it's highly unlikely, but what do you think you gotta do in this life while we have this opportunity to do our lives? And so I'm a bit challenged because of this little shake-up of a friend passing, and so prayers are for the family and friends and co-workers and so.

Speaker 1: 12:11

But it got me thinking again. You know, when you attend funerals and a minister goes over there and says, hey, tomorrow's not promised, and that's part of my message is tomorrow's not promised? So those things that I'll say, hey, now you have to plan your life. You can't just go bankrupt and liquidate all your funds so you can just get all those top tens out of the way and then you live another 90 years and then you're broke and homeless and unhomed however they call it, unhoused or whatever and you don't want to do that either, you know. So it's good to have.

Speaker 1: 12:49

And now to convert into a little money show here, uh which I'm partially am, by the way, it's living. Your success, um, it's in a broader stroke, but in so many ways we're a money show and because it takes money to do all these things to be successful. You have a business you have to market, advertise, takes money, do that profit, income, debt, work for someone else. You got a house, you got a car that is a mortgage, a loan, debt, income, want to get promoted, get more money, get bonus, pay, get. You know.

Speaker 1: 13:27

So it's important that, uh, we plan as meticulously as we can Plan our lives, where we get all our little ducks in a row of the things we want to do, nice to do, but got to do. And okay, I said pre-marriage, pre-getting a family, but let's say that ship has sailed. Like me, I got a family. I got kids, we got five kids, all adults, young to younger, and still making their way, still learning and growing, learning how life is. And what I would do is sit down with your significant other and say, hey, I was thinking about my life. These are things that I always wanted to do.

Speaker 1: 14:29

Now, maybe certain things may not be practical at the moment, or maybe not practical at all. Maybe that ship has totally, totally set, depending on what your got to do is your milestone that you want to achieve. Maybe I don't know. But get as much done on the list that you already made or will make after this podcast and sit down and give it thought, meditate on it and prioritize it. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, like a bucket list uh, what was that movie bucket list with morgan freeman? Okay, and so you decide on. Okay, maybe I can't do these five, but I can do these other five.

Speaker 1: 15:12

I can certainly go to alaska, take an alaskan cruise to see the glaciers. I can certainly go to Alaska, take an Alaskan cruise To see the glaciers. I can certainly Go to El Salvador and get the pupusas right. Yay, salvadorans, yay. Or I can go To, I don't know, oh well, spain I always want to go to, personally speaking, I want to go to personally speaking, I want to go back to Italy and Switzerland. I want to do a lot of things nature-y. And I also wanted to do other things domestically too, here in the good old United States, and visit Grand Central Station in new york. I want to do that empire state building, new york, so I, you know, so, whatever it is, or, and I want to take classes on painting and drawing and stuff like that. So I got stuff that I got out. I would say is I gotta do the things I mentioned.

Speaker 1: 16:14

All those aren on that list, but they're in my more massive list, not the top 10 necessarily. A couple of them are. But whatever, it is no judgment here. Laws is clean and legitimate and legal, right? Okay, I want to make that disclaimer legal, right? Okay, I want to make that disclaimer. But yeah, so that's what happened. Uh, being told a colleague friend passed away suddenly.

Speaker 1: 16:50

So I think, oh, mike, okay, you keep kicking this stuff down the road, you, how serious are you are, then you need to just plan and budget, plan and budget and um, and work with your significant other so they can do their bucket list too. Right, because the urgency of life shouldn't just be about you. You're two now, right, um? And you should, um, work with each other and get knock off some things on each other's list, take turns. Some things you may have stuff in common. I hope so. When you're with the right person, you got something in common, you know. And if you don't have anything in common, well, god bless you, pray for you. And so and you know what a lot of times we define success, it's in my name living your success 24-7.

Speaker 1: 17:40

We think about just filthy rich, and if you're not filthy rich, you're not successful. You don't have a million dollar salary income, you're not successful. That's not true, that's BS. I want to say the other word, but it's BS. Success is about living life to the fullest, not necessarily through the eyes of the Dealing with money, dealing with the result of a higher income, or being filthy rich. I'm not filthy rich. What I would want to be ideally? Yeah, I want to be rich. Yeah, who doesn't you want to be rich? Yeah, not to the extent of selling my soul either, but I want to be well off, where I say, hey, I want to go to Geneva, switzerland, when tomorrow and I can do it. We could do it. Just hop on, buy the ticket. Not pinching pennies, counting pennies, not thinking about, uh, uh, any behavior that's not fitting of a decent human being here trying to get money, yeah, stay out of prison. Okay, here's your out of prison card. If you're playing whatever version of Monopoly that's on, it's like, get out of jail, I guess, is the only Monopoly.

Speaker 1: 19:05

So, right at your list, you and your significant other and say what do we want to do? And a lot of times you already know deep in your mind, heart, always wanted to do this, didn't have the money. Well, why didn't you have the money? Because you, a lot of times, we prioritize other stuff, other crap, other things and, and with no planning, just totally unplanned, to have a family. Just Prioritize other stuff, other crap, other things, and with no planning, just totally unplanned, to have a family, just have a bunch of kids To do this and that Don't plan nothing. And that's why you prioritize. I've done it a million times. Okay, we regret it, we got to move on. Done a million times, not doing that again. No, no, you can only start from where you're at. Start from where you're at, that's all you can do. And so, hey, how about next year? We plan this trip to do this? And what do you want to do? And we jotted on the calendars Now, some things we do took us waiting three years. So we all cash no debt, not about to rack up a bunch of debt over fun.

Speaker 1: 20:20

Okay, and I know some of you are in financial or dire straits where money is a big issue, or dire straits where money's a big issue, and that may take more schooling, more looking around, more changing, uh, your vocation on what you want to do at this point, because maybe the market for that job or career isn't really hot right now and so that you may have to mitigate, modify and, uh, I've done two jobs. I've known people had three and four. I never had four. I've had two at one time for years. Did I want to? Did I want to, and then increase my hours as much as possible? Otherwise I would have had a third job. So did I want to do that? No, I did what I had to do. So you have to do what you got to do.

Speaker 1: 21:15

But keep hope alive, keep the desire alive that your life is not over and my point is life is over when we die, and the point is is to get ahead of that death date without knowing what list that got to do list, and obviously it's a little more challenging the older you are. So I'm suggesting to whoever is hearing this and please share this podcast. Family friends and also want to plug my book, if I may. Living your Success is in my book, if I may. Living your success is in my book slaying your dragons. So living your success.

Speaker 1: 22:17

I go over um many topics dealing with um, motivation on nature, the book slaying your dragons, living life you always wanted. But living your success is at the heart of that. How do you, how can I be successful? So please get the paperback or ebook or hardcore hard cover book, either way, one of them, and I encourage you um to make it a gift to family and friends and and uh, subscribe to catalyst my newsletter off of livingyoursuccesscom. There's a link there and there's a link in the notes here on Apple, spotify, iheartradio, amazon. It should be a link that carries you over as well.

Speaker 1: 23:02

So, at any rate, I know you say well, that's a challenge. I don't know if I can do these things, michael Caine. I don't know if it's possible to still keep hope alive and the dream of living the life I want to live, and the dream of living the life I want to live. And you know what, it may not end up the way you want, the way you see it, but just get as close as you can to the model that's in your head or what you jotted down. So, that said, I want all of you to live a long and prosperous life, but do it have a fulfilling, to not just get old, but to enjoy everything on the way up. So that's it, my friends. You have a good rest of the day and until next time, adios. This is Michael Caine living your success 24-7.